Social Media for Teens

Over the past few weeks we've seen some of our young people coming to the Impact Centre on a Friday afternoon for Social Media and Life skills training. This idea was the brain child of Craig Ross, Clinton Liederman and Brent Williams who saw the need in the community where young people are being lured into gang activity and drug related activities. The Friday sessions include social networking, micro-blogging, blogging, sharing sites and other social media tools that can be used as a medium to share Life Skills with these youth. Expect much more from this initiative and we can expect much more developments from the team who are currently facilitating these sessions.

Youth Marketing for Non profits

With the increased number of organisations especially non-profits looking at how they can engage with young people the video below, by Graham Brown of Mobile Youth, gives an insightful overview of what these organisations can do to reach their youth target market. The Reconstructed Project also featured in this video as we continue spreading the message of hope amongst our young people in South Africa.

The use of Facebook for social encouragement in a Community in Tension

Web 2.0 services are continuing to serve the online communities by enhancing interactions and communication among these communities. From MySpace to Facebook, the online communities are able to communicate effectively and efficiently. The world is getting smaller because a friend is just a click away on the internet. Web 2.0 services have created a virtual world that brings people closer through the formation of networks. Web 2.0 services have addressed several shortcomings that traditionally were difficult such as time constraints, geographical borders and communication costs. This paper explores the use of Facebook among people from a community affected with gangsterism and drugs. According to Maslow’s theories of human needs, social needs are said to influence human behaviour. This paper investigated the use of Facebook to enhance effective communication and interaction among ex-gang members, ex-drug addicts and other citizens in a Community in Tension. The purpose is to prevent the growth and spread of gangsterism and the use of drugs among South African communities. You can read the full paper presented at the World Wide Web Conference last year here.

Digital Citizen Indaba 4.0

Today is the start of the fourth Digital Citizen Indaba (DCI) which is part of the Highway Africa Conference. It is hosted at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa. DCI is an annual event that brings together bloggers, online and mobile journalists, citizen reporters, new media practitioners, online industry experts and civil society representatives. This year I will be hosting a workshop titled "Digital Voices to Reconstruct Communities" and a few of the slides can be viewed below:

Digital Voices To Reconstruct Communities

View more presentations from Marlon Parker.

Blogging as a change agent to empower citizens

As I am getting ready to attend the World Wide Web Conference in Port Elizabeth this week I was reminded of a paper we presented at the same conference in Cape Town last year titled "Blogging as a change agent to empower citizens in communities with tension". Below is a short abstract from the paper:

"The power of the Internet as a facility is that it has allowed many people worldwide to use it without feeling the real bite of the term ‘cost’. It comprises of numerous technologies that create an interesting question: How far has the information technology world come in terms of development? The introduction of a Web 2.0 technology known as weblogs or blogging has fast become a popular choice of application used on the Internet. Blogging prove to have both major advantages and disadvantages when used in the business environment. Not much research has been conducted on the personal impact blogging has on individuals. An issue that this paper addresses is in determining how helpful blogging can be when used by a group of individuals that are in the phase of drug rehabilitation. Ex-drug addicts and gang members from the Cape Flats in Cape Town were used as a case to investigate how much of an impact blogging had on them on a personal level, in their everyday lives and others that surround them. Blogging could be an alternative assisting or possibly empowering individuals in communities with tension allowing them to express themselves and see the world from a new perspective."

Source: Proceedings of the 10th Annual Conference on World Wide Web Applications 3-5 September 2008, Cape Town, South Africa

Social Media Workshop Feedback

As we prepare for the next Social Media for Non-profits workshop in Port Elizabeth below are some of the particpants giving feeback about their experiences at the workshop in Cape Town:

Social Media for Non-profits workshop

Yesterday as we hosted a number of non-profit organisation representatives it was exciting to see how these non-profits would use Social media as part of the organisation strategies. It was also an opportunity to have members of the Reconstructed Team (Craig Ross (in image above), Brent Williams and Clinton Liederman) to facilitate the workshop. The day was a huge success as we not only managed to get the participants excited about Social Media but we also explored way of how it could be used practically within the various organisations for Social Change.

Some of the topics covered that got the participants talking was the use of blogs, micro-blogging and mobile phones as part of the organisation to engage with various stakeholders. Some of the challenges for many of the non-profits were the lack of resources (E.g. bandwidth, having staff dedicated to social media strategy etc). However, during the workshop we were able to discuss a basic Social Media strategy that could support Non-profit organisations. Using the following steps as part of the Social Media strategy proved to be useful to the participants:1)listening 2) participating 3) creating 4) building networks and 5) evaluating.

At the end of the day all the participants managed to start a blog, micro-blogging, get involved with social networks and draft a basic social media strategy for their various organisations.

Social Media for NGOs - Blogging

Social Media for NGO'S

View more presentations from craig ross.

