Occupy Wall Street uses an odd combination of high-tech and low-tech devices not for philosophical but practical reasons. While media reports have drawn attention to one quaint communication method used by the group -- the human microphone made necessary by bullhorn and speaker bans -- its use in no way suggests the group is technology-averse.
Here a glimpse of the technology in use at the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations:
* The internet has been essential for Occupy Wall Street. Besides getting its message out on its webpage and social networking sites, the various Occupy groups communicate with one another via email. There's even a clever "Occupy the Internet" result on Google that encourages readers to support the movement and helpfully redirects to the reader's own Facebook page.
* Mobile phone communications keep Occupiers in touch with one another. There's at least one app designed specifically for Occupy members to alert group members to arrests.
* An organization called VPN provided Occupy in Manhattan and two other cities with secure communications towers.
* A fundraising effort is underway to provide the group a multi-location, hacker-resistant wi-fi network. Occupiers are already using laptops to communicate using free wi-fi networks but a dedicated one will deter surveillance by the intelligence community and police.
* At risk of hypothermia, Occupy Wall Street protesters turned to space blankets and hand warmers to combat the cold once their generators were gone. While the technology behind metallic space blankets is not new, it was high tech during the 1970s when NASA developed it for Skylab and is still in use by NASA today.
* Occupied is using television to promote its message, buying 100 crowdfunded ad spaces on cable TV for the upcoming weekend with more to follow. The first of the TV ads is already available on YouTube.
Like the human microphone, some of Occupy's other innovations are low-tech only because restrictions prevent high tech devices. An example is the bicycle-pedaled generators the group set up after fire officials confiscated their electric generators, deeming them a fire hazard. The bicycle-powered generators are run by volunteer using their foot power in turns at pedaling stations.
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