Unprotests
#dayx3 (thanks to ucloccupation)
The BBC reports today that the Police have admitted they're taking too long to adapt to change in ethos in protesting brought on by nimble, social media-powered action. It's not a surprise - social media is revolutionary in bringing the crowd together. But even since November it's changed again. We're now witnessing the rise of unorganised demonstrations - unprotests.
We first saw social media used as a tool of demonstrators in terms of how people organised themselves.
A surprising example, as Clay Shirky mentions in Cognitive Surplus, was the huge demonstrations in South Korea in 2008 over the relaxation of the ban on the import of US beef. The protesters, numbering tens of thousands, came not from the ranks of anti-government agitators (the usual suspects) but largely from fans of boy band Dongbangshinki.
The beef ban had come into force five years earlier over evidence that pointed to BSE infection. With the relaxation of the ban in 2008, the band's young fanbase started to question the decision through online forums, and decided to protest.
As one girl at a 3000-strong candlelight vigil protest said at the time:
"On the fan site for Dongbangshinki I saw a message saying let’s gather in Yeouido. I’m here because of Dongbangshinki"
The authorities didn't know what to do. This apparent organic upswell of opinion powered solely by social media flummoxed them so much their first action was to wheel out the water cannons. That didn't exactly play well on TV though; children being hosed down like rioters wasn't the message the Government wanted to be associated with. In the end the South Korean President had to fire this cabinet over the embarrassment.
We also saw the speed of organisation with the first of the recent student protests in London last November - #dayx1.
The nominal figurehead of the initial protest was NUS president Aaron Porter. It was, for all intents and purposes, a NUS-backed day of action, ignited by Facebook and Twitter. So when the Police lost control of the protesters (ending in the damage to Conservative Party HQ) the Met condemned Porter for allowing this to happen. Of course, Porter had nothing to do with the violence; by the evening he wasn't perceived by fellow protesters as a figurehead anyway (and hasn't been since).
However the kettling by the Met Police on this first day of protests led directly to an amazing structure underpinning the #dayx2 and #dayx3 protests.
If the South Korean and #dayx1 protests were nimble and organised because of social media, the latter two protests were more nimble simply because they used social media to such a degree that they became unprotests. (To compare, an unorganised protest is different from an organised demonstration in the same way an unconference is different from a conference).
I thought this was breathtaking. A perceived pre-requisite of social action (well, a pre-requisite if you want to avoid bungling anarchy) was a figurehead or organising hierarchy. Suddenly student protests don't have one though (not even a centralised online forum). Instead they weave social tools into a concept that contains elements of classical pure democracy. Suddenly everyone is leader and can advise everyone else, and no one is.
Witness the Google Maps mashup that led to the formation of Sukey, which "effectively displays real-time police and protest behaviour". This is astounding use of technology "designed to ensure safety for protesters during demonstrations."
Sukey will be tested to the limit during protests in the spring, but as we saw during the #dayx3 protest the day effectively changed from a classic demonstration into the largest hide and seek game ever played, as protesters moved across central London, their survival instincts powered by social media crowd. The Police were unable to catch up.
I'd seen trials of a similar use of social media a couple of years ago, but that was showing where a bus was on its route around a Finnish city. The #dayx3 Google Map mashup wasn't telling you to go for something though, it was telling you how to get away from something. Fast. Something supposedly teeming with hundreds of years worth of knowledge of strategy and acumen, backed up by riot vans, horses and batons.
In essence the student protesters have become a physical manifestation of Anonymous. This quote about Anonymous from the Baltimore City Paper (written in 2008) also sums up where we are with student unrest and their use of social media tools:
"Anonymous is a group, in the sense that a flock of birds is a group. How do you know they're a group? Because they're travelling in the same direction. At any given moment, more birds could join, leave, peel off in another direction entirely."
This also describes the unprotest movement in the UK at the moment.
So, to sum up: the Police are two years behind on their training. But the protesters are changing the landscape only three months in.
What will we see over the next few months? Several games of brain vs brawn, with successes and failures on both sides. But one thing is guaranteed; the students have changed the rules of the game. The trouble for the Police is they haven't even learnt the old rules yet.
