January 2014 by ICS Pomilio Blumm

I D E A S , P E O P L E , S T R AT E G I E S A N D S O L U T I O N S T H AT C O M M U N I C AT E

01 2014 ISSN 2281-3365

Jung Chang

When China was the "heart of darkness"

Geoff Mulgan To share or to have, that is the question

Pierre Zémor Communication, a cure to decline

Harper Reed

CONTENT CLOUD Under the aegis of Confindustria Assafrica & Mediterraneo Department of Communications and social research of the “Sapienza” University in Rome Transparency International Italy Italian Association of Semiotic Studies

01.2014 Content cloud From Big Data to Big Answers

Network Engagement

Harper Reed

Betsy Hoover

(S)marketing

As flowers in honey

Sharing the Future

Small is (still) beautiful?

The imperative of immediacy

At the heart of participation

The long way to transparency

Oscar Blumm

Jung Chang

Geoff Mulgan

Vincenzo Boccia

Pierre Zémor

Stephen Clark

Ron Patz

Citizen-consumer

Welcome (back) to the future

Europe in the mirror

The city of the people

Young codes in digital society

Thanks to Vincenzo Boccia, Silvia Tartamella, Simona Di Luzio, Antonia Magnacca, Fausto Lupetti, Valentina Bazzarin, Linda Serra, Francesco Mazzucchelli, Università di Bologna, Rita Zilletti, Osservatorio di Pavia

Under the aegis of DIPARTIMENTO DI COMUNICAZIONE E RICERCA SOCIALE

Harper Reed

Betsy Hoover

Jung Chang

Geoff Mulgan

Vincenzo Boccia

Pierre Zémor

Stephen Clark

Ron Patz

Davide Del Monte

Susanna Ferro

Francesco Mazzucchelli

Stefano Mosti

Davide Del Monte and Susanna Ferro

Francesco Mazzucchelli

Stefano Mosti

Roberta Paltrinieri

Cosimo Mirko Vessio

Roberta Paltrinieri

Cosimo Mirko Vessio

Beyond the cover Editorial by Franco Pomilio

The wind of change is blowing through the land of communication. After twenty years, the undisputed metaphor of the digital revolution - the web - is being overturned by a new more nuanced, poetic but equally powerful one: the cloud. Not just one, but many. A whole sky, full of bits. Clouds of data, applications, services. Ultimately, content clouds. Billions of data, sublimated and left free to fluctuate without any support and to condense whenever and wherever needed or desired. That’s what the change is really about: not so much about the passage from a strong and engineering image of the network to the weaker and ”fuzzy” of the cloud, but in the gliding – Hoped? Unexpected? Predictable? - from the instruments to the contents. Because that is where the future of communication is looking at: the contents. Whether they are big data or creative projects, shared resources or life stories, “what” is becoming more relevant than “how”. After years of deterministic euphoria for the helpful power of media, the substance of information is the heart of the matter once again. A substance moving from place to place, yet remaining true to itself, while new marketing paradigms try to grasp, cage and

maybe change it into more rigid models. It is hard to tell where all this will take us. For now, only one certainty: as Harper Reed warns us, the real problem is not the answers but the questions. What questions should those hybrid individuals that we call citizens-consumers, whose consciousness is rising higher, ask themselves? Likewise, what should institutions, which are undergoing momentous changes and are supposed to have a dialogue with citizens, ask themselves? This means then, for both of them, to understand how the role of public communication is evolving within the new communication cloud. For civil society and Institutions, it is about how to move along together in order to define new behavioural and dialogue models, more flexible but at the same time faithful to that “informational essence” the media superpower has nearly overshadowed for too many years. However, today, the cover is transparent, if not totally disappeared, leaving its content free at last. It doesn’t matter if the substance released is nothing less than vapour, spread into thousands of streams and particles. It only means that it can become anything, adapting itself to possible futures. Free to sneak everywhere.

