Why I took Gov 2.0 course

My first exposure to social media was when I saw my son fiddling with facebook on his computer. I asked him what it was, and he told me that all his friends were there on it and it was a great way to connect with them. I sampled a few messages and all of them looked like teenager inanities with an overload of weird looking fonts conveying personal status and messages. I never imagined that this medium would go beyond teenagers. But then I also joined facebook, because many others like me were also joining. I discovered many of my friends with whom I had lost contact. It was a great feeling to connect with them all over again. I enjoyed facebook, but to me social media remained essentially a social networking tool, nothing more. Its massive power on the political stage was first witnessed after the Mumbai terror attacks.

After the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, a massive protest rally took place, where people assembled in large numbers not by the effort of any political party, but by the word of mouth publicity through the social media. Politicians were rattled, as they thought it is only they who could mobilize people for rallies and protest marches. This generated a huge interest in the subject. Social media was a tool for mobilization; a tool for espousing causes; a tool for sharing information; and a tool for networking and much more. Hence I was looking for opportunities to learn more about it. That is why I joined this course. There is lot to learn about this emerging field, and I look forward to the sessions, readings and assignments in this course.