Continuous Beta and a Healthy Dose of Paranoia

This is the original script for the Iowa State Cooperative Extension Virtual Conference keynote address. The presentation can be found www.slideshare.net/aafromaa. The recording of the keynote will be available later.

Continuous Beta and a Healthy Dose of Paranoia

Before we get started I want to applaud you, the organizers of this conference, and your administration for developing a state conference different from any other. Cooperative Extension has conducted other virtual conferences—the first one I spoke at was in 2009 when North Carolina State held a statewide technology virtual conference. eXtension has hosted several virtual conferences. This one, in Iowa, provides the efficiency you would expect but also folds in other concepts like a flipped classroom and a blended approach. I congratulate you on trying something new and taking a risk.

My discussion today will be based on a few concepts of changes and why we need to look at our work and the way others work differently. We will also discuss some skills we need to work in this new environment. We will look at how a fast and continuously abundant flow of information, including noise, makes it harder for us to listen and to be heard. It also gives us great opportunities for inclusion and diversity and how “do it yourself” creativity, innovations, and research are important to our work. They cannot be ignored. Hopefully, the discussion today will help us understand how interconnected we are to the forces of change.

The part of the title “Continuous Beta” is the first concept of change we will discuss.

Continuous Beta

Are you, both personally and professionally, and is Cooperative Extension ready to perform, produce, learn, connect, communicate, and make a difference in a perpetual beta environment? The term perpetual beta comes from the idea of keeping software in a beta development stage for an extended time maybe indefinitely. A beta stage is where software is usable but not completely tested in multiple and unforeseen situations. The advantage of having software or some systems in perpetual beta is that these systems can be changed rapidly allowing for continued development. Continuous beta also means that the system is agile.

Obviously continuous beta is not suitable for mission critical systems—such as airline traffic controls and selling products if that is your bread and butter. A beta stage to Cooperative Extension is attractive because the environment in which we are trying to make a difference is complex and influenced by fast flowing and abundant information from vast and diverse sources.

As we look at solving complex problems, we may want to look Dave Snowden’s

Cynefin framework. Complex problems have no known solutions and to solve complex problems we need to probe sense, respond, create emergent solutions and then repeat as we learn. So you see there are reasons to develop a Beta mentality about our work. We are in a time that Cooperative Extension is needed more than ever, but our successes will depend on whether we can listen and assess needs in new ways, be agile, rapidly rapidly, include others outside of the land-grant system, and be willing to experiment.

Connectedness

The Connected Worker

The Connected Organization

The next concept of change is Connectedness.  We are now connected in ways we have never before. We can Skype across the world, we can conference, share documents, and simultaneously or asynchronously edit those documents, we can share our most endearing, most embarrassing, and most mundane moments with select friends and with the world.  We can play games of strategy, bartering, and power with people all over the world and while playing these games we can have social interactions—conversations beyond the game itself.

We can take a class with thousands of others. In that class, we can select who we want to collaborate with, study with, and help and get from, with the intention of never meeting our classmates or our teacher. We can create music, movies, computer programs, and science projects with strangers. We can play music with others in outer space. If we are not the connected worker, we simply are not reaching enough people with the same goals.

I know many of you are very well connected in your local communities. That has been Extension’s model. Embed Extension agents in communities to build credibility, access needs, and help to solve problems, and change behavior—all to improve lives and our communities. The 2008 Copernicus survey found that only 27% of the population had ever heard of Cooperative Extension. Only 11% had used Cooperative Extension at least once in their lifetime. When we look at the numbers in the 18-35 year old age group, these numbers are incredibly dismal. I suspect the numbers in Iowa are better than the national numbers—but not greatly.  Cooperative Extension simply has to reach be more relevant, reach more people and brand ourselves better.  

Nodes of Networks

The fact is that we are part of many networks.

In the 50s and 60s and possibly the 70s, Cooperative Extension could set the norms of communities. Often times, the county agent was one of a few people in the community besides the local doctor, veterinarian and possibly the preacher, who had a college degree. We still hear stories today of how Extension agents were the connection to the land-grant universities. In strong 4-H programs, this may still be true.

However, the environment has changed and we are not the only ones in local communities with college degrees. This is a success of Cooperative Extension—we helped people in local communities understand the value of higher education. 

We simply can’t be setting the norms if people don’t know who we are. Instead we are now members or nodes within many networks. These networks are interconnected. The bigger the node—the more connected and possibly more influential. Our individual roles vary across networks.

When we think of ourselves as being a node within a network rather than being the one person of authority, we should change the way we do business.

More people can develop content. Yes, there is a ridiculous amount of noise. We also know that serious amateurs are doing research and are creating content that is research-based. Yes, some of content generated is biased. But remember, if we are not setting the norm (albeit we probably can name few exceptions), and we are nodes within networks.

