Communication – or lack of!

Does communication smooth the way?

PPD1 – Another thought!

This might actually be useful for reminding me what has happened !

PPD1 Week 1

This is my first blog!  Not usual for me to keep a diary!  Got to do this as part of my assessment.

My first blog

This is my first blog

Obama – President of the United States

As America prepares for an historic day tomorrow – what thoughts and views are being exchanged via social media.  Is it that Obama is the right man for the job?  Is it around the colour of his skin?  Worse is their condemnation of this man because of the colour of his skin? Is it reflecting on George W Bush time in office? 

The Obama Presidential Election trail utilised every form of media at its disposal.  His campaign sought to seek the broadest range of web users.  His use of UTube and e-book were all utilised.  Was his success aided by this tapping into a relatively new communcation tool?  The general commentary has to be a resounding “Yes”.

Many questions – not sure of the answers.

Personally I welcome a new age of enlightenment and hope for all Americans under the care of this new President.

Twitter

To Twitter or Not to Twitter – is this the question?

Digital Recruiting states that it is “strangely addictive”.  Having  just become accustomed to blogging the thought of spending yet more time communicating by another medium, more often and follow the current “interesting topic” does nothing for me?  Do other people feel like this?  Do you feel that your valuable personal time is being eaten away by communicating with more and more virtual contacts rather than spending quality time in the very richly rewarding one to one conversations?  Having talked to people on both sides of the fence as it were, there are directly opposing views.  Those who use Twitter find it very useful but then again these are people who  constantly email, facebook, myspace, surf the net etc.  They live in a virtual world.   To these people the following website will prove invaluable www.Twitterlocal.net – this will find twitterers near to them.  The Guardian also posted a list of those who are worth following – Stephen Fry being amongst them.  I admit to following this up as he is extremely interesting. Perhaps I might be converted after all !!!  There was an interesting article on the BBC website about the power of blogs/twitter to mould opinion.  Mr Fry who has a following of 20000 - has a large audience to influence. What does this say about those of us who have so far resisted Twitter for whatever reason,  lack of interest, fear of yet more invasion of personal time.  Is this a generation thing?  Not really having spoken to my teenage son – he can’t be bothered but does Facebook, to work colleagues who ask simply “Why do this when they can talk to friends and colleagues?”

It would seem that esteemed Bloggers such as Seth Godwin advocate not using Twitter as it could be “misunderstood”. The amount of space to make a point is just not large enough (140 characters).  Seth does say that there is nothing wrong with Micro blogging but to be careful.  HE does also say “Using it for keeping in contact with an ever-widening circle of friends and colleagues is brilliant”.

We not only Twitter but now we can Yammer - a short messaging service within companies to connect fellow employers working on the same project.  The cynic in me says, once upon a time we would walk down the corridor and chat!

As for me – the jury is still out – need to do more research but interested to hear from others?

Gaza Strip

Listening to the Today programme driving into work and the hell that must be the Gaza Strip.  I found myself thinking about what type of communications are taking place or in some cases not taking place.

There is the public announcements from both sides to justify the stance that they are taking. 

There is the media focus on both sides seeking to promote that they have just cause.  There is the so called “independent” media all seeking a unique angle.

There are the independent “diplomatic peace” parties from the EU, US and Arab states  who are seeking a solution and wishing to open up communications between the two sides to bring about a cessation of hostilities.

 

There is the communication within the armed groups from both sides organising the tit for tat rocket launches/bombings.

 

There is the lack of communication within the communities affected by the hostilities where communications have been cut.  Families trying to get news of friends and relatives both within the communities and around the world.

What role the media in this – could they use their tremendous influence to smooth the hostilities, stop hyping up the situation and help to bring about a ceasefire.  The power of the written word could bring about the power of the spoken word and who knows a solution for those suffering the day to day hell which is Gaza.

