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This glossary provides an overview on essential tools for virtual facilitation. It has been elaborated by the RTVC team: Sofia, Hans, Stephan, Suresh, Lucy, Holger, Julian and Michael and enriched by tools taken from the Knowledge Sharing Toolkit of CGIAR.

We understand the concept of virtual facilitation in a broad sense, so we have included tools for sychronous and asynchronous conversations. Feel free to ad the tools you like. This glossary works like a wiki, so every registered user is allowed to add, edit and comment.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons.



Browse the glossary using this index

Special | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O
P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | ALL

A

Achordus

:
Achordus is a methodology and online tool to facilitate online discussions from 100-10,000 people. Achordus engages people in purposeful discussion around organizational, community or business issues. The tool is flexible enough to be molded into the design needs of each organization but at its heart is a unique and engaging discussion engine for online communities. Using a timed, phased and moderated process, overseen by a trained facilitator, Achordus is a flexible, cost effective way to engaging distributed employees, stakeholders and,communities. By inviting and embedding active participation in creating a desired future, Achordus harnesses the power of many and helps organisations turn that power to good use.

Achordus Screenshot

http://www.achordus.com
Keyword(s):

B

Blogs

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Brief Description:

Adapted from the ODI Toolkit: A blog (shortened from weblog) is an easy-to-publish web page consisting primarily of periodic articles posted by date,external image 365709563_2374a439e2.jpg?v=0 usually with the newest entry at the top. Blogs can give the world a window on your work. In places where there is access to the Internet, blogs provide an easy way to communicate knowledge. Blogs are rapidly being adopted in international development. SANGONET has created a blog toolkit with good advice on how to start a blog.

  • You don’t have to know any special computer programming to write or read a blog.
  • Blogs often have tools that allow readers to comment on a blog post.
  • Blogs often have RSS feeds (Really Simple Syndication) that allow people to subscribe to new blog posts.
  • Blogs can have one or many authors.

History

"Early blogs were manually updated components of standard websites. However, the evolution of tools to facilitate the production and maintenance of web articles posted in a chronological fashion made the publishing process accessible to a much larger, less technical, population. Ultimately, this resulted in the distinct class of online publishing that produces blogs we recognise today." (ODI)
People have been publishing their journals online for many years, but the advent of blogging meant it was easier. Blog software allows anyone to create a blog without having to know how to program or write in computer code. Blogging celebrated it’s 10th anniversary in December, 2007.

When to Use:

  • Project blogs: project participants share frequent updates, reflect, ask questions of the larger community and create a "learn as we go" record.
  • Leadership blogs: leaders share their ideas, reflect, pose questions and concerns to their staff, and model knowledge sharing.
  • Social Reporting from Events so those who can't be at the face to face event can still learn what is happening. See http://rightsandclimate.org/
  • Public Community blogs: community members invite partners and stakeholders to add their voices to an organization's work.
  • Who can blog? You can create a blog on your personal site or as part of an organizational site (such as http://www.shareyoutstory.org). The person who creates the blog is the primary author. You can add other people as authors, or you can let others participate by commenting on your posts.
  • Blogs are less formal than reports so people can offer quicker, less polished communications if that is desired.
    Blogs allow readers to respond, giving feedback. So you might ask a question on your blog and get answers that others can read and benefit from as well.
  • If you get into a regular blogging habit, you can increase others’ knowledge of your work and make useful connections with others. If you find other blogs useful, you can subscribe to them to easily know about new blog posts.
  • Organizational benefits of blogs (from http://intranetblog.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2005/10/24/1318816.html):
    • Improved internal communications (77%) – If it is easy and quick to share and read information, people will be more informed.
    • Replacement of other exiting work processes (41%) – Reduce the amount of time spent in meetings “reporting,” support ongoing reflective practices that can help in M&E
    • Replacement of email (39%) – instead of sending emails to everyone, publish news to a blog. Be clear what blogs are “must read” and which are “if they interest you.”

What are my alternatives and when should I use them?
Blog weaknesses.
  • Like any tool, just because you can have a blog doesn’t make it always useful.
  • Blogs waste time and attention if they are not updated regularly. If you have a blog on a workspace and no one is posting to it, remove it.
  • Blogs put the most recent information in view but are less useful when you have to dig back and find something. If you want to organize often-used data, use a wiki, a library or a database.
  • Blogs can be a good base for a discussion, but the blog author tends to have more influence and power which can disturb the dynamics of a conversation. You might want to use a discussion instead.

Alternatives to Blogs?
  • Is a blog a discussion forum? People often ask about the difference between blogs and discussion forums.
  • Blogs focus on the blog owner as primary author so they are useful for sharing ideas. Since they are chronological, they are useful for time sensitive news, or to track the progress of something over time.
  • Discussion forums focus on the group and their conversations. The focus is more on the conversation while in blogs there may be more focus on the primary author.
  • Libraries allow you to organize information any way you want. You are not limited to chronological order and the emphasis is on the data, rather than the author.
  • Wikis focus on the content, rather than the date or the author. While blogs are good for publishing, they would not be useful for co-editing or simply update a webpage when a wiki would be quite useful.

How to promote my blog?


You can promote your blogs by:
  • Sharing links to your posts via social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. These sites allow you to post short messages which you can use to promote your content. You can also share the link to your blog by bookmarking it in social bookmarking sites like Del.icio.us and CiteULike.
  • Start interacting with your possible user base by commenting on others blogs on similar content/topics, answering comments that are posted on your blogs, or simply by emailing links to your blog to your potential users.
  • In case of availability of funds, blogs could also be promoted through advertising in sites such as Google AdWords and Facebook.

No matter which method you use, try to monitor the usages statistics of your blog to ensure that each of these methods, especially if you are paying for it, is bringing the right audience to your blog.

How to measure the impact of my blog?


How to use:

Key steps to starting a blog include:
  1. Decide the purpose, topic or focus of your blog.
  2. Don’t duplicate unnecessarily. Check and see if there is an existing blog you can contribute to.
  3. Get inspired. We recommend the blog search site, Technorati. See what others are doing. Get ideas.
  4. Choose one of the free blogging services, like Blogger (and a nice guide here) or Wordpress. The free blogging services usually include advertisements. Ad-free blog are available for a fee through services like Typepad.
  5. Start posting and continue to post regularly.
  6. Tag your posts meaningfully with categories so that you are able to find older posts.
  7. When people comment on your blog, respond with your own comment. People like to know they have been heard.
  8. Link to related blogs - cross-links help readers learn about useful related resources and create another way of sharing knowledge.

Blogging Tools You Might Use

Tips and Lessons Learnt

  • FARA's Blog Lessons
  • "Blogging Good Practices" from Web tastings blog.
  • Use http://www.feedreader.com to redirect a feed to a new site
  • Aggregate personal Blogs into a Group Blog in your organization to achieve greater transparency
  • Start small, don’t try big and massive rollouts: Experiment a bit ands talk about it, think of it as iterative investments of time.
  • Roll out when you have a concrete application/need for a tool or method (vs. 'hey, here is an interesting tool.")
  • Harness examples
  • Sow the tool and how to use it
  • Sare lessons learned
  • Sometimes we are asked to use a tool because it is "in vogue" (Hey, we have to have a blog! What for? I don't know!) so we may have to find a reason.
  • Sometimes an individual innovator/early adopter helps us discover a need

Examples&Stories

Examples of blogs in international NGOs

Some CGIAR Blogs

Some FAO Blogs


Who can tell me more?

@ CGIAR

@ FAO

Related Methods / Tools / Practices

Resources

(Courtesy: http://www.kstoolkit.org/)
Keyword(s):

C

Conference Platforms

:
There are a large number of conference platforms on the market, such as WebEx, Connect Pro, DimDim, Go2Meeting, etc. Most of them combine Voice-over-IP technology with other services, such as chat, sharing of presentations and desktop, whiteboards, video conferencing etc.

Althought all of these are products are well developed, the main bottleneck remaining is bandwidth, and as a consequence, often the varying quality of the voice transmission. If you have good experiences with one of the platforms, and you have access to one of them (for example, Dimdim offers a free platform for up to 20 participants, with limited functionalities), we encourage you to propose one of these for your session. Please add as much technical background information as participants will need.

Creative Commons

:
Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization, working to increase the amount of creativity (cultural, educational, and scientific content) in “the commons” — the body of work that is available to the public for free and legal sharing, use, repurposing, and remixing.

CC provides free, easy-to-use legal tools.
Our tools give everyone from individual creators to large companies and institutions a simple, standardized way to grant copyright permissions to their creative work. The Creative Commons licenses enable people to easily change their copyright terms from the default of “all rights reserved” to “some rights reserved.”

