Recently in Connections Category
I met my friend Geo for coffee at our local office away from home, S-bucks. As we were leaving, I went to put on my coat and winced. George took it in stride. "Are you still sore from the push-ups?"
"Yeah." I answered.
"The first few days are the worst. Hang in there."
I didn't tell him that I had re-started the 100 push-ups program. He knew I was in pain today because I twittered it two days ago: "Wondered why I couldn't lift my arms then I remembered foolishly starting the 100 push-ups program. Again. Great exercise but v.boring to do.
"Yeah." I answered.
"The first few days are the worst. Hang in there."
I didn't tell him that I had re-started the 100 push-ups program. He knew I was in pain today because I twittered it two days ago: "Wondered why I couldn't lift my arms then I remembered foolishly starting the 100 push-ups program. Again. Great exercise but v.boring to do.
A Twebinar is a combination of a webinar with the chat
feature moved into the Twitter service. The idea is to spread the
conversation out into the social media space instead of confining it to
a static piece of content/site/date/time. It seemed like an interesting idea to someone who's planned conferences and interactive events, so I decided to try it.
I attended Chris Brogan's Twebinar on "Game Changing Moves: The Importance of Listening", which was the third in the series but the first that I've been able to attend. My experience in attending was so weird that I ended up taking more notes on the process of the twebinar than actually paying attention to the event itself. Unfortunate, because I'm sure there was some good content in there.
Before the Twebinar
Registration for the event started by asking for my mailing information. Since this was a free on-line event, I was completely thrown by the required fields. Still, I sucked it up and provided the information...and then the site provided me with nothing about what to do next. Even though there would be a confirmation email later, I needed next steps on that page -- where to go, what to do next. I didn't like it, not one little bit. I think that if I'd found the registration link through the Twebinar site, which had more information, I would have felt a little better about next steps. But I didn't, I'd found it through Twitter. No consideration had been given to folks who found the link through non-traditional means.
I later received a confirmation with the date, time and a reminder that the event was free. However, what wasn't included was far more telling:
1) Information about what a Twebinar was or how to set up for it. Turns out I had to have four windows open: two Twitter searches, Twitter, and the Webinar.
2) Links to all of these sites.
3) Information about what tags to use for the event: #tweb3 and #twebinar. People were using both, which was confusing. There should have been one tag for the event.
If I'd known these things in advance, then I wouldn't have been scrambling at the beginning to set things up and would have been able to pay attention to the subject. I wasn't feeling the love.
During the Twebinar
1) Announce the tags to use on Twitter.
2) Get a real videographer and serve it up right. I'm not sure what client they were using for video delivery or who was shooting the live video, but the streaming was horrible. Very choppy, hard to watch.
3) Have someone at each video site on hand to handle technical issues. Sound was lost at least three times during the event.
4) Create a custom skin for the video client that includes all necessary twitter windows as well as the video so people don't have to go back and forth or set up separate screens to view the twebinar. Gah. I know there are services that create custom skins with embedded applications & sites (Akamai, others). Look into it, seriously.
After the Twebinar
1) Provide all the info. I know the twebinar will be hosted and that content can be viewed again. However, I want to see all the questions associated with the event. I had the sense that most people weren't using tags, but were sending the questions straight to Chris.
2) Survey attendees after the event? They have my information.
Coda
I think this twebinar series is an interesting attempt to use social media to generate conversation around a topic, but the implementation is still too clunky and will undermine participation by those who are less savvy. Twebinars also remind me of the hype around live blogging -- meaning that it divides my attention and reduces retention around the subject.
Interesting idea, this Twebinar, but more can be done to make it a tighter, user-focused experience. I think it's important that the event planners don't get so caught up in the content that they forget the nitty-gritty details of how people will interact with it.
I attended Chris Brogan's Twebinar on "Game Changing Moves: The Importance of Listening", which was the third in the series but the first that I've been able to attend. My experience in attending was so weird that I ended up taking more notes on the process of the twebinar than actually paying attention to the event itself. Unfortunate, because I'm sure there was some good content in there.
