What new power looks like
-
0:00 - 0:04So this is Anna Hazare,
-
0:04 - 0:08and Anna Hazare may well be
the most cutting-edge -
0:08 - 0:11digital activist in the world today.
-
0:11 - 0:12And you wouldn't know it by looking at him.
-
0:12 - 0:18Hazare is a 77-year-old Indian
anticorruption and social justice activist. -
0:18 - 0:22And in 2011, he was running a big campaign
-
0:22 - 0:25to address everyday corruption in India,
-
0:25 - 0:28a topic that Indian elites love to ignore.
-
0:28 - 0:29So as part of this campaign,
-
0:29 - 0:31he was using all of the traditional tactics
-
0:31 - 0:33that a good Gandhian organizer would use.
-
0:33 - 0:35So he was on a hunger strike,
-
0:35 - 0:38and Hazare realized through his hunger
-
0:38 - 0:40that actually maybe this time,
-
0:40 - 0:41in the 21st century,
-
0:41 - 0:43a hunger strike wouldn't be enough.
-
0:43 - 0:47So he started playing around
with mobile activism. -
0:47 - 0:49So the first thing he did
is he said to people, -
0:49 - 0:51"Okay, why don't you send me
-
0:51 - 0:53a text message if you support
-
0:53 - 0:55my campaign against corruption?"
-
0:55 - 0:57So he does this, he
gives people a short code, -
0:57 - 0:59and about 80,000 people do it.
-
0:59 - 1:01Okay, that's pretty respectable.
-
1:01 - 1:02But then he decides,
-
1:02 - 1:04"Let me tweak my tactics a little bit."
-
1:04 - 1:09He says, "Why don't you leave
me a missed call?" -
1:09 - 1:12Now, for those of you who have
lived in the global South, -
1:12 - 1:14you'll know that missed calls
-
1:14 - 1:17are a really critical part
of global mobile culture. -
1:17 - 1:18I see people nodding.
-
1:18 - 1:21People leave missed calls all the time:
-
1:21 - 1:23If you're running late for a meeting
-
1:23 - 1:25and you just want to let them
know that you're on the way, -
1:25 - 1:27you leave them a missed call.
-
1:27 - 1:28If you're dating someone and
you just want to say "I miss you" -
1:28 - 1:30you leave them a missed call.
-
1:30 - 1:32So a note for a dating tip here,
-
1:32 - 1:34in some cultures,
-
1:34 - 1:35if you want to please your lover,
-
1:35 - 1:39you call them and hang up.
(Laughter) -
1:39 - 1:43So why do people leave missed calls?
-
1:43 - 1:44Well, the reason of course is that
-
1:44 - 1:47they're trying to avoid charges
-
1:47 - 1:50associated with making calls
and sending texts. -
1:50 - 1:54So when Hazare asked people
to leave him a missed call, -
1:54 - 2:00let's have a little guess how
many people actually did this? -
2:00 - 2:03Thirty-five million.
-
2:03 - 2:07So this is one of the largest coordinated
actions in human history. -
2:07 - 2:09It's remarkable.
-
2:09 - 2:14And this reflects the extraordinary strength
of the emerging Indian middle class -
2:14 - 2:17and the power that their
mobile phones bring. -
2:17 - 2:18But he used that,
-
2:18 - 2:22Hazare ended up with this massive
CSV file of mobile phone numbers, -
2:22 - 2:24and he used that to deploy
-
2:24 - 2:26real people power on the ground
-
2:26 - 2:30to get hundreds of thousands of
people out on the streets in Delhi -
2:30 - 2:34to make a national point of
everyday corruption in India. -
2:34 - 2:36It's a really striking story.
-
2:36 - 2:39So this is me when I was 12 years old.
-
2:39 - 2:40I hope you see the resemblance.
-
2:40 - 2:42And I was also an activist,
-
2:42 - 2:45and I have been an activist all my life.
-
2:45 - 2:46I had this really funny childhood
-
2:46 - 2:48where I traipsed around the world
-
2:48 - 2:51meeting world leaders and
Noble prize winners, -
2:51 - 2:53talking about Third World debt,
-
2:53 - 2:54as it was then called,
-
2:54 - 2:56and demilitarization.
-
2:56 - 3:00I was a very, very serious child.
(Laughter) -
3:00 - 3:02And back then,
-
3:02 - 3:03in the early '90s,
-
3:03 - 3:07I had a very cutting-edge
tech tool of my own: -
3:07 - 3:09the fax.
