New Technologies and Social Media

by: Alejandra Laiton - (Published in the Include Magazine from Inclusion Europe)

EN: Technology is changing a lot. For example, now we can use Facebook to talk to our friends and to meet new friends on the internet. Inclusion Europe has got a Facebook page where you can meet other people interested in inclusion. Inclusion Europe also has a channel on YouTube where you can watch our videos.

FR: La technologie change tout le temps. Par exemple, aujourd’hui vous pouvez utiliser ‘Facebook’ pour parler avec vos amis et pour rencontrer des nouveaux amis surInternet. Inclusion Europe a créé une page sur ‘Facebook’ où vous pouvez rencontrerd’autres gens qui s’intéressent à l’inclusion.

DE: Inclusion Europe a aussi créé une chaînesur ‘YouTube’ où vous pouvez regarder nos vidéos. Informations technologien ändern sich ständig. Heute, können wir zum Beispiel Facebook benutzen,um mit Freunden zu sprechen oder neue Freunde zu treffen. Inclusion Europe hat jetzt eine Facebook-Seite, auf der man andere Menschen mit Interesse an Inklusion treffen kann. Inclusion Europe hat aucheinen Kanal auf YouTube mit videos.

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In the 21st century, technology is a crucial factor for successin any organisation, large or small. Not only from the perspective of how many computers we need and the IT staff required to maintain them, but also because all staff depend on it to deliver programs and projects, to communicate overseas, to promote the organization’s mission, to raise financial and intellectual support, to reach followers, to engage friends and activists and much more.

Technology can now be used in new and different ways to gain support for the Inclusion movement amongst organizations, donors, supporters, experts and public services, as well as reaching individual citizens themselves.

With the expertise of our new Communications Officer, Alejandra Laiton, Inclusion Europe is embracing new communication and information technologies as an opportunity to make information accessible to all, by connecting and supporting our member associations through the use of new technologies such as social media and online collaboration tools.
but, What is social media?

Officially, social media is an umbrella term that defines the various activities that integrate technology, social interaction and the construction of words, pictures, video and audio. (source: Wikipedia)

Put simply, it is used to describe the millions of conversations people across the world are having on a daily basis, through online social networks, computer devices, email accounts,websites and communication tools such as Skype, and MSN.

and, Why should we care about this?

■ Because social media is the new way of democratizing communications

■ Because 2/3 of the global internet population visits social networks

■ Because visiting social networking sites is now thefourth most popular online activity – ahead of personal email use

■ Because we need to be where the people are: the social and mobile Web

Technology is changing the way we engage with our audiences, the way we listen to them, the way we invite them to participate and lead the way for change. It also brings us the possibility of connecting more with our colleagues.

No matter how great or small an organisation may be, we should start asking ourselves how well we are using new communication technologies.

Do we have a presence on important social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter?
Do we plan how information is being distributed on the Internet?
Do we communicate through videos, photos, blogs and other popular media?

The World Congress of Inclusion International 2010 and social media!

Inclusion Europe is already present on online social networks. If you are a Facebook user (Facebook is the world’slargest social online network), become a “fan” of our Facebook page to receive updates, to see our latest photos and events, and to stay connected with friends and supporters of the Inclusion movement.

Visit: www.facebook.com/inclusioneurope for free! And click on ‘Events’ to see the World Congress of Inclusion International 2010 event page on Facebook.

You can also subscribe to the RSS feeds (RSS -Rich Site Summary- is a format which delivers regularly updated web content directlyto your browser, email account, desktop or mobile device) in any of the 4 languages available (English, German, French and Spanish) for regular updates.
Another interesting site is Twitter; a real-time short messaging service (SMS) that works over multiple networks and devices (mobile and web) to keep people updated using a maximum of 140 characters), Inclusion Europe has created a Twitter account www.twitter.com/InclusionEurope (in English) where we will share updates on our activities and onthe World Congress 2010 with our followers who use this service. Twitter is also completely free!

For those who like videos, we are also on YouTube. YouTube is the leading online video website for watching and sharing original videos worldwide through the Web. Don’t miss the opportunity to see the latest videos of Inclusion Europe: www.youtube.com/InclusionEurope and the World Congress: www.youtube.com/Inclusion2010 on YouTube! You can visit the channels, rate and comment on our videos. We are doing our best to provide videos in different languages with subtitles to cater for different audiences. YouTube is also a service provided for free.

We are continuing to work on the communication strategy for Inclusion Europe 2010, capitalizing on these trends and we hope we will soon be able to use this “new medium” to branchout to other sites and come up with new ways of using them. If you need any support do not hesitate to contact Alejandra Laiton, Communication Officer at Inclusion Europe at: a.laiton(at)inclusion-europe.org

Updates

Dear all,

Here are 3 important profesional updates that I want to share with you.

