C/Net News publishes Media 2.0 and a Web 2.0 Blog

c/net News.com publishes daily reports on Media 2.0 including information about Social Networking applications. It also publishes a News.blog Web 2.

A recent article on September 26, profiled "Wallop," another social networking site that will compete with Friendster and MySpace.com. Another similar site is Facebook.com.

In the article Karl Jacob, Wallop's chief executive, said in a statement. "It’s about the trend of self-expression moving online."

My own review of these and similar social networking sites seems to indicate that individuals are encouraged to express their interests in popular culture, but not much emphasis is placed on interest in natural resources, the environment or other important activist issues. For example, global warming is a multifaceted issue that has the potential to dramatically change the lives of the many millions of people participating in the Social Networks mentioned above. Searches on the Internet reveal many discussion groups, blogs and web sites that do have a lot of participants on natural resource issues. I am interested in knowing more about how, or if, individuals include these interests in their social network profiles.

Our own efforts with Mountain Visions to work with natural resource projects to develop interactive web sites with community networking centers does include the invitation for people to participate in the projects. Some of these people may also decide to include their personal natural resource interests into one of the major social networking sites mentioned above. For example, we are creating projects now using Wiki and other applications. I will write more about these in the near future.

CivicEvolution - Wiki like program for civic projects

I read a short article published September 8, 2006 in CNET News.com/ Web 2.0 Blog describing a new type of Wiki. "CivicEvolution, still in development, is designed for political committees, nonprofits, and small collectives like neighborhood groups and teams. Fundamentally it's a wiki, but unlike most first-generation wikis, it offers a great deal of structure."

The CivicEvolution web site (Beta) notes that the program "provides online tools and resources to help groups achieve their goals through deliberation and collaboration." Several "Example Projects" are provided including a "Private discussion group," "Brainstorming," "Study an issue," "Focus Group," and "Create a Proposal."

In a Beta stage "CivicEvolution is now accepting new pilot projects." I tried to fill out the form provided but it was not working today. Instead I sent an e-mail to get more information about how to start a project. This looks like an excellent program for Social Networking projects. I will try to write more as I learn about it.

Carmel River Restoration Wiki started

Our long time associate and friend Harrison Hilbert, has taken recurring photographs of the Carmel River Restoration in California over a 30 year period. Katy Flanagan and I helped him digitize 35 mm slides and prints and created a multimedia slide show presentation showing the progressive changes. People associated with the Carmel River have asked "H" to send his digital images for potential printing on posters and/or posting on the internet.

In the late 1960s and 70s we were all heavily involved in the development of Common Adventure Bulletin Board Social Networking concepts associated with colleges and communities before the age of the personal computer or the Internet. We decided to experiment with a the new wiki services available today to make the photos and stories of his knowledge of the river available and to encourage others to do the same.

Two days ago we started to create a new Wikispaces project. It is still under construction but you can now view the Carmel River Restoration Wiki project.


Comments are welcome.