August 03, 2011

It's All Geek to Me

I was looking for the video from my session at this year's ScienceOnline, and realized I had never shared it here. That was an oversight.

It's All Geek to Me from Smartley-Dunn on Vimeo.



The first part of the session works through the idea that some people are motivated by information, at least on a particular topic. It talks about the trade-offs that can occur in shaping your message to meet the needs of that audience or of a broader audience and brainstorms some ways of reaching both groups.

The last part of the session looks at what the presence of geeks means for an online community, and particularly for a community that is interested in more general outreach. In this section, we discussed the uses and pitfalls of geek culture, such as snark, in-jokes, and relentless pedantry. This is also where you'll find the moderators' dirty secrets.

ETA: See also this related (and well-timed) post on social diversity from Stef McGraw.

2 comments:

Ben Zvan said...

I wish the audio was better...

Stephanie Zvan said...

That is the perpetual problem, even with mikes.