Georgetown students and Latin American human rights NGOs in the DC area have lately teamed up as Coalition Adios Uribe to work to revise the legacy of former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe. He was recently appointed an honorary post at Georgetown University and does some lecturing there.

Because we (a group of grassroots volunteers) don't have access to the normal means of communication, as decision-makers have refused meetings, we've had to use the internet and social media to amplify our voices so that Georgetown University will hear. I will talk about some of the other strategies in upcoming blog posts, we've managed to get mountain of press coverage.

Part of work towards social justice is the exhumation of recent history, bringing previously questioned facts to light and scrutinizing them with morality, so we've had to bring up uncomfortable facts in various ways. Our latest is a funny video which has had more than 3,500 views between its three versions on the internet. Not bad for a video critiquing a mid-sized university's ethical criterion (or lack thereof) for visiting scholars.

Here it is:

The longer version which was featured on Pulse is here, and the Spanish version is here.

There are several aspects of this video which, I believe, contributed to its success

• The immediate relation to current events
• The video was easy to watch: it was funny and short
• The video was audacious, it challenged people to think and to make difficult connections
• And, to restate, the video was popular because it was, in fact, a video

We essentially embedded our talking points in President Mubarak's mouth. After launching, we spread the video through a grassroots Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit campaign, with students reposting it on other students Facebook pages and emailing it to influential community members.

The net effect is that the Coalition was able to speak its talking points directly to influencers without cooperation from mainstream media or Georgetown authorities and with little work. In fact, the very audacity of the video encouraged administrators to send it to one another.

We made this video in about six hours, then edited and translated after we launched it, using a website called Xtranormal, where you type in dialog and click and drag hand motions, facial expressions, camera angles into a dialog space. Very easy to use.

Rules of engagement (learned on the job):

• Get it up quickly and publicize it before your related current event begins to cool
• Keep it short and general, too much specificity will kill its ability to be re-posted
• Keep your talking points short but clear, and respect your audience by not repeating
• Your base would like to help you in ways other than donating or signing a petition. Don't be afraid to ask them to post a video.

You can follow the campaign on Twitter or visit our site.