Another reason we are not setting norms in communities is that the amount of information today available is almost incomprehensible. Every two days we create as much information as we did from the beginning of time up to 2003.

Let’s look at some examples.

Frank Kovac, a Wisconsin millworker, always dreamed of becoming a director of a planetarium. However, college math was definitely a trouble spot. Without a college degree, he was determined to fulfill his dream. He built his own rotating planetarium and you can visit the planetarium in Wisconsin.

A 15 year-old finds a new way to detect pancreatic cancer. This new way is simpler and less expensive and can be performed much earlier than the current method.

A homeless man finds a way to hack sites and becomes employed. Isn’t this exciting? Everyone can make a difference. Serious amateurs can provide innovative and useful contributions. 

So what is Extension’s role in local communities and online? I say this as if local communities and online communities are separate—they are not. We have only one life. The two are not separate. Local communities extend themselves online as well. We are members of interconnecting networks.

Communications and knowledge expertise is no longer in a hierarchy one-to-many structure like many traditional educational models. There is now dynamic flow of power and authority based on knowledge, trust, credibility and a focus on results, which is enabled by interconnected people and technology. In other words, a few experts no longer hold the authority of knowledge and information. Harold Jarche says that organizations need to learn as fast as their environments.

Is Cooperative Extension learning as fast as the economy changes, adjusting as fast as technology advances, and adjusting to the increasing flow of information? 

Can we learn to work in a wireachy knowledge environment rather than hierarchical one?

Disruptive Innovations

Disruptive technologies are innovations that put unwieldy businesses out of business. Kodak did not respond to the rise of digital photo technology and the change in customers’ and potential customers’ behavior.  Are we in Cooperative Extension blind to the pressures of public accountability, funding responsibility, and changing information political, and economical environment? 

Disruptive innovations provide new value through new products, processes, or concepts. Extension work can be affected by disruptive innovations. Mobile computing has led to mobile lives.  According to Prosper Insights & Analytics™

60% of smartphone owners say they cannot live without them.

Wearable computing and Google glasses will bring new meaning and opportunities to ubiquitous computing, visual application, and geolocation. Wearable computing will provide new opportunities for sharing and contextual information. Wearable computing will provide new challenges particularly to privacy concerns and information filter abilities. Google glasses and wearable computing increases data, choices, sharing, and perspectives in ways we cannot imagine.

Let’s consider what your own faculty described. Nancy Franz and Ronald Cox in the Journal of Extension offer these reasons as to why Extension does not embrace disruptive innovations as threats or opportunities. The bolded ones are the ones I am most concerned about.

·         Lack of urgency to innovate

·         A lack of diversity in customer base and staffing

·         Strong linkage to academia, bureaucracy and historic slowness to react to change

·         Lack of operating with a business mindset

·         An expert model paradigm rather than collaborative paradigms with clients

·         Over reliance on rural customers

·         A lack of customer management/tracking over time

·         Status quo 

·         Over dependence on past sources of funding

The challenge is to not get in the way of innovation and to develop structures that support the messy process of experimentation, creativity, innovation, and failure. 

Big Data

What do we mean by Big Data? Everything—purchased, searched, shared and every response and location can be and will be recorded. We have entered a time of having increasing information on almost everything. Companies use this information usually in aggregate to targeted marketing messages and these tactics are becoming more and more just-in-time.

For instance, at big sports events, phone companies gather data on users within in specific location and the data are combined with demographic data and are sold in aggregate to marketers. Companies can determine if sponsorship at a venue drives sales. Big Data allows companies to see trends and patterns to make production and service decisions as well.

Big Data also provides community, health, environmental, finance, and economics information. We will continue to amass more data that can better predict epidemics, for instance. Big Data means that more sophisticated analytical tools need to be created. Not only will we need better decision tools, but also knowledge workers will be called on to have higher levels of sense-making skills and programming skills.

On a negative side, there is no doubt that people will grow more concerned over privacy invasion.

Extension’s role is to understand the implications and how to decipher and make sense of findings. We have great potential in helping others understand the benefits of big data and the changes in privacy. We need to be able to filter and interpret the information.

We must be agile in working with a variety of organizations in coming up with practical solutions—possibly on the fly. In times of crisis, we may not be able to have tested research in hand. Are we positioned to react in minutes, hours, days, and weeks? Months will possibly be too long.

Race with the Machine Economy

We are now already in a data, knowledge, and service economy.

Big data, machine automation, machine learning, artificial intelligence, knowledge automation and services are changing economies.

MIT professors, Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee, tell us that the traditional method of measuring economic growth does not accurately measure the value in innovations, services, and current economic changes. The knowledge and service economy does not adjust to government and other interventions as when we were in the industrialization age. During the industrial age, manual laborers shifted from rural locations to urban locations.

