LCMS project proposal meeting

The meeting (Thursday 16th August) discussing the opportunities and future of social networking was positive and very well received from the midwife (LCMS) group.  

This week I will conduct an analysis of the company media tools that will best fit this organisation.

Prerequisites:

• Free
• Secure
• Easily to navigate for all user levels
• Easy to managed by all members.

RSS in Action

ASX

http://www.asx.com.au/

The ASX RSS feed heading is one of five major headings on the ASX site alongside “Contact Us”.  This indicates not only the popularity of the placement of the link but the general acceptability that RSS data feeds provide. The ASX RSS feeds regularly changing financial information via the web, promoting its twice monthly newsletter, articles and video/interviews, providing free investment education in a convenient format. With constantly changing stock prices due to market demand and company performance data, a University library service utilising the ASX RSS media tool allows lecturers and students to view real time free financial data for analysis and discussion.

This would be a useful resource for reference librarian staff to promote to business and finance students, allowing them to stay informed by retrieving the latest content.

Benefits to users are:

·         With the automatic nature of this RSS feed, users don’t need to be reminded to enter the ASX site for news.

·         It is a faster way for scanning content saving time

·         100% opt-in – users control the content they wish to receive.

·         Available as a Twitter feed

Parliament of NSW

http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/rss

This website allows users to access not just one universal RSS feed from parliament but up to ten specific areas.  From detailing information feeds on new bills as they are introduced, public events at Parliament House, new committee inquiries, up and coming hearings and meetings, to research papers produced by the Parliament of NSW library. This would provide within a University Library service important information for political science or law students.  All chosen updates are aggregated to one place such as an email address to be read when chosen.

Benefits:

·         Students would not have to enter any personal information to subscribe to these feeds.

·         Information from Parliamentary meetings can be laboriously long, however the RSS feeds contain a summary of information without overwhelming the reader.

·         If the reader wants additional information they can click on the item in the feed, accessing the website URL which contains the full article.

References:

 

     ASX. (2012). RSS Feeds. Retrieved from http://www.asx.com.au/

     Parliament of NSW. (nd). RSS Feeds. Retrieved from http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/rss

Project proposal sent to the group.

Week 1. Monday 13 August - send proposal to LCMS

Email sent to the community manager to present at the meeting on Thursday 16th August.

Project summary:

The project is to research and implement a social networking service using web tools for an existing and engaged community.   LCMS is perfect for this!  This is what I have in mind.  

• A Blog (Wordpress) - Similar to an intranet for the group without it being linked to an official website.  The advantage of blog with an LCMS title is that you can add your own content ie staff profiles and local information/resources about the service in a conversational way that could appeal to your patients.

• A Microblog (Yammer) - Similar to Twitter but a more corporate and secure interface. Individual groups (communities) within departments use this (ie NSW Education department over its geographic range) to converse for updates both work related and social.  Each member can utilise this to post instant updates for patient followup.  This would be strictly for staff only.
• A Bookmark site. (Delicious) - This is a personal or group online library site where you can send any useful weblink, blog, articles that you find along the way.  The benefits are that each team member can create labels or tags for each group of resources. 
• The whole concept of implementing this is sharing information with your immediate community with instant access via mobile phone.

 If you could confirm if it is okay with everyone to call it LCMS and give ANY critical feedback of what you do and don't need.   For example if there are too many tools to manage (so it can manage itself), so as to delete the use and responsibility of a "community manager."

The effectiveness of Delicious

It has been at least 12 months since I have viewed my Delicious account. It was first introduced to me by an IT savvy librarian three years ago who sang its praises. What a pleasant surprise it was to view this visually pared back site, considering I have been looking and ‘liking’ around the advert frequent Facebook community site. 

First impressions first, Delicious is essentially targeting users to save their personal and favourite bookmarks, and (for me) the sharing aspect is secondary. The interface is simple and very easy to navigate for long absent account holders (I have been a bloglovin user these past years).  Porter (2006) blogs, that “we naturally gravitate toward software with a single purpose because it is easier to remember and we know exactly what we’re doing when we’re using it.”  

Apart from being of a single value to personal users, Delicious is the new flexible taxonomy or folksonomy. This folksonomy promotes the development of communities around the common interest of the resources tagged.  For organisational use the positive features are:

·         Using the interpretation and vernacular of its users or organisational acronyms and buzz words to bring that content into ascendency. 

·         The tagged content descriptions can then be continuously upgraded creating a hierarchy by users providing richer information and searching ability. 

·         The ability for each user or group to personalise their own descriptions.

·         For an organisation with a large list of tags users can quickly find their tag of interest using the clearly placed search bar.

·         Organisational security, segregating public and private tags.

·         Promoting each user's knowledge bank to add to the growing knowledge base

A critical analysis of this site would be the lack of a description box that appears when the mouse runs over tab headings.  Also the name change from ‘stacks’ to ‘tag’ has been a little confusing when previous users still refer to the old label, especially when they don’t really share the same meaning.

Reference:

Porter, J. (2006). The Del.icio.us lesson. Retrieved from http://bokardo.com/archives/the-delicious-lesson/

Module 2 Web 2.0 tools – Wikis & Podcasts

Wikis

I am reflecting in utilising a customised wiki for my assignment two project.  Perhaps a (private/client) wiki could be used to create a knowledge database of information to be updated by each member.     The benefits of using a wiki:

      ·         Barrier entry low enough for non-technical users

·         The site remains secure – by the wiki manager approving user accounts on the site before they  become active.