Before the Twebinar
Registration for the event started by asking for my mailing information. Since this was a free on-line event, I was completely thrown by the required fields. Still, I sucked it up and provided the information...and then the site provided me with nothing about what to do next. Even though there would be a confirmation email later, I needed next steps on that page -- where to go, what to do next. I didn't like it, not one little bit. I think that if I'd found the registration link through the Twebinar site, which had more information, I would have felt a little better about next steps. But I didn't, I'd found it through Twitter. No consideration had been given to folks who found the link through non-traditional means.
I later received a confirmation with the date, time and a reminder that the event was free. However, what wasn't included was far more telling:
1) Information about what a Twebinar was or how to set up for it. Turns out I had to have four windows open: two Twitter searches, Twitter, and the Webinar.
2) Links to all of these sites.
3) Information about what tags to use for the event: #tweb3 and #twebinar. People were using both, which was confusing. There should have been one tag for the event.
If I'd known these things in advance, then I wouldn't have been scrambling at the beginning to set things up and would have been able to pay attention to the subject. I wasn't feeling the love.
During the Twebinar
1) Announce the tags to use on Twitter.
2) Get a real videographer and serve it up right. I'm not sure what client they were using for video delivery or who was shooting the live video, but the streaming was horrible. Very choppy, hard to watch.
3) Have someone at each video site on hand to handle technical issues. Sound was lost at least three times during the event.
4) Create a custom skin for the video client that includes all necessary twitter windows as well as the video so people don't have to go back and forth or set up separate screens to view the twebinar. Gah. I know there are services that create custom skins with embedded applications & sites (Akamai, others). Look into it, seriously.
After the Twebinar
1) Provide all the info. I know the twebinar will be hosted and that content can be viewed again. However, I want to see all the questions associated with the event. I had the sense that most people weren't using tags, but were sending the questions straight to Chris.
2) Survey attendees after the event? They have my information.
Coda
I think this twebinar series is an interesting attempt to use social media to generate conversation around a topic, but the implementation is still too clunky and will undermine participation by those who are less savvy. Twebinars also remind me of the hype around live blogging -- meaning that it divides my attention and reduces retention around the subject.
Interesting idea, this Twebinar, but more can be done to make it a tighter, user-focused experience. I think it's important that the event planners don't get so caught up in the content that they forget the nitty-gritty details of how people will interact with it.
Have you heard about the fake Exxon twitter account? A non-employee posed as an insider to Exxon mobile, twittered about the company and responded to customers. Exxon completely freaked out, but they had an army of lawyers and technologists to attack the problem. I'm pretty sure the problem is solved and Exxon is Exxon again.
Now, I don't think you have an army. I know I don't have an army. So, what to do?
Claim your name. Now. On every major service that's out there. I've claimed the name Zesmerelda for the past 15 years on everything, but I no longer think that's good enough. All it takes is someone to grab my actual name, a picture of me, and they can pose as Tammy Green online. Not that I'm paranoid, but if someone wanted to trash me online that's all it would take. (No, I'm not paranoid. Not really. Not very much.)
So where have I been, name-wise? If you know me at all, your first try would probably be Zesmerelda. I started using it back in the day because Tammy Green isn't a particularly distinctive name. That, and I was brainwashed as an Internet newbie by AOL who started their intake to the service by asking you to pick a cool screen name. Screen name? Bah. Transparency is the rule now.
Anyway, I stuck with a screen name because there are other legit Tammy Green's out there (hello namesakes!). Believe me. It took years of checking the "tammygreen.com" domain name and waiting for the other Tammy to get tired of it before it came available. It took another little while to bump off the Tammy who wrote X-Files fan fic from the top of Google results. Yeah, that's right -- owning your name and using it everywhere increases the odds of search results on your name actually being you.
Upshot? Own your name even if you don't end up using it. Oh hey, if you have kids, be a good parent and register their domain name (at the very least). I think it ranks right up there with starting a college fund. Seriously.
I've written about issues with names and on-line identity before. Here are my related posts on the topic:
Tips on monitoring & namesakes
Screen name angst
The last domain name I'll ever need?
Baby name optimization?
Now, I don't think you have an army. I know I don't have an army. So, what to do?
