In Jordan Queen Rania is providing clear leadership for the people. See her own website, for example, where she speaks about empowering women, giving a voice to children and youth, and developing the community:

As we in Jordan work hard to develop our own vibrant connections, we look outward and applaud the success that our friends around the world are achieving by building, or in some cases, re-building, their own communities. We understand that all of us have similar hopes and mutual desires - safe places for ourselves and our children, a secure economic base, the freedom to enjoy nature’s bounty, and peaceful interaction with others. By connecting and cooperating, we can build that world, one community at a time.

Read/WriteWeb pointed out a new initiative in their post Queen Uses YouTube to Break Down Stereotypes:

The Queen, who has been an outspoken advocate of women’s rights and education reform in the Arab world, hopes to use the channel to facilitate a conversation with people in the West to dispel negative stereotypes about the Arabs and Muslims that have become especially prevalent over the past several years. …

“I want people to know the real Arab world - to see it unedited, unscripted and unfiltered - to see the personal side of my region - to know the places and faces and rituals and culture that shape the part of the world I call home.”

On YouTube - QueenRania’s Channel, we learn:

Queen Rania has played a significant role in reaching out to the global community to foster values of tolerance and acceptance, and increase cross-cultural dialogue.

Regionally and internationally, Queen Rania has campaigned for a greater understanding between cultures in such high profile forums as the Jeddah Economic Forum, the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and the Skoll Foundation in the UK.

We hope to bring you some of these clips soon, but until then, Queen Rania wants you to join in this conversation to bring down stereotypes and build bridges between our virtual East-West communities.

So far there is one video response and a number of written comments. This is a channel to watch: it has the potential to bring about change in the world.

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The Internet is abuzz with a whole new vocabulary: memes and tags, posts and mashups, LOLcats, tweets and RSS. Friends, characters, flag, subscribe and interesting have a whole new meaning. This article helps you find your way in the new Web 2.0 world.

characters

letters, numbers, symbols, or spaces. When you send a txt message with a cellphone or a tweet through Twitter, you’ll be cut off after about 140 characters.

flag

Seen a photo on Flickr or a YouTube video that you find offensive? Flag it for the staff to review.

Flickr

An online service for storing and sharing photos. Add comments and tags. Subscribe to an RSS feed to automatically catch all photos from friends. Search or explore by many criteria.

friends

On social networking sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn a friend is anyone you set up a connection with, whether you know them personally or not.

interesting

Flickr calculate an ‘interestingness’ score for each photo, based on tags, clicks, comments and so on. Explore the most interesting photos.

LOLcats

pictures of cats, with humorous captions, written to a certain style. LOL is short for ‘Lots of Laughs’ ‘Laugh out Loud’ (thanks Che for the reminder). Example: www.lolcats.com/view/55.

mashups

putting information together from more than one source. For example, combining crime statistics and Google maps CSI-style.

memes

An idea, saying or activity that takes hold and becomes popular. For example, LOLcats.

posts

Articles and other contributions to blogs, forums, etc.

RSS

Automatically delivers information from websites and other sources. For example, subscribe to the RSS feed for a particular person’s Flickr photos and any new photos appear automatically in your reader. Example National Library (NZ) photo feed.

subscribe

Usually free of charge. When you subscribe to something you add it to a list of items you will check regularly or receive automatically. For example, you might subscribe to the BBC Worldwide YouTube channel.

tags

Words that help describe something. A photo might be titled ‘Solace in the wind’, but have tags such as: wellington, waterfront, sculpture, statue, and so on.

tweets

Messages sent through the Twitter service.

Twitter

A service for broadcasting short text messages. People use it as a way to keep in touch and up-to-date with friends and colleagues, or news. Example: twitter.com/StuffNZ_World.

User generated

this means that you do the work. If you visit a website you may leave comments, upload images or movies, add information

that is all ‘user’ or ‘consumer’ generated.

Web 2.0

Websites and services that make it easy for people to connect with one another by rating items, marking favourites, sharing, commenting and so on.

