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Posts Tagged ‘Youth engagement’

Twitter, Dialogue and #elxn41
Friday, May 13th, 2011

Here at Ascentum, we’re really interested in how people are using social media to connect, get involved, and engage in dialogue on issues that matter to them.

That’s why I volunteered to be part of a small team led by digital guru Mark Blevis (@MarkBlevis) that looked at how people were using Twitter on the night of Canada’s 2011 federal election.

In space provided by The Canadian Press (thanks @CdnPress_Ott!) we spent a fun evening together following the posts, unfolding events and the stream on Twitter related to the election.

We used a Canadian social media monitoring tool called Sysomos to find and follow the traffic.  Using a powerful and customized search, we were able to pinpoint and track posts that mentioned any one of over 100 keywords or criteria.  For a detailed analysis of results, I’d recommend visiting Mark’s ongoing research at http://www.markblevis.com.

Lots of traffic, but less dialogue

That night, I was excited to see the high level of interest, buzz and traffic about the election on Twitter.  At the end of the night, we measured a total of 90,150 election tweets, from 45,075 users.  There was a community of Twitter users across Canada, and beyond, sharing the same real-time experience of democracy in action.  There was genuine engagement in the process.

What I didn’t see as much of, however, was real dialogue.  By dialogue, I don’t just mean people talking to each other.  As practitioners have observed, dialogue is to “honestly expressing perspectives, clarifying viewpoints, and developing solutions. The goal of dialogue is to deepen understanding and judgment, and to think about ways to make a difference on an issue.”

Understandably, on election night, people were more focused on news and results than policy issues.  However, even during the campaign, though, the twitter traffic on #elxn41 seemed to be more partisan than “transpartisan” – people looking beyond party politics to engage in dialogue on bigger issues of public concern.

It will definitely be interesting to see how the Twitter community continues to evolve in the future and whether members can shift the interaction to facilitate more dialogic exchange.

Mark, Stephanie and Nygel: same place next time?

- Ellis Westwood -

Fostering International Dialogue and Youth Engagement in Laos
Thursday, November 18th, 2010

Earlier in November, I had the honour of facilitating a dialogue and representing Canadian youth at the Vientiane Youth Leaders’ Forum in the Laotian capital of Vientiane, which took place on the sidelines of the First Meeting of States Parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions (more…)

Engaging young people on their views of the future – and motivations for making a change in their communities
Friday, June 18th, 2010

Lots of people are worried about young people these days; why they vote less and appear less socially and politically engaged.

But, instead of just studying youth, Ascentum is part of an exciting community-level project to actively engage young people, as well as the rest of their communities, in dialogues and action about their confidence in learning and on how they want to make a difference in their neighbourhood, city, country or world.

The project is led by the Canadian Education Association, which has partnered with five Social Planning Councils, as well as Ascentum, to conduct a yearlong public engagement initiative pilot project in Ontario.  Each Social Planning Council involved is conducting its own face-to-face dialogues, tied together with a broader online process being designed by us.  The aim is to encourage dialogue, inspire action and collect data to inform education policy decisions.

We’re really excited to be involved and for the chance to work with both CEA and the Councils.  They both really “get” public participation and share Ascentum’s philosophy that it leads to more sustainable decisions.  The Association has been around since 1891 and works to foster national dialogue on education policy and how it can contribute to a better Canada.  Social Planning Councils are truly pioneers in public involvement.  Their missions are to create civic societies in their local communities, which they foster through capacity building, education, advocacy and engagement, and they have been experimenting in public involvement for many years.  The Social Planning Councils involved in the project are:

We are looking forward to working with and learning from them as the project unfolds!

We’ll keep you updated over the next few months with sneak peaks and news…

- Ellis Westwood -