Social Networks
Entries related to social networks, group psychology, anthropology, and really any of the social sciences.
#digiday - Gamifying The News
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Wed, 09/15/2010 - 09:13One of the most interesting comments from Digiday Social conference in New York City on Tuesday was that more people play social games, like Farmville, than read the newspaper. I haven't found a source to back up this comment or to get details about exactly who they are counting, or how, but on the surface, it is frightening. More people seem more concerned about acquiring fictitious grapes from a fictitious farm stand than about acquiring information that is necessary for our democracy to thrive. Perhaps the politician seeking to get elected would do better seeking ad placements in social games than they would be in participating in debates.
Yet perhaps there is a glimmer of hope from the Digiday Mobile conference for the future of journalism coming in the form of a neologism. The emerging buzzword of the conference was "Gamification". A San Francisco startup calledGamify defines the verb gamify, as "Applying game mechanics to bring fun and engagement where needed." Perhaps it is sorely needed to bring fun and engagement back to the news industry.
A few years ago, I participated in some "Play The News" games where participants would read up on a news story and make predictions about how it would turn out. As an example, people might read up on the primaries that happened last night, and make predictions about the outcomes. Will Christine O'Donnell and Karl Rove make nice? Will she win the general election? People who follow the news would be expected to perform better in this game. With game mechanics in place to track who is doing the best, people will feel encouraged to participate.
Unfortunately, this was a couple years ago, before social gaming really took off and I don't know whatever happened to the game. Another site that I've always been interested in is NewsTrust. This site crowdsources efforts to find quality journalism. They base their results not on gaming the news the way people do at Digg or Reddit, but on aspects of whether the story has multiple sources, anonymous sources, uses purple language, only presents one side of the story, and other means of judging the quality of a news story. You could review reviewers as well and see how well each reviewer was doing. They are on their way to gamification.
Of course, NPR listeners are likely to think of Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me!, the NPR news quiz show. They have done a great job of gamification of the news. However, a social media game for listeners to play along at home could take this to a whole new level.
So, it may be frightening that more people play social games than read newspapers. On the other hand, it might be a great opportunity to encourage greater understanding of what is going on around us and greater civic engagement by gamifying the news.
#Digiday Social and Gestalt Blogging
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Tue, 09/14/2010 - 07:41What am I doing, sitting on a 6:56 AM train to New York City writing a blog post on my cellphone? That is what I asl myself as the fine fall morning slips quickly by my train window, punctuated by red spikes of sumack.
Yesterday was a frustrating day. The spam filter on my server failed bringing everything to a crawl. I had hoped to go into the city yesterday as well, but between feeling rundown, having server problems, having some family logistical issues, and dealing with the foster puppies, that just didn't happen.
I am way behind on my emails and hoped that at least I could catch up on them a little. No luck. I did get a chance to respond to a couple PR requests and pursue a job lead a little bit. I took some time to research some articles. I watched a mailing list struggle as members left because other members wouldn't stay on task. All of this is good blog fodder, but it leaves me further behind.
So what does all of this have to do with #digiday social and gestalt blogging and why have I taken so long to get to my point? Don't I remember the rule about not buring my lede?
One of the emails I responded to yesterday was from a communications director who questioned if I deserved press credentials from her organization. While most organizations are all too eager to grant me press credentials, I still run into this from time to time and it still bugs me.
I can understand some of it. I write in my own style, often using the first person and often avoiding the conventions of the AP style guide. At the same time, I shun some of the conventional wisdom about blogging. I do not limit myself to a single niche.
This finally gets me to my point. One niche I like to write about is digital advertising and marketting, not something political bloggers often write about, although I think they should. When you get to social marketting, it becomes all the more complicated.
While some people try to segment their online lives; Facebook for family and friends, LinkedIn for business contacts and Twitter and other sites for random noise, our real lives are notso neat. We see co-workers at church. We run into former classmates at PTO meetings. We try to integrate our lives as much as possible..
The brand that is launching a social campaign would be well advised to pay attention to this, especially if they are seeking that digital holy grail of marketing, viralness.
