Bev Trayner

Links for 2009-10-13 [del.icio.us]

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 00:00:00 PDT

mdlogix: Additional Health Care Research Solutions
Link to Visualzzer "Interactive tool for entering, visualizing and analyzing social network data"
Open Source Initiative OSI - Eclipse Public License 1.0:Licensing | Open Source Initiative

Links for 2009-10-09 [del.icio.us]

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 00:00:00 PDT

Links for 2009-10-06 [del.icio.us]

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 00:00:00 PDT

brosdi.or.ug - Home
"a not for profit organization that works with government and the civil society in improving rural livelihoods in Uganda... through the use of ICT and open development mediums"

Links for 2009-09-15 [del.icio.us]

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 00:00:00 PDT

YouTube - Etienne Wenger talks about 'walking the landscape of practice'

Links for 2009-09-10 [del.icio.us]

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 00:00:00 PDT

How to Record Skype Conversations: Tools, Resources, Tips - Digital Inspiration

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Sat, 05 Sep 2009 00:00:00 PDT

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Fri, 04 Sep 2009 00:00:00 PDT

Wikidot - Free and Pro Wiki Hosting
"more than just a wiki"

What makes early adopters of social media successful?

Sun, 31 May 2009 05:31:53 +0000

Following the first question in my interview with Beth Kanter where she talked about the challenges to nonprofits of social media, I asked her what made early adopters successful. She tells the story of The Humane Society of the US whose first attempt was a dismal failure, but who went on to try again and were more successful, and over three years became very successful.

What made them successful was the ability to reiterate, experiment, understand what worked and refine what they were doing over time.

Challenges of social media to nonprofits

Sun, 31 May 2009 04:45:11 +0000

The other day I interviewed Beth Kanter, who thinks and writes profusely about how nonprofits can use social media. The interview (on my blog in four parts) was to share at a workshop with local development activists in Portugal who were meeting to discuss how to use social media for social change in Portugal.

I this first video I asked Beth to say something about what she does and what she finds are the biggest challenges for nonprofits in relation to social media. She talks of three challenges:

The importance of learning - even though the stuff has been around for a couple of years - we're still in the early stages of learning how to use it and make sense of it. We're still in an experimental phase and so we won't get it right the first time. It's very much a situation of learn as you go and of "failing informatively" (Clay Shirky). That's not easy when non profits are short of resources and time and needs patience.
Organisational culture - social media challenges us to work in different ways and change isn't comfortable.
Social media is more comfortable to younger people and so we're seeing a process of reverse mentoring going on.

In addition to the challenges Beth talks about I also see (especially in larger nonprofit organisations) a reluctance to rock the boat of the Media, Legal or ICT department. Even an organisation that starts embracing the idea of social media can be fearful. Here is an excerpt of something I wrote for an organisation who wanted to start using social media, but who were reluctant to take on a blog unless it was tightly controlled and with comments disabled:

"Social media tools (including, but not only, blogs) don't replace a traditional website or internal communication procedures. They are complementary to them and represent a different philosophy. The paradigm shift in social media tools is that people who were traditionally users, readers and consumers of information become the creators of easily publishable information. A blog, for example, is about sharing authorship, linking and integrating - it is not about PR or broadcasting or transmitting content.

Nor is using these new tools just an improved way of doing old things, it is a change in mindset about how you do things. The philosophy behind them calls for different ways of viewing (and accepting) how people connect and learn from and with each other. The risk for an organisation is that they contain an element of "not knowing" and are not so easy to control. The advantage is that they have proved themselves to be an effective means of engaging and connecting people directly (in a people-to-people process rather than an organisation-to-people one).

In your case you are not creating another webpage, you are creating an additional and complementary tool that is participatory, quicker and which will include more voices across the network. Successful use of new tools has not come from trying to control those voices (think of Amazon's book reviews that can be quite negative) but rather to open it up to many voices and to become more digitally savvy i.e. to keep up with how to use the tools while also being aware of the potential risks.

