Not Another Social Media Channel?

This post considers my experiences with a variety of social media channels, how "online communities" can evolve in the same way that societies do...why I've taken the decision to open another account, and why it seems different my other online experiences.

LinkedIn, Twitter, Blogger, Facebook, YouTube, Follr, Ello, Medium, Mail Chimp Goodreads... Just some of the platforms that I've explored and still have open accounts for.

Obviously, this is by no means extensive and my reasons for not being on other popular social media channels is for various reasons, including;

1) Few Educators appear to be using it

2) I don't quite "get" how they could be used effectively in education

3) The technology I use is old and either could or would not run well on my devices (Including my Blackberry)

4) I'm a grumpy laggard... If I don't "get it" I won't put time into using it or exploring it.

When I first explored Social Media my plan was that I would focus on getting to grips with one medium at a time, familiarise myself with it before exploring other channels.

A World Outside of the Twittersphere
However, I got from LinkedIn to Twitter and then kind of stayed there. The reason for this was because Twitter seemed to be the platform of choice for educators.

Through checking out the profiles of people following Declara's Power ofCreativity and Imagination to Transform Education I realised that I had perhaps forgotten there is a world outside of Twitter and, in the grand scheme of things, not all that many educators are actually on Twitter.

I am obviously glad that spent time exploring these various channels and am so grateful to be able to connect with people across the globe (55% of my Twitter followers being in the US and 10% of being in sunny California).

A comment that resonated with me when exploring the Power of Creativity and Imagination to Transform Education Collection has stuck with me. The comment is from Bill Johnston's Communities and the Collaborative Economy presentation   

"Companies have over invested in social media and under invested in community"

Connected Vs Connected

I have been pondering this issue for a while, especially as I have opened yet another social media channel that I will either forget about... or will need to maintain it and feed it with a constant stream of content, insights and discussions.

I have 3,500 connections on LinkedIn and 3,300 followers on Twitter but when I asked my LinkedIn connections "How can I help you achieve your goals?" most of the responses were along the lines of "What's the catch? What are you selling here?"

Or when I Tweet out;

There is not a great deal of engagement (The reason for exploring this is because my plans for a startup are going slower than expected, as is usually the case #OptimismBias)

The reason for getting plugged into social media was to connect, I'm not sure if it's because I didn't know what I was doing on social media to start with, because it's education that I work in or if it's the norms of the various platforms. Whatever the reason, I have to question if I've "Connected" with my connections as well as I could have.

Perhaps not the best admission for an aspiring Community Manager but, through following the advice and practices of experienced Community Managers, I've since discovered that they do things slightly differently and how they scale personal connections.

Repetition or Redundancy?
Maybe it's partly because these platforms have evolved. I get a lot out of EdChats on Twitter, but I found the following scenario quite frustrating.

Last summer I joined a chat where the topic was similar to one that had taken place 12 months ago. The discussion was almost identical to the previous chat.

In the first discussion suggestions were made "Great idea! I'm going to try that" people Tweeted with enthusiasm. Fast forward to the discussion a year later and the discussion was very similar. I did not participate as much in the re-run.

Around the same time Starr Sackstein had written this post: Repetition or Redundancy or Repetition AND Redundancy.

I have since discovered that these issues have been around for as long as online communities have been around... the reasons and nature of this repetition may be the same too. Here are a few really interesting extracts;

"Howard Rheingold had all but stopped posting to The Well as a daily practice, blaming the exodus of himself and others on what he characterised as the tired, predictable feel to the place. 'After more than a decade on The Well, I found that I could predict who would react and how. And so I started asking myself: Why bother? Eventually I turned into little more than a lurker.'

Rheingold grew more interested in what he and others called Communities of Practice, which he defined as informal networks of colleagues and friends who share the same problems. He went on to start an invitation only virtual meeting place which he described as an online think tank, a place for knowledgeable, civil discussions about technology and the future, and culture... No assholes allowed" Katie Hafner, author of The Well.

Hafner continues with this line of enquiry by citing Well co-founder Larry Brilliant's observations;

"There are different stages of civilization that get different diseases - different forms of illness, I've watched The Well grow and I'm an absolute fan. I've loved every incarnation of it. There's a parallel that seems to fit here. Polio is a disease that is singularly absent from any hunter-gatherer community, from any agricultural community. It only existed in a measurable quantity when people came together in cities for the first time and didn't understand that it's a good idea not to defecate in the water that you drink. So polio only exists in cities. It only exists in cities in certain stages of development, it disappears when you reach the next stage of development and you get clean water. The Well is like that... The community has survived when it could have died many times over. It could have been killed by lack of business acumen, over population, or success.
The Well survived the same set of diseases that every other community conferencing system had"

Both the Well and Buzzing Communities author Richard Millington highlights how over used and abused the term community is in the virtual world;

"Online community is a much abused term. In current usage, almost any group of people interacting online is being referred to as a community, even if these people don't even know each other (even if they hate each other). We do a terrible job at distingishing between different social groups online. In the real world, we have mobs, tribes, crowds, audiences, gatherings etc. An online community is a group of people who have developed relationships around a strong common interest. If they don't interact with each other, haven't developed relationships with each other, or don't share a strong common interest, they're not a community"

Not Another Social Media Channel...  A Community of Practice

These extracts resonated with me given my experiences with social media and made me think more about Declara, namely:

What do I want out of this platform that others are not providing?

I thought about some of the relationships and projects that I have been involved with: the ones I had tried to establish but failed and compared them with ones that worked out... and those that were the most fun and fulfilling. The latter projects were pretty much what Howard Rheingold discusses, there were;

"Small groups where knowledgeable, civil discussions about technology and the future, and culture took place"

So, with Declara it is not so much a case of "Not another social media channel" but more a case of knowing what I want to get from this platform and, once again, it looks like this new platform could help with an idea I had a couple of years ago: Twitter EdChats: Chat or Change?

