Back from wherever

It's usually good to take time out from something you enjoy, just every once in a while.

To get a fresh perspective, I sometimes need to get out of the instant connection to a thing. 

Often a wee lateral thinking game can help change your perspective or look at a thing differently. But, to break out of a rut of giving way too much focus to the minutiae of the digital connection I had across multiple platforms, I needed to switch off a few things and focus my finite attention in other places.

It wasn't about shunning people or technology. Or about trying to be better than anyone. Nope. It was about focus and attention. You guys are great, but you aren't the source of love, hope, grace or peace that I need to more than just survive.

And now I'm back. And so what, I hear you say. Who cares?

So what happened? What did I learn? What mysteries have been brought to light? What creative genius has been sparked?

To be honest; not a lot.

Actually, that's not true. Mrs theWeir and I have had a pile of good times. And I finally sorted out calendar sharing so we know what's going in without having to have a daily meeting. Not that we ever did. Which may have been part of a wider thing.

But no matter.

I also cleared up my to-do list and work email box. Both down to zero before we went on holiday. Some hard decisions had to be made about priorities, but a fixed end date and a strong desire to not change it meant things got done that needed done.

Even better was being away in another part of our beautiful country, being a wee family unit, seeing friends, doing relaxed-pace things and getting to take some pictures.

Having a suspected shin-splint put a swift halt to my running for a few weeks too. Which was quickly replaced by finding longer (and quicker) cycling routes to work.

And I found other things to take the place of reading a Facebook timeline or Twitter feed every few hours. 

Then I started playing Angry Birds.

I'd love to write this and say that I made a more concerted effort to pray and listen for God speaking as I read the bible. And while I certainly did more of both things, there was no earnest early mornings.

But I did pray more. And I certainly read more. But I think I have been listening more. Actually I'd say I'm listening the same, but I'm listening for something different. For a still small voice.

As I re-engage with social media, I'm praying I keep listening. Keep putting God first. You guys are great. But He is greater.

Grace and peace.

Why I don't update the world like I used to

Despite posting over 10,000 times on twitter and having a fairly active Facebook stream, I know that I am sharing less online. Or at least less frequently.

Is it fear of giving away too much? Nope

Is it fear of spam? Nope.

Is it boredom or falling out with the people I have connected with? Nope.

Some stats would speak for themselves:

30 new blog posts - compared with 179 in 2010. 47 visits to the blog in 2011, 1,380 in 2010.

However, my focus shifted from sharing as many little pieces on twitter and facebook, to my eight-thirty project on blipfoto. Which has been viewed over 32,000 times. Which is astounding. And I've been using Instagram.

So maybe I've moved away from the smaller updates, to longer form. A real shift to photographs as well as words, albeit my flickr stream hasn't been quite as busy. It's nearing my birthday again and I'm considering what to do with eight-thirty, and with this blog.

More news as it breaks...

I done wrote a blog

My good friend Mr Clive Parnell (@Parney on twitter and formerly known as Cliff Parcel, but that's another story) asked me to write a wee post for his blog. It's on create here.

What do you think - am I a blubbering idiot?

it'll only take a minute (and other excuses we tell ourselves)

When out doing a workshop at a local High School in December, I sat down at the computer workstation to perform a short series of simple tasks:

Insert USB memory stick;

Locate specific slideshow;

Launch that file;

Display the slideshow.

Easy. Quick. Done in a few seconds. Then I noticed the workstation. It looked like the picture above.

Other than when in the office at work, or working at home, most casual computing (searching for something, connecting on Twitter or Facebook, playing an online game) is done in an iPhone or iPad. So, I would usually only sit down at a computer to do a longer list of tasks. I would also make sure I was in a good sitting position.

But it wasn't always like that. I used to open the Powerbook just to check something and then still be there an hour later, locked in the same position. How many of us have thought "I'll just go on and do this wee thing and find ourselves off on a Google rabbit trail, or remembering there were 7 other things we *needing* to do on the computer. Funny that.