·         A place to post their research and to build a knowledge database for future members

Considering the years of experience of all of the team, this idea is another application or purpose in maximising both the social networking and web 2.0 engagement of the group.

This group would need to look beyond the marketing aspect of some generic social media companies(Facebook and Twitter) and look at utilising web 2.0 tools to its full potential. 

The added potential is:

•  better service to the community
• critical thinking of existing information
• to encourage independent thinking
• team involvement
• the ability to track data through informally archiving experiences.   

Eric Stoller (2012) in his article on (higher education) engagement confirms the above, believing that to maintain a member to member or institution to member relationship we must look beyond the corporate social media marketing “best practices.”

Podcasts

This heading link made me wonder why I don’t utilise these fantastic podcasts more regularly!  At present I only use a podcast for a TV program I may have missed whereas now I will scan the NSW Library link for interesting discussions to view in the future.  This is an application where you need more hours in a day or lucky enough if you catch a bus to work!

For my project I will endeavour  to find some useful podcasts to link to my blog/wiki/bookmarking site.

These links were found off the ACT Health Library – Nursing and Midwifery portal where  I will endeavour to add similar resources to the web 2.0 tools of choice.

Blog

Impactednurse.com (Canberra Hospital)

Videos

·         Videos in Clinical Medicine [New Enland Journal of Medicine] - Umbilical Vascular Catheterization, Peripheral Intravenous Cannulation, Central Venous Catherization, Chest Tube Insertion, Bone Marrow Aspiration and Biopsy, as well as basic Splinting and Blood-Pressure Measurement.

Podcast

·         Introducing Evidence-Base Nursing - Rebecca Kolb

Patient Information sources

·         HealthInsite

·         MedlinePlus

·         Atlas of the Body

References:

ACT Health Library. (2012). Retrieved from http://tch.anu.edu.au/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1

Stoller, E. (2012). Social Media Increases Student Engagement. http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/student-affairs-and-technology/social-media-increases-student-engagement

Module 2 - Blog reflection

For my report assessment I have the idea of engaging via a microblogging service with a community of midwives.  To start, researching into the blog of best fit is required. Kristen Burnham’s (2009) article provides a summary of microbloggs other than Twitter, providing  a snapshot of popular sites currently used.  This form of social networking would be ideal for my  chosen community in providing patient updates and sharing information in regards to any problems that have occurred.

Other than Twitter (which I currently only use to catch up on my favourite musical artists) the only other microblogging site that is familiar to me is Yammer.  This tool is currently used in my workplace within the faculty of Information services that incorporate IT and library services.  It serves as a discussion board for work projects such as the upgrading of software tasks, meetings of the different levels of personnel and also for social interactions such as the lunchtime touch football match.  Grenfall (2011) promotes the use of micro blogs such as this in that it “breaks down hierarchical structures and improves the sense of belonging felt by staff.”

By using a microblogging service such as Yammer it can provide a secure and engaging way for staff members to keep daily updates on their agenda  with co-workers that rely on each other for information, all within an instant messaging service like an SMS.  In addition by securing a corporate style interface it emphasises the importance of privacy of information shared between the members and the use of a repository of resources for members.  It also has the ability to archive messages and to create not only a private group but a public group in engaging clients needing to converse via a blog.

A point of concern is that if there are both passive and active users how will an organisation ensure that everyone on the team will adopt the service for continuity?  Grenfall (2011) highlights that to drive adoption of the service there will be a natural process in that some staff will “consume the messages as they are posted in real time, whilst others may only refer to them once a week, or via email updates.”  

The NSW Department of Education and Communities is a good example provided by Grenfall (2011) of a large organisation with many hierarchies that with the use of microblogging can be broken down to similar teams in different regions who are undertaking the same work.  This example justifies the positive application of a microblogging service to my intended government team for my project assessment.

It was comforting to read about the typical behaviours of a microblogging community.  I am more relaxed to hear that it is okay to be a passive user.  Grenfall (2011) states that more people watch than actually participate (like this author) and this will be a good point to highlight when promoting and adopting a microblogging service, decreasing the pressure that staff may feel to engage frequently.  The main benefit to promote to staff who are uncertain about the service is that it offers a strong feeling of connection between a group whilst linked to an organisation.

Strengths and weaknesses that will be considered using a micro blog are:

• That there will be a connection to the organisation’s overall strategy
• An exposure of common weaknesses and threats in undertaking a microblogging application such as privacy of client information and security of the platform
• An outline of the realistic and positive changes the tool will support or improve to the current communication methods, such as mobile, email, face to face meetings.
• It has the potential to provide an insight into additional research for improvements in both the workings of the organisation and the intranet/blogging technology itself.
• Employing a community manager to moderate and nurture the team’s discussions
• Commitment by the community and to understand the benefits it can provide

Grenfell (2011) provided a comprehensive list of important points for organisations or communities considering to adopt additional web 2.0 practices to enhance their communication practices.

This article has provided a good base of information to begin the creation of a social networking strategy for my intended community.


References:

Burnham, K. (2009). 12 Microblogging Tools to Consider - Inhouse microblogging improves privacy. Retrieved from http://www.cio.com.au/article/328255/12_microblogging_tools_consider/

Grenfell, C. (2011). Deploying microblogging in organisations. Retrieved from http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/kmc_microblogging/index.html