Danah Boyd’s talk at the Personal Democracy Forum, 2009 opened up the issues of inequality, social divisions and homophili on the Internet. Her talk helped me understand that social media is not a solution for these social ills, but a mirror or magnifying glass that reflects what’s going on in our society.

Danah uses her research on teen cultures and teens use of Facebook and Myspace as a foundation for her points. It’s a very instructive and helpful presentation that puts social media practices in a more realistic context, particularly for change agents who are adopting social media strategies as a means to address racism, classism and inequality.

Full text of her presentation can be found here

Thanks to OCASI Settlement.org Newsletter for their posting of this presentation.

Michele Martin at her Bamboo Project Blog has written a great post on homophily. Like her, I recognized this phenomenon as a factor imbuing conversations and relationships but I never heard the term before, nor thought about what this looks like in online behaviours.

Danah Boyd is a Social Media Researcher at Microsoft Research New England and a Fellow at Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society. She recently completed her PhD at the School of Information (iSchool) at the University of California (Berkeley). Her research examines social media, youth practices, tensions between public and private, social network sites, and other intersections between technology and society.

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Nancy White is one of many outspoken and knowledgeable bloggers who writes about building and supporting online communities. In this video which I discovered via Robin Good, another outstanding participant/contributor to the social web, Nancy talks about the economic model used to run conferences and the “passive mind set” of so many of the people who attends these events.

I think she is right on with her comments about conference attendees who sit passively and lazily at conferences, unwilling to contribute to important conversations, more content to get their monies worth from the expert on the stage.

Nancy challenges people to participate more in conferences and place demand on conference organizers to build more opportunities for participation by attendees. The current model that keeps the expert on the podium and the uninformed in their seats is just not in step with the participatory values of the social web or conference participant’s wish for space to join the conversation.

It’s a great little video that invites us to unpack some of the conditioning we take into conferences. What thoughts did her message provoke in you?

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This post features a short video of Etienne Wenger who answers questions about low participation rates in a community of practice. Etienne Wenger is a world renowned theoretician – practitioner on communities of practice.

I sit on a number of committees that address pressing community concerns. My view is that committees are close cousins to communities of practice and we can learn from our cousins.

From poverty & homelessness to engaging youth at risk, these committees are attempting to bring about positive social change in my community. As long as I’ve been sitting on committees, usually coordinated by a lead non profit agency or a network of non profit organizations, I continually hear the wish that more “service users” be at the table to help determine the results of our planning.

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I received a very exciting and positive email from Emily Dolan, a staff member with the Aids Committee of York Region (ACYC).

Emily was announcing the launch of a new development at ACYR, their brand new Facebook page. You could tell from the tone of her email that she was very thrilled to be announcing the Facebook launch to York Region organizations and other HIV/AIDS groups across the province.

I am learning a lot about how non profit groups are using Facebook for fundraising to building a stronger community of supporters. The benefits of using Facebook are many but most notable is the opportunity to join a network with a potential audience of millions. Of course the ACYR isn’t expecting millions to visit their page, however they are putting their feet in the social media groundswell and inviting new relationships with their supporters. Bravo, well done ACYC.

The beautiful graphic above is used to promote a fund  raising event called “Walk to the Water”. The walk from Aurora to Georgina will be to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS aids and of course you can support the walkers by donating generously to this important cause.  You can get more details by visiting the ACYR web site.

Something to remember when you consider a page for your non profit organization. Your profile and pages are different as apples and oranges so you best take heed of advice from the Wild Apricot blog.

From Socialbrite, here’s a 4 minute video on making a Facebook page for your non-profit.

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I attended my first Net Tuesday meet-up event a few nights ago. Toronto’s Net Tuesday is a once a month meeting sponsored NetSquared. Here is NetSquared’s elevator pitch.

“Social changemakers and technological forerunners come together at Net Tuesday events to mix, swap stories and ideas, build new relationships, and reinforce the online NetSquared community.

The session last night was called Online Story Telling – How to Plan & Produce a Compelling Video . I had a lot of take aways from this Meet Up.

At break I introduced myself to Billie Mintz, President of Artists Raising Consciousness. His talk resonated with me more than the other presenters. Being relatively new to creating online videos, his references to learning from the many mistakes he has made and his fly by the seat of your pants style (but organized and professional) appealed to me.

Billie said “I know you from your videos’. I couldn’t figure this out as my work has being pretty minimum to date and I hardly have a following. Anyway Billie explained that he stumbled across my video interviews taken of my elderly mother (96 and going strong). She talks about her political beliefs, making biscuits, speaking Gaelic and life on the Cape Breton farm. He thought they were great videos and was the first person to comment on my very first video. What a magical serendipitous moment. It really inspired me to continue with my video story telling projects. Here is my YouTube channel if you would like some advice from a senior elder of the community.

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I’m working with local organizations on strengthening the community in York Region, through social media strategies and user controlled web platforms. The Cynefin Framework is making a lot of sense to me. I first learned about this model through the Anecdote web site in a post written by Shawn Callahan.

I’ve being looking at community change through the complexity lens or through “complex adaptive systems” for some time. This is a simple video that gives a clear picture of what the Cynefin Framework is and how it can be applied to understand issues (for me community and organizational issues).

I’m going to integrate this model into my work with organizations because it give a clear picture for understanding the different relationships and activities that are taking place within a community. It is especially useful for considering how best to use social media strategies to engage stakeholders so that communities are strengthened.

When an organization or network wishes to engage stakeholders by using online community building tools, this model will help understand the different levels of involvement and the dynamic conversations that can bring about meaningful community improvements.

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