what is web 2.0 anyways, and what does it mean for social movements?

What is web 2.0 and what does it mean for social movements?

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What is web 2.0 anyways,

and what does it mean for

social movements?


home

Navigation:

• What is web 2.0 exactly anyways?

• What is everybody so excited about?

• What does web 2.0 mean for social change?

• Innovative campaign examples

• Information resources and recommended readings


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What exactly is web 2.0 anyways?


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In 10 words or less:

• web 1.0 is about publishing

• web 2.0 is about participation


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Web 2.0 is...

people:

• HOW people use the internet is defines web 2.0 as much as anything

• web 2.0 = the social web

• users create the content (ie, blogs, videos)

• and they organize it (ie, using tags, choosing RSS feeds, making “friends” etc)

• and it has value (ie, what is youtube without the “you”?)

technology:

• coding languages & protocols (ie, XML, RSS)

• software (ie, internet browsers that can run media-rich content)

• connectivity (ie, fast internet)

• and a bunch of other fancy stuff

open/interactive platforms:

• companies/orgs/individuals create platforms

• designed to allow interaction, content generation, and/or preference-based use

• such as youtube, amazon,corporate wikis, etc


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Web 2.0 is also the outcome:

technology interactive platforms

people

vast networks of people and data

communities

a dynamic, rapidly changing, fluid online world

that both maps and ignores real-world boundaries


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To most end-users (us) web 2.0 is:

• blogs

• web feeds and feed readers/aggregators

• social networking sites

• social bookmarking sites

• preference-driven e-commerce & services

• tags

• wikis

• virtual worlds & games

There’s a whole lot of overlap between all of these...And this isn’t even a complete list.


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blogs• websites that function in diary form (ie,

chronological, personal entries)

• most blogs allow allow comments by readers, which adds to the blogosphere’s content pool

• technorati, a blog search engine, is tracking over 100 million blogs worldwide (at sept 1/07)


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why are bloggers influential?

• Search engines rank results -- part of the ranking comes from how well “linked” a webpage is -- bloggers create a lot of links

• Bloggers chatter, and they read and chatter about each other’s blogs, and link back and forth to them

• They develop fan bases, people who also spread content

• Together, bloggers can create trends and drive broader interest in a topic/issue/etc


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web feeds & feed readers• pull content from one place (such as a blog) to

another (such as another website) in real time (as it is updated)

• track new content from favourite blogs, podcasts, websites, etc

• aggregators/feed readers allow users to browse many feeds at once (ie, bloglines)


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social networking sites• main purpose is connecting with other people

• you create a profile, make “friends,” blog about your life (your profile is like a mini-blog)

• some are mainly social -- ex, facebook or tribe

• others are purposeful -- ex, linkedin (professional/business networking) or care2.com (connecting socially-minded people and progressive organizations)


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social bookmarking sites• main purpose is sharing content

• users submit content, comment on it, and/or vote for it

• on sites like del.icio.us, digg, redditt, stumbleupon

• most of these sites include a rating mechanism

• popular content gets featured in some way — ex, pushed up to the site’s homepage or “featured”


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preference-driven e-commerce & services

• allows users to rate or review products

• markets products/services to you personally based on your behaviour/choices and/or demographic profile

• best-known example is Amazon


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tags• keywords that users attach to content

• the point of a tag is to organize content

• by describing or categorizing it

• traditional classification systems relied on authoritative control of a defined, hierarchical system (ie, the Library of Congress)

• on the web, tagging is wide open


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wikis• a website that gets created and edited

collaboratively

• it can be open to anyone, or to a defined group

• most famous example, of course: wikipedia

• wikis can become communities — people use them to interact by sharing information/ideas/opinions on common interests


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virtual worlds and games• an online simulated environment in which you can

interact with other users in real time

• you interact with others via an avatar

• in Second Life, people debate issues, organize protests, conduct campaigns, buy and sell virtual property, make/buy/sell virtual products, etc


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Ok, so that’s web 2.0. But what is everybody

so excited about?


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Participatory culture

• Participation is built into web 2.0

• those who participate actively are rewarded

• participation adds value for other people and makes the whole thing tick


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Participation = networking = power

• when you participate, you develop online networks

• someone who is highly networked online is more likely to have the power to influence others

• ie, by spreading content, ideas...


