Last December, in a guest post I wrote over on the Telegraph's Technology Blog, I gave some of my own predictions of social media trends I think we'll see in 2009.
Along a similar line, Trendspotting has shared an interesting slide show presenting Influencers Predictions for Social Media in 2009. It's worth a look:
Tomorrow will be the second of the four lecture and workshop sessions I'm scheduled to deliver on the City University MA in International Journalism course during the 2008/9 academic year.
I've given plenty of one off lectures at universities in the past but I having to come up with four distinctly different - and hopefully interesting, engaging, intellectually challenging and memorable - topics for lectures, much less turning them into proper presentations, is a bit daunting. Add to to that the two one hour workshops, one for broadcast students and the other for print students, and we're talking at least two, and potentially three, hours of different content each time. That's a whopping 12 hours of social media goodness to come up with, format, and present to a group of MA level journalism students. Not easy.
For the last lecture I asked my twitter followers to help me hone in on the most important topics. I then pebble blasted the students with a broad tour of the social media landscape, focused on the things that I thought might be useful for journalists. This time, I'm going to focus on finding contacts, content and context online.
I. Blogs
II. Twitter:
III. Content Sharing:
IV. Reflection:
And, finally, my first attempts at trying to use yahoo pipes to automate the searching, and some of the filtering, of social media content around breaking news. Also, check out Martin Belam's sport related stab at it.
If you have any links that you think would be useful, or advice I should pass on with relation to the above outline, please let me know. During the workshops I'm planning on having the students actually do some social media searching themselves and start aggregating it using xfruits and yahoo pipes.
I've been really busy speaking at different events the past few weeks.
At the end of October, I spent an afternoon at the News of the World Editors Conference. I'm afraid I can't tell you much more about that but it was a lot more fun "being grilled by Fleet Street's finest attack dogs", as Editor Colin Myler put it in his invitation, than one might initially suspect from an event with a billing like that. They sell 3+ million copies of their Sunday paper in a country of around 60 million people but have, thus far, only made baby steps online.
On the 9th I was at blogboat.be in Ghent, Belgium, to moderate the evening panel debate between Dan Gillmor, newspaper editor and author Henk Blanken and Han Soete from Indymedia. The panel was proceeded by an afternoon discussion about citizen media, blogging and journalism which took place, as the name might imply, on a boat.
Then, on the 12th, I was one of two guests invited to take part "in conversation" on the stage at the Association for International Broadcasting Awards dinner at St. Lukes LSO in London. I was interviewed by Jonathan Marks - video below:
I also did the first of four three hour teaching sessions, each comprising of a lecture followed by two workshops, at the Department of Journalism at City University, London, where I'm teaching on the MA International Journalism programme. I'm back there again on the 2nd of December.
In Mid-December, I'll be in Dubai for the New Media Event which I'm particularly looking forward to as it, potentially, will be an entirely new audience for me and I'm hoping to learn as much, if not more, than I dish out myself.
Today was my first day teaching on the MA International Journalism programme at City University London. In preparation, I've been asking my twitter and facebook followers to help me come up with an outline for the lecture and received an almost overwhelming amount of feedback, much of it very useful indeed.
I asked, in various ways, what I should show journalism students - some of them already accomplished journalists in their own right - from the worlds of blogging and social media. My session, the first of four I'll be teaching between now and the end of the Spring term, was tentatively billed as an introduction to "social media journalism" or, depending on who you might have asked, "social networking for journalists".
Anyway, here's the helpful advice that my twitter followers shared (I've not posted the facebook responses, of which there were at least a dozen, because they are essential private where as all of these come up in a public tweet search). Thanks to all those who helped!
egrommet: @Cybersoc
yay! say hello from sunny Cardiff. we're using all the things you
suggested yesterday plus Mento to allow team chat on bookmark
about 7 hours ago ·
Reply
· View Tweet
· 
Show Conversation
noodlepie: @Cybersoc I guess you chose to start with Twitter :) Go teacher !
about 7 hours ago ·
Reply
· View Tweet
hazel: @Cybersoc, I'm sure they will learn a lot from you :-)
about 7 hours ago ·
Reply
· View Tweet
eamonncarey: @Cybersoc fun and games. there's nothing like standing in front of a class and hoping that you can keep them interested and entertained!
about 8 hours ago ·
Reply
· View Tweet
paulmartinsmith: @Cybersoc
I'd start with the why - 'why is social enterprise technology and its
use important' - sets context for what follows, grip em ;)
about 18 hours ago ·
Reply
· View Tweet
kittenhotep: @cybersoc
even s'thing as simple as comments on a news article - facts checked by
audience/corrected by journalist = relationship developed.
about 19 hours ago ·
Reply
· View Tweet
· Show Conversation
kittenhotep: @cybersoc
even s'thing as simple as comments on a news article - facts checked by
audience/corrected by journalist = relationshop developed
about 19 hours ago ·
Reply
· View Tweet
· Show Conversation
arvind: @Cybersoc I would start with delicious, easy for people to understand bookmarks (old school), and gets them into tags (new school)...
