This year's "Be The Media" mini-conference gathered both experienced social networking activists and those just getting started with the new media. Sponsored by Project Think Different, Boston Women's Fund, Resist, Press Pass TV and Third Sector New England, this day long conference targeted communications staff and organizers from smaller, under-resourced organizations.A series of lively workshops explored "Challenges and Opportunities in the Age of New Meda for Grassroots Organizations."
Some themes form the day:- The social media have become more accessible and more a natural part of community advocacy and effective communication.
- While Web 2.0 and new media sites are generally free or low cost, staff time is not. Much of the discussion focused on strategies and planning for effective use.
- Facebook is often mentioned as the natural point of entry, friendly to both tech-savvy youth as well as the less experienced, and bursting with group-oriented add-on mechanisms such as "events" and "causes" for getting the word out.
- At the same time, new tools keep emerging alongside the ones that have been around for years. The conference provided a great setting for comparing what makes sense where for which purposes.
- Access to and control of the new media and to the underlying infrastructure of the Internet cannot be taken for granted. The network behind the conference links back to national activists working and advocating to keep the evolving Internet accessible to all.
Database Designs contributed by helping organize a workshop on "Gettting Started with Social Networking" with Suren Moodliar from Organizers Collaborative and Bethany Ramirez from TSNE. You can watch or download our panel's from the conference and at the same time, get a taste of Issuu, one of the newest web-collaborative tools:
