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  • Morgan 1:34 pm on December 9, 2009 Permalink | Reply  

    December #4change Chat: Education 

    About This Chat

    Education and it’s discontents are being changed by new ways of learning – much of it by new ways of creating, sharing and validating information and knowledge online.  Tools and methods are being customized, adapted and remixed for various educational contexts.  Classrooms are no longer bound by geography.  But there are still barriers, still challenges – some of which we may not be able to predict.  How can we attend to these?

    This chat will cover the changing role(s) of teachers, institutions and learners – and how they are affected and transformed by new/social media.

    Details

    • Date: December, 10th 2009
    • When: 2 – 4 pm US Pacific Time, 5 – 7 pm US Eastern Time, 10pm – 12am London, UK (Late!)
    • Where: Twitter (search for #4Change)
    • Topic: Education: How is social/new media affecting the future of education?

    Starter questions

    Below, are some starter questions for our chat.  Have another question not attended to below?  Leave a comment below and tag it with #4change (there’ll be an option to Tweet it out)

    • Are classrooms relevant anymore?
    • How can we support the role of educators?
    • What happens when education becomes decentralized?
    • What role does gaming play in education?
    • How can we leverage the stability of traditional institutions while encouraging the adaptability of new networks?
    • How can we reconcile extreme diversity with coherent and appropriate learning communities?

    Join the Conversation!

    1. If you want to contribute to the conversation, you’ll need to have a twitter account (it’s free).
    2. To follow the conversation (whether you are planning to contribute or not), use http://search.twitter.com or another application to search on Twitter for #4Change
    3. Jump in to the conversation by adding #4Change to your Twitter message
    4. Feeling brave? Check out TweetChat – it’s a great application that integrates with your Twitter account and makes chats more fun! You can turn it off after the chat.

    Rules for #4Change Chat

    1. #4Change will be structured around a series of questions which all participants can respond to. Send your questions to @memeshift to have them considered.
    2. Introduce yourself in 1 tweet at the start or when you join.
    3. Stay on topic!
    4. Be cool.

    Resources

    Below are some great places to draw from before, during and after our chat!

    1. Resilient School Communities
    2. Amplified Educators and Learners
    3. A Global Learning Economy
    4. Design as Philosophy
    5. Contested Authorities
    6. Diversifying Learning Geographies: Deserts and Oases

    Join us for the chat this Thursday – I look forward to discussing the role social media (and teachers!) can play in shaping the future of education.

     

    • Morgan Sully 5:33 pm on December 10, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Report back on December #4change chat: Feel free to add in your own takeaways from today!

      In attendance: @timjeffries, @zerostrategist, @amysampleward, @ehon, @tomjd, @danmcquillan

      Here's some of my takeaways/quotes and who said them:

      @timjeffries
      I think classrooms have a place still, we use them as a safe space to debrief what we've learnt out in the city.
      if you don't know what ur doing with tech or don't believe what you are teaching, they'll know
      Students know that teachers don't know everything (who possibly could?). So why pretend? Learn together
      I think integrity is really important. Particularly teenagers have great bullshit detectors.

      @zerostrategist
      think when education becomes more decentralized, it becomes more accessible to other people who normally can't/don't participate
      power shifts to the students, it reemphasises relationships in learning.
      web 2.0 presents a unique opportunity to humanize teachers & thus make materials more accessible to students
      While some need to write more to learn, others need to listen, or see or apply the material in different settings.
      Also remember every individual student has their own learning style, some based on different combos of experience

      @ehon
      tailored to small niche rather than big generalise lecture. creates more diversity, build more individual potentials.
      i think the shift is for students to learn to do – rather than to learn 'about'.
      physical attendance at lectures is still deem important to traditional academics.
      academics reported easier to reach n engage students but most academics couldnt be bothered to learn to use it
      great n quick way of sharing resources but mixed rxns. Some students don't like academics access their private life.

