The social web is an opportunity for Mankind to right all the wrongs in the world – that was the message the UK Prime Minister gave us today. He was addressing the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, the annual get-together for members of Scotland’s protestant Kirk. (Curiously, Mr Brown is himself what’s known as a “son of the manse”, ie. his father was a minister of the Church of Scotland.)
In the light of political suppression, human rights abuse and recent natural catastrophe, the PM, addressing this religious gathering, made the following point about the potential of the social web in his speech:
“…The joining of these two forces – the information revolution and the human urge to co-operate for justice – makes possible for the first time in history something we have only dreamt about: the creation of a truly global society.
A global society where people anywhere and everywhere can discover their shared values, communicate with each other and do not need to meet or live next door to each other to join together with people in other countries in a single moral universe to bring about change.”
From this prediction, the Prime Minister went on:
“And I believe that these vast and swiftly summoned movements of people coming together can now become the most powerful weapon for justice ever put in human hands.
In this connected world:
- censorship may silence but the word will still get out;
- repression may still suppress, but not forever;
- force still has power to dictate but it will not ultimately decide.”
The PM is not the first to make this lofty claim, but it made me think of my personal focus for the social web: how we can leverage tools such as blogs, wikis, podcasts, social networking sites etc to create a dialogue between communities. That’s very selfish of me. (But it’s pragmatic, too.)
In the meantime, is Gordon Brown’s vision ever going to come true? Is the natural development of the web to even out power imbalance through the virtual exchange of experience? And another selfish thought: where do marketing and content fit into all this – and what part can I play in this future?
