Tag Archives: wiki

Britt Bravo and SocialButterfly Unite Changeblogger Community

In late May, Britt Bravo at Have Fun * Do Good recruited her readers to create a list of Changebloggers – members of the blogging community who:

“…use their blog, podcast or vlog to raise awareness, build community, and/or facilitate readers, listeners, and viewers taking action to make the world better.”

On her blog, Britt developed a working list of 40+ Changebloggers, events and other online lists. Then a facebook group was created. Now, we are organizing our list further. I have created a Changeblogger Wiki that is being used to gather blogs and their author’s names, Twitter contact names, locations, create a shared list of Changeblogger meetups and events while also being a live idea-swapping forum.

The first idea pitched is develop a changeblogger logo. Thus, we are launching a Changeblogger logo contest! Check out the wiki for more details.

Currently, Britt is planning a Changeblogger meetup to correspond with the BlogHer conference in San Fransisco. At that conference, Britt is facilitating the Birds of a Feather session for Green, Social Change & NPO/NGO bloggers, Friday, July 18th from 10:30-11:45 AM. And, I plan to add a Changeblogger meetup to correspond with BlogHer’s Reach Out Tour in Washington D.C later this year in October.

So join the wiki and stay tuned for more ways to take online communications –> offline.


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What’s Your Social Media Ritual? Sharing My Own 15-Steps

fireworks

At work, we’ve been talking a lot about the information scans we all do on our own…who we refer to, which sites are the best, the most useful feeds, etc. So, now, out of curiosity and from inspiration gained from Chris Brogan’s recent post: “Where I Learn More,” I’m asking: Where do you go to learn?

Brogan’s article is great, as in it, he talks about the role of influence and asks us to reflect on what influences what we learn, think, behave and believe….so close to a social marketing (the real social marketing) question my buttons were popping with techy-excitement.

Here is my average, daily, social media ritual.

Please share me yours, and perhaps we can both expand our horizons a little. =)

  1. Check my work e-mail account. Its true fellow co-workers.
  2. Check my regular Gmail account. I get various e-newsletters and feeds here such as the Ad Council Creative E-newsletter, emails from the Social Marketing listserv, Chris Brogan’s new e-newsletter and others.
  3. Check my blog email account. I get various e-newsletter and feeds here that help me stay up to date on the social media, nonprofit, and social marketing arena. Some of my favorite includes Nedra Weinreich’s Spare Change Blog, Beth Kanter’s blog/wiki, and Ogilvy PR’s 360 Digital Influence blog.
  4. Check my Bloglines feeds, to see what good posts are up and published.
  5. Check out both the nonprofit and the social media categories on Alltop.com
  6. Do a scan of: TechCrunch, Trendspotting, Read Write Web, Osocio, Non-Profit Times, NextGov, BrazenCareerist, Social Times, and others. This can depend on the day and the topic I’m currently investigating.
  7. Check old Twitter feeds I may have missed. Especially key feeds from @GeoffLiving, @Nedra, @chrisbrogan, @scobleizer, @rww, @abfdc, @allllll the others I follow on Twitter. Really, it’s a community working together and sharing. It. is. awesome.
  8. If it’s a Monday, I check out the Carnival for Non-Profit Consultants.
  9. Check in on Linkedin to see if anyone new I know has joined or connected. The homepage on Linkedin is becoming increasingly fun.
  10. Surf around the NonProfit Blog Exchange if Emily has posted some great new posts.
  11. Then, it’s on to the social bookmarks. I check my delicious, both my networks and my subscriptions. Oftentimes, those I am connected to are in a similar field or have similar interests, so thank you everyone on del.icio.us.
  12. Then, I spend a little time on Digg, and may occasionally check in on StumbleUpon. I’m really liking Mixx more and more too, though, there doesn’t seem to be as many people on it.
  13. I check up on the scoop of my work’s internal wiki.
  14. Check meetup.com for upcoming events and opportunities to take online connecting –> offline.
  15. More scooping that I probably, and I apologize, didn’t list. Though, if I remember more, I will place in the comments. There’s always MORE to learn and MORE resources to discover. =)

Important note to make: This is just the listening phase.

About the listening phase. I might do some or all of this ritual depending on the day and the time. The point is though, that my ritual is…I am always listening. Always checking in. Always asking questions. Always working to seek answers.

