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From the $100 Plus Club News #93
Matt Noyes on AUD and the Internet
(Excerpted from a longer article accepted for publication in WorkingUSA ©2005 Blackwell Publishing, and Dr. Immanuel Ness.)
Matt Noyes was AUD educational coordinator when he took over AUD's elemental website in 1999, which had been created by HERE activist Mike Rose. Matt writes, "I thought of it as an interesting learning opportunity, but not at all a central part of my work -- I knew nothing about website design, it was almost like a hobby." Now, almost five years later, he has written an extensive piece for the magazine WorkingUSA on what he did learn as AUD's webmaster, titled "Building Cyberunion Democracy: Reflections on the Internet Work of the Association for Union Democracy."
He began with a few postings to introduce AUD to readers. As he discovered "the potential of the internet for promoting union democracy," he added resource material for people with union democracy problems; summaries of the law; sample appeal letters, news about legal cases, reprints from Union Democracy Review. As rank and filers, insurgent caucuses, and editors of independent newsletters contacted him via the website, he developed a list of links to rank and file groups in many unions all over the country culminating in a unique network of rebels, reformers, and independents.
"AUD can be most helpful to workers if we speak to them personally," he writes. "That way we can ask questions and help them sort through their situations and figure out what resources to steer them to...If the website could help make AUD better known...all the better."
In January 2004, he reports, the website was visited by 13,500 people with 40,000 hits. By January 2005, there were 60,000 hits a month from 20,000 visitors. The network was expanding. "By dramatically expanding the content, we had turned the website into a resource in its own right."
All
that has got him thinking: "How can/should we change the organization
of AUD to follow the internet-driven evolution of our work/What would
it mean to AUD to adopt, even in part, an internet-based network form?"
A thought now circulates around our office -- jocularly, of course --
Does the website exist to promote AUD, or does AUD exist to promote the
website? Either way, Matt has been doing a great job for AUD.
See the
full article online.
Articles
on the internet and union democracy:
Union officers
uncomfortable with online free speech
Surrendering to the internet: Democrats in spite of themselves?
IBEW
president Hill upholds Canadian member's rights
Union
officials "condone and endorse" attack on member's internet free speech
rights
Round
2 in the internet battle in AFSCME DC37
In AFSCME
DC37 - A round in the internet battle
Danger of democracy on the Internet? Kill it!
Whose
"IBEW" is it? An Electrician on the Internet.
Results
of the 2005 AUD Best Rank-and-File Website Contest
Union
democracy online survives two lawsuits
Online
Guide: build an effective rank-and-file website
SEIU
Pulls plug on "Labor's Future" discussion
52
Playing cards = fearsome "Local 52"
Using the Internet for Union Democracy
AUD's Best Rank-and-File Websites of 2004
Matt
Noyes on AUD and the Internet
2KB
of free speech? ACLU & Public Citizen sue in IBEW Local 46 election
Making a splash:
SEIU's Unite to Win and the "free and open debate" on Labor's future
SAG officers unnerved by actors' internet free speech
Free speech irritates UFCW
Free speech in NWU
IATSE 600: Internet
democracy triumphs over super centralization
Cyber-democracy:
your legal rights online.(handout)
See
also:
AUD's 50 Guidelines for
building an effective rank-and-file website, and the sample
homepage.
The labortech tag
on del.icio.us.
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