So it struck me looking at this workstation in a school classroom that when I next sit down to do anything for anytime, make sure you are sitting comfortably. Then you can begin. And have any hope of getting up again without a chiropractor...

you are not alone

A couple of weeks ago, I got a wee bump in followers on twitter.

Then later that day, I got a message from someone saying:

"@theWeir I read "the egg" today and it blew my mind. How did you come up with that?" (it's here)

I didn't recognise the author of the message, and more importantly, didn't remember writing anything called "the egg". A quick check of blog

titles and writings confirmed that I was being mistaken for someone else.

But who were they looking for, and what was "the egg"? I replied thanking the person, but suggesting it was a different Andy Weir. They passed me this link.

Now I knew that this wasn't me as my relationship with God doesn't lead to reincarnation...

I thought not much more about it until I opened up Google Reader and found a whole load of results in my "tracking" RSS feeds. I'm sad (or vain?) enough to keep an eye on what my name shows on Google and twitter searches.

Not because I expect to find some scandal about me, but just to know what's being picked up about people with the same name as me. Mitch talks about it a lot in the area of Personal Branding. While I'm not in the game of building a brand of Andy Weir, I do want to be aware what Google says about me as that can impact the perception a prospective employer might have of me.

And here we are ten days, and an 800% jump in website views for my homepage later and I'm still getting results about "the egg" and a steady stream of new twitter followers. When I tweet about Jesus, do you think they'll be confused?

Too late.

I posted this earlier:

"thoughts of future, possibilities and faith mingle with weariness and uncertainty to leave me open to grace & peace. a re-drawing of things."

And got a reply:

"@theWeir Dude, did you write "The Egg" or not? Am I following the right Andy Weir? :) But seriously..."

The answer, was clearly "Nope"...

What's my reply to "the egg"? I have a future and a hope in Jesus that lasts longer than I can understand. There is enough Grace and Peace in the Love of God to calm the most tormented soul and there is one life to live for the Glory of the King and that's what I am all about.

I have no pity for the other Andy Weir. I have respect for his writing. It's a beautifully created narrative. My worldview is different and I can cope with his being different too. Some of the ideas in "the egg" resonate with truth I can agree with.

But my hope is built not in my attaining God-likeness but in being given the gift of life in God, of losing my self and finding wholeness in Christ.

Of being reborn into His likeness...

Don't look at me!

Now, isn't that odd.

People complaining about a service they receive from that Great British tm Telecommunication company - BT - have complained about the company reaching out to them through the very same media that they used to complain.

Imagine that.

People made noise and the company listened.

Okay, so the "facts" are in the Daily Mail's article here. However, we could probably drive a couple of aid convoys through the gaps in their arguments.

People weren't happy that companies were spying on them.

Wait, that means you are spying because your looking at the same internet as the company can. And let's define spying, shall we:

to watch or observe closely and secretly, usually with unfriendly purpose: often without

Is looking at what people post online spying? Then Google is the biggest spy ever known.

The Mail's premise falls foul of the reality that when people post to networks like Twitter and Facebook, they set their own privacy levels (okay, let's leave Facebook out of that bracket for now) but I find it hard to call it spying when anyone can access what you chose to publicly post online.

Okay, the mail does have a point about companies turning Twitter into broadcast, but as many online strategists keep saying, you chose who you listen to on these networks. You can give permission and can remove it as quick as you like.

Oh yeah, and no matter what anyone says, this is all happening in the early days of these tools. We don't know where it's going. Sure, we need to find out soon, but reporting like this doeajt help anyone, except drive fear, maintaining the status quo and generally not adding much to the conversation.

Let's face it, it's clear that the Mail doesn't understand what's happening online.

They are like someone walking past a dog and grabbing it by the ears. They don't help anyone.

The banter - part one

A couple of days ago, I emailed this to all the candidates for General Election on the constituency where I live.

I've had a few emails back, and I'm going to publish (most of) these over the next day or so. I've asked the permission of the candidates - and they said yes. It might be interesting for you guys, and it might even spark some questions of your own.

First to reply to the email was Lis Bardell of the SNP.

