Joanne Jacobs is Australian, an academic and a consultant in social networking technologies. So when she presented at 2gether08, on lifecasting and microblogging, she offered a great mix, catering for distant friends viewing the webcast and giving us plenty of stats as well as terrific insights into how and why formats like Twitter work well.

You can recreate some of that experience by seeing Joanne’s slides as well as the video, and looking at tweets featuring both Joanne and 2gether08.

Joanne defines lifecasting as:

The continual updating of one’s ideas, perspectives and activities through status updates to Facebook, Friendfeed, Twitter or some other social network platform.

and suggests it becomes particularly useful when tags  are introduced to allow searches and summaries. You can see  how that works for a combination of Joanne and 2gether08.

Umair Haque - who I wrote about earlier - ran a session at 2gether08 today about the need for a different, less destructive capitalism. I was just lining up an interview when Ben Cohen, technology correspondent for Channel 4 News came over, so I asked a TV professional to ask the questions.

It led to some create discussion of Umair’s ideas, including suggestions that UK charities should be more entrepreneurial, coupled with an offer to help develop their business models.

We also talked about how reporting using a mobile phone, as I was here, might bring some changes to the way that reporters like Ben work in future.

Tom Watson, who is a blogging MP and Minister for transformational government in the Cabinet Office, came to 2gether08 the day after he launched a competition: Show Us a Better Way. As the BBC reported:

The UK government has launched a competition to find innovative ways of using the masses of data it collects.

It is hoping to find new uses for public information in the areas of criminal justice, health and education.

The Power of Information Taskforce - headed by cabinet office minister Tom Watson - is offering a £20,000 prize fund for the best ideas.

Before speaking at 2gether08 he explained how he believes the competition, and the principles of co-design, can help create better services.

Technology writer Bill Thompson chaired the opening session at 2gether08, and dropped in to some others. I asked him for his impressions - and he explain in characteristically forthright style that he thought it was time “non-techies” caught up.

He went so far as to say that people should be embarrassed if they came to an event about social media but had to confess they didn’t understand anything about it.

People don’t need to code - but should know what programmers do, said Bill.

We agreed a good solution for the future would be to have a party for those keen to learn - with hands-on help in using Facebook, Twitter, video and more.

What do you think? Do we have some responsibility to develop digital literacy skills, if we are interested in the potential of digital media?

With the Social Innovation Camp we decided to dive right in, get our hands dirty and build some prototypes for web-enabled social innovations - tools that use social technologies to help people create change for themselves, from the grassroots up. At the moment, however, we see a disconnect between what the technology supplies and what society needs.

Technology, but not just for geeks

Those who could benefit from the use of social technology don’t necessarily see there’s a technological solution to the challenges they face. Whilst Amazon and eBay have changed the way we buy stuff, the expectation a similar tool might be an aspect of healthcare choices or a child’s education isn’t yet a reality. You can build the flashiest software in the world, but if your users can’t see the point, it’s not going to make a blind bit of difference.

On the supply-side, the vibrancy of the UK web start-up scene demonstrates that there is a wealth of technical talent out there, but software developers and designers are not necessarily social change experts. Energy currently being driven into creating the ‘next Facebook’ – yet another tool for already technologically-savvy users – needs to be given an alternative, social outlet.

The geeks with the know-how need to be matched with the people with the need. So the Social Innovation Camp started out back in 2007 scratching our heads, trying to work out how to link up tools and need to find new ways to make technology useful, but not just for geeks.

A new model for social innovation

No matter how effective online interaction can be, there’s nothing quite like getting people together in a room, to talk to one another, face to face – the old-fashioned way. This was the premise behind our first Social Innovation Camp weekend in April where participants including software designers and developers together with social needs experts came to accelerate six ideas for web tools that could change the world, from concept to early-stage social enterprise in under forty-eight hours. Based on a thorough understanding of a specific social need, participants had to hack together a prototype tool, as well as come up with a way of creating and sustaining a user base - all in just two days. At the end of the weekend, everyone had to ‘show and tell’ what they’d built and we awarded some prizes.

