Project description for "Peace in web 2.0"

Background

In 2010 TFF (The Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research¹) celebrates its 25 years anniversary. The TFF brand is also globally acknowledged, but even though TFF has a strong profile online (including network among various academics and decision makers), they are experiencing difficulties in reaching out to various groups in society, especially the youth. Plans for the future of the foundation is discussed internally and one result or vision of these discussions is a concept called the Pro-Peace Platform.

The vision of the ProPeace Platform states that it is ”a new type of platform” where the message and philosophy of ”pro-peace is promoted”. It also states that the platform should promote constructive thinking, ways of seeing, ideas, information and concrete proposals that highlights the pro-peace of our time. The central core to the idea is to ”give peace a visibility”, something that would be reflected in the content of the platform, in forms of eg: videos, photographs, arts etc. accompanied with reviews, debates and discussions. There would be academic studies with proposals, all kinds of peace courses, links to online learning and so forth. Another central aspect of the vision though, is that the platform bridges academia and cultural production, that it highlights culture in general and culture of peace activities in particular. The focus would be on “what was done, what can be don and how and who are the like-minded to link up with to move the world.” Various groups and initiatives in society should meet on this platform, and together form a global movement for peace.

The ProPeace Platform is a place that makes peace and peace-culture visible - for the concerned citizens, students, academics, artists and media people. It is a place “filled with “aha”-, “wonderful”-, I did not know that”- experiences” and a a place where the user get a sense of “Yes, there is hope – people have done it”. This should energize and appeal to people, especially the youth, around the globe and ignite the will to contribution. The basis for this could be a form of wiki or another form of social community, where people are devoting, with time and knowledge.

My Project – “Peace in Web 2.0”

I will perform a research-project for full-time for 10 weeks (from 18^th October – 17^th December) during the autumn. The project will be a pre-study for the ProPeace Platform, its content and its structure and the task would be to analyze social media with a focus on youth and people movements (like the peace movement and the anti racism movement). A mapping of other successful platforms could be performed as well as anthropological methods to interview users. In this way TFF could gain valuable information about the mechanisms of social media and patterns of the youth and also how the culture of peace could be amalgamted with the culture of Web 2.0.² My main research questions are:

How do you create this kind of architecture? (Are there any examples out there that corresponds to the ProPeace Idea?)

How do you create an atmosphere of change-making and the will to contribute?

How do the users use social media with a focus on people movements and how do these social media use the users?

The result of this research could take the form of an action-plan or a strategy for how TFF should design the process of creating the platform and how the user should be involved. It should give insights to “peacetrends” on the Internet and a picture of the potential future user of the platform. A future goal could also be to present some form of visual “prototype” for the platform, eg. in a presentation for TFF.

Method

In order to attract certain groups of people, TFF need to map theses groups wishes, needs, behaviours, movements etc. A mapping which could be done online through netethnography ( or virtual ethnography) by using and analysing social networks on eg. twitter and facebook.³ Netnography also includes participant observation (an anthropological term for being there- on site) in social communities online. Besides netethnography; qualitative interviews and/or focusgroup interviews with associates, students, researchers and people of diverse background will be used in order to answer my research questions. The knowledge gained from this could be the foundation for the ProPeace Platform.

Theories

The theories I intend to use includes the theories about "The Experience Economy” and "place-making" (Magic, Culture and the New Economy by Orvar Löfgren and Robert Willim) + (Kulturell ekonomi : skapandet av värden, platser och identiteter i upplevelsesamhället by Lars Aronsson (Red)) and various articles concerning the underlying philosophies about Web 2.0 and Innovation.

Notes:

1 TFF (founded in 1986) is an independent think tank and an all-volunteer global network with associates all over the world. Their goals are based on ”peace by peaceful means” and include; ”conflict-mitigation, peace research and education to improve conflict understanding at all levels and promote alternative security and global development based on nonviolent politics, economics, sustainability and ethics of care.” TFF works in areas such as; Burundi, the former Yugslavia, Iraq, Iran and other places in the Middle East as well as in Sweden. (http://www.transnational.org)

2 Web 2.0 is a concept and a development of the Internet which builds upon a digital and open culture, which is developed through the collaboration between users. It is constructed by social networks like twitter and facebook. Users share, interact and collaborate and is therefore as important as the platform itself. This can be compared with Web 1.0 were the vast majority of the users simply consumed the content.

3 Potential subquestions: How do young people become engaged in social movements today? How do they organize themselves? In what way do the want their information? Movieclips, pictures, live-chat etc. How do they process information? (Do the share it with others? Do the want to download it?) Do they want to contribute? How do we reach certain groups in a time when individuals are bombarded with messages and information? In what ways can web 2.0 promote new forms of thinking around peace?