WHY
Technology is exciting. It creates new possibilities, new platforms for expression, information-sharing and collaboration. And these new possibilities give rise to the hope, sometimes realized, often not, that we can move past old problems, hurdle the barriers to a better world in a sudden triumphant leap.
Technology does, indeed, change things, and those of us who have come together to organize the #4change twitter chats and write this blog are fascinated and excited by the changes social media is catalyzing. We believe that social media has given rise to the most explosive increase in human creativity and expression the world has ever seen, and that in this explosion there is the possibility to fundamentally remake some of our most intractable institutions and traditions: organizations, corporations, universities, government. And not just government but democracy itself. Not just universities but the way that people are educated. And, perhaps, not just corporations but capitalism itself and not just organizations but how social change happens.
But we are also mindful that technologies do not, on their own, a better world make. It is only the conscious, committed and creative uses of new technologies that will realize our hopes and fulfill our dreams, that will bring people together in new ways to together create a world more democratic, sustainable and equal than the one we found. Call us cautiously, hopefully, optimistic. That’s why we are here; because we are committed to this work and we recognize it as work, something to be honed and refined and improved by practice. This is the way change happens.
Not so long ago a new communications technology was born, conceived in university labs and fueled by military funding this new technology slowly began to pick up adherents, initially the geeky few but eventually a mass market was created. The possibilities of this new technology led many to naturally imagine the democratizing potential of the medium. Here are some things they said:
The new technology was “capable not only of transmitting but receiving, not isolating [the user] but connecting” them. Users would “jump around the world and wipe out for all time the age-old barriers of race and language and distance”. Government would become “a living thing to its citizens” and this would give us “a new kind of statesman and a new kind of voter.”
The technology being discussed here is radio and the quotes are from the 20’s and 30’s (and taken from “Future Active: Media Activism and the Internet” by Graham Meilke 2002). The radio spectrum of today is unrecognizable in these claims, overrun as it is by conservative talk radio and bland chart music.
Could this happen to the internet? In a word: doubtful. The internet is too open, too diffuse and too decentralized to become the barren landscape most radio has become. But it could fall well short of our ambitions. We, however, have a vote in how this plays out. we strongly believe that all of us, connected in ways previously unimaginable, can work together to create the future we seek.
Everywhere around the world social entrepreneurs, activists and organizers are using social media in new ways, experimenting in a vast social change laboratory, seeking the formula that will move their cause forward. #4Change seeks to document and contribute to this experimentation by creating a space for people from diverse backgrounds to discuss how to use social media to bring about change, bringing together experience of what has and hasn’t worked with imagination for what should be tried next. By sharing our collective knowledge, creativity and passion we can help ensure that social media lives up to its potential.
WHAT
#4Change emerged from a series of conversations about how to better connect social media for social change practitioners around the world using Twitter. The team now involved came together organically and magically, people gravitating towards the same idea and seeking each other out to work with. It’s a true honour to be working with all of them and we also welcome the contributions from everyone else, whether in the twitter chats, or in the form of comments or guest posts.
The centerpiece of our efforts will be the monthly twitter chat, taking place from 5-7pm US Eastern Daylight time, GMT-4. We have tried to find the best compromise between the worlds unyielding time zones and believe this is it. It requires those in Sydney to get up a little early to participate from 7-9am and those in London to stay up late for a 10pm start but it seems do-able to the maximum number of people. Of course it still falls very awkwardly for many and we’re sorry about that. We’ll look into moving the time around if there’s interest. In addition to the chat we’ll be using this blog to identify take-aways and key themes from each chat, announce upcoming topics and further explore issues, ideas and examples around social media for social change. We have also set up a delicious account where we will be collecting links of interest (if you’re a delicious member please tag suggested links “4change” and follow the tag).
WHO
Finally, who are we? We are Tash Judd @tashjudd, an old colleague from Vibewire who is now the Marketing Manager for YouthNet in the UK, Joe Solomon @engagejoe in Seattle, a well-known doer-of-good-deeds, Morgan Sully @memeshift who is organizing We Operate Best Together, a travel project documenting social innovation in creative hubs, blogs at http://www.memeshift.com (and is kind enough to host our blog) and is looking for a backers willing to support his project , Amy Sample Ward @amyrsward, the Global Community Builder for NetSquared, Todd Pitt @zerostrategist, Social Media Manager at MetroStar Systems and blogger at http://www.zerostrategist.com and Edward Harran @edwardharran, a social media consultant based in Brisbane, Australia. Oh and me, @tomjd, I’m the social media guy at Ashoka:Innovators for the Public in Washington DC and formerly founder of Vibewire in Australia. Read more about us on the Authors page.
We look forward to talking a lot more about these important issues with all of you!
