SIMPLES! All you need to do is become a student and sign up to social networking site Studyvox.co.uk.

As the lovely lady is the site patron you too could wind up having a cheque or a music award passed into your sweaty grasp – it happened to me; it could happen to you.

This time around there were 3 things each of the winners of the inaugural bursary awards had in common:

1. we were all students
2. we were all female
3. we all thought this was some kind of a hoax or scam.

I kid you not, I mean; C’mon! Kylie Minogue handing out cash for nothing more than signing up to a social networking site?

It sounded insane! So much so that Stef and I even organised a house sitter ‘just in case’ while we travelled down to the event..  *blushes* paranoid much?

It’s taken me a while to recover from the exertion of travelling and being sociable which is why the date of the cheque is 25th of February but this blog post is happening in March – the joys of living with ME/CFS I’m afraid ( but this was an event that was definitely worth the health fall-out!)

Both Stef and I have been converted to the view of the studyvoxfoundation crew, we really want them to make of the studyvox.co.uk site everything they dream of. The people behind the charity are wonderful, caring passionate people not lacking in intelligence and their ideas are ambitious; they want to take on every big social networking site out there and as Kev the CEO put it “we want to take everything they’ve got horribly wrong and do it RIGHT!”

They want to create an online home for students, a place where;

• their profiles will not be held up out of context during a job interview as evidence of lying and debauchery
• they have representation and help with social needs (things supposedly catered for by the NUS)
• where they can talk freely about their courses and the towns in which they live
• a marketplace for them to sell anything from textbooks to clothes and furniture
• a one-stop shop for all their financial needs and concerns
• somewhere safe to upload their music, imagery and video footage

In short they are taking on Facebook, myspace, MP3unsigned, Youtube, directgov and any other site you can think of that can hold some kind of benefit to students.

It’s audacious, it’s ambitious, it’s totally nuts – but they are so passionate about their vision that you cannot help but be swept along by it.

The bursary awards are to be a regular thing, any student who signs up to StudyVox is in with a chance of winning – it’s definitely on the up and up, it’s legit and I have the pictures to prove it. If you don’t believe me then just look at some of the news coverage of the event on the BBC and in the Telegraph and obviously the foundations own news site the StudyVox echo (I have several times just to remind myself that I didn’t dream the whole thing)

They want to ‘put their money where their mouths are’ and show in a real way that they are there to help support the student community.

At present I will admit to a lot of teething problems with the social networking website – but that is less down to the vision of the group and more to do with the company paid to do the coding and design; I think, given time and a lot of tweaking this site could well be a force to contend with, the NUS would be well advised to take note and learn a few things.

But I’m not. I’m on my blog writing whatever pours forth – because I can.

I know all the theory on what I’m ‘supposed’ to be writing (and how) but to be honest, I don’t think I care any more.
Copyblogger is one of my favourite reads and I’ve soaked up a great deal of knowledge from his generous offerings but I’m not a marketer and I’m not a product – not yet anyway.

Until my course is over and I’m in the job market I really am just rosevibe here and I once had a fair few blog friends who came around to visit purely because I was me and not some one-dimensional tweeter.
I miss that, a lot.

Over the last 2-3 years I’ve amassed quite a bit of knowledge about the web, social media, writing, conversation, e-learning, project managing, marketing, programming and jewellery making, but because I’m aware of how much I still need to learn to be as good as I want to be I never seem to find the time to put any of it into practice (coursework excepted that is) and it’s been remarked on by a few of my twitter friends (*cough* @PhilWoodMusic, @crashbox *cough*) that I talk about things but never seem to share my work..

A link tweeted by the aforementioned copyblogger for a post by Rajesh Setty explains my lack of sharing better than I could – even if saying so assumes that I think of myself as smart.

(..and we all know by now that I don’t, if I was it wouldn’t be taking me so long to figure out how xml, xslt, wsdl, soap etc work! never mind installing php on my laptop.. still haven’t done that *shame*)

I have so many ideas and half-formed projects in my mind that I need to become immortal just to see half of them through – it frustrates the hell out of me that I don’t have the energy or health to get even one off the ground. All my energies are directed into my course and my family right now – perhaps if I didn’t have ME/CFS to contend with things would be different, but as it stands – I’ll be lucky to come away with the degree I want.

..but if I get less than a 2-1 I’ll be screaming the C-B words, muchly!

I get annoyed so easily these days – mainly by people who needlessly mock others; who take delight in the misfortune of folk in the limelight and seem to have lost any semblance of nobility, civility, honour and conscience.

