This nonsense has moved.

Bloggling now mostly happening over on Medium.

That's some serious blogging man

I think I may be just about on the cusp of the verge of the edge of almost getting back into this blogging lark. Possibly.

But a new, more serious, attitude to said bloggage is required. So, I'm contemplating a new home for Mind Bloggling. Probably on Wordpress. With proper hosting. And a vanity url. Serious s**t.

Watch this space. And then watch that (new) space.

In the meantime, I can be found blogging about creativity for IRISS's Creative Quarter.

And I recently wrote this for 23 Librarians.

I am creative!

My team has two main objectives, the first, being to “foster a belief that we are all creative and that creativity has a role to play in our work”.

Which means that on a daily basis I’m talking to colleagues about creativity, explaining why we need to be more creative as an organisation, encouraging them to try new ways of doing/looking at things…blah, blah, blah, etc.

But this also needs to be about modelling behaviours and I’ve been conscious for a while that I may not be as good as I could be at taking my own medicine. I’ve got a bit stuck in my own ways of doing things. And I don’t push myself out of my comfort zone very often.

So - inspired by a load of stuff, not least this blog; a conversation with Alison Williams and reading BITE, the book she co-edited; and this IRISS project – I thought, how about setting myself a daily creativity challenge? And I thought. And I thought. And I thought some more. And then I thought, if I tell Twitter I’m doing it, then it'll have to happen! So I put this on Twitter last night.

I think I may just have talked myself into a 'do something creative *every* day' type challenge. Anyone want to join me? #iamcreative
— Lesley Thomson (@lelil) April 1, 2014

And, serendipitously, today I find myself with a bit of spare time that I wasn’t due to have.

So here’s what I’m thinking. Every day, I will do something creative. And I’ll share it on this Tumblr and on Twitter (hashtag #iamcreative). I may post some stuff here. I’ll also post on our Yammer network.

Other than that, there will be no rules. I’m not going to further define ‘something creative’. It might be something very obviously work related; it might not. Some days it might be something very small; other days it might be something big and dramatic!  It could be small c creativity; or big C creativity (very unlikely!); or something in between.

 

I will try very hard to do something every day, but I’m sure I’ll miss days here and there. I'm not committing to 365 days, or anything like that - if it begins to feel like a chore, I’ll stop.

 

If this tickles your fancy, why don't you join me :-) ?

A post about *not* being at UKGovcamp

I wasn't at UKGovcamp 2014 on Saturday. I should have been. I should have been talking about 'digital stuff in government'. As a 'Campmaker', I should have been helping on the registration desk. And in the cloakroom. And live blogging and timekeeping. And doing other helpful stuff.

But I wasn't. Cus I wusnae well.



You buy this card from here

Funny thing is, I'm not sad. I was too ill on the day to really care, but I thought that once I felt better I would be gutted to have missed it. I wasn't. I thought it would upset me to read all the tweets and blogs and stuff after the event. It didn't.

So what's that all about? I'm not sure to be honest. It probably has something to do with the way I'm feeling about the d word at the moment (see previous blog post). I decided a while back that I didn't want to organise any more Scotgovcamps. I've even ditched Highteacamp. But I hadn't realised that I'd fallen out of love with govcamps completely.

Let's be clear. It's not the format. No way, Jose. It's not the people. Nope. I still think unconferences are brilliant. As are the folk that go to them and the folk that organise them (they are especially brilliant!). I think it's more about not feeling that I have anything to contribute to the 'digital in government' discussion anymore. And, to be brutally honest, a lack of interest in much of that discussion.

Anyway, I just wish I'd realised that this was how I felt before I booked my ticket for UKGovcamp. Then somebody more deserving could have gone along. I feel bad about that. All I can say is, if I hadn't been unwell, I'd have been there, blogging and tweeting and helping my little socks off. Athough, I guess my heart may not have been in it.

Ain't gonna be no social media guru no more

It's that time of year again. Time to get angsty about all that stuff I've not achieved since this time last year. And about all that stuff I want to achieve (but know I won't) before this time next year.



Guru Adi Shankara

So, here I am, right on time for my annual angst about blogging. Or, more accurately, about not blogging. Blogging is a very good thing. That's not up for discussion. When I'm doing it, I find it a great way to get stuff out of my head, to clarify my thinking, to get feedback on ideas, to start discussions. And I've spent a lot of time over the past few years encouraging (some might say, 'nagging') people to blog, so I feel like a complete hypocrite when I'm not doing it myself.

I've not blogged properly for over six months. There are several reasons for that. I'm working on those right now and hope to start writing more about what I'm doing soon. In the meantime, to get me back on the blogging pony, I thought the least I could do is say something about what I'm not doing.

Social media, digital engagement, digital communications. None of that stuff has been part of any job description I've ever had. I started out on my social media journey because I was intrigued by this shiny new way of using t'internet to connect with people. I could see ways of using it to support things I wanted to do: for my own professional development, but also to deliver policy outcomes.

As an enthusiastic early adopter and advocate, I got involved in supporting colleagues on their own social media journeys. In recent years I've helped develop policies, guidance and training for my organisation and elsewhere. I've acquired a bit of a reputation for being a 'social media guru'. Yes, I hate the term too, but if I had a fiver for every time someone has referred to me as such, I'd be able to retire. Again, none of this appeared in my job description and a lot of it was done in my own time.

In my current role, which I've been in for a year now, I'm tasked with helping to create the conditions for creativity to flourish in my organisation. That includes supporting colleagues to think about issues and problems in new ways, spreading good practice, testing new approaches to policy development, (eg design thinking) and so on.

Now, you know me, I'm not a "I'm not doing that. It's not my job!" kinda gal. But. Still. There are two of us in the team. We have many ongoing projects. Lots of people want to work with us. There are only so many hours in the week. So there has to be some focus to what I spend my time on. It's getting increasingly difficult for me to justify spending time helping people 'do' social media.

Bit harsh? Well...

