@CUWarrior Launches the 'CU Water Cooler' with the Thought Leaders in Innovation and Social Media from the Credit Union Industry

Today's launch of the 'CU Water Cooler' project, an initiative by Matt aka 'the Credit Union Warrior', really got me excited.
 
I am amazed by how quickly Matt and all the other people involved on this exciting project managed to put it together and launch the site today. It further demonstrates the uniqueness of the collaborative Credit Union industry compared to the closed Banking industry.


What is the CU Water Cooler?
Basically Matt asked some of the thought leaders of the CU industry to come together and use the power of this (smart) crowd to flag the best industry content on daily basis. Even better, Matt plans to introduce soon a weekly podcast series with a few editors to comment the news they flagged on the site.
 
Of course the goal is to create conversations and fully maximize the reach offered by social media channels such as twitter: anybody can comment the daily digests and send a shout out on twitter.

Simple yet tremendously valuable. And it is a great way for the editors to further increase their online visibility and get some coverage in the media online, but also press and TV. Awesome!
   
Please find below an extract of Matt's post to introduce this excellent initiative.
"We have assembled some of the most active members of the online conversation to do the filtering for you. Each of these “editors” will maintain an RSS feed of what they are reading at any given time. On roughly a daily basis, all feeds will be compared to one another with a software application called Fever. This process will reveal the stories that, collectively, the editors agree are most worth reading. We will post these results as a series of links in a single post. (...)

In the very near future we will begin hosting a weekly radio/podcast series that covers the stories that made the cut during that week. We anticipate having a couple of editors and a couple of special guests for each broadcast on a rotating basis. This should be a fun way to deepen the conversation, get more people involved, and introduce you to voices outside of the credit union social media echo chamber.

That’s about it. Grab a dixie cup and join the conversation while we bubble up the best credit union content each day for you."
 
I invite you to read the full article on Matt's blog, the Credit Union Warrior.

More from Matt @CUWarrior
I have also gathered a few words from Matt this afternoon in response to the very positive welcome from the Credit Union industry on twitter: "This is the epitome of collaboration and putting an idea into action", "I'm confident this site will bring more eyeballs to everyone's content. Collaboration, cooperation, & insight", "Each day's post can be commented on, and the weekly radio show will allow full-blown discussion".
 
More info on the weekly podcast via Tim McAlpine's blog
"As an added bonus, the CU Water Cooler Liquid Lunch live Internet radio show is being launched as a companion piece to the link service. A revolving cast of three to five CU Water Cooler editors will discuss and debate the most popular stories of the week. The first 30-minute episode is scheduled for Monday, November 30. Watch for a time and URL.
 
We're looking for listeners to also participate in the chatroom. We were inspired by Carla Day's new CU Chat Up live show that she is doing and think the CU Water Cooler Liquid Lunch will be a great addition to the emerging live credit union radio show space!"

I invite you to read the full article on the Curreny Marketing blog.

CU Water Cooler - The Editors
There are 12 editors listed so far on the site.
















 

Most of the editors are among the 20 Credit Union Mavens to follow on twitter according to creditunion.com.
 
I am honoured to make the list with my blog posts at http://Visible-Banking.com and my twitter updates at http://twitter.com/Visible_Banking!
 
Wait a minute... Maybe I then qualify as an editor on CUWaterCooler?
Matt any views? ;)

In order of appearance:
* William Azaroff, Vancity
* Gene Blishen, Mont Lehman CU
* Matt Davis, Filene
* Steve Delfin, NCUF
* Brent Dixon, Filene
* Tim McAlpine, Currency Marketing
* Christophe Morriss, CUNA Councils
* Kelly Parks, Call FCU
* Morris Partee, EverythingCU.com
* Christophe Stevenson, CUES
* Doug True, Forum Solutions
* Denis Wimore, Cult-ivation
 
The 'Banking Water Cooler'






 
I am loving this initiative from the CU Warrior. I would love to emulate this effort in the far too closed banking industry.
 
It would be an excellent way to drive more awareness about social media and innovation in the risk-adverse banking industry, give it another try and this time successfully break the silos and urge more collaboration between financial institutions!

Here what I suggest:
* CU Warrior: Matt, let's have a conversation on the phone to see if and how we could leverage the CU Water Cooler platform and have both initiatives benefit from each other.
* My fellow banking bloggers: I could see myself contributing with some other prominent bloggers and/or tweeple such as Charis Palmer, Chris Skinner, Jim Bruene, Jesus Perez Sanchez, Boris Janek, Jean-Christophe Capelli, Rob Findlay, Pol Navarro, Frank La Pinta, Robert Lommers...
Guys, what do you think of adopting a similar approach in banking? Please feel free to leave a comment and tell me what you think!

Interview with Morriss Partee, Chief Experience Officer at EverythingCU.com
I invite you to watch my interview with Morriss at Finovate 2009 in NYC.

Interview with William Azaroff, Director Web at Vancity
I invite you to watch my interview with William at Finovate 2007 in NYC.

Related articles on Visible-Banking.com
* Coverage - Finovate09
* Coverage - Finovate07 & FinovateStartup08
* Visible Banking Directory: Social Media in Financial Services
* Visible Banking Social Media Watch Series (Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, YouTube)

Comments

[Boris]

Hi Christophe,

I like the water cooler idea and if I understand you correctly you propose to establish a similar platform. I think this is a good idea but how can it work?

Boris

[Matt Davis]

Christophe,

Thank you for the post! I think this would be a great fit for bank collaboration/cooperation as well. Let's chat, and I'd be happy to spill the beans on how we made this happen.

Here's to FI innovation!

[Christophe Langlois]

@Boris

Good. Indeed, I believe that adopting a similar approach would benefit the whole banking industry.

In regards to the "how?" let me talk to Matt first. I will keep you posted!

[Christophe Langlois]

@Matt

You are welcome.

As suggested in my DM, could you please send me an email with your availabilities for a conference call next week? I am out of the office on Mon-Tue.

Here's to FI innovation indeed!