Innovations in service industries and technological advances don’t displace only the manual laborers. Machine/computing automation has already replaced people like bank tellers. Knowledge automation or artificial intelligent systems are replacing tasks performed by higher level knowledge workers, such as legal staff and some accounting professionals. Computing systems now perform legal discovery, costing a small fraction of legal staff and these systems are much faster and more accurate. Hopefully, these systems mean lower billed hours. These systems also find documents that are related through concepts—related concepts that could be helpful to cases.

You may ask then where legal staff members who have done these kinds of services go. It is possible for them to “step down” in the career ladder. Or, they could become better sense-makers with better analytical skills to “move up” in the career ladder. Legal staff members now are called to curate information and organized the most important information found through automated discovery.

As smart as these systems are, the best knowledge systems are those where humans and computers collaborate—working together. A new thought on virtual collaboration, heh?

The good news about improvements in technology is that it creates massive wealth; the bad news is that not everyone shares in the prosperity.

You could be listening to all of these changes and question whether Cooperative Extension can survive or whether you, as an Extension professional, are ready or willing to get ready for all of these changes? You may also be thinking that these changes are not going to affect your local community. I would caution you on having that kind of thought. Interconnectedness cannot be underestimated giving you power or making you insignificant.

But I have hope. I have a lot of hope. Cooperative Extension is needed more than ever. But, we simply can’t wait until “our clients” adopt technology—I would argue most already have. And remember we are not reaching enough people. For those people who we are not reaching and should, how do you think they are working in this connected world?

Where do we start? What skills and mindsets are needed to succeed? Most of the skills and approaches fall in an individual domain to take responsibility for developing. But, please also think about the culture and leadership can influence a learning organization.

Skills need for the Connected Worker

Curation

Curation is a perfect opportunity for Cooperative Extension. Curation is what we already do at the local level, particularly one-to-one interaction. Local agents put information into context, helping clients understand benefits and options. The online curation is an aggregation of lots of information from lots of sources, filtering the most important, making sense of the information within relative points of context, and designing discussions, articles, and graphics in ways to help others understand. Curation is much more than aggregating. It’s making sense of all that we know at a moment of time. Curation should be done in a public, open, shareable way so it is use can be multiplied and scaled. Curation can be done with others. Virtual collaboration enriches the curated product.

Extension professionals are groomed to become online curators and providing thoughtful filters. Some example curation tools are:

Scoop.it Community Gardens –Illinois

http://www.scoop.it/t/community-gardening-resources

                                                                                                                                    

Twitter Paul McKenzie, Ag Agent

 https://twitter.com/pgmckenzie

Pinterest: Master Gardeners http://pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=master%20gardener&rs=ac&len=10

                                                                                                                                    

Blogging Military Families http://blogs.extension.org/militaryfamilies/

LinkedIn: Early Ed for Military Families

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=4276983&trk=myg_ugrp_ovr

                                                                                                                                    

Paper.li Stan Skrabut, Wyoming

http://paper.li/skrabut/1344968231

Kurator Bob Bertsch, ND State

http://kuratur.com/ndbob/netlit.html     

Storify This presentation

http://storify.com/ndbob/forward-looking-concepts-in-extension

Google Plus Network Literacy https://plus.google.com/u/0/100994641102542483850/posts

Informal learning

Only 10-20% of learning takes place in formal settings. Informal learning is the responsibility of the individual. The opportunities to connect with others like yourself and those you would never have a chance to meet are endless—Embrace it. The skills needed today are changing as fast as the environment is changing. It is essential that one finds new information and keeps up to date. But keeping up date with only the latest journal findings will keep us woefully behind. As professionals we have been called change agents—change agents do not wait until their clientele has adopted technology to adopt technology—change agents adapt technology first.

One tactic of informal learning is to have planned serendipity.  That is to put yourself in communities that you have never been a part of. Learning a technology just because. Learning a concept outside of your focus area. We don’t come up with new ideas by continuing only the connections we had. We develop new ideas when we are exposed to a diverse opinions and knowledge.

Technologically Adept and Socially Savvy Online

Staying connected means that one has to become technologically adept. This is one of the 10 skills named by the Institute of the Future. Along with the technology skills we in Extension must learn to connect, converse, build, and maintain relationships like we have traditional taught young agents as they began their work in local communities. Another skill in the Institute of the Future report is to be able to virtually collaborate. We don’t have the luxury physical meetings to do our work effectively.

A professional and staff development unit can carry you only so far. You have to be assertive in learning.  In fact any Extension professional who is not willing to learn is not only is hurting him or her self but is doing a disservice to the greater Cooperative Extension system and to his or her community.

Some suggest that college graduates today need to know basic HTML—the programming language behind every web and mobile application.