• While social media is no doubt acting as a catalyst of change, I think it’s time to start moving away from regarding it is something all of it's own and not as a means to an end.
• By now government should really be using social media as part of day to day business. Setting up a Twitter account as another way to punt out your press releases isn't really a 'creative approach' to government communications.
• I'm a bit tired of having the same conversations over and over again, tbh. Somebody else is going to have to deal with the refuseniks.
• We now have people in the organisation that have 'digital engagement' or 'social media management' in their job descriptions. We have a Digital Strategy for Scotland and a whole Directorate to deliver it.
• I'm not using social media much myself at the moment. See hypocrite comment above.
• And I can't do this stuff in my own time anymore. That's time that's now taken up with my MSc studies.

So, if you want to rethink how you engage with people; or how to put people at the centre of your service re-design, I'm your woman. But if you come to me wanting to know how to set up a Twitter account, I will send you packing.

Well, I won't. I'm far too nice for that. But I will ask you to come back with a better question.

Identity crisis

Contrary to the impression that you currently might get from this here bloggity blog, I have actually been blogging. Yes indeed. I have been blogging over here and also over here.

I've been blogging for my MSc. But in a closed space (only viewable to my tutor). Which was a bit weird.

And right now, my current role has an internal focus and it hasn't really felt appropriate to blog here about much of what I've been doing.

So, for that reason and because I am blogging more in other spaces, I probably need to have a rethink what this particular blog is 'for'.

I'll get back to you.

songs of me

Argh! I. Was. So. Not. Going. To. Do. This. When I first came across Six Songs of Me, I thought, no way! Six songs?! I've had four decades (yes, I really am that old) of listening to awesome music! How the hell can I sum up my life in six songs?! Six?! 

And not just any old six songs, oh no, but one song for a specific period or event in your life. I didn't like all of the questions either (eg I can remember the first album I bought, but not the first song), so when the lovely Janet Davis set her own additional questions, I thought about it all over again. And again, thought, no way.

But here I am, trying to sum myself up in six songs. Why now? Well, Mr The Buddster's recent cracking post about taking up the challenge made me think about it all over again. And like Graham, I thought it might be nice to blog about something that isn't work/study/professional development related. Can I blog for pleasure?

Janet's questions don't completely work for me either. So I thought I'd use a combination of some of the Guardian's six, some of Janet's and a couple of my own.

So here goes...

1. Which song is most likely to bring a tear to your eye (or to make you weep copiously)?
There are so many. I cry at pretty much anything these days. About half of Radiohead's back catalogue for a start. But Love Will Tear Us Apart has been makin' ma greet since 1979.

 
2. Which song always gets you dancing?
Again, there are loads - it doesn't take much to get boogying. But the one that's been around the longest would have to be The Cult's She Sells Sanctuary. Used to go completely mad to this song at school discos (having no idea back then what the song was about, obviously!). It's still guaranteed to get me on the dance floor. It aint pretty though. If you're in my vicinity when Billy Duffy's quasi-psychedelic guitar intro kicks off - best get well out of the way.

3. Which song reminds you how awesome the internet is?
I was - still am - a big fan of Scottish indie music in the 80s and early 90s. Hipsway, The Thieves, Win, Goodbye Mr Mackenzie, Pearlfishers, The Silencers, The Big Dish, The Bluebells, Danny Wilson, The Trash Can Sinatras, Orange Juice, Simple Minds (the good stuff!): these were the bands that provided the soundtrack to my teens and early twenties. I was a wee bit obsessed with Win's U Got The Power (Scots of a certain age may well remember the ace Escher inspired McEwans lager advert it was the soundtrack for). My friend's big brother had the album (Uh! Tears Baby) on vinyl and taped it for me. But, at some point I lost it. Tracking down a copy was pretty much the first thing I did when I discovered the internet!

4. Which song reminds you of a memorable live performance?
This would have to be Hugh Reed and the Velvet Underpants' Six To Wan. My friend's band The Something Apples (which is what they were called when the gig started, but they were forever changing their name and I think they may have changed it again during this gig) supported Hugh at Drummonds in Aberdeen in 1993. They were pure dead brilliant, so they were. We got very drunk with the band after the gig and they ended up back at our shared house where we got even drunker on tequila slammers. I had one of the worst hangovers of my life the day after. Doesn't seem to have affected them too much though as they went on to support Debbie Harry later that year. Hugh is still touring, I think - well worth catching him if you can.

5. When you’re angry, on which song do you want to turn up the volume?
Well, I don't really do 'angry'. Too lazy. But I do like to turn the music up when I need a bit of a motivational 'boost' - if I have a pile of ironing to do, or need to phone my credit card company, that sort of thing. That'd have to be The Cardiac's This Is The Life. It's a veritable aural kick up the a***!

6. What song helped get you through a difficult time?
I spent a lot of my last year at school listening to Horse's The Same Sky. Which was another C90 copied from a friend! I bought my own copy when I started uni and moved into halls of residence. I was gutted when I got back to my room, stuck it into my faithful old tape player, and silence. I took it back to John Menzies. They played it on the shop sound system and it was fine, but they gave me another copy anyway. Fortunately that one played fine. I didn't much enjoy my first year at university and this album helped get me through it. There's not a dud track on it (and I was lucky enough to see Horse perform the whole album live during her Same Sky tour in 2010) but You Could Be Forgiven is possibly just about my favourite.

So there we go. I actually enjoyed doing that. And, dammit, now that I've started thinking about significant songs, I don't want to stop. So look out for part 2!

It's UKGovCamp Jim! But not as we know it!

This time last week (Thursday morning) I was on the train to London. There was no snow when I left home but it certainly got whiter the further south I went. There was a fair bit of the cold stuff around in London when I arrived. And, heck, it just kept snowing.

snowy South Bank

I’d traveled down to the big smoke mainly for UKGovCamp* - due to take place on the Saturday. But it got cancelled! A difficult decision for the organisers to have to make, but no doubt the right one. I’m used to weather stopping play. But it amused me (in a wry sort of way) that I’d traveled the furthest distance to attend only for the event to be cancelled because of rubbish weather in/near London. 

