Category Archives: Social Media
Realizing How Zsocial lacks the Participatory model
Recently we came across Zsocial and “discussed” it in Episode 36, or rather I ranted about it and figured I should write out my criticism. Zsocial is a new social network that is being developed by the Zcommunications community, which includes the speaker/author Michael Albert, who wrote ParEcon: Life After Capitalism and Realizing Hope: Life Beyond […]
Continue readingACAS guidance on unions and social media
ACAS is the UK Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service, which provides information to improve employment relations. It is funded by the UK government but governed by an independent council. One of its major functions is to interpret and provide guidance on labour law – like what is “reasonable time off for trade union duties” anyway? […]
Continue readingUnionBook: Use it or lose it
UnionBook is the social network for trade unionists. It has been around for some time, but hasn’t really achieved critical mass. It currently has around 4,000 members, and unless it reaches 5,000 by September, it will be shut down. So what’s the point of a niche, union-focused social network in an already […]
Continue readingUsing Facebook for union organising and campaigns
If you’re using Facebook for your organising, you need an exit strategy. For a lot of unions, online organising starts and ends with Facebook. Many union communicators are fairly uncritical of Facebook, and seem to think it’s important to get people to ‘like’ your union’s Facebook page. Clearly Facebook is important, because many of your […]
Continue readingUnionbook 2.0
I’ve written before about the problems with Facebook: it violates your privacy, it mines data for advertisers and it spams you with requests to play Farmville. Yet many trade unionists, myself included, use it for organising. Despite it’s flaws, it has its uses, because there are so many people there, and it is really easy […]
Continue readingWeb 2.0 and trade unions: UNI Global Union video
Appropriately for a global union federation representing communication workers, UNI Global Union is pretty innovative when it comes to using new technology. There were the organisers of the Second Life strike, have an active twitter feed and forum for union communicators. This is their introduction to Web 2.0 for trade unions: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Em8XLIaGm-E]
Continue readingFacebook – dangerous for unions?
Eric Lee of LabourStart thinks so. Take a listen to his podcast here: Facebook is the most widely used social networking website in the world, with 400 million active users. Because it reaches such a large audience, it seems important for trade unions to use. For Eric, the biggest danger is that you have no control […]
Continue readingTwitter and the awesome power of crowdsourcing
I’m going to start this with a dramatic statement: twitter is the most powerful communication medium I’ve ever used. Twitter gives dynamic, real time interaction with people all around the world. It’s like being in a room with the all the most interesting people you can find, and being able to listen to all their […]
Continue readingTrade Unions, Web 2.0 and Social Media
Here is a presentation I created for a union conference. It aims to give union reps an overview of using new technology for organising. Please feel free to reuse and adapt it if you find it useful. The presentation can be downloaded directly from the link below. [slideshare id=4301655&doc=cyberunions-ccisua-100525203158-phpapp02] Trade unions, Web 2.0 and Social […]
Continue readingAn introduction to Web 2.0 for trade union activists
New technologies offer trade unionists opportunities to reach out to workers in new ways. In the past, we have often complained that the mainstream media often seems anti-union, and that the only time you read about unions in the papers is when there’s a strike. The media seems to ignore all the other important work […]
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