Archive for the 'Announcements Sidebar' Category

I’ve updated my How To guide for listening to podcasts as I thought it might be useful for some of you to have a handy reference guide on how to access podcasts - not just my Fusion View Mobile Podcast but also other podcasts available out there.

When I was telling a friend the other day about my podcastes, she asked me, “How do you listen to a podcast?”. On asking around, it turns out quite a number of my “middle youth” friends don’t know how to listen to podcasts and don’t have iTunes or other music / multimedia aggregator installed. Many have been too busy with work and family to fiddle around online to find out how to do it and others just don’t know where to start.

So to help them out - and anyone else who’d like to know how to listen to podcasts, here’s some guidance

Listen from my blog page

You can listen from my blog - on the post which has the podcast, click on the player and the podcast will start. That’s the simplest way to listen but you will need to be at your computer during the whole podcast to listen to all of it.

Note that you’ll need to have your sound speakers on to hear the audio. You’ll also need a broadband connection for best results.

Listen on your iPod or mp3 player

It’s best to listen to podcasts on an iPod or mp3 player which you can take with you wherever you are. Setting it up takes a few steps and once you’ve done that, everything is pretty much automated.

1. The easiest podcast application to use is iTunes - but do note that there are other options. Go to the Apple iTunes store and you’ll see the prominent section to Download iTunes, which will take you a page explaining what iTunes is with instructions. When you’re ready, click the Download Now button on that page and follow the instructions.

2. Once iTunes is downloaded, open it up and go the iTunes Store. You’ll see a virtual store where you can download music, videos, podcasts and audiobooks - some of which are free and some are paid-for.

3. To find the Fusion View Mobile Podcast in the iTunes Store, the easiest thing to do is to go to the Search box in the top right corner and type in Fusion View or Fusion View Mobile Podcast. My podcast will come up - click on that to see the episodes. Click Subscribe and iTunes will download the latest episode. In future, any time you open up iTunes, it will download the latest episode since your last download. (You may see both the Fusion View Podcast and Fusion View Mobile Podcast - the Mobile Podcast is the latest one that is regularly updated so that is the one to subscribe to for current and future episods.)

You can also click on the Subscribe with iTunes button on the podcast posts on my blog - or below:

Clicking on the above button will open up iTunes and subscribe to the Fusion View podcast automatically.

Many other podcasters have this or similar logos on their blogs so clicking on that will automatically subscribe you to their podcasts using iTunes.

4. If you want to get previous episodes on my podcast, go to the Library section of iTunes (left sidebar), click on Podcasts. This will take you to your library of podcasts that you’ve subscribed to. Click on Fusion View Mobile Podcast in the list of your podcasts and you will see a drop down list of previous podcasts in pale grey text to indicate that you haven’t downloaded them yet. Click on the “Get” button alongside whichever episodes you want to download.

5. To transfer podcasts from your iTunes library to your iPod or mp3 player, plug that device into your computer with iTunes open. iTunes should automatically recognise the device and take you through the steps to make the connection and download items from iTunes to the device. The iPod synch should be seamless as it’s an Apple product but you can find more help at the iPod and iTunes FAQ page. For those with mp3 players, there’s more detailed information on the mp3 players and iTunes page.

6. Every time you then plug in your iPod or mp3 player to your computer, iTunes should automatically open up and transfer the latest episodes of podcasts you’ve subscribed to across to your device.

For beginners, there’s more info and help at the New Users Guide to iTunes page.

Again, you’ll get best results for fast downloads via a broadband connection.

There are great podcasts to download from the BBC as well as radio stations in Australia and USA - what I love is that you can listen to them when you choose, not when the broadcaster chooses. There are also really good ones by ordinary people like myself (eg on running, triathlon, gardening, marketing, management, communications, technology etc) and also podcasts of lectures from some of the best universities in the world - check out iTunes U in the iTunes Store (I especially like UC Berkeley’s History and Psychology podcasts). Podcasts have really saved me from boredom and helped me get through tedious activities as I plenty of interesting audio to entertain me when I commute to work or I’m doing the washing up or gardening.

