9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So recently, we heard a lot about[br]how social media empowers protest, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and that's true, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 but after more than a decade 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 of studying and participating[br]in multiple social movements, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I've come to realize 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that the way technology[br]empowers social movements 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 can also paradoxically help weaken them. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 This is not inevitable,[br]but overcoming it requires diving deep 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 into what makes success possible 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 over the long term. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And the lessons apply in multiple domains. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Now, take Turkey's Gezi Park protests, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 July 2013, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 which I went back to study in the field. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Twitter was key to its organizing. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It was everywhere in the park, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 well, along with a lot of tear gas. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It wasn't all high tech. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But the people in Turkey had already[br]gotten used to the power of Twitter 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 because of an unfortunate incident 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 about a year before 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 when military jets had bombed and killed 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 34 Kurdish smugglers[br]near the border region, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and Turkish media completely[br]censored this news. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Editors sat in their newsrooms 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and waited for the government[br]to tell them what to do. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 One frustrated journalist[br]could not take this anymore. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 He purchased his own plane ticket,[br]and went to the village 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 where this had occurred, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and he was confronted by this scene: 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 a line of coffins coming down a hill, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 relatives wailing. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 He later he told me[br]how overwhelmed he felt, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and didn't know what to do, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 so he took out his phone, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 like any one of us might, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and snapped that picture[br]and Tweeted it out. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And voila, that picture went viral 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and broke the censorship[br]and forced mass media to cover it. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So when, a year later,[br]Turkey's Gezi protests happened, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 it started as a protest[br]about a park being raised, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 but became an anti-authoritarian protest. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It wasn't surprising[br]that media also censored it, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 but it got a little ridiculous at times. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 When things were so intense, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 when CNN International[br]was broadcasting live from Istanbul, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 CNN Turkey instead was broadcasting 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 a documentary on penguins. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Now, I love penguin documentaries, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 but that wasn't the news of the day. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 An angry viewer[br]put his two screens together 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and snapped that picture, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and that one too went viral, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and since then, people call Turkish media 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the penguin media. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But this time, people knew what to do. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 They just took out their phones[br]and looked for actual news. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Better, they knew to go to the park 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and take pictures and participate 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and share it more on social media. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Digital connectivity, that was used[br]for everything from food to donations. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Everything was organized partially[br]with the help of these new technologies. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And using Internet to mobilize[br]and publicize protests 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 actually goes back a long way. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Remember the Zapatistas,[br]the peasant uprising 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in the southern Chiapas region of Mexico 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 led by the masked, pipe-smoking, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 charismatic Subcomandante Marcos? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 That was probably the first movement 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that got global attention[br]thanks to the Internet. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Or consider Seattle '99, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 when a multinational grassroots effort 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 brought global attention 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to what was then an obscure organization, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the World Trade Organization, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 by also utilizing these digital technologies[br]to help them organize. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And more recently, movement after movement 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 has shaken country after country: 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the Arab uprisings from Bahrain[br]to Tunisia to Egypt and more; 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 indignados in Spain, Italy, Greece: 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the Gezi Park protests; 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Taiwan; Euro Maidan in Ukraine; Hong Kong. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And think of more recent initiatives,[br]like the "Bring Back Our Girls" hashtags. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Nowadays, a network of tweets 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 can unleash a global awareness campaign. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 A Facebook page can become the hub[br]of a massive mobilization. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Amazing. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But think of the moments I just mentioned. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The achievements they were able to have, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 their outcomes, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 are not really proportional[br]to the size and energy they inspired. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The hopes they rightfully raised[br]are not really matched 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 by what they were able to have[br]as a result in the end. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And this raises a question: 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 as digital technology makes things[br]easier for movements, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 why haven't successful outcomes[br]become more likely as well? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 In embracing digital platforms[br]for activism and politics, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 are we overlooking some of the benefits 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 of doing things the hard way? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Now, I believe so. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I believe that the rule of thumb is 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 easier to mobilize does not always mean[br]easier to achieve gains. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Now, to be clear, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 technology does empower in multiple ways. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It's very powerful. