Have Your Voice Counted

Lightray launches the stopglobalwarming.org,  a grassroots effort to raise awareness about the risks of global warming in the form of a virtual march on Washington. The sites goal is to gain the support of millions of supporters across the US – who can turn around and with one voice urge  leaders to take action. The Stopglobalwarming campaign was spearheaded by a bi-partisan group of individuals lead by Laurie David, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Senator John McCain.

Lightray employed a number of innovative technologies in order to spread the word quickly and broadly. Subscribers or ‘marchers’ upon signing up received their own personal impact page – where they in turn could recruit new marchers. Individuals personal impact is tracked and compared to others. Marchers with the greatest reach are then featured on the Stopglobalwarming homepage. In addition to personal impact the spread from individual to individual is tracked showing how the message reaches person to person creating a visual like a family tree. Stopglobalwarming.org is one of the earliest examples using viral social networking as a key tool for grass roots organizing.

Stopglobalwarming.org supporters and partners include the NRDC, Sierra Club, Union of Concerned Scientists, California Gov Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Vice President Al Gore to name a few.

“Looking back, the SGW website when it launched was really on the cutting edge of viral technology. says Jessica Thompson Creative Director. Many of the concepts deployed strongly resemble what we now see in Facebook, and in the new era of Campaign organizing online.”

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