In the last part of “Share This”
(Chapter 26), Philip Sheldrake talks about the massive transformations in the
social Web and communication technology innovations. The author uses the example of George W.
Bush’s inauguration for his second term in January of 2005 to show how much has
changed in this short amount of time.
Not one YouTube video was uploaded during this historic event. Or, when Italy beat France to win the FIFA
World Cup Final, fans did not Tweet, or mention this on Facebook. Events like these would blow up the social
Web if they were to happen today. Even
with how useful social media technology is today, we can only expect it to
advance faster and further in the future.
In this chapter, Sheldrake also
introduces the so-called ‘Web 3.0,’ and the ‘Internet of Things.’
“Web 3.0 is the common name for a
technology known as the Semantic Web.
Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, describes the
Semantic Web as the Web becoming a universal medium for the exchange of data,
information, and knowledge. The Web
itself ‘understands’ the meaning of all that Web 1.0 content and Web 2.0 social
participation (Sheldrake, 233).”
According to the book, “the phrase
‘Internet of Things’ refers to a network of objects not historically connected" (224). The Internet of Things is necessary in public relations because it
provides data that may influence opinion and behavior.
As I
concluded from this chapter, data is one of the most important things for PR
practitioners to get their hands on. Web
3.0 and The Internet of Things allows PR practitioners and other contributors
of the organization to access this massive amount of data.
This book
gave me a better understanding of social media and how it is navigated. It taught me about the impressive upbringing
and benefits of social media, which I now appreciate much more than I did
before reading this book. Now, we must
develop the skills as PR professionals to navigate through all that the great
World Wide Web has to offer.
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