Our Information Campaign What follows is an extension of the "Signal And Noise" discussion found HERE[/url:20o2xrf1]. If you haven't read that article yet, please give it a look. :anon: The Information Campaign As Anonymous, as Critics, as ex-Scientologists, as Freezoners, our shared goal is to break up the structure of abuse found in the "church" of Scientology. Our primary weapons and methods are based around the spread of information. However, not all ways of spreading information are equal, and not all information is equal. So, if we want to be truly effective, learning the most effective tactics and spreading the most potent information is to our benefit. So I'm going to give you my ideas on what makes for that - and if you have ideas of your own, or refinements of arguments based on mine, hit me. :anon: Activities There are six basic "kinds of stuff" we should always be doing if we want to be effective. The bad news - if you aren't doing at least one of these, chances are good that you aren't really helping. The good news - they're really, really easy, and chances are you're doing several of them already. 1. Presenting Mark Bunker, the Wise Beard Man, is strongly focused on presenting. The "Road to February 10th" is a presentation. If you have a blog, or have your "why we're doing this" explanation down for use on blogs and news comments, you're presenting. Presenting is about taking existing information and making it more appealing. Some of our best presentations are on youtube, others on new blogs, and so on. Being amazing at presenting is about making information more accessible, more contagious, stickier, and building the "broken windows" (I'll gabble about those more in the next bit here). 2. Connecting Connecting is exposing new people to the presented information. If you're out on forums, sharing links and videos, you're connecting. If you visit blogs and news posts and link people to clambake or xenu.net or enturbulation, you're connecting. The truly amazing connectors among us have a mental file of possible connections to drop, and pick and choose the right one for their audience - getting good at connecting means linking the right audience to the right presentations. 3. Mavening Mavening is doing a big-ass pile of homework on a given topic, and then handing that pile to someone who will do something about it. If you know that staff a given Org are being pressured to work super-hard for little money, are bitter about it, and on the edge of snapping, that's worth something if you call the Labour Board. If you noticed that the Org nearest you has never completed construction, and it's a safety hazard, that's worth something is you call the local safety board people. Mavening includes handing a newspaper a news story, with all the research already done and linked, in a format they find friendly. Getting good at mavening can be hard - most "maven" actions are simply ignored - but someone who practices this stuff regularly will occasionally hit the damn jackpot, and then it all pays off. 4. Internal Criticism We have a whole stack of skilled internal critics here. Awsome internal criticism means looking at the plans and ideas of others, point out the parts that do not work, and talk about replacing those with something else. Decent internal criticism means just nagging and shoot down the crappy parts of an idea. Useless criticism just says "You suck. Shut up." Again, it's a skill, and one we can improve as and when we need to. 5. Internal Boosting When people do a good job, recognizing that fact is awesome. And, again, this is a skill. Just nodding to yourself in agreement doesn't help - they'll never know they did a good job. Telling them that they did a good job is much better, especially if it's expressed in fun ways. And building on what they did is the ultimate form of boosting - connecting their ideas to others, sharing, spreading, you name it. 6. Innovating There are countless ways to spread information, to connect people, to drop a clue, to give criticism, to boost people up. New ways - business cards, writing on money, doing weird-ass improv stuff, you name it - always deserve consideration. If you have a new idea along these lines, share it or try it out, even if it seems stupid. We have critics and boosters, and when they are hot, they might just transform your dumb idea into something epidemic. Or we might all get a laugh at your expense and move on - which is, seriously, no big deal. :anon: Qualities Of Information Just as some activities are more effective than others (and each kind is a skill you can practice), some information is better than others, too. So, I'm going to talk about what makes really good information really good. 1. Okay Info Is Accessible If you make a joke about Scientology, and nobody gets the joke? Fail. If the people you are talking to have no fucking clue what you're on about, you cannot tell them the thing that you are trying to. Try not to be tl;dr when you can avoid it, or at least break it up into short points. Use language that is mostly plain, or which is "inside" language to the people you are talking to. 2. Good Info Is Accessible and Contagious If someone laughs at your joke about scientology, and it stops there, you done okay - if they share it with others, you done good. If your call to the safety board does nothing but make the people working there share it around as weird-ass water-cooler talk, that is, again, good. Making information contagious is about making sure it can be shared, and that people want to share it; it's a confessional, or a joke, or comes with a soundbite or a cool image. 3. Great Info Is Accessible, Contagious, and Sticky If everyone who laughs at your Scientology joke pauses a couple of times in the next day to wonder "are they really that bad/weird/silly?", the joke is sticky. Really great info stays with people, makes them wonder, gives them the impulse to learn and practice and do new things. If the safety board starts really digging based on your complaint, you've made it up to "sticky". The Anonymous "declaration of war" video was sticky. Making a joke that's even funnier when you do a little research or when you learn a little more makes it just a bit stickier. Anything that gets people to move, to protest, and the like? Sticky. 4. Epic Info is Accessible, Contagious, Sticky, and Breaks Windows When Tom Cruise does an interview, it is accessible; after all, it's Tom Cruise. When he looks like a monkey in the interview, and it's hilarious, it is contagious; we all want to laugh at Tommy Boy. When he not only looks stupid, but also spouts spooky and creepy shit, it becomes sticky. And when that video spreads and becomes accessible, becomeing part of the online environment, it breaks windows. This one takes a bit of bonus explaining... Because THIS IS HOW WE WILL WIN. :anon: Broken Windows Any environment can be "stressed" to the point where the introduction of a catalyst will cause sudden and radical change. In a run-down neighborhood with broken windows everywhere, with corrupt cops, and every problem known to man, the right action at the right time will sooner or later cause a riot, a gunfight, some other insane thing. As a more on-topic example, Scientology stressed the internet with lawsuits and attempts at suppression, harrased people, pissed people off, and did enough stupid things that enormous banks of information were stockpiled about them. Then Tommy and his interview hit, and we fucking exploded. We're doing the same thing to Scientology. Our job is to ensure that they have to exist in an environment full of people making fun of the silly parts of their belief structure, people (accurately and honestly) calling their leaders corrupt and evil; and environment where protests happening outside, where their enemies drop by and give them valentines (an inspired tactic if there ever was one). Jenna Miscavige came out. Mike Rinder blew. From the perspective I'm talking about, their Church is becoming, more and more plainly, a crappy environment to remain in. And it's our job to keep the pressure on, always on, always on, to keep introducing more and different pressures - because eventually, when the environment gets to a certain point, one or more of those pieces of information will cause a sudden change. This has already happened at least once; that's how the Freezone came into existence. We can make it happen again. As many times as necessary.
Re: Our Information Campaign You forgot the seventh activity: Being Anonymous9999 and posting some fucking amazing threads. (I'd lump four and five into a single "internal voice in the crowd" activity, but other than that, I cannot praise this enough.)
Re: Our Information Campaign These aren't my own original ideas - most of this is an adapted version of the book The Tipping Point, as it applies to us. I figured that either I could say "go read this!" - or I could just mine out the important stuff, and, well, present it.
Re: Our Information Campaign Request sticky for Anonymous9999 tipping point tech. :lrhcries: <Bwaaahhhhh
Re: Our Information Campaign Meh. Let people absorb what they need, discard the rest, and show each other what they've learned in action. Making an announcement-typ-thing of it only calcifies it; let it live or die on it's own merit.
Re: Our Information Campaign I think it merits a bump, at the very least. :wink: I should look for The Tipping Point myself.
Re: Our Information Campaign It's probably wrong to play favourites, but right now Anonymous9999 is my favourite Anonymous. I'm a fan of all the others too, of course.
