Tag Archives: Networking

Over Sharing

I just read a post by a new blogger at our school, sharing this post by Charlie Booker about over-sharing. As a notorious over-sharer I felt obligated to respond in some way. To be fair, Booker does admit that as a writer he understands the value of sharing thoughts and ideas. How could he not as he makes his living writing a weekly column? His biggest qualm is with automatic sharing services on every app out there.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for sharing thoughts, no matter how banal (as every column I have ever written rather sadly proves). Humans will always babble. If someone wants to tweet that they can’t decide whether to wear blue socks or brown socks, then fair enough. But when sharing becomes automated, I get the heebie-jeebies.

He goes on to say

Online, you play at being yourself. Apply that pressure of public performance to private, inconsequential actions – such as listening to songs in the comfort of your own room – and what happens, exactly?

I am not sure I “play at being myself” any more online than I do in real life, but that is a different post. I also don’t feel that listening to songs in the comfort of my own room is an inconsequential action, but I am weird like that! I will assume, for the purpose of this post, it is agreed and understood that Booker values and understands voluntary sharing of meaningful ideas and thoughts. I will not share my thoughts on the value of blogging or sharing content in this post. This leaves me wondering if I even need to defend the sort of automated sharing that gives Booker the heebie-jeebies.

I am a sucker for meaningless lists of data I consume. I love my list of music on Last.Fm. I drool over the books I have read over at Library Thing, so I couldn’t help but blush when I read this:

It’ll only get worse. Here’s what I am listening to on Spotify. This is the page of the book I am reading. I am currently watching the 43rd minute of a Will Ferrell movie. And I’m not telling you this stuff. The software is. I am a character in The Sims. Hover the cursor over my head and watch that stat feed scroll.

I get what he is saying, that when these shared acts becoming automated, take away from their authenticity. In fact I agree, I do not like any automated Tweets or messages. I don’t need to know how far you ran, unless you are telling me in some kind of context. However, what I want to push back on a little is the idea that we are always sharing meaningless data to strangers who don’t care. The idea of a network or community is that you do know these people. They are not strangers. You hope that they share their lives with you in order to enrich your life. A network should be a reciprocal arrangement. It is a relationship. If this is not the case and you feel members are strangers than why are they there? A network is only as meaningful as you allow it to be. If it is filled with noise from strangers, there is no one to blame but yourself. If members of your network are not enriching your life then you need to prune them out. Secondly, the things we share-what we listen to, what we read and/or watch, can only help strengthen ties with people who do care. These meaningless pieces of data, at last for me, are the glue that keep my network together.

I can’t count how many people I have met through conversations after I tweeted that I like this song or am reading that book. Media/art bring people together and binds them. I know I can trust a person if they are as obsessed with Elliott Smith as I am. You love HST or Charles Bukowsi? Let’s talk more. I like think of his last line:

You know how annoying it is when you’re sitting on the train with a magazine and the person sitting beside you starts reading over your shoulder? Welcome to every single moment of your future.

More like this: You know how amazing it is when you’re sitting on the train with a magazine and your friend sitting beside you starts talking about how they also love what you are read.

But what do I know, I am a compulsive over-sharer. Did I tell you, by the way, that I just started reading Columbine by David Cullen, or and I just discovered this band called Of Monster and Men through some friends on Facebook. What do you think? Have you read it? Heard of them? Can you share your thoughts and give me suggestions?

I never actually defended the automation of updates…oh yeah…now that I think about it, no! I don’t like it either. Share and share often, but do it with awareness.

Wagon Wheel

7 Replies

Last week, upon my return from an extended holiday in Thailand, I had an urge to sing a song that I had discovered while vacationing. Throughout my break, I had missed my guitar terribly, and the first thing I wanted to do was see if I could strum the chords and sing the lyrics in the same reckless and carefree manner as this amazing band called Old Crow Medicine Show.

Once home, I tuned my guitar and sang it to the best of my ability. It felt good. Natural. Raw, yes, but comfortable. At this point I know that Leslie (@onepercentyello) is always good for a little Ukulele and harmonies that can take my out-of-tune voice and make it sound presentable. I uploaded it to Soundcloud, sent a few tweets and linked it to Facebook, asking anyone to:

Download this file add some banjo, fiddle, harmonica, gazoo, whatever you want, then upload YOUR part to soundcloud and send me the link. The timing should be right, but DO NOT send me a file with your part on top of my part. It will get muddled. Send me your part only. I will layer and arrange what I get back into a song.

A few minutes later @bryanjack from Vancouver sent me a lead guitar track, a few hours after that @joebire from Australia sent me a Mandolin track, a day later @drgarcia from Monterey (Where are you now?) sent me some awesome Patti Smith style backing vocals, Leslie had a crazy weekend, but she did not disappoint, finally @joelbirch from Paris sent me some wicked electric guitar tracks. Every morning I would wake up to a new thread for my sonic tapestry.

