Published by Generation K –07/28/2008

By Javier Noguera –President of Fundación Generación Libre (Free Generation Foundation), from Barcelona

In the Palacio de la Virreina (The Palace of the Vicereine) –Barcelona-  a sample of 2,800 electoral spots from all over the world called El Espectaculo de la Democracia (The Show of Democracy) is currently being shown. There are 20 years of politicial campaigns from Japan, America, Congo, Romania, and Turkey. They are divided into twenty rooms, according to genre. There are many Argentine spots that are being displayed, too.

You can see Mauricio Macri in the campaign that let him win the leadership of the government of Buenos Aires. You can also see an advertisement from Dolores Argentina, in which Cristina Fernández was promoted for president of Argentina in 2007. But, in the main room, only one Argentine spot represent our country: the Ché y Olé campaign (www.cheyole.com), that counted on the technical support of the Free Generation Foundation and the collaboration of cyberactivists from all over the country and from Generation K.

Today President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner declared that “It is possible to have a better life, to progress and to look forward to the future”.

While leading the ceremony of the signing of the agreement to asphalt the town of José C. Paz in the province of Buenos Aires, the President upheld that “for some people these things may look like nothing, but because those people have always had everything”.

“Everytime that we have come to the heart of the province we have come to give back in homes, pavement, and drinkable water part of the dignity that has been snatched away from the Argentine people”- she stressed.

Besides, she called up “all the Argentine people: workers, businessmen, farming men and women who work all day long” to a “great supportive effort and not only to look at what is happening to himself but to look around and help people move forward”.

The President renewed her “strong commitment to keep working deeply for change”.

On the other hand, Cristina said that “she has the duty of doubling efforts” to achieve that “more and more Argentines live better”.

“It is me, and not you, who has to increase efforts” maintained the President when pointing out that “life has given me more than I ever dreamed of” she said when she attended the ceremony accompanied by ex-President Néstor Kirchner.

When we just started, less than 10 days ago, the Facebook group “Coordinar acciones en defensa del gobierno” (Coordinating actions in support of the Government) never thought that we would have our own participation and circulation body a week later. To add joy to the matter, Argentina para todos.com (Argentina for everyone) reached 5000 single hits on Saturday and the facebook group got up to 500 users.

There are many of us who are really tired of being lied to by the traditional media, or that they inform us of the parts they want to.

That is why we have invented a new newspaper where we are the journalists, the Argentinean people of democracy, the kind that don’t use expensive pots and pans, or block off the roads. We will tell things as they are. It will be our version of the story.

We will do it step by step, from small to big, without hurry and without pauses. The first step will be the official launch of “Argentina para todos” (Argentina for everyone). We will do it from the Plaza Congreso (Congress Square) in the democracy stands.      

Last week in Tucuman we carried out training sessions for the Red de Mujeres Solidarias [Supportive Women Network], which is lead by Beatriz Rojkés de Alperovich (Member of Parliament). Many social and political militants from all over the province attended the training sessions.

Tucuman´s Minister of Education, Prof. Silvia R. de Temkin, opened the training sessions, followed by Javier Noguera, Secretary of the Department of Large Communes of Tucuman, who is also a co-founder of Generation K.

Many female colleagues started their blogs and posted news that very afternoon. On the following day the training sessions continued with people of reference regarding social issues from the town of Simoca.

The results of the work, although just beginning, are delightful and promising.
www.reddemujeressolidarias.blogspot.com and www.blogsdesimoca.blogspot.com

By Sebastian Lorenzo 

I have been thinking about the need of talking about “Second Generation Social Networks (Redes Sociales de Segunda Generación, or RSSG, in Spanish)”, for some months now, in allusion to software systems used to socialize information fine-tuned to very specific and concrete cases. These systems, businesses, brands, or however they may materialize, will contemplate the best things learned during the development of earlier platforms like Facebook or MySpace, but they will focus on segmented markets and sectors with pre-establish affinities. The connectivity software, by means of digital social networks, in the world-to-come, will have to adjust much more to the people, instead of the people adjusting the Software.

A SME network, for example, will only use applications with those who are interested in doing good business by being effectively connected to its world of opportunities and threats, suppliers and clients, and to the illusions that once moved it into the entrepreneurial realm. The software will have to incite the entrepreneur to invest time and energy, convinced that his company will improve using online technology, without becoming overwhelmed by those technologies. The network of “lonely people who are looking for love”, to give another example, will consider modules or applications for that segment of necessities and the same thing will happen with the “politicians”, “students”, or “teachers”. Some networks will have common links and opposed codes that could entwine with other networks -by RSS, for example- but they will maintain their central autonomies and specific dialogues.
Facebook’s activity has declined by 10 % during April. At the same time, services like Linkedyn are still steadily growing. The reason? Segmentation. Nobody knows what Facebook is really good for, except for putting up our personal information for anybody to see, without knowing exactly who they are. While some people are playing around, others are trying to work and yet other are trying to find that special someone. Most of the users of Lynkedin, however, use it to work.

