Category: Uncategorized

Promoting awareness or crossing the line?


Crossing the line

Originally uploaded by Aeioux

 (Edit at noon: Make sure you read Jay Fienberg’s post in the comments. He takes this deeper and really hits the important points.)

Yesterday while messing around with my Feedblitz account (part of this whole blog update/move project) I activated something that automatically posts a tweet “from” me each time I post to my blog. Then I promptly forgot about it.

Today I was browsing my tweets and saw this post from me that I did not recall posting. Oh yeah, that automatic thing. It didn’t feel quite right to me, so I asked my Twitterfriends what they thought. This is what they said. My “unease” seems to be validated by my network. So I went and undid that bit of technology. No more autoposts to Twitter. It feels like the cost of promoting awareness, for me, transgresses my relationship with my network. This is a very personal reaction, but I don’t want to cross the line.

@NancyWhite good for notificication purposes but is it really twittering?
catspyjamasnz (catspyjamasnz) via TwitBin at 10:20

@NancyWhite auto post of blog entries are fine for bots but work badly for humans, at least until post software gives you more control
Edward Vielmetti (edwardvielmetti) via web at 10:14

@nancywhite I use alexking plugin for wordpress and it does not always makes the link (tinyurl) correct. What do u think of tweets in posts?
Christian Kreutz (ckreutz) via web at 10:12

@NancyWhite god knows how bad it would be if someone gave me a plugin to Twitt every Last.fm scrobbled song 🙂
David Ramalho (dramalho) via Snitter at 10:10

@NancyWhite doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t use Twitter to promote the odd post , just that being systematic about it = RSS 🙂
David Ramalho (dramalho) via Snitter at 10:09

@NancyWhite Hi Nancy – haven’t used them, tend if relevant post to followers to put up a tweet about it at times! And there’s RSS and others
Laura (LittleLaura) via twitterrific at 10:08

@NancyWhite – personally, I don’t like them – that’s what RSS readers are for, IMHO – why should Twitter try to be all things to all people?
Koan (koan) via twitterrific at 10:08

@NancyWhite Kinda kill the sense of RSS 🙂 , or extend it to Twitter (but probably abuses it) 🙂
David Ramalho (dramalho) via Snitter at 10:07

@NancyWhite – I am not thrilled with the tools that auto post blog entries on twitter. No detail and so it doesn’t seem like conversation.
Jim Benson (ourfounder) via Snitter at 10:07


Open Source Research on FB for Non Profits

candle or mirror

I have been talking to the folks at Hosteling International USA about how to reach out to and connect with 18-25 year olds about hosteling and traveling. I told Russ Hedges, the CEO, that I did not know a lot about Facebook (one option) but I sure had a great network of people who did know a lot, and many who have focused on the use of Facebook by non profits and NGOs.

I proposed we convene a telephone conversation and toss around some ideas. Besides having this conversation, I suggested that whatever we learned, we would share out – Open Source Research. Russ was game, so I put the invite out on Twitter and within an hour had 8 RSVPs. Social networks in action, right from the start.

Today we shared conversation for an hour. Towards the end, Jim Benson suggested we walk the talk and continue our research on Facebook IN Facebook. We’d start a little group, scan FB for interesting non profit applications, leave links in the group, then reconvene to talk again in a couple of weeks. I agreed to start the group and post the minutes from today’s meeting, to begin that “sharing out” bit. So here it is… Facebook | Open Source Research on FB for Non Profits with Nancy’s Friends

Care to join our exploration? It complements some work Beth Kanter has been doing as well. Imagine, if we all share our research, we’ll either be collectively smarter, or even more confused!

The MOVE is underway

We are redirecting the site to it’s new home. The blog is moving to the front page! Things may be weird for a couple of days, but we are almost there. Many of my old website pages will still look old and links may be messed up for a while. But inch by inch I’ll get it all straightened out.

In the meantime… A HUGE thanks to Jon Lebkowsky at Polycot Associates who has been leading this transition for me.

The Climate Group Research Project

I am having fun trying out my new blogging platform, even though I have not migrated to my final url, which will cause havoc to anyone who links to a post. But one MUST test the software, right?

My friend Molly Webb has embarked on a new job with a VERY interesting project that hits to the heart of any online person: what is our use of technology costing the environment. The Climate Group is kicking off a project that should be of interest to us.

The Climate Group: About Us: Our Work Programmes: ICT
How will the continued growth of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) impact climate change? How could ICTs enable the transition to a low-carbon economy? The °Climate Group will explore these questions and more in a program of work beginning in November, 2007.

To inform this work, the Climate Group and GeSI [Global e-Sustainability Initiative] will collaborate on a global study to evaluate the ICT (Information Communication Technology) sector’s role in climate change. The work will begin in November and report in March.

The project aims to:

  • Deliver the first globally comprehensive picture of direct and indirect carbon emissions of telecoms, computing, services and software.
  • Define common themes and issues across the ICT lifecycle, identifying critical trends, scenarios and impact assessments for the ICT sector to 2020.
  • Create a ‘road map’ to allow the ICT sector to act now on reducing global energy usage and greenhouse gas emissions.

Overlap in Social Networks

I have been having some casual conversations with a friend at a US non profit who is looking to attract more younger constituents (more on that later.) One of the things that we discussed was which social network(s) should they experiment with? They are seeking to attract people 18-25.

This chart from the folks at compete gives some food for thought. It does not compare demographics, but when you think about Facebook and MySpace it offers some insights.

Alex, in the blog post, noted:

We can see the social graph, as it is online today, consists of mainly personal relationships, though a large group of users belong exclusively to professional social networks and many belong to both. A collective solution to bringing the entire social graph online might do well to take a closer look at the particular needs of this early adoption crossover group.

If you were starting a new social network test, would you think about this early adoption crossover group? How would you reach them?