From Big Data to Big Answers by Harper Reed*

Listen, Engage and Facilitate. These are Harper Reed’s three musts. He guided a team of “computer wizards” and conducted the online communication campaign ushering in Obama’s reelection in 2012. A successful story that comes from far away, precisely from an Apple II

* A transcription of the speech given by Harper Reed during the first edition of the International Communication Summit Europe, held in Brussels on September 26th, 2013

The origins of a myth On the previous page, Steve Jobs at the time of the launch of Apple II, the first personal computer

Two elections, two campaigns, same candidate. Between 2008 and 2012, many things changed for Barack Obama, and among these, his campaign’s communications strategy: amateur the first one, more sophisticated and aware four years later. Nothing could stress the change better than plunging into Harper Reed’s world, an extravagant hacker from Colorado, more comfortable inside his garage full of dismantled computers than inside the general headquarters of a million dollar campaign. As CTO of Obama’s team, he has conquered voters screen-by-screen, with a strong belief: communities are not to be guided or created but may only be facilitated. What is meant with “only” is a completely different story.

We knew how to speak to the single voter but we needed something else: to listen. Tim O’Reilly made me think about it. One day he said to me: “Harper, let the micro-targeting go. Focus on the micro-listening”

Network Engagement Betsy Hoover is young, very young. She is tall and athletic and has a firm handshake. When she smiles (as it often happens) her mouth as well as her blue eyes turn upwards, just like commas. In her short official biography, we read that she deals with “digital procedures and strategies”. A definition largely understated for a girl that, younger than thirty, was the director of the digital organization of Obama’s campaign. We met her in Bologna, where she made a brilliant speech during the event “From Obama to the future, Engagement & Power in an Interconnected World”. Popularity and consensus. What has changed between the two Obama’s mandates? Without doubt, the two campaigns were very different. In 2008 Obama was a novelty, a very young senator, almost unknown to many electors. We were a breath of fresh air and we translated this in our message and in the general strategy. Our goal was simply to be elected. In 2012, the picture was different: Obama was the President in charge, and the country was living

Here is the story he told us at the last ICS in Brussels.

The 2012 campaign for Barack Obama’s re-election, as we all know, was a success. From my point of view, I am happy to say: I was there. In addition, I was there with a terrific team that did a great job. It was hard, exciting, even funny, but overall it was instructive. However, among the many things I learned from this experience, the most important one regards the nature and functioning of communities. For example, I have learnt that their role is fundamental in engaging voters. Above all, I have understood that communities cannot be controlled; to the most, we may support them in freeing their own force. Before realizing it, I came a long way. For this reason, before telling you about Obama and so forth, I have to tell you about one of my favorite topics: myself.

I’m a hacker! We live in a digital world. The web culture surrounding us affects each aspect of our lives. Nevertheless, how did all start? Well, if I think about how I started, the day when two guys from Silicon Valley, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, presented the world their Apple II, the first true personal computer, comes to my mind. The hacker culture and ethics began then. Everything started in the ‘60s, inside the MIT walls, and the highest point was reached in the ‘80s, with the success of Mac, Windows and so on. That was a milestone. There is a book by Steven Levy, called “Hackers! The heroes of the digital revolution” that tells this story. Reading it as a boy, I realized right away that I shared many of their ideas, such as collaboration, the freedom of access

and the “Hands on Imperative” principle (one of the “commandments” of hackers’ moral code, to whom “the access to computers and anything that may teach about how the world works, should be unlimited and total” Ed.). This is how I suddenly realized: I am a hacker! I began identifying with it and feeling like a hacker. Not the kind committing crimes, but a person eager to find out what is behind closed doors, to take apart and to put things together in order to learn how they work and perhaps to improve them. Having worked for a while as a software engineer facilitated that and made me become not only a hacker but also a coder.

