Module 3 Topic 4 ICT

ICT Tools for Enhancing Social Accountability

Social Media

When publicly available data is scraped and/or visualized, such information can be shared via a variety of online platforms.

Social Media is one of the multiple tools that you can use to reach large groups of people. These tools can be used for a variety of purposes-sharing information, facilitating crowdsourcing processes, organizing events, or mobilizing individuals to participate to collaborate on a project.

The 2011 demonstrations and protests known as the “Arab Spring” have corroborated the power of social media to mobilize people to speak out about their concerns. However, to use social media to mobilize citizens and affected persons to pressure governments or corporations in support of a cause, is just one of the many ways to use these tools.

Citizens and CSOs increasingly use commercial platforms (Twitter, Facebook, among others) to disseminate information about corruption (for example, the Indian Anticorruption Movement in 2011 described as the first real "social networking movement" in India) or to report when a public service is not properly delivered (e.g., monitoring the delivery of public services in schools or in hospitals). Ultimately these platforms can be used to turn that communication with other citizens, and also with the government, into an interactive dialogue.

Examples of popular social media includes:

Adobe Connect: A web conferencing solution for web meeting and webinars
Blogs: Frequent, chronological publication of personal thoughts and web links
Facebook: A social networking platform connecting people with friends and other who work, study and live around them
LinkedIn: A social networking platform connecting professionals to others and organizations
Scribd: A social reading and publishing platform to share publications online
Twitter: A social networking and micro-blogging service
(Sustainable Development Network Smac Event, March 2012, World Bank)

Last modified: Monday, 25 August 2014, 3:49 PM