You have to give credit to the people involved in the #occupy movement for two things: They are extremely committed to their cause (as vague as it might be); and they are adapting technology to make themselves accessible to just about the entire 99%.

It didn’t take long for the larger occupy groups to realize that they were facing a challenge of communicating with the hundreds (in some cases thousands) of people that were coming out to support them. When it came time to relay information to the crowd, a traditional bullhorn just wasn’t going to reach the people that occupied the back rows.

So someone came up with ‘mic check’ as a way to amplify the speaker’s message.

This less than perfect system operates as an advanced game of broken telephone, where the speaker will yell a short sentence that is then repeated by members of the crowd in concentric circles. This is a more effective way to reach the back rows, but the many voices and imperfect timing often made it difficult to understand what was being said and it took a long time to get the message out. An example of mic check at occupy Wall Street can be found here.

‘Mic check’ was an interesting approach, but there had to be a more effective method of engaging the occupy audience.

Social media has played a big role in the occupy movement from the get-go– Twitter and Facebook have been key tools for informing people of the movement and getting occupiers out to the sites. But once people were on the occupy sites Twitter and Facebook were no longer effective ways to speak directly to the crowd in real life.

This is where the most impressive part of the occupy movement comes in: The People’s Skype.

The People’s Skype from jrbaldwin on Vimeo.

The People’s Skype is a social media tool that allows organizers to broadcast their message through a one-wayconference call. They set up the conference line and get a PIN that is shared with the crowd. The crowd can then dial into the call and listen on their phone – often putting it on speaker to share the message with those around them.

What makes The People’s Skype a social media tool is that it allows organizers to not only broadcast their message but also have the audience vote and contribute to decisions by providing yes and no answers. All on whatever mobile handset they have available – this technology is not dependent on users having smart phones!

VentureBeat recently did a post that provides a few more details on how it actually works.

The organizers of the occupy movement have not been great at getting clear and consistent message out about their cause, but they have shown an ability to inform and involve a large group consistently over time by knowing their audience and adapting the technology to engage them.