#NeverSeconds day on Twitter - 9 year old blogger and Twitteratti

It's quite amazing to see so much happening around VEG's blog in one day (my collection of links and tweets here)! Just yesterday the story of 9 year old blogger banned from taking photos of her school dinners (the major topic of her blog) appeared on WIRED website and we can already celebrate a happy turn of events - Martha is not only allowed to create her favourite content again, but her story has generated quite an impressive sum for the charity she is supporting with her writing.  

via neverseconds.blogspot.co.uk

Some of us have lived the story since few hours, others since yesterday, but we have all expressed our opinions on the topic on Twitter. I would just like to sum up few major points I consider crucial:

1. Network effect

The true power of social networks lies in complexity of relationships. Just because we talk about coffee or post photos of our snacks on Instagram does not mean that our relationships are mundane because when a crisis occurs we have the ability to reach out and flag up stories worth attention to the right people. If we care for the cause that is! To me personally Martha's story resonated on two levels: freedom of speech and the quality of kids food at school, so of course my first reaction was this:

Response does not come suddenly and it is also unfair to lead it back just to my tweets, but it does occur. And the more people share the news, the larger its reach. Story starts trending. Media picks it up. Someone finally starts the investigation. Others organise ways to resolve this problem, suggest options for parties involved. But most of all - more and more on-line profiles (regardless of the social media tool) are involved. 

Without the network effect stories of "normal" people would not stand a chance in the traditional process of mass media sharing. Why? Because gradually the major media organisations start to realise the value of listening to their audiences, not only educating them on what facts are important at the moment. We are living interesting times when the power of news sharing shifts from mass media to the public. It is the public interest that pre-defined the value of a story. 

2. Taking stand vs sharing a story

It was really, really interesting today to see various responses from people I happen to be in touch on-line or people I know better from off-line interactions. Some jumped on the hashtag and took active part in promoting the cause, expressing their personal stand on the matter. Others carefully shared the news avoiding any "drastic" opinions or even mentioning Martha's problem with local authorities. Some of my friends called me and looked for solutions, others put the topic aside for the evening blogging.

I personally think that our networks and reputation provide us with a great opportunity to support the cause so if the topic is something we believe in we should express our opinion and do our best to help drive the change, not just watch it. There are many ways to do it - I decided to post on UK Fundraising and work on Twitter (most feasible solution during working hours) because that is where my most valuable and relevant readers are. Later I looked at signing petition and working our alternative solutions to continue Martha's idea (chatting to @ClaireAtWaves and setting up Pinterest account for kinds to share their photos). So thank you to those of you who joined in today - I am privileged to know you!  

3. The power of personal relationships

It was really good to experience once again the true value of on-line connections and valuable personal relationships I have with some of you. It was really good to see that you understand why this particular story was something I feel strongly about. It was almost natural to sit down and talk to some of you - we all knew THIS is important and needs to be addressed now. 

4. Social media landscape and other media

I was amazed how slow Martha's local council was and how fast the social and other media managed to point out the mistakes made by their officials and Martha's school. By lunchtime, early afternoon, Martha was allowed to take photos of her school meals again and those of us who worked on alternative solutions suddenly realised - oh, so it's ok now! In the meantime though the traditional media provided us with the second wave of storm around the story - major news outlets posted about the trending #neverseconds, BBC got in touch with Martha's family, school, council. I went to the post office just to hear on the news the very same story. You see, social media does allow us to share and amplify stories almost immediately. So if those stories are relevant to few major areas of our life (kids, school meals, freedom of speech, local authorities etc) it's expected that the story will spread and gain supporters quite fast. I am particularly happy to see how fast the media joined those discussions though - really well done! 

5. Kids on-line

via neverseconds.blogspot.co.uk

Eh...I really do not know if I need to repeat this again. Kids ARE on-line and SHOULD have the right to express their opinions, we just need to ensure that they have safe environment to do so and understand the consequences of their on-line activities. Blogging is really an old thing! I had conversations with 9 years olds about data ownership, parents not respecting the age limits of games and problems with reporting cyber-bullying. More importantly - kids are authentic and honest, so I think this is why we tend to admire the content they create. Not really wrapped in any cultural or professional slang, open and pretty creative on-line discussions should be taken just as seriously as the content created by adults. Why not? Why do we assume the right to look down at our own kids under the cheap excuse of protection? It really does not make sense to me, specially in cases where we all know that a child IS right and might initiate change on a larger scale. 

