I was lucky enough to meet Ivan Boothe at the first (or maybe second) Netsquared Conference back in 2005 and have been following his work for years.   Ivan Boothe helped start the Genocide Intervention Network in 2004, and was  responsible for communications, web development and social networking strategy.  He has since  started doing freelance work on his own at rootwork.org.  So he cautioned me that some of the information might not be entirely up to date that he shared on listserv including a pointer to his awesome slide show with audio.

Ivan is one of a small number of nonprofit early adopters in social media and social networks - he has a couple of years of experience under his belt - so his wisdom is priceless.  

He describes how the Genocide Intervention Network uses social networking and in this description you'll find a great example of the first step in social media, listening, if you venture onto social networks.

Ivan says their organization's social networking initiatives have been successful in building the "brand" of an anti-genocide constituency. Ivan notes, "Social networking is a long-term approach and using traditional metrics of advocacy or fundraising it may not look like much. But over a long period of time social networking is actually critical in building an effective, educated political constituency."

The senior management of the organization was very supportive of their social networking efforts.  And as Ivan notes, "They were often looking for creative ways to integrate social networking approaches into existing campaigns."     Although he doesn't say,  I suspect this happened through ongoing discussions and developing small proof of concept experiments and reiterating and reflecting on successes and not so successful efforts.

What I think is really key as Ivan points out is the lack of a generational divide in getting buy-in from the organization's leadership.  The Genocide Intervention Network is an organization founded and driven by younger people. 

So, what is the right fit to use a social networking strategy?  Ivan suggests:

I'm so glad that Ivan is adding his presentation and wisdom to the WeAreMedia wiki!  Thanks Ivan.

I am here in Romania for a conference hosted by the Soros Foundation as part of their pilot advocacy through blogging program. I leave Romania early in the morning and I'm probably too tired to be writing something called a reflection, but I better do it now or risk loosing it.

This afternoon we played the Social Media Game.  I was nervous because I've never been to Romania, so I didn't have a lot of time or a frame of reference to tweak and customize.  I hate that.  As a trainer, what I've learned to do is wait until I arrive on site and make sense of it.  Then customize the structure to the location.

This particular training required multi-dimensional thinking on our toes because it was being done in another language with simultaneous translation.  (Like the UN where you listen to it on head phones).   Here's peeling back the onion layer:

• People in the room are speaking in another language and you need to concentrate on the content that is being translated in the head phones.
• While it is one the spot translation (and it was fabulous), you have to gauge what the delay is vis a vis the audience reaction.
• Given that we were talking about technology/social media, and the translators were not techies - I had to fill in some of the content.
• My usual filter is to watch and listen for people's perspectives about social media - are they newcomers, are they stressed, are they more expert and bored .. this was hard to do at the same time as the language translation.

Documentation in Action

I usually take notes online.  I couldn't because of the translation logistics. I had to remember when I needed to put the headset on and listen - or when I needed to talk into the translation mic for the translators.  I messed up a few times.  I couldn't stream either -- had problems texting with my N95 (don't ask).   Anyway, remembered that Flickr lets you upload 90 second video clips and this was perfect.

Content

Okay, now the content.   Add the jet lag factor where I wasn't remembering what was being said and not taking notes or processing through my fingers in the room.  We did a simulation with a fantasy organization.  Lately, a departure from a real organization seems to work best.   Some observations:

• They had the conviction to just say no.   Because of the limited point system, the participants spent a lot of time figuring out how to "get the most bang for their buck."   I got asked questions like - if we upload a video to flickr, does that count as a 3 points additional? 
• We talked about listening quite a bit or what was described "Research before you do your messaging."  I asked is that something you normally do for any type of marketing campaign and the answer, "in situations."

We had a wide mix of levels in the room - from novice to more expert and I was thankful that some of the presenters, like Sorin Matei helped facilitated a small group.   That's an important feature of doing these process - having some folks in the audience who can facilitate a group.

That's all for now.  See you on the other side of the pond.

R U a social citizen?

Go read it and find out how you can win a FLIP camera and more.

This is a screen from Ivan Boothe's slideshow.  The cartoon is from Rob Cottingham's Noise to Signal Cartoons.  I'm going to riff on Ivan's advice, "You Don't Have To Be Everywhere" (like Mastercard)

After an organization has identified an audience, objective, and strategy,  a question that often comes up:

• What social networks should we establish our presence on?
• How many social networks should we participate on?

The first question is answered by Rob's wonderful cartoon that makes the point that there are different cultures and different types of users across social networks.   Perhaps you need to look existing secondary research on demographics and characteristics of users (see this post for some places to start finding free information).   You need to do some listening first - after setting up an individual profile, the search feature is your best friend or you may consider paid research services.

• Are there groups, Causes, or Fan Pages where people are talking about your organization your issue?  Who set them up?  
• Do other organizations that work on the same issues have a presence?

