In an event that saw online collaboration become face-to-face interaction, the first CrisisCommons International Congress took place in Washington DC last week. Representatives from 25 cities, 10 countries, and 5 continents gathered at the World Bank Headquarters to discuss the future of CrisisCommons, and CrisisCamps, the impromptu goodwill hackathons that popped up en masse following the earthquake Haiti.

Left Button’s Brian Chick was on hand to take part in shaping this organization, along with almost 70 others from all over the world. A combination of developers, coders, communications experts, disaster response professionals, doctors, and lawyers, were all part of the Congress, and all given a voice in trying to decide what direction the organization should take, and just how much of an organization there should be. This was a community based on openness, collaboration, sharing, and equality, so any sort of organizational hierarchy needed to respect that.

To all involved, the experience was described as incredible. Aside from the progress and discussion, the international collection of like-minded individuals was inspiring and motivational. Everyone left Washington with a renewed enthusiasm and is now working on making the strides set forth in the board room.

This is a new version of a video produced by Erik Qualman (@equalman on Twitter), author ofSocialnomics. It makes some interesting points about the popularity of social media, and what effects it has on businesses an marketing. At Left Button Solutions, we understand this ever-changing dynamic and want to help your business stay up-to-speed with your social media, and Web 2.0 initiatives.

Anybody who knows me knows I love curling. Most of my nights in the fall/winter and many of my weekends are spent at curling clubs playing in leagues and tournaments. Recently, we decided to combine some our business, with some of our hobbies, to raise money for a worthy cause. Left Button Solutions teamed up with Rock Solid Productions to create “Curl for Haiti” a day-long event that invited experienced curlers and rookies alike to spend an afternoon curling, eating, and drinking.
Promoting the event using social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, we quickly filled the event to its maximum capacity of 80 people. All proceeds went to the Red Cross, to aid with their humanitarian and relief efforts helping Haiti Recover and rebuild following the earthquake (I should also note, there was a CrisisCamp meeting in Toronto on the same day to help offer technical help to volunteer organizations in Haiti and Chile).

Thanks to our sponsors at Wellington Brewery, we were able to raise more than $1,500 for the Red Cross. Thanks to everybody involved, and we hope we can run similar events in the future.

Following the earthquakes that devastated Haiti, humanitarian aid is hugely necessary in the country. Not everybody has the money, the time, or the resources to fly down there to help offer medical attention, aid in the rescue efforts, or volunteer in some other capacity. CrisisCommons.org, however, has created opportunities for techie folks all over the world to pool their resources and volunteer efforts to create useful projects to help those in need.

Left Button Solutions has gotten on board with CrisisCamp - Toronto, the local chapter of CrisisCommons. So far LBS has built a blog to use as a central coordinating location, but in the future efforts could expand to a wiki, or other multimedia projects. LBS is happy to be on board, and grateful to CrisisCommons.org for making the opportunity to get involved so simple.

The Toronto group is headed by Heather Leson and plans to have their first meeting on January 24, 2010.

Now that I’ve had a couple of days to reflect on my time in Utah, I figured it was a good idea to put some of those thoughts down in writing to make them feel more official. The ACLEA conference was a wonderful experience for me, as was the chance to present with my friend (and client) Jennifer Flynn. Our presentation on LESA’s wiki project was well received, although we got a bit sidetracked answering philosphical questions (”How does an author get credit in a wiki?” and “Wouldn’t it decrease the quality of your material?” etc.), so we didn’t actually get to showcase the actual technology that much.  I’m sure we could have gone on quite happily about wikis for several more hours if it hadn’t been lunch time.

I was fortunate to meet a variety of people in the Continuing Legal Education field and many of them were interested in the topic of wikis and other technology. It was wonderful to talk to a group so passionate about what they do, and willing to try new things to improve their existing methods of content delivery. Over the course of the weekend, there were several discussions involving Web 2.0, Facebook, Twitter, etc. and it made me aware of the huge gap between those who get it and those who don’t. I left with some ideas and over the next few days tried to put them into actual thoughts. And here’s one of them.

The Webcast Dilemma

Of the dozens of sessions, ACLEA was able to formally offer 7 of them as live webcasts. While most of us agreed that it was a nice thing if you couldn’t actually make it to the conference, there was some debate over whether it would ever be an adequate replacement for in-person seminars. And at dinner and over drinks, it was said again and again, “You don’t get this kind of networking experience from a webcast.” And I agree. Those who argue that webcasts are the seminars of the future, take a few minutes and think about these three points.

1) Nobody likes to sit at their computer watching fuzzy video. Your monitor is not a TV, and the seminar is not Entourage (or Dexter, Sopranos, Weeds, Grey’s Anatomy, Lost, etc… Take your pick). Television is entertaining and informative because it is written, produced, edited, vetted, colour-corrected, audio-adjusted, and formally packaged to look and sound great on your TV. Pointing a handi-cam at a speaker and a Powerpoint presentation in a poorly lit conference room isn’t quite the same.

2) These sessions are generally an hour or more in length. Think about any video you’ve watched on the internet. If it was produced with a handicam, webcam, or by any sort of non-TV/Film people, it was likely less than 10 minutes long. Think of the last thing you watched on the internet that was MORE than 10 minutes long… chances are, it was done by professionals. The point? If you’re convinced that you need to put your seminar online with limited staff and budget, keep it short. Either offer it in small pieces, or perhaps cut a highlight reel of some sort.

3) Don’t go live. Unless you’re a reporter at the scene of a major event, there is very rarely a compelling case to do a LIVE webcast. Sure, for important announcements or speeches, or if you decide that instant online feedback is required, you can hire somebody to shoot, encode, deliver, and generally manage your live webcast. If you think your viewers can wait 20 minutes to see the presentation, then other than shooting, that whole process can be done by our friends at YouTube or Vimeo for the low, low, price of… FREE. Speaking with the experience of eight years in live television production, I assure you it adds pressure you don’t need, variables you can’t always address, and the potential for disaster that can simply be avoided.

4) Finally, people don’t use the internet like they use a conference hall. You don’t sit down at the table with your binder of presentation materials and a coffee, and intently take notes. The internet is a different animal. People sitting at a computer will have the urge to click on things if you’re not keeping them riveted. So why not offer them some useful things to click on? Aside from your presentation material, offer some useful links and resources to complement the actual content of the session. So even if they aren’t paying attention to you, they’re at least taking in some of your message.