Future of Social Communities

Design to Thrive: Dr. Howard

I must begin by stating how compelling Hiltz and Turoff’s predictions are.   They are a cause for pause, but then I wonder if they are so compelling because we have a platform to connect them to.   Nonetheless, it is pretty amazing that technology exists that fulfills the visions of the 1976 Network Nation.

The other component of this chapter is Dr. Howard’s future implications of social institutions.  He begins the discussion defining copyright and then moves on to question who has rights to intellectual property, virtual identities and purchasing identities.   For me the most challenging component of his questions are related to the impact of social communities.   When he states: “the question here will not be whether we really want anybody to create communities that can undermine established social, religious, governmental, and economic structures” (218).   It  is presumed that we want communities to be able to undermine established communities as indicated by the use of Twitter in Teheran.  These platforms provide the common man a voice in an age of uncertainty.   Is this a good thing? Perhaps so – perhaps not.

Dr. Howard also poses will the educational and professional institutions be able to keep pace with the advances in technology?  From my perspective, I think we are failing at this point.  As evidenced in our Webinar last week, we were all surprised to learn that Twitter is used for more than inane posts from people who have too much time on their hands.  I called my older brother (in Afghanistan) on the drive home last week to see if he uses Twitter.  I honestly thought he was at home in Virginia and would not have bothered him had I realized his current location.  His job it to build and maintain the computers to support the military’s communication throughout the world.  I wanted to tell him about using Twitter, Elsiever,  and LinkedIn.  Other than being irritated with my untimely call, he said he is on LinkedIn but does not tweet.  I asked why not, and he said he did not have the time to tweet.  It seems to me he should be participating in the conversation about technology of our homeland security if he is one of the people using the designated the technology in the field.  He has been in his profession for 20 years and stays current within his field but had not thought about Twitter as an outlet to learn and educate others about the usability of the software they are creating.  I suspect when he gets my step by step directions of how to tweet (in the developmental phase) he will become a participant in the discussions that pertains to his profession.  BUT – he would not be inclined to engage in this social community, if I were not asking him about it for the next few weeks or months.  I think he is still skeptical – and will remain skeptical until he finds someone participating in the conversations, that agrees with his ideas, and has an impressive resume on LinkedIn.  (Provided he is willing to go to the measures describe in the Webinar).

I do not think institutions or educational systems grasp the technological potential the internet and social communities offer.  Because if we go back to the statement “the question here will not be whether we really want anybody to create communities that can undermine established social, religious, governmental, and economic structures”.  Is the only thing preventing a social uprising from happening the lack of technological training of the average person with access to technology.? Our current educational practices are not preparing our students (future citizens) to handle technology appropriately because of the generational divide among those using the technology and those instructing them.  The instructors are not familiar enough with the technology to protect their students or themselves.  And I cannot imagine a content teacher willing to forgo teaching an “essential” element to accommodate the demands of their content drive curriculum.