A lot of things are starting to fall into place with our Web 2.0 initiative. We have a draft of our questions for a survey of our employees, we have Moodle up and running, we have two departments that have agreed to incorporate Twitter into their existing practices, we have SharePoint running and our IT department has started to use it, and our CASA department is reviewing our SharePoint site as a possible template for their use with volunteers.
For the survey our goal is to evaluate employees’ knowledge and use of Web 2.0 technologies in their personal and professional lives. I have included the draft of the questions; please feel free to provide any feedback. I also found a study from Oxford that was helpful – http://tallblog.conted.ox.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/survey-summary.pdf.
SharePoint has some quirks, as many of you already know, but is functional. Next we are going to test the differences between SharePoint services and SharePoint Server. Anyone have any suggestions on modules that have worked well for them?
Moodle (www.moodle.org) has been a fun “side gig” for me. I have it up and running with an LDAP connection. It is an open source learning management system, similar to Blackboard for those familiar with that. I am hoping that we will be able to utilize this to make the courses that I developed for the County available online and also to develop a series of trainings for new employees. Then I want to open it up to the departments and see where they run with it. I am working through some tutorials on Udutu (www.udutu.com) to get together my first course for my department to test.
Web 2.0 Questions
1. Which of the following are web 2.0 technologies?
a. Twitter
b. FlightPath
c. Facebook
d. interactive forms
e. blogs
f. email
g. online forums
h. MySpace
i. govLoop
j. podcasts
k. social networking websites
l. Flicker
m. chat
n. YouTube
2. Which of the following web 2.0 technologies is your department using?
a. social networking sites
b. YouTube
c. chat
d. online forums
e. Facebook
f. MySpace
g. govLoop
h. Flicker
i. blogs
j. Twitter
k. Podcasts
l. Wiki
3. Have you used web 2.0 technologies?
a. For professional use?
4. On a scale from 1 to 5, what is your knowledge and understanding of each of the following web 2.0 technologies?
a. social networking sites (Facebook, MySpace, govLoop, Twitter)
b. video hosting services (YouTube)
c. chat (AOL messenger, GoogleTalk, Skype)
d. online forums
e. image sharing (Flickr, Zoto)
f. blogs
g. podcasts
h. collaborative authoring sites (Wikis, Wikipedia, Rallypoint)
i. social bookmarking sites (del.icio.us, digg, StumbleUpon)
5. Identify how you have used each of the following Web 2.0 technologies. Never, Social/Fun, Volunteer, Work
a. social networking sites (Facebook, MySpace, govLoop, Twitter)
b. video hosting services (YouTube)
c. chat (AOL messenger, GoogleTalk, Skype)
d. online forums
e. image sharing (Flickr, Zoto)
f. blogs
g. podcasts
h. collaborative authoring sites (Wikis, Wikipedia, Rallypoint)
i. social bookmarking sites (del.icio.us, digg, StumbleUpon)
6. A wiki(Wikis, Wikipedia, Rallypoint) is a piece of server software that allows users to freely create and edit Web page content using any Web browser. Do you feel that your department could benefit from having wiki technologies available?
a. If so, do you envision it being used for internal or external functions?
b. How do you see your department using this technology?
7. An Internet forum is a web application for holding discussions and posting user-generated content. Do you feel that your department could benefit from having Internet forum technologies available?
a. If so, do you envision it being used for internal or external functions?
b. How do you see your department using this technology?
8. Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send updates (otherwise known as tweets) which are text-based. Do you feel that your department could benefit from having Twitter technologies available?
a. If so, do you envision it being used for internal or external functions?
b. How do you see your department using this technology?
9. Online chat (AOL messenger, GoogleTalk, Skype) can refer to any kind of communication over the Internet, but is primarily meant to refer to direct one-on-one chat or text-based Do you feel that your department could benefit from having chat technologies available?
a. If so, do you envision it being used for internal or external functions?
b. How do you see your department using this technology?
10. A social network service (Facebook, MySpace, govLoop) focuses on building online communities of people who share interests and activities. Do you feel that your department could benefit from having social networking technologies available?
a. If so, do you envision it being used for internal or external functions?
b. How do you see your department using this technology?
11. A podcast is a series of digital-media files (Mp3) which are distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds (RSS) for playback on portable media (IPod). Do you feel that your department could benefit from having podcasting technologies available?
a. If so, do you envision it being used for internal or external functions?
b. How do you see your department using this technology?
12. A video hosting service (YouTube) allows individuals to upload video clips to an Internet website. Do you feel that your department could benefit from having video hosting technologies available?
a. If so, do you envision it being used for internal or external functions?
b. How do you see your department using this technology?
13. A blog is a shared on-line journal where people can post diary entries. Do you feel that your department could benefit from having blogging technologies available?
a. If so, do you envision it being used for internal or external functions?
b. How do you see your department using this technology?
14. Social bookmarking is a method for Internet users to store, organize, search, and manage bookmarks of web pages on the Internet. Do you feel that your department could benefit from having social bookmarking technologies available?
a. If so, do you envision it being used for internal or external functions?
b. How do you see your department using this technology?
Good luck with your initiative Bill. I think it’s a good survey to get a gauge on where your employees are at right now.
I think it’s easier to work from outside of work in. Do you have a Facebook or LinkedIn account? Yes. Imagine a site that’s “LinkedIn for government” where you connect with other gov’t people to share ideas on improving gov’t. Would that be cool? Yes. Well here’s the link – govloop.com 🙂
So for work it would be – “Do you read blogs?” “Do you write blogs?” Yes. Yes. Do you see how a department could have a blog for X? Yes. Let’s do it!
You’ll find a lot of mixed stories about SharePoint. Personally, I think it’s just too easy to implement in an old school non web 2.0 way and it just becomes a document repository. But there are some cool implementations of it.