Our work in SL debuts at DigitalNow Conference

What will the future members of Associations be like? How will we stay relevant to this new generation? These were some of the questions we were to address during our panel discussion at the Digital Now Conference in Orlando on April 23 - 26, 2008.

The Digital Now is a national Association Leadership conference which features 350+ of the leading non-profit Associations in the U.S. This is the only "don't miss" conference I have on my calendar and I have been attending since the beginning in 2000.

The panel was titled Tomorrow's Members, Listening to the Voices of Our Future Featuring Julie Evans, CEO of Project Tomorrow, Ronald Moen, CEO of the American Dietetic Association, Dave Fellers, CAE, Executive Director of the Radiological Society of North America, and myself, CEO of the Maryland Association of CPAs. You can download notes from our presentation by clicking here.



For my part, I wanted to tie in our work in the virtual world of Second Life with the latest research on this new generation (millennial, Gen Y, Gaming generation). So, I thought it would be interesting to have them tell the story (and demonstrate the talent of this generation). That is where McDonogh School comes in.


As part of their senior project, Andrew Hood and Chris Mfume of McDonogh School were tasked with making a movie about our work in Second Life (CPA Island) that would tie in the latest research on K-12 students and their views on technology. They would also run demonstrations about Second Life during one day of the conference. Since our CPA Island was mostly developed by another McDonogh School student, Thomas Hood (who debutted it last year at this same conference), Thomas, who is now a freshman at Salisbury University was asked to join us for the demos.

The video was a huge hit as were the demonstrations. These Gen Yers presented themselves well and showed the group their skillz in technology...

Resources:

See the Second Life Movie created by McDonogh School Seniors by clicking here

Read the latest issue of the Journal of Accountancy article, Accounting for Second Life

See our blogs about CPAs & Second Life http://www.cpaisland.com/ & http://www.slacpa.org/

My views on Web 2.0 - CPA Learning 2.0 lesson

It is easy to know what I think about Web 2.0 and business - check out my video below. Yes, I embedded it from Youtube. This is an exercise from our Web 2.0 learning project at CPA Learning 2.0



Yet the coolest benefit to MACPA (and me as CEO) has been the learning about our organization from our team as they went through the project using our Web 2.0 tools as examples. Just the other day I heard from three people about very different subjects where they referenced our blogs, podcasts, and even second life! This is a major uninetended benefit of this type of learning project.

I have heard from more than a few of our team who also report understanding their kids a little better, another unintended benefit. Great exercise - great project and my thanks again to Helene Blower and the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Library for sharing her original concepts and allowing us to build on them. Also, my thanks to Stephen Abram of Syrsidynix who shared this with us at the Association Digital Now Conference last year in Orlando. Finally a thank you to Bill Sheridan who took this project and ran with it for all of us to learn from and enjoy!

I am already looking forward to 3.0 :)

Do you have a Second Life?

Actualy I do - in the metaverse I am Rocky Maddaloni, one of the founders of the Second Life Association of CPAs and developer of CPA Island. There I am in our virtual MACPA offices meeting with our old neighbor Lena. Lena is a graphics designerfro Switzerland who lived next to our old SLACPA headqurters. She was very impressed with our Island and offices.

Having fun with Web 2.0

Here is proof that I am learning and having fun (7 1/2 Habit) using Bill's Flickr spellr and how easy it was to insert in my blog... Thanks Bill -I copied your saying because I love that saying as well :)

7 1/2 Habits of Highly Effective Learners

I am acually following our CPA Learning 2.0 program to see what the "real" experience is like for our MACPA team and hopefully our members in the near future. I just did the video by the folks at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg County Library Association.

Here is what I got out of this exercise:

The 7 1/2 Habits:

1. Begin with the end in mind
2. Accept Repsonsibility for your Learning
3. View problems as challenges (I go a step further and say opportunities)
4. Self-confidence as a lifelong learner
5. Create your own learning toolbox (isn't that really what we really are as an Association?)
6. Use technology to your advantage
7. Share and mentor with others
8. 7 1/2 = PLAY! My personal favorite!

So I have to say that I have an advantage as a CPA because lifelong learning is one of our core values as a Profession (See the CPA Vision for more). So I think I have mastered most of the 7 1/2 habits and hope to use them all for this project...

Our Vision for Web 2.0 & MACPA

I Just read Patty Seybold's post about creating a vision for Web 2.0 and organizations and I love her definition (and think it applies to us!). Here it is (From Patty's blog) http://outsideinnovation.blogs.com/pseybold/2007/08/how-do-you-comm.html:

Here’s the way I view Web 2.0: It’s the next generation of the Internet in empowering customers and employees to get things done. It’s when you give your customers (and employees) the tools to roll up their sleeves and design things themselves and to share their work in progress with others. The social networking aspects of Web 2.0 are profound. Customers strut their stuff around your products and services, drawing more prospects to your solutions. I characterize the business benefits of Web 2.0 this way:

“The benefits of Web 2.0 accrue when you empower your consumer and/or business customers to participate in shaping their online experiences with your company and with one another. Empowered customers are more engaged and more loyal. They cost less to serve, and they contribute value by adding their own “spin” to your Web sites, your products, and to your brand experience. Your firm profits from the network effects that result as customers interact electronically around your products and your business.
Web 2.0-enabled customers become designers, contributors, consultants, guides, and promoters to other prospects and customers”

Patty worked with us and our State CPA / AICPA Colleagues when we first started the SSLLC Oracle project a few years ago.She is a pioneer in customer-centric thinking and a person I know and respect as a thought leader in this very important space...

Cheers!

CPA Learning 2.0 - Web 2.0 for CPAs

Listening to the office buzz was very rewarding - people were talking about how they could use our CPA Learning 2.0 project to keep up with their kids.

Last week we launched CPA Learning 2.0, a project to build Web 2.0 kowledge inside the Maryland Association of CPAs. I think there is a world of possibilities and potential in all of the collaborative, co-creative technologies under the Web 2.0 moniker. I have often thought about "what if" we could actually connect all of the CPAs in Maryland (or beyond) into a "knowledge network"? Imagine how powerful and useful that would be? What impact would we have on the economy and the free market?

I know it is a daunting task and maybe "tilting at windmills", but I see the beginning of that in all of these Web 2.0 technologies. At least, that's the way I see it...

Check out our other cool blogs:

www.cpasuccess.com
www.newcpas.com
www.cpaisland.com
www.slacpa.org