Visioning 2026 Blog

NorthFork Visioning Sessions

NorthFork Riverwalk Development Project hosted the Visioning Sessions on April 16th and facilitated by HDR Engineering Inc.

HDR's Visioning Session slide presentation is available without the SWOT Analysis results.

Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threat Analysis is a good method to collect community input in small groups and then build consensus between the different participants. Each group had 4 sheets of butcher paper that they included ideas on the 4 different areas relative to the project. Each group shared with the facilitator those ideas which were consolidated. Then the individuals where given 4 sets of color dots (3 each) to correspond to the 4 areas and then asked to vote on the idea they felt was the most important. An individual could put on three dots on one ideas if they felt strongly about it.

I think the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats (SWOT) Analysis that we went through with HDR as the facilitator for the riverwalk master plan was very beneficial. The only thing I would like to add to the participatory process is one more parallel process, I would call it Future Trends Impact (FTI). This additional process gives the facilitator an opportunity to share with the community the future trends that could have an impact on the effort and then allow the participants to add their own trends and then have the group vote on for consensus. For example, how will our aging demographics impact our park and rec master plan, fuel and transportation costs, growing obesity in our youth, life-long learning opportunities, our continued multi-generational extended family culture, further collaboration with other public entities (e.g., schools), etc.

Rick Smyre on Twitter and Related Trends

 A quick search on Twitter to see if anyone had mentioned Rick’s name and came up with the following report.

http://search.twitter.com/search?q=rick+smyre

Interesting to read some of the comments relative to Tea Parties. This just reflects what Rick has been saying for many years that our representative democracy is not keeping up with the changes that are occurring around us and  across the world. I find it interesting and distressing that there was so much press coverage on the Somalia pirate situation which is a continued outgrowth of the problems in this region, a systemic problem that we knew about during the Clinton years and probably earlier. The political situation is becoming more unpredictable with Iran, North Korea, Pakistan and Afghanistan (3 with or near to have nuclear weapons). We see the frustrations at the local level where are local officials are over whelmed with information and issues, especially with paying for services and the current tax revenue structure and how to conduct economic and community development. Again I find it interesting about the local public school system looking at closing “attendance centers” versus using the term neighborhood schools. As Marv Cetron tried to get us to understand, the learning environment isn’t about bricks and mortar, but well incentivized teachers that are trained well for helping children learn how they individually learn.

Twitter A Social Networking Phenomenon for Business

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, April 11, 2009

 Twitter A Social Networking Phenomenon for Business

 The power of social networking and the numerous communications capabilities now available has helped expand our opportunity to collaborate, with problem solving , become more effective creative thinkers, develop more responsive marketing processes, and consider evolving trends on a variety of business and community topics. One of these newest tools is Twitter. Why would this particular tool be any different than other internet applications?

 Here are a few things that I find that has helped separate this on-line tool and a growing trend from others communication applications (http://twitter.com, currently free requiring an email address, userID and password).

• The Tweets, 140 character messages or micro blogs are open to the public. Twitter allows you to interact at a personal level verses a typical a static website or blog site on the internet. This format follows the phone texting standard, short message service(SMS).
• The application supports text messaging (e.g., phone SMS) and communications with other applications such as Facebook and the expanding smartphone instruments.
• It has search capability similar to a tradition search engine such as Google.
• Third party application developers are expanding on this open source platform to make the data useable in a variety of ways, for example, key word tracking and analysis.
• One of the features I like about this tool is it a quick and easy way to capture references that I’ve found useful and share them with others as well as keeping them on-line for future reference.

WebProNews reports that, “New data from comScore indicates that Twitter approached 10 million users in February. That's a growth of over 700% from February 2008. On top of that, worldwide visitors climbed over 5 million more. Just in the US, visitors climbed over 1000% in a year's time. The two largest age demographics on Twitter are the 45-54 crowd, and the 25-34 crowd. Interestingly, the youngsters (12-17) are the smallest demographic as comScore notes, referencing info from Alexei Oreskovic of Reuters. “

A recent community in Kansas is using Twitter to disseminate notices related to different departments activities and services, e.g., road closures, park activities, etc. (http://www.eldoradotimes.com/homepage/x1525910911/City-twitters-for-quick-communication) . Twitter is also being identified as part of the six technology trends (on-line communications tools) impacting the K-12 educational system (http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/?i=57910).