So a question for me is if you are committed to take on the mindset for using social media tools. The organisational mindset for adopting tools is much harder than the resolving the technological aspects. We have been talking here about a blog - all these issues will compound in leaps and bounds when we start thinking of all the other tools. Media and ICT departments need to be part of this changing mindset as they are understandably concerned over issues of image, security and technical support. While it is important to address those concerns it is also important to bring them into the mindset of social media."

When a blog post is not a blog post

Mon, 04 May 2009 19:38:12 +0000

Still on the lines of the White House blog and how social media tools in themselves are not what it's about. This blog post from the White House is a great example.

Read the post "Shooting Around With the Huskies", watch the video and follow the link to the press release ....

What is this blog post doing? It is showing us that:

Special ordinary people are shown round the White House.
The women's basketball team is honoured and appreciated.
Their reception at the White House was informal, personal and fun.
Obama takes time to play for people (and even wins in games they play)
Obama inspired Maya Moore, one of the basket ball players to say: "The way he sacrificed some extra time out of his day to shoot a few shots with us made me remember what life is all about. It is about investing in people and having faith that the love you impart on them will somehow make the world better than it was."
Someone in the White House blog team is capturing the essence of the new Administration in some smart posts

Having a blog in itself is not the smart bit about the White House social media strategy. It's the intentional and unintentional things that it tells us about the inspiring people and things going on within it, and having the nerve and the resources to do it.

And if that's not talking to you, the tools won't either.

Following the White House

Mon, 04 May 2009 19:11:24 +0000

You can now find the White House in all sorts of places - from Facebook to MySpace to Twitter as well as Flickr, Vimeo, Youtube and iTunes (username WhiteHouse)

We'll start seeing the "Me too" from organisations who want to follow the new administration's lead. All's well EXCEPT it's not the tool or the platform that will perform for you.

Signing your organisation up to all the in social media sites does not make you hip. And does not necessarily make you effective.

The White House blog is (a heavy, CSS and bandwidth intensive) tool for broadcasting information in a timely way. There are other reasons for keeping a blog and different ways to do it.

Flickr is great for a voyeuristic view into President Obama and First Lady Michelle's life. But that's because he is the American President and they are not just any old people ...

If these tools work for the White House it will be because they are using them in ways that support their objectives - like broadcasting what the President does and opening up the lives of the Presidency and the Obamas to ordinary people. Those aren't necessarily every organisation or group's objectives.

Another reason it's effect is because it involves star performers who are both charismatic, inspiring and natural. Not all flickr pics of organisational activities are interesting.

Another reason it will work is because there is a team of skilled writers working full-time to actually write and produce stuff. It's easy to underestimate the time and resourcefulness needed for creating quality stuff on new tools.

So while it's good that organisations get more hip and start realising that there's more to communication than a website, email and making pdf documents available, it's important to realise that the online tools the White House are using are not in themselves an answer.

Some questions I find myself asking organisations who now want to appear on these social media sites are:

have you got something interesting to say and have you got interesting and inspiring people to say it?
are you prepared to transfer or create additional resources from traditional IT publishing to social media?
are you prepared to become more transparent, make mistakes and take PR risks?
are you ready to hear things you don't want to hear?
are you reaching for readers or members who have the bandwidth (e.g. to view your blog)? If so, how can you make it more accessible?
have you considered what your objectives are and what activities you want to support with social media?
how do these new online tools fit in with your broader strategic objectives?
are you getting your counsel from people who know about these tools and their integration with each AND who know the human side of people?

Not blogging thoughts

Mon, 04 May 2009 16:29:47 +0000

It's been too long since I blogged. One of the technical reasons is that I'm quite often offline and I can't find an offline blog editor for Joomlah, which I could send directly to my site when I come online. Come back Dream Weaver???

Another reason for not blogging is Twitter, of course. It's so quick and easy. Once you've posted all your important inane stuff, what else is left to talk about?

