Sep 27 2007
Facilitating with IntroNetworks
Elliott Masie always does a great job creating buzz for his events, and his use of IntroNetworks pushes the use of the software to the next level by having people like Sarah Lynes, a member of his staff, facilitate the whole colleague discovery process for big conferences. His screen-cast gives a sense of who attends and how he’s deployed the software.
As I’ve written before, this is software that you have to configure and shape according to the audience that’s going to attend your event. The way Masie uses it, the four buckets that become quadrants that are used for matching include “About Me,” “My Work,” “My Expertise” and “Seeking Solutions.” Charles Steinfield admitted that having one quadrant dedicated to “Geography” was kind of a waste of mindshare for the C&T Conference. I think it’s interesting how he invites participants to identify their age group, presumably to help you find people the same age?
I’ve been thinking that screen-casts like Masie has produced are really going to be very important in the future because they provide a way to “look over each other’s shoulders” to see how to use the software, how to configure it, and how to fit it into the social framework. I still think that this software looks and feels very separate: Masie says, for example, that email addresses are not listed (because conference participants are not trusted enough, I assume). No mashup here.
3 responses so far
Hi. Enjoyed your post about how we are using IntroNetworks to facilitate social networking at our event.
It is fascinating to combine a system like that with a person who does “connecting”. Sarah is spending about 3 to 4 hours a day sending notes to people with similar interests.
The issue of whether to expose email addresses is a tough one. I have a very public one, so it does not bother me.. I get about 2,000 emails a day.
But, many folks at events who are corporate executives don;t want their emails that available. One got really upset when a list of senior buyers for learning systems was compiled from a contact sheet we distributed at the end of a small meeting.
So, our compromise is to use the Social Networking System as a forwarding and notification service. I’d love to see us find other alternatives for trusted identity.
Once again, enjoy your blog.
Elliott
Elliott Masie, The MASIE Center & Learning 2007
[…] about the hard boundaries between “inside” and “outside” their application here and here. (That may be because people want those boundaries, however.) Interesting to see them […]
[…] about the hard boundaries between “inside” and “outside” their application here and here. (That may be because people want those boundaries, however.) Interesting to see them […]