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Francesco Molinari & Erika PorquierKrems, 6th May 2010
Social Networking on Climate Change: The IDEAL-EU
Experience
AbstractOur paper reports about the deployment of a
multilingual Social Networking Platform in three Regions of Europe (Catalonia, Poitou-Charentes and Tuscany), in the context of a EU-funded Preparatory Action on eParticipation (IDEAL-EU), dealing with the issue of climate change and energy policy making at the level of the European Parliament.
The US (“Obama”) approach and a novel “European” usage of social networks in political online discourses are compared.
A recommendation to policy makers is that social networking can be useful whenever the topics under discussion are limited in scope, but also wide in implications, so that they require moving forward from “one-shot” and “ad-hoc” participation experiments, towards the permanent coverage of “mission critical” Public Administration functions.
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Overarching research questions
1. Are computer-based social networks a valid extension of those based on face-to-face interaction?
2. Can the former be of use for politicians and policy makers?
3. Are there any structural differences between the “US” and the “EU” approach (if any) to social networking in politics?
Not a systematic collection of evidence, but some hints from existing theories and
practice
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Evidence
Research Question #1
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Contradictory trends?Global Web Traffic to Social Networking Sites
Unique Visitors Growth Vs. Penetration
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Social implications of Dunbar’s number
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“Maximum network size averaged
153.5 individuals, with a mean network size of 124.9 for those individuals explicitly contacted; these values are remarkably close to the group size of 150 predicted for humans on the basis of the size of their neocortex. Age, household type, and the relationship to the individual influence network structure, although the proportion of kin remained relatively constant at around 21%. Frequency of contact between network members was primarily determined by two classes of variable: passive factors (distance, work colleague, overseas) and active factors (emotional closeness, genetic relatedness). Controlling for the influence of passive factors on contact rates allowed the hierarchical structure of human social groups to be delimited. These findings suggest that there may be cognitive constraints on
network size.”
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Source: Hill and Dunbar (2003)
Evidence
Research Question #2
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Five impact areas of social networks in US politics
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BrandingVoter registrationFund raising VolunteeringVoter Turnout
Source: Chris Kelly (2007)
Can we say they work? Yes, we can!
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This graph taken from Marcelo et al. (2008)
Evidence
Research Question #3
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A European Way to Social Networking?
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The IDEAL-EU SNPhttp://www.ideal-debate.eu
The IDEAL-EU SNP Figures
July-December 2008January-December 2009
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The IDEAL-EU SNP Traffic
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Google Stats
Five characters of successful social networks in EU/US politics
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a)Specialist / rather than generalist like in the US (e.g. electoral Facebook groups)
b)Top down (by Government initiative) / rather than bottom up (Party campaign)
c)Dealing with policy issues / rather than electoral aims
d)The presence of lively debates increases reputation and attractiveness, thus Google driven traffic (only EU)
e)They can induce mass imitation and multiplicative effects (both – but at different action levels presumably)
“Vote Rush” Vs. “Bar Chat”
The US Way The EU Way
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Recommendation for EU PA
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Build an ICT infrastructure (better if Open Source) for social networking whenever the topics under discussion are limited in scope, but wide in potential implications.
This can justify moving forward from “one-shot” and “ad-hoc” participation experiments, towards permanent coverage of Public Administration’s mission critical functions.
Disclaimer
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The underlying research was made possible in part by a co-financement of the European Commission to the IDEAL-EU Project, a Preparatory Action in the area of eParticipation. However, the opinions expressed in this paper are solely of the authors and do not involve any of the EU institutions.
References
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R.A. Hill and R.I.M. Dunbar (2003): “Social Network Size in Humans”. In Human Nature, Vol. 14, No. 1, pp. 53–72.
K.B. Marcelo, M.H. Lopez, C. Kennedy and K. Barr (2008): Young Voter Registration and Turnout Trends. CIRCLE/Rock the Vote, online: http://www.civicyouth.org
Morgan Stanley Research (2009): “Economy + Internet Trends. March 20, 2009”, online: http://www.slideshare.net/tcrock08/techtrends032009final
Nielsenwire (2010): “Led by Facebook, Twitter, Global Time Spent on Social Media Sites up 82% Year over Year”. http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/global/led-by-facebook-twitter-global-time-spent-on-social-media-sites-up-82-year-over-year/
ContactsCorresponding author: Francesco Molinari,
Erika Porquier, [email protected]
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