POLSKI
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Prawie na mecie…
Praca. Co myślicie o swojej pracy? Zaczynam się zastanawiać, czy to jest takie polskie, że marudzimy na jej temat? Ja jakoś podświadomie cały czas szukam powodu aby nie lubić mojego stylu pracy – a przecież do jasnej cholery wywalczyłam sobie taką, o jakieś osoba z moim cv i zainteresowaniami może sobie tylko zamarzyć!W zeszłym tygodniu praca poniosła mnie po raz kolejny do Genewy (miałam śliczne kwiaty w oknie hotelowym – fotka powyżej), gdzie mam super klientkę (to bardzo ważne!) a przede wszystkim przyjaciółkę jeszcze z Budapesztu. Gosia przespacerowała się ze mną po starówce, co w Genewie jest doprawdy luksusem, gdyż całe miasto przebudowane pod EU, banki i inne ogromne instytucje jest raczej nieustannie rozkopanym zbiorowiskiem betony, szkła i metalu. A jednak odnalazłyśmy miejsca przypominające nam romantyczny Budapeszt. Zadzwoniłyśmy do koleżanki z Francji, która jest teraz w trudnej sytuacji, pociaszyłyśmy ją i jakoś tak ten czas minął bardzo miło.Brakuje mi takich chwil w domu. Trudno uwierzyć ale ponieważ pracuję z domu a praca polega na nieustannych rozmowach na sieci, to po prostu grozi moim normalnym chwilom. Nie mam czasu na znajomych, nie mam okazji spotkania się z koleżankami a wyjazd do przyjaciółki to luksus.A powinno chyba być odwrotnie, nie?W ogóle jakoś wszystko mnie denerwuje. Im bardziej sie dystansuję od komercjalnej strony naszego życia, tym bardziej razi mnie stan, w jakim obecnie żyjemy. Nie zbieramy kwiatów, gdyż są pod ochroną. Nie pozwalamy dzieciom biegać nago w fotannie, bo ktoś może je “przytulić”, “oglądać”. Nie rozpoznajemy się na ulicy, chyba że pod domem lub szkołą. Nie zapraszamy się do domów.Przepraszam, mam dziś dołek, bo jestem chora i jest podła pogoda – taki ciemny jesienny dzień – a ja jeszcze nie mogę się pogodzić z faktem, iż w Sainsbury’m wystawiono na półkę bożonarodzeniowe słodycze! Takie drobiazgi totalnie mnie wyprowadzają z równowagi! I co ja mam powiedzieć dziecku? Martwi mnie to, bo cały czar Świąt zanika, ginie tradycja – jedna z niewielu jakie mamy w tym kraju. Przeciez Święta możnaby obchodzić tak jak ślub księcia! Przecież nasze dzieci już teraz mają problemy z kompasem wartości!Postanowiłam, że nie będę wchodzić do sklepów spożywczych, ani też innych łancuchów. Na szczęście mam w Wantage sklepy charity, sklep indyjski i kilka czarujących miejsc, o których powinnam tu napisać. A zakupy robię od dziś na sieci i na rynku. Muszę ochronić życie mojej rodziny oraz własne zdrowe podejście do życia, choć trochę nadal czuję się bezradna….Mam ochotę zamknąć się w domu i nigdzie nie wychodzić! -
Jesień!
