I’ll post the slides and notes a bit later. Hope to see some of you there!

So, in addition to giving my three rules of social media, I’ve also issued a challenge to these guys: How do the social media evangelists stop “preaching to the converted” through social media forms, and start engaging and exciting the huge population of folks who don’t even know what they’re missing? In the podcast I give my answer the question to get the conversation started.

I hope you all enjoy the podcast. And CC, Joseph, Mitch: I hope you’ll respond to the challenge!

Note: The podcast is at the bottom of the post in m4a format. I tried to get it up on iTunes but didn’t have the oompf to wrestle with it and this headcold at the same time. Enjoy! 

When I give talks about the digital and education I usually make my case by presenting facts about the Millennial generation and their technology use to justify that educators really need to begin paying attention to the changes that are upon us. I present stats from Pew, Gartner, Forrester, and other research groups to set the stage for the conversation but I have to acknowledge that the numbers really don’t create a full picture of what’s happening. I, after all, am not in the group traditionally termed as “natives” and yet I exhibit all the traits. I am my own proof that the difference between native and immigrant isn’t age related. Acclimation and adoption of technology is not generational. I understand though, how looking back, Prensky might have thought that a new generation was bringing about the change. His terms give us something to scaffold conversation from and, for that, we should be appreciative. But I think we all know that there is more to these technology-adoption shifts than an age group growing up with access to computers.

I narrow the phenomenon, the difference between those who readily adopt and include technology in their lives and those who are hesitant or resistant to technology, down to two causes: 1) exigency and 2) lack of medial hauntings. Let me explain.

Exigency Creates Digital Lives

I do not know how to drive a race car, parachute from a plane, or play piano. These are all skills that I’ve never needed to know or had adequate motivation to learn. Now, if someone told me tomorrow that the plane I’ll be boarding on Friday will have engine trouble and that I’ll need to parachute to safety you can bet I’d be researching it today. I’d have an exigency to learn the new skill. For many people who are termed immigrants, or techno-hesitant, this exigency to adopt a digital lifestyle isn’t there. I learned to use email when I found out that I could communicate with friends who lived far away without incurring phone charges. I learned to create web pages when I realized that I really wanted to have an online presence to use for job applications (and I learned to code HTML in Notepad, thank you very much!). My mother learned to use a computer, and then to blog, when she became basically house bound due to illness and realized that using the internet would allow her to travel virtually and still keep in touch with the outside world. My soon-to-be-mother-in-law (who is in her late 60s) began adopting technology to keep in touch with her children, who are spread from coast to coast. In all cases, there was an exigency. A pressing reason to adopt the skill, to let the technology invade our lives.

Many people we term as “immigrants” are simply folks who didn’t have an exigency to adopt a technology until later than others. Perhaps their career didn’t require it or their social network was very local and face to face. “Natives” are simply people who have a somewhat innate exigency or who have adopted so much that their lives before adoption are a blur of lack of connectedness.

Lack of Medial Hauntings Creates Natives

In an essay in Hawisher and Selfe’s Passions and Pedagogies for the 21^st Century, Sarah J. Sloane writes about a student who has “medial haunting,” conceptions of a new technology based on how an older similar technology worked. If we’re old enough, we all have medial haunting. If you ever used a manual typewriter than moved on to a word processor you can probably remember that you sometimes forgot that the word processor had functions that the typewriter didn’t. If you then bought your first personal computer, you, no doubt , made sure that there was a word processing program installed before exploring the computer’s other functions. When I moved to Office 2007 from Office 2000 I was endlessly frustrated by looking for familiar buttons that were suddenly gone or moved. I was using the new software with a strong medial haunting of the old software. Those of us who are old enough, or fortunate enough, to have had experience with earlier technologies are sometimes limited by their use when we move on to a newer one.

However, the group we call “natives”, today’s kids, are not haunted by earlier similar technologies. Their use of a cell phone is not hindered by their functional assumptions carried over from using a party line at home, for example. They aren’t intimidated by a 16 button console controller because they never played Atari with two buttons and a joystick. They adopt technologies easier because, for lack of a better phrase, they don’t know any better. They have no reason to be afraid of a new tool or to be fearful of a new gadget. I watch my 6 year old triplets pick up gadgets, poke at them, test them, and then use them much faster than I ever would simply because they aren’t afraid of them (probably because they didn’t pay for them, as I remind them when they play with my iPhone).

It’s important, though, to remember that you don’t have to be young to lack medial hauntings. You simply need to be someone who hasn’t had experience with a previous similar technology. And, on the converse, I think we can begin to understand the difficulties created by the digital divide. In addition to access, we must also consider perceptions and fears of technology that inhibit adoption.

