Archive for the 'Web 2.0' Category

5 steps for hosting a successful online event

Published by
Michaela
at August 18, 2009 in Education, newparadigmtech, Non-profit, nptech, Social-networking, Technology and Web 2.0. 0 Comments

Last week my colleague Colleen and I supported  a groundbreaking, education summit in New Mexico: “Unleashing Knowledge and Innovation for the Next Generation of Learning”, convened by the Stupski Foundation, West Wind Education Policy, and the Knowledge Alliance.  Besides making silly videos in our off-time, I had a bit of time to reflect about what makes an online component to a conference successful.  I came up with the following 5 steps, which I elaborated on over at Forum One’s “Influence” blog. I’d love to know what you think makes online events successful. Feel free to share your ideas in the comments.

1. Know your audience
This seems like a no-brainer, but oftentimes people omit this step and move straight to the technology.  Knowing your audience: what they want to get out of the online portion of the event, what you hope they do online during the event, and what their relative technical expertise is are critical pieces to this puzzle and all should ultimately inform your event web strategy.

2. Use media to your advantage
There are lots of great social media tools that can enhance an in-person event, but you don’t have to do everything! (And you shouldn’t try to!) Pick a few tools and use them well.

3. Be creative AND flexible
Don’t be afraid to try something different – there is no set recipe for success. Plan ahead and try out new techniques for online engagement, but don’t be afraid to switch direction mid-stream. You never know what you’ll find on-the-ground at a conference site and you may need to change your strategy depending on people’s access to the Internet, their comfort with the tools, etc.

4. Empower people, let them own the technology and the messages
You can’t do it all yourself, and you shouldn’t! Part of the fun of using online tools during an event is the way in which technology decentralizes communication and conversation across participants and presenters.

5. Have fun!
Just because an event is a professional activity doesn’t mean it can’t be fun. Using online tools to explore the conference culture, the side conversations, the jokes, and the social experience is a great way to break up more dense content.

Pressure to blog – an awesome webchat from today’s NTEN office hours!

Published by
Michaela
at July 15, 2008 in Blogging, nptech, Technology and Web 2.0. 1 Comment

Inspired by a great blog post from Johanna on this very topic, I decided to focus today’s office hours on the pressures of blogging professionally when your life is already very very full!

Tweeting and Flickring, the non profit way

Published by
Michaela
at June 13, 2008 in newparadigmtech, Non-profit, nptech, Social-networking, Technology and Web 2.0. 1 Comment

This past week was one full of lots of social media goodness. Monday I was interviewed by Kami Griffiths of TechSoup, for a non profit webinar on Twitter and Flickr. The recording of the event is located here, in case you weren’t able to attend, and there is a nice round-up here (thanks Philanthropy Potluck!).

On Tuesday, TechSoup followed up the event with an online forum discussing Twitter, which I co-hosted with Marshall Kirkpatrick.

To top it all off, I held my first office hours for NTEN, which incidentally will re-occur every Tuesday from 3-4 pm EST here, if you’re interested in stopping by! In case you have other questions I might not cover, definitely check out the office hours schedule, there are some great folks volunteering their time!

Big thanks to everyone who participated in some or all of these events this week. It was great to have some friendly faces stop by, and awesome to make some new connections with folks dedicated to using social media for good. I am particularly amazed and inspired by organizations who are using both Twitter and Flickr for so many diverse things. I’ve even found my own self reevaluating my thoughts and strategies for these tools based on some of the great topics that were discussed.

In case you missed the Twitter forum, where the bulk of discussion took place, we chatted about:

Continue reading ‘Tweeting and Flickring, the non profit way’

Girls with Macs conference wrap-up: what have the past few weeks taught?

Published by
Michaela
at April 4, 2008 in 08NTC, newparadigmtech, Non-profit, nptech, SXSW, Technology, Web 2.0 and WWT. 1 Comment

After attending all of these big tech conferences lately – SXSW, NTC, and Women Who Tech – the trend I’ve taken closest to heart has nothing to do with technology at all. It actually involves doing the opposite of what this fast-paced industry has been pushing for years: slowing down.

