• Ten Recipes for Persuasive Content – This was posted a little while ago now (late last year), but still quite relevant.
• Optimal Workshop – Usability testing tools. At Inspire Digital we've been using Optimal Sort with good results. Treejack and Chalkmark look like excellent companion products that we'll be trialing soon…
• Is This the Kindle Killer? – Ignore the "killer" bait word in the title (of course it's not going to kill the Kindle). But… this is what I expected ebook readers to look like. Seems like some smart biz moves as well…

(These links were posted to my del.icio.us feed between 24-Jul-2009 and 30-Jul-2009.)

I received this from a friend today, and thought it worth passing on:

Facebook is allowing advertisers to use the personal pics of site users in their ads without requesting permission first (technically facebook is the owner of your profile and anything on it).

You can block this by doing the following:

1. Click on SETTINGS (located on top of page in blue bar, next to logout);
2. Select PRIVACY SETTINGS;
3. Select NEWS FEEDS and WALL;
4. Select the TAB that reads Facebook Ads;
5. There will be a drop down box; Select NO ONE.
6. Save your changes.

UPDATE 2009-09-07: CeBit (Hannover Fairs) have since turned down my pro-bono offer of services to run this workshop – so the information below is no longer relevant/accurate.

I’m excited to announce my participation in the up-coming CeBit Gov 2.0 conference, my first public engagement as part of Inspire Digital.

The conference will be taking place in Canberra on 19 October and I’ll be participating both in the panel discussion before lunch and also running one of the evening workshops. The current (somewhat “beta”) blurb for the workshop is:

Getting buy-in for your social media initiatives

In this interactive workshop, we will move beyond the introduction of social media platforms in Gov 2.0 and will focus on providing participants with the necessary tools to develop a plan to achieve buy-in for social media initiatives within the organisation. The focus will be on how to get ideas across the line with key stakeholders in your organisation and how to tackle the concerns that are often raised, including:

• linking initiatives to your organisation strategy and objectives
• potential risks surrounding engagement
• ROI measurement
• resourcing

This is a new workshop that has evolved from my key learnings during the past 12 months of delivering presentations and workshops to a variety of folks wanting to learn more about engaging social media & networking. It’s honing in on the “next steps” to take once you’ve got an idea that you think might be worth pursuing. My aim is for it to be complementary to the conference program – hopefully we’ve achieved that objective.

That program is looking pretty good too – if you’re interested or working in Government 2.0 (I’m personally not a fan of the term, but it seems to have stuck) it’s well worth checking out. I’m looking forward to checking out a number of speakers on the day in addition to the sessions I’m involved in.

• Technical Lead role at Digital Eskimo – My friends at Digital Eskimo are looking for "a talented and inventive Technical Lead who wants to take a leadership role in the creation of innovative technical solutions that contribute to our mission of leading the design industry in sustainable innovation."
• How One iPhone App Could Save Public Radio – "Though Apple introduced in-application payments last month, the feature is only available to paid apps (Public Radio Player is free) and charitable contributions through the iPhone are strictly prohibited. They can't even be talked about, Shapiro says, because Apple doesn't want to deal with the possibility of charity scams, there's tax complications, the platform's standard 30% fee for payments isn't tenable in a non-profit context and Apple has no financial incentive to solve this sticky complex of problems."
• Django 1.0 Template Development – Interesting looking new book delving into the Django templating engine – would be checking it out if I was still dev'ing in Django…

(These links were posted to my del.icio.us feed between 21-Jul-2009 and 22-Jul-2009.)

As some of you may know I’ve been working with the folks at the Inspire Foundation on a contract basis for some time (since October last year) specifically focused on their recently re-launched Reach Out service in Australia, and soon overseas.

Zumio provided and managed the development team over most of that period – and the launch effort explains a good part of my silence here and on Twitter of late. (I hope to post more on the re-launch soon…)

During my time on the project the team at Inspire asked me if I’d be interested in joining the team on a more permanent basis to work with them to help develop Inspire Digital, a social venture established within the Foundation with the dual goals of further developing some of the Foundation’s services and also to provide consulting services to other organisations where there is alignment in mission to Inspire’s broader goals.

I recently accepted Inspire’s offer and as of today have commenced with them in the role of Head of Social Technology. It is an exciting new role that will no doubt evolve rapidly in the coming months as the venture develops.

Both Inspire and I hope that I can continue to work in the area of social media and networking providing workshop, presentation and consulting services, now under the Inspire Digital banner.

For the foreseeable future I’ll be continuing to blog here about all things social- and web-related (hopefully with a bit more frequency I might add!) – so no need to update any bookmarks. I’m looking forward to sharing the new adventure with you :)

• PoliPress – OpenAustralia WordPress Plugin – Blog the web – An open source plugin that makes it easy to insert quotes from the Hansard into your WordPress blog using the OpenAustralia API.
• The Enduring Power of Brand: Leica vs. Panasonic – A great example of the power of good branding's impact on customer perceptions.
• 6 Lessons From the Best Marketing Campaign Ever – Some stats and tips surrounding Queensland Tourism's "Best job in the world" campaign.

(These links were posted to my del.icio.us feed between 17-Jul-2009 and 20-Jul-2009.)

• Justice for Comfort Women – Lovely campaign by Amnesty International Australia using unique butterfly patterns as a petition tool…
• The Not-So-Hidden Politics of Class Online – danah boyd: "For decades, we've assumed that inequality in relation to technology has everything to do with "access" and that if we fix the access problem, all will be fine. This is the grand narrative of concepts like the "digital divide." Yet, increasingly, we're seeing people with similar levels of access engage in fundamentally different ways. And we're seeing a social media landscape where participation "choice" leads to a digital reproduction of social division". Great talk at the Personal Democracy Forum. IMO essential reading for anyone interested in social media/networks for social change.
• Calling bullshit on social media – Scott Berkun on "social media". Good points all…

(These links were posted to my del.icio.us feed between 01-Jul-2009 and 08-Jul-2009.)