Conference Tech Tools

The NMC is all about the "new" part of our name, and at this year's conference we are integrating several new social media tools to enhance your conference experience. Read on to learn how to get your "tech" on with us at Monterey.

Pathable Social Networking Site

We are working with new NMC Corporate Partner Pathable to provide a social networking site designed to help you locate and connect with people at the conference who have similar interests -- and it will work on your phone!  Our special Pathable site at http://2009.nmc.org provides a way to connect before and during the conference.

Here is how it works. When you register for the 2009 NMC Summer Conference, we provide some basic information from your NMC web profile (name, email, organization, and any listed social media sites listed in your account) to set up an account on the pathable site. You will get an email with a special one-time use link that allows you to enter the site,select a new password, and complete your Pathable profile. 

The important things to add are a picture so people can easily find you among the crowds, and also to provide the tags in response to the questions listed on the Pathable site. These tags are what are used to locate other people, and also, they can used as a shorthand to communicate with them via message on the Pathable site. You can add your various social media web sites, and all of your updates from flickr, twitter, facebook, etc will be published to your Pathable profile.

But there is more.  We are loading the conference schedule into Pathable, so you can tick off the sessions you plan to attend, and you will be able to see what other attendees are going to the same session. There will also be a wiki-like tool so you can add shared notes to each session.

And one more cool piece of this --- there is a mobile version of the site that allows you to communicate with people you have designated in Pathable as contacts and so you can see your conference schedule in your portable device. Learn more about this technology by taking the Pathable tour.

Be on the NMC 2009 Twitter Team

You do realize that our conference logo is not the Fail Whale!

We do know and expect that many people attending our conference are users of Twitter, so when you post messages about the conference, include a "hash tag" of nmc2009  -- this allows us to easily collect conference tweets via a twitter search URL (also appearing on the right sidebar of the conference web site).

Use twitter to share ideas, links, people you meet at the conference, and create a stream of conversation for those attending in person and those following remotely. If you are new to twitter and do not have an account,  it is easy to set one up now at http://twitter.com. You will find plenty of NMC people who can help you understand more how twitter can be used for learning and communication.

 And if you are active on Twitter, now is a good time to order your own Tweetup Badge (You can use nmc2009 for the Tweetup group name or for a more general use tag, use the newmediac name that is our NMC twitter account).

We got them for NMC senior staff to show you what they look like! See the details on our color choice.

See the twapper keeper archive of all conference tweets at
http://twapperkeeper.com/hashtag/nmc2009

Tag Us Some A Lot of Photos

NMC Conferences always have a large group of active photographers, so bring your digital camera to Monterey, and be sure to tag your photos as nmc2009 if you share them on flickr. We provide a badge of random photos on this web site, and you can see the entire collection at http://flickr.com/photos/tags/nmc2009

And Tag Everything Else!

Attach the same nmc2009 tag to any blog posts you write, YouTube videos you upload, and releated references you might bookmark in delicious or diigo.

Read Our Conference Bloggers

We have selected three NMC members for reserved "blogging" seats in the main sessions so they have good vantage points for writing regular updates on the conference experience. Look for new posts next week by Chris Lott (http://chrislott.org/), Leslie-Madsen Brooks (http://cluttermuseum.blogspot.com/), and Gardner Campbell (http://www.gardnercampbell.net/blog1). Be sure to add your comments to their blogs.

Geotag Your Photos

With Geo-Everything figuring prominently in the 2009 NMC Horizon Report, we are eager to see collectively how we can assemble our photos by tying them to a location. Whether you have a GPS enabled camera device, an iPhone, or just some know how to to identify the location, we are asking that you place your flickr photos on a map! See all photos tagged nmc2009 and located near Monterey.

The easiest way to geotag is to use the flickr Organizr in the map mode -- use the map controls to find the locations where you took your photos, and then drag them from the bottom to the map location. We ask that you try and be very specific, so zoom all the way in. With the Hybrid map mode turned on, you should be able to locate your photos on individual buildings and landmarks.

For more information on geotagging, see:

• Geotagging Flickr group
• Uploading/ Geotagging Photos from iPhone (flickr blog)
• How to Geotag A Photo On Flickr (eHow) 
• How to GPS Tag Photos: Flickr, Mappr, Google Earth....   (MAKE)
• Geotagging (Wikipedia)

Another interesting tool is lo.calize.us which provides a browser bookmark tool that allows you to add geolocation machine tags to any of your flickr photos, which in turn will show up on this map:

Geotagging to the Next Level- Story Mapping

Once you have the knack for tagging and geotagging your flickr photos, we invite you to take the experience to the next level. We are looking to capture pictures from the conference that tell a story of something that you experienced in Monterey, with a geolocation tie to where it happened.

To do NMC 2009 Story Mapping:

• Tag your photo in flickr with two tags: nmc2009 (general conference tag) and nmc2009story (for theses story photos).
• Use the geotagging techniques described above to add geolocation data to your photo.
• Write a caption to describe what the photo represents.

As ideas for what to do include, we suggest:

• A photo of a new person you met at the conference. Who was it? Where did you meet? What was special about the person you met? 
• A photo of a memorable activity at the conference.  Perhaps it was a stimulating keynote session, a great breakout, a fun workshop, or just the things that happen in the halls between sessions.
• A photo of the most exciting thing you did with your free time in Monterey. Maybe it was a special walk on the beach, a trip to the aquarium, a visit to a museum, a scenic drive... Post the photo, share the location, and what was special.
• A photo of a great meal you had. Did you experience a special time at a restaurant? Where was it? Who was there? What did you eat (we love pictures of food!

Or feel free to improvise. And keep an eye on the NMC 2009 Story Map to follow the tales.

User Generated Conference Video

 Each year we hire a professional videographer to capture the NMC Summer Conference experience which is ultimately published as a DVD which we will mail all registered participants later this year; for example see the web version of the 2008 NMC Summer Conference video.

Since video recording devices are becoming smaller and more common (e.g. like the Flip Mino, which you can order at the NMC Store), even built into compact camera and phones, we are asking conference participants to share their own personal video experience of the conference. If it works out well, we will edit it to a "Participants Conference Video".

We are seeking short clips of conference activity or people talking about the conference experience, and you can send them to us via our drop.io site or even emailed from your mobile device (details will be sent to registered conference  participants).

It is your chance to show us what an NMC conference looks like from your perspective!