Anyway, after some online chatter about whether the event could still go ahead in a virtual format, it was decided that, actually, there could still be a face to face get together of sorts, as Lloyd Davis explains on his blog. So the shout went out that an un-unconference henceforth hashtagged #altukgc13 [Or #ukgc13b, or possibly both. The hashtag situation got a bit confused and I think the streams may even have crossed at one point!] would go ahead on Saturday, on the 5^th floor of the Royal Festival Hall. The news was greeted enthusiastically by those of us already in London and those hardy types keen to attempt a journey into the capital despite the conditions. 

By the time I got to the South Bank Centre at about 11am on the Saturday morning, there were a few campers there and Lloyd had got the introductions going. The intros continued and we each had the opportunity to suggest topics we wanted to discuss. We were a fairly small group to start with – more mini-campers appeared as the day wore on. And indeed, not everyone stayed for the whole day. I don’t think anyone was counting, but there must have been 20-25 of us there at some point during the day. We stayed in the one group until after lunch, by which time we were in sufficient numbers to split into two.

A valiant attempt was made to live stream at least some of the discussions. This was appreciated by those following at home, but the logistics started to ‘interrupt the conversational flow a bit’ and we had to make a plea for patience to the folks at home :)

Puffles holding court

So to the discussions. [I didn’t take detailed notes during these sessions, sorry, but those that were filmed are available on YouTube.] We talked about:

• civil servants and social media (yes, that old chestnut!)
• open data
• digital by default and digital inclusion – which inspired @Puffles2010’s bestest buddy to write on the topic
• influencing stakeholders
• tools as solutions to problems currently dealt with by public (or private) sector by facilitating community self-organisation
• diversity of speakers at tech events [a session that inspired Mary McKenna to write this blog post and also to offer to hold career counselling sessions at GovCamp proper when it happens.

So, did it work? Most definitely. In addition to the actual discussions on the day, #altukgc13 was an opportunity to refine some of those sessions that had already been proposed for UKGovCamp proper. And new session ideas emerged. The space worked really well. The wifi was pretty stable throughout the day and the very pleasant classical** soundtrack created a certain ambience. Can’t complain about the coffee and cake either. And those tuning in from home were able to contribute to the discussions. Kudos to Lloyd (@lloyddavis) and James (@jacatell) for making it all happen! And to everyone who battled the weather to turn up!

On a more personal level, I also had a really good chat over lunch with the guys behind LibraryCamp – Sue Lawson (@shedsue) and Richard Veevers (@richardveevers). So, continue to watch this space for news on the first LibraryCampScotland!

On a slightly less positive note: having just got the hang of explaining to people what an 'unconference' is, I now have to find a way to explain an 'un-unconference'!

And. It wasn’t UKGovCamp. The date for the rescheduled event has yet to be announced. I do hope I can make it.

* I was down for other stuff as well, but that'll have to wait for another post

** don’t ask me to be more specific, it’s not my area of musical expertise

Kicking it in 2013: Part 2

Herewith my second goal post of 2013. (Part 1: goals one - five)

um, another goal post

Goal six - not worry about what Mr Phil Jewitt calls 'life leak'

I've written before about not really minding the increasingly blurry lines between personal and work. Recent frustrations on the work front made me re-evaluate that a bit. I was getting to the point where I did just want to do my day and forget all about work immediately on leaving the building. Couldn't do it though. I get inspiration for what I do at work from all sorts of places. Stuff I do out of work develops me as a person, which in turn, makes me more effective at work. It's not for everyone, but it works for me and I'm not going to worry about it.

Was just about to hit the publish button when someone tweeted a link to this post by Gareth Morgan, Assistant Chief Constable Local Policing for Warwickshire Police and West Mercia Police. Go and read it, I'll wait 'till you get back. Good stuff, eh?

Goal seven - do some stuff I'm scared off

Probably not lava surfing or shark wrestling, but I do want to venture out of my comfort zone a bit more. An example is video. I hate - absolutely loathe - being filmed and I've no desire to be behind the camera. But, video is such an important medium for so much of what I do, I really, really, need to make an effort with it. T'other 'alf is a film-maker and it seems a shame not to take advantage of his expertise! 

Audio comes into this category as well. Never really got into podcasts and the sound of my recorded voice makes me squirm. But, like video, there may be occasions when it's the most appropriate medium of communication for what I'm trying to do/audience I'm trying to reach.

Goal eight - be more adventurous with my shoe wearing

bought myself these for Christmas :)

I've been seeing the word 'empathy' all over the place recently. I particularly like this post: 'Fitness trainer gains and loses 70 pounds in 1 year - on purpose'. 

I think I'm generally a nice person. I try to see all sides of an issue. But it is easier to be empathic towards those people whose ideas agree with mine. This one is kinda related to goal three. Some of those occasions where I've not communicated as well as I'd liked may have been down to a lack of empathy on my part. True empathy means learning to put aside a life time of cultural conditioning. That takes a lot of practice. If you're lacking in empathy, you're likely to misread what is transpiring in a situation and misunderstand the intentions of others. So, it's about asking 'am I saying or doing it in a way in which the other person will be most responsive to hearing and listening to me?'

Goal nine - finish stuff

I'm notoriously bad at starting stuff but not following through. Blog posts, projects, conversations get started but flounder and don't go anywhere. That's fine up to a point - a lot of the stuff that doesn't get finished probably doesn't deserve to be - but it's not a very efficient use of my time. When something piques my interest, I should be asking myself 'can really I add something here?'. If not, I should - as Jeff Jarvis would say - 'do what you do best and link to the rest' and maybe tweet a link and move on.

Goal ten - to be confirmed

Open to suggestions... ;)

Kicking it in 2013: Part 1

Never one to miss a bandwagon, I thought I'd get my blog back on with some goal setting. Goals, not resolutions, mind. Important distinction :) I wouldn't normally bother. For me, the 1 January thing usually feels a bit arbitrary (eg for work purposes, the start of the new financial year can be a more appropriate time to review and re-evaluate). But I do have lots of new stuff kicking off right about now, so it works for me this year. So here are some things I'd like to get a handle on in 2013:

Murrayfield: where my favourite goal posts of 2012 could be found :)

Goal one - be more organised

This is not a 'nice to have', it's an absolute necessity. I mentioned in my last post that 2013 was going to be a bit busy. Well, when I wrote that post I didn't know that I'd also be kicking off an MSc in Elearning (soon to be renamed 'Digital Education') this month. I used to be really good at organising my time. I worked full time while I studied for my LIS post-grad and also held down a part-time job. And I can't remember my social life suffering much. That was all down to time management*. Not sure what happened, but it's something I've got very lax about over recent years. Stuff has still got done - but I'm not sure quite how in some cases.

