Using theSocial Web

for Social Change

Week 6 – Elluminate Session EOctober 26, 2009: 7pm PT

Week 5: Social Video, Viral Media & Memetics

Opening CircleReview Last WeekUpcoming WeekUpcoming Social Change ProjectsMemes & MemeticsSpecial Guest: Franklin Lopez

Agenda

Opening CircleType a sentence into the chat window about:

how you are feeling tonightsomething about your BGI Beat blogsomething you learned this weeka concern

Week 5: Social Video, Viral Media & Memetics

Last Week’s Assignments

Decide if you are going to have a dedicated domain for your blog

Purchase your domain at GoogleAdd Analytics to Your Blog

Google AnalyticsFeedburner

Identify Your Blog’s PeersFind at least 3 blogs with related subjects and/or keywordsSubscribe, participate, and commentUnderstand their audience

Post1 thoughtful post, 1 commentary post, 1 link post, plus 2 comments in other blogs

Readings & Media

Medium number of readings this weekTopics are

Social VideoMemes & MemeticsParticipation & Engagement in Video

This Week’s Assignments

Post1 thoughtful post, 1 commentary post, 1 link post, plus 2 comments in other blogs

Find VideoIdentify and bookmark 3 videos that exemplify social changeAt least one ideally should be in your BGI Beat

Create Video~30 seconds minimumEither a video intro to your blogA video intro to your LinkedIn profileA video response to a video on YouTubeCreativity encouragedVideo may be private, but this is discouraged

Social Change Projects

Learning to change the world by doing

Time Expections & Grades

Remember: “Perfection is the enemy of the good” & “Ship early and often”Total 24-32 hours per person40% of your grade for class

20% is completion10% is team10% is quality

Your team members are going to depend on you in November. If you fail them, I will fail you

Types of Social Change Projects

Social Video2-3 minutes of scripted, edited video

EventClimage Change Day“Lunch for Good”

Educational Resourceweb pageteacher tools

Open to your imagination

Memes & Memetics

Definition of Meme

“A unit of cultural inheritance”

A meme consists of any idea or behavior that can pass from one person to another by learning or imitation

Typically propagated by symbolic communication or language, but not limited to that

Propagation through contagion, analogous to a virus

Examples of Memes

Jokes &Gossip

Gestures

Beliefs

Practices

Examples of Memes

Fashion Beauty

Music Phrases

Give me Liberty or Give me Death!

Internet Memes

Richard Dawkins

The concept of the meme was first used by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins

Became popular with the publication of his book “The Selfish Gene” in 1976

Memeplexes

Groups of memes can work symbiotically together giving rise to memeplexes

They exist together because they benefit each other

Memeplexes

Ideologies Technologies

Religions Philosophies

Natural Selection

Memes have other analogies to Charles Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection

replication & inheritancevariation & mutationcompetition & selection

genes compete in the “gene pool” through natural selection giving rise to evolutionmemes survive in the “belief pool” through a similar selection process

Memetics

“The study of of the transmission of ideas”Applying tools from genetics to understanding ideas is usefulThere is not a scientific consensus on memes

some say “a nice metaphor”some say “denies free will”same say “anti-religious”

But it does explain some things that don’t fit in evolutionary psychology

Selfish Memes

Evolution (genetic or memetic) is not about the individual, but the success of replication

Thus like genes, they do not have to be beneficial to their hosts

The only thing a meme “cares” about is propagation

Infectious Memes

“When you plant a fertile meme in my mind you literally parasitize my brain, turning it into a vehicle for the meme’s propagation in just the way that a virus may parasitize the genetic mechanism of a host cell.”— N.K. Humphrey, The Selfish Gene

Meme Propogation

Some memes propagate by being effective or useful

languageagriculturescientific method

However, memes also propagate through features and weakness of the human psyche

emotional appealneed for hopebandwagon

Memes as Viruses

If memes can be compared to viruses, they also are analogous to their viruses properties of infection and for immunity

infection

proselytization, fear, indoctrination

immunity

doctrine, contempt for knowledge, dogmatism, emotional hijacking

Thoughts Contagion

Some thought about transmission(See Wikipedia on Meme)

Quality of parenthoodEfficacy of parenthoodProselyticPreservationalAdversativeCognitiveMotivational

Memes as a Meme

The idea of memes itself is a meme.

You are now infected

Questions? Feedback?

ChristopherA@LifeWithAlacrity.com

Next: Elluminate Session FMotivations for Participation & Change

November 2, 2009: 7pm PT