Twitter lists gathered on a wiki blog or forum August 2, 2008
Posted by Andy Roberts in : blogs and community, web2.0, tools, Wiki , 3commentsAs the use of twitter continues to spread despite the restricted service and downtime, a commonplace event for communities is to start compiling lists of links to each other’s twitter accounts. These are handy for anybody who hasn’t already built up their network because you can quickly add a bunch of people who are all involved in the same interest or practice. Acting as a kind of jump start into twitter for groups, it feels like a community indicator of some sort.
If the community is based mainly on a web forum or email list then it can start with a message from one member who is a twitter enthusiast, that turns into a long thread with the same message re-quoted and a new line added at the bottom. That’s not ideal, but it works for a while and builds up a volume of attention to the activity.
Over on one bloggers’ forum we tried compiling the list of member’s twitter links and putting it into a new service called “dropio” where anybody could upload new files and links, but that service proved problematic.
When the same process broke out at E-mint, a community for online facilitators, ‘community managers’ and moderators it wasn’t long before somebody - Ed Mitchell - said “Definitely a wiki job, this one” and so here we have the ….
E-mint twitter list on DARwiki
The advantage of having the twitter list on a wiki is that you can link to what will be always the latest version and that members can easily add themselves or make corrections.
If it’s a person-centric or blog-centric community such as Darren Rowse’s pro-blogger readers, the twitter list is gathered from the comments left on an invitation post and then published on the blog.
If the community is forming in a friendfeed room then there’s probably no need to compile a twitter list at all because the aggregator sort of does that automatically in that each member’s tweets are in their own streams and twitter links in their services page - which stands in as a profile page on friendfeed.
What other formats and processes have you seen out there for gathering twitter lists?
Farmers collaborate online to face rural uncertainty May 1, 2008
Posted by Andy Roberts in : bluetongue disease, Community , add a commentThe blue tongue disease outbreak in the UK has been relatively dormant over the winter months when midges are not active, but it hasn’t gone away by any means. The good news though, is that an effective vaccine has been developed and made available, and the massive task of widespread vaccination starts today in Norfolk, one week ahead of the Netherlands.
In Kent the farmers are not waiting for the government vets to take the initiative, they have an online network called RAMSAK which is putting together teams of people who will be able to carry out the vaccinations to cattle and sheep across Kent and Sussex for and size of flock or herd.
http://www.kentonline.co.uk/kol08/article/default.asp?article_id=40989
Spokesman Chris Smith, said: “The disease requires control due to the fact that the sheep in the area could suffer from 40 per cent death rate and cattle a similar level, so all require vaccination as soon as it becomes available.”
RAMSAK is an example of a rural community using technology to improve collaborative enterprises in the face of an uncertain future, which is a theme that repeats all over the world in diverse circumstances. The blurb on their website explains it thus:
Although farmers have always been good neighbours to one another, the idea of a co-operative to help farmers share resources has only emerged more recently. This is in some part due to better communications, but the ‘ring’ movement in the UK was driven by a feeling of the uncertainties that lay in the future of agriculture.
The Jelly Art Club movie March 18, 2008
Posted by Andy Roberts in : Art, Community, tools , add a commentTwitter profile pictures are on the change, largely as a result of “something-friday” events involving people, body parts and peas. So my regular pic which I use in lots of places suddenly starts to looks as if I forgot to change it back after chinposin friday. So for a short while I put one up of a tiny little me standing on a rock in the Aberglasyn pass near Beddgelert, then changed it to the one from my long standing Flickr account.
Karyn asked if there’s a story behind it which got me remembering where the drawing came from. I originally drew it very quickly in flash to represent myself in the prototype of an animation I started playing with. I was quite pleased with the rough and ready resemblance and I decided to keep it for the movie and repurpose as an avatar in some discussion boards, most of which are now defunct except for flickr where it remains. The ultimate accolade occurred at a face to face gathering of online friends who’d never met before when Tom, who’d been wandering around Tate Modern trying to find us, said that he recognised me from my avatar.
So here’s the story of the jelly art club:
debate: The end of the Organisation? February 21, 2008
Posted by Andy Roberts in : debate, blogs and community , 5commentsAs with the recent open thread for lurkers, this post is one from a series which adopts different blogging patterns. At the suggestion of the format is that of a debate, and the topic we have chosen is “The end of the organisation?” after an article by Michael Gilbert. Josien Kapma has kicked off the debate by arguing in favour of the premise that organisations are going to change unrecognisably in response to technology improvements in the means of communications, namely the internet. “The organizations of the future will not look like the organizations of today.”
