The Challenge of Social Technologies

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The Challenge of Social Technologies
All networked up

• David Steven, River Path Associates

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Daily Summit 1

• World Summit on Sustainable Development
• Instant news and comment
• Updated 10 times a day
• Went where the mainstream media wouldnt/couldnt

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Screen grab of dailysummit 1
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FSTR technology

• On the hoof
• Technology cheap, flexible, versatile
• Content broad, deep, expensive
• Marketing not an add-on
• Learning opportunity for institution

• The benchmark by which blogger coverage of
  political events may be judged
• Tim Blair
• The Australian

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Building a buzz

• High impact
• 110,000 site visits in 2 month live period
• Many regular visitors community created
• 262 inward links
• Ranked 5th on Google official British
  government site ranked 18th
• Ranked top on DayPop

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Screen grab of DayPop
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Daily Summit 2

• World Summit on the Information Society
• Dual language site English/Arabic
• Team of reporters

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Screen grab of dailysummit 2
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A different kind of buzz

• Niche publishing
• 60,000 site visits and 250 links
• Extensive media coverage Guardian, BBC, various
  radio etc.
• Iranian webloggers/Iranian president

• Citizens media meets bulldog journalism finds
  the future of news Im witnessing the future of
  journalism
• Jeff Jarvis

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Screen grab of WBP
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World Bank President

• Amplification
• Who will succeed James Wolfensohn?
• From off-the-radar to media firestorm
• First stop for worlds media
• Huge interest inside the Bank

• If any of you want to be up to date on the inside
  scoop check
• World Bank President and youll probably know as
  much as I do.
• James Wolfensohn

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Screen grab of Low Level Panel
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Low Level Panel

• Building a movement
• Driving grassroots change across the UN system
• Blogging also tagging, forum, Flickr, Wikipedia
  etc.
• Innovation in the grey spaces hive mind

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Why use social technologies?

• It doesnt work
• Low appetite for risk
• Not prepared to move fast
• Insistent on traditional command and control
• Technology as cudgel
• Know what youre doing before you start
• Traditional notions of authority

• It works
• Interesting story to tell
• Story tellers enabled
• Genuine connection to audience
• Playful attitude to technology
• Learning through experimentation
• Not waiting for permission

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Information strategies and policy influence

• Current information strategies
• Open source challenge often under the radar
• Information foraging
• Folksonomy challenge experiments with
  emergent order
• Information landscape of tomorrow
• Disruptive change the only constant