// posted by andreshb // 04.08.2008 at 5:02 pm //

Mobilization 2.0: The Olympic Torch Protests

Protesters in San Francisco are already mobilizing for the olympic torch tomorrow, and they are using web 2.0 to its fullest extent. Tomorrow the Olympic torch will be heading towards San Francisco, its only stop in the U.S.

Already there have been protests as the torch passed through london and paris. In london, the torch was snatched and extinguished at least twice:

In preparation for the the arrival of the torch, San Francisco officials have re-routed the path of the torch and not released it to the public. However, groups like students for a free tibet are ready and armed with cell phones and text messaging to organize and mobilize. They will be updating the events as they happen and anyone can join in by sending SFTORCH to 41411 with their cellphones.

The repertoire in San Francisco began yesterday as protesters climbed the cables of the Golden Gate bridge to place large ‘free tibet’ signs. All of this was recorded and promoted on social media sites like Youtube and Flickr.

flickr photo set here

Today they are broadcasting their protest through their blog blog blog.studentsforafreetibet.org/ text messaging (http://twitter.com/sftorch/with_friends and http://twitter.com/teamtibet) and live web video through mogolus.

I am pretty sure that through the use of Twitter, tomorrow they will be able to foil the evasion tactics by local officials and swarm the torch path rather quickly.

// Tagged protest, social movement, mobile, Featured