me, even if I was totally different. I later found out that I was exactly what he needed: someone completely different. That is what Slaby would answer to those - and there were many - asking : why Harper? Right: why someone like me? Actually, the heart of the question was not me, but rather the campaign, so different from the one realized four years before. In 2008, Obama was a candidate as any other, almost unknown; a sort of “rebel of politics”, and his campaign was instinctive and light. In 2012, the rebels had become an enterprise. We had to be determined and prepared, to know how mechanisms functioned, and we had to make them work in any circumstance. We needed to tear apart and put

a very difficult moment. Our priority was to give answers to these difficulties. The heart of the campaign had however remained the same, i.e. about the type of person Obama is, as a man and as a candidate. What had changed was the way citizens’ questions were answered. How much had the media panorama changed? A great deal. In 2008 Twitter and Facebook were at the beginning and technology was not so widespread. In 2012 American social media were a reality and we could not but strongly invest in digital strategies. I would say that in 2008 there was a great desire for change, while in 2012 there was a need to, above all, get involved, to still feel part of a project that had started four years before. Which are the most innovative platforms for participation and engagement? Code for America is a beautiful platform, which is achieving great results. There is also great enthusiasm regarding themes such as health related services. We must keep an eye on the new “targeted” social media as well, such as NextDoor, one of my favorites. It is similar to Facebook, but it puts you in touch with your neighbors, using the web potential to reinforce real neighborhood bonds, such as organizing security services or other basic needs, for example. The results are incredible: it is not a case if the first private investments are beginning to come in? Valentina Bazzarin

With this background, at a certain point, I found a job in a company called Threadless: a great success and lots of fun and excitement. It lasted for a few years, but the time to change came in 2009. I took the most important decision of my life, something that at least once in a life a person should do: I quitted. From then on, I started a new type of vision quest: an experience outside the normal boundaries, that made me understand how big companies work, and how winning teams are built. This helped me to get ready for my next challenge: Obama for America. Yes, we code! It was 2011 when Michael Slaby, CTO of the previous campaign, a born politician, really experienced and one of the smartest people I have ever worked with, pulled me into it. He wanted

things back together: to behave like hackers! I remember that, when I spoke to my wife about it, she reminded me of this Japanese saying: “mocha wa mochiya”. Meaning: if you want a rice cake, you go to the rice cake store. In its simplicity, it grabs the point. One of the political campaign’s problems is that the trend is to do almost everything within the team, using, to the most, as outside resources, motivated and inexpensive volunteers... In 2008, most of the labor force was made of volunteers and it worked, but in 2012, it could not be enough: the first thing we did then was to hire forty among the best computer engineers in the world. We sought them in the most important ICT companies: from Google to Twitter, to Craglist to Quora and so forth. The ideal was to stand on the shoulders of giants, because the challenge was not to invent new things but to find a better way of doing them. The result: if in 2008

The temple of technology The term “crowdsourcing” was invented by the MIT experts to define the production model created by the society Threadless

there were 12, in 2012 there were 120 technicians, about 650 people in Chicago’s general headquarters, 6000 more in the whole territory and 3 million volunteers: massive! The right questions In this scenario, the must was just one: execution. Act and realize. To do so, we made Narwhal, a very simple platform that would ease internal communications allowing us to focus on our “product”: a mix of media tools specifically created with a goal to engage our voters. In addition to all social media, the media mix included, for example, a call tool, an application allowing volunteers to communicate not only with the organization but also with sponsors, and a dashboard to share the work within the team. There were also many mobile apps specifically created in a web responsive mode, so that they could be used on any type of device and technology. The so-called big data played a fundamental role, different from what it could be expected. Today there is a lot of discussion about big data: it is a great innovation and we all speak about them always underlining the idea of “big”. I prefer to concentrate myself mainly on “data”. Marketing and companies are scared

I suddenly realized: I am a hacker! Not the kind committing crimes, but a person eager to take apart and to put things together in order to learn how they work and perhaps to improve them of them and, to analyze them, they spend great fortunes in software, but the truth is, believe me, that all you need is an excel sheet. The difficulty is not processing data, but making the right questions. If you make the right questions, you will get the right answers. This is why I say: big data aren’t at stake, but so are big answers. First of all: an email Once the “big” factor is out of the way, we may focus on what really matters: data. Yet making which questions? Essentially, we used them to make “micro targeting” or to establish a one-toone dialogue with the target. Despite everything told by the media at that time, about “Obama’s nuclear codes”, meaning perhaps that we

