Todd Mundt

The price of energy has risen as oil prices have skyrocketed, and the cost of everything related to energy (and that’s a lot) is starting to rise in response. Infrastructure expenses like travel and utilities are eating into other budget lines, and that should force us to think more creatively about how we do business.

How will you adapt? I’m posting some thoughts of my own on the impact of this new reality on public media, hoping they’ll serve as conversation starters, if your organization is getting squeezed.

Social media: If it’s good for our audience, it can be good for us, too.

Every time I talk to my boss about going to a conference, his eyes glaze over. It’s hard for him to listen and simultaneously fathom the havoc I’m about to wreak on the budget.

Some of it can’t be helped. Some meetings must be in person - the networking opportunities are to good, the shear effect of a collection of brains in one place too important to neglect. But, are we using all those cool web tools out there to maximum effect? Probably not. They won’t replace the vitality of an in-person event, but they fill a big gap for lots of other kinds of interaction. We should harness those tools.

Wikis

They’re almost old-fashioned compared to all the shiny stuff out there, but they’re super effective for collaborations. We just completed work on a grant proposal, in which we partnered with another public media organization. With the exception of two 15 minute phone calls, the entire 3 weeks of work transpired on a wiki. No flyins, no tedious emailing of documents to each other, with the resulting tangle of comments and textual additions and subtractions. It’s all on the wiki; everybody can read it; everybody can comment on it; everybody can change it. Sometimes old-fashioned is just fine by me.

Webconferencing

OK, please don’t let your last experience with webconferencing turn you into a sworn enemy of the technology. Yes, I was on that call, too. The one where the moderator got disconnected for 5 minutes; the web presentation locked up; the Skype call sounded like it was coming from South Ossetia; the PD from Greater Tri-Cities Public Radio put the call on hold and treated everyone to 4 minutes of “Afternoon Classicale.”

There are significant technical hurdles to overcome and the organizer of a web conference spends almost as much time thinking about the technical pieces as the presentation. But it’s like riding a bicycle - eventually, you stop falling off and it becomes pleasurable. I’ve taken part in some IMA, PRPD and other webconferences that have come off with few or no technical glitches. These won’t be a replacement for the annual conference, but organizations like PRPD are making an effort to leverage webconferences more frequently to transmit knowledge around the system and encourage idea sharing. This is a great idea, no matter the state of the economy. For every two people who get to go to a conference, there are probably 10 others who could benefit but have to stay home. (disclosure: I’m on the PRPD board)

Skype/Video Conferencing

There’s probably no easier software to use if you want to use internet phone or (God help us) video chat. Skype’s newest iterations include a much tighter integration of video, and while you can add some other gizmos and make it a big group, multiple location roundtable, Skype is all you need if you want to check in with a reporter at a distant bureau, or other telecommuting staffers. It takes some getting used to. I’ll never forget taking part in a video chat at a station where I worked; the staff at the satellite outpost turned the cam away from them because they didn’t want to be seen. On my side, all of us addressed an empty chair.

Chat, with or without video

UPDATE: Josh Andrews had some good thoughts in the comments, so let me break off a piece of the chat idea from Skype. Skype functions well as a chat application, but I think most of us use one or more of the Big Four: Yahoo Messenger, Windows/MSN Messenger, AIM or GoogleTalk.

These chat services are excellent even if you’re all working in the same building. As Josh notes, email is not well suited for quick questions, etc. If you’re too busy to track down the individual in person, and sometimes we are, chat can get the job done. To make it work, everyone should decide on a single platform, or everyone can download an application that handles multiple platforms (Adium is one of several) and open all accounts at once. Put everyone’s preferred chat screenname on the internal contact list.

DIY Social Networks

I’ve mentioned these before, but they deserve another mention. I got invited to join the Mortgage Crisis project that 9 St. Louis is undertaking. It’s built on the Ning platform, and it’s a joy to use. From profiles to forums, to mini-social network clusters, everyone working on the project, whether in St Louis, Charlottetown PEI, or Louisville or DC, can follow the development of the project from minute to minute, debate and discuss ideas, share clippings, even view and critique edits of video segments.

This is the same platform that WAMU uses to engage its listeners. KETC has put it to use internally to make their collaboration more efficient and meaningful.

Are you using tools like these to bridge the gap? As costs of travel rise, are you thinking more seriously about these tools? Do they work for you? Or not? If you have anything to add, please share in the comments.

• Part 1: Virtualizing the Workplace
• Part 3: Engaging the Community