Title: Digital technology driving global social change (infographic)
Source: TechJournal South
Date (published): 13/12/2011
Date (accessed): 14/12/2011
Type of information: article
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML with infographic)
Abstract:
"Global events in 2011 demonstrated the impact that technology plays in driving social change movements. A new Walden University survey of 11 countries shows that most adults in countries around the world (89%, on average) agree that technology can turn a cause into a movement faster than anything else can. These views were particularly prevalent in Spain (93%), Canada(91%), Brazil (91%), Great Britain (91%) and China (91%).

The Social Change Impact Report: Global Survey was commissioned by Walden University and conducted online by Harris Interactive in September 2011. A continuation from the American survey released in the fall, the Global Survey includes the perspectives of more than 12,000 adults in Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Great Britain, India, Japan, Mexico, Spainand the United States and describes their perceptions on the importance of social change, the top issues in their country and the future of social change.

According to the global survey, in many countries, men are more likely than women to use mobile devices to text messages related to a positive social change issue, specifically in Mexico (23% vs. 16% of women), the United States (7% vs. 4%), France(7% vs. 1%), Japan (5% vs. 2%) and Germany (4% vs. 1%).

Young adults globally leverage social networking
The survey also reveals that when it comes to positive social change, young adults across the globe are leveraging social networking to get involved; an average of 29% of young adults[1] have used social networking sites in the past six months to engage in social change.

“Social technology has opened the door to global change, making information pass from person to person, regardless of location, at lightning speed. It’s never been easier to connect with others and take action.

.Individuals now have remarkable power,” said Andy Smith, author of The Dragonfly Effect. “But it’s those who harness digital technology and social media for pro-social ends who will create the greatest positive social change in the future.”

Additionally, social networking is more common than using blogs or texting to engage in social change among young adults in nearly all of the countries. Of the young adults who have used social networking in the past six months to engage in social change, the highest reported use is in Mexico (40%), India (39%) and Great Britain (37%). In China (50%) and Japan (12%), blogging is the top digital way of engaging in social change among young adults. Texting to engage in social change is particularly common in India (38% of 18–25-year-olds)…"

Title: The shape of the project : Using Net for Social Change
Author: Nishant Shah
Source: www.cis-india.org
Publisher: Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore
Date (published): 13/01/2010
Date (accessed): 14/01/2010
Type of information: research article
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
The rise of the commercial Internet in the 1990s was accompanied by great expectations with regard to its democratising potentials. In several parts of the world, such potentials seemed to materialise when social movements snatched up new technologies to further their aims through revolutionising their methods. The emergence of Web 2.0 seemed to only multiply the possibilities, and since then, the use of social media for social change has received widespread attention worldwide. A consolidated study of this phenomenon in the Indian context has, however, been lacking hitherto. Under what conditions did the use of technologies for social change emerge in the Indian context? Who were and are the groups and individuals behind such initiatives? What shape does their online activism take? And how does it fit into the larger background, including that of organised activism, in which it is located? It is these questions that this research seeks to answer.
Using the Net for Social Change: Online Activism in India

Title: Revolution in a Box
Author: Charles Kenny
Source: Foreign Policy
Publisher: The Slate Group
Date (published): November/December 2009
Date (accessed): 24/11/2009
Type of information: article
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
It's not Twitter or Facebook that's reinventing the planet. Eighty years after the first commercial broadcast crackled to life, television still rules our world. And let's hear it for the growing legions of couch potatoes: All those soap operas might be the ticket to a better future after all.

See also:
Television for a change (revolution in a box)
Michael Trucano, EduTech, 06/11/2009

Title: The potential of mobile devices in wireless environments to provide e-services for positive social and economic change in rural communities
Author: Pete Cranston
Pages: 35 pp.
Source: ICT Observatory 2009 Wiki
Publisher: Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU (CTA)
Date (published): 27/10/2009
Date (accessed): 04/11/2009
Type of information: discussion paper
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
This paper explores that landscape as a way to mark out the domain for discussion at the November 09 CTA Observatory, which attempts “to explore the potential of mobile devices in wireless environments to provide eservices for positive social and economic change in rural communities”. The area to be studied during the Observatory is, therefore, challengingly wide-ranging:
* By mobile devices we include mobile phones, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), portable digital devices such as MP3 players, mini-laptops or Netbooks, cameras and many others, as well as the ‘Swiss Army Knife6’ nature of modern devices...
* In wireless environments refers to the increasing number of ways that people can connect and share content between digital devices including wireless networking (Wifi, WiMax, Mesh7); channels available on mobile phones (such as standard GSM, GPRS, 3G, Bluetooth 8); and older wireless technologies such as Radio and TV
* e-services refer to the supply to users of functionality, predictably and consistently, that enables them to supply, exchange or consume content that meets their self defined needs...
* Positive social and economic change in rural ACP communities requires us to look at activities across the development spectrum in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific, focusing particularly on agriculture but also including examples from other sectors such as health, education and emergency relief as well as types of intervention, from Knowledge sharing and Learning to e-campaigning to emergency relief.