The eXtension Network Literacy Community of Practice is an excellent way to get started. They use a variety of ways for professionals to learn including virtual immersive learning.

eXtension’s Learn site provides webinar offered by different institutions. For instance Stan Skrabut from Wyoming lists all of his social media sessions on eXtensionLearn and welcomes others from other institutions.

Balancing new and old

Knowledge workers will need to learn to balance integration, oversharing, massive information, noise, finding, and sharing the relevant.  Accountability is not only reserved for government and watch groups, but now is possible at the ground level. We will continue to balance calls for rapid responses and try to stay focused for the long-term goals.

Society will struggle with more polarized politics and opinions, possibly enabled by sharing and connectedness. Extension will struggle as how to work with diverse audiences who have much different views than we do personally.

Balancing will evolve. We can start by not polarizing the questions we have. Why do we say face-to-face is always better? Instead maybe the question is what are advantages and disadvantages of face to face and virtual? Or maybe we should ask how we can enhance the effectiveness of both by merging them? For instance look at how television networks are embracing and capitalizing on social media around movies, showing and big sporting events.

Confident Paranoia

This is probably the only time you will hear the word paranoia in a positive sense. It is a skill every advisory council member, program assistant, local agent, campus faculty, middle manager, administrator, and university president should develop.

Confident paranoia means you are not comfortable where you stand as a professional and you are not comfortable where your organization stands. Confident paranoia means you know there is always someone or something that can take over and that there are ways to adjust and serve better and differently. 

I recently met a young man who played football for a mid-major Division I school in the Southeast. He later played a short while for the pros. He was teasing a few of us about the Auburn and University of Alabama football rivalry and then he got serious and he explained why he respects Alabama’s Coach Nick Saban—the University of Alabama has won 3 national championships under Coach Saban since arriving at Alabama in 2007. He also won a national championship while at LSU years before.

The young man explained how young athletes (the ones who get recruited to major Division I schools like University of Alabama, Ohio State, and Notre Dame) have been told that for the last 8 to 10 years of their lives that they are great because of their abilities, strength, size, speed, and athletic smarts. In the local communities, college potentials are held high on a pedestal—with pride as locals want these kids to succeed at the next level.

Saban recruits these great athletes—like all great coaches. These athletes become Coach Saban’s first, second, and third string players. Saban does not tell his players how great they are. Instead, Saban continues develop players making each one better. If they want to keep playing they have to keep getting better. This is a healthy dose of paranoia—knowing that someone can take your place.

Imagine if Kodak had had a confident paranoia when making the decision not to embrace digital technology. Imagine if Blockbuster had had a confident level of paranoia and reorganized and rebuilt the business based on buyers’ changes in behavior.

In the case of Saban’s great college football players, they, most of the time, can identify the next player and compare the next player to his own strength and weaknesses.

In Cooperative Extension, we can’t necessarily identify the next player, but we can see the horizon. Being a little paranoid should lead us to make changes that keep us from becoming obsolete.

The complexities of society, environment, energy, public health, knowledge, data and service based economy, and feeding 9 billion people mean that Cooperative Extension is needed more now than any of us can remember. But we can’t solve problems, make a difference and reach enough people if we don’t embrace the opportunities and benefits of working differently.  This means developing individual skills, and organizationally letting go of some controls, and learning to probe, sense, and respond to emergent problems.

It is an exciting time to be working for Cooperative Extension because our potential for making a difference could not be better.

My challenge to you is find one or two things you will learn to do differently with the goal of reaching more people, connecting with someone with whom you would not normally connect, or collaborating to develop programs with someone outside of your normal area of work and comfort area.

All the resources I used can be found: http://storify.com/ndbob/forward-looking-concepts-in-extension and I welcomed continued discussions. Email me or you can openly make comments on my blog http://blog.anneadrian.com/

I want to thank you inviting me today. Also I want to give a shout out to Robin, Lisa, Brian, Daniel, Nancy, and others for guiding me and helping me feel comfortable with the broadcast.  As always, the Iowa State web conference crew is a topnotch group to work with.

References:

2008 Copernicus survey https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B2SZOh3K1wNmNjcxNTliOTEtZjlkYS00MmFkLTg5ODYtYzRkMTIwZTQ1YjRi/edit?hl=en&pli=1

Normative to nodes

http://missionextension.wordpress.com/2011/04/13/from-normative-to-nodal/

Rate of information

http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/04/schmidt-data/

Frank Kovac http://blogs.extension.org/militaryfamilies/2012/09/06/the-frank-kovac-effect-and-what-it-means-for-your-future/

15 year old finds a way to detect pancreatic cancer

http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnnosta/2013/02/01/cancer-innovation-and-a-boy-named-jack/

60% of smartphone owners cannot live with their phones

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/4/prweb10667294.htm

Disruptive Innovation in Extension

http://www.joe.org/joe/2012april/comm1.php

Organization and creativity   http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324744104578475220275737136.html

