The past few days has seen alot of down time from Twitter. In fact, according to Pingdom, Twitter has unsurprisingly had the most down time out of the most popular social networks. People are becoming increasingly reliable on Twitter. Where it was previously a bit of an inconvenience, it is becoming a hindrance for people who rely on it as a communication tool.
It’s natural to complain, but it’s also easy to forget. Twitter are innovating, have a hugely popular tool and maintain the love and commitment from the community. I don’t depend on Twitter, but many people do. I do miss it when it’s not there, but don’t depend on it enough to move on.
Of course, it would become a problem for me if my personal network started moving elsewhere. Jeremiah gives some thoughts for those considering on leaving.
BUT it’s a fast moving world. Downtime is often out of anyone’s control, but managing a community is a human skill.
It appears Twitter is going to suffer from a very public and unhappy customer. So far they haven’t dealt with it very well. A reported abuse of Twitters T&Cs from Ariel has them resorting to amending their terms and getting lawyers involved instead of dealing with a clear case of harassment.
The community appears to be on Ariel’s side. Some people may just vote with their feet as this help report describes.
Us Brits love to have a whinge at the ’state’ of the rail and underground transport system, but imagine what it would be like if we had to put up with this?
Oshiya, or “pusher”, is an informal Japanese term for a worker
who stands on the platform of a railway station during the morning and
evening rush hours, and pushes people onto the train. This video is a
good example of just how crowded it gets on Japanese trains.
My latest book purchase has been Here Comes Everybody by Clay Shirky. Which basically talks about how technology (not just the internet) has made it ridiculously easy to get on with things, do stuff, bring people together and make the difference.
5 or 10 years ago it wasn’t so easy, it is now, if you really want to. It doesn’t mean that everything you do will make a difference. The cost is failure is now so low - it doesn’t really matter if things don’t go to plan. This makes it really easy and encouraging to experiment. And experiments can lead to wonderful things!
If you are into this kinda thing, get the book, read this lovely story or watch the following video.
As I ponder in improving my website, (it’s something I’m not happy with at the moment), I’ve been thinking about how I should approach it.
Perhaps personal site phases have progressed something like:
Static site - Hey, look at me…isn’t this cool, I’ve got a (literally) flashy Geocities website.
Blogs - I’ve got something to say, get updates, come, read and contribute.
Social Networks - I don’t really want to write anything, but do want to participate, network, be social and make connections. My basic site shows you where I hang out.
Micro blogging - ie. Twitter. A mini blog with social features. I can say really small things that make a difference.
The personal network…?
Of course, these can all be mashed up and interconnected. You might, for example, have a site that pulls rss feeds in from everywhere you ‘hang’ out. Wordpress or Ning?
Apart from the flexibility, I love Ning for the community aspect. If you want it enough you can build your own little community. It doesn’t need to be big to be a success, often a small group is all it takes. Interaction, participation, collaboration, meeting up in real life…
It’s also really good at keeping anonymous people out, this could be spammers, or people who generally don’t add value to the community.
I don’t like Ning for their ads (which can be removed at a cost) and what appears to be their lack of ability to import my blog history (e.g. my blog posts from Typepad). Am sure the importing/export issue will get addressed…in time. They have actually been pretty good at improving their ‘app’.
Wordpress
Is just cool. Free ‘n’ easy to use, implement and modify. Widgets come in all shapes and sizes to ensure we can pimp up our comfy li’l place. Great for blogging and pulling in information/feeds from other networks.
Ideal for the fanatical or occasional blogger, but when I’m looking for more than just a means to blog, well it’s missing that social aspect. Yes, people can comment, but frankly that isn’t enough for me.
Big ego?
If I were to set up my main site (www.rosiesherry.com) as a Ning site, would it be seen as egotistical? How would people feel about joining a network based around ‘me, me, me’? A network based on what I am interested in. Interests which may change from day to day, month to month, year to year.
I got tagged exactly a month ago by Rowan. It’s taken a while, but here goes…
I once met Mother Teresa, in Czech whilst in flight transfer, I was young - about 10 or so.
I’m half Irish, half Colombian, born in London, married to a Scotsman, living in Brighton person.
Don’t have much when it comes to educational certifications. Partly because of travel (that’s my excuse), but generally alot to do with schools & colleges being really crap.
My second son was born after a one hour labour.
You won’t ever catch me wearing a dress or skirt.
I moved back to England (from Colombia) first chance I got, aged 18 on me own.
I recently discovered that one of my teachers (when I was 11ish in Jakarta, Indonesia) discovered his bit of Nutter fame.
I’m 29, have two kids, been married for almost 5 years and spent less than £500 getting married.
I’m supposed to choose other people to tag, but am going to cheat by saying: if you’re reading this YOU are tagged.
Please leave a comment if you do decide to accept the mission.
So I keep getting told that “I am everywhere” and that it “seems like I help organise everything that goes on digitally in Brighton”. So whilst that is obviously not true, I thought I would keep up with being a part of everything by joining up as a partner/co-director with the lovely James McCarthy and Ian Elwick for Werkshop (where The Werks is a “Werkshop Project”).
I’m sorry if you’ve had enough of me, but it doesn’t seem like you’ll be getting rid of me any time soon
Werkshop / The Werks is really a natural progression from all the community stuff I’ve been doing. Coworking, community and collaboration kind of things are right up my street and am *really* excited about the future….
Keep an eye on The Werks for lots of stuff coming up.
With all this social, collaboration and community focused stuff going on it’s easy to wonder why people contribute their precious time without any upfront cost.
I mean:
Why do something for free when you could be making money - or spending it on something you don’t really need.
Why would you want to contribute to your (local) community when you don’t have to?
It’s easier to moan (as us Brits do) about stuff rather than getting up off your arse and do something about it.
It’s someone elses job to do *that*…
etc….
I believe:
If you want something to change - you need to do something about it.
It’s not about self promotion, but it’s ok and possible for people to be selfish act in their own interest and beliefs. Afterall, it is this what drives people and makes them passionate to make a difference. Time is precious, why would we spend our spare time on something we didn’t care about?
In leading a life of action over consumption.
Communities have been neglected and people are beginning to miss being part of one (even if they never have).
Community Architect at Schux, co-director at The Werks and bigger upper of all things digital Brighton, social and girl geeky.
Most importantly - (stressed out) mummy and wife to my family.
