Tag Archive for 'newmedia'

Can you teach new media?

Published
by
Amy Sample Ward
on July 31, 2008
in otherblogs
. 2 Comments

Marshall Kirkpatrick post a great article today for ReadWriteWeb considering the questions: Can New Media Be Taught in Schools?  What do you think?

Tests on Twitter, wiki-style study groups, students quizzed on yesterday’s most popular YouTube videos and the biggest hits on Del.icio.us/Popular - is this what the future of education is going to look like? In some journalism schools around the US, it just might be. Would that really be so bad? Though many may disagree with us, we think there is some merit to teaching new media in journalism and other schools.

Marshall even quoted me, as I described just one example from my experience as a student of new media in college.  There are many comments over on the article, go check it out and weigh in on the conversation!

How do you learn new media?  Do you think it can be taught/learned in a ‘classroom’ or do you lean towards personal investigation and experimentation?

Stories as the answer

Published
by
amysampleward
on April 18, 2008
in storytelling
. 0 Comments

Storytelling is a big hot topic for nonprofits - especially when it is done in a digital or dynamic way. Kivi Leroux Miller wrote a great post today about five key questions about organizations that should be answered with stories.

Her list includes:

1) What Do Other People Think About This Group?

Answer with Testimonials. When someone is learning about you for the first time, they’ll be curious what other people think about your organization, your staff and your effectiveness. You can talk about how great you are, but that’s not nearly as convincing as testimonials from other people who aren’t on your payroll (or even on your board).

2) Are People Here Like Me?

Answer with Profiles. When someone donates time or money to your organization, they are joining a virtual community of people who believe in the same cause. If someone is not quite sure if your nonprofit is a good fit for them, showing them that they fit in with other supporters can help overcome that barrier.

3) Does This Work?

Answer with Success Stories. Do you get the job done? Are you going to make a difference with the money I give you? Success stories show donors (and potential new donors) exactly what it is you do and how you do it.

4) What Difference Can a Single Person Make?

Answer with Personalized Giving Options. Big problems are overwhelming. If you swamp people with the enormity of the need, they are likely to tune you out and move on to something that feels more manageable. 

5) Can I Come Along?

Answer with Personal Chronicles. For your supporters to fully engage with your nonprofit, you have to be willing to share what’s really going on. A small but important segment of your donor base won’t be happy with the level of detail they get in your newsletters. They’ll want more and you should give it to them.

To read the rest of the details and examples, click here.

The one question I think is missing, is: Who are you?

It is important to remember that your organization is made up of humans who do all have lives outside of the office and have passions that have brought them to the same organization for a reason.  It is important to showcase your wonderful changemakers, both to recognize them as complete people, and to show your audience/community/supporters/members that they can identify with individuals in the organization and not just the mission.

How do you do this? With blogs, videos, pictures, etc.  There are many ways to show that your organization is made of great people.  Take pictures at your next staff meeting and have everyone make their own nametag with paper and crayons to hold up for the photo.  Let everyone create a short 10-30 second video about how they discovered the organization and wanted to start working there.  Start a blog on the website for staff to contribute to about things other than specific press releases, project announcements, etc.

How are you using storytelling in your organization?  What is another question that you would add to this list that could be answered with stories?

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.

Why wikis?

Published
by
amysampleward
on December 10, 2007
in socialmedia and webtools
. 1 Comment

This past Friday, we held our third event in the series Communicating in the Age of New Media for nonprofit organizations to learn, this time, about social media tools. It was quite a success, with a great deal of conversation, learning, ideas, and even Beth Kanter to accompany participants through the day.

One tool that I felt was getting talked about and asked about quite a bit, was the wiki. How would we use it? What is so great about it? What is it to begin with?

We weren’t shy about showing our support of wikis, as the event had a wiki of its own for participants to share notes, questions, and resources. Using a tool for collaboration and shared learning is a terrific place for nonprofits to enter the new media world. There is plenty of free wiki software out there so you can start using it in your office or home to get the feel of it, which kind you are comfortable with, and how you want to use it at work.

After all the conversations I had about wikis at the event, and all the ways I was suggesting people could use a wiki in their organization or with their members, I’m curious how you are already or planning to use them. Does your organization use a wiki internally or externally? What was the biggest hurdle in getting non-new media users on board? I’d love to hear your stories!

Also, a good friend and colleague helped us faciliate our event and has a wealth of knowledge about wikis: Brandon at AboutUs.

Nonprofits ahead of the curve!

