Why customer service matters
I popped into Cardiff city centre during lunch today, not something I often do, but decided to go to the deli (chorizo and morcilla if anyone cares) and Waterstones to have a look for a book on Ruby.
Talk about two very different experiences – which in a round-about way made me think about journalism and social media.
So shop 1: Wally’s Delicatessen in Cardiff’s Royal Arcade.
A family-run business which has been in Cardiff for nearly 60 years, a great place to go and get global foods, and the only place in Cardiff I know where you can buy morcilla (Spanish black pudding). I picked up my main purchase and then noticed one of those fancy tea ball that unfurls in the cup. A quick chat with a member of staff later, I walked off with two and some more recipes and ideas for my Spanish cookery.
Result: a warm fuzzy feeling, and confirmation that Wally’s is a place I like to go and part with my cash.
The second experience (and within a two-minute walk) was entirely the opposite. Read more
Learn to love the data
Numbers aren’t sexy, they are sometimes difficult, sometimes wrong (if they get inputted incorrectly) but they are to be treated with respect – and well worth having a conversation with.
Your readers/viewers might not want to see a data table full of figures – so you can use tools like Many Eyes Wikified to visualise them….
Highlight of the day at News:Rewired (at least as far as I’m concerned) was the data mashing session with the OU’s Tony Hirst and Francis Irving from My Society.
I’ve been looking at how to mash data, picking up ideas which have led me to start looking at Access, JSON, Python and Django (depending on what day of the week it is and the latest thing to fly across my social networks).
One of the great things was how the worked as a pair – Tony on how to do in-browser mashing using datasets (like Guardian datasets), get them into a Google Docs spreadsheet in a machine-readable format and then use Yahoo Pipes to clean, create your own bespoke search tools and then export the results to other tools such as Google Maps.
Sounds scary – well the language of IT can sound like that. But pleasantly for most people (after the initial shock of being an a room with two knowledgable people, and Tony introducing himself as a lecturer in telematics) this is something doable by people with a brain rather than hard core tech skills.
Lots of similarity to some of the visualisations created by CAR, but this was open and networked tools rather than closed in Excel/Access stuff. Okay, that means that other people can see your raw data and could potentially get the story – but as Tony pointed out over a beer, it will improve your network by attracting experts. A good return on investment as it builds your reputation – not all editors may understand that important lesson though.
Not every journalist is going to want to do this, but we don’t all do the same things at the moment anyway. But again, as people found with journalism and technology-related skills, if you are getting it then you could be ahead of the game.
If you are interested, look at the presentation posted by Tony.
Check out the buzz from News:Rewired
If you are interested in the raw material from News:rewired, then have a look at journalism.co.uk’s News:Rewired buzz page
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A funny thing happened on the way through the forum
The other week I attended the Eduserve symposium as a virtual delegate, an interesting day which steamed the presenters and gave those of us at a distance the chance to join in via Cover It Live.
There were Tweets flying back and forth, people discussing and joining in via the back channel as well as questions being transmitted to the floor.
What did I get out of it? Detail about what the Guardian and the BBC are looking at in terms of social media, some new Twitter buddies and a lunch with my colleague David Harrison this very day.
I’ll leave David, who I stumbled into during the live blogging, to tell you the story. But it kind of shows how social media often has knock on effects that people often do not anticapte. In my case that would be pizza, an interesting chat and the opportunity to explore some new tools and ideas that might just provide a very interesting spin on some of the projects I’m currently looking at.
And that’s a good start from any blog posting in my humble opinion.
Elearning and journalism – tackling the same issues
I’ve mentioned this before briefly, but what continues to amaze me is how much my two spheres of interest are essentially colliding. Not only are the same issues being talked about in both journalism and elearning on a regular basis – how should we change the conversation, ‘push or pull’ and on-demand content – but the same tools and concepts keep cropping up too.
Both Amy Gahran and Mindy McAdams have been looking at what a journalism school needs to do to help its students equip themselves for the 21st century.
