Archive for conferences
CongressCamp Unconference Notes and Thoughts
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I attended a couple of sessions at the Congress Camp ‘unconference’ a few weeks ago at George Washington University.
I had never attended an unconference before so part of my reason was to get a feel for what they’re all about. My weekend itinerary was jam-packed so I was only able to attend 2 sessions and lunch but even so it was definitely worth my time to come out.
Engaging Citizens in Subcommittees
The first session I participated in was focused on the question of how to get citizens engaged in Congressional Subcommittees when legislation is getting drafted. The major issue was that drafts of legislation are usually written under tight deadlines and as a result Congressional staffers often have difficulty performing the requisite research for the bills. The result is that staffers often rely on lobbyists and small groups of experts to provide input for drafting policy. Citizens rarely gain any influence into the process.
But now with advent of Web 2.0 tools Congressmen have the opportunity to solicit and incorporate citizen input into the subcommittee legislation creation process.
- How does one determine the location and identity of participants?
- How to verify the expertise or quality of user submitted opinions, data, content?
- How to incorporate citizen input in a timely manner?
- How to moderate comments and user forums?
The consensus from the participants was that the technology exists to answer all of the major questions. The major challenge then is to craft technical solutions to mitigate the human challenges to citizen participation.
My take on things was that crowdsourced input could be filtered by a rating/moderation system. Some of the participants brought up concerns about the quality of citizen content but the answer to that is that no system is going to be 100% clean and tidy, and at the very least there’s a chance of finding outstanding citizen ideas and solutions if they are engaged (as opposed to now where there is little to no chance of this).
A good idea that came from the session was that one need not to use an approach the relies totally on random citizen input nor totally on expert opinions. A hybrid approach of sorts could possibly get the best of both worlds.
Finally Liveblogging the Final BlogPotomac
Posted by: | CommentsWell folks, here it is. We are in the lovely State Theatre in Falls Church, VA, and BlogPotomac has officially started. Keep up with what’s going on here, and search the hashtag #blogpotomac on Twitter.
Our event emcees are Shonali Burke, Principal of Shonali Burke Consulting, and DC Hughes, Photojournalist/Multimedia Producer for Lemur News Images and Lemur News Audio.
Shonali Burke & DC Hughes
Shonali Burke & DC Hughes
Beth Kanter
Our first speaker is Beth Kanter, Scholar in Residence, The Packard Foundation. Beth’s first foray into social media included her own blog, and the Cambodia4Kids.Org blog.
Throughout her time in the field, Beth noted four themes in Social media:
- Working in a networked way
- Art of Network Weaving
- Transparency
- Creating a social culture in the organization (behind the firewall)
My favorite of those is network weaving! What is Network-weaving? It is working through a network in a way that makes every node within that network stronger by way of each other node. A sort of Rhizomatic growth, that is, growth where every bud within the organism receives nourishment from the other buds.
Key takeaways from her talk:
- We need to work within our network so it can spread and grow.
- We need to learn and play within transparency.
- We need to work with our clients and our organizations as change agents within the firewall.
- Management should become comfortable with being uncomfortable.
MetroStar to Liveblog Final BlogPotomac
Posted by: | CommentsThese three things I know to be true: Death is inevitable, the tax man will come, and MetroStar will eventually succumb to the liveblogging bug. Can you blame us? The call is from the very last BlogPotomac (ever!). Who are we not to pick up?
Yes, folks, this Friday, October 23rd marks the end of BlogPotomac. For those of you who may not have heard about the unconference, it is a staple of the DC Social Media scene. Organized by Geoff Livingston (@GeoffLiving) of CRT/tanaka and Livingston Communications, it is a gathering of social media rock stars to discuss and share their ideas on best practices and future outlook.
I had the benefit of being at the last BlogPotomac, and I still notice myself shaking my head in amazement every time I reflect on the experience. As my first real foray into liveblogging (see the post here), it was quite well received, convincing me of two things: (1) that I would definitely be attending the final one, and (2) I’ll have the laptop and air-card fired up and ready to liveblog again.
So, if you’re reading this close to when I’m publishing it, hurry, as there are still a handful of tickets left. If not, fear not! Just be sure to redirect your web browsers right here to SuperNova on the morning of Friday, October 23rd, the year two thousand and nine, (show starts at 8:45 AM) and keep on refreshing, as I will be giving you the up-to-the-(handful of)-minute(s) skinny on what’s being said, and who’s saying it.
In the meantime, check out http://www.blogpotomac.com/, follow @blogpotomac on Twitter, and set your Twitter searches to #blogpotomac. And meet me right back here on Friday.
MetroStar is Attending “BYOL eLearning” This Week
Posted by: | CommentsThis week, I have the wonderful pleasure of attending my second eLearning conference in Salt Lake City, Utah: BYOLTM eLearning.
If you recall, in June of this year, I represented MetroStar Systems at Salt Lake City, and liveblogged eLearningDevCon 2009 (you can find those posts here, here, and here). eLearningDevCon was hosted by Rapid Intake, makers of the eLearning development tools ProForm and Unison. Several sessions offered in that conference were labeled “BYOL,” standing for “Bring Your Own Laptop.” These were hands-on sessions where the instructor would guide attendees through a project, whether it was to produce something, or to learn a tool, or both. These sessions were a huge success, and the folks at Rapid Intake Conferences announced the first instance of their new conference, BYOL eLearning.
It is a one-of-a-kind eLearning conference that is 100% hands-on. One can’t help but appreciate a conference that strives to be so tangible and effective, nor can one help but crack a smile upon hearing the conference tagline (and noticing what it’s implying):
BYOL. Actually learn something.
Of course, all joking aside, the very fact that I’m here stands as testament to how much I learned at eLearningDevCon. I’m sure this conference will be no different. As all the sessions are hands-on, I won’t be liveblogging this event, but I will be recapping my experience at this conference in the near future.
So tune in later to catch my post on the conference. But in the meantime, keep up with what’s happening here on Twitter by following the hashtag: #byol.
