So True

"We are all different, there is no such thing as a standard or run-of-the-mill human being, but we share the same human spirit. What is important is that we have the ability to create… This creativity can take many forms, from physical achievement to theoretical physics… However difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at.”

Stephen Hawking, 2012 Paralympics Opening Ceremony.

Happy Fathers Day Dads

NZ Volunteer Awareness Week.

Volunteer Awareness Week 2012 was celebrated in June!  Celebrations were held across the country - we hope you got involved in these events and recognised the valued contributions of volunteers to the community.

During the week many great celebrations were held across New Zealand.  Volunteer awards were held in Hamilton, Nelson, Tauranga, Hawkes Bay and Christchurch.  Volunteer parades and marches planned in Palmerston North and Gisborne, and a fun photo shoot of Marlborough volunteers. The photo included representatives from 130 voluntary organisations.

The Nikau Foundation Corporate Challenge held by Volunteer Wellington recognisde corporate volunteers within the region and the positive impact they have to society.

The Volunteering Canterbury Volunteer Recognition Awards were held in Christchurch to acknowlege the contribution of volunteers. The event had a great turn out and took the front page of The Press.  Volunteer Nelson held a successful Youth Recognition Event with many speakers and entertainers - with over 150 young people recognised!

The theme was 2012 was 'Building communities through Volunteering'.  We hope you enjoyed events and celebrations to recognise the valued role of volunteers across our nation! 

How to Get sued for using Twitter

Twitter is an amazing communications tool.  I type a message of 140 letters, press a button and off it goes to my 750 "followers". If they like it, then they may send it onto their followers. Potentially my message can then get to 225 000 people. If all those people like it and re tweet it, then that is 55 million people! Imagine what my Klout score would do if that happened (I am currently 63, Obama is 99 out of 1o0 and Justin Bieber is  92 ). I digress a little. 

As twitter has grown, we have seen grown adults cry over tweets, people resign, hide and get sued. While this is still a new field, Luke Scanlon a technology law expert at Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com has listed in The Register of the UK ten tweets to avoid if you do not wish to be sued. These in summary are: 

1. Using someone else's Branded Tweets or Hashtags. eg #Qantas #Southwest @Unitedairlines  potentially could result in a damages claim if the use creates a "likelihood of association or confusion with the products or services of the trade mark owner"
2. Copied tweets-  if the tweet which reproduces the work of another gives evidence of that other individual or company's unique choices in choosing and arranging the words or images or sounds.
3. Revealing personal or confidential information
4. Threatening tweets -  if the person to whom it was directed has a genuine belief that physical harm is imminent.
5. Impersonating Someone else is fraud 
6. If the tweet is deceptive in nature or likely to deceive 
7. Menacing Tweets - If a tweet could create fear or apprehension in the minds of anyone who may reasonably be expected to see it then the tweet can be considered menacing
8. Malicious tweets done with the intent of damaging another's business, goods or services through false statements
9.  Harassing tweets 
10. Defamatory tweets - you are libelous if you send a tweet which lowers a person's standing and expose them to 'hatred, ridicule, or contempt'. Does that mean I cannot Tweet about any politician?

When we let freedom ring

When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every tenement and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old spiritual, "Free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last."

-- Martin Luther King Jr. "I Have a Dream" speech, August 28, 1963

#Biebs move over for Pres. #Obama

An event occurred this week which has impacted on the content of one of my Social Media training sessions! Up to this week, the world's most influential man on the internet was Justin Bieber. This little known fact excites or dismays my workshop participants.

In the last week, this changed with Obama moving to the top spot of the most influential person on the internet and Beiber sliding down. The arbiter of this is Klout, a somewhat controversial measuring tool. Barack Obama has  a Klout score of 99 out of 100 up from 95.  Justin fell an incredible eight points from 100 to a new Kout score of 92.

The cause of this swing was a change in the Klout algorithm. Previously Klout only measured Facebook and Twitter. Now Linkedin, Foursquare and Blogger are included. If you have a Wikipedia entry, this will also impact your score.

