Social media, how did you get started, its a bit late, sorry Karyn !

Karyn Romeis posted back in May asking about social media journeys, as part of research for her dissertation - I’m finally getting round to responding which may be too late.

How did you get started with social media? What was your introduction, how did the journey unfold and what difference has it made in your professional practice?
The good:
I got started way before I had ever heard of the term social media. My first social web experience in a professional way was an online tutor course for UFI / LearnDirect in 2000/1, with discussion forums - that was one of the first times we really collaborated in a meaningful way. At this point I think I was really passionate about opportunities for communication online - having been both participant, mentor, creator, moderator of discussions - I was part of an international group and the speed of collaboration - we were using a blend of asynchronous discussion and synchronous chat - was brilliant !

Can’t remember when I first started following blogs, somewhere between then and 2005, had started some informal wiki experimentation with a couple of people in IT when I was in a temporary role at United Business Media in 2005. Was also still using discussion forums as part of my web work - writing pleas for help with css at 3am and discovering others in similar positions also at that time of day :-).

2006/7 was year of the wiki for me at PwC, I was involved with an R&D project looking at wikis, so working with people around the world to discuss whether wikis were the right ‘tool’, helping to get them going, trying out experiments with various social and other plugins on the wiki - but mainly lots of conversations and two colleagues had set up a related community of interest. We widened the scope from just blogs and wikis to other areas under the social media and web 2.0 umbrella so were starting to look at visualisations of connections and relationships as well.

The mostly irritating:
I think I joined Facebook in 2006 but not for long - threw a few sheep and chickens at some friends, connected with my brother in a different way which was nice but I didn’t find I wanted to spend time on there (some of my friends mostly still don’t spend any time online at all). I couldn’t be bothered to try and play the role of social community evangelist with them, I preferred connecting with them offline. I donated some money to a cause on FB and found my name attached to the donation which really annoyed me so I de-activated my account. I temporarily came back onto Facebook for Future of Education last year but that was only because I had to in order to attend, threw a few more sheep, chickens and a hissy fit then de-activated my account again. I’ve posted previously about some of the unpleasant aspects of online collaboration so will not repeat.

Social or antisocial and in conclusion:
I have joined some other social networks and related communities around 2006, but tend to use more for specific queries - enjoy some of the browsing, enjoy the conversations more.Up until this year, used to share links but not via delicious, which I used as a convenient one-stop source of bookmarking between various computers, laptops (and now phone), however mostly thanks to lots of advice from Eduardo Peirano - have been figuring out some of the aspects of the social side of it - some mistakes, some more to figure out about what can, can’t do.

Started my blog around Spring 07 - not really as an excuse to be social - more around - releasing some storage space in my brain, but am really grateful for conversations with people as a result of posting various thoughts. Writing in public has sometimes made me more conscious about what I’m saying, I still tend to publish first then edit, instead of doing it the right way round ! Twitter - which I started using more, following a valuable f2f conversation with Karyn in May last year, was much more social - greatly expanded horizons (thanks Karyn !), enjoyed most of the insanity, kind of regretting giving it up but still unsure about whether to go back. Having been social and antisocial via the web - am I less enthused now than when I was really excited in 2001 ? I have moments when it can be less enjoyable and less ‘new and shiny’ but working with wonderful people, sharing conversations and ideas - is what keeps me alive and inspired !

In terms of professional practice, I think at times it has made me think more carefully about how I communicate and how much can be left unsaid. Have seen so many social media articles which say its all about the conversations - but that’s only half the story - there’s a lot of reading between the lines and how you can be social and antisocial online without saying anything at all, regardless of which social ‘tool’ you are using.

This entry was posted on 08/07/2008 at 04:41 pm and is filed under media, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

| Print