Category: social media

My Network Curates My Tool Choices

Thursday I’m a guest respondent for an ODI webinar on networks in international development. My friend and colleague Simon Hearn at ODI suggested a quick check of their online meeting room  my heart dropped a bit when I heard they were using GoToMeeting . While GTM tends to offer a lower price point, there is a cost. It is a very one way medium. There is no shared participant chat room. Questions go only to the moderators. Control of the visuals (which are pretty limited) are in only one moderator’s hand at any one time.

Now, does that feel right for a session on NETWORKS? I didn’t think so. So I challenged Simon for some options. (Boy, with friends like me, doing this at the last minute, who needs enemies?) I said, let’s experiment!

For example to facilitate loose connections so powerful in networks, let’s set up a parallel chat. My first choice these days is http://www.meetingwords.com – an instance of the open source Etherpad hosted by Peter Kaminski. But alas, I didn’t know if it can scale for 100 participants.

I personally like IRC but it is pretty geeky for the  unintiated. We were looking for something with little or no sign in requirements and easy, peasy interface.

Of course since I can no longer keep up with the rapidly growing and changing constellation of tools (volume and a 53 year old sleep deprived brain), I turned to my network — this time using Twitter as I find it a fast, effective environment for these quick, specific questions.

Within minutes the answers started coming from @lblanken, @qadmon, @band @livlab, @bmann, and @kabissa. I had three functional options within 30 minutes and Simon and I immediately started testing some of them.

Here are the options we are now considering:

Bottom line… my network curates my tool choices.

Could I have done this without my network? No way. That’s why understanding networks, having some sort of semi-shared language to talk about them is SO important. I’m looking forward to the ODI talk on Thursday.

If you are a network junkie, check out ODI’s two new papers:

Not Everything That Connects is a Network and Mind the Network Gaps.

Oh, and thanks to my dear Twitter friends!

(Edited at 10:40 am PDT to add another link)

Crosspost from NWWCoP: Twitter Chats and Tweetups

This is a crosspost from the Network Weavers Community of Practice!

On today’s full community “share fair” meeting the concept of tweetups and tweet chats came up. I mentioned that there is an open Google doc listing some of the more well known tweetups and I would share it, so I wanted to post that link and a few others here. In poking around, I found a few more lists (Meryl’s list was updated just last week!) and resources.

How to Run Twitter Chats

There are both technical and facilitation things to consider to effectively pull people into a coherent interaction on Twitter.

Hashtags Resources

A hash tag (i.e. #nwwcop) is a way to aggregate tweets during a tweet chat and to aggregate tweets with other digital content with the same tag.

How to Capture the Content of Twitter Chats

Here are just a few of the tools you can use as interfaces for the tweet chats themselves and to aggregate the content. See the “how-tos” above.

Strategy

I think the last bit of thinking — that really might be best considered first — is thinking about WHY you want to do a Twitter chat. Thinking about intent, about purpose, can be a productive precursor to planning and action. Smile. Visit some twitter chats. Experience them. Then think about your community and network. What would work? Twitter chats are inherently open – is that ok for you? Do you want to have a defined group, or attract people to the twitter chat topic? Food for thought, eh?

Social Media Learning With Puppet Energy

Last November I was pleased as punch to be part of the Orton Foundation’s “Community Matters” gathering in Denver. Little did I know I’d be creating learning partnership with Suzie, a fabulous, pink person who is thought to be a puppet by most human beings. Fun doesn’t come close to describing the magical experience. Thanks, CM10 crew for the video and thanks, Suz!

Nancy & Suzy_INTRO TO TWITTER from CommunityMatters on Vimeo.

More here: http://screenr.com/8kl

Twitter Thanks and Social Media and Public Health

Months ago I got an email from Trish at PKids, an organization devoted to childhood immunization and disease prevention, asking if I’d do a webinar in the way off future of February. Well, today was the day. Last week in preparation I realized I had to get my act together. With most of my current experience in international development and my maternal/child health days nearly 15 years old, it was time to tap my network. So before I share the slides I want to send a Twitter thankyou/shout out to all the people who provided retweets, links and information. You are the best, @eekim, @stephenjdowns,  @SusannahFox, @epatientdave , @garyschwitzer, @SocMediaRckStr, @RavennaBlog, @CAPublicHealth, @paularobeson, @eqpaho, @CDCgov and all you other social media health geeks!

