Charlie Sparkle Picture Collage

Charlie Sparkles Picture Collage (links to Flickr)

Thanks for the memories xxx

Interacting with festive spirit, enjoy!!

What a year 2008 has been. A year of ups and downs, highs and lows, pain and growth.

I love that my dear daughters are with me through thick and thin, growing up so fast with so much humour, fun and intelligence. We have had a joyous year together. I can't wait for them to grow up for me - but at the same time I want them to stay young. It's a mother's dilemma I'm sure. But I know they will grow up good. They are beautiful souls. Both of them.

I love the new friends I have made and am getting to know offline and on. You are each and everyone of you an inspiration and a joy to me. You make me learn and laugh.

I dearly love and admire my long time faithful friends who remain close and are always there for me. The support, acceptance and love they share with me are what gets me through and keeps me going. Always.

Personally, I hope each of you and your respective families have a wonderful festive season, that you enjoy copious amounts of whatever takes your fancy, that many laughs are shared, and that above all you stay safe over this period.

I look forward to catching up with you early in 2009, in what I think will be a challenging but fun filled sparkly year ahead for all of us. Bring it on!!!!

We all deserve the best. And I wish you the best.

To my friends and family, love you lots.
With kisses from Helen (aka Charlie) xc

interacting with online personality things... my results!! interesting :)

Positive Responses Others May Have Toward You

Many people, perhaps the majority, will come to appreciate your balance as a compassionate person. The more they get to know you, the more they will admire your thoughtful compassion for others and its compliment in the sensible ways you take good care of yourself.

Those whom you help will appreciate the way you leave them with their dignity by expecting them to collaborate in their own rescue. Those who are more tender-hearted will find in you a balance they lack; when they've run out of energy because they fail to take good care of themselves, you will still have enough compassion left to lift others out of trouble.

Even the tough-hearted, those who believe people should solve their own problems, might come to admire your tenderness which they don't find in themselves. So the people you help will be grateful, and the people who see your balance between self and others will admire you. Certainly, balanced is not bad at all as a way to be known among your friends.

Interaction re traditional media

Mother: "I didn't catch the advertising for that, so we missed it"

Daughter: "Yeah, that's cause no one watches TV anymore"

Blogged with the Flock Browser

if you could change your life, would you?

Seth raised this question via his own blog and it got me thinking... i'm enjoying interacting via blogs, plurking, and FaceBook just so much. i'm meeting new people - not just online, but off as well. it's making me read, analyse and interact more. i'm exposed to so many more opinions and ways people tackle life in general. and that can only be good, hey!

good for work and play.

so, to change my life - and how i got to be the person i am today? the person i am, who interacts, blogs, chats, plurks, posts photos, pulls faces, laughs and all the rest. no. sorry. i'm happy with who i am. i'd have to say that if i changed it, i wouldnt be that same person. would i?

now, i know i've blogged that i need balance (hmmm too much online) - but even in that statement i'm simply trying to improve myself - not change.

but would you change me? would you change yourself with the same question posed? i hope not. xc


Photo is from a bloggers meet up - taken by Shai Coggins: http://www.shaicoggins.com/ (i hope she doesn't mind me using it!!)

2008, a year of surprises... 2009, a year of rises

A year of surprises
Out with the old and in with the young
From the start if something could go bung
It caught me and I was strung


But after a few hiccups and rises
Out of the blue
Came something true
And very very new


We take no prizes
Why did it take this long?
There is so many a song
They can’t be wrong


So no more crises
This is our new beginning
We are all singing
And the phones are ringing


Let’s begin 2009 with rises
Expectations all good
Like everything should
We really really could


No more surprises
Just friends and laughter to share
I know you want it and care
We just need to dare.


Don’t we.
xc

interaction through addiction, and then some...

leading up to christmas and christmas itself can be an exceptionally social time. and if you're like me, you like your wine. so by the end of it all, you feel like you've become an alcoholic... simply from the fact you are drinking nearly every day!! urgh

however, i do find february tends to be a quieter month. so, in february i've previously joined partners in self imposed no drinking (wine etc) bans. not so much because we have to. more because its good for our body and mind to have a rest. and we feel assured we aren't alcoholics!! well, not for that month anyway :) i've heard others have november off as their month of rest - to "prepare" for the onslaught. i guess it's whatever the person feels they need to do. before or after. but it is giving the body / mind a break.

so it amused me to hear the other day that my eldest daughter is doing a self imposed exile from the computer over the summer holiday break. 6 weeks.

she needs a rest. to assure herself she can "be without". to just "be". interesting.

is this the new form of addiction that we will need to take a rest from over time?

i have to confess to having various levels of trouble in my relationships these past 10 years due to the amount of time i spend online. the same issue has crept into my latest relationship, even though he is a far more tech savvy, social onliner i have ever dated.

so, it is an addiction.

and it amused me that I received a link to the following article. this week. what timing. but what a way to deal with it... using an online service. wouldn't that be like taking an alcoholic to a winery?? not sure.

http://mashable.com/2008/12/06/facebook-addict-2/

anyway... life is good and then you die. so, i'm here to enjoy it.

Blog conversations

i wrote myself a note today that i wanted to write my blog tonight. i missed it.

so i came home revved up to write some stuff. had jotted some topics and ideas down. but drew a blank when i went to write them. it could be mondayitis. do you get that? i do if it's been a big weekend. sometimes call myself fuddlehead even.

it was a big weekend.

it's normal for this time of year - the sun comes out - so the kids go out to play!! we recharge our batteries after the dreary winter.

so hi everyone, i'm going to write a real blog now :)
xc

interaction with the media

media is a funny beast. we all want it. we all need it. but there are times when it needs to back off and let be.

but who dictates when. who holds the standards. i do wonder if mine are too high. but then.

my twin bro died in an accident where he fell 60m of a cliff. tragic. freak. the media tried. no-one talked. they only had family to get hold of. dead end.

my corporate job is different. media have someone to get hold of. to be professional with. to ask questions of and insist an answer from.

i'm professional. and i believe in educational and informative media.

but i can say this past week has been tough. i didn't need to lose my bro to know that. but i have remaimed calm and professional. i have to. ive been there. i know what that family is going through. they have lost a loved one.

so the next media robot that comes stalking my way... forget your story. you don't deserve it. xc

Interaction through tagging

Well it has happened. I have been tagged.

My good friend JimBob51 kindly dobbed me in. Now, my first task is to shout his blog. Easy. So, AOEDE is one of the three original Muses. She is the Muse of Song or Voice. It is also the name of one of the Moons of Jupiter. JimBob51's blog is the perfect spot to muse on just about anything. And Jim certainly does that!! Let it be known though, I am happy to hear his voice... but he can leave the singing at home :)

Tagging is a bit of fun. And there are some rules.

