Policy Unplugged Team

Community Heading - GEM

admin — Sun, 06 May 2007 12:24:13 +0000

Policy Unplugged Team

121 Blogging Tutorial

admin — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 22:44:53 +0000

Why Blogging?

Mark Twain once said, “A lie can get halfway around the world before the truth even gets its boots on”. Increasingly the best way for an institution to catch up with the “lie” is to blog: that is to say, to connect their ideas, hopes, plans, fears even – with the multiples of the online.

In the online world people want to communicate with people. By contract, organisations almost always sound flat, insincere and inhuman. They are looking for human conversation. Learning to find your voice takes time, and not everyone has time to do it.

Even in the often cacophonous atmosphere of the blogosphere, you can develop an authoritative voice. You need to be informative, truthful, and relevant. It helps if you can back what you with evidence. But you also need to be clear, brief and orderly.

For most of us with busy lives, that means learning from the ground up again.

One 2 One Blog Tutorial

These one to one sessions are aimed at people in senior positions, who are struggling to understand the online revolution, and how it is changing the way their public audiences are wider markets are relating to them.

It covers crucial theory and introduces you to an ever growing set of Web 2.0 tools that will give you a ground floor understanding of how the new faster, smarter knowledge networks function.

It takes you, step by step, through how it works, why it works and by the end of a day provides you with the basic tools to get the ball rolling. The style is informal and highly interactive.

Not everyone should b log at their work, but as we head towards the increasingly dynamic and volatile future, no one should continue without knowing what it means for them and their business.

What will you need to participate

This is not a technical tutorial, although it deals with a technology subject. You need have no greater technical skills than the ability to use a word processor, e-mail and a web browser.

You will need access to a computer connected to the internet during the session.

Please call Roy or Steve on 0870 366 5280 for more details…

Policy Unplugged Team

Web 2.0 Workshop

admin — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 21:59:50 +0000

Web 2.0 for your organisation

The business world is facing a once – in – a – generation opportunity enabled by the set of potent new business models, technologies and design techniques collectively known as Web 2.0

Web 2.0 has captured the imagination, with appearances on the covers of Time, Newsweek and major TV news shows. Hundreds of new web 2.0 companies have been formed in the last year alone and major com-orations such as American Express. AOL, General Motors are already embracing key Web 2.0 concepts, because even market leaders can now quickly find themselves marginalised by much smaller competitors. Just look at the meteoric rise and dominance of sites like you Tube, MySpace and Google to see how traditional business models and companies – from financial services to publishing – are being eclipsed by fundamentally new approaches based upon Web 2.0 technologies and techniques.

So whether you are an established FTSE 100 company, government agency or a lifestyle company – it is essential for you to understand Web 2.0 trends to not only move ahead but keep up with the new competition.

Many of the new Web 2 tools are free – but there can be a high cost in time spent exploring and testing what is appropriate for your needs. Alternatively, we offer a workshop which includes a walk through social media, so that in a couple of hours you will see examples of the main tools, what lies behind them, and what might be involved in using them yourself.

We then put these tools in the context of your organisation. This need not be a bewilderingly high tech affair. This workshop will be designed to meet the needs of your particular needs and experience. If your internet use is mainly web and email, we’ll start from there, if you are already familiar with some of the social media tools, we’ll discuss how you might wish to extend your range, or introduce colleagues to the potential.

Finally, we start to identify step by step strategies for using Web 2.0 techniques to identify, capture and maintain sustainable competitive advantage in your sector with a special emphasis on proven, actionable methods to work towards a Web 2.0 model.

Who is this workshop for?

Non-technical staff in any organisation which is considering making an investment in Web 2.0 Social and/or media software. Particularly suited to people who wish to better understand these new entries to their marketplace.

What do you need to bring with you?

This is not a technical workshop although it deals with a technology subject. You need have no greater technical skills than the ability to understand a word processor, e-mail and a web browser. Our Workshop Leader will need connection to the internet and a screen for presentation.

Please call Roy of Steve on 0870 366 5280 for more details…

Policy Unplugged Team

Blogging Unplugged

admin — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 21:44:55 +0000

“What are blogs? and social networks? Why can you not afford to ignore them? What are you going to do about them?”

Overview

This innovative, half-day workshop will help you and your team understand the opportunities and threats associated with the latest developments in “social software” and work out real, actionable ways to engage with the “blogosphere” and use this technology to improve your relationships with customers, boost internal communication and add further value to your existing products.

Benefits

Your team will understand better why these technologies are turning the media world upside down but also how they could be used in the context of your business applying new techniques to your research, marketing, internal communications, and collaboration processes. Your will leave with a simple action plan for applying what you’ve learned to your organisation’s context.

What you’ll cover in this workshop

An introduction to blogging, social networks and RSS?
How these tools are being used already by your customers, suppliers or competitors
The risks of not adopting these tools yourself
Creating and maintaining your own blog
Using RSS to improve research and reduce information overload
Assessing the usefulness of the tools in your own context

Who is this workshop for?

Non-technical staff in any organisation for which blogs and RSS are perceived either as a threat or an opportunity. Particularly suited to media organisations that wish to better understand these new entries to their marketplace.

Any managers responsible for:

business & competitor intelligence
customer relations or marketing
research strategy or
internal communications.

What do you need to bring with you?

This is not a technical workshop although it deals with a technology subject. You need have no greater technical skills than the ability to use a word processor, e-mail and a web browser.

All participants need access to a computer connected to the internet during the session.

Please contact Roy or Steve on 0870 366 5280 for more details…

Policy Unplugged Team

Community Web (2.0) Sites

Roy Charles — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 08:03:19 +0000

Your organisation can fast track to this new Web 2.0 world with one of our ready made social media sites.

Brand it, blog on it, link it to video and pod cast – your own WIKI (automated collection of partner and stakeholder views) and an on – line document repository.

Use it for your events, campaigns or purely to link together all of your partners and stakeholders.

Individual Blog accounts hold profile and photo along with interest groups, which can be used to create campaigns or complete on-line consultations. Alternatively, use this leading edge technology to really engage with stakeholders in order to produce draft strategies, on -line.

All the above with a simple invite module to bring in many new targeted professionals and organisations into your own Web 2.0 space.

Please contact Roy or Steve on 0870 366 5280 for more details…

Policy Unplugged Team

The trillionaire social entrepreneur - business 3.0

Steve Moore — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 18:00:11 +0000

a Bravura piece in this month's Fast Company magazine by Andrew Zolli the curator of the Pop Tech conference on capitalism's response to climate change, hyper-urbanisation et al. He nails the folly of much of what passes for CSR in corporates and instead argues that only 'Our current economic system was devised in an era in which labor was scarce and natural resources were abundant. We're moving into an era in which the opposite is true, and that's going to change capitalism's playbook for good'

Policy Unplugged Team

Pro-am publishing

Steve Moore — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 17:44:24 +0000

I read an interesting preview of 2007 trends in the FT over christmas _which I can't find to link to now - but it predicted that an emerging trend in media would be seasoned professionals working with the crowd and here is a good example of an experiment of what we might see more off. Lee talked at our RSA event last week about the unsatisfactory outocme of The Guardian's Comment is Free experiment. This feels like something altogether more robust. I like the idea of working on the story together rather than commenting on comment pieces..