Teraknor

Before you ask, no I am not a 'come lately' into the arena of social media. I have been a steady blogger/twitter/linkedin/facewebber since 2007/8 trying new platforms as they come and go. After all, who remembers Google Wave? My current social media experiment is probably based on action research in its most unrefined state. There is plenty of suck it and see, some waggling of fingers in the air and a culmination of some years of experience as a minor academic engaging with different online communities. The current work I am doing with our Cisco module will need refining; especially after trying to push 170 updates into HootSuite to cover Routing and Switching alone. Each platform has its benefits and associated limitations. Some of the more ad-hoc updates elicit some quite interesting responses (as you will see from the example below). As well as many of the scheduled updates. I am also interested by which platforms give what responses, when and also how this appears. ...

Often you can see into a situation; not by what is said, but by what is omitted. Trouble is, you can become over sensitive to this, leading you into a fractured path of seeing every option, opportunity or eventuality. Right or wrong. I had an interesting conversation earlier this week. I asked a simple question "what do you think the impact of these national changes will be on me". The recipient replied, "you will be out on your ear". "No", i replied, "there will be no impact". The look of incomprehension was a picture. I can see a number of pathways ahead; but as I am not dependent on any of them and capable of replacing one opportunity with another. The real issue, is that my motivations have been misunderstood.

For followers of this blog; may I announce that I do also publish (exactly the same) on two other blogging platforms. Spam it maybe; syndication, it could be, assuring reach, you tell me? The joys of automation via IFTTT is that I can put all posts from here to word press and tumblr. It has been quite useful, as I did have to pull down one post recently to protect someone from a truth that another did not like. The reality is, the post is out there, twice and beyond their immediate conceptual grasp.

There is a merry go round of do nothing taking place, plenty of talk, in fact too much talk and too little action. I am now seeing the same conversations, that I started over two years ago come back and describe the same concerns without any resolution. Same unheeded warnings, unheeded. Same misunderstandings Same apathy Same fear ... Yet, since the last quango standing is almost legless, a power vacuum has formed and some notables are going it alone. Ho hum; I worry for the way vocational education will go post 2015.

Social media is a fascinating beast, noting how different souls engage with different platforms. I am in the throes of an unintended personal thought experiment. Which if I had given a little more thought to, could have doubled up as some half-reasonable research. In a self imposed beta, I am using social media to help support the delivery of an online module at the Open University. I can see how some souls choose to engage with different platforms, and with this see how their style of engagement differs. From the extreme to the sublime and diverse intervening range, the exchanges are fascinating. Some seem to lack any concept of ‘appropriate’; others extend the sum total of knowledge. I have one who favourites all tweets, another who likes every Facebook post. I have not yet, worked out which posts are ‘killers’ vs ‘deadbeats’, but I have noticed how some unexpected themes generate multi-platform interest. As far as penetration goes, we are a long way off; currently ...

In my professional and personal life, I often encounter souls who 'communicate at' me. It is as if, they are set on broadcast mode and the input systems are set to shut down. For my networking geeky mates, they are operating at half-duplex with suspicions of simplex communication. With age comes cynicism an ability to: Ignore them Do what I wish anyway Occasionally inject undetectable sarcasm to see if you are actually listening So, please do check, I do listen and don't take my silence as agreement. Chances are I have a full measure of you within a few words of continual output.

In reading my numerous rants, I am sure you have picked up the faint hint of ire in some of my posts infused with a generous hint of sarcasm. Last week I had a frank conversation with a centre who has been delivering vendor certification. Frank in the terms that we are in agreement, frank, also in the terms that we can see some major issues and jointly frustrated that our mutual efforts seem to be of little avail. Personally I find it comes in waves, you get a tide of optimism, can do mentality and acceptance. Even when participants don't always understand the detail but appreciate the importance of getting it done. Currently it seems to me, that we are encountering a wave, best described as the shrugging shoulders of apathy. Souls on the whole not owning the opportunity and a community meandering aimlessly towards 2015. Come Monday, I will reconnect with some of the activists. I would guess that many are having similar issues. Maybe its time for a cunning plan ;-)

I bet the title of this post befuddled the brains of many readers. I have been out of the loop for some time when it comes to the blogosphere. Nothing particularly sinister; more a case nothing of any particular interest to write about. Anyhow, hello, I is back, innit. So time to introduce a little notion I have been working on and whist I am not as yet going to give away too many secrets. On our Cisco Module at the Open University I am now at a beta stage of using social media to support/drive delivery of an online curriculum and blended distance-learning experience. Personally I don’t think there is anything novel in this idea but research on papers on the web does not ‘as yet’ seemed to have uncovered anything vaguely similar. I could be asking the wrong questions, or missing the point, nothing unusual there. The idea makes use of some interesting tools and apart from the Hootsuite batch-scheduling tool, many free resources out there. Think about what can b...

Not necessarily the most exciting post in the universe; but on a topic that tickled my fancy. For the first time, I was able to use my phone as a ticket on a flight. Wow, you are all going, how amazing, some of you may say, along with other sarcastic comments I am sure. I think for me, the point of interest is not in this ‘advance’, but with it the other challenges and opportunities it brings. Consider : Power, now I must ensure that my phone has enough juice at all times to present my ticket. iShiny owners understand this issue already. That I now have a single point of failure; phone gets lost, stolen or goes kaput. One is, as they say a bit screwed. The potential for proximity permission and the notion that my phone, a device with multiple ‘me factors’ could become a pass to a multitude of experiences.   But, whilst you may wonder why I am keen to post this entry. It may be worth knowing that I did also print the original ticket as a backup. Such is my tr...