London Regional ICT Champion

LIVE BLOG READ FROM THE BOTTOM-UP:

And just because you can..doesn’t mean you should. It’s all about the story. And talking of stories, we close with the story of tonight, a live podcast put together on the spot by Mark. And then it’s “Goodnight Vienna” from me, hope you enjoyed the live blogcast.

Nick Aldridge from the audience – makes the point that Chief Execs need more info if web 2.0 is to lose its experimental tag and break into the mainstream. Steven says that exploring web 2.0 or social media tools depends on the size of the org and its culture – it’s about matching the right tool to the right job.

20:20 – Jude is announcing Q&A and drinks – everybody perks up

20:16 – Kat is now looking at focus groups to get a better idea of what people really think about the podcast – the web stats give numbers but not context. Kat finishes off a great presentation and a great advert for DIY podcasting.

20:11 – Wireless Internet’s back…for now….and Kat’s talking about how CR UK’s Podsquad made their own pilot show, which got positive feedback from staff. The show was also picked up by a BBC Radio producer who gave some great advice and tips. The show has now evolved into a monthly magazine format – available from iTunes – with the latest science news, personal stories. So far 13 episodes and counting, with thousands of downloads. Shows became increasingly time-consuming for Kat and are now handled by a freelance.

20:03 – Podcasting is a low cost and effective method for reaching out to funders and their audience. Need to stay innovative and attract a younger donor base. Social media is important – because it helps tell the story – and they want to get it right before everybody clocks on to the fact that web 2.0 matters.

20:00 Dr Kat Arney, senior science information officer at Cancer Research UK steps up to talk about podcasting. She says she needs a drink and will be keeping it brief

19:57 – Back to Clive Holtham of Cass Labs and his 3 dimensions of web 2.0 – technology, mindset and skills. He’ll be talking about second waves and tipping points next.

19:55 – They’ve also embraced Facebook to blog the journey of Walter the Fish on his slow boat journey from the Mersey to China, where he’ll be extolling the virtues of clean water to the Kyoto Agreement loving Chinese – a story picked up by The Guardian and a great example of an oddball story generating mainstream media interest. Righttttt. Where’s the bar?

19:50 – Kate is saying that campaign initially used free tools to try and save money. They had a number of reservations about using some social media tools. However, they relented and via their MySpace account picked up video content from local people. Using social media has also energised local people and raised awareness of the Mersey Basin Campaign.

19:45 – Next up at the oche it’s Kate Fox, new media manager at the Mersey Basin Campaign, and their embracing of all things web 2.0/new media.

19:40 – As a demonstration of social media we’re getting a tour around Steven’s personal Facebook account – fortunately there’s nothing incriminating in there – but it’s a useful demonstration of how Facebook can connect people and help them organise, campaign and advocate around a cause. We’ve seen plenty of music festivals use Facebook to link artists with fans – so why don’t see charities linking with their supporters via Facebook?

19:30 – Now we’re on to micro-blogging as in Twitter or status setting in Facebook. Welcome to the always on, always conencted world where self-validation is a text message. Point is that whilst there are hundreds of millions of blogs, only the quality will survive.

19:20 – Ahhh! Steven’s talking about RSS – Really Simple Syndication – and how it can aggregate content to one place and save you time. I love the RSS explanation on Back in Skinny Jeans.

19:15 – a quick trip round the room reveals we’ve got quite a savvy audience – folks are using google, yahoo, bloglines, wikipedia, online banking, typepad, etc. As I’ve posted somewhere before, plenty of people are using web 2.0 in their personal lives, but maybe haven’t made the connection we’ve how the same tools can be used for business tasks.

Denise Fellows of Cass Centre for Charity Effectiveness opens the seminar.

19:10 – blogs, podcasts and video blogs is changing the traditional charity marketing paradigm – with a single blog post or video you can now reach out to people around the world. Oxfam, Greenpeace and NSPCC have got this. How can smaller groups harness power of web 2.0 to tell their story to a wider audience?

19:05 – Now a video blog – a graphic illustration of web 2.0 – from rural China and a moving story about how the gift of a water buffalo can help chinese families keep their farms going. Video blog viewed 47,000 times on Youtube and has generated more charitable donations to buy another water buffalo.

18:55 – Next, we’re hearing a podcast from Clive Holtham of the Cass Learning Library, taking a few side swipes at Nick Carr and Berners Lee’s economic take on web 2.0 – as in the means of blogging may have been democratised, but the tools are still owned by Google, Yahoo and Microsoft.

Holtham goes on to say that web 1.0 can’t be separated from web 2.0. Also says groups need to master boring old web 1.0 before moving onto web 2.0. Can’t see either of those arguements as web 2.0 tools are dynamic and interactive, web 1.0 is flat and static.

At last, a reason to agree with Holtham – orgs need to match the right web tools against the task that needs doing.

18:48 – It’s taken a while and aiming the laptop out of the second floor window to get wireless reception, but here we are live at the Cass Business School, blogging Sounddelivery’s Web 2.0 seminar.

First up, it’s Jude with a few words, followed by Steven Buckley, Head of Information at Christian Aid to set the scene with some stats on how social media/web 2.0 tools are sweeping the voluntary sector.

Tags: sounddelivery, Web 2.0