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Networking = personal ties = community

• online networks don’t replace ‘real world’/ offline personal interaction and community

• but they extend their reach (ie, Facebook)

• and create the possibility of whole new networks and types of interaction


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The wisdom of crowds

• In 2004, James Surowiecki published a book called The Wisdom of Crowds

• Basic idea: large groups of people are smarter than a few, even a brilliant few

• it’s the wisdom (or lack thereof) of crowds that creates and polices Wikipedia

• it’s the wisdom of crowds that determines which videos/stories/websites/etc go viral


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• “This is the nature of the conceptual beast in the digital age, and one of the most telling examples of what Web 2.0 applications do

• They replace the authoritative heft of traditional institutions with the surging wisdom of crowds”

• ~ Mary Madden & Susannah Fox, Riding the waves of Web 2.0: More than a buzzword, but still not easily defined, Pew Internet Project, October 5, 2006


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Is there a revolution underway?

• “For the most part, the online world mirrors the offline world.

• People bring to the internet the activities, interests and behaviors that preoccupied them before the Web existed.

• Still, the internet has also enabled new kinds of activities that no one ever dreamed of doing before -- certainly not in the way people are doing them now...”

• ~ Pew Internet Project, Internet: The Mainstreaming of Online Life, Trends 2005


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What does all this mean for progressive social change?


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Joe Trippi -- campaign manager for Howard Dean 2003-04


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“We have an army of almost 600,000 firedup supporters, not just a bunch of chicken-dinner donors, but activists, believers, people who have never been politically involved before and who are now living and breathing this campaign.

We have tapped into a whole new vein of democracy and proven the Internet as a vibrant political tool.…”


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Until January 1, 1994, few people had heard of the Zapatistas.


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David Ronfeldt, Rand Corporation:Zaptistas’ use of the internet “allowed them to muster an international response, often within hours of actions by Zedillo's government.

In effect, this has forced the Mexican government to maintain the facade of negotiations with the EZLN and has on many occasions, actually stopped the army from just going in to Chiapas and brutally massacring the Zapatistas.”

(Cited in Jason Wehling, Netwar and Activists’ Power on the Internet, March 1995)


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1999 -- the Seattle WTO meetings

Internet and cell phones used in networked organizing.

Seattle Indymedia, the first of many Independent Media Centers, was set up to allow direct, unfiltered reporting by the activists.


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network diagram of

the internet

Zapatistas and Seattle:

computer networks + communications networks + people networks…converging on a massive scale

Also describes the web.

Interest in network theory has been growing along with the internet itself since the 1990s.


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1993 -- RAND corporationCyberwar is Coming! by John Arquilla and David Ronfeldt.

network diagram of

the internet

“The information revolution and related organizational innovations are altering the nature of conflict...

Industrialization led to attritional warfare by massive armies (e.g., World War I).

Mechanization led to maneuver predominated by tanks (e.g., World War II).


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network diagram of

the internet

The information revolution implies the rise of cyberwar, in which neither mass nor mobility will decide outcomes.

Instead, the side that knows more, that can disperse the fog of war yet enshroud an adversary in it, will enjoy decisive advantages.

Future conflicts will be fought more by ‘networks’ than by ‘hierarchies,’ and that whoever masters the network form will gain major advantages.”


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This line of thinking has developed into a theory of ‘network-centric warfare’ and ‘power to the edge.’


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Interest in networks and “information advantage” has exploded with the rise of web 2.0…

You name it, and somebody’s probably applied some version of network theory to it. (Brilliant, half baked, or otherwise.)


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Mashup:

Activists +

Social movement theory +

Military & business thinking on network-centric operations

=

New ideas about networked politics, network-centric advocacy/campaigns, and networked service delivery.

facebook social network map


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“Network centric means pushing power to the edges:

• Intentionally allow new groups/individuals to be network players

• Establish transparent communication systems to generate user driven content

• Facilitate innovation/action at the edges with group tools”

(Rob Stuart, Network Centric Advocacy: New Ideas + New Technologies = New Future, Grassroots Technology Conference, June 6, 2006)


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“This movement, fueled by unsupervised local initiatives and virally-activated small donors...emblematized...a new model for political power.

