When building fences beats taking offence | Bangkok Post: opinion

THINKBOX

I'm no fan of apps nor of online games. Yet the news on Monday about the launch of Human Fence, an app created by Greenpeace Southeast Asia and the Tha Sala community in Nakhon Si Thammarat province, prompted me to download it to my Facebook page right away.

At first, I thought it was a new educational tool created by the people of Tha Sala in their ongoing campaign against the petrochemical industry which is posing a threat to their coastal community. How exciting, I mused, that conservationists and grassroots activists can make use of online games and social networks to promote their environmental agenda.

But it turns out that Human Fence is not a game. It's actually a new form of online petition that makes use of infographics and an interactive game to educate people about the situation in which the villagers of Tha Sala find themselves.