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A Brave New World of Communication
Filed by Gail Banzet in Education, Feature, Local News, News.
February 12, 2010
Oklahoma State Universtiy Social Media Professor Bill Handy visited with social media guru Dr. David Weinberger in advance of his visit to OSU as keynote speaker during Research Week.
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The author of Cluetrain Manifefsto offers some great insights into the world of social media at kosu.org
KOSU, thanks so much for the opportunity to interview Dr. David Weinberger. It was truly a joy and I look forward to hearing him speak at Oklahoma State's Research week (http://researchweek.okstate.edu).
For those who enjoyed listening to Dr. Weinberger and are interested in learning more you might want to visit his blog Hyperorg (http://www.hyperorg.com/blogger) or read his latest book, Everything Is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder which can be found on Amazon(http://www.amazon.com/Everything-Miscellaneous-Po...
@billhandy Thanks for sharing! | @edyoucation via Twitter – characters become words, words become information, information becomes knowledge; thus I continue to learn from a mixture of colors threaded throughout society.
Duane, glad you enjoyed. I think one of the most interesting elements of the discussion regarding facts (data) to information to knowledge is the reality it is oftentimes over simplified. Information really needs to be debated for knowledge to truly emerge. I think this is one of the greatest challenges of the social web, there is a lot of talk (data/information) but very little debate.
I also had the opportunity to interview Dr. Weinberger for #OKState and will link that video here once it is up. I look forward to your continued involvement in the discussion.
I agree with Alaina on this. Dr. Weinberger did have a very interesting take on the direction social media is headed. I'm very excited to see what's going to happen myself. Technology has expanded very rapidly over the past few years alone, so who knows where it will be 5, 10 or 20 years down the road.
This was an interesting take on the evolution of social media. I learned a lot! As a pr and news ed major I have learned a lot about how much media, especially newspapers have evolved and adapted to present times, it was interesting to hear someone else's take on it.
I thought Dr. Weinberger made an interesting point when he was talking about the internet and how it is different today from 10 years ago and that in the future we may diminish the internet's potential and see the internet turn into a TV type of delivery system. The internet is a great place to find information, but now you can watch almost any movie or TV show online. More people may start using it as entertainment instead of the great resource tool that it can be.
Very good point! Reality is you/we need to make sure the internet's value isn't diminished. Any thoughts on how best to do this?
I would suggest educating more people on the value of Social Media. For instance, the Web site addict-o-matic was introduced to me through our Social Media class, and it simplified the way I research. When people learn of the tools the Internet offers to make researching and communicating easier, they will jump on the band-wagon. If social media continues to grow and is used not just for fun, but for better purposes, such as advertising, promoting, connecting with possible business clients ect… the Internets value will continue to increase, as well.
I think Kelsey makes a good point. It's amazing to think of the way we communicate now versus ten years ago. Dr. Weinberger's interview was very insightful. it's interesting how social media can have such an affect on the way in which we communicate and the words we use and how we define them.
That interview was very interesting. I think there were many great questions asked and he had some really great insight to social media! I enjoyed hearing the comparisons of now vs. then. When he gave the encyclopedia example and then compared Wikipedia, that was a great way to show how far not only social media, but technology and ideas have come. It used to be books and now it is websites that link to websites. It is so crazy to think about.
Wow, intense 38 minutes Bill! This guy is a pro! When is he going to be at OSU? I felt like I was sitting in on some intense government debate, haha! Dr. Weinberger clearly knows his stuff, I was impressed with the numbers and information he rattled off. I chuckled when his home phone started ringing and he mentioned his "Twitter contract…every 12 minutes"…best parts of the interview! He should have tweeted "Phone interview with Bill Handy #JB4520"
Commenting on earlier comments, I remember when AOL 3.0 came out and I was amazed at the things I could do, getting on websites and playing so many different games (or what I thought was "so many" at the time…doesn't even compare to the number of games available now) and checking out my favorite band's websites. This was before internet was available on phones and everywhere else, before Google, YouTube and Wikipedia, before cable (gotta love the slow and noisey dial-up!) and before the internet we know today. We think we are so advanced, I'm scared to think of what another 10 years of internet advances will consist of!