As with ISTE data and my goal for FE in 2014, Declara can help with revisiting another idea. In 2013 I wondered if we could use the last 10 minutes of Twitter chats to say what we were going to do to implement any ideas that were discussed. I also provided 8 projects that we could collaborate on;

How Online Engagement Leads to Collaboration
Chat Research Question Ideas

I am know that many EdChats have affected a great deal of change with this forum, but my experiences with affecting change have tended to be in a different format.

I've been involved with Social Norms, SaveEdShelf, UKFEChat, EdTechBridge, Nurph, Get2ISTE amongst others and each of these projects appear to more like Rheingolds Communities of Practice and less like having thousands of followers or trying to keep up with the Twitter stream during a conference or busy chat. Does this mean that I am any more or less of a fan of EdChats? ABSOLUTELY NOT!

Does it mean that something has evolved, whether it's me or these online forums... I'm not sure.I know that many have made this work in this format, but I also know that I found more success when working with smaller groups.

Last week I asked if early users of Declara would Help Max with his Drive. A small group then used Declara's new discussion feature to consider ways they could help Max with setting up his business, this discussion is ongoing at the moment.

I'll be exploring the idea of working with small groups on other projects further and will keep everyone updated with any progress.

Helping Max with his Drive

I've been so busy up loading posts to Declara that I have not had much time to check out the profiles or experience of the people who follow collections that I help curate. 

Last week a member of staff at Declara sent me a message asking if I had any suggestions for encouraging more educators to check out the site.

They explained that the reason for asking this was because they had read some articles from my Community Manager Resources collection, which contains some fantastic links and advice from #Cmgrhangout, events like Community Manager Appreciation Day and case studies mentioned in books like Richard Millington's Buzzing Communities. I offered some suggestions but also highlighted that;

1) I'm still learning a lot of these skills myself

2) I have struggled with finding and engaging the early adopters within education with my own projects. I said I was not sure if this was due to the fact that I’m involved with education… or because I suck at this kind of thing.

3) From the people I knew who have also joined Declara, there were more experienced community managers and educators who were better connected than me, so it might be worth reaching out to them.

Existing Users... and the Wow Factor
But I did offer my tuppence worth and highlighted that all the research suggests that the best way to get new users signed up is by building relationships with existing users which, given my experience as a user, they were already doing.

This question prompted me to find out more about some of the people who were following a collection that I help curate... and WOW! And by Wow, I mean WOW to the MAX!

I was invited to help curate a collection called "Power of Creativity & Imaginationto Transform Education," which is a popular collection with 1,400 followers. Through taking a look at the profiles of some of the people following this collection, I'm more excited about Declara than ever!

Please allow me to remind people of one of the main reasons I got excited about Declara before the beta site went live with this comment from a blog post in April;

"So staying as small as possible, for as long as possible is a big priority during this "Product Market Fit discovery process." This is something EdTech startups in accelerators are able to do.

This is something that Decara will help EdTech startups do too... Their insights page might even set some 9 year old students up as EdTech Co-Founders and CEO's" A Delcara-tion of Interdependence, April 2015

Max Ramseyer may not be a 9 year old, but he sure has given me a reason to believe that this idea just might be a possibility. Who’s Max? And how did I find out about his work? Here’s how…

Max's Drive: Start HE From Scratch 

So I'm checking out people who are following this collection, and an article by Max which got published in the Chronicle catches my eye. The topic is on Starting Higher Education from scratch. 

The content of this post is the kind of reflection that you hear from educators all the time in EdChats, but is written by a student... A key group that all education stakeholders agree that we need to listen to more with ideas about EdReform.

I added Max's article to the collection and sent him a message about the post, and highlighted that his article was the reason I was excited about Declara before it went live.

We arranged to have a Skype chat last week and WOW!!

Question. Explore. Iterate. 
It wasn't just the ideas or article that this student (who graduated this summer) that impressed, it was the action that he had already taken... And the impressive results!

Max told me about how he came up with his idea and plan of introducing a paradigmatic shift in the education-to-career pipeline to change how people and institutions discover, think about, and realize human potential and make a difference in the world. 

For more information about Max's Drive initiative, his vision, how he came up with the idea, what he's hoping to achieve and where he is now please see this link: Drive.

There can be so much talk about differentiation, the education-skills gap and the changes people would like to see... but people feel these changes are not possible because of SMT/Admins or policy makers who restrict innovation and reform. It was so refreshing to hear how Max was just getting on and doing it.

Max has successfully implemented some innovation and changes at Duke, and he did so in a way that didn't sound too dissimilar to the methods that I've been exploring... Or that education guru Simon Breakspear advocates for in this brilliant presentation

Lessons from Educational Pioneers
How to Lead Future Focused Change.

Max worked with a handful of proponents to demonstrate that the idea could work, he discussed his ideas and plans with a few lecturers and mentors. 

Max then experimented with implementation of the idea... using members of his fraternity as a pilot. Getting a fraternity to discuss mindfulness and social good Vs organising wild spring break parties?! If the stereotype in all the films are an accurate portrayal then this is some achievement!! Max's "Just do it" attitude reminds me of a fantastic observation by Henry Ford

“It can’t be done”, said the manufacturer positively, “no machine built will do that – it is out of the question”  “Out of the question!” exclaimed the engineer, “if you will come down to the main floor you will see one doing it; we built one to see if it could be done and now we want more like it.”

The factory keeps no record of experiments …a record of failures – particularly if it is a dignified and well authenticated record – deters a young man from trying. We get some of our best results from letting fools rush in where angels fear to tread. Henry Ford

Scale. Hustle.
As a recent graduate with limited resources, Max is at a stage where he's now wondering where to take this in terms of which colleges and universities to work with, how to get buy in from administrators and students at these new institutions and how to fund and develop the necessary resources. 

Given that I found out about Max on Declara I had a look at some of other profiles. There appear to be some extremely knowledgeable and collaborative people who are also following this collection. Then I wondered:

What would happen if other followers who had an interest in this topic pitched in to help power Max's creativity and imagination to drive education reform?

Future Focused Change 

What if... some of these people took a moment to share some of their experiences and/or let their connections know about Max's Drive Project?