I'm aware that 'be more organised' is a bit vague (and about as far from being SMART as one could possibly get). I need to think it through a bit more (see goal four). Probably warrants a blog post all of it's own.

Goal two - knock my social media use into shape

Part of succeeding with goal numero uno, I think, will involve more focused use of social media. Erika Anderson - reacting to J. Maureen Henderson‘s recent post on Forbes, three reasons you should quit social media - lists three pretty sensible ways to do that:

1. Make social media serve you: decide what you want to get out of social media and use it only for that purpose.
2. Guard against zoning out: if you’re using social media for hours of daily pacification, you should probably turn off the computer and do something else!
3. Vet new tools before putting them in your toolkit.

I think I'm already pretty good at 1 and 3, but 2 is an issue for me.

Goal three - don't take things so personally

I kinda like this from Tony Dowling: "Everyone lies, everyone has an agenda and, ultimately, everyone will disappoint you" [the whole post: These things I know, is worth a read]. A bit harsh maybe, but managing your expectations of people allows you to deal with them better. Being aware that everything has a background and context, should enable me to be more open to the opportunities that present themselves, and more wary of potential slip ups. This is also about remembering that 'message transmitted is not necessarily the same as message received'! I need to ensure that the people I'm talking to (in whatever context) know what I'm talking about. I don't think I've been as good at that as I could be. There's also an element of being better at taking responsibility for myself and my actions. It's not someone else’s fault that I've failed at something. That one single thought can be so destructive. 

Goal four - make time for thinking things through

Another pearl of wisdom from Tony Dowling: "The only truth you can achieve is truth you achieve through intellectualisation". This one is inspired by a post from Phil Jewitt. I've had an ongoing struggle with being reflective (see previous blog posts :)). But, as Phil says: "you can’t do more with less. You can be smarter with less and do less better, but more for less just won’t go. Thing is, if you keep piling it on there is less doing time, but more importantly less thinking time; mistakes are made, things get forgotten, stuff won’t happen". If that means actually 'doing' less, then so be it.

Reflection is part of the assessment criteria for my course, so that's another reason to be giving it some serious attention! 

Goal five - begin designing my life

Know where I am, where I want to be and how I'm going to get there. There probably needs to be a plan. And bench marking and plotting of improvements and such. The new job is partly about using design thinking to make my organisation more creative and innovative and, inspired by this post from Tim Brown, I can see where it might help at a more personal level: "We can have a sense of purpose without deluding ourselves that we can predict every outcome in advance, for this is the space of creativity. We can blur the distinction between the final product and the creative process that got us there. We can learn how to take joy in the things we create. We can work within the constraints of our own natures—and still be agile, build capabilities, iterate. We can conduct experiments, make discoveries, change our perspectives."

OK, I'm going to stop there. I think there are additional goals I want to add, but, with goal one in mind, I allocated myself a specific amount of time to write this post and I'm now out of time. Hence this is 'part one'.


* I got by on a lot less sleep back then. That may also have helped...

Getting back on board the blogging bus

I've had a rather frustrating couple of years on the professional front. The details aren't really important, suffice to say, there's been a lot of 'dealing' with disappointment. The last six months in particular have been a bit grim, a knock on effect being the almost complete drying up of my social media activity.

But things are looking up. I'm about to start a - potentially very exciting - new job and I'm feeling more positive generally. So, I'm easing myself back into Twitter and I'm hoping to get properly back on the blogging bus in the new year. I haven't had 'the talk' with my new line manager yet, so I don't know how much I'll be able to say about what I'm doing. [NB. This is not about abandoning #jfdi! It's not about asking permission, more about starting off on the right footing. :)] I'm fairly confident that the nature of the post means that the team will be keen for me to share. Watch this space!

In the meantime, my 'extra-curricular' activities are bubbling away nicely. Here's some stuff that's happening:

• Me and t'other Scottish Public Sector Digital Group ladies are planning some activities for next year that'll knock yer socks off! Join the Knowledge Hub group (if you've not aleady) to get advance notice of events, etc.You'll also get lots of other Scottish public sector digital news, views and other good stuff. For free!

• TeacampScotland is taking a well earned break over the holidays, but should be back in February with renewed tea-fueled vigour (and possibly a shiny new interwebz gizmo).

• Tonight (10 December) I'm heading to Spoon Cafe for a meeting of prospective social media 'surgeons' to talk about getting social media surgeries up and running in Edinburgh early in the new year. If you're interested, please come along.

• I've submitted an abstract for the 'Beyond Information Matters' theme at the Umbrella 2013 Conference, which takes place in Manchester in July. My proposed paper picks up on what I'd hoped to present at last year's Online Conference, but didn't, cos I was unable to attend.

• Chandos Publishing have approached me about writing a book for them. I have some ideas and am chatting to a few folk about collaborative works. But, if there's a information science/management/literacy book that you think needs written, please let me know!

• And last, but by no means least, I'm having conversations with folks that will hopefully result in one or more 'Camps' taking place in Scotland next year. 

Hopefully that'll keep me out of trouble for the foreseeable future!

My mum, the geek

Today is Ada Lovelace Day. Ada Lovelace Day aims to raise the profile of women in science, technology, engineering and maths by encouraging people around the world to talk about the women whose work they admire.

The inspiration for Ada Lovelace Day came from psychologist Penelope Lockwood, who carried out a study which found that women need to see female role models more than men need to see male role models. “Outstanding women can function as inspirational examples of success,” she said, “illustrating the kinds of achievements that are possible for women around them. They demonstrate that it is possible to overcome traditional gender barriers, indicating to other women that high levels of success are indeed attainable.” [http://findingada.com/about]

Well, I've never been one for role models to be honest, and I'm not really looking to attain 'high levels of success', but I wanted to take this opportunity to write about someone who has inspired me, and who I know has inspired others. My mum.

