Background

This is Burma…

Images by Rowan Weinneger Used with Permission © 2007

2007/2008 UN Human
Development Report
Population
Life expectancy at birth, annual estimates (years), 2005 60.8
Adult literacy rate (% aged 15 and older), 1995-2005 89.9
Population, total (thousands), 2004 47,967
Fertility rate, total (births per woman), 2000-05 2.2
Under-five mortality rate (per 1,000 live births), 2005 105

Technology: diffusion and creation

Telephone mainlines (per 1,000 people), 1990 2
Telephone mainlines (per 1,000 people), 2005 9
Cellular subscribers (per 1,000 people), 1990 0
Cellular subscribers (per 1,000 people), 2005 4
Internet users (per 1,000 people), 1990 0
Internet users (per 1,000 people), 2005 2
Population without electricity (millions) 45.1

http://hdrstats.undp.org/countries/data_sheets/cty_ds_MMR.html
Virtual Uprising: Burmese
Bloggers and the Rights
Movement in Myanmar
Telecommunications use severely limited in
1990s…

“Networking between those computers and the

outside world is still forbidden. A 1996 law
imposes a 7- to 15-year jail term for the
unauthorized ownership of a modem."

“In 1996, an American diplomat, was arrested

and later died in prison because of illegal use
of a fax machine.”

The Impact of the Internet on Myanmar by Viola Krebs

First Monday, volume 6, number 5 (May 2001),
URL: http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue6_5/krebs/index.html
By 2000, the Internet was allowed,
but severely restricted…
Burma, also known as Myanmar, implements one of the world's most restrictive
regimes of Internet control. These on-line restrictions buttress off-line regulation of
speech implemented by the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), a
group of military officials who maintain authoritarian rule over the state. Burma's
system combines broad, vague laws of long standing with harsh penalties. Internet
access is costly and the state uses software-based filtering techniques to limit
significantly the materials Burma's citizens can access on-line. Most dial-up Internet
accounts provide access only to the limited Myanmar Internet, not to the global
network that most people around the world can access. The state maintains the
capability to conduct surveillance of communication methods such as e-mail, and to
block users from viewing Web sites of political opposition groups, organizations
working for democratic change in Burma, and pornographic material. As compared
to states elsewhere around the world, Burma's censorship regime is among the
most extensive.

Open Net Initiative. 2005. Internet Filtering in Burma in 2005: A Country Study
http://www.opennetinitiative.net/studies/burma/
Beginning in the 1990s, dissidents in
exile (some from the 8-8-88 student
uprising), began to use the web from
outside Burma to raise awareness and
encourage international pressure on
the government…

The Impact of the Internet on Myanmar by Viola Krebs

First Monday, volume 6, number 5 (May 2001),
URL: http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue6_5/krebs/index.html
By the mid to late 1990s the internet was
becoming a tool for protesters to launch
campaigns targeting social institutions, industries,
and governments. …

Brahm, Eric. "Social Movements." Beyond Intractability. Eds. Guy Burgess and
Heidi Burgess. Conflict Research Consortium, University of Colorado, Boulder.
Posted: July 2006
<http://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/social_movements/>.
"cyber empowerment" + "virtual
democracy” = "virtual uprisings"
A few key terms
• Protest
– the act of challenging, resisting, or
making demands upon
authorities, powerholders, and/or
cultural beliefs and practices by
some individual or group
• Social movement
– a collective, organized, sustained
and noninstitutional challenge to
authorities, powerholders, or
cultural beliefs and practices.
• Revolutionary movement
– a social movement that seeks, at
a minimum, to overthrow the
government or state

Goodwin, J. and Jasper, J. 2003. The Social Movements Reader: Cases and Concepts. Blackwell.
Social movements challenge
authorities, power-holders,
even cultural beliefs and
practices. They are collective
actions that are organized and
sustained, yet call on non-
institutionalized segments of
the society to unite.
 Basic building blocks of a
successful social movement
• Discontented people who share the perception that they have common grievances;
• Powerful ideological vision linked to strategies and tactics that have some
reasonable chance of success;
• Recruitment of people through pre-existing social, political, and cultural networks;
• Core group of leaders and activists who mobilize, organize, educate, and
communicate with the politicized mass base;
• The efficient mobilization of resources that are available, or can be developed, to
assist the movement to meet its goals;
• Institutional infrastructure integrating political coordination, research and policy
think tanks, training centers, conferences, and alternative media.
• Opportunities in the larger political and social scene that can be exploited by
movement leaders and activists;
• Skillful framing of ideas and slogans (marketing) for multiple audiences such as
leaders, members, potential recruits, policymakers, and the general public.
• Attractive movement culture that creates a sense of community through mass
rituals, celebrations, music, drama, poetry, art, and narrative stories about past
victories, current struggles, and future successes.
• Ability of recruits to craft a coherent and functional identity as a movement
participant.