The FUN part, is taking it all in, reflecting, and creatively organizing the content and information in your head to implement innovative, effective communications. And, when I really want to *get wild,* I reflect further, beyond the field of communications, social media or marketing…but more to what Chris mentions, about influence. About change. About society. About trends. About what it all means.

Photo Credit: Flickr, Elias Pirasteh


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Debate Continues: Does anonymity hurt social media success?

As mentioned in my previous post, I read an interesting article by Dan Tynan titled: For Change, Use a Wiki. This particular article grabbed my attention not because of its discussion about wikis, but because of two other main points Tynan makes:

  1. Collaborative web sites are becoming tools for social change…driving collective work into collective action.
  2. The other reason this article grabbed my attention was because it brought up the issue of anonymity when dealing with collective action and social change by asking the question:

Does anonymity injure a social media initiative’s success?

Tynan not only talks about wikis potential good for social change, but also warns that this collective action can too easily mean collective anonymity.

With collective anonymity, it is harder to identify who is doing what and why. It is like an added shield of protection in someways in that with anonymity, accountability is lacking. This is especially dangerous when it comes to collective think.

Now, you’re probably thinking, “Miss SocialButterfly, you are anonymous.” I am already ahead of you. I am open to disclosing who I am. If someone contacts me or asks me, and there is professional relationship-building occurring, then I will openly share who I am, what I am doing and why. Plus, I am an individual.

Thus, onto this question at hand. The article continues acknowledging that there will always be ill-intentioned individuals and groups out in existence and is optimistic that the good, the changebloggers and agents for good, will outnumber the bad.

Tynan gave two credentials for how to separate the pack for well-intentioned and ill-intentioned motives. The good will not be anonymous because A) They care about their online reputations and B) Want to collaborate for social change.

In conclusion, Tynan quotes quotes Andrew Hopping, Community Liaison for NASA’s CoLab wiki who shared:

“As with any technology, there are benevolent uses and malevolent ones. In any community I’m part of there’s little patience for people who want to stay anonymous. Our goal is to create a vibrant, transparent, and effective federal agency. To cause any form of social change, it starts with and ends with people you trust. Anonymity doesn’t lend itself to that at all.”

Where do you stand? Can social change be accomplished despite anonymity?

Indeed, there is a Social Marketing Wiki…

Upon my flight into Baltimore the other day, I read an interesting US Airways Magazine article in its Digital Life Section titled: For Change, Use a Wiki. This particular article for some odd reason, I can’t find online, but it was written by Dan Tynan who also has his own blog Tynan on Technology.

In this article, Tynan leads stating:

“Collaborative Web sites are becoming tools for social change. [Continuing] …What started as an easy way to collaborate has morphed into a tool that could change the world.”

This article first gained my attention because it talked about wikis in particular and how they could relate to social change movements. Backing up, a wiki is a collaborative work space of web pages that allows for anyone who can access them to edit, contribute or modify content. A wiki can also track the editing process and can either be public for open access, such as Wikipedia, or be used internally with access for certain users.

Tynan’s article raised my eyebrows [1] because he raises attention that Wikis are now turning the term collective work into collective action. And, today, of all things, guess what I find… THE SOCIAL MARKETING WIKI.

  • Social Marketing Wiki
    • Mission: Highlight and provide a learning, collaborative resource for social marketers. The wiki is an open source for ‘people who want to pass along and exchange ideas, methods, examples and wisdom of introducing and enhancing the knowledge and skills of social marketing among various groups of people.’ -Lefebvre

I was elated! To my surprise, this wiki was originally established in 2006 according to a blog post by social marketing expert Craig Lefebvre! And, I am just now finding it…at least late, is better than never. The wiki has categories for: academic programs, case studies, definitions, research studies, professional development, Job Postings, and many more resources and materials.

The wiki was launched by a group from the social marketing listserv and its top contributors include Lefebvre, social marketing researcher Stephen Dann, and others. The wiki currently has 120 members, and has some recent activity.

Anyone know any updates on the wiki and where it stands? Would love to discuss. Thanks!

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The other reason this article grabbed my attention was because it brought up the issue of anonymity when dealing with collective action and social change. Stay tuned for the next post for more information.