After much deliberation and discussions with Dan Forbush, my HigherEd BlogCon organizing partner, we’ve decided to postpone another event until later this year or possibly until 2008. The 2006 event was a tremendous success, and we’re grateful for all the support and encouragement we’ve received about staging the sequel. For my part, a variety of Nelnet start-up obligations are keeping me busier than expected. The BlogCon community deserves more time than I can dedicate to it at the moment. We’ll post an announcement on the wiki and event site very soon.

Will Richardson announces the “first annual “K12 Online 2006″ convention for teachers, administrators and educators around the world interested in the use of Web 2.0 tools in classrooms and professional practice.”

It’s great to see online conferences catching on, particularly ones that focus on online social tools, as this one does. Ewan McIntosh, a keynoter for this K-12 event, also particpated in HigherEd BlogCon 2006.

By the way, we’re about to launch planning for next year’s HigherEd BlogCon, tentatively scheduled for April, 2007. We invite you to join us in the planning process by registering on the 2007 HigherEd BlogCon planning wiki.

Click on the image below to play video (Quicktime, 18MB, 2:04).

Matthew Winkel from The College of New Jersey wore a number of different hats at this year’s EduWeb conference. He was making podcasts, filling in for presenters, and hosting his own sessions. I was lucky to get a few minutes with him. I asked him what’s going with RSS at TCNJ, and how the College is planning to roll out podcasting. They’re toying with the idea of doing a podcast interview series with professors and others on campus.

Matthew was a participant in this year’s HigherEd BlogCon, where he presented on Student To-Do List RSS feeds.

Note: I tried to present this video to you through YouTube, but the audio wasn’t properly sync’d in the Flash movie. If anyone knows why this happens, please let me know!

Somehow I missed that Dan Forbush had posted a summary/transcript of the April 17 HigherEd BlogCon chat “New Media in Admissions” featuring Brendon Connelly, Dimitri Glazkov, Kim Gregson, Sean McKay, Dennis Miller, and Nancy Prater as panelists. Thanks for posting this, Dan!

Here are some of the highlights.

You can’t build a super-cool myspaces and think that the students will completely migrate over to it, but you can hope that when they come to your site, they will engage in a conversation.

The role of the university might be to encourage virtual social spaces where they have not been available before. Not as a replacement for Facebook, etc. but to offer something those services can’t — particularly if you have some signature events or activities like a university-wide service project or student-abroad program.

Marketing has to reflect reality. It’s getting harder to fake it when so much of our real communication is happening via open mediums like blogs.

The biggest change will be students demanding transparency in the recruiting process and openness on the part of officials, whether it’s via blogging or what.

I think it took higher ed a long time to realize that higher education is a market. The next change is realizing that markets are conversations.

As part of HEBC, I’ve done a brief screencast introducing some resources for college and university communicators and marketers interested in new media. A warm thanks to Karine Joly, Paul Baker, and Erin Caldwell, who interviews interviews provide further insight on learning about new media.

Erin Caldwell is managing editor of Forward, a new resource for those in public relations seeking to learn more about new media. As part of an interview series for HigherEd BlogCon, I recently asked Erin to share a few words about this new site.

DK: How did Forward get its start?

Well, there were two separate thoughts that lead to the big idea of Forward. Initially, it was becoming more and more clear to me how unique and ahead-of-the-times Robert French’s Style and Design class makes Auburn University’s PR program. I was realizing that very few universities were latching on to this new idea and embracing new media. I also anticipated an increasing knowledge gap between those who were exposed to it early on and those who weren’t. Forward was created to provide all PR students with knowledge and information on these new communications tools; to give them some basic skills and the confidence to start working with them themselves – even if their schools weren’t yet regarding them as worthwhile.

