politics - communities and communication technologies

We asked Andre Serranho to write from first hand experience his acount of two examples of communities coming together, empowered by communication technologies to make a radical impact on what were then the exisiting political and social status quo.

Alpha users and communities in politics—March 2004 Spanish general elections

Spain was preparing for a peaceful “change of guard” after the March 14 2004 elections. The ruling Popular Party (PP) was comfortably ahead in the polls, and the incumbent prime minister was bound to deliver the government to his recently chosen successor. Instead, in March 11 the country woke in horror as ten bombs blew up in commuter trains, the first right outside the Atocha station, killing almost two hundred and injuring more than one thousand, five hundred. Panic spread throughout Spain—and the world. Only after five hours painful hours the prime minister comes forth, accusing the Basque terrorist group: it was the proof that his party’s hard line against ETA terrorists had been justified. Meanwhile, a cassette tape recorded in Arab is found in an abandoned van, suggesting connections with Al-Qaida. In fact, by 21:30 an Islamic group claims responsibility for the attack, justifying it on the Spanish government support for the invasion of Iraq.

During the next day, as more artefacts linked to the attacks are discovered, the government continued to sustain the ETA responsibility. The group issues a statement denying any knowledge or involvement in the act. In the evening, all over Spain, around eleven million people gather in city squares shouting NO to terrorism.

Saturday, March 13 should have been a calm reflection day before the elections. Instead, as evidences contradicting the government thesis kept appearing, many started to wonder about the honesty of the officials’ declarations: simply put, had the terrorist attack come from ETA, it would benefit their political agenda; had it come from Al-Qaeda, it would be a severe blow. Around noon, the first SMS with the simple message "

The government lied. Pass it on.

started to show up. No one really knows who started it, but not much after there were several other SMS and e-mails circulating throughout Spain already:

18:00 PP head office Genova St. no parties silence for the truth.

Today at 18 at PP Genova no political signs demanding truthful information pass it on.

Information poisoning at 18:00 PP Genova pass it on.

The phenomenon was of such importance that by 23:00 there were more than 10 000 people gathered in front of the PP Madrid headquarters (according to Euronews), while similar rallies occurred also in the main Spanish cities. PP accused the PSOE (the main opposition party) of starting the rallies, in a way to pressure the voters on the following day; the PSOE noticed that, not only they had not started the SMS chains, they had actually kept a sense of State because they knew the government was wrong in their ETA thesis, yet they refused to challenge the official version for electoral purposes. Later on, they realised they were indeed the main beneficiaries of the phenomenon, but have reinstated time and time again that at the time they

had no control of what was happening on the streets.

Not only the parties, but also the media, tried to find the source of the messages—some say they still are, after two years—in vain. Most of all, everyone was baffled with the remarks from people present at the rallies that

some claimed had received the same message from five different people; even traditional PP supporters joined the rallies because it was not a political gathering from only one side of the society, but a quest for truth. Whoever started the phenomenon, the consequence was that the elections were utterly influenced by the sheer amount of SMS launched during the weekend.

From political militants to people on the street wanting to know the real truth about the attacks, it seems like (at least) one person in every Spanish family got one or more of the above-mentioned messages, and was sufficiently motivated to literally pass it on to their acquaintances. Young users (15-24 y.o.) were particularly active, with many saying when I got the SMS, I basically sent it to everyone in my contact list.

This was to be the first time when the results of a national election could be ultimately traced to the activity of a minority of well-connected individuals, which originated a snowball effect: the alpha-users and their communities arrived in politics.

The power of self-motivated crowds in politics were recently recognised in the US, and indeed parties are launching politically-charged messages to its potential voters, hoping they will spread the word. It remains to be seen if this won’t backfire—when it will be seen as yet another form of spam, lacking what was the foundation of the March 2004 Spanish elections phenomenon: spontaneity.
If the March 11 were the first attacks to be triggered by mobile phone, the March 14 elections were the first ones decided by SMS.

Social networks as a survival skill—tourism in Cuba
When Cuba opened itself to tourism in the '90s, many independent tourists thought it would be a great chance to visit a cheaper Caribbean, without being flocked into overpriced hotels or tourist-filled resorts. The reality was indeed that the few hotels were quite European-priced (unlike the service), and there were simply no budget offers.

Only from 1994, the Cuban government let private individuals rent rooms in their houses for tourists, which became the favourite option (in many places the only one) for those independent travellers. Many Cubans with spare rooms in their houses saw this as an opportunity to round up their (hard currency) earnings, especially when dealing with the hardships of the Special Period, and applied for a licence. However, it was a poisoned gift : the owners of a licence have to pay a fixed rate per month, which can be as high as what an owner would receive in a fortnight. In plus there are other licences to pay if the owner wants to provide meals. The owner of a licence has also to inform the authorities of any tourist arrival within 24 hours. Irregularity found by the inspectors or complaint of misconduct are paid with draconian fines, and the revoking of the licence. As any Cuban would say, it’s not easy.

Thus living with a Damocles sword, licence holders have resorted to two main approaches:
1). the negative, which is contracting a hustler—for most tourist are aware that there is a commission involved, there is plenty of offer, and plainly that after the initial polite refusals no one can stand them hovering around anymore;

2). the positive, which is utilise their social network in other towns—tourists who felt good in one place wish and trust that they will be sent to a similar place.

Being a host becomes a full-time job, often to the lady of the house, and it is with no surprise that they are always at arm’s length of their telephone—which is fixed, of course. Fortunately for them, the price of the calls is minimal, easing the burden.

The positive approach is indeed a triple win situation:
1). the receiving host gets another client,
2). the tourist is happy to pass through the hustler crowd, and does not need to worry about the quality of the food;
3). the sending host knows that whenever his connection will send a tourist to his town he will be the receiver.

There is also a post-experience social network effect, coming from the tourist itself when returning home: friends will ask where to stay, and the hosts who provided positive experiences to influent people (read alpha users ) will be rewarded through extended word-of-mouth. This comes to prove that the economic effects of establishing a social networks can be noted everywhere, and in a developing country they assume the contours of an essential survival skill.

Thanks Andre for taking the time to write for CDB - we very much appreciate it. Alan and Tomi

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