Tag - you're IT!

Seth Earley, President of Earley and Associates - and a DigitalNow 2007 presenter - recently published an article in Enterprise Search Source Book. Seth and his firm have been quite busy doing some heavy lifting this winter, helping several Fortune 500 firms and government organizations put necessary elements into place to help make the experience of search more effective for their web site visitors.

This most recent article puts into perspective today's challenge of finding things on the web. While Google may be a household word, a verb, a brand, it is not your personal librarian, discerning your intent. Seth brings "intent" with results. Read his article titled, Taxonomies, Metadata, and Search.

Seth is presenting Solving the Findability Problem on Friday, April 13, at DigitalNow 2007.

~DigitalNow 2007: April 11- 14 at Disney's Yacht and Beach Club Resorts~

SOLD OUT! DigitalNow- the proven leadership conference for associations - has officially sold out - again! Conference materials, workshop notes, survey result information, and up-to-the-minute on-site news will continue to be available before, during, and after the conference. Visit the conference web site at http://www.fusionproductions.com/digitalnow

Building Social Networks for Learning

DigitalNow 2007 announces the following workshop:

Building Social Networks for Learning

Presented by: Kathleen Gilroy, CEO, The OtterGroup

How are new technologies – weblogs, podcasting, wikis, and social networking –changing models for learning? What are the economics of the new learning models enabled by Web 2.0 technologies? How can associations deliver learning at less cost and to greater numbers of people? What is the role of the association in this new world of learning? How can these new models be used for certification, continuing education, communities of practice, and knowledge management? This session will answer these questions through specific case studies of associations and businesses that have adopted new Web2.0 enabled learning models. Join Kathleen Gilroy for an exploration of how learning changes when it is developed, presented, and delivered using Web 2.0 technologies.

To see a complete list of workshop descriptions, please visit: http://www.fusionproductions.com/digitalnow/content/index.cfm

~DigitalNow 2007: April 11- 14 at Disney's Yacht and Beach Club Resorts~

SOLD OUT! DigitalNow- the proven leadership conference for associations - has officially sold out. Conference materials, workshop notes, survey result information, and up-to-the-minute on-site news will continue to be available before, during, and after the conference. Visit the conference web site at http://www.fusionproductions.com/digitalnow

"Wiki" an official English word

If you're still not sure what a "wiki" is, don't fret - now, you can look it up in the dictionary.

"Wiki" may not sound like English, but it's English now, according to Yahoo! News. After several years of tracking and research, "wiki" made the cut and is being included in the Oxford English Dictionary. Read the story at http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070315/wr_nm/britain_dictionary_wiki_dc

The most famous example of the usage of "wiki" is Wikipedia, the biggest multilingual free-content encyclopedia on the Internet. Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, will be kicking off DigitalNow 2007 with his keynote address about Wikipedia and how it opens the door to new methods of collaborative authoring.

DigitalNow is the proven leadership conference for associations. To learn more about DigitalNow, and to register, please visit http://www.fusionproductions.com/digitalnow

DigitalNow 2007: Valuing Project Management in Community Transformation

DigitalNow 2007 announces the following workshop:

Valuing Project Management in Community Transformation

Presented by: Brantlee Jacobs, CAE, Manager, Component & Community Relations, Project Management Institute and Deena Gordon Parla, PMP, Project Manager, American Red Cross

It seems that there is no area of business that is not changing at a faster-than-ever rate, due to developments in technology. This workshop on project management provides a review of tools, and a discussion of the right tools and processes for the effective management of critical strategies and deliverables for the board and your organization. Case studies and leadership perspectives will provide focus on how to manage what really matters. CEOs and Association Leaders, community and chapter managers, virtual community managers or anyone who is looking for techniques and ways to optimize the process of project management processes will gain a new awareness of the value of using project management in an association.

