Presented at Accenture CRM conferenceJohannesburg, 8 July 2009

Engaging a participatory culture

Steve VoslooFellow, 21st century learning

a presentation about participatory culture

South Africa

what it means for business

Web 2.0 ... an “architecture of participation”(O'Reilly, 2005)

Participatory culture: creating and sharing one's creation members believe their contributions matter blogs, podcasts, games, videos, fan fiction(Jenkins et al., 2006)

are we a participatory culture?

but it's different ...

it's mobile

Jonathon Donner (2009)

“there's no better place in the world to understand the future of mobile internet than SA”

contributions (not only creations)

involvement: light and lo-tech

“SMS can be used to topple governments and tip elections”

(Rheingold, 2005)

“We are witnessing a first hand accountof an emergent social revolution”

(Kramer, 2009)

connectedness: small and lo-tech

conversation: light and lo-tech

dr.math: what grade are you in? what are you covering in math?

Spark plug: 7

dr.math: grade 7?

Spark plug: yes

dr.math: are u doing "pre algebra" stuff like What is the value of x if x + 3 = 10?

Spark plug: yes

dr.math: ok, so what is the value of x if x + 3 = 10?

Spark plug: 7

dr.math: ok. how about (15 x 2 ) + x = 35

Spark plug: 5

dr.math: I am going to use * for multiply so not to confuse it with x, ok?

Spark plug: ok

dr.math: (2 * x) + 8 = 18

Spark plug: 5

dr.math: very good. can u explain to me how u figured that out?

Spark plug: 18 - 8 is 10 so 2* what is 10 and the answer is 5

dr.math: excellent.

so why participatory? inclusion

ownership

empowerment

people expect it

more innovation

lower costs

connectedness

people expect it age of the prosumer:

“teens and young adults consider themselves more than just consumers and they want their chance to produce content and involve themselves in the brand more than ever before”

(Generation Next, 2009)

people expect it Idols 2007

17,960,686 votes

75% from MXit

more innovation engaging “users”

crowd-sourcing design

more innovation “the street will always innovate in ways that we can't plan for”

Jan Chipchase (2007)

developing countries provide real needs-based innovation

more innovation “citizens are the biggest underutilized resource in service innovation and delivery”

Prof Matti Hämäläinen (2009)

more innovation Google Wave

IBM

Proctor & Gamble

lower costs more self-service models (like banking)

customers provide information to you

greater connectedness between you and your customers

between your customers

they will talk about you – are you listening and engaging?

“The barriers to self-organisation have collapsed”(Shirky, 2008)

enabling participation is cheaper

easier

faster

more visible

about more people

conclusion SA is a participatory culture

engage your customers through enabling their participation

not for “feel good” reasons

they expect it & want it

it's good for business

www.shuttleworthfoundation.org

Thank youEmailsteve.vosloo@shuttleworthfoundation.org

Twitterwww.twitter.com/stevevosloo

Bloginnovatingeducation.wordpress.com

Slideswww.slideshare.net/stevevosloo