The Dean campaign empowered constituents to speak for themselves, and to hear themselves speak, using an online platform created by the campaign.”

(Jed Miller & Rob Stuart, Network-Centric Thinking: The Internet’s Challenge to Eco-Centric Institutions)


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Moveon’s Bush in 30 seconds campaign:

“By opening itself to the creative contributions of its membership, and applying the network-centric model, the group executed one of its most successful campaigns to date.”

…Remember ‘the wisdom of crowds’?…

(Jed Miller & Rob Stuart, Network-Centric Thinking: The Internet’s Challenge to Eco-Centric Institutions)


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Innovative campaign examples


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MoveOn 2006 Taking Back the House campaign:

• Multiple strategies

• Liquid phone bank on e-day

• Targeted districts as needed on voting day, until reached needed number of voters

• People could call from home using an online tool that tracks each call, or organize phone parties where everyone brings their cell phone

by the numbers:• 7,492 house parties attended by 46,790 people

• 51,719 people called from home

• 7,001,102 calls made

• 61 districts targeted

• one house retaken


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Greenpeace Green my Apple:

•campaign to get Apple to stop using so many hazardous substances

•launched Sept 2006

•targeted Apple’s “famously loyal fan base”

•wide range of ways for people to engage

Greenpeace caught the network-centric bug – they told people:

•“We want you to run this campaign.

•We want you to create the campaign T-shirt, pen the speech in which Steve Jobs announces the Greening of Apple, shoot the Apple Ad that sets Cupertino talking about clean production and take-back schemes.”

campaign “bears fruit”:

•Seven months after launch

•“a familiar-looking green apple appeared on the Apple website with a very familiar heading ‘A Greener Apple,’ linking to an open letter from Steve Jobs declaring a change in policy”


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MobileActive:• Global network of people and groups learning how to use cell phones for activism — and helping other groups do the same

MobileActive in action:• Princeton & Michigan universities

• study of their text message mobilization efforts in the United States elections in November 2006.

• text message reminders to new voters increased an individual’s likelihood of voting by 4.2 percentage points.

• similar to ‘quality phone call’ reminders but at a fraction of the cost.

(from MobileActive blog post by Katrin Verclas, Sept 13, 2007)

MobileActive in action:• The South African Sustainable Seafood Initiative

• people text message the name of the fish they are thinking of buying

• get reply within moments indicating green/yellow/red


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Union-related uses web 2.0:

• Organizing

• Activism

• Whistleblowing

• Corporate behaviour/responsibility campaigns

• Communicating with members

• Creating cross-boundary community/links

• Commentary & opinion

• Reducing isolation, esp unorganized

• Reputational legitimacy of networks


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Information resources & recommended reading


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web 2.0 in general:• Wikipedia – it’s the best layperson’s resource going...

• O’Reilly Radar – blog of Tim O’Reilly, CEO of O’Reilly Media (these are the people that coined “web 2.0)

• What Is Web 2.0? by Tim O’Reilly

• Riding the Waves of Web 2.0, Pew Internet & American Life Project

• Top 100 Social Media & Social Networking Blogs

ex’s of innovative campaigns:• Green My Apple• KIVA• MoveOn• Squidoo’s 59 Smartest Orgs Online

network-centric advocacy:• Nework-Centric Advocacy blog, by Martin Kearns – great think-pieces, and great links to concrete examples

• Power to the Edges: Trends & Opportunities in Online Civic Engagement, evolve & Pace Foundations

• Net Gains: A Handbook for Network Builders Seeking Social Change, Barr Foundation

• Network-Centric Thinking: The Internet’s Challenge to Ego-Centric Institutions, Jed Miller & Rob Stuart

resources for progressives:• GreenMedia Toolshed• TechSoup• MobileActive• Nonprofit Technology Network• Unicommunicators.org (unions 2.0)

http://www.wikipedia.org/

http://radar.oreilly.com/

http://www.oreillynet.com/lpt/a/6228

http://pewresearch.org/pubs/71/riding-the-waves-of-web-20

what is web 2.0 anyways, and what does it mean for social movements?

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