[nabs-l] Please Invite Your Facebook Friends To Authors Guild NYC Protest Tue Apr 7

Sun Mar 29 21:54:33 UTC 2009

Hi,

Yes, absolutely one can join the event even if you are not a Facebook
member.  You would want to email or call Rosi or Jason in the national
office in Baltimore so they can count you in and email you any last
minute or logistics updates.  You can call 410-659-9314 and ask for
Jason or Rosi in affiliate action as well.

That being said, I'd recommend you join Facebook if at all possible.
Tools like Twitter and Facebook are beginning to largely replace email
in terms of communications.  My nece who is in high school thinks of
good old email as sort of old fashioned, like something you would do
with your parents or grandparents.

More importantly than keeping up with the Jone's though, you may want
to consider joining Facebook and other social networks so that your
voice in support of accessibility and universal design is included in
the conversation.

Quite often we don't see enough people who are blind advocating for
accessibility and universal design on these sites, and in
conversations that the broader community has on these sites.

Quite frankly even educated people largely have no idea how or even if
a blind person does something as basic as use a computer.  I remember
crossing the street after lunch one day, and an IT consultant at our
company asked me how on earth I used a computer.  So the knowledge out
there is not very strong.  He literally had no idea or thought it was
through magic or something :).

But again come and join us in New York either way, but this is why I
think for people who are blind it may even be more critical that we
actively join these networks and conversations so that we are not
overlooked.

As one example, I recently took my first flight on Virgin America.
Among other enhancements, they offer in flight WIFI as well as an IFE
(in flight entertainment system) which you use to order your food and
drinks, chat with others on the plane, watch live tv, play games, and
several other things.

I contacted Virgin America on Twitter
http://twitter.com/virginamerica
and asked them to have a Red (that is what they call their IFE system)
person contact me.  They sent me the email, office, and cell# for the
manager of the Red IFE system and I have communicated the need for
that system to be accessible to people who are blind.  The next thing
they are probably asking at Virgin America's offices is how many other
people are calling or emailing or posting about this?

I also tried the in flight WIFI.  Its offered by Air Cell under the
GoGoInFlight brand name.  This same company provides in flight WIFI
for Delta, Virgin America, and some American and United flights.  The
in flight WIFI process had a visual only captcha.  Again I contacted
GoGoInFlight on Twitter at
http://twitter.com/gogoinflight
and I've asked them to have someone in their company contact me about
the captcha.  There is no way you could even use WebVisum to solve the
captcha because you must solve it during the internet sign up process.

In my Twitter post to GoGoInFlight, I linked to an AFB YouTube video
about captcha and the blind.  Besides the people at GoGoInFlight and
Virgin America reading it, that message will also be brought up on the
radar for the 800 plus other people who follow my Twitter posts.  All
or some of them will not read it, but some undoubtedly will see it,
and it will raise the consciousness regarding accessibility both for
the people who are directly part of the conversation as well as all
others who are just listening.  I also have Twitter configured so when
I post to it, it updates my Facebook status so even more people will
see the conversation.

In the old days of email, the conversation was often just 1 to 1, but
with social networking its a 1 to many conversation.

Also I will often connect a conversation about need for accessibility with
http://twitter.com/nfb_voice
so they can monitor the buzz of whats going on in Baltimore.

If you want to watch the AFB YouTube video, see my Twitter stream below.

Best,
Mika
http://twitter.com/pyyhkala

On 3/29/09, Lilyth Berlin <nefamphetamine at gmail.com> wrote:
> what of people who don't use Facebook? Can a person just show up?
>
> On 3/29/09, Mika Pyyhkala <pyyhkala at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> Please go on to the Facebook site, and invite your friends to join us
>> for the Authors Guild protest on Tuesday April 7.
>>
>> The basic steps to do this are as follows:
>>
>> 1.  First be sure you are signed in to the Facebook site;
>> 2.  Click the link below which will take you to the NFB Authors Guild
>> Protest event Facebook page;
>> http://is.gd/p05d
>>
>> 3.  Enter your RSVP if you have not done so already.  I hope it will be
>> Attending
>> If for some reason you cannot access the event you can email me and I
>> will invite you....I have not tested this in the case of soemone
>> accessing the event for the first time;
>>
>> 4.  Press enter on or Click the link that says
>> Invite People to Come
>>
>> 5.  You are now presented with a page or pages that list all your
>> Facebook friends.  You click or press enter on each name to add them
>> to the list of invited guests.  As you add people, it will say
>> something like
>> Selected (100)
>> indicating that you have invited 100 people.
>>
>> 6.  There is an edit box where you can type a personal message that
>> will accompany the invitation.  I would put something in about how the
>> event would appeal to anyone interested in free access to books, fair
>> use, etc. etc.  You can also encourage people to spread the word about
>> the event.  I do think that this event has very broad appeal since
>> anyone could use the text-to-speech feature.  Also positions held by
>> organizations like the RIAA and Authors Guild are generally not
>> supported by the public and especially students.
>>
>> 7.  Finally click the send Invitations button.
>>
>> We currently have about 228 invited guests and we would like to
>> greatly expand this number, as we want a minimum of 500 people on the
>> street in NYC on Tuesday April 7th!
>>
>> We should be able to get this initial invited guests number in the
>> thousands if we all complete the above steps.
>>
>> Best,
>> Mika
>> http://twitter.com/pyyhkala
>>
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>
>
> --
> Peace, love and empathy,
>
> Nefertiti
>
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