[This wiki-page to develop one unit of the innovative course... "New Media for Urban Change".]

Previous Units... Web Development.  (design, paper-prototype)

Unit #7:  "Social Networking... Is Media... For IMPACT !"

"A cord of three strands is not easily broken."

"Two are better than one,

       because they have a good return for their work:

 If one falls down,

       his friend can help him up.

       But pity the man who falls

       and has no one to help him up!"

"The parts of the body... each belongs to the other."

 "You are what you will be, but for the people you meet, and the books you read."  (Charlie Tremendous Jones)

Social networking without a purpose... is just something else to do.

Social networking with a purpose... is called team-building.

Objectives for tonight...

• [Having already read the assignments for tonight, you will already be able to describe and discuss social networking and some key issues related thereto. ]
• You will be able to explain 'Networking Effect'.
• You will be able to correlate it with biblical insights re the nature of The Church.
• You will be able to cite current research re social networking.
• You will be able to build a Facebook profile, set your permissions appropriately, add applications, and join certain groups.
• You will be able to begin developing YOUR strategy for "paying attention"... ie, prioritizing inputs in today's tech-communications culture.
• You will be able to potentially use Facebook in your future service-learning projects... for urban impact.
• [Don't I wish...]  You will be able to look into the future and envisage a well-connected, well-communicating Body of Christ... moving forcefully forward on its God-given mission.

   

   

Big Ideas...

• What is social-networking?   And how do I get started?
• Obvious Caveats:    Just ask this nearly-a-teacher.
• CT article "A Fishy Facebook Friend".
• The issue is... 'granting permissions' appropriately to your situation.

• What's the theory & research indicate so far? 
• Network Effect ...Metcalfe's Law ...yet mitigated by Brook's Law.  
• Quickly review... "How Youth Are Using Social Media"  (research link?... Pew Research Report.)
• July 2007 Stats:   "Social Networking Online is Becoming the Dominant Web Activity."
• Wall Street Inputs... If correct... they're assessing Facebook as highly valuable.  Marketers see the potential value of 'you' as a 'portal'... through which to hopefully influence your well-profiled friend-set.
• Malcolm Gladwell's (Tipping Point) connectors & mavens. 
• Social Networking and Group Formation.

• Weak Ties...  (but may become strong-ties... eg. Rudy --> Scott --> Neil) 
• (Discuss: Malcom Gladwell's counter argument, "Small Change: Why the revolution will not be tweeted" (Activism vs. Slacktivism")

   

• Structural Holes theory... A structural hole is “a separation between non-redundant contacts” (Burt, 1992).  "For example, if we apply these concepts to MySpace or Facebook, we quickly realize it is not the sheer number of "friends" in your network that count, it is the diversity of the people in your network that is most important. If you only have links to people in your immediate group of friends or colleagues, it will be difficult to get new information, since everyone will pretty much know the same things." [reference-link]
• Review "Info for Change"... How could Social Networking change anything?  Urban world?  [Andrew Sears article re Online Segregation proven via social networks... and a model re cost of segregation.].  Related podcast at NPR.

• "Pay Attention".... What's your strategy?  Remember, "but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, etc.".  Is Steve Rupel right about 'The Attention Crash'?  What is Signal-to-noise?  Are we really talking about 'Truth'?  How is internet truth known?  Perhaps by filtering via your social-network.   With that in mind, now consider all your various inputs & opportunities... Via tagging, RSS, and potentially... Facebook.  Less spam.  Adjust your FB news-feed.  That is, prioritizing as you distill everything down to TEAMWORK.  What's YOUR strategy?  My Info Strategy (example).

   

  

  [Here's the link to his article... and related articles.]

• Facebook -- How Could THAT Help?
• From A. Smidt, North Dakota... "Just wanted to update you on The South Dakota Food Fighters group on facebook. . . I attended a regional food pantry provider's conference last month and met some really awesome people from South Dakota. Several of them work on or near the Indian Reservations here in South Dakota. Their needs are so great and their resources are so limited. We huddled together to pray after one of our sessions and promised we'd find some way of staying in touch once the conference was over. It wouldn't be easy. We were from different corners of the state. There was no money in our budgets to travel or for long distance phone calls.  Neil had just introduced me to this group on facebook and I suggested that we try setting up a group of our own to help us brainstorm problems and to share both our surplus and our needs.  Today I was able to share a van load of surplus food with one of those pantries and found out that since we prayed at the conference, the blessings have been pouring in!"

• Bottom Line:  Social networking is a fantastic tool for impact... by connecting & communicating

  ...through your influential set of friends we call 'the team'... ie, the Church.  That is, the Team in Christ.

   

   

   

   

   

   

Assignments (before & after)

• Read the research.
• Get a Facebook account.  Join this class's group, if you haven't already.  Join the 'Crossroads' group. 
• Start a discussion topic at the 'Crossroads' group, re Social Networking for Urban Change, and elicit the group's ideas.  Watch the dynamics of how easy (or hard?) it is. 
• Write your conclusions in your personal wiki-page.  [Or do you have your own blog yet?]
• Start a new section in your wiki-page re My Personal Technological Strategy... and speak to how you intend to "Pay Attention" to high-priority inputs.  Here's Neil's example..
• Discussion Group "Topic #7 -- Social Networking is Media for Impact".... You're on staff at your church, and your pastor says in staff meeting one day... "One of our congregation members has started a Facebook group using the church's name.  I need some advice before the church board meeting Sunday night.... What do you think we should do about it?"

