Social Web, Social Movements and the Emergence of Collective Leadership

 

Facilitator:  Elissa Perry, Learning Evangelist and Technology Wrangler, Leadership Learning Community

 

Conversation Catalysts:

Allison Fine, Senior Fellow, Demos: A Network for Ideas & Action is a non-partisan public policy research and

advocacy organization committed to building an America that achieves its highest

democratic ideals.

Eugene Kim, Co-Founder, Blue Oxen Associates

 

Allison Fine:   My work focuses on the intersection of social media and passion for activism. 

Eugene Kim:  Complexity requires collaboration and we need to get better at that at a societal level.  We’re here to talk about social media.  There ‘s something about technology that is really insidious.  We lose sight of our humanity.  Within technology there is also the potential to rediscover our humanity. 

 

Elissa: What about leadership makes it facilitative and how does it make connected activism happen? 

 

Allison: Example of what happened in Kuwait when women organized for suffrage using technology:  Women were buying blackberries and using them to write letters to the Kuwaiti legislators.  The legislators did not know if it was women or men who were writing them.  The Legislature passed women’s suffrage.

 

Side-to-side social change is happening through networks.

 

Eugene: Think about the immigration marches.  There wasn’t a great man leading those marches. CNN did not know who to talk to, never the less, these marches were led. 

 

In any social movement, there need to be people who are good at listening and people who are good at leading hopefully in the same person(s).  Part of success is being able to aggregate, crystallize and insure that forward progress is being made. 

 

More than ever we need people who can galvanize people and move people forward.

 

Elissa: The virtual world is a "place" with different physics.   What does online space facilitate? 

 

Eugene: You can have a conversation around a table or someone can dominate.  We know a lot about space, we live in it.  There is virtual space that is not a whole lot different.  What does distance mean in on-line space?  I can go to a chat room with people all over the world.  Each time I go to a different website I’m going to a different space.  What are the physics of the space and how can you integrate that space into what you are tryng to do?

 

Allison: We are looking at a revolution in the way we connect with each other that is less than ten years old.  There is starting to be a shift in power, we don’t have to know all of the tools, the information is going to start coming to us. 

 

On-line can be brought on-land. 

 

Let's take the example of cell phones...does it help us connect or interfere with our ability to engage in face-to-face relationships?  (Previously the suggestion had been made that we might use cell phones in order for people to locate where an open space session was being held.  There was debate about whether this was a good idea since calling someone on a cell phone would interrupt the conversation.)  A question was raised:  Do cell phones change our ability to connect? 

Eugene Kim:  Perhaps texting would be an option.

 

One member of the community challenged us to think about the people we work with who do not have access to technology.  There is a technology gap and lack of access.  This lack of access means lack of power. 

Allison Fine:  The digital divide is a red herring for social change.  The digital divide is closing unbelievably quickly.  In this period of transition we have to work both sides of the fence, those who have or do not have access to technology.

 

Another member reflected:  We need interpreters (not just cheerleaders).  I have precious resources to invest; how do I assess where to invest my technology resources.

Allison Fine:  We can help each other, there are resources in the room.  My interest in this work is about participation; we can/need to unleash participation. 

Institutions are becoming barriers to participation; because we put up our professional blinders we are keeping people out.  There are people here who are interested in this work; how do we participate in shaping the work, invite those people into those conversations. 

 

What is CivicSpace?  CivicSpace is an organization that came out of DeanSpace. They have taken those tools that they were using in that campaign, made them into modules that people can put on their site.  It’s all free and open source. 

 

One member of the community commented that Rwanda has taken a step to becoming the first country to go entirely wireless; it’s very close. Elissa chimed in that Rwanda also has 50 percent women in its Parliament. 

 

Phil Li offered the example of FLIP - Future Leaders in Philanthropy creating their own online social network.

 

What are the norms for acting in cyberspace?  How do you hold people accountable for their behavior?  The use of blogging has had a negative impact.  People feel like they are able to act differently in that space.  Different spaces have different norms.

 

Another participant  discussed bing disturbed by the expliciness of society

• Saddm's haging on YouTube
• AirTrain stewardess annoucing the father of Anna Nicole Smith's child

 

Julian: won't let students use wikipedia

 

Matthew: What have been LLC's lessons aound using wikis?

 

Elissa: "Dont try to boil the ocean" Key analogy.

• they have been transformative but not necessarily in the way that LLC thought they would be
• Helps to make discreet requests

Eugene Kim:  Gave the example of Wikitorial – a project of the LA Times to solicit editorials from the public.  It was widely perceived as a failure.  The question is:  Why doesn’t this happen with Wikipedia?  The reason is that norms developed, a code of conduct emerged.  There is a community that protects it.  The community is constantly healing itself. 

 

Social media needs to be thought of in the larger context of strategic communication.  Whose the audience, what do you want to communicate, and how are you going to do that?

 

The radical transformation we are talking about means getting un-siloed and moving side to side, also means that leadership is everywhere.  We are looking at a source of amazing tension; we are going to have people come into organizations that don’t know how institutions work.

 

Elissa: "collective leadership"

 

• more young people and people of color
• Scott Heiferman
  • MeetUp tried to control more, and organization stopped happening
  • Had to step back for self-organization to happen

 

One member countered that there are still "front doors."   People with disabilities don’t have access to online space.  

 

Meredith: People (especially older people) confuse leadership with management

 

Frankie: Should small organization use CivicSpace?

 

Elissa: What are you trying to do?

 

Frankie: About 30 percent of network doesn't have computers. Getting the rest on the network will encourage the other 30 percent to get on the computer.

 

Elissa: Online hosted version of CivicSpace.

 

Frankie: These need to be customized.

 

We need to broaden the thinking about what technology is out there and not focus only on the Internet.  Radio and television are still viable tools for change.

 

What is the impact on our relationships? What is the social impact?

 

What evidence do we have that participating in online communities influences the way we work face-to-face?  

Allison Fine:  I think it does change the way we interact on land.  On line we are all experts and we value each other’s voice and that does change collective leadership. 

 

The speed is dictating a lot of our collective leadership.  It changes the environment around us.  It doesn’t change the dynamic but it does change the communication.

 

What we all need to be thinking about:  Where and how can I push power out from the organization to the community and create leadership where it may not now exist? 

 

 

 

 

 

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