So what did KETC do? How did we offer the kind of invitation that would lead to a response? What kind of response did we envisage and realize? How did we organize ourselves to do this?
Let's start with organization
First of all have a look at this picture. Notice anything a bit odd? On the right, in a power position are KETC's interns. Just as maybe your kids are the in home IT administrators, at KETC last summer we gave the people who knew the new world of social media the most - our "kids" - a leading place at the table. I had such a chuckle to drift into a meeting say in the production area and find a 20 year old teaching a 50 year old how to post on a blog.
This decision to place our interns in the front rank was one of the best we made. Not only could they help us older folks lose some of our fear, but they also could speak with our vets as if they were their grandchildren - which of course, they were. There is something tender and wonderful that happens when you skip a generation. Here is how Mike, our Web King, thought of them:
300 and Counting…
That’s how many World War II memories we’ve recorded on the Your Stories site. And we aren’t done yet by a long shot. We are adding more stories just as fast as we can, whether they are submitted online, by email or good old U.S. mail. In fact, by the time I finish this post we may be at 301 or 302…
So in case you hadn’t heard: we aren’t done yet. We still want you to share your stories with us.
And once again, I have to say a big thanks to our interns who have kept this project going. They’ve made it possible for Your Stories to become success it has. So thanks once again. We can’t say it enough.
Mike
Put the young up front was a big part of what we did.
Second - notice anything else about the picture? Who is at the head of the table? In this room was every department at the station. All the stove pipes were at the table. Many, at first, were suspicious of the entire project. Many at first, were suspicious of each other - there was history as only public TV and Radio can know.
Now look at the energy in the room. See a lot of ice and barriers? No it's very warm. Something remarkable is going on. The dreaded silos are breaking down. A Trusted Space is emerging. An organization that can build a Trusted Space inside can offer one outside.
It is this Trust that is the key. No tool is worth anything without it. It's NOT about the TECHNOLOGY! It's all about the Trust.
In part 3, I will tell more about this key issue of internal integration - for how can we offer a voice to those outside if we have not given all a voice inside?
So what about the tools?
We decided up front that we were not going to build any proprietary tools. We were instead going to go to places where people already lived online and we were going to use the simplest tools available. We had no choice - KETC's total web team is ONE over worked man - Mike Bauhof. Many other stations have that kind of web resourcing. In a way our constraint was a benefit - we did it all and we spent no money. Mike has aged a lifetime but is still going.
Go where the people are. Use well proven public tools.
We knew that we also had to find the people where they lived as well. It was the monthly newsletter that was the icebreaker. We called for stories in the letter. We called for stories on air. We started not on the web - where we end up - but in the traditional channels. Thousands responded.
Much of what we received was on paper. How could we receive this and still acknowledge that we respected the gift? We are in the process of creating a permanent memorial.
How could we show the greatest respect? We would give back what KETC knew how do the best - the 6 minute epic. A feature of KETC's local work is a show called Living St Louis. Every aspect of the city is covered in 4-6 minute films. Nova or Frontline in miniature. Synchronistically KETC had a band of brothers and sisters that had become expert in making the length of film that fits the web best.
They made over 200 mini documentaries of St Louisans' stories of their war. What did this mean?
Imagine not only having your dad or mum tell you for the first time their wartime experiences but having their stories supported by master producers. Imagine that you now have this record for your family and your friends. What do you think has happened to the relationship between that family and the station?
KETC could never have put all these stories on air. The web gave KETC the ability to have a huge inventory that they could not have on air - the Long Tail in action. The web gave the station the endless shelf space that could enable KETC to have a limitless inventory of personal stories that would mean something to the Key Niche of ONE Family.
One family? One family probably includes 30 - 50 people once you add in friends. It also includes all the young. 200 films could touch 10,000 people directly. Oh you say - that's not a lot. But you missed what I said. I said "touched". I mean that 10,000 people have had a special gift of meaning like no other given to them by their station. When I talk in part 4 about the future, I will show you more about how KETC is using this critical idea of Meaning Making - about connecting at a heart level to the community it serves.
At this point a reminder. The web is the fulcrum to KETC's strategy - but their approach is broadly based as well. KETC did not rely only on the web. The web informed the air. The air the web. The Print informed both - it was all a self-supporting continuum where each point of contact with the St Louis Community reinforces the others.
On reflection I think that this broad approach has a lot of merit. It introduces our older demographic to the web via the air and print and it brings in the young to the air via the web. Both the young and the older people help each other.
But what about face to face?
We learned how to leverage that as well. Ken Burns came to town. The original intent was that he would speak to a select audience. But we asked ourselves - can we use this new technology to ensure that he could be seen and heard by anyone? Anyone and anywhere. So KETC arranged to stream the show on the web thus linking the face to face with the virtual.
So here then is a glimpse of the what. But as many know, it is not the tools that make the carpenter but the person who uses them.
In this new world, where we have to give up our traditional power and authority, what separates success from failure is culture. What determines culture is leadership. The energy behind it all is values.
In part 3 we will explore the secret sauce of all of this work - how a group of people who share a set of values can transform simple processes into life giving forces.
