Hedgehog & Fox

I’ve finally had a minute to check out a brief white paper from Clever Zebra titled Virtual Worlds: The Essential 7 Point Quick Start for Meetings Professionals (registration required). While I take issue with Clever Zebra’s view that “World of Warcraft is not a Virtual World,” the paper does offer some good, brief insights into why meeting planners should consider virtual worlds as an option.

I mention the Quick Start here on Hedgehog & Fox both because the content is of value and because this represents good execution of a white paper offering as a marketing strategy. The two points are, of course, tightly related. White papers that offer quality content may seem a bit old-fashioned in the Web 2.0 world, but they remain a very effective marketing tool (particularly if the content is about the Web 2.0 world

On a related note, check out Amy Smith talking briefly (just a minute or so) about virtual worlds at the recent American Society of Associations Executives annual meeting (via Acronym):

Virtually yours,

Jeff Cobb
Hedgehog & Fox

I am just back from the American Society of Association Executives annual conference (with a few days of vacation thrown in on the end). It was a great event, though I regret that I was not able to get to the gaming session that Sue Pelletier recently highlighted on her Face2Face blog: How online gaming will affect the future of associations.

As I noted recently in Taking Games Seriously, games – and in particular, multi-user online games – are an element of the social Web that I think few organizations are watching as closely as they should. The “gamer disposition,” of which John Seely Brown and Douglas Thomas have written, has great potential value for organizations. And serious games – which I recently wrote about in a WE magazine article, Playing for Change – can be powerful tools for creating social change as well as engaging customers, members, and employees. I am thrilled to see that the gaming phenomenon made it onto the agenda at ASAE.

My only criticism of the session – and this is based solely on Sue’s recounting of it in her post, since I was not at the session – is that presenter Susan Fox seems to have placed the usual emphasis on generational differences. I always chaff a bit at this, whether the topic is gaming or the social Web in general.

In the first place, the numbers for games do not skew as young as people instinctively think. The average age of a gamer, for instance, is 35. (See ESA Essential Facts.)

Perhaps more importantly, broad generational differences, or even somewhat more specific distinctions like “digital native” and “digital immigrant” are blunt instruments at best for describing what are ultimately rich, complex cognitive phenomena at the individual level. While early exposure – the main advantage of younger generations – can facilitate certain types of learning, it’s not at all clear that youth in and of itself predisposes an individual to the gaming disposition. Any number of factors can contribute to older minds flourishing (or not) in online games or other forms of collective intelligence: social circumstances, personality, and cognitive abilities, just to name a few.

I may be putting too fine a point on the issue, but when it comes to the social Web, I hear the generational argument thrown out too often as an excuse for deferring action, taking no action, or pushing action to those who may not really be in the best position to lead. I don’t expect that most current organizational leaders are likely to transform themselves into World of Warcraft guild leaders – but I am betting the best ones will ignore generational generalizing, trick out an avatar, and give games a try.

JTC

I’m on my way back from the American Society of Association Executives annual meeting where I spoke on open education, open source software, and Learning 2.0 in the association world.  After a noticeable lack of sessions on social media last year, ASAE went out of its way this year to make sure there were a number of social media-oriented sessions on the schedule as well as a social media lab running throughout the conference.  (And be sure to check out the meeting bloggers.) The social media buzz at the conference was audible.

It will be interesting to see if that buzz translates into action over the next year. So far, according to a survey conducted by Principled Innovation, actual usage of key social media technologies by associations is relatively limited. Twenty-four percent (24%) of respondents to the survey report that their association has a blog; 31% have an “official” presence on a social network; 14% report using a wiki.

Not surprisingly, increasing member engagement tops the list of reasons that associations are using social media technologies, and the marketing and communications departments are most likely groups within associations to oversee social media initiatives. How or if social media is being used for association education and professional development efforts is unclear from the information provided in the executive summary of the survey report. I’m hoping more detail in this area will be part of the full report.

I encourage you to visit the Principled Innovation site to download the executive summary and reserve a copy of the full report. Kudos to Jeff De Cagna, Ben Martin, and Lindy Dreyer for their efforts in conducting the survey and compiling the report. This is valuable and much-needed information for the association sector.

JTC

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