Magdy blog jest śliczny, taki domowy i osobisty! Brakuje mi już takich blogów, choć bardzo lubie co piszą Polki w Anglii. Muszę tu dodać kilka linków, poczytać jak już będę miała czas… A obecnie uciekam przed podłym nastrojem i chowam się…w liściach. Mam czas w drodze do i ze szkoły… Od malutkiej dziewczynki zawsze kochałam las, zapach ziemi, kwiaty, a jesień była moją ulubioną porą roku. Teraz wracam do tej małej dziewczynki i cieszę się wraz z synem z każdego małego skarbu znalezionego na drodze – liść, owoc głogu, kasztan, kwaśne jabłko…jak mali odkrywcy zosimy to wszystko do domu. Jest mokre, więc suszymy i odstawiamy do koszyka. Dziś Dawid powiedział, że kocha wiatr! Lubie, jak tak mówi. Dziś po szkole idziemy do parku, bo nasz kasztan w ogrodzie chory i nie ma wielu owoców! Będziemy robić figurki z zapałek i skarbów przyrody. I mam gdzieś jak mi jakaś laska powie, że zabawa z zapałkami jest niebezpieczna. Mam to po prostu w d…:) Cieszę się, że jest jesień. Zapach mokrej ziemi mnie uspakaja…Choć chciałabym prosić o odrobinkę słońca na zabicie moich podłych nastrojów. -
W szoku…
Nadal jestem jeszcze w szoku po wczorajszej wiadomości, iż chłopak mojej przyjaciółki miał poważny wypadek na motorze i leży w szpitalu. A ona czeka na wiadomości w domu, z dzieckiem…Od powrotu z Włoch udało mi się zachować spokój i harmonię, nawet z trzema osobami w domu podczas moich godzin pracy…ale teraz jestem poważnie zaniepokojona. W piątek wracam z Genewy i jadę ją odwiedzić.Ten kwiat to tak dla niej. x -
Słońce
Będąc we Włoszech marudziłam, że jest za ciepło – choć w sumie to tylko wizja pogryzionych przez komary stópek mojego synka tak mnie przerażała – natomiast dziś brak mi słońca. Może to taki dzień? Może tylko muszę się przystosować do lokalnego klimatu?Dziś ogród jest mokry i ciemny, choć powiem Wam, że ziemia pachnie prześlicznie a kwiaty cieszą się ilością wody. Jak na fotografii – jest mniej światła, a więcej żywych kolorów…Siedzimy z dzieckiem w domu, więc czuję się lekko odcieta od świata i unikam prasy. Cieszę się wraz z Libią, ale wolę nie myśleć o innych krajach, nawet o tym naszym…uciekam od polityki, gdyż zaczyna ona dotykac wolności słowa i dostępu do informacji i bardzo mnie to martwii. Wydaję mi się, że wróciłam do bardzo znanego mi z przeszłości kraju…nie tego nowego “kraju obiecanego”, lepszego z wyboru. Walczę z ochotą ucieczki do “innego”, bardziej świadomego i wolnego, cieplejszego kraju.Gapię się w słoneczniki, które chłopcy mi przynieśli i oddycham wolniej, spokojniej. Gapię się w opuchnięte deszczem dachy. Słucham ospałych ptaków. Zapominam o granicach i systemach, choćby na chwilkę.Swoją drogą to ciekawe, jak nam zawsze wydaję się, że w “innym” kraju będzie lepiej. -
Ogrody, do których piękna nie mogę się jeszcze przyzwyczaić
Mieszkam w Anglii od kilku lat. Wynajmuję mieszkanie w małym miasteczku w okolicach Oksfordu w kompleksie domów dzielących się przepięknym ogrodem i mimo, iż widzę ten ogród z okna kilka razy dziennie, to nadal nie mogę się przyzwyczaić do jego piękna.
W chwili obecnej nadrabiam zaległości z kilku tygodni pobytu we Włoszech, więc jestem dosłownie przyklejona do ekranu mojego laptopa. Brak mi zieleni, ciszy oraz słońca coraz bardziej. Raz, dwa razy dziennie uciekam na trawę, gdzie sięga moje wifi, ale odgłosy natury są tak śliczne, że nie za bardzo moge się skupić.
Uciekam więc na kawę do domu, przy biurku lub barze kuchennym. Z ogrodem w sercu i głowie zasiadam do komputera… -
WOŚP Facebook app – interview
I have asked Dawid Pacha, who worked on WOSP Facebook app to tell me more about the background of it. WOSP is in my opinions the largest non-profit movement in Poland, I feel strongly about it so I really welcome this particular app. First you will be asked to choose the amount:
Then leave a comment if you want:
Syl: Tell me more about the app and how it works, what it aims to achieve.