      @tomjd
      here's some great examples of using cell phones for literacy http://bit.ly/503IXF. Mobile + social tech critical 2 edu

      @socialedge
      Classrooms key @ Digital StudyHall video tech extend reach of skilled teachers into underprivileged classrooms http://bit.ly/8AV8Oc
      No classroom @ Khan Academy-900 videos YouTube-w/6 million views-arithmetic to calculus, chemistry, physics http://bit.ly/8Kf4cR

      @memeshift
      Educator's job is to shed light on the learning goal, but encourage individual paths to that.
      brilliant example on teaching kids about the internet #twitterkids http://bit.ly/6dAfd1

      If you've got any others, feel free to reply to this comment.

    • Morgan Sully 12:33 am on December 11, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Report back on December #4change chat: Feel free to add in your own takeaways from today!

      In attendance: @timjeffries, @zerostrategist, @amysampleward, @ehon, @tomjd, @danmcquillan

      Here's some of my takeaways/quotes and who said them:

      @timjeffries
      I think classrooms have a place still, we use them as a safe space to debrief what we've learnt out in the city.
      if you don't know what ur doing with tech or don't believe what you are teaching, they'll know
      Students know that teachers don't know everything (who possibly could?). So why pretend? Learn together
      I think integrity is really important. Particularly teenagers have great bullshit detectors.

      @zerostrategist
      think when education becomes more decentralized, it becomes more accessible to other people who normally can't/don't participate
      power shifts to the students, it reemphasises relationships in learning.
      web 2.0 presents a unique opportunity to humanize teachers & thus make materials more accessible to students
      While some need to write more to learn, others need to listen, or see or apply the material in different settings.
      Also remember every individual student has their own learning style, some based on different combos of experience

      @ehon
      tailored to small niche rather than big generalise lecture. creates more diversity, build more individual potentials.
      i think the shift is for students to learn to do – rather than to learn 'about'.
      physical attendance at lectures is still deem important to traditional academics.
      academics reported easier to reach n engage students but most academics couldnt be bothered to learn to use it
      great n quick way of sharing resources but mixed rxns. Some students don't like academics access their private life.

      @tomjd
      here's some great examples of using cell phones for literacy http://bit.ly/503IXF. Mobile + social tech critical 2 edu

      @socialedge
      Classrooms key @ Digital StudyHall video tech extend reach of skilled teachers into underprivileged classrooms http://bit.ly/8AV8Oc
      No classroom @ Khan Academy-900 videos YouTube-w/6 million views-arithmetic to calculus, chemistry, physics http://bit.ly/8Kf4cR

      @memeshift
      Educator's job is to shed light on the learning goal, but encourage individual paths to that.
      brilliant example on teaching kids about the internet #twitterkids http://bit.ly/6dAfd1

      If you've got any others, feel free to reply to this comment.

  • Natasha 3:10 pm on November 2, 2009 Permalink | Reply  

    Volunteering #4change 

    Social media and new technology are changing the way we recruit and manage volunteers.  They’re also changing how we define the concept of volunteering.  New forms of participation such as micro-volunteering, and web-generated events such as Twestival, are changing the way people are coming together to raise funds, donate their time and make a difference in their local and global community.

    Our next #4change chat, on Thursday 12 November, will look at how the volunteering landscape is changing.  Join us for a global conversation, sharing ideas, best practice, links and resources.

    How to join the chat

    1. If you want to contribute to the conversation, you’ll need to have a Twitter account (it’s free).
    2. To follow the conversation (whether you are planning to contribute or not), use  http://search.twitter.com/ or another application to search on Twitter for “#4Change”
    3. Jump in to the conversation by adding “#4Change” (without the “”) to your Twitter message
    4. Feeling brave? Check out TweetChat – it’s a great application that integrates with your Twitter account and makes chats more fun! You can turn it off after the chat.

    Rules for #4Change chat

    1. #4Change will be structured around a series of questions which all participants can respond to. Send your questions to @tashjudd or post them below to have them considered.
    2. Introduce yourself in 1 tweet at the start or when you join.
    3. Stay on topic!
    4. Be cool.

