I have changed my Twitter approach, and I think it is time to make a shift in blogging too.  Inspired by my friends asking about blogging I started to think about it more…I also started writing my posts down in my journal while sipping coffee in the local restaurant during lunch time, and vice versa – posting my diary online. It’s really strange to see people lining two extremes: or avoiding social media like fire and later, when forced to, picking up the pieces and joining the online conversation in a very unnatural way; or being there since ‘the beginning’ and losing the sense of reality and no matter how genuine on their sites – completely lost in an everyday chat on the street. I am also very, very happy to know, gradually more and more engage in conversations of a new generation of bloggers (and to simplify I call a ‘blogger’ everyone, active in any type of a presence online) who wisely combine the two approaches and arrive to the melting point where technology, ‘We-Think’ work, citizen journalism and interactive discourse deepen, enrich, enable and cultivate their offline social life. And so I see geeks, who ‘tweet-up’ for a pint to share their skills (Oxford Geek Nights) and Twitteratti who go out to support charities (Twestival). I see people with great skills, impressive knowledge and high profile available to reach out and talk to any time – and once engaged online, available to meet offline too. And guess what – it’s a great feeling to see for yourself that you actually know them already:) There is also a sense of openness and cooperativeness among this generation of web users, where even competition is healthy – post exchange is profitable for both specialists of the same topic, because the genuine person always wins and there is plenty of space for winners here:)

Barcamps – and no, it’s not another post to promote ours! – barcamp is a perfect place for thought management! As a linguist, event organizer and person with a little bit (not much really) of business experience I cannot see any better format of an event for moving things, people and communities forward. Even Barcamp Transparency was both out of a discussion during a similiar event! It took a lot of e-mails, few committed people and a lot of good feedback, sponsorship and tips, to actually make it happen – and at the end of the day, it was not hard! Why? Because the motivation behind it was to open discussion, bring people together and let them talk… Deep in my heart, I am an artist, but on the rational side of things having a strong background in linguistics (from home, school and interest) and I know that if you want to clearly and correctly classify a word you need to ask the right questions. But what questions do you ask when you approach blogging? I suggest just a few basic ones:

• Why are you here, why are you a part of this community? Even if you do not call yourself a blogger, you do post somewhere? And most of the services move on to creating communities and linking content with other sites. You might be a quiet person who wants to stay unnoticed…but really, if that were that case would you really be here? So why? Be honest to yourself and to us – you want to share your skills, find friends, find local events, make money, start a new career or simply be cool? Why not? Just realize it and stay consistent and transparent in your approach.
• What do you want to achieve with your blogging? What are you doing? Like in business – where do you see yourself in 10 years time…no, let’s think web 2010 – where do you see yourself then? So who do you want to be, and how will you do it?
• Which in a way leads to the next question: How do you behave? Be humble and wise. Having opinion needs a place, time and audience – are you sure you are doing it right? (It took me 5 years of blogging, meeting bloggers and listening and reading them to arrive at the point where I dare to share my opinions and still always leave a place for opposing arguments or corrections) Do you know what you are talking about? Do you share meaningful content – and by this, I do not mean dissertations, just content suitable to the site? Do you speak to the right people in the right tone? etc etc
• How far do you want to go with your privacy? You can be anonymous, you might want to be careful about your address, e-mails, names you mention. You might have to adjust your content depending on your work or use disclaimers – whatever is the case – are you clear on that? And if I ask you, can you answer with few exact examples of your own privacy limitations?
• What do you bring to the party? (Even if ‘nothing‘, if you do it right, it does make sense;))  So, with all this you have to say or.and to show online and represent coherently offline – what do you give to others? Apart from a strong opinion of course?  Do people talk about your blogging, and ask you referring to your online content next time they see you on the street: ‘Gosh, I saw you were down, are you better now?’ or ‘Ah, you are preaching again, and once again I must disagree…’
• Is it fun? Do you take a step back and check let’s say Popjam.com? Do you step out and order a beer with a fellow blogger or simply take her for a walk int he park? Do you read books printed on paper? Do you enjoy being called ‘big nose‘ with a smile?