Enjoy!

We got a text message this weekend from our fellow volunteer Ingrid Beazley who was at the international musuem conference in Denver, Colorado, USA to tell us that our volunteer blog Dulwich OnView has won the Best Small Museum Site 2010 at the Conference Archimuse International Best of the Web Awards this year. We are all thrilled that our hard work and collaborative effort over the last few years has been recognised on the international heritage sector stage. Thanks to everyone who voted for us at the conference site. Thanks also goes to our co-editors, contributors and readers!

The Best Small Musuem Site award is given “to explicitly recognise work from smaller institutions. [ie] These sites [which] have been:

• Created in-house or with volunteer effort
• Mounted by small institutions (with 5 for fewer professional staff)
• Created with very limited budgets (sometimes no budget)”

Congratulations also to the other winners in the other categories!

Photo: of the Dulwich OnView editorial team and regular contributors, from Dulwich OnView

As you may know, I’ve been involved in a social media project for the Friends of Dulwich Picture Gallery on a voluntary basis - a community blog called Dulwich OnView. We started it just over two years ago and it’s been going from strength to strength, gaining quite a lot of attention within the heritage/ musuem sector here in the UK and internationally.

The exciting news is that the blog has been nominated for the Conference Archimuse International Best of the Web Award 2010. The annual conference is one of the biggest international conferences in the heritage/ museum sector and is taking place this year in Denver, USA. One of our bloggers team, Ingrid Beazley, is off there this week to give a presentation about Dulwich OnView alongside a number of academics who have written research papers on the strategy and structure of the blog.

The success of Dulwich OnView (DOV) is due to all the individual volunteers who have contributed their diverse skills as well as their time to the project so I want to set out for the record acknowledgements to the core team who have, to date, made the blog an eclectic and lively online community:

Founder Members and Editorial Team

INGRID BEAZLEY - In her capacity as chair of the Friends of Dulwich Picture Gallery she facilitated Yang-May’s concept, ’selling’ it to the Gallery staff and Friends committee. Now as one of Dulwich OnView’s acting editors, she commissions articles from the Gallery staff and from the local community and promotes the website ceaslessly, locally as well as internationally.

ANGIE MACDONALD - took over from Catherine Fraher as acting editor in the early months of Dulwich OnView and shaped the role of the Acting Editor. She wrote the Editor’s Handbook, trained other team members to be editors and to use Wordpress blogging software. She also writes occasionally for DOV. More recently she has been involved in project managing the redesign of DOV, co-ordinating the team ideas and working closely with Ingrid and the web designer to create a new-look DOV.

YANG-MAY OOI - created the concept of Dulwich OnView as a community blog and developed the key “guerrilla marketing” strategy for the blog to raise Dulwich Picture Gallery’s profile among the online demographic. She also planned the DOV team structure and set up the web-based collaborative systems which make this project self-managing and non-hierarchical. This includes creating the collaborative editorial documents which ensure that the blog runs smoothly and writing the several handbooks which set out all the processes for current and new members of the team. She continues to provide strategic advice as well as contributing multimedia content to the blog.

ANNA SAYBURN - wrote many of the earliest DOV articles, helping to develop the informal, community style of Dulwich OnView through a mixture of interviews with local people, reviews of local events and pieces about local history and art associated with Dulwich. She served as an acting editor for part of the first two years, helping bring in new contributors and fostering the sense of community. She still writes regularly for DOV.

STEVE SLACK - writes off the wall articles for DOV with the aim of debunking the myth that Dulwich is populated solely by rich, posh people. He’s written about pub quizzes, street names, local history and general peculiar cultural goings-on. Working with DOV has helped him develop as an online writer and given him skills he uses in other freelance work.

TAHRA MORTON - is an intern at DOV, writing articles as well as carrying out her role as one of the acting editors while on a work secondment in Brussels, Belgium, underlining that DOV is truly an online community that while local is also without borders.

SALLY ANN JOHNSON - advised the team on risk management and helped develop DOV’s article submissions policy. She also writes for the blog.

