Discussion on Social Media and Business

On Wednesday, I was facilitator for a discussion about Social Media and Business at the Mayo Open Coffee Club in Castlebar.

After a short introduction by myself I asked the individuals of the group of eighteen to share "one short story about their experiences with Social Media." The individuals in the group were cooperative and some good stories came through. Some expressed a hesitation about engaging in social media.

The the eighteen made 3 groups of 6 to engage in 5 minute sessions of sharing ideas through discussion from directed questions. The first question answered by each individual in each group was "What have you done with social media for your business already?" Then I asked three members of each group to move to another group for 5 more minutes on the same question. Then a new question for 5 minutes was posed "What do you want to do with social media for your business?" Then three moved from each group to another group for five minutes again. And the final question used was "What do you expect from social media?" The resultant 30 minutes of vigorous discussion was engaging and active (it seemed).

I asked for feedback and got some. A couple of people stayed on to congratulate me on the facilitation and to thank me for my efforts. One individual said that he liked the style of meeting and appreciated the energy I brought to the meeting. One stayed late to give me extensive feedback. He appreciated the energy of the meeting and interactivity of the facilitation. He told me that the introduction was probably useless. (I talked a little about democracy and media, history of media, media ownership and life - in the introduction.) In hindsight, I think he is right.

But every experience is a good one. I'm happy to have facilitated the meeting and look forward to meeting the members again in the future.

There are times when...

Here are some shots of what I was a part of today...




Does the media fit into every facet of our lives?

There are times when I realise the fleeting moment that is this life. Engaged in some research for an article about Granuaile today, I found myself at Murrisk Abbey.

Murrisk Abbey was built in the West of Ireland, in Murrisk, 6 miles from Louisburgh in 1547 by the O'Malley clan. The architecture is exquisite. The setting is majestic. And the adjoining graveyard is peaceful and sobering.

The calm quiet of the setting was accented by my recent reading of The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. The noise of media was absent. The glare of competing media was nowhere to be felt. The harmony of all was present.

There was no aggression or fight. The graveyard, which is the end of many a fight, was calm and quiet. In fact there was a fresh new grave opened for another passer-by who arrived before I left. May that individual be peaceful.

I love discussing the media but now and again the noise that is the media and the discussion needs to be resolved to the place that it belongs - in the mortal area that is fleeting. Taking this life too seriously can really intrude on enjoying that which is whole, aggreeable, calm, quiet, powerful and loving.

Life and Death. Photographs are no substitute for the real thing but now and again the media can give "some" view of what is being talked about.

Representation and equality

"Around 20% of the UK population has some form of disability, yet only 4.4% of BBC staff are disabled, 2% at ITV, 1.8% at Sky and 1% at Channel 4." According to the article in The Guardian, "there is a massive taboo around it and disabled people are aware that people have massive assumptions and see them as less able." However, the article continues, "broadcasters are acting, recognising that behind-the-scenes recruitment and onscreen representation go hand in hand." A report which was jointly produced by the BBC and Channel 4, "Talking Disability," was a call to fairly reflect a society where 11 million people are disabled.

Surely, a step in the right direction is to have representation in the media for all areas of the population. This should also take into account the socio-economic backgrounds of all the people and therefore the working population. Is this possible? Can there be fair and equal representation? Is it feasible to have each and every sort represented in the media - And even in other facets of life?

For example can this be so in politics? If we elect an individual from a deprived socio-economic background to office who is also a member of an ethnic minority, can she represent her people if she starts taking the rich salary of an elected official? Can the purity of the newly elected representative be preserved even when the newly elected representative has suddenly become wealthy?

Does each elected official seek to feather his/her own nest? Is there a genuine search for truth anywhere after the results are in?

Sources for this post:

Dowell B. (Nov. 23, 2009). TV sets new representation targets. The Guardian.

Twitter - Why Fear?

It seems I am not the only one who has not used Twitter yet. Barack Obama told students in Shanghai, last week, that he had not used Twitter yet. The curiosity about the term is justified by the fact that Twitter was blocked for some time in China. Is this censorship? And why bother blocking Twitter?

Kaiser Kuo, an expert on internet use in China, said that in recent times the internet sites which are blocked in China are social media sites. "The authorities are not worried about people having access to what the rest of the world is saying, but about the ability of these tools to spread rumours very, very quickly," he said. According to him state media have alleged that social media spread misinformation and even that outsiders use social media to orchestrate violence.

China's internet population is estimated at 360 million. 124 million of those are on social networking sites. Most of the big players on the internet in China are domestic and they are large enough to monitor all content and remove anything sensitive.

Probably most of what is on social networking sites is harmless, regardless of what your opinion on a subject is. The only time that social networking becomes a problem is when content is contrary to one's ideas/ideology/interpretation of ethics. Ethically speaking, then, is it o.k. to post anything you want to post, even if it offends someone else? Is it ethical to stop some one posting if you are offended by their post? For the benefit of the many should there be free and equal access to posting on the internet and social networking sites?

It is impossible to please all the people all the time. But when the government decides to stop access we have a situation on inequality. One part of the "formula" is much more powerful than the other. Governments should not be intruding on people's access to social networking sites.

Where would it stop? Next thing you won't be allowed to demonstrate outside a government building on public property!

Sources for this post:

Branigan, T. (Nov. 23, 2009). Twitter ye not. The Guardian.

www.bladair.com: New Media Meets Gaeilge (Irish)

We launced www.bladair.com yesterday at the Mayo Science Fair in The Traveller's Friend Hotel in Castlebar.

The Mayo Education Centre launched one of it's recent projects yesterday as a part of the Mayo Science Fair. I was invited to be a part of the event and therefore I introduced many young budding bloggers to the world of blogging as Gaeilge (through the language of Irish).

The blog is live at www.bladair.com and it is a very easy step-by-step process.

The idea is to engage the language in a fun way that is not "academically" emphasised on the surface but is obviously educational covertly. (There may be a contradiction there - but y'know what I mean).

Each month until next march there will be two prizes of 50E awarded for good (the best) blogs.

So there you go. New technology plus economic prizes, being used to encourage our youth to engage with new technology through the medium of the Irish language.

Now, how else can we use new technology for other positive humanistic projects?