I'm not sure if this has been mentioned previously
on the list, but SMS was used by political organizers to coordinate mass
demonstrations against President Joseph Estrada in January 2001.
In his book
SMART MOBS, Howard Rheingold documents the
role of text messaging in the popular uprising. Organizers disseminated
messages that asked protestors to "swarm" key public locations such as Epfianio
de los Santas Avenue. Within less than ninety minutes of the initial call, at
least 20,000 protestors had gathered at this historic location. Within four days, the number climbed to more
than a million. Estrada was ultimately forced to
step down.
The preceding
account is paraphrased from Cecil Johnson's article in the Star Telegram. For
more details, see:
Best regards,
Aaron Delwiche
Lecturer, Department of Communication
University
of Washington
e-mail: redwood@u.washington.edu