YouTube

An online service for storing and sharing short videos. Add comments and tags. Subscribe to an RSS feed to automatically catch all new videos from a given topic. Search or explore by many criteria. Example, WildlifeDirect.

Written for and reproduced from CommunityNet Aotearoa Panui, March 2008.

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In February 2008 Nielsen Online revealed that most New Zealand Internet users are generating web content. (Source: 02/26/2008 Consumer Generated Media: Evolution or Revolution?. )

We like photos, videos, music, blogs

In plain English: we share photos, links and videos, through websites such as Flickr, YouTube, MySpace. We read and write blogs and wikis. We download and stream audio and video content. We like photos, movies, music, and probably podcasts. We edit and comment; we upload.

The report also found that once people are comfortable online, they then often become more involved — they actively edit and comment on content from others and upload video and music to the web.

It’s a revolution in relationships

“We are seeing a revolution in the way in which consumers here in the Pacific and around the world are interacting, communicating, creating and nurturing personal and professional relationships, expressing and publishing their opinions and thoughts, creating and distributing content for and to one another, and entertaining themselves,” says Melanie Ingrey, Market Research Director, Asia Pacific, Nielsen Online.

Nielsen Online found that people tend to take up these activities if their friends and peers are doing them. They join services (such as Bebo) if their friends recommend them.

Problems facing us here in New Zealand are lack of time, slow Internet connections and concerns about security.

Kiwis want to reconnect

A further report tells us that 62% of online New Zealanders have browsed other people’s online profiles within the past 12 months, and 49% have actively updated their own online profile. (Source: 02/12/2008 New Zealand Surfers Ride Social Networking Boom.)

Old Friends, Bebo and MySpace

Their profiles are on Old Friends, Bebo and MySpace. Kiwis want to reconnect with people from the past such as former colleagues and old schoolmates.

” … different social networking platforms cater to varying online identity desires,” notes Melanie Ingrey, Market Research Director, Asia Pacific, Nielsen Online. “Sites such as MySpace essentially promote a fantasised identity where relationships are based on common network interests while Facebook is grounded in real identity and online connections are simply an extension of real friendships. Then you have sites such as LinkedIn which promote social networking for business and career advancement purposes.”

What are you doing?

So, that’s what Kiwis are doing this year. What’s your organisation doing in response?

Do you have a blog where visitors can comment on what you’re doing? Bloggers can also track your activities and write about you on their own blogs.

Do you share photos and videos from your events, using services such as Flickr and YouTube? If you do, then visitors will spread the word about your organisation when they tell others about your content.

Do you recruit volunteers by means of a MySpace or Bebo profile?

Kiwis want to participate. Do you know how to Engage your Community?

Written for and reproduced from CommunityNet Aotearoa Panui, March 2008.

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According to Hitwise New Zealand users prefer social networks as a channel for communication:

Bebo continues to be the market leader in the Social Networking & Forums online industry with 16.87% share of visits for the week ending 5 January 2008. Facebook followed closely at second position with 14.2% share of visits.

Brand recognition of Bebo is extremely strong amongst New Zealand Internet users; ‘bebo’ was the top term out of 9,343,431 unique searches measured for the 24 weeks ending 5 January 2008, ahead of ‘trademe’ and ‘youtube’. ‘Bebo’ was the leading search term for most of 2007.

…Social Networking & Forums significantly outranked web-based Email services with 4.98% share, suggesting that users prefer social networks as a channel for communication.

[Source : Hitwise NZ Social Networking Update - Bebo leading social network and brand online.]

[Thanks to The Evolving Newsroom: Bebo still rules the roost in NZ for the link and lead.]

Which suggests that community organisations should consider adding one or more social networks — probably Bebo and Facebook — to their communication strategies. Email may not be enough any longer.

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YouTube - TheRoyalChannel:

The Christmas Broadcast or ‘Queen’s Speech’ for 2007 will appear on this [YouTube] channel at approximately 3pm GMT on Christmas Day.

Currently available, among other videos, the Queen’s Christmas message from 1957 in which she discusses her use of the ‘new’ medium of television, and cites it as evidence of the speed of change in society.

Listen out for the quaint ‘orfen’ and ‘lorst’.

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