Topic 9 – Business, government and research perceptions

Exercise 9.1: Is social networking a business model?

I joined LinkedIn in 2007 but haven’t touched it since. Updating my profile is one of those things that I intend to do one day but never seem to have time to do (as opposed to Facebook where I seem to end up even if I try not to!).

Social networking/media provide new ways for companies to converse with their customers.  Although this may increase visibility, enhance the brand and provide new ways of getting feedback, I wouldn’t consider it a ‘business model’ in its own right.  There may be some exceptions to this for companies who actually make their money directly from social networking/media (such as companies who develop applications for Facebook), but generally I would see social networking/media as enhancing what the businesses are already doing.

Exercise 9.2: Research and evaluation in Government 2.0

1.1. Wiki drafts of papers for discussion would theoretically allow a large group of people to collaborate to produce a paper that would have been done through an alternative process of public consultation which by its nature would involve far fewer people.  I am a skeptical about the use of wiki for government.  Wikipedia works because of the strict academic code in regards to referencing and sourcing information.  In a context where opinion may be entirely subjective, this becomes far more difficult.  Also, a wiki allows the opinions of those on the margins to be erased entirely – this may be appropriate for a public encyclopedia but is completely unacceptable for government purposes.

1.2 Twitter in government is less controversial however.  This has the potential to be of great democratic benefit as it not only provides a mechanism through which information can be ‘broadcast’ to the public but also allows subsequent discussion and comment to be generated that was not previously possible.  Members of government from all levels could tweet relevant information from matters of federal policy (e.g. economic stimulus measures) to the most minute of local issues (fixing a pot hole).  If the appropriate resources were put in place to monitor and report on twitter activity, much could be learned by government about the mood and opinion of citizens.

2. I do see myself as a supporter of government 2.0.  I see the biggest problem with democracy as being ignorance and lack of participation.  I would hope that by providing people with more visibility of the issues and workings of government as well as the opportunity to provide their opinions, they will not only be ‘heard’ but will also have a greater understanding of the issues in the first place (and views that oppose their own).

It was interesting having a look at the Gov 2.0 Task Force site as I had heard about it from friend and fellow interaction designer Ben Crothers (who not only designed much of it but also won the logo competition – see the acknowledgment right below the logo!).  I like the way the task force is engaging industry leaders, it provides weight and legitimacy to the process and helps ensure that what is output is informed and realistic.  I suppose it couldn’t be a ‘Web 2.0’ site without a tag cloud could it?

I didn’t realise that the Gov 2.0 conference was only a week ago.  It looks as though there was a fair amount of interest and coverage (although I’m surprised that only “Hundreds of people from Australia and around the world viewed the conference proceedings online through live streams”).