What Can We Learn From Amplified Events?

What Can We Learn From Amplified Events? Brian Kelly, UKOLN University of Bath Bath, UK, BA2 7AY UKOLN is supported by: http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/seminars/girona-2010/ This work is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 licence (but note caveat) Acceptable Use Policy Recording this talk, taking photos, discussing the content using Twitter, blogs, etc. is permitted providing distractions to others is minimised. Twitter: http://twitter.com/briankelly/ http://twitter.com/ukwebfocus/ Email: [email_address] Blog: http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/ [Automated] Twitter: #udgamp10 Delicious tag: udgamp10

Relevance of Dali
Visit to Salvador Dali Museum and Jewelry Museum:
“ Without an audience the Dali jewelry will have failed to fulfil the purpose for which they were created ” *
Relevenace to the research community:
Without an audience scientific research will have failed in its purpose.
Hence importance of:
Open access to research papers & data for fellow researchers
Communication of work to general public
Openness of conferences and seminars
* May not be exact wording. No camera or pen so had to try to remember wording.

The Persistence of Memory by Salvadore Dali. Image from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_Persistence_of_Memory.jpg How can we improve our understanding & recollection of events?

About Me
Brian Kelly:
National Web adviser to UK Universities and cultural heritage organisations
Based at UKOLN, a national centre of expertise in digital information management and located at the University of Bath
Involved in Web since January 1993
770+ blog posts since Nov 2006
Over 350 presentations given since 1997
Current area of interest include Web 2.0, Web standards, Web accessibility & amplified events
Introduction

About This Talk
UK Web Focus blog post

Sharing Ideas
Work activities use Web 2.0 technologies & approaches:
RSS feeds for structured information
Geo-location data
Exploitation of 3 rd party services (blogs, wikis, Twitter, …)
Openness of resources
40 talks given in 2009 – map gives indication of dissemination & engagement activities (e.g. across UK)

Revisiting The Trips
Dopplr provides a social sharing service for trips
Incomplete map of trips since 2007 NB 2 talks in UK have amplified to Australia & South Korea
Dopplr also estimates carbon cost of trips
Questions:
Can/should nos. of trips be reduced
Can travel to my talks be reduced?
How can technologies help address environmental challenges?

Constraints of Space & Time
Amplified events can be regarded as a way of avoiding the constraints of space and time!

Getting Involved
Let’s try out event amplification:
Tag for seminar: #udgamp10
If something inspires you can use #eureka
If you don´t understand, require clarification or disagree use #qq
Notes:
Aims to encourage reflection and engagement
Approach may work better for student use
If no Twitter access available use pen & paper!

How I Came To Be Here
… Un article clau, que no deixa indiferent, és el de Brian Kelly al seu blog UK Web Focus: “ I Want To Use Twitter For My Conference ” on exposa bones pràctiques en l’ús de twitter per organitzar un congrès o conferència. Les entrades de Kelly són molt rellevants i es tracta d’un blog que trobo de seguiment obligat, igual que Mashable, Community Roundtable o Social Media Today. Kelly té una entrada rellevant que hauria de seguir: 14 UK Information Professionals to Follow on Twitter?
Per entendre la relació apassionant entre twitter i blogging, Brian Kelly ha resumit idees clares en la seva entrada A Twitter Feed For This Blog i sobretot a Can Your Blog Survive Without Twitter? Jo encara estic en fase experiental en la meva arquitectura digital social. M’ha ajudat molt. (Per cert, en aquesta darrera entrada hi surt el meu retweet de l’article de Brian Kelly. Gràcies!)
Introduction

About This Talk
Mind map
Introduction

The Amplified Conference
Term coined by Lorcan Dempsey, OCLC (and former UKOLN director) in a blog post on 25 July 2007
History

Wikipedia Article
A Wikipedia article
History Created by Brian Kelly in August 2008

Real-time peer review: 2003
'Hot' or Not? Welcome to real-time peer review
The keynote speaker was clear. He informed his audience during [the WWW 2003 conference] that none other than Tim Berners-Lee … had first referred to embedded menus as hot links.
A few minutes later, while the speaker was still in full flow, delegates … learnt that this was not the case, at least as Berners-Lee himself remembers it.
He had joined the electronic discussion that was accompanying the lecture and in a brief message … stated: "I didn't call them 'hot'. I just called them links."
'Hot' or Not? Welcome to real-time peer review , Paul Shabajee, Times Higher Education Supplement (London), 1 August 2003 History