The answer to "which social networks?" I agree you don't have to be everywhere.  But, it isn't a black and white question in my mind.   My rule now is that I set up a presence on different sites and have email forwarded if people want to contact me, but I go deep in only a couple of places.  Those places are the ones that provide most value - where the people I need to connect with are. And of course you need to have a strategy for managing multi-memberships.

Remember there is overlap -- people belong to more than one social network.  So, while you may have a light presence on some, people in your network may be more deeply engaged on other networks and spread the word of your organization's cause.  (That is if you've built relationships and identified influencers).   I've seen this first hand  -- I don't engage deeply on MySpace - yet some of my donors for the Cambodian campaign who heard about on Facebook and shared it with their friends on MySpace.  Jonathan Colman mentioned this say multiplier effect from a recent Digg campaign.

There are also other some reasons for setting up presence across sites, but only engaging deeply on a few.  Brian Solis points this out in terms of branding.   Recently, I read about twitter squatters.(Remember domain name squatting? --when a ten year old reserved Toys R Us domain in the early 1990s and sold it back to them for a bike).   Anyway, I like the tool that lets you check out a bunch of social networks at once to see if your name has been taken.

How do you choose which social networks your organization will have a presence on?  How do you decide which ones you will make a commitment to participate regularly?

This video made me cry.  I got meet Mihaela Mihaescu and her mother today.  I admire their passion and their drive to build one of the first independent living centers in Romania,  IHTIS.   The goal is to get $1 from 350,000 people to support this program.  They plan to make it viral.  It was very moving.  I will be preparing a separate post about this project. Below is a clip describing the fundraising campaign.

The vide made its debut during a conference hosted by the Soros Foundation as part of their pilot advocacy through blogging program. 

I'm putting aside the Romanian lei I have left to donate to this campaign.

If you read my review of Causewired or any one of the many thumbs up reviews, and your book buying budget is a little tight right now,   Tom Watson  was kind enough to give me a copy of his new book, CauseWired to give away on this blog.   All you have to do is leave a comment saying why you want the book by November 17th and on November 21st, I'll pick a winner using random.org.

And, then I can play another Akoha card that suggests I give someone a book!

Allyson Kapin has a post on the Huffington Post called Cracking the Boys Club  that shares her top 10 women pioneers of Web 2.0.  I'm honored to be on the list along with some awesome women.

• Gina Bianchini, CEO and Founder of Ning
• Mary Hodder, Founder of Dabble.com and VP of Product Development, Apisphere
• Tara Hunt, Co-Founder Citizen Agency and Citizen Space
• Sandy Jen, Co-Founder of Meeboo
• Lynne D. Johnson, Director of Social Media, Fast Company
• Charlene Li, Consultant and Blogger
• Susan Mernit, Co-Founder, People's Software
• Rebecca Moore, Director of Outreach, Google Earth
• Rashmi Sinha, Co-Founder SlideShare

I was also interviewed by The .Org Blog this week.

I am here in Romania for a conference hosted by the Soros Foundation as part of their pilot advocacy through blogging program.  I just finished a presentation and later this afternoon will facilitate a workshop on strategy which will include the Romanian version of the Social Media Game.

I'm live blogging the conference sessions which are being conducted in Romanian.  I am understanding this only because it is being translated through headphones.  The translator is in a booth.  So all the disclaimers of live blogging apply and particularly here - with translations, jet lag, etc.

After the introduction, I gave my brief presentation.

Next, Iulian Comanescu - Training coordinator for the program is explaining the program.  There were five organizations participating.   One organization did not finish the program.    Can't just build a blog and let it be.  You need to fuel it and we have so much to do at work.  We need to make the time to blog after hours.   Doing a blog involves additional time and energy and some of us won't have this time available.   They replaced the organization.

What is Web 2.0 by Iulian Commanescu

The definitions are fluid when it comes to Web 2.0.  He selected some definitions from the Internet.   A mix of conversational marketing.

He covered the following platforms:

• Blogs:  It is more than a web site, built by one person or a small community or group of bloggers.  A blog is more than a personal journal.   Blogs focus on a particular niche - and this determines the target audience.   Conversation is very important and the nature of Web 2.0.  Niche content.  Blogs are connected - we're talking about a blogosphere.  A rating of 100 or more is considered good in Romania.  Personality is important.

• Social Networks:  Facebook, Myspace, and many more.  Each has a composite page that has biography, conversation, and music/media area.  The key is the interconnectivity of users - and what can happen when you get connected with people with similar goals.  It is not a book with pages, but it is about relationships.  

• Wiki:  Collective brain of humanity.   He told the story of the founding of wikipedia and the meaning of the Hawaiin word - quickly, quickly.   He talked about the growth of wikipedia.   He also mentioned a Romanian wiki called MediaPedia.Ro.   Talked about the problem of wiki spam and how easy it is to administrator.

• Video Sharing:  Youtube and several inspired by YouTube including a Romanian video sharing platform.   Described the features and content.   Difference between amatuer and professional videographer.  

• Collective Tagging:  Tagging is a keyword that describes the content.  Gave examples of how to tag the presentation. Described the difference between taxonomy and folksonomy.