The effect of the new algorithm was a jump in my score from 57 to 66. This was after a period of lower activity from me which had seen my score drop down to 47. One of the other upgrades Klout is introducing is the provision of information on what activities cause your score to go up and down.  That will come in the next few weeks.

Klout says that the average Klout Score is around 40. They note that the Score becomes exponentially harder to increase as you move up the scale. For instance, it is much harder to move from a 70 to a 75 than from a 20 to a 25. My challenge is to get over 70!

One of the things that is interesting about Klout is that it does give you some sense of how well a person uses Social Media. For example, Beth Kanter who I consider to be the number one guru on Social Media and Not for Profits has a score of 79. Not quite Obama territory, of course,  but it is definitely enough to tell me she knows what she is doing (and I am not too far behind her!). I have a list of "influential" people that I am connected with.

Interestingly, high scorers can get Klout Perks, rewards for their influence. The idea is you take the perk and then Tweet or Facebook about it. The company providing the perk gets publicity althiugh Klout says: "You have no obligation to talk about the product. You're welcome to tell the world you love it, you dislike it, or say nothing at all. Most Perks seem to be for people with scores over 50 - and living in the USA.

So is Klout good or bad? Is it real or a crock? To be honest, I dont know but I do know that if you engage someone to do Social Media training or marketing and their score is 21, what does that tell you about how well they engage Social Media? You are wasting your time and money. You can find out someone's Klout score by entering their name at Klout.com. You can also download an app for your phone and an app that embeds into Twitter and tells you the Klout score of everyone who tweets.

And of course, Klout ignores the people who have an influence off Social Media. If a volunteer reaches a child to read on a one to one basis, what is their measure of their influence? Life changing but Klout does not measure that does it?

What am I doing?

So, I am building my business
Trying to keep fit
Trying to build my love life ....and make a differenec to the world

I have made some mistakes for which I am sorry and I am trying to fix them. These may take time.

Reunion Shadows

Last week, I blogged about my High School Reunion. Today Dianne Mckenzie a fellow student with me at High School and Head of Library and Teacher Librarian in a 1-12 international school in Hong Kong posts about our reunion and her reflections from an educators perspective. Thanks Dianne. You can contact her at diannecm at gmail.com or through twitter dimac

A few weeks ago I had the privilege to reunite with about 70 or so classmates from my high school years. It was great meeting these people again after so many years and we were still able to have a great time even though distance and time had come between us over a generation. We had been able to reconnect and share photographs through Facebook before the evening which was great to break the ice and renew old friendships.

On the afternoon of the reunion the group was able to walk around the school grounds and even inside the school buildings, reflecting on what had not changed or seeing improvements where they had been made. As we passed different classrooms the conversation invariably was started with "Remember when Mr ... or Mrs... " with a lively conversation about the teacher and incident involved.

After the reunion it struck me as significant how much we remember about our lives at school and particularly our teachers even in the smallest details. Passing comments such as 'he was a good bloke', 'she was as hard as nails', 'terrible teacher', or 'I wonder what happened to them'. We could remember all their names and how they related to us. Someone who was a terrible to teacher to one was excellent to others. All reflected on how the teacher student relationship changed for the better once they moved into senior high school.

The relationship between a student and teacher is a complex beast, but in the end the teacher will be remembered how the students perceive them. Those who were remembered most fondly by our year group were the ones who gave of themselves, showed us their human side, were fair as well as being able to help the students learn to the best of their abilities, fun yet still maintained a teacher student relationship. They were not our friends, they were friendly and they were respected for who they were and they in turn respected us for who we were.






It was also interesting to find out how many of our year group started out in a different profession, but some were drawn to teaching later in life and now are themselves enjoying the rewards of being an educator. I do believe this is due in part to the great influence of the mostly fantastic teachers we had.






The reunion made me re-realise that every interaction I have with a student will be remembered by someone, somewhere. I play a significant role in these peoples lives and, it is in my best interests to make these interactions as positive as possible so that they will be good memories.






How will you be remembered?

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Up and Up

I was very excited about two meetings I had on Friday. They were very, very successful and bode well for my continuing to move forward.

Watching the Closing Ceremony for the Olympics has challenged me to keep on the up and up in everything.

So am looking at the week with huge excitement!