To see a complete list of workshop descriptions, please visit: http://www.fusionproductions.com/digitalnow/content/index.cfm

DigitalNow is the proven leadership conference for associations. To learn more about DigitalNow, and to register, please visit http://www.fusionproductions.com/digitalnow

DigitalNow 2007: The Rise of Letting Go

DigitalNow 2007 announces the following workshop:

The Rise of Letting Go: How the Net Generation Teaches Us to Lose Control and Like It

Presented by Andrew Hinton, Senior Information Architect, Vanguard

As competition for your members' time and attention increases, and younger constituents seem harder to reach, it can sometimes seem like "Web 2.0" is less of a blessing and more of a curse. However, if we really pay attention to how the "net generation" uses information environments, we can learn much about how to engage members today, as well as strategically plan our technology for tomorrow.

Come examine the strange paradox of letting your users free in order to keep them close, and how "architectures of participation" are more about cultivation than organization. Gain insight into and a model for understanding the growing paradigm of the empowered user.Discover practical approaches for cultivating communities of practice among your constituents. This session is designed for leaders and managers who want to:

• make Web 2.0 work for them, rather than against them
• figure out how to make online communities relevant to their needs
• create an environment that can better attract a new generation of constituents

To see a complete list of workshop descriptions, please visit: http://www.fusionproductions.com/digitalnow/content/index.cfm

DigitalNow is the proven leadership conference for associations. To learn more about DigitalNow, and to register, please visit http://www.fusionproductions.com/digitalnow

Trust: It's red-hot relevant

Stephen M.R. Covey, DigitalNow 2007 keynote speaker and author of The Speed of Trust is in the news. Here's the latest on his message of trust and how he is using Web 2.0 tools to reach his audience and accomplish his mission:

Speed of Trust Radio Podcast Hits #77 on iTunes

Stephen M. R. Covey rose to the top 100 downloads on Apple's iTunes podcasts this week.

SPEED OF TRUST Radio is a joint venture between the Affiliate Nanocasting Network (ANN) and CoveyLink Worldwide. Of this success, Stephen M. R. Covey said, “I am thrilled that The Speed of Trust is striking such a chord in the digital world. Clearly, as Chris Anderson, Editor-in-Chief of Wired Magazine, stated in my interview with him, ‘Money was the currency of the old economy; trust is the currency of the new global economy.’ I couldn’t agree more.”

Available on demand, the program will be streamed online at http://www.coveylink.com, podcasted, and Nanocasted using Really Targeted Syndication™ (RTS). SPEED OF TRUST Radio features interviews between Stephen M. R. Covey and many of today’s thought leaders about the art and science of establishing, growing, and restoring trust. Initial guests include: Steve Rubel, PR Strategist at Edelman; Chris Anderson, Editor of Wired Magazine and author of The Long Tail; legendary marketer, Jack Trout; and Chris Murray, Editor-in-Chief of Soundview Executive Book Summaries.

“The one thing that changes everything in our personal and professional lives is trust,” asserts Stephen M. R. Covey, author of The Speed of Trust, which is already in its 5^th printing less than three months after publication. The Speed of Trust was also recently chosen by BusinessWeek magazine as one of the top 5 career books of 2006.

Business leaders agree with Covey’s assertions on the importance of trust. More than 10 Fortune 500 CEO’s endorse The Speed of Trust, including William G. Parrett, CEO, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu who said, “The Speed of Trust is red-hot relevant. In an age of heightened business regulation and oversight, it is important to focus on fundamentals. And trust is the intangible asset that can help assure the long-term sustainability of any person, organization, or enterprise. Thanks to Stephen M. R. Covey’s new book, you can be well on the way to enhancing your organization’s trust assets for years to come.”

Stephen M.R. Covey is speaking at DigitalNow 2007 on Saturday, April 14, 2007 at Disney's Yacht and Beach Club Resort. DigitalNow is the proven leadership conference for associations. To learn more about DigitalNow, and to register, please visit http://www.fusionproductions.com/digitalnow

Wikis: A part of the DigitalNow Web 2.0 experience

A part of the next generation of interactive web applications, wikis are a way for members and stakeholders to collaborate online to rapidly make changes on the content of pages, while maintaining a history of all the changes that have been made. The best example is Wikepedia itself. Here is their definition of "wiki." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki)

"A wiki is a website that allows visitors to add, remove, and otherwise edit and change content, typically without the need for registration. It also allows for linking among any number of pages. This ease of interaction and operation makes a wiki an effective tool for mass collaborative authoring. The term "wiki" also can refer to the collaborative software itself (wiki engine) that facilitates the operation of such a site, or to certain specific wiki sites, including the computer science site (the original wiki) WikiWikiWeb and online encyclopedias such as Wikipedia."

