Bob Dylan & Social Media Get Hitched – blogging just got sexier

Bob Dylan’s releasing a new album. His marketing people have seen the benefit of social media and launched a facebook application to help him. It’s available for anyone on facebook to play with and have Bob promote their own message.

So if we are already friends on Facebook, just check out my profile to see how sexy Bob can make blogging look, or make a friend request – and if you show me your private life, I’ll show you mine.

If you have not yet been seduced by the Fascist Dystopia that is Facebook (according to Ivan Pope via Tom Nixon), then go play. It really is worth experiencing. But read the health warning first, and a shout out for the next big (and braver new world) social media thing…

Protected: Password protecting posts

This post is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

Password:

Our blogs

Wow, just sent a list of our blogs to Brighton Bloggers for inclusion. It’s getting a bit long. Hadn’t realised just how much blogging Gra and I (mainly Gra) have been doing over the last few years. So here it is…

www.authenticblogging.com – the place for a deep, authentic and truly happening approach to blogging in all it’s potential and ripeness. Blogging courses and an emerging new community – here we are!

www.barkingowl.com/learning – began with documentation of our early learning project and moved on from there into person-centred education, blogging and beyond… still sometimes active and ranks well with Google, loads of good stuff to check out and comment on, but have largely moved across to authenticblogging now

www.gravyland.net – our personal, family blog (including some contributions from Bea age 6, eg. this lovely picture she drew. Still not entirely sure how open I should be online, but this, like everything, is a work in progress.

http://blog.scouta.com – Scouta is our online media recommendations venture. Regularly featured on Techcrunch, actually.

http://presencelabs.com – Business blog for our main consulting vehicle, Presence Labs Ltd.

http://aplacecalledprovidence.com – A group blog for the co-working
office space at 50 Providence Place in the New England Quarter (where Gra is based, while I am at home hanging out the washing in between brain flashes and mad typing). Includes contributions from such neo-reno’s as Snipperoo’s Ivan Pope and the lovely Dom Stockdale.

Take part in truth

Let’s get back to the root philosophy of blogging.

So David Bohm’s the one. Well one of them. “On Dialogue” takes me back to the core of the work I was doing as an undergrad at Murdoch with Structure, Thought and Reality.

The whole discipline and practice of communication theory never ceases to underpin my thinking and excite me. Guess I chose the right course age 17, no matter how meandering it has been. Or it chose me…

And one day soon I will get focussed on bringing all this deep, rich content into the blogging course more specifically. Want to get much more visual here too. But the wikipedia entry for communication theory is a good place to start.

Now there I am showing Tom Nixon the book at this networking thingy tonight (he’s a bit lovely btw). I’ve been thinking for years how important the Dalai Lama’s words on our need for genuine dialogue were. Something small and inconsequential passing comment like… the only thing that will save humanity from the endless cycle of pain and suffering is… yep, dialogue, or something like that.

Then there HHDL is in the front blurb saying good old Dave Bohm is one of his “scientific gurus”. So I guess we’re on the right path here dear people.

“During the past few decades, modern technology, with radio, television, air travel and satellites has woven a network of communications which puts each part of the world into almost instant contact with all the other parts. Yet, in spite of this world-wide system of linkages, there is, at every moment, a general feeling that communication is breaking down everywhere, on an unparalleled scale.”

The question of how we can communicate better is at the heart of On Dialogue. This revised and expanded edition is the most comprehensive documentation to date of best-selling author David Bohm’s dialogical world view.

I’m going to reflect and share more from it as I go on. For now, here’s the link for those that just know they have to get into it now.

I’m delighted that his name hides “ohm” (mani padme hum) in something Oppenheimer, David and friends helped blow the world up with, before they saw they light… He became a real peacenik after all.

All seems rather spooky and perfect from where I’m sitting <grin>.

New choices for blogging course

After a long gestation period, things have been moving fast on our innovative, profound and effective (says us) blogging courses. They are now two time slots to choose from – an evening or a morning.

Eight weeks in a row (not including half-term school holiday)

Monday mornings 10-12 noon
8 October – 3 December
or
Tuesday evening 7-9pm
2 October – 27 November

Find out more about them but exploring this site and clicking here, and email Libby to reserve a place or call 01273 540 023 or 07968 687 107 to find out more.

Want to learn how to blog really well?

Still some places left on the blogging course I am running in Brighton for eight weeks from 25 September, Tuesday nights 7-9pm. Call Varndean College to book in on 01273 546604.

I’ve already had chats with some of the participants direct and it’s shaping up to be a very stimulating group of people. Mainly folk who have never blogged before.

Can’t wait.

Feel free to get in touch if you want to know anymore about it. But check this site first under Courses and click through the information provided.

Cory Doctorow on “How to be a top blogger”

Some great tips here for all budding bloggers by net guru and writer Cory Doctorow. Well worth viewing to get the real meaning, but here’s the top three tips:

1. write headines like a newswire writer, ie. be specific, short and sweet
2. open with a traditional news style lead paragraph with who, where, what, why, when – or at least the key information right up front.
3. respect your readers.

Or so Cory says. Click through to also consider what Jakob Nielsen has to say about making web pages user-friendly.

