field has been successful in gaining funding through Collaborative Internet Innovation Fund (cIIF) for the development of Colleagues Connect.

cIIF is an initiative under the Victorian Government’s Innovation Statement, Innovation: Victoria’s Future intended to accelerate the innovative use of the next generation of ICT by Victorian government, business and community.

For more information refer to Minister Lenders’ media release of the 22 successful cIIF Round 1 projects.

More about Colleagues Connect

Background

The Colleagues Connect project has been funded as part of the Victorian governments innovation strategy which aims to place Victoria as a world leader in ideas generation that address issues around increased economic productivity, enhanced social wellbeing and health, development of integrated quality systems and creating information technology infrastructure that gives Victorian business a recognized profile and competitive edge in the use of second generation digital resources.

Rationale

The success of the Victorian State Disability Plan 2002 – 2012 in delivering deinstitutionalization and individualized funding has meant that the disability workforce increasingly works in either small group residences or in the consumer’s home. This trend is likely to continue. This means that community services organisations are needing to explore new ways to ensure staff working in isolated settings have access to supervision, collegiate support and learning and development activities.

Project Partners

• field – furthering inclusive learning and development (lead agency)
• Melbourne City Mission
• Australian Quadriplegic Association
• Department of Planning and Community Development
• NDS – Victoria

The Project

Colleagues Connect will develop a prototype portal, employing Web 2.0 technologies, to address the issues identified above in a way that is cost effective, flexible and realistic in terms of the ICT literacy of the cohort. The model would have considerable capacity for replication to any workforce where isolation is a factor (e.g. district nurses, age care support workers, youth outreach services, mental health services etc.)

Inherent in this approach is creating a single application that can supply the advantages of Web 1.0 applications (e.g website with information content) with Web 2.0 applications that provide for interactivity through direct communication (Skype), networking capacity (Yammer) and video capacity (Vimeo). See attached diagram.

The future applications in the disability sector may move beyond workforce and field is interested at a later date at exploring such capacity to link people who, by disability or other circumstance, are largely homebound.

The workers and consumers in the current project (from Melbourne City Mission and the Australian Quadriplegic Association) will be provided with extensive training in the use of the application by field and substantial access to ‘help desk’ facilities from field,

The project evaluators are Synthesize Pty Ltd. For the project to be successful it will need to demonstrate that the workforce can be engaged in the use of an application like Colleagues Connect, that the participating organizations can identify gains in productivity and cost effectiveness and that the consumer is confident that service quality has been enhanced.

Further Information

field will provide further information about this project throughout the year.

If you would like to discuss this project please contact Linda Budd

email: Linda.Budd@field.org.au

tel: 8686 5622

I was invited to a meeting using Timebridge web based software and found it a useful tool to assist with scheduling meetings.  This has prompted me to use Timebridge to schedule a meeting with a group of colleagues and further investigate the software.

Timebridge is web based software to assist with coordinating and managing meeting’s

How it works

• Using a simple web interface you are able to invite attendees to a meeting and add a personal message to
• You are able to include 5 proposed  meeting times
• Add information about location of meeting
• Integrate location details with google maps
• Add agenda items
• Upload files to share
• Add notes

Attendees of the meeting get:

• Email invite to reply to
• Confirm times they can attend – either Best, Yes, No
• See who else is invited
• Read agenda items, files and notes
• Can send reply with a personal message

Other things to note

You get prompted when there is a not common time that satisfies all attendees.  This is called ‘Meeting Availability Conflict’.  With these situations you are able to use the Scheduling Tools to reschedule meeting and re-email attendees if appropriate.

You are also able to send reminder emails and send email updates to attendees.

Where to get Timebridge

• www.timebridge.com

Other meeting scheduler software

Doodle

Looking at these tweets throughout the conference is saw:

• Social chat between people at the conference
• People asking questions to the presenter and to other conference attendees
• Posting of additional information such as website links, references etc.
• People sending direct messages to each other
• Conference organisers updating the attendees about social gatherings, room changes etc.
• I found this quite useful and a very practical use of Twitter. Coming away from this I have done a bit of reading about tweeting and conferences and here below are some more things to consider.

How Twitter can be used at events

Pre-event:

Setting up Twitter prior to an event can provide a mechanism for engagement with attendees before the event. It could be used by organiser to update attendees about details of the event. Interested attendees could start tweeting before the event enabling event organiser a way to capture what people want from the event. It also provides a way for people to start connecting and networking with others participants before the event.

What needs to be done:

• Set up a Twitter account for the event at www.twitter.com
• Allow people to follow the events Twitter account
• Set up an event hashtag* and promote this widely on event website, emails etc. The hashtag needs to be used when tweeting about the event. You can go to http://search.Twitter.com and search for the hashtag to be able to see all the comments intended specifically for this group.
• Collect the Twitter names of event attendees at registration.