There are people here with some fantastic experience that could help with securing funding, marketing, design and advice from people who have achieved education reform. There's some amazing expertise in one place. 

I did some quick research, check out the kind of expertise that other followers of this Declara collection have and how they might be able to assist Max: 

The Power of Creativity and Imagination to Transform Imagination: Followers who could assist Max

Given the fantastic experiences and broad expertise of these followers of this collection I created a list of people following this collection on Twitter: Declara Edu people on Twitter (NB Still have more people to add to this list)

What it is… is up to us

I've been exploring various aspects of community from David Putnam's "Bowling Alone" to the early online communities like The Well and AOL etc, to the impact and role of Community Managers today.

I have also found various challenges with using other social media platforms when it comes to the kind of mass collaboration that I'd like to explore and be involved with.

It's not just that Declara appears have some extremely experienced people following this collection, it's that many also appear to be massively collaborative.

If I was to summarize my experiences so far I would say: this space feels special! Finding someone like Max and collaborating with him is the precise reason I got excited about Declara before the site launched.

So, it's been amazing finding out about Max and his work... to then find out about some of the experiences and projects that other early users are involved with is just SOOO AWESOME!

What would make me even more excited would be if people were to pitch in a help Max to establish a business based on his Creativity and Imagination to Transform Education.

After reading Adam Grant's book "Give and Take" last January I followed Adam Rifkin's example and sent a message to my LinkedIn connections asking "How can I Help you Achieve your Goals," I was surprised at the response when I got replies along the lines of "What's the catch," "What are you selling here"

I'd like to repeat this same offer to my connections on Declara, and hope that I might get a more positive and/or collaborative response.

Indeed I hope that this quick "5 minute favour" of writing about Max's work might see others reach out to him to see if there is anything they can do to help out and/or to share this post with their education or business contacts.

I'd like to leave you with Bill Johnston's presentation from the Social Business Forum: Communities and the Collaborative Economy  and this comment from his website and encourage you to consider a few questions

• 
  
• There is a tremendous amount of unrealized value within reach of organizations that are willing to be permeable, networked and collaborative.

1) Do you think that companies and people have over invested in social media and not enough in community?

If so, what can we do to make this Declara collection an active community Vs another passive social media channel?

2) If you agree with Bill's comment about the unrealised value of collaborative organisations, would helping someone like Max be worth exploring?

Would helping him now lead to a loyal customer if and when his idea was turned into a business?

Max, if there's anything I can do to help you with your plans... you know where to find me. Let's collaborate!

NB All of the links and resources in this post were sourced through exploring a single collection on Declara and the work of some of the people following it

You're Ahead of Your Time: FELTAG Reaching Out?

Following some critical input about "Promoting my own stuff" in an EdChat recently, I've been reviewing how my blogging has evolved. In a recent post I questioned if I am "Blogging, Sharing New Ideas... Or Selling?"

I have found that ideas which had previously gone by unnoticed when they were first suggested, but can get support and traction if there is an opportunity to suggest to people that we re-visit the idea. 

This has happened a number of times in the last 12 months while I'v been focusing on US-based projects. This post looks at the same issue with ideas I had when focusing my attention on UK Further Education Colleges over the course of 2012-2014. 

This is very much a cathartic exercise, one where I try to make sense of being ignored for two years, and contemplate the reasons for some invitations to re-connect with some FE people have come out of the blue.

So I'm just "Thinking Out Loud," as I assess my previous experiences in FE... and whether or not to consider changing course with my current plans and return to some older ones. Could the timing be right to try again with them as I have found in the US?

NB This is a longer post with a few links, if you are involved with FE you may find the ideas and links useful.

Background
I'm finding that group of educators who really were not interested in hearing my views have reached out to me over the last few weeks. 

I had a business plan all worked out and felt there would be win-win-win situations for FE, their students and suppliers. From 2012-2014 I tired to make these ideas work. I gave up trying when I achieved more in 4 weeks in the US than I did in 2 years in FE.

This was not an easy decision to make, I was extremely confident about the robustness of my plans given the level of due diligence that I carried out.
  
People involved with the Further Education Technology Action Group (FELTAG) have been in touch with me. For example, the Think Out Loud Club asked if I would be interested in cross posting some articles from my blog for them. 

I said that I'd be happy to, and included some posts that they might want to consider. Like some of these FE based posts from last year:

Leaving FE 
FELTAG Cultural Considerations 
The Problem with FELTAG 
Academies & Entreprenurship in Edu… It’s All About the Culture

FELTAG Friday... Rocket Boosters On!

I tried desperately to get in touch with various people involved with FELTAG when the initiative was being planned and launched in 2013-2014. I was keen to ensure that ideas from these posts were taken on board. I also wanted to let them know about some other insights I had gained based on my research around exploring the roll out process of technology.

I was so passionate that I had something of value to say that my approach was rather unconventional. The reason for this was;

1) To make sure this introverts views were heard, 

2) There was some serious "method in the madness" as I was looking to employ a tried and tested strategy with the adoption of technology, and the culture change that I felt would be required.

The response to my correspondence, approach and ideas varied...but the result was the same: FELTAG had no interest in exploring my ideas or engaging with me.

You're Ahead of your Time...
Over the course of 2013-2014 I had the discussions I tried to have with FELTAG members with some of my critical friends in FE, as well as a couple of  "FE experts" who were happy to have a chat. The feedback I received from some of these people was; 

"I can see what you're trying to do... and there is merit in your ideas, your only problem is that you're ahead of your time" 

As I've mentioned previously, my Belbin report suggested that my "operating style is closest to that of strategic leadership" and I laughed at this suggestion a few years ago but it makes more sense today. 

All I was doing was taking the data that was in front of me, and coming to what I thought were some blatantly obvious conclusions... And, given the changes I noticed were taking place in the sales process, the overall aim was less strategic leadership and more to figure out what skills would be relevant! 

Through my work with US educators I have been extremely fortunate to have some discussions with people who have a lot of experience at Silicon Valley technology companies.

