I am not sure if I posted about it here, I guess I haven’t. I was invited to take part in this project by Alexey, fellow GVer based in Warsaw. As I started working on the first post, I realized I have not even checked the community and materials available about the entire idea myself. FutureChallenges.org is an initiative supported by Bertelsman Stiftung to bring together bloggers to share their experiences, ideas and to work on actual solutions, so if you are one of them, I think you might want to join us!

Yes, because live streaming is fun!:) To me personally it really combines the best of two worlds: virtual world’s ability to put aside geographical restrictions and networking, socializing power of off-line interactions. I have been working with Ustream more recently and I must admit it’s a good tool. It allows interactiveness via chat and social networks; it feeds directly to YouTube (so if your recorded live streaming is not longer than 10 min, or you simply stop and resume recording every 10 min you can upload all files to YouTube with one click!) and it is free.

Last night (night GMT, I mean) I watched the virtual launch of ‘The Networked Nonprofit’ book written by two great women – Beth Kanter and Allison Fine. The launch was fun, well conducted and moderated on-line event, with spice of excitement when Beth has actually sold 100 copies of her book and had to jump into the pool – an ending to a live streaming session you do not get to see every day;) But seriously – I think it was a great idea to start the promotion of the book this way!;)

I posted my notes on few valuable ideas from the virtual launch here, but I would like to focus on one particular on my personal blog: social media volunteering. For people active and aware of social media possibilities, volunteering by donating small chunk of their time together with a bit of understanding of new tools is easy. For charities or people in need that particular donation can prove to be live saving! Forgive me for saying that – as I am relatively new to the social media for non for profit sector – but I do not really see many platforms or communities supporting this type of volunteering. When Clive arrived to London and i learned a bit more about his story, I found it rather natural to suggest my support in anything related to on-line coverage. I met a person, who traveled half the world to speak up for his people in order to protect their future and all I had to (or rather could do!) was to ask for access to his blog, to polish it up a bit. Small changes to me meant really a lot to him and his people – so much, that I was given brilliant feedback! And yes, I did feel good about those what…30 minutes I spend on the blog and following e-mail with few tips. So if there are solutions there to provide that bridge between skilled social media fans and people/organizations who need their help – please point them out to me. If there aren’t – can someone please create one?

I look at the last 3 years of my life and I see many improvements. One of them is the fact I am surrounded by people who love reading and pass on to me books that actually tackle topics I am genuinely interested in. (Yes, I finally can talk about new ways of communication, as opposed to last night’s ‘EastEnders’;)) So here is a quick note about two books I was given recently: ‘140 Characters‘ by Dom Sagolla and ‘Me and My Web Shadow‘ by Antony Mayfield.

Dom Sagolla’s book did not grab my attention too much, actually I think I was slightly skeptical about its content after reading the introduction – so please do read it, to decide yourselves whether you like it or not. I think there is a target audience for this book, I am just not the right person. I do not like statements referring to 140 characters as the best possible form of expression coming from a person who was involved in early days of the tool – but it maybe my my silly, traditional part getting slightly offended? I am not sure. I did finish the book, and I found the chapter on the beginnings of Twitter really interesting. As for the style – I am not sure if I was in the wrong mood, or I simply generally do not like the idea of direction in style on-line. I like the idea of various types of Twitter users and their styles. I like to know, if my friends got their first cup of coffee, just as much as I like their philosophy, Twitter fiction or real-time updates from events. That variety is exactly why I like Twitter so much. Mayfield’s book on on-line reputation management is a must-read and a must-have! It is one of those books that grabs your attention from the fist page and does not let you go…and on the last page you actually feel you want more! It’s wise. It’s full of practical, valuable advice. It is extremely important! It is basically a set of guidelines on how to manage your on-line presence in a smart way, with available tools, and why it is important to do so. The tips are adjusted to various types of social media. The author always relates his points to ethics, privacy and on-lien security – which I personally think are the aspects of our on-line ‘life’ we do not really talk about enough. The book is really well structured – it is the first source that convinced me to stop to think about blogging as the main hub of on-line presence (which is the case with me, of course, but does not have to apply to everyone). I actually think it made perfect sense to mention blogging at the end of the book. It is short – you need few hours to read it and re-think its content, providing you are familiar with its topics. It is worth reading few times, to ensure you get all the major points. It is also written in the positive spirit of technology/web improving our lives.