Dawid: The Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity (Polish Wielka Orkiestra Świątecznej Pomocy, WOŚP) is one of the biggest, non-governmental, non-profit, charity organizations in Poland. The main event happens on the 9th of January 2011 this year. Facebook app that we deliver is part of the movement behind WOŚP. Our app is available at http://apps.facebook.com/wielka_orkiestra/. It enables users of Facebook to donate money on WOŚP. Because WOŚP is famous for the red, heart-shaped stickers they give away to the people who donated the money on the street, we thought that it would be a great idea to continue this tradition on Facebook – every person who will support WOŚP on Facebook will be able to publish a virtual sticker on their Wall.
Syl: What was your input in it? Why did you decide to donate your time?
Dawid: the Facebook application was created in cooperation of Filemon and Baucis, MITU and WebAngel. Michał Juda and Jasiek Stasz (Filemon and Baucis) contacted WOŚP and offered to develop an app last year. As a pioneer, Michał got the privilege to run the project again this year. This time with us (MITU and our fantastic hosting provider WebAngel). It was developed from the scratch. We are really excited that we could help. I think I speak for all of us by saying that we belive online communites are the best place for that sort of actions.
Syl: What are the initial reactions? How do you promote it?
Dawid: The app is up and running, but our experience indicates that the popularity is to come with the actual event on 9th of January. The app will become viral through the hearts published in Newsfeeds.
Syl: What are your KPI’s for the time of the actual WOSP event?
Dawid: 40 000 PLN was donated through the app last year. This year we would love to make this much bigger. That is why we keep our fingers crossed and we are looking for you guys to support it:). We warmly invite everybody to donate. Remember that by publishing the WOŚP heart on your Profile Page you help us to distribute the news and become the ambassador on Facebook of this great movement.
Syl: Thank you!
So go on, click and donate!🙂 I did!
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Transparency Projects in Poland
As we are experiencing the autumn in the UK I start to think about Barcamp Transparency UK planned for the 4th of December. The Technology for Transparency research is slowly finishing and I have two interviews I would like to share with you.
First one is short, a concise update of Sejmometr.pl – polish portal dedicated to the presentation of legislative work of our government in an accessible, digestible way. It lives its most interesting days, as in 10 days the new version of the portal is about to launch. Jakub Górnicki, my GV fellow, happens to work for the project as their spokesman, so here is what I have learned from him.
View=22573Earlier this month I have talked to Anna Czyżewska from Art91.pl – NGO behind MamPrawoWiedziec.pl [I have the right to know.pl], another portal ‘translating’ the publicly available information to the public and promoting civic engagement. This interview is in Polish, so if you do not speak the language, please be patient – in few days time, I will link to the translated interview published on Technology for Transparency Network. I am really happy to see both projects now before I attend TransparencyCamp in Poland in November. Great stuff!
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Blogger Interview – Dawid Pacha
And just when I ‘threatened you’ with a little bit of Polish, here is a little bit more from my homeland. My fellow social media specialist, Dawid Pacha, has agreed to spend few minutes of his very busy life to respond to my questions – remember my reasons for conducting blogger interview? I am excited about the various motivations of people to share their lives on-line and the unpredictable magic in how blogging sometimes changes our life. It changed mine enormously, so I want to see if other bloggers share my experiences. Let’s see what Dawid says:) Enjoy!
Sylwia: Hi Dawid, thank you very much for agreeing to respond to my questions:) How did you get involved in social media?
Dawid: The Internet and computer geeks are still wrongly recognized as antisocial and closed individuals. I was always been perceived as a people person. Social Media is a way for me to connect with other like-minded persons. It stopped to be only a hobby a few years ago when I started working on my first startup, then I decided to dedicate my MA Thesis to Social Networking Sites and started working in a Social Media Marketing Agency.
