9th Doha Conference on Interfaith Dialogue 2011
not only to researching the impact of emerging technologies on communication
Keynote Speech
practices but also to increasing awareness
By Ana ADI Lecturer, Bahrain Polytechnic PhD Candidate, University of the West of Scotland @ana_adi www.anaadi.net
about what social media is and what it can do. So, you may ask, what is social media and what makes it so interesting and unique? What is it that makes it that people now all over the world seem to spend more
It is a great pleasure to be here today, at what is my first conference in the Middle East since I moved to Bahrain 9 months ago, and at my first ever conference on Interfaith Dialogue.
time on it when online than anything else? Moreover, you will perhaps ask, is this really for me? In order to answer these questions, we’ll
have to take a step back and have a brief
Ladies and Gentlemen,
look at how we got here. The Internet, of
which social media are now an integral
I have a confession to make. Several months ago when Mr. Adeel Khan left a voicemail on my website I thought he was a
fact that I have dedicated my recent years
spammer,
one
of
those
very
technologically apt people that once in a while want more from you than to share an elusive fortune that they inherited over night. But as I returned the call and checked the website of the Doha International
Center
for
Interfaith
Dialogue, I entered a new world and I was fascinated. Is it perhaps my experience with social media and emerging technologies that
part has been around for longer than some of us might imagine. It was born in the 1960s when the US Defense Advanced Research
Projects
experimenting
with
Agency new
ways
was of
transmitting data, which was then passed on to some sponsored corporate and academic environments to be tested. The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network or ARPANET, as the Internet was called at that time, counted 213 host computers in the 1981 with another host being added almost every 20 days (Leiner et al., no date). And although it grew bigger every day and more applications
brings me in front of you today and the
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and guidelines that made it possible were
“participatory” web or the collaborative
added as the years passed, the network
web, web 2.0 is a development of web 1.0
gained a public face only at the beginning
towards a more open network, where the
of the 1990s. It was then when CERN, the
content is dynamic, the users’ experience
pan‐European organization for particle
is rich and where the content is produced
research, publicized the new World Wide
and shared complying to set standards
Web project invented by British scientist
and rules (O’Reily 2009).
Tim Berners‐Lee (Comer, 2006). The
emergence
Internet
These characteristics are particularly
providers contributed to the growth of
applicable to social media, another
the network but its popularity resulted
extremely popular buzzword associated
from
with the Internet nowadays. Through
of
commercial
elsewhere:
its
adoption
by
commercial entities.
social media people share, comment,
upload, network, follow, friend, tag and
The Internet was on its way to becoming a
more.
mass‐medium,
empowered to connect, provide feedback
one
through
which
They
are
collaborate.
encouraged
They
and
organizations could get in direct contact
and
create
with their target audiences and tell them,
relationships, define what is relevant and
in a controlled manner, what they
decide what is important. Information
thought was relevant and what they
exchange is fast and cheap.
thought the audience wanted or needed
to know. That was web 1.0 or the mostly
On Twitter, the micro‐blogging platform
“read‐only” web. But the Internet that we
that enables users to share information in
know is not like that.
140 characters breaking news is now
current practice. From following a 7.8
The Internet that we live with is a mass‐
magnitude earthquake hitting China
medium with twist. Web 2.0 is perhaps
(Siegler, 2008), to seeing the images of an
one of the most popular buzzwords
emergency landing airplane on the
associated with the Internet. It depicts a
Hudson river in the USA (Beaumont,
paradigmatic shift into how information is
2009) to finding out who the next host of
generated and shared. In web 2.0 the
the Olympics is while the voting is still
network is a platform and the users too
going on somewhere in the world, it all
can provide data and exercise some
happens first on Twitter. Has your travel
control over it. Also referred to as the
to Doha been delayed? Just tweet about
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it! If you’re flying with KLM you have a
preparing for my talk I noticed her sitting
high chance of receiving an answer with
in a darker corner of the room, with a
updates on your flight in a couple of
transfixed smile on her face. She told me
hours. Interested in a conference but you
she was watching a live streaming of a
can’t attend? Find the conference
sermon at home to which her family was
hashtag. It won’t be quite the same as if
participating.