So just one thought of the author to take away:

To my mind, the web is a synchronicity engine, in that it greatly increases the incidence of (mostly) pleasant coincidences.

More wise words from Antony Mayfield on his blog here, very good free e-Book on social media available to download from here.

I have a pretty intense end of the week ahead, and I hope to make the most of it, as well as feed as much info on-line as possible.

On Thursday and Friday, I am attending the Transfer Summit in Oxford, which on Saturday continues in form of a Barcamp. In case if you are around, here is a bit more information about both events. Innovation, Collaboration and Development happen to be few of my favourite terms when it comes to the usage of new technologies, including open source solutions. Transfer Summit has an impressive programme, which will tell you more about the knowledge you can gain that I would ever do. I happen to know few people who organize it and I trust their opinion. I am sure it will be two days of inspiring discussions and great networking opportunities. For virtual attendees, there is the live blogging and #TS10 hashtag on Twitter;)

On Friday evening we will kick off the Oxford Barcamp with an informal meal, to get back to work and hopefully productive discussions on Saturday at the Oxford University Club. You can follow the barcamp on Twitter for updates, but I will also do my best to feed photos and other content under #barcampoxford hashtag on-line. If you are in Oxford, do join us! If you are busy but have a second to join the discussions on-line, just follow the above-mentioned links. I am sure it will be worth it!;)

Camping was fun

I have spent all this time looking at reactions to the Wychwood Festival and I didn’t get around to post mine! So here it is;) First of all – disclosure – attending the festival was related to my work, but also to the fact I received a free blogger pass to cover the event on-line. I did it on this blog, my iPadio account, on Flickr and YouTube (via Qik). I hope all those files will give you an idea of the atmosphere, music and other events.

Here I would like to add my very personal points.

1. Kids.

I am going back with Dawid next year.I might be over-sensitive when it comes to child-friendly events, simply because I am a single mother and I hate to feel at least a bit restricted and having to compromise my sons or my own time – we should be able to share as much of each other’s worlds as possible. (Hence why I liked the registration to Nottingham Media Camp btw;) as they provided childcare facilities for the day!). Wychwood was advertised as kids friendly event, and indeed – it is full of kids activities. But more than those, I really appreciate the attitude of parents who take their children to all ‘grown up’ performances. I must say that I do not see it happening too often in the UK. So from that point of view, I am happy I can be surrounded by similarly minded people, who care to introduce their little ones to good music from early days on!

2. Music.

Right, this is totally subjective, so please do not take my words for granted! I like to discover all types of music when I move to a new country, so obviously, I enjoy the festival and its intense programme. At Wychwood, however, I was drawn to BBC Introducing stage to see upcoming artists – somehow I feel strongly about those after few years of gigs in Budapest. I must say though that even the main stage – probably due to the featured types of music – remained personal, almost intimate experience.

3. Venue and security

After 10 years of no camping in my life, I was let out to put up a tent. Well, thanks to new developments ‘int he field’ I was ok with that bit. I forgot to order few other crucial bits, so I do not think I was sane when packing;) Well, we survived. Camping in the quiet area proved slightly misleading too – as it is designed for people with smaller children, and smaller children do not sleep all night long;) Well, they do, but if at 3 AM you hear a guy calling ‘Allan! ….Allan!….Alllan!” above your head and start giggling (one from BBC Animals?), kids definitely do not sleep. I was very impressed with clean toilets and showers – magic! I loved the space and layout of the festival. I just wish I had more time to see healing gardens bit and enjoy it properly! Security of the place was really good! During one of my interviews, I learned that kids are allowed to run around as they wish simply because the place is so safe!