had some sort of secret computer weapons in our hands, we used a very simple instrument: emails. Emails work well and always work if you use them in the right way, exploiting available data at best. For instance, during the campaign, one of Obama’s voters could have received an email inviting him to donate a very precise amount, “geared” ad hoc to his previous donation history. And, that was exactly what happened! This is what I mean when I say ”making the right questions”. Along the same line, the digital team elaborated a solution that I believe is very innovative for social media. The idea was to use the campaign’s Facebook account not only to share contents, but also to address emails better, personalizing them in the best way possible. To put it bluntly: you could receive an email inviting you to remember your friends to vote not in a general way, but suggesting as recipients your principal influencers and the ones you influenced the most. The same was done with sms and Twitter. From micro-targeting to micro-listening All these innovations helped us elaborate a better distribution of contents, addressing the right people with the right contents, not giving the same message to everyone, but about what mattered the

most for them. The result was an amount of donations for about 750 million dollars, most of them received thanks to emails. Above all, this proved to be a more efficient, fast and focused contact with voters, because this is, narrowed down, the mysterious secret weapon of micro-targeting. Nonetheless, something was missing. We knew how to speak to the single voter but we needed something else: to listen. My friend and publisher Tim O’Reilly made me think about it. One day we were talking and he said to me, “Harper, what you have to do is listen. Let the micro-targeting go, we know that you are good at it. Focus on the micro-listening”. Then, for example, we asked the door to door volunteers to speak with people as much as possible, taking note of the subjects they were mainly interested in and addressing them in the following communications. Another listening instrument was a software used by the volunteers to point out the “ups”, the ”trendy” subjects of the moment, and the “challenges”, the hardest goals to achieve. This way the general headquarters were able to have an idea of what was going on in the field, figuring out in real time if there was a problem in one of the States involved and proposing possible solutions. In short, the listening allowed us to build up a feedback loop system that, in many cases, made the difference.

IN The beginning was a t-shirt They had invented crowdsourcing, and did not even know. At the time of Threadless, Reed and his colleagues were the first to use the web as source of creative ideas, and it was an immediate success. An alien arrived in Chicago. This is what Reed must have seemed to Obama’s spin-doctors when he joined the team. Regardless of his pirate look, he had navigated with the Threadless’ crew for long, a t-shirt brand known for having invented the crowdsourcing. “The idea is to use web communities as a source of ideas, projects and resources. Today it is very common, but in those days it was very new” he says. “To be honest, at the time we did not know what we were doing. Those from MIT invented the term: during a university meeting, in 2004, out of nowhere, they presented us to the public as the “inventors of the crowd sourcing”. We had no idea! We had not even heard the word before. All we knew was that we were making awfully beautiful t-shirts”. In fact, the system was simple. Four main steps: “First: engage, i.e. bringing users to share their own ideas. Second: submission, inviting them to load their ideas on the site, being part of the community. Third: scoring, the rest of the community judged and voted the best designs that then were printed on t-shirts. Last but not least, the selling and payment of contributors”. People loved t-shirts because they were made and chosen by others like them. What made this whole experience a success was the fact that the creative part was made by the community itself. “They did the hard work! Our job was to facilitate interactions and engagement”. This is a winning model that has not only made Threadless a great success, but also an engagement model that has proved to be useful in the most bewildering situations, including the one of a presidential election.

Facilitating communities

All these tools helped, but the real key was something else: facilitating communities. Communities are a great component of the brand, and if well managed, they may reinforce power and assure success. They represent a strategic and fundamental asset, that is sometimes underrated. Communities, instead, should be facilitated. How? Here are “my” rules. First: focus on authenticity, as value to be instilled in the community to empathize with your consumer. With Threadless, for example, we hired one of our clients to have true reactions from the typical consumer’s point of view. Second: raise awareness on the inner reason beyond our behavior. For Obama, it meant to explain in an effective way why he should be supported. We did it showing and celebrating achieved victories, as the launching of the health care reform. The “empowerment” of users was very important as well, thanks to fine tuning procedures and instruments that allowed them to actively participate, making them feel part of the organization, as we had done at Theardless asking the public to critique proposed designs. Finally, the most important aspect, widely neglected: safety. A safe community is a community without “trolls”, i.e. disruptors. John