I'm attaching another leaflet (!) though accept that this doesn't necessarily equate to the kind of reach for authenticity through new media that you're advocating....In the use of new media, I feel a bit like I do with French....I understand more than I speak! I understand its value and possibilities but don't always know which button to press...

This election, however, has also brought home forcibly to me how things can get "buried" in email. The volume of messages I have received means that the immediacy of the medium is almost cancelled out by the volume!

Anyway, I'm encouraged that you liked the fact that I put favourite holiday pics on the website...it did seem to me that they give a flavour of what I might be like as a person. As I say, "we're real Scots who like real weather....so we holiday in Scotland!"

That's also the reason I put an old-fashioned CV up....just as one would if applying for any job. The cv lists my real-life work experience and a bit about the kind of community commitment and involvement I've had.
Since this is my first time standing for any kind of political office, these are, essentially, the skills and experience I would bring to the job. I believe it's a good time to be a first time candidate, not associated with some of what has been going at Westminster.
I would like to think that those who have known me in my professional career in public service would say that I had conducted myself with integrity and complete commitment to accountability.

Two major things motivated me to consider putting myself forward to be a candidate.
Firstly, I was enormously angry about the Iraq War....both the decision itself and the way it was made by big majority government in the teeth of opposition from so many citizens and by, to put it kindly, the manipulation of information. I believe, still, that Iraq...and Afghanistan conflicts...will influence for the worse the world my children will inherit and I feel a continuing responsibility about that.

Secondly, when SNP won at Holyrood in 2007 and undertook minority government, I felt that politics in Scotland became more open, inclusive and exciting. There has been more of a chance for individual representatives to make a difference and also get a hearing for the concerns of local constituents. Which is surely what representative, democratic government should be about!

You ask for an idea of what I've been doing "on the campaign trail"......well, today I was out in Blackburn this morning.....delivering letters and speaking to people. Then I spoke to 200 members of the local Mosque in Craigshill followed by leafleting at the Mall in Craigshill and an interview with BBC Radio 4 "The World this Weekend" (Goes out Sunday, 1.00pm). Since I got home I've been answering emails and phone calls and will soon be on to phoning more voters.....who mostly seem to appreciate a candidate calling - even if they don't intend to vote for me! Will also try to get more up on my website since I understand that failure to do so invites immediate obsolescence!

In the course of the rest of the week, I've been in Fauldhouse, Stoneyburn, Breich, Midcalder, East Calder, Kirknewton, Craigshill; regularly making phone calls. Yesterday, I was visiting Livingston Credit Union with Angela Constance and John Swinney and then at the SNP Press Conference on the Economy in Edinburgh.

Earlier in the campaign we had a couple of "Ladies Days" reaching for the women's vote....."Ladies for Lis" and the "Bardell Belles" were out in Broxburn and Livingston.

That's just some of it! I find people, on the whole, very willing to engage which is great because, when I started, I kind of imagined that every encounter would be like Newsnight with Paxman! The public are much more polite and committed to give and take.

Which was pretty good as a starter for ten. We've exchanged a couple of emails since then. I'd asked a couple of questions about what Lis would do for accommodation and travel to/from London were she be to be elected. Here's the reply:

If elected, I would prefer to travel to London by train and hope it would be possible to pre-book....because prices at last minute are pretty frightening...and you can imagine the comments re expenses if...as they requently are....flights are cheaper.

Re accommodation, I would have had no aspirations to purchase....and certainly no aspirations to a moat. I have lived in Craigshill for the last 25 years and holiday in caravans.....I like the simple life. I understand renting may now be centrally organised for incoming MPs.....and that sounds fine. Since there would be a lot of travel between London & Scotland, I'd ideally like to be able to walk to work in London.
I think it would be efficient to have somewhere to leave stuff rather than be always packing......

However, this is beginning to feel like tempting fate!! Outcome still uncertain....It's going to be a hectic few days ahead!

I've got more questions, so we'll see how things pan out over the days ahead... You can put your questions to Lis by email here.

Next up, the SSP. But that's for tomorrow!

Gloves. Are. Off.

Well, at least they should be.