Some Rights Reserved
Creative Commons defines the spectrum of possibilities between full copyright and the public domain. From all rights reserved to no rights reserved. Our licenses help you keep your copyright while allowing certain uses of your work — a “some rights reserved” copyright.

CC Licenses work alongside copyright
Creative Commons licenses are not an alternative to copyright. They work alongside copyright, so you can modify your copyright terms to best suit your needs. We’ve collaborated with intellectual property experts all around the world to ensure that our licenses work globally.
(from: Creative Commons).

By participating in this conference, you agree:
a) that you will only upload third part content, which is copyright free, or to which you have the permission to use, or which is CC licensed for minimum non-commercial use.
b) to the use of the content you generate on this website for non-commercial purposes, on an attribution, share-alike basis.

Creative Commons License

Keyword(s):

D

Delicious

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Delicious is a social bookmarking tool that allows users to share their favorite websites with their networks and with the world. To start tagging (e.g. bookmarking and describing) your favorite websites, it is recommended download and install the Delicious plugin, which is available for all major Web browsers.

When you come across a website that you want to bookmark, you simply click on the "TAG" button in your menu bar which opens the Delicious menu (see screenshot).

delicious screenshot

You can choose tags (keywords) that you have used before, other users have used for this site and also you can enter new tags.

If you browse your list of bookmarked sites, you can see how many people have bookmarked the same site and you can browse other users' bookmarks. You can also connect to people you like to follow and receive their bookmarks via RSS feeds. You can also notify friends about a site that you have bookmarked by including a specific tag, e.g. "for:h.nauheimer".

If you bookmark sites on Delicious during our conference, please include the tag "rtvc".
Keyword(s):

Discussion Groups and Email Lists

:

Brief Description

A discussion forum is a virtual place on the internet where conversations can take place and information can be shared more easily among a geographically dispersed group of people. Discussion forums are typically created around a specific topic of common interest or for a specific user group around a particular piece of work. Discussion Forums have many things in common with Email Lists.

Asynchronous conversations.
  • Discussion forums are typically asynchronous, meaning the participants don’t have to be online at the same time. Sometimes people think of synchronous tools such as chat in the same way. With chat, you each have to be online at the same time. But in both you are taking turns between each of the conversation participants.
  • Focus on who said what.

Who Can Participate in a Discussion Forum?
Whoever controls the area where a discussion forum is used determines who can read and contribute to the forum. You can make them open to all of an organization or to just a small group of people. Giving people access to a forum, however, does not ensure they will read or participate. Their must be a compelling reason for the forum and most often you need to facilitate and encourage the discussion

History

Online discussion forums have been around since computers were first networked. One of the original intentions of the Internet was to make it easy for scientists to collaborate. The most important early discussion forums were on USENET, which started in 1979. Discussion forums later became the base for many online communities.

When to Use

There are many ways to use discussion forums, from formal structured conversations to informal “cafés”. The difference between them is the focus and duration of the conversation.
  • When people are in different places and time zones, making synchronous interactions more difficult, discussion forums can be useful.
  • When people are working in a second language and the slower pace of a web based discussion allows more time to make meaning across languages.
  • When it is important to know who said what and when they said it, because the discussion forum lists who made a post and when they posted it. This is especially useful when trying to track project work.
  • When you want a space for informal conversation that doesn’t need much structure, you can create a “café” or informal thread.

What are my alternatives and when should I use them?
Discussion forum weaknesses
If people don’t regularly go to the workspace on the hive, they are less likely to participate in a discussion forum.
If there are multiple forums, people may not know which forum to participate in.
Discussion forum conversations can drag on without an action or decision if they are not facilitated. Don’t expect every discussion to work without a little encouragement and structure.
  • Blogs – blogs are good when you want to send out a message. People can always comment, but the focus is on sharing out, rather than conversation per se.
  • Wikis – wikis are good when it doesn’t matter who said what and you want your conversation to evolve into a final product, like a summary of a conversation. You could pair a wiki and a discussion forum. Have the discussion on the forum, and do the summary on the wiki.
  • Chat– chat is good when the people in the conversation are all online at the same time. It is more immediate and can be good for things like decision making or dealing with issues where you need a lot of “back and forth” in the conversation.

How to use

Key principles for Facilitation and moderation
  • Keeping a forum tidy (messages in the right place, delete inappropriate messages, etc.)
  • when to open a new forum (when discussion splits or changes topic, or gets too long/complicated to follow)
  • when to close a forum (when old, unused discussions appear as a disincentive to participate, clutter, etc.)
  • archiving (capturing an exact copy of the conversation)
  • summarizing (extracting the key content only)
Examples of discussion forum practices
  • Conversations supporting a global community of practice
  • Holding a week long asynchronous online meeting in a web forum
  • Carrying out a peer assist with colleagues around the world
  • Informal places to create and nurture relationships
  • Structured or informal training and learning groups, especially where conversation is useful
  • Project coordination and teamwork
  • Informal information and knowledge sharing
  • Asynchronous meetings as an alternative to face-to-face meetings and conference calls

Tips and Lessons Learnt

(add yours)

Examples&Stories

dgroups.jpg

Dgroups
Dgroups is an online home for groups and communities interested in international development. In Dgroups, one can find the online tools and services needed to support the activities of a team, a group, a network, a partnership or a community. Dgroups is also a place to find groups who are interested in the same topics in international development as you.
Contact your organisation's partner .
  • For the CGIAR contact:Silvia Ticconi at s.ticconi@cgiar.org. Silvia sends you a form to fill out and creates your Dgroup.
  • For the FAO contact:

Yahoogroups
Yahoogroups is a free online service provided by Yahoo!. It is a free service allowing communities with common intersts to set up a common "group" and share message (which are archived), photos, events calendars, polls and links.

Googlegroups
Googlegroupsis a free online service provided by Google.

Tips and Lessons Learnt

  • FAO have successfully used DGroups for online E-Conference. It provides for asynchronous communication across contients for users with low-bandwidth connectivity. The two known issues with DGrouops were:
    • Lack of possibility to see messages in context (Threads). Therefore, context on which message is a reply to which is missing.
    • Lack of possiblity to send messages in Rich Text or HTML format (formats often used by Yahoo and other E-mail Clients). All messages must be sent in Plain Text.

Examples & Stories

CSO-CGIAR Forum Dgroup: http://www.dgroups.org/groups/cgiar/cso-cgiar-forum/index.cfm

Models and Examples of discussion forums in international NGOs.

Who can tell me more?

Related Methods / Tools / Practices


Resources




(Courtesy: http://www.kstoolkit.org/)
Keyword(s):

E

Etherpad

:
Etherpad is an online text editor that can be used simultaneously by multiple people. The free version allows up to eight contributors.

This is one tool you can use to record your session. It has a built-in chat, which you can also use to communicate with each other. We recommend you name one or two note takers to write on the pad as typing by all session participants will likely result in some chaos (even though it is possible technically).

Etherpad in short:
  • No account required
  • Edits highlighted in author's color
  • Infinite undo history
  • Syntax highlighting for editing code
  • Every keystroke backed up
  • Integrated chat
Here is a screen shot and here a short introductory video.

If you want to use Etherpad in our RTVC conference, please open an account and create a new pad. You will then have a dedicated URL (website address) that you can include in your topic description at the marketplace. See a sample Etherpad here: http://etherpad.com/6YtTk8CQ0N.


Keyword(s):

F

Facebook

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Facebook is a free-access social networking website. Users can join networks organized by city, workplace, school, and region to connect and interact with other people. People can also add friends and send them messages, and update their personal profiles to notify friends about themselves. The website's name refers to the paper facebooks depicting members of a campus community that some US colleges and preparatory schools give to incoming students, faculty, and staff as a way to get to know other people on campus (from: Wikipedia).

Facebook is one of the largest social networks on the web (head to head with MySpace in absolute user numbers). It has now more than 200 million members world wide, bridging all age groups and social strata.

We have set up a Facebook group for this conference called Real Time Virtual Collaboration.

How do I join the Facebook Group for this virtual conference? You can join our Facebook Group called Real Time Virtual Collaboration at: http://www.facebook.com/groups.php?id=904115122&gv=12#/group.php?gid=79358776134

What is the purpose of the Facebook Group? This conference explore tools, processes and ideas related to Real Time Virtual Collaboration. Since the conference is an isolated event, we need to create environments where people can stay connected and share ideas after the conference is over. The Facebook group is one such environment. You can use it before the conference starts, during the conference for discussions (similar to a web forum), and after the conference for further networking.

More information on Facebook from Wikipedia:

The media often compares Facebook to MySpace, but one significant difference between the two websites is the level of customization. MySpace allows users to decorate their profiles using HTML and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), while Facebook only allows plain text.

