Though my day-to-day focus is managing IT Decisions, I still write for publications back in my home country, the United Kingdom. I used to write a regular column on social media for Computer Weekly there and though my comments are less frequent these days, I still contribute something now and then.
Yesterday, I wrote about an unusual story taking place in Brazil that is interesting from a number of technology angles as well as how it describes technology being used to challenge authority in general.
You can click the link to read the story in full, but in summary, a planned metro station in São Paulo has been cancelled due to well-heeled residents complaining that improved public transport would introduce a lower class of person to the area. An outraged local posted an event on Facebook suggesting a mass BBQ near to where the proposed station would be, so the “lower classes” can demonstrate their anger at being refused a new train station.
IT Decisions is not an anarchist journal – a group of people in fancy dress playing loud funk music and eating sausages in the street is not a CIO-focused story. But let’s forget the class war element and examine some of the other issues raised by this incident:
- When I wrote the Computer Weekly story yesterday, 5,000 people were mobilized and had pledged to attend the BBQ. As I write this story, less than a day later, over 40,000 plan to attend;
- The anger of the protestors is fuelled less by the arrogance of the wealthy residents and more by the arbitrary and unexplained nature of the planning decision;
- A single person started this entire furor using tools available to anyone with a Facebook account.
You could brush this off as high spirits, but what is taking place is just another example of what Don Tapscott described as ‘the canary in the mine shaft’ during his recent interview with IT Decisions. A series of key changes in society that are not only affecting the way we are governed, but the way in which companies must also behave.
- Mobilization: Freely available and widely used tools allow protestors, citizens, or employees to broadcast, multicast, and organize in an immediate way that has never been possible before. A friend of mine is an analyst for Ovum and today he was giving a talk in Bogotá, Columbia. He mentioned on Twitter that he would be at a certain bar at a certain time last night and over thirty people showed up for beer and conversation.
- Transparency: The public of São Paulo won’t accept this station cancellation without full disclosure of the reasons why it was scrapped. Politicians cannot always please everyone, but they must at least be open about the factors influencing their decisions. We can see the same desire for transparency playing out across the governments of the MENA region now, and the horror of many governments as Wikileaks publishes their private correspondence.
- Individual: One individual started this ball rolling. Not a big corporation, or a trade association, or a government. Just one little guy, just like you and me.
The genie is out of the bottle. The implications for every CIO in terms of corporate reputation, branding, human resources and labor relations are clear. Anyone can start a revolution today, anyone can ruin your share price today, and it is no longer possible to hide undesirable practices in your company today – Enron collapsed a full half-decade before Facebook was born.
Today, someone will always blow the whistle. And the whistle will often be specified by the CIO.
Photo by Jose Mesa licensed under Creative Commons
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It’s hard to control a mob, and this is no exception. I have a lot of personal sympathy with these protestors – politicians should always be held to account and asked to justify their decisions.
However it should be noted that the area of São Paulo where this protest is taking place is predominantly Jewish. There has been an unsavory air of anti-semitism in some of the messages on the Facebook group.
Racism is never acceptable. Everyone has the right to protest over political injustice or corruption, but if the racists utilize this protest to make it a blow against the Jewish community – rather than a cry for transparency – then it will be a crying shame, and a wasted opportunity.
Unfortunately, one of the powers of social media – it’s inclusiveness – can also be a weakness, because you just can’t choose who you get into bed with.
IT Decisions is certainly not endorsing the actions and comments online of a moronic few who have failed to read any history. That’s if they can read.
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let´s put it clear
this manifestion organized for next saturday has nothing to do, and should not be against any specific people, catholics, jewish or any kind of belief, but just to show that we can not accept that a small group of people can give itself the right to boycott the construction of a metro station that will give access to a lot of workers that need to go to work for most of these rich people… they can be part of any kind of, religious or not, group, and I can assure that my friends and I wanting to show our desagrement, are not racists… they can be whatever they want, we are fighting agaisnt hypocrisy. we want to show that any one, poor or rich has the right to be able to have a decent public transportation… and remenbering that those fighting against the opening of a metro station, feel so proud when travelling to New-York or Paris to have the possibility to use public transportation to do shopping on the 5fth avenue or Champs Elysées…
showing that we don´t want to have to walk one kilometer to go to work, not to have to take more than one line,
Maybee they want to build a wall around the neighborhood, where we´ll have to produce a pass to be able to enter the area…
So we need to show in a pacific way, that we all have the right to have a metro station in HIGIENOPOLIS….
Yann, your comment about other cities is exactly right. The richest neighborhoods in London, Paris, and New York are all well-connected to the public subway system. It is seen as an advantage to be connected to public transport. Where I used to live in London, we had 5 metro stations – I did not own a car because I had no need for one.
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One fascinating aspect of this event (and other “social-media driven” protests for that matter) is how social-media acts as an elitist filter: Because Facebook and Twitter tend to be tools used mostly by mid to high income users (especially in Brazil), the majority of the population (the ones who are actually impacted by such measures) is actually excluded from the process.
For example, the calls to play loud funk-music are supposed to be funny — To use humor as a way to attract attention to the cause. However, that itself is class-discriminatory, implying that all poor people enjoy funk. Therefore, the call ends-up alienating the very people who they were supposed to be “defending”.
Please don’t take this as a criticism to your post (which is great). I am just trying to provide some food-for-thought here.
Felipe, I agree with you. In the UK we call it “Champagne Socialism” where the rich will protest and campaign to help the poor, because the poor are too busy working to go out campaigning… But I understand your point.
One thing that bothers me though is the view across all Brazilian society that improving public transport is only good for the poor. As if the rich with their cars should have no interest in the infrastructure of their city.
Take a look at any well-organised city and a good public transport system will improve traffic flow, so it is also better for car users.
The assumption in Brazil that the rich all drive and the poor take public transport is not true in cities like London and New York. Many rich people will not use, or even own, a car – because they live in a city, and have access to public transport. Look at the Mayor of London – he rides a bicycle to work…
You are 100% correct on that assessment, but I’d like to make two comments (not really disagreeing here, just adding to the discussion):
1. Middle-class Paulistas have a sense of safety in their cars. I believe this is a false assumption, but at least that’s the perception. I live in Shanghai, and I’m absolutely blown away with the quality of the public transportation here. I would not drive here even if I was paid to drive! Sao Paulo has good public transportation, but the perception is that it is not safe — Except for the subway, however the subway does not serve the entire city.
2. This situation reminded me of an issue that happened a few years ago: Palo Alto (a city that claims to be green and progressive) fiercely opposed to expansion of BART (San Francisco’s subway) to the city. They claimed that BART would “ruin their landscape” (BART runs over the ground in the South Bay), but in reality they just didn’t want the “undesirable” people from Oakland reaching their grounds. At least in Brazil people are more direct, not using excuses for blatant racism…
Having said that, I feel very optimistic about the prospects of social-media bringing real (tangible) positive change.
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