    A few links

    How social media’s changing volunteering

    Blog: Brave New World for Volunteering
    Blog: Sacrifice, optional and about other people (defining volunteering) 
    Blog: The Extraordinaries: Will micro-volunteering work?
    Article: NetSquared and the new wave of online volunteering

    Recruiting volunteers online

    VolunteerMatch
    Do-it
    All for Good

    A few interesting volunteering and participation initiatives

    The Extraordinaries
    Virtual volunteering
    Junction49
    Urbantastic
    Twestival

    Please comment below with other interesting links, case studies and questions you’d like to see raised during the chat.  Looking forward to seeing you all online on the 12th.

     

  • engagejoe 7:05 pm on October 6, 2009 Permalink | Reply  

    Next #4Change Twitter Chat: Social Media & the Climate Change Movement – Join Us! 

    Every month, a group called #4Change organizes open & lively conversations about how web-connected communities and our use of social media tools are helping to create change in the world. #4Change Chats are hosted on Twitter – Read “Join the Conversation” below for ways to jump into the discussion.

    The next #4change chat is this Thursday – we hope you can join us!

    Details:

    • Date: Oct, 8th
    • Where: Twitter (search for #4Change)
    • When: 2 – 4 pm US Pacific Time, 5 – 7 pm US Eastern Time, 10pm – 12am London, UK (Late!)
    • Topic: How does the web & social media change the way we address climate change?


    (Image from Blog Action Day - their topic this year is also climate change!)

    We are at a crucial moment in time for the climate movement (and all of humanity). World leaders are meeting in Copenhagen in December to draft the next major global climate treaty – and organizations, communities, and people from every corner of the planet are stepping up to make sure this treaty gets our planet back on a sustainable path. Copenhagen is a galvanizing force that’s driving a lot of innovations and experiments – which means there’s going to be lots to discuss! Many of the questions we explore will likely also be applicable to other movements.

    Starting the Conversations:

    Here are some questions to consider:

    • How does online discussion and networking connect with and support offline action?
    • How does the web change the way we organize for climate action? What are the key ways the game gets changed?
    • What role does new media & storytelling play in this space?
    • What are the impact of online petitions and how can they be most effective?
    • How can we help connect & empower the climate movement together using online tools? What technologies are both available & needed?
    • How can the web facilitate culture shifts? As network weavers, how can we faciitate culture shifts?
    • What are the top actions the social media community can take to join and support the climate movement?

    And here are some examples to consider:

    • TckTckTck, 350.org, Avaaz, 1Sky, Energy Action Coalition, many others – All wired organizations working to catalyze and inspire people and communities to come together and take action for the climate.
    • Project Survival – Seven new media teams, one for each continent, will report on the most compelling climate stories from around the world.
    • WiserEarth & WiserEarth API – Open database of over 100,000 environmental & social justice organizations anyone can search and webby folk can integrate into their site.

    Join the Conversation!

    1. If you want to contribute to the conversation, you’ll need to have a twitter account (it’s free).
    2. To follow the conversation (whether you are planning to contribute or not), use http://search.twitter.com or another application to search on Twitter for “#4Change”
    3. Jump in to the conversation by adding “#4Change” (without the “”) to your Twitter message
    4. Feeling brave? Check out TweetChat – it’s a great application that integrates with your Twitter account and makes chats more fun! You can turn it off after the chat.

    Rules for #4Change Chat

    1. #4Change will be structured around a series of questions which all participants can respond to. Send your questions to @engagejoe to have them considered.
    2. Introduce yourself in 1 tweet at the start or when you join.
    3. Stay on topic!
    4. Be cool.

    Join us for the chat this Thursday – looking forward to discussing the role social media can play in creating a safe climate future!

     

    • carolgregor 12:28 pm on October 7, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      CarolGregor.com,
      Builder, designer, writer, film maker
      What if the solutions we seek are impossible for only one reason? What if it is simple to accomplish your goals if there are different tools used in analyzing the problem?
      What if how we learn is the problem, not our ability to solve the problem?
      It is not what we know but how we see our connection that holds the solutions.
      Socrates”Man is the measure of all things”

    • Morgan Sully 1:41 am on November 15, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      I'm helping environmental activist learn how to make media tomorrow that can be distributed online. Our main question is: how do we connect local stories to national stories having to do with environmental justice.

