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The Age of Conversation lives on

Published May 25, 2009 non profit , web 2.0 2 Comments
Tags: AoC2, charity, collaboration, Drew McLellan, ebook, gavin heaton, lulu, marketing, self publishing, social media

In a recent comment about the WorldShapers ebook, one of the contributors Amy Jussel wrote “The Age of Conversation lives on”. And she’s right! Before WorldShapers was created, Amy and I participated in a collaborative project along with 237 Authors from 15 different countries. Being part of a project like this really demonstrated to me that with a big vision, a few people, and a little effort, social networking can produce great results. It also paved the way for me to feel confident about coordinating a small ebook of my own.

Gavin Heaton in Australia and Drew McLellan in the US published this book with all proceeds going to Variety, the children’s charity. Thanks to Gavin Heaton, The Age of Conversation 2 – Why Don’t They Get It? is now on Amazon. It was originally for sale on lulu.com (along with the original, which is also worth a read.)

Chapters include:

Manifestos – Declarations, up front, on the Age of Conversation. Why don’t people get it? What about companies? Where are things going? What can you help clarify?

Keeping Secrets in the Age of Conversation – With everyone talking so much, why do we need secrets? What is the role of privacy? What about different personas and identities? Why don’t consumers understand that their online conversations are tracked and can come back to haunt them?

Moving from Conversation to Action – Talk is cheap, or so they say. What are the practical steps that businesses and brands can take to move from conversation to something more valuable to their business? And if it is so easy, why don’t they just do it?

The Accidental Marketer – People “fall into” marketing. They may study and qualify in a different discipline but somehow find themselves in marketing and advertising. What is the attraction? Or…have you known a company or brand who just seemed to naturally fall into marketing success? How do you think that happened?

A New Brand of Creative – With the changes in the way that people communicate and collaborate online, marketing and advertising companies are needing to reach out and work with a new type of creative team. What do these “creatives” look like. What are their skills? Why do they evangelize digital and new media? And what are the challenges that they face?

My Marketing Tragedy – A topic only for the brave … Do you know a project that failed? Was it yours? What prevented success? What worked? And most importantly, what did you learn? Who didn’t “get it” — was it your client, your boss, the board, or (dare we ask) you?

Business Model Evolution – Just as the markets and people are changing, so too are the business models around both clients and agencies. What is your take on this? What is working and what is not? Where will things go? What happens if an agency doesn’t “get it”. How do you measure “it” … and where will things go?

Life in the Conversation Lane — Bringing it all back to the individual – how is life in a digitally connected, social world impacting our lives? What is the personal cost and what is the attraction? Is there a balance or are we just kidding ourselves?

I’m so grateful that Gavin and Drew made the effort to create this book, and that I participated in the creation of this book. Have you been involved in a collaborative project? What were the results?

A little shift in direction

Published April 8, 2009 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
Tags: blogging, communication, connecting, creating, marketing, soa

You might have noticed I changed roles over the last week (hence this little corner of cyberspace has been a little neglected!) I have moved out of my role with HCM consulting after nearly eight years, three babies and loads of learning, to pursue a new challenge. I’m happy to say I have joined the IBM marketing team in Asia Pacific to help communicate the SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) message. It’s not a complete shift from the Learning space for me – I will still be helping with the growth of a community, there will be opportunities to educate people about social media, and I get to sharpen my communication skills and learn more about marketing! I’m thrilled to be joining such a great team, continuing in a part time role with great work/life balance benefits also (can you tell I am a little bit excited?!)

Obviously my focus will be a little different, but I will continue to share some of the common threads between marketing and learning here on Wonderwebby, sharing random ramblings about interesting we can communicate, create and connect! I look forward to some great conversations with you.

connect the dots 1by Dutchtl

connecting the dots 2

connect the dots 3 by

Connect the dots 4 by SlipStream

(images taken from Wreck this Journal project by Keri Smith)

Events, Enablement and Informal Learning

Published October 27, 2008 web 2.0 2 Comments
Tags: collaboration, connecting, connection, enablement, enterprise, enterprise 2.0, events, facilitation, IBM, melbourne uni, organisation, physical events, purpose, segmentation, social computing guidelines, virtual, web 2.0

Coming up on the 18th of November, Melbourne Uni and IBM will be hosting a public forum to discuss the project Virtual and Physical Spaces as Places for Informal Learning . It was great to be invited to participate in this project along with around 30 others from Melbourne Uni, IBM and a number of different organisations. Our working party’s theme was segmentation – for instance, how do you integrate and connect different segments whilst helping them to reserve their unique attributes and identities? These are a few of my own personal observations & contribution to this collaborative project.

connecting a distributed workforce - originally uploaded by kolya

Physical spaces within large enterprises like IBM transforming to meet the changing demands of an increased mobile workforce. As employees work from home more often, or have a laptop and work on–site with their customer – they are less likely to have a permanent desk in the office. Groups of peers may be geographically dispersed. Additional demands in large global enterprises include:

Global workforce
Maturing workforce & retirees
Gen Y attrition and retention

The greater sense of connectedness can occur through online communities. Individuals are enabled through access to social computing. They can create personal profiles on social networks and use social media to share and connect with others around the globe – behind the firewall and in the public domain.

