Pizza, Generators, and the Transfer of Funds: Resource Allocation by OccupyNYC via Twitter

August 30, 2012
Shawn Walker | University of Washington

Recent social movements such as the indignados movement of Spain, revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, and the global Occupy Wall Street movement have highlighted the use of social media, and Twitter in particular, for the mobilization of resources in support of a movement. In this talk I will discuss the role of Twitter and the hashtag #needsoftheoccupiers in the solicitation, propagation, and delivery of resources to the occupiers on the ground in Zuccotti Park in New York City. I’ll conclude with discussion on the utility of the hashtag, methodological implications for performing research with Twitter data, and the role of connecting to existing infrastructure and the success of resource mobilization.

Speaker Bios

Shawn Walker is a doctoral candidate at the University of Washington’s Information School where he is advised by Karine Nahon. His research interests focus on digital government, social media, and public engagement. His recent work is focused on forms of political participation and social movements emerging out of social media and social media research methods. At the University of Washington, Shawn is a member of the Social Media Lab @ UW (SoMe Lab somelab.net), which focuses on online information flows in social movements.