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The second panel at the TRPC Conference used the OECD Ministerial Conference on The Future of the Internet Economy as the starting point to discuss a research agenda for an international and multi-stakeholder approach to information and communications technology (ICT) policy.

The panel was moderated by Prabir Neogi and the panel members included Andrew Wyckoff, Andrew Odlyzko, Jonathan Cave, Richard Simpson, Joseph Alhadeff, Marc Rotenburg, Nancy Weiss, and Robert Atkinson.

Some of the areas for future research highlighted in The Seoul Declaration for the Future of the Internet Economy overlap with our own fellowship research —

- Analysing the future development of the Internet Economy, namely: i) the important role and contribution of the Internet and related ICTs as a driver of innovation, productivity and economic growth; ii) the economic, social and cultural impacts of emerging Internet technologies, applications and services, including virtual worlds, sensor-based networks and social networking platforms.

- Improving statistical systems to measure the changing access and use of the Internet and related ICT networks by citizens, businesses and institutions in order to provide reliable measures of evolving uses and the impact of the Internet on economic performance and social well-being.

(Cross-posted on my fellowship blog: How International Values Shape Communications Technologies)

I was part of the audience at the Web 2.0 Expo in New York last week when Tim O’ Reilly gave an inspiring keynote on using technology to solve real world problems –

Since then, I have heard many people talk about using technology for doing good in conferences and meetups (Microsoft’s ICT4D Conference, Social Media Club DC, NetSquared DC).

I find it frustrating that people talk about using technology for doing good without any distinctions regarding either the nature of the technology or the purpose for which it is being used. Therefore, I have developed a framework to think about using technology for doing good. I understand that ‘technology’ is a very broad term, and I’m only talking about communications technology here.

It’s probably clear to even a casual observer of this space that there are two separate groups discussing using technology for doing good. The first set of discussions, primarily amongst large aid organizations, converge around ICT4D (or information and communication technology for development). The second set of discussions, primarily amongst smaller non-profits and web 2.0 geeks, are around SM4SC (social media for social change).

A few months back, I had compiled two lists to help define the social media scene in India — a list of marketing, public relations and social media blogs in India and a list of social media agencies in India.

Now, Sampad Swain has taken the idea further by compiling a ranking of social media blogs in India, using a combination of metrics — Google PageRank, Alexa Rank, Number of Feed Subscribers, Technorati Authority and his own qualitative assessment (Sampad’s Rank).

I appreciate the hard work Sampad has put into the list (and it’s flattering to be ranked first), but I personally believe that blog rankings are premature for the India social media scene. Blog rankings are useful as filters when there are hundreds (or thousands) of blogs. As of now, there are only twenty odd social media blogs in India, so, focusing on rankings will make some people defensive and detract from what we need to do — build a community by highlighting each other’s work.

(Cross-posted on my official fellowship blog — How Global Values Shape Communications Technologies)

I believe that the most powerful application of social media is to help citizens self-organize themselves into virtual communities to work towards social change. In BRIC countries, where mobile penetration is much higher than PC penetration, such communities will need to be designed in an “access agnostic” manner, which means that the content/ community exists in the “cloud” and can be accessed by multiple mediums including websites, RSS feeds, voice portals and even text messages.

So, when I attend Microsoft’s ICT for Development Conference (see agenda) in Washington DC on September 22-23 2008, I’ll be interested to find out if development agency leaders, private sector practitioners, non-profits and activists share my enthusiasm for the use of social media for social change. The conference is free, but there are limited seats, so you need to register in advance at DevEx, a community for “professionals working in international development, global health, and foreign assistance”.

Incidentally, Microsoft runs some interesting initiatives under its Unlimited Potential program and James Utzschneider runs a cool blog on “Microsoft’s commitment to create sustained social and economic opportunity for the next 5 billion”.

Here are some highlights from a survey conducted by research firm Synovate amongst 13,000 respondents aged 18-65 in Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, South Africa, Taiwan, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the US (via eMarketer) –

- Only 42% of the respondents knew about social networking, even though a higher percentage of younger respondents were aware of social networking.

- Only 26% of the respondents were members of any social network. Some markets (like India) seemed to favor multiple memberships and some seemed to stick to one or two major ones.

- 51% of the respondents expressed concerns about privacy and security issues online. Brazilians (79%) and Americans (69%) were most concerned about such issues while Indians (19%) were the least concerned. Amongst members of social networking sites, only 26% were comfortable giving out personal details. Indians (57%) were amongst those most comfortable sharing personal details while Brazilians (23%) and Americans (30%) were amongst those least comfortable.