THE Article - Concerns
Potential Negative Aspects:
“ about 10 per cent of the audience had laptops - one person was heard to say that the noise of tapping keyboards drowned the speaker out at the back of the room. … it can be very distracting having someone typing quickly and reading beside you, rather than watching the speaker”
“ There can also be a feeling of being excluded … by not being part of a particular online group”
“ It is probable that the speakers will find it hardest to adjust. It may be disconcerting to know that members of your audience are, as you speak, using the web to look at your CV , past work and checking any data that seems a bit dubious”
History

THE Article - Conclusions
Conclusions:
“… these technologies are likely to be beneficial. The added possibilities for collective learning and analysis , comprehensive notes with insights and links , often far more extensive than the speaker might have, are advantages previously unimaginable.
Perhaps the richest potential lies in the interaction between members of the audience , particularly if you believe that learning and the generation of knowledge are active, engaging and social processes
History

Using Networked Technologies To Support Conferences
Using networked technologies to support conferences . Kelly, B., Tonkin, E., Shabajee, P. EUNIS 2005 conference
Described examples
Outlined benefits
Provide deployment framework
Framework covered policy issues, user needs, technical issues, human & organisational issues

IWMW Experiences (1)
IWMW 2005
WiFi available for use at UKOLN’s Institutional Web Management Workshop (IWMW 2005)
Time for experimentation:
Wiki for note-taking & reports in parallel sessions
Instant messaging (Jabber, …)
IRC
Provided user support pages
Provided an Acceptable Use Policy (AUP)
Provided an evaluation form to see if we should be doing more of this
History

IWMW Experiences (2)
London Bombings
Day 2 took place on 7/7 – day of London bombings
About 20 people found out via IRC channel
This experience led to realisation of need to have contingency plans in case of disasters (bombs, floods, volcanic ash, …) or inconveniences (speakers being delayed)

IWMW 2005: Evaluation
Evaluation on use of technologies received from 35 participants
As a result of positive feedback amplification of IWMW events has continued and grown. Since 2008 Twitter used as event ‘back channel’

Amplified Events Today
By 2010:
Event amplification the norm for many Web, e-learning & e-research events
ALT-C 2009 4,708 #altc-2009 tweets from 747 users for 3 day e-learning conf. (700 delegates?) IWMW 2009 1,661 #iwmw2009 from 180 users tweets for 3 day Web conf. (197 delegates) JISC 2010 2,050 #jisc10 tweets from 432 users for 1 day development / policy conf. (~500 delegates?) Developments : Increased ownership of smart phones & availability of WiFi; unlimited tariffs for data; wider appreciation of benefits; ‘buzz’ around Twitter; …

IWMW 2010
Policy:
“ We will treat the remote audience as first class citizens”
Motivation:
Maximise learning through the sector
Add value for little additional costs
Explore ways of ‘greening’ event
Prepare for implications of economic downturn (lack of funding to attend events)
Enhance accessibility of learning
Case Study

IWMW 2010 Technologies
Video streaming
Live video stream & subsequent ability to download and reuse
Twitter technologies
Official event hashtag #iwmw10 together with session hashtags #P0-#P9 , #A1-A9 & #B1-#B10
Official live blogger and Twitterer
Occasional Twitter Wall display
Blog
Event blog
Slideshare
Speakers slides easily accessible & embeddable
Case Study

IWMW 2010 Interface
The interface for remote users provided by the University of Sheffield
http://www.shef.ac.uk/iwmw/

The Twitterwall
Twitterwall provided:
Access to video stream
Display of event tweets
Ability to post tweets

The Video Recordings
Videos made available for downloading after the event

Twitter Developments
Twapper Keeper developments (UI, APIs & infrastructure)

Summarizr Developments
Summarizr:
3 rd party development
Developed by Andy Powell, Eduserv, Bath
Makes use of Twapper Keeper APIs
Longer session but also controversial