Autumn 2007 Blogging Course

Name of course: Blog Your World (“Blogging”)
Tutor: Libby Davy
Enquiries: 01273 540 023 or 07968 687 107 (Mon-Fri 8am – 7pm)

NEW CLASS TIMES & START DATE

Eight weeks in a row (not including half-term school holiday)

Monday mornings 10-12 noon
8 October – 3 December
or
Tuesday evening 7-9pm
2 October – 27 November

Feel free to phone and discuss your personal, group or organisational blogging goals or clarify any element of the course. I will be working with you to deliver a personalised learning programme that meets the goals you set after further research and reflection.

Content of course

• Learning a new way to make the most of the internet
• Developing a writing practice
• Enhancing your own ability for life-long learning
• Promoting yourself, your organisation or a project you are working on
• Taking control of your ability to publish what you want, when you want online
• Looking for a feedback mechanism for research, communications, marketing.
• Finding a new way to collect, organise, reflect on and share you interests and work.

Blogs are websites you add to regularly and easily, and are like private/public journals, but a whole lot more. Blogs (or web logs) can include words, images, sound and links as well as comments back from your new-found audience. This is your chance to find out what blogging is all about and get your very own (or a group) blog working for you. Blogging is an effective, profound new way for you or a group to communicate, connect, learn and be heard via the power of the internet.

Get your own blog hosted free on the internet within just a few weeks. It can include words, images, sound, links and comments back from your new-found audience. Publish instantly and easily – in your own way, in your own time. Develop greater confidence in expressing yourself, in a supportive and friendly environment. Share ideas and inspiration with a like-minded local or global community. Enhance your public profile.

Your teacher Libby Davy has over a decade’s experience working professionally and teaching communications. Libby is an awarded short-story writer and has had her work broadcast on national radio. For many years, Libby worked in strategic communications, marketing, organizational development, photograhy and business coaching. She has experience in planning and executing communications campaigns across most industry and community sectors. Libby is now doing an MA in Person Centred Education at Sussex University to extend her thinking around education.

By the end of the course, you will have found your voice and be confidently blogging.

Who is it for: (who, what level, what previous experience)

The course is suitable for absolute beginners and those new to blogging. Experienced bloggers should attend the follow-on course.

For anyone interested in blogging for personal, community, academic, creative, business or organisational growth.

You do not need to:
• have set-up a blog before
• be an experienced writer (as you will be developing your own style in a safe, expansive way).

You do need to:
• be willing to learn with yourself, your co-learner, your teacher, your extended community.
• have used computers before for internet searching and word processing.

If in doubt, contact your teacher direct at authenticblogging.com

What will I learn?

• How to create a blog (or weblog) from beginning to end.
• How to modify templates to suit your project.
• What a blog is, and is not.
• How to express yourself more confidently using a range of media (words, images, sound files, links).
• How develop and maintain a regular blogging practice.
• How to inspire, collect and organize your material and reflect on your area of interest with private or public posts.
• How to connect with like-minded people and learn within a community – in the classroom, online and around the world.
• How to be published.
• How to increase interest in your work, research, project or organisation.
• How to optimize your blog to increase the attention it gets, eg. Google ranking.

The course will involve group discussion, analysis of example blogs, self managed learning, individual support, some homework, online help for technical aspects, review sessions and an ongoing community to draw from and continue the learning journey in safe, appropriate, fulfilling and expansive ways.

Check out what our new friends at NixonMcInnes have got to say about blogging and social media in general. We love those guys, even though we’ve only just met (some of) them. (Hi Tom! Congratulations Will.)

Frenzy

Gra and I just watched Blog Wars (BBC 4 on 17/01/07 from the University of Sussex archives). Wow. Americans getting rabid. Never a pleasant sight. Then I had a wee surf to see what’s up in the blogosphere having had my head elsewhere for a bit. Have some serious concerns about the frenzy many popular bloggers seem to get themselves into. Like, the more controversial I get, the louder I shout, the more I flame and shame others, the bigger my audience will get. And sure, I can see the parallel with shock jocks on radio and tabloid journalism. But frankly, I’m looking for something different. Something authentic, a little more considered. I guess it just depends on who your audience is.

I’m also not interested in spending my life in a virtual world cultivating virtual relationships. I clearly see the power and potential of the internet and blogging in particular. But there is nothing like real people and real-life, in the flesh, human contact. I hear myself banging on to Gra about that all the time.

It’s all a question of balance, innit. I hear myself saying this again and again. Let’s see if I can live it! Even with facebook spawning…

Freeing the writer within

Things have been moving along fast with our new courses, plus we’ve had a much needed holiday. We took our dear old VW camper “Lulu” through France down to basqueland – San Sebastian and Bilboa. More about all that soon on our family blog gravyland, hopefully with some of Bea’s artwork and a few pix.

On long drives and green hills I found time and space to again receive the wisdom of Natalie Goldberg in Writing Down the Bones. The words (on paper) were flowing. So good to feel that again. To really look and see and feel what was going on around me, and write it down. Much food for free thinking and new ways of synthesising ideas… seeing the patterns, making connections. The conversations we all shared helped things brew too.

Better out than in.

I really can’t recommend another book more highly for, as she promises and delivers, “freeing the writer within”. No matter what your blogging or writing context. We are first and foremost human beings, with our own unique perspective on our subject matter. If we want our writing, our blogging to inspire and inform, it needs to be coming from some one, not just anyone. People connect with people, they want to hear people, not robots.

Start with Natalie. It’s as simple as that.

Course updates in the next post.

« Previous Page — Next Page »