heweb09: The HighEdWeb Conference Goes On
Last night I returned from HighEdWeb 2009, a great conference where 450 Web pros from colleges and universities around the country (and a few other countries, too) spent the week sharing information and networking.
I learned so very much about the Web, management, trends, tricks, standards. From how to talk to talked with my boss about Twitter (courtesy of @LoriPA) to learning more about better living through minions/best practices for working with student employees (ala @fienan), all of the workshops, presentations, group sessions I attended were great (well, except for one — but that’s a different story). Perhaps, however, one of the most valuable pieces of the conference was, for me, the time spent getting to know my fellow Web pros.
It’s those people and that community that made the conference into a real experience. These are professionals who work hard, design creatively, innovate brilliantly, and often do so with incredibly limited resources in areas of time, staffing and budget. At HighEdWeb, the ideas from these great minds flowed freely and I was once again amazed at the generosity of the community. At that conference, we are not competing institutions but are colleagues advancing the profession; we do not hoard trade secrets but share them, assisting peers in rising to new levels. And in coming home, I am now even more networked with a large group throughout the year to whom I can go to get advice, share reactions, and simply check in as the year evolves. That alone is a tool of great value, and one of the reasons I return to HighEdWeb year after year.
To learn more about HighEdWeb:
- The HighEdWeb 2009 website
- The Twitterstream: @HighEdWeb ; #heweb09
- The HighEdWeb 09 Flickr photoset (taken by the VERY talented Anne Petersen @apetersen, official photographer of #heweb09)
Social Media in Plain English: a Video
Looking for a short and clear lesson on social media for newbies and other folks who need to be “in the know” but aren’t … yet?
Inside a Redesign: Observations from the Front
For the past six months I’ve been honored to be part of a truly great team of Web professionals, all moving together to make an immense project a success. In the next 32 hours, we’ll be finishing the first stage implementation of both a Web content management system AND an undergraduate admissions relaunch, which involves a complete revision of architecture, design, functionality, and content.
These are exciting and challenging times to be a part of the Web team. The work is truly innovative: we are creating and building and implementing systems for undergraduate admissions that are, simply, huge steps forward in meeting users’ needs. Content will be syndicated, customized, and focused. Images will be used prominently and well. Social media such as blog, IM, and Twitter will be integrated as modular inserts with the ability to move in and out with ease.
But this is not an easy process. As with most higher ed Webs, we have little time, budget, and human resources to deploy to make all this a reality, and there are great expections for the work we do. This has resulted in long hours and a great deal of hard work for everyone involved. For days now, the team has gathered in what we have affectionately dubbed the “War Room” for “Council Meetings:” we work independently from 8 a.m. or so until 3 p.m., communicating mainly via phone, instant messenger, and our project communications software. Then at 3, we all convene with computers, paperwork, and caffeine in hand for the next 5 -6 hours, working collaboratively on all of the bugs and issues we’ve found in the hours before.
It’s amazing what good work can be accomplished working this intensely, though certainly I don’t recommend it for long-term: the progress is exhilarating but also exhausting. One of the most powerful benefits, however, is the effect this kind of process can have on your team – it could break a team, for certain, but it can also build a team up. I have had the pleasure to watch this team of fine Web pros bond even more tightly together throughout the hours of the night, working diligently, sharing tasks, helping each other. Jokes fly over shared pizzas and caffeine; frequent laughter lightens what might other be an impossible load. And so compromises are reached, respect is shared, and understanding into and appreciation of one another’s work is gained. It is this kind of camaraderie that helps to build a group of professionals into a united, communicative core, and it is this that is perhaps the most unexpected – but incredibly valuable – side product of this major project.
Socialnomics09 – Social Media Revolution
We Have Met the Crowd, and They Are Us
Taking a moment to read “5 Ways to Attract and Empower Your Crowd” (via Mashable) about the value of different approaches to reaching your “crowd.” There are several schools of thought on how to target audience. Seth Godin, he of Purple Cow fame, advocates that you find your core, niche audience and cater exclusively to them — or, in the words of the article, focus aggressively on just the small group and ”Forget everyone else!”
On the other side of the marketing coin, David Shirky says, essentially, that a broader approach toward audience is needed. He favors the idea that collaboration — content generated by a wide swathe of users on the read/write Web — creates more audience investment, and thus yields greater returns; in other words, “The crowd is the future of everything.”
So where do you stand?
This question seems particularly relevant today, as I was asked earlier what I thought was in store for the Web in the next few years. I have to say that, in Shirky’s ideas, I see a bit of the present and a lot of the future. More and more our audience is broadening, and expects a Web in which they are active participants, rather than recipients of information. Surfing the Web is no longer a passive activity; look at the popularity of sites such as Facebook, Wikipedia, Twitter. The modern Web is about listening and conversing, and this movement toward a fully engaged conversation shifts the concept of traditional users to one of “partners;” there is no “them,” only “we.” This shift makes Web content dynamic, messy, evolutionary, and beyond our control — an intriguing idea, and a peek at the future.