I found it curious that there was no need to offer detailed explanations about these ideas or to "sell" them... They "get it" immediately. I asked one of these hot shot tech people why this was. Their reply was the same as my FE friends;

"It's because you're talking about things that are 12 months away. I understand how and why this will be the case... but I can also see why others might need more of an explanation and a little more convincing"

I have to be honest that I find all of this completely bizarre! All I did was notice that traditional sales was dying, and I was trying to get "ahead of the curve" with EdTech sales and re-skill accordingly.

FE Plans 2014 Vs 2015 No Change... But More Urgency
Not only have the ideas that I was trying to discuss with FELTAG and implement within FE a year ago not changed one iota...I am more convinced than ever about the merit of these ideas. I think they have potential to make an impact within FE.

In 2013 & 2014 I felt that there was a sense of urgency due to the imminent threats, but felt there was time for colleges to innovate their way out of any potential trouble.

I feel this is still the case, but based on what I've seen elsewhere, whatever FE's technology plans are... they had better be good ones! And implementing them in a timely manner might not go amiss either!

Other models are on the way! At least some of the 5 million FE students will be going elsewhere... If there is too much procrastination, it just might be most of them!

Here are some examples of these alternative models;

Starbucks: Massively Creatively Disrupt... Or Someone Else will

Alt School: Inside the school that Silicon Valley thinks will save education

Apple: Our Children Need to Schools of Tomorrow Today

Adidas: All Hail the Rise of the Corporate University

Holograms offer the Promise of Transforming Electronic Modes of Teaching

I have been writing about alternative models and the education-skills gap since I started blogging... And I've seen organisations like Starbucks exploration in education come on in leaps and bounds. Every year at the GSV Summit Starbucks announces new ideas and innovations.

What will happen to government funding when Starbucks is a more cost effective model than FE? 

Will FE funding be re-directed to projects like Adidas once the iron out any teething issues?

Personally, I have no issue with these models. If FE is not fit for purpose and can't (or won't) see the threats coming, and decide instead to cling to the status quo... New providers with new models will move in.

Where I do have an issue with these models is when we consider who will suffer most if FE can't or won't keep up with the pace of change and innovation?

It will be young people who are marginalised and where FE is the last (and sometimes the students first and only) chance before they are Lost in the Ghetto

"One of the terrible fates that can befall a human being is to be born intelligent or sensitive in an English slum. It is like a long, slow, exquisite torture devised by a sadistic deity from whose malevolent clutches escape is almost impossible"

These alternative models may be unlikely to cater for this group... and you don't want to know my opinions about UK politicians and/or their ability to cater for (and, in some cases, to even care about) these vulnerable young people.

Has the Government Already Given up on FE?
FE Minister is not a current government role

Given the pace of change at the organisations mentioned above versus FE's attitude of "culture change takes time" I wonder if any commentators on the outside looking in would speculate that - if it's not already too late - then the time to plan, set the course and innovate is certainly running short.

Opportunity... Or Threat?
If my observations are accurate and some of my crazy ideas are "a little ahead of their time," then I would encourage people in FE to check out the reasons that I got excited about Declara before the site went live in April and how things are shaping up today... Not to mention the things that this student has achieved! Helping Max with his Drive

Prior to this post I observed how a platform like this could be an opportunity or a threat, depending on educators reaction to the potential of social learning (See Declara: A Laggards Thoughts for more on this).

In this weeks update Declara CEO, Ramona Pierson, announced that Wise Kangaroo have their coaching courses on the site. Stop and think for a moment about the potential opportunities and threats here;

1) Opportunities: if there was a directory of all FE courses on this platform?

2) Threat: If there was a Starbucks/Declara partnership or an Adidas/Declara one?

"Learning by connecting with others...
Ideas can come from anybody and anywhere"

I can see very clearly how this platform could work in FE. I would also be happy to detail my thoughts... but I have to question why should I take time out from other projects, when my previous experience has been that no-one in FELTAG and few in FE want to hear my thoughts?

I already know how I would work with any ideas that were focused on FE, I also know who I would work with... I have remained in contact with them over the last 12 months to sound them out on a few things.

Sales and Technology in FE... 2014 Vs 2015
For anyone in FE who recalls my Technology in FE Report and/or posts like The Problem with EdTech Integration post, you may see some parallels with these ideas and an article written by Hubspot's Brooke Freedman recently (Except Brooke explains things SO MUCH better!)

Evolving your Sales Process for a B2C2B World 

Sales is a vital component to any new idea, but it is also a profession that gets vilified in education. I would argue that it is not the sales or the sales people that are the problem... But can be any one of a number of issues including the CEO/Founder and the culture they set and whether or not the idea has achieved "Product Market Fit"

The Culture of "Rocket Boosters On"
If I had to guestimate the reasons for this outreach from FELTAG members at the moment, it would be that 

1) Maybe the people in FELTAG have reviewed some of the information I sent 12 months ago and realise there was merit to my suggestions... And perhaps even appreciate the "method in the madness".

2) The gung-ho "FELTAG Friday: Rocket Boosters On" attitude has not translated into propulsion at ground control. Part of the reason for this might be because

3) People in FE are tired of the culture. Maybe morale is extremely low because of years of criticism and budget cuts... not to mention the huge changes that take place every 4 years based on whatever soundbite the politicians at looking to get out to demonstrate how proactive they are about edcuation.

FE staff have been through the "Things can only get better... Education! Education! Education!" Blair years, Gordon Browns' BS... Erm, I mean BIS. The scrapping of Every Child Matters at the stroke of a pen with Cameron's signature for his "Big Society," MP's infatuation with celebrity entrepreneurs, Mike Russell's major FE merger project and the latest big idea for having a preference for all things academy. These constant changes leads to dissatisfaction with

4) The top-down approach: whether it is memos from central government to colleges demanding that get behind ideas the Principal does not agree with... or dictates from SMT to staff, but the staff are not supportive of the plan or idea.

If you don't have buy-in on the ground, regardless of what the plan is... or how good the idea is, it's unlikely to be implemented well.

