Social Blogging

On Thursday night, people from all over Southern India rallied to bring out the vote for Isha Foundation’s race to win the Chase Community Giving charity contest hosted on line by Facebook.

For humans appear incapable of maintaining more than about 150 active relationships, according to Robin Dunbar, a professor of evolutionary anthropology.

Relief agencies, many run by U.S. religious groups, have raced to Haiti since last week’s destructive earthquake, but thousands of professional aid workers and faith-driven volunteers had been visiting for years.

A North Texas woman with family in Haiti has relied on social networking sites to both get information and coordinate local relief efforts for earthquake victims.

Hollywood stars and top musicians have led a huge fundraising drive for Haiti live on television, pleading for funds to help the devastated Caribbean nation rise “from the ashes.” Hollywood heartthrob George Clooney led a galaxy of stars performing live on US television networks on Friday and also manning the phones in the Hope for Haiti Now …

If you are interested in learning about new media trends, communication technologies and about the changes that are shaping our future, in this issue of Media Literacy Digest, open education advocate George Siemens, explores and reports on new fascinating stories and insights and on the impact that these new tools have on the way we learn and work.

Photo credit: Zothen

Inside this Media Literacy Digest:

• Stages of Social Media Integration - Anytime someone provides a list of steps to achieve complex tasks, my reaction is to turn and run. Lists are generally only useful for the people who make them. Situations and contexts change rapidly. What works now in one organization will likely not work in the future in another organization.
• Networks - Mathematic and Social - Alberto-Laszlo Barabasi and James Fowler are prominent researchers in networks. Get the two together, and you get an interesting discussion.
• Neighborhood - It is still early enough in the new year to declare 2010 the year of “whatever you think is important“. To this end, have a look at 2010 - The Year of the Neighborhood.
• Those Crazy Kids and Their Media - Kaiser Family Foundation has a new report available on youth and technology. Overall, it is not a surprising report - basically, if they are awake, they are online.
• Internet Freedom - Take a few minutes (ok, maybe about 30). Read this transcript of Hillary Clinton’s presentation on Internet freedom. Leave the politics out of it. It is, I think, an important speech that has the prospect of serving as a touch point for advancing the freedom online discussion - delivered by a senior government official who recognizes that the Internet is more than an add on to our daily lives. It has become a “new nervous system for our planet“.
• Age of External Knowledge - I have stated (many) times that the most significant impact of the Internet is the externalization (capturing and recording… and then making available for future analysis) of all aspects of our lives. How much do we need to commit to memory when we can search Google? What does it mean to “know” something today?
• New York Times To Charge For Content? - Publishers (such as Rupert Murdoch and now New York Times) are once again experimenting with paid content models. I personally do not care. I am sure some people will pay. I would likely subscribe to an exceptionally informative newspaper or magazine online.
• Learning: Extracting Order From Chaos - Chaos theory can provide a useful model for learning: A limited range of inputs can provide a significant variety of outputs. Because the output range is so diverse, it is easy to assume that the process itself must be astonishingly complex. It is not.

Here all the details:

Bruce Willis arrives at the premiere of ‘What Just Happened?’ held at the Eccles Theatre during the 2008 Sundance Film Festival on January 19, 2008 in Park City, Utah.

Focused atten­tion, par­tic­i­pa­tion, col­lab­o­ra­tion and crit­i­cal con­sump­tion (which includes “crap detec­tion“) are the core 21st century new media literacy skills needed to become a fully enabled and active citizen of this ongoing digital communication revolution.

Photo credit: JD Lasica

“Increas­ingly… the dig­i­tal divide is less about access to tech­nol­ogy and more about the dif­fer­ence between those who know how and those who do not know how…“

What is most impor­tant is not having access to the Inter­net but having awareness, know-how, skills and access to the basic litera­cies for the dig­i­tal age.

“The abil­ity to know has suddenly become the abil­ity to search and the abil­ity to sift” and dis­cern.

“Skill plus social” is the key.

Here’s Howard Rheingold in a live video take recently recorded by JD Lasica, illustrating why 21st century new media literacies are so important for us and what are the critical skills you need to master to become a fully literate 21st century citizen:

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You’re probably aware of the power of social networking, and many people see online communities as a way to sell themselves or their businesses.

A Georgia mother and her two daughters logged onto Facebook from mobile phones last weekend and wound up in a startling place: strangers’ accounts with full access to troves of private information.

As a salesperson and author Janet Spur knows the power of social media. But she didn’t realize just how powerful it can really be until someone figured out her Facebook password and hacked her account.

HarperCollins Publishers is negotiating with Apple Inc. to make electronic books available for the introduction of a new tablet device from Apple, according to people familiar with the situation, posing a challenge to Amazon.com, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates a ‘ Iranian opposition groups flooded the Web on Monday with calls for a massive show of force during next month’s anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, openly taunting authorities who have warned of a punishing response to any disruptions of the most hallowed day on the Iranian political calendar.

Australian News.Net Monday 18th January, 2010 An Indian national raped an aspiring lingerie model after he set up a fake social networking profile and promised to help her, a court was informed in this Australian city Monday.