Update: ReadWriteWeb reports that the Met Police will monitor Twitter and social media during protests and make decisions there-of. As they say, the Police "will use social media sites to keep track of protestors and respond accordingly". Still won't change the fact that the concept of "protest" has changed.
Update 2: Keith Flett puts the current situation in a historical context here. "Developments in technology mean that even if Governments control official TV stations [media, technology] it is very difficult for them to completely stop pictures [content] coming from other sources."
Like for like, letter for letter
The frontline of the war against cellulose
I emailed to my MP Stuart Andrew via 38degrees last week, highlighting my strong feelings against the proposed sell-off of British forests. Or, to give it's proper title "Consultation: Future of the public forest estate".
I think it's great that the likes of 38degrees and TheyWorkForYou are available, using the quick and easy access afforded by social technologies to contact those who ostensibly work for us (although in Conservative Stuart Andrew's case, I voted for the other guy, so he doesn't work for me).
Today, among the pizza menus and Sky offer leaflets I received an interesting letter from the House of Commons, from Mr Andrew.
Straight from the off, it seems he shares my thoughts and concerns, and;
"regard[s] this issue as of paramount importance to protecting the public's access rights and enjoyments of our forests and securing our national heritage".
I'll take his concern at face value. I don't know him, I don't share his politics and although he decided to walk past my house on a meet and greet session just before election day last year, I'll not hold that against him. I certainly appreciated him (or at least his secretary) taking time to reply. I'll still think Conservatives = this.
The rest of the letter's content is readable via the image; it's mostly boilerplate with an unnecessary dig at Labour (I don't care about what's gone before, I didn't email Mr Andrew about that). I wish he'd edited the text about New Forest or Forest of Dean to highlight more local concerns - even say Ennerdale in the Lake District or the forests in Durham or Northumberland - as, with the best will in the world, Hampshire and Gloucestershire forests are of less concern to Stuart's constituents in north-west Leeds. But I digress.
More strikingly was the method of communication though; I sent an email, he replied with a letter. I don't know whether that's the done thing in Westminster but to be honest, I'd prefer an email in reply. If I'd sent a letter then yes, I'd expect one back. But I didn't send a letter; I sent an email. I would like an email reply.
In my job I normally advise that when a person contacts an organisation, the organisation uses the same method(s) of communication to respond. It's just feels like good manners - a like for like. Sending a letter (no matter how genuine the sentiment behind it, and I'm not calling Mr Andrew's into question) is too formal unless the originator of the communication physically sends or requests a letter themselves.
Plus it saves the taxpayer footing the postage bill of course.
Anyway, compare this with his (Labour) predecessor Paul Truswell. When I emailed him last year to protest at the Digital Economy Act he emailed his response. That's the way to do it. But that was probably more because by then Labour were broke and couldn't afford the postage...
I’m back
Ray of light
Welcome to rubbergenius 2.0.
I used to post under the rubbergenius moniker several years ago when social media and "web 2.0" was first hitting the headlines (during its Peak of Inflated Expectations). My old blogposts are now unlovingly left, like a worthless old Christmas present I tired of, at peerlawther.co.uk.
Now, as the world is interconnected to a level not seen even a few years ago I've decided to get out on the road one more time. Rather than focus on social media as a marketing tool, now I'd like a more holistic focus on social media, tying in with politics, economy and the issues facing the world now.
This desire to post my thoughts also comes out of my work move into a charity organisation, the realisation that there's other likeminded folk out there (I'd recommend checking out the links to the right of this post) and that it's better to develop my arguments through publicly posting them than replaying them time and time again in my head and slowly going mad (and getting ever more indignant). What use are they in there?
Oh, and expect the posts to be include some of my images of the Lake District (saves me actually going and taking photos). I've got lots, although I'll also illustrate my blogposts with a lot of brilliant photographs from those whose skills I can only aspire to.
So, let's leave this first post with of what's behind this return to the blogosphere:
"At the heart if it all is a new sociological type: the graduate with no future...with access to social media, such as Facebook, Twitter so they can express themselves in a variety of situations ranging from parliamentary democracy to tyranny." Source
I'm not the first part - I got through the dark of night to the sunrise and now have a good job. However I need to be instrumental in the second part. It's time to say I'm back.