about 19 hours ago ·
Reply
· View Tweet
lorrvid: @Cybersoc show them ping.fm it links the whole lot lol
about 19 hours ago ·
Reply
· View Tweet
hrheingold: @Cybersoc RSS, pipes, map mashups (Chicagocrime), widgets (Sproutbuilder is nice way to intro), delicious
about 19 hours ago ·
Reply
· View Tweet
kittenhotep: @cybersoc
would also point out examples of citizen journalism, but perhaps not in
1st lecture. Also, how news spreads in SM/long tail, etc.
about 19 hours ago ·
Reply
· View Tweet
· Show Conversation
kittenhotep: @cybersoc
all of the above, and maybe throw in something about how new/social
media is shaping journalism (Christian Science Monitor, etc).
about 19 hours ago ·
Reply
· View Tweet
· Show Conversation
jeton: @Cybersoc I suggest you just skip Facebook . ;)
about 19 hours ago ·
Reply
· View Tweet
monkeywatcher: @Cybersoc learn them what RSS is and how to use it (monitoring, alerts, aggregators,...).That's something they don't teach us at our univ
about 19 hours ago ·
Reply
· View Tweet
Coneee: @mjgprod @cybersoc is running a social media course. That means students should learn twitter/facebook/blogs. @cksthree ha, shut up! :P
about 21 hours ago ·
Reply
· View Tweet
· 
Show Conversation
varagic: @Cybersoc, you can check/ask students for their blogs, twitters, FB, myspace, youtube...
about 21 hours ago ·
Reply
· View Tweet
djwaters1: @cybersoc Social media: Share the connection.
about 22 hours ago ·
Reply
· View Tweet
· Show Conversation
djwaters1: @cybersoc It's not who you connect to, it's to whom you connect that matters
about 22 hours ago ·
Reply
· View Tweet
· Show Conversation
djwaters1: @Cybersoc It's not who connects to you, it to whom you connect that matters.
about 22 hours ago ·
Reply
· View Tweet
· Show Conversation
Coneee: @Cybersoc
they should learn that you can start getting involved in new media
_now_. It takes ten minutes to start a blog/twitter/portfolio.
about 22 hours ago ·
Reply
· View Tweet
KristineLowe: @Cybersoc In short, they should learn how to search, harness and behave on social web
about 22 hours ago ·
Reply
· View Tweet
· Show Conversation
KristineLowe: @Cybersoc my stab at starting to explain journos and socialmedia, with useful links, edited since first posted: http://tinyurl.com/6rkg24 (expand)
about 22 hours ago ·
Reply
· View Tweet
· Show Conversation
davy_sims: @Cybersoc - sometimes the basics are worth repeating.
1 day ago ·
Reply
· View Tweet
· Show Conversation
davy_sims: @Cybersoc I know it's v basic but I was lecturing a group of 2nd yr students who were taken aback by the idea "The Audience comes 1st"
1 day ago ·
Reply
· View Tweet
· Show Conversation
hansenism: @cybersoc Short on idea front (obviously they needed a new teacher) but fun that you're teaching a class I used to take! Be good to them!
1 day ago ·
Reply
· View Tweet
HoratioNelson: @Cybersoc How to use RSS for newsgathering and syndication...
1 day ago ·
Reply
· View Tweet
christ0ph: @Cybersoc responding to comments and consider coments as something good rather than something bad
1 day ago ·
Reply
· View Tweet
· Show Conversation
christ0ph: @Cybersoc RSS and Pipes
1 day ago ·
Reply
· View Tweet
· Show Conversation
browncowproject: @Cybersoc
When was in education I used to think I was the only one planning
lessons on the hoof. But tweeting for lesson plans is genius.
3 days ago ·
Reply
· View Tweet
KristineLowe: @Cybersoc
Show them the importance of the world wide social web and its
impact/relevance to journalism. My group today only did Facebooking
3 days ago ·
Reply
· View Tweet
kittenhotep: Cute moment of connection confluence: after adding @cybersoc (Hey Robin!) on twitter, he adds me on flickr, & I find him on linkedin. Nerds!
3 days ago ·
Reply
· View Tweet
charlotteclark: @Cybersoc The importance of the net and Blogs.we met some today who didnt seem to know much about it.or that was my impression.
4 days ago ·
Reply
· View Tweet
amonck: @cybersoc they'll just be happy to see you!
4 days ago ·
Reply
· View Tweet
gktwtr: @Cybersoc Who are the students?
4 days ago ·
Reply
· View Tweet
I spent most of the morning on BBC radio. It all started yesterday, when I saw a tweet by Rory Cellan-Jones, alerting me to a blog post he was writing in response to a Wired article proclaiming blogging is dead. I wrote a post about the cuffufle in a tea cup myself over on the Headshift blog before seeing Rory's follow-up tweets, asking if anyone had a view which I did. Next thing I knew, I was being asked to go on Radio 4's Today programme with Rory and technology journalist Kate Bevan.