Events provide opportunities for people from different teams and lines of business to connect. Virtual events, competitions and challenges give individuals the opportunity to innovate and use their skills. Online communities become a place for connection across the company. Communities may be based upon business unit, special interest groups, projects, skills or personal interests.

Online communities are enhanced with access to social media and social networking sites. For instance Secondlife, Facebook, YouTube, Podcasting, Twitter, Ning communities, Flickr, blogging, social bookmarking, BluePages and Fringe+1

Three key considerations for addressing the issue of segmentation:

Purpose. Workplace example – IBM Values, Innovation Jam events, Beehive (Internal Facebook) Events, Group projects.

Decide on the types of initiatives for individuals, groups and larger events
Determine the benefits to the organisation and the individuals
Consider including strategic organisational issues and challenges for collaboration

Enablement. Workplace example – IBM Social Computing Guidelines. Give people access to the tools and and provide guidelines.

Provide the tools/websites/learning environments
Provide education “what’s in it for me?”
Promote awareness

Facilitation. Workplace example – Voluntary social computing ambassador roles. Departments host and facilitate virtual and physical events.

Nominate individuals as advocates and facilitators
Decide on events
Measure success of events

What do you think about the need for the creation of physical and virtual events, enablement and facilitation to connect segments in an organisation?

Taking innovation to the streets

Published August 27, 2008 inspiration , non profit , web 2.0 4 Comments
Tags: Anita Pahor, charity, community, global, Global Kids Digital Media Initiative, innovation, marketing, non profits, not for profits, Opportunity International, social causes, social media, technology, web 2.0

Last year when I returned to work after parental leave, I had a real desire to get involved with innovative projects making a difference. My very first post on this blog mentioned the Global Kids Digital Media initiativ e who engage urban youth “in socially dynamic, content-rich learning experiences” (like Secondlife)”to educate youth about critical international and public policy issues and “…” opportunities for civic and global engagement.”

Last week I had the pleasure of attending a women’s breakfast where Anita Pahor, Marketing and Donor Services Director at Opportunity International and Women’s Opportunity National Director, spoke about her passion to help those living in poverty. I think her stories and enthusiasm made an impact on every person in the room. It’s difficult to leave a breakfast like that without giving some thought to your own capacity to make a difference. Sometimes it’s a matter of just stepping out and using what skills you have – one step at a time.

Anita’s speech reminded me of some innovative social projects I discovered in the last year. Blogging introduced me to the Age of Conversation project which I have previously mentioned. Proceeds for every book you purchase goes to Variety, the children’s charity.

At work I discovered projects like the World Community Grid where your PC idle time is used to assist projects that benefit humanity. I also found a group of people around the world working on the World Development Initiative and local team members from IBM, World Vision and RMIT Masters students working on mobile solutions.

I discovered quite a few social media for non-profit bloggers including Beth Kanter. There is lots to look at over at the Carnival of Non-Profit Consultants. Chris Brogan also put together a post this week on solving some real world problems with some good links and comments including feedback that some social networks tend to focus on their own growth – and that when social media takes innovation to the streets, we should consider long term, sustainable impact.

So where does that leave you and me? I know I can do more. It doesn’t have to take hours of my week or huge financial commitments, but it starts by making time, investigation, connecting with people and causes that I want to support, sharing ideas and thinking of ways to bring social media community and marketing gold to see social good. As I said…one step at a time

What has inspired you lately? Do you have a desire to make a difference?

Specialist roles for social media wiz kids

Published June 29, 2008 web 2.0 5 Comments
Tags: blogger, blogging, career, dogear nation, education, employment, future, industry, jobs, learning, media, roles, social media, social media expert, specialist, virtual worlds

Love blogging? Find yourself addicted to your RSS reader, creating content or having conversations with your global network at odd hours of the day or night? Perhaps you are so passionate about social media that you are thinking you want to work in the area. “I want to be a social media specialist“, you cry.

REWIND. I’ve met plenty of people in the past who wanted to work in traditional media, including myself. But if you want to stand out in the industry and position yourself as an expert, you should consider the unique experience and skills only you could bring to a job.

PAUSE. If you seem to be spending all of your time just trying to keep up with the shiny new things, pause for a second. If you could have a job in social media, what could you bring to the role to make it special?

FAST FORWARD. Many people are entering the workforce with “social media skills“and social media roles are still being defined and emerging. Take a peek at Jeremiah Owyang’s list of social media strategists and community managers to get an idea of the companies and roles currently filled in this space.

