by Thanks to Lisa Schiff of Naracoorte Lucindale Council in SA for pointing this article from the SMH website out to me.
Online protest stops trucks
Josephine Tovey
February 14, 2010A Facebook campaign that stopped Waverley Council from building a truck depot near Bondi Beach could revolutionise the way people fight unwanted moves by their councils, the local mayor said.
Last week Waverley Council formally withdrew its proposal to build a two-storey depot under the Hugh Bamford Reserve at the northern end of Bondi Beach.
A Facebook group protesting against the proposal attracted about 100 people within a few days of being set up, and that number rose steadily over the next few weeks to peak at 2783. On one day in the space of three hours, about 300 of those members lodged formal objections with council.
Marietta Davis, who set up the group, said she was inspired by internet-powered social movements overseas.
She was able to attract such big numbers by tapping into existing community groups on the social networking site. ”Then people started saying, ‘I’ve forwarded this on to 400 friends.’ Soon it was growing by 100 people a day,” she said.
With more than 700 objections received by the council mayor, Sally Betts, who joined the group,the proposal was shelved.
Cr Betts said she was ”incredibly impressed” with the campaign, and said Waverley and other councils were exploring ways to incorporate online feedback and social networking into their consultation process.
I have 2 things to say about this – firstly it is yet more evidence, if any were needed, that the community will be active online even if you choose not to engage them that way. The second thing is that Waverley are indeed looking at ways to engage online – they are clients of Bang the Table.
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