Facebook has a number of features with which users may interact. They include the Wall, a space on every user's profile page that allows friends to post messages for the user to see, Pokes, which allows users to send a virtual "poke" to each other (a notification that tells a user that they have been poked), Photos, where users can upload albums and photos, and Status, which allows users to inform their friends of their whereabouts and actions. A user's Wall is visible to anyone who is able to see that user's profile, depending on privacy settings. In July 2007, Facebook began allowing users to post attachments to the Wall, whereas the Wall was previously limited to textual content only.

Over time, Facebook has added several new features to its website. On September 6, 2006, a News Feed was announced, which appears on every user's homepage and highlights information including profile changes, upcoming events, and birthdays of the user's friends. Initially, the News Feed caused dissatisfaction among Facebook users; some complained it was too cluttered and full of undesired information, while others were concerned it made it too easy for other people to track down individual activities (such as changes in relationship status, events, and conversations with other users). In response to this dissatisfaction, Zuckerberg issued an apology for the site's failure to include appropriate customizable privacy features. Since then, users have been able to control what types of information are shared automatically with friends. Users are now able to prevent friends from seeing updates about certain types of activities, including profile changes, Wall posts, and newly added friends.

One of the most popular applications on Facebook is the Photos application, where users can upload albums and photos. Facebook allows users to upload an unlimited number of photos, compared with other image hosting services such as Photobucket and Flickr, which apply limits to the number of photos that a user is allowed to upload. In the past, all users were limited to 60 photos per album. However, some users report that they are able to create albums with a new limit of 200 photos. It remains unclear why some members have a 200-photo limit while others do not. Privacy settings can be set for individual albums, limiting the groups of users that can see an album. For example, the privacy of an album can be set so that only the user's friends can see the album, while the privacy of another album can be set so that all Facebook users can see it. Another feature of the Photos applications is the ability to "tag", or label users in a photo. For instance, if a photo contains a user's friend, then the user can tag the friend in the photo. This sends a notification to the friend that they have been tagged, and provides them a link to see the photo.



Keyword(s):

Flickr

:
Flickr is an image and video hosting website, web services suite, and online community platform. In addition to being a popular Web site for users to share personal photographs, the service is widely used by bloggers as a photo repository.[update] As of November 2008, it claims to host more than 3 billion images.

Flickr asks photo submitters to organize images using tags (a form of metadata), which allow searchers to find images related to particular topics, such as place names or subject matter. Flickr was also an early website to implement tag clouds, which provide access to images tagged with the most popular keywords. Because of its support for tags, Flickr has been cited as a prime example of effective use of folksonomy, although Thomas Vander Wal suggested Flickr is not the best example.[17]

Flickr also allows users to organize their photos into "sets", or groups of photos that fall under the same heading. However, sets are more flexible than the traditional folder-based method of organizing files, as one photo can belong to one set, many sets, or none at all. Flickr's "sets", then, represent a form of categorical metadata rather than a physical hierarchy. Sets may be grouped into "collections", and collections further grouped into higher-order collections. (from: Wikipedia).

We foresee that you use Flickr to find images that will enrich the reports on your sessions. Please make sure that if you post photos on our website that they have a Creative Commons license. You can see the CC license in the right column that gives information on the photo. You can search for CC licensed photos on flickr using the Advanced Search options.

If you are into visual recording and are recording any of the sessions, feel free to share your final results on flickr, too. In this case, please tag those photos with "rtvc".


Keyword(s):

G

Google Documents

:

Brief Description

Google Documents is a platform powered by Google which allows users to create, store and share documents online. Text documents, number spreadsheets, forms and "Powerpoint" presentations can all be created, edited, stored and shared on Google Documents. The tools are useful for when a team with good internet access want to collaborate on the creation and maintenance of such documents and easily share them with others online. You can download the documents for editing offline and then upload and synch using Google Gears and the FireFox browser.

History

It used to be when we wanted to collaborate on a document or spread sheet, we'd have to mail around a file. Now we can collaborate on the same file. Google docs is similar to a wiki, but the interface is more like a familiar word processing program.


When to use

  • When a group, such as a community of practice has to work together on creating a common document with several people adding content to the document.
  • When you want to publish a document, spreadsheet, form or slide show online and don't have your own web page.
  • It is not as useful if all you want are comments or clearance on a document that you have created.

How to use

  • Go to Google Documents
  • Create your account (or use your Gmail account if you already have one)
  • Create new documents or upload documents already stored on your computer
  • Share the document to either let other people see and/or contribute to it
  • Invite your friends and colleagues to contribute to the document. There is a utility built into the application that sends these emails



Tips and Lessons Learnt

Pluses:
  1. Allows a community of practice to share various documents online. There's only one version of the document which stays online. Collaborators are invited to make changes to the document online.
  2. Word processor interface is very much like MS Word.
  3. You can create a new document in Google Documents or work from your regular computer and upload it to Google Documents when the document's ready to be edited.
  4. You can collaborate on several documents with different communities of practice from just one google doc account.
  5. You can create a print version, a web version, a .doc, .pdf and other extension files at any time straight from Google Documents.
  6. You can follow the history of changes like in a wiki: go to Tools/Revision history or File/Revision history. Then tick the versions of the document you wish to compare and click on "Compare checked".
  7. You can change the language setting of your google doc interface (all buttons and commands).
  8. You get to invite people to view or collaborate so that document A stays confidential within community A while document B you're also involved with stays within the circle of community B.
  9. The "Hide" function enables you to remove documents from your Google Documents main page once you have assigned them to classifying folders. You can thus use the main page as the page that shows the documents you are currently working on when those documents that are finished have been classified in folders or been hidden.

Minuses:
  1. You need to register to Google Documents with yet another login and password. If you create a gmail account, you'll be able to use all Google applications using that one login and password but all emails you exchange related to the shared documents will use gmail. You can create your new account with an email address you prefer to use and correspondence will then go to that email address.
  2. Google Documents follows the language setting of the Google home page that is set as default on your computer. I'm located in Thailand so my google docs interface was suddenly all in Thai, which made it difficult to get out. One way to solve the problem: when asking for www.google.com on your web browser, google will reorient you to the "most appropriate" google depending on your computer setting. Below the search bar, there will be "Google.your-country-code in English" and below-right "Google.com in English". Choose either one if you want to make sure your interface ends up in English language.
  3. When tracking changes, there is no function to accept or reject changes. You have to copy original text from an old version of the document in the Revision history file and paste it back into the document.

Examples & Stories


Who can tell me more?

(add your name/contact email)

Related Methods / Tools / Practices



(Courtesy: http://www.kstoolkit.org/)
Keyword(s):

Guidelines for Virtual Facilitators

:
In a virtual setting (especially with text) you do not get the social clues and feedback that give you a sense of what is going on, such as you would in real life. It is not so clear for participants who are new to virtual settings as to how to express their needs or give feedback on the content or the process. Remember that people are free to use other applications/browse other sites while they are online. You never know if you have people's full attention. When you are having to deal with connectivity issues, this is not clear to the group and so your own partial attention can confuse the group. Hence, etiquette helps!

Tips for Ten Possible Situations

The following tips are to help you be prepared for different dynamics that may arise. You will not likely have to deal with all so do not assume so! Many issue resolve themselves especially if people on the session take responsibility for it and share in the convening. The spirit is passion and responsibility so if you are finding it hard, try to relax and let go. Voice your questions/concerns and leave space for others to pick up the challenge. Enjoy the collaboration as it unfolds!

1. Everyone speaks/ chats at the same time

Be more directive in your facilitation. Suggest some ettiquete so that everyone gets a chance to participate.

CHAT:
  • You might use CAPS LOCK so that your guidance of the process as the convenor can more easily stand out.
  • Ask people to stick to shorter sentences/paragraphs so that there can be more interchange.
VOICE:
  • Suggest the use of a "talking piece" People visualize an object that they are passing around. Once they have finished speaking, they say "I am putting the object back in to the middle" Another person might then follow with "I am picking the object up" Etiquette is that whoever has the object is the one who is allowed to speak.
  • Suggest a limited time for each participant to speak. Anything form 30 seconds to a few minutes.

2. No One speaks/Chats

  • Remind everyone that no question is too simple and that sometimes the simplest questions liberate everyone
  • Try addressing people directly -- use the @sign to address individuals and prompt a response.
  • Try making your questions a bit less open. If you say "what are your thoughts about skype" people may go blank. It could be too open that people don't know where to start. If you make your question a little more specific "what are you thoughts about the way skype is used for meetings" Or "how else might skype be used in addition to meetings?" You are more likely to get an answer to the second and third question as the question helps to focus an answer.
  • Avoid yes/no questions if you want to encourage people to speak. They tend to close off a conversation. "Could you say a little more about that" helps to further open a conversation
  • Suggest that people speak in turn, ensuring that everyone is asked to speak at some point.
  • Sometimes everyone remains silent assuming that someone who has just spoken has not yet finished. Encourage people using voice to say "I'm done" when they have finished speaking. It avoids unnecessary gaps. Acknowledge the silence. Sometimes everyone is processing/thinking. Ask the audience! "what do we want to do here?
  • Ask everyone on the call to express why they chose this session.

