sea grant: new tools for outreach and engagement

New Tools for Outreach and Engagement

“In the Beginning...”

What does “Web 2.0” mean?

is an abstract term for using the web to create community, dialogue, and interaction.

Lev Grossman explains:It's a story about community and collaboration on a scale never seen before.

It's about the many wresting power from the few, and helping one another, for nothing, and how that will not only change the world, but also change the way the world changes.

Web 2.0

Communication to our audiencesused to be one-way,

now they want to talk back.

They don’t just want to talk back- they bring a web of friends, colleagues, and like-minded strangers with them to

participate in the dialogue.

It’s a big dynamic collaboration - it’s social networking!

Social networking is talking to people where they are and finding out

more about them.

Sounds like a relationship, doesn’t it?

Why do we want to participate in social networking?

We are scientists, educators, and most of all ENGAGED people

“Tell me and I'll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I'll understand.”Chinese Proverbs quotes

If we can reach peopleand help them understand the world we share

EVERYTHING gets better...

“O.K., fine. What’s social networking?”

WOW

What do those numbers mean?

What are people doing, looking for, or getting from

their social networking activities?

Is social networking a casual or intensive activity for us? Is it

marketing, relationship building, one-way, two-way, outreach?

Those are critical questions that we will be looking at together...

Are we doing any of this?

Yes! Oregon Sea Grant has a presence on

all the major social networks.

Blogs: First Sea Grant blogger: Bill Hanshumaker, on Antarctic research cruises in 2005 and 2006

Blog-BreakingWaves: Launched by Communications in 2007 focused on news releases, publication and event announcements, etc. Quickly became the most-frequently accessed page on our web site.

Extension faculty bloggers: Rob Emanuel - more on him in a bit...

Google Groups: Tim Miller-Morgan is also using Google Groups to communicate with his Northwest Aqua-vets group.

Newest blog: Visitor Center volunteers Michael Courtney and Annie Thorp will be blogging their equatorial research cruise aboard the Wecoma next month promoting the blog to science teachers and their students.

Blog talk radio - Learning Out in the Open: Free-Choice Learning call-in talk show. John Baek, Shawn Rowe, Lynn Dierking hosting.

Podcasts: Ocean Learning, available on iTunes and via RSS feed, takes the videos developed for use with iPods at the Visitor Center and extends them to the larger world.

Communicating Climate Change: Joe Cone's audio and video interviews with leading social scientists on the challenges of communicating complex science to the public.

Wikis: Used for internal collaborations to provide an easy space for filesharing and discussion. Examples include the Regional Research and Information Planning, SARP Grantwriting, and Human Dimensions of Wave Energy Generation Research Project.

Twitter: Rick Cooper "tweets" each entry in Breaking Waves. The Twitter feed is also fed to OSG's FaceBook Page, so we're reaching three different audiences with one post.

Newest FaceBook page: HMSC Visitor Center set this up last Friday, sent out one email to our own staff, posted to our blog and mentioned it on many of our FB pages - and today we have 218 followers.

We have a foot in the door,

One of our team, Rob Emanuel, has given this a lot of thought, and is really exploring

its potential....

But we can open it wide -

Rob Emanuel, North Coast Extension

What value does this have to my client base?

When personal interaction is required, the National Extension Brand report displays disconnects between what our clients and the general public say (statistics for those who are very likely to):

However, once online, the differential between what our clients and the public say become small (again, those who are very likely to):

What does it mean?Between March 1st through August 24th of last year, H2ONCoast had about 28,000 visits and 38,000 page views, making it the third most popular blog on the OSU blogs server.

Not bad, but what does that really mean?

The wonder of analytics

The wonder of analytics

Virtual tools for outreach

Who are these people we are talking to?

It would be nice to know more about themWhat they Think How they Learn

And what they Care about

The Visitor Center and Free-Choice Learning

We are asking those questions at the Visitor Center.

And we are developing a Free-Choice Learning lab that will use technology tools to help us find

answers.

The evaluation tools will be integrated into exhibits, classrooms, and outdoor spaces

Video capture and human recognition software

Where did they go next?

How long did they stay?What did they do while they were there?

Reading Facial Expressions

How did they feel about it?

Did the visitor take any language with them to the next

exhibit?

“Fish, stop touching me, my turn, Crab, cool, invasive

species”

“Hungry, Crab, Tsumani, Wave, yuck, don’t call me

invasive”

Audio capture and transcription

Handhelds using augmented reality software

Adding layers of interpretation on the world

Adaptive ExhibitsExhibit can ‘see’ a child approach using recognition systems...

...and adapt the content to be age appropriate.

Exhibit can ‘hear’ spanish being spoken using audio recognition systems...

...and switch to bi-lingual content.

Imagine...The Research

The Content Evaluation

The Advancement of Education

The big pile of data....

The Experiments

This meeting is being liveblogged.

The ideas presented today, as well as many, many moreare available at http://blogs.oregonstate.edu/osgprojects/

Conclusion

“The way we communicate with others and with ourselves ultimately determines the quality of our lives

”-Anthony Robbins

“Communication is the real work of leadership.”-Nitin Nohria