One fo the things i've noticed in online organisation websites and groups is that everyone kind of assumes that if we are on the internet then we know everything about the applications everyone else uses - but actually it takes a lot of time and interest to find out - what is RSS? What is podcasting?

And then there is another level too in terms of communication: What is the meaning of all the terms like wtf, lol, bbf, etc that people use in forums and stuff. i'm the kind of person who doesn't like to ask - so i try to figure out things for myself but this means that there is still a lot that i don't know,

my friends go online to do something they need to do or are interested in and if it seems like a lot of work to use or understand a network or site because its too high tech or doesn't have the apps they are used to, there is always another website, right?

I absolutely agree.
In all the questions on the forum there are some underlying issues - or lots of them.
I was just listening to a video at ( and do i say on or at??? - what's the etiquette??)
telecentreeurope.ning.com/video/how-cellphones-twitter

one quote that stood out for me and that ties in with the civicweb research is:

'What matters is not technical capital but social capital' a bit academic but it is also a strange separation to make. If you don't know the social language of technology - not just how it physically operates or have access to it you are excluded. If socially you feel disengaged then you wouldn't even start but it seems to me the two things go together.

Another quote to think about. The speaker on the video was saying that the new social technologies are 'becoming the site of co-ordination and no longer information flow. This he argues means that information flow can move from the unpowerful to the powerful - he was talking about 'developed' and undeveloped' countries and about everyone being able to check voting behaviour and rigging, blog from Iran etc etc. So if this is so where does this empowerment lead to? How does it move from communication or co-ordination on line to social communication adn co-ordination off line. Can technical cpaital move to or promote social capital??

and so on.

Liesbeth