Conclusion

• User generated content - Web 2.0 means involving the user - it's beyond the platform
• Collective intelligence - The written press can no longer lie.  Internet is difficult to stop.
• Web 2.0 is a process - continuous change

Next, he showed a fundraising video for an independent living center for IHTIS.   The goal is to get $1 from 350,000 people to support this program.  They plan to make it viral.  It was very moving.  I will be preparing a separate post about this project. Below is a clip describing the fundraising campaign.

Civil Society Catalogue
NGOs Online
Ciprian Ciucu – PR & Marketing Manager, Foundation for Civil Society Development

Gave an overivew of their program and how ngos web presences have evolved from web 1.0 to web .0. 

Presented a case study of Catalogul Societatii Civile - which is a large portal site for NGOS in Romania.  It has Web 2.0 components, including a blog community.  Goal is to provide web presence for most ngos in Romania.   It also has events with a goal of being a news agency for NGOS.  Part of the content is created by ngo users and the other part is managed by an editors.  They have over 3,500 registered users.   They hope to grow to 35,000 users, which is comparable to newspaper circulation.   They also have an advocacy role on behalf of ngos. 

Gabriela Tanasan – Executive Director, Orizonturi Foundation, Campulung Moldovenesc. Her project Blogging the Dream, is one of the six new health-focused citizen media outreach projects that were announced in June by Rising Voices and Open Society Institute’s Health Media Initiative.  

She presented a case study about her project and organization:

• A mental health organization - it is easier to be integrated than not. 
• Been active since 1995, working in the northern part fo Romania to help mentally challenged people overturn the stigma.  They want to improve their quality of life and confidence and lead an independent life.
• A good collaboration between the state hospital and ngo.  
• They have a full communications strategy - including print magazine,
• Difficult to work with journalists - because they believe nothing is happening - they call "lunatics" - it is a rural community with villages spread across mountains.   It is why they wanted to blog.  They wanted to dispel myths about what mental problems really mean.
• Volunteer training - volunteer would design small projects and implement them in the communtiy - mental health care in the students.  The volunteers were high school students.  Through the Internet, they learned about the Rising Voices Grant.   They submitted an application, assisted by volunteers from the Peace Corps. 
• The purpose of the project is to keep mental health patients to share their ideas and experiences. 
• They have several months of training, they are now half-way - the training is both theory and practical.  The participants will build personal blogs which are public or not depending on whether the blogger wants it public.   There 10-15 bloggers - a wide range of ages.   Encourage them to work as a team.   Discussed the differences in perspective between generations.  They also prepared them about how to respond to comments.
• Training materials from Rising Voices and other sources.
• Assessment forms at the end of the session.   They discovered that participants were glad to have the opportunity to be open, work with computer, meet other participants, etc.

Sorin Matei
We Have a Blog. What Next?
Integrated communication strategies for NGOs

• A blog is an ecosystem that creates opportunities for readers to participate.
• A blog is an interactive where communication flows --
• Remember Alice in Wonderland - watching yourself in a mirror which you write and you receive comments.  It is interactive.  Information comes to the blog and leaves from the blog.  It is two-way.
• You don't just write, you link to others, make comments on other blogs, and respond to comments.  If you don't do this, your ecosystem won't work.  If you want to be successful, you must link.
• You have to write to invite comments - a different way of writing. You are writing to create conversation, not to just inform.  
• Gave Daily Kos, Little Green Footballs, Huffington Post, and Tech Crunch as examples of blogs with ecosystems. Keep in mind that the big one eats the little one.  You have to be very good to be a leader in your niche.   If you put some effort into your blog, you will see results.  Requires sustained effort.
• Need to create a community in your comments around our blog.  People with too much energy can be channeled.  For example, Daily Kos created a wiki.   It isn't just talking, you can channel your community to take action. 
• Form follows function -- don't distract the readers with flying monkeys - the goal is to get them to participate.  Don't start the blog until you know what you want to talk about.  "Less is More." 
• Tolerance:  You must be kind and understanding to the people who contribute or comment.  If you make a mistake, you need to admit it.  Create a friendly atmosphere.
• Multi-media:  Not only text.  It is important to use video, photos, and audio.   Don't be shy in using other media.
• The blogs won't fly on their own - they don't work on their own - no blog takes off without being pushed.  Needs an engine.  Commenting on other blogs.
• Keywords are important, particularly in titles - if you want to show up in google.

If you've been following my blog, I arrived in Romania last night after 32 hours in transit from Miami, including a 8 hour layover in Heathrow.   I am here for a conference hosted by the Soros Foundation as part of their pilot advocacy through blogging program.  On Monday, I will do presentation and facilitate a workshop on strategy which will include the Romanian version of the Social Media Game.

After a good night's sleep,  I got up and walked around Bucharest snapping photos (in part to add to my presentation for the workshop.)  

To view larger chart, click here.

Source: Universal McCann International Social Media Research Wave 3 The PDF Version is available here.

