injenuity

Posted by Jennifer on August 25th, 2007 in Uncategorized , SocialMedia, Twitter

…I learned from following (stalking) people on Twitter. I don’t want this to become another Twitter-centric post, so I will state up front that my intention is to share how long it took to become proficient in Web 2.0 technology, the steps I took, and what I could have done better. I began my journey this spring when I was tasked with writing a trends analysis on virtual worlds in education. I did not have time to fully immerse myself as a participant in virtual worlds, so I began following others who were working on similar projects. I contacted former colleagues at UNLV to see if they were doing anything in Second Life or other VW’s. One of them turned me on to Twitter. Although, she only had six friends linked at that time, one of them was the mother lode! He was linked directly and indirectly to all the ed tech community.

One of the best things about following others is the commentary typically submitted along with each new discovery. For example, if someone discovers a new ed tech tool, they usually post a link as well as their thoughts. If the posting was from someone I felt had the same professional needs as myself, I would follow the link. I started to collect my resources in del.icio.us and soon had quite a large collection of information, enough to write my analysis.

The first several months of participating in Web 2.0 communities, I was a taker. I had nothing to offer and was purely leeching off the other posters. Within 2 months, I had several opportunities to share the links I had gathered. Within three months, I was able to provide more contributions in the form of consultation, advice and answers to quick questions. At the end of four months, I was comfortable conducting a short presentation on the technologies to a group of educators.

Here’s how I could have been more efficient in coming up to speed with these new resources:

1. Adopt RSS reader tools immediately. It took me years to accept and understand RSS. Now I can’t imagine being productive without it.
2. When you find someone who shares a majority of your interests and is ahead of you in the discovery process, follow everything they do online, including blogs, microblogs (Twitter, Jaiku, Pownce), social networks, conference presentations, etc. Someone is already doing your job for you!
3. Look for early opportunities to give back to the community. Every little bit helps. Many of the participants in these communities are doing so on their own time, outside of their regular work schedule. If you can do anything to help make their job easier, do so!
4. Volunteer to alpha and beta test a few new products. It is an eye opening experience!
5. Play! Be a little bit playful so the community members get to know your personality.
6. Don’t click every link you see. Learn to be selective. If you do click a link and you don’t see something relevant to you on the first page, don’t continue to follow it.

I think it would probably take the average educator less than three months to become comfortable with the tools, without sacrificing their entire personal life, but I do think it requires effort outside work hours. Collaboration with others in different time zones is worth the extended day.