Recent News

There are many ‘coming of age’ moments for social media, Twitter is said to have ‘come of age’ during last years attempted Iranian counter-revolution, or Facebook ‘came of age’ during the 2008 US Presidential campaign .  However, the most telling connection of social networks, micro-payments and actual social movement was the Christmas 2009 campaign to install LA rock band, Rage Against the Machine as the Number One hit song in the UK.  For the past number of years the UK Christmas Number One single has been set-up by Simon Cowell’s X-factor TV talent show series – the winner usually goes on to achieve the Number One slot for Christmas.  However, this year in a grassroots rebellion a Facebook group was started to topple this monopoly and install the Rage Against the Machine single, ‘Killing in the Name“, [the song feature the key protest line, "F*ck you I won't do what you tell me"] as Number One.

Back when the song was originally released in 1992 the chances of Rage Against the Machine effecting any direct social change were minimal [although the music was a instant revolutionary soundtrack], but due to the restructuring of global information networks a cause, such as this, can gain power – and through the use of micro-payments [in this case music downloads] can effect real-life change through a virtual medium.  The power to shape opinion has migrated from old media to grassroots virtually networked campaigns.  This is a real power shift.  So while the Iranian Twitter moments were interesting they are yet to be decisive, whereas the power to conduct grassroots real social change lies in democratic wired countries.  These tools have yet to be fully harnessed and there are systemic cut-outs which prevent this virtual nirvana or dystopia [depending on your perspective] from currently coming to fruition.  These cut-outs will diminish with time.

For example the UK’s general election is scheduled to be held within six months, an insurgent political party could harness the Rage Against the Machine effect to break down old power structures by electing a new political party or giving the Liberal Democrats a chance.  However, there is a physical disconnect between a virtual campaign and a political vote in a way that doesn’t exist with a ‘Rage Against the Machine campaign’.  With music downloads you can vote virtually and instantly by paying to download the music.  In political campaigns you have to wait until the day of the election and physically go to a polling station.  Therefore, the virtual chain is disrupted. Additionally, not all areas of democratic countries are equally wired or comfortable with online activity.  These barriers will collapse as citizens are offered more services online – indeed the UK experimented with online voting in 2003 and 2004 in local elections. Technology is neutral as to whether it would be a good or bad turn of events to have traditional power structures broken from below and there is a substantial danger than extremists could hijack these new levers.

Power shifts have clearly knocked established media industries over the past few years [mostly to the benefit of the consumer] but these same changes will displace a variety of established interests over time as networks become more powerful – this may not be beneficial to citizens.  This overall point is not a new one, but understanding how social networks, micro payment structures, rapid access to information and geo-coded data are rapidly meshing together is the key to understanding emerging bottom-up power structures and planning for their arrival.