Introduction
This website shall strengthen progressive social movements around the world
through the sharing of contacts, event information, ideas and resources. We want to
help you win! The
Activism Network team created this website to empower *YOU*. If *you* contribute,
and use it to contact fellow
activists then this website will succeed.
We are proud to maintain
the largest open online database of activist related information. Our goal
is to facilitate every aspect of your activism.
We started working on this project in the summer of 2001. Our website has been online
since April 2002 (we released it before Friendster came out of beta). This software was originally to focus on students in the US and Canada ('Campus Activism'), but
the new version (Activism Network) is a platform for activists of all ages and countries.
The Activist Database
Join
There are entry forms where you can add your information to the database.
If you want to connect yourself
to a group or school that isn't in the database (check first!), you should first
add those (using the
'Add your Group' and
'Add Your School' pages). Note
we have almost all of the colleges and high schools in the US already in our database.
Next you can
'Add Yourself'.
You can delete an affiliation by clicking on the red 'X' next to it.
Your Username Account
The database is publicly accessible, however we use usernames and passwords to
ensure a minimal level of reliability. When you add a person or group to the
database, you create a username and a password. You use this username to
edit or delete the information for anything that you added
(person, group, event, resource, email list, etc). There are two types of usernames.
First, there is an individual username which is tied to a person. Most of the time
you'll want to use this. Second, there is a group username which is tied to a group.
The group username is intended to be passed on from one member of a group to another
when the first group member graduates or is no longer active in the group. You
might want to assign one person in your group to be responsible for keeping your
group's
information on this website up to date. PLEASE keep your information current!
Other people
who do not know your password can view your data, but they cannot edit it.
If you forget the
password, then if you included an email address in your entry, you can have it
emailed to that address. Otherwise, you can email the webteam.
Find Contacts
The website includes a database of activist groups, activists,
and schools. The content is searchable and relational. Thus you can find all the
groups in a state, in your area, working on peace, or all of the groups at a
certain school.
Find People, Groups, Events, and Schools that are NEAR You!
This website lets you find contacts and events that are near where you live.
We do this is by converting your zip or postal code into a longitude and
latitude. Note: this only works for the US and Canada. For other countries we
try to convert your city and country into a longitude and latitude.
This allows you to plug in a zip or postal code, and to search for
all of the people, groups, events, or schools within a user-defined distance
of that zip code. You can also subscribe to receive an email every two weeks
that will send you upcoming events for your area and a list of new uploaded resources.
Resources
We have a resource database that allows users to upload and download files. Our goal is
that
people will upload leaflets, posters, essays, graphics, and any other information
that will be useful to other student activists. This information is organized by
issue that the resource applies to (a resource can have multiple issue categories) and by
type of resource (leaflet, essay, graphic, etc). People can
search for resources
by type,
issue, resource name, or description. To
upload a resource, you must already have
created a username. That will allow you to edit a resource or delete it. There is a
limit to the file upload size, however if you need to upload a larger file you can
send it to our webteam and we'll be glad to help.
Suggestions for Creating Resources
If you want people to be able to customize a poster or leaflet (for instance,
to add local contact information), then you should upload it as a Microsoft Word
document. Word is
far more common than Adobe PageMaker and creates smaller files than Rich Text Format
(RTF).
If customization is not necessary (or you just want to leave a space where people
can hand-write in
their contact info), upload the file in Acrobat PDF format. The best way to create a
PDF file is to use PageMaker to either directly create a PDF file, or to make a
postscript (.ps) file by using a postscript printer driver and saving it to a file
instead of printing it. You can convert a postscript file to PDF by using Acrobat
Distiller
or
Ghostscript and GSview (freeware).
If you don't have PageMaker, you can use Microsoft Word and
then pretend to use a postscript printer and 'print to file'. That will create a .prn
file that you can convert to PDF using Ghostscript and GSview
(or Acrobat Distiller).
For most purposes, because our disk space is limited you should set image resolution
in fliers to 100-300 DPI (600 DPI is ok for short documents).
If you have any problems converting a file to PDF, email us and we'll love to help!
Graphics should be GIF, PNG or JPEG.
Calendar
We have an
event calendar
that is primarily intended to be used for important
state, regional and national events. You can
search it
by event type (protest, conference, convergence, day of action, etc),
geographical scope (local, metro, state, regional, national, international),
and issue. You can also find events that are in your area, based on your state,
or your zip or postal code. And of course you can
add your own event to it.
Email Lists
You can
add an email list
related to student activism, and
search for email lists by issue or name.
Networks
To add a network to the database you need to first
'Add Your Group' and then
designate it as a network and define what area your network is for (state, region,
national, etc). Groups can now affiliate with your network.
In addition, your network can have events, resources, and email lists that are
connected to it. All of this should make it easier for networks to promote themselves,
to find new members, and for unaffiliated groups to find networks that they will
want to join.
Subscribe to Receive Customized Updates
You can subscribe to a service that will provide you with a customized email
that will include new information from CampusActivism.org.