#1 Shout your taggers blog

#2 5 Interesting facts about yourself

#3 Tag six more blogs

Number one is complete. Here's 5 facts about me:

#1 My (tiny) hysterectomy scar is the shape of a scorpion (on my belly). No pics sorry.

#2 I built my first website in 1998 but my latest is a blog for my wine group:
http://deadreds.blogspot.com/ (yes, i run a wine group)

#3 My parents and sisters are both English and grew up in the townships of Horsham (dad) and Crawley (mum). My dads name is Eric Stevens - nicknamed Steve. My first husband was Eric, my second Steve. My daughter lived in Horsham (England) with her dad for 10 yrs (both Australians). My previous partner's surname was Crawley who worked for Piper Alderman. My current home is in Pipers Avenue. My soul mate Trevor Cologne worked for the Woodville Library and rockclimbed. I have worked for the Woodville Library and my twin brother rockclimbed. You could say Trevor is a combination of me and my twin!!

#4 My first dogs name was Sandy. My last Coco.

#5 My vision for the community sector was always about the voice. Generating conversations and interacting. Using less expensive but templated models to infiltrate and provide a platform for the sector to springboard from. So many groups are invisible to the masses as they have no funds. And I could talk about this for hours.

Thanks for reading this far.

Here's my six tags:
#1 Trevor or Odi's Ramblings for a laugh

http://tcologne.blogspot.com/

#2 Dead Reds Wine Group cause i run it!!

http://deadreds.blogspot.com/

#3 My Social Newspaper
http://www.socialtimes.com/

#4 National commentary by my friend Graham Young

http://ambit-gambit.nationalforum.com.au/

#5 My girlfriend who I'm proud of for giving blogging a go:

http://danamallach.blogspot.com/

#6 and I grab a coffee with Allan

http://allancockerill.com/

and I'd like a special mention to this one (cause I'm in the hall of fame - ahhaaa): http://www.freelance-articles.com/

xc

interacting and linking, come follow

the web is best when the links are working. hey, and what better way to build a community than have us all "following each other" via links!! it's the latest laff / carry on i've seen in blog world for ages.

it all started with Odi's Ramblings (http://tcologne.blogspot.com). new to blogging but not Plurk, he decided to "have a go" and then told all and sundry about it ie come follow... and follow they did (who could resist - everyone loves him anyway). he got more hook ups and links to his blog in 24 hours than i'd been able to generate in six months (grrr girls)!! although the proof will be in the analytic s cause i know i get more clicks (nah nah tehe) :)

off course being the traditional information manager from way back, my heads sits firmly in the belief that linking to sources rather than repeating and duplicating is always the best method. its what the web is best for. why quote when you can link to the source? why repeat words, why repeat anything - pay respect and just link!!

so, i asked everyone (on Plurk) again to follow (as you do for a laff).... i can now boast a healthy number (still not matching the stats but it will get there).

Interestingly, with Odi showing this community that blogging isn't so hard - all of a sudden we have some new players, such as:

http://devoted-angel.blogspot.com/

So life will continue to intertwine, and link. Hmmmm, and there's the basis of discussion in another blog!

xc

PS why not try:

http://deadreds.blogspot.com/

http://boblovestosing.blogspot.com/

interacting via photoshop.com

IMG_0034
Originally uploaded by charlierobinson1966

went down the road of giving photoshop.com a try tonight. i've used it briefly before but as i have the full version, never seemed worth it. decided to have a bit more of a play and LOVE the results. quick simple fun results.

give it a whirl... xc

interacting with a robot... what an experience

i've previously blogged that i was less than impressed with the service provided by the massive telecommunications company, telstra. have a read...

http://charlierobinson.blogspot.com/2008/08/interaction-with-bigpond.html

however something happened this week that i would like to compliment them for. one particular service. it seems that where telstra HUMANS can not provide a service, a telstra ROBOT can.

and provide it did. i made a routine call to the telstra technicians line (my internet connection wasn't working via the router). call made. all good. within five minutes i was back up and running. but not once did i speak with a human.

i spoke with and was lead through a series of checks, switches and refreshes by a robot. the problem was solved quickly and simply.

i was impressed.

so, telstra it seems robots can do for you what no human seems capable of - quick, fast efficient, polite service.

i feel sorry (afraid) for the future workforce of telstra.

xc

interacting the old fashioned way

things happen in threes. it's an old wise tale. a very old fashioned idea. and yet would you believe i've had interactions about/via three letters this past week. now that's also very old fashioned way indeed!!

but i got a real kick out of them all. here's why:

you've gotta love a wedding. i laughed out loud when i got a message (via facebook) asking for my home addy as my new to be niece in law didn't know where i lived! it caused a family fuss. we should be helping her so she didnt have to resort to such antics... but i just loved it as it showed an honesty and resourcefulness. she was so used to communicating with us all via email and facebook, she's never needed the addy. i confessed to understanding 100% where she was coming from.

now birthdays are just something i struggle with constantly. the online medium has just not been able to replace the traditional birthday card. however im useless at remembering dates. useless at keeping calendars up to date. even online ones.

so when my niece sends paper invitations to her one year olds birthday lunch and then follows up with paper thankyou cards after the event. each note with individual messages. urgh. it makes me cringe. i absolutely adore it.

but finally to top it off. the ultimate happened.

a letter. as in one that had a "Dear Helen", paragraphs and a proper sign off.

i don't think i have received a letter from anyone other than my aunty who lives interstate in years. years and years. and there it was. in my letter box. a letter.

it was an invite to attend christmas lunch. it was such a lovely letter i could frame it.

and of course i have to respond in the way it was delivered. via letter. but i must just finish my blog first :)
xc

interaction with federal agencies in beauracratic times of terrorists

what do you do? so many people have asked me this week, why do i have to renew a passport that hasn't expired. and won't expire whilst i'm away. it's a really good question. apparently it's the rules and they must be obeyed.

so then, why do we have expiry dates?

no one has been able to answer.

on top of this, although i have 100% custody of my eldest child (teenager) as her dad lives in england, apparently the passport office doesn't accept or acknowledge this because it isn't in an agreement that is set out with a family court order.

may i point out here that the family court encourage you to make parental agreements WITHOUT their involvement... so we didn't.

i do however have child support agreements and it states i have 100% custody. the passport office didn't acknowledge this. even though i flashed it under their nose "it's here in black and white".

