The following submissions were made to the IWMW 2008 Innovation Competition:
The winning submission, as described on the UK Web Focus blog was A collaborative cross-institutional user-generated interactive mashup thing.
There are a number of key problems the large group presentational format. In particular, they often lack the opportunity to interact. On many occasions members of the audience do not feel comfortable asking questions. While session protocol seems to dictate that open floor questions are squeezed in at the end, so by the time the first question is asked the time is up. Throughout the process there is little feedback for the presenter concerning if people are understanding the message being developed. While, if there is a discussion then it is along a linear path with the focal point being the presenter.
There are a number of key problems the large group presentational format. In particular, they often lack the opportunity to interact. On many occasions members of the audience do not feel comfortable asking questions. While session protocol seems to dictate that open floor questions are squeezed in at the end, so by the time the first question is asked the time is up. Throughout the process there is little feedback for the presenter concerning if people are understanding the message being developed. While, if there is a discussion then it is along a linear path with the focal point being the presenter. Finally, once the presentation is finished then any open, transparent discussion ceases.
Of course there are many available technologies that address these issues. For instance, the increasing use of audience response systems, or the emergence of web based chat channels. The problem with these is they tend to either exclude people (in that you need the appropriate hardware and software) or they do not allow the freedom to use free text or they have post session accessibility issues. Therefore, the use of an SMS service, Twitter and word clouds will address the problems associated with large group presentations in a very low cost and effective manner. The following two scenarios illustrate the point.
A question that I'll ask during my session at the IWMW is what technologies do people use to co-author material with colleagues across dispersed teams? Of course I could have simply asked the question and written down the answers of a flip chart. The likelihood is that this would not have captured a large proportion of the room. Alternatively, I could use an audience response system, especially as I?m highly likely to be able to guess a majority of the responses. However, the aim of the question is to open up further discussion. This is something more difficult to design in with an audience response system. So what is my solution?
I'll ask people to respond to the question by either, texting their response to a mobile number (displayed on the presentation slide). Or update their tweeter account using the key term IWMW2008. Then I can use the twitter search facility recommended by the conference. After this I simply access the web page for the text responses and cut and paste into the tagcrowd.com word cloud generator. Within a minute I've visualised through word frequencies the key technologies being used in the room.
Another use will be to try to start discussions that can develop over time amongst the audience. I see my role very much to try to draw out experiences in the room in terms how they've been using Web 2.0 tools to more effectively work in teams. There will be lots of experience in the room, however, how can I encourage them to share this in a meaningful way? The answer is simple, the answer is Twitter.
The deadline for the competition was originally 11th July 2008. This was then extended to 18th July 2008. In addition, submissions may be made during the IWMW 2008 event itself. The winner was announced on the final day of the IWMW 2008 event on Thursday 24th July 2008.
Last modified: 30th July 2008