-
3:09 - 3:12And the fax was the
tool of my activism. -
3:12 - 3:13And at that time, it was the best way
-
3:13 - 3:15to get a message to a lot of people
-
3:15 - 3:18all at once.
-
3:18 - 3:20I'll give you one example of a fax
campaign that I ran. -
3:20 - 3:22It was the eve of the Gulf War
-
3:22 - 3:26and I organized a global campaign
to flood the hotel, -
3:26 - 3:27the Intercontinental in Geneva,
-
3:27 - 3:29where James Baker and Tariq Aziz
-
3:29 - 3:31were meeting on the eve of the war,
-
3:31 - 3:33and I thought if I could
flood them with faxes, -
3:33 - 3:34we'll stop the war.
-
3:34 - 3:36Well, unsurprisingly,
-
3:36 - 3:40that campaign was wholly unsuccessful.
-
3:40 - 3:41There are lots of reasons for that,
-
3:41 - 3:44but there's no doubt that
one sputtering fax machine -
3:44 - 3:47in Geneva was a little bit
of a bandwidth constraint -
3:47 - 3:50in terms of the ability to
get a message to lots of people. -
3:50 - 3:54And so, I went on to
discover some better tools. -
3:54 - 3:57I cofounded Avaaz, which uses the
Internet to mobilize people -
3:57 - 3:59and now has almost
40 million members, -
3:59 - 4:02and I now run Purpose, which
is a home for these kinds of -
4:02 - 4:04technology-powered movements.
-
4:04 - 4:06So what's the moral of this story?
-
4:06 - 4:08Is the moral of this story,
-
4:08 - 4:13you know what, the fax is kind of
eclipsed by the mobile phone? -
4:13 - 4:15This is another story of
tech-determinism? -
4:15 - 4:18Well, I would argue that there's
actually more to it than that. -
4:18 - 4:21I'd argue that in the last 20 years,
-
4:21 - 4:23something more fundamental has changed
-
4:23 - 4:25than just new tech.
-
4:25 - 4:28I would argue that there has
been a fundamental shift -
4:28 - 4:30in the balance of power
-
4:30 - 4:31in the world.
-
4:31 - 4:33You ask any activist how
to understand the world, -
4:33 - 4:36and they'll say,
"Look at where the power is, -
4:36 - 4:38who has it, how it's shifting."
-
4:38 - 4:41And I think we all sense that
something big is happening. -
4:41 - 4:44So Henry Timms and I —
-
4:44 - 4:45Henry's a fellow movement builder —
-
4:45 - 4:47got talking one day and
we started to think, -
4:47 - 4:49how can we make sense of this new world?
-
4:49 - 4:50How can we describe it and give
-
4:50 - 4:53it a framework that makes it more useful?
-
4:53 - 4:54Because we realized that many
-
4:54 - 4:57of the lessons that we were
discovering in movements -
4:57 - 5:00actually applied all over the world
-
5:00 - 5:02in many sectors of our society.
-
5:02 - 5:04So I want to introduce you to
this framework: -
5:04 - 5:06Old power, meet new power.
-
5:06 - 5:09And I want to talk to you about
what new power is today. -
5:09 - 5:11New power is the deployment
-
5:11 - 5:14of mass participation
and peer coordination — -
5:14 - 5:16these are the two key elements —
-
5:16 - 5:19to create change and shift outcomes.
-
5:19 - 5:22And we see new power all around us.
-
5:22 - 5:23This is Beppe Grillo
-
5:23 - 5:25he was a populist Italian blogger
-
5:25 - 5:29who, with a minimal political apparatus
and only some online tools, -
5:29 - 5:31won more than 25 percent of the vote
-
5:31 - 5:33in recent Italian elections.
-
5:33 - 5:35This is Airbnb,
-
5:35 - 5:37which in just a few years
-
5:37 - 5:39has radically disrupted the hotel industry
-
5:39 - 5:42without owning a single
square foot of real estate. -
5:42 - 5:43This is Kickstarter,
-
5:43 - 5:46which we know has raised over a billion dollars
-
5:46 - 5:48from more than five million people.
-
5:48 - 5:50Now, we're familiar with all of these models.
-
5:50 - 5:53But what's striking is the commonalities,
-
5:53 - 5:56the structural features of
these new models -
5:56 - 5:58and how they differ from old power.
-
5:58 - 5:59Let's look a little bit at this.
-
5:59 - 6:03Old power is held like a currency.
-
6:03 - 6:05New power works like a current.
-
6:05 - 6:07Old power is held by a few.
