I’m off work this week. I have time off so I can get on with my Masters work.

Oh, your doing a Masters, what than in then?

Firstly a little back story. I joined Headshift approaching 2 years ago through a Channel 4 scheme which meant they kindly stumped up the fees for me to do a MA Professional Practice. The way the structure of the course works is that a) its work based, b) almost completely self directed in what you do and c) the subject matter is defined by what it is that you do, do.

And bam, that bloody question again – What is it that do, do?

I’ve recently been toying with telling people what is that I can’t do and hoping they fill in the rest but thats getting me nowhere and to be honest its not the best way to sell yourself.

So, with in mind that a bad idea shared is better than my bad idea hidden, here is what i’ve said…

Rationale for Award Title

MA Professional Practice (Digital Media Projects Development and Social Technology)

The sector in which my MA sits is a young and emerging one, it does not yet have a solid language and lexicon to go with it. Given this, it has been difficult to construct the correct phrase for my award title. I have attempted to build a programme plan that covers the many areas of my work and am seeking an award title which does the same.

My work (and therefore my programme plan) is based on an ever more ubiquitous internet and how this helps to accelerate changes in media/business/companies/projects/software – from the large and theoretical to the small and tangible.

“Digital Media Projects Development”

“digital media” – the underlying feature of the projects I work on is that they are enabled by the internet and accessed in digital forms, namely web applications and websites. “project development” reflects the day to day work I do. I lead projects and make sure that they fulfil clients’ needs. As such, my role spans from sales through to (very) high level technical consulting and project management – passing though idea development and design along the journey. Having considered the use of the word “project design” to be potentially misleading and “management” to gloss over the more detailed nuances of my involvement in projects I feel that development is a fair compramise

“Social Technology”

The overiding feature of the projects that I work on is that they are inherantly social. This also is a fair description of the subject in which I mostly deal.

These are some of the phrases i threw out…

• Digital Media and Web Based Projects
• Digital Media Design and Social Technology
  • Was argued that “Media Design” sits too close to those who actually make stuff.
• Social Technology
• Internet based media and web project delivery
• Digital Media and Social Technology
• Digital Media and Internet Enabled Technology

It all seem Very Capitalised Words and po-faced but i’m not sure how else to explain it in a short phrase to place between two brackets. I’m also very aware of not wanting to come across like some unicycle riding imbicile – but to be honest after 2 years i’ve learnt to get other that one.

Anyway, glad to have it out in the open. If you do think of a phrase that doesn’t make me sound like a dick – please put it in the comments. Hope to follow this post up with actually what i’m doing to achieve aforementioned award.

Ps. Yes, this blog looks like a child made it in IE, I know. Its embarrassing. I’ll get round to sorting it soon.

Dan Hon said something interesting – they (Sixtostart) manage to work with Penguin and Channel 4 as there are pots of money specifically for trying new things. A “lucky”* position for Penguin that they have access to a ring fenced pot of money from Pearson (their owners) and again a lucky position that Channel 4 Education have in that they can play slightly looser with this money due to their public service remit.

* its not lucky, Pearson have the forsight to set aside profit derived from the current business model to invest in future unknown business models, its just being smart…

This reminded me of an event I went to at NMK on the future of newspapers some months ago, (nearly) everyone on the panel was not a progressive as I had hoped and for good reasons, they had short term targets that needed hitting and the targets were certainly not going be met with speculative investment in project which might have future return.

There was a desire to only invest in projects/things where a return was already obvious (non risky investments) yet a complete disregard that the market in which they were operating was in complete flux.

I sensed that they knew that the long term trajectory of the businesses they worked for were bad but still needed to hit the short term targets. The ability to take risks was being suffocated by the size of their organisations, only able to invest in sure-fire-profit-makers so that they could remain as large organisations. By forcing themselves to iterate towards (inevitably ever decreasing) short term targets they were managing their own demise.

If the large businesses/organisations/governments of the pre internet era are aiming to continue to be of a similar scale in the internet era they are going to need to set aside next weeks profit/election-win and try something different and potentially risky. Better to do it is sooner rather than later, as by then they may have managed themselves into positions where they no longer have the fat in reserve to take the hit.

We now have a big sharing, copying and communicating tool – its agnostic about which market/subject it affects (swap out newpapers and put anything in its place the logic still stands), embrace it and take some risks.

