Sifting the Tea Leaves: Outreach Using the Read/Write Web CASE/NAIS Philadelphia, 2007

Before We Get Started This presentation available at: Links to resources at the end of the presentation

What Are We Talking About?

A Cautionary Tale “... I will just say this... the lies, distortions and mean spiritedness of some - was not worth my time or worthy of this district …” -- May 18, 2006 Ouch!However…

The Comment Quandary How open do you want to be?

Managing Your Buzz

Getting the Message Out The Mother Ship You  Them Them  You You = Them

The Mother Ship Your online presence Central area for information –Your content –Your domain –Your look/feel Starting point –And, ideally, the ending point

Delivering Content A web page (aka old school) iTunes (podcasts and videocasts) RSS feeds RSS to to text message What gadgets are people using?

You  Them Blogs, Podcasts, Videocasts Can be set up with limited ability to comment All content created by school staff Unfamiliar terrain? Get a guide.

Them  You Sites maintained by the school specifically for community members –These sites generally require people to give you contact information – for example: Register for events Alumni Directory/Job Connection Please, not another FaceBook!

You = Them Community participation in the online presence Invite Alumni/Students to create content –Broader involvement brings more content of interest, which brings more involvement –Commenting/dialogue essential at this level –No canned communities allowed

Enough Talking Let’s Build It!

The Mother Ship Who do people want to hear from? –Who has something to say? Newsletters/Photos/Podcasts/Video –What events are better for what medium? –Judiciously shared content What can you give them that they can’t get anywhere else?

Build a Pretty Frankenstein Phased rollout Gadget friendly content One page with links to all content Use what you need, when you need it A sloppy/poorly conceived online presence is worse than nothing at all

Expectations Management Each school is different Technology changes rapidly –Faster than we can keep up –Don’t sweat it Flexibility is essential –You will learn more details about your community; apply that knowledge effectively

Implementation and Goals No matter how good it is, someone’s gonna hate it. Incremental gains –A more informed member is a more connected member –Can’t identify with the school if they have forgotten about it –More likely to give time/treasure/talent to a known quantity

Closing Thoughts These tools have the potential to make the school a more regular presence in the lives of community members. Fight the hype: evolutionary rather than revolutionary –Whatever. It’s different. The best infrastructure in the world is no substitute for a living institutional mission

Questions/Discussion

Resources – Web 2.0 Info Web 2.0 –The classic definitionThe classic definition –When the lawyers get involvedWhen the lawyers get involved Graphic on slide 2 created with tagcrowdtagcrowd

Resources – Pod and Video Podcasting and Videocasting – – – – –

Resources – Content Reshuffle Content delivery –Automate creation of podcast feeds (depending on your blogging software, this may not be necessary) –Distribute content in different formats –Distribute through iTunes

Resources – to SMS to SMS Gateway – –As this changes frequently, a google search can help track developmentsgoogle search

Resources -- Open Source Tools Blogging Platforms/Community Building –DrupalDrupal –WorpressWorpress –Wordpress Multi-UserWordpress Multi-User –MamboMambo –Joomla!Joomla! –Gallery (photo sharing)

About this presentation This presentation is released under a Creative Commons Non-Commercial License. Creative Commons Non-Commercial License Prepared by Bill Fitzgerald at OpenAcademic – –