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 In Turkey, I watched[br]four young college students 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 organize a countrywide citizen journalist[br]network called "140 Journals" 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that became the central hub[br]for uncensored news in the country. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 In Egypt, I saw another four young people 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 use digital connectivity to organize[br]the supplies and logistics 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 for 10 field hospitals,[br]very large operations, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 during massive clashes near Tahrir Square 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in 2011, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and I asked the founder of this effort, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 called "Tahrir Supplies,"[br]how long it took him 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to go from when he had the idea[br]to when he got started. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "Five minutes," he said. Five minutes. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And he had no training[br]or background in logistics. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Or think of the Occupy movement[br]which rocked the world in 2011. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It started with a single email 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 from a magazine, Adbusters,[br]to 90,000 subscribers in its list. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 About two months after that first email, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 there were in the United States 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 600 ongoing occupations and protests. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Less than one month,[br]less than one month 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 after the first physical[br]occupation in Zuccotti Park, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 a global protest was held[br]in about 82 countries, 950 cities. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It was one of the largest global protests 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 ever organized. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Now, compare that to what[br]the Civil Rights Movement had to do 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in 1955 Alabama to protest 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the racially segregated bus system 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 which they wanted to boycott. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 They'd been preparing for many years 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and decided it was time[br]to swing into action 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 after Rosa Parks was arrested. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But how do you get the word out 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 -- You know, tomorrow[br]we're going to start to boycott -- 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 when you don't have Facebook, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 texting, Twitter, none of that? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So they had to mimeograph 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 52,000 leaflets 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 by sneaking into a university[br]duplicating room 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and working all night, secretly. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 They then used the 68[br]African-American organizations 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that criss-crossed the city[br]to distribute those leaflets by hand. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And the logistical tasks were daunting,[br]because these were poor people. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 They had to get to work, boycott or no, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 so a massive carpool was organized, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 again by meeting. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 No texting, no Twitter, no Facebook. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 They had to meet almost all the time 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to keep this carpool going. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Today, it would be so much easier. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We could create a database, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 available rides and what rides you need, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 have the database coordinate,[br]and use texting. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We wouldn't have to need all that much. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But again, consider this: 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the Civil Rights Movement[br]in the United States 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 navigated a minefield[br]of political dangers, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 faced repression, and overcame, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 won major policy concessions, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 navigated and innovated through risks. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 In contrast, three years[br]after Occupy sparked 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that global conversation about inequality, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the policies that fuel it[br]are still in place. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Europe was also rocked[br]by anti-austerity protests, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 but the continent[br]didn't shift its direction. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 In embracing these technologies, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 are we overlooking some of the benefits 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 of slow and sustained? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 To understand this, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I went back to Turkey[br]about a year after the Gezi protests 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and I interviewed a range of people, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 from activists to politicians, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 from both the ruling party[br]and the opposition party and movements. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I found that the Gezi protesters[br]were despairing. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 They were frustrated, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and they had achieved much less[br]than what they had hoped for. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 This echoed what I'd been hearing[br]around the world 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 from many of the protesters[br]that I'm in touch with, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and I've come to realize[br]that part of the problem 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 is that today's protests 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 have become a bit[br]like climbing Mt. Everest 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 with the help of 60 sherpas, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and the Internet is our sherpa. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 What we're doing is taking the fast routes 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and not replacing the benefits[br]of the slower work, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 because you see, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the kind of work that went[br]into organizing all those daunting, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 tedious logistical tasks 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 did not just take care of those tasks, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 they also created the kind of organization 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that could think together collectively 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and make hard decisions together, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 create consensus and innovate,[br]and maybe even more crucially, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 keep going together through differences. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So when you see[br]this March on Washington in 1963, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 when you look at that picture, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 where this is the march[br]where Martin Luther King 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 gave his famous "I have a dream" speech, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 1963, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 you don't just see a march 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and you don't just hear a powerful speech, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 you also see the painstaking,[br]long-term work that can put on that march, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and if you're on power, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 you realize you have to take[br]the capacity signaled by that march, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 not just the march, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 but the capacity signaled[br]by that march, seriously. