from participation to power...

participation is the essence of web 2.0, but it is not true power. however, it can lead to power if we understand its role in the ecosystem of social change and it's used accordingly... connecting and conversing is necessary, but the danger is that we get stuck in conversation. there is such a thing as being too connected. we have cognitive and time limits. web 2.0 can overload us with messages, shrink attention spans, absorb our time, erode focus, and thus disrupt our ability as citizens to find common ground and take action together. it's possible that through web 2.0 we may be, as in the title of cultural critic neil postman’s influential book, amusing ourselves to death. after all, web 2.0 goes by another name - social media. how can this pitfall be avoided? quantitative sociologist harald katzmair believes we must structure our conversations so that they lead to shared perspectives, agendas, and actions. conversations must be transformed into ideas, ideas into prototype solutions, and successful solutions scaled. harald is helping his clients transform conversations in exactly this way. he has designed a stakeholder engagement process in jordan to help farmers share water... one key element is the impact analysis. in one day, an impact analysis workshop transforms the distributed knowledge of diverse stakeholders into a common understanding of the system on which they depend through a structured conversation. importantly, this conversation separates causes from symptoms so that stakeholders have a shared view of where to focus resources to have maximum impact. this becomes the basis for a shared action plan// neal gorenflo, 11.20.09, shareable