Spring 2011 Issue 17

Author Contact: The Use of Social

Paul Lachapelle
Assistant Professor,
Extension Community
Networking in
Community Development
Development Specialist

Dept. of Political Science

Wilson Hall 2-117 The use of social media and social networking has become a significant force in
P.O. Box 172240
Montana State University political organizing, social interaction, and economic development. A growing
Bozeman, MT 59717- body of literature now describes the use of social media as a tool in areas such
2240 as political action, democracy promotion, business marketing, and public
USA relations management (Brown, 2009; Coleman & Blumler, 2009; Hais &
Morley, 2009; Qualman, 2009; Davis, 2005).
Email: paul.lachapelle
@montana.edu
The use of social media specifically in the field of community and economic
Phone: +1-406-994-3620 de-velopment has also recently begun to receive scholarly attention (see for
exam-ple, Fernback, 2005; Laudeman, 2005; Pigg & Crank, 2005; Stillman,
2005; Stern & Dillman, 2006; Huber, 1987).
Inside:
PAGE
There is strong evidence to suggest that social networks can improve the socio-
Social Media and 2 economic well-being of communities. For example, Eagle, Macy, & Claxton
Community (2010) found the structure of social networks and related diversity of individu-
Development als‟ relationships is strongly correlated with the economic development of com-
The Future of 5 munities. However, with the dramatic changes currently taking place regarding
Social Media for information technology, there is need to continually reexamine and analyze the
Community use of social media and social networking in the field of community develop-
Developers
Summary ment.
7
References 7 To bridge the gap in information about various contemporary tools related to so-
Author Bio 8 cial media and social networking, I have three objectives in this article:
Editor Contact 8
1.Provide a definition and background of various social media and net-
working options,
2.Discuss the relationship of social media and networking to the Com-
munity Development Society‟s Principles of Good Practice, and,
3.Present a discussion of current challenges, opportunities, and potential
future directions related to the use of social media and networking in
community development.
CD Practice Page 2
To accomplish these objectives, I review pertinent
literature and inventory current social media and
networking options and provide an analysis rele-
vant to the field of community development. The
analysis is not meant to be a comprehensive over-
view of all social media and networking options,
but rather I seek to invoke reflection and initiate
future deliberation about the use of select technolo-
gies that I see as having the potential to transform
the methods of dialoging, decision-making, infor-
mation sharing, and relationship building in the
community development profession in the twenty-
first century.
Social Media and Community Development
 use so-cial media to “web” and “log” and
facilitate social involve the posting of
Social media involves networking and con- In contrast to passive com-mentary or news
the use of various versely, one can viewing of web on a particular subject.
techno-logical tools network, form content, a Web 2.0 site Users can either view
and methods for partnerships, and build allows users to create the content passively
sharing and discuss- relationships by content, inter-act, and or if allowed, can
ing information. leveraging social collaborate in a user- react to posts and
Social media is a way media. generated virtual-type contribute content.
to transmit or community. Users
distribute information actively participate and Examples include the
to a broad audience network with a sites Blogger
The Emergence of
where users have an potential to pool the (blogger.com),
Web 2.0
opportunity to create collective intelligence Wordpress
and dis-tribute of the users and create (wordpress.org), and
content. By There has been a opportunities for free
dramatic Twitter (twitter.com).
comparison, social and unrestricted input The emergence of the
networking is the use transformation in the for better decisions. In
way information is Twitter service enables
of these tools this sense, the whole is users to send and read
specifically to created, disseminated greater than the some
and dis-tributed using other users' mes-sages
connect and interact of its vir-tual and often of text-based posts
with others. Social various social media widely disseminated
in recent years. One made up of up to 140
networking is the act parts. characters called
of engagement where significant
transformation is the tweets. Users may
groups of people with The emergence of Web subscribe or
com-mon interests are establishment of Web
2.0 has transformed “follow” other
associated and build 2.0, a term referring to
not only the quality author‟s tweets. This
relation-ships through myriad web appli-
and content of social service is in-
a shared community cations that provide
media, it has allowed creasingly available
of interest (Stelzner, for interactive
for greater and integrated in
2009; Hartshorn, information sharing
connectivity and Smartphone
2010). and collaboration via
interaction for social technology. Twitter
the internet using a
networking. The has gained popularity
variety of means such
For example, the on- quality and quantity of rapidly and currently
as text, images, audio,
line website YouTube, so-cial media and has more than 100
and video (Addison,
the video-sharing social networking sites million users
2006).
portal where users can are becom-ing worldwide
upload, share, and countless, but below is (Economic Times,
view videos, is an attempt to outline 2010).
considered a social and describe some
media site. In examples of these
comparison, Facebook tools for com-
was created on the munication.
prem-ise of linking
individuals and The first area to
organizations into explore is the use of
various networks of blogs and blogging.
common interests or The term is a
associa-tions. In combination of the
community words
development, one can
CD Practice
The use of wikis has become a popular option for
individuals who would like to provide content on
web pages that other users can edit. These sites are
an excellent option for individuals who wish to co-
ordinate information, collaborate and share ideas
on various social media content, and track changes
from many individuals. Examples of wiki applica-