      Maps seem to be a great tool for visualizing these networks of collaborations, partnerships ans stories… Here's my link. Wish me luck!

      http://curiousworks.allaroundyou.com.au/2009/11…

    • oleander 2:16 am on February 8, 2010 Permalink | Reply

      I am delighted to join this chat. Being a conservationist and a great lover of the outdoors, I am constantly looking for forums or social networking sites where I can learn more about our planet and meet interesting people. I am pretty sure this site will not disappoint.

    • nature essays 9:16 am on February 8, 2010 Permalink | Reply

      I am delighted to join this chat. Being a conservationist and a great lover of the outdoors, I am constantly looking for forums or social networking sites where I can learn more about our planet and meet interesting people. I am pretty sure this site will not disappoint.

  • tomjd 3:09 pm on October 5, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , video   

    Non-profit video: Ashoka at the Clinton Global Initiative 

    During the week of  September 21 I was laid up with a bad back and while I was it was very cool to see all the videos produced by the Ashoka Team at the Clinton Global Initiative. The increasing use of video at Ashoka, and at citizen sector organizations overall, is wonderful to see. A year ago Ashoka’s approach to video was very traditional – footage would be shot and, time-permitting, edited into something usable. Now the focus is on fast, one-take, minimally edited videos that can be shared live or very rapidly with our online audience. It’s our immersion into social media that inspires this new approach – being involved in a real-time conversation with our supporters and peers creates an emphasis on timeliness and humanness. To this end people from different parts of the Ashoka family where profiled at CGI: Fellows, staff and supporters.

    It was the first-time we’ve emphasized video as a reporting tool from a live event like this. We have learnt a lot from this pilot and will be using this learning to better cover future events, including our Tech 4 Society conference in Hyderabad India in February next year, one of the biggest gatherings we have hosted.

    These learnings include improved coordination between the production of videos and the conversation at and about the event. For instance, if we see an Ashoka Fellow or staff member saying something interesting or profound over their twitter feed we should try and grab them as soon as possible and get them to expand on those thoughts on video. This would more powerfully embed our videos into the conversation, rather than just using the twitter conversation as just an outreach platform.

    The ongoing development of Ashoka’s online communities and the clear interest and enthusiasm for stories from the Ashoka network has inspired this greater focus on developing timely content that can be shared with these communities. The understanding of the importance and benefits of this approach is becoming widespread across the organization, such that it barely requires me to suggest let alone implement these efforts. And that, to me, is the most exciting thing of all, evidence of the real culture-change taking place at Ashoka as we become more social, more participatory and more focused on storytelling.

    Here are a couple of my favourite of our videos from CGI:

    Ashoka Fellow Harmish Hande:

    And a super-cute video with my boss, head of Global Marketing Beverly Schwartz:

    You can see all the Ashoka CGI videos here.

    Tom is the Digital Marketing Strategist at Ashoka and a founder member of the 4change collective. This is cross-posted from Tom’s personal blog.

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  • Zero Strategist 11:24 am on September 9, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: #FAIL, , , Failure, , , ,   

    September #4Change Chat Topic: Change Failure 

    My experience since I started working in the social media field is that the failures are where you learn the most as a community manager, a social media manger, a change manger, a professional and as a person.

    Twitter Fail Whale

    Yet, organizations tend to have a low tolerance for failure even though it is failure that often leads to innovations and improvements in products, services or processes. Leaders often blame change managers or teams who do not control the source or circumstances which cause the “failure.” Having a low tolerance for small failures can actually lead to more catastrophic failures.

