It appears that governments are now taking social web more seriously and a deeper relationship seems to be forming between governments and social web.

For example, if we take the case of India and Iran.

In India during the recent elections, the political parties used the web to market themselves in the hope to reach out to the voters. This shows a participatory approach.

In Iran, the government has blocked Facebook prior to Presidential elections. This one points to a controlling approach.

The questions that emerge from this situation is:

1. What are these relationships between social web and governments?

2. How different are these relationships from those between mainstream media and governments?

3. What are the factors that define the relationship between mainstream media and governments? For example, what is it that made India’s political parties join and participate in the online social world? And what is it that the Iranian government finds threatening about the social web?

In my earlier post, I commented how hurling shoes at politicians is becoming a popular activity among Indians. Emily Wax in Washington Post has reported two more incidents of when shoes have been hurled at L.K. Advani and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

It started with the Iraqi journalist throwing a shoe at George Bush and now Indians are using this trick to oust the unwanted politicians.

1. Delhi Journalist, Jarnail Singh hurled a shoe at Chidambaram.

2. A retired school teacher threw a shoe at Navin Jindal.

It appears that the days of garlanding the politicians are over. Welcome to the shoeland!!!!

This story in AsiaOne digital reported that social media will play an active role in Indian elections this year. New electronic machines will be used for voting and there is an online voter registration campaign. Facebook, YouTube and blogs all of them will be used for campaigning. Political parties are sending SMS updates to voters.

Of the 700 million voters, 100 million youth between the 18 – 24 years will be first time voters. It would be an interesting election.

This article titled, Virtual Pleasures, in the Economist looks at a really important issue – what is really driving young people (men) in conservative societies to spend time online? I think the issue raised in this article is a very valid one - whether the online social media will eventually provide a way for young people to collaborate on political causes or will it just become a medium to seek out self pleasures? For instance, the article points out that in India the young people spend most of their online time browsing pages of matchmaking websites to find a spouse. The online digital media in India is providing opportunities for romance and dating which are otherwise considered a taboo in traditional Indian society.

I think the challenge is – how to use social media to get young people more interested in politics and causes which are of social importance and not just use it for personal pleasures and consumption?