so, we have several government agencies we need to deal with to get a new passport finalised. none of them obviously talk to each other. and none support what the other requires.

interesting.

they all did agree though that i couldn't take eldest daughter out of australia on her current passport. so, i have discussed, processed, chatted, met, signed, phoned, and interacted my arse off.

we might get our holiday in the end, but it will be delayed and it's cost me a heap of money.

so much for encouraging tourism is all i can say. boo hoo. xc

interacting with photos

i remember when... i seriously can't believe i'm saying this but i do feel like i've been around an awfully loooong time - and i'm getting OLD!!! especially when we start talking photos and sharing. gosh, i still have PHOTO ALBUMS that these days are just too dusty and scary to bring out on display. hilarious really.

i remember when i used to manually create my HTML pages onto my website so that i could share my photos with friends. have to say - they just "looked" and unless there was a funny email that followed, not too much interaction happened. but then along came simple tools like Google's Picassa. Gotta love the ease of that.

however, i really am preferring today's world of uploading and sharing photo albums with friends and all the funny comments that follow. whether it be via Flickr (for the "nicer" shots) or simply FaceBook for all those crazy candid ones, it's such a better place and time to be in.

i wonder what will be next?

interacting with friends of friends

or even family. where do you sit? i know from experience there's a fine line between hooking up with friends of friends when you haven't personally met. it's an interesting dynamic that has emerged over time.

there seems far more sensitivity around hooking up online with a friend of friend or family member that you've not personally met, as opposed a complete stranger.

the hook ups are for the same reason, similar interests, games and chit chat... but there is a whole new world of complexities. i have occassionally treaded the fine line, but not often. that said, i have certainly made some awesome friends by NOT being shy...

far easier if they come to me in the long run though. hmmmm

interaction with no connection

there was i on a plane. mobile phone off, laptop in bag. 14hr long haul ahead of me. and we're off.

but there's no connection. it's a dark plane, only music in my head, a few video's and documentaries later... sleeping passengers (at lunchtime) not talking. no interaction is going on at all aside from "would you like another water" "yes, i'd love to go pee 10 more times, sure".

anxiety.

the sudden panic that things wont go to plan. won't work when i land. won't be in hand. i have a moment. i must connect. i can't.

i write poems. i read. i watch TV (hmmmm). i cope.

what a world i live in. it's connected. except in the air. beware!! xc

interaction by (short) poem, two

patience
with speed
a unique breed
of past tense

feelings
and security
a unique assurity
leaves me reeling

xc

Charlie's Global Housewarming Partee

P1030300
Originally uploaded by charlierobinson1966

Let's face it - this household is digital. Multiple laptops, cameras, mobile devices, websites, logins and friends who all do the same, when it came to the housewarming partee it didn't surprise me that everyone brought their camera.

The photos have streamed out in the hundreds since...

What did happen on the night (that I want to share) is something that might also just happen again. We web cam streamed live the partee to a bunch of friends overseas - so that they could join in. What a bunch of digital nerds we are!! But what a laugh also.

The first of many more to come - global partee's that is.
xc

ps the picture includes @spotrick, @robynsharon, and @jimbob51

inspiration

inspiration comes from everywhere
thoughts and ideas
looking at peers
its good for the career


inspiration comes from within
gut feelings
looking out for another
even as a mother


inspiration comes with love
from within
after looking into your eyes
with vision in the skies


inspiration comes from you
radiant laughter
clever witty conversation
the sun shone.

interacting in communities, globally

the sense of an online community has been around for as long as we could all connect and network with each other. let's face it, early day "pinging" of each others computers @ work was the start (and heaps of fun). those that didn't "get it" (pinging) were left out (bumma dude). those that did formed a small community... and we pinged each other.

then came email, distribution groups, bulletin board and discussion groups and the online services that we all know and love. **funnily enough, aside from technical interest groups and forums, i reckon the most popular way these online social networking services infiltrated into the masses was via people trying to reconnect with their school friends. interesting.

anyway, we are far more sophisticated these days moving into the relms of twittering or plurking each other.

it conjurs up a whole new way of talking as i've previously blogged (http://charlierobinson.blogspot.com/2008/06/interacting-in-different-languages.html) however it is also opening us up to a whole new sense of community (group of friends).

second life is certainly at the fore-front of this, with it being completely virtual. but what i'm getting a greater feel for, are people wanting to connect with me the person. my real self.
not the virtual self.

they want the real person who is talking (interacting) with them. no matter where they are or where they've come from.

i didn't go to school with any of these guys, i haven't worked with them, and i don't know them on land. i only know them online. and for me, it's as big (and close) a friends network as what i have on land.

talk about breaking down barriers around the globe. we'll have all the anti-globalisation guys on our backs next.

interacting @ home

not that i'm impatient or anything. but when are my new neighbours arriving?



as you know i've just moved into a new house. i am meant to have new neighbours as they purchsed the neighbouring property at the same time i got mine. but they are still not there.


i wait.


i'd really like to meet them. have a chat.


so, maybe i'm no so patient after all? online is just so much quicker. i'm being spoilt. from a few whispers of a new service from friends, to friends all jumping on board signing up, to then meeting/making a whole bunch of new friends, i reckon i could have made a whole neighbourhood of neighbours, moved house 10 times over compared to what is going on at the land home.


i wait.

interaction with BigPond

dealing with telstra and bigpond has been a challenge. to say the least. frustrating. rude. inconsiderate are all words that spring to mind. and i could talk for hours on the subject of why. however i'd rather focus on the fact that its pay back time. customers rule.

a good thing happened to me this morning.

there was me politely trying to ring the number that they had provided via txt message to my personal mobile phone if i had queries. when i realised i couldn't translate the number to call.

you see the number provided was 13POND. go on you try (love to hear if you can or can't and what mobile phone you have) . i own a MotoQ. it uses a qwerty keyboard. so i asked a friend to translate the number for me. he has an iPhone. but he couldn't either.

i got it eventually (thanks to Trev's work colleague whoever you are).

but for BigPond, hmmmm i guess that just blows a stack of marketing dollars having to work out a new catchy phone number to drag in all your poor unsuspecting customers again. not that i should be feeling happy about this... but it did make me smile when i felt the smile wipe of that cocky BigPond sales guy face (over the line). a winning feeling. the customer fights back feeling. customers rule. it was good. great in fact.

so thanks MotoQ. and thanks iPhone...