Online Social Communities

A recent article on the BBC website about social networks which Cambridge university investigated  on how Facebook can improve social skills contradicts my own belief.  Having teenage children who communicate with me in a series of grunts, and minimal inforrmation I found it hard to believe that Facebook can help improve communication skills.  However, when entering the study on an evening, I find said children engaged with any number of conversations with “friends”, chatting and sharing photographs, clips etc. Generally being nosy looking at people’s profiles and finding out information about them – amazing what some people will post about themselves.   It seems virtual communication is easy, they do not feel inhibited chatting and striking up friendships with complete strangers.  Compare that with putting them in a room of strangers (called relatives  at Christmas get togethers) and they can barely string two words together!!

Online Social communities have a place in today’s society.  A positive spinoff was my daughter starting Northumbria University in September went onto Facebook and found a Northumbria University Freshers online community.  Through this she managed to locate fellow students she would be sharing a flat with when she started.  The transition from home to student life with her new found friends and flatmates was easy .

A research paper publised in October 2008 by the Government regarding Online Social Networks  quotes ” Instead of being limited to a network amongst peers within the schoolyard or workplace, social networking sites are increasingly allowing relationships to be built up with people right across the globe and from all walks of life. Inside these networks, people are now actively collaborating, creating new content and finding a global voice for themselves”   

However, there are warnings to heed, how many parents are aware of just who their children are communicating with?  There are serious lurkers out there who are only too charming and waiting to groom them into unwanted relationships.  The Guardian published an article in April about this and The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre has drawn up legislation to make social sites highlight safety messages in a prominent position.

Like all communities they are made up of every level of humanity.  The online social community may be virtual but it is a short step away from reality and making that step in “real time” communicatin.

2009 and Social Media?

Taking the crystal ball – where will social media be this time next year?  What new innovations will there be?  Or will it just be more of the same?

Will Facebook still be the hottest social networking site?  Will Twitter have uttered its last tweet?  Will we all be creating our own social network sites and then through viral  marketing -  expand their presence?  Seth Godwin in his recent article about Viral Marketing highlighted that there are two types of viral marketing and the most influential and successful is whereby viral is built into the product   – it sells itself – YouTube is a huge example of this.  We forward an interesting site, video clip on through our own huge personal networks.

Will Secondlife which is populated by our AVATARS become the meeting place where we all intereact in a virtual world rather than the one we are in now?  Will it be a better place without War, Famine, Sickness, Politics?  If the Avatars are based on us then much of what we have in our world will follow through into our SecondLife.

Whatever our thoughts, - one thing for sure  is that we will still be communicating by whatever is the latest trend.  Our nature is to share, expound our theories, keep in touch, comment on, share our opinion, voice our thoughts – we need to be heard!

Work Life Balance?

After reading about Work Life Balance  “Is it just a woman’s problem – work life balance in the PR industry” I found myself being quite cynical.  Hey people, there are other professions out there who are suffering  just as much and in some cases more.  Also there are many men and women who are struggling with workload.

Work Life Balance affects all walks of life and any number of situations.  Personally the advent of remote working has extended my working week to evenings and weekends.  As I can access work I find myself thinking I will just do that report, or answer those emails.  Before we could close the door at the office Friday and not worry about it until Monday morning.  With the advent of the “Blackberry” we are never far away from the latest email which requires that immediate response – what happened to good old memos which gave us time to think and respond? Now it seems the norm rather than the exception that many of my colleagues will work evenings and weekends. Mostly just to keep on top of the job.

As to affecting women more, being one myself, I would love a wife!!!  I work more hours than my husband yet still do the majority of the “home work”.  It would be great to come home to a clean house, washing and ironing done, meals bought and cooked – sounds like heaven!  How much of this is down to age, I am definitely not married to “modern man”. 

Is it our own standards that drive us to juggle more plates in the air?  The pressures to succeed at work do not take into account the school run, organising homework, housework, sick children, parents evenings!  Yet we are expected to put 110% in and find time to do all the extra research/work that puts us ahead.

A survey carried out by the Work Life Balance Foundation indicated that 3 out of 4 people thought that they were working very hard; many said they could not imagine working any harder.  1 in 5 people take work home every day.  Flexible working seems to be working one way and that’s in favour of the employer.  All this has negative impacts which will catch up with all of us at some time!