-
6:07 - 6:10New power isn't held by a few,
it's made by many. -
6:10 - 6:13Old power is all about download,
-
6:13 - 6:15and new power uploads.
-
6:15 - 6:17And you see a whole set of
characteristics that you can trace, -
6:17 - 6:20whether it's in media or
politics or education. -
6:20 - 6:22So we've talked a little bit
about what new power is. -
6:22 - 6:26Let's, for a second, talk about
what new power isn't. -
6:26 - 6:29New power is not your Facebook page.
-
6:29 - 6:32I assure you that having a
social media strategy -
6:32 - 6:35can enable you to do just as much download
-
6:35 - 6:38as you used to do when you had the radio.
-
6:38 - 6:41Just ask Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad,
-
6:41 - 6:43I assure you that his Facebook page
-
6:43 - 6:47has not embraced the power
of participation. -
6:47 - 6:50New power is not inherently positive.
-
6:50 - 6:53In fact, this isn't an normative
argument that we're making, -
6:53 - 6:55there are many good things
about new power, -
6:55 - 6:56but it can produce bad outcomes.
-
6:56 - 6:58More participation, more peer coordination,
-
6:58 - 7:00sometimes distorts outcomes
-
7:00 - 7:01and there are some things,
-
7:01 - 7:03like things, for example,
in the medical profession -
7:03 - 7:06that we want new power
to get nowhere near. -
7:06 - 7:09And thirdly, new power is not
the inevitable victor. -
7:09 - 7:11In fact, unsurprisingly,
-
7:11 - 7:14as many of these new power
models get to scale, -
7:14 - 7:16what you see is this massive pushback
-
7:16 - 7:18from the forces of old power.
-
7:18 - 7:20Just look at this really
interesting epic struggle -
7:20 - 7:25going on right now between
Edward Snowden and the NSA. -
7:25 - 7:27You'll note that only one of
the two people on this slide -
7:27 - 7:29is currently in exile.
-
7:29 - 7:31And so, it's not at all clear
-
7:31 - 7:33that new power will be
the inevitable victor. -
7:33 - 7:36That said, keep one thing in mind:
-
7:36 - 7:39We're at the beginning of a
very steep curve. -
7:39 - 7:40So you think about some of
these new power models, right? -
7:40 - 7:42These were just like someone's
-
7:42 - 7:45garage idea a few years ago,
-
7:45 - 7:48and now they're disrupting
entire industries. -
7:48 - 7:51And so, what's interesting
about new power, -
7:51 - 7:53is the way it feeds
on itself. -
7:53 - 7:55Once you have an experience of new power,
-
7:55 - 7:57you tend to expect and
want more of it. -
7:57 - 8:00So let's say you've used a
peer-to-peer lending platform -
8:00 - 8:02like Lending Tree or Prosper,
-
8:02 - 8:05then you've figured out that
you don't need the bank, -
8:05 - 8:07and who wants the bank, right?
-
8:07 - 8:09And so, that experience tends
to embolden you -
8:09 - 8:12it tends to make you want
more participation -
8:12 - 8:14across more aspects of your life.
-
8:14 - 8:16And what this gives rise to is
-
8:16 - 8:17a set of values.
-
8:17 - 8:19We talked about the models
-
8:19 - 8:20that new power has engendered —
-
8:20 - 8:22the Airbnbs, the Kickstarters.
-
8:22 - 8:24What about the values?
-
8:24 - 8:25And this is an early sketch
-
8:25 - 8:28at what new power values look like.
-
8:28 - 8:31New power values prize
transparency above all else. -
8:31 - 8:33It's almost a religious
belief in transparency, -
8:33 - 8:35a belief that if you shine
a light on something, -
8:35 - 8:37it will be better.
-
8:37 - 8:40And remember that in the 20th
century, this was not at all true. -
8:40 - 8:43People thought that gentlemen
should sit behind closed doors -
8:43 - 8:45and make comfortable agreements.
-
8:45 - 8:48New power values of informal,
networked governance. -
8:48 - 8:51New power folks would never
have invented the U.N. today, -
8:51 - 8:53for better or worse.
-
8:53 - 8:55New power values participation,
-
8:55 - 8:57and new power is all about do-it-yourself.
-
8:57 - 8:59In fact, what's interesting
about new power -
8:59 - 9:03is that it eschews some of
the professionalization -
9:03 - 9:04and specialization that was
-
9:04 - 9:06all the rage in the 20th century.
-
9:06 - 9:08So what's interesting about these
-
9:08 - 9:10new power values and these
new power models -
9:10 - 9:12is what they mean for organizations.
