August 12, 2004
Text Messages for Critical Masses
In the history of political protests, police have long had the technological upper hand when it comes to monitoring protesters' movements and actions. But a new tool is giving activists at this year's two major political conventions a chance to stay one step ahead of the police, reports Daniel Terdiman for Wired.
"Known as TxtMob, the new service from the Institute for Applied Autonomy was unveiled last month at the Democratic National Convention in Boston.
There were ... a number of interesting uses that the system got put to" at the DNC, said John Henry, TxtMob's developer. "Police did arrest one protester, and there were not a lot of people around. Someone saw it happen, (sent a TxtMob message), and a hundred of that kid's friends were on the scene in minutes ... to make sure" the police acted correctly.
Henry said TxtMob was also widely deployed at the DNC by medic groups that used the service to ensure they had personnel in the right places at the right time in case of problems."
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