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It’s All Geek to Me March 1, 2010

Posted by Steve Boneham in : presentation, HowTo, slideshare, Training, conferences, JISC , add a comment

These are the slides from my ‘lightning talk’ at JISC dev8D on how developers in the JISC community can communicate with a broad, non-technical audience. Given the time constraints of a packed and very interesting event, my presentation was neccessarily a little light. Whilst most of the points I make are common sense, being asked to talk about this at dev8D implies that there is still something of a communication problem between the developers of a system and it’s end-users, so it doesn’t hurt to remind ourselves of the obvious occassionally.

Slidedeck

As these slides might not make too much sense without the speakers notes, you might want to view the slides and notes in context on Slideshare or read them below…

Its All Geek To Me
View more presentations from Steve Boneham.

Slide 1

I’m a little wary of sterotypes such as digital natives or the google generation and of extrapolating from these. So while preparing for this talk I scanned for some evidence that the geek sterotypes are still in common usage. Just to be clear, I consider the term geek to be a compliment. Developers do some amazing stuff that the rest of us benefit from, but only if we can understand it and use it.

Slide 2

The first ‘evidence’ I saw was a tweet on the launch of data.gov.uk. This is a resource with amazing potential to give public access to public data. However, that’s only true if the data can be made available in meaningful ways. Luckily, as hubmum put’s it, the geeks came to the rescue.

Slide 3

The next was from Tony Hirst, talking about the responsibilities of developers to make data available to the masses - or as he put it in his tweet - the mortals.

Slide 4

That idea of responsibility is why I think this is an important issue. No offense to developers, but no matter how good your new system is, it’s only as good as the uses that people put it to. So, if there is a communication problem, how can we make it better?

Slide 5

Well the first responsibility is to know your audience(s). As this is where the sterotyping starts, let me defend my position by explaining a little about what I do.

Slide 6

I’m a trainer at JISC Netskills. We provide end-user training in web technologies for 1000s of staff from the education sector each year, as well as producing training materials for institutions to do their own. As such, we work with a fair few of (what I assume to also be) your audience. So although I’m presenting anecdotal evidence, it is at least based on a relatively large sample size (even if one that may be biased by being an audience seeking training). To do this, we need to work at the interface between geeks & mortals, taking the systems and ideas of developers and translating them into something users can put into practice. That often requires us to speek both geek and mortal.

Slide 7

I should also declare that I’m part of the mortal audience. Before working in tech, I spent 10 years as a researcher working on HIV vaccines. As such I worked with some extremley intelligent and capable people. Similar sterotypes applied here regard to the problems of scientists communicating about their research with the general public. The key for both scientists and developers is to recognise the nature of their audience and adpat accordingly. So what can we say about a typical audience for systems developed for use in academia?

Slide 8

Firstly, don’t underestimate how little awareness there is of technologies that you might consider to be mainstream and well-established. Your users aren’t stupid, but tech is just a tool that they pick up to use when they need to, then put away again. They don’t see the world through the lens of technology as many developers do. RSS is a good example of this. For something so fundamental to the modern web that offers real and immediate benefits to users, surprisingly few people in the audience we work with know what it is or make use of it. They’re typically familiar with web browsers and facebook, but much less so with things like RSS, AJAX or XMPP. As for emerging services like google wave, buzz or pubsubhubbub…

Slide 9

A recent example of this was when ReadWriteWeb (RWW) introduced FB connect as a way to allow login to their commenting system. They made a post to announce this and it soon found it’s way to the top of the google SERPs for ‘facebook’. As a result, a not insignificant number of people found their way to RWW and logged in believing they were logging in to a new version of facebook.

Slide 10

That highlights that many users are disorientated by the ever-increasing rate of change in technology. When a geek looks at this ever-changing landscape they see possibilities and opportunities to do new things. When a mortal looks at it, they can often see change and increased choice as confusing. Many people prefer to take the well-trodden, familiar paths with technology, even if new systems are better. So developers need to be careful when adding new system to this already crowded space.

Slide 11

Change is never easy for people and is often met with resistance and inertia. Academia (and academics) is traditionally thought of as being slow to change and the rate of change of technology outside this world can sometimes appear to be inversely proportional to the rate of change inside it.

Slide 12

So, how ‘happy’ are your users likely to be when you present them with your new system? Well, that largely depends on how it is presented to them.

Slide 13

All too often, it’s as an uninspiring product manual or piece of documentation that tells people how to use a system, but not why. I’d argue that this approach might be necessary, but is not sufficient for people to truly understand something new.

Slide 14

What we need instead are some carrots – reasons why a system will help people, their life easier or make them more productive.

Slide 15

That needs some evangelism. Being passionate about tools, selling their benefits, motivating people to try the tools for themselves in context of own practice. An excellent resource for this is the Developer evangelists handbook. But before you get carried away, remember to check that with some pragmatism. People don’t need to know all the gory details about every tool that exists and their probably not going to use them all. They’re mroe likely to find a tool in time to use it and find out just enough about it to do so.

Slide 16

So, how does all that translate into communication? Well, this is a simplified version of the model we use for our training. It’s based on elements of Blooms’ taxonomy, Kolb’s experiential learning, Honey & Mumford learning styles, Ecclestone’s autonomy to name a few of the giants of educational research whose shoulders we stand on. The key point is that instruction in new technologies should focus first and foremost on the ‘why’. Without this hook, it’s unlikely that people will be motivated to find out how. So we start with some evangelism, then move onto guided practice to hopefully sow the seeds towards the transformation and pragmatism needed for true independent practice.

