
Freelance writer Amanda Hirsch, former editorial director of PBS Interactive, blogs about documentaries and the Web in her column, Outside the Frame.
If you meet Andy Carvin, it's almost certain that he'd tweet about it — and for a brief moment, the 11,000+ people who follow him on Twitter would know your name. He might also post photos of you on Flickr, write about you on his blog and interview you for Rocketboom — or just live-stream an interview with you from his phone. In short, Andy is someone who lives online, and when you enter his orbit, you live online, too.
As is fitting for a citizen of the Internet — someone Washingtonian recently named a "Tech Titan," alongside the likes of Steve Case and Ted Leonsis — Andy's bio is readily available on Wikipedia. I won't regurgitate that information here — I'll just say that this is a guy who "got" the Web right off the bat, and has been a leader and advocate for using the Internet in a socially responsible, democratic way since the early '90s. These days, Andy's on the payroll at NPR, which is how I met him, public media being the intimate world that it is. Read on for his perspectives on how filmmakers should be using the Web, especially so-called "social media," and why being friends with someone online doesn't necessarily mean you'd invite them to your bar mitzvah.
Amanda Hirsch: You're a "social media strategist" for NPR. Tell us what that means.

Andy Carvin: Well, let's start with the meaning of social media. Basically, social media encompasses the universe of digital tools that foster interaction, content sharing and knowledge creation. In the early days of the Web, it was largely a one-way medium — you'd read, watch or listen to content but couldn't easily create it or participate in a dialogue. Over time, the tools improved as the Internet became more ubiquitous. Now most websites have significant social media elements — blogs, wikis, user-generated content, etc. Some people refer to this as Web 2.0, but in many ways, it's just what the Web is today.
As social media strategist, my job is to develop ways for NPR to engage the public — and vice versa — as a way to expand and strengthen our journalism. Public radio has always had a strong community of listeners, but we didn't have the tools available for them to interact with us, and each other. Social media is changing all of that; "listeners" no longer have to be passive.
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TAGS: facebook, how to, npr, social networking, twitter