Sun Microsystems and Oxfam America will enlist supporters of the fair trade movement through a text message petition solution. At Coldplay shows this summer and fall, fans will be invited to text in their support to Oxfam's Make Trade Fair campaign. The campaign advocates for reform of agricultural and trade policies so that farmers in developing countries can get a fair price for their goods and benefit from international markets.
"Americans are mobilizing to demand trade justice," said Brian Rawson of Oxfam America. "Our agreement with Sun Microsystems helps us get the word out to a young tech-savvy audience, and will help us bring in even more supporters to this effort."
Oxfam's Make Trade Fair campaign was launched to raise awareness and mobilize support to change international rules so trade can become part of the solution to poverty, not part of the problem. The campaign's global petition, The Big Noise, has been signed by almost eight million people globally and calls on governments, international institutions and multinational companies to trade fairly. Make Trade Fair's goal is to add more than two million supporters to the ranks of the fair trade movement through this campaign and deliver the Big Noise to world trade ministers this December at the World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong.
At shows during this summer and fall's Twisted Logic tour, Coldplay fans will be shown a video of lead singer Chris Martin visiting poor farmers in Ghana and talking about his support for the Make Trade Fair campaign. The video encourages concertgoers to sign onto Oxfam's Big Noise petition by texting their e-mail address to TRADE (87233 on their cell phones).
The addresses are captured and cataloged and Sun's technology is being leveraged to initiate each fan's connection to the Make Trade Fair campaign. Immediately, a reply will come from Oxfam, moving the dialogue to the fan's e-mail inbox, and providing the opportunity to further engage with the campaign online.
This Oxfam relationship is just the latest step in Sun's Share the Opportunity initiative, a global effort to help promote participation in social change. Sun's resources were put to work at U2 concerts throughout Europe and the U.S. and the historic Live 8 show in Philadelphia, and have contributed to the mobilization of millions of individuals.
Sun believes the world is entering a new era -- a Participation Age -- where dramatically lowered barriers to entry, plummeting device prices, and near-universal connectivity are driving a new round of network participation. From blogs to Java technology, SMS messages to Web services, participants are forming communities to drive change, create new businesses, new social services, and new discoveries.
Oxfam America seeks long-term solutions to world problems.