We commenced this year of 2011 awaiting for the take up of technology as promised by some futurists. News of mergers, partnerships, sickness of CEOs, the new ipad and the like surround the technology world.
Futurists had foreseen that we would then be moving towards more mobile computing in the form of tablet mania, smart phone mania, twitter mania and the like. The cloud is still in fashion, a cloudmania seems to be underway too.
The seeds of these 'manias' had already been planted, but did anyone foresee what was coming our way in the form of 'revolution'?
Am currently watching a TV debate on the impact of social media in 'revolution'. New forms of being governed or chancing government, mediated by social media, energy allowed (of should we say internet allowed), have emerged. People have voiced their concerns, this time globally.
It is people, their drive, desire and determination, which seems to have won the battle. Media has now the availability to reach people in no time...but is that enough to suggest that without media there is no 'revolution'?
Well, it seems, we have been all caught by surprise, timing has been short (in comparison with other 'revolutions'), and we see momentum. Some are attributing revolution to revolutionary ideas, others to the young generation, others to technology. No simple answer. What does this conundrum mean for us as academics, IT people, consultants and users?
For sure, there are communities out there, which can at some point coincide and join efforts together and express what they support or reject. They can represent (or under represent) us. They can meet in cyberspace.
Secondly, some mediation (well, the word 'media' can have some resemblance to mediation) is still necessary, so that even if we do not have enough media expertise, or a captive audience, we can recur to intermediaries to help spread messages. We still need support, whether we like it or not. We might not like it, specially if these mediators are more traditional.
I wonder how a revolution like the one we are experiencing now started with a tipping point (see my previous post on this topic). Maybe there are conditions 'out there' hat make people feel that it is OK and it is due to start if not continue a revolution. Maybe there are groups of less than 150 people as Malcom Gladwell suggest which follow the inspiration of an individual, a book, something that becomes 'cool to do' or similar. Or maybe this idea of a tipping point loses out to the sheer determination of masses of people that decide to express themselves.
A big challenge is then to be able as individuals to make sense of all these dynamics, of 'revolution' given that social media, official media, official government and communities are not homogeneous groups, they could be driven by what appears to be contradictory ideas, now together: profit and some kind of social responsibility, duty and common sense. BBC might have already spent its international news coverage budget in the first two months of this year, so how could they justify continuing their reporting? Are we in now for a re-configuration of electronic market places and the 'market' rules that follow from that?
Maybe, time will tell if all those who promote 'mania' get into new commercial relationships with each other whilst at the same time playing a more prominent and mediating role.
Or maybe the Internet, the network of networks, is fighting back to become that ideal network whose purpose became that of enabling communication between people. We have seen how this purpose has been in a way overshadowed by others (including the commercial ones), but at least, this 'revolution', shows that a purpose of communication is still on...At least up to the point or at the same time when someone decides to shut down the Internet...and we decide to continue paying attention to our 'mania forecasting', something we cannot do much about., but just wait
But we could lots of things about mediating and connecting communities, for a number of purposes. The opportunity is there to continue contributing to 'revolution', to mediate and be mediated...whilst we wait.
Futurists had foreseen that we would then be moving towards more mobile computing in the form of tablet mania, smart phone mania, twitter mania and the like. The cloud is still in fashion, a cloudmania seems to be underway too.
The seeds of these 'manias' had already been planted, but did anyone foresee what was coming our way in the form of 'revolution'?
Am currently watching a TV debate on the impact of social media in 'revolution'. New forms of being governed or chancing government, mediated by social media, energy allowed (of should we say internet allowed), have emerged. People have voiced their concerns, this time globally.
It is people, their drive, desire and determination, which seems to have won the battle. Media has now the availability to reach people in no time...but is that enough to suggest that without media there is no 'revolution'?
Well, it seems, we have been all caught by surprise, timing has been short (in comparison with other 'revolutions'), and we see momentum. Some are attributing revolution to revolutionary ideas, others to the young generation, others to technology. No simple answer. What does this conundrum mean for us as academics, IT people, consultants and users?
For sure, there are communities out there, which can at some point coincide and join efforts together and express what they support or reject. They can represent (or under represent) us. They can meet in cyberspace.
Secondly, some mediation (well, the word 'media' can have some resemblance to mediation) is still necessary, so that even if we do not have enough media expertise, or a captive audience, we can recur to intermediaries to help spread messages. We still need support, whether we like it or not. We might not like it, specially if these mediators are more traditional.
I wonder how a revolution like the one we are experiencing now started with a tipping point (see my previous post on this topic). Maybe there are conditions 'out there' hat make people feel that it is OK and it is due to start if not continue a revolution. Maybe there are groups of less than 150 people as Malcom Gladwell suggest which follow the inspiration of an individual, a book, something that becomes 'cool to do' or similar. Or maybe this idea of a tipping point loses out to the sheer determination of masses of people that decide to express themselves.
A big challenge is then to be able as individuals to make sense of all these dynamics, of 'revolution' given that social media, official media, official government and communities are not homogeneous groups, they could be driven by what appears to be contradictory ideas, now together: profit and some kind of social responsibility, duty and common sense. BBC might have already spent its international news coverage budget in the first two months of this year, so how could they justify continuing their reporting? Are we in now for a re-configuration of electronic market places and the 'market' rules that follow from that?
Maybe, time will tell if all those who promote 'mania' get into new commercial relationships with each other whilst at the same time playing a more prominent and mediating role.
Or maybe the Internet, the network of networks, is fighting back to become that ideal network whose purpose became that of enabling communication between people. We have seen how this purpose has been in a way overshadowed by others (including the commercial ones), but at least, this 'revolution', shows that a purpose of communication is still on...At least up to the point or at the same time when someone decides to shut down the Internet...and we decide to continue paying attention to our 'mania forecasting', something we cannot do much about., but just wait
But we could lots of things about mediating and connecting communities, for a number of purposes. The opportunity is there to continue contributing to 'revolution', to mediate and be mediated...whilst we wait.