There are, of course, identity issues and whatnot, but let's keep this technical. Who am I and what have I to say to who is a whole other issue. I'm trying to tie up my doctorate at the moment, so I should keep off the blogging - and twitter. There is also a host of fascinating work and life-stuff happening, which will also keep me busy.

I'm torn again by the question of many short blog posts or fewer, more significant ones. Just having those options freezes me from writing.

Communication toolbox - or ode to the pdf

Sat, 28 Mar 2009 22:29:07 +0000

I prepared a toolbox of activities for community of practice events and workshops for the Central Advisory Services on Intellectual Property for a workshop in January, earlier this year.

These tools are activities and processes that can help support the objectives of a workshop or meeting and include:

Yellow Pages Directory
Social Network Mapping
Evening News
Online Tools
Facilitation
Samoan Circle
Peer Coaching

They are not tools specifically for communities of practice, but I talk about them through my own context and experience which is mostly in communities of practice.

At first I thought it was crazy to be rewriting the procedure for some of these activities, when most of them are already on the internet. (See, in particular, the wiki with the Knowledge Sharing Toolkit).

Then it got me thinking about how people in organisations who are preparing an event rarely think in terms of process activities, let alone know the names of them. So how could they look them up?

So here are 4 good reasons for sharing these tools in a pdf document rather than - or as well as a wiki:

So close and yet so far: Not everyone has free, easy access to internet. This increased access to internet is both true and a myth. It's true for some people some of the time. Outside that time you might be many kilometers away from a connection or you might have to pay, share a computer, or have a server with big downtime. You might be on the move or not allowed to access certain things at work.
A document in the hand is worth a wiki in the bush: each click as you navigate a wiki can take a long time if your connection is slow or bandwidth narrow. It's the same if you get many interruptions and lose track of where you are. It's frustrating to find unfinished pages ("put your story here") when it took you time and maybe money to find yourself on that page.
Keeping your options open. If the toolbox is in a pdf then you can share it online, and / or print it out to refer to and make notes on and keep it stored on your computer for when you don't have access to internet.

Toasting mother ship on Ada Lovelace Day

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 23:03:49 +0000

Today is Ada Lovelace Day. Ada Lovelace (born in 1815 and who wrote one of the world's first computer programmes) was "one of the coolest nerds ever" and we remember her today as a celebration of women who excel in technology.

My celebration toast on Ada Lovelace Day is to my mother who died ten years ago and whose nerdiness outmatches mine to this day. I'm about to be fifty and my mother, today, would have been in her mid-seventies.

I'm also going to use this day to answer Nancy ('nother nerd) who tagged me with "The 7 things I would never tell my mother - NOT!" She changed a meme about what she wouldn't tell her mother to one where she would say things she would like her mother to see, if she peeked in.

I'm using Ada Lovelace Day to talk to my mum and reply to Nancy's meme. I also want Lucy - a Geek Goddess - to know that my mum was brilliant.

Dear mum, on this day of Ada Lovelace this is what I would like you (and Lucy) to know:

You were Web2.0-ing and Facebook-ing for fun even before they were thought of.

It's because of you that when people tell me online tools is a generational thing I think they must be referring to the generation before me.

You would be happy to know that I don't rely on snail mail any more. You warned me of its demise and tried to get me to use email 15 years ago when you bought me my first (second-hand Atari) portable computer.

Dad isn't as savvy as you ever were on the internet, but he still thinks he knows it all!

Your website, the one you created before I'd heard of the Internet and with html as a hobby, is STILL floating round the web.

And my face is still pixeled out on your web page because I told you that I never wanted my photo to be something public. My photo is all over the place now - and I'm sorry I put you to so much trouble!

Thank you for your playfulness, mum. That and telling me that fairies exist while you believe in them have been two of the most significant contributions to my grown-up nerdy life.

(And you were right about the fairies - they DO exist!)

