One of the things I find the most fascinating about the social web is the ability of someone with a mission to leverage interest across the world and through time. From activists to artists to scientists, a bellwether with a passion can create a new repository of knowledge that just didn’t exist before. In the past several weeks I’ve covered the use of social media to preserve and share hand-written manuscripts and to bring ancient worlds alive in three dimensions on the Web. I’d like to keep that up, but I’d like you to be more of a part of it.
Most of those who read ReadWriteWeb live in the here-and-now of the Web. We’ve got programmers, marketers, VCs, CEOs, CTOs, CPOs, APIs and any number of other types of highly-honed tech and business minds who visit us daily. And we’ve got great reporters covering tech as it is invented and deployed. What I’d like to do, with your help, is continue to reach out and establish perspective. You’ve invented it, now what do you do with it? So: What aspects of the culture of tech would you like to see covered here? I have a few ideas that I’d like your help with, then I’d like to hear your suggestions.
Here are a couple of examples of the kinds of things I’d like to cover but for which I need the input and conversation of our readers.
The Red Road
There’s been a lot made of the homogeneity of the tech world. This aging chestnut says tech’s white, and male, and young. Well, white and male anyway. There’s certainly truth to that. But there’s a lot to the protestations made by women and by men who aren’t white that the social web is a tool that anyone can wield and, increasingly, everyone is.
One group that seems to be marginalized most consistently in discussion about tech is the Native user. As an American I think primarily of those in Indian Country. But it can be any aboriginal tech users. Are you a Native techie? Are you a strategist or activist who uses the social web to talk across borders or create windows into it? Or do you follow one? If so, pipe up. I’d like to explore what’s the same and what’s different on the Internet’s Red Road.
Faith
Internet technologies have affected religions and religious communities since they first arose, moreso since the development of the social web. The use of online technology for communication, fellowship and proselytizing is clear. But I think there’s another less examined result this technology has had on religion. Namely, the borders that used to separate us also used to, in a sense, protect us. If a group believed in a certain level of modesty or in dietary laws, it was a relatively easy thing to create an environment inhabited largely, or solely, by people who believed in those things. Although transportation innovations and the increasing fluidity of society has made that more difficult. It is my feeling that the explosion of media access has accelerated the process. So here are some questions I have for those of you who follow a particular religious faith, and for those of you who lead a communities of faith.
Do you think the Internet has forced down previous borders? If so, what are the major effects, stresses and opportunities the new media has had on you? On your religious practice? Your religious community? Your religion as a whole? What effect has the proliferation of media had on the human spirit in general?
What else?
These are just a few of the things I’m interested in exploring in terms of the culture of technology. I welcome your contributions to the discussion, including your suggestions on topics, trends and people quite distinct from the ones I’ve started with. The greatest thing about ReadWriteWeb are the conversations that inspire so much of what we cover and take off from it. Help me continue that tradition as I cover the culture of technology.
Soundsystem photo by JR. Powwow Planet photo by Tim Gilliam. Religious symbols graphic from Wikipedia.
