What is a Digital Urbanite?
by Angela
If you haven’t heard already we are doing a panel at this years South by Southwest titled “Digital Urbanites: How to Become Part of the New Social Capital” you can check out the description over at SxSW. You might be thinking “What the !*&? is a Digital Urbanite and why is who/it/them the new social capital?!” Good question! You will see some posts about this intermixed here at Black Web 2.0 as well as other places on the web however if you really want to follow this discussion and/or plan to attend the panel at SxSW (PUUUHHHLLEEEZZZZZ, don’t make me beg 
) then you can follow everything at DigitalUrbanite.BlackWeb20.com. We (me and the other panelist) will hash out many of the preliminary questions you may have around Digital Urbanites here, this way we can get to the nitty gritty while at SxSW. And for those of you who can’t make it we’re trying to stream it (if the WiFi chooses to work with us) we’ll have a Meebo chat room here either way and will be on Twitter as well.
We also hope that you continue the discussion where you live, be it Facebook or Twitter, by tagging conversations that you think apply or relate with #DigitalUrbanite. We’ll be shouting out others we think are Digital Urbanites and tagging them periodically on Twitter also. This will help us all get a great snapshot of exactly what Digital Urbanites “look like” on the web.
A Digital Urbanite is infact many things you might not think it is. They are not a Robert Scoble or a Chris Brogan type, or any other social media celeb for that matter. Digital Urbanites are different, they are just as influential as your favorite web celeb however they operate, engage, and interact online in their own unique way. It may occure to you that everyone on the social web “in their own unique way” and is why the social web is what it is. This is true however in Digital Urbanites this “uniqueness” is pronounced. Aside from purely how they interact online they have their own characteristics that are… hmmmmm… no nice way to say it, so I’ll just say it. Cooler. A timely example of a Digital Urbanite is Barack Obama. He is currently the President but as we all know he wasn’t always 
. He is connected digitally, knows the power of influence at a grassroots level, and well he is just plain cooler than your average Joe but still identifies with him. Some call it swagger, some call it confidence, and others just can’t put their finger on it.
You can read the full post of What is a Digital Urbanite on DigitalUrbanite.blackweb20.com
Category: web 2.0 | Tags: digital urbanite, Duality, influencers, james andrews, navarrow wright, social capital, social media, SxSW, Theda Saniford, wayne sutton, web celebrityDid you like this article? Share It!
Ron says:
Is this a prettier way of saying “black folks on the web?” I mean, what's the archetype of the “digital urbanite?” I guess we'll find out…good luck with your panel discussion.
Angela Benton says:
Thanks for the reply ron! If you get a chance or have time please look at the full post here:
http://digitalurbanite.blackweb20.com/2009/02/w...
Being a Digital Urbanite has nothing at all to do w/ race or Black people specifically. If it did I would have just said that like the name of this blog “Black Web 2.0″, this is a great statement though and is partly why the panel was name that. Too often people think or use the term Urban (and variations of it) to mean Black.
Danni says:
It's nice to watch the Black Internet come of age. I like Ron also equated urban with black. Back when I started my site in 2001 that was pretty much the connotation. But now times are a' changing and urban doesn't automatically make me think black anymore. But hey what do I know my site contains the word urban and is for women of color. I won't be able to make it to SxSW but will definitely be at BWB 09. Hope to see ya there.
Colleague to Colleague: Two Weeks Worth of Updates… (sigh) « BLACK paPR Report says:
[...] The reason why this is historical will go unnoted and left to your imagination. (sigh) But I will post an excerpt of Angela’s blog entry about the panel and festival (found HERE): [...]
BlackWeb20.com « BLACK paPR Report says:
[...] am now officially a Digital Urbanite™ who thinks and have thought for sometime that geeky and nerdy and smart were not only cool but can [...]