Social Impact of ICT workshopBrussels, 30th June 2009

David Osimo - Tech4i2 ltd.

ICT impact on family and community: reflections from

personal experiences

Main points

• a theoretically robust, scientific view reflections on daily practice of the web

• does ICT matter for family and community? stories from INCA award

• how does ICT matter? Bridging or bonding social capital in Twitter

2

Does ICT matter? Let’s see what people build

• INCA award: stimulating users to build “socially useful applications”

• one month, 20K Euros prize: 35 working applications submitted

• 15 out of 35 deal with interpersonal and family relations

3

www.inca-award.be

4http://www.ikkanhet.be/

5http://www.tvtweets.be/

6http://www.hupskadee.be

7http://research.edm.uhasselt.be/~twoddler/

How does ICT matter?

Bridging vs bonding social capital

in Twitter

8

9

Bonding

10

Bridging

Wrapping up a practice-based view on family/community

• ICT matters and increases both bridging and bonding social capital

• borders between the two are blurred but these remain key categories for analysis

• robust quantitative evidence arrives too late to be policy-relevant

11david.osimo@tech4i2.com egov20.wordpress.com