....interesting though that a telecoms company hadn't yet realised that the latest gadgets on the market - and in fact the very customer base they want would be people using the latest gadgets on the market - hasn't caught up with the basic trend that their own phone number can't be translated by those very gadgets.

just goes to show just how out of touch they really are.

xc

interaction in famine

the weekend started out with eldest daughter participating in 48hr famine.

easy. various options to participate. no eating. no communicating. no various other options. seemed simple. until i forgot the roast potatoes on sunday night to go with the lamb. how could I? suddenly no food option seemed more daunting. lamb too good to give up - even without roast potatoes.

turned to no communicating option. easy. simple. until i found out that meant no email, facebook, plurk, sms/txt, or really - doesn't that mean no breathing?

how could I? suddenly no communicating option seemed more daunting.

in fact all options seemed too daunting, so i ate the roast and continued plurking. my daughter a far more successful achiever than me! she made it through the 48hrs. well done babe xc

interacting via a poem

sometimes things just come out of the blue
rise up and surprise you
who said perfect was right
it might be so true
for many who know whats best.

but who are you?
why do you think that way
why do i listen to what you say
no more.

sometimes things just come out of the blue
take you for a ride
give the directions
chose the side
dont go there
take down my pride.

but who are you?
no more.

sometimes things just come out of the blue
and i meet true
feelings well up inside
take over my space. my place.
give me my pride
be on my side. it's my time.
xc

interacting in peace

hi everyone. i've had a great weekend filled with friend visits and laughter. many a time the conversation changed to online and the various new media services that we play on. in fact it wasn't just conversation... we even shared and played together (side by side). a new experience for me as most of my interaction is done via my office or loungeroom listening to music. alone!!

but it was fun. and im sure many friends got a laugh from the results.

for me personally, i got a laugh when my daughter became a plurker. for plurks sake. but it's all good. in the main, Plurk is one of the friendliest (and most protective) social environments I've been involved in. ever. and she will learn a lot from many of the conversations.

but to turn to peace. one plurking conversation turned racist. a social environment with conversations and interaction is certainly going to attract a wide variety of views... but it was a disappointing moment. and one that caused (a healthy) debate (about social sites) amongst my friends. but - we did quickly move on after declaring the offending comments as being made by... well... someone we just wouldn't associate with!!

in all, a great weekend, some good conversation and a few lessons learnt. one lesson that i wanted to share was a comment made about "too many emails" coming from FaceBook. Just a tip (from me) is to pop into your "account" area and update your Email Notification settings. These days you don't need to get an email for practically ANYTHING. I don't. I just login and check ad-hoc and when I'm ready.

A far more peaceful way to interact with the service.

Til next time, take care xc

interacting on strike

Hey if there’s one thing that will make my blood boil at the moment, its teachers on strike. That’s right. Nope I don’t understand the rationale of how having a strike betters our kids, our community or our general well being as a society. So, they want to be more valued, respected and get paid more. It seems every where we go people think striking is still the best option. Probably because we have unions who can’t negotiate effectively? Maybe I’m being too generalist but it’s just a topic that I have no sympathy for. Schools, and teachers, can’t have it all ways. I see it as an outdated, old, boring way to fix a problem. It’s like trudging off to war. It doesn’t work or fix anything.

In my discussions this morning with one child’s father he commented that they’d actually be no point in discussing my concerns with the school because it’s the schools teachers union who are behind this. In my stupidity I had to ask; Who’s running the school then? Are they not teachers? He mentioned I should write to Jane (the responsible Minister). Oh I’m sorry – so I have to write to the Minister to express my distress and disturbance that I disagree with teachers going on strike.

Wouldn’t she just agree with me?

I wonder when schools actually think about parents in this scenario or if it’s us (as parents) who they are attacking to make us rise up also for their cause. Being a single mum I just feel punished in these situations. And if you’re wondering why I’m so fired up about this subject, it’s simple. I deal with 2 kids, who go to 2 different schools and so for me that means 2 SEPARATE strike days (one after the other). And I work full time. I wonder how other single parents cope when they don’t have the flexibility from their employer to work from home like I do. I suspect they’d have to take annual leave. I always thought annual leave was reserved for holidays. These days it seems it’s reserved for strikes and pupil free days.

And don’t get me started on pupil free days or we’ll be here til Christmas.

eco-safe

its the little things that matter. and it's connections where i learn. hmmm and yes, copy. i hooked up with chris brogan a week or so back (not sure how he'd previously missed my radar but he's there now) and in my dutiful way i read (errr skimmed thru) his blog.

it was a very interesting read. lots of similar thoughts. liked that he used the slogan "community and social media". all good signs.

and then it caught my eye. it was a service i hadn't seen before called eco-safe.

the eco-safe guys write "We believe in the power of our individual voice and collective voice as a whole. Together we can change the world. I can, you can, we can. Here and now, from
this day forward."

all it does is suggest a person email or pdf a webpage to themselves rather than print. it's just a small thing. xc

interacting via the team

driving traffic to a website has to be one of the most popular emerging trends facing online. we talk about, discuss it, argue occassionally and generally not all get it right all the time. even i don't (i never said i was perfect).

traditionally we would put up a website. send an email to a few friends, a database of prospects or media and hoped like hell people flocked. we got frustrated when they didn't. we asked around. hmmm, everyone saw the email but when they went to use the website again funnily enough they couldn't remember the link name (or URL in web speak).

then someone brought in privacy laws. that meant we had to ask permission to send the email to them. hmmm, that meant they needed to get to the website first. we then all used meta tags to help the search engines find us. then someone gave them a bad name (i still very much believe in meta tags and if you want to do business with government on any level, you had better learn about them). hmmm, but then everyone did that and suddenly it got harder and harder to be found in the search results (if at all). hmmm, once again they didn't find us.

so, we had to get a bit savyier.

we started including our website link in all of our communications such as our emails, promotions and newsletters. hey, we even just promoted the website using traditional media like TV, radio and print. but today even that doesn't always help. well, it may help first time. but do yo really get repeat business?

so what does help?

the web that is woven around one single website these days is a far more intense, linked and worked experience.

it's why one of my favourite sayings is "im working the room". it takes real effort to get people to visit your website. and then keep them coming back.

typically it needs interaction. and your full attention.

so, i asked around some mates what they do.

the typical response was for them to link between their own websites and from other websites. meaning, your own website (domain) links to your own blog, and your facebook (myspace, othersocial) then links to your website or blog, etc. your blog then has little widgets installed to link them back to those social media sites where you interact. etc etc.

these days, one website never sits alone. it has become team web.

i'd be interested how your "team web" is going and would love to showcase some examples for others if you wish to post a comment. xc

What to say when there’s not much to say?

