I don’t know about you, but I miss live blogging during conference season. Tweets are great, don’t get me wrong, but let’s say they are not always optimal to get the gist of a conference presentation you can’t attend (that is unless somebody Storify those tweets).
Last month, Rob Engelsman won one of the Higher Ed Experts scholarships to help him attend the High Ed Web Regional Conference in Rochester, NY. When I learn that Rob was the Multimedia Content Coordinator at Ithaca College but also a blogger , I asked him if he could write a guest post about one of the sessions he attended at the conference. He agreed (even if I didn’t make that a condition to get his scholarship money ;-).
So here is Rob’s take on Dave Olsen’s presentation at HEWEB Rochester:
As a novice to the HigherEd conference scene, I was told multiple times that I absolutely needed to see Dave Olsen’s presentation, “Developing a Progressive Mobile Strategy.†Apparently I wasn’t the only one who’d received the memo, as the room was full to the brim by the time Olsen began his talk. His warning that the presentation was coming at mobile strategy from 30,000 feet deterred no one, and Olsen zipped through a glossary of important terminology before answering the ever important “Why†that hovers over any and every presentation.
The why, as it turns out, is pretty big. Approximately 65% of people aged 18-29 have mobile web access and by 2012, 50% of the population will be using smartphones. Olsen also pointed out how important it is to remember that smartphones are really superphones, capable of doing an extraordinary amount if used correctly.
One of Olsen’s biggest points was the fact that teams need to realistically prioritize their wants and needs while planning in a realistic manner. Creating an iPhone app is to mobile strategy as the kicker is to a football team; it can score you a few points but it shouldn’t be what scores you the most points (my metaphor, not his).
Olsen presented three strategies in order: audience, content and platform. The most important segment of the audience is the part that has an urgent need now, whereas bored folks and repeated users take a slight backseat. He argued that it is easy to get an emergency contact page up on the web for any institution and that it should be done before anything else.
When thinking about content strategy, Olsen reminded the crowd that local information makes up 95% of search and that 88% of people take action on that search in a day. Therefore, online content should be localized and useful. As Olsen so eloquently stated, “No one is going to read your dean’s message on their phone.†Amen.
Also of note is that 90% of users have used their device at home, meaning that content shouldn’t only be for “on the go†users. One would be wise not to forget the droners among us who watch Apple TV while sending tweets from their iPad and texts from the iPhone.
To round out the strategies with a few thoughts on platform, Olsen spoke about fostering an API culture that can make mobile content creation easier, faster and more effective. As mobile use continues to grow in a plethora of ways, API use can ease the burden and save lots of time and energy.
With that, we were wowed. Mobile is the new place to be, and Dave Olsen seems to be 30,000 feet ahead.
