How to Participate

The Community Structure and How to Participate

The community is woven out of several different social tools of the web. You can participate on many levels and with as few or as many of the tools of the community as you desire. The following describes the different aspects of this year’s community environment. Please take a moment to explore the possibilities. If this looks overwhelming,  and are looking for a place to start, you might start with the NAIS Facebook page and the netvibe page. This combination will allow you to join in Facebook conversations as well as monitor other activity within the community. As time progresses, you may want to venture out into some of the other areas of the community.

 

Word Press Blog-
NAIS 2010 Annual Conference Community Blog
https://naisac10.wordpress.com/

This site serves as the main entry point into the community. This is a place to learn about the community as well as stay up with any changes and events that may happen through the community. As events occur in other areas of the community, they will be reflected through this blog. Therefore, you will want to BOOKMARK this site and visit it often. This site contains all of the information you need to enter into the community conversations. It will also have regular posting related to events leading up to and throughout the conference. If you want to share the community with others, simply pass them a link to this site (https://naisac10.wordpress.com) and invite them to join in the conversations.

 

Facebook- NAIS Page
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/NAISnetwork
What is social networking (Facebook)- Video
www.facebook.com

This is the official NAIS Facebook page. Therefore, this is one community space that will remain active long beyond the other spaces in this community. This is also one of the main spaces where you can get information, post updates and join in conversations with your peers. For those new to Facebook, this will provide a unique opportunity to experience and gain a better understanding of a space where many of our students interact. To join the conversation here, you will need to set up a Facebook account and become “A Fan” of the NAIS page. You can do this by simply going to www.facebook.com to set up your account then http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/NAISnetwork to join the NAIS Facebook community. To interact, simply “write on the wall” (main page of a Facebook page) or start a discussion from the “Boxes” tab.

 

Twitter
http://twitter.com/naisac10
What is Twitter?- Video
www.twitter.com

Twitter is a microblog where participants can leave a post of 140 characters or less. Now you may be asking…What can you say in 140 characters? I submit the Nike Swoosh as an example of what can be said with ZERO characters. You will be amazed with what you can learn from Twitter and how much information can be passed through this interactive space. You can simply choose to monitor the Twitter feed as displayed through Netvibes or you can join in the conversation. Simply go to www.twitter.com and setup your personal account. Then go to http://twitter.com/naisac10 and click “Follow”. We will be using this account and others to post information throughout the conference. We will also be using what are known as “hash tags” or #tags. The tag for this year’s conference is #naisac10. For each post you make through your twitter account related to the conference, simply type #naisac10 as part of the 140 characters. This will make your post show up in the conference feed as well as easily searchable by anyone at the conference or following the conference through Twitter. You can use a tool like Tweetdeck to search and pull all tweets with the tag of #naisac10 or simply follow the conference feed on Netvibes. You can also follow the conversation by simply going to http://twitter.com/naisac10/community and clicking “follow this list”. This will create a community of Twitter users and make it easy to follow throughout the conference The list name is @naisac10/community. If you use a hand-held device (iPhone, Blackberry, WM Phone or other smart phone, there are many Twitter applications that you can use on your device. This would be a great opportunity to explore these tools. Not sure how to do that, just post a question in the Facebook community through Boxes and see if anyone can help.

 

Netvibes
http://www.netvibes.com/naisac10
What is Netvibes?- Video
www.netvibes.com

Are you looking to follow the conversation? Do you want to get conference information quickly? This is the place. The link above provides a public page that serves as a dashboard to anything AC 2010 related. That is, from this one page, you can monitor conference blogs, easily access the official conference website, follow the conversation on Facebook, track the conference related tweets and other information as the conference progresses and the conversation extends beyond the last day in San Francisco. Sound like too much to do? Well, take a deep breath because it is as easy as bookmarking http://www.netvibes.com/naisac10 as a favorite and making a plan to visit the page often. For many, this might be the place to start. From here, you might venture into some of the other spaces. The best think about Netvibes is that there are no accounts for you to set up. Just go to the link above and you are there. This is a space that should evolve over time as the community evolves. Think of Netvibes as a dashboard that brings all of the information for the community together. To participate in the conversation though, you will need to set up an account for that part of the community. Then you can simply click on the tool from Netvibes and have your say.

 

Diigo
http://groups.diigo.com/group/nais-2010-ac
What is social bookmarking (Diigo/Delicious)- Video
www.diigo.com
How to join Diigo Group- Video

Diigo is a community bookmarking tool as well as a web annotation tool, Here, you can experience Diigo by simply searching the tool or by becoming a member of the Diigo community and joining the NAIS AC 2010 group at http://groups.diigo.com/group/nais-2010-ac. When you join the community group, you will have a chance to receive daily digests via e-mail of resources community members have shared with the group over the past 24 hours. To participate, simply go to http://www.diggo.com/ and set up your personal account. Then simply visit http://groups.diigo.com/group/nais-2010-ac and click Join this Group. For those who want to engage in dialogue focused around these resources, Diigo also provides the opportunity to exchange ideas. Just click Topic and start a conversation. All activity in this group space is included in the 24 hour e-mail digest. If you want to save a resource to the Diigo group, sign into Diigo and save it to the group. If you choose to explore the Diigo part of the community, we suggest that you install the Diigo toolbar. This will make your interactions through Diigo almost seamless.