And much, much more! I see people who answer all of those questions of mine easily, without a blink. But I also see the blind, the ignorant, the ones who or know better, or do not bother to patiently learn and listen. Like  2-year-old children, they simply cannot comprehend that iron should not be touched, because the other person knows better! And they need to wait and learn to understand, not to burn their precious fingers!

I think it’s time for me to re-think my blogging. I actually have thought about it for a while now – I was a bit quiet too. I went through a lot of self-initiated changes recently and I think my blogging should reflect this shift as well. Additionally, I have been a witness or a ‘victim’ or many interesting coincidences leading to one simple conclusion:  many of my friends and readers want to learn to blog, and once they do, it enriches their life! They gain another channel for their voice, and they gain even more friends! My friend, after 30min of basic WordPress training, starts posting her shocking experiences with British NHS, and gets invited to an interview on the topic (and wait and see her thoughts, once she starts networking too!) Another friend, @agakwiat, really aggressively encouraged, not only helps me out on global Voices Polska, but turns out to be a very talented, witty writer! A fellow blogger from Poland, Magda,  based in the UK puts me in touch with an artist who simply inspires me from every possible point of view! A new fellow blogger, Dawid,  who has a social media marketing degree from Warsaw steps into my life to share knowledge and give me something I so much lack – Polish terminology and insights! There is the whole #bct09 organizing experience! There is Ben Walker with his new project, who always makes me happier human. And there are instances, where people completely disregard the ‘here and now’ of social media. luckily there is always those, who admit their lack of knowledge…and simply ask for support:) Their life changes. And I stand beside or maybe next to them, completely aghast! And very happy! So I want to share all I know about blogging with a larger audience, and I want to ask you for help so we can all see if this will bring us the same sense of satisfaction and generate little miracles.

I think it is time to look at the Barcamp Transparency from a more practical point of you. Some of you, who already have the ticket, asked me few questions related to the day of the event and I think that apart from responding via email, Twitter I might as well just post it so everyone can check if they are aware of all aspects of it. I do apologize if I talk about for some of you obvious stuff, but do keep in mind that attendees will come from different fields and are not always experienced in attending barcamps.

We have got few sponsors on board. First of all, Google kindly agreed to pay for the venue and we really appreciate it, because originally it was Marcus and myself who offered to pay for it – just to make it happen. It saves us a bit of pocket money, which we can spend on food and assets for the event. Gemma designed our logo. I am just finalising the breakfast menu for the day with its sponsor ProActive Paul, who is taking a time of his holidays and joining us with his family on the day (big thank you both for sponsorship and the attendance!).  Our friend, Ange, was there at the beginning providing us with the domain, so big thanks for that! 1000heads got us some assets promoting our event (will be waiting fro you in your welcome pack/goodie bag). Moo Cards provided discounts codes for their products for each attendee as an add-on, so we are very grateful for that! Ben from OutMap served us with constant support on copy writing and site maintenance. When it comes to media sponsorship Mashable posted on our event a few weeks ago. I posted on Global Voices a short post, which was translated to Russian, Spanish, French and Chinese.  (big kiss to GV Lingua for that!). Jack FM advised us to do it closer to the event – so please listen to the Sunday Show this weekend! I did a short phone interview as well, so you should hear me around;) Amir, from OSS Watch was helping me out with tips on food and assets, so thank you Amir, I really appreciate it!

Amanda, Marcus and Ben have been the core of things. Marcus booked the venue putting forward the deposit! Ben wrote copies and Amanda was there to spread the word! So the event is happening thanks to all those people – and I will repeat quite a few times!:) We have set up the platform for the virtual event, we are just finalising the details of Saturday evening meet-up (dinner?) in Oxford to kick off networking, and we are about to order food. Assets will arrive next week. I think we will deal with stationary next week too.

