2013 VOF Week 1 Voices of our Future Applicants week 1 assignment Web 2.0.

Web 2.0 forges digital media to be a tool that directly connects the general public to a vast population base. Mastering its use unlocks a potential power that progressively aligns people with similar interests together. It is considerably effective when people learn to monopolize the benefits from each use by sharing aspirations and recognizing their potential to make a difference.

This power is giving women the talent to access information, share knowledge, brainstorm ideas, and participate in teaching the public ways to instrument action. Web 2.0 technologies are flourishing. Their use is required for online petitions, broadcasting, publishing, video, radio, blogs, forums, and social media to operate. Third party sources or approval is not needed to upload content because the web is open to all.

At one time a woman’s voice was silent. Pictures, video, and written content were not shared. There were limited known networks available to access connections. Previous road blocks like travel, money, retaliation, and warfare are no longer barriers that prevent sharing information. Since the introduction of Web 2.0 people educate, inspire, expose, and evoke others to rise up together against wrong doing regardless of location. Online conferences plug women together across the world. E-commerce helps women become financially independence and strong. Donations and petitions are driving forces behind changing polices, providing relief, awareness, and reform. Today women are becoming more knowledgeable about accessing these networks but most importantly, they are using them.

Effectively using these platforms excites me because I can make an impact on the world. According to Statistic brain (1) there are 1.2 Billion Face book users worldwide and 11 percent of people on the planet use it. 2.5 million Web pages integrate links to social media on their sites. YouTube gets over 92 billion hits per month with over 490 Million users. There are over 190 Million Tweets per day and because of web 2.0, the technology has become a part of the daily lives of at least 11 percent of human beings. At least 250 million people access social media with their phone, many of those users add to the content uploaded and distributed on the internet. Israel, Argentina, Turkey, Russia, and Chile are in the top five of countries most engaged in its use. There is a lot of opportunity to get people involved in the human rights movements worldwide!

I have the freedom and power to create, edit, publish, use, and distribute content at will. All my online works can be linked together across media platforms, loaded in real time; making my android phone an assistant that contributes to efforts to support the global women’s empowerment movement. Sharing stories in social media and blogs helps to draw attention to conflicts people were oblivious to in the past. I also have the privilege to educate myself by reading media distributed by others, thus giving a listening ear to voices that should be heard! With Web 2.0 the possibilities are endless. I just have to start by going online!

Reference: (1) http://www.statisticbrain.com/social-networking-statistics/