I’ll give it some thought & see what I can come up with in the way of suggestions regarding your presentation.

I appreciate the mention and a link the actual presentation “Social Media and Educational Institutions: Highs, Lows and Silos” (http://bit.ly/bcv09ke) would be nice to let readers decide for themselves as well as read your perspective.

I understand your frustration about my presentation. I have so much content around this topic, literally there is enough out there that I could have spoken all day about “Social Media and Education.” I had to start somewhere, so I started with what I know the most about: BCIT’s adventures in social media and the challenges presented in building community through these new tools. Building community is more about honest storytelling than marketing and this presentation was about the how social media works on an institutional level with external and internal groups.

I am currently preparing another presentation about Social Media and Education called, “A tool for learning” which focuses more on the uses of the tool for learning inside and outside the classroom. I look forward to creating a third in the series with your input on “…many other applications of the technology [social media] that are frequently ignored.”

Part of the challenge is meeting the students and public in ways they are able to receive. This is the reasoning behind my focus on how to ‘leverage’ popular tools to reach your audience. For busy educational institutions the costs of reinventing the social media wheel are very high and an extremely low financial priority, sadly. I would love to see as many other applications as of the technology as you.

This was my first time presenting any material from my recent job at BCIT (started mid-June, graduated in May) and I have to speak to what I meant by ‘Social Media is Culture not Strategy.’ Indeed the ways we use social media for as you say, “Marketing” is how we use media to build community and culture. I don’t see this as marketing in the traditional sense, this is culture. Be it, build it, foster it. I had to speak to what I know.

I would love more feedback on what you would have like to have seen. For me this was a first in many ways: first barcamp, first presentation, first time with the content so your feedback is greatly appreciated. I am always looking to develop what I present into a more well-rounded and thorough way. Your feedback is awesome and I greatly appreciate it. Without it how would I know how to improve my work.

Thanks again and I would love to sit down with you to discuss more in-depth the other stories about the topic and how I can hone my presentation to be most beneficial to my most important audience, educational professionals (like yourself) and educational institutions.

Cheers,

Kemp Edmonds (http://kempedmonds.com

As for BazCamp, not 100% sure what I’d be demoing if I can make it (that weekend is in flux for me right now). But possibilities are:

1) Homebrew EKG
2) A Linux gumstix project that I’ve been tinkering with
3) ???
4) Profit!

Looking at the organizer list, I believe I’m the only one that has ever organized a Northern Voice (I’m an organizer emeritus – I’m not involved anymore). Darren came and helped run the morning, but he wasn’t actually a Barcamp organizer.

But point taken – as I said in my blog post (http://bmannconsulting.com/blog/bmann/barcamp-vancouver-2009), I think the principle of “radical inclusion” has moved BarCamp to a softer focus.

Of course, the people attending (including yourself…) are what make the schedule. I, too, could have used some “harder” sessions — I didn’t give one, but no one else stood up and gave one either.

What are you thinking of presenting at BazCamp? I’m looking forward to just being a participant there.