There is another aspect of the site that doesn’t really deal with PR issues or new media. The career advice section stems from my getting ready to graduate and realizing that there were TONS of questions that I had … and had no idea who I could ask, or I wasn’t satisfied with the answers I was getting (as in, they were just canned answers and didn’t really apply to my situation). I’m also a very inquisitive person, so the career advice area deals with discussing issues that people will face as they come to that time when they’re leaving college and entering the real world. We offer answers and discussion on some basic questions, as well as several that most people haven’t even thought to ask yet!

I should point out, however, that Forward would not exist if it weren’t for French’s class. The material he covered (i.e. introducing us to blogs and other new media tools) and the connections and relationships I made as a result are essentially what led to the creation of Forward.

DK: How did you decide on the name Forward?

That’s a good question. I wish I could remember. I believe I was actually trying to think of a new name for my personal blog and it popped in my head. I liked the word and started thinking, “But what does ‘forward’ really mean??” That train of thought eventually led to the “Forward thinking. Forward moving” tagline, and everything clicked.

Our tagline ties into our advocacy of forward thinking – we want to help people in the industry develop a forward-thinking mindset, to sharpen their skills and give them the tools and confidence to really start thinking critically. Forward thinking leads to forward moving – individuals going forward in their careers and an advancement of the industry with a focus on integrity and intellect.

DK: Why do you feel it’s important that Forward be more than a blog?

The HTML pages (the non-blog part) serve as the gateway to the blog, in a way. It was a strategic choice based on the recognition that we’re targeting individuals who haven’t necessarily been exposed to blogs and may feel more comfortable interacting with the site if there’s a buffer there to sort of introduce them to the new medium. Within the HTML pages, we try to spell things out and make navigation smooth and logical, again, to make it easy for people to embrace this resource. We also have the “About Forward Blog” page that gives a brief explanation of how to utilize that part of the site. HTML pages, by nature are more static, so the weight of content for the site is within the blog – that’s where all the conversation happens! The HTML pages are an introduction and a source of good, staple information. And of course, we’ll continue to develop that part of the site as well, to make it more thorough.

DK: What does it take to keep the site running?

Oh goodness, the first few weeks after the launch required CONSTANT monitoring. I had no idea! It was a big learning experience for me. It has settled somewhat at this point. We try to post about twice a day, but we have almost 20 contributors at this point, so that’s not hard to maintain. Only I have the permissions level, as the administrator, to publish posts. One reason for this, it allows me to manage the timing, frequency, topics and authors of the posts. I also read through, edit and give feedback on posts when needed prior to publishing. Coordinating and communicating with the contributors is also important at this early stage. I send an email to the group about once a week with notes and important news or information. I also communicate quite frequently with them on an individual basis, mostly regarding material for the site.

The contributors do a great job of keeping the conversation going on the blog. Feedback that I’ve received tells me that they’re really enjoying taking part in this and getting a lot out of the experience.

Besides all that, I also try to keep tabs on who’s talking about Forward, and I closely monitor the site’s statistics. I don’t put too much weight on the stats – I’m more concerned with posting quality material and maintaining good discussions – but it’s interesting to see where the peaks and valleys are and what affects those numbers. It’s all adding up to be quite a learning experience!

DK: In your opinion, what are the key things new PR professionals need to know in order to succeed?

Haha – that’s what I’m trying to find out! I think new PR professionals definitely need to grasp the idea that information and knowledge isn’t always going to be spoon fed to them. They need to go in search of knowledge. They need to read and research and find what really interests them and pursue it with genuine and thoughtful curiosity. Also, it’s important to really dive into and look deeply at trends, issues and new tools in PR – but never lose site of the big picture.
How can Forward help, and how will you convince people that they should pay attention?

How can Forward help … well, I hope that we’re stimulating thought. Thinking through these issues and reading all the different perspectives – I hope that that ignites an interest and gives people a little confidence to go and start looking into these things more. That’s the whole idea that this is a springboard. It’s a starting point.

