Digital Natives: organizing activism online

This week, in conjunction with the third installment of the Digital Natives Forum Series, on Youth & Civic Engagement, the Reporters in the Field series takes a look at Obama Works, an independent grassroots organization that helps Barack Obama supporters in neighborhoods across the country to organize community service events.

Without further ado, here is "Obama Works: Online Activism Breeds Local Change" as presented on the the Digital Natives blog:

Today we’re hosting the third installment of the Digital Natives Forum Series: Youth & Civic Engagement. We’ll be discussing the question “How can digital media tools enable youths to motivate one another to create meaningful change?” with a number of fantastic presenters approaching the issues from different vantage points. Come join us in Cambridge, or check out the webcast, and join us in the IRC or on Twitter!

Along with Dr. Sunshine Hillygus, Keli Goff, Nasser Wedaddy, and Judith Perry, Paul Selker, Director of Outreach and Communications at Obama Works, will be discussing ObamaWorks with us today. Earlier, summer intern Nikki Leon talked to Paul on camera about how online interaction can breed offline activism.

Obama Works is an independent grassroots organization that helps Obama supporters in neighborhoods across the country to organize community service events. The group was founded in early 2008 by a group of Yale students who were inspired by Barack Obama and felt that the energy surrounding his campaign could be channeled to do more than generate votes.

 

In this video, Paul Selker (a recent Yale grad and one of the group’s earliest members) discusses how the organization came together, how they use the web, and what role the internet has played in enabling people of all ages as activists. Produced by Nikki Leon, with camera work by Kanupriya Tewari, and audio engineering by John Randall.

For more on Digital Natives issues, come back next week for new multimedia, and check out recently released Born Digital, and the reactions.

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Yes, stay tuned for more Reporters in the Field episodes that, by doing and creating, explore the themes of the Digital Natives project and of John Palfrey and Urs Gasser's just-published Born Digital. And join in the exploration by commenting in text or video on the Digital Natives blog or YouTube channel.

Also on the horizon!
Born Digital book release talks / parties in:

• San Francisco, 9/15
• Seattle, 9/17
• Cambridge, 9/23
• Washington, DC, details TBA