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 In contrast, when you look[br]at the Occupy's global marches 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that were organized in two weeks, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 you see a lot of discontent, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 but you don't necessarily[br]see teeth that can bite 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 over the long term. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And crucially, the Civil Rights Movement 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 innovated tactically 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 from boycotts to lunch counter sit-ins 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to pickets to marches to freedom rides. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Today's movements scale up very quickly[br]without the organizational base 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that can see them through the challenges. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 They feel a little like start-ups[br]that got very big 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 without knowing what to do next, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and they rarely manage to shift tactically 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 because they don't have[br]the depth of capacity 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to weather such transitions. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Now, I want to be clear: 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the magic is not in the mimeograph. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It's in that capacity to work together, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 think together collectively, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 which can only be built[br]over time with a lot of work. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 To understand all this, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I interviewed a top official[br]from the ruling party in Turkey, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and I ask him, "How do you do it?" 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 They too use digital technology[br]extensively, so that's not it. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So what's the secret? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Well, he told me. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 He said the keys is 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 he never took sugar with his tea. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I said, what does that[br]got to do with anything? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Well, he said, his party starts[br]getting ready for the next election 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the day after the last one, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and he spends all day every day[br]meeting with voters in their homes, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in their wedding parties,[br]circumcision ceremonies, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and then he meets with his colleagues 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to compare notes. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 With that many meetings every day, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 with tea offered at every one of them[br]which he could not refuse, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 because that would be rude, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 he could not take even one cube of sugar 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 per cup of tea, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 because that would be many kilos of sugar, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and he couldn't calculate[br]exactly how many kilos, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and that point I realized[br]why he was speaking so fast. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 He had met in the afternoon,[br]and he was already way over-caffeinated. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But his party won two major elections 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 within a year of the Gezi protests[br]with comfortable margins. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Now, to be sure, governments have[br]different resources to bring to the table. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It's not the same game. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But the differences are instructive, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and like all such stories, this is not[br]a story just of technology. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It's what technology allows us to do 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 converging with what we want to do. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Today's social movements[br]want to operate informally. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 They do not want institutional leadership. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 They want to stay out of politics, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 because they fear[br]corruption and cooptation. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 They have a point: 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 modern representative democracies 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 are being strangled in many countries[br]by powerful interests. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But operating this way[br]makes it hard for them 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to sustain over the long term 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and exert leverage over the system, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 which leads to frustrated[br]protesters dropping out, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and even more corrupt politics. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And politics and democracy[br]without an effective challenge hobbles, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 because the causes that have inspired[br]the modern recent movements 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 are crucial. Right? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Climate change is barreling towards us. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Inequality is stifling human growth[br]and potential and economies. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Authoritarianism is choking[br]many countries. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We need movements to be more effective. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Now some people have argued[br]that the problem is 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 today's movements are not formed of people 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 who take as many risks as before, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and that is not true. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 From Gezi to Tahrir to elsewhere, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I've seen people put their lives[br]and livelihoods on the line. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It's also not true,[br]as Malcolm Gladwell claimed, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that today's protesters[br]form weaker virtual ties. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 No, they come to these protests[br]just like before with their friends, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 existing networks, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and sometimes they do[br]make friends for life. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I still see the friends that I made 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in those Zapatista-convened[br]global protests more than a decade ago, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and the bonds between strangers[br]are not worthless. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 When I got tear-gassed in Gezi, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 people I didn't know helped me[br]and one another instead of running away. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 In Tahrir, I saw people, protesters, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 working really hard to keep[br]each other safe and protected. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And digital awareness-raising is great, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 because changing minds[br]is the bedrock of changing politics. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But movements today 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 have to move beyond[br]participation at great scale very fast 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and figure out how[br]to think together collectively, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 develop strong policy proposals, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 create consensus, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 figure out the political steps[br]and relate them to leverage, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 because all these good intentions[br]and bravery and sacrifice by itself 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 are not going to be enough. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And there are many efforts. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 In New Zealand, a group of young people[br]are developing a platform called Lumio