Stakeholder #2

In this post I'll be analyzing the position of my second stakeholder, seen as a group in this case.

"File:Stakeholder (en).svg". 12/11/2008 via Wikimedia Commons. Attribution Share Alike 3.0.

1. This second stakeholder is a group- all the people who tried to figure out what color the dress is. While it can be argued that this group contains literally anyone with an internet connection, I'll be looking only at tweets of people musing about the color of the dress, which means this group is made primarily of celebrities and their online presence. Normally the opinions of celebrities aren't very important, but seeing colors of the dress involves no credentials, only a neurological differentiation that anyone can have. Since their tweets are very popular and easy to access, using their differences as a model is perfect because "everyone who had an opinion" is not a realistic stakeholder group. They are represented by their tweets- either they wrote them or their assistants did, so we can be almost completely positive that these are their real opinions. While it's broad, it's important to consider first if we are then to consider why different people see different colors.

2. Different people in this group make different claims, but there are only two main ones which are easy to identify (but different people have said the two claims differently so I will paraphrase). Again, they all come from the same source but I will link them all.

1. The dress is black and blue. -Various celebrities
2. The dress is gold and white. -Other various celebrities
3. I'm confused and scared. -Some of the celebrities who also made one of the two above claims, but mainly Taylor Swift

3. Now, there is really no way to validate these claims. As long as we as humans are physically unable to see the same thing from a different set of eyes, we cannot validate them. But, on another level, it doesn't really matter. We know that these arguments, while they are factual, are only as good as opinions because everyone physically sees different colors. We also know that the only two arguments are white and gold vs. black and blue (except for Lady Gaga who was frankly being a little difficult). So, in this rare case, we can take their word for it. 

4. In a strange paradox, the claims of these stakeholders are both similar and different to other stakeholders in this same group. Any given person sees this dress one way or another, so this group is divided down the middle. They have, simultaneously, the least and most in common with each other. Additionally, this group can contain my other groups of stakeholders. The people who took the photo have a claim in this group. So do the people trying to figure out why we see different colors. Anyone who looks at the picture can be part of this group, whether it be one half or the other.