Published
by
amysampleward
on November 28, 2007
in reports and socialmedia
. 0 Comments

Many folks are pointing today to the research and report by Eric Mattson and Nora Ganim Barnes, Pd. D. about the use of social media tools by nonprofits. “Blogging for the Hearts and Donors: Largest US Charities Use Social Media” is based on the results of a survey of 76 executives from the list of 200 Top Charities by Forbes. Mattson and Barnes compared the results of the phone survey to the data on social media usage by the Fortune 500, Inc. 500, and college admission departments. Charities across the board are ahead of the business and college groups when it comes to integrating social media tools (including blogs, video, social networking, podcasting, message boards, and wikis)into their marketing, outreach, and fundraising strategies.

You can read about and download the report here.

One of the things that I found most interesting is the low response for familiarity with and usage of wikis. Wikis are a terrific way to collaborate, connect event or training participants before, during and after workshops, and organize collective learning spaces for a department, organization, or community. Is your organization utilizing a wiki to share knowledge or work on projects together?

I was happy to see that “charities are blogging at a higher rate than any group of businesses studied to date.” It is encouraging that organizations are recognizing the power and ease which blogs offer to provide information quickly to donors, supporters, reporters, and the community. Most organizations’ communications staff are the ones maintaining and writing the blogs. Is this the same at your organization? How do people in organizations and outside of organizations view blogs from the executive director/ceo?

Check out the report and poll your own organization to gauge your internal familiarity and usage—you could be surprised!

More on ethics - Thanks, Amy Gahran!

Published
by
amysampleward
on November 13, 2007
in issues
. 1 Comment

A great comment from Amy Gahran at www.contentious.com to my post on ethical standards last week brings up great issues. The best questions really bring up more questions and not specific answers. The only way to truly answer the questions Amy poses is to sit down with your organization and discuss as a group where the comfort level is with the tools, the community, and service area you provide.

1. What ethical standards should nonprofits have when using new media tools, like blogs?

Amy also says that, “many nonprofits have the self-identified standard of working for the good and not for the man,” which can be applied to focus on the answer. As a nonprofit, working for the good, what elements of new media tools stand taller than the rest for ethical standards? How about: Raising community awareness and involvement. To do so would mean that your nonprofit’s website, blog, even videos are shared in a way that is available to the public and include features for commenting and connecting with you and others interested in your organization. Providing a safe environment for people seeking out information and services from your organization. This would require that your organization decides what kind of language and content is allowed in comments and other user generated content areas of your website, blog, etc. If you are an organization that deals with children, your guidelines for appropriate content could much more strict than an organization dealing with single adults. The limits are fine, wherever they fall, so long as they meet the goal of creating a quality environment for community.

2. Is the community you’re serving proud of the way it is represented online?

Terrific question! How best do you identify if you are serving your community well or not: Ask them, of course! There is a plethora of free surveying tools online that your organization could use to build a survey to send to your volunteers, clients, funders, etc. You can ask questions to identify if people know about your website, blog, forums, videos, online fundraising, or any other new media tool currently at use; ask about the current state of those tools and the frequency that the users reads or participates; most importantly, ask what can be done to improve services and community online both by improving the tools already in use and implementing new needed tools. Investigate what other organizations in your field are doing online. There are many organization working toward the same end; find an organization in another part of the state, the country, or even the world and talk about how it is using new media tools to connect and represent the service community online. You should also talk to organizations in your local physical community about how to better represent and serve the groups online, maybe even by connecting the organizations’ tools online. If an organization is having trouble successfully representing its service community online, getting the support of other area organizations can help bring its standards and tools up to a more appropriate level to garner more support and quality for its users.

These were two great questions, but I’m sure there are many more. What do you think?

Nonprofits on the honor roll or dropping out?

Published
by
amysampleward
on November 2, 2007
in issues
. 0 Comments

I remember when I was in school, if students complained about being bored in class the teacher would respond that a class can only move as quickly as its slowest student.  (I’m ignoring the fact that I went to school in the boonies of Oregon with very limited resources and staff, at least for sake of argument here.)

Is this the same concept at work in the nonprofit sector with new media?  Yes, there are terrific examples out there of nonprofits making videos to tell their stories for them, enabling their websites to become go-to news and information portals, producing messages/causes that get picked up by individuals all around the world to fundraise for them.  BUT, many of the nonprofits that I work with are still struggling with the idea that a website is not a parking lot of information that only needs updating maybe once a year.

Is the struggle facing the nonprofit tech community the one of getting everyone up to a certain competency, or to move as fast as the most gifted and see where we can go?

Maybe it’s the day job calling, but I feel a lot of responsibility to get down to basics with those that will more rapidly be left behind, than push the limits with the few straight A kids in the class.

What do you think?