So I shall adopt the contrary view and oppose the proposition.
I disagree that organisations are shaped by their communications. For me this is a secondary consideration, with the main shaping force being that of economics. I shall argue that as long as the fundamental economic relationships which lie at the base of society remain unchanged then nothing revolutionary is going to happen. A change in the mode of communication will cause big upheavals in some of the light industries which specialise in knowledge work, in publishing and media, that is certain. But these industries are not crucial to the means of sustaining our lives.
The more important work of providing food, shelter, health, transport, energy and infrastucture will continue pretty much the same, regardless of what is happening in the online world.
Ah but I hear objections already. This is surely cheating! For some people, and indeed the scope of the pertinent essay, the concern is with the so-called “non-profit” organisations, the civil society, and my arguments have flown straight outside the boundaries of the arena.
I will also argue that in an economy which is run for and by the owners of big business, the values which are predominant at all levels are those which support the continuation of the system based on free market economics and the private ownership of the means of prodution. The non-profits are not islands of activity which work in isolation. They are part of the wider society, their clients and employees have to live in the current world and their values and economic relations end up reflecting those of the corporations to defend the status quo.
Open thread for lurkers February 9, 2008
Posted by Andy Roberts in : distributed research, blogs and community , 17commentsThis is an “open thread” patterned blog post which means that I’m not writing on any particular topic, instead I’m leaving it open to my readers to initiate discussion by bringing up any subject you’d like to talk about, or even just to say hullo.
According to conventional wisdom the ratio of lurkers to posters in any online forum tends to be around the 10:1 level, depending on the nature of the topic and I probably only know about a handful of people who would seem to be regular readers. I know there are more out there though, and this is your opportunity to “delurk” as they say, to come out from hiding in the silent shadows and acquire a voice of your own.
There must be something that’s been on your mind, let’s get it out with.
Come on in, the water’s lovely 
CC photo credit “The truth lies behind the blurry curtain” by assbach
Critique of this blog February 4, 2008
Posted by Andy Roberts in : 31daychallenge, distributed research, blogs and community, tools , 2commentsNing Group
I went to the better blog Ning group which is kind of a community of practice for some bloggers, and asked for a critique of my blog, from the point of view of a new reader. It’s one of the tasks in Darren Rowse’s 31 day challenge. Then I hid under the duvet and waited to see what, if anything, might arise. Christine Martell responded with a screencast which is a great way to review any website.
Screencast
The screencast is hosted at screencast.com which means I can’t at present embed it here, so here’s an ordinary text link to go and listen to Christine as she explores this blog and remarks upon it, followed by my response below:
http://www.screencast.com/t/GrQpa0kXhC
Response
Many thanks for the screencast Christine, you gave me several things to think about and work on there. That was a great way to communicate about a blog’s functionality and hopefully took up a bit less of your time than typing up a critique. You also hit the nail exactly on the head straight away by exposing the central problem that I’m grappling with - the combination of several seemingly unrelated themes or niches into one blog. The only thing that ties them altogether is the common author, myself. So I have diverse target audiences, apart from the very small audience that may be interested in me, friends and family so to speak. So I’m always trying to isolate the categories and pages into slices that can be consumed on their own. What I discovered from Google Analytics is that certain individual posts can gain an audience of their own, coming from the search engines and then moving onwards. This is in fact how I’ve started to derive a small income from the blog, to recoup expenses, through some individual posts in the archive. But a series of individual disconnected posts does not a blog make. Which is why I set myself the goal of increasing RSS subscriptions and joined in the current 31daystoabetterblog group, to see if I can bring it all together a bit more. One thing I’m considering is to see if I can provide a selection of RSS feeds for the main categories. That’s better than having separate blogs, although I do have some of those as well!
Action points from the critique:
- Explain Social objects at the beginning of the jump-off page
- Tweak the RSS “Full” panel ( built in to theme)
- Explore moving the comments link ( also theme)
- Keep grappling with the challenge of serving unrelated niches
Is it time to consider changing themes? Probably not in the middle of all this other activity.
Thanks again Christine for giving great feedback.
Oh, and I’ve also wondered about the feeling of being ‘watched’ and spotlighted by mybloglog as we surf around each other’s blogs, not at all anonymously. I suppose we are assumed to have taken that on board when we join that service. I’ve tried three of these type of things and ditched the other two. I also upgraded mybloglog for the better stats, which I find very useful in combination with Google Analytics.
