Sharing as empowerment in the Gutenberg Galaxy | Veneeta Singha

"Communication sociologists have consistently argued and demonstrated that ICTs are not inherently technologies of freedom or technologies of control. Like many other technological innovations, they present new sites of struggle between contending forces, classes and interests."

 

- "ICTs for Development: A Critical Asian Appraisal" by Dr. Indrajeet Banerjee and Eric Loo

 

 

An avowed believer of the "sharing economy," I sometimes stand at a crossroads, mostly under construction, of techie zeal and the impulse to assert my work-inspired ideals of empowerment and change. I had not expected to encounter change management so suddenly. Globalism and pluralism aside, we live in uncertain times. What we lose by way of tradition, we hope to compensate with the promise of innovation. (Innovation for social change is always well received.)

 

 

At the risk of stating the obvious, communication has certainly come a long way. A future that motivates and inspires can only lead to betterment. A present that is any less surely confounds. Reading a journal paper, written so persuasively and insightfully as the above is, on "communication diversity and equity" brought home the message. A social message is, essentially, a communicated one. Whether it will withstand the tests of time (and gigabytes of space) we leave to chance, circumstance and the turning of the wheel. (Fortune favours the brave, mostly.)

 

 

Sustainable development too, I hesitate to add, is a fundamental premise on which much of social change rests. Had we forgotten this lesson, we would have summarily disregarded the Semantic Web, the Visual Web and now, critically, the Social Web. I ask the question 'what is the Social Graph?' with some trepidation. It could mean a movement towards realizing the aspirations of many, many minds (and hearts) for a just society. Or it could spell more statistical reminders of a world that could care more. Pessimism is also an inherent 'Asian' trait. Fatalism comes next.

 

 

So, with activist ideals and the social good firmly entrenched in our IPads and IClouds, where does that leave 'sharing for change'? In a good place. The great traditions of rhetoric and persuasion have, yet again, translated their power onto the Gutenberg Galaxy. I, for one, find it ironic that M. McLuhan began with electricity as the given in his later works on the Media.

 

(TBC.)