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My 3 things this week - bravery, home and anger

2012-05-27T21:45:48Z

Visualising your Facebook timeline in a movie - Timeline Movie

2012-05-26T09:13:01Z

Sometimes I like to play with those little tools. This one allows you to create a video from oyur Facebook timeline. In itself the timeline is your story, so I see the point in visualising it in form of a video I just wish you could share it as embed, not only on Facebook! To see mine, you will need to navigate over here.

How much do you know about your town?

2012-05-26T09:08:08Z

Every time I take our visitors around Oxford or wonder around our little Wantage I discover places, people, music, images I did not know existed. It's obvious but I cannot help but wonder: how much do I really know about my own town?

This video was recorded in Budapest - city I studied in - and I think is the best moment I have ever seen resembling the true nature of the city, at least the way I know it.

Be Like Panda!

2012-05-25T21:10:36Z

This one is dedicated to all my fairly new to social media friends who are trying to pick up tools like Twitter, Facebook, Pinstagram and do not know what to post about it. Even more - they do not trust me that they should really start treating the web as extension of their lives with a pinch of understanding how those public conversations work. It's also probably about telling stories...Stories keep circulating the web, you see. Once you start one topic, share it and discuss it with your friends they will take it, digest it and sometimes bring it back. It's also about gestures. About touching others with your ideas, inspiration, sometimes really silly observations too. This one at least started this way. Few days ago I shared on Facebook Panda meme. Today I met a friend for a coffee. She is a blogger who quite recently decided to stop writing one of her blogs so we had plenty to gossip about. We went to a good coffee shop, sat down and while we were waiting for our drinks she gave me a magnet with...the Panda from the meme! She simply saw it in a shop and thought of me but to me it was such an important gesture! Once I came back home I shared it on Facebook again and got into a chat with another old blogger friend who uses panda as her avatar and posted about pandas a lot.

It's a funny feeling how stories circulate and how simple tools and observations can turn into gestures - both on-line and off-line:)

On storytelling - "Relative Stranger: A Life After Death"

2012-05-25T16:46:00Z

I find it really difficult to title this post, but ultimately I think it's mainly about the importance of storytelling. I have recently read "Relative Stranger: A Life After Death"by Mary Loudon. The book is a personal account of a woman's journey to re-discover her relationship with one of her sisters...just after receiving the news that her sister passed away. It's a well written, very moving story which on many pages makes you stop and read a sentence over and over again. It's one of those books you could read with a pencil in your hand to mark your favourite quotes. It's a story of a journey that many of us at certain point in our lives might have to take too. It touches upon few problems I myself feel very strongly about: family relationships, mental problems of people close to you, systems we live in and society we rely on...and finally the core problem: how do we handle death of our relatives and how to we fill out the gap and all the unanswered questions?

All those notions were really important to me. You can say that the book has changed me a little, made me more sensitive to some issues, crystallised attitudes I had already. But what really is important about this particular book is the context of the story. You see, Mary Loudon is my son's best friend's mother. She lives down the road and we meet quite often. I did not connect that she writes books and only about two weeks ago Mary gave me this book to read - it happened to be on her desk when I was around. Reading such a personal account from someone you already "know" is pretty powerful. Mary's father used to work together with my landlord (both doctors) in the main house of our current property, so when in the book, Mary quoted his diary I felt something I have felt few times in my life: a touch of reality.

Since I was a kid I used to argue the value of fiction and reality with my parents, friends, later teachers. The two are so insanely connected that very often one cannot tell them apart! So as a student I used to rage against all the categorisation of authors and books (which obviously did not help my studies!;)). I used to hate boxes we would put past and contemporary writers. Those I met off-line at the time would most definitely hate the boxes they belonged to and prefer to have a drink or a coffee with me. So...when does it leave me now? I know that linguistically speaking we need to categorise things and name them to be able to talk about things but ultimately it is the effect the stories have on us that matters!

