Gauravonomics Blog

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At the recent e-STAS Symposium on Technologies for Social Action, it became evident to me that there are two dramatically different paradigms of digital activism: empowering with information and engaging with inspiration.

In the first paradigm of digital activism, you work with a disadvantaged group that suffers from limited access to even the most basic information and tools for self-expression. So, you use simple-to-use digital devices like Nokia mobile phones and Flip video cameras and simple-to-use digital technologies like text messages and online video to enable them to access basic information and share their own stories. Frontline SMS, Ushahidi, Freedom Fone and Video Volunteers are good examples of the ‘empowering with information’ paradigm of digital activism.

In the second paradigm of digital activism, you work with a group that is anything but disadvantaged. This group is at ease with using always on internet and mobile devices, both for instantaneous access to information and for self-expression and social interaction. Here, the digital activist isn’t trying to solve a crisis of capability, but a crisis of caring. Here, the aim is not to empower with information, but to engage with inspiration. Move On and iJanaagraha are examples of the ‘engaging with inspiration’ paradigm of digital activism.  Read More

I was quoted recently in a TOI article on how activists are using social networking platforms.

I like how Indian social activists are using social networking platforms for fundraising, or creating awareness for their causes.

Isha Foundation’s $100K win in the Chase Community Giving Contest is a good example of non-profits using social platforms to get support for a cause for fundraising. A very persuasive lady from Isha Foundation even called me to ask me to write a post supporting their bid.

The Wall Project, Batti Bandh, The Bicycle Project and The Sapling Project have all got attention recently for using Twitter and Facebook for promoting their programs. The Pink Chaddi Campaign, Grassroutes, NGOPost, Bell Bajao and Blank Noise are some of my favorite examples of Indian digital activism campaigns.

However, using Facebook and Twitter to spread a brand-related or cause-related message doesn’t excite me anymore. I would be excited if activists used social platforms to enable collaboration, like Vote Report India did, or build a long-term community, like iJanaagraha is trying to do. I have earlier written about the need for activists to go beyond content and conversations, to tap into the collaboration, community and collective intelligence layers. Ellen Miller’s Sunlight Foundation is showing us how in the area of government transparency and accountability.  Read More

Rajesh Jain recently wrote an interesting series on the opportunities in the Indian internet space: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4.

Rajesh’s main point is that “the current crop of portals (horizontals and verticals)… haven’t yet become “utilities” (daily must-visits) in our lives” and there’s an opportunity “to build a hybrid net-mobile consumer media business, if one is willing to invest $5+ million over the next 2-3 years”.

I agree with Rajesh that unlimited flat-rate broadband plans will be the key to driving internet usage in India. I also agree with Rajesh’s assertion that web services need to leverage both internet and mobile to maximize reach and build in multiple revenue streams.

However, I think that Rajesh rushes through the last post and merely lists down the big sectors and players in the Indian internet space, without identifying the big business opportunities.

The big opportunity in the Indian internet space consists of three parts and here’s the missing third (first) part –

Part 1: Build a compelling vertical offering combining rich local content and a vibrant local community.  Read More

I recently spoke at a panel on “Online Activism Around the World” with Nancy Scola, Ralf Bendrath and Jon Pincus at the Computers Freedom and Privacy 2009 Conference.

Although I was supposed to speak about Vote Report India and digital activism in India, I ended up speaking about how social technologies are value-agnostic.

At each of the four levels of Content, Collaboration, Community and Collective Intelligence, social technologies can lead to both good and bad outcomes.

User generated content can be used to break news or spread propaganda. Collective action can be used to organize protests against a totalitarian regime or perpetrate violence against its detractors. Online communities can create cosmopolitan open societies or cult-like closed ones. Collective intelligence can be used to benefit consumers and citizens or profile them for surveillance or commercial exploitation.

Some highlights from the talks and the panel –

- Why real political change will not be brought about by online activism, but by using online engagement to build real world institutions.

- Why digital technologies don’t necessarily distribute power by default, but can also be used to centralize power.  Read More

The 20:20 Approach to Social Media Analytics is based on nuanced understanding of the multi-layered nature of social media.

We recognize that social media programs can operate at any of the four levels of Content, Collaboration, Community and Collective Intelligence, and each layer has a corresponding set of metrics, which need to be measured using a mix of onsite/ offsite web analytics, network/ influence analysis and semantic/ content analysis.

We also believe that social media analytics is at the core of all the five steps of a social media program: planning, listening, understanding, engaging and monitoring.

Step 1: Plan

- Start with shared understanding on strategic objectives.
- Identify metrics for each level in 4Cs Framework: Content, Collaboration, Community and Collective Intelligence.
- Select web analytics, network analysis and content analysis tools to measure identified metrics.

Step 2: Listen

- Set up keywords list and use tool(s) to crawl data.
- Use network analysis to identify relevant segments.
- Use machine content analysis to auto-tag data and identify related content clusters.
- Use human content analysis to deal with duplication, spam, slang, sarcasm and sentiment.

