Empowering change: Reflecting on the global impact of social media and its role as a catalyst in driving cultural, political, economic and social change, Social Media Week’s theme in February 2012 will focus on Empowering Change through Collaboration. This theme is designed as a call to action, allowing individuals- like you- and organizations around the world to explore how social media empowers citizens, increases mobility, enables mass collaboration, develops hyperlocalism, maximizes interconnectedness, fosters knowledge creation & sharing, bolsters leadership, and encourages global empathy.

“The efforts of Social Media Week as an inclusive global conversation are as important as they are timely. Evidence is mounting that the current global slump is not just cyclical, but rather symptomatic of a deeper secular change. There is growing evidence that we need to rethink and rebuild many of the organizations and institutions that have served us well for decades, but now have come to the end of their life cycle. The global economic crisis should be a wakeup call to the world. We are at a turning point in history.”

Empowering Change Through Collaboration:
Don kicks off a series of articles and talks about how people everywhere can help to create a sustainable future by participating in a global conversation during Social Media Week.

Collaborating for Change in Healthcare:
Don continues the discussion by examining the role social media and the online space can play to encourage stronger collaboration and efficacy.

A New Energy Revolution:
Don explores the options that we face in regard to energy: one that enables us to continue as we have but toward energy shortages and one of innovation and change but leading to growth, global cooperation, and an abundant supply of clean power via a smart energy grid.

Making Citizens Active in the Regulatory Regime:
The series takes a deeper look at how citizens and consumers can collaborate together to provide regulatory oversight to the financial sector. Don challenges our notion of regulation, while empowering us to help propel change.

Transparency:
The era of hyper-transparency is beginning, and Don examines how business, governments and individuals can embrace this and why it’s crucial we all do.

Engaging the Population of a City to Reinvent Itself
Around the world there are cities in desperate need of rejuvenation and transformation. Elected officials are scrambling to equip their cities for the 21st century, talking about creating “open,” “networked,” and “smart” cities. We explore how cities can do this.

Engaging the Population of a City to Reinvent Itself, Part Two
Don’s continues his thoughts on how cities can be more open and networked, using an example from Bogota, Colombia.

For three decades Don Tapscott has been the world’s leading thinker about the impact of the digital revolution on business and society. He is a regular advisor to business and government leaders around the world, and has authored or co-authored 14 widely read books, most recently Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing Your World, and with Anthony D Williams: Macrowikinomics: Rebooting Business and the World. For over 30 years he has introduced many ground-breaking concepts that are part of contemporary understanding. It is hard to think of a more prolific or influential thinker today. His work continues as a the Chairman of Moxie Insight, a member of World Economic Forum and as an Adjunct Professor of Management for the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto.You can follow Don on Twitter at @DTapscott or on his soon to be released mobile app: New Solutions for a Connected Planet. .