Mary's book combined with few conversations we had in the past (and few very personal events from the last few days) have inspired me to open up and plan writing about topics I have left for my Moleskine so far. It reminded me of the value of storytelling for public consumption. If you tell your story right it can actually shift the boxes in our heads so much that the changes will come. Hopefully for better. It also made me realise that if you want to use the power of storytelling you need to do it right!

The Power of Habit...or how to stretch the time

2012-05-24T17:05:00Z

I am finishing "The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do, and How to Change" by Charles Duhigg right now. I was listening to this book on my iPhone for the last two weeks in very small chunks to understand, re-think and apply some of the tips made in the book. And I start to feel the effects!

I think I navigated over to this book during my research into the reasons behind my current (or to be more precise) past issues with lack of time. I have originally been a person who really likes to sleep in the morning and stays up late at night to write, but recently I have lost the balance and started thinking about alternative solutions. When I looked at my calendar I realised that all my evening work is dedicated to passions related to my job so really...my brain does not rest at all! Furthermore I do not have time for what I call unintended creativity: sitting over a cup of coffee and "writing" stories in my head, reading books of no value to my work, etc. All my attempts to go back to hobbies unrelated to the web failed and I did not know what to do.

If you are at that point in your life or daily routine it is always helpful to step back and look at it from rather objective point of view. I counted the amount of hours spent on work and other projects, time spent on-line and off-line and realised: I am using the time I have wisely, but I need more of it to balance back my on-line activities with living the life itself! At that point I had to make probably the most drastic decision in my life: I needed to start waking up earlier!

Waking up is really a series of activities strongly related to our habits so after a series of failures (it is really, really hard to get out of bed earlier than you really, really have to!) I understood that I might have to research the topic a bit better. Coming across "The Power of Habit" was somewhat a coincidence but I am really glad I read it, specially the first part explaining the brain activities related to habits, case studies of people who changed their lives by using wise (scientifically proven) processes and general mechanics of habits.

So now I feel I am not at the cross roads anymore. I have announced the changes in my sleeping pattern at home - changing habits affect our families. I have started the process of changing my morning habits, finding the triggers of my habits, identifying rewards and changing routine. It's not easy but I already see the benefits of this shift. My mornings are not as productive as I would like them to be but I have time to live them fully! I think I would gradually stretch them even more and establish early waking as a routine - simply because it works well for me.

It's interesting. "The Power of Habit" contains a great deal of very personal stories. Stories that make your cry or giggle. I am not sure if it was the set of practical tools provided by the book that made me change. I think, I feel that it was down to the inspiration I gained from people who suffered and managed (by coincidence or their own choice) to turn their lives on a different, better track. Some changes are really simple and the ripple effect can be very powerful. I am so glad I found this book!

nOtice.org - the open journalism kit

2012-05-22T19:59:37Z

...was opened to the public today! It looks pretty interesting and for users with a little bit of tech experience using the documentation should be fairly easy. nOtice.org is The Guardian's baby and has already been tested on some of their projects (the above visual comes from this one).

I am really looking forward to see few hyperlocal projects implementing this solution for their own needs. I think it could be use for project like the Wikipedia mapping out of towns (see the first example here) or simply for personal or group citizen journalism projects.

What do you think?

20 min to explain safe Internet practice to kids

2012-05-22T19:17:34Z

I was asked to day what I would do if I had 20 minutes to explain safe Internet practice to kids. I think it is not much time, specially if you will probably only have the opportunity to present - not so much practice or ask kids to tell their stories (which from my experience works the best!). So here are the key points I would like to address, if I could:

