[diggers350] WTO Sit-in open! - enter the virtual protest now!

[the electrohippies]

       URGENT - JOIN THE ACTION NOW!!
       ==============================

     PLEASE FORWARD THIS EMAIL TO ALL YOUR 
         FRIENDS AS SOON AS POSSIBLE

    WE NEED AT LEAST 5,000 PEOPLE ONLINE OVER 
        THE GLOBE TO MAKE THIS A SUCCESS!


----------------------------------------------------

the electrohippies collective
http://www.gn.apc.org/pmhp/ehippies/



                THE WTO VIRTUAL SIT-IN
                ======================


      THE E-HIPPIES WTO SIT-IN PAGES ARE NOW ONLINE - 
                COME AND JOIN THE ACTION!

   http://www.gn.apc.org/pmhp/ehippies/action/index.htm




To coincide with the WTO's Seattle Conference, the electrohippies are
organising - as their first major virtual action - a 'virtual sit-in'. To
take part in the sit-in all you have to do is load the appropriate web page
and leave you computer online for a period of time; the longer the better!


The Action
----------

the electrohippies are organising a 'virtual sit-in' of the WTO's special
conference website. It is intended that this website will be the main
conduit for accessing information about the conference, and the events
taking place. By taking action against the conference server, and the main
WTO server, we restrict the PR staff at the WTO from spreading their global
corporate agenda.

To make this action effective requires thousands of people to be online.
However, because of the global nature of the organisation involved we hope
to be able to achieve this figure. This means that people will have to
consider the effect of different time zones this makes thing a little more
complex.

The sit-in will begin. . .
     08.00 USA & Canada (Pacific time), 30th November
     16.00 Greenwich Mean Time (UK/Ireland)
     17.00 Central Europe
     18.00 Eastern Europe
     21.30 Indian subcontinent
     00.00 Honk Kong/Singapore/Western Australia, December 1st
     02.00 Eastern Australia
     04.00 New Zealand

. . . and will finish four days later.


To take part in the action all you need is an Internet connection, and a
web browser. What people have to do is access the special web pages written
for the action and then stay on line as long as they possible can. For
those with 'dial-up' access to the 'Net that means staying on line as long
as you can afford, as often as possible, for the four days. If you cannot
afford to spend much time online then concentrate on November 30th (or Dec.
1st for those in the East). But we would like people to aim to go online
from 12.00 Pacific time on December 3rd (add 4 hours to the above timetable
for your local time) until the end of December 4th.

For those of you with constant connections to the Internet - such as
universities or corporations - the cost of being online isn't that
significant. Therefore we'd urge you to stay on longer with more
connections open. For those people with high speed dial-up connections or
those with constant connections a 'special' version of the action web page
is provided.

NOTE: THERE IS ALSO A SPECIAL EMAIL BASED ACTION BEGINNING AT MIDDAY, YOUR
LOCAL TIME, DECEMBER 3RD, AND CARRYING ON TILL DECEMBER 4TH. FOR MORE
INFORMATION POP BACK TOT HE E-HIPPIES SITE ON DECEMBER 3RD.



What is a 'virtual sit-in'
--------------------------

A sit-in is where a group of people place themselves in front of some sort
of entry way, or inside a building, and remain there as a form of peaceful
protest. That's not easy to achieve where the Internet is involved.
Therefore we have to find a way of occupying 'space' in cyberspace.

This page has been developed from a similar facility - The Zapatista
Tactical FloodNet. This page is a less flashy but equally functional
alternative. The purpose of this page is simple. By accessing the WTO's
websites using the Javascript-based pages you are in effect accessing
repeatedly - as if you were pressing the 'reload' button on your browser
every few seconds. The ability of a server to handle these requests depends
on its bandwidth - that's the physical capacity to move data in and out.
For most servers bandwidth is split, and there is only a small proportion
of the bandwidth devoted to data coming into the site compared to data
going out (this is because much more data flows out of web servers than
flows in). So, constantly requesting information puts pressure on it's
weakest point - it's incoming bandwidth.

Using these pages to send multiple requests queues up requests to the web
server. Ordinarily this is not a problem. But, if the server is busy, or
there are many people across the world using this same site to do the same
thing, it starts to eat up the server's bandwidth. If enough people were to
do the same thing, it would prevent the server from being accessed.
Eventually, if maintained for a longer period of time, it would temporarily
crash the server.

So, you get the idea. If enough people use this page at the same time,
going for the same target, they'll gum up the server and prevent other
'ordinary' users getting access. What this page is then is a form of remote
cyber sit-in or cyber-picket - we occupy space in cyberspace!


Follow-up actions
-----------------

The WTO action is the first electrohippies action. Others will follow on
different themes and with different tactics. Mostly these will be based in
the UK, and possibly Europe. If you would like to be put on a email list to
receive notices of when actions are due to take place then send an email to
mobbsey at gn.apc.org, marked "FAO ehippies" in the subject line.



END




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from the electrohippies - ehippies at tesco.net

visit the Electronic Activism and Civil Disobedience website:

http://www.gn.apc.org/pmhp/ehippies/

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