Summarizr Developments
Summarizr:
Processes geo-location Twitter data provided in Twapper Keeper RSS feed
May provide trend analysis
May provide evidence of remote participation
Note use of geo-location in Twitter low due to (a) privacy concerns; (b) UI complexity; (c) patchy support; …

#IWMW10 Official Live Blogger
IWMW 2010 official Twitterer (@iwmwlive):
Invited reflections on talks
Explained what was happening to remote audience
Informed remote audience of problems
Summarized plenary talks
Responded to questions
Hootsuite used to schedule announcements

IWMW 2010 Blog
IWMW 2010 blog provided:
Summaries of plenary talks published (ideally) shortly after talk
Benefits for:
Participants who may need to write reports
Remote audience watching videos of talks
Blog post amplifies report on talk

IWMW 2010 Blog
Summaries of workshop sessions by facilitators
Benefits for:
Participants who may need to write reports
Facilitators in raising their profile
Blog post amplifies facilitators’ plans for their session

IWMW 2010 Blog
Video interviews with workshop facilitators
Benefits for:
Participants who need to write reports
Facilitators in raising their profile
Video interview amplifies amplifies facilitators’ reflections on their session

IWMW 2010 Blog
Video interviews with participants
Benefits for:
Participants to reflect on the event & what they’ve learnt
Organisers in obtaining feedback on impact of event
Video interview amplifies amplifies participants thoughts on the event

Twitter – More Than Chat
Pakrati.us automatically adds tweeted URLs to a delicious.com account (used with the @iwmwlive)

Twitter Captioning
Twitter captioning service:
Developed by Martin Hawksey, RSC Scotland
Synchronises video and Twitter stream (via TK)
Search of Twitter stream
Benefits:
Speakers (“ why did they tweet that during my talk? ”)
Accessibility
Non-native English speakers?

Auto-translated Captions
iTitle prototype can send tweets to Google translation service.
Issues:
Will constraints in size of tweets result in simple language which is amenable to automated translated?
Will available of digitised content be valuable for processing in the future?

Twitter Conversations
Encouraging Learning Through Discussions
“ Learning begins with a conversation”
Lecture theatres inhibit conversation
Amplification brings back the conversation
Engaging With The Twitter Wall Using a Twitter Wall rather than PowerPoint provides a means of encouraging discussions e.g. “ Good cop, bad cop ” routine used in IWMW 10 conclusions to encourage debate about talks

Remote Barcamps
Barcamp: “a user generated conference whose content is provided by participants ”
Remote participants had their own barcamp  Review of online barcamp published on blog

Slideshare
Slides provided on Slideshare where possible:
Remote audience can view slides
Slides can be embedded
After event Slideshare widget of all slides provided
Benefits to speakers:
Metrics on nos. of view
Avoids resources being locked in HTML page

Amplified Memories
The event tag enables photos to be easily shared on Flickr
Photos can be reused by services such as Animoto to provide shared recollections of the event Case Study

Amplifying In (1)
Plenary talk at IWMW 2009:
Provided by slidecast (Slideshare + audio) as speaker on holiday
Opportunity to evaluate “amped-in talks” – well-received
Gaps provided to allow facilitated local interaction
Slides and live Twitter wall displayed
Note planned live remote participation didn’t work.

Amplifying In (2)
Online talks given at 3 conferences in 1999:
South Korea: 11 min slidecast at workshop session
Australia: 35 min slidecast of rehearsal of talk prepared for another conference
Me: “ A few hours ago I gave a keynote talk at the OzeWAI conf in Australia. I was asleep at the time! ” Response: “ so were the audience! :-) ”
Scotland: slides + video used in double act
Issues:
Quality: dry, boring? How to enliven?
Recycling talks: good or cheating audience?

Amplified Events: Why Not?
IWMW 2010 has demonstrated:
Various benefits of amplified events
Examples of services which can be used
Examples of best practices
Benefits provided to various stake-holders
But:
What about the concerns?
Does it scale? If it a fad?
Will use in other contexts work?
I’m convinced! What advice can you give?
What concerns do you have?

