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Saturday, 22 July 2007:
Saturday, 22 July 2007:
With the range of social networking tools and platforms on offer, deciding what tool to use can be quite intimidating and for many of us it is! Today, I’m learning about blogs, wiki’s, social bookmarking, podcasting, and other tools. My immediate thought is: "Well, I would need to draft something first, then second draft, then edit… I need to think about it!"
In fact, that is my response generally … I want to first figure out how the particular tool adds value to my existing set of tools and strategy, and how it helps me add value to my strategy. While I marvel at the potential that the tools offer for my online activism, I am intimidated by the range of tools on offer and want to make sure that they are a good ‘fit’ with what I already use; and also that the people I want to reach will be able to use the information in the published formats. Should I blog? Shall I set up a wiki? What platform should I use? Why?… the questions make me feel rather anxious … so anxious in fact that I feel rather resistant to this wave of options that are presented to me.
Today’s workshop (which ends tomorrow) is giving me ideas about a range on tools that can be used for different purposes. The RSS feed session lifted a huge weight off my shoulders as I have become increasingly concerned about ‘not having enough time’ to visit all of the websites that I am interested in and the session on social bookmarking had a similar result. Because while I am interested in the tools themselves, what interests me more, is how they will make my work and social life easier, by facilitating information flows, and giving me more options for how I produce, package and disseminate information.
I must admit though that the ‘immediacy’ makes me feel rather anxious. The fact that the minute I click send I’ve published it – without going through draft after draft, then editing then proofing then publishing … I have to get it right the first time round.
So before I am tempted to start working on the second draft and editing … I’m going to have tea and prepare for the next sessions: digital story telling and photo sharing