One last thing – aimed mostly at Sly Bailey – <rant> please don’t play the 4th estate card and try and get legislation in place to help support a faltering business. The fact you no longer have a monopoly on the means of production is just a fact of technological advances, not googles fault, and the fact that consumers are moving towards a different (more efficient) medium by which to consume media is not anyone’s else fault but your own for not seeing it coming… and if your going to try and defend newpapers on the grounds of journalistic quality… well… i think i will leave that one there. </rant>

So, 2008 was awesome, just as 2007 was, much like all the years before them as well.

I had opportunities to do interesting things with amazing people and learned more than I ever thought I could in the process.

And my prediction for 2009? Well, I reckon it will be pretty shit hot too.
Why? Because I think It is all about perspective and I’m an optimist.

They say something is up with the economy… i’m sure we’ll survive.

Happy New Year.

I worked with Ivo on an early draft of a film brief, helping with some ideas and generally chatting with him about his film idea. Ivo took the film forward; getting Banyak Films on board and gaining support from the RSA. In the interim I moved to Headshift. A few months into my time at Headshift an email request came through for an interview with the Co-Founder of Headshift, Lee Bryant, to be included in a documentary film about mass collaboration, government and the internet. It all sounded very familiar, it was indeed Ivo’s Film.

And so, I am really pleased to be able to say that Us Now will have its premier screening on Wednesday at the RSA.

Us Now is directed by Ivo Gormley and produced by Banyak films in association with the RSA. It is a documentary film about the power of mass collaboration, government and the internet – I thoroughly recommend you sign up.

Two advanced screenings are taking place in central London, the first at the RSA on 3rd of December and the second at the Prince Charles Cinema on 10th December. To attend either of these events let your mouse wander here… 3rd December 2008 at the RSA & 10th December 2008 at the Prince Charles Cinema

And if that isn’t enough to get you to sign up, then please enjoy the trailer below and the the sheer delight that explodes behind Clay Shirky’s eyes at his mention of “more people”.

1. I generally dislike cross-posting, to me it kind of removes the point of a hyperlink, but anyway – its early doors with this blogging and I have found it a tough gig, so i’m going be a hypocrite. (Original @ Headshift)
2. I promise after this to never blog about starting blogging again!

Post Starts Here:

I recently did this, It took a while and I’m still finding it hard.

After a chat with some colleagues, I feel inspired to say hello and get on with talking about some of the cool ideas, thoughts, thingys and widgets knocking around the minds of Shad Thames.

I’ve been working at Headshift about a year now, and as you can probably tell, this is the first time I have taken the opportunity to blog. A curious fact given that part of my role is to bang on at people at how liberating it can be implementing social tools into their own organisation, or how they should use them for outward engagement in interesting way. So remember – do as a i say, not as a I do.

I’ve decided to start blogging for a number of reasons: I think I want to, I feel I should, the egotist in me thinks you might want to know even though the little hater in me thinks you probably don’t.

I’m generally quite an outgoing conversationalist (loudmouth) and am happy to engage in conversations in social situations, yet this blogging lark had me stumped.

Having spent hours trying to pick the reasoning behind this apart (a silly idea, as this leads to months of procrastination) I stumbled across Michael Wesch’s fantastic presentation to The Library of Congress on an anthropological introduction to Youtube. An interesting video in the whole (and well worth a watch), but what I found most interesting was his description of him and his students starting a video blog for the first time and their feelings around this. He defines this moment as a “Context Collapse” – the fake smiles and uneasiness shown around the 23 minute mark are reminiscent of your first days at school or those moments in social situations when you just don’t know what to say. He goes on to develop this idea on his blog:

The problem is not lack of context. It is context collapse: an infinite number of contexts collapsing upon one another into that single moment of recording. The images, actions, and words captured by the lens at any moment can be transported to anywhere on the planet and preserved (the performer must assume) for all time…

…the would-be vlogger, now frozen in front of this black hole of contexts, faces a crisis of self-presentation. In Goffman?s terms, the would-be vlogger is ?out of face? with no ?line? to present, unable to size up the context and situation. Like a building collapse, context collapse does not create a total void but a chaotic version of its once ordered self. The would-be vlogger sits stultified as his imagination races through the nearly infinite possible contexts he might be entering, all of which pile up as parts, pieces, and pieces of parts, a rubble that becomes the ground on which he must struggle to get his footing. The familiar walls that help limit and define the context are gone. He must address anybody, everybody, and maybe even nobody all at once.