6. Fundraising element

I notice quite often the notion of control in organisations dealing with individuals or groups fundraising on their behalf or around their products and services. And I am really shocked when I hear that those fundraising activities are often stopped! If you see a person raising money for your charity or through conversations around your service the last thing you should do is ban their activities or take down their accounts! 

I am slowly starting to realise this myth of control but very often I get really angry to see this basic lack of common sense. Again to simplify: this kid is talented, creative and writes to raise money for a charity not to criticise local authorities or kick off a media storm around school meals. Is that really so difficult to grasp? 

Just look at the numbers! This morning:

At lunch time:

Now:

7. Silence of the authorities 

...and the core of the problem! Again and again we see individuals, brands and organisations functioning on the margin of social conversations. Sometimes they are present in social platforms to share information and to promote themselves but very rarely do they LISTEN and RESPOND. I know, you have heard it so many times:) So what happened today was an interesting wave of misunderstandings and moments of sudden realisations.

"We need to stop this" 

"We will make a statement to justify our take and blame "bad" Martha for lack of objectivity" (here I would like to point out that for an old fashioned blogger this is purely an insult - blogs are supposed to express opinions!)

"Oh, media is talking about us, we have to fix it"

"We apologise but point out that we were only a little big wrong"

All this in one tweet while the UK Twittersphere is trembling? Not good at all. 

 

So to sum it all up I think we have experienced that feeling of fresh breeze of change, but there is still a lot of work to be done. Organisations need to embrace social networks. School meals - well, probably need reviewing, but that's a complex issue too. Kids need to have space and support to develop and grow! We all need to learn to take a stand. I am glad few of us did. 

Have a good weekend all! 

Social media inspirations weekly #3

This week I was busy and very, very troubled...I guess there was only few topics that actually grabbed my attention and if you look at my blog posts from this week, you will find only one topic: the protest of Polish blogosphere against proposal to create Registry of Banned Websites and Services. See, I even disregard my fresh, but settled structure of this post...anyway. Here are the posts that inspired me the most when it comes to this particular issue. Apart from all the initiatives I already described in previous posts, there were few creative reactions to proposed censorship in Poland. This is a visual representation of what the history of Polish web might look like, faily soon (author Tomasz Smykowski):

And here is a song on the topic by Martin Lechowicz, basically saying

'You who care for our safety and protect our dreams,

We would like to express our gratefullness,

We - your faithful dogs!

So thank you, good lord, for you put the muzzles on us, like on dogs,

Thank you, big thanks to you...'

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saAwpHbKyAE]

Another song, very short one, posted by strong voice in the entire issue -  VaGla', refers to a melody from old Polish film called 'Banned Songs':

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUKYv7MSE-Q]

First two words are there to allow anyone add any text and create a song, so it goes like this:

An axe, a mattock, a keyboard, who will get to the second term [refering to political career],

An axe, a mattock, a seal, a knife, Registry of Banned Sites is just behind the corner.

I set up a Twitter list for people involved and I am sure that there will be more posts from me on that, as tomorrow is the day of protest in Warsaw, but somehow I was surrounded by posts on freedom of speech this week - maybe we get to notice those, not others, once we get stuck in a topic?

My fellow GVer based in Bahrain experiences blocked website on a daily basis, and this time she became very upset about it calling her post 'Shut down the Internet...Please'. @Euan pointed me to this post talking about whether we get involved in fund-raising for fame, and if so - is it really so bad? Rebecca MacKinnon put it nicely in her blog post on Google in China:

'If having a free, open and just society depends on purity of motive, God help us all.[...] I've got a suggestion: Why don't we focus on figuring out how to maximize the incentives for a lot more CEO's and government leaders around the world to support a free and open global Internet - for selfish reasons? Reasons like brand reputation, market share, long-term profit, voter support, political legitimacy, economic competitiveness, and geopolitical influence?'

I personally agree with the statement that fund-raising can be, actually should be motivated by some kind of incentive - not pure willingness to help. Why? Because everything in this world has a reason and consequence! Because if each of us, crazy volunteers spends all day helping others for free, our children will starve and we won't be able to do it for long! And because it would lead to chaos. Finally, as Chris MacDonald points out mentioning another aspect of donations writing about credit cards companies resigning from their own charges from Haiti donations: charitable actions are not obligations! It pretty much applies to any type of charitable commitment, don't you think?

