Why Paperworks: All About Constraints

By leelefever on June 24, 2007 - 3:58pm.

• Categories:
• best practices
• lesson
• ourwork
• paperworks
• show
• Comments: 8

Since our first couple of videos came out, I've been talking to a lot of people about what makes the Paperworks format work. Aside from the content/message, I often say that a set of constraints is what makes the format a great fit for our goals.

In this case, a "constraint" is a rule that we have decided not to break in making our videos.

Examples: We only use certain materials (paper, whiteboard, markers, string), we won't make a video over 4 minutes long, we only use our hands to tell the story and we don't use any external music (just humming, snaps, claps, etc.). Further, everything we make in the format is 100% copyright infringement free. These are the Paperworks constraints and they have a huge impact.

Your Community is a Party Waiting to Happen

By leelefever on May 21, 2007 - 4:53pm.

• Categories:
• best practices
• community
• lesson
• recommendation
• Social Design
• Comments: 14

You can find the slides for this talk here.

In Seattle? Come to My Refresh Talk This Monday

By leelefever on May 16, 2007 - 6:29pm.

• Categories:
• best practices
• community
• event
• speaking
• Comments: 3

This coming Monday, May 21st at 6pm, I'll be the speaking at the Refresh Seattle event at the Ballard Library. My talk is brand new and called "Your Website is a Party Waiting to Happen". As the description on the site says:

Matt Haughey of MetaFilter on Managing Community

By leelefever on May 15, 2007 - 8:28am.

• Categories:
• best practices
• community
• Social Design
• Comments: 1

Matt Haughey knows community. He is the founder of MetaFilter, a very popular community site that is based on enabling members to blog about stories that are important to them. It's a real success story in the community world and I consider Matt one of it's real innovators.

He recently started a new blog call fortuito.us where he is hoping to post an article a week on his experiences. His most recent post is Some Community Tips for 2007, which serves as an interesting review of the things he feels are important in making MetaFilter successful. I encourage you to go read the whole post.

The major points are:

More on 43 Things "Neighborhood Watch"

By leelefever on April 18, 2007 - 6:39pm.

• Categories:
• best practices
• community
• seattle
• Social Design
• spam
• Comments: 0

A little while back, I wrote about a brand new feature from the Robots who created the online community site 43 Things . The feature is "neighborhood watch" and it enables "community members in good standing" to contribute to fighting the site's growing spam problem.

Just to day Daniel Spils posted a follow up describing how it has worked so far.

Stewart Butterfield on CNN.com

By leelefever on January 22, 2007 - 9:54am.

• Categories:
• best practices
• business
• community
• flickr
• interview
• Comments: 1

Stewart Butterfield is one of the co-founders of Flickr, which is a photo sharing site that has been the subject of a near-absolute love-fest among geeky types for years. It has become one of the most cited examples of Web 2.0. I use it everyday and so do my friends. Flickr does do so, so many things right. Anyway, Stewart was interviewed by CNN recently. (watch Video with different content)

My favorite answer from the interview:

Four Steps to Better Online Communications

By leelefever on September 21, 2004 - 4:16pm.

• Categories:
• best practices
• blogging
• community
• Comments: 0

onPhilanthropy - Four Steps to Better Online Communications

This article is focused on helping nonprofits understand some of the basics of communicating on the web and relates some of the new trends.

Web pros won't learn anything new in the article, but I think it's a good example of an article in simple language that's built for the audience.

The four strategies Newley relates are:

1) have an easy-to-use Web site that caters to
their audience,
2) adopt an email strategy,
3) achieve search engine visibility, and
4) consider using Weblogs and RSS

Four Things Every Website Headline Must Do

By leelefever on March 10, 2004 - 8:43am.

• Categories:
• best practices
• blogging
• Comments: 0

Four Things Every Web Site Headline Must Do

If you're writing a headline or heading for a site page, here are four things you need to keep in mind, four elements that demand your attention, four separate ‘audiences' you need to satisfy.

1. Make the reader feel he or she is in the right place
2. Make the reader feel good and want to continue
3. Appeal to the search engines
4. Satisfy the needs of the company or organization

Via: Robin Good's RSS Feeds

13 Points to Consider in Creating Online Surveys

By leelefever on September 9, 2003 - 1:43pm.

• Categories:
• best practices
• surveys
• Comments: 0

How to Effectively Conduct an Online Survey

Good stuff from Marketing Profs...

How to Loosen Up Your Communication Style

By leelefever on July 9, 2003 - 8:21am.

• Categories:
• best practices
• communication
• Comments: 0

HBS Working Knowledge: Loosen Up Your Communication Style

I thought this was an interesting article about communication styles in leadership positions. I've certainly seen the "data only" style and it served only to glaze eyeballs. Good points on symbolic and emotional communication.

Via: Online Facilitation