We were interviewed by John Humphries who famously refuses to use the computer in the studio at Television Centre... here's the clip (or Download today_20081023-1023a.mp3 ) It also made the BBC homepage.
But that was only the start. Whilst waiting to go on Today, I got a call from the BBC World Service, who also wanted to do an interview about the death of blogging so, as soon as I was done on Today, I headed over to Bush House to be interviewed by Dan Damon on World Update. Apparently it's broadcast on over 200 FM stations across the USA, as well as key audiences in East Africa and the Middle East - which is a shame because my performance was, at least in my own mind, negatively impacted upon by tiredness, having consumed too much caffeine and a little bit of boredom. The interview ended up being interviewed across three slots in the programme so I'm afraid you'll have to listen to the financial reports and other bits if you want to listen to it all. I've *acquired* two of those bits [Download Robin1.mp3 / Download Robin2.mp3 ].
I'm going to be speaking at the European Broadcasting Union's International Broadcasting Conference in Geneva on Tuesday.
It was a bit of a last minute booking, and will involve a 4am taxi journey to Luton Airport, but it will be a real pleasure having the opportunity to discuss how social media is changing the media landscape with the leadership of many of Europe's Public Service Broadcasting corporations.
Last week, Headshift co-hosted a blogging seminar with Six Apart, the makers of the Movable Type blogging platform. I wanted to talk about different types of blogs as a way of explaining why corporate and media blogs need to move away from one way publishing in favour of joining and participating in conversations.
As I was preparing my presentation, I got thinking about the apple tree at the bottom of the garden.
The first year I lived there the apple tree produced bunches of lovely apples. The impact of that tree didn't, at least on the face of things, go much beyond the garden fence. This is like a personal blog, or web diary - the audience is small, intimately known, and very attentive. The purpose of such a blog is to superserve that audience, not to reach out to a new audience.
The second year there were only a handful of blossoms in the spring and, despite several attempts to fertilise and water the tree back into fruit bearing, only 3 or 4 apples made it through the summer. This was because, although our apple tree remained the focus of our attention, the neighbour had cut down her trees and, with them, the blossoms that bees used to cross polinate my tree in previous years had disappeared. This is like the expert blog, where the author finds content - a photo, article, youtube video, etc - and shows it to their audience. The focus is still on publishing, upon having a one way, top down conversation, but at least it uses the web as a resource from which it can grow.
Then there are orchards, which have many trees and many many bees, from which grow huge amounts of apples. Those apples can be sent out the be sold at markets, where someone who came to buy cucumbers might see them and take one home, or be used to make cider, pies, or a whole host of other products. This is like a blog as a node in a conversation - they link out, comment, participate widely, pull and push content around, etc. The more blogs that participate, the more content spreads, the more each blog will grow audience and flourish - just like apple trees in the orchard. Here are my slides:
There are just a few spaces left for a special seminar about blogging which Headshift is co-hosting in cooperation with Six Apart, makers of the blogging tool Movable Type.
The event, taking place this Thursday (25 Sept. 2008) in London, is aimed at helping senior editors, social media stakeholders, online community managers and those leading corporate blogging efforts to learn more about emerging tools and techniques for building participatory communities around their properties.
The event will provide participants with a strategic overview of blogging and a demonstration of creative techniques developed during my former role as the Head of Blogging at the BBC, and since evolved further by the social media team here at Headshift.
More specifically, guests at the event will learn:
Khalid Arif and Maarten Schenk from Six Apart will demonstrate the new functionality found in the latest release of Movable Type (4.2), and integration specialists from Headshift will discuss the benefits of combining blogging, page publishing and social networking in the new version of MT and showcase several interesting MT-based implementations.
We have room for just a few more participants so if you are interested in attending, and are able to make it to Headshift's Tower Bridge based headquarters on Thursday afternoon, you can request an invitation by emailing info@headshift.com with your details.
Oh, and did I mention, we're laying on free wine, beer and other refreshments...
The panel on Social Media and Broadcasting that I helped organise for the International Broadcasting Conference (IBC) in Amsterdam takes place from 11.30 - 13:00 on Friday in Room L.
Joining me on the panel will be BBC Radio 4's Chris Vallance (iPM) and Yahoo Europe's VP of Search & Social Media, Jeff Revoy. The panel will be moderated by Andy Davy, Controller of Portfolio Management, FM&T at the BBC.
We're going to be dipping in and out of a Yahoo Pipe I created to track feedback to the session, live. The pipe looks at twitter, flickr, technorati, google blog search and other sources for links to the session profile page on the IBC site, tags such as IBC and IBC2008, the names of people on the panel, etc. Have a look:
)
Recent Comments