I think we all have these moments in life. I have been so preoccupied with the house move that my mind hasn’t been dwelling on the inner workings of social new media or blogging or corporate communications. To confess, I have been a tad auto-pilot. The auto-pilot works quite well though thanks, so I’ll survive my day job. But when I came to write my freelance blog this week, I came up blank. What to write when there’s not much to say other than “the move went well but we’re all exhausted!!”?. I guess just that.

So there.

Have to keep things moving though.

The day job has just seen this sponsorship go live:
http://www.careerone.com.au/jobs/job-search/special-features/sa-energy-utilities

My wine group – the Dead Reds – is having its second wake this Friday night at the Dave Evans Gallery in Rundle Street. Check us out on FaceBook if you’d like some more details.

And I'll still catch ya online. I'm enjoying the interaction on Plurk at the moment. Come check it out with all the other Plurkers in Plurksville xc

Interacting across the line

My golden rule was broken today. It was really only there as a goal to bring some rules of engagement around my social activity online. But don't panic, it won't stop my weeding routine. It's paid off and worked. I have great connections. We chat and share posts and comment and interact on FaceBook, Twitter, friendFeed, Plurk and we even stop and have a coffee with Allan. Which is funny, as my online friend Allan Cockerill even blogged about my efforts this week:

read here: http://allancockerill.com/marketing/is-this-the-profile-of-the-new-social-networker

But... why was my rule broken you ask patiently?

Well, I spilled over to 401 friends. Before weeding. I broke the rule for Becky. Who could resist? She was introduced through Allan. I'm sure over time I'll weed back to under 400 again (just to keep me honest) but for now, I just wanted to let you know I am happy with this decision!!

It's all good.

Oh, and thanks again to Allan. You provide the coffee and I'll do the weeding
xc

Interacting once things have gone

As in stolen. Where was my head? All this time I had been worried about regaining HARDWARE, but what runs it?

SOFTWARE.

And I’m such a softie.

Now, it’s true many of us (including me) have our software discs safely stored away from the laptop or PC with all their product key numbers on them. But you know it suddenly dawned on me, what if I was running an old version of say, photoshop, installed years ago where the paperwork was lost in translation or house moves or whatever (fact) and well, never to be seen again? Now that’s an expensive problem. I’ve gotten around this problem but I thought I would jot this note for others to take note. Either itemise your software when you itemise your PC on your insurance or keep them safe and locked away (along with those passwords!!). The bill can add up otherwise.

It’s also handy to keep tabs of what you had downloaded too. It's all the little things that matter. Like some of those little shareware problems we all hook into every now and then (like password management software).

Just a tip. From a softie.

xc

Interacting with individuals.

There’s been a bit of ongoing fuss about online identities for a while now. The general rule is to just be yourself and treat others as you want to be treated. Simple.

Online does has the power to create a world that is unknown to others though. For some this is a key benefit. They can hide. Or they can promote, market, sell or indeed find a way to express their creativity. Their inner self. I probably like to think I’m in the latter crowd (expressing my inner self) but that’s probably my own fantasy. I’m very much what you see, what you get – online and off. Sorry, but that’s a fact!!

However, i do have empathy and respect for those who try to develop an online brand and persona. Some people are making a stack of money out of it. That said, you really can’t cover a personality. Online (maybe even off). It shines through. From the way we respond to when we respond, to what we say to how we say it. You really have to admit we are one person... whether we are covering ourselves with a cute image or full frontal face picture on white background, it’s our actions that speak more volumes about our personalities and reveals our inner being. We have our own ups and downs. We have our own highs and lows. And we all have good days. And we have our bad.

So, where am I going with this? Well, to be honest it makes me more trusting of the people I be-friend online. I gave myself an interesting challenge to limit my FaceBook friends to under 400. Just when the FaceBook world all wanted over 1000 or more in order to do “whatever” I made a stance that I wouldn’t. I would weed out and move on friends that I hadn’t connected with. It was a choice that I’m glad I made. I have moved through that cycle and the people I now connect with are more valuable and more enjoyable. We have far more similar interests as I took the time to know them better and they in turn have referred better connections for me.

But – they all do come with their own individual personalities and traits that I’m enjoying getting to know. And they can’t hide them. I love that. So, thanks to all the individuals out there doing their stuff. It has made me appreciate all the individuals in my offline world. And I love it when offline overlaps with on. I asked one who has just crossed to “describe yourself in six words”. The response came as "extroverted mad energy work-o-holic party soccer". I thought “yep”.

How would you describe yourself. Do I know you? Let's interact.

interacting with experts: Richard Macalintal speaks

Hey - i don't know this guy at all. But online is crazy and he'd heard about me and my interacting with experts, contacted, we chatted and so i asked him to answer a few questions. You gotta hand it to him...

1. What made you transition to online media – such as the blog – to help with the promotion of Batangas?

Richard responded: "I am one of those individual who can't live without computer and internet...its part of my life already. And because I love my town most, I was inspired to promote it around the world in my own way thru blogging. I know that our town is one of the best in our county and there are lots of things i can brag about it. Browsing also the internet, I can find only few topics about it. I hope through this site, I can promote my beloved Batangas, Philippines. "

2. And what does "Parine muna kayo't makapagkape..mainit init pa are!" mean?

Richard responded: "In Batangas, almost everyone are drinking coffee. We are one of the best coffee producer in the Philippines (even in the world before) and we call it "kapeng barako" or brewed coffee produced directly from our town. Whenever we have visitors, we always offer them hot coffee which leads to long conversations. I want to emphasize that we batanggeyo's are hospitable. "

So anyway... that was his story. We're now connected in some small way which I think is gorgeous. It's a whole new world out there and we're connecting and interacting in a whole new way. I love that. Here's Richard's blog:

http://www.batanggenyo.net/

If you check it out... there's a pop up that I'm not so excited about. So, up to you if you go there. The blog itself is fine. The place itself seems beautiful. Nice place to visit one day :>

Google Earth directions:
13°45'41.44"N
121° 3'37.80"E
xc

Interating via a webcam?

Picture 21
Originally uploaded by charlierobinson1966

who would have thought you could have so much fun with a silly gadget? and i was brought up to think gadgets were for boys...

but seriously. chuck a camera in front of a chick and whammo... the poses start. what i put up onto Flickr are a mere flicker of the final results. you'd have to see it to believe it.

we did have a laugh. xc

Interacting with reality

In the past few weeks reality has crept into my life full force.


I don’t normally talk about my private life. In fact I avoid it. I even limit how much info I put in the “about me” areas. But having just lived through it all, it seemed right to share. Share a bit anyway.

