Open data can benefit voluntary sector The Nominet Trust team is spending a fair amount of time thinking, investigating and experimenting with open data. The trust's aim is to seek and support new uses of digital technology for social good. We recently co-hosted a conference on charities and open data with the Big Lottery Fund and NCVO, which indicated a growing interest from the voluntary sector. The opening of public sector data over the past few years is one obvious stimulus for this, particularly since many charities are data suppliers due to their work delivering a public service contracts. For many in the voluntary and charitable sector, the starting point for these conversations is the desire to be more effective in addressing social challenges. But this isn't new. What is new though, is the range of digital tools that can help us make sense of the growing amount of data that is around us. Such a critical mass is essential to achieving more strategic aims for the sector's participation in the open data world.
Why Employees' Big Dreams Should Be Your Company's Top Priority As a manager, you can create a tremendous amount of loyalty just by listening to your employees. And loyalty matters--a lot. When Kelley Lindberg became a manager at a software company several years ago, she inherited some employees who were confused about where they were headed. “I asked him what his career goals were, and he surprised me completely,” Lindberg says. Lindberg found the perfect job for him--a job that required plenty of skill and client interaction, but didn’t come with a management path or lots of visibility. Creating a sense that you care about your employees can both motivate and inspire them. Whitney Johnson, author of Dare, Dream, Do: Remarkable Things Happen When You Dare to Dream, believes that people’s dreams matter. The idea of helping your employees chase their dreams may seem unusual, impractical, or even strange to some. Matthew Kelly, author of The Dream Manager has heard these objections and more. So how do you help your employees achieve their goals?
Pulling informal learning Take a look at these 8 demand-side knowledge management principles by Nick Milton. People don’t pay attention to knowledge until they actually need it.People value knowledge that they request more highly than knowledge that is unsolicited.People won’t use knowledge, unless they trust its provenance.Knowledge has to be reviewed in the user’s own context before it can be received.One of the biggest barriers to accepting new knowledge is old knowledge.Knowledge has to be adapted before it can be adopted.Knowledge will be more effective the more personal it is.They won’t really know it until they do it. They highlight the difference between Push and Pull learning. How often are training courses aligned with the moment of need? There are many do-it-yourself applications available today that let people take control of their learning. For learning & development departments, a Pull workplace changes the traditional expert-led dynamic of content creation.
Free Infographic: How to Solve Online Registration Challenges How often have you become frustrated filling out online registration forms? There is a better way. Janrain has compiled data on some of the most challenging aspects of online registration forms and simple solutions to improve the user experience…and conversion rates. Click here to download the full infographic [PDF]. Important Stats 86% of people may leave a website when asked to create an account50% of people dislike creating new passwords 60% of people have more than 5 unique passwords to remember 40% of people use the Forgot Password feature at least once a month 88% of online users admit they have lied on form 2 in 5 people would rather solve world peace than create a new password 2 in 5 people would rather scrub a toilet than create a new password 77% of online users prefer social login Facebook is the preferred social login provider of choice Embed Code How to Solve the Online Registration Challenge – An infographic by the team at Janrain
It’s Not What You Know, It’s How You Learn Why Your Company Needs A Full-Time, Idea-Killing Chief Dissent Officer Big companies get a bad rap. We think of them as creativity-killing machines that constantly crush the world-changing ideas of their hardworking employees. As if such internal mechanisms don’t also save us from countless bad ideas, creative darlings, and disasters-in-the-making. In fact, in my business experience, it’s nearly too scary to contemplate how many horrible ideas almost make it out the front door. And they would have were it not for some lone dissenter who turned the tide. Last year, anthropologist Grant McCracken proposed the idea of a C-level executive to track trends and monitor the “deep waves of culture in America and the world” in his influential book, Chief Culture Officer. As we enter a high-speed, digital-driven economy, companies are under increased pressure to roll out more and more new things, to do it faster, with tighter development cycles. It turns out successful companies have been doing this for quite some time. As F. [Image: Flickr user Bruce Denis]
5 Maneuvers The Tech Biz Should Steal From The Fashion Industry Let’s face it. Technology is fashion. We don’t update our operating systems to get tighter Twitter integration, or buy a new phone for the opportunity to display four more icons. We update them because the new one makes our present one look a bit, well, last season. I’ve worked with many of the stars of the technology world and I’ve air-kissed with some of the darlings of the fashion world, too. Fashionistas and technologists deal with a lot of the same stuff: fickle consumers, fast turnaround of products, and diva designers with planet-sized egos. Here are five things I think the geeks can learn from the chic: 1. Some years ago, IBM had a problem. Big Blue reeled from what it heard. CIOs were buying a multimillion-dollar computer for the same reason that kids buy one pair of sneakers instead of another. 2. Fashion designers become famous for a “key piece.” Women walk into Chanel for that little black dress, some No. 5 perfume, a tweed suit, and a 2.55 quilted handbag. 3. 4. 5.
