Content Tabs

Friday, November 05, 2010

Networking by a non-Networker

I know people who would happy become wall-flowers at a face-to-face Meet & Greet.  Sometimes, I'm one of them.  Sometimes it's like that old phrase, "water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink."


But it's interesting to see how the dynamic changes when we add a technology layer like a blog or some kind of Social Networking tool (like Facebook or Twitter) to the mix.  All of a sudden we have myriad tendrils of communication;  some more tenuous, some more essential, some humourous, and some time-limited.  I know I'm not saying anything new here about the power of Social Media, but I think it's an observation worth repeating. 

After listening to Harold Jarche in today's PLENK session,
I think that I can start taking the steps on the road to personal learning management or personal knowlege management by building out my own "Personal Learning Network".  He said, and he's quite right, that it comes down to the people out there.  There are some wise people like Jane Bozarth and Marcia Connor who speak volumes about the power of SoMe, but sometimes you really just need to experience it all for it to really make sense.

Today is a case in point.  Harold spoke about making use of the tools and resources, so today as I was monitoring TweetDeck, I took a more serious look at some of the connections I had and could eventually make, either through hashtags, blogs, Massive Open Courses or other networks.

I'm still left with questions about how to manage all these connections and how to manage the connections and all the information/knowledge associated with them, but maybe that's part of the journey unto itself.  The meaning I make for me is exactly that:  mine, and probably wouldn't work for anyone else.  But then again, there has to be some shred of common strategy and approach that could be replicated for someone else.

Never a bad thing to have more questions than answers.  It's always a source of inspiration.

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