• Your Future Projects?  Social networking may be a key way to get your message out.  Or it may in fact be a core element of your project.  [Ah, but what if you don't HAVE a social network?  Better get one, huh?]

Stray Links to keep track of, for now...

•  
• (Gotta find the online version of Chris Forbes' new book... "Facebook For Pastors", and assign it... when it gets released.)
• This is not your father's Oldsmobile-website anymore.... LOL... Remember... Due to the new Web2.0 way of life... Your 'web strategy' is not just about a web SITE.... because your components may in fact have a much further reach than simply among those who 'come to' your site.  RSS takes your site to them.  So do any components or apps you may develop.  Or your social networkg interactions.
• Facebook group -- "City Reaching Movement"  (please JOIN, and help it become IMPACTING)
• Research article re young people using social networking.
• Communications  ('media center' for Indianapolis cityreaching -- our class could be instrumental in helping pull it together.)
• "Facebook Grows Up The Internet"  (be sure and read the associated Time Magazine article as well) 
• USA Today front-page article this week, re Facebook.
• My 2005 article... "10 Reasons for City-Blogging"... notably sections re 'connecting & communicating'.

• Priests, Nuns using social-networking for recruiting.

•  

• urban / suburban disparity re social networking
• while Gartner group is projecting the downward trend in 'blogging' (per se), clearly social-networking use is up greatly... thus Wall Street's love for Facebook, etc. (MSFT).  (Why? Hypothesis... because most bloggers realized, it's your friends reading your blogs)
• Paul Brooks conversation... Gideon's Report... city metric re linkage... Metcalfe's Law (of fishing?), Reed's Law... and yet, Brooke's Law -- Conclusions?  Implications for the Church?
• examples... Scott/Neil
• my social graph (which FB app?) -- now imagine all 1,000 of my email db were involved?
• social metrics app that Dr. Ho has?
• Biblically.... how often did you see collaborative ministry (ie, teamwork) vs. individual ministry?   He sent them out two by two.  And virtually all Paul's trips were team trips.  We've been created as social creatures.  Paul used scrolls as his media to communicate, and even personalize portions of scripture for people he knew.  His commands against divisiveness in the body are still instructive today... although seemingly falling on deaf ears in the very fractured American Church.
• My Socialistics
• Oxford Internet Institute... 2005 Video re Social Networking
• webometrics
• social networks and structural holes  (see the great quote from it, in my tag-note... re diversity) 
• "Robert Scoble IS media."
• Scobleizer: Steve Ballmer still doesn't understanding social networking.
• NicoleWhite at Cabrini Tutor/Mentor Connection -- on social-networking for change.
• Facebook Group: Cabrini Connections
• This initiative at the cafe (at least re social-networking) was a bust.  (examine the reasons why?)
• Brad Fitzpatrick on Social Graphing.
• Just for fun... SpeedBump cartoon
• "10,000 Churches Create Social Networks" 
• Intenet Evangelism: Social Networking as Outreach
• [future classes... use something from "Well Connected" by Phill Butler.]
• Mark Granovetter.... classic sociology research re 'weak ties'.
• Review some of Jon Kleinberg's handouts and theories re Cornell's class on "Networks".  Kleinberg has recently been named by Smithsonian Magazine as one of the innovators under 36.  [Review some of the Cornell class's blog-posts... such as these data-visualization models... and maybe review the blog-entry re weak ties for finding a bone-marrow donor. 
• We need to cover Stanley Milgrams infamous "Six Degrees of Separation".  Review the little Facebook app re 6 degrees.]
• Hmmm.  somewhere I read some insights re Malcolm Gladwell's "The Tipping Point"... re social networking.  [check my tags?]
• Consider "David's Mighty Men"... revolutionaries... hiding in caves... bound at the hip by purpose & principle.  Social misfits?  But when their time came... ie, when it was God's timing for David (previously anointed to be king) to actually become the king... everything was in place for that to proceed... Yes?
• [Remember 'George's world' segment of Seinfeld?  LOL] 
• "The ROI of Social Media"
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 Still soliciting feedback from...

• Daniel Bassill, Cabrini Connections
• Nicole White, Cabrini
• Evan Donovan, TechMission?
• [Russ Pulliam?]
• contact Andrew Sears...  followup his article re social networking & segregation.
• Bill Seaver?
• Joe Suh?
• Dave Hackett (avail)... how about Phill and Bill?  "Well Connected"... updated re social-networking?

Note:  This wiki-page will also be visible and considered as we do social-networking at CCDA St. Louis 2007.  So be thinking of great examples we can use to illustrate social-networking for urban change.

• Rudy/Scott/Neil/Jeremy... via UrbanOnramps.com as Rudy intentionally helped hook people up.  From it came a very successful CCDA Indy 2005.  And from our Indy pre-planning... team-building occurred, which exists to this day... and into our future together.
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