Communities are a great component of the brand, and if well managed, they may reinforce power and assure success. They represent a strategic and fundamental asset, that is sometimes underrated

Gabriel (Mike Krahulik’s alter ego and web comic designer of “Penny Arcade”, Ed.) has found a logarithm to define them: normal person + anonymity + audience= terrible person. It means that each individual that can count on an audience and can hide his own identity may become a troll. What can we do to avoid it? There is only one way: trust. If well-constructed, the community itself understands if among new users there is something not right; just as it happens when a new neighbor arrives. Facilitating communities means to create a good neighborhood, a place where people are happy to move to, an environment worth trusting. I have learnt this and this is the key to all, whether you speak about t-shirts, logos or about a presidential campaign.

In 2008, Obama was a candidate as any other, almost unknown; a sort of â&#x20AC;&#x153;rebel of politicsâ&#x20AC;?, and his campaign was instinctive and light. In 2012, the rebels had become an enterprise

“One of the coolest guys ever” “I love to use the greatness of the web to bring people together, whether it is for Obama, for Threadless or for my personal projects”. Thirty-four y.o., dark hipster glasses, a fashion piercing and a red forelock in clear evidence. He has an obvious preference for t-shirts and hooded sweatshirts, and a professed passion for reading, born and grown during the boring afternoons of his childhood in Colorado. Harper Reed, the King of Big Data, presents himself like this: “probably one of the coolest guys ever”. And his look, carefully curated, strengthens the belief that data professionals are the real rock stars of the new millennium. Based on this and on his overflowing “ego”, he just seems to be the type of guy that could overturn an empire. As a campaign CTO for Obama’s reelection, Reed imagined, organized and directed the biggest operation of data mining in history with the only purpose to make Obama reelected to the White House, revolutionizing electoral strategies. Mission accomplished. Thanks to a magnificent team of nerds – one hundred “digital wizards”, accurately chosen and scouted from the main digital companies and social universe – with just one thing in common: no particular interest in politics, but with a computer knowledge close to the one of the entire Silicon Valley. No less important, Reed is a lifelogger. In the last three years, he has been measuring the kilometers done, the number of steps, the calories and the tweets every day. Only a lifelogger could have created a software capable to dig out Obama’s electors, one by one, individuating their likes, habits, preferences and questions. In a year and a half, the powerful machine of the micro targeting, put together by Reed, has gathered an incredible amount of data through sites, social networks, phone calls, and door-to-door visits. He says: “There is no such thing as “the elector”, “the users”, “the citizens”, each voter is different from one another. Only with this knowledge, you may intercept them and perhaps persuade them”. Because, “electors need to be profiled in order to know which door to knock and to find someone that opens, not to be spied on or to be kept under control”. Despite the success of the “Obama for America 2012”, Reed will not make the leap from “tech guru” to political “transformer”, because he is one of those that, once the job is finished, want to go back to their garage to invent a new start-up and design a new software. On the other hand, he had warned us: “I am a hacker, I am a coder”. Alida Manocchio

Face Book Harper Reed, graduated in Philosophy and Computer Sciences, he is considered one of the most influential web strategist of the world. He managed the 2012 Obama’s election campaign, contributing significantly to his re-election. From 2005 to 2009, he was the CTO of the clothing company Threadless.com, one of the first to be associated to the activity of crowd sourcing.

QUARTERLY ENGLISH EDITION - 01.2014

Betsy Hoover, partner of the company 270 Strategies, she led the digital organization of the 2012 Obama’s campaign. Business Insider included her among the 50 key figures of political innovation. Forbes mentioned her in the list of young talents under 30 for Law & Policy.