I didn't like my photos, but then I remember that a lot of Internet users in Romania use photo sharing sites that I remembered from my collection of social media snack facts  misc.  So, I started searching Flickr and found amazing photo sharing groups for Romania as well as the fantastic photo below.

Photo by Chodaboy

However, I had no idea what building was in the photo. No problem. A quick question on Twitter and my colleague, Sue Waters, in Australia, asks her colleague @ggrosseck who told me it was a library in the University area via one of her followers in Romania.  Got that?

Tonight all the speakers and some participants all went out for a traditional Romanian meal at a restaurant called Caru' Cu Bere. It featured live music and dancers. I couldn't resist the video clip of the tango. (No I didn't tango ...)

One of the best parts of conferences is the informal peer exchanges that happen over drinks and dinner. The clip above is one of the speakers, Sorin Matei, offering some tips Gabriela Tanasan – Executive Director, Orizonturi Foundation, Campulung Moldovenesc. Her project Blogging the Dream, is one of the six new health-focused citizen media outreach projects that were announced in June by Rising Voices and Open Society Institute’s Health Media Initiative.  

Well better try to get some sleep

Expect light blogging this week because I have no idea whether or not I will have decent Internet access. I'm doing a whirlwind in 7 days - Boston - Miami - London - Romania - Miami - Boston. I'm leading some workshops and doing some presentations and other work.

I left Boston on Thursday for Miami for a meeting on Friday. I left Miami on Friday evening at 8:50 PM and landed at Heathrow 11:00 AM local time, on hour delayed. Since I had an eight hour lay over in Heathrow, I decided to book a Yotel. for a shower, nap, and wifi. It was worth it. The only mistake I made is that the transit between terminals is confusing if you are jet lagged, sleep deprived traveler. I was not able to figure out via the Internet the fastest way to travel between terminals and I did not account for flight delays.

I arrived in Terminal 5, but Yotel was in Terminal 4. I was told there was no bus and had to take the underground which took too long. There was a bus. So, make sure you take the bus.

The Yotel was great - I got a shower, nap, and wifi. I was able to call home quickly with my n95. After my time was up, I took the bus back to Terminal 5 and eat something and then boarded my flight to Romania.

If you ever go to Romania, and need to take taxi into town - don't let any "official tax drivers" fool you. There are different rates, etc. Take a yellow cab and look at the rates posted on the doors and pick the cheapest.

I'm finally at my hotel. It is 2:00 am Romania time, but 7:00 PM east coast time. I'm gearing up for a workshop on Monday. So I have Sunday to recover and prepare.

I am really curious to see if the profiles that exist in the US about Web 2.0 show up here in Romania or they are different. 

Any advice?

I was first introduced to the concept of the gift economy and pay it forward many years ago when I was the community builder for a first generation online network for artists, called ArtsWire.   Here's the definition from wikipedia:

A gift economy is a social theory in which goods and services are given without any explicit agreement for immediate or future expectations. Typically, a gift economy occurs in a culture or subculture that emphasizes social or intangible rewards for solidarity and generosity: karma, honor, loyalty or other forms of gratitude.  In some cases, simultaneous or recurring giving serves to circulate and redistribute valuables within a community. This can be considered a form of reciprocal altruism. Sometimes there is an implicit expectation of the return of comparable goods or services, political support, or the gift being later passed on to a third party. However, in what is considered to be in the true spirit of gift economics, many times giving is done without any expectation of reciprocity.

I observed this happening when members of the online community started to give free technical assistance without any expectation of being paid or rewarded.   There is a history of virtual gift giving.  Tara Hunt has some great examples and thinking in this post. (And, if you want a more indepth exploration of this topic - definitely order her book which will be published in April and is called the Whuffie Factor)

Some are predicting that with the bad economy will come the rise of the gift economy and with the holidays just around the season, I rather give gifts to charity or help people realize their dreams.   So, the irony of when I won $500 shopping spree from Bill Me Later at the BlogHer Conference in Boston.  Although I not a big shopper, it is convenient not to have to use a credit card.  But,  what would I buy?

Okay, I did use some of it for my car rental while I was at Hawaii Podcamp and Social Media Club Workshop in Hawaii last month.   But, I'm using the rest to purchase gifts or random acts of kindness.   I sent a coffee gift card to Alex Steed to help ower his Millennials Changing America project.   He is currently 60% towards his goal - so I also donated a small amount.

Then I realized, wow, I could play one of my Akoha mission cards.   Austin Hill, founder, was kind enough to send me a box of Akoha decks.  I've been giving them out to people in workshops and playing the game online.  Akoha is a new type of “social reality game” inspired by the idea of pay it forward where players play real-world missions that can be tracked online.  Missions are simple activities that are “played forward” from person to another and might include things like giving away a book, or giving someone a gift.

Yesterday, my kids came running into the office with a big box from Canada that said it contained documents and toy.  The toy turned out to be a fairy godmother crown and latter telling me that I was granted Fairy Godmother Status from DreamBank, a new model for gift giving.  It's sort of cool - you create a page with your "dream" and then let your friends and family know - and they can help fund your dream.  Some dreams include gifts to charities, others are don't.

