Social media, community-based organizations, and attention work

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Alongside the emergence of neogeography and volunteered geographic information, the GISciences are increasingly subject to shifts in web-based media. These media-centric shifts toward the online and the interactive have proved enabling for both profit-driven and nonprofit organizations to capture the attention of potential customers and constituents through online social and spatial media. In research on the everyday information- and data-practices of community-based organizations, websites and their appendaged mobile applications such as Facebook and Twitter are examined as the emerging media toolset to build sustained connections to funders, constituents, and others involved in sustained community-based practice. Conceptualized as practices of exteriorization, these technologies and these new pressures around the utilization of social and spatial media have made the daily work of nonprofits more complex. Indeed, as the landscapes of digital information technologies continually shift their interfaces, protocols, and membership settings (including privacy configurations), I suggest that this new normal -- of persistent change in online digital media -- presents challenges for collective memory and the attention-work of community-based organizations. Taking up and responding to concerns around the implications of digital information technologies on memory and culture, this presentation outlines efforts to integrate these diverse media as part of a broader agenda of attentional design for community-based critical GIS practice.

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Matthew W. Wilson, PhDUniversity of KentuckyHarvard Universitymatthew.w.wilson@uky.edu@wilsonism

14 May 2013Contagion Workshop | University of Exeter

Social media, CBOs,

and attention work

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What are the implications of persistent change in online digital media?

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What are the implications of persistent change in online digital media?

[ 1 ] community-based partnerships

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What are the implications of persistent change in online digital media?

[ 1 ] community-based partnerships

[ 2 ] everyday technological practices of community-based organizations

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What are the implications of persistent change in online digital media?

[ 1 ] community-based partnerships

[ 3 ] attentional design?

[ 2 ] everyday technological practices of community-based organizations

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[ 1 ]community-based partnerships

http://newmaps.uky.edu/community-partnerships

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mapping potential sites for nonprofit healthcare services

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mapping potential sites for nonprofit healthcare services

mapping predatory lending in the city

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mapping potential sites for nonprofit healthcare services

mapping predatory lending in the city

mapping food systems in low-income neighborhoods

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mapping potential sites for nonprofit healthcare services

mapping predatory lending in the city

mapping food systems in low-income neighborhoods

mapping social implications of post office closures

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mapping potential sites for nonprofit healthcare services

mapping predatory lending in the city

mapping food systems in low-income neighborhoods

mapping social implications of post office closures

mapping historical tourism opportunities in rural counties

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mapping potential sites for nonprofit healthcare services

mapping predatory lending in the city

mapping food systems in low-income neighborhoods

mapping social implications of post office closures

mapping historical tourism opportunities in rural counties

mapping stray animal control in the city

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mapping potential sites for nonprofit healthcare services

mapping predatory lending in the city

mapping food systems in low-income neighborhoods

mapping social implications of post office closures

mapping historical tourism opportunities in rural counties

mapping stray animal control in the city

mapping rural economic development service regions

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mapping potential sites for nonprofit healthcare services

mapping predatory lending in the city

mapping food systems in low-income neighborhoods

mapping social implications of post office closures

mapping historical tourism opportunities in rural counties

mapping stray animal control in the city

mapping rural economic development service regions

mapping progress of neighborhood historical preservation

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mapping potential sites for nonprofit healthcare services

mapping predatory lending in the city

mapping food systems in low-income neighborhoods

mapping social implications of post office closures

mapping historical tourism opportunities in rural counties

mapping stray animal control in the city

mapping rural economic development service regions

mapping progress of neighborhood historical preservation

mapping user-generated data about river water quality

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mapping potential sites for nonprofit healthcare services

mapping predatory lending in the city

mapping food systems in low-income neighborhoods

mapping social implications of post office closures

mapping historical tourism opportunities in rural counties

mapping stray animal control in the city

mapping rural economic development service regions

mapping progress of neighborhood historical preservation

mapping user-generated data about river water quality

mapping mobile data to support open urban government@wilsonism 19

mapping potential sites for nonprofit healthcare services

mapping predatory lending in the city

mapping food systems in low-income neighborhoods

mapping social implications of post office closures

mapping historical tourism opportunities in rural counties

mapping stray animal control in the city

mapping rural economic development service regions

mapping progress of neighborhood historical preservation

mapping user-generated data about river water quality

mapping mobile data to support open urban government@wilsonism 20

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the meme as engagement

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corporations compete to control our attention

