Communications, the petition, and clarifying our intention to #BuyTwitter
Hi, all! I think it’d be useful for us to discuss strategic communications. This affects few decisions around how we represent ourselves, what we can do to rally participants with a call-to-action, the petition, and, hashtags!
So far, #WeAreTwitter and #BuyTwitter have been getting similar engagement. But while #WeAreTwitter is working more to call people together (it’s our collective identity on the petition, and is coming up elsewhere), #BuyTwitter is working more as a call-to-action.
The clearest signal for that comes from how other people are communicating about the campaign. Check out these tweets:
- Doug Rushkoff said, “Users trying to buy back Twitter from Wall Street. Long shot, but nice thought experiment.” (https://twitter.com/rushkoff/status/793548568963473408)
- Change dot org said, “A collective of Twitter users want to make sure Twitter isn't sold to Wall Street #WeAreTwitter http://bit.ly/2fdsDa5 ” (https://twitter.com/Change/status/793890461610041345)
- Thessy Mehrain (?) said, “Buy back what we created https://www.change.org/p/twitter-inc-free-twitter-from-wall-street #WeAreTwitter” (https://twitter.com/ThessyMehrain/status/793687495401766912).
I believe we have a lot to gain by clearly stating our intention is to #BuyTwitter, while still identifying as #WeAreTwitter.
That all said, I'm considering proposing we change (or request Change.org to manually edit) the petition title to reflect #BuyTwitter. The title structure on Change is, “Target: do X” and we currently have “Twitter, Inc.: Free Twitter from Wall Street,” which is redundant and somewhat passive.
A few more mobilizing alternatives include,
- “Twitter, Inc.: Don't Sell Out Your Users"
- “Twitter, Inc.: Leave Wall St to Make a Co-op!"
- “Twitter, Inc.: Become a Co-op and We'll Buy Shares"
And beyond tweaking a title, I think we also have much to gain from discussing what can be done to activate shareholders, those who have already “bought” Twitter. With 323 of them who signed the petition, they outnumber the organizers on Loomio almost 2-to-1. Think of the possibilities!
Poll Created Fri 18 Nov 2016 1:48AM
Confirm Interview with Mobilisation Lab + Choosing Interviewees Closed Mon 21 Nov 2016 1:01AM
Here's the media hit we had with Mobilisation Lab, which is associated with Green Peace primarily, and also has done some work with Aspiration Tech*. Here's the text from the email
They want to talk to us primarily about the organizing process that's been used thus far, rather than the campaign. Maira Sutton conferred the contact to me, and I think it's a good idea. If you don't, please "disagree" to this post, with "blocks" withheld only for disagreement so intense that you'd likely leave the group over it.
I'm additionally raising my hand for this interview, and at the risk of a compound decision complicating things, suggest that if you want to do the interview as well, please indicate so in your __ ___"agree"_ vote. If there's disagreements with my speaking, or others who raise their hand (thumb), then we can just initiate a new proposal.
Results
| Results | Option | % of points | Voters | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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Agree | 88.9% | 8 |
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| Abstain | 0.0% | 0 | ||
| Disagree | 11.1% | 1 |
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| Block | 0.0% | 0 | ||
| Undecided | 0% | 239 |
|
9 of 248 people have participated (3%)
john gieryn
Fri 18 Nov 2016 1:50AM
I think the interview will move us forward, and I'd also like to be an interviewee as I joined fairly early on and feel I can authentically represent the organizing so far in positive light.
Danny Spitzberg
Fri 18 Nov 2016 8:07PM
This is small but good nice step forward. I requested that Ted from MobLab include #BuyTwitter in their email the other week. He introduced me to Nithin on Tuesday, and we're having coffee in Oakland on Monday : )
Danny Spitzberg
Fri 18 Nov 2016 8:13PM
This is small but good nice step forward. I requested that Ted from MobLab include #BuyTwitter in their email the other week. He introduced me to Nithin on Tuesday, and we're having coffee in Oakland on Monday : ) - I put our email text in the doc
Matthew Cropp
Sat 19 Nov 2016 1:53AM
I'd be potentially willing to participate. Is it a recorded interview, or a writer interviewing people by email?
Michael Siepmann
Sat 19 Nov 2016 4:27PM
Seems like a good idea.
Stephanie Jo Kent
Mon 21 Nov 2016 12:42AM
I'm just peeking in every once in awhile, am very curious about the organizing process: hoping the interviews are recorded & made available in some way: either in their entirety or in summary. It's important history: for archiving & more growth.
john gieryn Fri 18 Nov 2016 1:11PM
@poliundelivered can you please share your reasoning?
john gieryn Fri 18 Nov 2016 1:13PM
@ntnsndr @samtoland @johnnyhaeusler you three are the others that come to mind who might like to participate in this interview, especially Nathan.
john gieryn · Fri 18 Nov 2016 1:42AM
Thanks for this @dannyspitzberg, I wonder if you won't mind me re-directing based on your initial paragraph in the context; I've got a decent media hit redirected my way from @mairasutton and I feel like, if we're committed to using Loomio, I might as well make a proposal to support it for transparent decision-making purposes. @matthewcropp may be interested here as I think any media hit should keep in mind the livestreams we're trying to organize.