The Information Management Public Lectures give attention to exciting advances in research and professional practice. The topics are diverse reflecting the importance and global extent of Information Management in today’s society. The lectures are open to all members of the Dalhousie campus and surrounding community. When feasible, recordings of the lectures are posted here for wider circulation. For the full schedule, visit the Public Lecture page of our website.

Social Activism on Twitter: How “Wise” Are Online Social Movements

Ryan Deschamps
PhD Candidate (Public Policy), University of Regina

Lecture Details
Thursday, January 15th, 2015 from 1:00pm-2:00pm
Room 3089, Kenneth C. Rowe Management Building, 6100 University Avenue

 You can listen to the presentation here.

Abstract

One of the foundations of decision-making since Aristotle is that the average response of a crowd will produce “wise” answers compared to a smaller group of experts. Famously, the American journalist James Surowiecki, argued that wisdom in a crowd requires such things as diversity of opinion and actor independence, although these circumstances rarely occur naturally. Fortunately, network theory tells us that groups can converge to “wise” opinions after a period of deliberation if the group possesses certain structural features that keep elite groups from unduly influencing group decisions. Using structural examples from social movements on Twitter and the DeGroot learning model, this paper will show some examples of “wise” and “unwise” crowds online and offer some ideas about the implications of each for public policy agenda setting.

Biography

Ryan Deschamps is currently a PhD candidate at the Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School for Public Policy in Regina, Saskatchewan Canada. Formerly a public librarian who was once named a Library Journal “Mover and Shaker”, Ryan’s scholarly interests include network analysis, energy policy, social media and policy deliberation. Twitter: www.twitter.com/ryandeschamps