Perspectance

Most people at NorthernVoice, a blogger’s unconference that took place this past weekend in Vancouver, B.C. blogged in some fashion during the conference about the conference. Many tweeted. A tiny bit of tweeting was all I could muster. I was in a relaxed, chilled receptive canvas mode – stark contrast to last year. Took lots of notes and used the time as a soft mirror I could fold up and look at later. Since a fair number of participants (like myself) might be reviewing tagged blogs this week, I want to write something about my takeaways. The best thing for me about NorthernVoice is new online friends, and those can start with the sketchiest of blogged ideas.

The session that keeps sticking with me was one of the last ones: “Navigating the space in between – Create relationships, not distance” . It was a sure bet going in due to the everthoughtful Barbara Ganley, Laura Blankenship and Nancy White.

A Tale of two Dances was a neat little video that set the tone and they had us draw a picture of a face together with a partner to illustrate how we are constantly straddling across boundaries to connect and co-create.

Laura stated, “We both have left comfortable spaces.” She knew how to do the online world and was wanting to be there, but wants to try and make some connections outside, into her neighborhood. Her community neighbors are not online. How does she connect? How does she find the ones who know what Twitter is? She feels like she is in the limbo space and doesn’t know how to do the dance yet. She knows she’s not the only one trying to bridge that space.

Barbara is very comfortable in that space in between, at the edges, with the chaos. As a Middlebury College veteran faculty member, she regularly moved her students to that edge space, “but students are one thing. How do you move people in neighborhoods to those places?” She asked, “How do we use the boundaries and borders as places of deep learning potential, to find one another for help?”

Nancy talked about how it’s “some of me, some of we”, and how “the network creates a whole new me.” She asks, “Where are the juicy spots for each of those ways of being?” and then answers for herself, ” It’s about noticing the transitions and using them positively.”

Then they asked the group what people are doing to make the crossovers a rich space. What are people doing?

With far too little time, some people challenged the premise that the gap needed bridging. Dana Boyd’s identity work came up and brought back for me ongoing struggles with choosing and defining personal and public identities: “Some people need to rely on the separation provided by the two worlds.”

Someone, (I think maybe a thoughtful Heidi, but correct me if I’m wrong) stated what for me is the point I have been mulling over since the weekend,

“It’s a consciousness thing. It takes some self-confidence and/or foolhardiness. It takes not caring about what people think of you, maybe. It’s more taking more comfort in one’s identity. Learning to be ok with someone not liking that.”

For months, I have felt so stuck and befuddled with my not blogging despite the urge, that this message was a shiny key. Traversing worlds… integrating digital and embodied identities, requires a certain self-knowledge to even know if, when, why, and what one could, should, would want to BE present and engaged off and/or online. How can I know when I spend far too much time in front of my closet wondering which clothing is me today? What makes me so full of adolescent-type ambiguity the older I get?

I wonder, just a little bit, if my state of unease and mixed emotions toward on or offline social engagement has something fundamental to do with my serious intentional empty nest choice to return to school and delve into this ever emerging field as an online professional technology steward . Perhaps my choice keeps me in a more permanant transition forever swimming the tidal margins. Perhaps I am simply adapting to this brackish condition and need to realize my salt and fresh, off and online worlds allow me to flourish in the mix -but it’s still me BEING in the middle here. What do I want to BE doing?

And if you have read along this far and anything resonates, what is your story? Do you also see yourself in some kind of life transiton that overlays your online profession? How are you adapting (or not) your identity to the conditions of emergence?

I began to get hooked on social networking technologies with my memberships to dial-up bulletin boards in Pine and newsgroups in Prodigy, before the graphical web. The technologies allowed me to access the wisdom of experts who knew how do stuff as cool and weird as ammonia-fuming a piece of oak furniture. (I used to be a cabinetmaker.) This learning by joining, following and participating in online social networks has mushroomed for me into something of a comfortable career in educational technologies. I help people learn with these tools, but almost unanimously, people express feeling terribly overwhelmed by the increasing numbers of so many group memberships.

I don’t feel overwhelmed, I just go with my own flow – even when this means I will lose track of some group or conversation I have joined. The pyramid shaped diagram I’ve drawn illustrates my priorities for social network involvement. The base represents more quantity or incidents of contact, but less time and attention needed. Involvement higher up on the diagram reflects fewer personal contacts, but more intense time commitment. I think it’s just a natural prioritization behavior that has evolved. Does the image resonate with you?

I know that my comfortable experience is unusual, but I wonder if talking about how other people manage might help build knowledge around this contemporary problem. This is why I jumped at the chance to collaborate with my colleagues Sylvia Currie, Jeffrey Keefer, and Bronwyn Stuckey to facilitate a free seminar called Managing Multimembership that started today in the SCoPE community. It’s easy to join in, and you do not have to feel guilty about not keeping up. In fact, you can participate right here by commenting on the Voice Thread or taking our 6 question survey. After that, if you get a chance, drop in on the seminar and throw in your two cents.