All sounds a little apocalyptic and it must be noted he is talking primarily from the perspective of the would-be video blogger, but I believe the concept he outlines applies across all formats as the key points made are format agnostic:

Permanence and Preservation:

• It is permanent; what I’m writing is permanent and out there, people might quote me and I cant really be defended by my organisation (as I might with a more structured publishing model)
• It is preserved; all the mistakes and foolish statements I make are searchable by google and copied at the click of a button.

My hope is that over time these types or “mistakes” will humanise many organisations and reduce peoples distorted idea of wanting perfect public servants, but no wonder politicians are so vigilant and terrified about the use of social media.

Out of Face

• I don’t know who you are! This scares the life out of me as I am “unable to size up the context and situation”.

I’ve become adept at conversing in more natural surroundings. I can see your face, I know who is listening and therefore who is likely to hear it second hand. I can react to your answers and be put at ease by your laughs, but this posting is something that doesn’t come naturally to me – yet – it is important I do it, else posting is left to those who it does come naturally to.

A Familiar Yet Unfamiliar Context

• This is what Wesch covers when be states that a “context collapse does not create a total void but a chaotic version of its once ordered self”.

I am posting this on a company blog and so this offers me a greater understanding of my context. Yet, this fact also complicates the process as there are boundaries within this context that are not my own.
Writing on this blog I am definitely changing the manner in which I write as well as the subject matters I cover. I have previously decided against blogging about certain things as I wasn’t sure they fitted with the Headshift “brand” (for want of a better phrase).
I guess this is a broader issue about brand identity and who within a company has the right/ability to make statements on its behalf, something I imagine will increase in importance as more people gain a public voice within companies.
This brand point is and slightly outside the focus of this post, but an interesting point none the less with regard to context.

So, why does any of this matter?

This is something I’ve been grappling with, I have no idea if this matters to you, but these things mattered to me as they helped explain how I felt/feel.

Given that this is the my first blog post I feel I should attempt to extrapolate this personal perspective and try to make a broader statement. I have been searching for this broader statement a couple of days now, trying to construct that impressive narrative arch which would finish off my post in style. Sadly, all the ones I could think of made grandiose statements that I wasn’t sure I could back up, nor really believed in, but i am going to make one anyway!…

We have now democratised (or are in the process of democratising) access to publishing tools, but as the adage goes implementing the tools is only a part of the solution. Organisations must now look for ways to support, encourage and empower the voiceless or the quieter among their employees and communities to find their voice. This needs to be done in a human, cultural, training and “change management” kind of way which takes investment far beyond just building the platform – building the tool is only a small part of the solution (no matter what the question).

An analogy, Jamie Oliver’s campaign for getting people to cook is not based on making sure everyone has a kitchen, its based on encouraging people, making people comfortable, being appreciated, getting people to enjoy it, and yes – making sure they have a basic education on how to cook.

Obviously there are broader issues at stake once everyone has a voice, but here is not the place for discussion on signal to noise ratio and the breaking of the filter!

And so, I end this post like the social media cliche that I am, a list.

Some (not particularly focused) ideas for helping people “find their voice”:

A personal Level:

• Don’t have rose tinted glasses that everyone is saying better stuff
• Be honest and talk about stuff you have experienced, there is nothing else you can talk about
• Don’t get hung up on the details; your URL, Blog name or About pages
• Start with comments or something small
• Don’t worry too much about creating more noise, in all likelihood you are going to. The signal is probably just the line of best fit within the noise anyway.

A broader system level:

• Play with anonymity
• Big is daunting, you don’t need the new big thing or the biggest new thing
• Start small – its an ecosystem out here
• Persuade people/funders/your boss that small amounts of high quality is better large scale low quality
• Much as its all about openness, privacy helps people to feel comfortable
• Build offline relationships with people and take them online
• If your asking for opinions and views, take them on board and show what you have changed as a result
• Take their views on board and continue the conversation (you drive)
• Make it fun first, useful second.

I think that made sense, and thank you for reading.

…. I had every intention of writing a really interesting and insightful post about the perils of first blogging, of opening up, of context collapse, of beating my little hater and all sorts of clever social media cultural references. But then my first post became this big thing that stopped me from ever blogging about anything else as I needed that perfect first post.

And now I realise I had fallen prey to my own brain crack.

So this is my first post, welcome to my weblog, I hope to write interesting and honest stuff about stuff. If the noise to signal ratio is too high, I apologise, but then again there is plenty of other interesting things out there.

End. Of. First. Post.

…phew