I was finally able to stitch together the final board image from the "New Rules for the New Communities" Moosecamp 2007 session that Nancy White and Lee LeFever facilitated. I saw lots of pics of this on Flickr, but I think my stitched image can hold its own. Click on it to see the full size one!

I have always been hesitent of using Flickr, but in the spirit of social media and everything else at Northern Voice, I uploaded them under my name: jeffreykeefer. I hope some people will find them interesting.

What tags are people using for Northern Voice 2007 blog posts or Flickr or Podcasts? I recall hearing mention of northernvoice and nv2007, but want to confirm this since I have started seeing lots of other tags around.

So, after regretting that I did not take my computer with me to Northern Voice 2007, I now have a lot of blogging to catch up on–part blogging withdrawal and part wanting to share some of my experiences, and part wanting to implement some of what I learned with and around this social media.

Flying home from Vancouver to Houston to New York, Continental Airlines was kind enough to upgrade me to first class on the crowded flight back to New York's JFK Airport. Who did I end up sitting across the aisle from? Evander Holyfield. He was funny, animated, affable to having his picture taken (by me) and numerous others on the plane, and an overall pleasant gentleman.

I have never met a professional boxer before, and while I have always thought the sport to be a bit rough for me, actually meeting this man and listening to him almost wax philosophically about work and life while speaking with his traveling partner and the flight attendents, I was not only impressed, but I gained a new appreciation for different perspectives. That may in itself be a good take-away from Northern Voice.  

Well, here I am in beautiful Vancouver (much warmer than I expected for Canada–another example of how much I have to learn about how big and varied our world is) for Northern Voice, and I regret I could not bring my computer with me. I have a lot of things I have been thinking about that I learned from some of our collegues there, but there is one I need to blog about now (the rest will follow when I get home). BTW, thank you Robin for bringing and then lending me your computer!

I was inspired listening to Lee LeFever speaking about his The World Is Not Flat experiences. He inspired me to consider doing some travel blogging from some of the conferences I attend, such as from my AHRD conference next week when Sophie and I present the findings from our research project 197 Do Practitioners Use HRD Research (and Why or Why Not). I have to ask Lee about some suggestions and best practices for how to blog in a new physical surrounding, with and without the regular, daily technology. Lots to learn.

Last night I attended my first meeting of the Social Media Club New York. There were some general social media discussions (such as an interesting preview of Vent Box) and then some really interesting talk about the use of social media with political campaigns. I was generally quiet throughout the meeting, with the exception of asking a question about what happened with Howard Dean's campaign that supposedly had a lot of support among young bloggers. I was interested in gauging the audience and learning from so many people who were steeped in social media, and as I am identifying more and more as a researcher, I find the more I listen the more I am able to learn (though I know learning does not automatically or magically happen this way, either!).

Sanford Dickert was interesting, as was Noel Hidalgo, Joshua Levy, and as always Howard Greenstein. Thanks to Michael Meyers for getting a (somewhat thinner) picture of me during the evening. 

I am somewhat new to thinking formally about social media, and this was my first exposure. I find that I need more time to process new information and concepts, so after tossing these issues around for a few hours, there are three thoughts that have occurred to me from last night that I want to raise:

1. Why do people believe social media will play any role in the 2008 campaigns?
• Granted, the politicians may create blogs or wikis or the like, but I believe they really want money and votes and are not likely to attend to issues that will not garner these two. If anything, I think they will use social media if it will help them achieve this duel objective. From a voter's perspective (me), I do not expect anything else from them, and thus do not think social media will play much of a role in the campaigns – especially in the manner as encouraging democracy and voice. Why would they want my input if it does not generate revenue or affect positive voter turnout? 
2. Now what?
• There was a lot of passion and energy in the room last night, so I want to ask what is next? How can this energy be translated into the betterment of society by actively involving and engaging one another in a flatter, more democratic society (of which I am an advocate)? I think that is exactly the goal of Social Media Club, and that is one of the reasons I joined as a Co-Founder.
3. Whose voice is heard?
• I really enjoyed the discussion last night, and while the participants were a very polite and bright crowd that I hope to meet again and get to know, and while they were mixed in ages, it was a predominately homogeneous crowd. With the diversity and population in New York City, I found this surprising. Granted, I do not know anything about the average demographics of those actively involved in social media, but this surprised me nonetheless. Many of the participants seemed passionate about engaging and involving people in the democratic process, and for this I am energized. Nonetheless, whose voice is heard regarding social media is partly determined by those who are involved in it, so I am wondering where everybody else is and how to reach these populations. 

I am looking forward to our next meeting, and am wondering how I can get more involved and contribute to this work from my background and experiences in education, research, and practice.

I am attending my first meeting of the Social Media Club New York tonight. It meets at 6:00 at the offices of Fleishman-Hillard (220 E. 42nd St. / New York, NY 10017).

As I have recently joined, this will be the first real event for me. Stay posted . . .

I am taking this fascinating online seminar at SCoPE, described as "an opportunity to share our blogging experiences and to discuss effective strategies for teaching and learning." Michael Griffeth is doing a wonderful job with this, and I want to thank Sylvia Currie for again facilitating a very informative session for all! 

I have used Google as my homepage for about 2 years now, and recently decided that it will be nice to start my Internet journey each day with some content, rather than with a search box. It was around this time that I saw the article in Business 2.0 (nothing like finally catching up on my reading!), which listed Netvibes as one of the disrupting innovators.

I used Netvibes for 3 weeks, and found it easy and useful, but very slow in loading. So slow, in fact, that it often took more than a minute for my personalized webpage to open. I then tried Google's version, which was fast but not as user-friendly. I finally settled on Pageflakes, which loads very fast and it my current favorite.

I know there are other AJAX-based websites that allow us to select and organize our own personalized content, so I am interested to see what comes next. For now, PageFlakes is my favorite.