The Challenge of Social Technologies David Steven, River Path Associates All networked up

Daily Summit # 1  World Summit on Sustainable Development  “Instant news and comment”  Updated 10 times a day  Went where the mainstream media wouldn’t/couldn’t

Screen grab of dailysummit 1

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

Building a buzz  High impact: 110,000 site visits in 2 month ‘live’ period Many regular visitors – community created 262 inward links Ranked 5 th on Google – official British government site ranked 18 th Ranked top on DayPop

Screen grab of DayPop

Daily Summit # 2  World Summit on the Information Society  Dual language site – English/Arabic  Team of reporters

Screen grab of dailysummit 2

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 Citizen’s media meets bulldog journalism; finds the future of news: I’m witnessing the future of journalism Jeff Jarvis

Screen grab of WBP

World Bank President  Amplification Who will succeed James Wolfensohn? From ‘off-the-radar’ to media firestorm First stop for world’s 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 you’ll probably know as much as I do. James Wolfensohn

Screen grab of Low Level Panel

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

It doesn’t work… Low appetite for risk Not prepared to move fast Insistent on traditional command and control Technology as ‘cudgel’ Know what you’re 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 Why use social technologies?

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