Monthly Archives: January 2009

New President, New Website

Posted on by
1

Loved this joke from the Onion on Obama’s new web strategy. More fun though less enlightening than the piece in Wired Magazine.

WhiteHouse.gov, the official website of the president and vice president, was relaunched Tuesday and includes links to Obama’s weekly video address and a blog. What do you think?

Asian Man
Mark Judson, Accounting Clerk
“I question the ethics of Rahm Emanuel’s ‘Blind D.C. Gossip Items’ page, but it is pretty dishy.”
Old Man
Scott Carpenter, Aircraft Deicer
“I’m going to miss the ‘Those Who Should Die’ feature on the old site.”
Old Woman
Kristina Keyton, Pharmacy Technician Instructor
“Finally, a president who understands technology. Oh, and human rights. And climate change, foreign policy, and the Constitution.”

Techlightenment makes sense to me

Posted on by
Reply

Went to the techlightenment presentation at the Hub in King’s Cross last night, thanks to Deirdre. Nice people, interesting concept with very cool ROI case.

We are very social

We are very social

Their pitch: “Google don’t have a monopoly on groundbreaking approaches to online advertising. Indeed new techniques Techlightenment have pioneered are trumping Google in terms of cost per click (CPC), conversion rates and early stage reach.”

My response: “I like the idea that it combines the best of the ‘longtail’ concept with the best of mass marketing – aggregating small targeted audiences into a large more highly receptive audience (in fact I’ll use that line in my blog!)”.

How complexity can unify an understanding of community structure and behaviour

Posted on by
Reply

There’s been a great discussion about configuring forum discussions on e-mint recently (‘Discussions boards navigation/IA’), with one post from Ian Dickson sparking my interest on another level. He concluded his reply on the subject with the following ‘PS’: “it’s easier to simplify something that is overengineered than it is to complexify (?) something simple unless youn write off the older content.”

paper

Why is this of interest? Because it points to the value of a complexity approach in unifying the organic nature of an online community and and its structure. Sure, you might say, I could see why a bunch of people online can be seen in organic terms, but structure? But here’s the point. A motor engine is not complex its complicated, because its not based on organic principles, but mechanic ones. It also has none of the properties of self-regulation which an organic system has, hence the need for a control mechanism. But the structure of an online community can be designed along organic lines, based on simple parts which are assembled to form a complex whole. Seen in this complexity light Ian’s then in ideal terms it really is as straightforward to simply the complex as it is to make the simple complex. But what I suspect he means by ‘overengineered’ is in fact ‘complicated’. And in that sense I  agree with him. As it is very difficult to make the mechanically complicated simple. So that’s why its important to build it on complex lines in the first place. And with the bonus that it fits with the way you approach management of the community itself, along organic lines, encouraging self-regulation rather than seeking control as a way of unleashing the power of the community. Hey, it’s just theory, but thanks again to Deirdre’s original post and Ian’s reply for the inspiration!

Why community is where it’s at

Posted on by
1

Loved this post from Community Guy, Jake McKee on why the Obama administration is the first social media government, quoting the value of offline and online communities to connect people in a common cause for good. Now wouldn’t it be great if this same theme was picked up by the UK Government?

Just like your new government, WhiteHouse.gov and the rest of the Administration’s online programs will put citizens first. Our initial new media efforts will center around three priorities:

Communication — Americans are eager for information about the state of the economy, national security and a host of other issues. This site will feature timely and in-depth content meant to keep everyone up-to-date and educated. Check out the briefing room, keep tabs on the blog (RSS feed) and take a moment to sign up for e-mail updates from the President and his administration so you can be sure to know about major announcements and decisions.

Transparency — President Obama has committed to making his administration the most open and transparent in history, and WhiteHouse.gov will play a major role in delivering on that promise. The President’s executive orders and proclamations will be published for everyone to review, and that’s just the beginning of our efforts to provide a window for all Americans into the business of the government. You can also learn about some of the senior leadership in the new administration and about the President’s policy priorities.

