No more debates about the best online tools for letter-writing campaigns, please, cut out the man in the middle, and stop worrying about how to deal with thousands of supporters hammering your site to participate. Head over to WorldCoolers.org to see how it can be done. Better.
WorldCoolers offers a delivery system that integrates seamlessly in my normal life. And it seems to have the promise of combining that with the social networking (everyone is trying to implement that). I've just installed their Firefox extension, and there is a desktop edition as well: a simple small blue smiley in your status bar. Every once in a while, it shows me a one-line call for action, with the option to act now, or pass this one. No more clutter in my inbox or rss feeds, if I don't react, it's not going to remind me forever about my failure to do something.
So it just popped up with the message
Texas coal giant TXU is pushing for construction of the largest coal plant in US history. Take a minute to voice your protest - We need clean energy not dirty coal plants!
Clicking the pop-up opens a window in my browser, with a WorldCoolers header bar. The frame below shows an article in the Huffington Post by Laurie David, summarising the plans in Texas to build some $10 billion worth of climate destruction machinery, rather than taking the opportunity to switch to renewable energy.
WorldCoolers offers two simple action options: email TXU Energy, and email the Texas Governor. The first opens a new message in my email program, the second takes me to the online contact form of the governor's office. Email addresses, subject lines, and an email text proposal are already filled in, but I can easily change them before I click the send buttons.
Done.
It's great, because it is as close as possible to how I work. When I read my email, I usually skip the calls for online petitions, because I have more pressing things to do. But when I'm reading and watching online news, those little pop-ups come at a moment when I'm open for a little sidetracking. I've already written more letters in the last days than I did in the last months.
And it sits very close to the target of the action. Hey, I can even point out to the Texas governor Perry that maybe sometimes people from outside the US might want to talk to him. I don't have a home state in the US, my zip code does not consist of 5 digits, and my phone number is not in the US...
