From pirate supplies to Bat Cave: homework help a winner
If you have broadband it’s absolutely worth keeping an eye on the TED Talks, maybe even subscribing to the feed in iTunes.
TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design.
The annual conference now brings together the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes).
The talks available through iTunes are almost always interesting, thought-provoking, engaging. The theme is generally about how to make the world a better place.
Speakers have included not only many people I hadn’t heard of before, but famous people such as Stephen Hawking, Jane Goodall, Billy Graham or Al Gore.
Dave Eggers spent 25 minutes (an 85Mb file) showing and explaining in a very entertaining way how and why he set up an after school homework programme offering one-on-one tutoring to local kids. He explains how they got off to a bad start — no kids attended the programme for weeks — and then how it became not only successful, but such a success the programme spread to other cities, other countries and broader concepts.
With spellbinding eagerness, he talks about how his 826 Valencia tutoring center inspired others around the world
Visit : Dave Eggers makes his TED Prize wish: Once Upon a School | Video on TED.com.
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July 25, 2008 (6 hours ago) 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
Facebook engages conversations
Businesses are getting in on the social networking sites, because they know that’s where a substantial audience is. Then they’re finding that they need to actually engage with their customers:
Ernst & Young were among the first companies to set up a recruiting page on Facebook, aimed at recruiting the thousands of entry-level graduates throughout the world it needs each year.
Young said some businesses felt uncomfortable about their lack of control over what was posted on social media sites.
But he said opening a business to scrutiny was what made social media advertising work.
“It’s conversational rather than just a one-way broadcast,” says Young.
Lee agreed businesses using social media should be prepared for a two-way conversation.
“A one-way push of information doesn’t work any more. You want people to engage.”
February 23, 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
