Direct email
This is the simplest electronic method of direct person-to-person communication today. You simply email the people you are interested in. If you send to a number of people you can list them under "To" (that is primary recipients). "cc" (Carbon copy area or secondary recipients), or "bcc" (Blind Carbon Copy). Note that with the first two options, any recipient will be able to get all the email addresses of the other recipients listed ("To" and "cc" fields). This allows encourages spam but allows recipients to "reply to all" and thus may facilitate small groups discussion. I prefer to use bcc if sending info and state at the bottom that it was bcc'd to other people without providing their email addresses. This is both transparent but avoids the problem of "email harvesting" and possible spamming (bulk and unsolicited email).
Being barred from mainstream media that is owned by corporate and special interest should not be an impediment in the age of the internet. There are a myriad ways to put your message out.
Fortunately, there are tools to allow activists to broadcast their message over the Internet to unlimited sized audiences. Until recently these tools were primarily used to send advertising materials to millions of people. The same technology can be used to send ‘targeted e-mails’ to progressive groups and individuals throughout the US and the world. These tools are very inexpensive and free versions (shareware) are also available.
Avoid spam tactics (sending many unsolicited emails). It is OK to send a first message and see if folks are interested. Having said that, you will find many ways to get public email addresses to use in an initial email to try to reach a mass audience.
1) Your Inbox: You get lots of emails with lots of CC's. Carbon copied emails are usually directed to people who are at least interested. You can start with those.
2) E-mail extractor tools: There are many programs to extract e-mail addresses from web sites. Examples include http://www.mailutilities.com/. You may look at shareware programs (free). Go to shareware.com and typing in “e-mail extractor”
3) From existing webpages, chat rooms, etc. But again be very selective and only use public email addresses (for example it s not oral to get on a listserve just to get a few email addresses). Use judgement.
Sending emails can be done by the usual methods (using bcc if you are sending to many so that they cannot have access to your list). When your list gets too large, you may consider e-mail sender programs. One program is called Easy Mass Mailer. You send plain text or web-like looking messages http://easysoftmade.com/emm/index.asp
You should make sure that receivers can easily unsubscribe from your list. |