Presentation notes

Thanks again to everyone who participated in the Melbourne and Sydney workshops. As promised, here are the presentation slides, along with my notes (PDF 14.78 MB) from the presentation component of the day.

Of course, I can’t include all of the great discussion that took place, but hopefully it will help jog the memory as well as provide some further details on some of the topics we covered.

Workshop materials

The material generated by workshop participants is also available for download:

• Melbourne: Risk & opportunities – transcribed (PDF 65 KB)
• Melbourne: Other workshop materials (PDF 21.2 MB)
• Sydney: Workshop materials (PDF 1.1 MB)

The remainder should be up by Monday.

Other follow-ups

Two follow-ups from the workshops:

1. There was a question about RSS in Outlook: one that I’m aware of is NewGator Inbox, although it seems that Outlook 2007 has an RSS reader built in.
2. I mentioned the “Government 2.0″ Google group in (I think) the Melbourne workshop also. I’ve also come across a Government 2.0 Australia Ning community (they are different groups, but exploring similar themes. Neither are specifically focused on social networking, but may be of interest all the same.

If any readers have other related resources to suggest, it would be great if you could do so in the comments.

Thanks

I wanted to say thanks to a number of folks who participated in the workshop by being so generous with their time and insights (in alphabetical order):

• Fi Bendall (Bendalls Group), Peter Buckmaster (Care Network), and Katie Hart (Amnesty International Australia)
• Priscilla Brice-Weller (ANTaR)
• Marc Lehmann (Saasu)
• Helen Mitchel (CPA Australia)
• Mathew Patterson (Campaign Monitor)
• Deb Shaw (Amnesty International Australia)
• Georgina Swan (Choice Australia)

Your input and generosity was greatly appreciated by the participants (and especially by me!) Some of the video and other materials from the case studies should find their way into blog posts in the not too distant future…

Thanks also to Penny Hagen who assisted in preparation for the workshop. And last, but not least, Maxine, John and the WDS team for organising such a wonderful event and presenters’ dinner. It was a wonderful opportunity that I deeply appreciate…

• The 7 Ways to Approach Twitter – A great article outlining a number of different approaches to Twitter.
• Oprah maybe be America’s Tweet-heart, but she doesn’t make the earth move Downunder! – Hitwise reports on continued growth for Twitter – 49.9% in the last month alone, and now the 37th most visited site by Australian internet users.
• The DigiActive Guide to Twitter for Activism – DigiActive have published what looks like a great guide to Twitter activism. Will be reading in more detail on the plane to Melbourne…

(These links were posted to my del.icio.us feed between 19-Apr-2009 and 28-Apr-2009.)

A little while back I came across a post by Allen Benamer that outlines a hierarchy of technology needs for non-profits.

I think it’s a great post, and generally agree with his advice around the range of needs (ranging from “mission” to “social media”). However, I do wonder about placing “social media” as the last slice on the pyramid. I wonder because perhaps this misses potential opportunities for social media to act in place of a more traditional website.

This might take a number of forms – but by way of example: a non-profit may consider using a blog hosted on the open-source WordPress platform instead of a more traditional website. This is a (fairly obvious) use of social media that enables non-profits to launch a site at very low cost.

But maybe we can take that a step further: perhaps nowadays it’s enough to have a solid presence on MySpace, Facebook or Ning – that such tools may provide a sufficient touch-stone for donors and other constituents to learn what they need about an organisation’s activities, negating the need for a fully-fledged website?

In fact, in some respects such a presence, embedded within the social networks (that Allen places 3rd in the hierarchy) may have significant benefits that investing in a traditional website first would miss.

An extreme example of this is the Modernista! website, which essentially leverages a variety of social media tools (Flickr, Youtube and a blog) to fulfill the purpose of a traditional website. Or Nau’s use of Flickr to promote their relaunch before their main website was up and running – in this case being a “teaser” campaign of sorts.

Depending on the non-profit, a variety of social media spaces could be used creatively to circumvent – or at least delay – the need for (usually significant) investment in a traditional website.