CATHERINE FRAHER - was DOV’s first acting editor. She co-ordinated the team of volunteers, editorial meetings and uploaded much of the early content onto the blog.

SHAPA BEGUM - an intern at DOV, she currently writes articles and is responsible for the Paul Nash online art competition. She is provided with regular support by the editorial team to learn and develop skills in networking, editorial management and technical skills.

ANNA MARIA DI BRINA - is one of DOV’s acting editors and also writes articles on art and events.

ANGELA CORRIAS - contributed to the editorial style of DOV as one of the acting editors and collaborated in its content with interviews to local artists and coverage of local events.

Other Contributors

Amanda Greatorex, Greville Havenhand, Laverne Hunt, Ed Saunders, Rebecca Portsmouth, Erica Green, Steve Overbury, Nigel Thorpe, Lorenzo Ali, Daniel Pateman, Patrick Knight, Bella Tullo, “Jane Morris”

~~~

Related info:

Dulwich OnView
Patrons of Dulwich Picture Gallery
Blogging for the Heritage Sector
Dulwich OnView leads the way for heritage sector blogging
Our pro-bono project, Dulwich OnView, makes impact in heritage sector
Dulwich OnView Wikipedia entry

As some of you may know, I’ve been involved in a community blog, in my local area, Dulwich OnView, which is the blog of the Friends of Dulwich Picture Gallery. We were invited to give a presentation on our strategy and volunteer strategy at a conference for the museums and heritage sector last week. This is my report from that event (which is also appearing on Dulwich OnView):

You may have caught The Virtual Revolution on BBC last Saturday night, which gave on overview of the way that social media has been changing our society and culture. According to the programme, 18 million people in the UK read blogs - that is about a third of the UK’s general population of 61 million. Blogs, social networks, Twitter and the like are now pretty much mainstream and and it’s not just businesses who need to adapt to these new ways of communicating. Museums, galleries, libraries and the heritage sector are more keen than ever to find out how to use these tools to engage with their visitors and users.

Which is where the Social Web Conference, organised by the UKOLN comes in. They are part of the University of Bath and are “A centre of excellence in digital information management, providing advice and services to the library, information and cultural heritage communities” and last Friday, they held a conference about Web 2.0 and social media for the heritage sector at Dulwich Picture Gallery. Marieke Guy, UKOLN’s research officer and organiser of this cutting edge conference invited our editorial team to give a presentation to the delegates about Dulwich OnView. It was a further opportunity to showcase our “online magazine” to the heritage sector as an example of how blogging is being used to raise the profile of the Gallery and build an online community around the Friends of Dulwich Picture Gallery, the charitable group that raises money and supports the work of the Gallery.

I was first up and outlined the strategy and context behind Dulwich OnView. One of the aims of the Friends is to invite more people to join as members and to encourage a diverse range of people to come along to Gallery and Friends events. The Friends put on a lot of events - films, talks, concerts and more - and the Gallery of course arranges many exhibitions with with associated art classes.

But Dulwich OnView, the Friends’ blog covers more than just these events and includes articles, videos and photo-stories about loads of arts, culture and music in Dulwich and South East London. Why? Well, we reckon that if you’re interested in all those things, you’re going to be the kind of person who’s going to enjoy Dulwich Picture Gallery - but you may not have initially thought of yourself as a “Gallery type” because, maybe, you’d never heard of the Gallery or it seems a bit too posh or stuffy and serious and is not for you. On Dulwich OnView, we hope that our readers can see that people involved in the Gallery and the Friends are just like anyone else who enjoys arts and culture in the local area and that you’ll be tempted to check out Gallery exhibitions and Friends’ events as a result.

We’ve been really lucky in attracting writers, photographers and filmmakers as well as wine experts, historians and just ordinary folk who love arts or the local area to contribute articles to the blog and to become part of the regular Dulwich OnView team - all on a voluntary basis. What this shows is that the Friends and Gallery are becoming more and more part of the local community through this blog as much as the local community becoming more aware of what the Gallery and Friends have to offer!

