Social media are the virtual places to organize and support causes: From online petitions targeting incumbent firms to Twitter campaigns mobilizing citizens to promote healthy behavior. Are these online campaigns only symbolic (‘slacktivism’) or do they contribute to social change? What makes an online campaign effective in motivating firms or citizens to change their behavior? And how can social and computer scientists collaborate to analyze online campaigns?
The University of Twente organizes the two-day symposium #SupportTheCause on the 21st and 22nd of January 2016 at the campus in Enschede (The Netherlands). The symposium presents state-of-the-art research, hands-on experience and discussions on online campaigning. Participation is free.
On the online protest day (12:30-17:30, 21 January), Tijs van den Broek (NIKOS department) will kick-off with his PhD defense on ‘When Slacktivism Matters: On the Organization and Outcomes of Online Protests Targeting Firms’. His defense is followed by an interactive symposium on online protest campaigns in markets. Leading researchers (VU University Amsterdam and UCLA) and professionals from firms (TNO and Virtus Communications) and NGOs (Greenpeace) will present recent studies and exciting examples from practice.
On the online advocacy day (10:30-14:30, 22 January), the Twitter datagrant team presents the first year results of the #DataGrant project. This multidisciplinary team received a competitive Twitter datagrant in 2014 to study the success factors of cancer awareness campaigns, such as the global Movember campaign. The team discusses its results with speakers from academia (UCLA and TU Delft) and practice (Twitter Benelux and Sanquin).
More information:http://supportthecause.nl/
