Alliance of Youth Movements Looks to Social Media for Nonviolent Change

By: Dan Farber
Topics: World Watch

(Alliance of Youth Movements)

The Alliance of Youth Movements , a non-profit that focuses on effecting nonviolent change through 21st century tools, is holding its second annual Summit in Mexico City this week. The Summit will explore how technology, and the emergence of social networks, can help end violence in Latin America and other regions.

Jared Cohen, who serves on the U.S. Secretary of State's Policy Planning Staff, said the Summit is an "illustrative example of 21st century statecraft." Applying modern technologies as a means to catalyze social movements around the world is critical, he added.

"My recent technology delegation trips hosted by the State Department in both Iraq and just the last two days in Mexico City have shown me first hand the power that mobile is going to be in populations where virtual everyone has cell phones but relatively few have broadband access. We are already starting to see great case studies how SMS can be used to let anyone anonymously report violence, corruption and drug trafficking," said Jason Liebman, CEO of Howcast and a co-founder of the Alliance of Youth Movements.

The AYM Summit is sponsored by Causecast.org, Edelman, Facebook, Gen Next, Google, Hi5, Howcast Media, MTV, MySpace, PepsiCo, Univision Interactive Media, Inc., the U.S. Department of State, WordPress.com and YouTube.

You can tune into a webcast of the proceedings for the two-day event starting October 15 at:

Allianceofyouthmovements.org

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You can also follow the Twitter stream at http://twitter.com/aym, ( search on #aym09).