you’ll be in the room but it will give you
the general idea about the talks plus it
That sense of proximity, closeness in
would be spare you the travel. Even
beliefs and similarity in values, is perhaps
more, if the conference is streamed live
what brings other people online as well.
or if someone you know is attending and
Rabbi Brant Rosen 1 of the Jewish
has a smartphone with Skype, you could
Reconstructionist
see everything from the comfort of your
Evanston, IL, blogs about Judaism and
home or office.
social justice since 2006. Also since then,
Cardinal Sean 2, Archbishop of Boston, has
When it comes to personal matters,
been sharing his views and news through
information travels as fast. If you are on
his personal blog and podcasts. The
holiday, or moving home, celebrating the
Archdiocese of Boston too at his
addition of a new member to the family
encouragement has embraced social
or mourning the loss of someone dear,
media, being currently present on
once you put it on Facebook everyone in
Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube and
your network will know...immediately.
Vimeo. Moreover, the Cardinal has also
There is even a joke around saying that
contributed to The Church and New
until you change your relationship status
Media, a book edited by Brandon Vogt
on Facebook, it hasn’t happened.
that looks at ways in which the Church is,
could
Web 2.0 reduces distances, blurs
technologies. Joining the list are, just to
boundaries and brings people together. In
name
a sense this can be true.
(@ImamZaidShakir) of the New Islamic
Directions in the USA3 who speaks of
I will always remember the happiness of
Islam and its basic teachings through his
an American student I met in London where I was invited to speak about social media some time ago. While I was
or
a
Congregation
should
few,
use
Imam
in
emerging
Zaid
Shakir
1
http://rabbibrant.com http://www.cardinalseansblog.org 3 http://www.newislamicdirections.com/nid/ab out/about_new_islamic_directions/ 2
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blog and Twitter, the Dalai Lama who is
those boundaries, the Internet can be a
tweeting in English on the @DalaiLama 4
challenging place.
verified account almost on a daily basis a
word of wisdom and inspiration and Pope
The point that I am trying to make is that
Benedict XVI who can now be seen live on
the Internet and social media aren’t
the
website
inherently good or bad. They are what
pope2you.net or on the Vatican’s
each individual makes out of them and
YouTube channel.
what we collectively allow them to be.
The web makes sense as long as we
But the web is there for other users as
attribute it a meaning, as long as we have
well.
of
an objective. The individuals and groups
Stormfront, America's largest white
that understand the web and know its
supremacist Internet forum is on Twitter
strengths and weaknesses are the ones
as well and so are Jeff Schoep, the leader
who are successful online.
of the National Socialist Movement,
America’s largest neo‐Nazi group and
For the Tricycle5 community of bloggers
Thomas Robb, a Ku Klux Klan (KKK)
the web is an environment through which
(adl.org, 2009).
they can make Buddhist views, values,
and practices broadly available. For the
The web does indeed reduce distances. It
active network of researchers and
also provides a medium through which
scholars of Euro‐Islam the Internet is a
people could get together, people that
medium that allows them to disseminate
share similar beliefs that is. But contrary
key information to politicians, media and
to the cyber‐utopian views according to
the public about the comparative studies
which the Internet will turn us into
on Islam and Muslims in the West that
tolerant citizens of the world curious and
they conduct. For MidEast Youth 6 too, a
eager to open up our minds, the Internet
not for profit movement started from her
is an environment where national,
dorm room in Switzerland by a Bahraini
cultural, and religious differences can be
woman while she was studying there, the
exacerbated. For those that aim to break
Internet is there to amplify diverse and
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progressive voices advocating change
Vatican’s
Don
dedicated
Black,
the
creator
For accounts of public persons and celebrities, Twitter goes through a process of verification to ensure that the owner of the account is the person who it says it represents. A verified account is marked with a blue bullet with a tick inside displayed on the account page.
