Module #3 Part A Post - Social Media Matters

Social Media Matters

I loved the three videos for this week’s assignment.  The "so what" of this literature demonstrates that social media matters.  The video posted regarding the development and use of social media was a great introduction.  I thought the statistics on length of time for a source of information to reach 50 million users very interesting, as it ranged from 38 years for radio to Facebook gaining 200 million users in under a year (Social Media Revolution, 2010).  Most of the technologies noted in the clip were programs I was familiar with and use regularly.  Chris Anderson had a great discussion about technology allowing to people communicate through discussion and storytelling as was done before the printing press was developed (Anderson, 2010).  This was very refreshing to hear in the context of human society and technology.  Usually there are references to apathetic people only interested in easy entertainment- Mr. Anderson brought to light how technology spurs great innovation, creation, and communication- used the term crowd accelerated innovation, “the art of spreading ideas” (Anderson, 2010).  He also did not argue that people looking at images was damaging.  The positive aspects of this technological tool give great hope for how public agencies can share information and hopefully improve the practice of governance.  An example of this from my own work experience is the website Arizona Memory Project http://azmemory.lib.us.  On this site many government and cultural documents, including images are available to the public for free.  A new addition to the website is historic documents donated to the state library regarding the shootings at the OK Corral.  This allows for a dynamic view of government documents and history.   My favorite video was Jamie Heywood’s (2009) discussion of his social media site linking patient information.  The part that really struck me was when the results of polling on the site showed the same information as a clinical trial, only generated much faster than the trial itself could be concluded (Heywood, 2009).  Not only can sites like this serve as sources of emotional support and information for sick people, but research can be conducted with the data provided by the users.  I would argue that a site like this likely has less falsification than other sources of research since users are all in similar situations and would not gain anything through withholding information, there are no tests being conducted, there is nothing to gain but support and information.  This has many linkages for the first module’s discussion of government technology and increased transparency.  Not only can information be posted, but it can be formatted in ways that can be understood by the general populous.  If used correctly, technology can be an amazing resource and tool for increasing public comprehension and participation in government.

I signed up for World of Warcraft and had a great time exploring the world.  I was interested in World of Warcraft since many people I am acquainted with play and are very passionate about it.  It would be a great tool to harness the passion players have for the game and use it in public administration, though this may be more applicable for Second Life since WOW is so grounded in fantasy.  I enjoyed creating my avatar and could see how people can choose to identify themselves, from strengths and weapons to appearance.  I did not get to interact with other players as much as I would have liked during my time in the WOW universe- this may have been due to the gaming option I chose.  However, I did see other players completing the same task I was completing.  I have heard that in some areas of the game there are cities where commerce can take place, and battles occur in other areas of the game.  I kept thinking about dispute resolution, public participation, and commerce when using virtual worlds.  Clearly there is a group of individuals who thrive in virtual reality this could be an opportunity to take programs into the universe as an additional access point.  It would also be a great place to search for new ideas to difficult problems- if people feel powerful when acting through an avatar, they may be more willing to share innovative ideas that would be difficult in the context of the real world.

I also looked up activities on meetup.com.  it was great to see the range of activities available all in a local area.  I tend to do recreational activities during my free time and located a night hike in the South Mountain recreational activity.  Social media can connect people over the web and also in real life.  This is an example of social media translating to real connections and relationships among people.  Government agencies can use social media groups to link local, state and federal government activities to the attention of people living in the area.  The additional access points to government are helpful- the more access citizens can have for government increases the possibility of learning and participating.