TIP: If everyone thinks that every one else is the expert, people tend to all go quiet. Any way you can help to break this mystique will be worthwhile.

3. One person dominates

There is no golden rule for addressing this! In a voice session you might want to say something along the lines of "thank you for your contribution. I want to make sure that others also participate. Does anyone else want to comment on what has just been said"

NOTE: Sometimes it is actually fine that one person dominates -- and it is what people want. I have seen people ensure equal contribution in situations where actually everyone wanted to hear what one person had to say.

Check this with the group. "Would you all like to hear more, or would someone else like to comment?" Ask the dominant person to summarize in a short time period of say 30 seconds, so that their wisdom can be captured.

Perhaps there is one golden rule:: do whatever you can to not resent or "judge" the person.

4. No one makes any notes

With voice, you can use an accompanying chat log to record what happens. Ask people to summarize as you go along and give examples of how simple the summary can be.

If no one is doing this, remind people once or twice again. Summaries can be meaningless, encourage others to add context so as to increase the meaning of the summaries.

Encourage people to summarize as you go along. That way, the work is almost done and nothing left extra to do at the end, and participation is maximised.

Not everyone is good at this. Some people find it harder than others to have the mind attending to chat, summarizing, and thinking on the content level at the same time. Encourage those who are, to do so.

5. Everyone seems to want to talk about something else

This can happen! And it is not a reflection on you. As the convenor it will need a judgement call on your behalf as to how to respond to this. It could be that the new tendency is the right direction to go in. Try to gauge the group to get a sense of what is wanted. It is always worth asking. Remember that it could be important to emphasize the original topic, yet it could also have become important to develop the conversation in a new direction as a result of a new insight in the group. Try not to be too attached to the topic, and yet assert your view without being aggressive.

6. You don't seem to be progressing with the topic/ you get stuck

Check the interest level on the topic. Sometimes if you are trying to do something quite difficult it can seem as though nothing has happened. Acknowledge what has been achieved by summarizing insights so far. You could ask people to look at the topic from different perspectives and see if you come up with something new.

Try turning the question upside down. Ie. instead of "what works" start with "what does not work" and then use this to focus on what does work

TIP: Most chat utilities offer the "/me" functionality. Meaning you can report on yourself in the third person. It is like reporting on what you are thinking/wondering without the need for someone to respond to you. If your name is, say, Helena, you might want to type "Helena is wondering whether we are going to deeply into this topic". If instead of typing out your name, you can replace it with "/me" and then your name will automatically be typed. It saves a bit of time. This kind of third-person reporting helps people to visualize what is happening beyond just what is being said.

7. People arrive late

It is your call as to how long to wait before starting. If you keep a chat log of what is happening, then you can direct latecomers to that as a way to get up to speed with the session silently.

You may wish to give an overview of the session every so often if several people have arrived late.

TIP: keep a list of statements that you can cut and paste into the chat such as "welcome to that chat. It is ok that you are arriving a little late. Please look at the chat log to catch up with where we are now"

If the session is full, you may want to set a cut-off point where you do not make efforts to update everyone. i.e if someone enters a chat room 20 minutes before the end, they will just be able to catch up by chat and will likely not participate.

8. People are dropping out

Ask those who are left -- is this question of interest to you or what is your real question? If no one else is there, consider staying there yourself. You might be "the one!" Take some time for yourself to focus on this topic and share your own reflections at the end.

9. Conflict arises

  • Ask everyone to s-l-o-w d-o-w-n.
  • Express that you see there is a lot of energy and this signals passion and deeper values being accessed.
  • Even ask for a moment of silence so that people can re-gain their senses.
  • If very difficult, allow just one sentence at a time before responding. This can help bring in reflection.
  • Conflict can be tricky so a suggestion here is to transfer the PLACE where it is being handled. Suggest that a sub-group break out and work on this issue and report back to the group.
TIP: Misunderstandings are more likely in text/chat than when people speak with each other as context is missing from the communication. Research has shown that this is the case. Encourage the group to assume positive intent -- to compensate for the role that text plays in contributing to misunderstandings.

If you -- the convenor -- get into conflict, remember that it is very difficult to stay neutral when you are in conflict which makes it near impossible to manage a session. So take care to avoid being pulled into conflict with the participants. If you do end up in conflict, you could ask someone to mediate and possibly to take over the convening of the session. Take a moment. Breathe fresh air. Walk a few steps and come back to the call/chat session.

10. Problems with technology

When people have difficult connections because of technology challenges - it can seem as though, they are sitting "behind everyone else" and can feel like second-class citizens.

Remember to acknowledge the challenges people are having and let them know that you are doing what you can. It can be frustrating not to be able to hear/ read what is happening and being forgotten about in the excitement of good conversation when others have better connections.

ASK everyone else to help with this as it is a lot for one person to do. It will be confusing to the participants if you are not very present as a convenor and yet what is happening is that you are busy trying to get someone online through another channel.

Let the group know what you are doing and ask if anyone can volunteer to help. They may have better knowledge than you about the technology and be able to carry the task out faster, and allow you therefore to continue with the convening.

Conclusion

Facilitating/convening is a lot like cooking. You are juggling content, process, human energy and logistics and any of these can give surprises, and the timing plays a key role and no session can ever be reproduced! Hence, do ask for people to help with the different aspects so you can still enjoy the cooking!

I

Instant Messengers and Chat

:

Instant Messengers and Chat

external image 218620482_d5a70d0fbb.jpg?v=0


Brief Description:

Instant messaging (IM) and chat are technologies that facilitate near real-time text based communication between two or more participants over a network. It is different from e-mail in that it is synchronicity of the communication by the user - messaging happens in real-time before your eyes. However, some systems allow the sending of messages to people not currently logged on (offline messages), thus removing much of the difference between IM and e-mail. Some IM systems allow users to use webcams and Microphone which made them more popular than others. In addition IM has additional features such as: the immediate receipt of acknowledgment or reply, group chatting, conference services (including voice and video), conversation logging and file transfer.
It is possible to save a conversation for later reference.

History:

When to use:

Due to their instant nature in sharing snippets of information, they are popular in many organizations.
In a report of IM use at the workplace Nardi et al. (2000) identifies the four primary functions of IM which are often cited in other reports, namely:
  • Quick Questions and Clarifications
  • Coordinating and scheduling tasks
  • Coordinating impromptu social meetings
  • Keeping in touch with friends and family

Although IMs deliver many benefits, they also carry with them certain risks and liabilities, particularly when used in workplaces. Among these are:
  • Security risks (e.g. IM used to infect computers with spyware, viruses, trojans, worms)
  • Compliance risks
  • Inappropriate use
  • Intellectual property leakage

How to use:

Most IMs need to be downloaded and installed locally. You must have administrator privilege on your computer to be able to install and IM. Once you install it, create an account and share it with your colleagues. Here is a short list of available IMs:

Tips and Lessons Learnt

  • IMs are often used to send spywares or viruses. Never accept to download a file unless you are extremely sure of its origin and authenticity. If not careful, you can inadvertently infect the whole network of your organizations.
  • IM can be a great communication tool, but it's also easy to allow it to become a distraction. Unlike e-mail, the dialogue window doesn't close automatically when you send a message. This means that if you're really busy and the other person wants to chit-chat, you will have to take it upon yourself to end the conversation. A polite "Gotta go. Talk to you later." usually does the trick.

Examples & Stories

(add yours)

I am using Yahoo messenger since 1996, my other first instant messaging tools is mirabilis ICQ, microsoft netmeeting and MSN Messenger. I love YM very much. It become my primary contact address. If you cannot contact me by phne. You can drop me offline message through YM. Very efficient and fast. Now, Using GPRS, I can access my yahoo messenger almost anywhere in Indonesia via cellphone. In terms of virus and trojan, the key is stick to your friendlist. Do not accept anything outside your list. It works very well for me. YM is a big help. (bagus utomo, b.utomo@cgiar.org)

During the 2nd KS Workshop, we were four facilitators working regularly "together" on all things relating to the workshop. For example, what should the agenda for the next teleconference be to what we will do during the face-to-face phase. We started off creating new Skype chats for each day but at some point we started using the same chat session! Because we were spread across different time zones the discussions went on even if one or more of us left the chat. The side effect of this was that in the end we used Skype to continuously talk to each other and keep each other in the loop. The fact that we could write to each other even when one of us was not online also made a difference. If we were to work over weeks on a common topic that needed regular discussing, I would recommend using Skype's Chat function! (Gauri Salokhe, gauri.salokhe [at] fao.org).

