Social Media: the widest impact of (merged thread)

[Hacksaw]

PJ,
Have you attempted to contact the Info Proponent Office at FT Leavenworth? Seems a logical place to discuss the topic and make inquiries... They are usually monitoring this site on and off... I will attempt to direct them toward you...

Live well and row

[MikeF]

Hi PJ.

I put together this thread to add to the work y'all are already doing. It seems that we struggle at times in the information war so maybe we could do better by leveraging those that do it well instead of reinventing the wheel. Here are several examples to consider.

v/r

Mike

Is Iraq Ready for Twitter? New Media in a War Zone
Mark Kukis/ Time Magazine

Jack Dorsey, the founder and chairman of Twitter, sees no reason why Iraqis cannot join the growing chorus of global "tweets" appearing on computers and cell phones worldwide every day. "We've always been focused on making sure that the lowest common denominator, the weakest technology, still has a voice," said Dorsey, who was in Baghdad this week with a delegation of high-tech executives at the invitation of the State Department. Cellphone-carrying Iraqis, Dorsey said, could utilize Twitter applications on their current mobiles for a range of things, even without broadband Internet connections, which are still in short supply in Iraq. "In our case that's using Twitter through SMS [text-messaging]," Dorsey added. "What we've found in Iraq is that we have 85% penetration of the mobile market here." (Should the founders of Twitter be among the most influential people in the world? Vote for the TIME 100.)

What Dorsey means is that 85% of people in Iraq carry mobile phones, usually more than one. This is a new reality in a country where roughly six years ago cellphone were virtually nonexistent. For Dorsey and other tech executives visiting Baghdad, the merging of cell technology and the Internet looks like a potential leapfrog move in telecommunications for the country, much in the way cellphone networks lessen the need for traditional landline infrastructure. "We feel that there are some real opportunities here," said Jason Liebman, CEO and founder of Howcast, a website that offers how-to videos. (See the top 10 celebrity twitter feeds.)

Playing for Change

Playing For Change is a movement to connect the world through music. Sign up for exclusive content, news and updates from hundreds of musicians and students around the globe at http://playingforchange.com

This movement is Bono (from U2) using Bob Marley's work and incorporating artist from around the world.

One more...This is Audioslave playing in Cuba- look at the reaction of the crowd. When I see what others doing, it reminds me of the creativity and ingenuity of the OSS and others during WWII.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaaHX...eature=related

Just some indirect, non-military things to consider.

[CWOT]

Thanks to everyone for the great research leads. It’s amazing how behind I am on this stuff. I am just figured out how to use Microsoft Outlook. And then they spring all this new technology on me.

MCalvin, thanks for the note on Clickatell, it’s amazing I just start getting unsolicited advertising text messages on my phone last week and wondered how I ended up getting it. I guess that will be the new version of spam.

Ron Humphrey, you are exactly right. The planning and “how to” aspect will be a big one moving forward as I would imagine you can’t really train this very well right now. Another thing I am wondering about is how you stay ahead of the cycle in new media. The military fretted for years about how to get in front of the 24 hour news cycle, I can’t imagine the process for staying out in front of a 20 second information cycle.

David, thanks for those research links. I used to work with the founder of Jihadica and I am a big fan, I remember him telling me about his idea of creating it. He was the one that put me onto Small Wars Journal a couple years back and now these two locations are the only two things I read regularly. I think the days of academic journals with a 6-month turn around for publication are numbered.

Mike F, thanks for the Iraq article, Great stuff, it’s funny, it seems all media is moving to phones and laptops worldwide. And
Hacksaw, didn’t know they had an office but I’ll check it out.

I’m really interested in engaging small vulnerable audiences overseas. I brought this up a year ago in an article I wrote on Small Wars that breaking terrorist recruitment cycles requires local engagement inside of countries rather than nation wide engagement by State Department types meeting with official government folks at cocktail parties. Many thought this was impossible and told me this was a silly idea, but the more I learn about these new media platforms, the more I think local engagement could be possible. Still need to do some more research but the paper I’m publishing in the next two weeks ends my foreign fighter research for a while and I still think the number one issue is engaging audiences at the source of recruitment. Thanks for everyone’s help!

[MikeF]

PJ, something else to consider. The most notable is Greg Mortenson's work with building schools in Pakistan. I'd like to determine a way to incorporate them into our nation-building, reconstruction, and COIN operations. For example, if you want to do micro-grants, then hire the leading dude in micro-grants to do it right.

Social entrepreneurship is the work of a social entrepreneur. A social entrepreneur is someone who recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to organize, create, and manage a venture to make social change. Whereas a business entrepreneur typically measures performance in profit and return, a social entrepreneur assesses success in terms of the impact s/he has on society. While social entrepreneurs often work through nonprofits and citizen groups, many work in the private and governmental sectors.

The main aim of a social entrepreneurship as well as social enterprise is to further social and environmental goals. Although social entrepreneurs are often non-profits, this need not be incompatible with making a profit. Social enterprises are for ‘more-than-profit,’ using blended value business models that combine a revenue-generating business with a social-value-generating structure or component.



1. David Bornstein, How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas, Oxford University Press (and others) ISBN 0-19-513805-8

2. Ashoka: Innovators for the Public is a nonprofit organization supporting the field of social entrepreneurship. Ashoka was founded by Bill Drayton in 1981 to identify and support leading social entrepreneurs though a Social Venture Capital approach with the goal of elevating the citizen sector to a competitive level equal to the business sector. The organization currently operates in over 60 countries and supports the work of over 2,000 social entrepreneurs, elected as Ashoka Fellows. Ashoka also creates mosaics of best practices that map the commonalities and intersections of key principles that guide Fellows’ individual solutions. [1] Ashoka’s initiatives include Changemakers, Youth Venture, and Full Economic Citizenship.

v/r

Mike