In my opening thoughts, I shared a summary of the “opening salvos” (comments) made by the panel of experts at the ASAE Technology Conference in Washington, DC. From that point the topic moved away from opinion (most of which were pretty solid) to something that resembled a college course called an Introduction to Web 2.0. Admittedly, it was flavored with how the idea of the “interactive web” or what I like to call the “read-write” web can be applied to associations, but afterall that was the reason we gathered together in the first place.

The panel characterized Web 2.0 as:

• a focus on the web not the desktop
• software as a service (SaS) not a package
• a shift to user-generated content and participation
• a movement away from content management as an organizational chore and toward a user function
• collectivism
• a focus on user experience
• the renewed importance of data and the fact that people are the new data

Reggie went on to explain that in his opinion (and I agree) that the technology itself was not new but the way the technology was applied was. Things like links are the new commodity and a key element of the blogosphere. Personally, I like to consider it the democratization of the web…everyone can has a voice and can participate and it’s no longer the realm of those with specialized tools or experience.

The panel did express concern about the fact that despite the advances of technology taking place across the www, much of the association world has not responded (or adopted it) as quickly and as a result, were not ready for participative media and technologies.

The topic then quickly shifted to an introduction of the basic tools, technologies and concepts that have comprised the Web 2.0 (I still think there is a better name for it) phenomenon and differentiate it from the earlier days of the web. The six they decided to cover were:

1. blogs
2. wikis
3. rss
4. folksonomies and tagging
5. social networks
6. mash-ups

Overall, I think these were pretty solid choices to capture the essence of the “interactive web”. Overall, I think the panel did a good job of describing not only what each of the terms meant but also how they are most commonly applied. The more indepth discussion about how each could be applied to the benefit of associations was being saved for the second part of the educational session.

Interestingly, I was pretty impressed by the level of knowledge that both Reggie and Jeff had and how easily they were able to bring it down to a level that would be understood by much of the participants. I also took away an interesting statistic: 25 - 30% of all ages are involved in tagging. I would have expected it to be more of a bell-shaped curve with the majority of tagging being conducted by the 18 to 35 demographic, but the numbers seemed to prove me wrong it’s actually being done by folks of all ages. I am pretty certain that the reference for the statistic came from the Pew Internet Life Project. I will have to take a look at this in greater detail. Thanks Jeff!

The discussion then closed with a pretty lively discussion about issues the attendees would be interested in learning more about in the second part of the session. I didn’t attend part two, opting instead to attend a session on Asynchronous Learning (which I will cover in a separate post), but found the information engaging and for those unacquainted very informative. What I took away from the session was the fact that a number of the panelists really “got it” and much of the audience didn’t. It also leads me to believe that the association world in general has a long way to go to catch-up to other industries and truly leverage the power of interactivity and collaboration made possible by current generation technologies for the benefit of the association and the members.

One interesting side-effect of attending the session was hearing from one of the managers of the IT department that attended the conference and session with me that I should have been up there with the panelists…She was really blown-away that I knew my stuff. It’s nice to know that knowledge is appreciated.

Discussion panel hosted by Reggie Henry, CTO, ASAE & The Center for Association Leadership, Jeff De Cagna, Chief Strategist and Founder, Principled Innovation, Jim Kelly, CEO, Syscom Services, Thomas McNamee, Chief Software Architect, Results Direct, and Richard Pulliam, CEO, myAmphi Ltd.

The first session is focused on defining what Web 2.0 is and how it can impact and influence the association world especially from the perspective of creating member value. The session started off with each of the panelists offering “opening salvos” defending why they felt the audience should care about Web 2.0 and what it means to them.

Jeff defined it as the second phase of the web. Additionally, he feels that we if we had a similar naming structure for the association world we would be at Association 5.0 because of the long history of associations. It is perhaps the single greatest opportunity for associations to innovate and provide value.

Jim suggested that it is the responsibility of associations to offer value and stay relevant. Need to begin looking at building and gaining the trust and value for Gen-Y.

Richard questioned the existence or relevance of generational differences in the tone of his comment (which frustrated me) but did offer a few other relevant comments surrounding the value of the social dynamics created by the technology by fostering collaboration and involvement.

Finally, Tom offered that despite he concern that technology would be the beginning of the end for associations, it has actually helped make associations more relevant and stronger. However it has challenged the position of the association as the guardian of proprietary knowledge. Finally, he raised the question of what changes must be made by associations to create value and stay relevant.

Despite the poor weather forecast, I have made the trip to Washington DC to attend the ASAE Technology Conference along with a few colleagues. I have been involved in learning and technology for most of my career but I am a relative newbie in the association world so my manager thought that this conference would be a good developmental experience for me. Based on the information I was able to review prior to arriving, I am pretty sure that the conference is a great use of my time so I am pretty excited to be attending.

I have two primary areas that I am interested in learning more about during my time here. The first obviously revolves around the online learning area and what other member associations are doing as composed to what we are doing. I have been told that what I am doing is on the leading edge and pretty new to the association world, but I can’t help but believe that there is still a lot to learn and many ideas to capture and try to incorporate. So I will be attending a few educational sessions around this area and hopefully networking with folks who are willing to share their thoughts.

I also hope to be able to connect face-to-face with a few vendors that I have been talking with. Like it or not, connecting over the phone, via the internet and through email is extremely efficient and convenient, but sometimes you need to meet the people you are working with to really make a connection. Technology can help facilitate relationship building, but it can also complicate and hinder it. I think we often forget that even with the evolution of modern and social technologies relationship building is still a one-to-one activity.

My second reason revolves around a new project I have been asked to lead. We are getting ready to re-examine the way we create and manage virtual communities and because of my past experience in the area it was an obvious match. However, I am in now way an expert on the topic so I am really looking to learn about some of the challenges and opportunities others have experienced and any best practices that may exist. There are a few sessions that look pretty interesting that deal with both the technology and the human-side of virtual community building including managing the change, so I will likely be attending those sessions.

There is no doubt that the combination of these two areas will keep me quite busy and hopefully very engaged. Admittedly, the weather is on my mind because it is supposed to get pretty bad which will make our return trip treacherous at the very least. That said, I am going to try to focus on the immediate and maximize my time here. Regardless of what is going on in the periphery or what I end up doing during the conference I am pretty certain that I am going to learn a lot if I stay focused. I can’t wait to capture, synthesize and share what I learn over the course of the next few days.