I'm more than a little interested in Politics. Actually, I'm more interested in the idea of Politics. I think it was doing Modern Studies at school that gave me that reflective look - rather than being an active campaigner.

If we're brutally honest, there's much in life that we like the idea of more than the actual thing itself. A clean and tidy garden. Spending time with lots of people, all the time. Owning a pet.

Okay, so those are *bad* examples. What have you liked the idea of more than the reality of?

So, having voted in every election since I've had the right to do so, this time I've actually spoken with a candidate for my constituency. Just the one, mind. I'd asked Lis Bardell how she was going to let the people of the area get to know her. "by being on the street and saying 'hello'". Great, but you can't be everywhere, and it's not something that other people can join in with.

How about taking the conversation online? Nope. Can't do it. Don't know how. Risk of failure. People can say things that aren't what you'd like them to say.

Guess what - this is the new world order.

I'm not talking about Tweeting, or checking in on Foursquare. I'm talking about being present and interacting where your constituents interact. There 76,000 people in the constituency eligible to vote, from the numbers I could find online, there might be as many as 20% of these in the 18-35 age range. That's a heap of people who you'll find online. But lest we forget that the silver surfers, so that's another 20%. Oh, and there's just under 30% between 35 and 60.

So, dear candidates. Get yourselves online, connect with people and you might reach another 70% of the voting public that matter to you. At least the ones you say that matter to you.

Still, in all this, I've found out from Wikipedia the names of our candidates are... now to see if I can find out *who* they are!

shifting sands

There's been plenty of coverage of the news that Facebook has a smidgen more pageviews than Google. The first time in the history of everything that has happened. Big. Deal.

Or is it?

I might not be a classically trained marketer, but I think it's amazing how the ability to self-publish, share and interact though these new digital channels is changing our culture - and the way we consume (products and ideas). Mostly for the better, I reckon. How about you?

So what about Facebook & Google then? For a long time, Facebook was a walled garden - that's all changed now. Much more of what's happening on that platform is now available to those outside of it. (cue rush to check privacy settings).

My thinking here is not that platforms are what it's all about. It's about being where people are - and interacting where they are. Facebook might be winning the social platform race for now, but nothing in this world is a certain.

When I set up my blog here, I plumbed it in to publish into Facebook Notes automatically. The idea was to share the content with people who might not be into reading blogs frequently. Then I noticed something about a year ago. People started to comment. Which was great. But there were two places with different comments - Facebook and the blog...

Which can lead to two different sets of conversation. I remember Mitch Joel deciding to stop publishing into Facebook and pulling people towards the blog so that the conversation happened there. But may folks just won't follow the link as they like the convenience of doing it all in once platform. Not saying that's right, but it's what happens, isn't it?

So, what would I like? Some way of aggregating comments between publishing platforms. There must be a way to pull the comments for a post into Facebook!

Anyway, it's all sand and it's all shifting. Don't build your house on it.

Revolution

The Industrial Revolution overhauled everything - from villages to cities. Automation and Process became king. Cheap, cheaper & cheapest are the rules. Scale it, refine it, make it more efficient. While we think that the Industrial Revolution is over, and it probably has run it's course - we've still not figured it all out.

So we might have amazing technology - and we might have a globablised economy, but simply ask someone who works in a sweatshop in Bangalore or someone feeling trapped in an outsourcing call centre in Nottingham and you'll quickly find out that industrialisation is far from perfect. And it won't be. Ever.

We've learned how to change things more efficiently. We've learned how to make things more efficiently. We've learned how to move things more efficiently. We've learned about scale. We've learned to adapt to more change faster too.

I guess that's one reason why adoption of tech moved gets quicker and quicker. Radio took 38 years to get to 50 million users. TV took 12 years. Facebook took one year. Ouch.

So I guess when people get unsettled by the current online/social revolution - it's understandable, but we can't possibly expect it to be perfect, can we?

It's going to be full of holes. But maybe fewer than the past?

Interestingly, though, we generally expect change to be perfect. We complain when our new technology isn't perfect. We expect that it should be. For many *things* we use at home, that's a good thing - gas cookers, boilers, toasters, microwaves as a few examples. We expect that if it comes from a centralised source that it should be perfect. They had control and they should know better.

