It is difficult to let go of the old ways ... from powerpoint to wikitation

Photo in flickr - Letting Go

 

I have to prepare for a presentation at the Integrated Media Conference (public broadcasting) at the end of the month called "Lessons Beyond the Field."   The description is:

Public broadcasting isn't the only industry that's exploring the role of social media in their work. Community groups, nonprofits and other entities are embracing Web 2.0 at an amazing pace, and some of their experiences can serve as valuable lessons for what we may want to develop as well. In this session, we'll focus on three sectors: nonprofit groups, public access television and community-oriented citizen journalism.

I'm also trying to move from powerpoint to wikitation.  Let me define the term:

Alan Levine, CogdogBlog, invented the term and also has some excellent examples here. A Wikitation is a presentation delivered in a wiki. It can be a great tool for conference presentations -- to present material, examples, or take notes for your session.  It also serves a resource leave behind!  And, if you're lucky enough to have colleagues who have used wikitations on similar topics and have made them available under CC "BY"  license, you could certainly rework their material.

I'm not the only one who is making the shift from solitary powerpoint to the more social wikitations.   I discovered this post from Alec Couros, reflecting on his recent presentation in a wiki for emerging technology.

When I began preparing for the presentation, my first instinct was to use a presentation tool (Apple Keynote). I got about 3 slides in when I realized that my brain no longer operates that way. I opted for the wiki-presentation method.

I borrowed from another similar presentation facilitated by Rob Wall and Donna DesRoches. I thought for a bit about just going in and editing their wiki for my presentation. I’m sure they wouldn’t have minded, but I guess I just felt my digital immigrant accent cut in when I thought 1) I shouldn’t mess with their stuff, and 2) about the need for some control over my own work.

Wow, no wonder it’s hard to convince others of trying to let go of “old ways”.

I have a wikitation I did with David Wilcox over at his social media wikispace and now pondering whether or not to set up my own little wiki space, partly because I have to rework the material for a different audience and partly to organize and point to the collection of wikitation spaces I have distributed over all over the Internet -- a sort of Beth's Blog As Wiki Portfolio.  As Alec mentions, there is the control over your own work.  For me,  I don't care who borrows it - as long as they give me attribution.  I'm finding that I so willing to collaborate and let go, that I have no presence - I'm distributed all over the place.   

Hmm .. maybe that is a good thing?

Comments

[Alec Couros]

I love the Flickr visual, Beth.

You know, I've followed Alan's work for a long time now, and I didn't realize that wikitation came from that direction. Thanks for the links ... I missed have been off the aggregator for that day. :-)

Thanks for your thoughts and best of luck in your next wikitation.

[John Powers]

"a sort of Beth's Blog As Wiki Portfolio."

Maybe this is trivial, but it seems to me the issue of easily finding stuff, your own stuff, is a very good reason to have such a location.