tions include Wikispaces (wikispaces.com) and
Google Docs (docs.google.com). Wikipedia
(wikipedia.org), described as “the free encyclope-
dia that anyone can edit,” is perhaps the most ubiq-
uitous example of a peer-reviewed site where users
can establish or edit existing content on almost any
subject imaginable.
An electronic mailing list allows users to email in-
formation to other users or “subscribers” on a list.
Sometimes referred to as list serves (after the first
electronic mailing list software application called
LISTSERV), recipients, with permission, can re-
spond to the entire group of subscribers. There are
many list management tools, including Listserv
(lsoft.com), Majordomo (greatcircle.com/
majordomo), and Dada Mail dadamailproject.com).
Social networking sites allow users to share ideas
and user-generated content (including images and
video) while building connections and associations,
both personal and professional. There are three
fundamental uses for social networking: (1) As a
means of personal communication, (2) To link
groups, and (3) To promote an idea.
There are myriad examples but some of the more
popular social networking sites include Facebook
(facebook.com), Myspace (myspace.com), Ning
(ning.com), and LinkedIn (linkedin.com). Face-
book dominates this market with reports of more
than 500 million active users as of July 2010.
Another important tool for community develop-
ment professionals is the use of open-source soft-
ware in which the source code for the application is
developed in a public and often highly collabora-
tive manner. While the editing of private, commer-
cial software is reserved for copyright holders and
protected by a software license, open source soft-
ware permits and encourages users to study,
Page 3
change, and improve the software. This allows for
free software that is continually being updated and
revised. Open source programs exist for nearly
every conceivable application and are being devel-
oped rapidly.
There are many other significant tools and applica-
tions available to community developers including
video conferencing applications such as Skype
(skype.com), video and image sharing sites includ-
ing YouTube (youtube.com) and Flickr
(flickr.com), virtual world applications including
Second Life (secondlife.com) and on-line mapping
resources such as Google Earth (earth.google.com)
and Google Maps (maps.google.com). Each of
these applications can assist practitioners in com-
munity development in myriad ways, depending on
the needs and abilities of the users.
Social Networking &
CD Principles of Good Practice
The potential for Web 2.0 to transform the field of
community development is enormous, limited only
by the imagination of users. In the field of commu-
nity development, Addison (2006, 623) refers to
this transformation as “Dev 2.0.” Indeed, the use of
social media and social networking as a commu-
nity development tool or practice has great poten-
tial to revolutionize the field, both from an applied
and theoretical point of reference.
The use of social media and networking is signifi-
cant as a community development tool in terms of
building relationships, improving communications,
documenting development efforts, sharing
informa-tion in real-time, and informing and
reaching a wider audience than was possible at any
time in history.
CD Practice Page 4
 promote active, understanding of
representa-tive and policies and ac-tions.
diverse participation in
Perhaps more community deci-sion- Third, social media through networking
importantly, social making. With new and social networking and power sharing.
media can em-power social media can en-hance the Informa-tion leading to
those who have the technologies, active leadership capacity of decisions can now be
skills and abilities to participation through community mem- more broadly
use new technologies web conferencing or bers, leaders, and disseminated and
by helping them, as other real-time groups within the greater transparency
Bryant information-sharing community and account-ability can
(2006, 559) notes, to methods allows for lead to increases in
“break away from interactive and hyper- trust within and among
„traditional‟ responsive various community
command-and-control communica-tion. With members, leaders and
models of man- costs associated with groups. New and
agement.” innovative Web 2.0
information tech-
nology continuing to applications can
In this sense, social decline for many users, promote online voting
media and social a more representative to allow more
networking can „level and diverse individu-als to not only
the playing field‟ by constituency can know intimately the
allowing a larger participate in various specific details of
segment of the communication various initiatives, but
population to access networks. also be able to
information and influence their
influence outcomes. Second, using search outcome through direct
In an age when participation or infor-
engines and other
informa-tion equates mation dissemination
social me-dia
to power, a diversity to other constituencies
opportunities,
of opinion can via social networking.
community developers
actually lead to more now have access to
creative problem Fourth, the use of
more information than
solving and more social media and
was ever possible in
equitable outcomes. social network-ing can
the past. Community
Thus, the use of disseminate
development
various social media information and
practitioners can now
and networking dialogue on a full
actively engage in
opportunities applies range of strategies
learning and under-
directly to the toward long-term
standing about
Principles of Good sustain-ability and
community issues,
Practice of the well-being in the
problems, and impacts
Community community. By al-
with information
Development Society. lowing and promoting
literally at their finger-
tips. Historical broad and extensive
First, because of the documents can be partici-pation in
nearly ubiquitous and recorded and accessed dialogue about
equal access to social easily, allowing for sustainability, difficult
media and networking, more efficient learn- questions can be
citizens and ing and better addressed about how
practitioners alike can sustainabil-ity is
defined and how to
balance the schism be-
tween science and
values often imbued in
sustain-ability
discourse. Community
well-being can thus be
widely discussed and
debated regarding
short and long-term
decisions with
ownership and re-
sponsibility widely
shared.

