Web 2.0 social networking hotspots like Facebook, Myspace, Friendster seem to have one thing in common – none of them are designed by and for activists. In some cases, like MySpace, they are even owned by odious corporate types, i.e. Rupert Murdoch, Grandpappy of the Fox “News” Channel. Online social networking emphasizes consumption, entertainment, lifestyle and generally conservative politics. And, let’s face it. These are social clubs for certain kinds of folks from certain kinds of families in certain kinds of places.
At least, this was the complaint that the creators of a new online social network heard over and over across the United States from young people of colour and youth activists. So they created MyBLOC, a social networking website for young activists of color where they can connect - online, in neighbourhoods, and across the country - and mobilize. The goal is to support face-to-face organizing.
MyBLOC is a collaborative effort by the Movement Strategy Centre, an Oakland-based nonprofit organization that supports young activists in the development of networks and alliances, the Building Leadership Organizing Committees (BLOC) a group committed to youth-initiated social progress, and Future 5000, a national database of youth organizations and organizers.
MyBLOC is also bucking the trend in Web 2.0 world of trying to get online users to spend as much time on a website as possible. They want users to get in and out as quickly as possible, get the information they need, then go out and do something with it.
For more info, check out the original post by Sabrina Ford at WireTap.
Posted by Michael Lithgow on May 18, 2007 in
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