Below is an interview conducting with Gregg Housh.? One of the more influential internet activists of our time.
Joe: ?How long have you been in the IT field?
Gregg: ?I have been tinkering with technology for around 24 years and professionally for around 19.
Joe: ?What do you feel is your biggest achievement?
Gregg: ?About 5 years ago I was in a chat room and we were discussing the issues with Scientology and a video we had made. ?We felt at the time it would be a good idea to try and set up a worldwide protest at every Scientology building we could. ?Now this protest would be unprecedented because frankly no one had done an anonymous protest across the world before. On February 10th, 2008 thousands of people gathered at over 140 buildings in 42 countries to protest against Scientology.
Joe: A pretty big deal so much so that it caused you(Gregg) to become a person of interest.
Gregg: ?Yes well the big thing about doing a protest is that in most cities you have to actually file permits to be where you want to be as a legal protest. Someone had to put their name to it and I was more than willing to do so. What followed I couldn’t have imagined. I spent 7 months in court due to these protests. Costing me valuable time and of course money. Luckily in the 7th month the judge decided to offer a CWOF (Continuance without finding). Both parties basically got a restraining order placed on them, I could not be 1000 feet from the two Scientology buildings in the Boston area and the people of Scientology were also told not to come 1000 feet to me for 1 year.
Joe: ?Pretty crazy stuff, so what are you currently doing now?
Gregg: ?I am the owner and operator of Local SEO Company (http://www.localseocompany.net/ .) I spend a lot of my time on work, but just as much time on activism. I am currently helping to build a site called Upriser at upriser.com.
Joe: ?upriser.com , could you elaborate on what that site will be?
Gregg: ?The intention of upriser.com is to get your voice heard. The various people who have been involved with activism, specifically organized online, for the last few years have learned a lot. The tools that we use, the sites that we visit, its all great. The problem is that new people need to learn how to use multiple sites and tools to get the job done right. Instead of having someone visit 20 sites to get an action organized or the word out about something, we felt it would be a good idea to create a site that had most of that functionality in one place. So anyone could go to the site and with the click of a button have access to the tools needed to start their discussion or action.
Joe: ?Is this site live now?
Gregg: ?It is currently in Alpha stage but people can go to it and try it out. Currently we are looking for a full launch somewhere in early May.
Joe: ?So how much will this cost people? I mean it must cost something to get your voice heard?
Gregg: ?The site is completely free to post too and will have all the tools needed to start a protest or to highlight an issue that maybe happening and hopefully by doing that you will get your voice heard by the right people.
Joe: ?Well that would be the big draw. It is one thing to post something and hope people see it, it is another to post something and know that a big community of like minded people are their to see it and help.
Gregg: ?We hope so, the tools this site will have gives people many ways to get the word out.
Joe: ?Well Gregg I do appreciate your time with us today about.
Gregg: You are very welcome Joe, anytime.