August 14, 2010

Roche 2010 Social Media Summit conference call

Scott Johnson posted on August 11, 2010, his summary of the teleconference call as that will be quarterly for those of us that had attended the Roche 2010 Social Media Summit. Excellent post Scott.

The one point Scott made that I think needs repeating here is that social media does include more than just blogging. I agree that some of what is said may be over the terminology or semantics of a word. I do think that instead of using terms like “blog roll” or “blogs”, we should consider the term “diabetes social media roll” or DSMR to include all of the social media, even possibly “diabetes social media community” (DSMC).

While I am only involved in the blogging aspect of social media, I must remind my readers that we had several present at the Roche summit that were from other aspects of the diabetes social media community.

Charlie Cherry is involved with production of podcasts of topics on diabetes and interviews of people with diabetes and leaders in the diabetes community. Included was Kelly Close, who writes at diaTribe, an on-line diabetes news publication, Manny Hernandez who owns several diabetes on-line services, including TuDiabetes. David Edelman, who is not a person with diabetes, but owns a forum on Diabetes Daily and includes feature blog writers in a blog area of which Scott is one of the featured writers. Also in attendance was Kitty Castellini from Diabetes Living Today, who with her partner broadcast an on-line radio broadcast.

There were others that are not necessarily bloggers per se, but we cannot say that Roche has excluded those who do not blog. While the majority were from the blogging community, many of the bloggers also participate in Twitter and Facebook.

Yes, I am sure there are other areas of the social media that I haven't mentioned, but least I am confident that Roche has included a good variety of social media in their summit.

I generally do not participate in surveys, but for the Roche survey I did do my part. I am also disappointed that only about 60% of us did reply. This was an excellent opportunity to have our say in the development of future summits. The other 40% should sit up and take notice that their lack of input does them and the rest of the diabetes social media community a disservice.

I may not be as concerned about how the participants are selected to attend; however, Roche in their survey did give those participating an opportunity to nominate potential participants for future summits. I did nominate several people from outside the USA for consideration. I like the idea of having an international flavor for our summit and we can learn about what is happening in other countries. Who knows, the cure for diabetes may well originate outside the USA.

Several of the comments to Scott's blog were well placed about the need for type 1 advocacy and the help they need. As a type 2, I will not cry foul, as the need is definitely there and must be met. I would say that with more children now developing type 2 and the same for young adults, both sides need any assistance that can be offered by the on-line community and any diabetes supply manufacturers, diabetes drug manufacturers, and others willing to put forth the effort that Roche is now doing.

So I will recommend that you take time to read Scott's post. He has some excellent thoughts in areas that I did not cover.

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