Social Media Exchange

Social Media Exchange is an Internet training and facilitation initiative based in Beirut, Lebanon. It was initially conceived as a one-off project to introduce local nongovernmental, civil society, and community-based organizations to the social web for social change. In May 2009, SMEX launched its second six-month project and is now developing long-range plans for sustainability and growth.

Among our top priorities are to expand training opportunities and facilitation services through the current training of trainers program. In addition, we seek to encourage regional networking to address regional needs, including translation of key materials and increased contribution of Arabic-language Web content.

What We Do

• Online and offline workshops in blogging, Facebook, online collaboration, etc.
• Custom training for distributed teams
• CMS site planning and facilitation
• Producing social media guides
• Translation of training materials and guides
• Training documentation
• Online workflow planning
• Social media messaging strategy
• Network formation and facilitation (implemented with our partners)
• Online training modules*
• Week-long courses with professional practitioners*
• Computer lab time with or without peer assistance*

*Planned

Why Now? Why Lebanon?

We think we’re in the right place at the right time. The social web has matured significantly over the past four or five years, roughly since Facebook and YouTube were first launched. Activists and other advocates for positive social change have had time to experiment and to document lessons learned. We hope to build on this experience and add our own.

In addition, the Internet in Lebanon and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has seen recent gains lately and now the region boasts the highest increases in Internet penetration rates in the world, up nearly 1,300 percent since 2000. Lebanon’s penetration rate has jumped nearly 15 percent in the last year alone, thanks to the introduction of DSL in 2007.

Of course, increased penetration doesn’t necessarily mean an increased use of tools for positive change. Closed government- or party-run media environments continue to dominate Lebanon and the MENA region, making new media one of the only viable options for media that operate in the public interest. In fact, activists and advocates from Egypt, Lebanon, Kuwait, Morocco, Tunisia, and other Arab countries have been leading the way in the strategic application of blogging, Facebook, and other tools to organize and express themselves outside more mainstream channels.

Finally, Lebanon, while renowned for its lack of broadband (and even electricity), is widely rated as one of the most open free-speech environments in the MENA region. We and others see its potential as a hub for digital and social media activism and entrepreneurship and seek to leverage that position for the benefit of the region as a whole.

What We Hope to Achieve

First and foremost, we seek to facilitate self-empowerment, self-representation, and self-organization for individuals, communities, and networks seeking change by offering training in the tools of the social Web. In some contexts, we aim to accelerate the introduction of these tools in areas where they might be useful but are not as readily available as they are to those with steady Web access. We want to reduce the amount of time it takes to develop literacy in these tools by pointing directly to the best resources, practices, and organizations working in social media for social change.

Ultimately, we hope:
To empower organizations and community groups to broadcast clear messages to diverse audiences
To encourage the formation of effective distributed teams as well as diverse networks that can leverage their strength in the public interest
To take a step toward realizing the promise of the democratizing power of the Internet by expanding access through training and translation

What Sets Us Apart

To our knowledge, we are one of the first and only initiatives, including journalism training programs, in the Middle East whose sole purpose is to provide training in using the social web strategically to support positive social change. We look to organizations like the Association for Progressive Communications, Witness, TechSoup and NetSquared, Idealware, Aspiration, Training for Change, and Tactical Technology Collective for guidance but differ from all of them with our focus on training. In addition:

• Using social media for self- and community-empowerment is our first priority.
• We are based in what many people call the field, but we are well-connected to social media for social change leaders everywhere.
• Except in the realms of access to information, the right to communicate, and free speech, we don’t focus on any one problem or population.
• We look to all uses of Internet media, not just the journalistic ones, which so many other organizations cover so well. Still, we do train journalists and keep up with developments in that field.
• We are bilingual in English and Arabic—and committed to enhancing Arabic-language social media training materials on the web.
• We take a holistic approach to training by keeping tools in the context of their applications.
• We pay particular attention to nurturing networks.

Where We Are Today...and a Year from Now

SMEX is developing an online/offline training of trainers course with a focus on using social media for peacebuilding and youth empowerment. We’ll also continue to offer stand-along workshops in basic web tools. We’re also planning a concept note competition that will solicit ideas from local initiatives and organizations for how to incorporate digital and social media into their projects and programs.

As we implement this project, we’re also developing a plan for sustainability and growth. To date, SMEX activities have been made possible with the generous support of the American people via USAID’s Office of Transition Initiatives in Lebanon. Going forward, SMEX will incorporate alternative revenue models into its programming to supplement grant-seeking.

Track Our Progress

We’re still a start-up, and sometimes that shows in our not-quite-optimized website, sporadic posts to our blog, and other tell-tale signs of being understaffed. We’re working on ironing out the kinks, but as a learning organization, we never want the seams to be totally invisible. We want to share our process—mistakes as well as successes. Subscribe to our blog to know what’s been happening and what’s next.