2006 November « Relax, it’s just ones and zeroes

COA WNY Regional Forum

I organized the COA Regional Forum for the WNY region for the Fall 2006 semester. It was hosted on the SUNY Fredonia campus, and was held this past Friday, 11/17/2006. I would say it was a success. Attendance was average compared to other regional forums I’ve attendend. We had many good discussions on several topics, including communicating with students, facutly and staff and other issues pertinent to the techincal support community. I think the best thing about these forums is the opportunity to meet with and talk to people who do the same job at other institutions. A new perspective is often found and I find myself often coming away with new ideas on how to do things.

One area that I would like to work on is in communication with our clients using new media (web 2.0 if you will) tools. How can we best communicate our message? Traditional means are not working to our advantage. Print and email listservs are not effective. We need to concentrate our efforts on not only maintaining these traditional methods but also in exploring new ways of communicating. Would targeted RSS feeds atract a higher readership than a general listserv? Would tips in an audio or video podcast format have a higher impact than an email?