Workshop: Social Media for Social Change - Port Elizabeth

“Introduction to Social Media for Non-profits, NGOs, Community-Based Organisations and Charities”


The “new web” has transformed the way people connect and social media platforms have become an essential part of the organizational and business strategies. These technologies can be useful for non profits as strategic tools for engagement, relationship building with stakeholders and communities, networking and fundraising. With millions of users of social media in South Africa alone and over a billion worldwide across various platforms (PCs, Mobile phones etc.) this is an opportunity for non profits to share with the masses using FREE tools available to support the vision of such organizations.

Content:
This one day training “hands-on” workshop will cover the following areas:
1. Background to social media and tools such as blogs, wikis, micro-blogs, wikis, and multimedia file-sharing sites;
2. Provide a THREE step approach to how your organization can utilize and reap the benefits of social media
3. Practical opportunities for participants to engage with some of the social media tools.
4. Social Media and mobile phones
5. Drafting a Social Media strategy for non-profits.

Objectives:
1. Understanding of Social Media and its context
2. Identified tools that could be integrated into the non-profit operations to support its vision and objectives
3. Introductory level of hands-on experience using social media tools
4. To use mobile phones as possible social media devices
5. Understand the importance of a Social media strategy for a non-profit

Workshop Details:
All required equipment will be provided for the workshop and this includes all refreshments. Workshop price is R750.00 for the day.

Workshop Date & Time: 8 September 2009, 9am – 4pm.

Venue: Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU), Summerstrand, Port Elizabeth

To be part of this Social Media Revolution RSVP at rene@impactdirect.org.za or for more information contact Marlon at makesparker@gmail.com

PS: The workshop had limited space for 10 participants only.

Social Media for Social Change - Video

Marlon Parker talks to Nick Booth about Impact Direct in South Africa from Podnosh on Vimeo.

The Art of Mobile Counselling - Part 2

Realising that counselling using Mobile Chat is not the same as helpline or face to face counselling due to a number of factors. Some of the key characteristics and skills for mobile counsellors are:

- Firstly all the counselling skills that applies to helplines and face-to-face is also true for mobile counsellors
- Fast Communication Skills, the mobile chat generation is a "Now" generation who requires immediate response. Fast chat skills would therefore be good to ensure the most of the medium.
- Multiple conversations with various people in need would require being able to multitask
- Understand the mobile language and culture (E.g. know the basics such as not typing in Capital Letters, make use of the basic chat characters just to give that feel of belonging etc.)
- Read between the characters, important to make sense of the expressions through the mobile phone medium.
- Brief and to the point, remember less is best. The small mobile phone screen of most users mean that they do not need long paragraphs but short and to the point messages.
- Creativity, the mobile counsellor should be creative to get the message across in as few characters as possible
- Passion, as with all other form of counselling passion for the area and medium is important.
- Minimal Chat Response (MCR), this is one of the important skills that's required making use of characters during the conversation such as "k", "o" etc. This is important to ensure continuous conversation and getting the user to discuss their situation.

Next week we'll share more on the Art of Mobile Counselling and your comments are welcome as we grow the characteristics and skills of a Mobile Counsellor.

Drug Advice Support featured in Business Week

Yesterday the Drug Advice Support (Our mobile counselling drug support service) was featured in US publication BusinessWeek, The article "MXit Mixes Mobile Networks with Social Conscience" was the second major publication the project featured in this week. MXit being more than just a Mobile Instant Messenger but moving towards becoming more of a Mobile Social Network have become one the big African Mobile Innovations that will continue to grow in Africa and in parts of Asia according to Herman Heunis, CEO of MXit Lifestyle. He also added in the Business Week article that MXit has an advantage over telecoms in understanding social behavior because that's "the core" of their business. With this perspective towards their product and their innovation we should see a greater increase of MXit type technologies being deployed in the area to support Social Good.

The full article featured in BusinessWeek can be read here.

The Fastest way to break video news: Ask the Bolt

Youtube is definitely one of those sharing sites where users can get news out in a flash. An example is when Usain Bolt won the 200m by shattering the record in 19.19 seconds. The video flooded the YouTube sharing site with millions of people across the world sharing in the news of the fastest man over 200m.



What does this mean for community empowerment? With the proper tools citizens in Communities in Tension could use this medium as a way of sharing breaking news with the world.

Workshop: Social Media for Social Change

“Introduction to Social Media for Non-profits, NGOs, Community-Based Organisations and Charities”


The “new web” has transformed the way people connect and social media platforms have become an essential part of the organizational and business strategies. These technologies can be useful for non profits as strategic tools for engagement, relationship building with stakeholders and communities, networking and fundraising. With millions of users of social media in South Africa alone and over a billion worldwide across various platforms (PCs, Mobile phones etc.) this is an opportunity for non profits to share with the masses using FREE tools available to support the vision of such organizations.

