The Electronic Frontier Foundation is launching a major campus organizing initiative and is looking to build a network of trusted campus activists to work with. They’re sending staffers on a road-trip to speak at universities and colleges and want to hear from you. They’ve released a set of community organizing tools to help you get started.
There are plenty of ways to take part, no matter how much organizing experience you have.
* Start a group: Talk to friends and community members to gauge who else in your network is interested in digital freedom. Form a group that can discuss the issues and plan ways of advocating for your rights. For some tips on getting started, check out our guide on how to build a coalition on campus and in your community.
* Bring digital rights to an existing group: These issues are everybody’s issues, no matter where on the political spectrum you lie. You can work with existing political, civil liberties, activist, and computer-related groups and urge members to take on a digital rights campaign.
* Organize an event: We have plenty of suggestions for events you can throw, from film screenings to rallies, parties to speaker series.
* Let your voice be heard: We are all part of the digital rights movement together, and your voice is as important as ours. Learn how to coordinate with local and national campaigns, and amplify your message by reading our tips on engaging with the press.
While many student groups and local community organizations are working on surveillance reform in light of the recent disclosures about massive government spying, it’s not only the NSA that we’re fighting: we’re demanding open access to publicly funded research; we’re fighting to protect the future of innovation from patent trolls; we’re urging companies and institutions to deploy encryption; we’re defending the rights of coders and protecting the free speech rights of bloggers worldwide—the list goes on.
EFF is Expanding into Student and Community Organizing, and We Need Your Help