The
conference draws thousands from within and without the industry,
worldwide. It follows on the heels of last week’s DevLearn, and I
suspect it builds on the energy from that event, as well as making it
easy for folks who didn’t get to attend. After all, this one is free
and can be participated in from your desk. It fits into most corporate
training budgets at the moment.
Here are just a sampling of the speakers and topics over the next week:
Alvaro Fernandez: Brain Fitness for Peak Health and Performance
Kevin Wheeler: The Future of Talent
Dave Wilkins – The Amazon Model and Forum Model – the intersection of LMS and Learning 2.0
Nancy White – Online Social Architectures – Networks and Communities
Marcia Conner and Jon Husband: ROI of Web Learning
Allison Anderson: Corporate Learning Ecology
So many of the sessions are relative to more than just the learning
industry, so I hope you’ll join us for this free event. Follow the conference Twitter account (you can also tweet to it by direct
messaging the account), and participate in any way that you can. Note that all sessions are on Pacific Coast Time.
I’m reposting a post from May 31 of this year. I repost this from time to time, but there’s a reason. I don’t know if it’s because of my
increased visibility from bub.blicio.us, from public speaking, or from
GCASTD, but recently I’ve been slammed by LinkedIn
invites. I don’t know all the people who invited me but most of them
just used the default invite. This tells me nothing about them – no
contact information, no reference to where we met, nothing. So I
thought it might be time to re-post this. I figure I’ll post it every
two months if I have to.
—
Because I have started doing a lot more speaking and more public blogging, I get a lot more LinkedIn
invites.In many cases, these folks feel they have a personal connection
and don’t realize that I have a heck of a time remembering names
without a memory jog.
Would you send out an invitation to a party without thinking
through the invitation and considering the wording? Probably not. I
wish more people applied that same logic to LinkedIn invites.
Michelle:
I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.
- John Doe
Now,
I probably do want to connect with John Doe. He’s probably a great guy
and might even have some great contacts. But because I need a memory
jog sometimes, I’m not sure who he is. I also question how seriously he
takes connecting because he didn’t bother to personalize his LinkedIn
invite and just sent the default.
Now, I admit to having done this myself once or twice. I get lazy
and send the default invite, especially when I’m connecting with good
friends. But if you’re reaching out to someone you met via Twitter,
briefly at a conference, or someone who you know because of their blog,
go ahead and personalize your invite. Not only
will it jog your connection’s memory, it will make you stand out a
little more as well.
The Twitter presentation I’m giving at DevLearn evolved from a rather free-form presentation I gave at Podcamp Ohio back in June. In the way of technology, a lot of what I said then has changed (Summize is now Search.Twitter.com, Jott is no longer free, and so on …).
When I present, I love to get the audience involved. I want your questions; I want your input: I want your suggestions. I do not want to just get up there and talk at you. It worked fairly well in this presentation, but I would have loved more additional input.
Of course, being that I was presenting and things always go wrong, we had no Internet access for the first half of the session, and I was soaked in the rain on my way into Podcamp that morning. I don’t recover well from being drenched. But, the session got some pretty good reviews and I look forward to returning to Podcamp Ohio next year.
The Podcamp video is 20 minutes long. This is only the first half of the presentation. You can also view the second half, which is where most of the conversation takes place. I promise, I come off much better live and in person.
cross-posted and slightly modifed from bub.blicio.us
Over at bub.blicio.us, I’ve writtena coupleof posts on how you could track and participate in the election on the Internet. Last night, however, was monumental in a number of ways. Not only did we create a potentially new and different America yesterday, we also impacted the way future elections should be run.
The use of the Web by campaigns, news organizations, interest groups, and just interested parties, was a sign of how much the Internet has affected our daily lives. Whether it was interactive electoral maps on CNN.com or Katie Couric moving from newscast to webcast at 2 am, technology was evident on and off the air.
I was at an election party where we watched Comedy Central and CNN as well as tracked the election via Twitter. Twitter, by the way, was calling states for the respective winner just slightly before the actual news channels it seems. I left a party early and learned of the election being called for Obama by watching my Twitter feed on my phone.
Sarah Perez at Read Write Web has put together a fantastic Flickr slide show on how the Web was used by all of us last evening as we tracked election results.
How did you use the Web throughout the election results last evening?
All this travel is keeping me from a lot of original content. Here is my latest post from bub.blicio.us, which I think you’ll enjoy.
I follow Laura Fitton on
Twitter and am usually either enlightened or entertained by her tweets.
Her company, Pistachio Consulting, has released a paper and a
comparison matrix on microblogging (or microsharing) tools used in
corporations: Enterprise Microsharing Tools Comparison: Nineteen Applications to Revolutionize Employee Effectiveness.
