Political Protest as a Design Problem with Clay Shirky

A political protest transforms individuals with a private complaint into a group that makes the complaint public. To do that, each participant needs to be convinced of three things: there are enough of them to make a difference; the risks of protesting are acceptably low and the value high; and there is a synchronizing opportunity to get involved.

Communicating those three things is a design problem, one that used to be the work of formal organizations. In this century, and especially 2011, the year of upheaval, some protests used more informal recruitment, resulting in new kinds of mobilizations: the Arab Spring, the Indignados, #OccupyWallStreet. What are the platforms and design choices that have made this newer mode of mobilization possible?

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Clay Shirky studies social media, and teaches at NYU in Shanghai and New York. He is the author of Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations and Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age.

* Followed by a 6pm reception with all of NYU Shanghai