My mum is a geek. A proper one. She takes stuff apart to find out how it works. She buys parts online and then builds computers and laptops from them. Then she sells some of them. She was the first person I know to get a Raspberry Pi. She gave me her iPad when she found she couldn't really "muck about with it". She was my 'go to guy' when I needed my creaky old laptop souped up a bit. She experiments. She tinkers. She learns by doing. She may have indulged in some dubious downloading practices in the past, but I think she's got past that now :) And over the past couple of years, she's helped friends and family buy, set up and maintain the right computer equipment for their needs. And help them get online and do stuff online.

This is a woman who struggled to send a text message a few years ago. I can't remember the exact circumstances, but at some point she got a computer. Initially it was for photos and video but I got her online, signed her up for an email account and bought her a 12 month subscription to Computer Active. But as much as I'd like to take responsibility for creating the nerd that she became*, I think it was when she took some classes at the local library, that she really got hooked. And once she'd found the techy forums, and eBay, she was off!

This has been a very good thing for all concerned. It's given my mum a hobby that keeps her out of the pub (only kidding mummy :)). It's increased her confidence. She's been able to find information online that has helped her deal with all the usual life stuff and generally just be more informed (eg my grandma's medical condition). And on a more practical level, she's benefited by taking advantage of all the money saving deals that can be had online. Although I think most of those savings have gone into buying more computer kit!

It's been great for the aforementioned friends and family who have been supported. And it's brilliant for me, obviously. I get less questions along the line of "how do I find out how much pension I'm entitled to?". I get the odd bit of 'surplus' kit. I get free IT support. Tech is something that she and my equally geeky t'other 'alf  can talk about. And it makes buying Christmas and birthday presents much easier than it used to be (I got a case for her Raspberry Pi for her most recent birthday). I don't even mind that it's my inheritance she's spending on all those motherboards!

But it's also a 'Very Good Thing'. Digital participation is a key part of Scotland's Digital Future and we have some ambitious targets for getting people online. My mum is playing a key part in helping us achieve those targets. I spent yesterday talking about how libraries are contributing to to digital participation in Scotland (and I'll blog more about that at some point). One of the themes of the day was the admission that individual organisations or people can't achieve very much on their own. We need to work in partnerships and to leverage the network effect. Give one person the skills - and the confidence - to get online and hopefully they will pass those skills and confidence on. And so on. Basically, we need more of my mum.

So, thanks mum! Keep spreading the geek love. And don't worry (too much) about spending my inheritance!


* She has since admitted that she didn't find me a very good tutor. That's yet another other blog post!

Losing patience with the refuseniks

Last week I was a bit melancholy. This week I'm a bit grumpy. Maybe it's the weather. Or p'raps I've just reached that difficult age. Whatever. Anyway, I'm afraid this post may be a bit of a rant. Sorry about that.

Right, here's the thing. I've been helping people use IT for almost 20 years now (yes, I am that old). I'm well aware that people have very different reasons/motivations for using (or choosing not to use) particular technologies. And that some will take a lot of convincing to get them to try something new. Change can be scary. That's OK though. I'm pretty good at what I do. I tailor my support to the individual and their circumstances. And I am very patient :)

However. I am starting to lose patience a bit with the straight up social media refuseniks. The ones that trot out the "oh no, I don't do social media" line (often preceeded by the "I'm a luddite, me" refrain). Really getting under my skin are those that seem proud of the fact. Wearing it as a badge of honour, almost.

So what's my beef? Well. For a start, that luddite arguement is a red herring. I'm not talking about very senior managers who have their PAs print out their emails (they are a whole other kettle of lightly-spiced fish with a tangy lemongrass dip). The people I'm grumpy with are those that happily send copious emails. And use office IT systems to claim expenses or record their working hours. And no doubt do their shopping and book their holidays online. Social media tools are hardly complicated technologies. There's not a huge ramp up in technical expertise required from sending an email to sending a tweet. So, lets not kid ourselves that it's about the technology.

Back in the day, when I was doing IT support in a DWP office, the typing pool had their electric typewriters replaced with PCs (yes, I really am that old). One of the typists decided as soon as she heard the news that she wanted nothing to do with these new fangled computermabobs and left. The others were nervous, but also curious. It took them a while - and lots of support - to get the hang of the PCs (the mice in particular were a constant source of frustration and we had some fun with the disk drives :)). But they all went on to do amazing things with their new toys. Now that was a significant technological change to get used to.

And here's another thing. I do not like the telephone. Never have. I find telephone calls really uncomfortable. If I can't chat to someone in person, I'd much rather use email. But I have friends who dislike email as much as I dislike the telephone. But they respect my communication preferences and email me occasionally and, likewise, I respect theirs and make the effort to call them now and again. At work, I use the telephone when it is appropriate to do so. And if the phone rings on my desk, I don't turn to my colleagues and say "ooo, I'm not answering that. I don't do the telephone". Although I may try it one day...just to see what the reaction is...

OK, so maybe the public at large doesn't expect us all to be available for immediate communication on the other end of a Twitter account. And of course, it took time for the telephone to reach mass adoption as a communication technology. So the comparison isn't completely fair. But the public's expectations for social media engagement with government are rising. And rapidly. We can't afford to hang around waiting for social media to eventually find its way into everyone's comfort zone.

I have my suspicions about where this particular attitude springs from. Euan Semple touches on it in a recent post. There are strong emotions involved. So, I'd like to say to these guys: hey, I understand that this is a new - and possibly scary - way of working. That's why we're developing policies and guidance and training. And why there are people who can support you. But please don't close your mind to social media completely. And don't tell me it's 'cos you're 'not good with technology'!

So, folks. Am I just being a grumpy old woman? Do I need to cut these guys some slack?

[Incidently, are those of us evangelising about this stuff actually making things worse by emphasising the disruptive nature of social media? Should we be saying, hey, this is just another way of talking to people?]

Farewall my summer love...(a letter to the Edinburgh Book Festival)

Dear ebf

Your letter arrived this morning. It remains unopened. I am trying to be strong and I fear that if I even glance at it I will crumble.

Yes, I'm afraid it's over. I won't be spending my summer holidays with you this year.

