The Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore and Art, Resources, and Teaching Trust (A.R.T.) Bangalore had organized an interactive two-day workshop, “Art and Social Media” by Anita Garimella. Anisha Pucadyil, the program associate for the 'Pathways' project at CIS, also participated in the workshop. The Ford foundation has initiated the Pathways project across the world for promoting inclusiveness in Higher education. It has found partners in Centre for Study of Culture and Society, Bangalore and The Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore to engage with students in Kerala, Karnataka, and Maharastra.
The two day workshop engaged with questions about the opportunities and challenges for using the Internet for Art in India. Anita presented her views about the evolution of social media online through her analysis of some selected case studies. She charted its evolution from static pages depending on the developer to organise, to getting the 'wisdom of the crowds' involved in creating knowledge in Web 2.0. Anita believes the web 3.0 belongs to 'Cloud computing, 'Semantic Web', and 'connected databases'.
She defined ‘virality’ as the act of content on the web being spread by users sharing it, bringing new users to the original content and therefore adding additional utility. The Obama Campaign being one example which mirrors the 'k- factor'.
K= Distribution * Infection.
Thus if K < 1. Then user viewer base is shrinking.
If K = 1. Then user base is neither growing nor shrinking.
If K > 1. Then user base is growing.
Learning through Virality is very exciting for the 'Pathways' initiative. The initiative hopes to provide better academic and social support to students from challenged backgrounds. We hope to engage in a conversation with India's young digital natives and improve opportunities for under represented students. Thus use media for more equitable access to resources of learning and sharing. The idea of all these linked databases catching on virally, feeding on one another and spreading like wild fire is very fascinating. More people, more questions to search engines, more feedback, more interpretations, more meaning made, more disagreements solved,more understanding,more action,more hope for a better world to live in.
However,the search engines push back those items which are searched the most. This was observed as one participant as the web being a mirror of our biased off-line thoughts. There was also criticism of the 'feudal',flat and 'undemocratic' Facebook. However,to me facebook seems the most likely option for the 'Pathways' project. I realize the purpose,content and time frame of relaying these messages to my audience needs to be precise. A facebook page seems to be a better option in the long term with additional applications for the user to interact with. I think the web 2.0 has got every individual expressing their opinions. Thus through a small click of 'hide' of a particular newsfeed or exercising the dislike button on facebook, we are putting into motion a slow learning system of critical view points. I believe more people engaging in the conversation would only make our learning more diverse.
Pranesh Prakash, programme manager at the Centre for Internet and Society brought his insights about Copyrights and Law. He suggested that copying is a compliment. He also quoted 'wikipedia art' issue, which in its death continues to serve discussion and debate. Paulo Cohelo taking an active but anonymous stand in publishing local language editions of his books is merely an example of an untapped market according to Pranesh. The copyright act in India is archaic in not accepting these dynamic new changes. However, one is skeptical if accepting the creative commons blindly as the answer to these questions.
The workshop was interesting and engaging, because of the varied fields the participants came from and their diverse opinions. Most noteworthy was a painter who is uploading her art work online and enjoying the attention from customers around the world. Anita stressed on the importance of spelling out the purpose of a website and getting the channels right to tap into social media for a long term engagement with the 'customer'. I am game to be a 'Prosumer'!