The package also came with $20 voucher where I could fund my own dream or support someone else's.   Well, had to to support NetChick because I met her Gnomedex.  Chris and Ponzi and the Gnomedex community has been so supportive of Cambodia, that I thought it might be a nice way to pay it back to someone from that community.

How will you pay it for forward or participate in the gift economy this holiday season?

Source: Facebook vs LinkedIn Traffic

The illustration above shows the overlap between people who use LinkedIn and Facebook.  What initially caught my eye was the demographic (age analysis) of LinkedIn VS Facebook users.  We know that  professional relationships are moving from the Rolodex to the social networks.  LinkedIn is designed for specifically for business professional networking, while Facebook is a bit more casual.  Yet, I do professional networking on Facebook and I'm noticing a number of colleagues are too.

While the demographics of Facebook are younger compared to LinkedIn, the Compete analysis shows that Facebook users are maturing.   In June of 2007, nearly over 35% of Facebook traffic came the 18-24 year old segment, compared to around 22% in June 2008.

Meanwhile my colleagues in education and communities of practice (Browyn Stuckey, Jeffrey Keefer, and others) hosted an online conference about Managing Multi Memberships in Social Networks.  I had wanted to participate, but my crazy travel schedule quickly made that goal unrealistic.  So,  I'm learning third hand through looking at the materials.

They started with a survey to examine people's experience using social networks.   There are two terrific refleciton questions which caught my eye:

1.  How do you use social networks?

just for fun
part of my degree work
personal learning (optional)   
professional development (required)
part of my job

2.  Which phrases best describe how you feel when coping with multi membership in your online networks?

drowning, feeling like quitting something
roller coaster, sometimes fun to look forward to, sometimes just anxiously holding on
situation under control, have strategies to manage
guilty that I am not more active in all my communities

They used discussion thread to discuss the issue:

This brings me Tony Karrer who has several posts about networking on  LinkedIn (and Twitter and Facebook) and friending policies:

I used to heed the advice that you should only connect with people who you know pretty well. And that's the way I've operated. However, that never seemed to work all that well, and I think I've figure it out.

I listened to a podcast that featured Christian Mayaud in which he described PAN CAN FAN.

An individual's social network (online or offline) is divided into three groups:

• PANs = Potentially Active Network
• CANs = Currently Active Network
• FANs = Formerly Active Network

The "CAN" and "FAN" are people you know pretty well.  The "PAN" are people you may know superficially.

This is a good way to think about your network and as Tony suggests you may not want to link to everyone.  And you may have different approaches on networks.  Not too long ago, Charlene Li wrote about professional networking tips including friending policies if you are using these tools to support or enhance a professional network.   It made me think that I have slightly different approaches on different spaces. 

Facebook:  I will immediately approve a friend request on Facebook if I recognize them or know or have recently met them.  "CAN or FAN" as Tony describes above.   But, if someone I don't immediately recognize requests to be friends - then I will ask them why they want to be friends - time permitting.  What has been happening lately - because I get so many request s - I end up ignoring them.    If someone sends a personal message with some context about why they want to be friends, then I will friend them.  This inspired me to put a friending policy on my limited profile.

Twitter: My updates are unlocked.  This is my "loosest" network. 

LinkedIn:   I treat LinkedIn as my rolodex and tend to friend people who I know or have met.  I tend to use LinkedIn quite to network through my contacts to find people I'm specifically looking for.  Tony's post is making reconsider that.

Other posts

• Is A Social Media Friend Really A Friend? by Mark Dykeman
• How I Think About My Social Networks by Scott Monty
• No, I'm Not Ignoring You by Scott Monty
• Social Media Etiquette by Chris Brogan
• Can Facebook Replace Face to Face by Social Citizen Blog

How do you use social networking for professional networking?  Is it a part of your job or optional?  Do you have different networking strategies across networks?  How do you manage your mulit-memberships without going crazy?  What are your tips?

It's hard times and many nonprofits are and will experience the pain of tightening budgets and perhaps worse.   Take for the example the saga that has unfolded over at Kjerstin Erickison's blog about her organization, FORGE.  Yesterday's New York Times published the annual giving section with articles by David Cay Johnston, Joe Nocera and Stephanie Strom's analyisis of the economy's impact on giving.   Expert observer Lucy Bernholz comments it is really hard for analysts to make predictions without being able to track the giving flow in almost real time.

The problems of scarcity inspire creative action.  Take for example, the Columbus Foundation's recently launhced Match Day 2.0, a giving stimulus plan created to matching gifts to PowerPhilanthropy organizations and raise $1 million in 48 hours to support local needs in their community.

Earlier this year, Foundation donors and the community celebrated the launch of PowerPhilanthropy with Match Day—a historic event that raised more than $815,000 for the community and positively impacted 245 local nonprofit organizations.

And while some businesses are cutting back in product donations, Payless just announced that it is donating $1 Million in new shoes to American families in need. Nonprofits are eligible to apply for the shoes to distribute to clients. (Hurry the deadline is November 21st)  And, companies like Tyson Foods continue to champion the cause of ending hunger and giving food donations.