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devices serve up the world

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marked bodies become digital infrastructure

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digital media partnershipsas critical technology practice

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[ 2 ]everyday technological practices of CBOs

practices of exteriorization

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“The effort takes a network of volunteers to ‘glean’ and distribute produce to neighborhoods where it is needed, farmers and farmers' markets that are willing to donate leftovers and neighborhood captains like Torp who help distribute the produce and build communities.” (Herald-Leader, 25 July 2012)

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“I was wanting to start aTwitter account for us,but I think Twitter is more useful for us in bringing in information.

Because farmers don’t Twitter.”(CFA)

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So then I’m trying to move people and go: ‘This is gonna go away. Stop liking this!’ … You have to just ditch it and start over from scratch, which is kind of what we did.” (FF)

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“And then I ended up changing our Facebook page to a page for a non-profit organization as opposed to a group. …

“So I don’t know if there’s a good gauge about which things to adopt, which things to pass while they wither on a vine somewhere.” (SL)

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“I’ve pulled the pictures out because of course we’re using the free Dropbox.

So, I’ve pulled the pictures out and I started putting them on Picasa.” (FF)

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“As a director, I do make time to be in front of a computer 1 or 2 hours each day. And that’s a tension for me, because on one hand I understand that time in front of the computer can help time in the garden, but … If I’m not in a garden, SeedLeaf work isn’t happening.” (SL)

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“You basically go with an email marketing company. And there’s several out there.

So you look through them all, but since we’re small and have no money, we get the free ones.

So then you spend all this time transferring your stuff from there, trying to figure out how to use that program.” (FF)

software changes / choosing among tools

frequency of personnel changes

limited (free) functionality

storage ceilings

need for multiple modes of communication

equipment needs

impact and measurement regimes

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[ 3 ]concerns / opportunities for attentional design

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Have you updated your security questions?

Is this your most recent contact information?

So and so user has started following you!

Do you want to follow so and so user?

Your social network has new content!

You haven’t visited us in a while. Are you there?

Someone else may have accessed your account!

There are new Pins from your followers!

Our privacy settings have changed. Do you accept?

This is a struggle over capacity.

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This is a struggle over capacity.Yes… and more…

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This is a struggle over capacity.Yes… and more…There are broader challenges that give rise to the more mundane struggles over digital information technologies.

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This is a struggle over capacity.Yes… and more…There are broader challenges that give rise to the more mundane struggles over digital information technologies.These are struggles to capture and retain attentional control.

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This is a struggle over capacity.Yes… and more…There are broader challenges that give rise to the more mundane struggles over digital information technologies.These are struggles to capture and retain attentional control.

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attentional controlattentional controlattentional controlattentional controlattentional controlattentional controlattentional control

Strategies in the wake of persistent change?

Greater training for organization personnel.

Sustain access to digital information tech.

Centralize frequently used web functions.

More university-community partnerships.

Develop new or tailored digital tools.

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Strategies in the wake of persistent change?

Greater training for organization personnel.

Sustain access to digital information tech.

Centralize frequently used web functions.

More university-community partnerships.

Develop new or tailored digital tools.

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training training training training

change change change change

access access access access

used used used used used used used

partnerships partnerships

Develop Develop Develop Develop

This struggle over attention

intervenes in human practices

of exteriorization:

retention,

collective memory,

production of culture.@wilsonism 55

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psychotechnological systems of psycho power

constituting collective memories and cultures of action

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constituting collective memories and cultures of action

partnering long-term

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constituting collective memories and cultures of action

partnering long-term strategizing to build audiences

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constituting collective memories and cultures of action

partnering long-term strategizing to build audiences recognizing attention work as action

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constituting collective memories and cultures of action

partnering long-term strategizing to build audiences recognizing attention work as action

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thank you

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