Navigating the Site and Search Results
Say you click on a group and it shows the group works on peace issues. Then you
can click on the word 'peace' and it will show you other groups, resources, events,
and people who are interested in 'peace'. You can continue by clicking on an event
related to peace, and so on.
If you do a search, the results are displayed twenty at a time. You can jump from one
page to another using the numbers at the bottom (for instance: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10).
You can also sort the results by clicking on a column name. For instance, if you
want to sort by state name the first time you click on 'State' it will sort them
alphabetically. The second time it will sort them in reverse alphabetic order.
Moderation
We strive to maintain a high standard of quality for information on our site so that
that you do not have to sort through junk to find what you're looking for. Our first
line of defense against junk is that a moderator must approve submitted information
before it is publicly available. Our second line of
defense is to rely upon your suggestions.
If you think we should edit/moderate the information of another person, another group, a school,
event, etc - then you can submit this request to the web team using the
'Moderate This' link that is included on many pages. For instance,
if someone enters information that is a joke (ex. 'long hair' as an issue)
or that lies outside of the purpose of the site (ex. 'College Republicans'
which is not appropriate because it is not a left-wing group), or makes a mistake
(for instance identifying their group as a 'national' group when it is
obviously a local chapter of a national group) - then you should
point it out to the webteam so that we can edit or delete it.
For more information you can read our
User Policy.
Avoiding Spam
The problem with making information publicly accessible is that it increases
the probability that someone will use to send emails to people who don't want
them. This website discourages spamming by encoding email addresses so that
spam programs will not be able to automatically collect emails posted on our site.
If someone wants to collect email addresses they must copy and paste them one
at a time. If you receive any spam that can be traced to having your email
listed on our website, please inform us and complain to the person who sends
you spam.
If you want to avoid all spam, you can set your contact information to be
'private' so that nobody will be able to view it. This is useful if you want
to subscribe to receive updates from the site, or to post events, resources,
and other information without having people contacting you.
You can also limit the information that you post on the website. If you provide
a city, state and zip code then you really don't need to give your street address.
If you don't want any email, just leave a phone number. Or if you don't want calls,
just give your email address. If you are really concerned about your privacy,
you can have people send things to your group(s) instead.
Finally, we urge local activists and groups
to learn how to say 'NO.' If you already have too few members and too many campaigns,
then you should not feel obliged to take on every national campaign that someone
contacts you about. Stick with your own campaign(s)! Most groups will maximize their
effectiveness if they focus on running only one or two major campaigns.
Adding an Entry - Avoiding Duplication
Before you add an entry (whether it is a person, group, school, resource, etc),
please do a search to make sure that it isn't already in the database.
Miscellaneous
Browser Issues
We have tested the website primarily using Internet Explorer 6, Mozilla 1.x, and
Opera (8.x and 9.x). It should work fine for Internet Exporer 5.5 and Safari.
If you are having problems with your browser or using a different
operating system (Mac or Linux), please let us know. As of 2016, it also seems to work fine in the latest versions of Firefox and Opera
(and presumably Safari and IE).
Statement of Non-Affiliation
In case you are wondering, this website is not affiliated with any organization.
Any information collected in the database will be publicly available - and thus
equally available to all organizations.
Statement of Diversity
We are striving to achieve diversity so that our website empowers and represents
a broad spectrum of leftwing student and youth activism in the US and Canada
(We have no interest
in empowering moderates or conservatives). Our webteam needs to be diverse to
achieve this aim. We seek diversity
in race, gender, sexual orientation, class, political views (within the left),
issues, ability, and by region.
CampusActivism.Org Project Team
Aaron Kreider
Aaron started this project and has been arduously on it from January 2002 to 2008
(after which he switched to focus on
Energy Justice Map).
during which time he has eaten at least 100 pounds of chocolate.
Aaron is from Vancouver, Canada, but currently lives in Philadelphia.
He attended school in northern Indiana. At Goshen College (1993-1997)
he was involved in Pax and studied
Economics and Computer Science. At Notre Dame (1997-2003), he was active
with the Progressive Student Alliance and got a masters degree in Sociology.
He has been involved with networks such as the Student Environmental Action
Coalition (SEAC), Movement for Democracy and Education - 180,
Pax Christi, United Students Against Sweatshops and several unaffiliated local
groups.
Skills include: database development, PHP, MySQL, PageMaker, GIS, object oriented
programming, Drupal, and yes... Turbo Pascal!
aaron@campusactivism.org
Aaron Kreider's Personal Website
Nick Lally
Nick graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in sociology and fine arts.
He was responsible for website design and general graphics wizardry in the early years. He eats smoothies.
Project Related Links
Over Twenty Reasons to Use this Site
Technical Notes - How We Did This
Release Notes for Campus Activism Version 2
Release Notes for Campus Activism Version 3
Project Timeline
Our Old Sourceforge Site
Download the source code
Future Features - exciting stuff that we'd like to implement.
Support this Project - Donate money securely using Paypal.
