You what?

It’s all about communication. Communication is fundamental to our society, and to creating change in it. We all need to get and share information, start conversations, tell stories, work together, promote our ideas, influence others. Good communication can change lives, stop wars and elect presidents; bad communication can start arguments, waste resources and even cost lives.

Much of our most important and effective communication doesn’t involve technology. We talk, observe, play games, develop relationships face-to-face through our senses, without even thinking about it. Technology extends our reach, via print, film, radio, television, photography, phone, e-mail and the internet, but it can’t change our basic human nature. Communication comes in all shapes and sizes, but its basic social purpose stays the same. 

This handbook describes the use of a particular strand of communications technologies that have emerged over the past five years. It includes web 2.0 and social media, but also the rise of low-cost digital filmmaking, virtual worlds, mobile technologies and the many new self-organising offline techniques that mirror the developments in the virtual space. None of these things are new. What makes them significant is that they are now, in the UK at least, significantly established in our society.

And what makes them important is that they place more power in the hands of individuals, and in doing so enable two-way communication – real, human conversations. They make it easier than ever for organisations and governments to talk to the people; but they also let the people talk back, and talk to each other. And not simply in writing, but through video, music, voice, photographs, animation and even in virtual worlds.

Conversations are scarier and more unpredictable than 'pushing' messages to a passive audience. If your audience can talk back, you have less control of the messages and ideas being communicated; your audience suddenly has as much power as you do. You can't plan a conversation. But if you really want to change the world, you have to change the conversations between people – and once you understand that, and how the smart use of technology can give you a voice in these conversations, then things become very interesting indeed.