Social Networks and Effecting Transition Movement Action

[Heather K]

* * * Many of us are interested in accurate information on the ning-com-corporation and their ethical & privacy policies. Please share if you have found something helpful. * * *.

 

quote: "There is a lot of Transition Movement action going on in social networks all over the world. This is great; keep it up (as long as it's not detracting from your 'physical world')"- by Ed Mitchell.

 

"Social Networks and how they fit into the web strategy" thoughts by Ed Mitchell

http://www.transitionnetwork.org/blogs/ed-mitchell/2010-02/social-networks-and-how-they-fit-web-strategy

Ed Mitchell is the current 'Web Co-ordinator' for TransitionNetwork.Org. "This means that he is the person who co-ordinates the web activities for the Network, as well as advise Transitioners and Initiatives on the best use of the web for their needs. He lives in Bristol, likes digging and climbing, growing vegetables and reading, bicycles and books, swimming, camping and generally being outdoors."

 

Quote: "There is a lot of Transition Movement action going on in social networks all over the world. This is great; keep it up (as long as it's not detracting from your 'physical world')......

 

.....Our priorities start at the centre of the diagram below (diagram on webpage)- with information that the 'Transition Network' think is the most important - about Transition initiatives, projects and people, events and news. It's 'Knowledge Management' rather than 'Social Networking'; we will start with this information, and build related 'sociality' patterns into this as we go (e.g. proximity searches, contact points etc.) in line with users' requests, patterns of use and other facilitation work.

But it won't be 'Social Networking' a la Facebook or Ning. This is expensive to build and maintain,in a highly competitive and fast-moving technical world, and the information and interactions therein, although very valuable to individuals using the services, isn't utterly critical to the movement in the same way that being able to accurately and reliably find initiatives is.

As well as this, we have no influence over the direction of a 'free' social network service, nor guarantee it will be around forever, nor guarantee how the data will be used.

This is not saying that these Social Networks have no value - it's just that we (the Network) need to focus on our core priorities....

 

......You may note that the Social networks are outside the circles. (diagram on website page)... This is because we do not expect to manage all the information and interactions in these areas; we are keen to participate in them, but as a 'collaborator', not a 'manager'.

Likewise, we can't and don't want to own the data and interactions therein - that is the responsibility of the movement. We're busy thinking about how to make sure the projects information is optimised and owned by the movement in the best way, and don't see a social network that can do that for us....." endquote Complete article written Feb 18th & comments: http://www.transitionnetwork.org/blogs/ed-mitchell/2010-02/social-n...

 

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Also view Les Squires message from today May 6th:

 

Open Message to Transitioners Re: Ning New Pricing Policies

http://transitionus.ning.com/forum/topics/open-message-to-transitio...

 

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Also, view WiseEarth.Org webpage http://www.wiserearth.org/

 

They have many groups listed, including Transition-Us group: http://www.wiserearth.org/group/transitionus

 

[David MacLeod]

Thanks for posting this Heather, good stuff. The Transition Network (the official network of the worldwide Transition movement) has a different mission than the local initiatives. Still, there are some parallels. Hopefully I'll have time to add more to the discussion later.

For anyone wondering what's going to happen to Transition Whatcom's Ning website, we have some decisions to make that the TWIG will be discussing, but I personally don't see this website going away anytime soon.