Now over to other readers:
What did you think of Christine’s screencast and my response? Can you help me understand better some of the issues raised, or maybe add your own points please? I promise not to turn it into a blog all about blogging, there are enough of those already.
London Bloggers January 28, 2008
Posted by Andy Roberts in : london bloggers, blogs and community, London , 1 comment so farAndy Bargery, who I met at a London Geek dinner last year, has set up a new home for London Bloggers, which is a blog of course, and a meetup tomorrow evening near Waterloo. I’ll be there. If you haven’t registered already, it’s too late but why not subscribe to the blog and come to the next one in February.
Welcome to the Home of London Bloggers
If you live in London and write a blog then you might be interested to come along to the regular London Bloggers Meetup. The next event is on Tuesday 29th January at the Camel & Artichoke Pub near to Waterloo, check out the Meetup page for more info.If you can’t make it, check back here in early Feb for a round-up of the event and quite possibly a handful of photos. Then of course you can register for the next event in Feb.
If you are a London Blogger you might also want to add yourself to the London Bloggers Wiki page
Bird flu fiction as a blog January 14, 2008
Posted by Andy Roberts in : blogs and community, UK , 4comments
The avian influenza or Bird flu H5N1 virus represents an all too serious threat to the world population as experts are predicting an pandemic not as a question of “if” but “when”. Here’s an effort in public consciousness raising through the medium of fictional writing, and in the format of a blog.
dominieschronicle.blogspot.com
The story has already started but it won’t take long to catch up on all the posts from January 2nd to date and then probaby the best way to experience would be by subscribing to an RSS feed but there doesn;t seem to be one working at present.
Also there has been an outbreak of visitors from the Flu wiki who don’t seem to appreciate the subtleties of “in character blogging” or that the events are situated in in a Scottish cultural setting.
Death of a community member January 12, 2008
Posted by Andy Roberts in : Community, online facilitation, UK, cider, listservs , add a commentOn the E-Mint listserv there’s a discussion about what happens after the death of a community member. Should their profile be taken down? Can the next of kin access their email?
My story involves the death of a prominent member, waybackmachine ,
wiki and transfer of websites.
A prominent member of uk cider stopped posting for several months
and people began to inquire after him. Eventually his wife found the
group and explained that he had been in a car accident and was
recovering very slowly. Then we heard that he suddenly died of a heart
attack.
I was approached by a couple of members who were concerned that
Paul’s own website and accumulated content should not be lost to
posterity and they tried writing to his wife as tactfully as possible,
but understandably she had bigger worries at the time.
So I created a wiki page linked from the members page, which contains
tributes written by the group as a reaction to hearing the tragic
news, and links to Paul’s site as archived on the “waybackmachine”
where I assume the content will remain indefinitely, even if the
original site is taken down. It’s the saddest task for a facilitator,
but seemed very necessary.
http://ukcider.co.uk/wiki/index.php/Paul_Gunningham_In_Memorium
Interestingly I later discovered that the domain names and content had
passed on to another small scale web developer in a similar niche. I
don’t know how this was arranged, but I assume it was agreed with the
next of kin.
If somebody dies owning domain names and nobody inherits them, then
they eventually expire and come up for resale. There are then
companies who specialise in auctioning off the means to acquire them.
Blogrush phase 2 is active October 31, 2007
Posted by Andy Roberts in : internet, blogs and community, web2.0 , add a commentAfter testing my patience for a little too long, Blogrush phase 2 is now active. This means that the silly “under construction” notice has gone from the dashboard and been replaced by some nice graphs and stuff. To me, the statistical charts seem pretty self explanatory but blogrush members are urged to watch a rather long screencast video which explains it all, feature by feature, and promises some more future developments.
So rather than take the blogrush widget off from this blog, as I was getting close to doing this week, I decided to keep it for a further extended trial period, in fact I’m almost impressed with some of the extra thougt which has now gone into this service. If you have a blog which is focussed on a particular niche topic, then you may have some considerable success in attracting new readers through this widget, so if you haven’t already, you can sign up to blogrush here and become part of my extended referral network.
Backtracking: I first wrote about blogrush on September 16th in mybloglog romlet or blogrush and Linda also wrote blogrush or blogroll
is an online professional who initiated DARnet 