Participation — President Obama started his career as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago, where he saw firsthand what people can do when they come together for a common cause. Citizen participation will be a priority for the Administration, and the internet will play an important role in that. One significant addition to WhiteHouse.gov reflects a campaign promise from the President: we will publish all non-emergency legislation to the website for five days, and allow the public to review and comment before the President signs it.

Twitter gets mainstream

Posted on by
2

With Stephen Fry on the BBC talking about the joys of Twitter, and the Twestival coming up on 12 February, it appears Twitter is reaching the mainstream in the UK?

Conversations, complexity and business change

Posted on by
Reply

For no reason except I was trying to help Shirley figure out the week ahead I started thinking about the value of conversations, specifically using online communities to full effect, as part of a practically-minded ‘complexity’ approach to business. Then I did a Google search on complexity and conversations and came up with Dr Patricia Shaw’s book on the subject, with the following customer recommendation which is a useful starting point for further thought:

At last, recognition that real change doesn’t happen purely because of top-down, management dictats, but is embodied by real people having real conversations that are not structured by clear objectives, goals and processes. Inherently scary for all those who rely on management as a control process in their organisations and change as a corporately-guided process, this instead looks at the informal organisation and how creating spaces for conversations between like-minded change agents can be the most effective.

This veers slightly too far into complexity and informal processes only for me – I believe that a balance is required between formal change and informal conversations, but this is still an important broadening of the discussion on corporate change.

Britannia takes on wikipedia

Posted on by
Reply

Interesting news on how Brittannia is taking on Wikipedia by allowing users to contribute contribute for the first time in its history. Especially like the fact this will feed through to the printed version of the encyclopedia – which is published every two years:

In effort to compete with Wikipedia, the Encyclopedia Britannica company is opening up their online version to editing by contributors everywhere. Unlike Wikipedia, however, all changes will be reviewed and edited before being posted.

The new website features will enable the inclusion of user generated content, and will be available on the site within the next twenty four hours.

Encyclopedia Britannica is a 241 year old publication, and they are making these changes to their site to encourage more community input, more use, and – most importantly – to increase their rankings on search engines.

Unlike Wikipedia updates, all of the additions and changes made on Britannica will have to be reviewed and edited before the changes go live on the site. The company has set a 20-minute turnaround to update the site with user-submitted edits to existing articles – though with the popularity of Wikipedia, this may not be possible if the service takes off.

The concept behind user generated content is that much of it will eventually appear in the printed version of the encyclopedia – which is published every two years.

Why Britain is suddenly all a-twitter

Posted on by
Reply

Good piece in the Independent on Twitter. Nice to see my colleague from the ICAEW Philip Woodgate on Twitter.

It was established as a communication tool for geeks and now counts showbusiness stars and the American President among its users.

The popularity of Twitter, the micro-blogging service used by President Obama to remind Americans to vote and tennis player Andy Murray to update fans on the weather, has risen so much that it has seen its visitor numbers increase by nearly 1,000 per cent among UK users.

Latest figures from Hitwise, the online intelligence service, show a 974 per cent increase in traffic, jolting Twitter from the 2,953rd most popular site among UK users to the 291st most visited by mid-January.

Widely feted as the follow up to the networking site Facebook in the evolution of web communication, the service allows users to post short updates about what they are doing. Established as the preferred communication tool for members of the tech community, the service has now entered the mainstream as a form of instant news alert and marketing technique.

The recent explosion in user numbers is largely a product of enthusiasm for a new form of citizen journalism. President Obama has a Twitter profile, although it has been quiet of late, while news of the recent plane crash in New York’s Hudson River first emerged from survivors’ Twitter updates.

Jonathan Ross, the disgraced BBC presenter, has been using the service to chat with fans during his enforced absence from the BBC. He has said he will Twitter live with Stephen Fry, another celebrated Twitterer, on his BBC television programme tonight.

Online communtiy best practices

Posted on by
Reply

Just come across this set of useful looking slides from Forrester’s Jeremiah Owyang. Thanks Jeremy.

Also as a model of best practice for an ‘About’ blog page Jeremy’s is certainly worth benchmarking.

Anyhow here’s the best practices deal..

Online Community Best Practices Final

View more presentations or upload your own. (tags: community online)