A recent post in Conversations matter breaks it down to several roles you could consider, including Social Media Strategist, Community Manager, Social Site Management, Blogging, Monitoring, and Web Innovations.

In addition, what about specialising in existing industries or roles aligned to social media?

Industry: Is there a particular industry you want to align yourself with? Eg telecommunications, accounting, not-for-profit sector, government, education, small to medium business, etc.

Demographic: Are you interested in enterprise-wide adoption of social media or do you prefer to work with individuals in small groups?

B2B and P2P: For instance, do you have a special interest in social lending?

Collaboration: Do you have a passion for collaboration and storytelling? Do you enjoy the conversation? Are you passionate about community?

HR, Change and Training. Do you have an appreciation for organisational change, HR, incentives, training, mentoring, business transformation, morale and productivity?

Social. Is your special interest in psychology or therapy?

Knowledge and Information. Are you experienced in knowledge management and intellectual capital?

Communications. Does the area of communication, marketing, PR, or branding appeal to you?

Technical, Programming genius? IT fanatic? Coding legend?

Mobile: Do you love all things mobile, are you crazy about your mobile phone or iPod Touch?

Media and design: Perhaps you like to create -you are a design superstar with a real zeal for creating beautiful things? Do you love to blog, make podcasts, animations or videos? Is your interest in the area of usability and user experience and information design?

Research and future trends: Maybe you like the area of business intelligence, analysis and research? Or are you a futurist interested in emerging trends? Innovation junkie?

And of course there is also the area of virtual worlds -which you could possibly break down to some of the above roles and skills..probably another post altogether.

So when you say you want to work in social media – where do you see yourself?

PLAY. Regardless of where you want to position yourself in social media in the future, you can make a difference where you are right now, by sharing what you already know. In addition, how can you build up a core competency and weave social media goodness into it?

This is by no means an exhaustive list or breakdown of roles, and some intersect and overlap. What would you add to this list?

What makes a company great?

Published June 25, 2008 brand 7 Comments
Tags: brand, communications, companies, greatness, IBM, leadership, marketing, respect, work

What makes a company respected, special or important? Any ideas? If you’re up for a challenge – please answer the following three questions this week. I’ll be relaying the most informative answers back to IBM’s global marketing and communications group, who are interested in knowing your thoughts. Please leave your name, position and company details if you can (or email jasmin at wonderwebby dot com) and feel free to use video or other media to respond I look forward to reading the responses!

1. What company or companies do you most respect? Why? What makes them special and different from others?

2. Has “what’s important” changed over time? Did you respect different companies in the past? Why? What has changed?

3. What makes a company great? What characteristics are most important? How would you describe a truly great company?

Update: More opportunities to share your impressions of IBM over here on LinkedIn - and your experience at IBM overe here on the Greater IBM Connection

Narrative Therapy

Published May 23, 2008 creative therapy , non profit , web 2.0 5 Comments
Tags: art, art therapy, charity, expression, expression therapy, joanna young, madaboutart, media, narrative therapy, social media

Have you heard about narrative therapy before? I think it’s wonderful the way art and media can play a role in therapy, the way we express ourselves and communicate.
Joanna Young, who has a great blog with helpful writing advice, recently posted about MADaboutART
From their site:

MADaboutART’s HIV and empowerment programme for children and young people uses art-based and narrative therapy interventions and experiential learning to build knowledge, skills and confidence. We have established a purpose-built arts and education centre at our base in Nekkies, a township outside Knysna in the Western Cape of South Africa where we run after-schools MAD clubs where children aged 10 upwards can learn about HIV and AIDS and how to protect themselves in a fun and safe environment. We also undertake outreach work with affected and vulnerable populations, both directly and by training teachers and youth workers. We collaborate with libraries and art galleries to create HIV art competitions and community awareness exhibitions. We have just begun our first programme with pre-school children.

You can download Joanna’s Powerful Writing PDF (featuring a quote by yours truly) and make a donation to MadAbout Art on her blog post.

Storytelling is so powerful, isn’t it? So I wonder if blogging, tweeting and putting photos on Flickr counts as therapy?

Collaboration Guidelines

Published May 14, 2008 web 2.0 5 Comments
Tags: andy piper, content, facebook, george faulkner, guidelines, IBM, intranet, self publishing, social, social media, social networking, twitter, web 2.0

Two of my blogging colleagues Andy Piper and George Faulkner recently pointed out that IBM’s social computing guidelines have been published and now Sun’s guidelines on public discourse has been updated.

Give people access. Create a great company culture. Guide them.

As George Faulkner says, “This was a fantastic collaborative effort and the result is, in my mind, a reflection of some forward thinking. IBMers are on Facebook, Orkut, MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc, and are on a wide variety of internal tools as well, publishing at rapid pace. Having a clear and understandable set of guidelines will only help us all to understand this new freedom as we connect with the world.”

Image courtesy of The Paper Boat

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