Despite criticism from Mr. Ebner and other activists, the system works, he said.
Her high priest is a Dalit (former Untouchable, according to India's historic caste system) activist called Chandra Bhan Prasad.
When activists challenged the system during the Khatami years, they found themselves isolated, a diminishing crowd without political support or mass mobilization to defend them.
In a country where graft seems to pervade government institutions and where corrupt police officials, judges and prosecutors lord over the legal system, activists say the Corruption Eradication Commission has become a critical avenue of defense for ordinary Indonesians seeking justice.
Just a month after Google agreed to give $6.8 million to support free rides for low-income youth on the city's public transit system, activists are out again in force.
As the proposal moved forward through the E.U. system, activists succeeded in convincing E.U. policymakers to include further changes that help ensure that trial outcomes are made public whether the sponsor prefers to do so.
Mr. Ai, who has created some abrasive and openly critical works, is now a brash activist working outside the system.
In the male cells, the activists negotiated a complicated system of competing interests.
It is woven into the fabric of government service delivery, of war-fighting systems, of activist groups, of major corporations and teenagers' social groups and the commerce of street-market hawkers.
The service, which is now being tested by a limited number of users, has drawn opposition from a number of privacy activists, because the Google system involves searching through e-mail to target ads to users.
