My morning routine has changed in the last four months and I think it is worth mentioning here. For all who are currently involved in any educational or social science research practice online communities are a must on staying current. I use my book, journal and paper writing for work that is (as the Irish would say) "done and dusted." By its nature it is not what brings the greatest passion, nor does it contain HOT ideas. For those you need to find the people who blog about your world, or one tangential to it. It is also helpful if you find a few "aggregators" as well - blogs that make it their business to pass on what they are finding. I realize no that through the series of practices I discuss here I have created for myself a personal news platform - and I must say I enjoy it more than I ever did the newspaper!
My passions are three fold: distributed e-Learning 2.0, multicultural living and personal/world development. My mainpage of news is Google Reader - the blogs I have captured using RSS feed all put up synopsis's there. The bloggers write and link back to their sources, so when I am particularly interested I open those links in another tab. I cruise through as many blogs as keep me interested, then I read through the links. Those I find may be references for later work or links I will use here, I bookmark in del_ico_us. I may start and/or end reading Tweets.
Two months ago I was asking how people found those they follow and the ideas they play with - following links has become the answer. Someone will link in an article to someone they read, and if I like what I find I subscribe by RSS to their blog - after all, all I lose is a little time if they don't pan out to remain interesting to me. It humbles me to know that this link is from 2002 - but then we all have to start somewhere and I know that I am still ahead of most of the people in my work/social group with these habits. My next step is then to move into the conversation and see where it takes me.
I have lurked long enough now that some of my shyness has ended. I follow some people on both Twitter and their blogs, looking at their presentations and reading their papers or articles. When someone posts a blog or a Tweet that moves me I "chime in" and comment or respond. Occasionally they even get back to me.
I liken this all to a cocktail party cum conference. I am there for my own reasons, one of which is some desire to share community around the thoughts that interest me most (not many in my social world in Kinsale care a twit about distributed learning, although many would be interested in multicultural living). I stand in the corner with a drink in my hand, ready to throw in a line or two. As I better understand what my next main body of work will be, I simultaneously prepare to "put it out there" as I go - but that is a topic for another blog.
My bottom line to all who read this who are students - don't wait until your work is over to begin to lurk in these places. Search today for blogs on your topic, join Twitter and post a line or two, but more important follow those whose ideas you like (it is nice to see each other as people, not just ideas). You will be amazed at how enlivening your morning "newspaper" can be to your intellectual life.
Further thoughts:
- read about different types and reasons for networks
- we may need help doing this - watch for sites with community managers to help us figure this all out
- I am considering what Chris Brogan has written about what a community manager would do for my site as I develop it.
More as we go,
Alana
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