And, we're going to see more and more individuals take action on behalf of a charity -- take for example Maura Welch who is raising money for Room To Read's project in Cambodia, or Dave Delaney raising money for donors choose.

So, we can sit around and whine about the economy or inspire people to take action for our causes or do something for a nonprofit or cause.  What will you do this holiday season?

A couple of recent reports worth your attention.

Laura Fitton (@pistachio) has an extensive (free) report on enterprise level micro sharing applications. You can download a copy or read it online here.  In the report she compares 19 applications based on different criteria into a succinct consumer reports like analysis. She looks at survey results, independent web research, verification of new features and analysis of how the 19 applications relate to one another and the marketplace. She has also compiled an excellent enterprise reading list on micro-sharing.

Sarah Milstein was kind enough to send me a report called "Twitter and the Micro-Messaging Revolution that she co-authored for O'Reilly.   It is a synthesis and contextual presentation of Twitter - from primer, selected resources, and case studies of how Twitter is being used.   It covers the following:"

• Best practices for micro-messaging in business
• Pitfalls to avoid in this instant, very public medium
• New methods for customer service and quick market research
• How micro-messaging can help you reduce email and eliminate unproductive meetings

It doesn't cover nonprofit use of Twitter in depth (although they do touch on the Red Cross on page 7), but other ways Twitter is saving the world are not covered, partly because it is directed at a business audience.  But much of the points are definitely transferable to nonprofits.  The report isn't free either, but Sarah has kindly offered to give away a copy to one of my nonprofit readers. 

So, leave a comment before November 17th and you'll be entered into a lottery to win a copy of the report.   (I'm using this as a test to see how closely you read my blog -- I don't mention free in the title) ...<grin>

Flickr Photo by Key Lime Pie

This is part of series of reflections on what I've learned about working wikily through working on NTEN's  WeAreMedia wiki - not so much the content, but the community curriculum development and knowledge sharing process.   In past posts, I've talked about:

• The Secret Life of a Wiki Gardener:   Using a gardening metaphor, I drill down into the fine art of wiki facilitation.
• Balancing Participation On Homebase and Outposts:  How wiki participation can happen on the wiki and off the wiki and how to weave that participation together.
• A Visual Way to Track Participation:  Using a timeline application/widget, you can visually track who has added what to your wiki over time.  
• The Power of the Newbie and Sustaining Participation As you wiki grows over time and new people come into the community, how to make the user experience a good one.
• Establishing a Culture of Giving on Your Wiki:  This post looks at ways that you can encourage people to add to the wiki, not just browse.
• Getting out of the way:  How to encourage participation in the beginning - moderating with a light touch to encourage and grow community responsibility.

At the beginning of the project, Dave Cormier agreed to be my "critical friend."   (Here are a few resources defining critical friends - here, here and here).   But the short definition is:  "A critical friend is someone who is independent of the project who asks provocative questions, offers an alternative view, and helps facilitate fresh insights or alternative sources of information or expertise."   This has been invaluable learning process because Dave's insights have sparked the above reflections.

Dave's most recent critical friend post offers some thoughts about community.   He makes these points:

1. No matter how good a community, its ideas, its positioning, there are almost always a couple of people working their tails off to keep it what it is.
2. Community participation is almost entirely about the responsibility of the participant.

He goes on to say:

I’m going to be working with george siemens on a course starting (omg… next week) and will definitely be using the wearemedia project as a resource… we should, as good members of a community, update the part of the content that need updating as a manner of ‘responsibility’ or payment if you like, for using the material. I worry, however, about potentially adding confusing information while beth et al. are designing their delivery methods… something to think about.

This kind of relationship, though, seems like a good one. A couple of courses decide to use the same repository/ies for their work and that keeps the work uptodate as well as avoiding the duplication of effort. I wonder if something like this with wearemedia and alec’s 831 course would make a nice balance between two excellent resources. mmm… community.

If you look at the work plan, the content development part of the project is coming to a close (there's one module left to build on experimentation) and "instructional" part of the project is ramping up.

The wiki serves as a companion to the face-to-face workshops and Dave asks a very good question: How does one keep content this changeable uptodate?

Here's what lies ahead -- a division and then a bridge between online/offline learning and community/content.   The problem is how to accomplish that without it being too confusing.

Community Driven Content
The Wiki/Community generated material will be the place to keep less static, more changing information.  Where "responsible" community members and the wiki gardener (me) will add.  These sections are: 

• Strategic Social Media
• Tactical Approaches
• Tool Box

As drill you down into the sections, you'll see links to blog posts that people contributed to this effort as well as links and text/bullet points on the wiki itself. 

The challenge is how to keep the community engaged?  We've worked rather intensely - perhaps this becomes a slower community. 

Workshop Companion Content
At the very beginning of the project, people wanted to see "edited instructional content" - and Michele Martin wrote a great post about this.   The next task is going to be transform the Community Driven Content into a more instructional and static format intended as a companion for workshop participants. I also see them eventually contributing to the wiki.   This will happen over the next 6 weeks. 