Here are the slides and attached is a PDF file with the slide comments (WhyMeWhyOnlinePKIDSFinalwnotes) which capture the basic narrative of the presentation. If you register on the PKIDS site, you can also access the recording of the webinar.

Why me? Why Online? Social Media and Public Health

View more presentations from Nancy White.

via Why me? Why Online? Social Media and Public Health.

Heading Back Down Under: Part 1 Australia

In late March through mid-April I’m heading to New Zealand and Australia to learn, lead and co-lead workshops and generally CONNECT. The Australian batch comprises at least two different things. Here is the first, which I’m doing with the fabulous Matt Moore.

Here is the description and information:

Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne Workshops

Five years ago, the job title “online community manager” was rare. It was an addition to someone’s existing job, or they simply volunteered. Today, every organisation has or wants an online community (whatever that means). We are working both with bounded communities and broad, diverse networks. We need to be more deliberate in how we integrate community strategies into the heart of our organizations, how they impact our real work, and how they shape our organizations.

Smart organizations are asking:

  • What new strategies are emerging for the use of communities and networks?
  • What are the emerging practices of community & network management?
  • How do we work with both externally and internally facing communities?

Join us as we take a practical and forward looking examination of community & network practices. This in-depth, one-day workshop is aimed at practising online community managers and will tackle issues such as:

Upfront and personal. Social media offers new opportunities to work with customers, citizens and other external stakeholders. With social media employees can collaborate with each other in new ways. How does employee work flow change with greater external stakeholder contact? What does this mean for geographically distributed virtual partnerships? How do we avoid creating more work for ourselves than we can handle?

Multi-membership and it’s evil twin, platform proliferation. The heaven and hell of our context today is that anyone can create a space for a community or network, and technologists are inventing new ways to support these groups every day. We have more opportunities than people have time, attention and capacity to engage in. What does this mean for organizations’ online strategies? For the people stewarding both technology and process? How do we balance the needs of our community members for both variety, usefulness and consistency in this complex environment? And to repeat an important question, how do we avoid creating more work for ourselves than we can handle?

Format

Our format will be deep engagement with no more than 25 participants. We’ll offer some pre-reading prior to the workshop, then dig in with a blend of presentation, demonstration and practice. Our goal is to attract the smartest and most engaged community managers and online thinkers, so significant time will be allowed for participants to learn from each other and co-create solutions. Your output for the day will be a set of strategic questions to take back to your organization for planning your online engagement trajectory, ideas or “sketches” of potential experiments or actions, and a deeper connection with other practitioners.

Bring your mobile or smart device (or borrow one!) — “social sharing” is encouraged. Tweet, blog, Flickr etc. We do ask that everyone be explicit if they say something they do not want made public.

Coffee, lunch and snacks (including chocolate) will be provided. An optional, no-host drinks and social dinner will follow to support continued conversation. We encourage you to join us for the evening’s informal part of the day. We all know that’s where the really interesting conversations emerge!

Who Should Attend

Practicing online community managers, facilitators or similar functions. Technology stewards who provision and support technology for communities or networks. Organizational leaders with responsibility for online interaction goals or processes. While this is not an introduction to online communities or online community management, motivated and interested participants with less experience are welcome if they come in the spirit of a deep dive!

Your Workshop Hosts

Nancy White is an internationally recognised online facilitation expert-practitioner. She has worked with organisations as such as: The United Nations; Australian Flexible Learning Network; Boeing; the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research; IBM; and the World Bank. She is co-author of Digital Habitats with Etienne Wenger and John D. Smith. Nancy blogs at http://fullcirc.com/wp/ as well as teaches, presents and writes on online facilitation and interaction, social architecture and social media . Nancy confesses to online interaction, learning and chocolate addictions.

Read about Nancy’s 2009 Australia visit.

Matt Moore has worked developing face-to-face and virtual communities with organisations such as IBM, Oracle and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. He is currently a director of Innotecture and occasionally teaches at University of Technology Sydney.

Costs and Registration

All the workshops will be held in locations that are easily accessible from the CBD of each city. Each workshop costs $500+GST per participant. Please use PayPal to book with Visa/MC or contact us for alternative payment options.

Sydney (Monday 4 April 2011): Book now
Brisbane (Wednesday 6 April 2011): Book now
Melbourne (Monday 11 April 2011): Book now

If you pay and then subsequently cannot attend, we cannot provide you with a refund but an alternative participant from your organisation can be nominated.