Group items tagged

How twitter was used to backchannel a conference.

Excellent overview from Jeremiah about the use of twiter to backchannel at a conference. Backchanneling is something I think that is very important, but there is very definitely a best practice. Here were my comments to Jeremiah: "I am a classroom teacher and LOVE the backchannel (they are great for test reviews -- like group notes and more) and won't do a conference presentation without one, that being said, I wouldn't use twitter for it. Like you said, many people don't use twitter or get it. I like to create a "backchannel room" so that it is archived and recruit ahead of time at least two people: 1) A backchannel "moderator" - they answer questions and I call on them several times to ask for their summary of what is going on in the backchannel (this is when I'm the main presenter) 2) A google jockey -- they drop the links I'm talking about in the backchannel chat. I also like to ask the people in the backchannel to share best practice and what they are doing. I've had people comment that the one hour with a backchannel and me presenting was more meaningful than a whole day at a conference. (More compliments to the backchannel, I'm sure.) I've seen backchannels handled very poorly and it was TERRIBLE. It was chaos. And actually downright rude to the speaker. (More like backstabbing than backchanneling.) I've also seen it used well and it was incredible! The archiving of the backchannel gave me rich links as a presenter and participant AND also feedback on the session which I referred to later as the presenter. The backchannel is great -- I just like to use a backchannel ROOM especially for the session (inviting "friends" from around the world who are also watching on ustream) -- and then creating an archived copy of it. I think backchannels are very important and you've hit on the core of what is happening in the evolution of professional development and conferences. "

Business people and management should read this article about the transformation of business by using workplace communities. "Workplace communities are designed to solve workplace-related challenges" -- they focus on tasks. I would find it interesting to see a business REALLY use technology to change things. Having the business in a business network (OK a NING) and let people tag their posts with the business related PROBLEMS they are having and blog, video, or photograph it-- the tag cloud would tell the business IMMEDIATELY what the problems are in the company. The problem with this model is that there are few corporate executives who REALLY want to know the problems within their organizations. They don't want to be problem solvers, just opportunity creators. However, when managers open their eyes (and I'm a former General Manager myself) and see that two things give business opportunity: problem solving and innovation. And they are directly related. True innovation solves problems. Read this article and think about how you may solve problems using the networks you may now create. If you don't want everyone to know, keep it private and only allow people in your company in.

Important article about why businesses need to change.

NBC News and MSNBC.com will provide political news and other content to social networking site MySpace.

The age group that makes use of the likes of MySpace are also getting more involved in teh political process

Some backlash against e-mail is beginning to be seen as people realize that the inundations of e-mail is leaving to innefficiency. (This is also true for educational organizations -- too much productivity is being lost in email when we should be creating those reports using wikis and reflecting using blogs.) This lets one see how businesses are realizing that moving from e-mail collaboration to global collaboration using blogs and wikis may just be more efficient - -there are some new studies showing this as well.

This lets one see how businesses are realizing that moving from e-mail collaboration to global collaboration using blogs and wikis may just be more efficient - -there are some new studies showing this as well.

When one sees cartoons popping up like this, one can tell that blogging is becoming an issue that companies are grappling with. Many do not understand the "mystery" of blogs and how to drive traffic.

This humorous cartoon shows how companies are struggling with blogs and how they work.

Microsoft continues to attempt to negotiate with Yahoo -- this is an important piece of information to take a look at for the horizon project students -- Microsoft + Yahoo = A viable competitor for google? Is Google hurting Microsoft that much? These are things to look at as you review emerging trends.

The Microsoft + Yahoo collaborations and their competition with Google are important trends for the government_business groups to understand and review.

We live in a wireless world. Garry Barker meets a man whose world is more wireless than most.

Good article that explains the different wireless protocols used in mostly layman's terminology. Could create some ideas for a multi-media artifact?

Lines stretched for blocks outside phone stores Monday as ordinary Cubans were allowed to sign up for cellular phone service for the first time.

Open source now has a new meaning -- the traditional term has meant "open source software" but now, increasingly it is meaning "open source information" -- as US spy agencies are talking about the use of more open source information, or information taken from openly available and free sources on the Internet. As we teach new terminology and how to understand the words that make our world meaningful, it is increasingly important to teach students to watch and understand the evolution of language. This is an excellent case study. This is also an important term and article to be reviewed by students involved in the Horizon project that are analyzing government trends and our changing world.

This new term of open source information is a very important emerging trend that should be included in the subgroup of those analyzing government information and trends.

This is an excellent article in education week discussing the copyright issues and how it is causing problems in schools with digital storytelling and video making as part of their work. Some recent court decision strike fear in the heart of teachers.

This is an important overview to read to understand copyright issues as they relate to digital storytelling and the classroom.

Look at how diigo has propagated through the internet through "word of tweet" (from twitter.)

I find this fascinating that diigo has made the "top twitter" cloud. There are certainly a lot of people following it. They are very responsive and have done a great job. They deserve it. As Horizon looks at collaboration and mashups, Diigo is something that the students will want to look at, both as a service AND at the way it has spread like wildfire, through basically "word of tweet."

This incredible chart says it all about the importance of wiki collaboration. This should also be a message to bloated bureaucracies looking to squeeze that last bit of efficiency out of already overworked staff. This is an important chart for horizon project students to include, I believe.

this is a very important graphic for including in the Horizon Project material.

This is an example of how video sharing sites like youtube are playing a role in the current US political election. This Hilliary Clinton video is going through youtube and the evening news as well.