I have been putting this off
and off because after reading the 1st 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
