Social Media Club Sydney – October 19^th Event

Tapping into the power of Tagging - How to socialise your website.

Speakers:

Russ Weakley – Max Design (Australian Museum)

Mark Pesce – Futurist and Author

Russ Weakley has worked in the design field for over 20 years. During the last twelve years Russ has focused on web design through his own business, Max Design. He is also the web designer for the Australian Museum.

Russ co-chairs the Web Standards Group which was set up to assist web developers learn about new technologies and accessibility issues.

Russ has produced a series of widely acclaimed CSS-based tutorials including Listamatic, Listamatic2, Listutorial, Floatutorial, Selectutorial.

Russ is also internationally recognized for his presentations and workshops on web development, standards and accessibility.

Russ spent five years realising the vision of enlisting the community to tag the collection of exhibits at the Australia Museum. It has now been live for three months and Russ will share the journey of bureaucracy, red tape and government 2.0.

Mark Pesce is an inventor, writer, educator and engineer. He learned how to program a computer in 1978 ­ before the invention of the spreadsheet. After attending the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he began working as a
software engineer.

In 1990, enthralled with the idea of virtual reality, he founded his own company to make virtual reality toys; his patents and designs were licensed by Sega.

In 1994 Mark blended his work in virtual reality with the brand-new technology of the Web to create VRML, a 3D Interface to the Internet. Mark has written six books, he is the Lecturer in Interactive Media at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School in Sydney, and is a sought-after speaker at conferences throughout Australia and the world. Mark is a regular panellist on ABC TV The New Inventors.

The theme of the 5th event is “How do you socialise your website and what does the world look like when everything is tagged? We’re hoping for enthusiastic debate and discussion around these key strategic issues and questions:

·         Putting your content on social channels versus social interactivity on your site – do you have a point of view one way or the other?

·         How often do you refresh your site content?

·         How many people manage the content?

·         How do you measure engagement?

·         How do you measure ROI?

·         What are the KPIs for the site? For social channels?

·         How long did it take to convince stakeholders to allow you to socialise the site?

·         How do you use social engagement to make your content better?

·         How much feedback do you get from social versus other means?

·         What social technology do you use?

·         How much have you had to custom build?

·         Do you consider your site succesful? Why/why not?

·         What advice would you give other designers/developers about socialising their sites?

·         What is the future for community based tagging?

Social Media Club Sydney volunteers are  Doug Chapman, Tiphereth Gloria, social media manager Amnesia Razorfish , Heather Ann Snodgrass, (Social Media Advisor at HOST) and Cathie McGinn Search & Social Manager, Geekdom, Howard Moodycliff, Stephen von Muenster and Leia Collingwood-Smith.

We’ve created a Twitter account @SMCSYD and a Facebook Group (Social Media Club Sydney) and a Vimeo Channel for videos of past events It’s the local chapter for http://www.socialmediaclub.org/ Social Media Club (SMC) started by Chris Heuer and Kristie Wells in July 2006 to help people find all the relevant “communities of interest” in which they want to participate. In their words

"[SMC} want to help you explore your personal and professional passions by helping you connect with a community of your peers based on both geography and areas of interest. We want to ensure that the world of Social Media does not become an echo chamber of self-reinforcing thoughts, but is instead fueled by diversity of opinion and perspective."

Social Media Club Sydney is now the largest chapter of SMC in the world, as we are regularly getting 300 + attendees at our events.

The intent of the Twitter account and the Facebook page is to get as many diverse people involved in SMCSYD as possible, and outside of the usual marketing/advertising/branding people that normally dominate the dialogue in this space, and to be a place where people come to learn about how to use social media effectively, both personally and to promote brands or businesses.