5) The top-down ideas have not been fully tested... they lack due diligence and/or is rolled out too quickly. This leads to uptake from a few colleges but growth stops to a crawl... as opposed to leaping like a Gazelle. 

These are all points that I tried to raise with FE and FELTAG last year.

Takers, Fakers and Collaborators
So why all the interest from FELTAG to reach out now? Is it because my Silicon Valley friends are right that these ideas are easier to understand and appreciate 12 months on? 

Any recommendations I would have today would be what I said last year, and is information that I shared with everyone in FE and FELTAG a year ago. 

The only thing I would add is that they might want to implement these plans quicker, maybe this is the reason for the outreach. Perhaps people have noticed that the ideas I tried to implement in FE working elsewhere?  

Is it because the rate at which the various threats are approaching are going at a faster pace compared with FELTAG's rocket boosters? 

As well as asking "Why are they reaching out" I need to consider questions like;

Should I attempt to re-connect? I ask this because I need to consider if they are interested in listening to my ideas to take what they can and then I don't hear from them for another year? 

Or is it to truly collaborate, to discuss what's best for our young people as the first priority? 

This last point is a common theme amongst the people I have remained in contact with in FE, one fantastic individual saying to me during a meeting 

"We'll do what's best for our young people... even if it means we innovate our way out of our own jobs"

I have a good idea of what could work in FE, along with these plans from 12 months ago I now also have some experience with making them work... but I know that making them work involves the right culture, mindset and the ability to collaborate and co-create.

If things are the same as 12 months ago I'd be surprised if I'd be able to make much progress. Why consider this when I'm doing OK where I am regarding my current road map.

At the same time, my main interest is marginalised young people and it is ironic that I live in the UK, but most of the projects and people in my PLN are in the US.

I think I'll ask the people in FE who have remained in touch with to get their thoughts and reflect on this further. If anyone wants to help me with this decision please feel free to complete this quick two question survey Tech Stories: Re-Assessing FE Plans

Beta Startup, ISTE & EdChats: Opportunities and Challenges

I had planned on writing a few posts where I reflected on various aspects of being online, but this will have to wait. This is because of some interesting developments that have been going on as a result of some news about a technology company co-collaborating and co-creating with their users.

Since ISTE I have spent a lot of time pottering about on Declara, which is a startup I heard about prior to the launch of their beta version of thei site which promised to "Spark Social Learning." 

The founders outreach and description prior to launch saw me do something that I've never done before, I became an early users... complete with glitches and bugs. These issues have created some challenges and new opportunities.    

I've written a few posts about my experiences as an early user of Declara now and would like to stress that I am not affiliated with, nor have been compensated by Declara in any way.

My motivation here is based on the potential that I can see with this in education and re-visiting some older projects.

What's My Motivation
Through exploring the roll out of effective technology, I realise how difficult it can be to engage educators, and I have been exploring a few ideas around what the issues are and the reasons for this.

Part of my enthusiasm with this particular startup is because there are some older projects that I started, but had to shelf for various reasons. I feel this new platform could help with this, here are two examples;

1) I mentioned in yesterday's post how I have had patience with cuarting ISTE data, and my attempts at curating all the great links that get shared during periods of information overload like ISTE and during EdChats.

2) I had to completely abandon my 2014 New Year's Resolution... To work on a project that gets 100% roll out in UK Further Education Colleges, I think Declara could help with this project.

I am so confident that Declara can help with these goals that I'm putting a significant amount of time into testing some ideas to explore the possibilities. 

These things may be a long way off, will need a lot more time to develop... and may not pan out as expected. But one thing is for sure, if these projects have any chance at all they will require input from educators and other education stakeholders. Declara being in their beta phase would be a good time to provide some input, here's why...

Beta Tests
Some things that will eventually be automated are manual at the moment and take a bit of time.

For example, with the idea of curating conference and EdChat data, I curated 7,000 unique links from ISTE2015 (many of these will be duplicates due to the various link shorteners). I have manually imported over 800 articles into this collection.

When you click on the link it may only show 2 posts in this ISTE2015 Collection... but I can assure you there are 800+ articles on this link! It's just that the page is very slow to load.

This is the beta version so there will be minor glitches that need to be ironed out, as well as finding out how subscribers will be using the site. Then there is the question of what value is there for me, other users or for Declara to encourage a collection with anywhere from 2,000-7,000 articles? Honestly, I don't know.

However, I do get value from exploring these ideas. There were 200,000 Tweets from 20,000 delegates and lots of other people following from #NotAtISTE. 

I did not curate all ISTE related posts across all social media channels, but one thing that this has brought into sharp focus is that I can most definitely see how social media is an echo chamber. This has it's advantages when it comes to sharing best practice, but this also has it's flaws and limitations too. 

Having seen enough from manually importing lots of links, I hit the feedback button on Declara to ask if they will be able to upload the rest of the links en masse at their end. I assumed they would be able to do this.

I was informed that they can't at the moment, and that I'd need to continue to upload the links manually. I wanted to have a completed collection to get input from people to discuss how we might use the collection. 

As this ISTE2015 collection (And data from 2013) will now take longer than expected to upload the links, I started to do the same with EdCampLDR in the hope of seeing what people think of the idea and if new methods of collaborating can be found, or will it be duplication with existing tools? There are still 300 posts to sort through with this collection but it can be found on this link EdCampLdr Collection. 

A RSSponsive Startup!
When Declara replied to my feedback request I was told they were not able to automatically import these links, but the developers had added an RSS function which may help to automate collections like this in the future. They shared what they were doing with space and science topics so they have a STEM library. Check out some of the collections from

Declara Space Bot
Declara Physics Bot
Declara Nano Bot
Declara Biology Bot

As can be the case, startups is a messy business! For example, any challenges open up new opportunities... and then new challenges again. Lol. The joys of startupland!

Opportunity: Perhaps we can explore ways that links which are shared in EdChats could be curated into collections? Using tools like Queyfeed could be used to turn links from the chat into RSS feeds and import the links into Declara. The value of doing this this? It would only include any link that was used once AND could act as a back up for some resources with archives (More on the importance of this in a future post).

