Looking back, and looking forward to participation

I recently had one of those experiences of looking back with fresh eyes on some work that I did more than two years ago...and thinking it was OK! ;-)

In this case, I re-read parts of a mini-thesis I wrote for my masters study in virtual communication at RMIT University in 2006. Back then, I found the emerging landscape of Web 2.0 and user generated content fascinating (and I still do).

During my research scoping, I found that ‘participatory media’ was becoming increasingly influential on the web. As I needed to make the paper have a business focus, I chose to research the impact of participatory media on brands. What’s happened now is that this term has been overshadowed by its alternative ‘social media’. (I think because it’s easier to spell and say!)

Apart from a few people at work and some friends, I’ve never really shared my research paper, so I thought I’d do so now. Feel free to take a look, tell me what you think.

It's called 'Brand engagement through participatory media'. Some of the examples might be old, however I think they're still useful and relevant. Here’s a few bits from the abstract:

• "This research paper examines the influence that participatory media such as blogs, online social networks and virtual worlds can have on the effectiveness of an organisation’s branding strategies. It considers the history and suitability of the web for participation and the relevance of participatory media for branding, particularly in a highly competitive and media-fragmented environment. It explores the shifts in consumer behaviour, technology and the growth of online communities that are driving the changes to a ‘participatory culture’. "

• "The research shows that through using participatory media, opportunities can be created to engage and build relationships and a deeper connection with an organisation’s brand. The analysis culminates in a set of starting points to guide an organisation in formulating participatory media strategies to develop positive relationships with consumers, therefore contributing to engagement with the brand."

Research paper - Brand engagement through participatory media

NB: One of the examples I used in my paper was Weird Al Yankovic’s video clip White and Nerdy, which landed on YouTube in August 06.

Apart from being completely hilarious (especially for Gen X I think), at the time of research the video was tracking at around 10 million views - a lot by any measure. Looking at it today, White and Nerdy has well over 41 million views – that has to be a record somewhere!

More angles on learning and collaboration

This week I presented at Comview, the annual conference of the VCTA, (business and commerce education). They wanted to hear about real life examples about what we (i.e. CPA Australia) were doing with blogs, wikis, online learning, etc with our members.

Each time I present I learn something about my audience. Interesting, yet unsurprising stats with this one. In a room of about 65 accounting teachers, I had a handful who’d blogged, a few who had used social media / web 2.0 tools in their classrooms, one who’d gone to Second Life and about a third of the room on Facebook.

Nearly all hands went up when I asked if their students or children were on Facebook.

I learned too that there is a growing movement among teachers (including accounting teachers) to use social media / Web 2.0 in the classroom. Comview had a number of sessions dedicated to engaging students using Web 2.0 tools. Questions and conversations during my session also showed this growing interest.

Those 'early adopters' recognise that their students live on this type of communication, and there are teachers who are 'evangelists' about using it to engage their students in the learning. To me, this shows a great opportunity for teachers and their students to engage and create an immersive and 2-way learning situation…and make it really fun.

Not necessarily age-related, there seems to be a 'technology adoption generation gap' where some teachers feel too time-poor to use these type of tools with their students - even though the benefit leads to students' greater attention. (this issue of course is not isolated to teachers only)

The whole online collaboration movement using social media, networks and Web 2.0 is fast evolving in the workplace, and more and more I see clear patterns in how it’s being used (or not used, or trying to be used), over and above pure social interaction.

I hear this a lot when discussing using social media in the enterprise for ‘real work’…. “But when will I find the time”, and “Where do you find the time for all of this”. We're in the midst of how to 'prove' the business value.

I think the key that we will find soon enough is – “What does this replace – where is it better, how does it help me to do my job more effectively?” and by doing this – save time, more engagement, better results.

After all, what did we do before the web? Before email? Before mobile phones? Before personal computers? Before answering machines? Before the telephone?

Things do find a balance, and I think we’re in the real midst of change with all of these virtual communication, connection and collaboration tools.

Going virtual in Second Life - why?

Last week marked the launch of a significant project that our team have been working on for months – our first ever event in a virtual world. I’ve been a fan of the potential of virtual worlds for a while. I was first fascinated by it in 2006 for research, then became a user in 2007, then on to immersion in 2008 with our event. Here's a snapshot of the venue (photo credit: Marcus Coghlan).

One of the aspects I love about the web is its ability to connect people no matter where they are in the world. One of the challenges with virtual communication is that not everyone experiences it in the same way, and the variation in the richness of the experience is widely skewed.

