Hello, is this thing on?

With 2009 dawning, the time has come to inflict upon the internet yet another blog – this time by me. If you already know who I am, thanks for dropping by, if you don’t – welcome and there is more about me here. I’m not entirely new to this blogging lark, it’s just that so far I’ve preferred to blog where it’s been more essential to do so.

Why blog here?

Partly it is just to back up some of the stuff that is stuck rather inconveniently in my brain, which, for at least 8 hours a day is offline while I’m asleep.  Frankly, when it is online, the stuff that is in there isn’t even tagged properly…

Partly it is to practice what I have come to be preaching over the last few years. That this social media stuff does actually work and is ‘a good thing’. So thanks to cajouling from Dave Briggs and others here I am. It’s their fault.

Stop. Aggregate and listen

It also acts as a bit of an aggregator for the other stuff I’m already doing – on the homepage you’ll see the fancifully titled ‘lifestream’ including my:

• Incessant twittering on … er … Twitter
• Photos on Flickr
• Videos on Qik, Vimeo and Youtube
• Bookmarks on Delicious

It’s also a way of engaging more with the good people that are also doing this sort of stuff and helping me manage lots of aspects of social media in one place – a sort of one-stop-shop if you may (I am just kidding on this description – I hate one-stop-shops. And portals. The future is distributed, get used to it. Read Ed Mitchell’s excellent blog if you want to know more)

Also some of the stuff that I’m interested in is outside of the scope of what I currently do at ruralnet|uk where I’m a project manager, and I need a little corner of the internet to park that stuff too.

So what’s it going to be about?

Good question. And not entirely dissimilar to the question my mum asks about what I do at work.  The answer is going to be fairly vague until I totally find my muse (once I’ve been going a while, the archives page will be a better map of what’s going on) but will cover a lot of the following:

• Social media and its practical application in charities, social enterprises and the public sector
• Distributed networks and disruptive technology
• Blending online and offline facilitation of these new networks
• Making the technology behind the above actually work
• Social reporting
• Skills and training in social media

The bits round the edge

I’m also interested in the fuzzy bits. The bits round the edge. The bits you can’t predict.  The serendipitous bits that only human beings can link up at the moment.

Inevitably this blog is personal to some extent and will reflect the other bits of me that overlap with worky stuff and  things that interest me. I’ll try and keep cricket blogging to Fridays Sundays in the manner of Schneier on Security’s Friday Squid Blogging, but no doubt some dodgy puns and metaphors from the worlds of gadgets, Forteana, chemistry, radio, sport and photography will creep in somehow.

The last word

Actually, despite the URL, title and these pictures it’s not actually about me. I’ve been very lucky to meet the likes of David Wilcox, Nick Booth, Steve Bridger, Dave Briggs, Ed Mitchell, Beth Kanter and Laura Whitehead and it’s more about giving back to that network (and beyond) some of what I’ve been fortunate to gather and absorb.

So thanks for wading to the end of this first post – I promise they won’t all be this long and I hope the journey is interesting for you too.  Any advice and help is gratefully received, I’m not the train driver on this one, only a passenger.