What is Social Reporting?
Social Reporting is a new way of reporting about events that makes use of the possibilities of Web 2.0 technologies and social media. An open group of participants interactively contributes videos, photos, text or other media content that is published online as soon as possible, normally on a live blog like the one you are on right now. The goal is to overcome some of the well-known knowledge-management shortcomings of normal reporting and to provide a more authentic, participatory and personalized reporting that…
- includes a variety of voices, opinions and perpectives present at an event;
- uses a variety of media like video, photo or slides;
- allows for interactivity and further discussion during and after the event;
- opens the event to a wider public and stimulates the exchange with other people concerned with a subject;
- has less of a normative and terminal pretension than traditional written reports, and
- is more easily accessible and more attractive to read/watch and consequently much more likely to be consulted than an extensive written and printed report.
Why?
There are several reasons why one would want to try social reporting instead of producing a conventional report of an event. A few important ones are:
- The immediate publication and the interactive nature of a blog can stimulate further discussions and initiate collaboration that transgresses the temporal and spatial frames of the event.
- Participation in social reporting can generate ownership for an event and give people a greater feeling of involvement.
- Social Reporting is less expensive than conventional written reports, as participants are the main contributors.
What Can a Social Reporting Look Like?
The social report about a plenary discussion can for example contain one or several of the following contents:
- A short video (about 2-3 minutes) of people giving you a short to-the-point overview of the main findings and insights they gained from the discussion or presentation, the questions that remained open, what they learned for their work etc.,
- a photo gallery containing pictures of speakers, participants, pin walls or an interactive session,
- a short text summary of a speech that was given,
- the keynote slides used by a speaker in his presentation,
- a list of links for further information on the subject,
- …
All of these will be published in the corresponding section of the live blog, ideally by the end of the day. Extended forms of social reporting can also make use of social networks like Twitter or Facebook to actively spread the information to people who can not attend the event.
So What Does This Mean For Me as a Participant at the DLGN f2f?
It means that you are very likely to come into contact with the social reporters. You will see participants filming a discussion, taking photos of pin walls, and maybe you will even be interviewed by a social reporter after a discussion. If that is the case, here are a few tips on how to deliver good video statements:
- Talk clearly and slowly.
- Try to make your most important points within 3 to 4 sentences. We don’t expect you to provide an in-depth analysis.
- There’s no need to be nervous; video can always be cut, and we won’t publish a video when we think you would not be comfortable with it.
And How Can I Participate?
Easy – get in touch with the social reporting team! We will have a media room in our Hotel in Sarajevo where you can deliver content you want to publish on the live blog. This can be anything from a video you took with your mobile phone during a presentation, an important document that came to your mind in a discussion, photos you took during the coffee break, a short message with inspiring or critical thoughts about a discussion you just had. We will not publish everything without filtering – the goal is to keep the information short and crisp -, but if you bring relevant content you are warmly invited to come and see us.
You can also comment on existing blog posts if you want to discuss something more in depth and add links if you think they could be helpful for your colleagues.
In general we recommend you visit the blog regularly to be up to date with what was going on during the day and not miss any virtual follow-up after discussions.
The Social Reporting Team
Tobias Sommer – technical administrator of the blog, video coach
Bertha Camacho – writing coach, photo editor
Hynek Bures – video coach
Nara Weigel – video coach