At my official fellowship blog — How Global Values Shape Communications Technologies — I use data from Wave 3 of the Power of the People Social Media Tracker by Universal McCann (PDF/ Slideshare) to do a comparative analysis of social media usage in BRIC countries.

Here are the top level highlights –

- The total number of active internet users in BRIC countries (101.2m) is higher than the number of active internet users in US (100m).

- Significantly more users from BRIC countries than US engage with social media tools, both in terms of content consumption and content creation.

- Even as percentage of active internet users, social media usage in BRIC countries is much higher than US across content consumption and content creation.

- At the country level, China leads in blogging and podcasting while Brazil is the leader in social networking and online video.

Do join the conversation at the How Global Values Shape Communications Technologies blog.

At my official fellowship blog — How Global Values Shape Communications Technologies — I use the Geert Hofstede model to study the cultural differences between the BRIC countries and US and wonder how a collectivist, paternalist, status-oriented and relativist social web will look like —

- What if the social web subjugated individual profiles and activity streams (high individualism) to group affiliations (high collectivism)?

- What if the social web parsed and displayed relationships between two users based on their status relative to each other (high power distance) instead of treating everyone as a “friend” (low power distance)?

- What if the primary relationship on the social web was “becoming a fan” (long term orientation) instead of “becoming a friend” (short terms orientation)?

- What if the complex relationships between users automatically changed over time and across context (low uncertainty avoidance) instead of staying the same until it is proactively changed (high uncertainty avoidance)?

Do you think that such a social web will ever come into existence? Do join the conversation at the How Global Values Shape Communications Technologies blog.

Rob Pongsajapan at The Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship (CNDLS) at Georgetown University totally delighted me yesterday by setting up the official “ISD Yahoo! Fellow Blog” within hours of our discussion.

How Global Values Shape Communications Technologies is a group blog co-authored by the 2008-09 Yahoo! Fellows — Ben Turner, Pavneet Singh and myself. We will be writing between 5 to 10 posts every week on how international values apply to the development and use of new communications technologies, especially in BRIC countries. I’ll mostly focus on how social media will be used differently by individuals and institutions in BRIC countries as compared to their first world counterparts, but also riff frequently on the broader theme. Ben and Pavneet will also write mostly about their own research areas (to be announced soon) but also contribute to the bigger conversation on the blog.

From mid-September, we will start a weekly podcast with thinkers and practitioners from the Georgetown University community and beyond on social media in BRIC countries and how to use social media for social change.

In December, we will invite contributions for a crowd-sourced paper (or even a crowd-sourced e-book!) on how global values shape communications technologies.

It’s week three in Washington DC and I have started my research on the “BRIC Model of Social Media” as the Yahoo! Fellow at Georgetown University.

Even as I do my own research, I am endlessly fascinated by my first hand exposure to the use of social media tools in the academic world.

The Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship (CNDLS) at Georgetown University — run by Randall Bass and Eddie Maloney — is driving the education 2.0 thinking at Georgetown. CNDLS runs the Digital Commons platform that allows Georgetown students, faculty, and staff to use blogs, wikis, forums, podcasts, portfolios, posters, timelines and dStories for communication and collaboration. The CNDLS team is setting up has already set up the official “ISD Yahoo! Fellowship Blog” over the weekend and I have a few ideas on how to introduce a wiki and a podcast into the mix during the year. dStories, a multimedia authoring tool that allows you to combine texts, images and audio files into a short film clip — or a digital story — can be quite cool too. This gallery of the CNDLS education 2.0 projects gives a sense of what is possible with these tools.

I stumbled upon Hugh McLeod’s paean to the Global Microbrand from October ‘05 via his recent post on the super-cool Digital Nomads blog by Dell –

A Global Microbrand is a small, tiny brand, that “sells” all over the world.

With the internet, of course, a global microbrand is easier to create than ever before… And with the advent of blogs this was no longer just limited to people who made products. We saw that any service professional with a bit of talent and something to say could spread their message far and wide beyond their immediate client base and local market, without needing a high-profile name or the goodwill of the mainstream media… But it’s not just limited to cottage industries. The great Tom Peters talks about “Brand You”, a personal brand that transcends your organisation or job description.

(After) I created my own fledgling global microbrand (i.e. via this weblog), I now live in a small cottage in the English boonies, and careerwise I’m getting a lot more done than when I lived in a large apartment in New York or London, for a fifth of the overheads. For one fiftieth of the stress levels.