Archive for the 'net tuesday' Category

London Net Tuesday - Social Media Exchange December

Published
by
Amy Sample Ward
on December 3, 2008
in events and net tuesday
. 4 Comments

Last night was the second London Net Tuesday event and another success for the local nptech community to share ideas, ask questions and learn together.  This month, we took a different approach - instead of focusing in on one tools or story, we had a Social Media Exchange to celebrate the festive time of year.  Here’s how it worked:

(Video by David Wilcox after the event.)

Social Media Exchange

How it worked:
The room (which was a round cafe with an upstairs) was set up with four designated sections downstairs and two upstairs.  These topic areas were marked by labels on the wall and included:

  • blogs & Twitter
  • photos / Flickr
  • voting & e-democracy
  • tagging & social bookmarking
  • social networks & communities
  • videos / YouTube

Everyone was given a game board of sorts to fill in while filtering throughout the room.  For 45 minutes, participants were able to move from section to section and join in or start conversations with others in that topic area.  The game board had prompts for notes and questions including:

  • Best example of tool in use
  • Best lessons learned
  • How to evaluate for success
  • New idea for my organization
  • New contact for questions/ideas

The participants in the Social Media Exchange had a chance to:
- hear about examples of social media in use
- get new ideas and contacts
- share their stories, lessons, and ideas
- have fun!

Collaborative Roundup

After the free exchange period, the group came together for a roundup of the conversations and ideas.  I had a piece of paper on the wall for each of the six topic areas and the group supplied examples of organizations, events, conferences or individuals using each tool to be captured on the paper.  We also discussed lessons learned and things to keep in mind.  This gave people who hadn’t made it to one of the topic areas a chance to gain some of the key take-aways and ask questions.

You can see photos of the 6 collaborative roundup sheets on the London Net Tuesday meetup group!

Have you participated in a similar exchange event? What did you like most/least about it?

Were you at London Net Tuesday last night? What were some of the best conversations or ideas you went home with?

Net Tuesday organizer needed in Phoenix!

Published
by
Amy Sample Ward
on December 2, 2008
in net tuesday
. 0 Comments

Originally posted on the NetSquared blog.

Each month, social changemakers and technological forerunners come together at Net Tuesday events around the world to mix, swap stories and ideas, build new relationships, and reinforce our online NetSquared community.  These monthly events offer a great opportunity for people from all stretches of social change and social media to collaborate, whether you’re a developer, innovator, programmer, entrepreneur or part of a nonprofit organization.  The Phoenix Net Tuesday is looking for a new organizer and hoping you’re it!

Are you in Phoenix or know someone who is?

The Phoenix Net Tuesday group has over 50 members and needs a new organizer to help drive momentum and faciliate events.  Organizing a Net Tuesday group offers a great chance to network and get connected to social changemakers in your city as well as be part of an innovative network of on-the-ground collaborators with NetSquared.  Net Tuesdays are currently taking place in 22 cities around the world with more groups starting each month.

Get involved!

Are you interested in learning more or stepping up?  Connect with the Phoenix Net Tuesday group online and contact the current organizer, JD Godchaux, to find out more.  Phoenix would love to have you!

London Net Tuesday November: Such a success!

Published
by
Amy Sample Ward
on November 5, 2008
in net tuesday
. 7 Comments

Last night was the inqugural London Net Tuesday.  With 45 people in attendance, we filled the space and more than our scheduled time slot with lively conversation, quality knowledge sharing, business cards exchanging, and even some drinks.

Our first event focused on blogging with a head-to-head competition of sorts and the building of a blogging strategy.

Head-to-Head Blogging

Brave and beautiful participants volunteered to represent some of the main blogging platforms including Community Server, Movable Type, Typepad and Wordpress.  We had a cheat sheet with pros, cons and comparisons (if you weren’t there, you can download the cheat sheet here) that was created via crowdsourcing before the event.  I posted the structure and basic content in a Google Document and then published it for others to contribute to - sending them the link via email and Twitter.

Our platform reps fielded questions from the crowd and shared stories from their personal experience using the blogging tools.  Questions included:

  • How much do you cost?
  • How tech-savvy do I need to be?
  • Can I monitor comments?
  • Can I control who sees my posts?
  • How quick can I get set up?

A winner?  Well, there wasn’t an official vote (though a very important vote was happening back in the US!), but the majority of bloggers in attendance used Wordpress.

Blogging Strategy

After our lively ‘debate’ of platforms, we took a step back to discuss what is most important for organizations to consider when just starting out with blogging.  We came up with lots of great things to keep in mind, questions to ask, items to identify, and so on.  After the big brainstorm, we picked out the five most important aspects of starting a blog:

  • Identify your goals (goals for content, goals for relationships, goals for measurement, etc.)
  • Write about what you are passionate about and know about
  • Practice writing blog posts for a month or so without actually posting (you’ll be surprised how much your posts change just in that first month, and you can identify if you are ready to go live or not)
  • Use your community (invite staff, volunteers, donors and email subscribers to read and comment)
  • Integrate your blog (link and content) with everything you do (email newsletters, handouts, business cards, other social media presences like Facebook)

What would you add?

London Net Tuesday

If you missed last night’s event, that’s okay.  Connect online to be sure you make the next one! If you were there last night, what would you add to this run down?

  • What was your favorite conversation?
  • Who did you meet?
  • What questions did you not get to ask?
  • What ideas do you have for future events?

UPDATE:

Miko has posted her terrific run down of the platform comparison.  And here is her post about our strategy conversation.

UPDATE:

Farhan has a great post about the event and blogging here.