According the paper, there has been an uptick in this sort of corporate
communication as the economy has a downturn and corporations cut back
on travel costs.
Concurrently, employees see the collaboration,
networking, problem-solving and other productivity benefits of web 2.0
tools and want to apply them at work. These tools directly contribute
to knowledge capture and management as workforces are scaled back and
baby boomers retire, and they boost motivation and retention,
especially among millennial generation employees.
CIO magazine’s October survey of 243 IT executives found
three-quarters plan to freeze or cut their IT budgets. There is a
critical need for cheaper, more versatile ways for information to flow
within the enterprise. Enterprise-grade versions of Twitter may be the
low-cost solution that fills this need.
By researching 19 microsharing tools and their uses, the team came
up with several key findings, including that your employees are
probably already using some sort of microsharing tool and that these
tools should also communicate with the “gold standard” of Twitter. The
report goes on to define, and classify, these 19 different tools,
listing advantages and disadvantages of each. Finally, they list the
questions they asked users of these tools.
I’ll be referencing this paper in a presentation I’m giving on
microblogging in education. As a big proponent of informal learning, I
think microblogging helps inspire others to share and learn.
“Watercooler learning” is evident in Twitter, and Laura touches,
unintentionally perhaps, on these learning and training concepts.
Microsharing for organizational communication and
collaboration fundamentally changes how employees interact with others
and grow their professional capacity. Microsharing connects people in
ways that promote mutual support, rapid networking, inspiration,
mentoring and idea exchange.
This is incredibly useful for anyone looking to add a Twitter-like
tool to their arsenal of internal corporate communications. As is
pointed out in the paper, there aren’t any case studies yet, as usage
is still too new.
It’s amazing how much happens in the tech world when you take a
vacation. The latest news is that LinkedIn is taking the Facebook tact
and adding applications. The difference is that LinkedIn Apps are all productivity focused and, in theory, will help promote your profile even more.
Right now, the following apps are available to spruce up your LinkedIn homepage and/or your LinkedIn profile:
Amazon Reading List
Slideshare
Linking your WordPress or Typepad posts to your profile
Huddle Workspaces
TripIt
Box.net
Google Presentation
Company Buzz
According to Chris Brogan, you should drop everything
and run over to LinkedIn and add Apps to your profile. I took his
advice and added the WordPress and SlideShare apps. I’d love to be able
to add my other blogs, but the BlogLink app seems to be a bit buggy. I
assume that will work itself out. I think that the blogging apps (when
they work) and the Slideshare apps are just brilliant.
That said, I’m a little worried about this development as well. I love that LinkedIn is actually doing something.
However, you can’t control where the applications appear on your public
profile – at least not that I could find. I’m afraid LinkedIn profiles
might become as messy as the old Facebook profiles or MySpace. I hate
clutter.
What do you think? Will you add LinkedIn apps to your profile? Do
you think they’ll help promote your talents? Are apps a bad idea,
contributing to the clutter? Let us know in the comments.
Yesterday the LinkedIn blog announced some aesthetic changes for the professional networking site. These are all mostly subtle changes, but they do make a big difference. In particular, these things make a huge difference in the ease-of-use category. It’s now easy to find things we didn’t even know existed before.
First off, they’ve enclosed the important profile information in a blue box on your profile. This calls attention to that information as well as making it easier to find.
Next, they’ve made it easier to take action on other people’s profiles. If someone is not a connection, you’ll see a box like this:
If they are in your network, you’ll see this:
It really does make things easier. My favorite additions are the ability to print to either your printer or PDF, or download the contact information (if in your network). These options were always there, but rather well hidden. When you’re using LinkedIn as an introductory resume, it’s a nice option for your potential employer to be able to print or save your information. I also like the easy to find suggestions/links for sending messages, recommendations, forwarding profiles (I’ve always had trouble finding that one), and getting introduced.
Due to unforeseen circumstances, this class has been postponed as of 11/11/08.
__
Well, it’s official. Write Technology (that’s me) is offering a class on The Art of Blogging.
Here’s the thing – there are a lot of people out there who have blogs, but they don’t know how to really use them. You see, there’s a lot that goes into writing a blog. You need to know who your audience is, understand what they want, and find your own unique blogging style. This 4-hour seminar focuses on just that – content creation and everything that goes with it. The course is geared towards business blogging, both large and small, but anyone is welcome to attend.
We don’t just talk at you; the class is an engaging discussion to help you improve your blog.
1. What is a blog? In
this portion of the class, we’ll define blogging, understanding what
makes blogs different from your average web site. We’ll discuss what
blogs you enjoy, and why. What makes you participate? We’ll talk about
the ROI of corporate blogging and review some successful corporate
blogs. 2. Blogging Goals At this point, we’ll
define goals for your blog. There are a few goals you should always
have. What else do you want to get from your blog? What are your ideas
for reaching these goals? 3. Blogging Voice In
this section, we’ll define and understand your audience and your style.