Calling for practical wisdom

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 14:11:00 +0000

Watching the TED talks for performance inspiration for my next webinar and I got side-tracked by the content in this one by Barry Schwartz, talking of practical wisdom (or Phronesis, the name of my previous blog).

He starts by taking us through the job description of a hospital janitor: mop the floor, restock the cabinets etc. It's a long list on this job description. But, as he says, there is "not a single thing on it that involves a single human being".

And yet, if you talk to Mike, Luke, and other hospital janitors, they will talk to you about their job in relation to the patients in the hospital. Kindness, care and empathy are an essential part of the job, but their job description doesn't contain say anything about it. It's their interaction with patients and their families that helps the hospital and patient care to function effectively.

What's more, if you ask any of the janitors how long it took to learn their job, they'll tell you it takes years to be experienced as a hospital janitor. And they aren't referring to mopping the floor or emptying the trash cans, but how long it takes to be experienced working around patients, their families, the doctors and nurses.

The full talk by Barry Schwartz is a call for "practical wisdom" in a world which has gone made with bureaucracy. His call is that we:

acknowledge and celebrate moral heroes and demand that people around us do too
strive to be ordinary and extraordinary moral heroes ourselves
acknowledge that anything that involves interaction with other people involves moral work and that moral work depends on practical wisdom

It's an inspiring talk and, on the look-out for performance tips, I noticed how:

he starts a point by making a mundane point or statement that you couldn't disagree with e.g. a janitor's job list is full of all these tasks... and then follows it up with a suprise e.g. but not a single thing on the list involves a single human being.
he uses the names of people in his stories. Luke (the hospital janitor) said this, Mark told the story of ....
he uses moral examplars e.g. Barack Obama and the hospital janitors. He tells us what these moral examplar do and don't do "He didn't say ... He didn't say ... Instead he said...".

A webinar as a performance art

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 12:42:21 +0000

John and I presented a webinar the other day, to an audience of about 250. It reminded me that I don't like webinars much and that I'm not comfortable doing them. Summoning up imaginary people I don't know moves into the too-hard-to-have-a-conversation-with department.

Then yesterday Nancy said yesterday made sense to me: Webinars are a performance art. Yes! If I can think of a webinar as a chance to perform rather than as a way of talking to people, then it opens up a whole different mindset and range of possibilities.

You probably need a brief, focused message for a webinar which is spun out into a good performance. It's the performing of a parable.

Perhaps I've become too precious about having meaningful conversations... I need to get better at performance skills - and to practice those performance skills in the dark.

Meantime I don't have the concentration to sit through a webinar or webcast (or even a telephone conference presentation) so I'm missing opportunities to learn through good examples.

I think I'll go and watch some TED talks instead and look for related performance inspiration there.

Site updates

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 17:26:11 +0000

I'm all different now, in case you haven't noticed. My blog/website has a cleaner look, different features and a new URL (the RSS feed stays the same).

I managed to delete my database in the process of updating to Joomla 1.5, but was saved from looking too foolish by generous friends and Dreamhost backups.

The page keeps the same style, but looks less cluttered. The comments (from ChronoComments) is much more elegant than before - try it!

There's a tag cloud on the top left (Raf cloud) which comes from most used words and tags on the whole site (i.e. not just tags). If you click on any of those words, it takes you to a good search

There's also a live Search (PixSearch) which looks while you're typing, although someone told me it got stuck for them (using browser IE 7.0). Please let me know, if you also have the same problem.

I've also got News Show in the left side-bar, which randomly (for the moment) takes previous posts and puts them on the front page. It resizes pictures for the side-bar news article and is generally great.

My URL is now bevtrayner.com. The name of my company isn't doing it for me. No-one says .. oh yes, that's from Eudaimonia! Bev Trayner is easier to say and needs less explanation.

The content is another story! I've got to keep up with blogging AND update all the content, which already seems oh-so-'08 and out of date!

And, dear Bev, go find yourself another profile pic. Since when did you identify with being a geography teacher?