Welcome back!
We will share with you every month what is at the top of our must-reads about online communities and digital life. Please share your comments with us about what piques your interest.
We are sure most of you are seeing things like this below in your social feed and we want to focus this newsletter on the trend of social networks breaking apart from the political chaos out of the recent US Election.
Parler 'free speech' app tops charts in wake of Trump defeat
Twitter alternative Parler has become the most-downloaded app in the United States as conservatives flock to the self-styled "free speech" app after the US election.
Full story here: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-54873800
What Polling Errors Can Teach Us About Community Member Research
Brian Pagels discusses some of the challenges in polling:
Unless you’ve been spending this November in the Dagobah System, you’ve probably heard that political polling in the 2020 U.S. election season was even less accurate than in 2016. Even after adjusting their methodologies to account for the polling error four years ago, firms still undercounted and misrepresented certain demographics in 2020. To be fair to professional pollsters, the political environment in 2020 presented some of the greatest challenges the profession has ever faced. That said, as Pew summarized in a post-mortem “it’s clear that national and many state estimates were not just off, but off in the same direction…[this fact] points to a systematic cause or set of causes.” For those who are podcast inclined, The Daily from the N.Y. Times also does an excellent job of explaining these issues. Two common -- and related -- hypotheses for polling errors this year include:
Certain groups of voters were easier to reach and more willing to respond to surveys than others
Some respondents did not answer honestly about the candidate(s) they supported
If either or both of these diagnoses are true, polling organizations will need to once again adjust their models and methods in an effort to prove their utility and restore public trust. Community professionals could also stand to learn from these polling shortcomings and examine our own approaches for conducting and analyzing community member research.
Read more here: https://www.bettercommunities.co/polling-community-research
And please leave us your comments below…
Guidance on how to manage misinformation in online communities from Venessa Paech
Managing online communities can be a daunting task, particularly in the age of misinformation where falsehoods spread as quickly as fact. Venessa Paech explains how digital marketers and community managers can mitigate risk and proactively cultivate healthy online communities.
Read more here: https://www.marketingmag.com.au/hubs-c/opinion-how-to-manage-misinformation-in-online-communities/
Charlene Li on how to handle conflict
Two weeks after the US election, half of the country is moving forward while the other half stews in discontent. How do we heal the rift in our country and ensure that we remain strong as a country? We’ll look at how disruptive organizations like Amazon use the leadership tenet “Disagree and Commit” to handle conflict — and grow stronger in the process.
Watch her video about conflict here: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=405378023978187
Microsoft study: Online risks that sow hate and division are growing
Some 31% of respondents in 32 countries say they’ve been exposed to hoaxes, scams and fraud online, up two percentage points from last year, and up three percentage points since the fraud risk was first included in this study in 2017. Meanwhile, one in five respondents (20%) say they’ve been the target of hate speech online, and 15% say they’ve experienced discrimination. These latter two risks are up four and five percentage points, respectively, since the survey began in 2016. All three risks are at their highest levels on record for this research.
The Centralized Internet is Inevitable
https://palladiummag.com/2020/10/19/the-centralized-internet-is-inevitable/
"The dream of the decentralized internet is dead," declares Long Now Foundation research fellow Samo Burja. It turns out that internet users (i.e. most human beings) feel empowered enough to participate in a centralized internet, even if that means giving up power and freedom. Governments and private interests like Twitter, Facebook, and Amazon take power and we trade convenience and entertainment for it willingly. Even after years and many attempts to even out imbalances between users and administrators, "The technology empowers the user to a degree, but empowers the administrator even more."
Burja argues it is time for us all to turn away from the long-lost dream of a decentralized, borderless internet. So far we have failed to realize that dream, and we waste time waxing poetic about what could have been. It's time to accept that the consolidated internet is inevitable and that bordered internets are more common than ever (take Iran, China, Russia as examples). We will have to fight for what freedom we can within a consolidated system.
The Rise of Community-curated Knowledge Networks
https://sariazout.substack.com/p/check-your-pulse-55
"In short, the architecture of digital platforms has made us obsessive documenters and consumers of the present, yet largely indifferent to the archives we create." — Sari Azout on The rise of community-curated knowledge networks, remembering why we're consuming all this content and the untapped potential to build community-curated knowledge networks.
And now back to the holidays in front of us…
Some tips on how to hold a virtual Thanksgiving this year:
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/how-to-host-a-smaller-more-virtual-thanksgiving
Do you have something to contribute or what to discuss? Please leave your comments