    Though many orgs flaunt their “lessons learned” they are not all written down, distributed, or accessible depending on the enterprise architecture. Too often, these lessons end up on individuals’ computers, shared drives or locked away in portals and are not shared in order to prevent repeated mistakes. Most organizations lack the enterprise 2.0 tools that they need to help their workers become more efficient at their jobs.  This lack of tools can prevent individuals from learning from their previous missteps and reaching full productive work potential. There is also general lack of integrated risk management systems in business for employees to submit risks to the organization for tracking, sourcing and mitigation. The workers on the front lines of the change are often the first to see signs of trouble yet, in most org structures, they have the least interaction with upper management.

    I think that the previous blog post by Tom is a great lead into this month’s discussion and #4CHANGE chat topic.  The 4Change Team thinks that this topic is a really important. :)

    #4 Change September Chat Topic: Change Failure / Change #Fails

    #4Change Chat Questions on Change Failure:

    1. What is the value of failure?
    2. What roles do change failures play in furthering larger change campaigns in organization?
    3. What constitutes change failure / success inside and outside of your organization?
    4. As a change/community manager, how do you handle separation / transition issues with the community and the organization?
    5. How do failures in society, business and government affect change in non-profits?

    new_twitter_fail

    Here are some background definitions to stir your thoughts about this months topic.

    Failure (definitions from Visual Thesaurus):

    • an act that fails
    • an event that does not accomplish its intended purpose
    • lack of success
    • a person with a record of failing, someone who loses consistently
    • an unexpected omission
    • inability to discharge all your debts as they come due
    • loss of ability to function normally
    • condition in which there is a disturbance of normal functioning
    • a mistake resulting from neglect
    • your overall circumstances or condition in life (including everything that happens to you)
    • an event that happens
    • an act that does not achieve it’s intended goal

    Success:

    • an event that accomplishes its intended purpose
    • an attainment that is successful
    • a state of prosperity or fame
    • a person with a record of successes
    • the condition of prospering; having good fortune
    • the act of achieving an aim
    • an event that happens

    Change:

    • an event that occurs when something passes from one stat or phase to another
    • a relational difference between states; especially between states before and after some event
    • the action of changing something
    • the result of alteration or modification
    • a thing that is different phenomenon that follows and is caused by some previous phenomenon
    • something done (usually as apposed to something said)

    Please feel free to leave question and comments on this subject and if you have open case studies or links to resources on the topic. Cross-posted from Todd’s Zero Strategist  Blog.

     

    • Christina 6:34 am on September 24, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Confused as to why the september #4change chat history is not showing up in twitter search. I thought to have missed it – did it actually take place??

      • tomjd 3:04 pm on October 5, 2009 Permalink | Reply

        I was on vacation for the chat but it did take place, I was able to see the history in twitter search when I first returned.

    • Christina 12:34 pm on September 24, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Confused as to why the september #4change chat history is not showing up in twitter search. I thought to have missed it – did it actually take place??

  • tomjd 1:13 pm on August 26, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , Clay Shirky, Creative Commons, , ,   

    Attitudinal barriers to social media success 

    Towards the end of the last #4change chat the conversation moved into discussing how most non-profits are not there yet when it comes to social media and the barriers, from the attitudinal to capacity to connectivity, standing in the way. I’ve been thinking more about these issues and want to outline further some of the attitudional barriers that were mentioned. I think it’s these attitudinal, or cultural, barriers which are the most interesting. Resource scarcity and skills shortages are always a challenge for non-profits but, ultimately, are simply a matter of prioritization. Connectivity is obviously essential and very unevenly provided across the globe and, once these other elements are in place a coherent strategy is fundamental to your success. But even with everything else lined up unless your organization has a culture which supports social media it will much less effective at it than hoped for.

    Several of these attitudinal barriers were mentioned during the #4Change chat: Fear, passivity and a desire for control.

    Fear:

    of the unknown, of not doing it right, of missing the mark. Non-profits spend a lot of time worrying about their public perception, and often caring deeply about a wealthier and, often, more conservative cohort (those able to donate substantively to charity and social change) than the population at large. A fear with offending this group can cramp an organization’s style online. You must obviously but mindful of public perception, and be deeply attuned to your brand and values, but social media does requires strategic fearlessness. You’ll make mistakes, you’ll misspell and misspeak occasionally, but learn from these mistakes and get better at social media through practice, it’s the only way.