How to convince people to pay attention … the PR people already involved the blogosphere certainly embraced the idea of this sort of thing, long before Forward actually. The trick is getting the folks not already acquainted with the medium to chime in. I’m still working on that. The best way, and how we’re approaching it, is contacting them through a medium they’re already familiar with, explaining the benefits of the site in terms they can relate to, and simply inviting them to take a look. This has actually been pretty successful. We did a fairly small-scale student-oriented awareness push a few weeks back and saw an increase in site traffic and blog-related stats as a direct result. Looking to expand on that strategy in the coming months …

DK: How will you know that Forward is accomplishing what you hope it will?

EC: That’s hard to say. Most likely through discussion on the blog. I can tell from our feed stats that our readership is steadily increasing (so folks are reading the material!), but I’ll have a better idea that we’re making an impact when more students are participating in the discussion. I’m expecting that to take some time, however. They have to feel comfortable enough to comment, and that essentially just takes a certain period of time of laying low in the blogosphere – just soaking it up and getting oriented.

DK: Have you received any feedback so far?

EC: Yes! We’ve received plenty of great feedback from professionals – both “good job” feedback and “here’s another idea” or “this didn’t work.” General consensus from the professionals is that they’re happy with what we’re doing and they’re enthusiastic. We’re working hard to maintain that.

We have also received feedback from students. Slowly but surely, they’re adding themselves to Forward’s Frappr map – which is an easy and fun way to see who we’re reaching. I’ve also gotten a few personal emails, and the blog has gotten comments. The feedback is very positive, and the involvement is slowly increasing. We certainly hope to see that trend continue.

DK: How do you see Forward evolving?

EC: I have thought about this question for a while, and the answer that keeps coming to mind is “However it needs to.” I realize that’s rather vague, but that’s precisely what I mean. We’re working to build a sharp team that will constantly strive to develop the site into a resource that fits the current needs and questions of our audience. We’ll continue to expand and add content to the HTML part of our site – I’d like to see that grow into a larger resource. And I think the blog will evolve naturally. Contributors will continue to write about issues and trends that are relevant and timely.
At the moment, we are developing a few podcasts. These will not differ much from the type of material found in posts, but will simply utilize the advantages of the audio medium.

We’ve also had some discussion of creating a place where PR educators from around the world can post lecture notes and other class materials. That could possibly employ the use of a wiki. We’re currently considering the logistics of such an undertaking and trying to gage interest in this sort of resource. Would educators be willing to share material (under a creative license, of course)? Would students utilize the material? We’ll see …

DK: Who would you like to reach?

EC: More students, and especially younger ones or those who aren’t necessarily in PR yet. Something interesting I’ve come across in a lot of the feedback from other students is that the site gave them a better idea of what PR is and what you can do with an education in PR. Perhaps this can help some young people determine if this is a professional area they’d like to pursue.

DK: What kind of effort do you think this will take?

EC: Really, I think it will take a massive outreach effort to develop relationships with faculty and leaders of PR programs at colleges and universities. This will take time and a lot of networking. Forward is only about a month old, so I think we’ll let the site grow a little more and then we’ll start up with this strategy.
We’re being very thoughtful about all of the choices we make and trying to take the time to do it right. This is in an effort to meticulously craft Forward into a valuable, lasting resource – not something that will just fizzle out or flop in a matter of months.

DK: Have you considered developing Forward into a business? If so, what would this look like?

EC: Honestly, I’d rather Forward not develop into a business. Several people have mentioned that, actually. Forward certainly wasn’t created with that in mind, and even after giving it some thought, I still maintain that I don’t want it to head in that direction.

Forward was created to provide a place for an exchange of ideas and information. Its focus and roots are in education. We’re sure that the relationships we form with Forward will provide benefits to all involved, without the need to try to make money from it.

As of right now, we just hope to expand the impact of our efforts and continue to develop Forward as a place where PR people – both novice and experienced – can learn and interact.

Paul Baker is the blogger at EducationPR. As part of my presentation later this week at HigherEd BlogCon, I recently asked Paul to share a few thoughts about his experience in migrating from Blogger to WordPress and re-launching a newly branded blog with a fresh focus on tools and resources for those in education public relations and communications.