Who can tell me more?

@ CGIAR
  • (add your name)

@ FAO
  • Gauri Salokhe, FAO (Gauri.Salokhe [at] fao.org)

Photo Credit: Photo by Paul Watson

(Courtesy: http://www.kstoolkit.org)
Keyword(s):

L

LinkedIn

:
How is LinkedIn Connected to Real-Time Virtual Collaboration (RTVC)?

LinkedIn is a publicly available social networking site for professionals from a wide variety of industries all over the world. You can access LinkedIn for free but you must register to do so.

After you have created your LinkedIn Account and profile, you can join the RTVC LinkedIn Group to connect with other conference participants and join in discussions by going to this link: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1906733

From Wikpedia: The purpose of the site is to allow registered users to maintain a list of contact details of people they know and trust in business. The people in the list are called Connections. Users can invite anyone (whether a site user or not) to become a connection. This list of connections can then be used in a number of ways:
* A contact network is built up consisting of their direct connections, the connections of each of their connections (termed second degree connections) and also the connections of second degree connections (termed third degree connections). This can be used to gain an introduction to someone you wish to know through a mutual, trusted contact.
* It can then be used to find jobs, people and business opportunities recommended by someone in one's contact network.
* Employers can list jobs and search for potential candidates.
* Job seekers can review the profile of hiring managers and discover which of their existing contacts can introduce them.

The feature LinkedIn Answers, similar to Google Answers or Yahoo! Answers, allows users to ask questions for the community to answer. This feature is free and the main differences from the two previously mentioned services are that questions are potentially more business-oriented, and the identity of the people asking and answering questions is known.

The searchable LinkedIn Groups, feature allows users to establish new business relationships by joining alumni, industry, or professional and other relevant groups.


Keyword(s):

M

Microblogging

:
(see also the article on "Twitter")

Brief Description:

"Microblogging is a form of blogging that allows users to write brief text updates (usually less than 140 characters) and publish them, either to be viewed by anyone or by a restricted group which can be chosen by the user. These messages can be submitted by a variety of means, including text messaging, instant messaging, e-mail, MP3 or the Web." (from Wikipedia) Microblogging has been increasingly used in international development to share resources, ask questions of colleagues and peers and to raise visibility of web resources by disseminating key URLs. With the use of "hashtags" users can look at all messages with a shared tag, thus getting a broader sense of an issue. With the mobile phone interface, there is some thought that these tools might bridge between those with and without reliable internet access.

Here is a brief video explaining one of the leading microblogging platforms, Twitter.



explain it in plain English: http://www.commoncraft.com/Twitter

What are the Main Microblogging Platforms?


History:

Micro blogging started out as a simple social communications tool to answer the question" what are you doing right now." According to the Social Media Training site: "Micro-blogging is sometimes criticized for encouraging dull or meaningless posts, conveying the minutia of daily life, such as what the writer is eating, who the writer is waiting for, how far behind schedule the writer's flight is, and so on. This criticism, though, could be leveled at any communication tool, from longer-form blogging platforms to telephones to Post-It Notes. Not every bit of communication is riveting, but the potential for profundity and powerful prose is promising.

Additionally, the term micro-blogging, is perhaps more narrow than the true potential of the platform allows. For example, Twitter has often been compared to "time-shifted" instant messaging in which people can converse directly with quick messages without the need to be online together. Perhaps more common, Twitter can be compared with a chat room filled with only the people you choose to hear from, again without the need to be online at the same time -- although that's part of the fun."
(from Social Media Training)

When to use:

  1. To keep in contact with other colleagues in your field
  2. To publicize your organizations' web content by tweeting out URLs
  3. To track an issue (via hashtags) as a form of "social media listening"
  4. Aggregating content (tweets) into a website (see below)
  5. For private microblogging networks, you can use a tool like http://www.yammer.com .Note that Yammer is specifically for use by a community within an organization. It requires a common email address for participation in a community, unlike other microblogging services.
  6. To fundraise (see this blog article from CGIAR ICT-KM)

When not to use:

  • When the people you want to connect to/reach aren't using similar services. This is still an early adopter tool.

How to use:

1. How to microblog -


2. How to decide which other microbloggers to follow

Experience is probably the best guide for this. Don't be afraid to follow someone and then later decide that the information they share does not meet your needs and "unfollow" that person.
  • Start with someone you know, follow them and then pick some people they are following.
  • Look for links to microblogging on the websites, blogs and other social media tools of web2 tools of people who produce information that is of interetes to you.
  • On Twitter there is a growing activity on Fridays where one Tweep (i.e. someone who Twitters) recommends another Tweep by sending a message with their name and the hashtag: #followfriday

3. Twitter Syntax

  • Hashtags http://hashtags.org/


    Hash tags are when you put a # sign in front of a tag within your tweet. People have built tools to aggregate the hashtags, so this is one way to bring together different messages from different people around one topic. There are also other ways to aggregate tweets (see the next section.

  • @username *


    When you see an @ sign in front of a name of Tweep, such as @ictkm, it means that the reply is directed to a specific Tweep, in this case ictkm. Replies directed to you are visible by clicking on the @replies button on the right sidebar.

  • D @username *


    You can also send direct or private messages so that others do not see them. Example: d @ictkm What social networking tool should be blog about?

4. Aggregating tweets

If you want to see all the twitter messages that have a particular key word or hashtag, you can use one of the twitter search engines. Each of these also has an RSS feed, so you can get all the tweets on a certain topic delivered to your RSS reader.

5. Security Concerns and Issues


Tips and Lessons Learnt

(add yours)

(from Social Media Training):
Micro-blogging is what you make of it. The simplest way to think of the power of micro-blogging is to imagine tapping into the thoughts and lives of any number of people who have common interests, concerns, geography, hobbies or professions. You can:
  • Learn about new tools and ideas
  • Ask questions and receive immediate feedback, and
  • Develop a deeper understanding of the people with whom you connect online.

Examples & Stories

(add yours)
  • Developing organizations: faonews, ictkm, wfplogistics, FriendsofWFP, food4thehungry, agcommons, unhcr
  • Twitter during the 2007 California wildfires: LA Times, KPBS News, Red Cross
  • Micro-blogging for business: Direct2Dell, Dell Outlet, JetBlue Airways
  • Antonella Pastore of the CGIAR ICT-KM team shared this case story on the use of Yammer: "We (meaning 2 team members and myself) used it for a while when one of our team members was based in Colombia, and we needed to keep in touch to coordinate on day-to-day tasks. After signing up, I created a closed group, so our posts wouldn't get onto the general CGIAR stream. It is better than email for quick msgs, allows you to create closed groups, so privacy is ensured. Two aspects of which one should be aware of right from the start, so nobody gets put off:

    1. it is based on the email domain, in our case cgiar.org. so whoever signs up with a @cgiar.org email gets into the cgiar.org network. from there, you can create other groups, or just keep posting to your profile and have followers.

    2. when you sign up, you are asked to enter the names of the people you report to and your colleagues. this is not just for info but these people get emailed and invited to join yammer. so you want to make sure everybody agrees on this before you de facto invite them. otherwise skip this step, it's optional.

    In the meanwhile, our colleague has joined us back in the office in Rome, and chatting over gtalk or just walking three doors down the hall is just more efficient ;) So use of Yammer has sort of died off in our small team. Now, considering the unstructured nature of the CGIAR, the fact that we're all on the same mail domain doesn't mean we all have things in common to share. However, re-thinking about it after reading the summary of communication goals, maybe joining Yammer can be a first, safe step towards experimenting with microblogging for a wider audience internal to the cgiar. We would have a closed environment, yet open to people from different centers/programs, that could help some of us in testing and observing what happens without going straight into big-time exposure. If you want to try, go to https://www.yammer.com/ and sign up. You can then post from the web, through a desktop client (no need to keep the window open in the browser) and via chat (I have it in gtalk, but only posts to the main cgiar stream)."
  • Michael Riggs and Gauri Salokhe, both from FAO, share their experience with Twitter.

Who can tell me more?

@ CGIAR
  • (add your name)

@ FAO
  • Gauri Salokhe, FAO (Gauri.Salokhe [at] fao.org)
  • Michael Riggs, FAO (michael.riggs[at]fao[dot]org)
  • Luca Servo, FAO (luca.servo[at]fao.org)

Related Methods / Tools / Practices


Resources



(Courtesy: http://www.kstoolkit.org)
Keyword(s):

Mindmapping

:

“A mind map is a diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks, orother items linked to and arranged around a central key word or idea” (Wikipedia)

Mind maps are usually used in brainstorming sessions as an aid to structure ideas. Elements are arranged first intuitively and in a second phase grouped into branches or areas.

