Ingrid Walther is a member of the Berlin Senate Department for Economics, Technology and Women’s Issues. Specifically, she serves as Head of Division Communication, Media & Creative Industries for the Project Future (Projekt Zukunft) Initiative.
[Social Media Week]: Why is Social Media Week a significant event for the City of Berlin?
[Ingrid Walther]: Social media has quickly evolved an important factor in the Internet world and represents exciting new potential for Berlin’s creative economy. Many enterprises and start-ups here are working in Web 2.0-related fields. The Berlin Senate Initiative “Projekt Zukunft” (Project Future) is very happy to support Social Media Week in Berlin.
[SMW]: How does the City of Berlin currently utilize social platforms? Are citizens of Berlin clamoring for even more interaction with the city via social media?
[IW]: The city’s current image campaign, beBerlin, makes extensive use of social media to garner public involvement. Berlin holds a lot of creative potential connected to social platforms: Among others, Twinity, a representation of our metropolis in the virtual world; the social bookmarking tool Mister Wong; and StudiVZ, Facebook’s biggest competition in Germany. Since so many of Berlin’s citizens are active members of the social media crowd, even deeper connections will build in time.
[SMW]: In your opinion, what are the biggest misconceptions about social media?
[IW]: First, that it can be controlled. Second, that social media mechanisms like crowd sourcing and availability automatically improve the standard of information. Last, but not least: That social media will, in time, completely replace all other, “traditional” forms of communication.
[SMW]: If you could only follow one person on Twitter, who would it be and why?
[IW]: Barack Obama because his presidential campaign has shown the power of social media in the government-to-people concept. It would be interesting to follow his thoughts and actions to see if he further manages to convince people of his political agenda.
[SMW]: What’s one mistake beginners often make when entering social spaces, and how can it be remedied?
[IW]: On mistake is to forget that the Internet never forgets. The obvious remedy is to choose carefully which/how much personal information you share online.
