The OWS protestors lost their makeshift homes in Zuccotti Park on Tuesday morning, but the movement has found a more permanent resting place in the online community. Protestors are now working on ways to unify their social media efforts and connect “Occupy” groups across the country.
Tuesday morning’s events only escalated the necessity of using social media. Reporters were banned from the park, but live feeds documented the raids.
“Last night was extraordinary because not only was social media the better reporting tool, but anyone with an actual press pass was not allowed,” said Clay Shirky, a new media expert and arts professor at NYU. “The next phase is a new phase because they will have to use these tools for coordination more than they have had in the past. They don’t have Zuccotti as much as a focal point.”
A Wiki page created for Occupy.net lists various Internet programs the protestors are working on, including several OWS social media aggregators. On one site, called OccupyWeb, users can create their own aggregator that is described as providing a “river” of occupation related content.
“We are literally building new social, news, and infrastructure networks,” Drew H., a member of OWS’s “tech” working group, said in an email. “Social media like twitter are hugely important to the movement, but that’s just scratching the surface of what is going on.”
Social media experts believe these types of technologies are essential to the success of the next phase of the protest.
“What’s missing is that all these different movements need to be connected to show its impact on the nation,” said Kristie Wells, founder of the Social Media Club, an organization dedicated to furthering digital media literacy. “With so much talent out there now, all it takes is someone who can put together a blog and start aggregating.”
Until now, however, the new web tools have had little effect on the movement’s famously fractured ideology.
Shirky believes protestors will start using a variety of tactics in the coming days, prompting more arrests and intensifying the “drama.” He said he fears that the group’s goals will lose their focus if they don’t cultivate a cohesive movement.
“It’s a dangerous time for them as a group of people with a set of political goals,” Shirky said. “It’s an opportunity for the movement to become wider spread with more adherence. The threat is that multiple movements dissipate the clarity.”
Social Media Club’s Wells said that if protestors want a single message to emerge they need to start “curating” their Internet content by more carefully organizing what goes online in a way that presents a unified front. She worries that pictures of police brutality flooding the Internet will only hinder the group’s goals in the long term because they focus too heavily on the negative aspects of the protest and might distract from the cause.
“Use technology to try to bring people together, rather than focusing it all on the individual,” Wells said. “That could make a bigger impact because it does feel a little bit disorganized.”
At occupytheboardroom.com, people can share their stories in a public forum and reach out to banking executives to air their grievances. These kinds of websites are helping people share their stories in a “civil” way, while still getting the message out, Wells said.
Many called the raids a galvanizing “moment” for protesters. Friday marks the two-month anniversary of OWS, and protestors will be gathering at locations throughout the city, including Borough Hall and Broadway Junction, for a “call to action” dubbed “#17.” More twitter feeds, videos, and facebook updates are sure to come.
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