Marketing and cell phone companies

http://allthingsd.com/20130522/phone-firms-sell-data-on-customers/

Steven Rosenbaum design and curation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=iASluLoKQbo

Informal learning

http://www.informl.com/where-did-the-80-come-from/

Informal learning

http://www.jarche.com/key-posts/personal-knowledge-management/

Planned serendipity http://www.flickr.com/photos/aafromaa/3004285748/

10 Skills needed for the future

http://www.iftf.org/our-work/global-landscape/work/future-work-skills-2020/

Working for Cooperative Extension's Future

Below is statement (adapted slightly from its original purpose) of some of my views on how Extension should be approaching marketing, communications, and educational efforts. In the spirit of transparency, I am sharing these thoughts and would love to hear from you on these concepts and other ways that we can do a better job of convening education, communications, and marketing in Cooperative Extension.

The flattening of the information flow indicates that communications and marketing methods should take advantage of the knowledge and appreciation of others and engage them. Also online and offline behaviors are becoming less separate. We already see this convergence in those who have never known life without the Internet. Today’s youth do not have separate online and offline lives—they have one life—a concept that most adults have trouble understanding, yet our future depends on our understanding these changes.

While we know that those who use Cooperative Extension are very satisfied with Cooperative Extension, we are not widely known to the public (2008 Copernicus Survey). Only 15% of the U.S. citizens between the ages of 18 and 35 have heard of Cooperative Extension, and only 27% of the US adult population knows who we are. A dismal 5% of the younger adults have used Cooperative Extension and 11% of the US adult population has used Cooperative Extension. These findings indicate that we need to do a better job branding Cooperative Extension. Part of the strategy is to blend our educational and marketing efforts—organizationally and individually. Faculty, agents, and staff who represent Extension everyday are our best resource (haven't we said this for decades?) and the best way to develop and deepen our credibility by working differently.

Some concepts and traditional approaches to education and marketing should continue to be the basis of our work, however Extension needs to find ways to reach and scale the effectiveness of our programs and meeting new expectations of the public. This different way of working includes communications, marketing and educational efforts that are merged and building relationships with people who don’t come to our meetings or into our local offices.

Working differently to connect with others includes being open and transparent, learning and sharing simultaneously, and embracing co-learning and contributions outside of land-grant universities. Interestingly, these values are not different from the early days of Cooperative Extension with on-farm research and in-home demonstrations. Today though, we have the ability to scale and spread the interaction and engagement in new ways.

While we want to continue to use some traditional marketing efforts, occasionally we need to jolt audiences or potential audiences with unique and disrupting messaging. Cooperative Extension generally does not want to upset (for good reasons) our existing clientele—clientele who are often like ourselves. Sometimes we have to test the system in order to make progress with clientele who we are not currently reaching by using disruptive messages in education, communications, and marketing. This approach may come with risks but has the opportunity to reach new audiences. These decisions should be considered and weighed.

Some elements of a converged educational and marketing effort:

• Start with a mindset that marketing is not a separate function than the educational function and that these efforts are everyone's responsibilities--not just those in the communications and marketing units.
• Make a habit of listening (like any good marketing plan)--listening in communities we are not active in and in communities where we already have relationships. 
• Think of building online relationshps like we think of building relationships locally.
• Think about how to share while we are learning. We don't have to wait until published results are available to start discussing what we already know.
• Develop a plan of work but make sure there is room to adjust. Opportunities may come about in unexpected ways.
• Plan and develop strategies and tactics for communications, and most importantly, engagement, but be flexible to seek new ways and discard ways that don't work. 
• Know that community building and participation are works in progress and will grow, but the growth may be more like a curving spiral and less like a line.
• May need to target certain connections and interests.
• Be ready to identify new connections because of serendipitous encounters and plan for serendipity.
• Evaluate based on goals and search for patterns of activities, evaluating each stage and change tactics along the way.
• Involve more than one person to keep organizational accounts up-to-date as staying consistent is difficult with only one person.
• Encourage individuals to establish and develop their online reputations.
• Understand social media is more than Facebook and Twitter and is more than the technology itself. Contributing in collaborative environments maybe the very best way to grow ourselves.

The process of "scaling" ourselves without growing our organization begins with understanding what the challenges, opportunities, and characteristics of the future.

"The medium is the message. This is merely to say that the personal and social consequences of any medium - that is, of any extension of ourselves - result from the new scale that is introduced into our affairs by each extension of ourselves, or by any new technology."  Marshall McLuhan

McLuhan discoveries help us understand that failing to interpret how technologies shape us and how we shape technology means failure to be prepared for the the future.