.

During an events:

At an event Twitter can be used as a way to further engage attendees and also listen in to what they are saying.

Possible uses of Twitter

• Provides a way to capture ongoing feedback during event
• A method for event organisers to ‘listen’ into the attendees conversation. This can allow organisers to respond to what the audience is saying and if necessary to make changes to meet the needs of the group
• A way to send out updates/information during an event
• Provides a way for people to network at an event
• Provides and opportunity for people to send direct message to each other
• Enables people who are unable to attend the event to follow happenings at the event
• A method to collect questions for panel discussions. A data projector could be used to project these for attendees to see.

Post event

Twitter can extend the life of an event by providing opportunity for feedback and ways for people to connect after the event.

• Retweet comments after the conference
• Collections of feedback after the event

Some things to consider

Not all positing will be positive about the event. You may need to develop strategies of how to respond and make use of this feedback.

Additional reading

• Engage 365 – Meetings 2.0 – How to Use Social Media to Market, Manage and Improve Events
• How people are using conferences at conferences
• http://www.busyevent.com/blog/?p=91
• Using Twitter to generate classroom discussions
• http://grassshackroad.com/meetings-podcast/business/6-ways-to-utilize-Twitter-at-your-next-conference
• http://socialhat.com/Twitter-a-quick-getting-started-guide/
• http://chris.pirillo.com/should-twitter-be-banned-at-conferences/

Twitter aggregators

• Ping.pm
• HootSuite
• TweetDeck

* A hashtag is a way to “classify” a tweet to a group or category. Hashtags have the ‘hash’ sign # followed by the unique identifier, called a tag.. For example #webconf. The hashtag just needs to be included anywhere in the tweet. You can go to http://search.Twitter.com and then search for the hashtag to be able to see all the comments intended specifically for this group

Getting started to use twitter.

Some intial things to do:

1. Get a twitter account and start exploring how to use it
   
2. Find friends to follow you on twitter and start following others
   
3. Have a look around to see what people are twittering and the differenty ways it is being used
   
4. Start tweeting
   
5. Reply back to followers using the @ symbol

What next

• Have a look at how organisations are using twitter
  • CEO’s who twitter
  • Beth Kanter
  • Just Tweet It Non-profits Directory
• Establish the purpose of your twitter account
• Look at the type of information you are going to tweet

Set up your organsiations account

• Secure your organsiations brand name
  
• Use an avatar to represent your organisation
• Clearly define your profile. Make it easy for people to decide whether to follow you
  
• Follow similar groups or individuals. Dont follow everyone
  
• Start to share information about your organisation
  
• 
  Try to join in conversations related to your purpose
  
• Use twitter to gets questions answered
  
• Listen to what others are saying about you, your brand or your organisation
  
• Integrate with other social media. For example facebook
  
• Work out who is tweeting on behalf of your organisation
  
• Establish how often you are going to tweet
  

Marketing Voices interviews Biz Stone of Twitter, questions asked from community

References

• http://justtweetit.com/non-profits/
• http://mashable.com/2009/06/02/social-media-policy-musts/
• http://humanresources.about.com/od/policysamplesb/a/blogging_policy.htm
• http://www.chrisbrogan.com/etiquette-in-the-age-of-social-media/

Next post – Establish a Social Media Policy

Twitter

The videos in the previous post give a good overview of Twitter:

• Twitter – short posts about what you are doing
• Twitter may be a way to to connect with current clients, stakeholders, friends, colleagues, a defined group etc
• Twitter may be a way to make new connections

Twitter is still a new tool being adopted by the not for profit, so many of its uses are yet to be found.

When you set up your twitter account you can decide on the type of posts you will make. The short posts about what you are doing could be related to work or be personal. Depending on the purpose of your account you may make your accounts public or can only be viewed by people who you approve . You can have several accounts that may have different purposes.

• For example you may set up an account for your workplace and make the updates public so as to be able to find new potential clients.
• You may setup a personal account that your updates are only public to people you approve.
• You may setup an account for your workteam where you updates are only public to people from the team.

Why Twitter

I came across the following article by Dosh Dosh, blog, which offers internet marketing and blogging tips, alongside social media strategies. The article is 17 Ways You Can Use Twitter: A Guide for Beginners, Marketers and Business Owners17 Ways You Can Use Twitter: A Guide for Beginners, Marketers and Business Owners.

It looks at ways you can use Twitter. Many of these can be extended to the use in the workplace. It also describes some problems with Twitter.