I’m not a saint by any means; but constant finger pointing and mob rule alongside the ‘reality shows’ and our rotten society as a whole.. it sickens me and makes me want to grab the face of the self satisfied wanker behind it all and ram it full force through the nearest window into a rusty spike.

I know.. a tad graphic – but I can’t convey the depth of Grrrrrrr! and Arrgggggh! that I feel when looking at what the people of this country have turned into in the name of multi-culturalism and political correctness when things like that are condoned and in some circles elevated to the height of fashion, wit and branded entertainment.

Now the beloved is pointing at the clock and ordering me to bed so I guess it’s probably for the best if I leave this here before I get truly riled and kiss off any chance of sleep.

..But, even after the revamp – don’t expect this blog to fully reflect my knowledge and experience, its a personal space and so will more likely reflect my feelings and opinions with the odd sprinkling of ‘professionalism’. I’m not focussed enough on one area to create something professional for myself, I’ll leave the professional stuff at work where it belongs – or create a section of the site for it ;0)

G’night all – if you love me, do me a favour and tell me something wonderful about the world, after the tv viewing and general crapness of our world on the surface, I could do with a glint of glory about this year to carry into the next.

love y’all

Vics Xx

What?! It’s the nature of humans to be nasty? Well.. The latest flurry of online nastiness could prove me right. The fact that I have contributed also leaves me feeling a little shamed – hence this blog post and not the one I’d intended to write.

Yesterday I followed a retweet from.. um.. I think it may have been @sizemore, though it could also have been @copyblogger or @documentally as any of those three guys give out interesting and thought provoking links on a regular basis. This retweeted link sent me to a blog post entitled Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway (or the privatization of the English Language) and it turned out to be a mini rant about a cease and desist order regarding a phrase used by the author on a previous blog post.

This phrase is apparently copyrighted by the author of a book and her lawyers (yup, lawyers not solicitors so it has to be an American thing right? Right.) have demanded that the blog change or at least acknowledge the books author. The writer has refused, adamantly.

To the delight and positive support of what appears to be a goodly portion of the blogosphere.

Unfortunately, naming said book author in the post has resulted in a legion of these supporters finding her Amazon page to attack and otherwise drag down her ratings. I have not done so, I have not sent a message of hate to the writer nor have I even visited her personal site. So why do I feel shame?

I feel shame because I read the post and was shocked that he had named the author in question, but did I comment on his poor judgement? No. Instead I responded thusly:

I came here via a twitter RT so whether she likes it or not there is much negative publicity regarding her work ‘doing the rounds’ following this incident.

Having actually read through all the previous comments (interesting conversation)

I have to plug for what Bill Schmeck Says:

“If you REALLY want to screw with the lawyers, tell them you’re going to send a copy of their letter and an explanation to the USPTO and ask to have the trademark withdrawn. If a mark is inappropriately granted, the USPTO can void it if someone challenges it.”

I’m guessing you won’t be that bothered but such an idea really tickles the vindictive child in me..

Perhaps it’s not so bad a comment in comparison to some, but did I air the thoughts in my head about “have you asked for a response from Mrs J?” “Was it really a good idea to link so clearly to Mrs J?” did I contribute to the ‘interesting conversation’ in a positive way?

No. I didn’t.
Which makes me a bad person in my own eyes. Others have been bigger than I and called the writer on these points, others have been far worse than I and spewed hate filled bile about Mrs J for the actions of her lawyers.

But this blog here, the place you currently rest your eyes.. This is my space where I can be as honest as I allow myself to be where you can see it. In real life I try to stick to the idea of “if you haven’t anything nice to say then say nothing” (note I said ‘try’ I don’t always succeed but if I catch myself being snide or malicious I do attempt to make up for it somehow) surely I am not the only person on the internet to look back at something they’d written and wish they could take it back and make it into something more worthy of the person they want to be?

I can’t help but wonder if that same thought is running through the mind of Leo over at Zen Habits right now.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I loved it back when it was just a webpage but now it’s because it has developed adaptability due to the amount of third party applications built around it – now it works differently depending on what you use to access it.
Using the normal web portal at twitter.com allows a basic view of peoples tweets (once you’ve added a few folks to follow that is) installing Tweetdeck allows you to view search results as well as a timeline made up of folks you follow and friend groups and replies etc so, for example; if you’re interested in media, any tweet mentioning media or #media will show in that search time line (all time lines have their own column so you can easily differentiate between groups)

It’s not just a place to announce that you’re heading to bed or about to have a cup of tea – or even as the video states ‘to let the people you care about know the little things you do in life’ (though that is a part of its charm) Twitter helps you to gather information/ interesting links/ peoples opinions on a subject, you can start/ join in conversations by replying with @username before the comment and make friends – look at the success of the recent twestival, online social media doesn’t have to stay online with twitter.

