- 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)?
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.
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.
Beth Kanter is a trainer, blogger, and consultant who writes about the effective use of social media tools in the nonprofit sector to enable social change.
I recently announced that I’ll be spending some serious time this year working on MobiChange, a social entrepreneurship venture that will leverage mobile social networking for mobilizing social change.
I have been doing some research on how to use social media for social change and I believe that a truly powerful social 2.0 initiative needs to be –
1. Mobile, because most of the developing world still doesn’t have access to computers.
2. Scalable, because standalone events/ initiatives can only have limited localized impact.
3. Self-sustainable, because it won’t last unless it pays for itself.
The social media world has proven that, though still a young and small community within a multitude of industries, we have the power to exact great change. But what about change for the greater good? Social Media for Social Change was born of the idea that the social media community, these “agents of change” can get together for one night, to support one cause.
The first SM4SC event will take place on October 10 at Boston (Eventbrite) to raise funds to benefit Jane Doe Inc. , a Boston-based anti-domestic violence organization.
‘An Overview of Internet, Blog & Social Media Environment in India’ is based on primary research with social media thought leaders (including yours truly), apart from secondary research. It covers internet, mobile web and social media usage trends in India, apart from analysis of the social networking sites and blogging platforms popular in India.
I have great respect for the team that has worked on the report and, at $1200 plus tax, it’s a useful introduction to the social media space in India. You can order the report by e-mail at studyreport@blogworks.in.
As an individual, I was tired of being targeted by commercial messages from the brands-media-retail triumvirate. As a marketer, I loved the art and science of marketing, adored brands, and was hardwired into the idea of capitalist free markets driven by consumerism.
My endeavor to reconcile these two parts… led to my interest in social media, because, at its best, social media allows brands and consumers to connect as equals, even as people (and brands are people too).
– but that’s not the full story.
At its best, social media enables us to transform ourselves as individuals, transform marketplaces and transform society.
Social media gives us the tools to create meaning (via both content and relationships) in ways that was not possible before, allows us to realize our full potential both as creative individuals and social beings.
Social media also enables brands and consumers to engage as equals, even connect as people (because, as I have said before, brands are people too).
The 2006 elections will be remembered as the year when the center of power in American politics shifted from traditional “top-down” central broadcasters to new “bottom-up” decentralized activists in the blogosphere and netroots. The authors give firsthand accounts of the burgeoning power of the netroots to determine the outcome of political contests, most notably as when the national balance of power was tipped by Jim Webb’s “rag-tag army” of bloggers and netroots activists who provoked and exposed the gaffe that proved fatal to George Allen’s senatorial bid.
It seems to me that the prominent use of social media tools in election campaigns has introduced social media to a set of Americans who wouldn’t have been interested in it otherwise. As a result, there’s suddenly a lot of interest in the use of social media to engage (young) citizens in civic issues. Books like Rebooting America: Ideas for Redesigning American Democracy for the Internet Age and ‘Netroots Rising’ are an indicator of this interest.
The interesting twist is that I’ll record, edit and upload my vidcasts exclusively from my Nokia E71 smartphone. So, the vidcast is also an experiment in what is possible and what is not possible with mobile technology. Stay tuned.
