A new day has begun

I have decided to resume blogging after many months of silence.  It would be nice if I had a real reason for my absence, but laziness is probably the most truthful excuse.  Essentially I started Twittering, @faniemi, and found it easier to tweet 140 characters of stream of consciousness than to put in the effort to blog.

So why did I return?  The short answer is that I have started the empirical part of my PhD research and I needed a place to reflect.  I could (and do) keep a private diary of fieldnotes, but I like the communal nature of a blog and want the chance to bounce ideas off of people as part of the research process.

So here I am.  Over the next few weeks I’ll be gearing up again and tidying up the site.  I should probably also consider hosting the blog myself and getting a better name.  My study is on how software developers problem solve in online environments, so if you are interested in participating, let me know.

Cheers,
Fa

The making of a blog

I just love “behind the scenes” stories.  It probably started back in my Mr. Rogers days when he would show little clips like ‘how the mail gets delivered’ or ‘how crayons are made’.  It makes me appreciate how much goes in to things we do not pay much attention to.  This fascination developed into a devotion to ‘Up close and personal’ sessions during the Olympics and in recent years re-watching the LOTR appendices almost as much as the films.

So I thought it might be interesting to talk about what goes into a blog post.  Blogs are funny things because they are this mix of personal musings and public publication.  It may not be obvious, but I put quite a bit of thought into the blog topic (although, admittedly, not as much into the actual writing and editing).

A new post usually starts off as a bunch of small observations I have made over the past few days.  I walk a lot (to and from school, into town to shop, down the road for coffees, etc) so I have a lot of time to both observe what is happening around me and to reflect on those observations.  Quite honestly, it feels a bit like the beginning of a Seinfeld comedy routine “What’s the deal with people getting on a bus?  Do they all have to ask the bus driver  if the weather is cold enough out there?…”  From there 1 or 2 will stand out as both having a universal appeal as a narrative and some sort of lesson or moral.  Again, as I am walking, I will start “writing” the blog in my head – fleshing out concepts and thinking of a witty title.  However, by the time I actually sit down to type it up I often find that my story isn’t nearly as interesting as it was in my head and that is surely due to the fact that I have forgotten all of the witty bits.  So in an attempt to put pen to paper (obviously figuratively – no pens or paper went into the making of this blog), I just start writing.

Unfortunately, the review process is not as rigorous as the A level journals and after a quick preview I post it.  However, there have been occasions that I have not published the post and they are sitting in drafts waiting to either be edited (which probably won’t happen) or deleted (which probably should happen).  It is funny because I always had this idea that small things were more difficult to write, like a poem is harder than an essay because you have to choose your words so carefully.  However, in this case I find blogging much more difficult than micro-blogging.  I think it is because this feels more permanent while Twittering has a very ephemeral quality (and honestly even with the word count limitation – I don’t choose my Tweet words particularly carefully).

So whatever the reasons or the results, that is the Behind the Music: the making of Fa’s Blog.  Oops I forgot to include the sudden rise to fame, the equally sudden fall caused by addictions to sex/drugs and the where-are-they-now bits….

How I love a good TO DO list

I have recently come out of hiding and returned to the world of the living.  There are a variety of reasons for both my retreat and my re-emergence, mostly related to not wanting to deal with my thesis and realising that I must in fact deal with it.  For the past month or so I have managed to successfully avoid nearly all productive (required-to-graduate) work – but deadlines are now looming (practically crushing me really) – so I have brought back my tried and true tool for ending procrastination – my TO DO list.

