I have now been blogging for nearly 20 months and it is very much part of my daily life. Why do I do it? Well initially I wanted to tell people about me and what I did as part of my “marketing mix” for Cameron Consulting but I quickly realised that it could give me so much more. By blogging I started to read other blogs and make blog friends and learn from them too.

Recently in working with the young people on the Space Unlimited project I have been introduced to wikis and I engage with them through the wiki for the project. Simply - a wiki is a space ( it can be private for members only) where those members can chat, post comments, links and other stuff, which can be edited by them. Think of the possibilities in a research project!! Think of possibilities in the workplace - especially where employees are scattered round the world working on the same project.

I also get out there from in front of my screen and do a lot of physical networking. I tell people about my blog. Most - I would say in excess of 90% of the people I have talked to about blogging ask what it is. I realise that I inhabit a world that a great many people still don’t know exists. The younger people do of course but most of them don’t realise that there are people out there who have not always lived with the technolgy we have at our fingertips -literally!

So I have now added working with wikis when I start talking about the benefits of working with the technology - instead of being frightened of it. Because - believe me - there are loads of people out there who are really scared. Because they don’t understand it.

I have had dire warnings about my identity being stolen and that I should be careful about how much I post about myself. Yes  - I agree. I am very cautious. Really.

I have been told that young people using the internet will mean that in future no-one will know “how to look something up in a book” - well yes again. Books might well become redundant. Or maybe they will sit side by side. Who knows.

And then of course they say that the content of wikipedia can be changed by anybody. Yes - again.  But it is still an amazing resource so use it and other sources to validate the information you need. There will be millions of other sites that you can check against.

I am indebted to my blog friend Jo Jordan for linking me to this excellent video of Clay Shirky explaining how the heck we got here. It made sense of so much that I do - and encouraged me to get on with it.

http://flowingmotion.wordpress.com/2008/05/04/clay-shirky-at-web-20-expo-sf-2008/

I continue to learn every day - and I am loving it!