DK: What prompted your decision to try a new blogging platform?

PB: Four things: functionality, content, design, and reputation.

I decided to begin blogging really recently – just last August. My original site site is here: http://wcer.blogspot.com.

I chose Blogger because I knew a few people who were using it, and because it’s free. It seemed fairly simple to set up and get started, and as a newbie I wasn’t ready to try anything really sophisticated. As time went on, the more I used it, the more I wanted to tweak it. You have to tweak it to create a Blogroll, and you can’t create categories for your posts. So after five months or so I began to feel limitations. That’s the functionality part.

In terms of content, after a few months of blogging I wanted to change direction, to refocus my content. My Blogspot blog began as a way to repurpose education-related content I had created for other media and as a way to reach new audiences, and point them to our corporate WCER web site, http://www.wcer.wisc.edu. But I began growing away from my original subject – education research – and posting more about my profession, public relations, and about cool new technologies available to communicators. I realized that was the direction I wanted to go, and so a new blog seemed appropriate.

As long as I was going to refocus content, I thought it would be appropriate to come up with a new name, a different design, and a new domain. Over the months I had added all kinds of buttons and other graphics to my Blogger site and had really cluttered up the page. I wanted to start over with a clean-looking design.

In terms of reputation: There are some fine bloggers using Blogger and there is some useful content on Blogger sites. But I learned that some of the blogs on that platform were shady — spam blogs and fake blogs — and that a professional blogger would want to avoid being associated with less desirable blogging practices might do well to choose another platform.

DK: Which platforms did you consider, and why? Why did you end up on Wordpress.com?

PB: While still learning my way around Blogger I read several reviews comparing the other major blogging tools including Moveable Type, Expression Engine, and the various flavors of TypePad, and Blogware. There’s a great comparison chart here: http://www.ojr.org/ojr/images/blog_software_comparison.cfm.

For a number of reasons I didn’t want to host my blog on a work server. I wanted a free, hosted service. It eventually narrowed down to a choice between TypePad and WordPress. I would probably be happy with either one. Maybe in time I’ll want to move up to the full-blown version of one or the other. But I’m not a heavy-duty blogger, just a few posts per week, and at this point don’t feel a need for all the bells and whistles.

DK: Did you have any specific goals in terms of migrating content from the old blog to the new one? How successful were you in reaching these goals?

PB: In terms of content, I did not migrate over the posts releated to education research. The blogroll and other links are pretty much the same, though, and I retained the posts releated to technology and public relations.

In terms of logistics, I was really pleased at how easy WordPress makes it to migrate from Blogger. You basically push a button and WordPress sucks everything in. The formatting and links came through just fine. I don’t think I had a single problem with it. Then it was just a matter of assigning categories to the old posts, and setting up my blog roll.

DK: How did you help your readers find your new blog?

PB: On the day I “threw the switch,” I posted about it on the Blogger blog, provided a link to the new WordPress site and the URL for the new RSS feed. So anyone who subscribed to my RSS feed got the announcement in their feedreader.

I also sent the new WordPress URL to the major blog indexing services. I mention the WordPress site occasionally in the podcast that I do, and in a monthly electronic newsletter I edit.

Although the Blogger site is officially archived, I’m happy to see that it still gets visits, so I hope some people are finding the content there useful.

It will take a while for the WordPress site to get as much traffic as the Blogger site once did. I just need to keep posting new content and linking to more useful things.

DK: What do you like or dislike about Wordpress.com so far?

PB: The user interface is clean, the templates are professional-looking. It’s easy to post and create categories. I like the Dashboard, I like the stats reports, and it’s easy to add and manage links and the blogroll. There are special editors for the sidebar and for the header design. There are several features I have yet to take advantage of.

DK: Now that you have run blogs on two platforms, what would you recommend to Higher Education PR professionals who are considering launching a blog or moving their blog to a new platform?