Note to e-learning types from other fields, these two bloggers are well worth reading as part of your wider blog trawls – good stuff on teaching and technological support tools here.
Social Media Influence: Custom does "MoJo” with Nokia and Cardiff University
Social Media Influence: Custom does “MoJo” with Nokia and Cardiff University
An interesting experiment between Matt Yeomans – from Custom Communications – Cardiff University’s School of Journalism and Nokia Trendlabs.
Mobile journalism is the coming thing, lots of editors I’ve talked to lately are really interested in this approach.
Personally I also find it interesting that Matt has been using a Ning social network as the host to his course, eschewing the regular VLE that Cardiff uses.
It’s had its ups and downs, but has been interesting in that it is easy for the students to work together and view each other’s work.
Blogged with Flock
Tags: n95, mobile journalism, video, social network
OU’s Social:Learn Project
Had a fun Flashmeeting with my tutor and some of my course mates last night.
We were looking at theories including push/pull in learning and teaching and how this applies to elearning (we’re doing some old-school reading of books and were discussing E-Learning Strategies: How to Get Implementation and Delivery Right First Time by Morrison.)
At one point we got chatting about how/whether pull learning (where you get what you want when you need it, rather than having it pushed at you by an employer or teacher) could lead to the end of a set and formalised syllabus for some courses.
One of the things we were wondering was how this could work and, indeed, if it should even work.
Would we need a VLE, or would a collection of Web2.0 technologies be more appropriate?
Just doing some blog reading and found this by the OU’s Martin Weller – who blogs as The Ed Techie.
The OU are working on how to use web 2.0 and social learning in what is a very rapidly changing world.
Here’s Martin’s slideshow
But do please go and have a look at Martin’s own site.
Oh and he ‘dared’ to say that a Prof’s views could be as valid as a blogger out in the wilds of t’internet somewhere. Got to be the blogger, surely 
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Tags: PLE, social learning, Open University
Homeless in the New Year
Just read that Eduspaces is to close in the New Year – bummer.
I’ve been using ELGG for about a year for individual group projects and have been using the main site since then (but started using it properly in September).
There’s a load of content up there and some really interesting things that people are sharing. So what’s going to happen – we need a rescue mission, otherwise there will be a flood of educators and students looking for a community blogspace.
I’m hoping help will arrive, but I’m going to back up my content just in case.
Blogged with Flock
Tags: Eduspace, ELGG, learning community
What, you mean that other people could look at my FaceBook?
I was at a lecture into online journalism yesterday and we were discussing blogs, the rise of the ‘new trade press’ (expert bloggrs) and how journalists fit into all of this.
We got sidetracked and started talking about social networks and then someone piped up with “But it is my FaceBook and I don’t want employers to be able to see pictures of me doing….” Read more
The Guardian’s Obssessed with online networks
Great story in the Guardian yesterday from an Ofcom report into how much time people are spending in online networks.
The report says that 39 per cent of adults with internet access use social networking sites
Apparently we’re averaging five hours a month in MySpace, Facebook etc (I feel like I’m doing a lot more at the minute – my course has got me soc-netting, I’m on Facebook, I’ve got a Ning network for my student group, one with my colleagues and I’ve been invited into another for a research group…. And I’m trying to drum up support for a friend’s rude punk band on MySpace too.). Read more
Social learning
Social communities – why bother? After all we’ve all got enough on our plates without having to worry about people we don’t know or like wanting to become our ‘friends’ – haven’t we?
They’re here to stay, of that there is no doubt – so I guess I’d better learn to use them to my advantage rather than just whine about them.
My students are involved in a project using a Ning community set up by one of my colleagues and we’re using an Eduspaces community for my masters project. Both are proving to be interesting, both have their own little usability problems that get in the way of things a bit.
I’ve also been doing quite a lot of reading on how journalists are using things like Facebook to their advantage, great article on Magda’s Web Creation called Facebook – love it or loathe it that features what the Beeb and other organisations are up.
This electronic form of social link between disparate individuals has massive implications for journalists and educators alike. Read more