But, it's not like that.

The web is just a young thing, yet so vast and crucially decentralised (by design) that it can't be tested and brought to the market from a controlled environment. There is so little control in the web that we can't expect it to work "out of the box" like an Apple Computer.

Maybe we can learn a bit of patience - taking comfort in the idea (that I think might be right) that we are still ironing out the details in something that started years ago.

Taking a nod from TechCrunch, when online search was still figuring out how to work, just ten years ago those active in the space felt a lot like people active in the social space now. Okay, so a lot more people are looking - and our levels of connectivity are far higher now - but that's just showing how important it is.

What we - together - do with social/new media will determine what the online landscape looks like in another 10 years time?

theWhat?

JL recently asked me why I use the moniker "theWeir".

My first response? Because when I registered for twitter around 18 months ago, the username AndyWeir was taken. As were more sensible variations on the same. So I thought "theWeir" would work. Especially as there can be only one Weir. Yeah, right?!

But this wasn't the only possible reason why my online interactions (particularly outside of Facebook) are under this identity.

Curiously, some people at work who've caught up with me online outside of work are known to use that moniker is person. Which is fine, good and proper, but still feels a bit strange. Maybe a bit like a recently married lady hearing her new surname being read out?

So, working back in time, from twitter, I started my blog here in November 2008 (moving from my old iWeb blog here), I called it "weir online". See what I did there? So I was theWeir online.

But it all started back in early 2000s. I met the Mighty Quinn. Not the song, but the man. He signed his email & sms with a "Q". He was (and forever shall be) Quinn. I liked that. I liked his style. I like theQuinn.

At the same time, our good friend Mr Clive Parnell does a proper London boi accent. Mainly 'cos he's got family there. And when we played in a band together (IndigoEcho) it was around the time when speaking in a mockney accent was a bit cool, like.

And there was a phrase used (often) "easy for the [insert object here]". On seeing you, CP was often prone to hailing with "easy for theWeir" or "easy for theFrancis" (Bass player) and "easy for theQuinn". I guess it was *inspired* by Ali G being all over pop culture at the time...

And so, it just kinda stuck in my head.

theWeir

Apparently, there's a play called The Weir. There are a few resturaunts called The Weir. Infact, there's plenty of Weirs around the place.

But none of them are why I chose "theWeir".

At least that's my (not very interesting story) and I'm sticking to it.

Isn't it cool how these things weave together during our lives?

We're just friends

I've written before about volume vs quality.

Something I heard last week made me think that we can all have lots of connections with people - either in person or online.

We might have gone to school, played music, worked or even shared food together. Although that last one is unlikely given my appetite...

Or we might have commented on the same blog, listened to the same podcast or joined the same topic-based social network and made a connection through that

Anyway, however we're connected - do we place a different value on how that connection is made?

Whether offline or online, we're still friends - to a greater or lesser extent. Sure we only know as much about each other as we make time to find out, but that doesn't mean we're not friends.

And we can, according to studies, only handle 150 connections anyway!

Or do you see it differently?

Is Facebook becoming a Blogging Platform (amongst other things)?

I was thinking about some approaches to social media for a friend the other day and a thought struck me. Just one. But a good one.

In the *past* (just a few years), if you were trying to gather people online around a particular product, service, cause or issue, you'd set up a blog or wiki site and that would be great for publishing. A bit tricky to format if you had zero web skillz, but with time, effort and good content, do-able.

With Facebook launching pages last year, and taking a few feet of their walled-garden, don't you think that this will be the first place many will think to start? It's pretty simple to create a page and share it - for your friends to then share it. And you get analytics (albeit limited compared with other tools). And as people get involved, they get notifications in their feed that show what's going on - driving interest and hopefully building the conversation towards creating community. You'd wonder why someone would go to the hassle of faffing with wordpress or blogger if you can just create a Facebook page and add your content?

Okay, there's lots of reasons why not - like search, like layout contol, like music plugins being poor, like not being tied to *one* platform, like analytics. But if you just want to, say, start a campaign to get RATM to number one in the UK singles chart, why not start it on Facebook and see if it flies...

