Apr 19
Northern Voice Blogging Conference 2008
Moosecamp
The first day of the blogging conference was an “unconference” (affectionately called “moosecamp”). This “unconference” format is modeled on the popular “barcamp”, which is a day of unstructured conversations initiated by computer geeks on various technical topics.
I was particularly interested in ithe session on (Microsoft) Sharepoint software, and it was suggested by the organizers that we also attend the session on Social Enterprise first as both of the topics are related. The majority of the conversations in both sessions circled around company culture and how it related to collaborative culture when the software was introduced.
I’ll try to give a summary of some of the points:
Social Enterprise
Why use collaborative software? Some companies found there were issues of permissiveness in emails. With problems opening email attachments, due to formats used and problems with viruses, it was preferable not to send documents as attachments. One solution to these problems was to use a form of collaborative software to share documents. Sharepoint is a closed system, which is useful for restricted-use documents.
What challenges were involved in using software in a social enterprise system? Some companies had difficulty getting their employees to adopt the system as a work tool.This may have to do with some people’s distrust of technology and that it wasn’t part of their office culture. How does it become part of the company’s culture? One participant questioned how much of the resistance to the technology had to do with language. Context and culture are interdependent concepts. In cases where it had become successful it was noted that in order for the collaborative software to be successful it had to mimic the cultural communication in the company and it had to serve the purposes of the group. It should be a grassroots effort. If it came down from management, there was lack of interest. It has to become the culture of the company and not just a project. It was also important to get the search algorithm working and needed to be professional about the search (it had to be meaningful); Google search, for example. Another participant noted that usage of the software went up when there was also some personal meaning in some of the activity that went on within the software structure. Organizing staff socials, for example, gave personal meaning as well as fresh content which in turn kept people returning to the system.
Feb 08
It’s that time of year again….
Jan 23
Coming up soon at the Northern Voice 2007 conference Darren Barefoot will be leading a session on Why Do We Blog? In order to gather empirical evidence for his theories he has posted an online survey for his readers to contribute stats and personal commentaries as to why they have been bitten by the blog bug. The link for the survey is here.
A couple of years ago my classmate Terry showed me the blog he was working on. I had never heard of them before but I quickly picked up on the concept. Read the rest of this entry »
Dec 10
The Northern Voice 2007 blogging conference is coming up and it’s at UBC. ‘Fess up! Who’s going?
Oct 28
This past week I attended an elearning session at UBC about an innovation in social bookmarking to promote sustainability. Last spring UBC approached a local problem and an opportunity for core branding in sustainability. With the World Forum being held in Vancouver and over 350 university courses laying a claim to covering sustainability in their curriculum and no organizer to explore the richness thereof on campus they looked to technology to enable and engage stakeholders in sustainability solutions. They created a system called GUSSE: Global Urban Sustainability Solutions Exchange - http://gusse.org/ which is a social bookmarking system Read the rest of this entry »
Aug 18
Currently I am part of a task group that is working on a discussion paper about the future of the elibrary at UBC. Having recently returned from a trip to Paris I have just dived back into the fray and set to work. It’s very interesting (and a little odd)to write a paper as a group. As a student I wrote on my papers independently and as a present writer I will at times work with an editor to develop a piece. I’ve already started working through what the other members of the group have been working on and I’m pulling together material for the section I am assigned to. One thing that hasn’t been tackled Read the rest of this entry »
Aug 02
For the past few years UBC grad student Kaela Jubas and her Vancouver colleague Dr.Shauna Butterwick have been involved in a research project to find out about the alternative pathways’s that women use in the IT sector as part of their career development. This sector is part of the Work and Lifelong Learning (WALL) research network which is funded by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Last year I recieved an invite from the Digital Eve mailing list to be a participant in this study. As someone who is interested in IT and in education I volunteered Read the rest of this entry »
Jul 31
Barcamp Vancouver will take place at the Bryght office in Gastown on April 25/26. While all 90 spots are now full there is a very short waitlist so it’s still possible to sign up. What is barcamp? It’s an adhoc unconference where like-minded tech geeks get together to discuss their fave topics. Check out the wikipedia definition. There are a variety of cool topics on the agenda including social software for the introvert, ruby on rails and Kris Krug’s famous photocamp Read the rest of this entry »
Jul 31
The UBC E-strategy 2006 Town Hall took place on June 22, 2006 in the UBC Life Sciences Centre. This free fabulous event featured poster presentations and lecturers from a cross-section of departments on campus.
The morning keynote address was delivered by two guests: Walter Stewart , Senior IT Strategist with CANARIE, Read the rest of this entry »
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