I find it amazing the way social media tools like Twitter, also Facebook are being used so spontaneously by young people around the world as a way of expressing their views, eg  against terrorism & being heard democratically.

Within 24 hours it was possible to add a red & white stripe to your avatar on Twitter to support #IndonesiaUnite in its push for peace - "KAMI TIDAK TAKUT" - over terrorism.

The young people of Indonesia so focused in wanting to tell the world how great their country is on Twitter and Facebook - getting support from Good Charlotte's @JoelMadden and seeking support from @MrsKutcher.

Sometimes the stats tend to suggest that Twitter is an English language focused social media tool. However the crises in Moldova, followed by Iran and Indonesia show the incredible global reach & influence of social media tools like Twitter.

Several decades ago folks like Professor Brian Martin of University of Wollongong in Australia, began writing of Schweik Action processes - ie use of peaceful ICT tools in times of crisis.

And then following crisis events such as Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans generated highly emotive community civil society collapsing stories. However in July 2008 Wikinomicsreported that Web 2.0 Social Networking tools were used by citizens, to ensure that rebuilding of their city was done in ways that made sense. Gurus such as Alan Gutierrez ran crash courses in social networking. They used tools such as Flickr, WordPress, Yahoo Groups, and Google Maps to prioritise rebuilding, ie occurred in the right areas soonest. Governments do not always have the right knowledge at hand in such crises to get the prioritisation right. In fact this was recognised in the 1980's, when the concepts ofcommunity empowerment & development were being explored. Gartner also observed similar community use of social networking with Hurricane Gustav .. "For example, as Gustav approached, Ning created a hosted wiki. Within 24 hours, volunteers copied useful emergency management information, such as links and feeds from Katrina Web sites, and updated them. These citizens also provided neighborhood and regional updates."

And as reported in Geoff Brown's yes!andspace blog, even prior to Australia's tragic February 2009 Victorian Bushfires, an enthusiastic volunteer has directed the Victorian Country Fire Authority's Incident Summary RSS's feeds to a Twitterfeed - saving Bandwidth for the CFA's website. Others are retweeting the message, to provide an even wider contact list. It seems like the 21st Century version of the "phone tree" approach, which communities have used for years to get out urgent messages. The enthusiastic volunteer is hoping that the CFA will set up their own Twitterfeed. There have been suggestions of using phone systems to spread emergency warning messages. Twitterfeed via mobile phones might be one way to spread disaster alert messages as more people become users.

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The above post was archived from posterous blog post of July 18 2009 - - http://kerrieannesfridgemagnets.posterous.com/twitter-global-reach-indonesiaunite

Mood:  special

As a former City Councillor who supported E-Tools for community consultation, I observed some great examples of community social capital, including Web 2.0. So Toronto's Web 2.0 Summit sounds intriguing. Billed as an interactive forum to explore how Web 2.0 technology can change the way governments interact with citizens, create policies and make decisions - see agenda. The Web 2.0 Summit is an opportunity to:

The Web 2.0 Summit is an opportunity to:

Share ideas about how Web 2.0 and social media (such as wikis, blogs and social networking profiles) can increase civic engagement, reach all communities and improve City services.

Learn new ways for elected officials to engage communities on the services that affect their quality of life.

Help build the Web service strategy for Canada's largest city.

The Summit features Councillors, Community Groups, Council officials, industry reps eg Anthony D Williams of Wikinomics - "Government 2.0 :Unleashing Wikinomics in the City of Toronto". Also Mark Sturman, whose Keynote Address was well received. Interesting how he used Mozilla Wiki to develop speaker notes and invite collaboration, also referencing Beltzner's Changing the World slides (large). I liked Sacha Chua's blog posting on her experience as a Gen Y panelist.

It seems so many cities around the world are doing Web 2.0 events. In San Francisco Al Gore "addressed the San Francisco audience at the Web 2.0 Summit with an urgent appeal to assign a purpose to Web 2.0 tools. His address focussed on three themes, in cluding the democracy crisis: television has removed the democratic view of truth, and interactive Web TV - (Current tv) has the potential to restore it."

Now even Second Life features a Government 2.0 discussion group, according to Rialtas - Web 2.0 to Government 2.0 in Ireland — e-Government and e-Democracy !  More at Mybloglog.

So it will be interesting to see how Toronto compares with Australian Cities such as Wollongong. There, community activists are using E-tools in their campaign to regain its local democracy, from the NSW State Government appointed administrators. The previous council axed Neighbourhood Committees. Now a new Engagement Framework is  introduced - see Community Engagement Calendar & Activities.

Also interesting to see former councillors, such as Graham Wilton, previously not known for being part of IT geekdom, getting into blogging to voice their views.