Kiwi Scrum

May 2009, Newsletter

Hello Everyone,

Kiwi Scrum now has 903 members. Some very important messages this month.

The May LinkedIn hint:

I've briefly interviewed 100 people who live in my street. Only ONE of them was a LinkedIn member.

I spoke to at least 10 businessmen who should be members of linkedIn but have never heard of it. I'm surprised. Ask around and you'll see that most people have no clue what you are talking about.

By the way have YOU connected to the 18 Open Networkers in Kiwi Scrum? You should do that.

The Useful Common:

I guess the main news of the last month has been some optimism about the economy. There are "green shoots" say many business and government commentators. There's going to be a lot of that in the next four years, but I'm of the view that the economy will refuse to pick itself up. There are good reasons why a quick recovery can't happen, and even more importantly why it should NOT happen.

New Zealand did get some things right in trying to make the economy more market focused and less constrained by rules and by looking to government subsidies and help with everything. However, Economics is a very narrow and often misguided discipline. Economics offers half a model of what we should be doing, the missing half is environmental, social and political. The future is the future we CHOOSE to build. There is a lot of work to do, and too few people are engaged in looking in the right places for ways forward.

Engage with other people and Groups:

Some of us who have been active on the Internet for 10-15 years are totally out of step with where the general public is, myself included. I've been knocking on doors and talking to real people. What proportion of people are members of Myspace, Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter? What proportion of Internet users watch videos on Youtube? How many of us keep blogs? How many of us share photos on sites like Flickr?

By the time I write the next newsletter I'll have those numbers. I already know the intuitive guesses I would have made, are a long way from the reality. More information on this soon.

Invitations

For the second time in this newsletter, invite your friends to JOIN some social networks. Six years ago I did a tiny bit of basic research on public use of the Internet. The results I got astounded me. I concluded that the Internet was the "Information Super-Highway" the people didn't use. I took a lot of stick for that opinion. I was strongly told that my database was too small (it was very small) and that my conclusions were nonsense. Let me repeat what I said: "These people have access to the Internet, but they don't have the vision or the skills to make good use of it. They are connected is a way that ensures they remain strangely disconnected."

You are HERE. You are by that fact alone exceptional. Please be active in sharing what you and very few others know.

Volunteers

The door knocking I've been doing, began by trying to set up a local "street list" using Online Groups. When asked person to person if this was a good idea, people readily agree, but when offered the chance to join the group only ONE person did, and they were new in our street. The Internet, and all that's good about it, was built by the inspiration and enthusiasm of volunteers. Be one of those yourself.

My question became; What is the social taboo, that stopped people joining the group?

The Importance of Engagement

People are NOT joining social networks, they don't subscribe to discussion lists, they don't engage as members of the online commons. As a result the promise of innovation and education and a flowering of social communication because of the Internet is stillborn. I argued unsuccessfully in 2001-2002 for public education on Internet use. Many years have passed. What have people learned from the Internet in that time? Almost nothing. I have the data to prove it. Opportunity neglected. The digital divide exists: it's inside the heads of individuals.

Regards,
John