So how do we do it? How do we manage a team of volunteers on no budget at all and with no central office space? Next up was Angie Macdonald, web designer and Dulwich OnView trainer and editorial co-ordinator. She explained how we devised and set up a virtual system, working entirely online, to allow our bloggers and editorial team to be self-managed. There’s no “boss” although there are a handful of us who help co-ordinate the team. We all contribute a range of multimedia items about whatever we feel like (in keeping with the mission of the blog: “celebrating people and culture in the Dulwich area”). To avoid duplication of content and chaos, we note down what we’re going to post on the blog on an online editorial schedule hosted on Google Docs which our regular team can all have access to from any computer. There is a library of “how-to” online manuals which explain how to upload posts to the blog, how to add photos to our Flickr site and also sets out procedures and policies for our rota of editors. One of our team is in fact now in Belgium for her day job but can continue her role as one of our editors due to this virtual system we’ve set up! But we’re more than an online team - those of us who are around in South London meet up once every 4-6 weeks in the local pub for a drink and a catch up as well as to discuss future article ideas and plans for Dulwich OnView.

Freelance writer and museums consultant Steve Slack picked up on this theme and told the conference how his involvement in Dulwich OnView has led to some good friendships with people on the team, as well as offering opportunities to meet loads more locally through covering local events and interviewing people in the area for the blog. Articles on Dulwich OnView range from art to fitness, dancing to allotments, tattoos to wheelie bins - as well as events put on by the Friends and the Gallery. But being a blog, our posts publicising Gallery events don’t offer the usual PR blurb but we give them a quirky twist - for example, an opera themed event inspired a blog post with a special opera themed recipe for our readers.

Ingrid Beazley, former Chair of the Friends and e-learning project developer at Dulwich Picture Gallery, acts as our liaison with the Gallery and Friends. She rounded off our session with some stats that show how Dulwich OnView is having an impact on drawing more people online to the Gallery. Most of the organisations we have written about link to us from their websites. 53% of our incoming traffic comes from these local supporters. Although 98% of people visiting DOV are not searching for Dulwich Picture Gallery, 33% of onward clicks go to the DPG website, mainly to exhibitions and events pages. The Gallery links to DOV in places and 14% of our incoming traffic comes from mainly their events pages as people click through to find out more from the enhancing articles written by locals. DOV is the 9th largest driver of web traffic to the DPG website.

As to how much of that translates measurably to new Friends memberships or extra tickets bought for events and exhibitions is difficult to say at this stage as there is no system in place as yet that specifically tots that up. However, we reckon that increased web traffic to the Gallery’s main website via Dulwich OnView can only mean increased awareness of the Gallery within the local community and that can only be a good thing.

One last thing I should stress. Blogging and social media may be making headlines right now but they in no way supercede traditional marketing, which continues to play a key role for heritage organisations. Kate Knowles and her marketing team at the Gallery reach a very wide range of people through traditional media such as the BBC, broadsheets and other national and international outlets. Dulwich OnView complements their activities by making connections with a different community, especially those people who might not initially think of themselves as Gallery going types.

We are all thrilled that this blog that began as an idea over drinks among local neighbours has managed to have this small but significant impact for the Gallery and the Friends - and continues to impress the heritage sector: Dulwich OnView has been showcased at conferences in Iceland, Montreal and London and will also be featured later this year at the Museums and the Web 2010 conference in Denver, Colorado.

If you’d like to find out more or to join our team of regular contributors and editors, or if you just have the occasional article or multimedia story you’d like to submit, please email our Acting Editor via dulwichonview[at]googlemail.com (substituting @ for [at]). We’d love you to become part of our community!

Further articles about DOV:

Dulwich OnView in Iceland

Dulwich OnView in Montreal

A Museum Blog By The Community For The Community

I’ve been invited to speak at the British Malaysian Society on Thursday 21 January, along with my co-author Silvia Cambie, on how to use social media to boost your business and networking. We’ll be discussing some Malaysian, UK and other international case studies showing how businesses are currently using blogging, social networks and Twitter for their business purposes.

