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An associate who shall remain nameless commented on my changing my twitter avatar to 1:10 (in response to Amnesty International’s campaign for International Women’s Day), “Way to get down in the trenches, Williams.”

Harsh words, but I’ll concede half the point. As the day dawned, I was shaking my booty at a warehouse party, wearing a short dress, drinking, dancing, and in general enjoying my right to do pretty much what I please, because it is my right. Just as it is my right to decline unwanted advances, be out on my own, leave at any time, and enjoy safe passage home.

So yeah, I’ve got it pretty good. But that’s where I take my half of the point: this day isn’t about me – yet. It’s about the women who need it now.

Last week I attended a brainstorm at Amnesty (hosted by Amnesty’s web team and the exceptionally clever bunnies at Made By Many) and took part in a productive little discussion on how to use social media tools to raise the profile of Amnesty’s work, including their IWD activities.

For starters, take one urgent, local issue: one in four local authorities FAIL to provide female victims of violence with the support they need. How do we use our media tools to create change here?

Without divulging trade secrets, here are some ideas:

get people talking about these issues

give stories a face — make them personal and immediate

enable online commitments to be actioned offline

demand and demonstrate accountability

It’s never going to be easy to change the way people think and act, but communication tactics like these can get us one step closer.

Last week, Mashable smartypants Pete Cashmore asked whether social media makes us better people. You wouldn’t know it from my horribly derelict follow-up to his post, but this question sparked a whole lotta thought over here Chez Williams…

is there good in talking about an issue that affects us all as a global community? (I say yes)

does sharing information make us better people? (again, yes — it cultivates social inclusion and individual empowerment, and is the very tinder of social progress)

how can we measure this good? (no ideas as yet)

This isn’t a simple question
Firstly, how do we define ‘being better people’? It’s a bit chewy and philosophical, but permit me to tangentalize for a mo. Social media is about talking, communicating. So if I engage in a certain behaviour, and then I talk and communicate about something inherently better, but I still behave in the same way, am I doing any (more) good (than I was before)? Utilitarians among us are going to say no.

But not so fast…

Is being good about doing good?
This is no categorical sweeper of a statement, but I’d like to postulate that doing good is perhaps the culmination of being good. In terms of media and especially social media, talking about issues, telling stories, creating space in our culture for positive change… well I think that’s good. But talking, sharing, learning… these are good things, too.

And what did Pete have to say on the matter?
Alas, Cashmore’s title is a red herring. His actual query is a bit more practical than all that altruistic business: he wonders whether the knowledge that our words and actions are more likely to be captured (and shared and thus forever linked to us) will prompt us to be a little nicer to one another in the up-close here and now.

Pete, I hope so. But as I live and breathe in the world’s CCTV hotspot, I’m not holding my breath.

Still, thanks for the blog fodder, amigo.