Some of the ideas in this post came in part from some books I have read recently. I found these books particularly useful as we look at Cooperative Extension's future:

The Connected Company by Dave Gray and Thomas Vander Wal

The Race Against Machine by Erik Brynjolfsoon and Andrew McAfee

Where Good Ideas Come From by Steven Johnson

The photo is embedded from Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/67194724@N03/8357047751/

Rivalries

It did not dawn on me until I read a tweet that said something like " I want Notre Dame to win because I don't want the SEC to win another championship" why I have struggled with this game.

I have ties to both Alabama and Notre Dame. For goodness sake, I live in the state of Alabama and work for Auburn University. My nephew has a degree from Notre Dame.

Put this in perspective: in about an hour Notre Dame and University will be playing for the NCAA National Football Championship (Division I).

One of the most talked about titles about this game is Cousins vs. Catholics. UGH REALLY!

I hate categorizations. Period. I do it my mind. Many categorized because they want to make sense of a complex world but I hate categorizations and chastise myself when I do.

I have until this point not chosen a favorite--the team I want to win tonight--or the team I want to lose.

In 2010, Auburn University won the National Championship. It was so much fun to watch Auburn play. It was fun to watch Cam Newton thrill us. And before the Cam Newton controversy started, this video of the quarterback who loved helping kids was produced. This video about the influence for kids who need an influence:

Prior to the Bama game, SEC championship, and National Championship in 2010, there was much hate on Twitter,  Facebook, and blogs gainst Auburn and Cam Newton. Crazy as it seems, a man allegedly poisoned our beautiful oak trees. The controversy and the hatred made me realize that I am better than that! And so is most everyone else!
It was back in 2010 that I vowed to myself to

• be for something or for someone; 
• not be against an organization and not against a particularly person.

The politics in the US have become polarized and unproductive mostly because more about being against the liberals or against the conservatives, and not for what individuals believe in. The Obama and now Boehner (during the election is was Obama vs. Romney) hatred is disgusting to me.

• We have the freedom--express your views. 
• We have leaders in this country--respect them. 
• We have different views in this country--learn from them. 
• Pray or give positive thoughts toward leadership.
• Know that being against a person or an organization will not lead to long term productive results.

Off of my podium: here is my thought about the game.

This game tonight is fun and is important for the pride of winning. I hope I see a hard fought ballgame that signifies that each team deserves to be there.

Additionally, I hope that all athletes and coaches show their abilities and meet their potential and give to their communities because they have great opportunities to do so.

May the best team win! And afterwards, many benefit from the participation of college athletes.

Stop looking through windows: social media in higher education

In discussing the roles of a new communications director for a College of Agriculture, a colleague said "We still have a need to do some of the traditional things like press releases, but we need to get into social media for marketing and branding."

My response was "That is all good, except social media is much more than that. A communications director for an educational institution should understand that social media should be used for education." Why is it that we always look for the marketing aspects? Every organization should consider the educational component and the ability to connect with others as integral parts of purpose and strategy of using social media.

Education institutions, in particular, need to look at social media as ways to further our educational mission. The big four--Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube--can be used but so can many other tools, like blogging, curation, and collaboration tools. Part of understanding how social media can be integrating into education is learning to how let go.

Sharing educational resources and discussing in the open can enhance both education and research efforts. Students and serious amateurs* contributing to content, ideas, and research can confirm that we are on the right track and that more diverse ideas can spread faster, speeding innovation and research.

Communications units at educational institutions should be helping faculty learn how to effectively use open online tools and support them as they become involved in online social environments.

If social media and online tools are effectively used connecting with others, expanding education, enhancing our own learning and research, then the marketing and branding will be embedded within those efforts, making the formal marketing and branding campaigns easier.

Looking at social media as marketing tools only is like believing that looking through windows helps you understand what is in the trees.

Partial lyrics from Breakdown by Jack Jackson:

But you can’t stop nothing if you got no control 

Of the thoughts in your mind that you kept and you know 

That you don’t know nothing but you don’t need to know 

The wisdom’s in the trees not the glass windows 

You can’t stop wishing if you don’t let go 



Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/opensourceway/5752191166/
by http://www.flickr.com/photos/opensourceway/

*Jerry Buchko uses this term to describe the value of inclusion of others in education, research, and outreach.

Something stinks (or is mediocre)

In this post called Reality Management, common problems in practice in a  restaurant, and in business, are described.

• Distracted Leader 
• Ambiguity 
• Aimless Direction 
• Something Stinks

The last point stuck out to me as something we often overlook when we talk about marketing, online content, and our organization's work. If something stinks, or if we are mediocre and are so very general that we are like everyone else, flashing how good we are means nothing, or at least very little.


In the reality restaurant example, the offensive odor maybe spoiled fruit. Is our content is stale or so old and general it gives even a mild offensive odor? Is the odor the carpet? Is the writing and presentation just bad or boring?