Finally, I’d like to note that we should be careful of the assumption that being a native is somehow superior to being an immigrant. Immigrating to technology implies choice, reflection, and a critical approach. Natives, whether to a land or a technology, aren’t often able to fully step outside their culture to see it for what it is. In addition, I think we immigrants need to be careful how we treat the natives. Every time I speak to an educator who is determined to take away cell phones, shut down Wikipedia, or ban Facebook from campus I’m reminded of historical subjugation of natives. We ought to be very careful about imposing our immigrant, and I dare even say Conquistador, attitudes when dealing with native culture. There’s a whole lot we can learn from the natives.

According to the Facebook blog:

“Engaging with businesses and buying things are part of your everyday life. Advertising doesn’t have to be about interrupting what you’re doing, but getting the right information about the purchases you make when you want it. We believe we’ve created a system where ads are more relevant and actually enhance Facebook. “

This is radical thinking in the world of marketing and advertising. But before I explain why let me give you a little case study/example of how this will work.

Bob has a Facebook profile and adds an application for, say, Amazon. Every time Bob adds a book to his wish list on Amazon an item goes into his News Feed announcing “Bob just added Brain Surgery for Dummies to his Wishlist” and all of his friends are notified. When they click on the feed they’re connected to Bob’s page and then to Amazon to see the book and are offered a discount on the book because they arrived through Bob’s recommendation. (Please note that not all Facebook advertisers will be offering discounts etc. but it would be nice!) Maybe Bob gets a nickel off his next order for every friend who purchased one of his recommended books.

It’s a pretty straight forward recommendation advertising scheme already in use on lots of sites. But here’s the kicker. There’s a difference between going to Amazon, for example, and clicking on “What my friends are buying” and having that same information delivered to you in another space, your social network.

There are a couple big ideas in play here:

1. The power of recommendations: We all know that we’re more likely to buy something recommended to us by a friend than based on advertising but I think it’s interesting to ponder the responsibility associated with recommending a product. How many times have you told a friend “Oh, man! That movie was so great! You HAVE to see it!”? They then see the movie and tell you “OMG! That movie sucked! I thought you had good taste!” The result? You stop recommending movies to your friend. Offering recommendations reflects not just on the product, but on the person offering the recommendation as well as on the person receiving it. “You thought I’d like that sweater?! Do you even know me?!”

2. Context of ads: It’s all about context. There’s a huge difference between someone shoving a coupon in your face as you walk down the street and the cashier saying “Did you know there’s a coupon for this? I think I have an extra one here. You’ll save a dollar.” In the first case the ad is unwelcome, even if it is for a product you’re interested in. In the second, you’re already interested in the product and you welcome the coupon. In another example, if your friend called you every day to tell you what he bought last night at Target you’d probably get annoyed. But if you were at Target and you could see a hover over products that said “Your friend Bob loves this soap!” you’d probably be grateful (or at least understand why Bob smells like Lavender and Honey all the time). Context determines whether an ad is welcome and helpful or annoying and obtrusive. The question is are ads from friends on Facebook welcome or intrusive?

I have to conclude that the level of intrusion and the power of the recommendation depends on who the friend is and how often they shove recommendations in your face. So, will you be a Facebook ad-whore or will you reject them and reject the friends who use them? Will you be able to ignore the ads like you would a sidebar ad or a banner ad? Do you think this kind of advertising is useful? powerful?

I’ve had a bit of a brainstorm lately and I’m still working through the details but I thought it would be fun to air them here and see what all you brainy (or noggin-y) folks have to say about it. I’m considering writing another book about using web 2.0 tools to streamline your life or accomplish goals. Something like “How to become Internet Famous in 30 days or less” or maybe “Web 2.0 and You”. Hoaky, I know but you get the idea. The more I travel around talking to folks about new technologies the more I realize it’s not enough to know where to click or what address to type in. The real power of these technologies is in how they change our lives. A technology is only as powerful as its ability to solve a problem or enrich our lives.

To that end, I’ve started reflecting on the concept of Digital Makeovers. To me, a Digital Makeover is the process of reflecting on one’s personal or business practices and identifying opportunities/problems that a technology can solve. You folks are probably all techno savvy enough to not need such help but I get to talk to tons of people who know that there is something big afoot in the digital world and just wish they had someone next to them at the computer or in the office who could explain it all and help them develop strategies to make the best use of what is available.

Non-profits seem to be a good target to start with because I think they could benefit the most dramatically from utilizing free online tools to maximize their budgets and mobilize volunteers. Plus, it’s just plain awesome to do good work for someone with a good cause. So this is where I’ll start. By reaching out to some local organizations and offering Media Sauce’s help to develop easy to implement strategies that make use of Web 2.0 goodies to improve their organization’s efforts.

Viva la geek!

If you’re interested in microblogging ala Twitter, Jaiku, Pownce, you might be interested to know that Google purchased Jaiku today. Besides making all the Jaiku employees dance around in celebration of their upcoming stock options, this could mean something big. Other smart folks are talking about it too:

• BlogShmog
• Guardian
• Reuters
• Mashable
• Read/Write Web
• OReilly

This could mean some serious improvements in the way Google IM works. Jaiku’s functionality, if added to gchat, could mean that you could sort your friends, send chat via SMS or a web interface not attached to Gmail. I’m imagining the implications of integrating Jaiku into Gmail and it’s making my head spin a bit. Though, I don’t think any of us should hold our breath. It could be quite a while before Google does anything with Jaiku. Keep your eye on it!