Slide 17

Consider starting with something akin to a quick elevator pitch. What would you tell someone about your service in 2 mins? What are the key points to communicate? How would you get them across effectively?

Slide 18

Make sure your language is appropriate to your audience and remember the principles of writing for the web, such as using plain English, an inverted pyramid structure and front-loading.

Slide 19

One of your best assets are the people ‘formerly known as the audience’. They’re the one’s use systems in anger. They will find problems you’d never thought would be problems and solutions that you’d probably never come up with. So encourage them to help each other and help you. If you listen, they’ll give you vital feedback. If you let them, they’ll help write the manual, not just read it – as well as make videos, write reviews, make suggestions…

Slide 20

Mix your media. Without veering off too much into learning styles territory, different people prefer to learn in different ways and through different media that suit those ways of learning. Consider what media would work best for your evangelism or for facilitating some guided practice. For example, many new services launch with a short video overview about the why, more than the how. Back these up with more in-depth guides, FAQs as well as forums to encourage discussion.

Slide 21

Problem is that not everyone is happy (or good at) presenting, recording podcasts, making videos, writing manuals or facilitating training.

Slide 22

So finish on a shameless plug that if you need help with any of this, we can help, just ask. That’s what Netskills is here for!

Slide 23

Image Credits.

Podcasting (JISC RSC-NW) January 20, 2010

Posted by Steve Boneham in : podcasting, HowTo, video, Training , add a comment

This is a slidecast produced for participants in an online training session on podcasting for JISC RSC-NW. The idea is to give participants the opportunity to come up with ideas for what formats and approaches would work for their podcast before the event, so that the time online can focus on the practicalities of producing a podcast. Following that, we hope they’ll put this into practice to produce and publish a podcast to encourage review and discussion with others.

Practical Support

If you have any questions about producing your podcast, please add them to the comments below. We will monitor this post and respond as soon as possible. This will also give other participants the chance to learn from your questions and perhaps by answering them. To help with this, you may wish to ’subscribe to follow up comments’ which will send you email notification when we reply or another comment is made.

If you have questions that you’d prefer not to share with the group, please email me at the address provided in your joining instructions for the session.

Is anyone remotely interested? October 7, 2009

Posted by Steve Boneham in : HowTo, presentation, Training, conferences , 6comments

megaphone.jpg

I’ve been asked to present a ‘webinar’ on the web2practice project for JISC RSC Eastern in December and have been thinking about how best to present to a remote audience. As someone who’s often in the remote audience for events, I’m aware of how difficult it can be to engage and maintain people’s interest. So, as this will be my first attempt to present to a purely remote audience, I’m hoping for some advice from those who give and receive presentations.

As I commented in a post on Powerpoint on UK web focus, I think engagement is the key issue for a remote audience. Looking at engagement stats for videos of some of my presentations, many more people hit stop within 5mins than have ever walked out of a live presentation (although maybe they’re just too polite!) .

So, how do I keep remote participants interested?

Here’s a rough outline of how I plan to approach this:

Anything else you’d recommend?

Podcast: Introduction to Podcasting March 26, 2009

Posted by Steve Boneham in : podcasting, HowTo, social media, Training, JISC , add a comment

podcasting microphone

A brief introduction to podcasting and the training offered by Netskills recorded for JISC RSC-Eastern. It’s always painful to listen to yourself, but I hope it’s less painful for you!

Listen to more podcasts from JISC RSC Eastern

photo credit: gpl via stock.xchng

Evangelism & Pragmatism June 4, 2008

Posted by Steve Boneham in : Training , add a comment

photo: www.flickr.com/photos/coba/1825369

I’m naturally sceptical about most things - including new technology - so it came as a shock to be called an ‘evangelist’ recently. To me that conjures up an image of someone whose desperate attempts to persuade people to agree with their views just makes them sound like a nutter! So have I been brainwashed by the shiny new technologies, or are they really offering something different that’s worth evangelising about?

One of the (few) perks of my job as a trainer is being paid to play with new technologies so that I can help other people understand their potential. That often puts me in the position of trying to ‘convert’ people to users of technology. I like to think I give a balanced view, but recently I’ve found my self saying much more about the advantages and far less about the issues - so what’s changed?

Well, first the tools have just got better. By that, I mean the technologies freely available to any web user, not just those of us working in universities. My friends used to be jealous of the tools my institution provided, but now even my mum uses web tools that are every bit as powerful.

It’s also a lot easier to get started. You don’t need the support of an IT department to use Googlemail, Netvibes or Facebook. There’s no download, no installation and no financial cost. Together with improving interoperability that also means that picking the wrong technology has less consequences than it used to. Don’t like you’re free social bookmarking tool, then move to another freebie with a couple of clicks (as i did recently).

But what about the problems? Unlike my idea of an evangelist, I can still see problems with the technologies I preach about. For one, adopting any new technology is difficult, no matter how intuitive they are. I know people who doggedly stick with outdated technologies simply because they’ve got used to them. It’s amazing what people with put up with to avoid change. So in an age where new tools are appearing at an unprecedented rate, people can feel overwhelmed by the choice. It also means there’s the gap between early and late adopters is getting wider.

Another is that powerful tools can be dangerous in untrained hands. With new tools seemingly being so intuitive, many people understandably don’t think training is necessary. But without understanding some of the basics of how the web works, that can lead to problems. An example that springs to mind is friends wondering why it takes to long to upload photos from their digital SLRs to facebook. When I start talking about compression, they just start to glaze over.

Overall though, I think there are more dangers in not using new technologies than there are in using them. That’s why I think evangelism is also the pragmatic approach. So I’ll try not to t take offense next time someone calls me an evangelist!