How to participate in either conference

These aren’t your typical conferences.  They are conducted using a web conferencing tool.  Not that a web conferencing tool is earthshaking new.  The meat of the conference happens in the social media based communities.  For Social Media Tools Week, this is in the back-chat channel occurring on Twitter and Google Wave.  Feel free to use ChickenFox’s Conversation Dashboard.

For LearnTrends, this will happen in Twitter as well as the LearnTrends Ning community.  Be a casual observer, or an active participant.  The choice is up to you.

LearnTrends 2009

LearnTrends is an online conference created by Jay Cross and his peers.  This year will focus on Convergence in the Workplace.  From my experience, its a great place to hear new ideas from the pioneers of informal and social learning.  The conference sessions this year will run Tuesday Nov 17 through Thursday Nov 19.  All you need to do is register to attend.

All presenters are asked to save half their time for questions and discussion with you. LearnTrends is hosted on the Elluminate platform. Show up a few minutes early to download Elluminate’s Java start file. All sound will be Voice Over IP. No telephone links. If you want to speak, you need to have a headset to avoid audio feedback.  Link to online event.

The Twitter hashtag is #learntrends. Tweet away but please use Elluminate’s chat function for questions for presenters.

Social Media Tools Week 2009

A similar type of venue to LearnTrends.  Come hear some thought leaders in the social media space in a packed schedule.  Contribute your thoughts in the back-chat.  This conference runs all week.  Again, all you need to do is register.  Even though it has already started, its not too late!

Discuss the conference on several platforms:

Google Wave search the public timeline (with:public SMTW)

Twitter hashtag #SMTW

My Irish friends are keen on discussing the upcoming Ireland-France play off match.  Well, that and posting where they are all going for a pint via the map and voting gadgets while my day is just getting started.

My learning and development peers and I have been discussing how we believe Wave will be a revolutionary tool for distance learning because of its ability to provide a rich collaborative environment for breakout sessions.   So then I started wondering – how would this work on my mobile phone?

I haven’t had the opportunity to test it on my old Windows Mobile or Android phones yet, but I did fire it up on the iPhone.  It gives a warning screen that it’s “not a supported browser”, but you can bypass that and it’ll run.  It’s missing some of the features of the normal version of Wave, but works well.

Then I discovered App-It.  App-It is a web page at www.AppIt.us.  It’s quite simple in that it is a list of links to Google apps, like Gmail, Calendar, Talk, Latitude, voice, etc.  Just make Wave shortcut, by clicking the (+) button in your browser and “Add to Home Screen”.  This creates an icon on the desktop for convenient use.  Now I’m in Google heaven as I use these apps on daily basis for my business.

Are you a Wave user?  if so, what are your thoughts?  How have you used it so far?

New Media Atlanta logo

Friday September 25, 2009 will mark an inflection point for social media events in Atlanta.  The question is, in what direction are we trending.  Atlanta has several Social Media events already.  They range from small meetups to multi-day unconferences such as SoCon.  New Media Atlanta is the new kid on the block and brings with it lofty aspirations and polished marketing.

First, lets look at how the event was marketed.  This is important because there were a lot of people in attendance.  Many of them paid what they considered to be a reasonable sum of money to attend.

The New Media Atlanta conference is a high level, business dialog about how social media is changing marketing and messaging – and in fact, changing the nature of all communications.   We’ll talk about strategies to leverage its power to build your company, product, brand, service, etc.

Have you been curious about what social media can mean for your own business?

Are you interested in learning from a group of experts who have the experience to guide you along the way long-term?

Does a chance to meet some real-world social media leaders, authors and speakers appeal to you?

This conference is meant for you and other business owners who are engaging in social media but haven’t quite made the leap to exponential success.

Maybe those people (myself included) should have honed in on the words “high level” because this is what the morning was… High Level.  Unfortunately, the event hosts exacerbated the problem by starting late and kicking the event off with a good hour of “thank-our sponsors.”  Even though, the marketing was beautiful, the event well coordinated, and the facilities fabulous – serious credibility had been lost before the kickoff keynote speaker took the stage.  And it had already seeped into the conference backchannel conversations (on twitter and backnoise).

To make things worse, the opening keynote tried to adapt his presentation because of the sentiment trending in the backchannel.  He stated “the conference sucked so far.”  This was followed by two more presentations that were either retread presentations from another event or a glorified “look at me” show.   The backchannel toxicity escalates further.  Thank goodness it’s lunch time.

Lunch provided a welcome respite, needed food and drink (since both were banned from the auditorium), and the chance to speak with the closing keynote speaker – Chris Brogan.  Chris was kind enough to chat with everyone and sign copies of his book “Trust Agents.“  Unfortunately, it was not good enough to keep me at the conference – especially since it was being live streamed.  So I, and a whole bunch of other people, left the conference.