In short, if a Facebook user who is looking for a job is invited to share an application called “kiss my whole body” by another user who is obviously in need of a good lover, then both of them would have wasted their time and will feel disappointed. This happens all the time in current platforms. That is why, basically, Facebook has lost that 10%. Facebook ends up being more uncomfortable and overwhelming many times over than spam, I would venture to say.

During a lunch, some days ago, a new friend –who knows quite a bit about digital business- was telling me that she wouldn’t spend any money buying Facebook shares. She said it so clearly that left me thinking about it and I then found myself in her shoes. I think I wouldn’t do it either, since I consider Facebook to be something temporary that will be “out” very soon. However, Facebook or MySpace have created a great space for something that is about to come: the world of the segmented digital social networks, or second generation, but improved. And these new networks wouldn’t be created without the foundations of the old platforms like Facebook.

I think everything progresses toward a great universe of small segmented and effective worlds, which are more and more like the real world (Is the Internet something that is not real?) although, without geographic obstacles. The “Second Generation Social Networks – (SGSN or RSSG)” will take on diverse aspects and will mutate its own shapes in order to adapt them technically; they will mix blogs and network connectivity systems, e-commerce and cyber-boyfriend/girlfriend relationship platforms, they will use modules like wikies, videochats, or whatever it takes for every affinity segment. If all this happens, it is not crazy at all to think that the same digital identity could serve for connecting with different segmented networks, but it would be necessary, before joining different worlds, to understand the codes of coexistence of the people who inhabit them, those who give them life and foundation. Likewise, what occurs in the current analogue world will happen in the network of networks.
 
In conclusion, I venture to say that the world-to-come for social networks is of segmented digital networks, simple and effective, capable of contacting and providing tools for people with common affinities at the time of registration. Segmentation by affinities more than by geographical territories or national flags. SMEs with SMEs, lonely people with lonely people, and so on…Then, it would probably happen that some segments (digital worlds) get involved, but not because they are forced to, but because there is nothing that stops a single person from owning a SME, or a teacher, who, besides being friends with his student, spends time playing videogames with them. But, everything has its place; every network in its network; there will be a natural order, predictable and profitable for everyone.

On May 25th registration will begin for the “Political Training School for the Argentine Bicentennial” offered by Generation K and the Fundación Primero Argentina (Argentina First Foundation) from its very own virtual platform.

The School, the first one of its kind in Argentina, aims to train a generation of citizens who are committed to the country and who are qualified to lead in the new aspects of the process of change.

Based on the incorporation of new technologies into democracy in general and the public sector in particular, the School will try to solidify the principles of Social Justice and equal opportunities.

According to the organizers 500 full scholarships will be granted all over the country for the first course that will have four basic foundations:

- Governance and Democracy in the new millennium
- The State and Public Sector as tools for Social Justice
- Political system and social change in an interconnected world; and
- New Technologies and the Public Sector
 
 

The Argentine cyber-political activist Sebastian Lorenzo was awarded formal affiliation to LasIdeas.es.

The circle of Spanish intellectuals joined together in the association LasIdeas.es have decided to affiliate, for the first time, an Argentine citizen. It is Sebastian Lorenzo, Executive Director of the Fundación Generación Libre (Free Generation Foundation) and a recognized Argentine cyber-activist.

Lorenzo, who is 33 years-old, will formally receive the award and will be incorporated into the team of LasIdeas.es the next May 11^th in the Canary Islands, in the framework of the I-Cities conferences closing, where he was invited to speak about “New Technologies and Citizenship in Latin America”.

The Argentinean has stated to the Spanish-Argentine newspaper that “I knew that LasIdeas.es was thinking about incorporating of a person from our country from many months ago, but what I never thought was that it would be me” and added that “I’m very proud of having shared talks with people who have marked trends in the digital world of Spanish language and who I admire so much”.

LasIdeas.es is an organization that uses blogs and new technologies to connect and to socialize its experiences. The current Spanish Ambassador in Argentina, Rafael Estrella, among others, is one of the founders of the group.

Lorenzo is the third Latin American person to join LasIdeas.es, where a representative of Bolivia and another from Chile are already participating. Both were affiliated in 2007.