Archives: November, 2008

Gutenberg and the social media revolution, an investigation of the world where it costs nothing to distribute information
Richard Stacy, Social Media Consultant, Publicis Consultants
http://tinyurl.com/5wpd4s

Interesting article, referenced above, published this month in the Journal of Financial Transformation about what is sometimes termed as “social media.” Richard Stacy discusses the transition from institutionalized mass distribution of information to the “dis-institutionalizing” or “disintermediating” social information environment. This environment is emerging as broadband access is more available, simple self-publishing tools proliferate, and people engage in shared activities like tagging, rating and commenting, allowing “… individuals to create the trust and connections necessary to transact and communicate amongst themselves without any institutionalized intervention.” (p. 93)

This article builds on the long-tail concepts of niche markets and reduced transaction and delivery costs allowing individualized preference to trump mass appeal. Stacy talks also about trust. Formerly vested in institutions that built reputations and brand name recognition over time, now trust is vested within the “visible processes;” you can make your own assessment of the process and from that, you can decide how much trust you will allocate to it. People will still trust institutions who will work to build and maintain reputation, but these institutions will need to consider the benefits of transparency in a world where it is so easy to see how people go about their business.

Ideas around user-generated content and community intrigue me. While it has not always been a linear path (!), concepts from this article including Crowdsourcing and crowd wisdom are in some ways the root of our efforts to bring the best in teaching and learning in North Carolina together on LEARN NC. The idea that practicing teachers know best what works in their classroom and sharing that helps everyone…

The rest of the article talks about the keys to success in the post-Gutenberg world. Content, Conversation and Community are the “channels” Stacy outlines, and there is much here that speaks to our current exploration of what it may take to really foster community online and develop the network so that it is more viable and supportive of teachers professionally. We’re spot on with the content piece, spreading the content threads throughout the networks using Twitter, blogs, StumbleUpon, Flickr and perhaps Facebook. Sharing control with your stakeholders (Bill, weren’t we just talking about citizen participation yesterday?) and getting the conversations going seem to be the next steps.

Read the article. Tell me, do you agree with Stacy’s conclusion “The world we are moving into is one where new technologies are making the process of institutionalized mediation obsolescent. Information can flow between one individual and all of the potential individuals for whom that information might be of relevance, without any form of institutionalized intervention except the provision of a freely available technological infrastructure.”

As we start using more audio on the website and in online courses, this article from Boxes and Arrows might be of some help. It addresses the issue of information architecture in audio design and how to improve the user’s experience of the audio.

Here are the discussion questions for today’s brown bag.

1. What is one new fact you learned from reading this book?

2. What moved, captivated or infuriated you about the first four chapters?

3. Is there an outstanding passage that resonated with you?

4. How does the book portray justice, compassion, courage or wisdom?

5. To what motives does Kozol attribute the state of public schooling for the nation’s poor? Do you agree or disagree with him?

6. What do you think is Kozol’s motivation for writing this book? Was the point of the book to share an opinion, explain a topic, tell about a personal journey, or something else? Did the author do it well?

7. What does this book say about human nature?

Check out the powerful new professional materials posted by the Center for Social Media at American University. The Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education is available for download in .pdf format, and there is a video introduction to understanding fair use in today’s media-rich environment that will clarify misconceptions and reassure teachers about their rights (and their students’ rights) to employ all sorts of media in classroom teaching.

http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/resources/publications/code_for_media_literacy_education/

Thanks to Gerry Solomon, Media Specialist to North Carolina, for bringing this to our attention.