Mark Greenfield

I’ve just returned from a long, wonderful day at the 2009 Ride For Roswell.  I was both a participant and an “embedded reporter” using social media to cover the event as it happened. ( see UB to Embed Twitter Reporters at Roswell Ride )

I learned a lot today about using social media to cover an event like this. While I process those thoughts, let me share with you the following video that I shot while riding in the peloton as it reached the finish line at UB, always one of the highlights of the Ride:

The 14th annual Ride For Roswell will be held this Saturday, June 27 2009 at the University at Buffalo. Last year the Ride included 6,500 riders and over 1,000 volunteers, and raised over $2,000,000 in support for the Roswell Park Cancer Institute.

This year I am actively involved with the Ride, helping support their social media efforts.  With full support from the Ride Committee, we are using a variety of social media tools to help riders tell their stories.  The hub for all our efforts is RideConnect, a Ning site where riders and volunteers are encouraged to share their stories with blog posts, pictures and videos. We also have a presence on Facebook, Twitter, FlickR, and YouTube.

We plan on kicking things into high gear the day of the ride. We hope to have an active Twitter backchannel (The hashtag is #RideForRoswell) and to use social media to cover the Ride as it happens with the following ideas:

• We have included the hashtag on the back of the tee shirts that will be given to all riders and volunteers
• We will be distributing a small flyer as part of the rider packet informing riders of the RideConnect site, how to use Twitter the day of the Ride, and a photo contest for the best picture posted to RideConnect
• Large screen computer monitors and projectors will be set up at the University at Buffalo to allow people to tweet, post pictures and videos, and see the Twitter backchannel
• I will be tweeting live as I ride in the peloton, and will be working with several volunteers to help cover the Ride live through our various social media channels

On a personal note, my daughter and I have been riding for 6 years not because we was directly impacted by cancer, but because it is such a worthwhile cause and a great life lesson for my daughter. This year it will be different. This year is personal. An immediate family member has been diagnosed with cancer. Thanks to the wonderful care at RPCI, the prognosis is as good as can be expected for such a serious disease.  And I am  thrilled that many members of my family will be joining my daughter and I on this year’s ride.

Please consider supporting  me as I ride on behalf of cancer patients by going to http://giving.roswellpark.org/netcommunity/markgr.  And special thanks to those of you who have already made a donation.

I would like to thank everyone for their participation in the Social Media Summit. I was very happy with the outcome.  Below are links to the recording and related materials:

• Social Media Summit Recording (full recording through Adobe Connect)
• Social Media Summit Backchannel from Twitter (32 page PDF file containing over 800 tweets)
• Social Media Summit Chat Transcript ( 85 page PDF containing the raw and unedited chats from Adobe Connect)

I am in the process of formulating my final thoughts on the summit which I will share in an upcoming post. I had numerous goals for the summit, and overall most of these goals were met.  The most important one was to create connections among higher education web professionals, especially where these connections didn’t previously exist. Mission accomplished as illustrated in my favorite tweet from the backchannel:

Special thanks goes to my friends at Penn State for allowing me to stretch the boundaries of a traditonal conference workshop,  along with my guest presenters Jordan and Brad for adding their knowledge and expertise to the conversation.  (More from Jordan in the near future.)

After 6 months of preparation, the day is finally here.  This afternoon I will be facilitating the Social Media in Higher Education Summit as part of the Penn State Web Conference. Social Media is all about dialog. It’s all about community.  It’s all about relationships. All this will be on display as my friends and colleagues at Penn State and around the world join me to discuss the challenges and opportunities of utilizing social media in higher education.

I invite you to join us this afternoon at 1:00 eastern time. The URL for the summit is http://breeze.psu.edu/psuwebsms.  You will need to create a “Friends of Penn State Account” and then login in order to participate.  Instructions are available at the above URL.  And yes, this is free!

We are using the live question tool from Harvard to add and vote on discussion topics. Please visit http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/questions/smsummit before and during the summit to help shape our agenda.

I’m hoping for an active backchannel.  The hashtag for the summit is #smsummit

This should be a great opportunity to share and learn.  I will be in the “room” starting around 11:00 this morning if you want to chat ahead of time.  I look forward to seeing you.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009
1:00 pm - 3:00 PM (Eastern)
Originating from the 2009 Penn State Web Conference

HashTag  #smsummit

Come join me at this virtual summit as we explore the challenges and opportunities of social media in higher education. The format will be much different than a typical workshop. Following the principles of an unconference, we will leverage the wisdom of the crowd in an open environment where everyone’s participation is encouraged.

In addition to those attending in person  we will be using Adobe Connect to stream the event live and allow our virtual attendees to participate in the proceedings.  The URL for the summit is http://breeze.psu.edu/psuwebsms.

Update, June 8: You will need to create a “Friends of Penn State Account” and then login in order to participate.  Instructions are available from the main Social Media Summit page at https://breeze.psu.edu/psuwebsms

We will also be utilizing social media to create a backchannel to let people from across the globe participate virtually. For those of you who want to participate on Twitter, delicious, Flickr, etc., the hashtag for the event is #smsummit

Discussion topics will be chosen by participants.  To facilitate conversation both before and after the summit, I have created a group at the uwebd site (http://cuwebd.ning.com/group/socialmediasummit)

I have added an instance for the Social Media Summit at the Harvard’s Live Question Tool:

http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/questions/smsummit

Please submit your questions and vote and reply to existing questions. I plan on using the information gathered to drive our live discussion on June 9.

I would like to extend a special thanks to Patti Fantaske and the other conference organizers at Penn State for allowing me to push the envelope.  I was also like to thank Mark Heckel and the technical support staff for the hard work that will go into making the summit available virtually.

I look forward to an interesting afternoon.  Hope to see you there.

(Comments for this post have been turned off.  The discussion will take place at http://cuwebd.ning.com/group/socialmediasummit)

This week A List Apart published a thought-provoking article called “Elevate Web Design at the University Level”. The following quote hit the nail on the head for me: “I’ve yet to see anyone come out of a university program knowing what they need to know in order for us to hire them”.

I’ve been thinking about this issue for over a decade. I’ve hired numerous people over the years and not one gained the skills they need from formal education. I’ve watched members of my staff get graduate degrees and listened to them express their complete frustration over how inadequate and inappropriate the curriculum was. I’ve taught graduate level classes and as an instructor, found the experience to be very frustrating.

As higher education web professionals, we are in a position to understand the issue and work with our institutions to improve it. So how do we move forward?  We have started a good conversation on the uwebd site.  Please add your thoughts and ideas there. (comments for this post have been turned off.)

http://cuwebd.ning.com/forum/topics/elevate-web-design-at-the