4. Food

Shortly: Mexican food  (all), chocolate – banana pancakes for breakfast (as many as you can! so good!), Indonesian mix (magic!) and finally even burgers (from the tweeting burger sellers;)) – really nice range of meals there. And the Pimm’s bus of course;).

5. Atmosphere

Peaceful, friendly, it all feels like a big family. It made me happy I met a half-Polish guy, Richard, who knows the event from many years now. I was impressed with Connor 912 years old) and his clear plans for future, as well as his dad’s support. I loved the commitment of all organizers and security. I really enjoyed chatting to charities and sellers. Press tent was brilliant, especially during the rain, when we finally all met in one place;)

What else can I say? I am trying to remain neutral – as I was involved the n marketing of the event. However it is worth pointing out that social media marketing works only for good products and services, and I can say with honest conviction that Wychwood Festival is value for the money. Really good start to the summer!

Thank you to Stefan and Graeme for invitation and opportunity to be – in a way – part of the team;) I really enjoyed that and I will spread the word about your great work. Keep it up and see you next year:)

Very often in my private life (sometimes at work too – and by work I mean not only paid commitments but voluntary work as well) I feel like I provide the bridge between older and newer technologies simply by showing benefits of new forms of communication channels. Some of us argue nowadays, that term ‘social media’ is not the best to use – maybe it’s truth, but for many, it is still a term they have to learn, adapt to and comprehend. Euan is making an interesting point in regards to the commercial environments, I am more interested in personal branding and ways we use the web to tell our story. Some of my friends pick up blogging, but are still not eager to use others channels. Others remain loyal primarily to social networking. I am convinced that devices like mobile phones, iPad and anything new on the horizon will increase the number of early adopters of new media. I am also pretty sure that the ways we use those new media will reflect our personal approach to life – some of us will push it and stick our nose in the devices all day long to consume new solutions; others will invest the time in relationships, self-development and still go back to the evenings with wine and Edit Piaf vinyls…

FutureGov has joined forces with the Local Government Information Unit (LGIU) to lead a project team that will find ways for social technology to contribute to keeping children safe. Others in the core project team include Think Public, Headshift and Barnardos. You can see how the project is progressing here and we encourage you to leave comments and ideas and generally get involved.

I am so happy to see this initiative and so grateful to Euan for flagging it up to me today! We talked about kids safety online yesterday really as a follow up to my discussions with attendees of Barcamp UAE, GVers and close friends (many of whom see the ‘whole social media thing’ through lenses of healthy scepticism – something I might find difficult to do sometimes). I find it really fascinating to see a new forum for discussions about actual organizations and projects working towards kids safety, and looking at way technology can improve our kid’s safety – online, off-line but also on the organizational level. Safeguarding 2.0 board member, Johnnie Moore flags up interesting notion of over-complicated procedures, but also generally not seeing clearly due to over-complicated processes. On the level of organized support, it is definitely the case – in many other areas of our life too. Could this modern tradition of bureaucracy contribute to our naive sense of security, but also the fact we turn a blind eye on many obvious issues – like lack of healthy relationships between family members, for instance? I would like to learn more about how child protection works in practice to find the answer to my own, slightly different question – why do we underestimate our children so much when we try to restrict their access to new technologies?

Those of you who are interested in networking around transparency issues in the UK probably know UKGovWeb very well and welcome the alternative of Ning network here, in its new form.

Moving communities on-line is not so difficult so I hope to see more and more of you joining us there. After GV Summit’s discussion related to challenges in this field, I feel even stronger about the need for all of us to connect and share ideas, experiences and good practices. So if you have anything to say, or simply want to join the community to learn – navigate over to the site prepared for you by @davebriggs. Really great site!