1. Definition and understanding of personal information (4 min):

1.1. What is personal information - specific examples.

1.2. Why do we need to keep our location private and consider location of our school and home too?

1.3. Mutual responsibility for our own but also personal information of others.

1.4. Why are passwords personal?

2. Explaining how kids should be handling accessing content on-line including various devices (4 min):

2.1. Why is there age limit on games?

2.2. What is upsetting content and how to react to it?

2.3. What are the results of downloading unknown files?

2.4. How tech can help us and our parents (firewalls, parental controls, browsers for kids)?

3. Chat about communicating with others through on-line channels (4 min):

3.1. How is chatting on-line different from talking off-line?

3.2. How do we handle video calls?

3.3. How do we handle strangers on social networks and in games?

3.4. How do we know who is on the other side of the social channel (idea of avatars)?

4. Cyber-bullying - how to react and ask for help (4 min):

4.1. What is cyber-bullying?

4.2. What to do if you are bullied? Who can help?

4.3. What if parents or teachers don't understand?

4.4. What to do if a friend is bullied?

5. Parents - how to talk to parents about the web (4 min):

5.1. What are the games we can play with parents on-line/on iPad?

5.2. What social networks can we use together?

5.3. What content can we access on-line together and talk about it?

5.4. How do we show parents new tech?

Now, OF COURSE with little ones you simply cannot run this marathon. You could probably pull off a TED talk-like presentation for teenagers or maybe prepare a video recording (magic of video allows you to watch it all over again in case if you miss a point or two). If you have 20 minutes to chat to 8-10 year olds you will need to investigate their priorities and choose one section to address or touch upon each of the points made above in less details. In any case I do think 20 minutes is not enough at all.

But this is just my take on the matter;)

On valuable on-line conversations

2012-05-18T20:52:31Z

I think it's a question of balance. Yes, I agree you need to learn to speak about yourself. You need to embrace the new tools to be able to share your thoughts but when it comes to the meaning of "social" and "valuable content" you cannot come up with engaging, exciting stuff out of blue. There needs to be a certain balance between your life and work and posting about it. I guess it works both ways. I talk to people who live their lives fully and do not have the need or struggle to talk about those experiences on-line. Then there are others who try really hard to build "engaging long-term social media strategies" but are not willing to talk about the value of the first cup of coffee on Monday morning when they come to the office and inspirations they share over it.

Well, I guess we cannot have it all. But let's at least try to find the middle ground between living and describing the way we live our lives.

Have a good weekend!

How to save time with social media - my top tips.

2012-05-17T20:03:03Z

I know, sounds crazy - specially to some of my friends who see me in front of my mac all the time. If not there then on my iPhone. Or finally if not on the phone...on the iPad....but hey...I can always use the explanation - I need to be on the top of things for work. When actually I am browsing Instagram for inspiration!;)

But seriously - how do you save time with social media? I am sure each of us had at least one example of finding a solution to specific problem much faster on Twitter than through more traditional channels but is crowd-sourcing ideas all? Again I have to refer to my work experience - it has truly be an eye-opener for the last two years and I think I have just now learned to talk about it all. See, majority of people I talk to nowadays start to look for solutions to their major problems with social media: amount of noise and too large networks. And quite often first signs of addiction too;)

Here are my top tips and I would love to hear from my fellow bloggers how they handle their own time management to learn more about it:

1. Have a content plan...

....even if just for tweeting or Facebook updates. To have a content plan means you know what you are using each tool for. I have always used this main blog as my personal journal and as my life changes it changes with me. I am pulling into it all other core presences and here you can keep track of most of my work in other social spaces too. I have a calendar on my wall in which I am writing down a plan for my posts - more or less specific, in the end blogging IS supposed to be fun too;) As for Facebook and Twitter I use them mainly to communicate while I work (I am getting used to managing all my hats at the same time), so the content there will be probably related to the small chunks of time I take off work to rest, to read news or to check an update on something relevant to my passions. I talk about coffee a lot in there;) I take photos and upload them to Instagram or before going to bed (watching popular section on Instagram leaves amazing landscapes in my head for when the dream arrive;)) or when waiting for a coffee. I upload them in smaller chunks because editing takes a little bit of time. I use Qik and Bambuser or podcasting tools only when relevant - for this blog or when travelling, at events. I save stuff in Pinterest boards or on Storify when I feel that I cannot keep up with events real time and know that I will want to use those materials later. I am still trying to work our Google+ as it embraces many other social media activities, so for now it's somewhere close to Twitter and Facebook.