Possible Concerns
Some concerns:
Privacy
“ It’s rude”
Spam
It’s not for me
Speaker says no!
Who pays?
The services may not be sustainable
Legal concerns
…
Concerns

Privacy, Data Protection, …
Digital cameras, mobile photos, camcorders, … are increasing volume of photos / videos being taken and being published online.
But what about issues such as:
Privacy
Data protection
Confidentiality
…

Addressing Privacy Concerns
Infrastructure
‘ Quiet Zone’ provided at IWMW 2009 & Eduserv Symposium 2010):
No photos or technologies
cf. ‘quiet carriage’ on trains
Culture of Openness
Organisers seen to:
Encourage openness
Explain benefits
Seek to provide opt-out

Inappropriate Content
Live Twitter wall displayed during opening & closing talks at Museums & Web 2009 conference
Much appreciated
#mw2009 tag ‘trended’
Automated spam appeared from @pantygirl!
IWMW10 Response : Accept risk: people know about spam; anti-spam measures getting better. Other Approaches : Provide moderated Twitter wall; Twitter displayed on user’s device

“ It’s Rude”
Open University’s internal conference held in May 2008
“ Three people complained about me liveblogging the Conference. They had found my typing very distracting from the presentations ”
24 comments on post
My post on need for a framework produced ~13 responses “ I was amazed when I read about Doug’s experiences. I’ve blogged events over the last few years, & never had anyone complain ”

OU Online Conference 2010
Open University ran an online-only conference in June 2010
Results show there is now a widespread appreciation of value of online events

“ It’s Not For Me”
Vive la Différence
Different individuals will have different preferences for how they engage with talks at conferences
Need to seek to accommodate such differences

It’s My Social Space!
“ My tweets are mine – I don’t want you archiving & analysing them!”
Twapper Keeper
Recent developments have been funded by JISC
Enhancements to features included ability to opt-out

It’s Illegal! Accessibility Concerns
What about, for example, legislation which requires Web resources to be universally accessible?
Won’t, for example, costs of captioning be a barrier?
Developing Countries; Developing Experiences: Approaches to Accessibility for the Real World
Paper on need to:
Avoid check-list approach
Policies which are divorces from realities of costs, benefits, …
Argues need for:
Achievable solutions
Accessibility of outcomes & purposes rather than digital resources
Provides examples of application of approaches to amplified events and institutional repositories

It’s Illegal! Copyright Concerns
What about, possible copyright misuse?
Won’t possible publication of copyrighted resources (tweets?!) leave institutions financially liable?
Empowering Users and Institutions: A Risks & Opportunities Framework for Exploiting the Social Web
Paper describes Oppenheim formula for assessing copyright risks:
R=AxBxCxD
where:
A = probability copyright infringement occurred
B = probability copyright owner finds out
C = probability they care
D = how much they’ll sue you for
Note this is intended to encourage use of a risk assessment approach

Who Pays?
What’s the business model?
Costs are hidden (part of infrastructure; swings & roundabouts; internal charging; …)
User pays? Speaker pays?? (cf author pays) Taxpayer pays?
Sponsorship
Since IWMW 2008 host institution provided streaming video (infrastructure in place; marketing of institution; trialling new technologies, …) At IWMW 2009-10 we funded live blogger (with some sponsorship): raises profile of event; gathers evidence of impact & value of event as well as supporting remote audiences Concerns

Speakers’ Concerns
Speaker’s may have concerns :
Sharing slides (in advance): will people listen?
Live broadcasting : who is listening; should I be cautious?
Recordings of audio / video : what if I look terrible; sound terrible; make mistakes?
The back channel : what if people ask difficult questions; irrelevant questions; …?
The message : Will speakers avoid being honest about problems & mistakes?
Problems : What if things go wrong?
Experiences : Speakers since 2008 informed of live streaming in advance. No problems experienced. Concerns

“ I Want To Do It!”
Some suggestions for best practices:
Do it yourself – open up your talks at other’s events
Evaluate
Learn from experiences of live bloggers
Adopt a risk assessment approach
Gather evidence
Participate as a remote participant
Read other’s experiences
Share your experiences
Best Practices

Live Blogging Experiences
Kirsty Pitkin (nee McGill)
Live blogger at IWMW 2009 & 2010
A new role – what is possible?
What she did in 2009:
Live Twitter stream on @iwmwlive
Summaries of talks published on blog afterwards
Video interviews
In 2010 team of sponsored places supported Kirsty. Scheduled tweets published using Hootsuite. Key phrases already written.