There were two 'celebrity' mentions that caught my eye. One - related to charity actually - was Obama's first REAL tweet, which made me smile. Second, Bill Gates joining Twitter, follower by a huge Twitter crash - which also made me smile, as I missed the whale;)

Less amusing Twitter story was related to a joke posted by Paul Chambers, followed by his arrest (“Robin Hood airport is closed. You’ve got a week and a bit to get your shit together, otherwise I’m blowing the airport sky high!!”).  I must say it did generate a bit of discussion in GV community, and reminded me of a day when I was pretty upset about a bag left in the Didcot Railway Station's main hall. I remember being very paranoid about it, even though if was pointed out to a local employee, who did not react, as it belonged to his colleague. I would like to know what you think...it's obviously a new cultural meme we are living, related to all the terrorist attacks and strong propaganda against terrorism globally. Would it upset you that you cannot watch a DVD on belly dance on your laptop on the way to the States because the guards assume it's related to Muslim culture? It would upset me, and I kind of feel bad when a similiar alerting thought strikes me.

On a less serious note! Someone actually bothered counting this> (If you printed Twitter...) I like those Twitter stories, but I found the newest one a bit..boring?;) But hey, sometimes it is worth looking at things from different points of view. Specially if you are addicted, like our GV collegue, Jillian who decided to go for Twitter detox this week. Following the trend as well as inspired by the new viral, I decided to leave FarmVille (to great distress of some of my very close friends - seriously!). I think I even joined Anti-FarmeVille FB page...

I think it was also result of the sudden change in my work pattern - rather shocking! I am able to work and enjoy the view o f our lovely garden, in pyjamas and YES, without make-up. I did have a little bit of a mix up, but I think it's all a question of time management. Which also leads to another piece I want to show you, as some of you asked me how I manage 'all this stuff'.

There is also a new, good copy of social media ethics code, prepared by “Federal Association of Digital Economy” in Germany, basing ethics on respect, objectivity, accessibility, credibility, honesty and legal matters. Do read it, it's a good study of how social media marketers should and should not think.

I would like to finish with a small tribute to a Polish blogger, whose copies always, but always move me deeply. She has posted on Haiti this describing her reactions to the earth quake but also pointing out the fact that it has not been the most beautiful and appreciated place in the world even before the crisis! Now, if you click here, I will send you to the Google translation of it - worth a read - but please note: some of the photos are shocking...from before the hell kicked off. I hope that this 'Tear for Haiti' will make you think!

Have a light weekend!

Small steop towards protection of freedom of speech

Here is the text of the letter to Polish President written by Borys Musielak, whom I happened to meet today and chat to over the phone. I fully support this initiative and if you agree, do sign the petition on-line! Thank you!

Dear Mr President!

We are addressing You to raise issue crucial for every Polish citizen using Internet. By pushing ahead so called ‘Anti-Gambling Law’ government of Donald Tusk is proposing, in the name of fight against gambling, to claim the right for filtering of all content available on-line. The Art.179a of Telecommunication Law, introducing ‘Registry of Banned Websites and Services’ is supposed to allow that.

It is a very dangerous idea which contradicts the interest of citizens. The statement that Internet should be governed by the same law as that referring to any other part of public space might be valid, however realisation of the above postulate has nothing to do with the constitutional right to freedom of expression. The planned changes in law are simply new way of censorship, very well known to You from previous system. Similar regulations allowing governments unrestricted filtering of content available for citizens are currently in place only in few countries of the world. Amongst those You will find for instance Iran and China. Do we really want Poland to join them?

Internet is a public space enabling expression and exchange of opinions. Thus the top to down filtering of Internet can be only compared to closing citizens mouths before they even start to speak up. It is something that even George Orwell did not imagine in his famous novel “1984″ about vision of totalitarian state.

What can be done towards following the law on the Internet then? Exactly the same as in case of breach of law related to rights of fellow citizens! Those who brake the law need to be simply prosecuted. If a website contains materials banned by law (including treacherous child pornography or content promoting Nazism or hate), we have appropriate mechanisms in place to punish those who are responsible for them. It is more difficult then the top to down filtering, as it requires separate analysis of each case. However does it mean, that for this very reason we should sacrifice our freedom of speech?

In May on the website stopcenzurze.wikidot.com we have collected 75.000 confirmed signatures against possibility of Internet censorship in European Union. No one really expected at that point of time that similar problem might occur in our own homeland.

