Try it out! Demo the site before you sign up by logging in with username 'susanb' and password 'susanb'.

About Activate!

Activate! is a social networking site for activists. Other social networking sites connect your friends and colleagues and their friends and colleagues for the purpose of business or social advancement. Activate! also allows you to meet friends and colleagues, but it's organized around political and social issues, with the purpose of helping people engage in activism.

In addition to basic information about yourself, Activate! allows you to list issues in which you're involved and organizations with which you are associated. You can search for people who are interested in similar issues.

Activate! lets you create and join your own affinity groups of like-minded people.

What is an affinity group?
An affinity group is a group of people who know each other and share interests in similar issues. Unlike an organization, which usually operates under a specific structure, an affinity group is an informal cluster of friends and colleagues. An affinity group can be a small group of people in a larger organization, or people from several organizations who work on similar issues. It can also be a group of friends or neighbors who want to share resources.

Communicating on the site
There are several ways to talk to other members of Activate! The first, most direct way, is to send a private message to the person. You can send a message to anyone by going to his or her profile and clicking "Send [this person] a message". You can read and reply to your own messages by clicking the "Read Messages" link on your homepage.

All members of an affinity group may communicate through the member board on that group's page.

Anyone may comment on an issue or an organization in the user comments and announcements section of any issue or organization page.

How to get started
Sign up, using the link above, or this one.

Once you register, click the link to login, and that will take you to your home page, where you'll find links to edit your profile. There, you can add further information about yourself if you like.

Once logged in, you can also add an organization or an issue to the database, or create an affinity group. To add a person as your friend, go to his or her profile page and click "Add [this person] as your friend" at the bottom of the page.

Activate is a project created by Robyn Overstreet for ITP's Technology and Social Activism class, spring 2004. [further documentation]