Sharing Experiences
Kirsty gave talk on amplification experiences at Transliteracy conference and wrote blog post (with embedded video clip of talk)
A photo of an image of me holding a cartoon of myself displayed during Kirsty’s talk and reused on various blogs. What are the rights & ethical issues of reuse of image?

Discussions on Rights
Josie Fraser’s policy on photos:
I’ll inform people that I’ll be taking pictures & that I’m happy to take pictures down on request.
I try to take pictures people will like and I delete pictures I doubt people will dislike
I rarely include subject’s full name in the data although I’m happy to do so on request
Stephen Downes’ policy:
When photographing public events, I adopt the stance of journalist. And from a journalistic stance, it is actually important to NOT ask permission.
If they are presenting and speaking in a public forum, they are fair game (openness & transparency)

Risks & Opps. Framework
Initially described in “ Library 2.0: Balancing the Risks and Benefits to Maximise the Dividends ”
Community support Rapid feedback Misuse Community- building Low? Twitter
Innovation will require risk-taking. The risks & opportunities framework aims to ensure:
Purposes are understood
Benefits are identified
Risks are also identified
Risks of doing nothing are understood
Financial implications are understood
Purpose Benefits Risks Missed Opportunities Costs Risk Minimisation Evidence AUP, education This talk Best Practices

Gathering Evidence (1)
Carol Gole’s slides
Slides uploaded on behalf of Professor Carole Goble

Gathering Evidence (2)
Tweet from Steve Wheeler, 25 August 2010
What is a seminar? A mechanism for creating & delivering content which is consumed by others?

Supporting Remote Audience
Supporting a remote audience has parallels with supporting people with disabilities
Can’t read slides easily
Can’t always hear
Need for speaker (& event amplifier) to be aware of such issues
Slideshare useful for remote audience Note each slide has URL – can be used to get remote audience in sync Best Practices

The Event Amplifier
The role of an event amplifier described on Event Amplifier WordPress blog at <http://eventamplifier.wordpress.com/ >.
Initial posts on Event Amplifier blog cover: (a) Amplifying event with Twitter; (a) Providing an accessible back channel; (c) The case for a live blogger; (d) Twitter buzzword bingo & (e) What is an event amplifier? See also @eventamplifier Twitter account

Professional Approaches
Questions on the day:
What has been the best bit this year so far?
What will you take away?
Will you do anything differently as a result of IWMW?
What do you think would be the impact on you or your organisation if there was no IWMW?
Timetable provided by event amplifier for IWMW 2010

Event Amplification Report
Report on Event Amplification:
Being written
Based on UKOLN experiences
Will have Creative Commons licence
Draft available for comments on JISCPress
‘ Commentable document’ hosted on JISCPress service See http://event-amplification-report-draft.jiscpress.org/

Learning From Others
Example of event amplification for ECER Conference
Timetable published
Blog post summarising amplification
Note provision of Internet Radio Show using open source Icecast software. Should there be more audio?

From Seminars to Webinars?
In the future
Will we need face-to-face meetings?
Will webinars replace seminars?
How should they be funded?

Further Advice
Martin Weller, Open University, Ed Techie blog, How to organise an online conference
Marieke Guy, UKOLN, Rambling of a Remote Worker blog
Kirsty Pitkin, Event Amplifier blog
UKOLN briefing documents (QA Focus)
UKOLN briefing documents (Cultural Heritage)
Note see delicious bookmarks for resources mentioned in talk: <http://del.icio.us/lisbk/udgamp10 >

Revisiting the Future
University 2.0 & Amplified Events
Universities’ core mission is learning & research
Amplified events can enrich both areas
The norm in the future?

Conclusions
To conclude:
Amplified events are becoming well-established in certain disciplines
Benefits are being better understood
But in some disciplines amplified events may be regarded with suspicion
There are possible pitfalls which could hinder developments of amplified events
There are increasing sources of advice on best practices
Can you afford not to engage in event amplification?

Questions
Any questions

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What Can We Learn From Amplified Events?

by Brian Kelly

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