On October 28-29 we wille close off the Digital Pioneers programme with the State of Social Media Summit in TrouwAmsterdam. In preparation of and during the Summit, we examine the impact of small-scale Internet projects and organizations, how they affect the media landscape and the challenges such organizations face in the future.

The Summit will be based on the input of the Digitale Pioneers we gather at the round table meetings we organize, the conversations we have with you and our blog www.stateofsocialmedia.org. We invite you to advice our editorial team on the program of the Summit!

Is there a topic where you think it should be on the agenda? Is there a (international) speaker you think belongs on stage or do you think you should be there yourself? Please let us know and send your suggestions to info@kennisland.nl.

Last June 18th. we organised a round table session on social media and migration. Migrant media projects are one of the interesting clusters of projects supported by the Digital Pioneers Fund in the past few years. We decided that is was time to think about the state of migrant media as it is now and reflect on the challenges for the future. We hooked up with the European Bridge IT network and Digital Pioneer Maroc NL, a forum and chat community for Moroccans in the Netherlands and Belgium.

We had representatives of Turkish, Moroccan, Islam and Chinese platforms, pioneers, researchers and policy makers over to join our discussion and this is the first part of our report on our heated discussion. It reflects on the question how social media initiatives have empowered and facilitated migrant communities. Social media initiatives focusing on issues of migration and integration seem to work on three main goals: 1. Connecting diaspora and specific ethnic groups, 2. Generating dialogue and discussion and 3. Learn, inform and share knowledge. Some initiatives work on one goal specifically, and some on more than one at the same time. The overarching goal is to empower particular migrants or, in some cases, work on diversity in society.

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As mentioned earlier on this blog, one of the interesting clusters of projects supported by the Digital Pioneers Fund consists of projects that contribute to the participation of citizens in political and policy issues. In the last two blogposts on this topic, we focused on the rise of what we called ‘open governance’ pioneers in the Netherlands, the US, Australia and the UK and the question how open governance initiatives have activated participation of citizens in politics and government.

Clearly there is a vibrant movement. Citzens organize themselves effectively around public issues horizontally. And, citizens and governments organise themselves from top-down to bottum up. In this third blogpost we would like to address the question on what challenges there are for the near future. Although the real pioneering has been done, Open Governance is still far from mainstream. The theme has gained momentum in the last couple of years and hardly anyone would argue against the importance of it in the near future. But, how to realize concrete change?

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How have Open Governance initiatives activated participation of citizens in politics, government and governance? Hereby a first attempt to answer this question. In our search for the state of Open Governance we can define three ways in which initiatives try to engage citizens with politics and government. These three clusters provide for three different directions of communication: top-down, bottom-up and horizontal. In other words: from government to citizens, from citizens to government and citizens amongst each other (see Geraci, 2009, 4 pillars of an open civic system):

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With the State of Social Media we investigate the early emergence of social media initiatives and where to go from here. During our last meeting with the editorial team of the Summit, we made the following observation. Whereas the movement of digital pioneers is alive and kicking, it is…not very well connected. To change these weak ties into a strong independent network we suggest to use the State of Social Media Summit as a stage to get this done!

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One of the interesting clusters of projects supported by the Digital Pioneers Fund consists of projects that contribute to the participation of citizens in political and policy issues. For example, the Petities.nl project by Reinder Rustema gives citizens the opportunity to start a petition online. It uses the power of the masses online to organize, take action and be a partner in conversation with politicians. Or Ikregeer.nl, by Manfred Zielinski, which opens parliamentary documents in a simple and user-friendly way. Not only were these projects part of Digital Pioneers, they are part of a broader global movement of similar initiatives.

The term eParticipation is often used in the Netherlands to refer to this movement. After discussion in the eParticipation Academy and long deliberation with the editorial staff of the State of Social Media Summit, we think we need to come up with something else. The term eParticipation proved to be confusing. On the one hand, eParticipation might be interpreted more broad than what is intended in this context, namely citizens taking part in policy and politics. On the other hand, it might also imply that there is a one way communication stream between citizens and government and that this relationship is a dualistic one. We certainly doubt this, as this relationship is slowly dissolving…

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We had a great round table last Friday on social media & migration! We had representatives of Turkish, Maroccan, Islam platforms, Chinese Radio, a documentary project for women with HIV and a wonderful participation by Sriram Guddireddigari who came all the way from India. Thank you all!

You can find more pictures on the round table here.

Short findings

We will work out all the notes and get back to everyone on this website with our findings. Here are some first pointers:

- In general: exchanging information between migrant organisations can be much more in the Netherlands
- For most migrant organisations financial durablity is a challenge. There is a lot to learn from each other. For instance, Chinese Radio Amsterdam is doing a great job
- For most organisations connecting, and staying connected to audience is an issue

Tonight we are hosting a round table session on social media and migration in cooperation with the European Bridge-IT network and Maroc NL. Together with different stakeholders working as researcher, activist, programmer, digital pioneer or civel servant in the field of migration and/or social media projects, we will address the following questions:

• In what ways does access to new media create opportunities for migrants and marginalized groups in employment, education or a stronger position in civil society?
• What needs exist among existing projects in the field? What solutions can be proposed?
• What recommendations would you make to the outside world and politics?

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The first days of the digital revolution are over, after revolution comes further evolution and diversification. With the State of Social Media we investigate at which point we arrived since the early emergence of social media initiatives and where to go from here. The 28^th and 29^th of October 2010 we want to bring together 100 people all over the world at the State of Social Media Summit in Trouw Amsterdam. The invitation is open for everybody who is interested in meeting others, discuss about their vision on social media and play with new innovations…You!

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We are happy to let you know, you can now follow us on Twitter @digitalpioneers.