Tag Archive for 'london'

NCVO Ask the Expert: They asked me!

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I’m looking forward to being a speaker this Tuesday (8 December) at the Seminar: Changing ICT – What does it mean for your organisation? put on by the NCVO.  In preparation for my involvement at the seminar I’m participating in the NCVO’s “Ask the Expert” – an opportunity for NCVO members to pose questions and get answers prior to the main event.  I don’t consider myself to be an expert and don’t necessarily think there could be “experts” in a field that changes every day!  But I do love to share my ideas and experience with others and hope this is an opportunity to start many new conversations both with readers here and participants at the seminar.  Here goes!

Some people are beginning to use twitter for adverts…and doing ‘paid tweets’ Is this going against the whole ethos of SM and especially Twitter, when authenticity is the key?” -Claire

I’ll be posting my slides and speaking notes on Tuesday for my session on the topic of “the future of online revenue generation for charities.”  More to come on this question then!  For more:

“I work in a small organisation and have heard a lot about web 2.0 and social media but have not thought it through in relation to my organisation. What are the key things we should think about if we are going to use social media?” -Jenny

To start with, remember that social media isn’t one of your projects or mission areas.  Social media is a tool for you to use to help you achieve your mission.  Including various social media tools in the way you do your work (whether it’s communications, fundraising, outreach, volunteer recruitment or service delivery) comes from strategically identifying the right tools for the right things.  Key questions to ask include: who is your audience? where are they online already and how do they want to interact with you online (is it in the same spaces or different ones, is it conversations or promotion, etc.)?  One you know who you are interacting with, why you want to interact with them, and why they would want to interact with you, choosing the appropriate platforms or tools to do it is much easier.  For more:

“How do you convince technophobes and people who are resistant (or a bit afraid) of the value of social media tools?” -Ellie

I have looked resistance in the face, many times.  When it happens, I always take a deep breath and remember that the resistance isn’t particular to me or to social media.  The resistance for your organization, staff, leadership or board is probably the same that would come if you presented opportunity for any kind of change.  Change is, far too often, scary.  The best thing to do, then, is to show why it isn’t scary but necessary!  If you’ve set up any social media experiments of your own, either representing yourself or the organization, measure your work and the success to share back (how has using those tools increased volunteers, grown your email list, saved you time on promotion, etc.).  If you don’t have any examples to use of your own, look at what others are doing in social media that are in your same sector, geographic location or interest area and use their examples (many organization are public about the work they do in social media, check their blog and see if they share their own case studies).  For more:

“Can you give an example of how a voluntary organization has used Social media effectively to engage with their supporters to generate income for their campaign/cause?” -Claire

There are many different examples out there, ranging from small organization fundraising locally to organizations leveraging the global community for change.  Twestival and Tweetsgiving are relevant and recent with many different people coming together to make them happen.  The difference with using social media for fundraising is that your organization may not even be involved anymore, the way it was offline.  I could create a fundraising page or campaign for your organization, maybe tie it into my running a marathon or my birthday, and would never need to ask your permission, get your information, or even handle the funds!  Social media enables individuals to become your fundraising department, as well as your communications department, etc.  The best tip I can give in this regard is to make sure you put enough information out that people can support you the way they want (don’t get mad that people have the wrong mission statement about your organization, just send them the correct one and say “thanks!” for supporting us; and make sure your real one is prominent to begin with, like on your profiles in social media platforms and so on).  For more:

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    About ‘Ask the Expert’

    “Ask the expert” is a new benefit for NCVO Members. They can ask questions to experts in the voluntary sector and to NCVO advisors.

    About NCVO

    NCVO is a highly effective lobbying organisation and represents the views of its members, and the wider voluntary sector to government, the European Union and other bodies. We are also at the leading edge of research into, and analysis of, the voluntary sector.  We campaign on generic issues affecting the voluntary sector, such as the role of the voluntary organisations in public service delivery and the future of local government. Learn more about the NCVO here.

    Published on December 6, 2009 by Amy Sample Ward. 0 Comments

    Social by Social Game at Chain Reaction 09

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    Today, David Wilcox and I will be running a version of the Social by Social game at the Chain Reaction event in London … which promises to be a terrific 400-strong gathering of community activists, policy people, business leaders, with a few Cabinet Ministers too.

    The game will be similar in form to those you’ll find here: we’ll invent a place, break into groups around some social challenges or themes, then use sets of cards to plan how to engage people, choose social media tools, and work out how to fund the package. However, although the format is pretty standard, I’m sure the ideas will be highly creative. The cards and other props are there to stimulate conversation – and that always works.

