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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>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. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=2><SPAN class=129031019-18012003>In his book
SMART MOBS, </SPAN>Howard Rheingold<SPAN class=129031019-18012003> documents the
role of text messaging in the popular uprising. O</SPAN>rganizers 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 <SPAN
class=129031019-18012003>historic location</SPAN>. <SPAN
class=129031019-18012003>Within </SPAN>four days, the number climbed to more
than a million.<SPAN class=129031019-18012003> Estrada was ultimately forced to
step down.</SPAN></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=2><SPAN
class=129031019-18012003></SPAN></FONT></FONT><FONT face=Arial
size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=129031019-18012003><FONT face=Arial size=2>The preceding
account is paraphrased from Cecil Johnson's article in the Star Telegram. For
more details, see:</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><A
href="http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/4647456.htm">http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/4647456.htm</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Best regards,</FONT><FONT face=Arial
size=2><BR>Aaron Delwiche<BR>Lecturer, Department of Communication<BR>University
of Washington<BR>e-mail: </FONT><A href="mailto:redwood@u.washington.edu"><FONT
face=Arial size=2>redwood@u.washington.edu</FONT></A><BR></DIV></BODY></HTML>