Posts from — August 2007
Don’t just speak louder and slower
When attempting to speak with digital natives you have to find some common ground. There’s not much point just increasing the volume if you’re shouting down a well instead of addressing the crowd behind you. yMedia make the point:
the key to using communication effectively is first of all realising that we live in this new world, a networked world, a digital world, and if you want to keep your message out there, you have to update your methods of delivering it.
It comes down to knowing your audience
[Via changing media, changing minds: the language of digital natives.]
According to their article:
“digital natives” … refers to people who have grown up with the Internet and basically refers to anyone under twenty five, nowadays, or ‘generation y’.
But not everyone who’s a digital native is under 25, and not everyone under 25 is a digital native. That’s a difficulty about generalisations.
One thing, though, is solid truth: whoever you’re talking to won’t hear a word you say if they aren’t listening.
More and more people are turned on to text messaging, social networking sites, Instant Messaging. If you’re just sending emails and annually updating a static website then you’re missing out on an increasing share of a potential audience.
I can’t point to published statistics yet — they should be online soon — but last night at a public meeting Russell Brown shared results from a recent survey in New Zealand. Broadband use in NZ homes has risen from about 30% to about 50%, with much of the increase attributed to viewing online video content.
He didn’t specify the video content, but I’d bet YouTube would claim a fair chunk of it. And next, probably, come video podcasts.
Watch some. See what the digital natives are interested in. Start learning the (digital) language.
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August 31, 2007 No Comments
Google Maps have the power
This is something of a test post. It provides some useful information about Google Maps. The embedded map shows you where the Byrd Memorial is, in Wellington (the blue balloon). If you click on the map you can zoom in, look at the photo I attached to the balloon, read some other information. Click the link to visit the larger map and you can even call up driving directions or download an overlay into Google Earth.
Google Maps has added a new feature that makes it possible to add embedded maps to your Website or blog, just as you might a YouTube video. No special computer skills required.
The best part of this new feature is once you embed a map on your site, it has all the functionality of a regular Google Map. Users can click, drag, and zoom in and out. There are all kinds of creative possibilites for nonprofits to use embedded Google Maps on their site. You could post a map to your nonprofit’s location or driving directions to an event location. The height and width values of each map are adjustable to it fits to your Webpage or blog.
[Via : YouTube-style Embeddable Google Maps | TechSoup Blog.]
Here’s a test map I made:
View Larger Map
August 31, 2007 No Comments
Allow others to help you
How hard do you make it for others to help you? Read this (edited) comment by Laurel Papworth of Online Communities - Australia and Global about how she wanted to tell others about a video she found —one the owners wanted people to see — but was blocked:
Diet Coke’s user generated advertising (Quickie - Australian campaign) is a bit weird. I can’t embed the “Short Films” (read: product placement videos) on MY blog page. I wanted to put the winning one here for you to see. … I can only send or post the link …
[Source : Wanna quickie?]
Part of what we as people like to do is chat about ’stuff’ with others. Have you ever discussed the latest episode of a TV show with a colleague in the lift, or while making a cup of tea? We love to share things we’ve found, explore our reactions and perspectives on those ‘finds’.
Most of the phenomenal success of YouTube is that it’s beyond easy to share and discuss a video you find. Click on the screenshot thumbnail here to see a larger version (at Flickr), or just visit any YouTube video.
Near the video you’ll find obvious links to Share the video, add it to your favorites or Playlists, Flag it (as inappropriate), rate it, make comments on it — in text or even via a video. There’s code right there to copy and paste into your own web page to embed the video, and a clear link to customise that code if you wish.
Nearby are lists of all-kinds of related videos, with links to subscribe.
The whole point of YouTube is to share the videos and to watch more.
Compare that with adding a video clip to your own website. Even if visitors find their way to your site and watch the video, what can they do to share it with friends? Probably at best they can copy the page address from the web browser’s location bar and paste it into an email message or include it as a link in their blog. It’s just not the same. It’s not a shared experience.
August 29, 2007 No Comments
Reach out to people where they are
24,000 ‘friends’ in 18 months, that’s what Oxfam America gained when they participated in MySpace, the social networking site. And each of those ‘friends’ is an ally, a potential volunteer, someone who will help promote the work of the orgnaisation.
Over on Wild Apricot Blog is an extremely interesting interview with Tim Fullerton of Oxfam America about How to use MySpace to drive new activists and donors. You really should read the whole thing (it’s only about 1500 words), but here are a few items that caught my eye (I had a hard time not just quoting the entire article):
- MySpace has been a low-cost and effective way to bring our message to a broader audience.
- We decided we needed to reach out to people where they were, rather than waiting for people to come to us. MySpace was the first social networking site we used, as it was the biggest and most talked about.
- We’ve recruited over 1600 activists from MySpace alone.
- We’ve found people love to show their support for Oxfam by hosting our banners, reposting our bulletins and adding us as a top friend. This has been a great way to get our name out there.
- The biggest part of maintaining a MySpace page is to update it. If people feel they will find something new on the page, they will keep coming back, read your blogs and read your bulletins. This is critical if you want your friends forwarding your messages onto their friends. It is also important to promote your site to your constituents.
- Our MySpace page has been very effective generating new activists and introducing the organization to a whole new group of people.
- Any time you have engaging content, it’s important to make it as visible as possible. Social networking sites make that easier.
August 29, 2007 No Comments
Making Links in Australia
The Australian Making Links Conference is about exactly the topics we discuss on this blog:
Web 2.0, social networking, Wikis, open source software, digital storytelling, VOIP, SMS reminders — how many of us could have defined these terms, even two years ago? While the acceleration of technological change presents both technical and financial challenges for the community sector, many not-for-profit and activist organisations are successfully using new technology to forward our vision of social justice.
The annual Making Links conference is one of Australia’s leading forums for workers and activists in the not-for-profit and community sectors to showcase their work, share their experiences and learn new skills.
[Via CommunityNet Aotearoa RSS Archive: Making Links 2007, Emerging Technology: New Opportunities for the Community Sector.]
The website doesn’t seem to say anything about what tools they will use to share the conference with those of us who can’t attend — let’s just hope for some RSS feeds, blog posts, Tweets, YouTube videos and Flickr photos …
August 27, 2007 No Comments