We hope that having in consideration freedom as major value in a democratic state, You will decide to veto this disadvantageous for citizens proposal.

With regards,

Borys Musielak, creator of Grupa Jakilinux, author of this letter

And the undersigned [list of Polish lawyers, journalists, academics, enterpreneurs, politicians and bloggers here]

I Media, Skopje, Macedonia

The reason why I travelled to Skopje was a very kind invitation from GVers – @ieli and @razvigor (working on a daily basis for Metamorphosis Foundation) to I Media conference dedicated to discussion around state of traditional and new media in Macedonia. First day was based on panel discussions, whereas second gave all attendees a chance to actually discuss the state, challenges and future of media in the region.
To cut the story short I will only share my own observations and learnings, as you can find the rest on their site here. I do apologise if I am wrong at any point – do correct me. I only had one day to come to those initial conclusions.
First of all I am honoured that I witnessed the times when Macedonian media is just at the verge of social media revolution in a very unique way: opening itself to the global arena, sharing regional developments and passion for spoken/written word. I saw a country where old media sees the revolution coming, is weary of full usage of  the new tools as – sadly for some – they will advocate freedom of speech. I do not think that (mentioned by a local worker of press industry) manipulated photos posted in newspapers will be accepted without comments for long. I do not think ladies like @Arheoblog will need to face potential difficulties with their brave initiatives to disclose unlawful behaviours, this without network of strong, supportive voices from her community and from outside of it. I do not think global, English speaking social media will appear distant and slightly patronising for long. As soon as the regional voices, organisations, NGO's and other initiatives enter the space with strong commitment to make a change – and realise the true power of social media -we will all see the big shift some are so scared off, and others impatiently await.

From the discussions during the conference my first impression was that the is a strong feeling of passiveness – for instance why would a young generation of users expect Wikipedia to come up with ideas on how to improve the content of the site it this particular project is based on open, public contributions and almost per definition is there to take ownership of it?
I felt it was crucial to remind everyone the main characteristics of social media there and then, and luckily I had a second during the open discussion on the second day of the event:

• Social media is open and transparent – there is no space for pretending to be who you are not.


• Social media requires you to be genuine, thus gives you power to use or misuse the potential of building trusted voices and brands – you can easily, for free show the local and global community who you are, what you do, what are the things you are passionate about and what are our opinions. As NGO you have a great potential to introduce your work, and if you link it to activities for your cause you can  promote the transparency of your spendings. You can join the discussion, you can listen to the needs or your target audience and establish a dialogue with your audiences.


• Social media is social – you build personal, hopefully long term relationships with people representing themselves, but also organisations and brands, so you can use it for networking, informing, searching information, or co-operation.


• Social media is about contributing and sharing – you need to put a side the financial motivation here, because this community is build on social capital; you are almost expected to share openly and to contribute meaningfully to the discussion. Take a test: take 10 bits of information you own and put it on paper – look at the list and decide which one can you give away easily? Which one would be the second? Can you give away the 5th one without any expectations to gain smth back? Can you give away the 10th, the most unique and valuable idea of yours? Why not? Yes? Why would you do it? Why would you not mind to do it? Why would you loose on sharing it? Once you get used to the idea of giving away the 10th idea you are just about there to join this community;) You will also be expected to cooperate – to comment on others blogs with valuable opinions, to add content and to commit your skills to projects where those can be needed. Why? Because if you do so, you will become a respected personality and trusted voice – and when it is you who needs help, you can count on the rest of us!


• Social media is free but might need a financial injection – when it comes to NGO's in social media I totally understand that we are tempted to think of grants and donations, however vast amount of social media branding, communication and cooperation can be done for free. Actually if you use free tools, those tend to be used by large communities and are enhanced with more and more networking options. This should b enough for a start. Once you have your on-line presence and community you can use it for projects which do involve financial investment to enhance your brand and activities (events, self-hosted platforms or simply fees for maintaining your presences). But when you're at this stage you should have a clear idea of how much money you need because you are using the tools already and know which bit of your project needs further development so it should be easier to put a proposal together and pitch for money as well as predict results, measure risks.