-
9:12 - 9:15So we've spent a bit of time thinking,
-
9:15 - 9:17how can we plot organizations
-
9:17 - 9:19on a two-by-two where, essentially,
-
9:19 - 9:22we look at new power values
-
9:22 - 9:23and new power models
-
9:23 - 9:25and see where different people sit?
-
9:25 - 9:27We started with a U.S. analysis,
-
9:27 - 9:29and let me show you
some interesting findings. -
9:29 - 9:31So the first is Apple.
-
9:31 - 9:33In this framework, we actually
described Apple -
9:33 - 9:36as an old power company.
-
9:36 - 9:37That's because the ideology,
-
9:37 - 9:39the governing ideology of Apple
-
9:39 - 9:42is the ideology of the perfectionist
-
9:42 - 9:44product designer in Cupertino.
-
9:44 - 9:48It's absolutely about that beautiful,
perfect thing descending upon us -
9:48 - 9:50in perfection.
-
9:50 - 9:52And it does not value, as a
company, transparency. -
9:52 - 9:54In fact, it's very secretive.
-
9:54 - 9:57Now, Apple is one of the most
succesful companies in the world. -
9:57 - 9:58So this shows that you can
-
9:58 - 10:01still pursue a successful
old power strategy. -
10:01 - 10:04But one can argue that there's
real vulnerabilites in that model. -
10:04 - 10:06I think another interesting comparison
-
10:06 - 10:08is that of the Obama campaign
-
10:08 - 10:11versus the Obama presidency.
-
10:11 - 10:19(Applause)
-
10:19 - 10:20Now, I like President Obama,
-
10:20 - 10:24but he ran with new
power at his back, right? -
10:24 - 10:26And he said to people,
-
10:26 - 10:28we are the ones we've
been waiting for. -
10:28 - 10:30And he used crowdfunding
-
10:30 - 10:31to power a campaign.
-
10:31 - 10:32But when he got into office,
-
10:32 - 10:35he governed like more or less
all the other presidents did. -
10:35 - 10:38And this is a really interesting trend,
-
10:38 - 10:40is when new power gets powerful,
-
10:40 - 10:41what happens?
-
10:41 - 10:43So this is a framework you
should look at -
10:43 - 10:45and think about where your
own organization -
10:45 - 10:46sits on it.
-
10:46 - 10:47And think about where it
should be -
10:47 - 10:49in five or 10 years.
-
10:49 - 10:51So what do you do if you're old power?
-
10:51 - 10:54Well, if you're there
thinking, in old power, -
10:54 - 10:56this won't happen to us.
-
10:56 - 11:01Then just look at the Wikipedia
entry for Encyclopædia Britannica. -
11:01 - 11:04Let me tell you, it's a very sad read.
-
11:04 - 11:05But if you are old power,
-
11:05 - 11:09the most important thing you
can do is to occupy yourself -
11:09 - 11:11before others occupy you,
-
11:11 - 11:13before you are occupied.
-
11:13 - 11:16Imagine that a group
of your biggest skeptics -
11:16 - 11:18are camped in the heart
of your organization -
11:18 - 11:20asking the toughest questions
-
11:20 - 11:23and they can see everything
inside of your organization. -
11:23 - 11:26And ask them, would they
like what they see -
11:26 - 11:28and should our model change?
-
11:28 - 11:30What about if you're new power?
-
11:30 - 11:32Is new power kind of just
riding the wave to glory? -
11:32 - 11:34I would argue no.
-
11:34 - 11:36I would argue that there
are some very real challenges -
11:36 - 11:37to new power in this nascent phase.
-
11:37 - 11:41Let's stick with the Occupy Wall Street
example for a moment. -
11:41 - 11:44Occupy was this incredible example
of new power, -
11:44 - 11:46the purest example of new power.
-
11:46 - 11:48And yet, it failed to consolidate.
-
11:48 - 11:50So the energy that it created
-
11:50 - 11:52was great for the meme phase,
-
11:52 - 11:54but they were so committed to participation,
-
11:54 - 11:56that they never got anything done.
-
11:56 - 11:58And in fact that model
-
11:58 - 12:01means that the challenge for new power is:
-
12:01 - 12:03how do you use institutional power
-
12:03 - 12:05without being institutionalized?
-
12:05 - 12:08One the other end of the spectra is Uber.
-
12:08 - 12:09Uber is an amazing,
-
12:09 - 12:11highly scalable new power model.