Publisher: Pomilio Blumm srl Editor-in-chief: Daniela Panosetti

Franco Pomilio, ICS Chairman since 2010 and President of Pomilio Blumm. He graduated in the United States, specialising in marketing at Harvard University, the MIT in Boston and in the Singapore campus of Insead of Fountainbleau. He has worked for the principal multinational advertising companies worldwide. He published “La Repubblica della Comunicazione” (The Communication Republic - 2010 with Francesco Pira), “Comunicazione 3.0” (Communication 3.0 - 2011) and “Comunicare la Trasparenza” (Communicating Transparency - 2013, with Daniela Panosetti).

Editorial director: Virginia Patriarca Editorial coordination: Simona Di Luzio Published on a quarterly basis Art Director: Franco Pomilio

Jung Chang, is a writer and bestselling author. Her autobiographical book “Wild Swans” is currently the most read book about China in the world. The biography “Mao. The unknown story” is the result of more than ten years of research and interviews, revealing new and surprising aspects of Mao Tsetung’s life. Today, it is the most complete biography on Mao ever published. Both books have been translated into over 30 languages, selling around 15 million copies.

Graphic Design: Luca Di Sabatino Nicola Garibaldi Guglielmo Paradisi Production manager: Antonio Di Leonardo

Geoff Mulgan, expert in social innovation and sharing economy, he is currently CEO of NESTA Association (National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts). He was Head of Policy and Director of the Strategy Unit of Tony Blair’s government. He founded and ran Demos, a think tank in London.

Print: Artigrafiche Boccia

Pierre Zémor, honorary president of EuroPcom (European Public Communication Conference/Community), State Counsellor of France, former President of the FEACP (European Federation of Public Communication Associations) and of the National Commission du Dèbat Public, today he manages the Commission Nationaled’Agrément des Associations Représentant les Usagers du système de Santé Publique.

Editorial staff: Giovanni Cellini Claudio Di Giovanni Alessandra Farias Sara Fiadone Alida Manocchio Antonella Mastrangelo Federica Vagnozzi Contributors to this issue: Antonio Di Leonardo, Rosita Focosi, Antonia Magnacca, Andrea Masci. Photos in this magazine are taken by: wikipedia, thinkstockphotos.it, google

Vincenzo Boccia, CEO of ArtiGraficheBoccia Spa, honorary President of Assafrica&Mediterraneo, he is currently President of Piccola Industria and Vice President of Confindustria. Ron Patz, researcher at the University of Potsdam with a thesis on EU politics’ communication flows. He is interested in Social Network Analysis, mainly in the political field. He works at the Liaison Office of Transparency International in Brussels and is co-editor of Bloggingportal.eu

Francesco Mazzucchelli, semiologist and researcher at the University of Bologna and at the Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam. His research concern memory studies and media. He is the author of several essays and in 2010 published the book “Urbicidio” edited by BUP.

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Stefano Mosti, president and founding partner of the Osservatorio di Pavia, he deals with research and training in the field of media communication. He is member of the Center for Education to the media in Pavia and is part of the honor committee of the Child Guardian Award.

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PREVIEW

Stephen Clark, is currently the Director for Relations with citizens at the European Parliament. He is also the coordinator for the Parliament’s communication campaign for 2014 elections, with the declared goal to make the European Parliament a leader in public and institutional communication.

The next issue of ICS Magazine will be available in July 2014. If you wish to receive the magazine please visit www.internationalcommunicationsummit.com

Roberta Paltrinieri, professor of Sociology of cultural and communication processes at the University of Bologna. She manages Ces.co.com (Centre for advanced studies about consumption and communications). She has published the following books: “Consumption and Globalization”, “Sustainable consumption and territorial projects” and “Responsible Happiness”. Davide Del Monte, project officer of Transparency International Italy, he is expert in international conventions and laws against corruption. He has followed many projects on the theme of transparency, like the Italian NIS - Corruption and National Integrity Systems. Susanna Ferro, responsible for Communication and Advocacy at Transparency International-Italy, she graduated in International Relations and is attending a Master in Communication for International Relations. Cosimo Mirko Vessio, graduated in Public and Social Communication Sciences, he is an expert in new media, particularly in social network and sportjournalism.