Furthermore, use of
social media and
networking addresses
not only community
development princi-
ples of good practice,
but also addresses some
of the fundamental
tenets of good
governance and de-
mocracy by allowing
broad participation,
promot-ing
effectiveness and
efficiency in processes
and outcomes,
promoting
accountability and
transpar-ency, and
allowing for fairness
and equity.
CD Practice Page 5
The Future of Social Media for Community Developers
 years, technologies willing to engage in
To say that social that provide easy virtual communi- who are already
networking holds access to social media cations and marginalized in
tremendous potential and networking sites relationships as part of communities, will
in the field of can be beyond the their commu-nity and continue to present a
community means of those in civic life. The potential significant challenge.
development is an poverty or for those alienation of peo-ple Signifi-cant
understatement. The outside broadband through virtual investment by
use of social media access. Subsidies and technologies, community
and networking can scholar-ship can begin especially those development or-
literally transform the to address some of ganizations, and the
field in ways not well these issues as well as Community
understood or even the recycling of Development So-ciety
conceived. Yet, with “outdated” but still in particular, regarding
the dramatic changes func-tional hardware training and skill-
taking place and such as personal building, will benefit
projected to take place digital assistants or not only individuals,
(in terms of mobile devices. but the profession as a
affordability and whole.
computing speeds), Second, the skills
there exist significant required to be social Third, there exits a
challenges to practi- network-savvy can be considerable digital
tioners of community overwhelming, divide be-tween the
development. particularly to those “haves” and “have-
without much time to nots” that is neither
Challenges for invest in initial easy to address nor
Community learning. There are uncomplicated to
Developers necessary investments overcome.
in terms of setting up Clearly, there is
There are many accounts, learning new increasing evidence
challenges and software applications, that access to high
limitations that pre- and the consistent speed internet
vent or dissuade use of maintenance (i.e., connectivity is more
social media and reading and readily available to
network-ing to its full processing) of data urban populations than
potential in the field of that may prove rural popula-tions and
community overwhelming to ubiquitous access to
development. First, the community web-based technolo-
cost of some developers, gies is still an
technologies, particularly those with aspiration for many.
particularly mobile little background in As a conse-quence,
devices and their often related types of social networking
expen-sive service technology. tools may be a more
contracts can prove ac-cessible or a more
prohibitive for many Further, community appropriate
users. While the costs members with whom application in urban
of computing (i.e., commu-nity contexts. Recognizing
processors, monitors, developers wish to this digital divide and
etc.) have decreased engage may not be the fact that urban
mark-edly in recent com-fortable and community
development is quite
different from rural
community
development will be
critical toward
addressing many of
these funda-mental
issues.

Fourth, social media

and social networking
can ac-tually
exacerbate divisions
of perspective and
may work counter to
the collaborative
goals of many
community
development efforts
that promote in-
clusiveness and
diversity. New web-
based tech-nologies
may promote a more
introverted, solitary,