A campaign goes viral when people take it across the artificial boundaries of our lives. It happens when someone shares a link at work on Facebook with their friends after hearing about it at the water cooler.
Will the folks at digiday social get this and talk about it? Hard to tell. Will the communications directors for various organizations get? We'll see. What about the political operatives? Let us hope so.
The train continues rolling towards New York City. The sumac is being replaced by graffiti. Perhaps that, also, is a metaphor about what is happening in social marketting, but that's a different post.
#ff @grovenh
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Fri, 09/10/2010 - 11:28@RetailGoddesses @SheSoSocial @giuliag @jwierin @derekkoch @MatthewBrowning @joecascio @timtracey @leecruz @Mertens4Senate @TTHofficial @MyConnecticut
Last night, I attended the opening of The Grove, a coworking space in New Haven, CT. Many of my friends have used coworking spaces in New York and San Francisco and I've hoped that a coworking space would open up here in Connecticut.
Coworking fits hand in hand with social media, so it was great to see many friends from various social media activities there. There was the standard group of people from SocialWebWeek, @RetailGoddesses @SheSoSocial @giuliag @jwierin @derekkoch and @MatthewBrowning. Although I don't remember if I ran into @MyConnecticut as part of the Social Web Week activities, Courtney is very much a social web person and I would include her in this group.
There was the tweetcrawl and podcamp crew, @joecascio and @timtracey. There was the nonprofit and advocacy crew, @leecruz and @TTHofficial. @timtracey also sort of fits in that space with his Yougottacall project. Also part of this group was Nathan Bixby.
In the political sphere a couple friends from Governor's Dean's 2004 Presidential campaign were there as was John Mertens who is running for U.S. Senate in Connecticut, @Mertens4Senate.
Also there were Matt and Lindsay Branscombe. Lindsay made a splash at the technologists and entrepreneurs meet during Social Web Week when she reminded everyone of the importance of design and it was good to have an arts and design perspective reflected not only in the photographs on the wall of the Grove but also by some of the participants.
I'm probably missing a bunch of other people that I spoke with at the opening of The Grove last night, but it gives a good flavor the variety of people that were there. It helps illustrate why I believe coworking is so important. It is when you connect with people from a bunch of different viewpoints that you can gain the insights to make whatever project you are working on more successful. The Grove is setting out to be a place where connections like this are made. They got off to a great start and I wish them well.
#pcct - What Makes for a Good Podcamp Session?
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Tue, 08/03/2010 - 09:19Recently, a discussion came up amongst organizers of PodcampCT about different sessions ideas and what makes for a good session. I’ve always felt that a good podcamp is one where everyone learns something. It is one where there are not sales pitches or presentations. Instead, everyone is an equal participant. Everyone is a rock star. One submission particularly caught the attention of a few people.
Title: You Are The Media & The Message
Summary: Whether you are an experienced social networker or just getting your first blog or podcast off the ground, you can be as influential as any media outlet in the state. Learn how to leverage "the brand of you" through various media, both new and old, to get whatever you want to get done from some media mavens who will share some secrets to help you to use the new trust agents to grow your tribes, make it stick and crush it.
Various members of the organizing group felt that this sounded a bit like a sales pitch or presentation. It would probably be a winner on a social media buzz word bingo game card. It talked about ‘media mavens sharing secrets’. Others noted that the person who made the submission is very keen and progressive about social media, but that it did sound a bit like a presentation which might cause people to not attend, or to exercise the rule of two feet.
For people not experienced in Podcamps, the rule of two feet is that if you are in a session that just isn’t doing it for you, you should use your two feet to walk out and find a session that fits your needs better. You will get more out of the sessions this way, and people in a session may have a better session than they would if people are resentfully sitting in the session. When I am at a session that smacks of a presentation, I check to see if there is a chance to turn it into a conversation, and lacking that, I use the rule of two feet.
Yet actually, the session idea might not be as bad as it looks on first glance. If anything, it seemed to have the problem of combining many great potential session ideas. Key session ideas that I picked out of the one submission included:
How to brand yourself.