For example, if you’re in a chat/IM, you experience each other as a line of text and a user name. Especially if you have had no previous contact with each other, you can be left wondering who this person is and what they really mean. There are very few non-verbal clues.

With a teleconference, at least you have voice quality and inflection, but it’s disembodied. A videoconference is better, but like all before it, it’s two dimensional, and doesn’t work well with a large group.

In my experience too, often videoconferences include groups of people who are face-to-face in a meeting room, with one or two others brought in from the various locations. This means that all experience their meeting environment differently.

Some cannot see the other VC participants properly (e.g. if it is a large group and the lighting is not adequate in the room); plus if you are the only person remote on videoconference, you have an inferior experience to those who there majority of people are sitting. And to me, this is where virtual worlds come in.

The promise of virtual worlds (and I recognise that we are not quite there yet), is that you are all in the same environment together. It is an immersive, visual, rich environment. In the case of Second Life, you have a number of communication tools, including voice and IM.

This becomes four options as you can have one-to-one IM and voice call, as well as many-to-many voice and IM, where all can hear and see. Plus as a participant you experience each other as a physical presence through your avatar.

For our session, participants responded well. Feedback to date shows they valued the event, content and experience – we had them logging in from all over Australia and the world, including the UK and USA. Broadband and other technicalities aside, they all experienced the same environment, no matter where they were logging in from.

And it was in real-time, 3D, where each person’s avatar provided a visual and spatial indication of them as a person; and the event as an occasion, where interaction and Q&A were a natural part of proceedings. A much richer experience than if this was a webinar, videoconference, or video recording of a session.

In the case of our event, we had two speakers hosted in our conference venue:

Lindy McKeown (Decka Mah) presented on the educational aspects and uses of virtual worlds in a learning environment; while Lee Hopkins (Lee Laperriere), spoke about how business and accountants were using Second Life. I will post again with more info on their presentations, as we’re presently having our machinima of the event edited.

For myself (Helene Markova), I MC'd the event. More on this later too – I learned a lot from this experience, it was great!

For more reviews of the session, you can go to Lee Hopkins' wrap-up on the event, as well as our team members Alex Dalidakis and Mick Leyden, who have blogged their thoughts.

Also see our Flickr tag cpaaustralia-sl for photos, and watch our promo video below of our SL environment fly-through. And do visit our CPA Congress Centre in Second Life.

Reflections on rearranging my social media

I've had an RSS reader for years. I originally used it when doing research for my Masters. It was a highly useful tool as I was researching things that were 'of the moment'. Now I use it for keeping up to date with things 'of the moment'.

The trouble is, I now have more than 50 feeds....and do I keep up with all of them? No. But do I want to trash some of them? ...ummm...that would be No. Because I might find them useful sometime! :-)

Forrester's ladder of participation classifies 6 categories - creators, critics, collectors, joiners, spectators, inactives. I fit into 5 of these categories. I started out as a collector...now I'm all of the active categories.

What this means for me is that I now have lots of things to maintain...and I find that it's the housekeeping and interior design that's always on my 'to-do' list.

For example - make my blog look nice and express who I am, add some fun gadgets; for delicious - tidy up my tags (I think I have too many); for Flickr, upload, tag and sort my images, remember to Twitter, check my Facebook, Linkedin, etc.

I'm wondering what I did with my time before social media...

Finding moments to add to my blog

One of the challenges I face in my work is keeping up to date, and writing my blog.

I view blogging and engaging in social media as an integral part of what I do as a virtual communications professional. If I don't understand it and know what it means, how will I be able to initiate strategies and lead a team in making projects happen?

I like to have something well-thought-out to say. I'm going to change this slightly, as it's inhibiting me writing posts. Sometimes it's about just starting something and seeing what happens next. Even it it's shorter.

So - I just found a great little badge on Lee Hopkin's SL blog - it's a badge that integrates with Flickr. I use my Flickr account to store all the images I take in my travels around Second Life (this too, is missing some updating!). So I've added it to my blog gadgets.

Here's to my continued blogging!

A new day, a new blog

I'm being a fickle blogger and a platform-hopper...I've just transported myself away from trying out Vox through helmitch.vox.com.

I ended up not liking Vox because it wanted anyone who read my blog to be a member of Vox before they could comment. Nothing like putting hurdles in the way of participation!

So I'm over here now, where I hope it will be a lot more friendly. Turns out I already had a Blogger account. That was from a subject in my Masters study at RMIT (of virtual communication) a few years ago, where we had a class blog.

See you soon.