Step 3: Understand  Read More

Introduction: The Problem With Social Media Analytics

The 20:20 Social Media Analytics Blog aims to become your preferred resource on the best practices in social media monitoring and measurement, by cutting through the confusion on what to measure and how to measure it.

Let me assure you that there is much confusion to cut through in the area of social media analytics.

The discussion on social media analytics is dominated by three different narratives.

According to the first business-as-usual narrative, the metrics we measure on social media should be the same business metrics we measure otherwise. The metrics might include lead conversions for the Sales function, brand loyalty for the Marketing function and customer satisfaction for the Customer Support function. The decision on whether to invest in social media programs should be taken based on the relative effectiveness of these programs to achieve business objectives.

According to the second ad-value-equivalence narrative, buzz is the single most important metric to track on social media. The decision on whether to invest in social media programs should be taken based on whether the value of the buzz created by these programs is higher than the visibility generated by spending the same money on advertising.  Read More

Someone asked me recently why I write about social media and social change.

I write about social media because it’s a multi-layered phenomenon that can lead to significant social change in terms of how consumers engage with businesses and citizens engage with civil society organizations and governments.

I have talked about the four layers of social media in my 4Cs of Social Media Framework.

The first C, Content, refers to the idea that social media tools allow everyone to become a creator, by making the publishing and distribution of multimedia content both free and easy, even for amateurs.

The second C, Collaboration, refers to the idea that social media facilitates the aggregation of small individual actions into meaningful collective results.

The third C, Community, refers to the idea that social media facilitates sustained collaboration around a shared idea, over time and often across space.

The fourth C, Collective Intelligence, refers to the idea that the social web enables us to not only aggregate individual actions, but also run sophisticated algorithms on them and extract meaning from them.  Read More

The Need for the 4Cs Social Media Framework

Over the last year, I have had to explain how social media works to diplomats, defense officials, and academics and students focused on fields as diverse as international affairs, management and sociology.

I have found that first-timer find social media confusing because of two reasons.

The first reason is the excessive focus on specific social media tools. Many first-timers are introduced to social media via specific tools. Many ’social media experts’ who are practitioners rather than thinkers also focus on specific tools. Since social media encompasses many different types of tools, and each tool has specific characteristics and a steep learning curve, a toolkit approach can quickly become overwhelming. Blogging (Wordpress), microblogging (Twitter), video-sharing (YouTube), photo-sharing (Flickr), podcasting (Blog Talk Radio), mapping (Google Maps), social networking (Facebook), social voting (Digg), social bookmarking (Delicious), lifestreaming (Friendfeed), wikis (Wikipedia), and virtual worlds (Second Life) are all quite different from each other and new and hybrid tools are being introduced almost everyday. Mastering each tool individually seems like a lot of work and a lot of people give up even before they begin.  Read More

In the third session of my course “MSFS556: Social Media in Business, Development, and Government” on Monday, we will look at the 4 Cs of social media: Content, Collaboration, Community and Cumulative Value.

Here are the slides in PPTX and PDF format.

I’ll update this post tomorrow with detailed notes.

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

When you are doing an interdisciplinary study of social technologies across four countries, it is important to focus on the connections between otherwise unrelated factors, and it is useful to develop a framework to look for these connections.

Here’s the framework we have been using for our research on social media in BRIC countries –

The outer circle is the national context, which comprises of the five interconnected Cs of computing devices, connectivity, culture, content and capabilities. The inner circle is the social media ecosystem itself. Our research, which looks at the connections between the two, has three layers –

Layer 1: The role of the national context in social media adoption
Layer 2: The dynamics of the social media ecosystem
Layer 3: The role of social media in changing the social context

Finally, the national contexts we are looking at are the four BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) and United States (as a reference point).  Read More

My young friend Harshil Karia — who has recently started social media agency Foxymoron — recently asked me if there is too much content out there, if we have become so focused on creating (often duplicate) content that we have forgotten how to listen.

Well, I’m someone who believe that there can never be too much content. It’s a god things that so many of us are creating so much content, and here are three reasons why –

- The Wisdom of Crowds: The more people link to, vote on, tag, or share a piece of content, the more visible it becomes. When we engage with content online, we endorse it, make it easier for others to discover it. So, in fact, every click does count.

- The Value of Mashups: There is as much value in creating connections between existing pieces of content, mashing them up, as in creating totally original content. When we create mashups, we reveal underlying layers of understanding that were not visible before.  Read More

Seth Godin is at his thought-provoking best when he says -

By a factor of three, what you do is not nearly as important as how it makes people feel.

If you define ‘what you do’ as ‘content’ and ‘how it makes people feel’ as ‘delivery’, the rule doesn’t hold. Great content with bad delivery is a waste, but bad content with great delivery is often worse; you cannot deliver what you don’t have.

However, if you factor in the ‘intent’ to makes people feel good, the rule does hold, almost all the time.

What do you do when you have the intent, but are limited by undifferentiated content and delivery? You act as the ‘filter’; instead of selling to people the solution available with you, you lead them to the solution that is most suitable for them.

What’s true for business is often true for blogging too. Focus on making your readers feel good, and blogging nirvana will follow.