DESIGNING SOCIAL MEDIA
FOR SOCIAL CHANGE
Jeremy Beaudry
UArts + Action Mill
ISEA 2009 - Saturday, Aug. 29, 2009

How can we reimagine civil
discourse in the context of
social media and networked
communication?

Posted by obamazombie 05:15 AM, 02/26/2009
Wow Obama is amazing and on top of this he will half the debt by 2013! Of course the mindless Philly Democrats and
their impressive political insight will believe this.
Posted by ej 07:04 AM, 02/26/2009
Why can't people get their own healthcare insurance? If you get a good education and work hard, it is pretty easy to get your
own healthcare insurance. The government should only provide Healthcare Insurance for the elderly and the handicapped, not
25 year old kids that drive around in $25,000 Mustangs and vacation in the Bahamas. Plus, pretty soon Obama is
going to run out of rich people to tax…
The public sphere is an
increasingly polarized space.
Posted by remucho 08:07 AM, 02/26/2009
Just keep printing that money till it becomes worthless!!! What a transparent delusion this country has
become!!
Posted by phillygrlinfl 08:18 AM, 02/26/2009
Voting Democratic is like being addicted to crack, you feel good for the moment then it ruins your life!
Posted by yescadog 09:29 AM, 02/26/2009
Phillygrlinfl. Sounds like you know first hand.. Crackhead. The last eight years left us in great shape.
Thank god more people dont think like you or we would be in even worst shape. Our former republican president inherited a
billion dollar surplus eight years ago, and left us with a trillion dollar deficit. That is almost impossible to do. Unless your a Bush
Source: “Obama will seek $634B for health,” Philadelphia Inquirer, online comments, 26 February 2009.

The Think Tank that has
yet to be named

The Action Mill: Enough Fear

OBJECTIVES
• We want to learn more about human
interaction (online and offline)
• We want to create structural changes (as
opposed to merely tweaking existing tools)
• We want to build environments that
encourage civil debate, disagreement, and
divergent perspectives

The Partner Game

A Criteria for Civil Discourse*
• civility
• reciprocity
• respect
• sustained engagement
• justifiable assertions
* Janssen, Davy, and Raphaël Kies. “Online Forums and Deliberative Democracy: Hypotheses,
Variables and Methodologies.” E-Democracy Center: e-Working Papers 2004/01. 16
March 2009 <http://edc.unige.ch/edcadmin/images/onlineforums.pdf>.

Omegle

IM Group Chat Experiments

group IM chats

The NIMBY Game

Neighbors Allied for
the Best Riverfront
&
Casino Free Philadelphia

Moving Forward
Nick Jehlen Ona Krass
Jethro Heiko The Action Mill UArts Hunter Augeri
The Action Mill Alie Thomer UArts
UArts

Thank You
Social Media for Social Change
http://teach.boxwith.com/socialmedia
Jeremy Beaudry
Asst. Professor, Multimedia
The University of the Arts
Philadelphia, USA
jbeaudry@uarts.edu
The Action Mill
http://www.actionmill.com