I’m not sorry.  I got to avoid the Friday afternoon Atlanta traffic.  I still got to watch the conference, although I was not there in person.  And I was still able to follow the backchannel – which was still toxic.   Content wise, the afternoon picked up.  The panel was good, and Chris Brogan did not disappoint.  Here’s why – he addressed the backchannel.  He made it part of his presentation, or a better term would be a conversation.   I am sorry that I did not go to the after party.  and skipping the Atlanta traffic was worth it.

I know many people were disappointed with the conference.  It’s a real shame because if the content issues are addressed, this could be a great event – especially since the people organizing it know how to market it and make it look good.  I don’t want to say the “Lipstick on a pig” line, but I do live in the South.  Do I feel like I got my money’s worth?  The answer would be “no.”  Admittedly, I left early.  However I blocked a day off from clients and I paid for the event – so there were some significant investments made.  Leaving allowed me to recoup about 40% of that.  Would I go again next year?  The answer is maybe.  It is contingent upon the content.  I will also be asking a lot more questions about the content before agreeing to go.

So in a nutshell, here are the salient points about the conference:

1. Don’t start late with a bunch of advertising
2. consider putting your keynote speaker first – especially if you have a high powered panel later.
3. If it is going to be “high level” content, don’t bill it as a business solution solver.
4. If you are going to bill it as business oriented, have more business representation present (from multiple industries)
5. Encourage your presenters to bring “fresh material”, I don’t want to see last years presentation – again.
6. Pay attention to the backchannel and adjust as needed
7. Kudos for putting the event together and executing on it.  Event planning and execution is hard work.
8. Bowling shirts are COOL.

Over the next few days, I’ll be post ing a few more blog posts related to the backchannel conversations.  This topic has many facets for exploration, and the one I want to discuss is its role in learning and development.

Were you at New Media Atlanta?  What were your thoughts? What’s your feedback?  What were your snarky backchannel comments?

That phrase has been swimming around in my head since.  It’s so true.  It is all transition, so what does happen next?

Here in America, we are in serious transition mode.  We have a relatively new government administration proposing enormous changes to the fabric of business and personal wealth and benefits.  We have a global economic crisis which has impacted employment.  Because of this, the workforce is even more inter-generational mixed than expected.  And those generations like to do things differently.

Social Media is an agent of change in this case.  It’s one that can be applied in many different aspects.  And while it will evolve over time, the principles behind it remain the same.  “Social” business has been around for a long time – it didn’t start with the advent of Facebook or Twitter. The only thing that has changed is the ubiquitousness or cost of entry to applying these business practices on a massive scale.   Let’s think about it for a minute… Twenty years ago, did you research an item before purchase?  Did you ask other people their opinions?  Of course you did.  You may have had to wait for that Consumer Reports article, or may have only had one or two people to ask about it.  Where now because things are so digital, you can find hundred of opinions and rating s on almost every single item for purchase.  When it comes to buying something (especially a service), we would rather work with people we know and trust.  Social media allows us to do that with the power of crowdsourcing.

Business is in transition.  The customer/client/participant is now in the driver’s seat.  The flexible companies/providers will be the ones to thrive in the new era.  All it takes is listening skills and a willingness to trust the customer.  It’s all transition, what happens next is up to them (and you if you listen).

image provided by Steve Gasser

Games are a great way to introduce and reinforce learning because they help drive home application of the topic.  Steve’s game is quick and simple.  I’d have to say it is one of the best exercises that I have seen in a long time.  I am jealous that I didn’t think of it first.  Steve is openly giving it to the community, for which I admire him even more.  I plan to use it and adapt it.  I hope you will too.  Thanks Steve!

Steve’s blog post and materials may be found here:

http://www.stevegasser.com/social-media-for-non-profits-the-game/

The conversation gravitates to Twitter, the popular microblogging tool, and the desire of math tutors to utilize this tool for educational purposes.  The concept agreed upon is one that utilizes Twitter to submit a series of math problems  to the students.  The students are then rewarded for correct answers – the quicker the response, the greater the reward.  Great concept, however it has a few concerns.

The first is that of copying answers.  The answer to this is simple – use direct message replies. A direct reply in Twitter is only seen by the two parties in the conversation.  Another concept to solve this dilemma is to only reward correct answers made via direct replies or “at” replies prior to the first “at” reply.  This adds a bit of strategy to the game for the students… do they only do direct replies and collect points or do they eliminate the opportunity for thier peers to earn points by locking the problem with an “at” reply.  If you haven’t figured it out by now, an “at” reply is visible to everyone and therefore could be copies or retweeted (a way of rebroadcasting a message).