You see my partner of 4 years, whom I was engaged to, and I separated. Very adult reasons and we will remain friends however as with any relationship breakup – it’s incredibly sad.

Unfortunately in that same week, our house was burgled. They took all my jewellery, my daughter’s macbook and my personal laptop. The fact that I hadn’t backed up my laptop was a sorely learnt lesson (3 years of digital family photos gone forever and if you have kids you will know that’s a bitter lesson for anyone to learn).

The interesting point through all this though – and why I decided to share – has been passwords. Gosh.

Just before all this happened I had taken the very wise step of collecting all my passwords into the one place. Sensible. If you are a facebook friend you may even remember me chatting about the software I had decided upon. It worked well – I agreed with Lee that the interface wasn’t that exciting – however it was simple to use. Unfortunately though, the password manager software went with the stolen laptop. As did all my passwords.

Now, I appreciate they will just wipe my harddrive and sell the shell or “something” equally boring. Plus I can’t imagine they’ll do too much with my facebook password (etc) but to be honest I had taken myself into a comfort zone where I didn’t NEED TO REMEMBER.

And remember I don’t.

I’m sure you’d all in the same boat if it happened to you? How many passwords do we have to remember each these days? A lot. At work I have an 8 character alpha/numeric combo that changes every 30 days. It needs to be unique each time I change it ie wont accept part of the previous password. And that’s a password for just one login?

I then have my online banking, PIN, facebook, plurk, twitter, google analytics/maps/services, skype, UTube, flickr (which I have sworn about a lot already, so I won’t go there), blog, ping, linkedin, technorati, FTP, email, webmail, client FTP’s, to name just a couple. To be frank, I am still stumbling over ones I had forgotten about!!

Thanks goodness I didn’t have a security code for the house.

DOH. I should have and kept the burglars OUT!!! I will in the new place.

In confession, most of these services have made it relatively easy to retrieve a password for a tech savvy girl (OK, except flickr). But gosh – in reality, how many people are tech savvy like me?

We expect the masses to pick up and adopt some of these trends that we sprout on about. I have to say that I have complete empathy and a slightly better understanding of some of the difficulties that the regular joe experiences. So I’ve come down from my ivory tech savvy tower and joined the real world. We need to do something to make all this easier guys. What's going on???

As a plug, I have to say I have appreciated ping.fm as a service. From this one platform I have been able to update my various different service statuses AND my blog with ease – all together. Now, that’s cool and at least I was able to stay in touch.

So, I’m back. And real.

Dead Reds Wine Group, Wake 2

DSC00050
Originally uploaded by charlierobinson1966

So the next dead reds wine group event is nearing. Have you RSVP'd? It would be good to do so.

Next event booked for Friday 25th July from 7pm

After scouring Adelaide for the next dead reds event location, we settled on the David Evans Gallery. The gallery is located in Rundle Street, just above Alfresco’s and it’s a great spot – nice and central. Not only will we be able to test and taste the wine, we can also admire the very excellent views – the photography and artworks that are on display! Now we just need to unearth the next dead red.

Entry for the next event will be $10pp entry with bottle or $20pp entry without bottle. Bottles must be dated prior 1999. I am personally opening the 1966 St Henri Claret Penfolds Auldana however I’m not expecting anyone else to provide such an old bottle and am happy to win the deadest bottle on the night prize!! The black star. But you can try and beat me if you wish.

As I’ve previously mentioned we have purchased a few bottles for labeling. So, for this next very special event location – these bottles will take on added meaning as they will be labeled using a selected print image provided by David Ginter himself, one of the gallery directors.

The David Ginter image will also be up for auction on the night.

Finally the event price includes: wine samples on arrival, water, cheese and nibbles (and an excellent night of entertainment). Please RSVP either via the FaceBook event or to me direct. If you want, I am happy to accept payment up front for quicker entry on the night.

Spread the word – everyone is welcome. xc

interacting via another new service

Hi everyone, this is Charlie typing to you from another new service called ping.fm

This one is letting me update all my status' etc from the one location. Makes me wonder why then we have more than one. But... i guess each has its own particular focus.

Let me know if you are using the service and what you think of it so far. All the best xc

interacting in her own time...

Hey – stop pestering me OK? In my time please.

Oooh. That was harsh hey. Sorry.

OK. It’s interesting though how with online services like Email, FaceBook (regular), Blogging and LinkedIn (as examples) we are patient. Well I am. We (I) give each other time to respond, answer and action. Even the times that we poke each other on FaceBook, it’s just a “yes, I’m still here and know you’re still there” message that doesn’t need an instant reply.

Well, it seems not so with our FaceBook (chat), Twitter, Skype and Plurk (to name a few) worlds. These worlds demand instant or at least extremely quick responses – or don’t bother. Using the FaceBook chat feature tonight (that I like), I had a couple of conversations going at the same time (as you do). There were a few moments of “are you still there?” simply because the reply wasn’t immediate. Instant.

It’s curious. But very normal. I remember going through this scenario with emails. Way back when.

I remember when…

interacting in different languages

there's really only one language that is common to me. and that's english. it's fact. settled.

but i'm amused by how many other languages have come into my life in the past few years (and people speaking different languages too - but that's another story). fascinating in it's amusement as is it, i've never been a language studier/learner. to be honest, i tried french once but was never very good at it. same with german. i tried but didn't come up trumps.

these days, its seems i am an expert at languages. i'm an absolute whiz chatting about tweets, peeps and plurkers like nobody's business. and don't forget the woot woots - i heart them.

classic.

ok, so what's this new language? it all started way back with sms/txt words. gosh - that's old fashioned. that moved us to speak in just plain abbreviations of words (for speed). that then moved us to develop a whole new set of rules of engagement where we ask our friends to be our peeps or tweets. **oh, but if you wanted to tweet with me you have better be able to do it in 140 characters or ya off the page anyway.

but it's even gone further. these past few weeks, we are now debating what's better; to tweet or not to tweet - that is the plurk.

if only my mother could here me talking this way... she'd be wondering. but if you'd like to come plurk with me, here's my ID: http://www.plurk.com/user/charlierobinson

as Rove says: what the?

interaction clean up day

A few years back when I was working with CISA we came up with this strategy to “clean up the internet”. Not CISA personally – we just wanted to encourage and help business achieve it themselves. At the time (for CISA) I was interviewed on radio and there was quite a buzz. But where are we today? Not much further along it seems.

There are many reasons to clean up the Internet. Firstly, from a user’s perspective, what they find after their research is far more reliable and accurate, and secondly, from a company perspective, dollars.

