Teased by Andy Lopata’s post about social networking ideas for Governments and other public organizations, i would try to expand my thoughts about the topic.
Nowadays, we have seen the coming importance of this new Web: Web 2.0. According to the site, Government Tecnhology”Web 2.0 is based on two primary principles: First, participation by a large number of people in an online endeavor can create many of the benefits derived from being a member of a traditional, nonvirtual, “conference room” community. Second, a Web 2.0 community can create valuable content that helps identify other like-minded folks who should be part of that community. The new folks, in turn, add richness to the content that originally attracted them to the community”.
The US government funded research into social networking sites and how to gather and store personal data published on them, according to the New Scientist magazine.
My country (Portugal – south Europe) has embraced this social networking phenomena. HI5 is the leading social networking site, and has received an increasing importance by companies (Fanta the first company to join HI5 in Portugal) and other entities. A few counties, cities, local communities and civic movements have joined the network.
During the following years, we will see a lot more joining in. The Barack Obama and Hlillary Clinton‘s appearance in Facebook have put the world’s attention on this social networks. The US discussion is more advanced on these matters and have taken in consideration all the points of view.
On the other hand, Fred Stuzman post in the Nov 2007, really touched the concerns around this issues. His thoughts about social networking sites outlines the several negative perspectives of a more institucionalized approach to this networks from other private and public entities.