What does your audience want to hear? How do they want to hear it?
We’ll work to understand subtle marketing on a blog and developing your
conversational style. We’ll also dive into sharing opinions on blogs,
and whether you want to share them with your readers. 4. Content The
most important thing on a blog is content. We’ll talk about where to
find it and how much to research. We’ll discuss consistency, quantity,
and quality. Curious as to where to find images that you can legally
use on your blog? We’ll cover that too. Finally, we’ll review how to
deal with proprietary information and blogging about your company. 5. Blogging Etiquette We’ll
cover the 10 Commandments of Blogging, as well as other tips and
tricks, including page breaks, linkbacks, internal links, corrections,
and citations. We’ll also talk about comment moderation and dealing
with negative commenters and criticism. 6. Quick Tips for Growing Your Blog with New Media We’ll
finish the day with the phenomenon of talking to yourself, etiquette
for commenting on other blogs, understanding tagging, and some basic
SEO principles. We’ll also cover RSS feeds in more detail. __ Takeaways: A
new comfort level and knowledge for maintaining your blog, participant
guide, access to a private class-only wiki for on-going discussion.
____ Cost & Payment: The
course, regularly $199, is being offered at the introductory rate of
$179 through November 1. The rate returns to $199 on November 2, so
sign up soon!
Credit card accepted via Paypal. To pay with a check by mail or at the door, please contact events@write-tech.com. Credit cards will not be accepted day-of.
How much? The cost is $179 through November 1. After that, the price goes up to $199. You can register online and pay via Paypal. Alternatively, you can contact me and we’ll arrange payment via cash or check. Credit card payments will not be accepted day-of and you must be pre-registered.
Anything else? Make sure you tell your friends and colleagues. I’d love to see everyone there!
Cheers! – Find Michelle Lentz here on Write Technology, on Twitter, Pownce, and FriendFeed. You can also catch Michelle presenting on Twitter at the upcoming DevLearn ’08 in San Jose.
Brian Solis, of PR 2.0, worked with Jesse Thomas to create the Social Media Conversation Prism. I’m interested in looking at this prism and thinking through how this applies to Learning.
The conversation map is a living,
breathing representation of Social Media and will evolve as services
and conversation channels emerge, fuse, and dissipate.
If a conversation takes place online and you’re not there to hear or see it, did it actually happen?
Indeed. Conversations are taking place with or without you and this map
will help you visualize the potential extent and pervasiveness of the
online conversations that can impact and influence your business and
brand.
As a
communications or service professional, you’ll find yourself at the
center of the prism – whether you’re observing, listening or
participating. This visual map is the ideal complement to The Essential Guide to Social Media and the Social Media Manifesto, which will help you better understand how to listen and in turn, participate transparently, sincerely, and effectively.
As conversations are increasingly distributed,
everything begins with listening and observing. Doing so, will help you
identify exactly where relevant discussions are taking place, as well
as their scale and frequency. This dialog can be charted into a
targeted social map that’s unique to your brand.
So how does this apply to Learning? Obviously, every time we try something new, listen to something new, involve ourselves in something new, we Learn Something. I think this sunflower of social media also helps us decide HOW we want to learn. Picking a petal that best appeals to our own learning style (or that of a majority of our students) and focusing on those tools can make a difference. HOW do we want to continue the conversation?
What are your thoughts on the Social Media Conversation Prism?
Yahoo! has launched the redesigned, speedier delicious, the original
(and probably still the best) social bookmarking site. For me, perhaps
the best thing to come out of this re-launch is the new URL: delicious.com. I can’t even explain how often I got the old del.icio.us wrong. (The old URL, and your old login, still work.)
Speed: We’ve moved to a new infrastructure that
makes every page faster. This new platform will enable us to keep up
with traffic growth while ensuring Delicious is responsive and
reliable. You may not have noticed, but the old backend was getting
creaky under the load of five million users.
Search: We’ve completely overhauled our search engine to make
it faster and more powerful. Searches used to take ages to return
results; now they’re very quick. The new search engine is also smarter,
and more social: you can search within one of your tags, another public
user’s bookmarks, or your social network. Now it’s easier to take
advantage of the expertise and interests of your friends, not to
mention the Delicious community at large.
Design: Finally, we’ve updated the user interface to improve
usability and add a few often-requested features (such as selectable
detail levels and alphabetical sorting of bookmarks). Our
goal has been to keep the new design similar in spirit to the old one,
so all of you veterans should be able to jump in without any confusion.
At the same time, we’re hoping that newcomers to Delicious will find it
easier to learn.
When you visit the new Delicious, you’ll need to log in again to reset your cookie.
