Social Media and TTC Funding

An introduction to a conversation, convened by Mark Kuznicki

Notes by Joe S.

"Social media" means blogs and other web 2.0 social networking tools. They create an opportunity to carve out a community and social space online, but the tools can also be used to set up meetings in physical space (such as Transit Camp). The conversation can move back and forth between physical and virtual space and the conversations can move up to a more advanced level, and ultimately to political action.

As a case study, Mark discussed the genesis and spreading of the idea of Transit Camp, moving things from his blog, to the TorCamp community, and gaining exposure on Digg. This led to links from BoingBoing and other big blogs, plus local interest from the local community and T.O.-centric blogs.

With regards to transit, social media can create a civic space where conversations can happen that politicians don’t want to engage in because they are politically dangerous. For example, no one concerned with re-election wants to talk about congestion charges, and the issues isn’t fully aired. But who is actually against it, and what are their agendas? When we use these tools to engage more people in the conversation, we can affect what things are "safe" to enter the conversational realm of conventional politics.

Critical questions must be asked as to what moves this process forward. The blogosphere is a useful tool, but can quickly reduce itself to a mutual backscratching club of like-minded people linking to each other. How can the circle be expanded? Moreover, where are the civic bloggers? How can interested people find them? What are the effective filters to allow someone to find them? Should it just be left to luck (say, having the right RSS feeds in your newsreader) to hear about something like Transit Camp?

This was all the start of a conversation which implies many questions down two main avenues:

First, what are the implications of this model of social organization? How far can this be pushed? How can the circle be expanded beyond online-savvy, mostly downtown types, and what changes would that cause? (This line of questioning might ultimately lead to an exploration of the tension between "self-organizing communities" and "self-selected élites" — if the Athenian forum were expanded to the size of the Sky Dome, is there any way that the system could still work?)

Secondly, what changes will this cause in the "real" (i.e. mediated/electoral) political realm? How can we measure these changes?