PB: Talk to your friends who are blogging. That’s the best piece of advice I can think of. Then maybe borrow one of the many “how to blog” books available.

Ask yourself why you want to blog. Do you want to blog for a strategic communication reason? Or is it to learn how blogging is done on a technical level? Or do you just want to become a more informed consumer information you find in the blog world? These are all perfectly good reasons. Then jump in with both feet, learn as you go along.

I have to say blogging has been really enjoyable and that I’ve contacted some great new people.

Karine Joly’s blog is Collegewebeditor.com, a leading resource on higher education marketing in the age of new media. As part of a presentation I’m giving on Wednesday at HigherEd BlogCon about learning the new media, I asked Karine to share a few tips on the subject.

DK: What are some of the ways you stay informed about the latest developments in new media? Which tools or resources do you think might be helpful for those who want to learn about new media, but aren’t sure where to begin?

KJ: I live in my RSS reader. I’ve chosen Bloglines because it’s web-based and I can check my feeds on any of the three computers I use. I’m subscribed to about 150 news feeds (higher education, web design, marketing, search engine optimization, etc.) as well as a few keyword searches on Topix.net. When I have a bit more time, I also do keyword searches on Technorati.com or del.icio.us. If you want to learn more about new media, you should start to use RSS. Get a Bloglines account or download the RSS reader of your choice and start to subscribe to feeds and blogs. Don’t limit yourself to higher education, but check out what’s done in Corporate PR as well.

DK: Let’s say I have ten or fifteen minutes to spare, and I’m eager to learn more. What are two things I could do today that would help accelerate my understanding of the role of new media in Higher Education?

KJ: From the shameless self-promotion department, I would say that you should read my latest column in University Business: “The Brand (Brave?) New World Of Online Public Relations“. In this article, I tried to explain why it’s so important to learn more about the new media and provide a few good examples of what’s already done by some institutions. With the five minutes left, take the next step toward a better understanding of the role of new media in Higher Education: email me a quick note at karine@collegewebeditor.com to request a free Bloglines account already set up with a selection of the best higher ed RSS feeds available. If you already have an RSS reader, I’ll share the corresponding OPML file, so you can import these feeds at once.

DK: You publish both a blog (Collegewebeditor.com) and a column in a traditional a publication (University Business), and your work has helped inform many in Higher Education about the role of new media in PR and marketing. Now that many have been introduced, what do you believe are the keys to more widespread adoption of some of the tools of new media among Higher Ed PR and marketing professionals?

KJ: I think higher ed PR and marketing professionals need to get their hands dirty. They need to offer their press releases in RSS, set up Technorati watches to monitor conversations about their institutions and set up blogs to share their clips with their campus community. They need to understand that Web 2.0 doesn’t present the same technological barriers to access that Web 1.0 did. You don’t need to be an IT pro to publish a blog. That doesn’t mean you should do it solo without asking for help to set up or customize your blog. But, this means that you don’t need to invest dozens of hours to start posting. The beauty of Web 2.0 applications is that they are all created with the end-user in mind, a user who is supposed to read but also write the Web. In other words, you don’t need to be a geek, because new media is all about media, not technology. Last, I think PR and marketing professionals really need to embrace change, adapt their messages and add these new communication channels to their tool box.

Week three of HigherEd BlogCon is underway tomorrow, with four presentations from the world of admissions on student blogging, department podcasting, and social networks. It’s hard to pick a favorite from among these. They’re all outstanding. I’ll be on a plane traveling to San Diego most of the day Monday, but I’ve already seen the presentations and hope to arrive in my hotel in time to participate in the live chat at 4:30 EDT.

Why are you here, and not over at HigherEd BlogCon? Today, the Library and Information Resources track kicked off with works on blogging and libraries; two of three are presented via a blog, and two include screencasts.

Meanwhile, the dialogue over last week’s Teaching presentations goes on….