Dollars. Reputation. Brand. Responsibility. Basically, it costs real money to keep files on an ISP web server. It damages your reputation and brand if your information is out of date and old. And, it’s a company’s responsibility to make sure information is accurate and not misleading! In South Australia ALONE we have 100s of websites that are sitting idle in cyberspace with information stored on them. People and companies link to these websites thinking the information is accurate and current.

So, come forward a few years – to today – and in my day job I signed the company up for google maps "all the works please". Nothing unusual in that. However, in accepting the option that photos from the web be included, we have accepted and included a photo from a CEO who is no longer with us. In fact, has not been with us for many many years.

So, hence revealed, the web’s old files and untidiness is not just on my ISP servers where I can control them. They are in cyberspace as well. Whilst this doesn’t surprise me, and there are administrative ways of sorting it out via Google (in train), it still makes the purpose of the "clean up the internet day" all the more relevant. Seriously, how often in our day to day operations do we really sit back and think “well, what’s out there?”.

This day came to being to make people think about what they had out there and what could they remove. The original intentions were to save money. You can take this much further. Go on.

xc

PS the FaceBook Event page is here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=8641539004

interacting with more or less?

More and more targeted FaceBook groups, individuals and (what to me look like) teams of people are sending out friend requests. on a quest to reach the highest score. their aim is to increase their personal friend numbers. they all want the most. It’s a game!!

one guy today congratulated another for reaching 5000. wow. the mind boggles what they will do with 5000 friends – certainly not develop any form of meaningful interaction and certainly not even a decent spam list because as we know FaceBook bans that (and I’ve known a couple who have suffered the consequences and been deleted).

so, why? but more importantly, should I get involved?

To be honest, I accept friend requests. more people to throw sheep at? Hmmm. at the start l only added them if they included a message and explained why. then it came down to what they had on their profile and their personal interests (but you couldn’t always see that til you were friends) and then it kinda got a bit hard (too many coming through!!). I could easily have gone over 400 friends but instead I have started “culling”. trimming back. clearing the wardrobe. spring cleaning. My aim is to remain UNDER 400.

so, that’s my game.

but, after all is said and done, where am I? where does that leave me and what should I do? There are some friends I’ve made through this process that I didn’t think i would and we have had great conversations online. then there are some that are just well… how does one put it politely in a public domain? Hmm maybe I’ll just leave it there.

so, I guess I will have to remain a little risky on the friend acceptance side of things and fingers crossed, and hope for the best in order to continue to find the people who I value and enjoy interacting with?

charlie interacts with the kids

will the adults please leave the playground? let the kids play.

i get it. people want a professional image and to be adult. they say, we should have the right profile image, say the right things, be diplomatic. agreed. but i do think sometimes we can let the guard down and just have some fun. read “fun”. and isn’t that what FaceBook is all about? a bit of mucking about and sharing some stuff?

i read this post earlier from Scobleizer [link] who said "It’s no business “utility” if I can’t make infinitely large friend lists and use those lists in the same way I use email (which Facebook also bans)." and thought… well yes, FaceBook isn’t for building big business anyway – its to play and network. what Scobleizer recommends is using FriendFeed - which i do. here's mine: http://friendfeed.com/charlierobinson

as I have said in an earlier post – FaceBook is the “after party”. so, leave the serious stuff to your blog, FriendFeed, LinkedIn and Twitter interactions and throw all the sheep at me from FaceBook that you want… but please do treat me as your friend. even if i'm a new friend. i don’t like playground bullies, so no, im also not into all the spam abuse through groups, applications and others. remember the rule – if you cant do it to the face, don’t do it at all. even kids get that.

see you on the feed xc

charlie interacts with government - one day

I’m starting to read comments from professional bloggers asking (or complaining) that government offices and corporate bodies haven’t taken up the social media capabilities fast enough. It’s true, I’ve written on many occasion the dilemmas I personally face as a corporate communication consultant introducing web services and technologies in to our day to day operations. I have had many a conversation internally about security issues, privacy issues, just plain old waste of time staff issues and all the rest that management throw at me. It’s a little like a cracked record. But I don’t like sitting back and waiting for the day that it will all be better and we “can now do it”. I like to do.

So, perhaps if we reflect on the “what will happen to make the change”. Hmmm… just like 10 years ago when email was introduced. And probably 10 years before that when the phone system came on. It’s really just a typical human trait that makes us resistant to the change. So, let’s work the room on that one.

Us humans need success stories.

So, why don’t we create some? Together. Us corporates.

I am winning @ work on the recruitment front (with the use of several tools). In particular networking to find potential candidates is the perfect excuse to demonstrate the power of services such as LinkedIn and even FaceBook in this space. So that’s what I’m doing. All good there. For me. What else would be a quick win? I was reading about onboarding tonight through the use of wiki induction packages. I could go there and try that. We have a project open @ the moment to review induction. So, there’s a few toe in water examples. Anyone got any others?

But, as far as that working for government, well it’s just not a reality. Yet. I’ve worked in the departments who personally managed services around attraction campaigns into state government. HOWEVER, what will work is the corporate demonstrating to government how to do it. The they won’t want to be missing out on the action.

So, I guess it’s back to me.

charlie's reading suggestions

some great articles i've been reading and mucking around with that i thought you also might like to read:

Blogging
how-to-start-a-blog-who-the-hell-cares-about-your-opinion-anyways/

FaceBook Turns One
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/05/24/facebook-platform-one-year-later/

Little Guys Online
http://www.weblin.com/

Password Managers
http://www.tucows.com/Windows/IS-IT/Security/PasswordManagers/

Resource Wiki's - excellent!!
http://www.ikiw.org/
in particular: http://www.ikiw.org/wikipatterns/

Stop using FaceBook? Are they mad... not really - read on:
http://www.afterthelaunch.com/2008/05/08/stop-using-facebook/

and finally... WebMonkey returns
http://www.webmonkey.com/

Enjoy! xc

charlie has a voice

well there it is. the hardest day of my life (aside from a couple of others). charlie has a voice. but how seriously weird do i look on camera!! i must practice... baby steps though. like i mentioned in the video, wise orange are producing 5 testimonial video's and reconfiguring the corporate video for my full time job (yes - i do have one). this is all part of major communication campaigns hitting the marketplace in July for recruitment of those hard to find (power) engineers.

as i've mentioned before i do like to teach myself new tricks.