    We’ve tweaked the cards from the last play, as you can see below. Each card has an image (so they don’t all look the same), a description, and budget points from 1-3. The green budget points are for engagement cards, yellow for tools, red for funding. We’ll set a budget for green and yellow, that has to be matched by red.

    I wanted to get this preview up so we can do a little promotion of the workshop, and also have an immediate link for anyone who asks where they can get the cards on the day. We’ll shoot some video and report back later.

    The official Twitter stream is cr_event, and you should be able to follow tweets tagged #cr09 through a search here. Follow us, too! @socialbysocial

    Social by Social game cards for Chain Reaction

    Published on November 12, 2009 by Amy Sample Ward. 0 Comments

    Chain Reaction 2009: the Social by Social game

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    chain reaction conference logoChain Reaction is coming back to London, and the world, this November.  Last year, innovators and changemakers gathered for a two-day event in London to learn, share, and collaborate to make a better world.  The conversations, presentations and workshops were shared online in real-time thanks to a myriad technology set (including Twitter, blogs, video, etc.).  It’s time again to meet in London and invite the whole world in to the conversations.

    Learn more and connect with Chain Reaction!

    We succeed when we work together… Chain Reaction is a community of people, passionate about social change, who are saying ‘we can make a difference’.

    Chain Reaction is a unique and challenging project based on a very simple idea – that we all have the power of our own actions, but that none of us on our own can change the world, not governments, not businesses, not charities. We succeed when we work together The Chain Reaction Networks helps individuals and organisations to connect together. We provide spaces – at ‘real life events’ and on line – in which people can collaborate with others across the boundaries that divide us and commit their energy to new ideas and new ways of working that will change the world.

    Social by Social at Chain Reaction

    David Wilcox and I will be leading a round of the Social by Social game!

    Drawing on the learnings included in Social by Social: a practical guide to using new technology for social impact, the Social by Social Game walks participants through the strategic steps of creating a social media program for your community, whether you’re part of an organization, a geographic community, a campaign, or anything else.  The game is a fun way to collaborate with others and learn more about what’s needed to create a project that leverages social media.  We promise: it’s fun!

    NFPTweetUp after Chain Reaction

    The next NFPTweetUp will take place in the evening after the main Chain Reaction event.  This is a great way to pull in new people to the tweetup experience and a super opportunity to keep conversations going even longer from the event.

    A meet up of social media users and those interested in the potential of social media for themselves or their organisations.  This event brings together organisations for peer-to-peer knowledge sharing and networking – it will be part learning, part sharing, part social, collaborative, casual and very friendly. Note:  You need to reserve a ticket for this evening session as spaces are limited – tickets are free of charge. (Read more about NFP Tweetup here)

    Connect. Collaborate. Commit.

    Chain Reaction is taking place November 12th, 2009, at Canary Warf, London.  To find out more, use these links:

    You can also follow Chain Reaction on Twitter: use the hashtag #cr09 (you can also follow activity @chainreaction or @cr_events).

    Published on October 28, 2009 by Amy Sample Ward. 2 Comments

    Gift Economy and Social Reporting at myPublicServices Conference

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    The myPublicServices conference is coming up next month here in London and I’m really looking forward to it.  Why?  For two reasons: 1. it’s a gift economy event, and 2. my gift is social reporting.

    1. A Gift Economy Event

    This is how the myPublicServices conference team explains their ideas about the gift economy:

    The web has already transformed the way we book a holiday, buy a camera, and share the snaps. Whole sectors – media, music, finance, publishing – are being turned upside down. But where is the impact on our public services? Why (with a few notable exceptions) are they still so top-down, so inflexible, so hard-to-reach? In sum, so last century?

    This conference is about how that can – and already is – changing. It is about how the traditional public sector values of fairness, solidarity and equality are meeting the new networked values of participation, transparency and usability to create new services or add to old ones.

    The web has created a new digital gift economy in which everyone can be a contributor and new kinds of public service are becoming possible.

    It won’t all be top-down any more (and neither will this conference). We won’t be defined any longer just by what we need from the services we rely on, but also by what we have to give, and how we each can contribute to making our public services better.

    This conference is about all that and more. There will be plenty of new ideas – but also plenty of practical examples of how people are already using the extraordinary gift of the web to improve, extend or challenge our public services to be the best they can be.