A summary of the list is:

• Personal Branding
• Get Feedback
• Hire People
• Direct traffic
• Read News
• Make New Friends
• Network for benefits
• Use it as a ToDo list
• Business Management
• Notify Your Customers
• Take Notes
• Event Updates
• Find Prospects
• Provide Live coverage
• Time Management and Analysis
• Set Up Meetings
• Acquire Votes

More useful reading

Beth Kanter: How Nonprofits can use Social Media – uses twitter to pose questions – "How does your nonprofit work more like cloud? Looking for examples". Refer to her blog at http://beth.typepad.com/ for more information. Sign up for Twitter, search for Beth Kanter and start following her updates.

Daniweb – IT Discussion Community: Five Tips For Using Twitter In the Workplace. Another interesting article that looks at uses of Twitter in the workplace.

Twitter Handbook – Chapter 7 – Top Ten Reasons Companies Need to Tweet.
Twitter Handbook, available to download for free from: http://www.twitterhandbook.com/

Next post – Will look at developing a strategy to begin using twitter.

Looking at these tweets throughout the conference is saw:

• Social chat between people at the conference
• People asking questions to the presenter and to other conference attendees
• Posting of additional information such as website links, references etc.
• People sending direct messages to each other
• Conference organisers updating the attendees about social gatherings, room changes etc.
• I found this quite useful and a very practical use of Twitter. Coming away from this I have done a bit of reading about tweeting and conferences and here below are some more things to consider.

How Twitter can be used at events

Pre-event:

Setting up Twitter prior to an event can provide a mechanism for engagement with attendees before the event. It could be used by organiser to update attendees about details of the event. Interested attendees could start tweeting before the event enabling event organiser a way to capture what people want from the event. It also provides a way for people to start connecting and networking with others participants before the event.

What needs to be done:

• Set up a Twitter account for the event at www.twitter.com
• Allow people to follow the events Twitter account
• Set up an event hashtag* and promote this widely on event website, emails etc. The hashtag needs to be used when tweeting about the event. You can go to http://search.Twitter.com and search for the hashtag to be able to see all the comments intended specifically for this group.
• Collect the Twitter names of event attendees at registration.

.

During an events:

At an event Twitter can be used as a way to further engage attendees and also listen in to what they are saying.

Possible uses of Twitter

• Provides a way to capture ongoing feedback during event
• A method for event organisers to ‘listen’ into the attendees conversation. This can allow organisers to respond to what the audience is saying and if necessary to make changes to meet the needs of the group
• A way to send out updates/information during an event
• Provides a way for people to network at an event
• Provides and opportunity for people to send direct message to each other
• Enables people who are unable to attend the event to follow happenings at the event
• A method to collect questions for panel discussions. A data projector could be used to project these for attendees to see.

Post event

Twitter can extend the life of an event by providing opportunity for feedback and ways for people to connect after the event.

• Retweet comments after the conference
• Collections of feedback after the event

Some things to consider

Not all positing will be positive about the event. You may need to develop strategies of how to respond and make use of this feedback.

Additional reading

• Engage 365 – Meetings 2.0 – How to Use Social Media to Market, Manage and Improve Events
• How people are using conferences at conferences
• http://www.busyevent.com/blog/?p=91
• Using Twitter to generate classroom discussions
• http://grassshackroad.com/meetings-podcast/business/6-ways-to-utilize-Twitter-at-your-next-conference
• http://socialhat.com/Twitter-a-quick-getting-started-guide/
• http://chris.pirillo.com/should-twitter-be-banned-at-conferences/

Twitter aggregators

• Ping.pm
• HootSuite
• TweetDeck

* A hashtag is a way to “classify” a tweet to a group or category. Hashtags have the ‘hash’ sign # followed by the unique identifier, called a tag.. For example #webconf. The hashtag just needs to be included anywhere in the tweet. You can go to http://search.Twitter.com and then search for the hashtag to be able to see all the comments intended specifically for this group

Below is the fourm PowerPoint presentation that is found on slideshare

I have registered a tumblr blog and trying it out. Tumblr is a form of blog that uses short form of posts.  Posts can be text, video, images, audion.

What I have found useful is the i-phone application.  The application allows  photos, texts, audio and links to be uploaded.  Works well.  Images upload fairly quickly.

Tumblr would be quite useful as a tool for reflection of work practices.

visit – http://fieldlearning.tumblr.com This is just an experimental site at the minute.
]]> http://fieldweb.wordpress.com/2009/05/07/tumblr/feed/ 0 fieldweb http://fieldweb.wordpress.com/2009/05/07/field-forum/ http://fieldweb.wordpress.com/2009/05/07/field-forum/#comments Thu, 07 May 2009 01:24:14 +0000 fieldweb http://fieldweb.wordpress.com/?p=69 ]]> As a follow-up to the field forum on “Quality within the disability sector”, we have developed this space to invite people to continue and furher discuss issues around this topic. Please use this space to express your views on this topic to initiate further discussion.

Please do not use this space to provide feedback on the forum. you can do this by emailing us directly.