DIVE INTO ONLINE ACTIVITIES /
	netstrike - electronic mass protest
	http://www.netstrike.it/ Floodnet http://www.thing.net/~rdom/ecd/floodnet.html Electronic Disturbance Theatre http://www.thing.net/~rdom/ecd/EDTECD.html
	The term 'Netstrike' was invented by an Italian group in 1995 who invited people to participate in electronic mass protests. From their web-site: "In spite of the name, (that sounded good anyway), it is the networked version of a peaceful sit-in. The metaphor that best represents it is that of a number of people that walk on pedestrian crossings with signs and banners, if their number is really big they can stop traffic for a noticeable period of time. The first target for a netstrike were the sites of french government that in that period was conducting nuclear tests on Mururoa atoll. Since that time an infinite series of netstrikes were launched, in some case we promoted those, in many other by initiative of people all around the world." Internet users worldwide were asked to point their browsers to target servers and click the reload button every few seconds. This method was later perfected by the New York based group Electronic Disturbance Theatre who wrote a script called 'floodnet' which partly automated this task and multiplied the efforts of each protester. Technically, such a type of attack on a web server is called distributed-denial-of-service attack. It can be carried out with maximum efficiency by one person or a small number of people acting in a clandestine manner. The difference to the actions of the EDT is that they invite users to openly declare their support and their willingness to take into account legal risks because they stand up for what they believe in. People are publicly participating in an act of electronic civil disobedience rather than in clandestine digital violence. The strategy is to keep the disruption to a necessary minimum while a concerted effort on the publicity frontline should give the issue of concern maximum media exposure.