Hey, we've had six fantastic summers together. I have some great memories. I can still recall the thrill of being first in the queue for my first ever Iain Banks event (and then getting a seat in the front row!). And I still feel pretty smug at having pulled off the same feat several times since! And of hearing Neil Gaiman read from one of his books for the first time. And seeing Alasdair Gray (and awesome supporting cast) in full flight performing Fleck. I could go on.

But...

It's not you, it's me. Well OK, it's mostly me. But a little bit you. I've made a significant investment of time (and money) into our relationship over the years. Not that I regret any of it. But I've changed quite a bit over those six years. And you haven't. Not really. And maybe you shouldn't.

In those six years, I've seen the internet (and social media in particular) breaking down barriers and hierarchies. I've been introduced to unconferences and hacks and jams and the like. Truely interactive events. The result being that I just don't get very much out of the traditional book festival format anymore. I want to have a conversation. I'm just not willing to pay to sit passively and listen for an hour and then maybe get the opportunity to ask a question. However unrealistically, I expect a more frictionless interaction with my favourite authors these days. Fortunately, many are willing to interact with the likes of me on social media.

So, I guess I've just outgrown you. But the final straw? Well, you have to admit you had some significant personal hygiene issues last year. The lingering odour was getting to be a bit embarrassing. Not pleasant to be around at all.

There's no-one else in case you're wondering. I have no intention of flirting with the likes of Aye Write, or Word, or the Borders Book Festival. I am swearing off your kind entirely.

I do hope we can part on good terms. You are good - probably the best - at what you do. It's just that what you do, doesn't do it for me anymore.

I wish you all the best for the future.

Lesley

This time it's personal

The recent publication of social media guidelines by the Cabinet Office has prompted a discussion on our internal Yammer network. There are mixed views as to how practical the guidelines actually are, particularly when dealing with the old personal/professional chestnut. One colleague has questioned whether paragraph 7 essentially requires "that we are civil servants 24 hours a day and that we cannot comment to anyone on any controversial issues at all".

This post is effectively my contribution to the discussion - it got a bit long for Yammer. And, anyway, I've been trying to blog about this particular topic for a while...

I jumped on the old social media bandwagon fairly early doors. There was no social media policy for civil servants when I started blogging. Or when I joined Twitter. What I did have, and still have, is the Civil Service Code (pdf). And my some several many years experience of working in a very prescriptive environment.

And yes, very soon after joining the civil service, I was sat down by a big scary boss man and indeed told that I 'was a civil servant 24 hours a day'. That didn't mean that I couldn't have a social life. But it did mean that anything naughty I got up to out of work could reflect badly on the civil service if I was caught getting up to it. 

Prescription comes with the territory. The Civil Service Management Code (doc) - which sets out our conditions of service - is 90+ pages for goodness sake! I've never really had a problem with that. If I had, I'd have left long ago.

Social media hasn't changed any of that. What has changed, is that it's more difficult to keep the different parts of your life separate online. If you veer away from the code in a online environment, you're more likely to get caught doing it. Engaging in political debate online - even if it's with friends on Facebook - is not the same as having a good old rammy over a pint or two in the pub. Comments you make in an online environment are rather more permanent and open to being re-purposed, re-published and/or taken out of context. And keeping separate personal and professional accounts accounts is no guarantee of safety. Determined people can (and have) made connections between accounts and anonymous users have found themselves named.

We shouldn't have any expectancy of real privacy online - that's not how the internet works. And right now, the reality is, the media is interested in the 'off-piste' activities of public servants. I'm not saying I like it, or agree with it, but I've accepted that that's the way it is.

So, yes, I am 'always on' and very conscious of who I work for when using social media. I avoid politics. I think twice before I post. I would certainly never use social media while under the influence of anything stronger than a cappuccino. 

But I don't really mind the blurry lines. My status as a professional librarian and a civil servant go some way to defining me as a person (although not the whole way I should point out!). I do take work home (mentally and physically) and that's OK, mostly. A wise woman once tweeted to me "work is so much a part of who we are". And I think it was Mark Twain who said "work and play are words used to describe the same thing under differing conditions". But then, I'm lucky enough to have an interesting job that I'm pretty passionate about. Not everyone has one of those. And I can certainly understand why people want to switch off completely when they leave the office. 

And I don't use social media for purely personal purposes - and have no desire to do so. I'm not on Facebook. I prefer other ways of communicating with friends and family. I don't have interests out of work that I want to blog or tweet about.

It's also important to point out that I don't work in a sensitive policy area. I have the sort of job that allows me to talk in fairly abstract terms about what I do. My blogging and tweeting is generally confined to professional issues.

But what of my colleagues who are still trying to work out the rules of engagement? What of those who are active on social media in a purely personal capacity? What of those who don't want the lines between their personal and professional lives blurring?

Well, yes, the guidelines will reassure some. And we have some Scottish Government guidelines on the way that may help further clarify some of the grey areas. Support from senior management will help. It's a bit step that the Head of the Civil Service, Sir Bob Kerslake appears to have wholeheartedly embraced social media. A supportive environment will help - and that will come as more of us use social media without the world coming to an end. But some of my colleagues will remain unsure of the boundaries and will, quite understandably, decide that it's safer just to give social media a wide berth.

As I've alluded to above, my use of social media is affected by many factors - including my personal circumstances. Indeed, something happened to me recently that made me completely reappraise my use of social media. It was a blip, but I was actually on the verge of deleting my Twitter account.

So we can have all the guidelines and policies and training courses in the world. The nature of social media is such that there will be many factors that will influence the way people use (or don't use) social media. And that's something those of us responsible for writing the guidance, developing and delivering the training and generally evangelising about social media would do well to remember.

Camping it up

Regular viewers will know that I'm fond of a camp. I'm also very fond of a good cuppa. It turns out that I'm not the only one. Which is lucky really, or I'd have been drinking tea and talking to myself last Thursday afternoon. Fortunately, fourteen other intrepid tea drinkers braved some shocking Edinburgh weather to gather in Spoon Cafe on Nicolson Street to talk about all things digital and government. A strong, pungent blend of central and local government and academic types discussed topics as diverse as joining up social media strategies, technologies enabling home working and hyperlocal news. [If you want to follow these fine people, there's a Twitter list for that.]

