Mobilizing Generation 2.0

As my program expansion is to involve a great deal of youth in our county, I chose to read “Mobilizing Generation 2.0” by Ben Rigby. Included on the front cover is, “A Practical Guide to Using Web 2.0” and “Technologies to Recruit, Organize, and Engage Youth.” I was hoping for interesting ways to use the concepts we are learning in this class for implementation in our youth program. I found more than I hoped for.
There are many examples of how different organizations have used numerous technologies to advance their campaigns, causes, and issues—both successfully and unsuccessfully—with lessons to learn from both. This book focuses mostly on the political aspects as the author is the founder of Mobile Voter, but still contains a lot of useful tips and information for any organization that wants to learn the ins and outs of using Web 2.0 applications to support and advance their missions. Since my first degree was in Marketing, this book also appealed to the marketing researcher lurking inside with its statistics on usage and audiences.
“Mobilizing Generation 2.0” contains chapters on Blogging, Social Networking, Video and Photo Sharing, Mobile Phones, Wikis, Maps, and Virtual Worlds. Each chapter contained a small amount of information on how each application works and touched briefly on what is involved in signing up for, or using each. Most of the content revolved around the organizations and campaigns that had used the various methods for reaching their audiences, how they used them, and what level of success they achieved. The levels of success seemed to vary with the levels of understanding these groups had about what the social makeup of the many online networks are.
Each chapter included a section about strategic considerations to consider when deciding whether that particular application would be beneficial to your organization or cause. The topics were covered briefly but thoroughly enough to give you a good idea on how well that application would fit with your overall goals and the best methods to use in achieving those goals. There is a lot of information on the differences between sites and the people that use them as well as statistical information on the users and the growth that has occurred.
Scattered throughout the chapters are numerous websites to visit for examples and more information. The endnotes are virtually all website URLs and having visited just a few, led me to even more resources that will be of great value as time goes on.
The one prevailing theme throughout the book was that these applications and websites are not taking the place of offline socializing and relationships. They are actually extensions of our real life friendships and are one more way to enhance and nurture those relationships. The abilities to connect with others from around the world are diversifying our social statures and bringing people together in ways that have never been possible before.
The concepts we are learning in this class can be used for so many different purposes to benefit our lives and those of our families, friends, social contacts, and communities—whether they are in our homes, on our block, or half-way around the world. We are being given access to unlimited pathways to everywhere we have ever wanted to go and anywhere our imagination can dream up.

In the Mean Time...

One of the major hurdles for our adult workforce program is obtaining approval from the various committees and the board. We are on the agenda for tomorrow's meeting and (hopefully) will know if we are moving forward in that area after that. Then I will need to obtain a commitment from the college to keep us in place and not shut us down at the end of June. We were originally slated for closure June, 2009 but were granted one additional year to secure outside funding in order to maintain our site here in Lincoln County. Everything depends on the decisions that will be made in two more meetings and we should have a definite answer by the end of this month. The anticipation is nerve-wracking to say the least.

In the meantime, the various assignments for my Dynamic Web Applications class are providing a treasure trove of information and ideas for both our youth program and the adult program. Many of the class members have contributed to our program indirectly and I truly appreciate all the support and assistance that has been given. I applaud the wonderful instructor for making this class possible and all my fellow students for their hard work. We're all on separate journeys, but our paths are intertwined.

I Need It Yesterday....

Since when did patience lose its status as a virtue? Early this afternoon I received a phone call asking me if I got the email that was just sent to me. In this email there was a request to revise my proposal for the adult/dislocated worker program and the budget, and oh, by the way, it needed to be forwarded by tomorrow. I'm a fairly quick learner and what do you know, it works! I responded by stating that if I had answers to a few questions I could get it submitted by the deadline. It only took two hours to receive a response instead of the usual two weeks. Who said you can't teach an old dog new tricks?

Shortly after this exchange there was a conference call to discuss elements of our youth program. Having done my homework, I felt very confident in discussing the program needs and design. The most difficult task in this process is trying to get people to understand that we are very different than a big city and our methods may not exactly match theirs. Our county is composed of over 10,000 square miles, but the population is not even 5,000. We're not even classified as rural, we're frontier! This makes implementing training programs for "demand occupations" in the area a bit more of a challenge.

Forward motion is always a good thing. Of course, convincing people that change is sometimes necessary is a little bit harder in this area. Does anyone have the number to a good canine training program?

Meetings

This has been the week for meetings. Conducting, scheduling and rescheduling. Who would have thought it could be so difficult to get a group of people together in one room at the same time? Or to set a phone conference and hear everyone say, "I can be available then." It was so much easier when we were kids. We'd go knock on our friend's door and say, "You want to go...?" and away we went--usually to find more friends to go wherever we were headed. Now that we're adults we have to check our schedule, our co-worker's schedule, our family's schedule, and, I swear, someone must have had to check with their neighbor, their dog, and their astrologist since it took nearly two weeks to finally schedule a meeting. Don't get me wrong, I love productive meetings. They're usually energizing and create more ideas, leads or generally positive outcomes. The ones that give me the biggest headaches are the ones that only produce the need for another meeting. Thankfully, my next meeting isn't until next week--someone remind me to check my horoscope over the weekend.

Slow Progress

Have you ever had that dream that you are running as fast as you can but getting nowhere? That has been my waking life this week--without the inevitable beast right behind me when I look over my shoulder. At least the final negotiations for the contract through the end of June are nearly at an end. In addition to the youth program funding, I have secured nearly full staffing and operational budget and one of the elements in the adult training program. So far, the one project that I had hoped would be a priority and funded first is still bogged down in the appropriations process. Thank heavens July is a new fiscal year and I have a few more months to really push that part of our program.

This experience has definitely cured me of my fear of meeting people and speaking to audiences. I would not recommend it as a solution to anyone else in this position, however, unless they don't mind trading their phobias for gray hair, ulcers, and sleep disorders. Hopefully Eric can find some happy hour specials up my way!

Still On Hold

We were supposed to receive information this week on our funding and program progress...Still on hold. I did do some snooping and found out our youth training part of the program has been approved for full funding. Hooray!! It is very hard to be patient through this long process. The start-up date has been delayed several times and there are constant adjustments to the program elements. I don't seem to mind them so much when they are at my direction but when outside forces create the change it is somehow more difficult to adjust. At least these frustrations will give me more empathy for those that will be coming in for help. Funny how I missed that Detour Sign.

So It Begins

My reason for creating this blog is to gather useful information that will contribute to our workforce program. Having this information together in one place, that can be accessed from anywhere, will save time finding the websites and resources. It will also eliminate the tremendous back strain from carting around piles of papers from site to site.

This is where we celebrate the triumphs, vent the frustrations, and probably gripe about the detours. But with enough luck--the sights on the side roads will lead to new discoveries on the pathways to Square Two!