From mobiliza+on to consensus: Innova&ng cross-‐media services to organize crowds into collabora&ve communi&es
Montathar Faraon
Mass mobiliza&on
• Defini+on. A process that engages and mo&vates a wide range of partners and allies at na&onal and local levels to raise awareness of and demand for a par&cular development objec&ve through face-‐to-‐face dialogue (Unicef).
• O7en used by: – Grassroots-‐based reac&ve protests (e.g. Occupy)
– Revolu&onary movements (e.g. Arab Spring)
• Why? – Dissa&sfied with their condi&ons (e.g. social, economical, poli&cal). Not a new
phenomenon, people have been angry throughout history (e.g. French Revolu&on)
• Recent examples: – Greece, USA (New York), UK (London), MENA, Spain, etc.
• Social media have played a key role in many mass mobiliza&on efforts.
• But what comes aRer mobiliza&on?
• Given a collabora&ve tool, people would be given the opportunity to mass mobilize and elaborate a common goal using social media and online collabora&ve applica&ons.
• Social media as alterna&ve press – accessible plaUorm for ci&zen journa-‐lism.
• Social media capabili&es: – Many-‐to-‐many communica&on
– The speed which informa&on can be spread
– User-‐generated content
Mass mobiliza&on by social media
• Social media have shown their usefulness of means of mobiliza&on.
• Social media and online collabora&ve applica&ons: – (1) Social media allow massive mobiliza+on through online networks but
there is not much to support the collabora&on of the mobilized crowds in a consensus-‐seeking manner.
– (2) Online collabora+ve applica+ons allow for collabora+on but lack the means of massive mobiliza&on.
– (3) Social media and online collabora&ve applica&ons generally lack features and func+onali+es for civic engagement in society, that would allow their u&liza&on in the seeking of consensus among the mobilized community.
• => Integrated plaIorm for ac+ve boJom-‐up oriented par+cipa+on. – Mobiliza&on of crowds of shared interest to form communi&es.
– Collabora&on within communi&es for consensus-‐seeking and co-‐crea&on.
Organizing crowds into collabora&ve communi&es
• How do we do this?
• Design a process and a medium that directs the efforts of the mobilized crowds to co-‐crea&ve democra&c processes.
– Mobiliza&on
– Community building
– Consensus-‐seeking
• Adapta&on of exis&ng social media (e.g. Facebook and Twi^er) and online collabora&ve applica&ons (e.g. Google Docs) through for example APIs and mashups.
Platform for active bottom-up participation
Design concept for ac&ve bo^om-‐up plaUorm
• Design concept
• Mock-‐up – An experiment possible using exis&ng applica&ons.
– Mobilize a small test group (to the street?) with SMS, Twi^er.
– Elaborate collabora&vely a shared agenda using a shared Google document.
• Target group/personas
• Prototype
• Tes&ng
• Feedback
• Outcome?
Broader methodological framing
Missing from exis+ng applica+ons:
• Scalability to large mass use.
• Integra&on of social media and online collabora&on applica&ons.
• Adapta&on for purposes of democracy.
• Organiza&on of the democra&c decision-‐making flow (e.g. vo&ng).
• Management of disagreement.
• Dissemina&on of informa&on.
• Membership: openness, invita&ons.
• Security issues (e.g. vo&ng)
• Usability.
• PlaUorm choice and adapta&on.
Challenges
Prospec+ve uses/users:
• Individuals
• NGOs
Mechanisms of influencing:
• Visibility in mass media
• Visibility in social media
• Interfaces with government, e.g. ci&zen ini&a&ves
Risks
• Why the concept might not work?
Prerequisites
• Free access to the applica&ons
• Sufficient skills of the public
• Freedom of the Internet
Considerations
Authors
• Montathar Faraon ([email protected])
• Victor Villavicencio ([email protected])
• Robert Ramberg ([email protected])
• Mauri Kaipainen ([email protected])
Thank you for your attention!