The information cascades that we have discussed in class have been limited to those that are determined by the number of people who have developed an opinion. Each person looks at those that have expressed an opinion before them but can see only their expressed choice, not their private information. This makes for a very limited view of cascades. Once two people in a row receive the same signal, everyone else will follow, regardless of their private information.

In reality, cascade usually required a significant number of people to reach threshold. In class we have looked at this as network effects, or the benefit to others who have adopted a product when a new person adopts it. In other cases, such as political followings, it is just the perception of the following that is important. In other words, there is no direct benefit to followers when more people become followers, but the number of followers affects the perception of the candidate to the rest of the world.

The problem with trying to spawn a cascade is that often times there is cost associated with adopting a new product or a penalty from professing a political affiliation when there are not enough other followers. To remedy this problem, a company called The Point created a Facebook application called Ultimatums. The concept behind Ultimatums is to set a tipping point, or threshold, and allow people to commit to an action if, and only if, the threshold is reached. On their website(1), there is a list of ‘campaigns.’ These are issues that have been started and are in the incubation period, waiting for enough people to commit to the cause before acting.

One example is a campaign to convince Walmart to provide better health care for their employees. If one million people pledge their support then the group will demand that Walmart provide better health care to their employees or all one million supporters will boycott Walmart. Without a tool like this, a cause like this would require that people boycott Walmart, costing them more money, before there are enough people to make an impact in Walmart’s sales. While many petitions will never reach their target number of supporters, those that do will be able to powerfully influence businesses and governments.

1. https://www.thepoint.com/campaigns