JoelFoner.com

How to Tell a Powerful Story in Text Chat

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every Tuesday at 12pm noon U.S. Pacific / 3pm Eastern time

This Tuesday, June 1 at the Epoch Institute in Second Life™

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This Week’s Topic

How to Tell a Powerful Story in Text Chat

Some discussion topics flow easily. A “hot issue” appears in the news. An offhand mention of a thought-provoking idea.

Once in a while an topic appears that seems important, but is “off the radar” for most of us. Sometimes it’s so much a part of our daily routine that it seems commonplace, yet has the nugget of an interesting area to explore. How to Tell a Powerful Story in Text Chat is one of these topics.

We have become accustomed to communicating in text chat. This new medium is commonplace and seems familiar, yet in some ways is “all new”. Some people have figured out how to be storytellers, people who can engage our imaginations and keep us “hooked” to read as they type, not looking away or multitasking off to the next shiny, interesting browser window.

There is something subtly, yet importantly different about text chat compared to other electronic text forms, such as email, blogs and web pages. Text chat is interactive in a different, faster, and more spontaneous way. People see thoughts appear as they form. The bits of concepts show up as they are typed, rather than after careful editing of some longer form piece. At the same time, text chat feels like the longer form, traditional writing forms.

This week we’ll explore strategies for telling powerful stories in text chat, discuss how stories get rearranged and restructured to be effective in text chat form, and practice techniques for text chat storytelling.

Join us Tuesday at 12PM noon U.S. Pacific / 3pm U.S. Eastern time for an interactive discussion, and thanks for being part of “We Are The Network”!

If you do not have a Second Life account and would like a quick start to attend the session, please contact me for more information.

Best regards,

Joel

Reading links below – have fun and see you soon!

Read more…

What is a Twitter Group Chat?

When you first start out with Twitter, you find that you can post status updates, and your followers will (may?) see them. Then you learn that putting an “@” sign before someone’s Twitter name creates a reply. Conversations with more than a couple of people get pretty awkward with only these tools.

Luckily, some folks figured out that by adding a “hashtag” (#), you create a unique phrase that is easy for Twitter Search to find. This is what enables Twitter Group Chats to work. For instance, searching for #hockey will find an on-going stream of Tweets about hockey.

It didn’t take long for people to realize that you could organize a group chats with hashtags. Twitter Group Chats are highly socially viral. They encourage lots of social interaction, and spread quickly, assuming the topic is interesting.

Twitter Group Chats are socially viral in a big way, and here are the six reasons they spread so quickly!

1) Starting a Twitter Group Chat is “Too Easy” Read more…

We thought we knew the world of public presentations. We developed material, practiced the craft and delivered an experience to our audiences. Our craft was to entertain, to inform, to provide an experience. The audience’s role was to sit, absorb the experience, be quiet, and wait until some lucky few have had their chance to stand and ask a question or make a comment.

Then things started to change rapidly. Technology-enabled societal shifts started moving the ground under our feet.

The Rise of the Networked Audience

Through global communication technologies, people of all types now have access to each other and access to information at any point in time or space. They’ve gotten used to the idea that they can and should be able to discuss, rate, rank, prioritize, link and create conversations in text with anyone, at any time. They comment on and rate everything—movies, web sites, blog posts, music, videos, books, vendors, manufacturers… and you… and me. Social media everywhere has made this hyper-connectedness a part of everyday life.

They expect to do these things with the premise that everybody gains. That it’s their right. That sharing information and opinions is a duty, a core ethos of society. It gives us all the ability to help mold the world by collectively indicating what we think is good, and what isn’t so good. It’s a way to help other people make choices. It’s a new way of looking at the world. It is a new sort of collaboration.

This kind of communication can be terrifying because everybody in the room and around the globe can now Read more…

I have been asked to be a panelist today at “Endorsements and Ethics in Social Media”, to talk about the implications of the new disclosure guidelines published by the Federal Trade Commission.

John Jainschigg, Executive Director, Internet & Technology Lab, ZiffDavisEnterprise is moderating today’s event and the panel will include Clint Boulton, Senior Writer at eWeek.com (ZiffDavisEnterprise) and Mitch Wagner, Senior Writer at InformationWeek.com (TechWeb).

You can watch on the web http://www.stvirtual.com/todaysvid.html at 1pm Pacific / 4pm Eastern, or if you already have a Second Life account please feel free to join us at http://slurl.com/secondlife/SmarterTechnology%201/230/98/34.

Please see the announcement below for more information):

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Join the editors of SmarterTechnology on Friday, December 4, 1 PM Pacific/4 PM Eastern, for a LIVE virtual event:

Endorsements and Ethics in Social Media – New FTC Guidelines

New FTC guidelines for online ‘endorsements,’ announced in October and now in effect (as of Dec. 1), aim to make more explicit sponsorship arrangements between online content providers (e.g., bloggers, Tweeters, Facebook posters, viral-video uploaders, etc.) and the companies and products they cover (opine about, retweet, call attention to, and/or “build buzz” around). What will these new guidelines mean for the commentariat, publishers, viral marketers, corporate bloggers and other stakeholders?

Guests:
Joel Foner, New-Media Consultant, Blogger (ex. Sidewinder Linden)
Clint Boulton, Senior Writer, eWeek.com (ZiffDavisEnterprise)
Mitch Wagner, Senior Writer, InformationWeek.com (TechWeb)

Moderator: John Jainschigg, Exec. Director, Internet & Technology Lab, ZiffDavisEnterprise

JOIN US ON THE WEB VIA VIDEO AND CHAT

1. Register on the web at http://www.smartertechnology.com/c/s/Smarter-Technology-Virtual-World/
2. Confirm your registration by clicking the link in the email you receive. (Check spam filter!)
3. Return to http://www.smartertechnology.com/c/s/Smarter-Technology-Virtual-World/ – click the Login tab, and log in with your email address and password
4. Press the Engage tab for our web-based conference center, where you can view the live event on video and participate via text-chat.

JOIN US LIVE IN SECOND LIFE

IF YOU ALREADY HAVE A SECOND LIFE ACCOUNT, AND HAVE THE SECOND LIFE CLIENT INSTALLED ON YOUR COMPUTER: Please register as above, and confirm registration, then click this link to teleport directly to our virtual conference center:
(SLURL) http://slurl.com/secondlife/SmarterTechnology%201/230/98/34

IF YOU DON’T YET HAVE A SECOND LIFE ACCOUNT, WE’LL MAKE YOU ONE:

1. Register at http://www.smartertechnology.com/c/s/Smarter-Technology-Virtual-World/
2. Scroll down (on the second page of registration) and fill out the CREATE SECOND LIFE ACCOUNT form to create a Second Life avatar.
3. Download the Second Life client for Windows, Mac or Linux and install.
4. Plug a headset into your computer.
5. Log into Second Life — You’ll appear at our virtual conference center.

ABOUT SMARTERTECHNOLOGY.COM

Sponsored by IBM, smartertechnology.com is an online community for strategists and IT decision-makers seeking to improve sustainability, efficiency and profitability through intelligent implementation of advanced technology throughout the enterprise. Join us online at http://www.smartertechnology.com

EMail sent by: John Jainschigg, 28 East 28th Street, New York, NY 10016

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This should be an interesting discussion – I hope to see you there!