Challenge: The collections that have been curated via RSS feed have grown rapidly and may need some crowd sourcing to sort out which posts are suitable for certain subjects and age groups, as well as to highlight relevant insights.

All of my exploration as an early user has been in the hope that I will find ways of demonstrating enough value to potential to educators so they will join Declara and explore what is possible with this platform in the classroom.

For example, a real time news feed on science topics where an educator add their insights with other educators, students and scientists where they can message one another sure looks promising to me.

Effective EdTech
I have developed various ideas over the last few years because of my exploration of how effective EdTech gets developed like the importance of network effects, positive feedback loops, the life cycle of community and other community management issues. More than anything else

I know how important it is to co-create with potential users so projects achieve "Product Market Fit" 

This means that the product will be fit for purpose will get rolled out via word of mouth referrals... and I know how quickly educators can roll services out if they like it.

However, I also know how difficult it is to engage educators with early ideas. So I'll continue curating these collections and discuss my experiences as a user of this beta startup.

More to follow soon... I can't wait to tell you about some of the new connections I've made there, I think that educators will be especially interested to hear about Max.

Patience with Curating ISTE Data

There's been something of a trend since ISTE2013. It is that directly after ISTE each year I review the issue of curating all the great links that are shared during events that create so much information, that keeping up with all the great links is like trying to drink from a fire hose.

This post looks at the importance of being mission focused and sticking to a task, and the way that perceptions appear to change depending on the context... despite the task remaining the same. 

Patience

If I had to name my favorite post then Thomas Friedman's Collaborate Vs Collaborate would be up there. I'm curating links from ISTE2015 at the moment and if I had to name my second favorite post ever, it just might be Sherri Spelic's "There is No App for Patience" 

Sherri's advice is spot on! I have seen people jump right in with various education projects and policies: entrepreneurship education, academies and with various technology idea. The lack of due diligence and/or scaling too early has led to significant problems and/or adoption slowing to a crawl (All of which are things that I discussed in April 2013 via "Startup Education").

Finding posts like Sherri's is the reason I have spent so much time exploring all these links, and why I think curating the data is a useful exercise.

As well as this project, I find that I keep circling back to a number of ideas from a few years ago... and the context and reception from educators can be quite different each time I mention them. Obviously it's great when others see the value in your ideas, but I've continued to scratch my own itch even when others don't.

Social Tipping and Crowdfunding Educators at Conferences...
Wasn't well received when mentioned for ISTE2014. 

Scratch Your Own Itch

In his book ReWork, the creators of the popular Basecamp offers this advice:

"The easiest, most straightforward way to create a great product or service is to make something you want to use. That let's you design what you know - and you'll figure out immediately whether or not what you're making is any good."

"At 37 Signals, we build products that we need to run our own business... If you're solving someone else's problem, you're constantly stabbing in the dark. When you solve you're own problem, the lights come on. You know exactly what the right answer is" 

I had an itch in 2013 regarding all the great content that was going past the Twitter stream faster than anyone can read at ISTE and in EdChats. I favorited these tweets as a way of bookmarking for later, only to find that "later" didn't arrive until the link no longer worked.

Same Task Different Context 
I curated some data from ISTE13 and 150 EdChats over a 6 week period, I shared this data with people and was praised for taking the time to do this. The article I wrote that contains this data remains one of the top 10 most viewed posts I've written.

I was unable to develop some of my ideas for this because I could not find a platform that could store the data in any meaningful way, and excel wasn't ideal... so I shelved it until I found the right technology.

In 2014 I explored this again and explored a couple of platforms but, again, they were not ideal for what I was looking for. Post-ISTE2015 I'm trying again with these same ideas....I am looking to scratch my own itch with this data. 

This time I'm exploring my ideas using Declara. I am aware that I have been raving about this new platform a great deal recently, and wanted to remind people the reason for using Declara for this project is because I've had a bit of patience. Patience to;

1) Curate the data
2) Wait for the right platform.
3) Upload the links into a Declara Collection

Why mention all this? I am extremely interested in educator/supplier relationships. When I was curating some of the 2015 data I noticed the kind of negativity about "vendors" on social media that I have become accustomed to seeing.

While individual suppliers get a lot of love, if you do a search for #ISTE2015 and vendors on Twitter during the conference, many of the comments can be less than positive or flattering.

There are a number of reasons for me mentioning Declara quite a bit. For example, I know that educators can be challenging to reach and engage with, I know the best products are created in collaboration with users and I know that the way that suppliers engage educators need to change. I've spent a bit of time on the site and I like what I see, there are a lot of ideas educators could explore with this.

Anyway, as a result of noticing this vendor negative press,  I thought it might be an idea to remind people that I've been looking for ways to curate this data for two years now. I've explored a few ways of achieving this using free tools and "vendor" platforms. This is my 2015 attempt, and it's looking promising.

Will it work out? And if it does... what will happen once all the links from ISTE2013 and 2015 have been imported into Declara? Will I be able to find the time to import all the links? Will people want to view a collection with thousands of posts? The answer to all these questions is: I HAVE NO IDEA!

But what I do know is that doing things just because it is of interest to me and seems like a good idea leads to meeting some interesting people and can be the catalyst for new ideas to explore.

Curating these links into spreadsheets in 2013 seemed like a good idea at the time, so did waiting for the right platform before developing the ideas. By importing them into Declara I'm finding new people and new ways to achieve some old ideas that I had shelved a few years ago. So I'll continue to explore. Feel free to join me and a community of other knowledge seekers: www.Declara.com 

Blogging, Sharing New Ideas... Or Selling?

In my previous post I questioned whether constantly sharing links to my blog were signs of me becoming a bad digital citizen through constant self promotion of my blog. 

I thought I would take a moment to detail my blogging experiences today and compare them with when I first opened my blog... and how any self promotion two years ago led to others getting a shout out at #ISTE2015.

