Group items tagged

Adam Rogers, Science, Wired, 8.6.15, writes about how the Google tanking algorithm of positive and negative stories on the candidates could affect major elections 25% of the timer. This is the tyranny of the algorithm. They tested the impact in mock voter labs before elections in Australia and India where the impact of feeding positive stories about a candidate first shaped voters decisions between 24 and 72 percent of the time with certain voter groups. Voters in towns in the US that watch a local a Fox channel vote more conservatively because of recency and placement issues. While the numbers in real live do not add up to the impact achieved in the test research, when elections are decided by 1 or 2 percentage points, it's enough to turn the tide in favor of a candidate.

by Seth Kahan, April 12, 2013, Fast company 1. fundamental model of membership is in question ...What is membership turning into? Too early to tell. Engaged action is one candidate. This is the anticipated, intentional, collective behavior of a group. 2. Adoption of private sector business practices ...Pursuing the bottomline in tough market conditions seems like a no-brainer, but the overall impact is not necessarily what is desired for a mission driven organization, shifting priorities away from impact and member value. 3. Talent ...continuous, aggressive professional development is an organizational asset only in some associations. This is changing. It means less certainty for employees while it opens up new territory for innovation and expansion of the organization. 4. Competitive intelligence ...many associations are doing negligible work on behalf of their mission. Prices for gathering intelligence are plummeting. Often it is only the CEO who actively searches for new information and connects the dots for organizational strategy. Expect this to change 5. Disruption of members' business Savvy associations leaders are looking around the curve, putting the puzzle together for members. This means going beyond providing information and ata. Instead it means compiling, analyzing, distilling and communicating useful knowledge that impacts members' lives. ???It is not uncommon to see associations beefing up their subject matter experts these days because members need it in a disruptive economy. 6. Driving uptake in a competitive world ...each association owned a small monopoly, providing the single best resource to everyone in their field. No more. With the advent of 24/7 interconnectivity, anyone can set up shop and begin serving your members.

An amazing project that utilizes gaming, social media, digital badging, and virtual worlds as methods to promote digital literacy to youth in high risk areas. These after-school programs are designed to "Global Kids believes that youth be not merely critical consumers but active producers of digital media". Kids produce games on social issues impacting them (such as neighborhood violence or racial intolerance) that are designed to teach others about not just about the issue but how it feels to be impacted by the issue.

The Global Kids definition of leadership is very in tune with what we have been trying to convey, I think. Here is there goal statement: "The Global Kids Online Leadership Program (OLP) integrates international and public policy issues into digital media programs to encourage digital literacy and technical competency, foster global awareness, promote civic participation and develop 21st Century skills. OLP was created in 2000 to bring new media into Global Kids' after school programs, introduce these programs into online communities, and explore how the combination of the two could develop 21st Century Learning Skills. Through programs utilizing video games, virtual worlds, social media, and other forms of participatory media, youth involved in our programs now have the opportunity to have their voices heard and make a global impact in ways that were previously unimaginable."

Emerging Ed Tech site with blog on how MOOCs will impact the future of college education, K. Walsh, April 25, 2012

Blog post by Ron Carlee, October 25, 2011, on Societal Impacts of Digital Exclusion, TechSoup for Libraries. He was "asked to comment on the importance of digital technologies from the perspective of local govenrments." Great quote for connected learning value. See cost proposition below: This increased societal connectiveness and awareness, however, is only available if one is connected. If you're not connected, you're really not connected. In an earlier day, we could legitimately debate the importance of a digital divide relative to other public priorities. In its infancy, informational technology was interesting and useful, but was it truly essential for everyone all the time? This is no longer a credible question. Without digital connectivity in the 21st century, people will earn less, pay more for the things they buy, live life with fewer personal connections, and they will not be exposed to virtual worlds of vast knowledge, art, and even frivolity. If we really care about having successful communities of educated people who can compete in a global economy, who are entrepreneurial and creative, if we really want people to connect with one another, if we want our institutions to connect with the people they serve, if we want a sustainable world that improves the lives of all people, then we must ask the question: can any community afford involuntary, digital exclusion for any of its residents?

"Yet with the 2016 elections looming and a spirit of economic populism spreading throughout the nation, that view of Occupy's impact is changing. Inequality and the wealth gap are now core tenets of the Democratic platform, providing a frame for other measurable gains spurred by Occupy. The camps may be gone and Occupy may no longer be visible on the streets, but the gulf between the haves and the have-nots is still there, and growing. What appeared to be a passing phenomenon of protest now looks like the future of U.S. political debate, heralded by tangible policy wins and the new era of activist movements Occupy inaugurated." Article on the lasting impact of Occupy Wall Street on today's political, social, and environmental debates in this country and abroad.

Impact of the internet of things - sensors and actuators connected by networks are replacing humans but have the potential to economic impact of $3.9 trillion to $11.1 trillion a year by 2025 according to this McKinsey and Company report. Further evidence that automation is replacing humans at an ever increasing rate.

