A common theme in many of the political and advocacy-oriented panels at SXSW was the idea that social media’s vocabulary is honesty and transparency. As trade organizations, political candidates and government officials have adopted social media, they have needed to adopt the vocabulary of transparency to connect with the community. So if social media has encouraged transparency, can the opposite be true as well? Can policies of transparency encourage the use of social tools to solve public problems?
On top of the online reporting system for damage from the BP spill that popped up earlier, here's more crowdsourcing from the Gulf of Mexico: a group called Grassroots Mapping is helping folks on the coast map the extent and at least some of the effects of the oil slick. The tools? A digital camera, a big kite or a helium balloon, and a really, really long piece of string.
For those at the Politics Online Conference this afternoon, there's one session you shouldn’t miss — Pete Snyder, my boss at New Media Strategies and a veteran of more than ten years in the social media space, will hold the closing keynote conversation with Republican advertising guru Mark McKinnon, moderated by GW prof Dennis Johnson.
Today marks the one-year anniversary of the 22-day Israeli military raid on Gaza. Gaza, one of the two Palestinian territories currently under Israeli occupation.
Just over a week ago (August 13 - 16), nearly 2,000 progressive bloggers, activists, and organizers gathered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for 4 days. And I was there.
The “R-Word.” It’s one of those words that may seem like just another piece of slang thrown into everyday language when describing something stupid, dumb or irrational. However, it is not just another piece of slang. It is an insult to those with intellectual disabilities. This is why the Special Olympics asked individuals to participate in “Spread the Word to End the Word” on March 31st, 2009 – a campaign to raise the consciousness of society about the dehumanizing and hurtful effects of the R-Word and urge people to resolve to stop using it as an insult, casual or intended.
NMS is working with Special Olympics to make Tuesday, March 31st a National Day of Awareness, where we ask ourselves and our peers to gain a greater understanding of the implications of our actions. We want Tuesday, March 31st to be a day where people take a moment to think about the weight and impact of our words.We want Tuesday, March 31st to be about respect and acceptance. On Tuesday, March 31st, we want to help end the use of the R-word – “retard” – forever. And we’re using social media to get there.
I had written a post about the use of the word “gay” in reference to an AdFreak review from David Griner about a controversial campaign from Ad Council called “Think Before You Speak.” It got a considerable amount of blood pumping from influencers and as a result, my traffic shot up about 1,000% and I received comment love from Griner himself.