Now, what I need to explain is how the event will look like, and what is still needed – and those two are in a way the same. You see, barcamp is called un-conference or user generated conference because what we do is provide all attendees with a physical place (few rooms with projectors, wifi, stationery) to bring, share and develop their ideas. So if you haven’t attended a barcamp yet, please start imagining it like a set of workshops, were based on few rules of common respect, spontaneous contribution and mixing fun with serious work we are aiming to come up with discussions resulting in actual projects (this barcamp is a result of a similar discussion which happened a few weeks ago during another barcamp;)), support on projects already in place and in connections for life.

So what we are trying to do is invite people working in areas related to transparency in open government, social media and cyber activism, but also in other, related fields. We are encouraging everyone who is interested and simply has an opinion about those topics to come along and share those. You do not realise how much you know and can contribute with until you actually do it! This is the very reason why we provide the venue and food for free – so you do nto have to worry about it. Come open minded and leave with your head full of ideas and pockets full of business/Moo cards!

For more ideas please check few examples:  Barcamp Lonoon, Barcamp UAE,  Social Media Barcamp London, Barcamp Apache in Oxford. Make sure you search for their hashtags on Twitter and Flickr – this will give you more idea about discussions and on how the events looked like.Full list here.

So what I CAN tell you about Sunday is this: we will meet at 10 AM in the building of Oxford University Club. While you are having your breakfast, we will all try to set up the place (meaning tables, chairs, a place for lunch etc) so that we can use the venue for the day. Already at this point, we will ask you for your contribution:) We will also open registration, where you will get your welcome pack/goodie bag, Moo cards discount code and wifi access details. As soon as we can, hopefully before 11 AM we will open the event with few words on what is happening. We will have an empty schedule on the wall, so if you want to talk about something, or there on that morning decide to do so – you will be asked to put it on the schedule next to the hour and room. We have few suggestions for the session on our wiki to give you an idea of what I am talking about and to encourage you to do one too. Please remember – those do not have to be presentations! If you come over and say: ‘I want to talk about bloggers privacy’ put it up! I am sure you are not the only one interested in the topic, and others will join. If by any chance there are no moderators to the discussion, we will politely appoint someone and since the spirit of the event is respect and understanding I am confident it will work out;)

What is the worst that can happen? Well, you will end up in the common area networking with others or simply enjoying coffee or reading the Twitter wall:) We will have lunch at 1 PM and continue talking/working at 2 PM up until 5 PM. We have not planned socialising afterwards, but are open to any suggestions:) We do want to socialize a bit, but this on Saturday evening – and we will post the details of the place earlier – this will be a dinner or a pint of beer in a local pub, just to meet up and meet each other. Info here. So far I have talked about the actual event on Sunday. However we have had a lot of interest from people who cannot actually make it to Oxford that weekend, so we decided to do a small virtual event on FriendFeed – where you can interact with attendees already now if you want. We will be there next Friday at 7 PM GMT, so I really hope to see you there.

Our main virtual event group is here, and we will try to update it with info from other three rooms as often as possible:
http://friendfeed.com/barcamptransparency

But have also prepared three virtual rooms for you to discuss specific issues related to:

1. open government – http://friendfeed.com/ff-bct09opengoverment
2. cyber-activism – http://friendfeed.com/ff-bct09cyberactivism
3. social media ethics – http://friendfeed.com/ff-bct09socialmediaethics

I believe this is all. If I haven’t mentioned something crucial, there is a gap or you think we haven’t considered something – do let us know! We still need volunteers on the day to take photos, videos from their phones, to tweet and to help out, but I trust we will all be doing that! We are still collecting assets for welcome packs/goodie bags, so if you know a company with cool gadgets, let them know about us. What you can do now is TALK about it, POST about it, INVITE others to join the conversation – if not in Oxford, then online!:) (use #bct09 hashtag, please). Remember our site and get tickets.

Just stay positive, bring your ideas and remember the rules of a barcamp:

• 1st Rule: You do talk about BarCamp.

• 2nd Rule: You do blog about BarCamp.

• 3rd Rule: If you want to present, you must write your topic and name in a presentation slot.

• 4th Rule: Only three word intros.

• 5th Rule: As many presentations at a time as facilities allow for.

• 6th Rule: No pre-scheduled presentations, no tourists.

