Task 1b: Professional communication technologies.

I have been putting this off and off because after reading the 1^st reader on Professional communication technologies, my honest reaction to it was…’blank’, nothing. What was I supposed to do with it? What can I find to write about? I then thought how life was before web 2.0 and how it has now changed the way we communicate, socialise and do business. I found these quotes that sum up web 2.0 as well as showing us the many ways web 2.0 is being used and harnessed:

“To sum up the Web 2.0 phenomena in a sentence: lower communication costs have led to opportunities for more inclusive, collaborative, democratic online participation. People started to communicate more, and not only that they started communicating in qualitatively different ways than before. As these millions found new media for expression and collaboration, they opened possibilities for a more inclusive, open, democratic society”

“Web 2.0 is transforming our society. Online tools that support collaborative communities are redefining how firms do business, how retailers engage customers, how politicians energize voters, how journalists inform readers, how teachers educate students, how friends maintain relationships, and how individuals shape their own identity.”

So as you can see web 2.0 is a powerful tool for today’s society. We use it in every aspect of our lives, mainly to communicate and share in a more efficient and expressive way between each other. When I looked up the different ways it is used, I was completely shocked at first, that it’s used by Politicians and teachers etc. But then I sat back and realised, why wouldn’t they? It’s a brilliant way to get in touch with hundreds, thousands or even millions of people and spread your word. Even if the user does not fully take in what you are trying to get across, subliminally they have may taken onboard your company’s name or vision.

This then got me thinking, “how can web 2.0 help in other ways?” which then led me to ask my sister. She works for ‘Claire House’, a charity for children and young people with life limiting, life-threatening conditions from across Merseyside, Cheshire, North Wales and the Isle of Man. She works within the fundraising department and relies heavily on web 2.0 to spread the word of events and get the name of ‘Claire House’ out to the people of UK and the rest of the world. So I wrote to her asking how it benefitted her and the hospice? This was her response, (I have edited it):

“The area of social media is growing significantly. It has done, over several years and at the moment does not look like it is going to stop”.

“Social Media is a huge area of fundraising strategy and needs to be harnessed for any charity to get the full potential out of it. Social Media needs to be used effectively to enable events and projects to be promoted successfully.”

“Social Media is a cheap and effective way of communication. This is an advantage yet it relies on people following or being friends with you to enable you to get the message across. This is much more difficult with a smaller, local charity with less of a profile.”

“There is an argument you are only reaching one area of supporters; a younger generation but to this I disagree as it is not only social networking, but Justgiving sites, text donations and a multitude of other communication methods that keep being invented year on year.”

“Social Media is mainly about spreading the word for charities. Claire House currently has over 3,000 Facebook Friends as well as over 2,500 on a Supporters Group and over 5,000 twitter followers – with one simple click of a button you can advertise to over 10,000 people with no costs! And there’s no catch!”

So as we can clearly see, web 2.0 is imperative to ‘Claire House’ for its survival. Without web 2.0 it would be a long and costly process. Which leads me to my next example to help put it into perspective “What if web 2.0 were not around?” What would we have to do in order to get our message across to as many people as we could?

 “The dramatically lower costs of communicating information over the web can be illustrated with a simple thought experiment: how would you share a video with all of your friends in 1980 and today? In 1980, sharing a video message with your friends would involve the following steps: filming on a tape, transferring the tape to VHS, copying each individual VHS tape, packaging and addressing each tape, and mailing the tape to everyone you know. The time costs of such a venture were basically prohibitively high.”

With this thought, it really does show how much easier it is for us to communicate with one another compared to 20 years ago. Instead of waiting for weeks in the post we can send documents, videos, messages, instantaneously across the globe. Reaching the people that we know and love, or expressing our thoughts and knowledge, perhaps to the people that may benefit our careers, or maybe our education.  Web 2.0 was the next step in our technological world, but where will we be in next 20years?

References

Justin Reich, 2008, Harvard Graduate School of Education

Sarah Birss, 2012, Fundraiser Co-Coordinator, Claire House