http://openacademic.org

Sifting the Tea Leaves: Outreach Using the

Read/Write Web

CASE/NAISPhiladelphia, 2007

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Before We Get Started

• This presentation available at: http://openacademic.org/news/?p=21

• Links to resources at the end of the presentation

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What Are We Talking About?

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A Cautionary Tale

http://www.sptimesphotos.com/blogs/classroom/

• “... 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…

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The Comment Quandary

How open do you want to be?

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Managing Your Buzz

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Getting the Message Out

• The Mother Ship• You Them• Them You• You = Them

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The Mother Ship

• Your online presence• Central area for information

– Your content– Your domain – Your look/feel

• Starting point– And, ideally, the ending point

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Delivering Content

• A web page (aka old school)• iTunes (podcasts and videocasts)• RSS feeds• RSS to email• Email to text message

What gadgets are people using?

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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.

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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!

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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

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Enough Talking

Let’s Build It!

http://openacademic.org

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?

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Questions/Discussion

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Resources – Web 2.0 Info

• Web 2.0– The classic definition– When the lawyers get involved

• Graphic on slide 2 created with tagcrowd

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Resources – Pod and Video

• Podcasting and Videocasting– http://www.hipcast.com/– http://www.videoegg.com– http://www.gabcast.com– http://www.odeo.com– http://feedburner.com

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Resources – Content Reshuffle

• Content delivery– Automate creation of podcast feeds

(depending on your blogging software, this may not be necessary)• http://feedburner.com

– Distribute content in different formats• http://xfruits.com/

– Distribute through iTunes• http://www.apple.com/itunes/store/...

faq.html

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Resources – Email to SMS

• Email to SMS Gateway– http://www.smseverywhere.com/– As this changes frequently, a google

search can help track developments

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Resources -- Open Source Tools

• Blogging Platforms/Community Building– Drupal– Worpress– Wordpress Multi-User– Mambo– Joomla!– Gallery (photo sharing)

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About this presentation

• This presentation is released under a Creative Commons Non-Commercial License.

• Prepared by Bill Fitzgerald at OpenAcademic– http://openacademic.org– Email: bill@openacademic.com