This document discusses lessons for e-democracy from two case studies: WikiLeaks and the 2011 Queensland floods in Australia. It finds that both events saw rapid self-organization and participation on social media to share information and coordinate responses. Key lessons include keeping barriers to participation low, distributing across multiple platforms, allowing organic community structures to form, being useful to earn trust, and conceptualizing engagement as an ongoing series of focused events. Overall, the document argues these case studies demonstrate the potential for more distributed models of citizen participation online.

1. Towards Distributed Citizen Participation: Lessons from WikiLeaks and the Queensland FloodsAssoc. Prof. Axel BrunsQueensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australiaa.bruns@qut.edu.au – http://snurb.info/ –@snurb_dot_info

2. e-Democracy?Active participation of citizens in the public discussion and deliberation of matters of public concern and policythe organisation of communal activities and initiatives to address such matters through the use of online mediaDepends on the sustained presence of a substantial community of users

3. How Communities WorkCommunities are concentric – in values: Shared knowledge Key principles Core values and beliefs 3

4. How Communities WorkCommunities are concentric – in membership: Marginal members General members Community leaders 4

5. Strong e-Democracy Communities?What models?g2cc2cg4c2c?Civic Commons, Civic Commons 2.0?‘Roll your own’ vs. pre-existing platforms and communitiesColeman & Blumler (2009):a space of intersecting networks, pulled together through the agency of a democratically connecting institution

6. e-Democracy during Acute EventsOnline responses to acute events:Bypassing administrative hurdlesFasttracking community development and structurationSelf-organisation around shared concernsRapid prototyping, testing of tools and platformse-Democracy?Can we learn from this? Can we tap into it?What principles of citizen participation can we observe?

7. The 2011 Queensland FloodsChronology:December 2010 to January 2011: unprecedented rainfallEmergency declared for more than 50% of QueenslandWivenhoe dam reaches 180% capacityDecember 2010: Flooding in northern QueenslandJanuary 2011: Floods in southeast Queensland10 January 2011: flash flooding in Toowoomba10 January 2011: ‘inland tsunami’ in the Lockyer Valley11 January 2011: flooding begins in Ipswich12-16 January 2011: major flooding in Brisbane

8. (Google Maps)

9. (Google Maps)

10. (ABC News)

11. (ABC News)

12. (news.com.au)

13. (ABC News)

14. (ABC News)

15. (ABC News)

16. Social Media during the FloodsVarious platforms:Facebook, Twitter – updates and informationYouTube, Flickr, Twitpic – first-hand video and photosGoogle Maps, Ushahidi – map-based information mashupsDifferent tools for different purposesVarious levels of maturity:Uses and use practices still developingDifferent demographic reachTechnological differences:e.g. Facebook: built around personal networks; semi-private; discussion threadse.g. Twitter: open, flat network; public #hashtag conversations; update stream

17. #qldfloodsTweets10 Jan 2011 11 Jan 2011 12 Jan 2011 13 Jan 2011 14 Jan 2011 15 Jan 2011

18. 10 Jan 2011 11 Jan 2011 12 Jan 2011 13 Jan 2011 14 Jan 2011 15 Jan 2011#qldfloods from Toowoomba to Brisbane

19. #qldfloods @repliesauthoritiesmainstream media

20. #qldfloods Network Map – Most Active Accounts Only(Degree >= 15 / Node size: indegree / node colour: outdegree)(See http://mappingonlinepublics.net/)

21. The Queensland Floods CommunitySelf-organisation:Rapid establishment of #qldfloodshashtagAd hoc development of community structuresHighlighting of leading accounts, vigilant against disruptionSuspension of petty squabbles (e.g. state politics)Innovation and rapid prototyping:Adjunct hashtags (#Mythbuster, #bakedrelief)Sharing and gathering of online resourcesAdditional tools (Google Maps, Ushahidi Maps)Emergency services rapidly adopting social media tools (despite lack of established strategies) ‘Go where they are’ rather than ‘build it and they will come’

22. Image by Maproom Systems

23. WikiLeaks as Acute Event‘Cablegate’:Leaked US diplomatic cables published from late 2010Collaborations with The Guardian, The New York Times, Der Spiegel, Le Monde, El PaísAllegations against Julian Assange:Arrest and extradition hearings since 8 Dec. 2010WikiLeaks controversy:Withdrawal of services by EasyDNS, Paypal, Visa, Mastercard, Amazon Web Services, ...DDoS attacks against perceived ‘enemies’ of WikiLeaksInvolvement of ‘Anonymous’ hacker group A continuing (orchestrated?) series of acute events

24. #wikileaks Tweets

25. A WikiLeaks Community?Various communal efforts:#wikileaks community on Twitter, Facebook groupsSupport and protest groups, loosely affiliatedPolitical support – e.g. Pirate PartiesActivist and hacker groupsCelebrity supporters (Geoffrey Robertson, Michael Moore)Media organisations collaborating with WikiLeaksDevelopers of additional tools building on WikiLeaks data

26. (Drew Conway)

27. Distributed Citizen ParticipationWikiLeaks as c2c:Successful mobilisation of broad coalition of supportersSustained engagement with political questionsParallels with filesharing networks:Forced into increasingly sophisticated sharing mechanismsGradual decentralisation of activitiesAssange and WikiLeaks HQ becoming less centralDisconnect between government responses and popular opinionTaps into overall disenchantment with established politics and mediaWikiLeaks as a distributed community:“the world’s first stateless news organization” (Jay Rosen)But is it out of control? How can the enthusiasm of its supporters be harnessed for e-democracy?

28. Lessons from WikiLeaks and the Floods Key observations for e-democracy initiatives:Low hurdles to participationMake it as easy as possible for people to participate meaningfullyDistribute across multiple platformsFind people where they are, harness the specific strengths of different platformsGenerate a sense of communityLet people define for themselves what they are working towards (or against)Allow community developmentFollow and aid the structures developed by the community, don’t impose structures on themEarn social capitalBe useful, and engage in good spirit – and the community will reward youConceptualise community engagement as a series of acute events, to focus and encourage participation?

29. More InformationSocial Media Reports:1 – State of the Art (http://snurb.info/socialmedia-vol1)2 – User Engagement Strategies (http://snurb.info/socialmedia-vol2)Axel BrunsAssociate ProfessorARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and InnovationCreative Industries FacultyQueensland University of TechnologyBrisbane, AustraliaEmail: a.bruns@qut.edu.auTwitter: @snurb_dot_infoBlog: http://snurb.info/Produsage: http://produsage.org/LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/snurbBlogs, Wikipedia, Second Life, and Beyond:From Production to Produsage(Peter Lang, 2008)29