Claim your name. Now. On every major service that's out there. I've claimed the name Zesmerelda for the past 15 years on everything, but I no longer think that's good enough. All it takes is someone to grab my actual name, a picture of me, and they can pose as Tammy Green online. Not that I'm paranoid, but if someone wanted to trash me online that's all it would take. (No, I'm not paranoid. Not really. Not very much.)
So where have I been, name-wise? If you know me at all, your first try would probably be Zesmerelda. I started using it back in the day because Tammy Green isn't a particularly distinctive name. That, and I was brainwashed as an Internet newbie by AOL who started their intake to the service by asking you to pick a cool screen name. Screen name? Bah. Transparency is the rule now.
Anyway, I stuck with a screen name because there are other legit Tammy Green's out there (hello namesakes!). Believe me. It took years of checking the "tammygreen.com" domain name and waiting for the other Tammy to get tired of it before it came available. It took another little while to bump off the Tammy who wrote X-Files fan fic from the top of Google results. Yeah, that's right -- owning your name and using it everywhere increases the odds of search results on your name actually being you.
Upshot? Own your name even if you don't end up using it. Oh hey, if you have kids, be a good parent and register their domain name (at the very least). I think it ranks right up there with starting a college fund. Seriously.
I've written about issues with names and on-line identity before. Here are my related posts on the topic:
Tips on monitoring & namesakes
Screen name angst
The last domain name I'll ever need?
Baby name optimization?
A few weeks ago, Dan Honigman, the Chicago Tribune's social media guy, invited fellow Twitter users to tour the Tribune building and sit in on a morning news meeting. It was great to see the newsrooms, etc. and I'm very glad I went. However, I wasn't sure what the point of the tour was and why local Twitter users had been targeted. After I asked, Dan shared that they hoped to give a more human face to the Trib and let us know what they were all about.
It took me a while to figure out what bothered me about the whole event, but I think it was the one-sidedness of it. The Trib wanted us to see them as human, but didn't seem interested in us as people who actively use social media or as potential contributers. I felt that we were seen as traffic for their site, promoters of their content, and builders of their buzz. There wasn't any interest in making the relationship two-way, and reciprocity is required for any relationship to be real. I really think it was a lost opportunity to talk to us about our thoughts of the Trib as an online presence and how citizen journalism could work in cooperation with their efforts.
They're promoting a meet-up event through Twitter for mid-August, and I'm interested to see how they do or do not further a relationship with local people. It's great that they're exploring this space, but weak efforts like this tour won't make me feel as though I have a relationship with my local paper.
My pictures of the tour can be seen here.
On the Web, everyone upgrades at different rates. You find a service that works, a site that's comforting, a go-to bookmark that you can lay hands on and you stick with it until you hear about something better, something that solves a problem you didn't know you had, something cool that your friends are trying and you want to be a part of it. And then you move.
Sorta.
You can't completely ditch the old stuff or embrace the new. You hold on to evite because your contacts are all there and you know all your friends -- yes, even the ones who are waaaa-ay tech-phobic -- know how to use it. You stay with bloglines because it's still meeting your needs and you'd have to pick up all your data, move it, and get comfortable again and that seems like too much trouble. You keep the ancient hotmail account because a few friends still have it in their email address books and you don't want to miss a shout-out. You don't insist that everyone you know start using plaxo because you're not sure it'll be there next week & you don't want to be the geek that made them sign up for yet another thing.
Maybe you're the one pushing the change or maybe you're the one being pushed. It doesn't matter. On either side, you're still stuck with the service, the site, the reference until everyone you need who's also using it has moved. Or not.
Sorta.
You can't completely ditch the old stuff or embrace the new. You hold on to evite because your contacts are all there and you know all your friends -- yes, even the ones who are waaaa-ay tech-phobic -- know how to use it. You stay with bloglines because it's still meeting your needs and you'd have to pick up all your data, move it, and get comfortable again and that seems like too much trouble. You keep the ancient hotmail account because a few friends still have it in their email address books and you don't want to miss a shout-out. You don't insist that everyone you know start using plaxo because you're not sure it'll be there next week & you don't want to be the geek that made them sign up for yet another thing.
Maybe you're the one pushing the change or maybe you're the one being pushed. It doesn't matter. On either side, you're still stuck with the service, the site, the reference until everyone you need who's also using it has moved. Or not.
NaNoWriMo
