One thing blogs can be quite useful for is documenting a major event, creating an archived point of reference for something that has occurred at the crossing of space and time. When it comes to a major event that could have an impact on the world’s population, a blog can be a great way to share that documented story with the public. That’s exactly what the Open Passage Expedition is doing with its upcoming project.
On its 40-foot yacht, the Silent Sound, the Open Passage Expedition is turning to blogging and other aspects of social media in order to document the effect of global warming in the Arctic. During a voyage across Canada’s once-frozen Northwest Passage, the Open Passage Expedition will use GPS tracking and communication equipment from the Blue Sky Network as well as the Iridium mobile satellite service in order to update blogs, Facebook, and Twitter feeds.
This isn’t a new way of raising awareness for a particular cause, and it’s certainly not a new way of sharing a life experience or the details of an event. But it is a good example of how organizations are turning to Twitter and Facebook in order to reach out to others that have an interest in their cause, while raising awareness and creating a form of semi-permanent communication that can be accessed by millions across the world.
What this does is highlight the use of social media and its never-ending integration with mobile tools for the purpose of both automatically and intentionally sharing certain aspects of an individual’s life. From there, we see the potential that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg speaks of when he talks about the power of a newsfeed on one’s profile.
It’s this manner of story-telling that can do more than pack a punch–it can affect change. When you look at the way in which Twitter and Facebook newsfeeds have developed, it’s becoming quite evident that necessities for better and more effective sharing capacities is a driving force behind their evolution. Access to microblog and newsfeed archives and an ability to obtain the necessary information from this type of content creation and sharing is an important aspect of Twitter and Facebook moving forward.