participation presentation mitchell vso 091009

http://www.edmitchell.co.uk VSO Technology Taster Session 8th October 2009

Hello

Network, community web design and facilitation; event design and facilitation

2002…..…..2004………….…..2006……...…..2007……..… 2008...... 2009...

http://www.edmitchell.co.uk/



Transition Network

http://www.transitiontowns.org : Web Co-ordinator

“Tosupportcommunity‐ledresponsestopeakoilandclimatechange,buildingresilienceandhappiness”.



http://www.transitiontowns.org

http://www.transitiontowns.org


Transition Network

inspireencourageconnectsupporttrain



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Theme

Theme

Theme

Theme

Themes shared in common

across all levels of the

movement


Transition tech stuff: conceptual




Transition tech stuff; web layers




What am I talking about?

Participation and mass movements seem to be all the rage right now. In this current climate of uncertainty, with proof of concept from the early campaigning NGOs, it seems that everyone is keen on having their voices heard; and the internet is the place to amplify those messages. From central government harnessing the networked power of the internet to support their campaigning to tiny anarchic groups aiming to make their voices heard, it seems that everyone is into it.Ed will look at some of the social, technical and organisational themes related to this and provide a few case studies for discussion and further analysis.




Ah yes, the issues...

“People live in binary code and never get to three” (Youngblood Brass Band)




Social

• The perfect storm: climate change, global recession, anti-corporate, endless scandals and collapse of trust (MPs expenses, Iraq cabinet meeting FOI requests ignored)

• Activism sweeps into mainstream fashion after years of NGO and/or fringe activism

• Rational meets emotional: ʻouterʼ transition (every campaign now) but is that ʻinner transitionʼ?

• Local/global - participation easier but meaningfull-er?

• Information: Indymedia and the rise of alternative journalism

• Attention - how much do we have? how many movements can we concentrate on? How many social networks are we part of?




Tim Chatterton

"I have some views on the ability to 'participate' in mass movements - spent lots of time in direct action circles of people who argue very strongly against mass protest events as being useful for anything except potential cover for small scale direct action."




Organisational

• Bottom up and top down

• Organisation design for local/global

• Technology: (the myth of) costs down, reach infinite etc.

• Web gurus telling traditional organisations they must share the values of the web

• Growing co-operative development going on around the world (from scratch)

• Recession! Money! Less of it and more expectations!

• Resource issues of how to organise for participation vs transactional model of past




David Wilcox

"the empowering nature of social media etc is blurring the distinction between:

•volunteering (offer you time to us within our terms)

•participation (contribute within our framework)

•unorganised activism (we'll try and do what we want to do)"




Technical

• Fashion: internet and software developments: from:

• broadcast• publishing

• consultation• surveys, comments and forums

• engagement• social networking

• empowerment• collaborative goal achievement

• aggregation and distributed sharing

• Open source: both in technology and social organisation

• Technology driving expectations for openness

• Open data movement growing (.paf, government group)




Dan McQuillan

“... bloggy tweety aggregation is all well and good but if you want to get stuff to stick in the real world you need established structures.

"Perhaps going back into existing silos is the price to be paid for moving from vision to execution".

That's the bit that makes me smile - the idea the the government, or any large incumbent institution, represent the best hope for executing anything flies in the face of experience, especially when it comes to anything that involves tech...”

http://www.internetartizans.co.uk/politics1government2



http://twitter.com/jkhoey/status/4686542260



Web values as the new must have?







How flexible are we?




Case Studies




Case Study

Title: Ice cream eating

Organisation type:

Flashmob

Description:

Belarus youthText messagesIce CreamArrests

ref: Clay Shirky






Case Study

Title: Climate camp

Organisation type:

Bottom up pressure group

Description:

Activist networkOpen technology use: texts, twitter, radio etc.Regular meetings‘Democratic’ modelGrowing internationally




Case Study

Title: Avaaz

Organisation type:

International political pressure group

Description:

‘Web movement’Campaign focusEmail based pressureGrowing internationally




Case Study

Title: Cola life

Organisation type:

Bottom up lobbying group

Description:

One man’s passionPractical action to alleviate sufferingGrowing group engagementContinuous corporate lobbyingPartnership with corporation




Case Study

Title: My Conservatives

Organisation type:

Political party

Description:

Campaign toolGoals focusedMessages prominentParticipation Little social networking (buddy lists, status updates)




One Climate

Title: One climate (and 10:10!)

Organisation type:

Action network

Description:

behaviour change networkaggregator




Case study

http://www.mcc.es/ing/quienessomos/modelo/index.html

Title: Mondragon

Organisation type:

Co-operative movement

Description:

Integrated co-opsAll businessesPermaculture focus






Is the revolution happening on Wall Street?

“... The one-person-one-vote worker co-operatives in the United States are the most democratic, advanced and ideal. But they number at about 500 maximum, maybe 1,000. These co-ops are on the cutting edge of the democratization process and where the learning will be taking place for the rest of the movements. People are experimenting with full democracy and full equality...”

http://www.alternet.org/rights/143102/the_economic_revolution_is_already_happening_--_it%27s_just_not_on_wall_st._?page=entire








Is the revolution happening on Wall Street?

“... The one-person-one-vote worker co-operatives in the United States are the most democratic, advanced and ideal. But they number at about 500 maximum, maybe 1,000. These co-ops are on the cutting edge of the democratization process and where the learning will be taking place for the rest of the movements. People are experimenting with full democracy and full equality...”

“... Mondragon has over 100,000 workers in a very complicated group of 100 or more integrated co-ops. They pay back loans to a central fund and then build more co-ops in an integrated fashion. In 90 percent of them, the ratios of pay from top to bottom are 4 to 1. In others, it's 9 to 1. Compare that with American corporations, which are 200 or 300 to 1...”









Err.. yeah... so...?

• Perfect storm for social change• perfect for greenwashing too

• Supportive technical infrastructure• gradual federalisation of web

• Adoption and enhancement of old models with new• pah! Mega corps cannot change

• Bottom up will meet top down• power is well settled, thank you very much

• Expectations: realistic? • this is not new; ideological battles have come before

• Participation as a social need• seen much in Burma/Afghanistan/Indonesia/Nigeria recently?




Thank you

And thanks to: David WilcoxOliver BradleySteve BridgerTim ChattertonCarl Haggertyfor their ideas



participation presentation mitchell vso 091009

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