    I think this is a really interesting perspective to build into a conference, especially one about public sector and social services.  I’ll be curious (and will report back after the event) about the kinds of gifts others bring to the event, whether they are workshops, skills, etc.

    2. Social Reporting

    I’ll be at the conference and my gift is some social reporting!  Along with my Social by Social colleague David Wilcox, we’ll be helping coordinate a team of folks doing video, live-blogging, interviews, tweets, and more!  David and I are really looking forward to it and have already started talking to some interested social reporters.  Visit the myPublicServices blog for more information and to get in touch!

    What do you think?

    Have you participated in an event that leveraged the gift economy like this? What was your experience – did it work? If you haven’t, what do you think we should watch for, what questions do you have?

    Published on October 12, 2009 by Amy Sample Ward. 0 Comments

    Charity Hack in London

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    Charity Hack looks to be a terrifically fun event for nonprofits and techies alike!

    Charity Hack Weekend brings together charities and developers to revolutionise the collection of donations. Join us 19-20 September 2009 and be part of this extraordinary event. We’re looking for developers to come up with new and innovative ways of helping charities promote their causes and garner support.

    What you will get access to on the day includes

    • JustGivings new API (available for the first time at this event)
    • MissionFish’s cash giving APIs available for the first time in the UK
    • PayPals new Beta Adaptive Payments API’s
    • Sneak Preview of other API’s

    These are just some of the APIs that will be featured, there is no limit to the APIs that can be used.  Visit the event Wiki for links to documentation, attendees bios, and links to the applications created after the weekend.

    What we hope to get from the weekend

    We hope by the end of the weekend a number of interesting applications have been born that can be used by any charity under an open source style licence.

    Learn more or register today!

    Published on August 26, 2009 by Amy Sample Ward. 0 Comments

    Tweetcamp: Online network moves to offline community

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    This past Saturday, I participated in an experiment: Tweetcamp! The combination of a Tweetup and a BarCamp.  (Those links are to definitions!)  What this created was a chance for people who use Twitter to come together offline to create community. There is no agenda to the conference as it is co-created by the participants throughout the day.  It is for the community, by the community, all thanks originally to Twitter.

    n2thinktankThis month’s Net2 Think Tank asks: How do real-world (offline) events fit into social media conversations and campaigns?

    I think that my reflections about Tweetcamp are an excellent fit to answer this question!  And I hope they help you think about the way your organization uses opportunities online and offline to create community.

    What worked?

    Cross-section of participants: It was great to turn up to an event and have every person I talked to have a different line a work, a different reason for using social media tools, and a unique goal for what they wanted to get out of the day.  One way to accomplish this is to ensure you have a diverse set of organizers – you will tap into networks that do, eventually, overlap, but the influencers you target will push a great diversity of participants towards the event.

    Space: This is both online and offline.  If you are targeting your online network, you need to have an online space for interested participants to sign up, learn more, and connect with each other. Tweetup used a blog to keep people updated, a Facebook group to gather interested participants, and a Twitter account for communications.  All three outlets linked to each other so people never hit a “dead-end.”  Offline, the space at Gumtree.com’s office in Richmond was terrific for people to gather as a full group, in small groups, and everything in between. Finding an offline space that really creates the right environment for such a loose-flowing day is crucial to not “losing” people to the outskirts.

    Food: It’s true.  Your participants will get hungry with all that connecting and talking and excitement.  The Tweetup organizers did a tremendous job of finding sponsors to supply or cover the cost of enough good food to keep all the bellies full.  And in a very tasty way!

    What didn’t work?

    Timing: It is always the hardest thing to plan out, especially when you are doing something entirely new.  The organizers decided to meld a bit of facilitation with complete open space organizing.  The start of the day had participants in small groups (just puddles of chairs) and asked a question for the small groups to then answer to themselves.  There was some paper to capture notes and then a group representative reported back to the full room.  After every group had a chance to share, people moved about the room to form new groups.  A new question was asked and again the small groups answered internally, then shared to the larger room.  This happened three times and was intended to start conversations with many people so that once the room broke for open space conversations, people had an idea of who they might talk to, what kinds of things others had come to talk about, and so on.  It did accomplish this goal, though often times would feel too slow – groups finishing ahead of time and then moving on to talk about other things that could have been better in open space created groups where people could self select to participate, etc.

    What’s next?

