Tag Archive for 'event'

Public launch, June 10th

Published
by
Amy Sample Ward
on May 28, 2008
in wiki
. 0 Comments

While I was living in Spain in the early part of 2007, through to now, I have had the great opportunity to work Meyer Memorial Trust and Grass Commons on a new kind of wiki to benefit the nonprofit sector. It has been a long time coming and helps explain how busy and distracted I have been lately, but the public launch is now just two weeks away! Here is an exceprt from the announcement MMT put up on the website yesterday afternoon:

Like many foundations, MMT has been building a “knowledge management” system to archive information in an accessible way to help us be the best grantmakers we can be. But we’ve been approaching this task with a bigger end in mind.

Why, we asked ourselves, would we set up a system that only MMT could use when the need for good information is shared by other foundations… and nonprofit organizations and public agencies and official decision makers and citizen volunteers and… in fact, everyone working for the common good?? Wouldn’t that be a smarter investment for us to make?

What if there was a place where we could all exchange what we learn as we go about our daily business? What if nonprofits could see the data and information that foundations use in their due diligence process? What if organizations and people could easily determine which foundations’ interests match their project goals? What if foundations could quickly see what groups are working on an issue they are investigating? And so on…

Well, we are building such a place. A place where people and organizations can connect about subjects and places. A place called connectipedia…

Want to know more? Want to see connectipedia in action? Want to find out how you can be part of all this? Attend the public launch event at:

2 - 3:30 p.m., Tuesday, June 10
Jean Vollum Natural Capital Center
aka Ecotrust (second floor conference center)
721 NW Ninth Ave.
Portland OR 97209

We would love you to be part of this event and celebration. Several renowned geeks will be there! We’re not requiring folks to register, but if you plan to attend, please send a quick rsvp email.

If you can’t make it to Ecotrust, you can still participate in the launch. We plan to webcast the event so anyone in our corner of the world can make time for connectipedia. (More details about the webcast to come.)

After June 10th, connectipedia will be open for busines!

I’m extremely excited about the unveiling of this wonderful tool.  If you are in Portland, you can attend the event in person per the details above.  If you are elsewhere in the world, you will be able to attend remotely via the web and be right in the thick of things with us.  I’ll be sure to post details about connecting remotely as soon as they are made available.  I can’t wait to have you join me in using this terrific new tool!

Social Media event review

Published
by
amysampleward
on December 11, 2007
in workblog
. 2 Comments

I just posted this review of our new media event from Friday on my work blog. Has anyone taken part in an event on social media tools using scenarios of local nonprofits? What was the outcome?

This past Friday was our third event in the series Communicating in the Age of New Media and focused on social media tools. It was a wonderful success, at least in my opinion, and took place at IRCO (Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization) offering us a chance to have applicable conversations and applications of our small group scenarios, many of which focused on immigrant and refugee or other special needs populations. My standard review process includes noting three positives and one negative, so, here’s my take on the event:

Rose: Facilitator
We were very honored and thrilled to have come out to provide us with an overview of social media and the tools nonprofits are and can be using and then walk us through the day’s workshop. She provided great insight and helped the groups every step of the way with suggestions, ideas, and thought-provoking questions. You can even read Beth’s reflections on the event on her blog!

Rose: Participants
Beth was terrific, but our participants really made the day for me! They were positive about the new media tools and ready to learn. People were jumping right in to the workshop scenarios and energetic in creating strategies using social media to help nonprofits best do their work. When faced with this much new information, people can get scared and overwhelmed, or excited and motivated. I was thrilled to see that our participants were the latter.

Rose: Conversation
At every table around the room, conversations were taking place that proved how energetic and enthused the participants and the leaders were about the topic—what is not to be excited about? After all, some nonprofits are ahead of corporations in adopting social web tools! One great tool that my group touched on was the utility of wikis for organizations and their members. What better place to collaborate and build community through participation and contribution than in a wiki? We even set up a wiki for the event so that the notes, ideas, questions, and great conversation could be recorded and continued.

Thorn: Time
With such a motivated group of participants and a guru facilitator, it was hard to call it a day. We could have easily worked on the scenarios in small groups, had conversations and answered questions together for many more hours. Even this thorn has a rose: Check out the wiki for the event and we can keep discussing and collaborating!

I hope all of you who had the opportunity to be with us on Friday enjoyed it and learned something you can put to use at your organization. To those who could not join us, we hope to put on similar events in the future and I will continue to post here on ideas, issues, news, and information to help you use social media tools in your organization.