For my third Web 2.0 tool, I chose Aimoo. Aimoo is a free site that allows you to create a message board for whatever you want. I have been a part of the Buffalo Bills message board for almost a decade, and I always thought that having a message board for the edit department at work would be a really good way to promote more of a community. I think it would be beneficial in these ways:
1. Announcements - As of now we strictly rely on mass emails to promote events or conferences. Having a static list of upcoming events would be more effective than an email lost amongst the 50 or so that we receive each day.
2. Projects - A message board would be a good way to post what project each editor is working on. This way you would avoid duplicate projects. It would also be a good way to provide feedback or ask for ideas/help.
3. Community - You would get to know employees on different shifts; you could have avatars and quotes that you can create so you get a little taste of someone's personality; management would enjoy being able to reach their direct reports in a more casual way.
From what I have tinkered with, Aimoo is a fully functional message board. You can create different categories and sub-categories, password protect things, and create stickies. The best thing for my place of employment would be the privacy settings, so it would be restricted to employees only. Increasing interaction between employees could only be a good thing. I can go 8 months before meeting someone sometimes!
This looks interesting. One of the problems at my school is that the teachers in my department are somewhat isolated from each other--our physical locations are inconveniently seperated and we each have different specializations within our larger field.
ReplyDeleteA message board might be a good way for us to coordinate better and more immediately (and at greater length) than the district e-mail or the rare weekly meeting--and it might help to strengthen us as a community of professionals. The problem is that one of my fellow teachers is technophobic, so it might take some arm twisting to get her started. I think she would see the advantages once she did, though.
Bryan,
ReplyDeleteThis is a neat tool to use. I've already begin thinking about how I can use it to communicate with my crew during shoots. It would be really neat to make announcements about call times to prevent all the phone calls. I would also use it to post treatments and other ideas.
Cool Find!