so - aside from the bad lighting and the un-madeup face / hair, anyone got any feedback they'd like to share to help make my journey a little less painful? be gentle though xxc

charlie interacts with twitter

twitter is a funny little beast. seems so strange when you first start it up. basically you're watching conversation threads. bit weird. but in the main, the are public comments (= publicity). things that make others take action. comments placed at the start, like "reading" or "posted" tend to make me (and obviously others) think "i had better go check that out". especially when i admire the person and respect their views. it works - i've seen twitter come up in website stats more than once or twice already (as a referrer). far more than facebook even.

so using twitter for publicity is becoming an art... it needs all the attention, interaction, and a following you can muster. hey - but that's what social media is, isn't it? it feels like it's one of those "won't happen over night but it will happen" moments. you certainly have to work the room harder to get the results.

personally, i use twitter to send links etc to articles i'm reading, to promote when I update my blog and to highlight some work that friends have done. but i've also discovered a very simple trick (for myself). that is, just prior to log-off, make your final comment something you want to promote. then, when people search and check your profile, the first thing (and typically only thing they check) is that comment. if they like - they'll follow.

the thing i have to now get right - is remembering to do that. is there an application to help me remember please?

xc

Like all things, us humans have a pretty standard way of going about things. Eg we chat, we listen, we learn, we teach (etc etc).

So, I've been thinking more about this. Mainly as I was asked to speak at a seminar about new media and social networks online. hmmmm – what is it that we do and what exactly would I say to explain? I’m still in learning mode I thought… and now I was asked to teach? Eeek. Whether I finally end up speaking or not doesn't matter. It did make me ponder – a seminar is just like a blog is it not? The speaker/writer chats. An audience listens/reads. We (all) learn through questions/comments. So, I can teach that. Easy.

Of course, I then took it one step further. If the seminar is like the blog, let’s think. LinkedIn must be the business networking for contacts. FaceBook would be the after party and Twitter the quick catchup call. All pretty human to me!! What do you think about that? xc

Million Paws Walk 2008

P1010387
Originally uploaded by charliedesign

Not really sure why I had to be front and centre... but there ya go. Good day out. The weather held out for us which was a relief. The dogs are now stuffed xc

charlie wave two

OK, second go. still can't speak. this is hard!! cooper the dog decided to get in the picture. what a limelight stealer :>

quite contrary to the belief that bright light coming in through the doors means warm day, outside was bucketing down (rain) and cold. we were just about the leave for our wine tour day. read on, next blog xc

dodging the rain on a great day out

P1010241
Originally uploaded by charliedesign

relaxing over a glass of wine, with friends is a great way to spend any day. you'd have to agree. this particular day was spent on the seppeltsfield road, at a fund raiser for 2 blokes on bikes, who departed to travel the countryside for Childhood Cancer.

they will be back in three weeks. i've posted photos to Flickr. it was a typical cold and wet winters day.

an interesting note - we learnt that Fosters sold seppeltsfield winery last November to 4 private owners. one is Janet Holmes-a-Court. Since the takeover, the winery has had a facelift. great results.

chat more soon xc

charlie waves hello from web cam

quite tragic really - but i've gotta do it (learn that is) xc

ps now i've also learnt how to post a video to a blog too!! gosh

Flickr'ng

Vito & Friends
Originally uploaded by charliedesign

Have been teaching myself a few new tricks the past couple of days. Firstly, I installed skype. This was a suggestion from an overseas friend, however it seems it's like most things, once you mention something, everyone comes out of the woodwork. I've been playing chinese checkers and having an absolute HOOT with the emicons. Got to talk to Leila tonight via skype and she was out and about being the socialite. **glad the guy went away who wanted to ... hmmm anyway.

Secondly, there's a whole bunch of WAP mobile gadgets we've set up at work that has been interesting. I'm certainly learning there.

Thirdly, (at work) we posted a career opportunity on LinkedIn, using my personal account (so posted as an employee). This was toe in the water stuff. It worked. I got called whilst at lunch in the middle of a very busy Rundle Street and the guy has already sent in his CV application. Quite impressive really.

Finally, I'm writing this post from Flickr. I've done this before but it's like all things, I delved deeper and worked out how to place images on maps. Probably not too startling for all you Flickr experts out there. But just the next step.

A little like when I first started FaceBook... and then Twitter... each step makes me understand more (some of it is a very quick, steep learning curve ie like the guy who... yep anyway). Its a fun and enjoyable process. Especially when with each step I get to play and learn with my friends. Much prefer this than sitting in an old-fashioned lecture hall anyday!!

So, what's next? xc

Heli-Charlie

So much joy was experienced, that here I am sharing:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=26350&id=606666685&ref=mf

The photos are on FaceBook rather than Flickr as my personal experience is for this to be more "friends" sharing orientated (and it's where most of my friends share). They are happy snaps from a work trip to Pt Augusta using the services of Barossa Helicopters and Hawkeye Photography on the day (but not for the happy snaps).

Hope you enjoy the snaps. We enjoyed the day xc

interacting with top blogs

We've been asked to list our top 10 emerging blogs as per this post on http://www.influentialblogger.net/ from Janette. Now, the only issue that I have for this really is the fact that for me ALL blogs are emerging. I've only been reading them for the past year. So, this is my first post about blogs that I like and follow.

Let me know what you think of my choices. Here goes:

http://blog.ted.com/ **Whilst this is a blog, I have been following TED itself for longer. The stories that emerge from TED are incredible. From crazy online image ideas to why and what ants do. The website is fascinating and I love it all.

http://web-strategist.com/blog/ **main man Jeremiah always delivers great strategy. always referring back.

http://styleobserver.com/ **Jean and Michael put to practice a complete social media package. it's good to watch and learn how they do it. it's also a subject i kinda like a lot (clothes). plus they're really nice people. nice to interact with.

http://conniebensen.com/blog/ **i've been community managing since before it was popular so it's good to read articles on this subject.

http://personalbrandingblog.wordpress.com/ **Dan Schawbel provides sound advice about online personal PR. what and how I portray myself is important. so i listen. and learn.

http://www.sociableblog.com/ **a neat resource.

http://www.pr-squared.com/ **another neat resource.

http://leehopkins.net/ **i like Lee's casual, humorous writing style. good papers & resources for work.

http://www.eggstrategy.com/blog/ **found this one day on a hunt. fun idea. eggs. The Dozen. why not. of course. it's cute and an easy ready.

http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=775111097 **Graham Young’s Notes. I add the link to his (imported) FaceBook notes rather than website, as I do find this a very convenient way of getting his posts.

I know there's more. I read more. The list could go on. It could include all my friends blogs such as Jimbo's and Kays, and Steve's and well... all of them. But for now I'll stick with these.

Thanks for asking. xc