Serendipity35

I'm blogging from this seminar today. It's a one-day seminar designed for non-technical professionals about podcasts, blogs, and wikis. We had 4 experts that presented information on these tools. Our audience was primarily corporate, though we had some academic attendees too.

New Technologies in Communications: Podcasting - Presented by Steve Lubetkin, Lubetkin & Co. Communications, LLC, Cherry Hill New Jersey  Podcasts, digital audio programs delivered through Internet-related technologies, can enable communications professionals to reach narrowly-targeted audiences more effectively than mass marketing techniques. Steve's talk ranged from defining podcasts. the ways that podcasts are being used in business, downloading and listening to podcasts (using iTunes, subscribing to podcasts, devices for viewing podcasts) and especially on using podcasts to promote products and services. Though this was not a hands-on session by any means, Steve addressed some software and hardware that works well for podcasting and an overview of the technical steps involved in creating a podcast.

Steve has come from the traditional PR world to consulting on technology - especially podcasting - for corporate clients. Check out some of Steve's podcast work at http://lubetkin.libsyn.com/ and his blog at lubetkinsotherblog.blogspot.com

Corporate and Organizational Weblogging: From First Steps to Communities of Practice” Presented by Dr. Drew Ross, Visiting Fellow, Oxford University  Organizational and Corporate Blogs are transforming the way in which groups communicate-- both within companies/organizations and to the rest of the world. This seminar will bring the participants up to full speed on the world of work-related weblogging and will enable participates to transfer knowledge and engage in informed thinking about how blogs might operate within their own organization. With a focus on using weblogs to encourage (and house, in some cases) Communities of Practice (CoPs), the workshop will engage participants in some real-life problem-based thinking about the technical, ethical, and social aspects of work weblogging, with examples and vignettes from real-life weblogging situations. 
Drew created a demo blog for today at https://organizationblogs.workpress.com

"Wikis At Work" - Presented by Tim Kellers, IT Liaison, Continuing Professional Education, NJIT and me (Ken Ronkowitz), Manager, Instructional Technology & Media Services, NJIT  So this was my session. Honestly, I prefer blogging to wiki-ing, but then again they serve different needs. Wikis are often described as collaborative web sites" and are being used for project management, knowledge sharing, and proposal writing. The benefits of this collaborative approach include reducing daily phone calls, e-mails and meeting time as well as encouraging collaboration. Internet research firm, the Gartner Group, predicts that Wikis will become mainstream collaboration tools in at least 50% of companies by 2009. Peter Thoeny, the creator of TWiki, a leading Wiki program, says at least 20,000 downloads of his software are being used by businesses. Walt Disney, SAP, Adobe, Nokia, Novell, and Motorola are among the corporations using Wikis for collaboration. We were presenting information on how wikis are being used right now and how an organization (be it a company or school) might use them.

We were pretty focused on open-source wiki software (since we are using Mediawiki software here at NJIT and in the seminar) but we addressed a few commercial products that are available. As with most open-source software, eventually, someone steps in (think Red Hat) and adds the IT support for those people who want/need it by offering commercial Wiki products. However, knowing that our audience today is primarily made up of small business people, we discussed server installation, support and security considerations for those who do not have an IT department behind them.

SOME THEMES THAT RAN THROUGH THE DAY

• There was a lot of talk and concern about security - how to protect your content, whether you really want to go "public."
• Using open-source software vs. commercial products and hosting content on your own server vs. somewhere else. Small businesses seem more willing to use a commercial product & hosting than the university.
• Copyright and intellectual property concerns - from small items like what images can you use from other sites (including just linking), to the cut/paste blogging that goes on from site to site, preventing search engines from finding your materials, the passing on of video & audio (podcast & otherwise) via email and posting at sites like YouTube and others, password protecting a blog or wiki and the archiving of you online material by sites like Google, Yahoo and archive.org.
• Questions about making money or commercializing your blog, podcast or wiki.
• Vandalism & spamming to public blogs and wikis.