• 7th Rule: Presentations will go on as long as they have to or until they run into another presentation slot.
• 8th Rule: If this is your first time at BarCamp, you HAVE to present. (OK, you don’t really have to, but try to find someone to present with, or at least ask questions and be an interactive participant.)

I am stuck. I reached 2000 followed Twitter users and came across restriction based on my Twitter ratio, so basically, I cannot follow more users until I gain more followers. However I do not want more followers, and I definitely do not want to force anyone to follow me…is there a way to do it?:/ I could tweet it, but I feel it’s wrong. To understand my frustration you must know that a few months ago search.twitter stopped picking up my hashtagged tweets, which for a while was bearable, but as we approach Barcamp Transparency I find it rather annoying. No, I think it’s unacceptable because it contradicts the very reason I am using this tool. So – in the middle of a huge discussion about the great value of Twitter – I am about to sit down and re-think my approach to Twitter. I simply cannot use it anymore – at least not the way I did so far. First, I need to look at what could have happened in Twitter Best Practices and Twitter Rules and how it applies to my ways of using the tool. (Writing it down helps to clarify it;)).

I use the Twitter to:

1. listen and learn – I follow a lot of people whose content is valuable and very much related to my work, interests, arts. I listen to their conversations and very often (with help of wonderful tools like Seesmic Desktop) I do go back to conversations I missed out on during the working hours. I do not know personally most of the people I follow, but I appreciate their content nonetheless.

2. re-purpose – if I see something relevant to interests of my followers I very often forward it to them. Sometimes I feel like a spammer really and on few occasions I apologies for constant links and retweets. However, the feedback was surprisingly opposite – I was asked to feed more info!

3. engage in discussion – on topics I have strong opinions. This does not happen too often, but if does, I really enjoy Twitters interactivity!

4. updating on my personal life – I link Twitter with my other presences – blogs for instance – so if I am far away from PC (unbelievable, but it does happen quite often;) I use Qik and Twitter apps to update my family and friends with (interesting) moments of my life.

5. network – we live a busy, rushed off lives and Twitter becomes a handy way of finding, conversing and working with people who can contribute to my projects (rather non-work related ones).

6. feeding new posts – I use my blogs as platforms for expressing my opinions in longer form, I use Flickr to share my photos and feed them to my blog, so Twitter becomes an additional way of updating my also busy friends on new posts. Saves them time;)

Those ways of using Twitter come in order of importance, which is reflected in my Twitter ratio. When it comes to Twitter usability I need to agree with Scoble, and take on board his recent comment.I have made the mistake of trusting that Twitter can be used by many, in many ways. Looking at Twitter Rules I must admit I do understand where they are coming from:

Some of the factors that we take into account when determining what conduct is considered to be spamming are:

• • If you have followed a lot of users in a short amount of time;

• • If you have followed and unfollowed people in a short time period, particularly by automated means (aggressive follower churn);

• • If you repeatedly follow and unfollow people, whether to build followers or to garner more attention for your profile;

• • If you have a small number of followers compared to a number of people you are following;

• • If your updates consist mainly of links, and not personal updates;

• • If a large number of people are blocking you;

• • The number of spam complaints that have been filed against you;

• • If you post duplicate content over multiple accounts or multiple duplicate updates on one account

• • If you post multiple unrelated updates to a topic using #

• • If you post multiple unrelated updates to a trending or popular topic

• • If you repost other user’s content without attribution.

• • If you have attempted to “sell” followers, particularly through tactics considered aggressive following or follower churn.