To Achieve Your Goals, Learn How To Hack Your Brain During the Major League Baseball playoffs over the next few weeks, you’ll likely hear a comment about a pitcher having a bad outing. You’ll hear commentators say he’s throwing but he’s not pitching. They mean the pitcher is going through the mechanics of delivering the ball to the plate, but his motion isn’t coming together as a cohesive whole to achieve his goal of getting outs. It turns out that the wisdom of baseball coaches applies to everyday goals like the ones we set at work, and offers insights about how goals are represented in our brains. As with pitches, we can think about goals in different ways that can affect our success or failure. Researchers Robert Spunt at CalTech and Matthew Lieberman at UCLA recorded the brain activity of participants watching videos of people engaging in various everyday tasks like brushing their teeth or reading the newspaper. The NeuroLeadership Summit in New York City, October 15-17, will present a new model for thinking about goal setting.
Bikes Aren't Just Good For You, They're Good For The Economy, Too By now, we all know that cycling is good for health, fitness, cutting road accidents, reducing carbon emissions, and increasing energy security (and so on, and on). But what about biking’s economic impact--its cyclonomics, if you will? This graphic, from the League of American Bicyclists, highlights studies from across the country showing the positive benefits. You can see, for example, that bike recreation and tourism contributes an estimated $924 million a year to Wisconsin, plus $409 million in health benefits. The League put the map together to publicize a recent report by its policy director Darren Flusche. "Those arguments are critical for convincing businesses to allow bike infrastructure in front of their shops, because they are very aware of parking, and they have the perception that most people arrive by car. Bike infrastructure has also been associated with favorable levels of job creation compared to other forms of transport.
Mismanagement and Bad Communication Most of you know that I lead a team of AMAZING people at SHIFT Digital. They are some of the most talented, creative, and intelligent people in our industry. I tell them often: “I would put you up against any other creative agency out there!” And it is true, I would, but that is for another day. What you may not know is that my background is in the “Not For Profit” world. I’ve always played sports throughout my life. Now that I lead a team, I’m always wondering and thinking about teams: what makes them work and what makes them fail. I’ve been on many business teams that have failed, and I’ve spent a lot of time analyzing, trying to identify the single point of fail. My team is amazing. What does your team look like? Are you leading your team correctly? Connect: Authored by: Justin Brackett Is an established authority on digital and social media marketing. With experience in the ... See complete profile
Cultivating Workplace Culture Workplace culture is a hard thing to get right. It’s a moving target that means something different to everyone. It grows and evolves over time and is the result of action and reaction. It is the lingering effect of every interaction. Culture may not be on the top of everyone’s ‘to do’ lists but it is always present and always captivated by opportunity. So how do we identify this ambiguous culture? Culture is simultaneously the feeling when you arrive to work on a Monday morning and the feeling you have when you leave on a Friday evening. Considering the time we spend at work, building a healthy work culture is absolutely crucial. 1. Enthusiasm is contagious. 2. A good flow of communication is crucial in any office environment. 3. Sit down with your co-workers and let them know you appreciate their efforts. 4. As the saying goes, work hard play hard. 5. Cultivating a healthy workplace culture simply cannot be accomplished overnight. What do you do in your workplace to cultivate culture?