Grants/SXSW Presentation: Creating our Inaugural Open Access Journal
Describe the project you are proposing as clearly as possible in just five sentences.
I am the founding editor of an open access Journal that is expected to launch late Spring 2011 at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. This peer-reviewed journal will contain primarily student articles as an avenue for their research and academic interests. SXSW Interactive is a yearly conference where people gather to hear panels and presentations related to social media. I want to use the funding solely to support my attending SXSW to give a presentation about our experiences creating the journal. Attending and presenting at SXSW will enable me to network with international students, social media experts, and people interested in open access.
Detail the tangible project output (e.g., paper, blog post, written materials, video/film, etc.; this would be in addition to the final written report that successful grant recipients will be expected to deliver to CC at the conclusion of the project).
I am integrated into the social media community and will use these tools to share information about my SXSW conference presentation. Prior to the conference I will use twitter, blog posts, and video sharing sites to build interest in my presentation and gather feedback from individuals within the open access community. During the conference, I will interview and photograph people knowledgeable in the areas of Creative Commons and open access to post on flickr, blogposts, and video sharing sites. During the presentation, I expect that audience members will be using twitter to share what I am taking about with their followers. Following the presentation, I will write a blogpost summing up my presentation, create a thank you video to recognise members of the social media community that provided advice, and upload my presentation slides on slideshare.
Describe the community you are targeting. How would the project benefit the community?
My presentation about our open access Journal would be targeted at social media audience members that may also have some knowledge or interest about open access. Programmers, internet celebrities, educational staff, students, and bloggers would be potential audience members. My presentation would be most beneficial to social media members also interested in open access. For example, members interested in creating an open access journal would be better informed on the process involved and learn about potential pitfalls to avoid.br />
I am an active member of the social media community and have attended the SXSW conference in the past. I attend local social media events where I have presented on a variety of related topics such as Facebook, tagging, and alternate reality games. I use social media on a daily basis, have given social media workshops, and I am considered a local guru on Facebook knowledge.
As I am the founding editor of our journal, I will be the best person suited to present at SXSW as I will not only be able to tailor my message to this audience, but I will be able to answer questions and provide feedback on the creative process. I have prior experience speaking at social media conferences. Most recently, last May I spoke at a conference called Northern Voice, a social media and blogging event, about my experiences playing alternate games.
How will you measure and evaluate your project’s impact - on your main participants? Other contributors? On the larger community?
As this is a conference presentation, I will be able to measure and evaluate its impact on the audience from the quantity and quality of the questions during the question and answer period. Prior to my presentation, I will explore the level of engagement from any blog comments on a blog post discussing my upcoming presentation. I will do twitter searches of keywords to count the number of tweets about my upcoming presentation. I will also do a blog search to count any mentions of my upcoming presentation.
Following my presentation, I will talk 1-1 with those in attendance to ask for feedback, to critique my performance, and to offer advice on broadening my message beyond the conference using social media. I will count any mentions of my presentation on twitter, in blogposts, or in the comments of my slidedeck on slideshare in the following days.
How many participants do you expect to be involved in your project? How will you seek and sustain their involvement?
I expect to be the only one presenting due to the high costs of attending. As I am the founding editor of the open access journal, I will remain actively engaged in preparation for my SXSW presentation.
Describe how your project will benefit Creative Commons' mission to increase the amount of creativity (cultural, educational, and scientific content) in "the commons".
Although the social media community may be knowledgeable about the value of Creative Commons as bloggers and users of the photo sharing site called Flickr, they may not be as knowledgeable about the actual process of starting an open access journal and how it relates to Creative Commons. My presentation will educate those in attendance as well as their extended network through social media.
Describe what technologies and tools your project will use. What kinds of technical skills and expertise do you bring to the project? What are your technical needs?
My presentation will be made using Apple Keynote and then uploaded to slideshare, a social network for slidedecks, for archival value. During the conference I will use my digital camera to take photos of attendees that I meet. Photos will be uploaded to Flickr, posted on my blog, and shared via twitter to maximise the audience that can be reached. My MSc degree was in social media and my PhD research will be shared using creative commons and social media technologies. I have been active in social media since 2004 as I joined Facebook in 2005, Flickr in 2004, and began blogging in 2005.
What challenges do you expect to face, and how do you plan to overcome them?
The main challenge will be creating a dynamic presentation that engages the audience about open access journals. For this to occur, I need to be well prepared and create a presentation that speaks to the social media audience. I will use social media tools prior to the conference to gather feedback on my presentation so that it is used to further enhance open access knowledge in an international forum.
How do you plan to sustain your project after the Creative Commons funding has ended? Detail specific plans. How do you plan to raise revenue to continue your efforts in the future?
The funding is only to attend and present at the SXSW conference. It is hoped that sponsorship will be found at the conference so that Creative Commons doesn't need to be the funding source for SXSW 2012.
How can this project be scalable, or have a scalable impact?
This project will have a scalable impact through social media. As the conference is a social media event, it is expected that the reach of the open access message will extend beyond those in attendance through twitter, blog posts, Facebook status updates, and flickr photos.
What resources and support do you expect Creative Commons to provide to your project to ensure its success (if any)?
Leading up to the conference, an announcement about my presentation, perhaps an interview, would be beneficial in spreading awareness of it.
Describe how your organization currently communicates with its community members and network partners. (100 words)
Creative Commons Canada has a website and a Facebook group to communicate with its community members.
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