 For business purposes the search capability and the third party keyword reporting features help me stay up to date on micro trends that are evolving. This tool has great collaborating capabilities when it comes to creative ideas and problem solving. It can help with some word of mouth advertising and you can use it for target marketing. Some businesses are using this tool to allow customer to order carry-out or schedule just in time delivers for their customers with hectic schedules.

I use this tool for a variety of adaptive and critical thinking purposes.

1.       When I find an interesting website/article I post this link with a short note as a Tweet. I’ve included the Twitter API on my Facebook page so I can increase my sharing options. This is a very convenient method for me to capture my interesting references in one place for future references. The internet or what some are now saying is cloud computing, is becoming my long term storage solution of choice.

2.       Twitter now has a search option similar to other search engines. This is very helpful in keeping updated on what people are commenting on concerning existing products I am marketing through our website. Another third party applications is helping me find other Tweeters in my geographic area.

3.       Third party software developers have access to the public data (Tweets) that is produced by Twitter users. One particular product, TweetLater, allows me to set up a daily report to list all tweets that contain keywords that I’m interested in for business purposes.

4.       The internet marketing community has quickly jumped on the tool for helping increase their marketing opportunities without worrying about email spam. This micro blogging tool allows for quick notes and the ability to incorporate pictures and web links to other websites.

5.       The ability to establish and define Hashtags allows users to tag a Tweet with a character/numeric string preceded by the # sign so that others can follow (e.g., #CMEcon is the hashtag for the Creative Molecular Economy topic). A dictionary of hashtags has been developed to see what topics people have established for following and sharing.

For a few of the tools you may find helpful to improve your Twitter communication experience please refer to either of the following website links.

http://www.visioning2026.com/blog/post/twittersocial-networking-tools/

Mark Hall is the General Manager for Tru Mark Athletic Field Marker (http://www.AthleticFieldMarker.com), a manufacturer and distributor of field marking equipment, supplies, and tools. He is also the Vice President of eSelling4u.com, Inc. which operates an internet business operation, Watertight Storage Case Co. (http://www.WaterTightCase.com),  that markets protective cases for active life-style people and businesses needing to protect valuable mobile electronic equipment. Mr. Hall is a graduate of Leadership Norfolk course, one of the team members involved in the 5 step process for the Visioning 2026 Project (http://www.Visioning2026.com) and a current board member for the NorthFork Riverwalk Development Foundation (http://www.NorthForkNE.com). You can contact him at mhall@eselling4u.com, Twitter:trumark, LinkedIn:hallmarkd, and Facebook: 517061207.

Twitter--Social Networking Tools

I've been using Twitter for about 3 months now and have found a few tools that add value to this social networking capability. One of the most convenient feature is the sharing of your Twitter tweets to your Facebook account. It is handy when I find something that I will refer to later and share with my growing list of friends that are connecting on-line.

There are several other tools that I like to use for tracking key words in tweets. This is one way to make connections with other with similar interests. The hashtag feature of Twitter is supporting the increase of more "groups".

Connect with me at the following free websites:

http://www.linkedin.com/in/hallmarkd

http://twitter.com/trumark

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=517061207

http://search.twitter.com/ similar to Google search but targeted on tweets

http://www.twitpic.com/ Adding pictures to Twitter

http://twitterfall.com/ Streaming Tweets based on key words you select

http://www.tweetlater.com/ Productivity Tools. One is a really great tool for key word searches with the results sent as a batch report via email to read at your leisure.

http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=2231777543 Adding your Twitter feed to your Facebook page

http://twitter.com/badges/blogger Add Twitter to your Blogger page

http://twittgroups.com/search.php
Searching for groups that have been established

http://dossy.org/twitter/karma/ helping to manage your Twitter followers

http://dossy.org/2007/12/need-help-managing-your-twitter-karma/

http://www.twellow.com/twellowhood/ Twitter Yellow Pages, a great location tool for finding fellow Twitters in your area

http://www.twittermeter.com/ Tool to graph key words used over a certain time period

http://wthashtag.com/wiki/Cmecon Dictionary of Twitter Hashtags e.g., #CMEcon stands for Creative Molecular Economy

http://www.hashtagdirectory.org/ Wiki of Twitter Hashtags , instructions on how to create a hashtag in the dictionary

http://bubbletweet.com/ a tool to add a short video to your Twitter page

http://www.sociableblog.com/2008/12/29/top-twitter-tools-2009/

http://www.briansolis.com/2008/10/twitter-tools-for-community-and.html

https://www.twittad.com/index.php