#occupygezi and #changebrazil that we witnessed recently are not the beginning, but the continuation of a global phenomenon: the new urban hashtag (”#”) era. We should get used to this #urbanera, which can be better named the #urbanrevolution, valid no matter the continent, country, personal wealth or social status: it’s enough to be urban, young and ”wired”. The rules of mass communications and the mobilization game have changed: fast and furious is the new player in town; it is fueled by the energy of its own credo and the additional coverage it gets. This #urbanrevolution does not care about GDP, economic growth, any (opposing) silent majority, respect for authority or any other political rules. It is leaderless and therefore cannot be easily put down, it refuses, like a wild horse, a political saddle and therefore can’t be easily stamped or demonized. Use of force against it only strenghens it, since people sympathise with the ”victims”; it can only lose its steam and calm down by itself, either by attaining the purpose of protest, by strong dissent among its adepts, or in case it gets too far in terms of chaos, losing any perceived public support. Politicians and simple citizens should prepare for this new era, and find the right answer to respond: engagement.

First of all, hashtags are not new, they were used before in time of unrest, in diverse cases, ranging from a few raging days in London in 2011, to the Egyptian revolution. #occupygezi, #changeBrazil are not today’s invention, though Brazil and Turkey are its latest international PR battlegrounds. What is indeed new is that things are getting global: no continent is spared, or will be, in the future. The new era is also season independent: no need for a winter of discontent or Arab spring, welcome to hashtag summer and most probably 2.0 windy autumn! What’s also interesting is that there is no country recipe for the new #urbanrevolution: it can take place in a developed country, a developing one, or a poor – but wired – environment. Wired, because technology is key: in its absence (and it’s too late to turn back the history clock) such group communication could not be possible without mainstream media. Now the media takes act and further communities what it sees spreading as online fire; whether we realize it yet or not, the #urbanrevolution has come to share the public agenda setting with the media and politicians.

Second, we should get used to the new communications environment: perception is the new reality and loud minority reports can outbeat majority silence. If a vocal minority manages to send the right messages to mobilize people fast and give the uprising feeling of a good cause (generic or concrete – rise in bus fares in Brazil and the fate of the Gezipark in Istanbul turned towards the more general issue of social malaise), it has won: a sparkle can ignite in a matter of days or, even hours, a town, even a whole country. This affects the political establishment, its standing in polls and internationally (Ankara’s European Union accession negotiations), but it also affects the economy on international markets: both the Turkish lira and the Brazilian economy took their toll. Speaking of a collective environment, the #urbanrevolution is a collective action-tale. Our ”hero” is a group, even though a standing (wo)man (Turkey’s case) is picked as a symbol, embodied by an Average Joe or Jane; these people only express the collective credo, they are temporary spokespersons of the #wave. Another aspect to notice is that there is no direct proportionality between online activity and offline presence. On June 20th, an estimated 1.5m people protested against problematic infrastructure and public services as well as corruption in Brazil; that’s far away from the numbers in Turkey, but #gezihad 6 million mentions in the last seven days, while #changebrazil only 61.000. Brazilians were out on the streets of more than 100 cities, Gezi protesters has some support in other cities, but were no match for comparison.

Last but not least, this #urbanrevolution just received a boost: the fact that Facebook introduced the #hashtag among its more than 1 billion users, gives the combined Twitter and Facebook ”#” global network firing power. Would this strenghten democracy or weaken it by helping anarchy? Where are we heading for? For sure towards a reset button for politics. Politics 2.0 is not what it used to be, and politicians need to rise to the challenge. What is the solution? It’s to engage and transform the hashtag in a two way track, a conversation; this is the only way to strenghten democracy. The alternative would be to take refuge in the silent, one track, TV viewership, hoping on its supposed support to calm down things; all this while blaming the hashtag and invoking an internal or foreign conspiracy or counting on law enforcement authorities for online monitoring of the riots. No, it’s not the #’s fault; like any instrument, it can be used for the good (fighting censure, for example) or the bad (urging people to head for chaos or violence). Acclaiming technology for its benefits in censure dominated countries and fearing it in democracies is double-speak. Consequently, engagement has to be the new word of the day, politicians everywhere, unite! Unite in engaging before it’s not too late: young, tech savvy, urbans are, actively, waiting for @YOU. #Conversation or #urbanrevolution, #YOURchoice.