Mind maps can be created on a simple sheet of paper, on flip charts or pin boards. With the use of mindmapping software (also freeware available) the usability of this associative instrument has tremendously increased.

With more sophisticated mind mapping software maps can also be used to visualize complex structures/relationship on one page and as start pages/overview in presentations.

Some software allows for joint development of mind maps in teams and in real time over the internet.

If you want to jointly create a Mindmap with some other folks, we recommend that you open an account at Mindmeister. You can embed the mindmap in your session report. Please tag the map with rtvc.

A mindmap looks like this:



P

People behind this glossary

:
There is a team of 8 dedicated people who made this conference possible:

HolgerHolger Nauheimer has twenty years of professional experience of which he spent 15 years as a consultant, trainer and coach for private business, the public sector and non-governmental organizations. He has worked in more than 50 countries of Europe, North, Central and South America, Africa and Asia, and specializes in the facilitation of personal, team and organizational transformation.

Being the author of The Change Management Toolbook, the best known and most cited web-reference on Change, and the founder of the international Change Facilitation Associates Network, he has shown his talent to gather experts and their different approaches and to provide them with a common language to explore their clients' needs for appropriate strategies to organizational change.






Suresh Suresh Fernando is the founder of Strategic Insight, a Vancouver, Canada based consulting firm that specializes in supporting organizations that deliver social returns. We accomplish this through two strategic focuses; developing collaborative frameworks to assist not-for-profit organizations to work together and developing social ventures within not-for-profit organizations.










Sofia
Sofia Bustamante is an experienced community builder with over 15 years experience of facilitating change. Since 2005 she works through Turn Up the Courage which she founded to focus on courageous leadership, social innovation and deep community building.

Sofia's contribution is facilitation, career coaching and social technology and process innovation. As a social technology innovator, she pioneers techniques in collaboration; bridging the online/offline divide, with a particular focus on creativity through conflict transformation and her recent innovations include both her contribution to the core of the Confluence model (a Meta Collaboration tool) and a range of holistic peer-development workshop designs such as The Applied U-Process and Evolution Lounge, Sofia actively supports network-based change organisations and learning communities.

She loves dancing samba, and latin american freestyle.





HansHans Gärtner is partner of Roser & Gärtner, a management consulting firm in Bremen and Frankfurt (Germany), specialiscing in organisation design, change mangement, and coaching. He is a graduate sociologiest, has held several positions as line manager (bank, shipbuilding) and as consultant in different consulting companies.

Hans is 55, lives in Bremen, is married and has two children (who are now complaining that their Dad's generation is taking away their -Web.2.0 - ideas and using their "toys".










LucyLucy Garrick has worked in and with executive management, conducting research, initiating and implementing strategic programs and communicating the case for change for more than 30 years. Considered a creative problem solver as well as a knowledgeable and trusted advisor/coach, she founded NorthShore Group eleven years ago to provide management consulting and coaching for non-profits, education, corporations, communities and advisory boards. Lucy recently developed a new methodology for tapping the sources of innovations and leading complex change in organizaitons, called the Three Lens Conversation. She is also adjunct faculty at Bellevue College in Washington State and a member of the Executive Service Corps of Washington.

Lucy has a consistent track record for successfully helping her clients anticipate and work through difficult dilemmas, develop critical thinking skills and building consensus toward effective action. The results of her work have increased revenue and income, enhanced organizational sustainabilty, and strengthened collaborative teamwork in many organizations. Her clients include organizations in healthcare, higher education, custom manufacturing, the performing arts, law and public policy, financial services, ecosciences and transportation.





StephanStephan Dohrn is an independent consultant working at the interface of sustainability, social technology and collaboration.
He is the founder of SustainableTeams, an initiative that builds networks and partnerships to improve the social and environmental impact of public and private organizations.
Stephan currently lives in Belo Horizonte, Brasil, where he enjoys chorinho, samba, shade-grown coffee and an occasional capirinha.








Julian
Julian Pereira started his career as a graphic designer, and later crossed over to the IT field as a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE). After serving 2 years as a submariner in the South African Navy's Submarine flotilla as a Radio/Radar technician, he moved on to receive a diploma in Object Oriented Analysis and Design from Van Zyl & Prichard, he now spends his days as a .NET developer and has been in the employ of Change Portal since 2007.
Julian is 31 years old and lives in Johannesburg, South Africa. He loves the outdoors, and in his spare time he likes doing as little as possible for as long as possible.








mkMichael Kraus is studying Business IT at the Berlin School of Economics and Law. Parallel to that I work as a freelancing webdesigner and consultant for webprojects and -strategies. Before that I made an ecological year designing and developing websites for ecological institutions in Berlin. In my freetime I enjoy all bunch of Social Media plattforms and listen to a lot of music. Even though I have trouble finding enough time for playing I am a total basketball-enthusiast


Keyword(s):

Podcasting

:
Podcasts are audio programs that are broadcasted over the Internet. They are MP3 files which can be downloaded onto a compatible digital player or played on your computer. You can download one or many, for free (generally), or you can subscribe to an RSS service for downloads so you can be alerted when new postings are made available. The name podcast comes from compounding the words iPod and broadcast (from "blogs, wikis, and new media").

More definitions:




From ICT Update: "Podcasting has been around since 2004 but it is still very much at the experimental stage when it comes to applying it to development efforts. In this issue we highlight some early initiatives from organizations currently testing the technology, and so far their results are all very positive.By using audio – speech and music – there is no need for expensive printing or distribution costs since the podcast can be downloaded from a single, central site on the web. In fact, the term podcasting is now commonly used to include the general distribution of audio files over the Internet, but it is this fact that podcasting uses audio that makes it so interesting. Like radio, it can overcome problems of literacy, but a radio programme is transient – if you miss the programme you miss the information. Podcasting makes it possible to listen to a programme at the time of your choosing.

How to use:

Skype for Interviews
View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: podcast interviews)

Tips and Lessons Learnt

(add yours)

Examples & Stories

(add yours)

1) Steven Buckley from Christian Aid:
"We've started weekly internal podcasts at Christian Aid as a way of sharing talks that would have previously required staff to attend a presentation. We've managed around 8 podcasts in the last 10 weeks. The trial has gone extremely well and we're now looking at rolling this out more widely - including an external feed so that staff can connect regardless of whether they have an intranet connection. As ever, the quality of the podcast rather depends on the equipment you use and we've tried hard to keep the file sizes as low as possible."
"Christian Aid podcasts are made available to staff through the intranet and to the public through iTunes and feedburner. Staff are alerted to new podcasts through a dynamic HTML listing of podcast feeds, though the file is hosted internally. We also take a lot of effort to promote the podcasts internally. As with the blogs, we ve found staff and supporters have engaged with the format very quickly. We now get emails asking if an event will have an associated podcast. For the first couple of months, we focussed on using podcasts to get internal information to staff based outside the UK. This week we re trying a daily podcast from Haiti in the Carribean to look at the issues our partners and beneficiaries face. It s taking a fair amount of time to produce but the feedback has been tremendous from supporters who are hearing stories from trips as they take place and for our field office staff who are able to get their perspectives out to the rest of the organisation."

2) Practical Action Latin America are conducting a pilot project in the rural region of Cajamarca, northern Peru, to analyse the viability of podcasting for the generation and diffusion of knowledge in poor areas of Peru." on podcasting:
http://www.practicalaction.org/?id=podcasting_peru

3) Berenice Akuamoah is one of the youth from the curious minds program who made her digital diaries online with UNICEF:
http://www.unicef.org/people/people_30705.html

4) Via: Jorg Meyer-Stamer jms at mesopartner dot com It's actually quite simple. For recording, I'm using a software called Pamela, http://www.pamela-systems.com. I records a Skype conversation as a WAV file, stereo, two channels: one channel is your voice, the other channel the interviewee(s). This is quite useful for several reasons, one of them being that you can easily fix the problem of a slight delay that sometimes creeps in (e.g. in our conversation I cut out a fraction of a second at the beginning of my sound stream so that the two streams became nicely synchronised).

To edit the soundfile, I use Audacity, http://audacity.sourceforge.net. On editing, see the attachment (which I did for my colleagues so that they can edit LEDcasts -- steps like adding an intro don't necessarily apply to you). It also mentions The Levelator, a very useful piece of software that is available at www.conversationsnetwork.org. At that site, you can also find a link to the "Podcast Academy", where two years ago they had an excellent presentation on the basics of Audacity -- my understanding of this software is pretty much based on that presentation. There's also a presentation on the "the secret life of mp3 files" which I found very useful.

