Many people who have face book probably have speculated about the true power of online information wondering what its potential can be, how fast information can travel, and how quickly large groups of people can be mobilized in support of a course.
There have been prominent examples of success, such as the One million voices against the FARC campaign that led to protest the Colombian terrorist group in February 2008 and various commercial sponsored treasure hunts which for example, guided participants from their computers to random phone booths to await calls that would give them clues for completing a puzzle for a price.
The Defence Advance Research Projects Agency (DARPA) which in 1969 created the technical core of what would become the internet, decided to put social networking to the test in a December 5 scientific experiment.
The contest pitted teams against each oilier to see which would be first to mobilize thousands of the people to help pinpoint all the locations of 10 red balloons spread randomly across the vast continent of the United States. The first to find all 10 would receive a $40,000 prize.
We really didn’t know what to expect DARPA’S Peter Lee told American government given the relatively small size of the balloons and large amount of land to cover. “It seemed impossibly difficult,” he said. As director of the Transformational Conveyance Technology Office, Lee was in charge of’ the network challenge.
He said he was very surprised that the challenge was solved in just under nine hours. DARPA had actually allowed up to five days for the competition to run its course.
The winning team, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) succeeded by employing a unique online incentive structure through social network advertising that offered to pay not only those who found the balloons, but also those who had recruited [hem to the campaign.
As MIT team leader, Riley Crane explained December 11 on national public Radio (NPR), “we made it effortless for people to participate, and in addition to monetary rewards, people could really watch their direct impact at influencing others to join”.
Lee said that approach encouraged anyone in the world to participate since they could notify friends and family in the United States to be on the lookout or to investigate reports of balloon sighting. He said about 250 million non-American teams participated in the contest, including teams from India, Iran, Sudan, Russia and various countries from South America and Asia.
Those teams were able to mobilize their expatriate communities inside the United States for help. He said the relatively new phenomenon of strangers being connected through social networking brings a new aspect to Global Competition. “The principle here at work is this concept that we think less of groups in adversarial situations being defined by physical borders but instead by social network,” lee said.
DARPH’S experiment tested not only the speed and effectiveness of social networking, it also added a Challenging twist by allowing the team to covertly spread misinformation to reach others in hopes of producing reports of false sightings or forcing them to spend precious tune chasing them.
There were approximately 200 fake balloon reports and ”really great fake photos” made using photo-editing software that were posted online as “proof”, lee said.
The top teams were able to quickly locate people in the vicinity of reported sighting to verify the validity of the reports.
Lee said Google Corporation teams used the company’s mapping resources to locate nearby business or residences, called them up and asked them to hook their windows or step outside to verify claimed sightings.
Lee said, disaster response comes to mind, whereas mass mobilization can be used to quickly locate individuals with certain knowledge, expertise or access to specialized equipment.
The person or items sought need not be online. They could be found by merely locating someone with away to reach them.
Mit Riley Crane told NPR he could also see this type of social networking being used to rally a large number of people for other altruistic goals, such as finding missing children.
Lee said, the experiment also revealed that social networking has just barely penetrated our society. “There are many wide spread groups across the United States, such as the boy Scout, Girls Scout and other associations beyond the “net Savvy” that could have done well but have little online penetration. There is tremendous room for growth in social media.
Impacts of Social Media in Masses Mobilization.
It has successfully brought the world to a global village in the areas of economic, social and political.
There is an opportunity derived from social media, like people meeting their love, marrying. Job opportunities are also parts of the impact of social media, creating awareness, educating, and entertaining and informing globally. Social media is the fastest way of communicating millions of people in 9 hours according to Lee.
Social media brings a new aspect of global competition.
Social media has brought about transformation in our everyday life.
Social media is an effortless way of mobilizing millions of People in 9 hours.
Social media has direct impact at influencing others to join.
Nigeria can do better than United States in mobilizing the youths and finding missing children through social media so as to locate certain knowledge, expertise or access to specialized equipment, most of our indigenous firms are commended for this mobilization, in hunting the talent youths, like the Nigeria idol, MTN FAME, Star quest etc.
