Aviation Angels keep kids out of trouble
This is such a cool idea, I wanted to mention it. My friend (and co-author on WordPress 2 Visual Quickstart Guide), Maria Langer, is a writer and helicopter pilot in Arizona. She’s written about a great programme in the US — YOU Can Become an Aviation Angel:
Tomorrow’s Aeronautical Museum (TAM) is a non-profit organization with the following mission:
The mission of TAM is to encourage youth involvement in aviation as an alternative to drugs, gang violence and other self-destructive activities. The program offers elementary, middle, and high school students the opportunity to work one-on-one with qualified tutors, mentors and aviation staff five days per week. The program requires that students maintain above average grades and stay out of trouble. We have concluded that their newfound interest in aviation and relevant historical events improves their overall academic performance as well as their behavior in school.
TAM does this by offering flight school programs that are partially funded by corporate contributions and the contribution of member “angels.”
And back on the Internet tools topic: go watch the Google videos embedded on their Home and other pages. Since they’re targeting young people they also have a MySpace page, plenty of large, interesting images, active and dynamic features on their pages, photo albums, and, of course, an RSS newsfeed.
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
April 10, 2008 1 Comment
Can YouTube build bridges?
In Jordan Queen Rania is providing clear leadership for the people. See her own website, for example, where she speaks about empowering women, giving a voice to children and youth, and developing the community:
As we in Jordan work hard to develop our own vibrant connections, we look outward and applaud the success that our friends around the world are achieving by building, or in some cases, re-building, their own communities. We understand that all of us have similar hopes and mutual desires - safe places for ourselves and our children, a secure economic base, the freedom to enjoy nature’s bounty, and peaceful interaction with others. By connecting and cooperating, we can build that world, one community at a time.
Read/WriteWeb pointed out a new initiative in their post Queen Uses YouTube to Break Down Stereotypes:
The Queen, who has been an outspoken advocate of women’s rights and education reform in the Arab world, hopes to use the channel to facilitate a conversation with people in the West to dispel negative stereotypes about the Arabs and Muslims that have become especially prevalent over the past several years. …
“I want people to know the real Arab world - to see it unedited, unscripted and unfiltered - to see the personal side of my region - to know the places and faces and rituals and culture that shape the part of the world I call home.”
On YouTube - QueenRania’s Channel, we learn:
Queen Rania has played a significant role in reaching out to the global community to foster values of tolerance and acceptance, and increase cross-cultural dialogue.
Regionally and internationally, Queen Rania has campaigned for a greater understanding between cultures in such high profile forums as the Jeddah Economic Forum, the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and the Skoll Foundation in the UK.
We hope to bring you some of these clips soon, but until then, Queen Rania wants you to join in this conversation to bring down stereotypes and build bridges between our virtual East-West communities.
So far there is one video response and a number of written comments. This is a channel to watch: it has the potential to bring about change in the world.
Sign in. Take a look for yourself.
April 6, 2008 No Comments
Connected to a community with Twitter
Bill Thompson of the BBC writes of Twitter:
Like many fast-growing services Twitter is far from perfect. The site sometimes creaks and falls over under the load, the interface can be confusing and sometime tweets don’t get through.
It is also a dangerous distraction from work, encouraging micro-conversations and followups and witty rejoinders when articles have to be edited, code checked and projects planned.
But as I sit here writing this I feel connected to a community of people, feel that we share a space that none of the social network sites can conjure up, a space that is both here and not here, somewhere between offline and online.
March 23, 2008 No Comments
People want to engage
Julie Starr, in talking about News services, mentions how important it is to give your visitors the ability to engage with you:
Community, like it or not, is the future. Digital citizens are not happy just looking at your news website and using your services in a static way. They want to be able to engage. To tell you what they think of your service, to make suggestions (which are sometimes very good), to talk to each other about news stories (and your service). If you don’t give them the chance to engage, they’ll give up on you eventually and go somewhere else. These ideas are well articulated in a couple of books I’ve read recently, if you’re interested: The Cluetrain Manifesto and Wikinomics. The Wisdom of Crowds also comes highly recommended.
[Via The Evolving Newsroom: Radio NZ gets it right, again.]
Although she’s specifically talking about News, I think what she has to say holds true for all kinds of services and organisations.
In our part of the world attitudes have shifted away from an old top-down approach where someone tells us what to do, say, think, how to behave. Now we are increasingly wanting to interact, to share our opinions, to challenge established authorities, to influence what goes on around us.
In real life we’ve been ‘talking back’ in this way for decades. Now we’re wanting to carry that approach across to the web, and to organisations we might not previously have thought to talk back to, such as news organisations.
It’s no longer sufficient for community organisations to have an isolated, informative website. Websites need to make it easy for visitors to interact, to share, to discuss with peers, to engage.
What do you think?
February 24, 2008 No Comments
Blogs, wikis? Learn to use new internet-based tools
Register now for the Engage Your Community conference.
Engage Your Community: using blogs, YouTube, and other cool tools to achieve your group’s goals aims to help tangata whenua, community and voluntary organisations.
Experts and community group leaders who are currently using new internet-based tools will lead a series of practical workshops.
Sample topics:
- Set up a project website in 10 minutes flat
- Use the internet to cut costs and raise funds
- Use blogs to develop an online support community for clients
- Use Moodle as a virtual office
Venue and date
- Tuesday 22 April, 2008.
- Start at 8.30am; close at 5pm.
- Waikato Management School of the University of Waikato, Hamilton.
Register now
Register at: engageyourcommunity.eventbrite.com.
The registration fee includes admission to all workshops, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, and a conference bag.
Register before 15 March 2008 for $75; after that it’s $100. Bring another person from your organisation for $50 per person.
5 free registration scholarships
5 free registrations are available to groups who:
- agree to participate in a follow-up case study
- and / or have a low budget.
Apply before 1 March directly to Prof Ted Zorn.
Contact information
Contact: Prof Ted Zorn, Waikato Management School, chair of Waikato 2020 Communications Trust.
Office: 07 838-4776
E-mail: tzorn@mngt.waikato.ac.nz.
The conference is organised by Waikato 2020 Communications Trust.
February 5, 2008 1 Comment