We can create a fantastic meal but if the stale odor permeates the experience, then the meal is not enjoyed or or the customer just walks away.

Heaven forbid that the meal itself stinks.

I don't think everything, or even most of what we do, we do stinks--far from it. But, when our redundant and stale content gets seen over the good and excellent content, we create unpleasant environment, and we lessen our credibility.

Social media is not marketing

When I tell people my title, Social Media Strategiest, many react with similar responses. "So, you are in marketing?" or "You market programs (Extension programs) through Facebook?"

Marketing and communications departments have been ordained the keeper of social media in most organizations. This means in many cases, marketing has tackled social media like they approach any marketing project with campaigns and broadcast dissemination.

Social media is not marketing, as the telegraph is not marketing, television is not marketing, and the telephone is not marketing. Marketing can exploit these tools but the tools do not belong exclusively to marketing.

Wikipedia uses a definition of social media from Kaplan and Haenlein. To understand this definition you have to understand the definition of Web 2.0 and user-generated content.

Social media includes web-based and mobile based technologies which are used to turn communication into interactive dialogue between organizations, communities, and individuals. Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein define social media as "a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content." Social media is ubiquitously accessible, and enabled by scalable communication techniques.

I rather like the definition that Kevin Gamble and his colleagues used in an internal survey.

Social media refers to the various networked technologies that enable people to easily connect with other people for the purpose of communication, collaboration, learning, and the sharing of resources.

Terms "social business" and "social learning" are springing up, suggesting that the social part--the engagement--is important to other functions, such as customer service, sales, human resources, professional development, research, and development, to name a few. THREE CHEERS to those using social media for purposes other than marketing. Though there have been indications that social media is more than marketing for a long time, it seems that social tools are now getting some traction (though not enough) of being recognized for their value of social engagement across the organizational functions.

What are the possibilities when organizations understand and embrace the power of listening, sharing, cooperating, collaborating, and co-creating inside and outside the walled gardens--permeating the walls?

What are the possibilities when organizations fail to understand and embrace the power of social media throughout the organizations? The risk of failing to see and respond is greater than the risk of trying and finding ways that make sense for the organization.

Social media can be anything that uses tools to share, cooperate, converse, collaborate, and co-create. Organizations and professionals still don't really have a clear direction in how to use social media. Unfortunately, most don't think beyond the big four--Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and LinkedIn. There are many tools that allow for public and private sharing (just as the big four have elements of some privacy options).

There are many tools that allow intra-organizational sharing and collaboration within their walled gardens. In Getting Beyond Simple Social, Thomas Vander Wal talks of five areas that he asks when organizations become stuck in using social business tools. Is getting stuck related to:

• The person
• How humans are social
• Cultural influences - or cross cultural issues
• Organizational constraints
• Problems with the tools / service

Vander Wal's list tells us that technology is only one of the five reasons why plateaus happen in organizations' social systems. Through his experience, he sees that "getting stuck" in using social systems usually happens for more than one reason. We have to think beyond the tool, yet the tool is important.

In an IBM study "If You Don't Have a Social CEO, You're Going to be Less Competitive" (Forbes), it is predicted that in 5 years 57% of CEOs will be using social media. CEOs are beginning to understand that email and phone communications are no longer sufficient. Why? Because the knowledge and information shared on the phone and email are stopped within the tool. CEOs and others are beginning to understand that using social technologies help engage with customers, suppliers and employees which will enable organizations to be more adaptive and agile.
Those organizations that see social media as something that can reach across and bridge functions and find value in seeing their customers as part of their organizations are the ones that will find the quickest and greatest benefits. Organizations that see innovation as a two way street will reap the benefits.

The tools, the media, are the enabling pieces. To capitalize and to benefit from social media is to understand that being social means engaging. Social generally means working in small circles. Communicating in large circles becomes much more akin to broadcasting. In most cases, it is through small close circles in making information viral.


This post is not about being against marketing using social media. This post is that social media is a lot more than marketing. In the process of the engagement that occurs in social spaces, marketing is achieved. In a recent conversation with Karen Jeannette, she talked about sharing success stories on the Master Gardener blog is more like public relations and marketing than education. This is great example where the focus is education and most posts are educational. but success stories are mostly marketing and public relations that have an opportunity to be educational. Often with educational posts and sharing marketing can be achieved.

Social tools allow for integration and cutting through silos in ways we have never had before. While reducing the silo effect is exciting, achieving this goal will happen when there is a mindset that allows for social integration and diversity.

Fighting and loving

On Monday, we will be attending funeral services for to my brother-in-law, Cliff Bishop.

Cliff was a hero and a fighter. He served as a Marine in the Vietnam War where received two Purple Hearts.