Who can tell me more?

(add your name)

Related Methods / Tools / Practices



Resources

(add yours)
(URLs, photos, podcasts, we should perhaps think of a sub-classification of resources)
Places to host audio




Case studies

Tips


Tags

Keyword(s):

R

RTVC

:
What is RTVC?

RTVC is an acronym that stands for Real-Time Virtual Collaboration and is a social experiment designed by members of the Change Management Toolbook to learn, practice and explore how we can use online tools to collaborate in real-time for postive change with organizations and communities around the globe.

Please use rtvc as the tag in services such as delicious or flickr and #rtvc as the hashtag in twitter to tag all content related to the workshop.

Keyword(s):

S

Skype

:
Skype is a software application that allows users to make telephone calls over the Internet. Calls to other users of the service and to free-of-charge numbers are free, while calls to other landlines and mobile phones can be made for a fee. Additional features include instant messaging, file transfer and voice, video or chat conferencing.

You must download and install the Skype client from www.skype.com for your PC or Mac before you can skype. The current version is Skype 4.0 is recommended. It has enhanced features which help to manage your conversations whether they are voice or instant messaging based. Skype voice conferences currently support up to 25 people at a time, including the host. Skype instant messaging conferences support up to 150 people at the time.

In order to be able to "skype" somebody, you first need to ask the person for their permission to share a connection with you. Once this is done, your contacts will display in the list of contacts which will also show you who is online, not available, or offline (this is called the "status").

To establish a Skype chat conference, a convener selects all of his contacts (in Skype 4.0, this can also be done by drag and drop). Those people who are offline at the moment when the conference starts will see their chat messages when they go online, and when the host is online at the same time.

In our Real Time Virtual Collaboration workshop, we will host the opening and the closing session in a Skype chat conference. We will connect all people who have provided their Skype ID. You will need to change your status to "online" in order to receive messages and to participate in the conference.


Here is a list of all participants who use Skype.

Slideshare

:
SlideShare is a presentation sharing website where users can upload, view and share presentation files. It has simple networking functions, and in its recent version it allows the creation of slidecasts (e.g. presentations that have an audio stream) and embedding of videos.

We foresee that during your session you might search on Slideshare for relevant presentations and embed them in your session reports. Should you create presentations for or about the conference and post them on Slideshare, please add the tag "rtvc".
Keyword(s):

T

Tags and Hash Tags

:
Hashtags
Hashtags are 'meta data', and add context to messages (tweets) on twitter. They can therefore also be used to search/gather messages from around the world on a certain topic or "hashtag'.

#bushfire was used so people could easily find information on the Australian Bushfires.
#g20 was used in relation to the April '09 G20 summit.
#ecf09 was used in relation to the annual Fairsay E-Campaigning Forum

To setup a hashtag: add the # sign to a keyword of choice. Thus # + bushfire = #bushfire The hashtag is typed anywhere within the tweet (the 140character message)

@franksting People's expectations of sirens to warn them of #bushfires in marysville not shared by cfa
@Nicole Simon http://twitpic.com/4ns74 @stowe about email and microblogging #next09
@tabcrumbs We are presenting www.tagcrumbs.com in some minutes at the #next09 startup track. Send us your feedback!

Searching Hashtags
Search for the tags on http://search.twitter.com [you can set up an RSS feed to a search result] or in your third party application, such as Tweetdeck.

Follow multiple chats via watching live stream of search outcomes for different hastags. TweetGrid.com allows you to follow multiple chat sessions very easily via web browser. It is a dashboard of searches.

Do you really need the # sign when using a hash tag? e.g. will i find this tweet if I search for rtvc or #rtvc

See the difference yourself: go to Tweetgrid and enter both rtvc and #rtvc in different boxes. You will notice that the search results for rtvc generate extra tweets that are using rtvc in a context different to this conference. If you miss out the # when searching, you will get some extra 'noise'. People who are using the same word for a completely different context. It will include tweets from the user named @RTVC. @RTVC is a twitter user who is the editor of 'Reality TV Calendar'

E.g. @RTVC American Idol: Paula Abdul And Her Pain Killer Addiction - http://tinyurl.com/dyqkjg

Hence, if you search on #rtvc then you will find mostly the real time virtual collaboration tweets. On the other hand, you may miss some of the tweets from conference participants that forget to put the # sign in to their tweets.

Where in a tweet do I put the hash? #
It doesn't matter. It will be picked up by searches regardless.

A couple of considerations
- When i tweet about a London-based event, I tend to put #London at the beginning so that non-Londoners ignore the tweet. Not that it will help
- Placing the hashtag at the end of the sentence can serve to highlight the hashtag to your followers whereas they may miss it if it is just part of your sentence. A hash tag posted at the end signals that it is in relation to something that others may also be tagging.

E.g. @hnauheimer In a Steering Group meeting for the Real Time Strategic Collaboration http://bit.ly/nADu5 (expand) #rtvc

This tweet uses the hash tag to signal that the message is in relation to something called rtvc.

Whereas in the following sentence the hashtag is integrated into the sentence and so maybe be missed by some people.

@hnauheimer It will be a great experiment, and there is still a lot of work to be done.

Teamspeak

:

Teamspeak is an audio conference software that allows participants to communicate via internet or LAN.

We have set up a server solution for the rtvc conference that you can use for your breakout session, if you like. It's free. We have provided 12 session channels on the teamspeak server from which you can choose. Post the number of the meeting room you chose on the Marketplace - agenda.

Read the following download and installation instructions and start the programm. The server is online 24 hrs and you as the convenor of a break out session can test the connection and quality for yourself.

If you have technical questions please refer to Hans (member of SC) : twitter hgaerter or rtvc_wks.

=======================================

Teamspeak is a server based proprietory solution. The advantage is that it requires little CPU capacity and data transmission. The number of participants is unlimited and voice quality is still very acceptable. The programm is free for the participant of the meeting/conference.

The user has to download a program (client), install it, start the program and connect to the server.

Once you have joined a conference/teammeeting/ you can use the different channels that have been set up for the meeting and switch between the channels.

For detailed technical information visit the teamspeak homepage http://www.teamspeak.com/?page=teamspeak2




Twitter

:

Twitter is a way to send short (140 char) messages to the world (and in particular to your followers) in real time. It is a free micro-messaging web-based utility. The main constraint is the 140 character length but otherwise you can post anything you like. You can send messages (called tweets) from the web (at twitter.com and other third-party sites), mobile apps, and from downloadable 'clients' like tweetdeck.com.

Difference between Facebook and Twitter?

A crude comparion: Facebook is like a dashboard of your community data with information in various structures updating every few hours. Twitter is more like the nervous system in simple pulses: short messages updating every few minutes (or seconds, depending on the number of your followings)

Implications of using twitter for a conference

Twitter can be used to broadcast key insights, logistics, reflections, suggestions, questions and more during a conference. Participation is open to anyone - regardless if they are "friends" ['followers' on twittter] It also means that people who are not at the conference can effectively 'follow a micro-blog on the conference which is authored by a whole community of participants'. There are various third party applications that enable people perform other functions such as "tweetcasting", set up "twibes" follow "twemes" and so on.

Twitter: events as "ongoing conversations"

The use of keywords or hashtags mean that conversations around a conference can start beforehand, continue during the event and remain in existence afterwards (More on this before) See diagram on "the future of conferences"

How to access twitter

You can access twitter directly via the web at Twitter.com. Or sign in via a twitter client [application that you would download to your machine]

Two of the Most Popular Twitter Clients

Tweetdeck [uses a lot of RAM], see screenshot below

tweetdeck

Nambu [quite young - beta version only]

Who sees your twitter messages (Tweets)?

Unless you 'protect your updates' then they are viewable to everyone who would look at the public timeline. Or to any of the people following you.

What is your Twittername?

Each user is identified by the convention @USERNAME.

Who can you follow/who follows you?

You can follow (pay attention/watch) whoever you wish, (unless they actively block you) and you can be followed only by those who choose to follow you (unless you actively block them). This is different to facebook where friends are always reciprocal. You can privately message only those people who follow you. This stops spammers accessing your privately. Your twitter stream is a simple web page with a list of your status updates, time-stamped. Your "friends stream"/home page contains the list of recent updates from the people who you follow.

Unless people explicitely make a message private, all messages are addressed publicly and will appear in the senders stream of updates, in the home stream of those who follow them and in the @reply list of the recipient. E.g. if your name is peter and sean wants to send you a public message then you will see this in sean's update list:

@sean: @peter what are you doing this afternoon?

It will also be seen in the home-page of people who follow @sean and also in your own "@replies" list.

Oh, And also in the results of a search on your @USERNAME. All @USERNAMEs are clickable links and will link to the twitter homepage of the @USERNAME.

