Archive for Social Media

Jun/29/10//Gibrán Rivera//Social Media

Is Social Media a Responsibility?

Microsoft Word - web 2.0 logos.doc

Are you amazing?  Are you one of those people who are working to define the next phase of movement?  Are you connected to a crew of local organizers, activists, innovators, dreamers?  If you are an amazing movement builder then I want to be able to follow you on Twitter and I want to be your Facebook friend.

I find myself travelling from place to place and meeting some truly amazing people, I keep getting hip to really interesting projects and innovative approaches to the work of social change.  I’m connecting to my tribe; I’m getting to know the people who are actively redefining the way we do social change.  Here is the problem though – I can’t keep up with all of them!  And here is where I notice an important distinction.  When these people are using social media tools I can at least have a sense of what they are up to, I can get a glimpse of how their work evolves – but if they are not, then I’m left with hearsay. Read the rest of this entry »

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Dec/03/09//Curtis Ogden//Social Media

Twitter and Creation

“What does Twitter do to our relationship with Creation?”  This was the final question in a wonderful conversation the other day with Liz Parsons, Co-Director of Contextual Education at the Boston University School of Theology.  Our free-ranging dialogue ended on this note as we were exploring potential win-win formats for field placements for BU students at social change agencies.  What would be in it for the agencies?  Stating my belief that many students bring with them more natural collaborative inclinations and social media savvy than “seasoned’ social change leaders, I posited this as a value proposition inherent in members of the younger generation.  Which got us firmly down the Twitter path . . .

When Liz’s provocative question popped, my mind split.  On the one hand, I could see the case being made that Twitter and other Web 2.0 tools provide an additional and unhelpful buffer between us and the world.  Too much reliance on the technology can, as essayist Bill Holm writes, “separate and deracinate us from nature and one another” removing “any sense of from-ness or connection.”  The question looms whether we need any more mediation of our experience when so much suffering seemingly stems from disconnection.  In a follow-up message, Liz mentioned that when her husband purchased a laptop, it came with an ongoing slide show of nature photos.  “As if we have to be reminded,” she wrote, taking the words out of my mouth.

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Nov/10/09//Gibrán Rivera//Social Media

Stay in Touch

We probably met at a beautiful place and had a great experience together.  I might have facilitated, and that gave me the privilege of forging a stronger point.  We connected; we recognized each other as part of this same tribe of people who are committed to ushering forth the future that is so badly wanting to emerge.  We sense a shift, and we want to be a part of it – to make room for it.

I don’t want to be exclusive, but I’m not talking about everybody who was there.  I’m talking about you, with that unusual spark in your eyes and that incredible sense of excited anticipation that shows up even if you can be a little shy.  It was a real connection, and we both want to keep it alive.

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Oct/21/09//Linda Guinee//Social Media

Scooter Reflections on Social Media #4

This morning on the way to work, I was reflecting on the incredibly successful National Equality March that happened a couple of weeks ago – and which I observed from friends’ posts online and on TV.� This was a march organized quickly with very little money. It apparently took much less money and much less time than previous marches have required thanks to the use of social media.� It was organized through social media organizing by groups like Stonewall 2.0 – using all the latest approaches to organizing – and counts were that about 200,000 people showed up, most of them young and energized and calling for equality at a Federal level, calling for Obama to make good on his promises to the LGBTQ community.

There are some great videos (friends reported that there were a HUGE number of flipcams at the march – and a look at youtube proves that to be true – as well as large numbers of slideshows put to music). So not only was the organizing done online, but the march itself went viral right away.

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Sep/29/09//Gibrán Rivera//Featured, Social Media

Web of Change

I have so much more to say than I can possibly write in one post, plus I’m just getting back so there is still so much to integrate, so much that is yet to unfold – Web of Change was AMAZING! It certainly was that retreat experience that so many of us are familiar with, the lovely high that comes up when we drop our guard together – yes, it was that, but it was also more than that. Web of Change was also a brief experiment in taking some of the best principles of life online and applying them to the offline world.

Change is of course the gathering call, the convening is meant to foster the intersection of social media and social change. We were surrounded by people who care, and who are also smart, and bold in their thinking. The fact that the convening is oriented to people using social media to make change means that they are inherently familiar with what the emergent paradigm feels like – it is decentralized, self-organized, open source, generous. I’m not saying that every single one of us can now live within this emergent paradigm, but there is an awareness of this transitional moment and an intuitive understanding of it. Read the rest of this entry »

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