Case Study Jam

Take one epic fail, one work in progress and a downright heartwarming win, mix in two dozen enthusiastic and eager social media enthusiasts and what do you get? Why you get Case Study Jam (Ottawa) #2, of course.

The second installment of the jam built on the success of the first and a good, inspiring time was had by all. We assume.

If you weren’t there (for shame!) the wrap-up below will give you a taste of what you missed. And if you’re more aurally inclined, Robin Browne was kind enough to capture the audio of the preliminary presentations. You can find that audio here (many thanks Robin!).

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Case Study: @DailyBlogPost
Jammer: Ian Capstick

Twitsized Summary of the Project: A twitter feed that was supposed to provide one idea per day to inspire writer’s-blocked bloggers. It didn’t go so well.

Key Points:

• Started with three rules: One tweet per day only; follow back everyone who followed; accept tips from others via DM or @ reply.
• Project died after 33 tweets, largely because it wasn’t social. No conversations. “It wasn’t a twitter account.”
• Good ideas + good people can = bad things.

In His Words:

I flocked to an idea that @julien gave away free like a star-struck fanboy … [but] I didn’t do any of the things that made Twitter work for me.

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Case Study: Ottawa Social Media Book Club
Jammer: Kelly Rusk

Twitsized Summary of the Project: A fledgling book club for social media enthusiasts that has mostly survived one big snafu and several logistical headaches.

Key Points:

• Started hosting on meetup.com, which charges organizers.
• First events went well and people were using the online discussion board to continue discussions.
• Misunderstanding of meetup.com terms of service led to higher charges than expected, so Kelly asked about closing the account.
• Account was closed immediately and all 60 members received message saying the organizer had abandoned the group; Kelly only had names, not email addresses.
• Slowly rebuilding membership on new self-hosted site, trying to get it back on track.

In Her Words:

If you’re going to plan an event, do your research .. Now I’m worried people think I started the club and just walked away.

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Case Study: Social community charity drive for Cornerstone women’s shelter
Jammer: Bob LeDrew

Twitsized Summary of the Project: When a local women’s shelter was destroyed by fire, Bob turned online shock into on-the-ground action, first with a clothing/money/supply drive, then with a delicious New Year’s feast.

Key Points:

• Started with a post by Ian Capstick outlining the things the shelter needed urgently.
• “I had no money but lots of time,” so Bob wrote a post offering to spend a few hours picking up donations.
• Post was tweeted a few times then went viral (at least among Ottawa tweeps).
• Local CBC radio picked up the story, which gave it more legs.
• As more people heard, they organized supplementary drives (Laura Payton at the Hill Times; Preston Street BIA).
• Bob made the rounds and filled his car.
• Later, around Christmas, Bob got a turkey as a gift and decided to donate it as part of a holiday dinner.
• Reached out to same online community for side dishes.
• Ended up with three turkeys and two car trunks full of side dishes.

In His Words:

A bunch of small actions became a huge amount of good … this wasn’t a win for me, it was a win for the community.

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Lastly, after the outpouring of support from the Jammers at CSJam #1 (part of the efforts in support of Cornerstone), we decided to pass the hat for charity again. Bob, who has become our charity liaison by default, offers this recap:

The kind folks who attended CSJam 2 raised $85 in our pass the hat. The more-or-less arbitrary “charity” chosen to receive the money is Maria Hawkins, Ottawa’s Blues Lady.

Maria is a veteran singer and presenter who was a pioneer with Bluesfest’s W.C. Handy-award-winning Blues In The Schools program. She’s also created lots of school programs combining music and education around issues such as bullying.

Starting last summer, a series of events have left her without a place to live, fighting back from health problems and in pretty dire straits financially. The money from our hat (a very bluesy hat, by the way) will help her get her back on her feet, and she is pretty darn grateful.

Case Study Jam (Ottawa) #2
Thursday, February 18 @ 6 pm
The Lindenhof (268 Preston Street)
Register Now!
Hashtag: #CSJam

In the immortal words of LL Cool J, don’t call it a comeback.

Yes, kids, after taking a month off to enjoy the holidays (and, in the case of two of our organizers, bring life into the world), we’re back with a brand new invention… wait, no, that’s Vanilla Ice.

Anyway, gratuitous references to ’80s rap aside, we are indeed back and pleased to present Case Study Jam 2: Jamming Harder. If you missed the first one, or if you’ve got a really bad memory, we’ve added a primer to the bottom of this message.

This installment of the jam will feature at least three jam sessions, with a fourth one in the works if all the stars align.