1.  I have been selected as the new Communications Officer at Inclusion Europe.

This is the European Association of societies of persons with intellectual disability and their families; the Secretariat is based in Brussels, Belgium. I am in charge of the implementation of the overall Communications strategy of the organization, including Information management matters. I will be responsible for implementing Web 2.0 strategies and supporting the delivery, promotion and disemination of the projects across Europe; it includes press releases, multilingual publications, websites and setting up intranets for project management.  All of this under a social cause: Inclusion and Human Rights!

2. I am studying!… in Colombia!… yes, online.

I was invited by the Ministery of Communications of Colombia to participate in the online course: E-Citizen. This is a new program of the government of my country to teach the citizens how to use the Information and Communication Technologies. The course also includes an International certification on management of the Information and Communication Tecnologies given by the ICDL Organization (International Computer Driving License). I am refreshing the elemental concepts from What is a computer until secured practices to manage information on the Web. I am super happy to be able to connect with other colombians remotely and to be among the first persons receiving this certification in my country :-)

3. I have been nominated to be part of the e-mail expert group of Information and Communication Technologies of the European Disability Forum.

Thanks to my experience and my professional background, my organization has decided to nominate me for this important group of people in Europe. The EDF is an independent European non-governmental organisation (ENGO) that represents the interests of 65 million disabled people in the European Union and stands for their rights. And the group of experts will be requested to give inputs on on-going issues within EDF work programme, or unexpected issues that might need immediate input from the experts. I feel so honored with this nomination and I hope to be able to contribute in a larger scale.

On the personal side, I am really looking forward to my holidays in Colombia (after 2 years!) and couple of travels in Europe that are just around the corner as well.. I will let you know though.

Hugs and thanks for reading,

Lala.

My networks

I joined these online networks to connect with different people that share the same interests as me.

Red de Periodistas Multimedia [RPM]
This is a network of digital journalists across Colombia and Iberoamerica. The group was created in Colombia on February 2009 by a group of well known journalists in Colombia. Over 400 members are part of this network so far.

Topics: Digital Journalism, Web 2.0, Web 3.0, Communications, Internet.

DirCom Social
This is a network of professionals and students on Communications, Public Relations, Marketing, Advertising in Iberoamerica.

I don’t know when exactly this network was created, but so far is the best network to connect professionals on Communications in Iberoamerica. It has over 2.000 members.

Topics: Communications, Marketing, Adversting, Public Relations.

Weekego
This is a network for Travelers across the world! This was founded by two friends, weekeego’s idea is to give you a deeper experience of the community by involving you in activities that are unique to the location you have chosen.

I also contribute it as a blogger! visit: http://www.weekeego.net/blog/

Topics: Travels, Responsible Tourism.

Telling the story! – releasing the AIESEC Annual Report 08/09

This week, the AIESEC International Annual Report 2008/2009 was released which officially closes my and my colleague Lucy Symons‘ role in ‘telling the story’ strategy from the global office of AIESEC.

http://aiesec.org/cms/aiesec/AI/partners/publications.html

It was a busy successful year for our team, we we’re especially proud to see an alumnus receive the Nobel Prize, to have launched our refreshed global website and to have grown 45% with over 6787 internships placed across the world since June. What a journey!

So much of our strategy, tactics and choices tie back to the conversations and resources many people supported us with- thank you immensely for being so available and supportive across the year.

I want to thank also to the editorial team of the AIESEC online dialogues, responsible to get all the stories we reflected in the annual report. To the beautiful group of designers of the InStyle Agency in Uruguay that transformed our ideas into a reality, to our photographer Hannah Anthonysz and to our global partners, alumni and members contributed in this edition.

Hosting a national conference in Belgium

I have been honorably invited to be the Chair of the National Conference on Leadership Development called “Kick Off – AIESEC in Belgium 2009“.

Over 60 leaders from the 12 local offices and the national office of AIESEC in Belgium will be gathered at Limburg, Belgium from the 18th – 20th of September 2009. The objective of the meeting is to build and launch the plan for the term 2009-2010, acquire leadership competencies and generate cooperation between the member’s offices.

I will be the host and general coordinator of the organizing team.

AIESEC facilities over 7,700 leadership roles involved in running the organization at local, national, regional and global scale, as well as training in soft skils and functional areas in over 470 conferences each year.

Thanks to the members of AIESEC in Belgium for the invitation and let’s kick it off!

Welcome to my space!

Hey everyone!

I give you a really warm welcome to my professional space on the web. I have created this space for two main reasons:

First, because I declare myself as an addicted to the Web 2.0 and social media and I needed to centralize all my information and contacts in one place, to share with you my experiences, my work, my interests. I will use this space to share my innovations and my learning on this field.

Second, because in the era of the Information Technology, all of us should be able to have a professional space to use as a “business card” for the people working in the Internet.  Therefore, you will find in this page some of my professional experience, my portfolio, my biography, my travels and all the ways you can contact me. ;-)

Sincerely, I would like to keep connected with the people that I know and of course to share cool resources on the Web.!
Enjoy this space!

Best Regards,

Lala

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