This year’s winners, Enabled by Design, developed a resource for anyone looking to make adjustments to their lives - be it as a result of disability, injury or impairment - to share their design problems and solutions. The runners-up, Visiting Prisons, came up with a tool to support prisoners’ families who are coping with being separated from a loved one and feed their experiences into making the criminal justice system better.

Play, experimentation and risk

Despite the severity of the social problems we were tackling, Social Innovation Camp was really designed to be a game. The weekend was fun and fast, and it incorporated elements of play and experimentation. We were researching, building and testing all at once, making imperfect products in an iterative development process where the end user and the social need were central to design. We set participants a common goal and provided a loose structure, but the rest was for them to self-organise. Most importantly, the event embraced risk; we encouraged participants to do their own thing, so we didn’t really know what would happen or what would emerge at the end. The weekend buzzed with energy, creativity and exciting new ideas.

The digital world is only just at the beginning of becoming socially relevant to ordinary people. Social Innovation Camp is a practical learning experiment in prototyping the tools that will become increasingly important to society. The web and related technologies could be a platform for hugely disruptive innovations - changing beyond recognition what was there before. We don’t know what we’re going to find. Combine this environment with the ease with which digital tools themselves can be designed and built, adapted, re-worked and re-made – often by users themselves - and it becomes clear that innovation in the digital world is well suited to high risk, playful experimentation of the kind that Social Innovation Camp is pioneering.

Come along to our 2gether session to find out how we ran our Camp, what we learnt and what we’re up to next.

More information about Social Innovation Camp is on our website; find out about our projects or even watch the film.

Digital media has made a big impact on retailing - pulling sales from big High Street shops online. It can also work the other way - helping us find and support shops, restaurants and other outlets that we really value.
Lea Simpson and Rob Hinchcliffe are both working to help us do that.

Lea is developing Unchained, a guide to the very best independent shops - first in London, then in New York.
The aim is to level the playing field between the great independent shops and the big chains they struggle to compete with. Lea says:

I’m a huge advocate of applying business thinking to social problems. Independent shops are typically started and run by people who are passionate about what they sell. Being a world-class butcher or fashion buyer doesn’t make them incredible marketing strategists, IT gurus or brokers. When you take a step back and actually analyse the long list of tools, resources and job titles the big chains have that smaller businesses don’t, it’s no wonder they can’t compete. They’re really playing a different game altogether.

The Unchained package aims to replicates these benefits in an ethical -Unchained’ way.
Rob is community manager at Qype, where shoppers, eaters, drinkers can review their favourite places and discuss them with fellow enthusiasts. Here’s what Rob likes.
In this interview Lea and Rob explore their common interests about using digital media … but are rather reticent about the session they will be running at 2gether08. They promise it will give us all a micro-experience of what they are talking about. And it will be fun.Meanwhile you can pop over to our networking site and start chatting with with Lea and Rob.

In the language of the media industry, Adam Gee is responsible for the cross-platform public service elements of Channel 4 programming.
In the language of the participating audiences, it’s “check your balls, check your boobs” after seeing Embarrassing Bodies.

Or take your mobile phone, and capture images of your favourite public sculptures, installations or graffiti , and become part of the Big Art Mob.
Over the past five years, Adam has pioneered new approaches to making public - and personal - issues accessible to big audiences. Embarrassing bodies attracted well over 12 million people over four days; 12,000 people used their phones for Big Art Mob, resulting in 5000 images creating a public art map.
Perhaps even more interesting, is the extent to which people could add their knowledge to items others have contributed, creating a repository of public wisdom.
Is this a more effective way of reaching people than publicly-funded Government information services? Adam is diplomatic: it’s not either-or, and Channel 4 works closely with some public agencies. He’ll be exploring this further at 2gether08, saying:

In the session I’m keen to explore the spectrum that has government online services at one end and public service networked media a la Channel 4 at the other, and (no surprises here) highlight why the latter is so important and full of opportunity.

