IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - March 2018 - 6

physical inactivity such as obesity,
high blood pressure, heart disease,
and diabetes) can reasonably be
explained by theories of dynamic
social psychology [5]. Dynamic social
psychology proposes that in order
to understand how people organize
themselves in groups and communi-
ties, and in particular how to bring
about behavioral change, it is nec-
essary to think in terms of complex
systems. This requires more than
an understanding of the individual
mind, on which psychology had tend-
ed to focus. Instead, it is necessary
to focus on two aspects: the social
and the dynamical; i.e., from the
social aspect, considering the col-
lective beliefs, micro-level behaviors
and interactions between people;
and from the dynamic aspect, con-
sidering the system not as an object
with state transitions, but as a pro-
cess, or set of interacting processes,
like an ecosystem. For example, the
Bubble Theory of Social Change [6]
showed how social change can be
brought about by concentrating on
changing fragments of social net-
works (bubbles) rather than isolated
individuals. In this theory, an initial
bubble forms or is initiated, which
others join, learn from and then
leave to initiate other bubbles, each
one largely autonomous but still
associated with the original through
the existing social network. Conse-
quently, information and innovation
continues to spread throughout the
entire "bubble system."
The history of parkrun (as docu-
mented in [7]) conforms to this theory.
As a result, every parkrun is not only
technically accessible to any regis-
tered runner, but the common "heri-
tage" means that the experience of any
parkrun in whatever location is identifi-
ably the same (temporally, structurally,
procedurally), although with minor
variation (and not just the course and
the terrain: for example, at the Dune-
din parkrun in New Zealand, if the run

6

falls on the 22nd of any month, the
tradition is for the male runners to
turn up in a ballet skirt, or tutu).
However, the success and the su-
stainability of each individual park-
run is arguably due to three factors:
firstly, the correlation with another
social science theory, that of the
self-governing institution proposed
by Nobel Laureate Elinor Ostrom [8];
secondly leadership, teamwork and
volunteering in the collective inter-
est; and thirdly the judicious use of
technology. There is not space here
to explore the first factor, except to
observe that although not a com-
mon-pool resource problem, some
of Ostrom's institutional design
principles for sustainable common-
pool resource management can be
identified in parkrun's structures
and procedures.
For the second factor, each park-
run needs a run director prepared
to take responsibility for the event,
a strong support network, and volun-
teers to perform certain jobs each
week, such as barcode scanning.
This is where the third factor comes
into play: once registered, each run-
ner receives an athlete ID and a bar-
code, which needs to be printed out
and brought to each run. As each run-
ner crosses the finish line, the time is
taken and s/he is given a token that
has its own barcode. Another volun-
teer then scans both the athlete ID
and the token ID, and at the end of
the event all the data is uploaded to
a central database. The runners can
then receive a text or email informing
them of their "official" time for the
run, and can also go online to view
all the results of the parkrun (indeed
any parkrun) and get statistics of
their own performance over time.
(This can sometimes be unexpect-
edly helpful. One friend, whose ill-
ness persisted for months even after
several supposed treatments, took
her series of deteriorating times to
her doctor, which led to an in-depth
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine

examination, correct diagnosis, and
curative treatment.)

Technology and Society
It is worth noting that there is a fairly
minimal obligation on technological
availability in order to participate
in parkrun: access to a computer to
register, receive email and browse
the results; and access to a printer
to output the barcode for the athlete
ID. This is in stark contrast to, say,
virtual payment systems. The differ-
ence between cash and electronic
money is that the former has zero
cost for participants to enter the
market, whereas the latter requires
ownership of a device, which also
requires a contract with a service pro-
vider, and may also entail purchas-
ing insurance and regular upgrades.
It is also worth noting that parkrun
has accumulated a vast amount of
data: access to the anonymized data
is granted to medical researchers,
but is not used in the same way that
some large IT companies use the
data that they collect through use of
their platforms and services.
It follows that more profound
questions beyond the functional
and non-functional requirements of
systems need to be addressed. In
particular, there are fundamental
questions such as how do we achieve
pro-social outcomes through collec-
tive action that reflects our shared
values? But it also raises a num-
ber of secondary issues, such as:
to what extent must citizens pay to
participate in the digital transforma-
tion? To what extent should they be
obligated (by the state) to participate
in the digital transformation? For
example, there is already discussion
of the "digital divide," whereby poor-
er areas and older people are exclud-
ed by the shift from an analogue
world to a digital one. This could be
extended to effective disenfranchise-
ment if electronic voting were to be
the only means by which to cast a
∕

march 2018



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