Here's the tweetage:




And here's a quick analysis:

When: Thursday seemed as good a day as any and the 1600 - 1800 time slot allowed folk to pop in on the way home.

Where: Spoon was really busy when the first campers arrived and there was only a small table free. By the time all 14 of us had arrived we were split over several tables. This was down to my lack of planning really - I had intended reserving a table, but never got round to it. To be honest, I thought maybe five or six people would show, so it wasn't a priority. Anyway, some pointed staring in the direction of a poor chap sitting on his own and we eventually got a large bench that seated us all. We may have upset the staff a bit with our constant moving around, and in my personal experience, service can be a bit erratic. But it's a central location, and the orange blossom tea is very nice.

What: There were mixed feelings about whether there should be a specific topic for discussion and/or presentations. Some felt that a bit of structure would be helpful - particularly if you need to make the case to your manager for attending. Others preferred the more free flowing discussion. I'm thinking we'll give a topic a go for the next one and see what happens.

As a proof of concept, I think we have a success on our hands, so we'll return to Spoon for the next teacampscotland on 14 June. With a topic, probably. And possibly a new hashtag (#youllhavehadyourteacamp ;) )

While we're on the subject of camps...I'm off to Orkney tomorrow for IslandGovCamp. You can take part by registering as a 'remote attendee' or follow the action on Twitter (hashtag is #IsleGC12).

Desert island tweeps*

So, there's been a fair bit of sniping on Twitter about this article in yesterday's Observer. Lauren Laverne gives what is actually quite a nice intro, but then it all descends into a bit of a celeb Twitter love-in.

I don't think we can really be too critical of the fact that celebs follow other celebs - these are the people they socialise with and who they have most in common with after all. What is pretty galling about the article, is the implication that because the celebs follow these accounts then we should too.

Anyway, earlier today, @corrinnedouglas came up with the rather brilliant idea of crowdsourcing a version for us 'real people'.

So, off I went to have a think about my top three follows. And it was really hard. Really, really hard. I follow almost 1500 people and I wouldn't want to give any of them up. How to decide? Well, some criteria was obviously required. Should it be tweeple:

• who post interesting links?
• who I have good conversations with?
• who spark ideas in my head? 
• I've met in real life?
• who are controversial?
• who make me laugh?
• who make me want to scream?
• who like libraries?
• I'd be happy to have round for tea?

But I doubt I could narrow it down to three in any of those categories, or even in an 'all of the above' category!

I had another look at the article and there doesn't appear to be any consistency in how the celebs have decided on their favourite tweeps. @johncleese follows @mrmichaelwinner "because he is Michael Winner"; @salmanrushdie follows @shteyngart (Gary Shteyngart) "because he's funny, has a dachshund and travels a lot"; @emmafreud follows @prodnose (Danny Baker) because "he's a brilliant, inspired, wise commentator on our strange world and his stranger imaginings of it". So, that didn't help.

And then I thought, who am I to tell anyone who they should follow? As Lauren points out in her intro,"one thing everyone agrees on is that nobody agrees on the point of Twitter." So we all get something different out of it (I've blogged before about why Twitter works for me, if you're interested).

So, at that point I stopped worrying about criteria. I'm not recommending Twitter feeds for you to follow. Instead, here are three people who have taken the time to join me on my personal Twitter 'journey':

1. The first person on #mytwitterthree list then is @snap2grid, aka 't'other 'alf'. He's the one who introduced me to Twitter in the first place. He doesn't tweet as much I'd like...but is good value when he does. He mostly tweets about nerdy stuff. He's a writer, so he knows how to get the best out of 140 characters. And he's generally very funny and/or clever.

2. Second on the list is @euan. One of the first people I followed (and who followed me back!) and instigator of a fairly pivotal moment in my Twitter life. I went to see him talk at a British Computer Society event in Edinburgh a few years ago and got the shock of my life when one of the first things he did when he got up to speak was ask where Lesley Thomson was sitting. When I put my hand up, he preceded to ask what I'd bought at the shops. Turns out he'd read a tweet I'd sent earlier in the day while doing some shopping on route to the talk. That was quite a big deal for me - someone was actually reading my tweets and was willing to have a conversation with me! "Euan is a one man digital upgrade solution for companies that really want to get their heads around all that is new in social computing" (testimonial from his website). And he knows that the emphasis should be on the 'social', not the 'computing'. He's recently written Organizations Don't Tweet, People Do: A Manager's Guide to the Social Web, which should be required reading for anyone 'doing' social media. I'm hoping I can get him to come and talk to our senior managers!

3. And my last but not least top follow is @dianebrodie. I've known Diane for several years and would consider her a good friend, but have only recently started following her on Twitter. Mainly because I didn't know she had a personal account. She's been quietly doing brilliant social media stuff at UK Trade and Investment for a few years now. She tweets about social media and webby stuff, and art and tractors. And she's a librarian. I may be responsible for getting her to start tweeting (rather than just using Twitter to follow people)...and I'm hoping this post encourages her to tweet more (but I'm also a bit worried it'll have completely the opposite effect :))

So there you go, three good tweeps that I'd happily take to a desert island (whether they'd want to come with me is, of course, another matter...). Follow them, or don't follow them, that's entirely up to you.


* blog post title shamelessly stolen from @comms2point0

Stuck on Storify. Or, do as I say, not do as I do...

When I’ve got my official ‘social media adviser’ hat on, I generally try to steer people away from starting with the tool. I get approaches along the lines of "we want to use Twitter, can you help us?". But when I ask why they want to use Twitter and what for, they tend to go a bit quiet and mutter something about "well, everyone else is using it". So I get them to take a step back and think about what it is they want to achieve. And then we have a discussion about which tool/s will best help them get there.

That’s not to say that I always take my own advice…

So, a confession: I’m a wee bit addicted to Storify. It's what all social media tools should be: easy and intuitive to use, and it works well across all devices.

I’ve recently used it to curate content from events:

• http://storify.com/lelil/social-media-tools-for-research-and-collaboration
• http://storify.com/lelil/scottish-public-sector-digital-group-re-boot

 

But that hasn't been enough to feed my habit…and I’ve been giving some thought to other ways to get my Storify fix. 

