Sun, 23 November 2008
Episode 8: Simon Chen and Melany Gallant of Ramius Corporation discuss Ramius' web-based community platform: Sixent.

Welcome to episode eight!
Run time: 15:29
Community Divas on iTunes

A podcast about communities and social media tools

In this episode:
- Connie interviews Simon Chen and Melany Gallant about Ramius Corporation’s web-based community platform: Sixent.
- We talk about Sustainability Camp
- Community calendar

Simon Chen is a consultant and Melany Gallant is the director of marketing for Ramius Corporation, a firm based in Ottawa, Ontario. Ramius designs and develops online social technologies and is perhaps best known for CommunityZero, an online community platform. Most recently, they launched an beta test for Sixent, a social networking platform.

00:01 Intro by Jay Moonah
00:09 Eden Spodek and Connie Crosby
00:15 Summary of today’s episode
00:50 Connie welcomes Simon and Melany and asks them to explain their roles at Ramius Corporation.
01:04 Simon explains his role at Ramius and how it’s grown over the past six years. The current focus is helping clients build online communities.
01:47 Melany explains how she helps market Ramius’ web applications and expertise to consumer side and on the enterprise side. The current focus is similar to Simon’s with respect to Sixent and building relationships.
02:16 What does Ramius Corporation do? Simon and Melany explain that Ramius is a developer of online community platforms including CommunityZero and Sixent. They go on to describe Sixent.
05:30 Simon explains how they are using feedback from the community of Sixent’s beta users to help them bring Sixent to market.
05:59 What is a white-label network? Simon explains how companies can customize and brand Sixent social networks for use inside their organizations and behind their firewalls. He compares it to brining features from Facebook and MySpace inside the organization.
07:21 What types of organizations are interested in bringing these types of features inside? Some organizations want to freshen up their existing use of technology. Others are looking to see what they can do with these systems to improve current processes.
Simon shares examples of how companies, associations, colleges and universities might use online communities to engage with stakeholders and members.
11:43 How does Sixent compete with other white-label community applications and what makes it distinct? The hope is that Sixent and white-label communities will overlap in the future.
12:59 Wrapping up the interview.
13:10 Community Divas presentation at Sustainability Camp, November 16, 2008, organized by Tamera Kremer, listeners are invited to visit our presentation wiki
13:34 Community calendar:
Podcamp Halifax, January, 25, 2009 - Craig and Ryan - interview on Canadian Podcast Buffet
Podcamp Toronto, Feb. 21 & 22, 2009
Mesh conference, Apr . 7 &8, 2009
14:44 Connie and Eden wrap up the episode.

Our cool theme music “Get Out of My Face” is by Uncle Seth and is from the Podsafe Music Network.

We hope to hear from you! Send your comments to communitydivas@gmail.com or post them on the blog at communitydivas.com. Follow us on Twitter, our Facebook page or our FriendFeed room. Some registration may be required.

Welcome to  episode seven!
Run time: 22:19
Community Divas on iTunes

A podcast about communities and social media tools

In this episode:
- An interview with Cameron MacLean and Josh Freeman about their Online Journalism course
- Discussion by Eden and Connie about a comment from Keith Burtis of Magic Woodworks.

Cameron MacLean and Josh Freeman are students in the Master of Arts in Journalism program at the University of Western Ontario. We interviewed them about the Online Journalism course they are currently taking with instructor and social media consultant Wayne MacPhail.

00:01 Intro by Jay Moonah
00:09 Eden Spodek and Connie Crosby
00:15 Summary of today’s episode
00:27 Introducing this week's guests Cameron MacLean and Josh Freeman
00:58 The Divas welcome Cameron and Josh
01:10 What does community mean to them? Cameron and Josh talk about both online and in-person communities.
02:38 Building rapport between class members and people from outside the class, for example Bill Deys and Picard102 (John Leschinski). Some are auditing the class via the web. Wayne MacPhail uses livestreaming video to include others in the class.
04:39 Other tools used successfully in the class:  Ning and Twitter
05:48 Ning is being used exclusively for this class. Other classes use Web CT for chat and file sharing.
06:24 How online community tools have allowed the students to get to know each other. In addition to Ning and Twitter, the students first got to know each other using Facebook to talk before they met in person. UWO Journalism 2008-09 Facebook group (Facebook registration may be required to view).
08:24 Other tools they have discussed in class: Seesmic, Ustream.tv, Delicious, the onlinewestern tag on Delicious.
09:44 How do they learn to apply these tools to journalism? The tools can be used to gather information. Twitter feed regarding Hurricane Gustav with updates from people in New Orleans acting as citizen journalists.  They also discuss use of Twitter by people attending a political rally for Stephen Harper.
12:40 Use of blogs by newspapers
13:59 Does the use of blogs help newspapers build readership and community? Maclean's magazine - Andrew Potter's blog versus Rabble.ca's election blog.  BBC.com  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/default.stm
16:48 Wrapping up the interview.
16:59 Comment from Keith Burtis from http://www.magicwoodworks.com/blog/: how can he use social networking tools to bring experienced woodturners who are inside a "walled garden" to interact with younger woodturners not inside that social networking space. He mentions Seth Godin's latest book Tribes. Eden and Connie discuss Keith's comment and Eden has a suggestion for Keith.
21:29 Connie and Eden wrap up the episode.

Our cool theme music “Get Out of My Face” is by Uncle Seth and is from the Podsafe Music Network.

We hope to hear from you! Send your comments to communitydivas@gmail.com or post them on the blog at communitydivas.com. Follow us on Twitter, our Facebook page or our FriendFeed room. Some registration may be required.