More on Twitter
Beyond simply "what you are doing"

http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/03/the-ultimate-guide-for-everything-twitter/

http://michaelhyatt.com/2008/05/the-beginners-guide-to-twitter.html

Videos on using Twitter

Twitter in plain English [this video gives a superficial kind of use of twitter-- does not give a more sophisticated use of twitter. See articles below for that]

From the founders of twitter, user testimonials on their use of twitter.


Beyond simply "What are you doing?"

Twitter is used by different people in different ways. It is best not to think of it as a means purely to broadcast information, but also as a means by which to engage with others, reply to their messages and stimulate conversation/connections/the flow of meaning and learning.

Examples of how people use Twitter

to post links:

@Jason_Pollock A MUST SEE! Check out this incredible pic of Hong Kong's Skyline - http://tr.im/jRNO

Here, a person called Jason_Pollock has posted a message containing a link to a picture.

to retweet [re-post] other people's links/posts

@tav RT @mashable *Really interesting* interview with Twitter co-founder Biz Stone http://bit.ly/16go44

A person called tav has re-tweeted(re-posted) an interview that someone called mashable had posted

Inform people of breaking news

@danicaR earthquake again #rome #italy #earthquake anyone felt it

Inform of new products/emerging themes

@evangineer: "Entropia Universe... a platform from which partners can launch virtual worlds... with focus on microtxns & virtual currency monetisation."

@evangineer: Whoa, Entropia Universe has a banking license! http://bit.ly/17GuSD (expand) Remember chatting 2 Project Entropia owner years ago about #altcurrency

Express reflections/insights

@zefrank the older i get, the more convinced i am that you should respect your elders

Connect people

@hannah_lewis @happyseaurchin compare to your idea: http://www.justfortheloveof... & http://themovement.info/ (@thinksmith on twitter)

@happyseaurchin thanks @hannah_lewis for connecting me with @thinksmith i'd give you all my money of the twitter tip trust! ALL OF IT!

Ask questions

@thirdsectorlab: My blackberry browser won't let me click on links for some reason. Anyone know if there's a setting I can adjust to get it back to normal?

@whotook @ThirdSectorLab tried pulling the battery?

Post live highlights/insights from events

@farhan #briant - the future belongs to the learners, the ones who engage with continuous learning

Post a book! [two tweets of a set of about 12 contiguous messages]

@Nancywhite Tweetwarning: next tweets part of @tobydiva biz book on social media written in Twitter. This is Ch 6 - Communities/Networks 1 #smgps

@Nancywhite Good things are on the edges so look for what happens on the edges of your Comms and SNs. Find links, patterns and people 9 #smgps

Inform people of what they are doing

@Olasofia Off to "Sandpit #11: James Bond at the British Film Institute": Immersive Games Experience. http://tinyurl.com/c3qrvg

Searching twitter

Search twitter using http://search.twitter.com

Within the twitter search results, if there is a link below the tweet saying "show conversation" then click on that link and you will see the sequence of replies which constitute that conversation.

e.g. if you go to

http://search.twitter.com/search?q=ecf09++romioliverio

You will see three tweets. The second one has a link below it "show conversation". Click to view the exchange.

Follow the tweets on the rtvc conference.


W

Wikis

:

Brief Description

A wiki is a web site that allows users to add, remove, and otherwise edit and change content. At its core, a wiki is a simple online database in which each page is easily edited by any user with a Web browser; no special software or third party webmaster is needed to post content. It also allows for linking among any number of pages. Each article contains a discussion page where editors and readers can talk about the document. By looking at the history of a page, users can track changes and compare the versions of a document. This ease of interaction and operation makes a wiki an effective tool for collaborative writing. A wiki's versioning capability can show the evolution of thought processes as contributors interact with content, helping us to focus more on content and less on who is contributing what. This can be a big culture change. It takes a while to get used to the idea that someone else can change what you wrote. But that also means they can IMPROVE it! So it is a bit like thinking together.


History:

Ward Cunningham, created the first wiki and named after the Hawaiian word for ‘quick’. He was looking for the simplest possible tool to help a group of people share information they were using in a collaborative project.

When to Use

People often have only one model of wiki practices from the most globally visible wiki, Wikipedia an encyclopedia built and used by many people. You can edit the Wikipedia. Anyone can. But an encyclopedia is just one use for a wiki.

  • For collaborative writing- When you have to write a report with others, especially people who don’t work in the same location as you? Wikis allow a team to write together and see their shared work all along the way.
  • As a collaboration tool - Instantly collaborate without emailing documents, keeping the group in sync.
    • Action plan or monthly updates
    • Shared “to do” list
    • Checklists
    • Capture notes, snippets and resources for a project or report
  • As a meeting tool - collaboratively prepare agendas, take notes and share additional resources. Can also help those not at a F2F meeting have access to some meeting materials.
    • Shared agenda creation
    • Shared note taking
    • Distribution of minutes/action items
  • Translate materials (see http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/afrophonewikis/)
  • Learning and training (see http://www.un-instraw.org/wiki/training/index.php/Main_Page)
  • For content creation and management
    • Wiki as index for a file library
    • Create a process manual
    • Create FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)

Wiki weaknesses

  • Must be online to edit or read a page. You can copy the page to read offline. So it is not a good tool for people who have to write together but aren’t often online. Then it is better to send documents which can be worked on offline.
  • Not a replacement for libraries. If you use a wiki instead of a document library, you have to copy all the document text into a page and manually link it to the appropriate pages. It is harder for people to download information and read offline. So if you have a lot of documents and not a lot of people online, consider a document library. However, you can use a wiki to make a nice front page for your library.
  • Can get messy if you don’t have a practice of “wiki gardening.” If you make a lot of pages, for example, and don’t link them to other pages, they become hard to find or “orphaned.” If people don’t delete out of date text, a page becomes useless.
  • Does not emphasize who wrote what and when, so if that is important, a wiki may not be a good choice. In a wiki, the focus is on the content, rather than who wrote it or when they wrote it.
  • The information added to the wiki is not easily re-useable in other applications and often needs lot of copying and pasting!

How to use

Three key principles
  • The group or organization has to have a collaborative, open culture. Wikis are hard to control tightly.
  • People have to care about the topic of the wiki – compelling and relevant to their work. If no one cares, no one will write, edit or read the page. This is true of all tools!
  • Someone has to initiate and champion the work. This is true of all tools.
  • What’s New and a Wiki’s history
  • The power of “recent changes”
  • Restoring previous versions
  • Wiki “gardening” – the practice of keeping a wiki just tidy and organized enough. Wikis can also grow into messy spaces, so it is important to keep tending or "gardening" your wiki by cleaning up pages, creating indexes and using tools like the left navigation bar to make it easier for readers to find things.
  • Cleaning up old material
  • Organizing existing material
  • When to create a new page
  • How to create a new page
  • Linking between pages
  • Links to external web pages
  • Dealing with vandalism. Wiki pages are by default open; however, they can be set up to provide selective access, or to be entirely closed. For this reason, some organizations require a login in order to add or change a page.

Here is a quick video about wikis: http://dotsub.com/films/index.php?filmid=710 (You can choose many language subtitles)

Click To Play

And other languages here: http://dotsub.com/films/wikisinplainenglish/index.php?autostart=true&language_setting=es_712

Here are 21 short ideas on wiki adoption

Tips and Lessons Learnt

(add yours)

Examples&Stories

(add yours)

Who can tell me more?

(add your name)

  • Google Docs
  • Quicktopic

Resources


Keyword(s):

Y

Youtube and other video portals

:

YouTube is a video sharing website where users can upload, view and share video clips.

YouTube uses Adobe Flash Video technology to display a wide variety of user-generated video content, including movie clips, TV clips, and music videos, as well as amateur content such as video blogging and short original videos. Most of the content on YouTube has been uploaded by individuals, although media corporations including CBS and the BBC and other organizations offer some of their material via the site.

Unregistered users can watch the videos, while registered users are permitted to upload an unlimited number of videos. (from: Wikipedia)

We foresee that you might like to visit YouTube to find videos that enrich the topic of your session and either embed them in your session report or post a link to a relevant video.

Other video portals which we recommend: Vimeo and Blip.tv.

Yuuguu

:

Yuuguu is a screen-sharing and instant-messaging service built to make working together simpler. It can be used to improve online meetings, presentations, remote support and remote team-working.

There is a free version which is very easy to download and get started with. It will allow you to show your screen to participants on your session.

You can download it at http://www.yuuguu.com

You can view a video which describes the purpose (not the actual detailed usage/screen shots) at http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-use-yuuguu-for-simple-free-screen-sharing. There are very simple tutorials on the site at http://www.yuuguu.com/tutorials