• Ever had a really great idea that just sort of flopped? Ian Capstick did. And he’s going to tell us all about his failed attempt at creating a resource for bloggers.
• With more and more books coming out about social media, doesn’t it make sense to have a book club? Doesn’t it? Guys? Anyone? Bueller? Kelly Rusk will be on hand to discuss her fledgling efforts to get an Ottawa chapter (pun!) of the social media book club off the ground.
• Long before the anti-proroguing crowd was turning heads with its efforts to convert online activism into on-the-ground action, Bob LeDrew was rallying Ottawa’s social media crowd to help the Cornerstone women’s shelter, one of the local shelters to be hit by a devastating fire a few months ago. He’ll tell us what the secret is to mobilizing the online masses.

Now, we realize we’re asking you to come out on an Olympic men’s hockey game night. And that is really, really uncool of us. But we’ve appointed one of our iPhone-toting organizers as the designated scoreboard watcher and he’ll keep everyone up to date as needed. And we should be done in plenty of time for you to get home, flip on the TV and see Canada wrap things up against those dastardly Swiss.

Lastly, the organizers would like to thank Allison at The Lindenhof for graciously agreeing to host this little shindig. If you’ve never been there, it’s the place to go in Ottawa for hearty German fare (and beer!). You are hereby encouraged to show up right at 6 pm so you have plenty of time to enjoy a schnitzel or a bratwurst before festivities really ramp up.

Register Now!

The aforementioned primer

• Case Study Jam is an event for do-ers. People in PR, communications, IT or anything else who get their hands dirty, particularly in the social media realm.
• There’s only a rough agenda and no featured speaker, per se. Instead, a handful of people will make quick oral presentations to get discussions flowing. From there, the presenters break off and host small group sessions to carry on the discussion. Everyone else is welcome to drop in on any jam they want, sticking with one or moving from group to group.
• There are three types of presentations: Wins (successful case studies), Fails (less-than-successful case studies) and Works in Progress (that one’s pretty self-explanatory, actually).
• The goal is to share ideas and lessons, not sell services and products. Check your ego at the door and be prepared to share.
• Still want to know more? Check out the FAQ.

I know, I know. This is long overdue. Rather than a litany of excuses and all that, I’ll just own the failure. My bad. Mea culpa. Ectoplasm. Many thanks to Amy for taking notes; the fact that it took this long to get them online is entirely my fault, not hers.

Without further ado or silliness, here’s a quick rundown of the first Ottawa jam.

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Case Study: OttawaTonite
Jammers: Sue and Cheryl

Twitsized Summary of Project: Create a space for arts and entertainment information in Ottawa. Listings but less formal. Artists’ experiences in their own words

Key Points:

• Launched in Fall 2009; site still evolving
• Volunteer-driven project
• Web development has been major hurdle
• Site has taken unexpected directions; really creating social opportunities for the community
• Advertisers coming on board because they see something of value

In Their Words:

People from different communities are coming together; it’s a beautiful thing!

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Case Study: Canada@150
Jammers: Brent and Steffen

Twitsized Summary of Project: Year-long project inviting young public servants to discuss issues that will be facing Canada in 2017.

Key Points:

• Work done on Clearspace, collaborative software “that’s a mix between Wikipedia and Facebook”
• Approximately 10% of people were readers; 75% were intermittent users; 15% were heavy readers (better participation rates than typical 90-9-1 model)
• Social networking bridged the gap between kick off conference and wrap-up event where findings were shared

In Their Words

I was at my wit’s end when I got the call; then I realized we can make a difference here (Brent)

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Case Study: Apartment 613
Jammers: Ryan and Katie

Twitsized Summary of Project: Community platform focused on what’s going on in Ottawa

Key Points:

• Consists of blog, Twitter feed, Facebook page and Flickr account
• Flickr account in particular has been major point of interest; lots of involvement from local photogs
• Reached out to community through public meetings and “asking people to come for drinks with us”
• Using the blog as a catalyst to drive audiences out to do stuff
• Acting as liveblog for local events such as Change Camp
• Launch party came several months after actual launch; used as a marketing event with outreach to traditional media
• Future plans include video blogging and a partnership with Spacing Ottawa

In Their Words:

We want to do things; be involved in things; learn things

A full recap of the night is long overdue, I know. It should be ready early this week.

One thing we do want to bring to everyone’s attention, though, is the generosity of the community. As you might have read in the last post, Jam co-organizer Amy Boughner decided we should pass the hat for the Cornerstone women’s shelter – one of the worst hit in the rash of fires around Ottawa in the past few weeks.

As one of the pictures below shows, we literally passed the hat. And the generous folks you see below managed to come up with $76 and change from their pockets.