Different Types of Wikis

Generally, there are 3 different types of wikis: public, private, and protected.

While a public wiki can generally allow anyone to make, view, create, and edit content, many public wikis require users to register and create an account as at least a means to identify the contributor. This is a lightweight form of security for associations. The protected wiki is visible to the public, but only authorized selective users can make changes. This is controlled by a "super admin" or wikimaster. Finally, the private wiki might be a members-only wiki where all or only authorized members can view, create, and edit content.

How a wiki works
If you have Internet access, and a basic understanding of an editor or Microsoft Word, then you have everything you need to participate.

The basic steps are:

1. Create content using the editor pad
2. Hit submit
   

If you want to get fancy you can add links, or add formatting such as bolding, italics, etc. Some wikis have more advanced tools to help make this very easy.

Many associations have used a wiki as tool to support annual meetings. Several authorized contributors use the wiki to share their experiences or report about the conference. Others have used a wiki to collect lots of ideas and thoughts about a topic or issue. A wiki can even provide of way to catalog these ideas. (See Wikipedia.)

How does a wiki fit into a Community of Practice?
A wiki that is integrated into a Community of Practice (CoP) can:

• help collect and catalog ideas on terminology or glossary
• aid in the development of position papers
• serve as a resoucre area for members to contribute
• provide practice guidelines in a way that encourages input from the membership or selected individuals

A specific community could have its own wiki or an association or event might have a wiki. A wiki can either be a shared resource for the association-wide community or a module within a specific community that leverages specific tasks and capabilities.

How do I get started?
There are hosted, free wiki services, and those integrated as part of an association's Community of Practice. For many associations, creating a wiki using a third-party wiki-hosting service is a sensible choice as this option requires minimal setup and limited technical knowledge. Since setting up a simple wiki on a third-party site won't cost you a lot of money or time, your organization will not sustain major losses if the wiki doesn't gain traction. Once you are comfortable with the idea, then you can look at integrating it with your core central database.

Many "wiki farms" will host your content for free, though others charge a nominal monthly fee in exchange for greater flexibility and additional storage space. For a more extensive list of wiki farms, consult Wikipedia's Comparison of Wiki Farms.

Here are 2 great examples of associations that are deploying wikis:

• The Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership uses a wiki to organize its summer conference.
  

• The Alzheimer Society of Ontario's wiki provides a dynamic alternative to a traditional one-way intranet.
  

Finally, at DigitalNow we will be featuring associations who have jumped in to Association 2.0 by making use of Web 2.0 tools with great results.

Join our panel on Web 2.0 Great Practices: presented by Randall Moss, Manager of Futuring and Innovation Based Strategy, American Cancer Society, Patricia Goldman, Vice President, e-Business, March of Dimes, and Jenny Levine, Internet Development Specialist & Strategy Guide, American Library Association.

DigitalNow is the proven leadership conference for associations. To learn more about DigitalNow, and to register, please visit http://www.fusionproductions.com/digitalnow

Online book browsing

In an effort to attract the younger readers who consume media over the Internet, big publishers such as Random House and HarperCollins are developing ways to use new media for book marketing.

The article, Publishers OK online book browsing is available at CNN.com.

DigitalNow 2007 attendees can learn more about how ePublishing capabilities are being implemented in the Association world. On Friday, April 13th, DigitalNow presents, ePublishing Models in a Web 2.0 World. This session is a panel discussion moderated by Rick Johnston, CAE, Ironworks Consulting, with panelists: Gary Rubin, Vice President, Publications and New Media and Publisher, HR Magazine, Society for Human Resource Management; and Eric Hellweg, Senior Editor, Harvard Business Review Online.

DigitalNow is the proven leadership conference for associations. To learn more about DigitalNow, and to register, please visit http://www.fusionproductions.com/digitalnow