Just a thought.

Is it any good?

Social what?

I wrote this post on 4 February 2010. And it was never posted.

It's funny to see how things have changed in 23 months.

I don't listen to as much of what Chris Brogan or Mitch Joel are saying - mainly as my interest in social media waned a little. Not in the potential of the tools, but perhaps in the incessant need for money to be made. Or people talking about how to make money.

Anyway, I thought I'd post it anyway and see if anyone else found it funny to see how the world has moved on:

Social what?

Some slides explaining what Social Media might be about (first half is good): http://www.slideshare.net/mikefruchter/social-media-1010705

How to get started in Social media: http://www.hobo-web.co.uk/seo-blog/index.php/how-to-get-started-in-social-media/

Some fascinating stats about Social Media: http://brianwlink.wordpress.com/2008/12/17/fascinating-facts-in-social-media/

Top Social Media sites: http://www.prelovac.com/vladimir/top-list-of-social-media-sites

Content:

Food for thought - be a leader by sharing your views, not just name-dropping!: http://www.mpdailyfix.com/2009/03/social_media_a_readers_manifes.html/

RSS:

What is RSS: http://www.commoncraft.com/rss_plain_english

You can get a free RSS reader from Google here: Google Reader. The key here is to keep on top of what you follow... I can have anything from 100 to 1000 unread dependant on how much I have been keeping up with reading. Why? Well, there are so many people making noise, it can be good to listen to a few voices more regularly.

Some feeds to add to your reader for Social Media goodness:

Seth Godin: (a fine example of insight, regular posts and some good ideas!) http://www.sethgodin.com

Mitch Joel: (Canadian, Marketing, Loads of insight on Social Media, Journalism & Publishing): http://www.twistimage.com/blog

Chris Brogan: (Brogan is one of the genuine Social Media consultants, you can see one of his presentations/webinars here: http://www.hubspot.com/smboss/) His blog: http://www.chrisbrogan.com

Jeremiah Owyang: (Social media strategy & an employee of Forrester Research (not his company blog tho!): http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/

track Standard Life on twitter: http://search.twitter.com/search.atom?q=standard+life. you get some nonsense, but some gems: http://twitter.com/wilsonreid/statuses/1628382025,http://twitter.com/Returnedmail/statuses/1597816502

Twitter:

What is twitter: http://www.commoncraft.com/twitter

(I'd recommend most of the content that Commoncraft put out as it's pretty simple to follow and gives great insight too!)

A CEO who uses twitter: http://www.forbes.com/2009/04/22/twitter-ceo-networking-leadership-managing-social.html

This is what can happen if you are active on twitter: http://sesquipedalis.blogspot.com/2009/02/finally-use-for-twitter.html

The search function on twitter is quite something. You can basically search any keywords and see what people are saying. Then add that feed to your RSS reader and get a realtime update as it develops. People use the hashtag principle to categorise content. swineflu is one of the most popular at the moment.

Okay, so it's all within the fishbowl of the userbase, but as the numbers (and demographics) show, this is not a static community. When Oprah got involved the move to mainstream gathered significant momentum.

Alerts:

You can also set up Google Alerts to send you email digests of any mentions of pretty much any keywords. Check here for more: http://www.google.com/alerts

Get real

One of the reasons I enjoy, participate & spend time with social networks is that I believe in transparency.

Do you?

I love sleek design and intellegent ways of putting content together that make it accurate & accessible. Not "dumbing down" - at least not at the expense of the truth.

"Nothing but a lot of talk and a badge" as Robert de Niro said as Al Capone in Brian de Palma's (truly excellent) The Untouchables. Now in that case, de Niro?Capone was wrong - but I guess we all like to put a bit of polish on so something appears better than it is.

I struggle with that. Do you?

I reckon (from experience of my own life) that honesty - and in particular integrity will always beat cheating. It might seem that shortcuts get people there faster, quicker, cheaper - but at what cost. I'm not saying they're always wrong, and certainly not saying they're not worthwhile. But we've all seen what happens to Biff Tannen in Back to the Future...