http://www.publiceye.org/action/movement.html
Blogging a movement…
Bloggers within Myanmar and around the world have
staged virtual protests, online rallies, international
petition drives and educational campaigns to create
pressure on the local government. The government
reaction has been to monitor, suppress, and imprison
bloggers. It has even engaged in technological warfare
attacking anti-government websites hosted in other
countries and finally
shutting down internet connectivity entirely from Sept 28
to Oct 6 2007.

An image of a fleeing monk that made its way out of Myanmar before the ruling junta closed down Internet service there.
The Irrawady, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/04/world/asia/04info.html
Activities of the
“Free Burma” Bloggers
• Disseminate information
• Raise awareness within the
country as well as among those in
the west
• Mobilize expats, dissidents, and
supporters
• Create an ideological vision of a
“Free Burma”
• Raise funds
• Build infrastructure
• Create a sense of community
• Pressure Junta through
international attention
Example - Mizzima News
• Mizzima News was established in August 1998 by a group of Burmese
journalists in exile with the aim of promoting awareness about the ongoing
situation in Burma and promoting democracy and freedom of expression in
Burma by improving the flow of information in and out of the country and
through advocacy and lobbying.
• Mizzima started from humble beginnings: An online news service run by
three Burmese in exile with a laptop and no telephone.
• In the past eight years, Mizzima News Agency has matured into a widely-
read and reliable source of news, information and analysis on Burma for
readers in and outside the country.
• Mizzima has become a
window through which the international community can peer into news-starved Bur
. We also strive to play an active role in uniting democratic forces working
for change in Burma to secure national reconciliation and the restoration of
democracy and human rights in Burma.
• Over the years, Mizzima has expanded and has, through the use of its
websites, email-updates, meetings, discussions, seminars and print and
electronic news services, covered more issues for more people.

http://www.mizzima.com/MizzimaNews/Others/aboutus.html
Virtual Solidarity…
October 5th, 2007 -

Over 5.500 bloggers from over

45 different countries
participated in a cyberprotest
against the military regime in
Burma by placing a 'Free Burma'
banner on their blog. The plan
for this internet protest originated
in Germany and spread around
the world in no time. Despite the
success the bloggers never got
any support from authority sites
as BoingBoing and digg. Right
now, the tag "Free Burma" is the
"Hottest Topic" on Technorati.
(Source: Volkskrant)

http://www.viralblog.com/2007/10/05/viral-friday-dove-onslaught/
 Virtual Solidarity…
Take part in this action for a Free Burma!
1. Publish a posting (Bulletin Board, Forum, Blog, Social
Network, Static Website…) on the 4th of October with the
header: “Free Burma!”
2. Tag it if you can with “Free Burma”
3. Choose a grafic from our Grafics page and
4. Link to www.free-burma.org there your readers will find some
informations about the campaign and Burma and a participant
list which you can join. Even if you're a webmaster of a bulletin
board or social network you will find a special Group List to join.
5. Add our Petition Widget to your blog/website.
6. Feel free to write any additional text you want.
If you have no website or blog we need you even more: Please
help us to spread the word across the internet, tell your
neighbours, friends or kids and first of all:
Sign our list of participants!

14.000 subscriptions in 7 days

Example - Organizing Action
Join the Saffron Revolution
Make this image appear all over the world, reminding
people everywhere of the uprising in Burma and
showing that the struggle for freedom is alive
everywhere. It's easy:

1. Download the stencil pdf and print it.

2. Cut the monks out to make your stencil, and use

dark orange spray paint to put the images up.
Where you paint it and what you paint it on is up to
you. This site does not control, encourage or
discourage any choice you make.

2. To post a photo of your monks, e-mail the photo

to the posting address below.
What you put in the Subject line will be the title, and
any body text will be the body of the blog post.
Please include the general location, but keep the text
short--this is for photos of monks on the march!
Don't worry if it doesn't show up instantly. We have to
screen out the spam.
http://saffronrevolutionworldwide.blogspot.com/
Example - Petition Drives
• An appeal to the UN Security Council to protect the p
• Stop Licence to Rape in Shan State, Burma
• Stand with the People of Burma
• Burma, the world stands with you
(835,891 signatures)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QNpnkRbFos