We started talking about that presentation, which was about the response to the Komen Foundation's anti Planned Parenthood "episode."
created a tumblr site to collect stories re Komen Foundation and planned parenthood-- traffic from Facebook, twitter and tumblr
How we think about power.
Have been focused on Hierarchical power-- talk about top down vs bottom up organizing.
Hierarchical power, Network power,
Deanna Zandt
@deanna
Don't Mess With Our Boobs
Susan G. Komen vs Planned Parenthood episode.
created Tumblr site "how planned parenthood saved me.
Within a day or two Rachel Maddow was reading from it on her show.
More than half of it came before any major media mention-- came from Facebook, twitter, tumblr
IN the past we've been focused on traditional top down, hierarchical power.
Deanne describes three kinds of power
then networked
vs hierarchical
then adhoc
visualized below:
Hierarchical, the classic old, Top-down power CAN be overcome
Deanna: " What we're starting to see is networks are starting to replace dismantle and break apart hierarchies. "
Komen was hierarchical power, with Planned Parenthood putting out calls.
network pose with people activating on their own. People had an emotional connection to the work that planned parenthood does. PP has been effective at working with that relationship
Then there were ad hoc people who were moved by what was happening-- who spread news of defunding of PP to their own networks (I don't normally forward emails like this, but breast cancer is important to me.
The power of the ad hoc was these people were able to reach beyond the choir.
First we think that ad hoc power always needs to be transformed into network power. Not true. it actually ignores the power of the ad hoc to reach the unreachable.
Networks are starting to wrap around hierarchies and starting to break them down altogether.
Notes:
People have this very linear way of thinking-- I have power and if we get together then We have power" but there's more".
Susan G. Komen fdtn decided not to fund Planned Parenthood--
There systems of power that can be in play at any given moment in political organizing on the web
Ad Hoc power--- comes together in response to the moment.
Networked power-- people who have a shared identity and experience with one another and more solid relationship with one another-- related to relational power.
Hierarchical power-- traditionally what we think of when we define power and the social structures around us--- generally a small number of people around us at the top
We talk about top down and bottom up power But this can be limiting.
Ad hoc power gives us a chance to reach people who are not touched by traditional activism and can help us spread messages.
We'd like to turn every person in an ad hoc moment into a solid relationship.
people think of network power to get people together at the bottom of the pyramid so they can influence people at the top of the hierarchy. What we're starting to see is networks are starting to replace dismantle and break apart hierarchies.
I would like to see people leave behind this idea of going up and down and think about how we can get around and beat the system. Networks can do this. It's so much easier via the technology to have expertise and have influence.
These models are not flat, they are very much 3-D.
Mentions Germany's Pirate Party that uses a tool, Liquefying Democracy.
It's not just kicking out the people that are in power and replacing them with the people we like. If you look at that over the past 40 years, that hasn't been so successful in the US.
Here is our opportunity for re-thinking these systems altogether.
created a story site about Komen and Planned Parenthood on tumblr.
Ended up on Rachel Maddow Show.
Got more traffic from social sites like Facebook, twitter, etc, than from mainstream media.
searchers in twitter--
seeing who was re-sharing off of that
had installed google analytics" and there are alternatives to google analytics--
also rowfeeder.com a great tool, which is very low cost metrics tool that can help people.
Language that was used were largely women-- saying things like, "I'm not usually one to do this kind of stuff, but""
Largely, after they did their piece about planned parenthood, since they are not normally sharers,
Rob: So, activating this ad hoc group of people who are not usually political users of social media-- is very powerful"
activating people who aren't usually political can be hard to do, but it can totally transform a campaign.
Rob-- how do you wake up the boiling frog?
On the left we tend to think is if we just give people the facts, the facts will set them free.
Caine's Arcade
11 minute viral video
The way that the story is told, every single one of us who watches that video sees ourself in Caine. Here's an opportunity to reclaim that moment, when we were a kid.
If we can think about how we tell our stories designed in a way that actually touch us--- that's what we need to be doing.
exhaleprovoice.org/ -- organization in Oakland, bringing women's voices and stories back into the reproductive justice movement-- about abortion-- and they talk about ethical storytelling, teaching people how to have agency with their stories.
Agency is really important to consider when talking about storytelling and emotional connection. What was so problematic about the Coney 2012 about the child soldiers in Uganda-- it was a white person talking to a white child about something in africa. And they were trying to use storytelling in a way was that kind of unethical-- Rwandans were not involved, it was done in this white savior kind of way. A better way to consider using story is when people have agency, when people have informed control and decision making power when their stories are used in a political context.
If you're enabling people to have agency
Book: Share This; How You Will Change the World with Social Networking
Wanted to talk about how our individual participation is changing our public discourse. Over the last 1000s of years, there have been gatekeepers who mediate. Social media let us share our experiences and stories without gatekeepers. When we do that we infuse them with our values and what's important to us.
Wrote the book to inspire people to share their own stories".
Rob: What did you base your experience on?
Being a nerd my whole life. I got my first computer in 1982 at age 7.
Rob: How have things changed since the book came out in 2010?
People who participate in social networks are more likely to participate in the offline world"
Rob: In a chapter on Trust, you talk about organic and institutional authority.
organic authority, evolving over time-- people can develop and grow their own authority based on what they share in the world.
It isn't a pure meritocracy on line. What our job is to go out and discover our community. I believe communities are discovered and not built.
If you haven't built and worked on the relationships that are going to support that, it's not going to go anywhere.
Rob: What's your connection with story?
Rob: You're doing consulting on strategy
I have a series of intensive bootcamp workshops in Chicago, maybe DC and New York-- where people can a really intense understanding of social media and tools and metrics.
Helping people their organizational voice on line and which tools to use and focus on.
I used to do strategy and implementation on campaigns. I'm doing less implementation and more big picture thinking-- I'm of the school of teach
Deannazandt.com
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Deanna Zandt