    Passivity:

    Passivity is never a recipe for success. While it is possible to automate much of your social media, updating your Twitter feed and Facebook page via RSS when a press release or blog post is uploaded, people can tell when you’re not really present on these platforms and will be much less likely to engage with you. If you’re going to make social media a meaningful part of your outreach strategy you need to give it the time and human resources to succeed. You see this repeatedly in Facebook – seemingly every organization in the Western world has a Facebook group but most are clearly never checked, with questions and offers of help unanswered on their wall, projecting the opposite of what you’d want: disinterest. There’s nothing magic about having a Facebook group, the not-so-secret sauce is in actually using it as a space to share information and engage with people. In other words: being proactive. This is equally true for Twitter, MySpace and other social media platforms.

    A desire for control:

    Social Media allows your supports and staff to be more effective advocates for you, and nothing is more effective than people talking in their own words about something they care passionately about. But allowing people to talk in their own words risks your marketing becoming diluted, your finely-crafted messaging forgotten. This can’t be helped but can be mitigated by actively engaging with your supporters and providing them with the tools to better promote you. But if you aren’t comfortable with misspelt words and colloquialisms you’re going to find social media, and the real, human, non-pr language that comes with it, very difficult. If you’re running every draft tweet past senior executives for approval you’re not going to get anywhere.

    You can see an example of this with copyright. Does your organization use Creative Commons licenses for your online media? If not, how can you expect people to help you share your content and your message?

    As Clay Shirky said in his recent TED talk: social media is about convening your supporters, not controlling them.

    Attitudinal factors are only one of the barriers between non-profits and social media success, but they’re an often-overlooked one I believe, less obvious than resourcing issues or inadequate internal processes. I’d love to hear of any others you might have encountered. Being cognizant of these barriers allows us to more effectively lead our organizations through them, creating not only successful social media outreach strategies but more transparent, responsive and adaptive organizations in the process.

    Cross-posted from Tom’s personal blog.

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  • amysampleward 6:05 am on August 24, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: Challenges, , Competitions, Innovation, , SXSW Interactive,   

    Vote for 4Change at SXSW 

    Vote Here!

    Vote here!

    The #4Change crew threw in an idea to the SXSW Interactive conference for next year and we are excited to make it happen, will you help us?!

    VOTE HERE

    or read on to learn more….

    Our Panel Idea

    “Competition > Innovation > Change: Examining Competitions For Social Change”

    Organizations, foundations, even individuals are creating social innovation competitions, hoping to drive social change projects and solutions into the global marketplace.  What are these new competitions about—are they working? How do we—innovators, entrepreneurs—know what’s going to make real-world impact and where do we start? Let’s discuss: join us!

    Here are some of the questions we hope to answer (or at least ask!) in the presentation:

    1. What are social innovation challenges?
    2. Why are challenges important? What need do they serve?
    3. What are the different types of competitions and which work best in driving change?
    4. How can challenges/competitions be used to discover, support, and accelerate social change projects and solutions?
    5. Do social innovation competitions spur real world impact?
    6. Does the success of competitions rely on the judges or the prize money?
    7. What’s required to create competitions that will generate real innovations?
    8. How can challenges support collaboration between projects?
    9. How can communities or groups start their own challenges to solve local issues?
    10. What’s the future of how we use challenges to drive social change?

    How to Vote

    Visit SXSW’s PanelPicker page here and give us a thumbs up!

    Voting will open on August 17th and close on September 4th – so be sure to vote today!

    About SXSW Interactive

    “SXSW Interactive features five days of compelling presentations from the brightest minds in emerging technology, scores of exciting networking events hosted by industry leaders and an unbeatable line up of special programs showcasing the best new websites, video games and startup ideas the community has to offer. Join us March 2010 for the panels, the parties, the 13th Annual Web Awards, the ScreenBurn at SXSW Arcade, the Film and Interactive Trade Show and Exhibition, Accelerator at SXSW and, of course, the inspirational experience that only SXSW can deliver.”