Tonight, I played with the sound levels and am ready to present the final piece. Maybe not final, but where it stands now:

Wagon Wheel Collab by intrepidflame

I have only ever met Leslie and only briefly. We have made music together several times in the past. Bryan and I have played together on a few projects too, but I have never met or worked with the others. We are a loose network of learners interested in seeing what these tools can do to bring people together.

image By giulia.forsythe

What does it mean that a group of people spanning the globe find the time to create music just for the sake of it? How are our relationships and connections strengthen by the bound of music, however, splintered and artificial? I understand that this is not a collaborative project, seeing that everything came through me and the others were not able to hear what anyone but me had recorded, but that is not the point. The point is that this was a spontaneous idea that had little to no planning. What could we produce if we explored other tools, planned together, exchanged ideas, or played live. Practiced. Edited. Well you get the idea.

I am a big fan of spontaneous, loose, free flowing projects. They open our ideas to what is possible. Not only for our own enjoyment, but they can help us consider the implications these sessions or ones like it can have for our students. I would love to hear from the participants of this project in the comments. Why is this important? Is it? What did you get out of this? Why did you participate?

I am hoping that the real beauty of what we have done will come out in the ideas we share in the subsequent conversations. Furthermore, I would like to invite anyone reading to help take this project a step further. How about if someone or a group of people created a video for it! I would love to be involved and take direction, but don’t want to lead the video. I love to see how far we can push ideas. The song is public, creative commons, and waiting for anyone to do more with it. Find another group and create something else with it. Please share what you do. I will send this post to the band and see what they think as well.

Thanks everyone for playing along.

The Art of Creation

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I have written several post lately about how happy I am, and how the events of my life are fluidly flowing in some strange spiral direction, but for the last few days I have been weighed down by a nagging angst brought about Google +. I am pretty sure it is not this new social network that is causing me anxiety– that my apprehension is caused by this new digital social arena where we sometimes find ourselves battling for existence as unwilling gladiators.

Who am I? Where am I? What am I sharing? Likeablity versus authenticity. My brain has been buzzing for the last forty eight hours; I just need to shut it down and focus on what matters. For me the main thing has always been creating content I can be proud of. Writing post, creating videos, singing songs, taking photographs that touch people and make them think. Feel. I have only ever wanted to explore my sense of self; if a group of people find what I do, who I am, worthwhile than that is a plus. I cannot concern myself too much, however, with the splintering of this body of work. This self. I am who I am everywhere, all the time. The internet is just a reflection of that.

Networks will come and go, ebbing and flowing within various tools and online spaces. This is our modern consciousness. The trick is to learn how to construct a viable self within the flux. I know the connections that matter to me, and they will find me when I need to be found, the rest is grandstanding. I am trying not to concern myself with circles or groups or lists. I have set roots in these blogs. I have stretched my branches as far as my constitutions allows. I will now focus my energies on keeping my leaves as green as possible and producing fruits that others enjoy. If nothing else fruits that will help me regenerate.

I find value in the act of sharing. The art of giving with no expectation for value returned is a holy act. In an age where commerce rules, I see sharing as an act of transgression, one I have to which I have committed my life. Even as I write this post, I see the paradox of my point: I want to share, but cannot be bothered with worrying about the avenues with which to do so.

One can advertise and use competing networks to connect with as wide an audience as possible, but at some point you have to have faith in your content. You have to believe that what you put out into the world will attract the necessary attention. In the past, artists simply created– unconcerned with feedback or connection; we have lost that somehow. So concern are we with statistics and comments that the art of creation has been replaced with likes, +1s and Re-Tweets.

There is no anxiety about sitting quietly and smearing your thoughts into the blank void. The fear is that no one is listening. No one cares. You don’t exist. I am here to say that I do exist. In the body of my work. In my ideas. In my art. In my body. In my life. If you are seeing this right now, than somehow what I am saying has worked. Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or some other nameless avenue has brought you here. For that I am thankful, but what has rid me of my unease is the very act of creation itself.

The Cavalry Has Arrived

3 Replies

I woke up this morning to a shock. I was checking on this blog, when I was surprised to see a weird error message. I wasn’t alert enough to take a screen shot, but it said there was something wrong with this file, “home2/intrepj1/public_html/blog/wp-content/themes/vigilance/functions/comments.php” I panicked. My worst fears of weird WordPress shenanigans had come true. A few quick google searches showed me that I would be messing with this problem for hours. My wife had the kids out by the pool was already starting her, “Get off the computer!” mantra. I couldn’t just leave my blog dangling in limbo, something had to be done.

Enter Twitter. After a quick SOS call, @techsavvyed and @mburtis responded within seconds. The cavalry had arrived! Suddenly, I was no longer alone and lost. I was still in an agitated state, but now I had the help of two WordPress experts. They quickly calmed me down and led me to where I needed to be. I went into C Panel, found the corrupted file and began to diagnosis the problem. I sent a copy of the file in question to Marha and she informed me that the apostrophes had been changed to &#39, their HTML equivalent. After some back and forth, I was able to download the original theme, isolate the comment files which had been messed up and reload it. Voila. Problem solved.