As someone said to me when I described Adam’s role: now that’s a job I would really like to have. Fortunately, as participating audiences, we can all join in. If we didn’t, it would be a different job.

Years ago I had a friend who was endlessly frustrated that the Guardian newspaper never published his letters. He took it as a personal slight and the media’s general allergy to small people crying in the wilderness.

In fact, it was more likely that my friend would never compromise the integrity of his arguments for the sake of fitting his work into the tiny space allotted to the editor’s letters page.

The emergence of the blogosphere has allowed people like my frustrated friend to give full vent to their views, be heard (by those who want, or need, to hear them), and ultimately connect to those big unhearing (as opposed to unlistening) media organisations.

Indeed the importance of independent voices is likely to grow, if only because the processes driving it are technological as much as social.

Charlie Beckett of the Polis think tank has recently published a book on the phenomenon of ‘networked journalism’ called Supermedia.

In an accompanying essay he notes:

Networked journalism is a process not a product. The journalist still reports, edits, packages the news. But the process is continually shared.

The networked journalist changes from being a gatekeeper who delivers to a facilitator who connects.

In this foreword, Jeff Jarvis expands on the idea:

By joining and creating networks of journalistic effort – helping with curation, editing, vetting, education, and, yes, revenue – these news organisations can, indeed, grow.

Newspapers can get hyperlocal or international. TV stations can have cameras everywhere.

Investigators can have many more hands helping them dig.

News sites can become more efficient by doing what they do best and linking to the rest.

Reporters can get help and corrections on their work before and after it is published.

On the Today Programme Dr Julian Baggini argued recently that the art of complaining (an art as old as humanity itself) should be re-examined in light of how to do it so that it effects change, rather than just making the complainer feel worse about the world.

Networked journalism, is one of the ways in which ordinary citizens are changing the world, albeit by infinitesimally modest measures.

Both Charlie Beckett and Julian Baggini will be speaking at 2gether08.

Some of the most interesting conversations at 2gether08 will, I suspect, be when activists and social media types get together with TV broadcasters and digital marketing specialist. That’s because they’ll have to talk about what’s engaging and makes a difference, rather than the latest tools and industry trends.
Andy Bell has been working in that cross-over space for the past few years, moving from RDF Interactive to set up Mint Digital in 2004 with the aim of fusing the participation of the web with the buzz of TV. I like the way he responded to The Guardian’s Elevator Pitch challenge to explain your business to your Mum (very briefly):
“You know Big Brother? You know Facebook? No? Oh well, um, anyway, imagine mixing the two. That’s what Mint does.”
Andy is developing two sessions for 2gether08. The first is on a Web of Generosity, which Andy has trailed over on our Backstage blog:

The best websites are hugely generous. Google gives you incredible power to find information. Facebook gives you better ways to connect with your friends.

TV is generous too. Every day, each channel gives away millions of pounds worth of content.

But when TV people come to the web, all they see is cash.

Instead of asking ‘how can we monetise these eyeballs?’, it would be better to ask ‘what can we give away?’. TV people have rare skills that put them in a great place to answer this question.

The value of intellectual property is changing. What can we learn from the following examples:

• Free software: open code has gone from being the lunatic fringe to Venture Capital orthodoxy in 15 years.

• Event-based advertising: Innocent Village Fete and Red Bull Flugtag and Nike Run London show new ways to reach audiences in the age of ad skipping.

• Music: you can’t sell IP on CDs anymore, but the new music economy is thriving.

What is the best stuff to give away? And as Channel 4 launched 4IP - what skills can the broadcast community leverage?

He adds: “any examples or thoughts would be much appreciated. This proposed talk is v sketchy at the moment. Be Good is an interesting start point if you want to read more.”

The second session, as I found when I interviewed Andy, is going to be “a musical extravagancy of common characters you might meet in the web 2.0 world”.

I ‘m sure Andy is is going to be generous there too … and if you want to pitch for a role you might like to pop over to our networking site and make friends with Andy. Once you have created you own engaging profile, of course.