FreshNetworks Blog

I used to live in France experienced first-hand the frequency at which some parts of the economy would go on strike; and now living in London I get to experience the frustration when the Underground is closed due to strikes. An article in this week’s Econmist shows how employees and trade unions are building communities online to campaign against businesses there rather than in the real world. The outcomes of these actions, however, are very much real world.

The technology to build communities and momentum online has come at the same time that workers are starting to favour short, sharp walk-outs (typically less than a day so there is minimal impact on the consumer and on the worker’s wages). The problem is that these short walk-outs don’t have the ongoing impacts that the six-month walkouts of old would have had. So workers are going online.

An interesting example of sustained campaigning online is the blog ‘On redoute La Redoute‘ (we fear La Redoute – a French store chain). The blog is used to inform workers about potential store closures, to get store workers across France to join and network with each other – to test campaigns that would work and to get feedback from workers.

This blog represents an active community, and whether you believe or not with the politics, it shows some of the benefits of a successful online community. The ability to get members together, sharing ideas, contributing to cocreation or innovation, building advocacy for the cause and as a source of insight for those running the community. These are core to any successful online community, whatever it’s being used for, and core to our work at FreshNetworks.

A further example given in the article shows what such online communities can acheive. Workers campaigned against an IBM pay-deal by protesting their property in Second Life. The campaign was a success both in a resolved pay deal but also as it was awarded a top award at the Forum Netxplorateur, a conference held in Paris in February. A real success for online community activities!