Sylwia: Do we really live in social media galaxy?Dawid: The Social Media Galaxy is a term I coined in the reference to Marshall McLuhan’s ‘Gutenberg Galaxy’ and Manuell Castell’s ‘Internet Galaxy’. They both stated that technologies connected people around the world. In the first
Dawid: The Social Media Galaxy is a term I coined in the reference to Marshall McLuhan’s ‘Gutenberg Galaxy’ and Manuell Castell’s ‘Internet Galaxy’. They both stated that technologies connected people around the world. In the first case these were mass media, especially printing press and in the second one the internet. However in my opinion technology is essential, but not the only factor. We had some of these technologies in 90’s and we weren’t that much connected. Social Media is more about the user than the technology. People changed their attitude to privacy, the amount of time they spend on the computer, they began to be more interactive, more trustful. It’s a phenomenon and a whole new universe.
Sylwia: Where are your presences on-line? Which is your sun, and what are the planets?
Dawid: You must refer to my Social Media Galaxy;) Sun used to by my Twitter profile, but now Facebook account becomes the biggest star as it is my identity on the web, whenever I comment on blog posts sign up to a new service I use the Facebook Connect. My planets would be other Social Networking Services like Esgieh.pl (my own startup), Goldenline and Linkedin and blogs like SocialMedia.pl where I share knowledge on the new technologies and their impact on us, brands and economy. My Earth is my home page where I try to do some blogging every now and then and I aggregate most of my activities around the Social Web.Sylwia: Tell us more about your studies of social media. When you started to learn more about it, did you have access to its Polish terminology?
Dawid: I started reading a lot about the Social Media, especially about Social Networking Sites in 2006. During the last year, I’ve been trying to translate this Social Media phenomenon to the academic language. I am doing my PhD on Crowdsourcing. So if anybody would be eager to share some research I would be very thankful. Anyway, the terminology is pretty different when used by marketers and different at the university community. I don’t like the simplified versions of the former, not the stricter set of terms of the latter, so I try to stay in between.Sylwia: How would you describe the current state of social media in Poland?
Dawid: Polish market is very specific. We have strong brands that compete with global ones. All I hear during Social Media related events is Facebook, at the same time Nasza Klasa has 5 times as big active users (10 million). One may say we are far away from the western countries in adoption of Social Media technologies because we don’t tweet too much, Polish competitors on this market aren’t too strong as well. On the other hand, Polish Wikipedia is very advanced. Our Market is very diversified and fragmented, mainly because there is a lot of Internet users and we speak in a specific language that encourages our start ups to target national audience only. Global brands are often too late with translating their services into Polish.Sylwia: According to recently published statistics, Facebook is catching up with Nasza-Klasa. Can you tell us more about the Polish social network and what you think 2010 will look like for those two sites in Poland?
Dawid: Facebook is catching up but it is still only David in comparison to Goliat (nasza-klasa.pl). However in terms, if media citation I guess Facebook wins;). I think Facebook will be gaining this year in relation to NaszaKlasa, but will not reach as big audience because it is still too advanced for the average user.Sylwia: Slightly different question: there is still a lot of discussion around Internet censorship, proposed legislation in Poland and we start to see TOR mentioned as well. What is your view on it?
Dawid: I think it all started when the identity of a famous political blogger was revealed to the public by a newspaper. The level of comments under articles on big publisher’s sites like Gazeta or Interia started to be an issue last summer. I believe that the freedom of the Internet should be protected and I support these people.Sylwia: You work in social media marketing (@spolem). How does it affect your private interest in social media? Do you/Can you separate the private and the professional?
Dawid: I’m taking the engagement approach, meaning that I spent part of my time taking part in marketing related discussions on the Internet. Sometimes it is really difficult to separate my professional comments from the private ones. However, in the end, I guess this is a great way to make new connections in comparison to the old one, which was going out to fancy parties with free food and open bar for marketers.Sylwia: Can you mention three bloggers/social media theorists who inspire you the most?