I know it seems silly – but lists have some secret power over me, which make me get things done.  In my previous life as a project manager, the walls of my office were covered with large white sheets of paper; each bullet-ed item neatly checked (and crossed off).  When I was in the last few months of my MBA, the lists came back and sure enough chapters were worked on, submitted, revised, and completed.  I don’t know why it has taken me so long to bring the TO DO list back, but it is needed now more than ever.  Here is today’s TO DO list:

• Prepare for this week’s tutorials (done)
• Complete 3 slides for departmental presentation (done)
• Return library books (done)
• Revise 1 section of Methodology chapter (done)
• Write blog (done)

My superpower? Invisibility

I remember when I first started teaching and a very wise old(er) teacher told me when asked about how students felt about teachers – “honey, we are just furniture to them”.  And she was right.  Furniture in the sense that we are very functional, available when needed, and can be ignored when we are not needed.  It might not seem very appealing to be considered furniture, but it is actually quite handy and gives you access to worlds you might not otherwise have.  For instance, being furniture makes you virtually invisible.  Even now as I am re-entering the teaching world at the uni level I can walk across campus and hear and see all sorts of things that I never would be exposed to normally.  So as I was walking back from my tutorial today, I heard a girl telling her mate that she drank too much and should cut back.  I heard another talk about his future plans and yet another couple grinning ear to ear as they parted.  It feels a little like the angel in Wings of Desire – essentially hearing everybody’s thoughts because they don’t notice that I am there.

So I started thinking about how I blog in the same light.  I don’t really notice the people out there in the public who may be reading, just the ones that I know about.  So my blog feels quite invisible in the huge mass of stuff out on the web.  However, occasionally something reminds me that I am revealing my personal thoughts to a quite public audience.  It can be alarming when this happens.  In RL every once in a while, someone approaches me that I don’t recognise.  They start talking to me as if they know me and it takes me a bit to realise that they must be one of my current or former students.  I don’t really recognise them, but they know me.  And I realised that my invisibility doesn’t work all of the time – sort of a flawed superpower.  If you stand up and talk in front of students enough, they will eventually see you and you will have lost your invisibility.  What is more ackward is that because I don’t recognise them, they are invisible and I am the one seen.

So if I blog enough, I am bound to lose my invisibility occasionally as well.  Sort of the price you pay for personal discourse in a public forum.  It is not too bad – really just my 15 minutes – but spread out over many years and presenting itself when I least expect it – 900 seconds of fame (?!) wrapped up in a lifetime of anonymity.

Virtual communities and virtual blogging

I think my best blog posts are “written” in my head as I walk to school in the morning.  By the time I have had my coffee, read my email, and settle down to get some work done – poof – I can’t even remember what I was going to write about.  For the past couple of days, though, I have been thinking about a comment from my last post on the characteristics of blog communities – so I have been hiding from my blog because I don’t have a good response.  It is my own personal $64K question:

What are the traits of blog communities and are they a mechanism for knowledge conversion?

For the next few posts I am going to try and discuss this question, if not answer it.  So for today, I would like to talk about the time dimension of blog communities.  Blogs are kind of funny beasts compared to RL because members interact with each other asychronously, coming and going as they please.  Very different from RL conversations with members of a place-based community.  Imagine asking someone a question and then having them walk away and answer you three days later.  Sometimes blogs remind me of the little notes on the fridge for my family.  You can never count on them getting read when you need them to.  I have learned not to leave time-sensitive notes, because if they do get read, it is usually way too late.  I read (and write) blogs the same way.  I have a routine, as I drink my morning tea, I skim through the RSS feeds.  Skimming the couple dozen blogs I subscribe to, although occasionally taking more time for a deeper read of an interesting topic or discussion.  I think both the behaviours, regular contact with occasional immersion contribute to developing and sustaining a blog community.

In the blogs in which I feel a sense of community, I need both the consistent contact that comes from regular posting and those bursts of activity around hot topics.  It is a little like my neighbourhood community.  I walk every day along the same streets.  It gives me a sense of familiarity with the houses and people, but not much of an emotional connection.  One day when I was walking home from school, though, a car lost its load on a steep hill.  People stopped and looked and helped until the situation was resolved.  During that period I talked to some other people in the neighbourhood that I hadn’t seen or stopped to interact with before.  After the event, I felt a greater sense of community.  I had a shared history with other members.  I could identify other members.  I had a personal connection to that street because of the event.  I think those same aspects of time hold true for blog communities as well.