Content:
This one day training “hands-on” workshop will cover the following areas:
1. Background to social media and tools such as blogs, wikis, micro-blogs, wikis, and multimedia file-sharing sites;
2. Provide a THREE step approach to how your organization can utilize and reap the benefits of social media
3. Practical opportunities for participants to engage with some of the social media tools.
4. Social Media and mobile phones
5. Drafting a Social Media strategy for non-profits.

Objectives:
1. Understanding of Social Media and its context
2. Identified tools that could be integrated into the non-profit operations to support its vision and objectives
3. Introductory level of hands-on experience using social media tools
4. To use mobile phones as possible social media devices
5. Understand the importance of a Social media strategy for a non-profit

Workshop Details:
All required equipment will be provided for the workshop and this includes all refreshments for the day. The price of the workshop is R2,000.00 for the day OR RSVP your seat with the code ALL by the 20th August and the Athlone Living Lab will waver your fee by 90% (You Pay ONLY R200.00).

Workshop Date & Time: 27 August 2009, 9am – 4pm.

Venue: Athlone Living Lab
Impact Centre
66 Tarentaal Road
Bridgetown
Cape Town

To be part of this Social Media Revolution RSVP at rene@impactdirect.org.za or for more information contact Marlon at makesparker@gmail.com

PS: The workshop had limited space for 10 participants only.

Twitter under attack

The above image shows why we could not access Micro-blogging platform Twitter for the past few hours. Already I felt like I had withdrawal symptoms as FaceBook was not giving the same pleasure as Twitter. Indicating how my preference for platforms have shifted.

Mobile phones and the elderly

Yesterday morning we had an exciting time with our Seniors Mobile Session (SMS). It was interesting to see the eagerness on the seniors that visit the Impact Centre who want to know more about mobile phones and technology. The SMS workshops is to support the elderly in the local community to maximise the use of their mobile phones. Being able to do basic functions on their mobile phones (sending texts, checking voicemail etc.) the elderly will be able to engage on these platforms with the younger generations as well as peers and it also seems as if there is an increased interest to learn about the use of mobile phones to access the web.

Below are some videos of the SMS group sharing what they expect from these workshops

Reconstructing Communities Using Mobile Phones

Today I had the privilege to present at the UCT Graduate School of Business Mobile Marketing Course. This course is managed by no one other than Dave Duarte, one of the greatest minds in South Africa. The talk was titled "Reconstructing Communities Using Mobile Phones" with a focus on how mobile phones are integrated into daily lives to bring about a change in local communities. The presentation can be viewed below:

Reconstructing Communities using Mobile Devices

View more presentations from Marlon Parker.

Red HIV Zone on MXit

Today we launch another exciting inititiave a collaboration with Cell-Life. South Africa has 5.7 million people living with HIV of which and estimated 3 million between the ages of 12 and 35. This is also the age group that has the most mobile and mobile chat (e.g. MXit) users. To ensure that people in this age group are reached with information and advice about HIV on a communications platform that they use daily MXit proved to be an ideal medium.

This is the Cell-Life Red project that will provide users FREE access to information and advice to information about HIV and AIDS. This service is available 24 hours a day and is easily accessible. This new service will offer people opportunity to be part of a community that will support those in need.

Information about HIV will be available in 5 languages (including a chat language)and will also have competitions, contact details and much more as part of reaching the 14 million users on MXit.

If you want to go Red on MXit then you can do the following:

- Go to Tradepost
- Select MXit Mix
- Select My Culture option
- Select Red
- Add Contact



Our goal is to reach at least 250,000 users who will use this contact for information and advice relating to HIV and AIDS. The Red revolution has surely begun. Follow Red also on twitter @RedMXit for more information and updates about the service

Social Media and Teens

After spending 4 weeks in the UK and connecting with a large number of young people it was interesting to hear some of their comments about Social Media. Speaking to approximately just over 100 teenagers during my stay I wanted to know what are their social media tool of choice, what they think of micro-blogging like Twitter and what are the Instant Messenger that they use most of the time.

All the youth (aged 13 - 26) indicated that they are using FaceBook and that it is their social network of choice. Only 5% of the youth have a Twitter account and some of them thinking that Twitter is for "famous people". Only two of the 5% were using it often and almost 10% did not know about Twitter. The Instant Messenger of Choice was MSN and very few of them used Mobile Instant Messengers.



It would be interesting to see how Teens in South Africa and those in the UK are adopting Social Media. We are currently running a Social Media with Teens programme as part of the Athlone Living Lab project and it seems as if from the offset it has been received positively by our teens in Cape Town, South Africa.

Angels and Mobiles

Thanks to Nick Booth for recording this quick video displaying our MXit Angel project.

Angel service for Drug Addicts in South Africa from Podnosh on Vimeo.

Read his post about the Reconstructed project here