Telecom Circle

Society is the term to describe human beings together collectively, the sum of their social networks and power networks. According to sociologist Richard Jenkins, how humans think and exchange information makes up only a fraction of human experience. To understand the world, we have to conceive of human interaction in the abstract i.e the society. While this definition may be uninteresting to non-sociologists, let’s hold onto the point of human interaction. I am of the school of thought that believes that a society can only function if its individual members are able to communicate, participate, collaborate and interact without walls. Human interaction is arguably the most essential part of society. The concept of a free market in economics lends itself nicely to this and you don’t have to look very far to realise that social networking websites today are founded on this fundamental characteristic of human nature. The trite clichés of globalisation are not hard to come across in the media and it would not be new to say the internet has caused an accelerated proliferation of globalisation and the formation of unconventional societies.

Social networking sites have kept virtual communities intact while creating new ones in a simple and unobtrusive way – at no cost to the user. Located in different parts of the world, families and people of different race, class, belief, strata and whatever box you choose to put them in, are able to maintain functional societies and relationships over the internet with no limitations other than bandwidth and regulatory threats on net-neutrality. Geopolitical, socio-economic, cultural and generational boundaries are blown to smithereens by the undiscriminating reach of the internet. The Facebook Causes application has more than 30 million active users who are leveraging the power of social networks to raise money for charity. The Save Darfur Coalition’s mission is to raise public awareness about the ongoing genocide in Darfur and to mobilize a unified response to the atrocities that threaten the lives of two million people in the Darfur region. An alliance of more than 180 faith-based, advocacy and humanitarian organizations, the coalition’s member organizations represent 130 million people of all ages, races, religions and political affiliations united together to help the people of Darfur. The potential of social networking can be harnessed to achieve several meaningful causes which people will gladly engage in. Conversely, uprisings can be organized in a short space of time using these Web 2.0 collaborative technologies. Twitter and YouTube played major roles in helping organize political protests in Iran’s recent election. According to a report by deloitte, Web 2.0 is more a shift in culture – one that views the Internet as a platform for deploying services and not just a simple place to post web pages. The first generation to have grown with the internet are now entering the workforce. They bring with them the new concepts and approaches to social interaction, discovery and information sharing. They harness the power of the internet to realize faster, easier, richer forms of collaboration, building vast networks of contacts and knowledge of countless information sources.

 Consumers and businesses do not have to reinvent the wheel but easily use any of these applications to interact and collaborate at virtually no cost: 

Provision of an environment that is conducive for societies to bloom, is in many ways reliant on government policies. The way societies interact has changed in the internet age and governments have been slow to follow suit. If regulatory bodies are slow to see the importance of these new technologies and fail to buy into them whole heartedly, they will pass legislation that may kill innovation. Unfortunately, failed IT projects, inefficient parastatals and overweight systems are synonymous with many a conventional government. However I was pleasantly surprised at the recent Gov. 2.0 summit which showed an awakening in government circles on principles of participation, collaboration, transparency, and efficiency enabled by Web 2.0. There is another upcoming conference in Australia. Did I hear you say ‘it’s about time!’? It certainly is! Governments can indeed leverage the power of social networking, wikis and blogs to change how they engage with populations who are rapidly disengaging. An ideal example of the benefits of collaboration was highlighted in James Surowiecki’s book – The Wisdom of Crowds.

In the 2003 Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) crisis, the World Health Organization (WHO) launched a global effort to uncover the source of SARS. The WHO asked 11 research laboratories around the world together to locate the virus. To facilitate the process, the WHO launched a web site where it posted electron microscope images of viruses, analyses and test results. This innovative “collaborative multi-centre research project” was overwhelmingly successful, allowing scientists to pinpoint the source of SARS within a month. Yet, no single country could lay claim to making this life-saving discovery. Success came from an intensive, global collaborative effort that set the tone for future complex global challenges of this type.

The time to redefine policies, share information, deliver Services and ‘modernize’ governments around the world is definitely here.

President Barack Obama was definitely on the money with the statement on CONNECTING AND EMPOWERING ALL AMERICANS THROUGH TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION – “We must use all available technologies and methods to open up the federal government, creating a new level of transparency to change the way business is conducted in Washington and giving Americans the chance to participate in government deliberation and decision making in ways that were not possible only a few years ago.”

It cannot be over emphasized that governments can boldly do a lot more with existing Web 2.0 technologies which now have an extended reach and great capability. There are a few government agencies using social media and web 2.0.  Some examples of leaders who have ‘led from the front’ and taken advantage of Web 2.0 technology to promote their campaigns are:

Obama’s campaign showed how the power of the web could be harnessed to mobilize an army of supporters, raise funds from the grassroots and ultimately win an election. He is for me the not just the first black president but the first 2.0 president.  His team was able to open up the campaign giving average Americans a chance to offer opinions and information on important policy issues and Americans have responded: over 15,000 policy ideas have been submitted through the barrackobama.com. Through Obama’s leadership, many of the presidential debates are freely available online for mashups, commentary, and other uses by ordinary citizens, bloggers, and others

Gordon Brown – In addition to the blog created for number10 to keep citizens up to date on the no.10’s antics, a youtube channel was created where people can upload video questions about the issues that matter to them. Gordon Brown’s response is also recorded and uploaded for people to watch. http://www.youtube.com/user/DowningSt

Nicolas Sarkozy – President Nicolas Sarkozy’s website, sarkozy.fr, is another prime example of the application of user-friendly web-interactivity in a political campaign. Sarkozy’s campaign website, an über-personable Web 2.0 extravaganza, answers (and in fact, predates) Obama’s slogan “Change We Can Believe In” with the slogan “Ensemble Tout Devient Possible” (”Together Everything Becomes Possible”) (source authenticity 2.0)

These campaign examples only scratch the surface of what can be achieved. During huricane Katrina, the inability of government agencies to share information properly and collaborate effectively to provide a swift response was to be their downfall in the way the disaster was handled.  Besides disaster recovery, the table below shows some other uses of Web 2.0 technology applications. 

So as not to lag behind the general population, government agencies must not be overwhelmed by the somewhat daunting change to web 2.0 technologies. The benefits far outweigh the hurdles that plague government decisions. A 2.0 Society with full collaboration between the public sector, businesses, citizens and all stakeholders, regardless of location, social status or age is one worth looking forward to.

Age of the internet at the time of writing this article : 26 years, 8 months, 1 week, 4 days, 14 hours, and 49 minutes

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