    About the #4Change Team Presenters

    The panel is comprised of the #4Change team, a group of individuals collaborating to propel the social media for social change conversation forward via monthly Twitter-based chats.  Competitions for change is an important topic to the #4Change community and a Compendium of Competitions has started growing. More at http://4change.memeshift.com

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  • tomjd 1:23 am on August 21, 2009 Permalink | Reply  

    #4change chat August: Collaboration and Social Media 

    This is cross-posted from Tom’s personal blog:

    Thank you to @lethalsheethal for her excellent and vastly more timely reflection on the chat. Having just discovered it I’d like to recommend http://www.printyourtwitter.com as creating by far the most digestible (and printable, naturally) twitter transcript (ht @writerpollock).

    The topic of the most recent #4change chat was “How does social media open new doors for collaboration?” It was a vibrant and thought-provoking conversation, in my opinion the best #4change chat we’ve had so far.

    There is no question that social media has created enormous new collaborative possibilities. Some of these are in the sharing of data, such as the Social Entrepreneurship API being developed by Social Actions and the merging of the North American green business databases of Gen Green (@gengreen) and 3rd Whale (@3rdwhale), which was announced at the start of the chat. This was interesting and welcome news, but business alliances of this type are not uncommon. What, we wondered, where the unique collaborative capacities of social media?

    @engagejoe summed up some of these possibilities as “exposing overlap, sharing resources, connecting communities, forging partnerships.” These things are not unique to social media but they are native to it – social media makes overlap and waste more transparent, speeds up information sharing and relationship-building and can increase the impact of collaborations. Messages can be shared between communities and networks both real-time and ad-hoc. And as #4change itself demonstrates conversations can be convened that were never possible before.

    But how much of this is happening? And if these possibilities are not being realized what are the barriers standing in the way?

    The conversation part seems easiest. It is, by definition, what social media facilitates. Making this conversations intentional, productive and constructive is harder, but we still see examples of this all around us, on forums and wiki’s, blogs and microblogs, communities closed and open. These conversations can create new insights, understanding and relationships. And these conversations can lead to concrete action, from protests to petitions, fundraising to collaborative databases.

    There was a real skepticism felt by some in the conversation about whether real work was being done online. This, of course, depends on what real work is to you, but most would agree that hearts and minds are a key part of most forms of social change and so anything that brings us into contact with each other in new ways has the ability to move us in new ways. As Michael Wesch said in his presentation at Personal Democracy Forum this year, “We know ourselves through our relationships with others. New media is creating new ways to relate.”

    But to really scale-up the collaborative possibilities of social media we need to empower and lead our organizations to work together in new ways. As @ChristinasWorld said: “if we could get orgs and passionate people to start working together at a sector/issue level things will start to get exciting.” One key challenge to doing this, as @edwardharran pointed out, is that “social media is pocketed in silos.” While we might wish that this wasn’t the case it is simply a fact of human existence that we build groups at all sizes, but that our closest communities are smaller and more digestible, whether on or offline (although the scale of what’s digestible varies widely between these two states). With these distributed, frustratingly uncoordinated conversations also comes enormous space for innovation and creative thinking. However better search, aggregation and distribution is needed to reveal these conversations to each other in ways that support collaboration. We can see steps in this direction with WiserEarth groups showing related groups and Zanby which allows groups to connect while retaining their independence.

    A schema began to emerge from the conversation which identified three distinct types of collaboration:

    1. organization-to-organization

    2. organization-to-individuals

    3. individuals-to-individuals.

    Again and again the majority of the examples brought up where the later two. For 2. you have organizations like the Sunlight Foundation who are harnessing the contributions of hundreds of coders to create their transparency tools and OneYoungWorld who are using social media to find 1500 leaders of tomorrow. You also have new tools which facilitate this form of collaboration in exciting new ways like The Extraordinaries. For 3. there are grassroots political fundraising campaigns and the entire open source movement.

    (4. was also later suggested by @engagejoe: people-within-organizations. Any more?)