Just to be clear: I am playing “devil’s advocate” here to a degree – there’s no doubt that a solid corporate web presence will benefit a non-profit – but I think it’s worth challenging the argument that social media should be the last thing to think about as a non-profit, especially when so many benefits can be derived from considering them earlier in a non-profit’s development.

As regular readers would know, Zumio donates 1% of nett profit to a worthy cause each quarter. This month we’ve chosen another Project H Design project to support: the Hippo Roller redesign.

The Hippo Water Roller is a fantastic example of simple but effective design in context with a worthy social outcome. From the Hippo Water Roller website:

In many countries, traditional water collection involves carrying a 5-gallon (20-liter) bucket on the head. This practice puts a great burden on the body and can damage the spine, neck and knees over time. A full Hippo Water Roller only feels like 22 pounds (10 kg) when rolled over level ground, making it possible for almost anyone to transport 24 gallons (90 liters) of water in much less time and with greater ease.

The San Francisco chapter of Project H Design have “re-designed the Hippo Roller for improved shipping efficiency for wider distribution and a lower price point” and they are raising funds for new tooling to produce the redesigned rollers.

Zumio is of course delighted to be able to contribute to this goal. This is the second Project H Design initiative we’ve supported – the last was Lifestraw distribution to Mumbai. I’d definitely suggest checking out their (soon to be updated) website, or follow them on Twitter or Facebook, for more about their work.

P.S. if you’re wanting to support the Hippo Roller project, simply drop Emily at Project H Design (her email is in the receipt notices etc.) to let her know.

Just wanted to make a quick post to thank all the participants of the Web Directions South (WDS) Roadshow Engaging social media workshops that we did in Melbourne and Sydney this week.

I personally enjoyed them a lot – the energy of the folks involved was fantastic. From the feedback I’ve received it sounds like y’all enjoyed and valued the experience too. Thanks also to those of you who pointed out things that could be improved – your points and insights help tremendously.

I’ll be collating the materials generated through the workshops and tweaking the presentation materials for distribution early- to mid-next week. The WDS folks will be in touch via email with details as soon as they’re ready.

P.S. my preparation for this workshop, along with preparations for a major delivery for Inspire, have meant it’s been awfully quiet around here of late. I suspect May will see a bit more posting in these parts…

• Applications of usability principles on a social network – A great case study of applying small, user-driven insights to re-develop a social network home page for great results.
• Web2ExpoSF 09: Tim O'Reilly, "O'Reilly Radar" – Tim O'Reilly calls on the tech community to work towards the "common-wealth". It's great to see business and technology leaders joining this call…
• 10 ways to measure social media success – This is a great article outlining ideas for measuring the success of social network/media activity for organisations.

(These links were posted to my del.icio.us feed between 01-Apr-2009 and 14-Apr-2009.)

Just a quick note to say that the Web Standards Group FullCodePress is happening again in May this year. What’s FullCodePress?

Web teams from different countries take each other on to build a complete website for a charity in 24 hours. No excuses, no extensions, no budget overruns.

If you’re in a non-profit and would like to apply to be the lucky charity, check out the details and apply before Friday 17 Apr 2009…

I had the pleasure of attending a talk hosted at Digital Eskimo the other week, by Michael Masserman, one of the political campaigners on the Obama campaign.

Thankfully the Eskimos recorded the event so I don’t need to do a write up ;) [Note: the link in that post is currently incorrect - correct link below the vid in this post]

Although Michael’s talk focused on offline organising, it was still inspiring and informative to hear, even for an online geek like me.

Check it out:

DE Talks: Michael Masserman and Grassroots Community Organisation on the Obama Campaign from Digital Eskimo on Vimeo.

At lunch the other day, Andrew asked if I’d be interested in blogging about my thoughts on Internet Explorer 8 (IE8). What’s interesting about the conversation is that I hadn’t actually given IE8 much thought – apart from keeping on top of some of the features and debates around standards compliance. I certainly hadn’t installed it or tried it out.

Continue over the jump for my thoughts on the IE8 release.

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