I did follow large amount of people at once – I do not have time to sit on Twitter all the time, so I do my little usability maintenance time to time. I look at good accounts, their content and also check their users – who most probably will also have valuable insights. Hence a lot of adding users in large badges. My Twitter ratio was always around 100%/50%, not below – so this should be ok. As mentioned earlier my updated DO contain a lot of links – I share those with MY followers! And I want to continue to do so, if they ask me to…I hope there were no complaints about my account, however it’s impossible for me to not to post on multiple accounts if I work on events, have an account for Polish Lingua site of Global Voices and for another blog of mine – I want to reach all my audiences with good updates (ok, fair enough, maybe I could be more creative, but do I have to?). I do join trending topics, but only if I want to share my opinion – I really do not do it for darn fame! Rest is irrelevant. Now, I do not use any automated engines apart from welcome note – which I like because I want to be polite, even if I am not around the web. I do not schedule my post, nor use any of those ‘have 1000 users with a click’ type of ideas. So the system fails on the way. And I will tell you where: Twitter is introducing restrictions automatically (obviously the best way to go around it, I agree) but you CANNOT contact them to reconsider! So basically – all my presence on Twitter so far is useless. I have worked to build up my genuine presence for months, carefully trying to avoid non-ethical practices (talking of which, I think I preached about Twitter ethics myself;)) and now I cannot use basic options of the service due to…automated anti-spamming policy.  I feel like a little kid – for two reasons – I classify as a spammer! Secondly, Robert was once again right:) I should have invested more time in FriendFeed and other presences. Well, as action points, ladies and gentlemen, you will find me on Twitter as @presleysylwia from now on starting my Twitter adventure again, with more sceptical and critical attitude. As long as there are options left for a good user name, I will not give up;) I will follow you from there, I will talk to you more, and please do follow me on Twitter! 🙂

I really enjoyed last night at Jericho Tavern with Oxford geeks:) I am not very good in technologies themselves – I understand social media from usability point of view, I am not a programmer. The closest I got to programming was basics of CSS while tweaking my Polish blog on blox.pl and when learning basics of SAP (written in ABAP). One day if I need to I would like to learn a bit of programming because with all my ignorance I find it amazing to see a written word (structured in a similar way to the languages we speak) transformed into a graphical representation of it. What I am trying to say is…I really respect the knowledge of everyone present at Oxford Geek Nights every time I attend the event and I feel that my short write ups are a big shallow compared to the experience itself. Last night all presentations were very interesting and engaging however there were two things I got from the #OGN. One was the fact that I am well impressed by the amount of interest and investment The Guardian puts into stepping into social media. As a foreigner, I observe a certain type of sceptical criticism of the content of the site, and sometimes I do stand behind those who disagree with their articles. However, the way they dealt with approaching Salam Pax and taking his voice on the board of their platform, the way they try to spread the word about social media and voices representing it IS good. And now, seeing that they are willing to sponsor events like #OGN they start to impress me. I have seen different understandings of sponsorship in my last 10 years of event organising – here and in Hungary – and I must say that I support the one of full understanding of the event aims and trust in organisers. If you go to the event and people say ‘thx for the beer’ they do not mean ‘thx for getting us drunk for free!’ They mean ‘thank you for making it possible for us to be here’ and they genuinely appreciate it. There is nothing better than that for anyone who wants to be perceived as a good sponsor, at least in my opinion. And now, after listening to @mibgames presentation, I like The Guardian even more. I was also grabbed by the first presentation on accidental journalism by Andrew Walkingshaw. I think it is an idea worth exploring! I am also glad that Marcus decided to mention Digital Britain fail, because it nicely leads up to our next week’s event, Barcamp Transparency. My photos are up on Flickr, but I am sure there will be better ones up, so do check the #ogn hashtag.

Thank you Torchbox for organising, Friendsofed and Moo Cards for helping out, thx to J-P for perfect management, and thx to The Guardian for my lovely glass of wine.

I was planning to structure this post better. I waited for it. I wanted to rethink. I was wrong. I should have written it just as I arrived from Cairo to keep it fresh because what I wanted to say stays the same. So if you apologize me, I will basically use my notes from the diary I kept with myself on the plane and bus back and try to wrap it all up nicely. You see, I joined Global Voices Online after the GV Summit in Budapest. I started translating the content to Polish and very rarely post in English too. GV stayed always slightly in the background due to my daily workload, nonetheless, community spirit was there from the very first group e-mail of warm welcome. What I am describing below was not triggered by my trip to Cairo – just reinforced. I had the privilege to be invited to Cairo to join other 13 GVers in Blogging the Future Seminar and my perception of Global Voices mission, dreams and really not only proved to be very true, but also triggered certain emotional and well, I guess intellectual consequences. I was coming back to the UK writing:

‘I was packing with heavy heart because […] GV means incredible people! atmosphere of understanding and connection which I have experienced in very few places so far! It almost physically hurts to go back to cold reality. I know I want to do more for GV. […] This lack of rush and this common super-understanding  – I cannot even imagine how it must have felt to attend the Summit. I simply have tears in my eyes that I am saying good bye to those guys…

Those people have common goals ok, great skills, access to different cultures but most of all great respect towards themselves, others, other cultures, behaviours, differences and all of the middle ground which keeps them connected. And most of all, they accelerate and bring out the best of what I represent and who I am myself – I see myself differently in thew mirror now. Shall I compare it to…utopia?! The ideal mixture of the place (Cairo) and people (GV) yes – but it is the people who decide how we remember places. The sense of belonging – not to a group, minority, culture or nation – but to a common mindset, common mission (the unspoken and the obvious!), of values and views with few mutual commitments. Constant and overwhelming spirit of self-respect. Something so indescribable that one cannot really comprehend unless she or he actually joins, does it, becomes a part of it.

I have experienced it off line now, but it works just the same on-line when we are all at home, on our mailing list, blogs and other presences. Without borders in each and every sense really. It’s nice to meet up. It’s ecstatic. Nevertheless, the spirit comes from, lives in and will develop in work we are doing on GV platforms and in other places. There is a mission for us in each space – whatever that space might be or become. I am sure of it. Based on the self-regulatory nature of blogosphere and our cautious attempt to stay neutral we take what is best of it and shape it into almost a utopia of a community of free thinking people with their own strong voice and ability to listen, to stay positive toward everyone.

There is a meaning for us there. I am confident we all and each of us in our own way carries it forward, peacefully and constructively. Here in Cairo, we talked about our lives, relationships, realities but it was our current presence (here and now), our current voice that mattered. I was really privileged to be among those people, just as I am to be a part of Global Voices. And now we are all going back to our lives, our homes, our friends, our jobs. But the realization of this belonging and of the fact that GV is not only voluntary work but also a lifestyle is something that we take home, that stays with us. And I am sure that those who could not make it this time would agree. Each of us is skilful in something. We share those abilities contributing to the common knowledge pool,  we listen and understand the global world so I really hope that one day the global community will understand Global Voices.’

I still agree with those notes. You see, at the university, we used to learn the text of US Constitution (American Studies). And while reciting ‘Congress shall make no law…’ we would take ten post-its and write one type of a crucial type of freedom on each (incl. freedom from and to do smth). I  put:

freedom to think, to choose people I live with, to travel, to speak my mind, to eat what I want, to read what I want, to not to practice one religion, to leave my room, to study what I want, to skip a lecture

The teacher would ask us to order them in order of importance. I would put them this way

freedom to choose people I live with (1), to think (less important, 2), to speak my mind (3), to not to practice one religion (4), to read (5), to study (6), to leave room (7), to travel (8), to eat (9) and finally to skip class (10)

Then she would ask us to give her the tenth one and imagine our lives without it. Shit! Going to each and every class for me would be HELL! And even thinking if it hurts. Then she would ask for next one, and the next one…giving us a chance to change priorities. How would you feel if left with only one post-it?

Global Voices is aimed at and not rarely based on people who had to do this exercise in practice, sadly. We all work together and listen to others. We all have our stories of breach of basic human rights. There are also people who do not care about basic human rights. There are people who live of actually disrespecting those. We all know it but not necessarily have to accept it. There are people who spend their lives committing themselves to causes. There are people who cannot do that. Here comes the web, freedom of speech in its best form. And here come its enemies. And…here: then and now comes the opportunity to do something from home. It’s not easy – you might have to spend one more hours blogging, instead of watching evening film, and no one will pay you for it. Yes. But trust me, belonging to Global Voices not only actions actual changes by simple work in front of PC, but it also comes with huge amount of gratitude from the community of people who do the same!

It comes with a lifestyle and changes you for better; for ever; and for everyone just as much as for yourself.