    This is the part I’m most interested to discuss with those who attended and the organizers who created the event.  Here are some of my ideas:

    1. How is Tweetcamp going to move the community? Moving from an online network of Twitter users to an offline community was a big step! It meant people had a chance to be real life friends with their online friends, collaborate in real time about new ideas, and more.  So, what will the ripple effects of this be and how can the Tweetcamp organizers faciliate it?  (Or, if it had been an event organized by a nonprofit organization as a chance for those who found the organization online to come together offline to learn more, get involved, and so on, how can the organization move those particpants and network members up the ladder of engagement as part of the community?)
    2. How is Tweetcamp going to empower dissemination? Barcamps and Tweetups happen all around the world.  I think the event struck a great balance between the two and would love to see it replicated in other cities or by other groups.  Documentation is always the key to dissemination and replication; encouraging participants to share their thoughts and stories, but also the organizers sharing the discussions they had that helped create the event and their planning strategies will all help Tweetcamps sprout elsewhere.
    3. How will the network maintain the community? Those of us that came together offline on Saturday had seen each other before online, maybe followed on Twitter, or had seen a name here or there.  But for the most part, we had never actually met in the “real world.”  Now that we have, how will we keep it going?  Is there a role for Tweetcamp organizers in assisting in this process? Perhaps by maintaining conversations or other exchanges on the Facebook group and Twitter so users can find each other again.  I know I already have a few coffee dates with people from Tweetcamp and am looking forward to contributing to the community as I can!

    What do you think?

    Did you attend the London Tweetcamp – what did you think?  If you didn’t, how do you think your organization could move it’s online network to an offline community?  What do you think that network would want in order to participate?

    Published on June 29, 2009 by Amy Sample Ward. 2 Comments

    I’m going to Reboot Britain, are you?

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    An economy deep in recession, ever increasing demands on our public services and trust in our political system at an all time low. We face an unprecedented set of challenges: how can we punch through the gloom?

    Instead of more pessimism, at this one-day event on 6 July, we ask you to work together with fresh ideas to Reboot Britain.

    How can we take advantage of the radically networked digital world we now live in to help revive our economy, rebuild our democratic structures and improve public services?

    Confirmed speakers include Martha Lane-Fox, Gillian Tett (author of Fools Gold), Howard Rheingold,Charles Leadbeater, Craig Newmark (craigslist), Sir Michael Bichard (Design Council and Institute for Government), Jon Gisby/Daniel Heaf (Channel 4), Paul Miller (School of Everything), Alan Moore (SMLXL), Lee Bryant (Headshift), Julie Meyer (Ariadne Capital), Andy Hobsbawn (Do the Green Thing), Jon Watts (MTM London), Jeff Saperstein (Creating Regional Wealth), Jim Schuyler (CTO to the Dalai Lama), MT Rainey (Horsesmouth)

    New speakers are being added daily. Check out http://www.rebootbritain.com for more.

    Over 350 people have registered for Reboot Britain so far.  If you haven’t already registered you can do so here http://rebootbritain.eventbrite.com/ (Tickets are been priced according to your ability to pay.)

    As well as the formal sessions we have a Reboot Camp taking place simultaneously across the venue which include the following:

    • Demos present their Progressive Conservatism thinking for public services.
    • How are we going to manage doing more for less?
    • Learning Without Frontiers: How technology is changing cognitive development, and redesigning our schools for the new age
    • WeBank host a peer-to-peer session on new models for lending and borrowing, using Zopa as a case study showing how quickly you can lend or borrow without the middleman

    Other sessions include:

    • Innovation Live – Stan Stalnaker, Hub Culture
    • Social Innovation Camp Express
    • Tim Davies – 50 small hurdles that prevent public bodies from unlocking their knowledge
    • Elevator Pitches – online democracy, transparency and participation tools
    • Conversing with local government at grassroots level- Hyperlocality and active citizenship
    • The Stalemate – where next for the media and politics?
    • The future of public service media
    • Social x Social
    • Busting the Silos – opening organizations for growth
    • Practical examples of new financial instruments

    I can’t wait for this event! I will be there, blogging and Tweeting; and will also be facilitating the Social by Social game session!  If you are in London on July 6th, definitely check this out.  If you aren’t, well, be sure to follow the blog or my twitter account for udpates at the event!

    Published on June 17, 2009 by Amy Sample Ward. 2 Comments

    The Social by Social Game at June Net Tuesday

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    I’m really looking forward to the 2 June event for London Net Tuesday where David Wilcox, Andy Gibson and I will facilitate a new iteration of the Social by Social Game!

    To RSVP to the June event, visit the London Net Tuesday group here.