Ive never really been a part of conversations like this before, talking about social media and how its USEFUL rather than corrupting face-to-face communication and the nature of society as a whole. Thats what consumed me the most by watching the interview. I really have learned a new way to see how it makes community actually closer. It invites people to participate in conversations they may never have. And these conversations are usually happening between strangers. The constant building upon ideas and collaborating new solutions through social media is really interesting to me.
Continuing the conversation about the Internet's evolution, it SCARES me, really, to imagine what it most likely will become. It is completely unregulated and has so much destructive power already. I guess we will see and all personally have to do our best to keep Internet separate and best in the field of communication.
I agree with you Adley. Most often I hear negative responses to issues involving Social Media. I find this most from the people who have never tried to embark into it, for example, my parents. They are against posting any sort of information on the internet and do not see any benefit from the ability to connect with people all over the world in seconds. Gaining information on Twitter way faster than if I were to hear it on the nightly news. It's a constant heads up.____Also about the internet. I have seen the destructive qualities of the internet in my aunt and uncle's lives. My uncle lost his job due to online gambling at work. The ability to live in a virtual world from anywhere with an internet connection is insane. You can ruin your life in a few clicks. I think regulation must be enacted soon or the internet could become something people will lose control of.
You both hit the nail right on the head. Usually, people who chose to disregard the benefits of Social Media have never made an account with any site. Most people tend to stick with the tried and true. It's up to us to change their minds.
Adley, I think you're right to be scared, but also hopeful. The Net is, regulated in lots of ways already, including by existing laws governing libel, slander, copyright, child porn, national security, etc. It's also regulated locally by people who put up sites and who decide what the rules will be for contributing. For example, this site moderates comments. It's also regulated by the norms and expectations we bring to it. (I highly recommend Lawrence Lessig's book "Code" which is about the four forms of regulation he sees.) None of these forms of regulation are finished yet. Personally, I'd favor the minimal amount so that the Net stays open to innovation, but that's something that we'll work out together through political and cultural means. Here's hoping we make wise decisions.
I found Dr. Weinberger's comment regarding Twitter refreshing. He stated that it is great because it is a way for people to spread information, but some people don't utilize it correctly. I completely agree because I really don't want to hear about what someone had for breakfast! That may seem harsh, but I understand where he is coming from.
Social Media and the Internet is constantly changing. Whether this change is for the good or bad is something that will be determined as it evolves. Like Dr. Weinberger said he made mistakes predicting where social media and the Internet would be in his book. I enjoyed listening to this interview! Thank you KOSU!!!
This was a great interview. Dr. Weinberger has so much insight over technology and just the internet market in general. One of the most interesting parts that stuck out to me was when he was talking about how due to the economic situation of our country, that the internet may soon become nothing more than a new form of a television. This took me a minute to take in, but after I thought about it, it makes so much sense. For the past few years everyone has been talking about how to go bigger and better using the internet and all of it's tools. This evolution obviously takes a toll on finances and just a company and it's workload/workforce in general. I think it will be very interesting to see how the economy effects the growth of the internet in the near future. Will it change it's growth? Or will people simply find a better and less expensive way to use it?
Jenna, I think you hit on a valuable point so thank you for calling it out. I also agree that some of the comments you really need to take in and think on them for a while. Personally I have been thinking on them for more than a week now and am getting ready to shift my online engagement as a result. More to come…
I found the interview with Dr. Weinberger very insightful. I liked the points that he made about the internet and social media sites. For example, when he mentioned that the internet for us is an area of unlimited space where we–the people– can have a voice about what interest us. I agree with him that the "internet is what we make of it". I really hope that the internet remains a nonstructural channel of communication and doesn’t diminish in the hands of those who try to formulate and structure it around economic reasoning. I also liked when he spoke on the issue of twitter. I think he points out issues and problems that a lot of us have faced with using twitter, but also did a good job recognizing that it too is whatever one makes of it. Twitter can be used as a broadcasting platform or simply another social site. I enjoyed and learn a lot from this interview.