-
12:11 - 12:13That network is getting denser and denser
-
12:13 - 12:15by the day.
-
12:15 - 12:17But what's really interesting
about Uber is -
12:17 - 12:20it hasn't really adopted new power values.
-
12:20 - 12:25This is a real quote from
the Uber CEO recently: -
12:25 - 12:29He says, "Once we get rid of the dude
in the car" — he means drivers — -
12:29 - 12:33"Uber will be cheaper."
-
12:33 - 12:36Now, new power models
live and die -
12:36 - 12:38by the strength of their networks.
-
12:38 - 12:40By whether the drivers and the consumers
-
12:40 - 12:42who use the service actually believe in it.
-
12:42 - 12:46Because they're not an exercise
of top-down perfectionism, -
12:46 - 12:48they are about the network.
-
12:48 - 12:49And so, the challenge,
-
12:49 - 12:52and this is why it's in
no way surprising, -
12:52 - 12:56is that Uber's drivers
are now unionizing. -
12:56 - 12:58It's extraordinary.
-
12:58 - 13:00Uber's drivers are turning on Uber.
-
13:00 - 13:01And the challenge for Uber —
-
13:01 - 13:03this isn't an easy situation for them —
-
13:03 - 13:06is that they are locked into
a broader superstrcuture -
13:06 - 13:08that is really old power.
-
13:08 - 13:11They've raised more than a billion
dollars in the capital markets. -
13:11 - 13:14Those markets expect a financial return,
-
13:14 - 13:16and they way you get a financial return
-
13:16 - 13:18is by squeezing and squeezing
-
13:18 - 13:20your users and your drivers
-
13:20 - 13:21for more and more value
-
13:21 - 13:24and giving that value to your investors.
-
13:24 - 13:28So the big question about the future
of new power, in my view, is: -
13:28 - 13:30Will that old power just emerge?
-
13:30 - 13:32So will new power elites just become
-
13:32 - 13:34old power and squeeze?
-
13:34 - 13:36Or will that new power
base bite back? -
13:36 - 13:38Will the next big Uber
-
13:38 - 13:41be co-owned by Uber drivers?
-
13:41 - 13:43And I think this going
to be a very interesting -
13:43 - 13:45structural question.
-
13:45 - 13:48Finally, think about new power
-
13:48 - 13:51being more than just an
-
13:51 - 13:52entity that scales things
-
13:52 - 13:56that make us have slightly
better consumer experiences. -
13:56 - 13:58My call to action for new power
-
13:58 - 14:01is to not be an island.
-
14:01 - 14:04We have major structural
problems in the world today -
14:04 - 14:06that could benefit enormously
-
14:06 - 14:09from the kinds of mass participation
-
14:09 - 14:10and peer coordination
-
14:10 - 14:12that these new power players
-
14:12 - 14:14know so well how to generate.
-
14:14 - 14:17And we badly need them to
turn their energies and their power -
14:17 - 14:21to big, what economists might call
-
14:21 - 14:22public goods problems,
-
14:22 - 14:24that are often beyond markets
-
14:24 - 14:26where investors can easily be found.
-
14:26 - 14:28And I think if we can do that,
-
14:28 - 14:31we might be able to fundamentally change
-
14:31 - 14:35not only human beings' sense of
their own agency and power — -
14:35 - 14:38because I think that's the most
wonderful thing about new power, -
14:38 - 14:40is that people feel more powerful —
-
14:40 - 14:42but we might also be able to change
-
14:42 - 14:44the way we relate to each other
-
14:44 - 14:47and the way we relate to
authority and institutions. -
14:47 - 14:49And to me, that's absolutely
-
14:49 - 14:51worth trying for.
-
14:51 - 14:52Thank you very much.
-
14:52 - 14:54(Applause)
- Title:
- What new power looks like
- Speaker:
- Jeremy Heimans
- Description:
-
We can see the power of distributed, crowd-sourced business models every day — witness Uber, Kickstarter, Airbnb. But veteran online activist Jeremy Heimans asks: When does that kind of "new power" start to work in politics? His surprising answer: Sooner than you think. It’s a bold argument about the future of politics and power; watch and see if you agree.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 15:08
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for What new power looks like | ||
Morton Bast approved English subtitles for What new power looks like | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for What new power looks like | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for What new power looks like | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for What new power looks like | ||
Madeleine Aronson accepted English subtitles for What new power looks like | ||
Madeleine Aronson edited English subtitles for What new power looks like | ||
Madeleine Aronson edited English subtitles for What new power looks like |