Comments on: The Rudd Filter Has Been (Phone) Bombed

By: Internet filtering: Listen to the people

Internet filtering: Listen to the people — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 01:31:41 +0000

[...] voice heard over the past year, from meeting with their local MPs and Senators all the way to crowdsourced phone bombing campaigns! Google Australia is behind this protest too and has particularly taken issue with the ambiguous [...]

By: Be yourself, even when it is just yourself

Be yourself, even when it is just yourself — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 08:27:10 +0000

[...] Working with someone to make an opinion heard, [...]

By: Ross Hill

Ross Hill — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 13:01:19 +0000

Ads, if you saw @stevehopkins on twitter the other night I think he found a few different suggestions. I’m not sure any of them were quite what you were after but it was a start :)

* Phone Flood
* Fone Festival of the FU Conroy
* Gagging the Gatekeeper
* Gatekeeper Games
* Phone Bark
* Pepper the PA

I just want to make it clear that I’m against screwing with PAs – most of them are lovely people. I’d hate to see a phone bomb be used for any serious amount of time. Surgical strikes only!

By: Ads

Ads — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 06:04:45 +0000

i love the concept.. and understand that the name appeals to the underground hacker aesthetic but what else could you call ‘phone bombing’ in order to implement it in a more mainstream campaign, say around climate change or poverty? certainly NGOs wouldn’t feel comfortable asking their supporters to phone bomb Kevin. etc.

cheers

By: Ross Hill

Ross Hill — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 06:36:29 +0000

I would be against an ongoing phone bomb as some have suggested, but since it was just a surgical strike for an hour I think it is justified. The followup action is what counts.

By: Ned Dwyer

Ned Dwyer — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 06:01:53 +0000

Personally I don’t support the phone bomb. I think there are better ways to protest against this than tying up the time of a lowly secretary.

That said, I do support that you are doing *something*!

Perhaps if the purpose was to “slow down the Ministers telephone as they would have done to our internet connections” this would have sit better with me.

By: steve sammartino

steve sammartino — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 06:22:12 +0000

One more piece of advice – After ytou have read this post… tell everyone what it means, for them. People just don’t know the actual impact of it.

Steve.

By: Steve Hopkins

Steve Hopkins — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 02:32:52 +0000

Hey Ross!

Thanks for the article on the phone bomb. For a few other follow ups…check out.

- The Greenpeace Campaign that inspired the Conroy Phone Bomb
http://www.yourcalloncoal.org/gpcm/landing.php

- THe google doc that we used to organise
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=p0IgUL1PPElpV8Z6ezUsIZQ&hl=en

Finally, a few notes:
1) The phone bomb was successful because we had an issue that was already prevalent, and a community that already cared about it. We actually had about 15 callers in the end, and so took up about an hour and a half of time. This ‘groundswell’ is required – don’t try bombing anyone if you don’t have this. I fear the Greenpeace campaign above may suffer this fate (or perhaps I’m just not in that community).

2) Make it realistic. You can bomb for longer than an hour, but it’s better to be stategic. It would be hard to fill an entire day full of 5 minute phone calls. Present an option that is easy for the community to take (an hour) and then go from there. We ended up surpassing the hour, perhaps because it was such a small window of time that it was easy to engage with it.

3) Be strategic. 15 phone calls over the course of a month make no impact. But blocking them together, around a strategic time (we called about an hour before Conroy would head into parliament) is key. When campaigning, be clear of your ask and aware of WHEN you are asking it. Momentum = action in this.

Cheers!

Steve