If you want to have a content plan it might be useful to actually write it up, add to your work calendar and then practice keeping it in your head and evaluate. See what works and what needs to be changed.

2. Stay where your networks are, allow yourself time to experiment with new tools but wisely!

Many people ask me why I am so passionate about Google+ despite the general scepticism. Simply because my networks are there and I see it makes sense to talk to people there - then the tool's real features become apparent and I start appreciating it. I do not think you will appreciate G+ unless you actually start joining hangouts for example. You will find me in many social media platforms simply because I am connected to many other social media practitioners and we all need to test many tools. But when it comes to daily, active usage I am using Twitter, Facebook, G+, Google tools, Skype etc because my friends are there.

So if you want to experience sensible on-line interactions and save time on communicating with your friends and colleagues do use the tools they are active on. This way you might be able to get them to answer your last email or simply message them faster than if you were to even give them a ring. I personally think social media is way less intrusive than mobile calls. And if you know your contacts well enough you will know which social network to use when getting in touch with them.

When you need time for experimenting and you feel that something is "cool" (Pinterest nowadays?) you will feel like you are drawn to it. It's great! It means you are discovering and testing the new tools. But make sure you do not spend too much time on it. I guess it's a question of personal common sense, but I am sure you will feel where is the limit.

3. Use productivity tools.

I like to keep things simple so I am using Gmail priority inbox (helps me to mark all my messages that need responding to), calendar, RSS feed readers (Netvibes and Google Reader), Gist for contacts and finally SproutSocial for all social media interactions (though I still prefer to sit in Facebook and G+ during the day). I am looking for solutions on various level of tech experience and I strongly encourage you to do the same. If you save all your important websites in bookmarks, you will be able to access them with one click. If you need a spell check or email signature do check add on's to your browser or apps for your device. You can even monitor your work with additional programmes like Rescue Time (the recent newsletter by Euan reminded me of it) though if you work in social media you might be doomed there;) (it picks up Facebook as waste of time, which made me giggle).

4. Automate your updates wisely.

There is a huge discussion between fans and opponents of automated updates. I personally think that cross posting between platforms is allowed if it makes sense and is not offensive. Feeding all tweets to your fan page does not work - some of them might be irrelevant to your Facebook audience (or restrict you from genuine conversations...about coffee on Twitter;)) and mean that you do not have time for your Facebook networks. Look around and see what wise solutions are out there. I am using Selective Tweets (adding #fb to my tweets sends them to Facebook) and I use it rarely. I am making the most of feeding photo, audio and video content from my mobile to the major social networks (Instagram photos usually all land in my Flickr account, some on Twitter and some on Facebook - pending their topic). Again, experiment and revise time to time.

5. Use hashtags.

Hashtags are there to help you browse through the noise but also to help your friends and readers to find your content - use them both in research, as well as in posting. I think noise is great! You can find out amazing stuff about the world if you browse through the noise - I have found an amazing Banksy on Instagram today (the recent one is pretty relevant to some of my own ideas so I was really happy to see it out there!). So get used to speaking in tags, #becauseitsavestime.

6. Have a coffee!

..or tea...or a walk. AWAY FROM THE WEB. You need to go out and relax a bit. I know many of us pick up technology (I am looking at my son and I see it every day) and simply want to spend all day making the most of the new interactions it provides us with. Let's face it - connecting with people of similar attitude, passions and experiences does save a lot of time in itself. But it can also restrict your vision a lot. Discuss with your friends off-line how you and they spend the time on-line. If you do it for passions, for family or for work - it's all the same. You need to maintain the right balance and if you think you do not have it, you need to re-think the way you are using social media tools.

Good luck with it! This is my humble take on the matter, but I am sure there are plenty other ways or approaches to social media productivity out there and I would love to hear about them, so let me know;)