Jonathan Adams

NAACP Updates Its Strategy, Goes Web 2.0

H/T Chris Rabb at Afro-Netizen

Everybody’s talking about change, including Ben Jealous, the NAACP’s new president, who kicked off his job at the historic civil rights organization making sure that the group will not fall into the digital divide.

NAACP is unveiling its new online voter registration drive, Upload to Uplift, which “uses Web 2.0 technology to encourage visitors to register and upload the email addresses of family and friends that are not registered.”

Upload to Uplift also uses a text message feature to remind registered voters to go to the polls on Election Day. “Online voter registration is a natural extension of the NAACP voter empowerment programs,” said Jealous. “While we will continue to do employ successful strategies, like door-to-door canvassing and phone banking, however, this tool adds the power of viral voter registration to our mix.” he added.

Traditional civil rights organizations like the NAACP do not have to be replaced by more media-savvy groups like Color of Change. This shift in strategy indicates that the century-old NAACP could be play as significant a role in the 21st century as it did during the days of DuBois.

Posted at 11:15 AM, Sep 18, 2008 in Permalink | View Comments