A look at social media with an eye towards outreach and extension work.

1. Social Media for outreach and extension Beyond Facebook and Twitter

2. Being Social, Online. It’s not a new thing. The “original internet”, aka Arpanet, was developeed to let scientists connect to each other IRC, E-mail and Usenet all have a long history, pre-dating “the web” Instant messaging pre-dates the internet

3. Facebook and Twitter Everybody is doing it. Large auidence Facebook < 400 million accounts Twitter 15 Million accounts New audiences, new demographics Publicity, recruitment and awareness

4. But, Should we do it? The cat’s already out of the bag. Many units and people have already established a social presence online Taming the cat (actually, it’s a snow leopard now). Understanding why is as important as knowing how All those new people are waiting/expecting you. Audience/stakeholders/eyeballs

5. Obligatory Warning It’s social media, not personal media or private media. Always assume it’s public. Never assume what you say/do online is private. Never assume that things that are private now will be private tomorrow.

6. Social Media is more … Crowdsourcing: Science Disaster Recovery Election Monitoring Social Learning. Fundraising/Microenterprise.

7. Why Social Matters? Social implies a kind of openness. Opens channels for 2-way communication Creates a new space for knowledge creation. “Users” become co-creators Provides real time feedback and input.

8. More, or less, connected Crowds and Communities. Are social: Crowds gather and disperse Communities persist Rise from shared interest. Have generated a new generation of “social” tools.

9. The Crowd at Work The crowd is action oriented. Many disparate parts, loosely joined. May only communicate with one destination. Think flashmob.

10. It’s a SMS World SMS enabled a rapid burst of growth in crowdsourcing apps. Opens participation to a broad cross section of societies and cultures Removes the barrier of broadband/last mile issues

11. The Value of the (sms enabled) Crowd Mass, distributed contributors have shown the power of the crowd: Disaster response: Ushahidi Election Monitoring: Frontline SMS Independent news reporting: Plane lands in/on Hudson River

12. Pre-existing Crowds Moving Online Citizen Science. Shopping. Auctions. Online galleries/portfolios.

13. Community focuses attention on issues like reputation, trust, boundaries and membership. Smaller and more closely connected.

14. The Facets of Community Boundaries/Networks: What domain defines the community? Identity and reputation -Whuffie: You own your words Trust. Duration: Communities can endure, though membership may change.

15. Network or Community? What’s the difference? Is a crowd a network? Twitter users? Why does it matter? Types of interaction Degrees of difference Impacts strategy for engagement.

16. Technology doesn’t create community As technologists we forget, sometimes, that it’s not magic. Just because you build it, doesn’t mean they will come Remember Maslow’s hammer Increasingly, like seeks like.

17. Who do you trust? Gas Leasing – a failed community: Tools were put in place to facilitate dialog Nobody talked. Why? Sides had already been chosen Cornell was not viewed, by one side, as a neutral arbiter No comprehensive strategy for using social media

18. Separate, but together? A challenge: Can social media mediate? We’ve been bowling alone – have we now begun to bowl alone, virtually? What is the strength of virtual ties? Does it matter? Online/rl?

19. The future begins tomorrow! Social media are(and have always been). We now have new ways of connecting. People participate. So, what’s next?

20. Personal Learning Environments User crafted learning. Mixed media. Distributed. Chaotic? Illustration by GretchensFrage - (http://www.flickr.com/photos/gretchensfrage/3379888408/)

21. Location Augmented reality ties virtual to real This is powerful because: We’re still human and live in the world Events happen at places Knowledge is tied to the world Marketing

22. Never confuse virtual with real. It's not that Twitter publicists of the Iranian protests haven't played a role ... They have. It's just not been the outsized role it's often been made out to be. And ultimately, that's been a terrible injustice to the Iranians who have made real, not remote or virtual, sacrifices in pursuit of justice. GOLNAZ ESFANDIARI Foreign Policy June 07, 2010 The Twitter Devolution.

23. Mash it up! Humans are social animals. Contrary to the impulses of some in IT, people seem to enjoy other people Being social means encountering others – deepening understanding (hopefully) Technology facilitates social connections that can change the world. Maybe slowly, and bit by bit-but that’s not nothing.

24. Contact Paul Treadwell pt36@cornell.edu @ptreadwell http://www.paultreadwell.com Teri Solow tms45@cornell.edu @tekniklr http://tekniklr.com