This will be huge! Why? Because it makes Facebook more powerful and more of a “one stop shop” for communicating with contacts. Most social web 2.0 sites would like to create a platform that you’d never leave, where everything you want to see or know is delivered right to you (along with ads and other revenue generating tools). Giving us the mechanics to manage multiple identities in one spot prevents us from leaving FB to go to another site to communicate with people associated with another facet of our lives. So smart!

The downside is that sorting like this might change the way some recently added apps will work. I’m sure we’ll see some quick “version 2.0″ adjustments made to apps that send info to friends to accommodate choosing which groups of friends see the updates you add to your profile.

• 6% of residents of Second Life create 100% of the content?: If you take a look at the study from which this number is drawn, you’d see that the study included an N of all registered accounts at the time of the study, not active accounts. They also defined participation as engaging in the economy through purchase not as actually creating content for themselves or for sale to others. This is an absolutely inaccurate measure of participation. Any one who uses Second Life at all would know this.
• 2% of Wikipedia users create 60% of content?: This stat is misleading due to its being based on a comparison of the numbers of visitors against the number of registered users. Wikipedia gets an astronomical amount of traffic. The fact that only 2% of visitors become contributors is out of proportion to the size of the user population and should also be compared to the number of contributors responsible for a printed encyclopedia for reference.
• 2% of Flickr users post 95% of content?: So the million pics posted a day (Flickr adds 15 terabytes of storage per month!) accounts for grandma posting her 10 pics a month but it also accounts for the photography buff down the street who posts several hundred a week. The fact that there are a few folks who post a whole heck of a lot of content doesn’t make grandma’s pics any less important.
• 60% of del.icio.us content is posted by 10% of users?: There are a couple of important lessons in this one. First, is the nature of the tool. Del.icio.us is primarily a selfish service. I book mark sites so I can find them again. It’s nice that other people might find them useful but that’s not my primary reason to use the site. Second, of all the sites listed on the graph, del.icio.us is by far the easiest to use and the one most similar to a popular old tool, bookmarking in your browser. It’s no wonder that del.icio.us comes across as the most participatory website!

Misuse of research never ceases to amaze me. In the rush to publish a whitepaper or study companies (and sometimes academics, but much less so) snag numbers from whatever source they can find, dress them up, and present them as credible facts.

Dig a little deeper, folks. Get a better understanding of what you’re talking about BEFORE you post/publish/press release.

I often coach businesses on how to blog for increased corporate transparency, better relationships with customers and business partners, and as a way to develop their vision in a larger conversation. For an individual it’s not that much different. A blog, whether for a CEO or a grad student, is a way to reach out to others to engage in dialogue. The concept of dialogue or conversation through blogging is important to me. It’s not a monologue I’m writing here. It’s not a soap box. It’s the opening volley of a conversation. “I think this. What do you think?” and then I wait eagerly for comments, rebuttals, additions etc. However, if I want those conversations then I have to keep in mind who is reading and write about things they’ll want to comment on, not just read and close. So we end up where we started, writing something that will please others rather than just expressing our own ideas. It’s not a bad place to start but it can stump you if you don’t know who is reading your blog.

Back when I was blogging on my Second Life Education Research blog I had huge traffic. It was a very niche blog with an observant, engaged audience but since I moved to Ubernoggin (a move I made because I’m not teaching this semester) I’ve struggled to reestablish a significant body of readers. I’ve watched the traffic in response to certain entries, kept up with link backs etc. to stay in the conversation, but it’s been a real experiment in practicing what I preach to other bloggers about how to build traffic and establish a steady readership.

So, after all this pontificating, I want to make a list of the ways I try to increase the number of readers who come to participate in the conversations I start here:

• Be sure your blog is registered with search engines like Technorati, google, and Pubsub so people can find you.
• Use categories in WordPress. Be sure the category tags are descriptive, specific, and popular with your desired audience.
• Write often. The more you write, the more your page is updated and the higher your search rank. If you don’t have time to write often, write several entries at once and post date them to post later in the week.
• Use headlines that are descriptive of the content not kitch or puns.
• Let your network know you’ve written. Don’t spam your friends with your blog address but posting it as a Twitter message, a Facebook status update, or even a gmail status will let your friends know you’ve written something they might be interested in.
• Link to other blogs you like and pay attention to your trackbacks. If someone references your blog go read what they have to say and participate in the conversation on their blog.
• Include your blog address in your email signature and on all online profiles.

What would you add to this list? How do you drive traffic to your blog? How do you encourage conversation? (btw, ending with a question will encourage people to comment and engage in your conversation as well!)