The second hesitation is a bit more complex because it involves the whole Twitter community.  Is it appropriate to flood the Twitter timeline with math questions and answers?  How do you prevent outside interference from non-students?  These are etiquette questions.  My opinion echoes what eventually was consensus,  the twitter community may grow tired of a prolonged use of the tool in this way.  Fortunatly, there are other microblogging tools you could use to create your own environment – such as Yammer.

Regardless, this concept is a very cool one for integrating social media into the classroom, or extra-classroom experience.  You may reach me on Twitter @rmarkmoore.  In the meantime, i’d love to hear about your thoughts on social media in the classroom or your thoughts on the etiquette concern.

• Social Media’s Effect on Learning from the Wall Street Journal blogs; and
• Facebook can be good for kids, socially and educationally from a columnist in Oregon.

The first article from the WSJ looks at a recent study of linguistics and how social interaction improves results.  This doesn’t surprise me since learning a new language is more effective when you have people to converse and practice with.  The second column talks about how Facebook is improving the social interactions of her children.  she also mentions learning projects that take place in Facebook.  I’ll buy the interaction part, other than that, I am not sold on the premise of Facebook as a learning tool – at least not yet.

The third item I found today was a video clip on YouTube from the Digital Ethnography group at Kansas State University.  This group is doing some interesting research and projects.  I urge you to check them out.  anyway – here was the thought provoking video.

There are a few points that jumped out at me:

• The amount of debt incurred in gaining an education in comparison to what many people in the world “bring home” in salary.
• The amount of “relevant” readings which are irrelevant
• The breakdown of time spent as a student
• The imbalance between research papers and e-mail written
• The question of technology as a solution.

To me, this video highlights how American education systems are broken or antiquated.  We are missing the mark, and paying huge amounts of money for our educations.  I’ll be the first to say that students also need ot apply themselves, but there has got to be a better way…

…And that is what I must think about because the answers do not come easy.  I’ve long given up on the premise that technology IS THE solution.  It’s an enabler, but is it now getting in the way?

I’m still blown away by this video.  what are your thoughts?  Better yet, what are your suggestions to address the key points you found interesting?

And thanks again Elliott for all you give to the community!

So what is OpenID?

OpenID eliminates the need for multiple usernames across different websites, simplifying your online experience.  You get to choose the OpenID Provider that you trust.  At the same time, your OpenID can stay with you, no matter which Provider you move to.  For businesses, this means a lower cost of password and account management, while increasing site visitor registration conversion rates. OpenID lowers user frustration by letting users have control of their login.

Why does the Facebook announcement matter?

Facebook will become the biggest example of a social network that allows users to log-in with OpenID credentials granted to them by other providers.  New Facebook users will now be able to create accounts using their Gmail credentials and existing users will be able to associate and thus log in with Gmail or any other OpenID account that supports “automatic login.”

OK, But what is next?

Contact lists are the second simplest benefit of this kind of data portability, but it won’t stop there.  In the learning and development world, it opens up the ability to share knowledge across networks, contact lists, etc.   I personally believe that OpenID will truly open up knowledge sharing by leveraging the larger social networks such as Facebook.  Sure, you can exchange data with APIs, etc, but with OpenID, you have a common platform for authentication.  I await when LinkedIn decides to go with Open ID.

If you are curious, I use an openID from Janrain.com.  I’m sure I will revisit this topic in the future.  For now, what are your thoughts?

I’m going to say this once. Reading the book does not do Dan Roam’s work justice. You may say, “OK – it’s a visual design book. That’s what I read Edward R. Tufte for.” You are correct – that is what I read Tufte for as well. In order to maximize the message from Dan Roam’s book, you must see him speak. Here are two opportunities for you to do so (for FREE).

Dan’s first presentation “The Back of the Napkin” is available at The Commonwealth Club of California’s site. The recording of this presentation does not show the whiteboard as it is used during the talk. For that reason, I recommend you read the book prior to viewing this presentation.

Microsoft invited him to speak at Mix09 and they recorded his presentation with the whiteboard. Dan’s second and evolved presentation, “The Way of the Whiteboard: Persuading with Pictures” may be found here…

Play Video

Side note: If you like this approach to communicating, then you may choose to invest in a LiveScribe pen (www.livescribe.com). While I wish the pen supported multiple inks (or my preferred gel ink), it’s great for capturing digital ink. I like it much better than a Tablet PC as it fits my normal workflow by allowing me to use tools that I have used for years – a journal and a pen.