My breakfast meeting this morning included two infrastructure companies and three professional service firms who all live at the intersection of business, government and society. An intersection many choose not to venture into. Our conversation centered on how to leverage existing IT and communications infrastructures to help build safer communities using the latest available social media platforms.
I’ve been evaluating a lot of social media technology companies lately. It is the wild wild west right now and I appreciate and love to see the land grab. But in all the frenzy of rushing to meet a rabid market, perhaps a valuable longer term opportunity for the social media providers is the 3,000 cities that dot the nation. Citizens are more connected than ever, yet lack the online forum to better connect them as a community. Most local media outlets such as print, radio and television have done a decent job of developing web 1.5 sites that have varying degrees of content and community interaction capabilities. However, media outlets will never be able to pierce a certain veil that a dedicated community forum offered by local government for the greater good of the community can. The adoption, implementation and use of these forums will lag behind industry but the value to local communities and citizens will probably be longer lasting than any commercial effort. And the providers that sell to them will have long term customers with predictable budget cycles.
I look forward to seeing if my assumptions are correct that social media will become an integral part of (real) community building. In the meantime, I’ll enjoy watching the local media space adopt the latest tools to keep their viewers engaged. Here’s one from my old hometown of Seattle, go Seahawks! www.king5.com.
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Tax payer funded or sponsorships? Interesting challenge…