Tech-Savvvy Citizenry

new media for public participation, policy deliberation, and social change

July 9, 2009

• Joe Peters, Ascentum
• Brad Rourke, blog.bradrourke.com (rockvillecentral.com = local website)

using keypads for quick polls in powerpoint (Turning Point)

polling questions about familiarity with and interest in various social media

(could shape direction of presentation/discussion)

Facebook use:

• Canada: 12 million users (largest percentage of users in population per country!)
• US: 62 millions users

basic description of social media / web 2.0 / user-generated content

"new means of reaching and engaging citizens at scale"

changes the nature of citzens' relationship with institutions

increasingly used by senior citizens

examples of uses of social media:

• blog for local community: rockvillecentral.com
  • people tend to find Civics boring; added interest with picture of the day, list of events
  • news (comments and reactions to news posts), opinion (encourage opinions from ordinary people)
  • transformed from a blog into almost a virtual local newspaper or community space
• youtube: the CDC shares a lot of information thru youtube
• twitter: ability of social media to instantly view/correct information
• Canadian facebook movement: speakupforchange.com

description of some basic social media: Twitter

uses of social media by the White House

scenarios to solve in small groups

-- discussing uses of twitter, facebook, traditional webpages, etc.

-- trying to determine useful social media to interaction between an advisory board of new Americans in a particular community

--  discussed use of handheld technologies among minority groups (Pew Internet Studies); not only smartphones with data plans, but text messaging from any cell phone

-- decide on twitter hashtag for the advisory board

-- discussed limitations of discussion potential when limited to 140 characters; may be more useful for scheduling face-to-face meetings, getting quick answers to questions, etc.

-- central webpage that aggregates the group's information:  follows the hashtag for this group; reports meeting dates; contact info, etc.

recurring problem with our scenario solutions: digital divide!!  by age, socioeconomic status, lack of time, lack of tech savvy, etc. not sure how to resolve this.

recurring themes in our discussion:

• timing: when in the process do you jump into the technologies?
• education
• digital divide
• emotion: motivate people to share stories; yet also worry that strongly worded comments cause harm or bias the discussion
• purpose: why are you using the technologies? how are you using them?
• who is involved?
• link online & face-to-face strategies
• "intelligence"
• ask members of group what strategies/methods they want to use

...also discussing with Brenda McCoy (also from UNT) about how to use a Facebook page in the class projects she assigns to her students...