Isn't it all Self Promotion?
The first question I would ask is: if you're on social media isn't it all self promotion?  If you're here then you want the world to hear what you have to say. 

Am I writing this because I don't want anyone to read it, or to share it? Of course not! That would just be a waste of my time. 

Am I Tweeting because I only want one person to see my random thoughts? If that were the case I'd send a text or pick up the phone! 

Why Are you Promoting. Then...
Something that I think might be a more pertinent question is why am I here? 

The answer to this question has changed since I opened my blog.The answer in 2011 was: I don't want to be here! 

And despite all the great connections I've made, there are occasions when I still don't! 

In 2011 I had no digital footprint at all, but was told by a senior executive at one of the "big 3" tech companies

"If you want to be involved in #EdTech then you need to be on social media, it comes with the job now" 

I explored the various channels and, reluctantly, got plugged in. So here I am! I got plugged in because I was told I had to... Ironically, I got connected so my skills would be relevant for a role that won't be here much longer. Doh! 

...And Now
Today it would appear that I'm blogging to sell people on the merits of some crazy ideas. Crazy ideas that are, in the main, inspired by EdTechChat (Many of which are from two years ago).

Some people are calling me a "blogger," elsewhere social media analytics data spew out feedback that suggest I'm "an influencer." Not only do I think there is a danger of these labels pandering to egotists... In my case they are ridiculous assessments!

I find this amusing as nothing has changed! The ideas have been in my blog from day one... Many of the projects that I've been involved with that have been a success, are part of some on-going exploration to see if some extremely ambitious plans from an early posts might be possible.

Any change in status is only in the eyes of others. The ideas remain the same. The only difference is because the ideas go by unnoticed I have started to sell them a bit more.

When I opened my blog I was a sales rep unhappy with the culture and products I was working with. Today I am an unemployed sales person because I refuse to make pointless sales calls or send spam to educators.

As for any "blogger" label I write very badly... It just so happens that in amongst some bad writing, there are some ideas that are worth exploring. 

But boy! Is it hard work getting educators attention with these ideas!! 

The only thing that has changed is that I am now using my bad writing with some good ideas and have added some sales into the mix. I use my blog to explore the kind of collaboration and co-creation that I believe to be the future of sales "What do you think of XYZ" and look for early adopters to test the concept and/or look for people to work with to develop the idea.

This is where I feel the nature and source of any comments about "promoting my own stuff" comes from...There's more self promotion on my blog is because I'm selling the ideas more than I had done in the past.

Blogging has allowed me to explore the ideas generated from the early days of EdTechchat and ISTE13. Blogging also appears to have made me better at the role I've been trying to escape too... Oh the irony!

I'll leave you with the argument below to determine the extent of the blatant self promotion Vs my argument that educators are hard to engage with regarding new ideas.

Unsubscribe! Then...
Hitting that "Publish" button on my first real post (erm more like mini-novel) was so scary! Did I have anything to say? Would anyone want to hear it? 

I'm a random sales person with no expertise and nothing to say! I was taking the advice I was given, as well as trying to make some sense of the escalation of hostility in my sales role;

"Stop calling me" would be the reply to a group who 3-4 years ago were quite receptive to these calls, and "Unsubscribe" messages in reply to my emails.

Not long after I started to Tweet and blog I received a curious email along the lines of;

"William, stop sending me emails during 9-5 because I don't like the corporate crap you send me... but please keep me subscribed to your reports and blog"

What happens when you take this kind of information to bosses who are incapable of listening? "Get on the phone and sell" is the reply you'll find that you get.

...And Now?

I won't make any of those stupid cold calls for anyone... not even for products that I like. It's just a drain on educators time. I do send the odd update but hope that the information is targeted and relevant.

I sent an update to ISTE exhibitors when Kharima Richards asked me to when she was looking for support for her #Get2ISTE cause. I didn't get much of a response, but one memorable message that accompanied the "Unsubscribe" message was;

"Your content is boring and of no interest to us" 

Today I realise that you don't need to be making phone calls or email blasts in order to sell good ideas... But the ideas sure do need to be sold before they become good ones! 

This is why I feel the role of the sales person needs to change, and part of the reason for this post. Based on Google's research I might have re-skilled just in time "Google Research shows Word of Mouth Fuels EdTech Decisions"

Strategic Leadership. Then...

I completed a Belbin report in 2010 when I was one of those unfortunate sales reps trampling the exhibition hall hoping to attract educators attention. The profile report said;

"Your operating style is closest to that of strategic leadership, which is usually available only at senior positions. However, before such an opportunity could present itself, you are likely to need credibility at the operational level… The good news is that the longer you survive, the more likely you are to become a valued contribution and to gain the greatest sense of personal fulfilment"

Boy! How I laughed when I first read about these "strategic leadership" qualities... What nonsense! Although the rest of the report was extremely accurate. 

The report went on to recommend I should work in some sort of "Think Tank," quite ironic when you're sitting making pointless sales calls...the "longer you can survive" comment was the most relevant one at the time.

...And Now?
There are a number random ideas from my blog that have been implemented and the feedback from this Belbin report is making more sense to me now.

I will highlight more ideas that have gone from random idea to implementation in the next post, but today I want to focus two examples as they were mentioned at ISTE: Nurph and #Get2ISTE.

Since I started blogging I have posted ideas that I felt were worth exploring... Most of these ideas go by unnoticed the first time they are presented. The are also projects that will all link up in the hope of bringing ideas from an early posts to life 

If there are any ideas that demonstrate any kind of "strategic leadership" or creative ideas... There are two reasons for this 1) Listening to Educators and 2) EdTechChat

For anyone who feels this is "look at me, look at me" promoting my own stuff you may find this useful;

1) I am detailing my experiences in the hope that it helps others to figure the complexities that exist with selling in education.

2) I've been in traditional sales, and I've been through redundancy because of my employers refusal to listen. Both are horrible!

The actions I have taken were not easy choices to make. Neither have they been the easiest to live with. But they are starting to prove to be of value. I hope this helps other sales people to discuss the companies strategy with their employers, or maybe even for educators to share these examples with sales people when they call.

