Seems to be a social network aimed at people who want to buy greener products.

I cannot do any more than plead/demand/encourage you to buy and read the book (or borrow it from the library ;)

He ends with a chapter about the future, and talks about how the Internet is a great leveller, and how access to that can help combat poverty.

I think this addresses the kind of things Alex is talking about above (’social exclusion’ and so on) and for me is exactly what I want to get to with the incredible skills and talents we have in the Nixon McInnes team: how can we leverage these to employ them for the greater good, to address the world’s problems, not (just) to make profits.

I like the idea that we don’t have to understand social media at all. Plenty of people don’t really understand the internet but they still use it with great benefit. Just like the dotcom boom, social media will soon settle down into ‘just another activity’ and people won’t notice they are participating because it will be a normal thing to do. All they will remember is if they had a good experience or not.

To this end, we need to have a boom period of trying out new implementations – we already have some great ones and yes, many others will fail – but this is how we find out what social media is for. The people will decide…

I’m not sure how i feel about social media as a term. does it mean information exchange between people that doesn’t stem from a corporate media provider? If so, it should fall into the melting pot along with everything else. Perhaps i’ve missed the point on this one.

One thing that gets left behind is social exclusion. Ten years ago over two thirds of the planet didn’t have access to the telephone – a 100 year old invention. Though that’s changing fast the basic level is going to cheap mobile apps & sms for a number of years to come. AIDS education for African women has worked this way successfully. At the other extreme of technology, i can upload a map of AIDS density to maptube and it’ll appear in Second Life seamlessly.

ah help, i’m wandering. hope there’s some valid points of interest there.

Concepts like blogging have helped to provide tools for expression to people. This is definitely a Good Thing.

The current crop of social network sites may just have been in the right place at the right time as external factors aligned for it to take off. Factors like availability of cheap broadband and public acceptance of the internet as part of daily life for business, entertainment and socialising beyond the geek minority.

… Something of particular interest to me (working in a marketing agency) is not only the opportunity of new channels but the responsibility.

You can’t just push messages at people. You’re bound to be exposed if you are not in sync with your message – if your product or service is substandard, if your opinions are ill-informed or dishonest.

Conversely if you *are*, the opportunities are limitless as people will gladly spread your word for you.

There’s a real need to be authentic. That’s world changing.

Thank you for an inspired response to such an import question.

How often do you have a chance to be a pioneer for something bigger than yourself?

This is our chance.