Tagged: Social Media RSS

  • Natasha 8:57 am on July 26, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , Social Media   

    Revolutionary social media 

    “The revolution will not be televised – it will be emailed, texted, blogged, wikied…”

    So says the blurb of Clay Shirky’s Here Comes Everybody: How change happens when people come together.   But, earlier this month, the #4change crew discovered first hand the limitations of social media.  At the first of our ‘Revolutionary Social Media’ chats, the Twitter search was experiencing major delays and people disappeared from altogether, and as a result, we decided to end the conversation early.  Amy’s fantastic post covers the ‘lessons learned in using twitter for a global conversation’.  Here, I’m going to pick up the baton and provide an overview of the discussion which resumed on July 23.

    Looking back through the twitter stream, some of the issues raised included:

    • Lessons learned from the Iran election, from the icon changing, the State Department and Twitter maintenance, whether awareness-raising should been seen as a success only if it motivates action or whether it’s an end-goal in itself.

    1: Create unrealistic expectations for Twtr hashtag 2: Declare #iranelection revolution 3: Democracy unrealized, proclaim social change dead

    @rootwork 4:46 AM Jul 9th http://twitter.com/rootwork/status/2548985606

    • The changing role of television and other traditional media sources from breaking the news to explaining it.
    • Social media may not be the way to coordinate protests or revolutionary activity, due to the public nature of posting.  Social networks, email, mobile, etc are a more private way to coordinate activity.
    • Different situations require different levels of anonymity.

    Anonymity depends on who you are. If you are a protester in China – anonymity is important.

    If you are trying to be a thought leader in the western world, I don’t think anonymity is the right way to go.

    @Sue_Anne Jul 23, 2009 10:06 PM GMT

    • How social media and Web 2.0 tools can be used to keep governments accountable.  mySociety’s They Work For You cited as an example.  Benefits in governments – like any brand – keeping an eye on what’s been said about them in social media.
    • Whether social media tools, such as Twitter, are inherently politically neutral and as such, whether they should bend to a particular government’s needs.

    I’ve gone through the stream and saved all the links which were referenced in the discussions, on delicious as well.

    It was a really interesting chat, and for me personally, a huge learning opportunity.  Many thanks to everyone who took part.  Feel free to add things I’ve missed, your own take-aways or thoughts on the topic below.  Let’s keep the conversation going.

     

  • amysampleward 2:56 pm on July 7, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , Organizing, Revolt, Revolution, , Social Media,   

    4Change Chat: Revolutionary social media – social tools for revolts, protests 

    The next #4change chat has been announced and I hope you can join in!

    Details:

    • Date: Thursday, July 9 (moved to July, 23rd – today! – same time)
    • Where: Twitter (search for #4Change)
    • When: 5 – 7 pm US Eastern Time
    • Topic: Revolutionary social media: Exploring social tools for revolts, upheavals & protests

    Why are we doing this and why would you want to join? Great questions:

    Social media is becoming a key driver of social change, allowing for the dissemination of new ideas, the formation of new communities and coalitions and the realization of new efficiencies and reach by existing social change groups. Throughout the world activists, organizers and non-profit professionals are exploring how best to use these tools, and sharing the results using the tools themselves. However these conversations are less international and therefore less effective than they could be.

    We have so much to learn from each other. From new forms of political campaigning in the United States, experiments in e-government and civic participation in England, from the fight against internet censorship in Australia and New Zealand and from start-ups in Canada and France. And beyond.

    We need a platform for light-weight, easily-organized and openly accessible conversations involving people from numerous countries. Twitter, I believe, provides us with such a platform.

    When do the chats take place?

    Chats are on the second Thursday of each month between 5-7pm US Eastern Time (GMT-4).

    Who is leading and participating in these chats?

    #4Change was initially proposed by Tom Dawkins (@tomjd) in Washington DC who is joined by Todd Pitt (@zerostrategist – Washington DC), Morgan Sully (@memeshfit – Oakland, California), Natasha Judd (@tashjudd – London, England), Edward Harran (@edwardharran – Brisbane, Australia) and Vibewire (@vibewire – Sydney, Australia).

    But the #4Change chats are open to everyone interested in discussing social media’s role in social change! Don’t be shy about joining—that’s one great thing about an open, public chat like this, you can follow along silently until you have something you want to say and no one will know :)

    How can you follow along or join the conversation?

    1. If you want to contribute to the conversation, you’ll need to have a twitter account (it’s free).
    2. To follow the conversation (whether you are planning to contribute or not), use http://search.twitter.com or another application to search on Twitter for “#4Change”
    3. Jump in to the conversation by adding “#4Change” (without the “”) to one of your Twitter messages

    Are there any rules for #Change Chats?

    1. #4Change will be structured around a series of questions which all participants can respond to. Send your questions to @tomjd without the hash tag (to keep them out of the stream) to have them considered.
    2. Introduce yourself in 1 tweet at the start or when you join.
    3. Stay on topic!
    4. Stay cool.

    Join me for the chat this Thursday – looking forward to discussing the role competitions play in social change!

     

  • tomjd 2:33 pm on June 11, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , History, Introduction, , , , , Social Media, Team, Technology   

    Introduction to 4Change 

    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!

     

Newer posts →

c
compose new post
j
next post/next comment
k
previous post/previous comment
r
reply
e
edit
o
show/hide comments
t
go to top
l
go to login
h
show/hide help
shift + esc
cancel