OK, we’ve all equally enjoyed puttering around on Facebook, uploading images to Flickr and seeing how many comments we’d get, putting together photo books on Blurb, and building our own social networks in Ning, but now the initial “woah” has worn off (or there’s just too much damn stuff to keep track of) and it’s a good reminder to return to the business practices communications folks have been practicing for years: planning, frameworks, and process.

Web 2.0 applications don’t happen in a vacuum. They’re fun, definitely addictive, and continuously challenge us to look at what we do in new ways, but there is one thing they also consume of us – our time. We all know in the back of our heads that using these pieces of technology *should* have a purpose. Granted, I’m sure we’ve all thrown together a blog because the boss said so, or set up a Facebook presence because the folks at *that* campaign did it. The point is, getting the basics together upfront will pay off dearly in spades later on.

Continue reading ‘Girls with Macs conference wrap-up: what have the past few weeks taught?’

Flickr learning and sharing @ TechSoup

Published by
Michaela
at March 27, 2008 in Non-profit, nptech, Photography, Technology and Web 2.0. 5 Comments

Qatari Skater

A few days ago TechSoup and Flickr sponsored an asynchronous chat discussion about the use of Flickr and photography in non profit organizations. Being an avid Flickrite myself, I popped on over there throughout the day and got involved in a lot of different discussions – from how to choose a camera to uploading photos and color profile integrity. I found that more often than not I had answers to questions instead of ones I wanted to ask.

In the process it occurred to me how I’ve developed a Flickr strategy over the past couple of years – much of which I can attribute to my photo obsession when I was living overseas. After Beth and a few others pointed out that the strategy behind my Flickr behavior could be beneficial to others in non-profits, it seemed only obvious that I mention some of my learnings in a blog post, so here goes:

Continue reading ‘Flickr learning and sharing @ TechSoup’

SXSW: I have arrived

Published by
Michaela
at March 8, 2008 in SXSW, Technology and Web 2.0. 0 Comments

It’s actually a small miracle that my 8-hour trek to Austin yesterday didn’t take longer. With the snow that had fallen in Dallas the night before, flights were overbooked (mine by 12 seats!) and the next flight out was at 7:35 pm last night. A few folks (including me) squeezed our way onto the tiny USAIR plane, and made it to Dallas despite awful turbulence and the flight attendant turning the temperature down to 50 degrees, to keep people from vomiting with all the bumps. Actually, cold has been a theme this year of SXSW.

When I arrived in Austin at 3 pm yesterday, the overwhelming thought on everyone’s mind was “man this place wasn’t supposed to be so cold!” But it is. Last night I think the temp went down to 20 degrees – not ideal for a bunch of skinny techies anticipating 70 degree, balmy days. My jean jacket and jeans would have to suffice, and worst case, there’s been chatter of finding a local REI to bulk up on some thermals. Continue reading ‘SXSW: I have arrived’

Digging out

Published by
Michaela
at February 20, 2008 in Non-profit, Technology and Web 2.0. 0 Comments

Interactive Icon

I’ve been so bogged down with our site redesign, this blog has gone sorely ignored over the past three months. That and my upcoming panel presentation at SXSW, entitled Pimp My Non-Profit:

Monday, March 10th
5:00 pm – 6:00 pm

are weighing heavily on my mind.

I’m having a phone meeting with Beth Kanter today to talk about our 15 minute presentation. We’re working together to compare/contrast fundraising/nptech strategies – mine from the intra-organizational perspective and hers from the extra organizational activist perspective. I actually think we’re going to agree more than disagree, and ultimately I find myself strongly in favor of everything she writes.