That's Jacob the Dell Repair Man!

I qiked and live tweeted this event.  I asked permission and he said yes.  He had never seen Twitter before but was totally amazed.  He left wanting to use for his church.

After an hour of motherboard and RAM surgery, and some stressful moments, my computer came back to life! Whew!

Throughout the month of October, NTEN's WeAreMedia worked on building the Nonprofit Social Media Tool Box.  Nonprofit social media techies filled the pages with links to tools, tips, and tutorials for these types of social media tools:

• Monitoring
• RSS Readers
• Social Bookmarking
• Commenting
• Blogging Tools
• Podcasting
• Photo Sharing
• Video Sharing
• Crowd Sourcing
• Micro Media
• Lifestreams
• Social Networks
• Fundraising Widgets

We'll be back at the end of the month with the last module on experiments and then onto curriculum creation and packaging up what's here for the workshops that begin in Feburary.  In the meantime, here's another batch of T-Shirt Winners:

Kristin Wolff
Will Coley
Amy Sample Ward
Avi Kaplan
Chad Norman
Maggie McGary

Congrats!

About six weeks ago, Google Chrome made its debut with a comic book that preceded the release of the Google  browser that blogger.   It was a coveted piece of web 2.0 schwag acquired by blogger Duncan Riley from Australia.   He came up with wonderful to raise money for the Sharing Foundation - an online auction.

But what do with a brand new, unread, limited edition Google Chrome comic book? eBay FTW is the logical choice, but I don’t think it would be fair to profit from something Google has sent me. So I won’t be profiting from it. All proceeds from the sale after costs (ebay + paypal fees) will be going to charity, split 50/50 between the Sharing Foundation and Beyond Blue.

Duncan was able to raise $210 for the Sharing Foundation.  I presented the check to Dr. Hendrie at last weekend's board meeting.  While the amount may seem small, it will provide 35 school uniforms for Cambodian school children.  (And I was able to play another Akoha card, donate an hour of your time)

One of our projects is a sewing school which provides training for girls in a great skill that, we hope, will keep them out of prostitution. The girls are paid from the day they start training, and the first thing they learn to make is school uniforms, since they are easy to make.  Uniforms cost $6 per set of white shirt + blue pants or skirt  to make.  The $210 will provide 35 school uniforms, which the Sharing Foundation will give away to poor kids who want to go to school, but are kept out by the government if they don't have a uniform. 

Isn't wonderful to know that a piece web 2.0 schwag recycled in a creative way by Duncan Riley can make a huge difference in the lives of 35 kids ...

Thank you Duncan!

Earlier this week, Leslie Poston invited me to participate on her podcast on Race and Social Media along with Shireen Mitchell, Liza Sabiter, and Rahsheen Porter.   One of the takeaways was, don't assume that everyone thinks like you do - and expose yourself to different points of view.   This week I put that into practice.

Yesterday, I facilitated a hot topic workshop at the Healthy Communities Annual Conference hosted by the Search Institute in Minneapolis.  Search Institute is an independent nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide leadership, knowledge, and resources to promote healthy children, youth, and communities. 

When I've do social media and nonprofit trainings, the audience consists of staff, board members, or volunteers from nonprofit organizations.  The diversity comes from the different generations in the room, types of nonprofits, and budget size.   Nonetheless, there is a nonprofit perspective and my instructional materials and experience speak to that audience.

I've worked with other groups - small business, higher education, librarians, educators, and others, but never all mixed up.   This audience included representatives from all these groups -- including educators, school administrators, highers education, faith communities, youth-serving organizations, social-service organizations, and the public sector.  

And, best of all, I had young people in the workshop - all age 17 and under - the generation dubbed as "Generation Z.   The demographics of the room was 35% Gen Z, 10% Gen Y, 15% Gen X, and 40% babyboomers like me. 

It was a little challenging to remix a workshop that would be relevant to these different perspectives and age groups and have people leave the room having learned something.  So, remixed my slide deck to represent the different points of view.

I spent some time in the beginning asking questions and letting people share their experience and perspectives on social media.  As much as I could, if I got asked a question, I invited the younger folks in the room to answer and facilitated an inter-generational dialog.  It was eye opening.

I had intended to do the game simulation, but it was too nonprofit centric.  One lesson I learned early on as a trainer is not to be afraid to flush your lesson plan (at least the instructional delivery part) down the toilet if you sense it isn't right.  So, I changed delivery tactics and it worked!   We did mostly full room discussion, but I broke it up with some moving around exercises. (Note to self:  Need to have a back-up small group exercise that I could do when the game won't work).  Here's the full room exercises.

(1)  Audience Stand Up Poll:   Whenever I talk about social media and nonprofits, we talk about audience.  I've been using the Forrester Technographics as a framework.   Rather than me explaining it in detail and having people fall asleep.  I gave them a high level description and asked them stand - and then I interviewed them in front of the group about the social media habits, pointing out the different segments.

