08.04.07
Preparing Public Health for Mass Collaboration
As technology improves, more people move away from human-to-human interaction to embrace computer-based communication. I’m very interested in the role technology, particularly the Internet, plays in healthcare and concerned about the effect this medium has on health promotion. Consumers are increasingly being led to the Internet to improve health behaviors. This way of life is producing both positive and negative effects, with the two most apparent outcomes being increased awareness about healthy living (positive) and decreased professional advice about healthy living and behavior change (negative).
According to Wikinomics authors Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams, newer Internet technology is facilitating collectivism among consumers, creating users who are active participants in, developing, editing and regulating content for the web as well as print and broadcast channels. In the opening chapter of Wikinomics, the authors explain that in the age of collaborative technology, the connected will survive and disconnected will fail. The authors write:
“A power shift is underway, and a tough new business rule is emerging: Harness the new collaboration or perish. Those who fail to grasp this will find themselves ever more isolated – cut off from the networks that are sharing, adapting, and updating knowledge to create value.”
This “power shift” is present in public health. I look at Tapscott and Williams’s collectivism theory from two health promotion perspectives. First, consumers who don’t understand how to use the Internet to obtain health information will be placed at a disadvantage in learning about personal and community health. Many of these individuals may possess the greatest healthcare needs, but their unfamiliarity with retrieving and contributing information will prevent communication with peers and health professionals who are using technology to communicate health. Secondly, healthcare professionals who don’t use mass collaboration don’t receive professional and audience input with solving serious health issues.
I was taught to look at public health from a business standpoint, with profits being increased awareness and changed behaviors. Public health educators wanting to help improve negative health behaviors often stick to tried and true theoretical approaches and tactics. As mentioned in the book, our collaboration happens most often during committee and coalition meetings. Because we’re taught to not reinvent the wheel (and often have little money to do so), many professionals in the field are unable to harness the power of the Internet to enable mass collaboration from colleagues and audience members. Furthermore, many of our theories are outmoded and fail to address the role technological advances like the Internet have in engaging consumers.
Tapscott and Williams warn readers that newer demands will force development of new processes and models. The authors advise professionals to “reconfigure” existing methods to meet needs. I plan to write my thesis on whether computer-mediated communication lessens relevance of traditional communication theories for behavior change. In light of Web 2.0 and other interactive technologies, I’m particularly interested in determining whether the diffusion of innovations theory should be enhanced to address message transmission through newer, more faster modes of communication that don’t rely on face-to-face interaction. The principles and use of Wikinomics provide more justification for reexamining relevance of traditional communication theories.
06.23.07
The more things change, the more things stay the same
While new communication modes are introduced by the minute, people are not straying from traditional communication principles used for community development. Online communities are relatively new phenomena, but the principles for creating and sustaining an online community are not. This week’s textbook and supplemental readings show that web-based communication through blogs, instant messaging, and other interactive features enhance, rather than change, the way we form social groups.
As a public health educator, my job is to bring real-life community members and groups together to learn about a specific health topic. One of my current responsibilities is to recruit neighborhoods to form what are called Community Emergency Response Teams (CERTs), which after large-scale disasters, go into their neighborhood to provide basic emergency response services to neighbors in need. To create teams, I mainly use the standard community building / social network development strategies taught in public health programs.
There are many similarities between what I do as health educator and what experts recommend for building an online community, beginning with what O’Reilly Network’s Building Online Communities article calls “existing for a reason.” Online community developers are encouraged to create a virtual space that meets members’ needs. As in the real world, civic participation online increases when users find relevance in the topic being discussed. Communities across the nation have developed CERT programs because community responders can improve disaster outcomes. A key message for CERT programs (including mine) is that first responders will be overwhelmed in a disaster and unable to meet community needs. People want to join and stay in programs that benefit their wellbeing.
Online community developers are also encouraged to use a peer outreach approach to recruit new members. In the 1960’s sociologist Everett M. Rogers refined the diffusion of innovations theory, which posits that early adopters of a product can in turn influence late adopters in their social network to try the new product. According to Building Online Communities, a “healthy” online community is one that attracts new members using older members. The author writes, “An active user group exudes a sense of community. This attracts people who enjoy the company of like minded individuals and seek the social rewards of participating in a healthy peer group.” Public health practitioners use diffusion of innovations often. We rely on community leaders and gatekeepers to spread the word about our programs to attract new participants and bring credibility to our message.
In Naked Conversations, authors Scoble and Israel also laud use of traditional word-of-mouth marketing to build online communities. These authors also recognize use of company blogs for helping to improve images of large businesses that in the past did not acknowledge consumer voices. The tradition in the latter principle is that persuasion and trust are best achieved through interpersonal communication. Blogs give organization leaders and customers an opportunity to discuss their point of view about a product or service.
With the help of blogs, we now have a culture where consumers feel like they have more control in influencing business practices. We also have consumers who feel responsible for making sure that large corporate and governmental structures don’t overlook everyday people. Gail Ann Williams advises that online communities be a space where members feel accountable for the progress of their community. In the real world, and I see this with my CERT program, members who take pride in their neighborhood and want to see it flourish work at keeping other community members safe and healthy.
We often condemn advances in communication technology because we fear that new innovations will jeopardize how we converse and interact with each other. But it seems that we don’t stray too far from past practices.