Dawid: I would definitely mention Jeremiah Owyang, Brian Solis and maybe Steve Rubel.Sylwia: Did blogging change your life?
Dawid: Definitely. It forced me to rethink some ideas and concepts and makes me feel like I contribute at least a little bit to this World Wide Web.Sylwia: What are your plans for near future?
Dawid: My plans are to grow and manage the Internet community around Warsaw School of Economics at esgieh.pl. I also want to put much more effort into my blogging. In the meantime, I am running a few project called Social Media Papers. It will be a user-submitted directory of resources to papers like reports, ebooks, presentations, white papers, all related to social media.Sylwia: Would you like to share anything else with us?Dawid: Thanks Sylwia for the interview. To our readers: join me in the discussion, if you have anything you would like to know about Polish Internet or would like to discuss Social Media in general just drop me a line. You can find my Social Media profiles and email address on my private home page.Sylwia: Thank you, Dawid!:) -
Social media ethics – my personal view
I have just noticed that some of my friends in Poland are joining this fan page. As it pops out here and there I decided to click through with the intention to join it and have a look around. However, the first view of the page welcomed me with an invitation to a contest in which all I have to do is join the page to get the chance to win a set of nice cosmetics.This is how the FB fan page opens:
You see, I do not know how about you, but I am allergic to traditional PR. I simply think I do not want to be convinced to join a page, at least not this way. Additionally, I have a very, very bad habit of not raging against the flow which results in stubborn, very often the foolish reaction of ignoring the source of that type of encouragement – I say foolish, as I tend to me so emotional, I do not check the content of the site. Simple move on. But am I right? How do you feel if your social network send you a reminder saying ‘you have not visited this site for a while, what are you up to?’ What does the term ‘in your face promotion’ mean to you? Do let me know, I feel old-fashioned and over sensitive sometimes. So far I did not come across good argument against my approach so as long as it’s not challenged, I will keep on ignoring, keep on not joining, keep on moving on. -
Keeping it light
I had a very interesting discussion with @cornerthemarket yesterday about the tonality of our blogs, why we blog and how we keep them personal but still try to follow the main line of the site. You see, this one is dedicated to social media, activism and arts (arts simply because it’s part of my life, and I think one or two photos time to time, or mentioning of an exhibition helps me to ensure the content is not too ‘heavy’), but recently evolved, and I think it’s moving towards my Polish one, very personal journal.It might be because I am considering moving all my blogs to one, self-hosted domain, or maybe because my life is evolving too. Because I work in social media marketing I tend to spend a lot of time discussing topics related to work and my private interest in social media very often co-exist and complement each other. Now, working on WOM Experts Panels, I talk to extremely interesting people from all around the globe and constantly share insights into their and my region, which contributes to my understanding of the space. However I also run the risk of ‘thinking geeek’ all day so I thought I’d share with you few sites I use to loosen up a bit, and take a time off ‘serious thinking’ – but still in a geeky way.
First of all ICanHasCheesburger – I do not know if someone wrote a study about the reasons behind geeks falling in love with cats, but there is a strong dependency there, and this portal brings the best of it – always offering a funny moment or two. Actually, the more I read it, the funnier it gets! There is the Simon’s Cat, currently active on Facebook due to the release of its book version (can’t wait to order it myself). There is the Savage Chickens blog.
And the always reliable Popjam, where Seven Legged Spider is still the best of ‘all time’. Yesterday I met Rachel, who is posting on Quotes from the Street – a very good one, which also made me look back at Overheard in New York. Gapingvoid is my eternal source of wisdom when it comes to life philosophy of a social media fan, enthusiast, professional – whatever term you want to use. Blogus Pospolitus is the source of fun in Polish edition for me. But all of those, managed carefully (read: daily newsletter for instance) bring a lot of lightness to all those heavy geeky and social topics. Enjoy and let me know if you find another rich source of everyday happiness!
