Tag Archive for 'tools'

Slides and more from NCVO’s Info Conference

Published
by
Amy Sample Ward
on November 25, 2008
in events and socialmedia
. 10 Comments

Yesterday was the NCVO Information Conference, focused on how organisations can make best use of recent developments in social media to meet the changing needs and expectations of their audiences.  I had the pleasure of presenting with Laura Whitehead (in person) and Beth Kanter (via skype).  Our session looked at using social media tools to share information inside your organization, and out:

Could better knowledge sharing and closer communications inside your organisation create stronger relationships, efficiency, insight and effectiveness? In this workshop you will discover how the latest tools for online collaboration and sharing can offer opportunities to improve the way you work. Social Media tools such as wikis, social networking sites like Twitter, FriendFeed, using Tagging and RSS feeds can enable organisations of all sizes to best use and build on its existing collective wisdom and innovation.

Here are the slides that Laura and I used:

Ways to collaborate and share knowledge using social media tools

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: km laurawhitehead)

Here are the slides that Beth created but we couldn’t actually use during the session as the wifi wasn’t quite holding up for us (and we were using all available connection to keep her on skype!):

NCVO

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own.

Paul Henderson even streamed a bit of the Beth’s presentation with Qik!  You can watch the video here.

Some terrific sessions were taking place at the same time as ours, including Dave Briggs conducting the social media game, and Andy Gibson exploring how to make better use of your most valuable information asset: people.

To start the day, Euan Semple brought all participants up to speed on social media and information sharing online, and shared some great insights with the group.  Here are some of my favorite points from Euan’s talk:

  • “Tidying up the noise means you lose the quiet voices.” - When organizations think about ‘cleaning up’ their information, whether it is internal, external or a mix, they risk ‘cleaning out’ the quiet voices that could be really valuable but aren’t necessarily heard enough to stay after the cleaning.
  • “Breathe life into information by allowing people to point to it.” - Wherever your information is (if it is in a wiki, a server, a shared drive, Google Docs, or elsewhere on the web), let your staff or even the public point to it, link to it, quote it and more.  Making your information available at least to your staff to reference easily means it will actually be used!  Not end up in an “information coffin.”
  • “You have to get your hands dirty with this stuff if you want to deal with it, even if you don’t like it.” - There is no way to really understand social media tools and the ways they could be applied to your organization’s work without diving in and trying them out yourself.  This is true even for staff or executives who wouldn’t be directly responsible for ongoing social media management for the organization.  You can’t make an informed decision on use or strategy without having some dirt on your hands!
  • “All that you have had up to now is the pretense of control; these tools give you influence.” - The most common fear about using social media tools is that the organization will lose control over their message, their ‘identity’ and more.  The truth is, organizations don’t have control over it now!  People are already talking about your sector, your services, your work or your organization and not engaging with them online means you are a part of the conversation at all.  Those conversations, criticisms, ideas, and passions are what is forming your message and brand.  You might as well be a part of it!  Social media tools don’t mean you get to have control, but they do give you influence over the direction of the message and the conversation.
  • “Obama focuses on positives when faced with someone who disagrees with him and that’s the same thing to do in forums,” etc. - This is a great lesson to keep in mind for organizations with forums, comments on blogs, or other feedback mechanisms.  There is always something positive in common that you can focus on to keep things moving forward!

NCVO’s Information Conference may have only been one short day, but the conversations that were started there will certainly keep going.

Were you there?  What was the biggest question you didn’t have a chance to ask?

My daily toolbox

Published
by
amysampleward
on February 25, 2008
in roundup and socialmedia
. 1 Comment

It’s Monday and it seems there is always a mountain to prepare for at this point in the week. I thought I would take a minute to write out what is in my daily technology toolbox - is it anything like yours?

(photo credit to: Zak Hubbard)
1. Email: I feel like this goes without saying, but, oh well. Email has become a pretty integral part of my daily life, and I don’t think I’m alone in that. I have a work account and a gmail account and check both, like, constantly. Despite what some say about not doing so, I use my email inbox as a to-do list or a reminder list. It’s just easier for me to have everything in one place, especially if the “to do” item requires connecting with others or sending out an email.

2. Google apps: I use Google Reader for my RSS feeds. There are so many different options out there to use, I prefer the simplicity of Google Reader and the sharing functionality. I have many more feeds than some and many fewer than others (I think of myself as falling in the median range for feed count) but still have to do a dump sometimes and just say “mark all as read” to get a large folder out of the way. I think managing and reading feeds can really help people more efficiently digest news and information, and stay on top of developments and conversations in their field. I have good days, and not-as-good days :)
I also use Google Calendar and Documents. What can I say, I like to share! I can share my calendar with my husband, I can share documents with coworkers, friends, co-organizers of events, or colleagues. Sharing is nice; it helps make us all better.

3. Blogging: I maintain two blogs (this one, and one at work). This is Wordpress and at work we run Moveable Type. Both open source organizations. Both are very widely used, supported, and have great development communities. I like sharing, as I said above, so blogging is a great way to share information and ideas in another way.

4. Flickr: I use Flickr to search for Creative Commons licensed photos to use for projects and blog posts. I don’t upload photos there much right now, but I’m on there very often searching through everyone else’s!

5. Facebook: Some organizations/groups/events that I participate in use Facebook instead of or before email. Also, conversations take place on group or event pages instead of in email chains. And, still fresh in many of our memories, the Causes challenge that ended last month had me driving many of my contacts to the cause page and to the donation widget. I have used Facebook since 2004 and have enjoyed the evolution of users and purposes it has gone through as a tool and I have gone through as a user and as part of the community. Are you my friend?

6. Twitter: Last, but not least, is Twitter. I use this mini-blogging tool to listen and learn, ask and answer questions, and contribute to a community that is made up of issues including: Portland, News (local and around the world), Nonprofits, NPTech, Technology, Social Media, Start Ups, and just plain interesting. I have touted Twitter before, so you can Portland Net Tuesday.

So, that’s my top 6 list for must-use every day. I do, though, use YouTube (as well as other video sites specifically for nonprofits; check out DoGooderTV and YouTube’s Nonprofit Channel), watch screencasts, listen to podcasts, and much more. Other communities online, like LinkedIn, TakingItGlobal, and It’sGettingHotInHere also quite often find their way into my life. I’m not limited to the 6 areas above, but do go through withdrawals from those and not so much others :)
What’s your list look like?