Participants will explore the idea of what it means to have a "personal brand"; why you might want one, and how you might establish one.Building audience and influence:
Participants will share ideas about how to get more followers and readers, especially followers and readers that are most likely to act on and/or repeat messages sent out via social media.Citizen journalism:
Participants will explore what it means to be a citizen journalist; how to cover stories that are being missed by others, how to get press credentials, how to tell the story in a way that people will be interested in.
I also suggested an idea to encourage people to suggest sessions that are not presentations. It seems like a good idea submission form might include a question something like
What do you hope to learn from this session?
Every session should be one that everyone attending is hoping to learn something from. If there aren't
things you are hoping to learn from this session, then perhaps someone else should moderate it.
That said, I also had a snarky suggestion:
Title: How to avoid pitches and presentations at podcamp
Summary: Podcamp is an opportunity to share ideas. Unfortunately, some people view it as an opportunity to make a sales pitch or presentation. They miss great opportunities to learn. This session will help participants recognize potential sales pitches and presentations to avoid, use the rule of two feet when they find themselves in such a session, and think about how they can promote sessions that will be meaningful discussions instead of presentations.
Podcamps are wonderful chances to share ideas and learn new things about podcasting and social media. PodcampCT will take place in New Haven on October 16th. If you live in the Connecticut area, please consider attending. If you live further away, please check out the main Podcamp website to find a Podcamp near you.
Social Media and Schools
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Thu, 07/29/2010 - 10:35A few years ago, Avery Doninger posted a message on her personal Livejournal account from home one evening criticizing the administration of the high school she was attending. As a result, she was barred from serving as class secretary in her senior year of high school. This raised many important issues about freedom of speech in the age of the internet which are being explored in a case proceeding through the Federal Courts.
Last night, the Windsor Locks Board of Education met to discuss a personnel matter. The agenda included an executive session to discuss the Superintendent’s position/contract. All of this comes in the wake of comments that Superintendent David Telesca posted on Facebook. According to the Hartford Courant, Superintendent Telesca commented online that “my first day on site involved counseling an administrator to retire or face termination”.
The Courant article goes on to say,
A spokesman for the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education said Tuesday that he could not recall any instances in the state when social media usage was a problem for a school district.
Apparently, the spokesman is not aware of the Doninger case.
There are many interesting aspects to this. Policy and law often lag technology, and few, if any school boards seem to have policies on the use of social media. On the other hand, an underlying question is whether or not online communications are substantially different than other forms of communications. Online communications are often more persistent, easier to search, and may reach a broader audience, but is this a difference of magnitude or something more substantial? One board of education member observed that boards do not have policies on ballpoint pen usage.
It may even be that the difference of magnitude is fading. As ‘trackers’ become more common in the political sphere, what people say when they are talking to a politician in a coffee shop may become as persistent, searchable and broad reaching as anything else. The line between the personal and the public continues to blur.
In would be wrong for the Windsor Locks Board of Education to terminate their superintendent because he made his remarks on Facebook. If, however, the content of the remarks are deemed to have violated Board policy, for example, saying too much about personnel cases, that would be a different issue. I do not know what different school board polices are about a superintendent talking about the hiring or firing process without mentioning individuals involved. It would seem as if there is benefit to these sorts of discussions, such as letting it be widely known that a school is searching for certain types of employees or discouraging certain types of behaviors.
This is not to say that schools should not be paying close attention to social media. If anything, they are currently failing by not focusing enough on it. Social media is the new place for kids to hang out. Teachers and administrators need to understand what is going on in the lives of their students. They should be providing skills to help students make the best possible use of tools in the twenty first century, which includes social media.
Indeed, some of the best teachers and administrators I know are the ones that make ample and wise use of social media. Students are encouraged to share their work with the public online, in ways that protect the students’ privacy. Administrators are using social media to communicate with teachers, parents, tax payers and other stakeholders about what is going on in the school districts.
Social media, like any other tool, can be used wisely or stupidly. It can be used for good or for ill. Some people will have backlashes against any new tool since the tool could be misused or used for ill. It is better to understand new tools and help people learn to use them in the best possible ways.
(Cross posted at deliberateCT.)