If you’re interested in finding out more about social media for business - or would just like to meet up with some cross-cultural British and Malaysians, please do come along. There’ll be some Malaysian food, too, as it’s held at a Malaysian restaurant!

The details are below:

—

I’ve been invited to join a panel discussion on Asia and the Interactive Web at the Asia Pacific Technology Network on Wednesday. It’s open to the member of the public as well as to members of the network, so if you can make it, it would be great to see you.

Here are the details:

Speakers:

• Silvia Cambié, Director, Chanda Communications - co-author ” International Communications Strategies - Developments in cross-cultural communications, PR and social media”
• Yang-May Ooi, Writer, blogger & Podcaster, FusionView.co.uk - co-author ” International Communications Strategies - Developments in cross-cultural communications, PR and social media”
• Marc Wright, Chairman of simplygroup
• Speaker to be announced

Asia and the Interactive Web:

The world is undergoing a major economic and political power shift. China and other Asian countries are moving beyond their previous roles of ‘workshops of the world‘ to become key players in the international business arena.

Internet communication and social media are at the very core of this transformation. India is home to a number of innovative social networks. China has the world’s largest internet population and ranks number one in terms of online content creation. Nearly 60% of the country‘s purchase decisions are influenced by user-generated content like blogs and discussion boards.

This presentation will provide participants with:

* Overview of the social media behind Asia‘s internet world of mouth revolution
* Lessons from China and other countries on how to connect with empowered Web 2.0 consumers
* Examples of how Asia is using the internet community to gain consumer insight
* Insight into how social media is affecting corporate dynamics inside UK enterprises

Location: Kilburn & Strode, 20 Red Lion Street London WC1R 4P
Nearest Tube Station: Holborn

Time: 5.30 - 7.30 pm - followed by refreshments

Pricing:
* Free to APTN annual subscribers
* £40 + VAT (Executives)
* £20 + VAT (Asian citizens/institutions, officials, executives from Small Companies)
* £10 + VAT (Academics),
* Free for the Media.

To Register your interest: please send your details (name, institutional affiliation, email address, phone number) to biz@aptn.org

Silvia Cambié is a cross-cultural communicator and a journalist. Her career includes reporting from Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union for major British and German print media as well as managing communications for Brussels-based international trade associations. Silvia runs Chanda Communications and monitors global internet trends for clients, advising them on the integration of social media with conventional communication channels. She consults for organisations such as the European Parliament, the USAID, the Chilean Economic Development Agency and the Aga Khan University. Silvia is fluent in five languages and blogs about the cross-cultural communication challenges facing the business world at XCulture (www.chandacom-xculture.com), which is read by 10,000 each month. Silvia serves as a Director on the International Executive Board of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC), a worldwide network of public relations and communications professionals. She is a recognised public speaker and has addressed audiences around the world, including Malaysia, Russia, South Africa, Dubai, US, France, UK and Spain. She is the author ( together with Yang-May Ooi) of International Communications Strategy - Developments in Cross-Cultural Communication, PR and Social Media, published by Kogan Page and nominated for the FT Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award.

Yang-May Ooi is a business writer and social media specialist. She has worked with solo professionals, small businesses and non-profits in the UK to develop and implement their social media strategies. She is co-author, with Silvia Cambie, of “International Communications Strategy”, published by Kogan Page and nominated for the FT Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award 2009. With a background in law, Yang-May also works part-time at a financial institution in the City of London, where she manages the company’s blog, aimed at the financial sector. She speaks regularly on social media and has addressed audiences at the Copyright Licensing Agency, London College of Communications, Institute of Directors, London Metropolitan University and also in the museums and heritage sector. Â She is a member of the International Association of Business Communicators, Pan Asian Women’s Association and the Society of Authors. She blogs on culture, writing and social media at Fusion View (www.fusionview.co.uk). She is currently working on her second business book which focuses on social media strategies for small businesses and non-profits.

