Taking things for granted

Do you find yourself forgetting how incredible this internet thing is? Caught up in the humdrum, always looking things up for work, ordering groceries or failing to keep your email in order? And then sometimes you find yourself transported into a different world, that would have been closed to you before, learning new things and seeing the world in a different way.

I've just spent 20 minutes on Flickr.com, enjoying the work of a photographer from the west coast of USA called Patrick Smith. His photos are beautiful to look at - west coast sunrises, beaches of Hawaii, fog over the Golden Gate. I was engrossed by the descriptions of how he takes his shots and realised how long it's been since I took any serious photographs myself, since I used a camera with manual controls and sat patiently for the right combination of light. clouds and scenery.

Seeing his photos is a treat, but having an insight into his techniques a real privilege. Both are probably available in a coffee-table-book of his work, but those 20 minutes are much more accessible and the ability to stumble across such treasures underlines what makes the internet such a wonder.

Movements, tribes and leadership

Seth Godin is very insightful and shines a light into the murky complications of life in the digital age sethgodin.typepad.com/ Download his audiobook here [free] http://www.squidoo.com/triiibes-downloads and look for other triiibe-related things to try as well - I recommend signing up for his regular emails [shame about the iffy name btw].


Oh if marketing is your thing, then this is cool too
http://www.marketingovercoffee.com/2008/10/23/seth-godin-on-tribes/

Teaching people's heads

Just viewed a fab video about education, what it's for and how schools kill creativity on the wonderful TED site.

Found via Steve Bridger's excellent blog.

How is social media like ice cream

‘Social Media’ is something of a buzzword at the moment. Everyone – from huge corporations to governments to community groups – are switching onto the idea that ’social media’ is happening, and that they need to get in on the act. But what is it? And what does it have to do with ice cream?

The editor of MyManchester, a community-based publishing network that’s been around since we started SCIP back in 1997, has provided an answer in plain English that offers a valuable guided tour to the world of blogs, new media, and why people are getting so excited about it. It includes this video that uses ice cream to explain why new technology may be changing the world.

Read the whole article here mymanchestereditor.wordpress.com/social-media-2/

How to run a newspaper

Doing some research about how to set up and run a community newspaper - linked to the training I'm running about how to set up and run a community web site, developing the training I do about using Wordpress.com.

This is like most of the community newspaper meetings I've been to - except they usually have enough money to last two and a half minutes...