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.