As far as social media goes it’s the best site around in my honest opinion.

Anyhow, Media Camp London #2 was quite a different animal in comparison to #1.
Ok, so it still rained on the way there – this time however it was still raining on the way back, possibly in commiseration since we had to leave after the last session to go and collect The Child – but I digress..

For those of you not in the know, Media Camp is a place for people interested in social media, the web and internet ‘stuff’ in general to meet up and discuss ideas, projects and anything  else of mutual interest – so basically heaven for me; the only way it could be improved were if a karaoke were thrown in for good measure *grin* still, since I appear to be in the minority on the karaoke front I guess it’s just as well they don’t have that (although as it has been hosted both times at the SAE institute I’m guessing I could have found somewhere to sing if I’d looked hard enough..)

Unfortunately this time around, the weather managed to combine with a nasty bout of man flu so the turn out was a tad sparser than anticipated. I missed chatting once more to @Jof Arnold, @Adi, @Melinda, @Vero and Chris Garret because they were all unable to attend and 2 of the sessions were cancelled due to the presenters twittering in sick. That being said however, the enthusiasm of the remaining population remained undampened.

The day began well with a number of us congregating in the lounge as we awaited the start of the sessions, we twittered and bemoaned the lack of hot beverages and found ourselves united in the longing for refreshment – which is how I met Amanda aka Hedgewitch, a cracking lass despite her love of the Mac (yes,  despite it’s many faults I’m still a PC gal..) she’s pretty without being vacant; has an awesome personality, great taste in jewellery and a fine mind full of knowledge that I wish I could download for myself.

Despite the weather, the first sessions began on time.  ‘A taxonomy of social media’ was presented by Benjamin Ellis whom I remember meeting at #1, I learned about Dunbars number, agreed with the fact that visible conversations are self regulating and that self regulation/ feedback helps stop a social media platform from collapsing through disintegrating relationships – more of which can be read on his own blog post on the subject.

It was interesting to reflect on the differences in information dissemination – Video, being linear is more time consuming  whereas text is skimmable and the points relevant to the reader can be picked up in less time, I’m a skimmer and, I thought at the time of his talk, a bridger; that is, a person who bridges several networks.

But as Ann Wittbrock commented at the time; we all think of ourselves as bridgers, how can a network ‘work’ if it’s made up entirely of bridgers? It certainly gave me pause and made me evaluate my knee jerk ‘that’s me’ reaction to the talk, I’m not a bridger; I barely participate never mind connect – but I’m working on it ;0p

It was in here that the quote of the day was heard  “On the internet pigs CAN fly” I guess you had to be there but it made me chuckle. The basic thought behind the phrase was that you could have an absolute sow of an application but with a good enough network it WILL take wing and fly – just look at twitter.  (Not that I’m saying it’s a sow but..)

Sadly we missed the next session because refreshments showed up and the need to drink and feed overtook any other consideration, during this respite we learned that geek girls love Kipling, the colour purple and cake, and I found the Italian guy sold Chino so promptly bought up his stock (I”m selfish like that, he only had 3 cans..) and got to catch up with @Asha2 who finally joined the twitter crowd just before the event.

The next session I attended proved to be confusing, in hindsight I should probably have hopped over to  the DIY online monitoring one with Stef but I like to learn and so persevered on in an attempt to understand what the people around me were discussing. It’s likely that all I did was muddy the waters in my feeble attempts at contributing and so for that I do apologise to my fellow attendees – sometimes, I forget to engage the ‘shut up’ portion of my brain – as the folks in Chris Hamblys session may well have noticed *blush*

Chris was talking about a virtual  learning environment and as this is quite similar to the Cable project I’m part of at Hatfield uni I kind of *ahem* spoke up – A LOT.

I would like to take this opportunity to apologise profusely to the American gent I kept speaking over – I just have this nervous energy that runs my mouth into overdrive when I finally feel as though I know what I’m talking about; it’s so rare that I get a tad carried away when it happens.. So, sorry.. *blush*

I did enjoy the Judith Lewis (aka deCabbit) session about online reputation management, there I learned about Gorkana, a media portal for journalists and PRs which will be looked into as soon as I have some time, she also very kindly sent a copy of her slides to those of us who expressed an interest; many thanks and much kudos to that leather clad SEO goddess! It was a good day all in all, it’s just unfortunate that I didn’t get the opportunity to speak more with CJ (again) or with any of the other interesting folks these events abound with, advice to anyone attending is:

Don’t rush off after the last session, the best networking conversations happen in the pub!