In about one month I have to give a talk for our Professional Development Conference here at Iowa state University. I haven't been blogging in quite a while, but I thought it might help me to begin to organize my thoughts for this presentation.
I'm still working up a framework for my talk - but it will focus on information technology which is changing the way we work and interact both in our personal and professional lives (and how the differences are blurring).
I want to start thinking about key concepts... specifically, I would like to incorporate the importance and relationship of "participation" and "relevance". What does it mean to be relevant? We hear every day the need for Extension to be relevant in the future. When I think of relevance, I consider context, connection and value. So to be relevant, I need to bring value into a context where others are connected. In the world of social media, I believe this requires participation.
Basically, in the future you can't be relevant and not participate. While this seems obvious, when we discuss new social media technologies and enviroments, it may not be obvious that you will need to particpate. When you can no longer control the message, you can only participate in its creation and interpretation.
I also believe that Personal Branding is related in that you again brand yourself through participation. I agree with Brian Shaler blog entry Who Are You? in that you will need to plan how best to use social media to brand themselves. How do you want to connect with people and in what context?
OK, this is a start... pretty boring. I need to consider some interesting examples.
If anyone is reading this blog anymore, feel free to comment.
Thanks for the comments and suggestions. I'm looking for input, especially related examples and stories. I keep thinking of
Participation
Communication
Context
and now considering Trust.
Posted by: Floyd Davenport on March 9, 2008 05:25 PMSounds interesting. Let me know if I can help.
Posted by: Brian Webster on March 7, 2008 12:23 AMYes, your blog is still in my reader.
I too have been writing (not posted, yet) about authenic marketing and education which is reliant on the professional reputation of the providers. The online reputation is built much like it is built offline. What are the characteristics of individuals that make us believe them?
Educational content by itself is not enough. It has to be credible and applies to our situation and needs. The credibility of the provider (individual or institution) is so important and often overlooked and not developed as it should be.
To advance our own online reputation we need to begin by being more open about our professional knowledge, professional opinions, and our personalities.
We also need to think about the way we supply education. We have thought of providing education as pushing the content. This is no longer good enough. We must immerse ourselves within communities (online and physical), listen, listen, and listen. Then we join the conversations by providing relevant, purposeful feedback, solutions, and education. And, we listen some more.
Also, we can no longer rely on one methodology(i.e email, slideshows, face-to-face meetings, standard web pages). We have to join existing (and possibly create) online communities and conversations for the purpose of listening. This means joining forums, blogging, joining groups (Yahoo, Google), editing wikis, joining social networks, and using presence technologies. I am not saying each professional must do all of these things, but must do several to stay relevant and flexible.
Good luck on your presentation.
Posted by: Anne Adrian on March 6, 2008 11:32 AMStill reading. Glad to see you're still writing.
I think you've got a good start. I don't think it's boring at all. For people who aren't in the conversation it's going to require some serious rethinking of how they do their work.
I would recommend reading some of the research being done by Duncan Watts (talked about in a lot of places of late). I'm thinking that research challenges most of the premises that we have operated under the last 50 years.
Posted by: Kevin on March 6, 2008 06:01 AMSounds like a great start to an interesting talk. I hope you'll share it!
Posted by: John Dorner on March 5, 2008 07:30 PM