    For 1. there is the previously-cited Social Actions-style data aggregation and sharing and some great examples of organizations collaborating around a social media-enabled campaign, such as the just-launched climate change campaign tcktcktck (@tcktcktc) but there was a clear feeling that much of this landscape remains to be filled out.

    In discussing the barriers to better social media collaboration between non-profits people nominated time intensity vs staffing resources, fear, lack of connectivity in many parts of the world, desire to tightly control their message, geography and time zones and lack of skills as prime candidates. The need for clear strategy so as to not waste precious staff resources was also mentioned, along with the observation that many non-profits do not have the knowledge or experience to develop this strategy.

    To close people were asked for their key takeaways from the conversation:

    • “There is a desire to evolve toward more collaborative outputs; SM [social media] may not be enough to get there” – @ChristinasWorld
    • “It’s given me ideas about the barriers NP [non-profits] face with SM” – @chilli07
    • “I think #4change in itself is a great example of international collaboration” – @tashjudd
    • “Main takeaway: a sense of optimism. SM is not going anywhere and collaboration is only going to continue to get bigger and better” – @edwardharran
    • “SM can be chaotic but still work” – @zerostrategist
    • “I now see more kinds of collaboration: people-within-org, org-to-community, community-to-community, org-to-org” – @engagejoe

    And if I could be so bold as to end on my own takeaway:

    • “We must learn to collaborate as individuals first, then teach our organizations how.”

    ————————————————————————————-

    Please let us know what topics you’d like to cover in future chats!

     

    • @LethalSheethal 10:37 am on August 21, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Timely is good but thorough is better! Great write-up @tomjd. Lots of inspiring thoughts. Looking forward to the next one!

    • Lethal Sheethal 4:37 pm on August 21, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Timely is good but thorough is better! Great write-up @tomjd. Lots of inspiring thoughts. Looking forward to the next one!

  • amysampleward 6:43 am on August 10, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: Amnesty International, , , International, , , ,   

    August #4Change Chat: Opportunities for Collaboration 

    The next #4change chat is this Thursday – I hope you can join us!

    Details:

    Starting the Conversations

    Unfortunately for me, I will unable to join the chat this Thursday; so, I’d like to offer some conversation starters now to get you thinking of questions, ideas, and stories you want to share!

    Here are some questions to consider:

    • has your organization found new collaborators (other organizations, companies, networks, etc.) for your work via social media use/presence?
    • have you reached out, either as an individual or an organization, with opportunities to collaborate to others you only connected with via social media? why?
    • what issues are unique to collaborations of this type?
    • what kind of reassurances (and what are the mechanisms for providing them) are unique to parties entering collaborations via social media?
    • how could collaborations enabled or maintained via social media be more or less sustainable than traditional tools/outlets?

    And here are some examples to consider:

    • SocialActions – a great example of social media powering the sharing and aggregation (and thus the collaboration and partnership) of social action opportunity portals all over the world
    • Amnesty International, Red Cross, and others – organizers working globally/locally have changed the way they campaign or operate now that they are really in the same space (online)
    • Journalism – writers are now using their social media platforms (whether it’s Twitter or Facebook, or even the newspaper’s comment-enabled websites) to collaborate with witnesses, locals, and experts for their contributions to the story

    Join the Conversation

    1. If you want to contribute to the conversation, you’ll need to have a twitter account (it’s free).
    2. To follow the conversation (whether you are planning to contribute or not), use http://search.twitter.com or another application to search on Twitter for “#4Change”
    3. Jump in to the conversation by adding “#4Change” (without the “”) to your Twitter message

    Rules for #Change Chats

    1. #4Change will be structured around a series of questions which all participants can respond to. Send your questions to @tomjd without the hash tag (to keep them out of the stream) to have them considered.
    2. Introduce yourself in 1 tweet at the start or when you join.
    3. Stay on topic!
    4. Stay cool.

    Join us for the chat this Thursday – looking forward to discussing the role social media play in collaboration!

    Reblog this post [with Zemanta]
     

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