Citizen media has the promise to give more people a voice but also myths about its impact. It allows for collective action through blogs, social networks, and SMS but the reach and influence are often overstated. For citizen media to have more impact, it needs to move beyond individual conversations to facilitating cooperation and co-creation of content around social issues. The success depends on building real communities around issues and harnessing collective intelligence, not just the number of participants.

1. The Promise and Myth of Citizen Media August 21, 2009 Goethe Institut, Chennai Gaurav Mishra Co-founder, Vote Report India CEO, 20:20 Social

2. Internet in India   Source: NYT

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11. India: No Criminals in Politics Source: http://nocriminals.org/

12. Vote Report India Source: http://votereport.in

13. The 4Cs Social Media Framework Visible Creators > Curators > Consumers Content Collective Action > Co-creation > Conversations Collaboration Size + Strength + Social Object Community Reputation + recommendation Collective Intelligence Invisible Easy Difficult © Gaurav Mishra (www.gauravonomics.com)

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