This breaks up the full room discussion format a bit.   But it also gave me an idea for a small group exercise or even an icebreaker where you might have people take a quiz or have the technographic profiles listed on butchblock sheets on the wall and have people stand in front of it.  Then have full room discussion and have them share "Three Things About Us".  Or you could break into small groups based on the technographic profile.  Then have the group work on coming up with those.

(2)  Walking the Line - Ready/Not Ready:   I used the spectragram ribbon and asked people to line up according to whether they felt ready or their organization's were ready to implement social media or not.  Then had a discussion having the ready folks give advice to the not ready. 

I revised a lot of the content to match the audience.  In the why it is important section,  I went through the social networking from birth to high school slides.   I asked the young people to share with us if they had used any of the social networks like Webkins, Penguin, Virtual Pets, etc.   This was fascinating to learn why and how they participate and how adults in their lives perceive these technologies.

I also always show a slide about the age demographics of email users.  When I talk to nonprofit professionals, this slide is always met with a high degree of skepticism.   But in this instance, we had an interesting discussion about generational differences in electronic communications preferences.

I took them through a remix of the cutedog theory - or how to think about it strategically.   In the policy section, I included the issue of cyberbullying and privacy issues.  The young people in the room are experts on privacy settings on social networks and definitely had formulated friending policy - while the concept of friending policies was very new to some of the boomers in the room.   The discussion was fantastic. 

One of the workshop participants, a librarian, had done a lot of work on social networks -- on a personal level - just to document how some of the security issues are overblown in the media and also to understand what to teach young people about responsible and safe use.   She shared some really useful resources.

While putting together the slideshow and thinking about social media staffing issues,  I recalled a service learning project for high schools students form over ten years ago called Nonprofit Prophets where high school students, trained in web development, worked with nonprofits.   I wondered whether there was a social networking version of that project today.

During the Q&A, a university researcher asked how they could get young people to fill out an online survey and whether or not they would do through a social networking.   I facilitated a multi-generational brainstorming session with the younger people sharing their impressions of whether or not they ignore a myspace profile or not based on certain design elements and what would motivate them to participate in the research.

After the session, a couple of the younger folks thanked me and told me that thinking about social media as it applies to nonprofits or for "professional use" is a great way to debunk some myths with the adults they know!

I wish I could do inter-generational professional development workshops all the time!  It's inspiring and energizing to get different points of view.  

Update:  Ashely pointed out that her experience is usually teens do not understand the issues.  I asked on twitter Coolcat Teacher - Vicky Davis's blog whether social networking security and privacy were taught in schools and she said no.  She pointed to this project.

What are your observations about the similarities or differences between nonprofit and social media across generations?  

That's under the hood of my DELL Precision Desktop 470 that will be three years old next week and thank god I have the GOLD Tech support because I just had the RAM or rather the RAM sockets on the motherboard go bad.  (see those pink arrows)  This took about an hour on the phone with the technical support guy at Dell who walked through opening up the CPU and swapping out the four bars of RAM and rebooting.  It looks like one of the ram sockets on the motherboard is fried.

Oh, I've had problems before, but only minor hardware failures and crashes because I have a duo-RAID hard drive.  The latter is annoying, but I could fix that blue screen of death and by reinstalling the operating system.  I got smarter along the way and mirrored the operating system so I didn't have to reinstall everything and I have all my data backed up either on a local hard drive (three copies) and online.   I always seem to have computer problems before important presentations (see here and here).

I don't need this to happen to me.  I'm about to embark upon one of my busiest travel weeks ever.  I'm presenting and doing a workshop in Romania and then will be flying back to Boston via Miami to present at the Technology Affinity Group (Foundation IT folks) Conference.  Grr...

The Technician from Dell ordered my new RAM (and a motherboard just in case that is the problem) and a technician will call by noon to schedule the on-site.  Fingers crossed, my desktop should be back up by tomorrow afternoon. 

I bet you are wondering how and where I'm blogging about this .... Well, before my passion was social media, I spent many years helping nonprofits do technology plans.   I learned a thing or two about the importance of basic infrastructure and processes - I'm my own IT department so I have a disaster plan.  For catastrophic hardware issues, I have my back up computer - my laptop and I can plug my desktop keyboard, modem, and monitor) and viola I'm up and running.  Second, I have all essential data - documents, photos, multimedia, email, etc backed up - both in local copies and if possible online.  

My only inconvenience right now is that my printer is older and my laptop is vista and right now I'm too stressed and distracted to figure out if there is a driver or not for VISTA (my desktop is XP).   I'll do that in the event that DELL on-site support can't get here and replace my RAM and motherboard or I get Dell Hell.

Hmm .. I'm going to see if Lionel does as good a job at customer service as Frank does.

While I specialize in social media and spent a good amount of time on it - you need basic infrastructure which includes hardware, software, internet access, technical support,  back up, etc.    If your computer were to blow up or if you had major problem, could you be back up and working within an hour? And, you should also know how you get attention through social media for technical support too ...