    The Social by Social game is a fun session to help people explore how social technology can be used for social benefit: whether that’s by a nonprofit, a social innovation startup, within a neighbourhood, or across a community. We’ll invent some of those places, then challenge each other in groups to develop plans using a pack of specially-developed cards and other props. It will be a mix of collaboration and competition that should give you lots of practical ideas that you can use in your own projects.

    We faciliated a version of this game recently at SHINE09 and have put our heads together to continue making the game better and better.   Here’s how a version of the game ran at SHINE09.

    If you are looking for a different, fun, and insprirational opportunity to take a different look at how technology can help in social benefit organizations and addressing local social problems, then this is definitely the game for you!

    See you on 2 June for London Net Tuesday!

    Published on May 23, 2009 by Amy Sample Ward. 0 Comments

    Mobile Tech 4 Social Change Comes to London!

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    I’m so excited to see a Mobile Tech 4 Change event coming to London – but super disappointed I can’t be here to participate (I’ll be at N2Y4 Mobile Challenge Conference in San Jose).  If you are interested in mobile technology and its application for social change projects, this is definitely an event to check out.  It is barcamp style, so come with your questions and topics you want to talk about; come meet lots of others interested in leveraging mobile technology for change and collaborate!  More information is below – REGISTER here.

    What is Mobile Tech 4 Social Change?

    Mobile Tech 4 Social Change Barcamps are local events for people passionate about using mobile technology for social impact and to make the world a better place.

    Each event includes

    • interactive discussions
    • hands-on-demos
    • collaborations about ways to use, deploy, develop and promote mobile technology in health, advocacy, economic development, environment, human rights, citizen media, to name a few areas.

    Participants for Mobile Tech 4 Social Change barcamps include nonprofits, mobile app developers, researchers, donors, intermediary organizations, and mobile operators.

    In short, Mobile Tech 4 Social Change camp is:

    • A one-day event in London on May 23, 2009 at Vodafone
    • An exploration of mobile technology to advance social development and social change goals
    • Participatory and interactive
    • Is open to anyone with passion and interest in the topic

    Planners

    Participants

    Sponsors

    • Vodafone
    Published on May 4, 2009 by Amy Sample Ward. 0 Comments

    What is NPTech?

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    Yesterday I had a very fun opportunity to be one of the speakers for Mark Your Mark’s Social Media Afternoon, a casual event for staff members to come together to learn about and discuss ideas, trends, tools and more relating to social media.  I answered, very briefly, the question, “What is NPTech?”

    Here are my slides:

    MakeYourMark-NPTech

    View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: change media)

    To share or not to share

    The main conversation focused on publicly sharing information vs trying to keep information private (whether it’s reports, data, strategy or even success/failure of projects/campaigns).  Some conversations point include:

    • The culture of sharing in the NPTech community is what creates the most value
    • Everyone wins when you share, discuss, create opportunities to learn
    • Mistakes are the most important part of charting new territory, need to talk about them
    • Sharing takes place formally and informally: presentations at conferences or in reports, online in blogs, in collaborative spaces like wiki, webinars, and so on
    • Keeping information private means lots of groups reinvent the wheel without knowing it
    • Not talking about mistakes mean more and more time, capacity, and money wasted with groups doing the same things wrong

    Why social change fits with social media

    Social change relies on communities coming together (whether they are geographic, issue, cause, or characteristic based) to make a profound difference on our world.  Social media allows people to come together online in new ways; the tools are only useful, fun, and successful when used as part of a community (how fun is it to use Facebook without any friends?).  Thus, tools that create community are great for communities making change.

    Twitter

    During the presentation, I was asked about Twitter; specifically what tools I like to use.  I get this question a lot.  My two main Twitter tools are:

    • Twhirl:  I like Twhirl because I can launch a window for both my personal and organizational accounts at the same time, let it run and update constantly whether I am reading it or not (unlike having to visit and then refresh a browser over and over), and let it alert me to replies, direct messages, etc. so I can be as much a part of the conversation as I want throughout the day.
    • Tweetscan:  Sometimes I’m just too busy to give Twitter all the attention it may want :) That’s why I like Tweetscan.  I can set up alerts for different words, like Google Alerts, and have it email me a round up so I can reply when I need to and not miss important opportunities to connect other users to information I may have.

    Would have loved to have you all there for Social Media Afternoon!

    Let’s keep the conversation going here – what do you think about the world of NPTech (the community that has made a tag a self-identifier) or about social media and social change?

    Published on December 12, 2008 by Amy Sample Ward. 0 Comments