But will our journey of life mean as much if we spend too much time looking over our shoulders for what *might* catch us out? And as we live more online, our networks will either back us up, or knock us down.

Will my Facebook friends complain if I'm posting irrellevant content - or just plain lies? I'd hope so.

Will my Twitter followers decrease if I start spouting on about how great I am (cue sarcasm in the comments)? If I have any kind of listenership, then yes.

I love that the networks we're connected through are part of our digital identity. And they're becoming an increasingly important part too.

I dunno, but there's something in me that wants to connect with people (and organisations) that act with integrity. That probably means local organisations for now, but as the world becomes more digitally connected, that shift will happen to enable global connections of a more meaningful scale.

We can laugh together. This is funny.

We can cry together. This is awful.

We can take action together. Do this now.

What's your take?

Dunbar's Number isn't just a number, it's the law

So, here's something interesting; 150 friends. That's all we can handle.

I was reminded of something I picked up from Mitch Joel sometime ago on his podcast. Do you measure success by the number of connections, or by the (positive) influence on you can have on those you are connected to.

We could have 2000 people as our friends on Facebook, or 2000 followers on twitter - but if you are paying attention to what they are all saying that's basically giving you more reading and stretching your time. It also becomes about broadcasting, rather than interacting. If I follow 100 RSS feeds - am I really benefiting from them all or (as has been my experience recently) do I only have time to skim the majority and then focus in the *really* important ones. Not sure how we decide that as content changes so often that relevance and importance are such fluid concepts!

Back to the connections thing. If you have 150 friends/followers/contacts, there's loads of opportunities to connect with what people are saying and develop more meaningful interactions. I think I've drifted towards being a broadcaster in recent weeks - as I try and soak in as much content as I can - and also as I process a few things going on in life that I'm not ready to share yet.

As I reflect on where I'm at and in light of the reminder from Seth Godin on his post; I'd rather be influenced by and share my experiences with a smaller group of people. I'd rather be alive in a smaller group than observe the stream of consciousness that a large group would deliver. It's going to mean we can learn from each other and grow.

And that's always a good thing, right?

I did something new today

I got through the to-do list with time to spare. A good day.

Last week, I had another day where I did something new: I got stuck in a lift. Not something I've been actively persuing as something to achieve, but it happened, nonetheless.

My first thought? Press the emergency buzzer and have a short & productive conversation with the security person on the other end of the line. Although, it was slightly concerning that he asked "which lift" I was in. I held back the retort "why, does this happen often?" as I was unsure how dry the fellas sense of humour was. An engineer would be dispatched as soon as possible. I found out later that they literally came running. Which was nice of them.

Second thought? I'd better tell the world (starting with Mrs Weir). So, a few conversations over Facebook & Twitter ensued (here's the photo taken with the fuzzy lens of my G1 that @RobinsonsS asked for):

After about 10 minutes, I realised it was getting warm. Hmm.

When the engineer arrived, banging on the doors and shouting "hello", there was the sound of panic in their voice. Like they were concerned about the lift brake systems immenent demise. It was important then, for there sakes, that I remained calm.

I was informed that the lift would be winched up manually and they'd get me out as soon as possible. This gave me visions of a gang of people heaving away at the other end of the rope to move the lift. Needless to say, as the building has counter-weight powered lifts, that wasn't how it would work. So I'm told.

I read and replied to a few emails & messages.

Anyway, once the lift had been lifted, the engineers (there were two now) got the doors open and there was the rush of conditioned air into the small box but I wasn't allowed out.

I could see the floor (the one I was heading for) and, okay there was a 2ft drop from the edge of the lift to the landing, but I've got long legs, I'm alright with that.

But apparently, HSE regulations prohibit people exiting a lift in this state. Really? In case the lift fails. I can't imagine a scenario when I'd want to stay in the lift when it's failing. By which we mean falling, right? Other than maybe the buiding failing. But that's a bit too Wylie E Coyote.

Then a third engineer, named Otis (;-p) gave the all clear. I could jump, if I was willing to take the risk. Let me think about that...

