Manage To Change

Social Media and the President-Elect

Options, options, options. 

Should developers of content products take a lesson from the Obama campaign, transition, and, hopefully, the administration?

The lesson: Give people what they want, where they want it.

Options people had to monitor the campaign included:
•    The Obama iPhone application (campaign related)
•    BarackObama.com
•    Twitter
•    Text messages
•    Facebook

 

If you’re interested in the transition, there’s the President-Elect’s website.  

Then there are the weekly updates from the transition team that you can view on the change.gov blog or on YouTube.

Too much you say?

Perhaps for one person it's too much.

But is it too much when we consider everyone that might be interested - and all of their device and media preferences?

Thoughts about Fire Fighting

Show me a fire fighter and I’ll show you an arsonist.

Opinions?

Digital Natives, Fingerprints, and Education

Earlier in September I attended the Global Information Industry Summit (GIIS).  In one of the sessions David Nicholas, Director, School of Library Archive and Information Studies (SLAIS) at University College London presented a study the College had done on “the digital fingerprints” left behind by digital natives browsing the Internet.

As I wrote on the Really Strategies blog, they found that:
•    40% of people visiting a website don’t come back
•    Half of all visitors view only 1-3 pages
•    They flick, scan, and spend little time evaluating information

What was the most interesting finding?

Everyone has these characteristics.  In fact, “the older folk” are getting even better at skimming, bouncing, and viewing than the kids.

As a result of having been naturalized to the digital world, adults have the mind maps and context necessary to evaluate the information they find.

But let’s go one step further …

What should we be teaching “the natives” that embraces and refines their power browsing and multi-tasking capabilities?

The discussion at GIIS centered around teaching students not only how to effectively search to find more relevant results but also how to hone their critical thinking skills enabling them to better evaluate and apply what they find.

What do you think?