Needless to say I was a bit shaken, but came out of the situation much more confident than when it had started. It was a learning experience for sure. It was not just the actual fixing of the problem- finding the correct files, understanding C Panel better or getting a basic understanding of php, which I still don’t have. No, what was so important for me was that it put me in the place of most of the teachers I will be working with next year. It all felt so overwhelming at first. Google seemed too abstract and the time it would take to figure it out didn’t seem worth it. How many times do teachers feel this sense of isolation and confusion when dealing with basic technology issues? So often, I deride teachers for not understanding what I consider basic computer functions, but here I was just as lost. I needed someone to slow me down and explain where and how to fix what needed to be fix.

This was a textbook example of the power of the network. I knew that I had on hand several WordPress experts, that should I need, would walk me through this problem on Skype. We were able to solve it in few Tweets, but I know that if I needed it they would have gotten to the bottom of this or any other problem. It is this sense of security that makes my network so valuable, and it is this feeling of support that I think many teachers are dying to gain. As tech facilitators we can help alleviate some of the angst teachers feel, but only when they have made these connections on their own, will teachers begin to feel comfortable enough to try new things, solve their own problems and venture beyond their comfort zones.

Expertise + Empowerment = Experience + Exposure. Next time around, I will know where to start and remind myself to stay calm. But I fear not, because I know I am not alone. If I find a problem I cannot solve, I know I can look to my network. Thank you Martha and Ben. But Ben raised good question, “Now just have to find out what went wrong!”

Are You Real Michael?

9 Replies

With so many self- professed social media experts trolling Twitter, bogus blogs and other fake websites abound on the Web, it is becoming more and more difficult to know who is a real person looking for authentic connection, who is a Bot, and who is in it to make a quick buck through blatant self-promotion. There are of course strategies to employ on Twitter to differentiate between legitimate people and scams, but sometimes it is really a tough call. This recognition between the fake and the real is what I want to share with you today. In hopes that you can not only help me solve this current investigation, but more importantly to start a conversation about how we can help our students make sense of all the characters on the web.

It started like this. I received this email this morning:

Hello!

I was reading your blog today and saw that you accept guest contributions. I would love the opportunity to write for you!

Currently I write for The Professional Intern (www.professionalintern.com) and you can find samples of my writing there. I’ve got a few great post ideas that I think would mesh well with your readers, but I would be willing to write whatever you need.

I promise only original content with relevant links. Are you interested?
Thanks!

Let’s explore the clues as to why this is a scam:

This person did not sign their name.
Did not address me by name
Has never comment on my blog before
Did not name which of my blogs they want to write for
I have never said I “accept guest contributions”

Now let’s look at why it could be real:

The Blog looks legit
Descriptive About Page
I Googled long pieces of text and they all feed back to this blog
There is a Twitter account that looks new, but legit

Tough call right?

Dear Michael,

I hope you don’t mind that I have decided to share this experience publicly on my blog. Blogging is a public act and if you want to write for my blog and have read any of my work, you know that I think sharing, openness and transparency are vital to successful community building. If The Professional Intern is a legitimate blog, and I really want it to be, then I hope that this post can be the place we start a dialogue. You see, I would actually love guest writers to share their thoughts here, but I see this space as an extension of who I am as an educator and as a person. It is very personal and important to me. While I would love as big of an audience as possible, I am not interested in rise to the top blogging schemes. I want to write honestly and creatively about things that are important to me as a teacher. I hope that I foster deep thinking and engagement with my tight knit group of readers. If I were to ask anyone to write for my blog, I would hope that they would be from this aforementioned family of readers.

It is not that I am saying no to your request, but I find it odd that you want to write for a blog you have never commented on before. I think that guest blogging and merging of networks and cross-pollination of ideas are fantastic. I just hope you understand my trepidation. I have worked hard to build my blog and do not feel comfortable opening it up to just anyone. For all I know I could be writing this heartfelt explanation to a Bot designed to generate emails for reasons I don’t understand. I could be writing a letter to spam. Now that would be embarrassing. But not really, Michael, because I have faith that you could be real, and if you are real then I hope this post will make you want to write on Intrepid Teacher even more.

Here’s the deal: If you are a real person who writes for The Professional Intern and still want to share some ideas here on Intrepid Teacher, please leave me a comment about why you chose this blog as a place to share your work, send me a list of possible ideas that you think my readers would enjoy, and let’s go from there. If this relationship does blossom, I hope that I could return the favor and post some ideas on your blog as well. If you are a specter of the web, then…well…I could just stop now.

Trying desperately to be sincere,

Jabiz

What do you think? Is this legit?If it is fake, why go through all of this? What is there to gain from setting up fake blogs and Twitter? Is there a lesson here for students in recognizing Internet tomfoolery? If this is real, then was I offensive? What if Michael is just student learning? Will this interaction help him understand why someone might not see him as a person online? Is that okay? Am I over thinking this again? Talk amongst yourself…Hopefully we can have a fun conversation in the comments