throughout the Middle East and North Africa. 5 6
http://www.tricycle.com/about http://www.mideastyouth.com/
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represent and share and the potential to
While some make efforts to spread
reach more, to reach further. I also asked
information, amplify visibility and raise
rhetorically whether social media is for
awareness, others attempt to hide them,
you. That answer you will have to find
divert them, oppose them, cover them or
yourself.
stop them. What for some is a supporter,
for others is a cyber‐activist. One person’s
For an interfaith organization bringing a
freedom fighter is some other person’s
message of peace and unity in an
hacker,
environment where differences can be so
dissident,
or
troublemaker
(Morozov, 2011).
big and opinions so polarized is a
challenging but not impossible mission. To
The web hosts all these parties. In social
succeed
media they are all represented. Belief and
tolerance and the acceptance that a
persuasion are no longer the key. They
message once released cannot be fully
were in web 1.0. In web 2.0, as Cannon
controlled. It requires vision, strength and
(2011) says: “Members are different. They
strategy.
seek engagements. Members do not
avoid conflict”. This allows the dialogues
In my view, every platform in social media
to be more robust and helps the
has a main function. When trying to come
communities to grow and bond, while
up with a social media communication
accepting the need to learn to handle
plan, appreciating this might simplify
their differences.
things. For instance, social networking has
to do with bringing people together
So instead of taking it for granted that the
socially. That is what Facebook was meant
Internet can enhance communication and
for and this is why the site asks at
is a mechanism for social good, we should
registration so many questions about
consider these as ideals to which we
one’s preferences, tastes, hobbies and
should aspire.
family liaisons. Blogging started as a diary‐
like activity. It used to encompass
When I started this talk, I asked what
personal accounts. It was and still remains
makes social media so interesting and
less formal than a website and more
unique. I’d venture to offer an answer:
introspective. Micro‐blogging is just a
diversity and potential ‐ diversity of the
shortened form of that. On Twitter people
people that use, of the knowledge they
share freely their opinions about other
it
requires
transparency,
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people, services or companies and provide information about themselves and what they do at a given time. Multimedia sharing is there to provide access to others to a particular material. Those sites are there to amplify and support. Each social media site has its own rules, its own settings which dictate in a way how a message is shaped and how it will be transmitted. But all social media sites complement each other’s functions and link to one another. It is enough to have a hub and build everything else around that. Strategy and vision need coherence and they need practice. Remember: Learn the rules. Knowledge is power. Accept failure. Do not give up. Practice makes perfect. Thank you! Future readings and references: ADL. Org, 2009. Extremists Begin to Utilize Twitter to Broadcast Message. The Anti‐Defamation League. Available from
http://www.adl.org/main_Extremism /Extremists‐Utilize‐Twitter.htm [Accessed September 15, 2011] Beaumont, C., 2009. New York plane crash: Twitter breaks the news, again. The Telgraph. Available from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technol ogy/twitter/4269765/New‐York‐ plane‐crash‐Twitter‐breaks‐the‐ news‐again.html [Accessed September 15, 2011] Cannon, D.F., 2011. Understanding Relationality: A Challenge for Religion Communicators. Global Media Journal ‐ Canadian Edition: 4(1):21‐41. Comer, D., 2006. The Internet book. Prentice Hall. Leiner, B.M. et al, no date. A Brief History of the Internet. Internet Socitety. Available from http://www.isoc.org/internet/history /brief.shtml#Timeline [Accessed September 15, 2011] Morozov, E., 2011. The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom. Public Affairs. O’Reily, T., 2009. What is Web 2.0. Design patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Sotfware. O’Reily.com. Available from http://oreilly.com/web2/archive/wh at‐is‐web‐20.html [Accessed September 15, 2011] Siegler, M.G, 2008. Twitter is first on the scene for a major earthquake — but who cares about that, is it mainstream yet?. Venturebeat.com. Available from http://venturebeat.com/2008/05/12 /twitter‐is‐first‐on‐the‐scene‐for‐a‐ major‐earthquake‐but‐who‐cares‐ about‐that‐is‐it‐mainstream‐yet/ [Accessed September 15, 2011]
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