ScotWeb2 was certainly a different experience from any other unconference I’ve been to. Usually an unconference would consist of a big group but this event was quite an intimate one, which I believe worked towards their advantage.

This was the snipet about the event just in case you’d like to know what it was all about!

Hey there, I thought this was such a proud moment for the twitterati’s when one of our own has made in to the top 10 (no 5 to exact) of The Independent list on the most influential bloggers on Twitter with 3,327 followers… and of course after this.. counting…

What are the tangible benefits of online learning? … Show me the money ! !

According to Paul, local authorities and organizations have been throwing money away for years on face-to-face training and they don’t care because when it comes down to evaluation they only care about 3 things…

Was lunch any good?
Could I get parking?
Was there a good crack around the break?

But when it comes to online training, we start to evaluate the tangible benefits i.e.

Did we save any money?
Were there tangible benefits to the organization and how long did it last for?

Over the past few months, I’ve become really great friends with my Twitterati’s . Who knew I’d find really great friends on Twitter, people who could be there for you when things don’t go quite right… – I’ve met most of the people on this list in real life. There are a few people that have always given me support throughout the months I’ve been on Twitter and feel that a I’d like to dedicate this post to them as a way of saying TQ so much for all your support on my research and blog! Please forgive me if I have forgotten someone (pls give me a pinch if I’ve forgotten!).

*To get spreadsheet of #psfbuzz, click here.

So, its been a few days now since I attended the PSFBuzz Web 2.0 event in Manchester. The presenters covered a lot of topics relating to social media and …

This video features the creative and unique ways the U.S. Air Force is using New/Social Media to communicate and collectively generating ideas, experiences and knowledge with each other, family and friends as well as the public. Its truly an inspiring example of how we could use new/social media when we start using these tools with our head and heart rather than using policies or rules and regulations as our starting point. For me, new/social media can only be successful when it creates and invigorates meaning in our lives or to the lives of people who use them.

Today I picked up on a brilliant initiative by Adrian Short to get UK local council websites to get wired up with an important and most basic element of web 2.0, which is the RSS feeds. I applaud this movement because throughout my research, the one thing that I always find frustrating as a user and a researcher is the fact that your local government website does not have RSS feeds! Here is Mash the State Blog and Twitter – @mashthestate.

I’ve recently decided to try my hand at compiling a list like the one created by @barryearnshaw and Glenn Taggart with @uklocalcouncils for the USA and Canada . @b3rn from the Stap isi website (Local government, the internet & community engagement online) has also done the same for Australia, @OZGovLocal and also one for Australia Councillors twitter stream @OZGovLocalClrs (similar to @CllrTweeps here in the UK) around the same time I created @USALocalGov and @CanadaLocalGov. This is a little experiment to test my theory on whether or not lists like this can help the increase in local gov twitter accounts.

Today I’m going to blog a bit about an interesting event taking place in June. Some of you might have already heard of it. Its the ScotWeb2 event which you can start registering for here. You can find out more about this event from @alexstobart and follow the ScotWeb2 blog here.

To give a clearer description of what to expect, I managed to interview the organizer of the event, Alex Stobart who is the Co-Founder and Director of Enterprise in Scotland. If you’re intrigued to find out what its all about, you can listen in on the interview here.

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