Planning for the 24 hour virtual International Day of the Midwife 2010

Last year Deborah Davis and I organized and facilitated the 24 hour virtual International Day of the Midwife. It was a last minute experiment that was very successful in a limited way. The feedback we received was that midwives were very keen to be involved, but needed more time to organize themselves.

So here we are, calling for expressions of interest for this year's 24 hour virtual International Day of the Midwife which will be on May 5th 2010. Would you like to give a presentation, write a paragraph, make a video or podcast, or do anything that can be published on the Internet - tell us about your life as a midwife or student, or an issue that affects your practice as a midwife or interests you? Or, would you like the opportunity to just get together with midwives and have a general discussion or tell stories?

Aim of the 24 hour event
The aim of the 24 hour virtual IDM is to provide access to asynchronous and live online events that will suit midwives in every time zone. My not-so-hidden agenda is to encourage midwives to think about how they can communicate, share resources and explore online communication tools.

What does it involve?
What we would like you to do is organize an online event of some sort to fit a time zone of your choice. The event can be real time/live, or asynchronous. In a word...anything goes! Here are a few ideas of what you may like to think about:

• present a live talk/presentation in a virtual classroom
• host a live chat or discussion
• share stories with student midwives
  
• make a video, post it on YouTube and get a discussion going
• post a PowerPoint presentation on SlideShare
• add some information about midwifery, pregnancy or childbirth to Wikipedia
• host a conference in Second Life
• post a photo about midwifery on Flickr
• make an Animoto midwifery video
• make a midwifery Wordle
• start off a conversation in a midwifery Facebook group
• write a blog post
• record a podcast
  

What do I do next?
If you are interested in taking part, have a look here at the wiki which will give you more information. Have a think about what you would like to do, and what time zone would suit you. Either add your details to the wiki, contact me here on my blog in a 'comment', or by email: sarahstewart07@gmail.com

I don't think I can take part because I do not speak English very well
You do not have to use English for your presentation or session. In fact, it would be fabulous if we had some events in languages other than English so that we can reach even more midwives.

What other ways can I help?
If you don't feel you can take responsibility for a virtual event, there are a few more ways you can help:

• advertise the event to as many midiwves as you can, midwives you know face-to-face and online
  
• pass on the information about this event to anyone you think may be interested in being involved in organizing an event
  
• volunteer to be a facilitator on the day which means you are responsible for the running of at least one live event - we are especially interested in having people facilitate live sessions at times when we'll be fast asleep in New Zealand and Australia :)
• volunteer to be back-up help on the day
• and if you are a midwifery geek, you can volunteer to be on-call to help with technology issues
  

Sponsorship
The other thing I would like some suggestions about is financial sponsorship. What I would really like to be able to do is make a CD of the recordings of the live events. Then, I could post them to midwives who are interested in this concept but cannot access the Internet. What do you think of that idea - a little too ambitious? If not, any ideas of where I could go for sponsorship?

Please feel free to contact me if you want any ideas or help with technology -for example, you may want to make a short and easy video but am not sure how to do it. If you get in touch, I'll either be able to help, or can direct to information or people who can help.


Images: 'Army Reserve Nurse Delivers Baby in Rural+Uganda+-+United+States+Army+Africa+-+Natural+Fire+10+-+AFRICOM'
US Army Africa
http://www.flickr.com/photos/36281822@N08/4034859430
http://www.flickr.com/photos/usarmyafrica/4034860690/in/photostream/