He fought for his health the entire time we have known him. Some of his health issues were related to the injuries that he endured during the war. Nancy and Cliff have had an incredible love and commitment to each other. They were perfect for each other. I don’t say that lightly—they were. I truly believe the love they had for each other is very rare. He adored her, supported her, listened to her, and cared for her. 

She was his constant and never yielding caregiver. The best adjective for Nancy is strong. My mother has said many times in the last few years, “I just don’t know how much a body can take” referring to Cliff’s struggles. In that sentiment, she was also making a statement of how much pressure, work, time, sacrifices, and emotions my sister was giving and the possible toll Cliff’s health was taking on my sister. Certainly their faith held them close and strong.

Cliff adored Nancy from the early dating days to his last moments. My extended family spent a few days of Christmas holidays at the beach this year. Cliff struggled with what he ate, his energy level, and his overall health, at Christmas, as he had for many years. But, though he was not well, he was always kind and gentle to Nancy in all of his conversations. He touched her lovingly and called her sweet names, including “Beautiful”. His eyes told everyone present he was still very much in love with Nancy. Nancy gives this advice to all her nieces, “Don’t marry anyone who does not adore you”--wonderful advice from someone who knows what it is like to be adored.

Though they would have made great parents, they never had children. Cliff told Nancy that he felt that her nieces and nephews were his own. He particularly enjoyed working with Owen and Ellen (the two who lives in the same town) and having them over at their house.  Always supportive thinking of our kids, he and Nancy would bake cookies and desserts, made especially for the kids.

Cliff was a wonderful carpenter—one who was not satisfied unless it was perfect. The results of his skills will last decades and decades in homes in Alabama, Georgia, and Texas. He was also a perfectionist in the kitchen. His chocolate chip recipe is example of his perfection, describing down to the number of seconds one should beat the batter before adding the next ingredient.

Cliff was a fighter. He fought for his country, for his health, and for every breath he made in his last few hours. Cliff modeled how to love a wife, to adore her, to fight, and to live when life throws you one difficulty after another. Their pastor, Randy Tucker, told Nancy an hour after Cliff passed away, “Cliff influenced many people, not only in his healthy years, but also when and how he struggled with his own health.”

Reflections of a Personal Learning Workshop

When I was contacted to do a workshop at the North Central Leadership Conference on personal learning. I was really excited about this workshop because it is not like ones I have done before and I have lived and experienced tremendous jumps in my own personal learning through my online work.

I was not prepared for my inability to link my own experiences and my own working online to the personal learning development of others. Some who attended the workshop said it was "good" but for me and watching the lack of participation, the workshop was lackluster.  I did not see a lot understanding or enthusiasm.

Throughout the workshop I emphasized you must do, Though I did not spend a lot of time on applications I did mention them as part of the "doing" and "being" in the online space. I talked about developing an ability to connect with others, unlike yourself, and using the knowledge and sharing of others to develop your own personal development. I talked about how sharing makes the connections stronger.

I also discussed personal learning is up to the individual. Personal learning is not developed or mapped from the professional and staff development department. I wanted people in the room to think and discuss. Evidently I was not motivating enough or did not draw a clear of enough path to lead to discussion.

Personal Learning

View more PowerPoint from Anne Adrian

Personal learning is a series of activities that is mostly a crooked path. No one's path is like any other. The personal learning path, through connections with others, is an accumulation of reading, connecting, discussing, and experiencing along the way that helps one makes sense of concepts, patterns, research, and overabundance of information.

Personal learning is entirely individualistic. Jane Hart discusses this in context of organized learning and she quotes Jay Cross in his description that the individual is in control.

“Informal learning is the unofficial, unscheduled, impromptu way most people learn to do their jobs. Informal learning is like riding a bicycle: the rider chooses the destination and the route. The cyclist can take a detour at a moment’s notice to admire the scenery or help a fellow rider.”

Thus the highly individualistic and emerging learning happens when the learner allows it to happen and creates opportunities to learn. There lies the problem in encouraging others who "don't get it" because they have never experienced an aha moment or a gradually realization or personal or informal learning.

It seems that not until one experiences the "lightbulb" moment through listening or through connecting (which involves listening) does one understand the power of personal learning, the power of being in control of their own learning. Sharon Boller wrote in a tweet about serendipitous opportunities, learning, and listening.

"It is a lightbulb moment when you realize the big gain in social is the listening. 

As I begin to rethink the workshop and as I have a few more on my plate, I am looking for better ways of inciting the understanding and responsibility of one's own learning.

Here are the articles that I used in a someway for preparing for the presentation.

And a final note, I encouraged folks in the workshop to join or follow the Network Literacy Community of Practice.

• Join Network Literacy Community of Practice.

• Network Literacy Community of Practice web site.

• Webinars for Network Literacy.

• Follow fictional character Alex NetLit on Twitter as she learns about using networks online.