More stories needed

As I have been looking over the notes from the netsquared conference, I started thinking about what came out of the conference.

In my opinion, I think the main point is that nonprofits need more examples and stories from nonprofits using new technologies. Having the case studies up is one way to share what other nonprofits have done. Instead of only posting information about how many nonprofits are using these tools and what tools are used, we need to mention the results. Has this new technology helped the organization? How did it help with social change?

While I am all for these new technologies, I feel this needs to be done before moving forward.

Notes from the Remote Tagging Session at Netsquared

Beth started off with the question "What do you think we need to be doing to get more npos tagging?".

Responses to this question were:

• More npos just need to know what tagging is - then how to do it and how they'll benefit from it
• Raise awareness of tagging because a lot of NPOs don't know about it, and many of those who do don't see why it's useful
• Use examples of what others have done and how it's helped them

Points, Questions, and Ideas brought up:

• tags and "diluted" content
• resources like NetSquared's Net2Learn are cool
• seeing tag streams from a set group of people vs. seeing tags streams from everyone
• discovery apsect of seeing what others are finding and tagging
• what do you find to be the top benefits to npos using tagging? what are the top "selling points" if you had to make a pitch?
• It is an easier pitch to the techies
• how to take the nptech example/model and leverage that to more broadly to nonprofits
• the nptech tag is useful to see what's interesting others in my field.
• develop other tag communities
• structure vs. unstructure tagging
• "janitor role" to clarify families of tags
• giving the user a "flag" for content you think is mis-tagged when pulling in a stream
• we still need some how tos for some of the tools
• need tips for developing and using tags within a community
• nonprofit tags for different nonprofit verticals, start by collecting tags people are using
• del.icio.us for dummies
• collect case studies of how tagging has been used - especially if it's been directly tied into nonprofit program
• we need to get more people to add their stories in net2
• we need people to write about case studies on their blogs and/or websites
  
  

After this session, the Tagvocate group on N-TEN Groups was formed.

Has tagging for disaster relief created social change?

Today I remembered about tagging and blogging with Hurricane Katrina. How did everyone know to tag their items in August/September with HurricaneKatrina or Katrina? Did any of these things create social change? Did tagging help disaster relief? I think this is worth exploring.


Tags: net2

Netsquared Remote Conference

I had a blast at the Netsquared remote conference. Even though I was unable to attend the face to face conference, the remote part was a thrill for me.

I attended the following remote sessions:

• Health Care and Web 2.0 Technologies
• Partnering with researchers in industry and academia
• Blogher
• Tagging in the Nonprofit World
• Tech Tools in Medicine
• Superpatron: viewing libraries from a patron's point of view

I also went to the hallway to chat real time with conference participants. I learned what was being said in the mashups, social networking, gender, and tagging sessions. It was so interesting. I felt like I was there even though I wasn't.

It was also neat to chat with Beth, Marnie, Ruby, Susan, Holly, and a few others.

I will be posting my notes and thoughts shortly from what I learned at these remote chats.

Tags: net2