From Smart Mobs to Smart Govs

The New Shift in Power

15-Dec-17 Nasri Messarra (http://nasri.messarra.com) 1

Smart Mobs

• Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution (Howard Rheingold, 2002)

• Social, economic and political changes implicated by developing technology

• Collective Intelligence

• Crowd Dynamics

• Shift in Power: Communities Dominate Brands

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Govs Dominate Crowds

Smart Mobs (2002)

Arab Spring (2010)

“Smart Govs” (2011)

"thumb tribes" in Tokyo and Helsinki use text

messaging to organize impromptu raves or to

stalk celebrities15-Dec-17 Nasri Messarra (http://nasri.messarra.com) 3

Network Interventions

• Network Engineering: Alteration

• Physically Eliminating Hubs and Bridges

• Infiltrating the Social Networks

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Psychometrics• Post-Truth Era: Emotions not Facts

• “in this era of post-truth politics, it's easy to cherry-pick data and come to whatever conclusion you desire” (Oxford Dictionary)

• Our smartphone is a vast psychological questionnaire that we are constantly filling out, both consciously and unconsciously (Michal Kosinksi, Cambridge Psychometrics Center)

• Weaponized online rumors and fake news have the upper hand over activist idealism (The Economist, 2017)

• Hijacked Democracy

15-Dec-17 Nasri Messarra (http://nasri.messarra.com) 5

Majority Illusion Paradox

• Social Bots: Automation of manipulation

• Niche Influencers, Bridges and High PageRank

• Easily Influenced People vs Influencers

15-Dec-17 Nasri Messarra (http://nasri.messarra.com) 6

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Twitter discussion about the garbage crisisSep. 8, 2015Civil society groups Community Clusters

Twitter discussion about the garbage crisisFeb. 2, 2016Two major groups: IranianAffairs and KSA24Polarized crowds

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The next big threat

0% Traceability

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If you have to pick one fight

• The right to know the source / Right to know the origin:

• Who posted it first?

• Creator vs Sender

15-Dec-17 Nasri Messarra (http://nasri.messarra.com) 9

Tech4Journalism

• Hire Big Data Analysts

• Own your Data• Choice of channels

• Business Model

• Learn the Processes

• Fight Back

15-Dec-17 Nasri Messarra (http://nasri.messarra.com) 10