That's my experience of being stuck in a lift. You had anything far more exciting?

so what's next?

I'd hoped to write this series of posts about my current role at work over a few consecutive days. Given that the first one (here) was written on 3 September, that's clearly not happened. Let's see what can be done to rectify that.

So, a few months after I did that job for Garry, our Director, I was working in another team in our department (on secondment) as an eCommerce Development Consultant (what on earth was that?!).

Around this time, there were some stronger gusts from the winds of change than usual. It was putting pressure on the way our department was funded and how we got things done. We had enjoyed some level of autonomy and that had brought a good measure of success, but it wasn't as easy as that.

There were looming changes to reporting practices and requirements for greater levels of detail in those reports. At the same time as this, a friend from the Powerpoint band (where I was playing drums at the time, and nothing to do with Microsoft products) shared a link on his blog. It was to a presentation inspired by the style of Lawrence Lessig and it completely blew me away.

On two counts:

1) the way he spoke and the material he used to help articulate his points (his narrative) and

2) the content he was sharing.

After a few hours (over a few days) of looking at Lessig's blog (now in hibernation), finding Garr Reynolds blog on presentations (one of the *best* resources you will find) and then watching Dick Hardt's video from OSCON, I was suddenly properly aware of the power of online tools to change the way the world interacts.

You might suggest that I was hooked, and I'd probably agree. I found iGoogle and started tracking people's content online.

I shared the Lessig and Hardt videos with a colleague and friend, Robert McGill. He said "we could make something like that" about where we worked. So we did.

Storyboarded, created and distributed in about a week and a wee video about "where I worked" caught some pretty big attention from our business and IT bosses.

It didn't save the department from going through a rough time, and it probably resulted in me taking my eye off the ball a little on my day job.

Through this process I realised that communication - and really storytelling - was what I loved doing. Agile development (from a business & user perspective) is all about stories. Making our little video was all about stories. Making slidedecks is all about helping someone tell their story.

It was around this time that Garry, David and I spoke about maybe doing some work to help our area tell it's story better. But that's another story.

Who is this babyB character then?

When Jenny and I wanted to let our friends know that we were expecting a baby, I set up a blog using iWeb. It was a fairly handy way of letting the world know what was going on. I was kind of new to blogs and thought that a native application for creating & updating would be best. I realise now that this was not the wisest move on the planet.

However, you can imaging that I wanted to share with everyone once our wee girl was born. Beth Ann Weir. The announcement is here. That was 18 months ago. At the same time as we were adjusting life to being a family of three, I was learning more about the social (and sociological) nature of online interaction and reminded that "one it's online, it's always online.

One of the people that I've learned most from over the piece was Mitch Joel. Some time last year, his "significant other" (I can't find out if Mitch is married or not) delivered a baby. He doesn't really talk about the baby - at first I found this really odd. Especially when one of his co-participants (and another person sharing great ideas on new media), CC-Chapman shares so much about his family online (including helping his daughter put together an online video series.

When asked on his regular podcast why he didn't talk much about his family - it was through choice. It was all about letting his family choose how much they were online and hoe much they weren't. This baby had little influence over what would be shared online - but you can be sure that in 15 years time, they would have something to say about their toddler-days being on Flickr for the world to see.

Hearing this (and Jenny being a little concerned that *anyone* could see photos of Beth (or us) online made me think. How much do we want to share? How much do we want to keep private and what does that mean.

So, when I started using the babyB handle when talking about our wee girl. I talk about Mrs theWeir as "theWeir" is my twitter, friendfeed, identi.ca and bebo handle. We only let friends & family view picture on Flickr & Facebook. Pictures of babyB do not end up on Posterous. This can be restrictive when there's something very cute I might want to share (and I'm sure I'll come up with a way to make it work in the future), but for now it's working alright.

I do share tons of other photos on Flickr, Facebook and Posterous, but just not of babyB.

And that's why I use those abbreviations. It's not to be better than anyone else, just the way we're working it for now. All these self-publishing platforms are new ground and making informed, wise decisions is what it's all about for me.

What do you think? Do you share your family & photos with everyone?