I’m coming at this panel with a “reality check” mentality. I am 150% for the use of new technologies within non-profits – from fundraising to marketing, to delivering services and sharing knowledge – however, my experience working within non-profits has been eye opening. Regardless of how in favor of technology an organization is, it doesn’t necessarily equal success. There are a lot of other factors necessary that contribute to or inhibit the long-term sustainability and efficacy of these technologies. Some I just brainstormed include:

  • Buy-in by staff members and senior management (techy AND non-techy folks). This ensures proper funding
  • Technical resources in-house or contracted to make changes, provide tech support, update software
  • Human resources and interest in the technology (to keep content fresh)
  • Access to broadband and any internet connection – not so much an issue with my current organization, but when using these types of technologies in developing countries, fast connections are limited thus inhibiting the types of technology that can be used regularly, such as video or audio. Even in our recent student blogging project, participants found it difficult to get regularly connected to the internet and post entries.
  • Proximity to constituents/participants – a lot of technology training can be handled remotely, but organizations/universities that have better success with their blogging projects have had face-to-face contact with their participants, creating a sense of community and ownership over the software. I don’t think this is necessary ALL the time, but definitely can help.
  • Replicable – staff leaves, contingency plans? Can others take over? Have the same interest/stake in the technology doing its job?
  • Empowerment – Can owners be successful with the technology? Are they truly owners of the software and can they share their excitement for its potential?

These ideas aren’t totally fleshed out, but very near and dear to my own experiences as an intra-organizational techy.

Leopard slacks

I’m hoping to get some more concrete presentation ideas after our meeting, and maybe even chat about the choice of “Pimp clothes” that the group is planning to wear. Personally I’m hoping for something in pink and leopard print. Maybe some large blingy chains and or rings with obnoxiously large plastic stones …

And we’re live!

Published by
Michaela
at February 16, 2008 in In the news, Non-profit, Technology and Web 2.0. 0 Comments

World Learning webpage

I’ve been greatly remiss in posting to this blog over the last couple of months as I’ve been deeply mired in the redesign of my organization’s website. Truly an adventure in patience, flexibility, and unbelievable hard work, but we FINALLY went live this morning. Our web team was incredible, and this amazing site wouldn’t have been possible without the work of each of them going above and beyond the call of duty. Thanks everyone, and enjoy the new look of World Learning.org!

A Vision of Students Today

Published by
Amy
at November 16, 2007 in Education, Technology, Video and Web 2.0. 0 Comments

This short but powerful video creates a dynamic portrait of students today – how they live, learn, and work – and in doing so it points out how the current educational system has failed to respond to these characteristics and the needs which stem from them.

YouTube Preview Image

The video was written and produced collaboratively by students as part of a class project and shared online using a Creative Commons license both on the class blog and YouTube. The video has been making its way around the web amassing over 800,000 YouTube views and 5,000 comments since it was posted just over a month ago.

The content of the video is moving on its own but the way that it was made and distributed shows how technology can be used to engage students and leverage both their skills and experience to create a collaborative educational exercise that results in a deeper learning experience.

Non-profit SXSW panel chosen!

Published by
Michaela
at October 22, 2007 in In the news, Non-profit, Technology and Web 2.0. 0 Comments

Ed sent me an email over the weekend to let me know that our panel, “Pimp My Non-profit – Real Non-Profits Kicking Ass with Online Technology”, made the initial list of finalists for the SXSW Interactive Festival this coming March. Yay! This is especially exciting for me because my non-profit organization is in the midst of a huge re-branding and web redesign process, which we’ll have just launched on February 1, 2008. The experience will most definitely provide great fodder for conversation and good examples to share with the non-profit community. I’m hoping this excitement will keep me from getting nervous. That and the margaritas I’ll have to start sipping as soon as I get to Austin :o ).

The description was posted on my blog previously, but I’m happy to share it again and encourage non-profits to attend this year’s conference:

“Non profit groups struggle with funding and public support issues on a daily basis. Yet many have overcome the odds and made a splash online and offline by using the latest Web technologies — for pennies on the dollar. This discussion will center around the stories, strategies, triumphs and challenges of innovative non profits with a passion for change and the cajones to rock it out online. “

If you’re a 2008 SXSW goer, I hope you join us!