Does social media work if there is no social digital culture? I had an ambivalent experience at last years Nodem conference in Oslo. It is a biennal on digital excellence in museums, and this time they had arranged for a wiki for the participants of the conference. I found it a really useful way to create a community AND a growing collective memory for the conferences over time. At the end, about three persons had contributed. It gave rise to the question about whether the communities around museums - both visitors and professionals - are "ready" for the social media? Do we have a digital dulture to cultivate, or are we - the museums - starting from scratch?
Much Higher contribution rate among teens
I recently read The National Schoolboards Association recommendation on Social Networking which gave much higher figures:
9-17 year old students average 9 hours per week on social networking activities, including IM, texting, and using myspace and other online social networks. By comparison, they spend roughly 10 hours watching television. 96% of students with internet access say they have used social networking technologies. 81% have visited a social networking Website in the past 3 months, and 71% report using social networking tools at least weekly. 59% talk about education-related topics online and over 50% talk about schoolwork. Despite strict policies against online social networking in school, students and parents report few problems with online behavior, and district leaders and parents see potential benefits of using social networking in education. The NSBA recommends that schools reconsider their policies regarding online social networking, and explore ways to use social networking in education.
Students are engaged in creative authoring activities:
Here's a link to a summary i wrote on WDIL.org:
WDIL - National Schoolboards Association Research and Guidelines on Online Social Networking
Here's a link to the pdf itself: creating and connecting.pdf
Best Regards,
Ted Koterwas
WDIL.org
another Pew study -- web 2.0 participation
There's another study from the Pew Internet and American life project, reporting on participation in web 2.0 activities, that shows "Half of all American adults are only occasional users of modern information gadgetry, while 8% are avid participants in all that digital life has to offer". see the report linked from http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/213/report_display.asp
/jt
j. trant archives & museum informatics www.archimuse.com
Forrester's report
Charlene Li's report from Forresters on Social Technographics is also very useful in looking at how niche audiences might be expected to use social media.
See my blog entry at Fresh + New.
Building community
I agree with the people who are posting about the very small percentage of people who get actively involved in online community (or any form of community).
We found similar problems with our "Katrina's Jewish Voices" archive, where we are getting scads of information through organizational connections, but get relatively few online contributions, and very few people tagging items that aren't there own contributions, tagged when uploaded.
Our feeling is that the solution is to find more ways to involve people over time, including the building of specific sub-communities (educators using our materials, for instance, in our case). Eventually, the number of overall participants from whom our small group of active participants comes, will grow. In addition, there will be the William Whyte network benefit--people like to be where people are (this was in answer to the original question, "why do people stand and talk in the middle of traffic on a busy streetcorner instead of moving to nearby benches or alcoves"). So, the more discussion and activity that there is, the more that there will be. We hope.
Interesting
I think that falls pretty well in line with what I've read about the user-contributed content phenomena: maybe 5% actually contribute content, a few more may edit, tag, or rate it, and the rest are just consumers. It seems like a very low number to start with, but it generally seems to work -- as it sounds like it did in your case. Although I also understand what you mean about visitors and professionals being "ready" for this new media.. Hard to say, but hopefully we'll learn more at the conference!
Nate
5 % - an average?
Mikkel Thelle, The National Museum of Denmark - Hi Nate, yes 5 % would probably work, depending on the kind of media in question - but it could be interesting to see what the numbers are in different national contexts. I Scandinavia, where there is a strong tradition for digital media, museums are usually seen as low-tech, conservative institutions and the users are typically elderly women with few skills in social media. There is also a generation issue, I guess, so in a few years the number might rise, to the benefit of museums. I'm looking forward to take that discussion at the conference!
hitwise report on participation in social media
There's a hitwise report on participation in social media (dated November on their list of Reports, but February in the file) that's getting traction because of a presentation at the Web 2.0 conference last week. it seems to confirm these numbers; see http://www.hitwise.com/registration-page/us-cgm-report.php to register for a copy of the report
j. trant archives & museum informatics www.archimuse.com
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