One characteristic of time is quite different in blog communities from place-based ones.  In blogs, sense of time is almost always relative.  RL which is not only full of sychronous interactions, but is also quite aware of the date and time such as “it’s noon – let’s go to lunch”, “It is Waitangi Day – it is a holiday”, “it is 5pm – time to go home”, etc.  Blogs postings are either recent or old always in relation to the day you are viewing them.  Or they are newer or older in comparison to the other posts.  It doesn’t really matter if I someone commented on 31 January to a post, but more importantly, it has been 4 days since they commented and I have still not replied.  Because blog time is relative, it means that there is a flow to blog conversations.  Members of the community interact within these ebbs and flows of slow and peak activity.  However, the connection seems to be quite tenous and if someone gets out of sync (either from infrequent posting or reading) they can easily lose their sense of community and no longer be a member.  Like the punch line of Little Bunny Foo Foo – “Hair today, goon tomorrow”.  How ephemeral blog communities can be.

In space no one can hear you scream

I am beginning to see the parallels between be lost in (cyber) space and being an academic. It is a lonely world out there and if you find another life form, you hang on as if your life depended on it. I have been on a fairly lonesome journey during this first year as a researching postgrad. I rarely interact with people other than librarians, IT staff, and my supervisor’s red ink. So now that the summer holidays are almost over and more people have trickled back into the department I am almost giddy with social interaction and personal contact. However, like in cyberspace, I am tentative about entering into someone else’s space (or office) without making sure that it is ok. Everybody is really busy writing and I don’t want to bother them but I really love to talk to other postgrads and faculty about their research so I am always looking for the opportunity to engage.

In blogging and other social media I have seen similar behaviour.  Recently, actually, Twitter has been surprisingly interactive.  A colleague has been Twittering about needing to get a page done each day and I have be following and Twittering with my own writing goals (see http://twitter.com/FaNiemi).  It is amazing how this not only kept me connected, but also really motivated me.  It is incredible how powerful a dozen words can be.  @FaNiemi – Research doesn’t feel quite so lonely anymore.

Stage 3 of Twitter Acceptance

I can really identify with this post, http://mrees.wordpress.com/2009/01/14/achieving-the-final-stage-of-twitter-acceptance/ as I install TwitterFox and Twadget.  Microblogging for me is a combination of a personal marketing tool and lifeline to social networks when I can’t be bothered to either fully blog or fully engage with people outside of cyberspace.  Or maybe Twitter is a gateway drug to Second Life, not sure.

Back writing again

I have been struggling for the last 2 months (or more!) with writer’s block and just haven’t gotten much written for my thesis. Luckily, the blog has given me a pretty safe outlet to jot down ideas and keep going even though I was not making any formal progress with the thesis. Now that I am back writing I am very thankful that the blog was there for me when otherwise I would have been lost.

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet

For the past several years, there has been a movement to change the name of Knowledge Management to something more representative of the discipline. It may have been in the old days that organisations were truly trying to manage their knowledge through knowledge bases, knowledge management systems, knowledge repositories and the like, but things have changed. Now organisations want to foster a collaborative environment which enables knowledge conversation (from the individual to the organisation). They want to coordinate knowledge exchange and facilitate new knowledge creation. It is in this new era of the discipline formerly known as KM where blogging and social media and web 2.0 begins to integrate with KM not as a technology tool, but as a catalyst to develop relationships and bring people together.

So what would be a better term? And if it is renamed – is the discipline any different?

QuickPress…it’s a good thing

Not that I go around quoting Martha much these days, but WordPress’s QuickPress is a good thing. There is still a wide divide for me between the ease (and now habit) of microblogging with Twitter and the “normal” blogging of WordPress. Sometimes I just want to say a bit (not a byte or a kilobyte or a megabyte) and it feels funny only putting a few words in the big empty space of the editor. Now a have a wee space for my quick thoughts. It’s not just a good thing, it’s perfection