The following is an email that bounced back after being sent to ForImmediatRelease PR podcast. Your thoughts on the topic before I try resending? I’d like to know what folks in the non profit world think too.
Re the idea of omitting any mention of new web tools by name in favor
of simply saying to some one in need “here’s a solution for you” –
I’d like to hear more Web 2.0 voices on the question. I am working
right now for two organizations and both make mention of Web 2.0
immediately in their names, Net Squared ( http://netsquared.org
bringing Web 2.0 to non profit organizations) and Weblogs Inc. (Social
Software blog). In both of these capacities, Web 2.0 evangelism is my
top priority and thus usability/ accessibility, etc. – but I introduce
them by name.
I do discuss Web 2.0 tools by name when I propose them to clients
(“you need a blog, you need to read RSS feeds”) but I won’t claim to
know the answer to this question. What does boss man Jason Calacanis
think of this? What do the guys on the Gilmor Gang think? What do the
folks at Web 2.0 Work Group think of it? Very important – what do the
folks at Blogher.org think? Presumably there are infiltrators in old
school media – how do they respond to this question?
My quick stab at it: the changes underway are so drastic, and so
characterized by an emphasis on open communication that people need to
be told relatively early in their process of adoption that they are
joining an emerging world that is made of different stuff. There are
enough anemic blogs out there, the LA Times wiki editorial was so half
hearted, etc. that people really need to grok what’s going on and what
the new tech means functionally and politically. If they’re not told
quickly, the landscape around these new tools is likely to get far
more ugly than it is today.
But I’d like to see this conversation extended. I know that the point
is important that many technologies now widely used were discounted at
first, but I’m not sure that ignorant bliss is the best solution.
Thanks,
Marshall Kirkpatrick
Tech Soup’s Net Squared and WINC Social Software Blog