Photos by Beth Kanter
On Tuesday, TechFoundation presented the Boston Nonprofit Technology Conference to a group of enthusiastic attendees. While there were many high points in the day, I just have to declare that Beth Kanter's session on nonprofits and social media was a revelation.
I know a fair amount about social media, and have done a number of trainings on Web 2.0 tools for nonprofit organizations - this means that I didn't learn a lot of new content, although I can vouch for Beth's ability to pack in solid information. What really rocked my world was Beth's mastery of instructional design. She didn't just tell us; she helped us experience social media. Some examples:
A wiki that provided attendees with links to many of the sources that Beth used in the presentation, including her entire PowerPoint deck.
An amazing music video demonstrating Web 2.0 concepts by Michael Wesch, which is freely available on Youtube.
An amazing music video demonstrating Web 2.0 concepts by Michael Wesch, which is freely available on Youtube.
Beth also talked about Creative Commons licensing, and how crucial it is for nonprofits that want to experiment with mash-ups and social media. Even before the session was over, I was starting to think about how I could start with the materials that she was using in the workshop, and build upon them to create future trainings of my own. When I mentioned my desire to hijack her content (with all due adherence to the mandate laid down by her Creative Commons Share-Alike Attribution 3.0 License), Beth was extremely gracious about it. Of course, anything I develop under the inspiration of her workshop materials will in turn be available to her and anyone else with internet access.
At a later session in the conference, I led an extremely tame and traditional workshop on "Free or cheap web-based organizing and collaboration tools." It was a humbling experience; even though I think that the content of my session was right on target, I felt like just another talking head in comparison to Beth. I was just giving out useful information to my colleagues, but Beth was dropping some science on us. Good for her!
Beth has pointed out that the term "drop some science" also has a negative connotation in some settings. I'd like to assure her and everyone else that I'm using it in a positive way, to say that she truly educated her peers, and did it with great eclat.