3) Not a single thing below was my idea, they come from listening to educators... Many of which come from EdTechChat.I've simply taken the time to explore them.

EdTechChat Sales. Then...
Through following EdTechChat in the first 6 weeks of it being established I got a number of key insights, including confirmation of the fact that sales would be dead soon.

Many of the points and topics in this post are a repetition of those that followed ISTE13 and ISTE14, but with evidence that the concept is workable.

...And Now
Today I feel the only way to develop good products is to stay as small as possible for as long as possible and co-creating with educators.

You shouldn't hire sales people until you know your product has value in education, even then the goal is to find the early adopters like Steve Isaacs and Nikki Robertson, as they did with Nurph and Get2ISTE.

It is my view that sales people should see themselves as fired within a few months of starting... because they have sold themselves out of a job. Sales will become a part time temporary gig. (See Where Do You see Yourself in a Year).

Once these early customers are found, a good community manager will take care of customers needs, which will be the engine for scaling the business and growth.

EdTechChat Data. Then...
As I've mentioned a number of times in this blog, in the first 6 weeks of EdTechChat 40 companies were mentioned 400 times.

I wanted to know if this was typical and see which companies were consistently being talked about, so attempted to curate 6 weeks worth of data from the 200+ EdChats that I was aware of in April/June 2013. During ISTE13 I tried to curate this data too.

The data was all in spreadsheats over 200,000 rows and was too big for me to do anything with. In April 2014 I heard about Nurph

EdTechChat Data... And Now
At ISTE 2014 I tried again, after contacting Nurph I put a great deal of time into developing this EdChat Resource Plan and putting almost 400 chats into their Chat Salad platform.(See ISTE2013 Record, Rewind and Replay)

Curious that Nurph didn't mention my contribution during #ISTE2015

Fast forward to ISTE 2015 and through the evangelising of Nikki Robertson and Steve Isaacs, Nurph is being mentioned by a number of Connected Educators, and not a single sales call has been made.

Get2 ISTE Then...
The concept of educators expenses being covered was not well recieved in 2014 (See EdChat Moderator: ISTE or Bust). The idea was re-presented in March, but still had some challenges to overcome. It was through discussing the idea with critical friends and blogging about it that removed the various objections to the idea.

Get2 ISTE ...Now

Kharima Richards was on the big screen with her Get2ISTE T-shirt and I have two fantastic blog posts to treasure... Not mine, but Nikki's and Kharima's

Tech Stories ...Then
Plenty of sales effort has gone into these ideas. Plenty of self promotion with my blog. I'm exploring ideas that I have been advocating for over the same 2 year period... Ideas that first appeared in my "Death of an EdTech Salesman" post after ISTE2013.

I hardly mention Nurph in my blog or Tweets anymore and will be doing so even less after this post. The same goes for Get2ISTE. The selling, as I see it in the future, has been done... So it's time to move on.

Although Get2ISTE being any kind of big success is most certainly not a foregone conclusion (See Get2ISTE2016 for more info) and I'd be happy to help any educators out in any way I can. Just ask.

... And Now

If an idea has merit, it will roll out with the early adopters through word of mouth. Sales is still vital! But the hustle is done through doing enough to convince people to give a new product or idea a go and then selling educators being pioneers and investing their time with you Vs the thousands of other companies.

So going forward the nature of my self promotion will be talking about 3D Hubs and Declara. I'm by no means saying that these are definitive solutions to data curation or educators crowd funding... but there's enough promise and synergy to warrant a bit of exploration.

If educators gravitate towards these services because of my blatant self promotion, and they find it saves them time looking for great resources and assists with the procurement of 3D Printers... I can live with any title anyone chooses to give me.

And Finally. Blogging Or Selling New Ideas

I have gone out of my way to explore the sales process and to find out what works and what doesn't. What's successful and what isn't. What is needed at the start of a new idea is to get a bit of momentum going and to find the early adopters. This takes a bit of hustle.

Once a connected educator gets hold of an idea there is nothing I can do that will rival this. Nikki Robertson, Steve Isaacs and Adam Bellow talking about Nurph will have way more impact than anything I could ever do.

However... exploring the merit in a product before others are either aware of it and/or building a case to demonstrate value is vital!

Sometimes this is a quick Tweet, sometimes its a few months of research that is required... Regardless the message needs to be put out there.

A lot of synergy with 3D Hubs and Edu Crowdfunding for 3D Printers

So I'll continue to Tweet out to people like @ISTEConnects as I did in 2014 with Nurph and before ISTE 2015 to try and get some momentum going for #Get2ISTE and after the conference with the Declara collection that I'm curating. Or to ask have you heard of Voxer? Who Sells Voxer in Edu?

I have no doubt that these messages will go largely ignored until the right amount of research has been done, and a compelling enough case has been put forward. This might take 6 weeks as it did with EdShelf, or two years and counting as it has done with curating big data.

Self Promotion and Previous Projects
I can and do mention my involvement with some of these projects from time to time. Again is this blatent self promotion? I would like to think that I use them in the hope of

1) Generating interest in the latest crazy idea, or

2) To let others know that the practices of the vendor hall are so outdated...

Search "#ISTE2015" and "vendors" on twitter and ask yourself how much longer is this model going to be sustainable for? I've already blogged about what I would do if I was the organisers.

Nurph and Get2ISTE both getting shout outs at #ISTE2015... and not a sales call made and no sales people in education (as far as I am aware).

And as for those greedy EdTech companies and sales people who are only in it for the money... I have not made a penny from any of this work. The reason for all this? Here's my motivation Sales People in Edu - The Fox of EdTech

Maybe this post will generate interest from two years ago about traditional sales dying... Ideas that again are the result of EdTechChat.

One final point on "promoting my own stuff" is that if and when any of these ideas do work out and/or I mention the role I played... I would like to think that I give credit where it's due. As almost every idea has it's source in this fantastic EdTechChat I hope that one day I might be in the position to prove how serious I am about my second Tweet below!!