Many thanks, Jammers.

First of all, and this is long overdue, we locked down a third presenter for the first jam. Some of the folks working on the Canada@150 initiative in the Government of Canada are going to tell us what it’s like to be part of one of the first large-scale social projects in the federal public service.

So with that one, plus the Ottawa Tonite Crew, plus the Apartment 613 gang… really, what reason could you possibly have for not registering?

Next, as most of you probably know, a spate of fires in the last few days has done a serious number on the services available to women in need in the city. Jam co-organizer Amy Boughner came up with the great idea to pass the proverbial (and possibly literal) hat at the first Jam to raise funds to help the Cornerstone Women’s Shelter, one of the affected groups. If you’re coming on Thursday, please dig deep and see if you can find a few bucks to help out.

If you can’t make it, local blogger and all around good guy Ian Capstick has put together a list of charities and community groups that could really use a helping hand right now – please consider giving what you can.

Hey gang.

First of all, we’ve locked down a couple of presenters for the first jam. The fine folks behind Apartment 613 will share some lessons learned as they built an ass-kickingly-awesome resource for all things Ottawa and the dynamic duo that’s getting Ottawa Tonite off the ground will talk about their trials and tribulations.

So that’s one Win and one Work In Progress. We’ve also got a few irons in the fire but if you’re interested in presenting – especially if you’re willing to present a Fail – feel free to get in touch.

And if for some insane reason you haven’t registered yet, make like Mos Def and Busta Rhymes and DO IT NOW (missed the reference? You’re missing a great song).

There, with that out of the way…

A few quick words on conflict of interest and consultants. When the team first sat down to talk about getting this project off the ground, we were all working as in-house communications types. Since then, though, a couple of us have jumped to the dark side. One (Bob) has gone out on his own and another (Joe) will be starting with a web strategy firm the week of the first Jam.

Case Study Jam is all about the community. It’s an event for do-ers. It’s a place to share information and learn together. Case Study Jam is NOT a place for the organizers to develop their businesses.

So here’s our commitment to all y’all. We will NOT peddle our wares at the Jam. We won’t try to drive traffic to our business sites through this one and we won’t bait you into visiting our business sites when you think you’re clicking through for information on the Jam. We’re going to do our best to keep the two worlds separate.

And, if we slip up, please call us on it.

In the same vein, if you are on the agency side of things, we’d ask that you embrace this spirit too. Networking is an awesome by-product of community events and we’d never try to take that out of the equation. But please don’t come with a stack of business cards to hand out to every presenter who’s got a work in progress or who is stinging from a fail.

Cool?

Case Study Jam (Ottawa) #1
Thursday, November 19 @ 6 pm
La Roma Restaurant (430 Preston) – Open in Google Maps
Click here to register

The first ever Case Study Jam event is upon us. If you’re new to this site (and let’s admit it, you probably are), here’s what you need to know in bullet form:

• Case Study Jam is an event for do-ers. People in PR, communications, IT or anything else who get their hands dirty, particularly in the social media realm.
• There’s only a rough agenda and no featured speaker, per se. Instead, a handful of people will make quick oral presentations to get discussions flowing. From there, the presenters break off and host small group sessions to carry on the discussion. Everyone else is welcome to drop in on any jam they want, sticking with one or moving from group to group.
• There are three types of presentations: Wins (successful case studies), Fails (less-than-successful case studies) and Works in Progress (that one’s pretty self-explanatory, actually).
• The goal is to share ideas and lessons, not sell services and products. Check your ego at the door and be prepared to share.
• Ultimately we want to build an online repository of case studies hosted on the Case Study Jam Wiki but we’ll discuss that more during the first event.
• Still want to know more? Check out the FAQ.

For the first session, we’re planning four presentations. If you’re interested in sharing your win, fail or work in progress, let us know.

Confused? It’s cool. Frankly, we’re not too sure what’s going on here either.

In a nutshell, we’re trying to create something new for the public relations / communications / IT / social media / etc. etc. etc. community. It’s a meetup but it’s more too.

We’re trying to create a legacy project. A repository. A place where practitioners of all types can come, share their experiences, learn from others and get ideas of how to be awesome. Meetup + Wiki = Case Study Jam.

There’s a hastily-assembled frequently asked questions page that goes into things in more detail (how has a brand new initiative been asked questions with such frequency as to populate a page, you ask? Suspend your disbelief, I retort). Suffice to say, there’ll be a kickoff event sometime soon. After that, the madness will truly begin.

In the meantime, feel free to follow us on Twitter or contact us with the handy-dandy contact form.