Very interesting interview to listen to! Dr.Weinberger touched on a few concepts that I found to be quite simple, but sometimes people fail to realize or understand how the social media has effected us during its process of change. He mentioned the fact, thatfor so long people have been in the mindset of reading the newspaper and that being the only news that concerned them. Now that social media has advanced as much as it has, there are often links on these newspaper sites that lead to other news outlets, offering more information and news to readers that they would not have otherwise read. He also mentions that social media also makes for more opportunities on how to categorize information, which is how people have been taught to do things is to categorize them to actually be “something”.
It is weird to see how much technology has progressed in such a short time. I think it's great though. I think that as long as we use it correctly, the Internet is going to continue to be great for us.
I understand that the Internet is a great learning tool. It is important to know how to use it and how to learn from it. But I also think that it is great for social purposes too. I may just be stuck in my college kid ways, but I like using Twitter to communicate with my friends. I use Web sites and e-mail for news and updates about the real world. Occasionally I will use links from Twitter that takes me to Web sites to learn about something, but if I want to get on the Internet to learn about a recent earthquake I am going to get on a news Web site, not Twitter.
The conversation on the Internet is definitely trying to become more intelligent. People are beginning to use various social sites to further a cause or deliver an important message. That's great and I hope to see more of it. However, the empty-headed will always find a haven on the Internet. As long as anybody can blather on without being challenged to defend their opinions, people will. As to the question, "Who has more value, a scholar…", what a ridiculous question. The scholar will always have more value. Does anybody want to argue that looking something up on Google makes you an authority? Also, how long does that information stay with you, as opposed to reading a book or an academic journal? My big beef is people assuming that this technological revolution is going to make sages out of all of us. It isn't. The village idiot will forever have a place to reign in the pantheon of Internet contributors.
Dax, On the one hand, I agree with you. The ease of gathering info on the Net can make us think we're smarter than we are. (On the other hand, the availability of some types of info does indeed mean we can find stuff out faster and thus are in _some_ sense smarter than we were.)
On the other other hand, I think it's really useful to _also_ look up from the Net's effect on individuals to the Net's effect on groups and social networks. Those networks I think are indeed becoming smarter (at least sometimes) because you can not only get an answer, you can get a debate. So, if you think about knowledge not only or mainly residing in the heads of individuals but as a property of networks, I think there's the opportunity for _enormous_ advancement in what we know.
The internet was such a great creation. It will and is becoming like a TV for entertainment, but it is also creating communication in all areas like social, educational, and professional. Because of the freedom people have on the internet, it will be very difficult for major companies and groups to brainwash people into believing what they read in the limited paper resources. It shares the views of minorities. It works on all levels and in all parts of the world. This resource is the future. It gives access to intelligence. As long as we make the best of it, and use it for intelligent purposes rather than insults and gossip, many sites on the internet will be the cause of global progress.
Dr. Weinberger seems to be optimistic but yet concerned about the route the Internet will take in the future. The comment about the Internets capability to categorize anything into the way we, as the viewers, want to see it I thought was interesting. " The Internet is what we make of it," I believe is the only explanation that can be offered on the future of the Internet. As Weinberger put it "we may manage to diminish the Internets potential," by essential making the Internet into something we already know how to operate like television like newspapers like radio. If we can try to resist the urge to put the Internet into a box, or category, and look for innovative ways to use it then I think the Internet holds infinite possibilities that we may discover one day.
Like several people have said, it's interesting to think about how much the internet has changed over time. It has become such a cucial form of communication and interaction. Dr. Weinburger seems very informed on the internet and the evolution of it. I agree that Twitter is a great way to be informed about jobs, internships, etc. I agree with Dr. Weinburger that "The Internet is what we make of it." If people would take the time and explore and figure out all of these social media sites, they could be used to such great advantage. The Internet has changed so much over time, and in my opinion will definitely keep growing. I think it will be interesting to see what the Internet is like in 15, 20, 30 years. The possibilities are endless!