Marc Wright is one of the UK’s leading speakers on social media and what it means for large businesses. Marc Wright is an expert in corporate communications who has been following worldwide trends in Web 2.0 and setting the pace of social media in the UK. He is founder and publisher of www.simply-communicate.com the website used by 15,000 communicators each month to keep up to date with developments in the fast-changing world of internal communications. He advises on the implementation of social media inside organisations through his seminars and annual conference attended by companies such as Unilever, Barclays, Standard Chartered Bank, ING and Ofcom. Â He is the writer and director of the BBC TV series 20 Steps to Better Business and editor of the Gower Handbook of Internal Communications. Â He is in demand around the world presenting on latest developments in the US, the UK, France, the Netherlands,Russia, Bulgaria. He consults for companies such as Tetrapak, Vodafone, Lloyds Banking Group and EUROCONTROL, Europe’s Air Traffic Control organisation. Marc is Chairman of the simplygroup, a former Chair of the International Visual Communications Association and is currently Vice-Chair of the International Association of Business Communicators for Europe and the Middle East.

Photo: thanks to Durotriges from flickr.com (CCL)

Marc Wright, Chief Executive of simply communicate and Chair of the simplygroup, did a video interview with us during our book launch. He has edited the interview down to this great 3 minute video that brings out the key points of the book.

Business communications expert and podcasting guru, Neville Hobson, interviewed my co-author Silvia Cambie and me on Friday for his influential For Immediate Release podcast. We talked about how we came to write our book, International Communications Strategy, the main themes and ideas we explore in it and our favourite chapters/ case studies.

Neville has now uploaded the podcast interview on iTunes and his blog - so if you’d like to listen to our discussion, please do go and check it out.

Thanks, Neville!

Or you can listen to it via the grey podcast player below.

Photo: thanks to Neville, with permisision

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1425)

I’ve been invited by the Institute of Directors (IoD) - along with my co-author Silvia Cambie and usability expert Giles Colborne - to give a talk on how businesses can take advantage of Web 2.0 to build networks and communities around their products, services and brands. The event will take place on Monday 22 June at 6.30pm at the Guildhall in the City of London.

The details are below, with booking information at the end. If you are able to come along, do add a comment to let me know and I’ll keep an eye out for you. Or just come and say hi afterwards.

Also, if you have any specific questions or topics you think it would be helpful for us to cover, please do add a comment. We’ll see if we can cover it in the talk or in the question time afterwards.

———–

Creating Value through Web 2.0

Venue: City Marketing Suite, Guildhall, Basinghall Street, London EC2P 2EJ
Time: 6.30pm to 8.30pm on Monday 22 June 2009

Internet communication is evolving the way we do business. Blogging, podcasting and social networks like Linkedin and Facebook are extending the ways we engage with people via digital means.

Web 2.0 is creating a business environment based on knowledge sharing and collaboration. The cyberspace is a new landscape with its own cultures and accepted rules of behaviour.

Social media offer businesses a powerful means of building networks and communities around their products, services and brands. However it is not a simple matter of ‘Build it and they will come’. A strategic approach is needed to produce ‘sticky’ content and create value from on-line interactions.

The speakers will give an overview of the social media and social networks used by businesses. They will introduce ways of engaging effectively with on-line communities and will discuss the intersection of commerce and social networking.

Silvia Cambie ( Director, Chanda Communications ) and Yang-May Ooi are authors of “International Communications Strategy Developments in Cross-Cultural Communications, PR and Social Media” to be published in July 2009 by Kogan Page. Silvia is a cross- cultural communicator and a journalist. Yang-May is a writer specialised in social media and a blogger.

Giles Colborne is an expert in User Experience. He is Managing Director of cxpartners and former President of the UK Usability Professionals’ Association.

Tickets: £25 for IoD members inclusive of VAT of £3.26 and £28 for non members inclusive of VAT of £3.65
Contact: Mei Sim Lai OBE DL, Hon Secretary, IoD City Branch, IoD Hub, 35 New Broad Street, London EC2M 1NH
Tel: 020 7194 8385, Mobile: 07903 153793, Fax: 020 7194 8386, Email: MeiSim@LaiPeters.org

Photo: thanks to Daniel F. Pigatto from flickr.com (CCL)