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What Works in Social Change?

For his doctoral research, Scott Sherman investigated 120 factors that might be linked to failure or success of social change strategies. In What Works in Social Change?, he seeded a conversation at Social Edge with what he learned. He saw three principles at work: (1) Exposing injustice. (2) "Social Aikido". (3) The constructive program. Simple, it's true, but powerful: Problem + Solution + Cleverness = Social Change. Posted: 12/30/09; 10:14:30 AM #

Top 100 Tools for Learning 2009
	The Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies has compiled the recommendation of a few hundred professionals into a list of the Top 100 Tools for Learning 2009. Obviously "top" here means "popular", but this is still a good way to catch up on the tools that learning professionals thought were interesting. Posted: 12/30/09; 10:06:52 AM #

Evidence-Based Tools for a Culture of Nonviolence

PeacePower's compendium of Evidence-Based Tools for a Culture of Nonviolence is a fantastic resource. At first, it looks pretty simple, with just four main ideas: (1) Recognize Contributions and Successes, (2) Act with Respect, (3) Share Power to Build Community, and (4) Make Peace. But click through on each of these and you'll find an array of well-developed tools, explained in short PDFs. This is under development, with the first two categories much further along. Still, if you're looking to develop a culture of constructive and creative conflict resolution in your organization, then I highly recommend this resource. Posted: 12/30/09; 10:03:42 AM #

The Journalist-Organizer

I've written and spoken a lot about the resurgence of community organizing in the age of new media and the importance of community organizing as a frame of reference for 21st century communication. Keith Hammonds takes this a step further and describes organizing as a key element of journalism in the coming years. It pained me to realize that the first thing I thought of when I read the title of his piece was Fox News's role in organizing several right-wing public rallies, to which they then in turn devoted enormous press coverage. In The Journalist-Organizer, Hammonds profiles a very different model in the form of Kara Andrade of Guatamala. He sees in her a journalist who expands the notions of their profession by enabling conversations and building connections. Posted: 12/30/09; 9:48:39 AM #

5 Steps to Building Social Experiences

Everyone is talking "social" these days and that's only going to continue in 2010. But most of the time, as with so many other past communication trends, the new ideas don't penetrate very deeply. Perhaps social media are seen as list-building ideas, completely in service to traditional broadcast. Or they are a kind of "bolted on" innovation: A new doodad to make us feel contemporary, rather than something actually transformative. So, it's with some pleasure that I read articles like Erin Malone's 5 Steps to Building Social Experiences, where some of the essential aspects of what makes something "social" are taken seriously. Although I think they are a bit narrow, her five steps are all smart advice: (1) What's your social object? Make sure there is a "there" there. Give users a reason to rally. Why would someone come to your site? (2) Give people a way to identify themselves and to be identified. (3) Give people something to do. (4) Enable a bridge to real life (groups, mobile, meetings, face-to-face). (5) Gently Moderate. Let the community elevate people and content they value. Posted: 12/30/09; 9:37:16 AM #