Hence, as a bit of an experiment, I’ve Storifyed my week on Twitter. My thinking went something like this:

1. I don’t currently archive my tweetage.
2. I often tweet/retweet something and then instantly forget about it.
3. I tweet quite a lot.
4. My tweets probably reflect the veritable information smorgesboard that constitutes my ‘area of professional interest’.
5. I need to be better at following through on some of those thoughts/ideas that get sparked off by something I’ve seen, or a conversation I’ve had on Twitter. Sometimes they get blogged about - but more often than not, they're left hanging...)
6. Storifying my tweets on a regular basis might be a nice way to be more systematic about recording my activities, thoughts and ideas.
7. Making the effort to capture my tweets in this way may also prove to be a useful prompt for reflection. It should also help the blogging process.

This is the result of a weeks worth of tweeting: http://storify.com/lelil/a-week-on-storify (it embeds very nicely as slideshow, see below)

My thoughts so far:

• Slightly more tweetage here than there would be in a normal week due to a day of event tweeting. I think in future, I'll record events separately.
• Could make more use of the text boxes for the reflection bit.
• It's not really a 'story'. Does that matter?
• Maybe a thematic rather than chronological approach would work better?

So, proof of concept is still to be validated :) I'm not sure this particular tool is the best one for helping me achieve what I'm trying to achieve. But while my love affair with Storify continues, it will probably be the one I use :).

If you want to know more about Storify and how it works, Steve Dale has just written a very comprehensive blog post on that very topic. 

For some great government examples, have a look at:

• http://storify.com/bisgovuk/uk-mid-sized-businesses-visit-turkey-to-boost-trad (thanks to Marilyn Booth – a fellow Storifyer – for bringing this one to my attention)
• http://storify.com/number10gov (even Larry the cat has got in on the Storify action: http://storify.com/number10gov/larry-the-downing-street-cat)

Anybody got any other examples of Storifyication?

The first rule of weeklyblogclub...

You may have noticed a dramatic increase in the posting rate of this blog recently. I've gone from about every four weeks to once a week. The blame for this rests squarely with one Janet Davis - the evil mastermind behind weeklyblogclub. I'd witnessed the birth of the club on Twitter a few months ago and was watching developments with interest. But I made a point of keeping my virtual head down, as I really wasn't sure I wanted to commit to blogging once a week.

However, one fateful day, Janet just came straight out and asked me if I wanted to join...what could I do? Well, I suppose I could have said no...I tried to, I did...but Janet is a persuasive woman...so I eventually found myself agreeing.

And, so far so good. I've managed to find something to talk about - and more crucially the time to write about it - for a few weeks now (apart from last week, but I wasn't well). This is partly just down to timing, as I'm up to all sorts at the moment. What happens when it all dries up, I don't know. And I do worry that the quality of my posting will suffer (and there's not much leeway there as it is!).

Still, I've banged on before about getting more public sector people blogging and something like weeklyblogclub is a grand way to do it. And I'm in really good company - which may well help me raise my blogging game.

So, if you feel that you could be doing with some encouragement to get (or keep) your blog on, there's no joining fee or registration process. Just follow the instructions and blog away! If you're not quite ready to blog yourself, check out the site for brilliant bloggage on a weekly basis.

PS. As far as I know, there isn't a 'first rule of weeklyblogclub'. But I'm pretty sure that, if there were, it wouldn't be 'don't talk about weeklyblogclub'!

Anyone for teacamp?

***UPDATE***: the inaugural #teacampscotland will take place at Spoon on Nicolson Street, Edinburgh (across the road from the Festival Theatre) on Thursday, 17 May from 4pm - 6pm.  No booking required - just turn up! (First order of business: coming up with a better hashtag!)



Probably not a week goes by without me getting a little pang of that ‘wishing I still lived in London’ thing. It’s usually because there’s a show on or an exhibition that I really want to see. But it’s also because of teacamp. As the website says: teacamps are “regular meetups of gov/non gov digerati in a cafe over a cup of tea. Teacamps are informal and you can just turn up”. The first teacamp took place in February 2008, not long after I left London (I don’t think they waited for me to go...). The original teacamp is still going strong, regional teacamps have sprung up, and recently, specialist teacamps have started to appear.

And the pang is quite strong this week because the topic of discussion at today's teacamp is social media guidance – something that I know more than a little about, having been writing some for the Scottish Government for what feels like a short lifetime (but that’s for another blog post!). 

I made an attempt to start something similar up here a couple of years back, but there wasn’t much interest at the time. But after a tweet from Gordon Hunt (Ayr Campus Director and University Librarian at the University of the West of Scotland), I’m giving it some further thought.

There are issues though. 

Location, location, location! Teacamp takes place in Cafe Zest in House of Fraser on Victoria Street – which is really only a stones throw from many of the big government department headquarters. There isn’t really an equivalent location in Scotland. Even in Edinburgh, Scottish Government and agency offices are spread all over the city. Would Glasgow folk come to Edinburgh, or vice versa? And what about the rest of our wee country - which is actually not always that easy to get around! I guess maybe the answer is not worry about it too much - set something up where people are interested and if someone wants one somewhere else there's nothing to stop them.

Gordon and I may see a need, but does anyone else? It’s not that there aren’t already opportunities for government/wider public sector/people who live in the real world to get together to talk digital stuff in Scotland. I’ve already blogged (twice!) about the amazing stuff that’s starting to happen here. We’ve recently had two very successful Tartan TweetMeets in multiple locations and we’ve just re-booted the Scottish Public Sector Digital Group. But neither of those does quite what teacamp does.

The nearest equivalent may be the ‘coffee mornings'. Edinburgh Coffee Morning (#Edcm) which takes place at Centotre on George Street early every Friday morning, is probably the most successful, but there are others. There are a few public sector folk (and people who work with the public sector) who attend, but the focus is on general geekery rather than public sector geekery. And us government types aren’t always comfortable in that sort of environment.

So what do you think? Would you be interested in attending a Scottish teacamp/s? If so, where? And would you want to help set something up?