• Social media is not a monster – I am preaching about social media because yes, I do believe it's extremely powerful world with very appealing mechanisms and so far the most supportive, creativity and achievement focussed communities I have seen. But please do not forget there is always a human being at the end of the line. It

So learn to listen, talk, share, contribute and co-operate. Join global arena (not because it's better, but because it is there to listen and contribute to your great ideas too!). Do it openly. Be brave in your honesty and goals. And do not forget: social media is tools to empower us, at the end of the day it's always about people – incorporate this virtual reality in to your every day life and use both wisely.

I really trust the ambitious bloggers from Macedonia are gradually heading towards those realisations and with their initiatives will change the face of local traditional media and support their NGO's in their wonderful work. Mind me - some of the local bloggers are now aware of the fact IT IS ALREADY HAPPENING THERE;)

Thank you for the invitation!

Update: here is an article on the conference from Macedonian press (here in Macedonian).

Twitter does not deserve a Nobel Peace Prize!

Image by Newsphoto Amsterdam via Flickr

Once again I have been following a topic for a while and feel I need to speak up. Can we please, please, PLEASE stop glorifying Twitter in relation to events in Iran? Media is shouting about the importance of Twitter in revolution and we all seem to forget that it is actually Iranians who deserve the support and admiration!

I am saying it because I was shown this article today in which Mark Pfeifle puts forward Twitter for Nobel Peace Prize! And you know what, me - quite a heavy geek and social media addict - I find it unhealthy! It is a TOOL of communication used by actual people, and if Twitter were not there revolution would continue - we would simply have less insights into it. And I dare to say - some of us would care less.

Shall we awards tv broadcasting for the success of Solidarnosc movement and changes in Poland, followed by other Easter European countries beginning from '89? Should we award Facebook for spreading the word about 'cc  all/one of your e-mails to Jaqui Smith' action? Or maybe we should think of people who understood the nature of those tools and used them to support their cause?

Yes, I agree, Twitter and other social media increase the transparency of events and deliver the news quicker. Those venues very often enhance the off-line networking. But they have nothing, but nothing to do with the decision making, the attitude, and willingness to fight and risk your lives for basic human rights!

When traditional journalists were forced to leave the country, Twitter became a window for the world to view hope, heroism, and horror. It became the assignment desk, the reporter, and the producer. And, because of this, Twitter and its creators are worthy of being considered for the Nobel Peace Prize.

-states the post I am referring to.

OK, I agree with the first part, however I see no connection between reporting on the news and actually deserving the gratitude for making the change? News has little to do with standing on the street and fighting for peace. News is there as an observer, not an active participant! News is there to witness the events and it's people writing it who deserve more focus than the tool itself- does the channel of communication really deserve the Peace Prize? Did it ever before?

Although we don't know how the uprising in Iran will end, or where the symbols of freedom and liberty will again be given power by people who require an unfettered means of communicating with the rest of us, Twitter and other social media outlets have become the soft weapons of democracy. Twitter told us the story of Neda's supreme sacrifice. It is telling the story of the Iranian people yearning to breathe free. For those reasons, Twitter deserves consideration for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Again, why is telling the story worth Peace Prize? I will tell you why. Because we have a Twitter bug. We are suddenly discovering, at least most of the global population, how different communication and networking on Twitter and other social media platform is. But for some reason - and I really do not know the answer to this one - we tend to think it's a miracle! It's new. It's magical. So it must be...the best?

Twitter, blogging, image sharing has, is and will be changing the ways we report on news. But it will not change the way we react to events, nor anything else related to our every day activities, place in society, political situation. Yes, in some cases it gives us voice, but we still need to speak up and the decision to do so has nothing to do with the medium.

And in case of this particular article, I find it unfair on Iranians. And somehow posted by the person who received 'the Army’s Outstanding Civilian Service Award for “dramatically improved communication planning and strategies...in support of the Global War on Terror.” rather twisted, simply because I do not trust anyone involved in the American War with terrorism so strongly advocated by Bush administration.

Internet, including social media becomes a part of our live. Few years ago we used to post letters, later we would e-mail them, today we might tweet them. The message stays the same. I hate to think that the channel of communication could ever become more important then those whom it serves.

Twitter should be happy as it is - thanks to the simple fact that Iranian elections and revolution did and still happen on Twitter too, already popular platform gained more users. I see how suddenly in last few weeks the amount of Polish users increased there.

As for awards and appraisals let's turn to the Iranians themselves, who are wonderful in fighting censorship with the usage of new media; who have a wonderfully developed blogosphere but most of all - who are brave to stand up for their freedom of speech and other basic human rights. Respect to them all!