Volume XI, Number 4, Winter 2005/2006, Evaluation Exchange newsletter, Harvard Family Research Project, Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Article by Christine Porath, June 20, 2015, NYT on rudeness and bad behavior and its impact on us. Has two lists: Boors in the Workplace, Behaviors that we admit to Also has paragraph on impact of multitasking and too much technology

"What You'll Learn: In this highly interactive three-day workshop, we'll take a deep dive into transformative leadership for social change. Employing the framework if "I/We/It" What you'll learn: Why mindfulness is a critical leadership skill How to shift from "ego" to "eco" or system-awareness The difference between organizational and network leadership How to identify your allies, build relationships, and map your network What "systems-change" is, and how to scale social impact   Why design-thinking is a critical skill for change-makers Case-studies of organizations and networks that have achieved impact at scale "

Research study by Gloria Mark, Stephen Voida, and Armand Cardeno, 2012 on impact of work with/without email "ABSTRACT We report on an empirical study where we cut off email usage for five workdays for 13 information workers in an organization. We employed both quantitative measures such as computer log data and ethnographic methods to compare a baseline condition (normal email usage) with our experimental manipulation (email cutoff). Our results show that without email, people multitasked less and had a longer task focus, as measured by a lower frequency of shifting between windows and a longer duration of time spent working in each computer window. Further, we directly measured stress using wearable heart rate monitors and found that stress, as measured by heart rate variability, was lower without email. Interview data were consistent with our quantitative measures, as participants reported being able to focus more on their tasks. We discuss the implications for managing email better in organizations" CONCLUSIONS Our study has shown that there are benefits to not being continually connected by email. Without email, our informants focused longer on their tasks, multitasked less, and had lower stress. It is an open question to what extent the effects we found in our study might be sustainable. How the benefits of reduced email usage might outweigh the known benefits of email in reaching larger numbers of people rapidly with information is not clear. What our study suggests is that the tradeoffs among email usage, work pace, stress, and collaboration need to be more closely explored. There will always be new "zombies" lurking with advances in information technology, and we must continue to be vigilant in assessing the human costs that are incurred when these advances are adopted in the workplace.

Where and with whom is WLS a trim tab? What impact are we having? FranklinCovey Blog, August 28, 2009

article by Jayne Cravens, February 20, 2015 on virtual volunteering moving from asynchronous to synchronous interactions, virtual identities including pictures, lack of recognition by some nonprofits of how they are using virtual volunteers.

Social media's erosion of ability to concentrate and investigate in-depth, based in part on Nicholas Carr's book vs. Stephen Johnson's take on new technology's impact, relates to attention--focusing

Slideshare program by Stefanos Karagos, March 13, 2013, on impact of visual content on people making decisions and 7 motivations for deciding. Plus three F rule: For them, Funtastic, and Fuckingawesome.

Blog post by William Bowen, March 25, 2013, on movement towards online education. He would like more hard evidence to understand impact/success among other effects, tool kits (platforms), new mind-set to attempt online to reduce costs without adversely affecting educational outcomes, what we must retain in terms of central aspects of life on campus such as "minds rubbing against minds." Excerpts: "My plea is for the adoption of a portfolio approach to curricular development that provides a calibrated mix of instructional styles." ... "Their students, along with others of their generation, will expect to use digital resources-and to be trained in their use. And as technologies grow increasingly sophisticated, and we learn more about how students learn and what pedagogical methods work best in various fields, even top-tier institutions will stand to gain from the use of such technologies to improve student learning." Really like this comment for value of MOOCs for post-college graduates: "A quibble. I am intrigued by your comment about "minds rubbing against minds." While there is undeniable worthiness of the thought inside academic communities perhaps underestimated is the lack of such friction after graduation and how MOOCs can provide opportunities outside the alma maternal environments. To take courses at the local U. costs both in inconvenience of scheduling, transportation and monetary costs equivalent to constantly having a new Hyundai. Those requirements wind up as being unreasonable. Since January I have had the great pleasure of thinking about the thoughts of Dave Ward and colleagues from the University of Edinburgh and arguing about points in the forums. More recently, Michael Sandel on Justice from Boston. These opportunities are enormously better than nothing at all, clearly benefiting myself and probably also friends, colleagues and civil society. While these experiences do not provide the intensity of a post seminar argument in the Ree

Very interesting infographic on how integrating use of twitter and facebook greatly increases giving to nonprofits during the last three years, 2010, 2011, and 2012.

Video on YouTube, posted May 9, 2013. "Style and aesthetics cannot rescue failed content." "Google Maps are visualization" helping people do something. "History of visualizing data is history of science" Not an aerie-faerie "Three things to inform your design--what you have to say and communicate, reader is not you and they will come with their own bias and assumptions, and data itself and what it has to say." Can communicate a lot of information very quickly--emotional impact, react to aesthetics of piece, presenting information in visual format is fastest way for them to engage with information." "Successful infographic tells a story. "Hero is one key element of piece." "Take complicated data and convert to something simple. Hours to seconds..." "Data are measurements of something" "Revelation--show us something we haven't seen before"

Interesting assessment of growth, # of users, and ROI in 2012 for Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, and LinkedIn and where each is going in 2013. Impact for Studio--looks like Twitter is strong, and LinkedIn is up and coming?

Blog post at P2PU, 2.13.13, that references MIT Media Lab's indicators for measuring success--might they apply to WLStudio? See excerpt below. "Finding the Right Metrics It can be easier to think about success in terms of indicators. High-level indicators are essentially aggregates of measurements that give you a quick indication of whether or not the organization is on target with its goals and will allow us to map all projects and initiatives to the objectives - bearing in mind that most projects don't fit nicely into a single goal or objective, but it's helpful to know how each project is contributing to the overall goals of the organisation. MIT Media Lab uses three indicators when they measure success: Uniqueness - have we done something new that helps the field? Impact - Have we reached people? Magic - Did we create epiphanies and enable serendipity? "