Dim Dim

"You get what you pay for" - that was my initial thought after my first experience of Dim Dim on Friday's session of FO2010.

We paid nothing and got not a lot; that said the experience was valuable and provided the opportunity to try a free platform. As much as I would love to be supporting free and open sources like this, I feel there needs to be more development of them before they work efficiently.

The faciliators Claire & Malcolm had prepared the best they could, but the functionality of the platform was just not good enough to run a cohesive online meeting. The time delays were frustrating and not practical when so many of us are strapped for time and juggling at the best of times!

Claire & Malcolm are to be congratulated on giving this a go and the professionalism they showed by putting plan B into action and moving the meeting to the more familiar Elluminate room. Claire sharing her desktop for the slide show with Wayne was brilliant.

I'm not going to discount Dim Dim completley, but perhaps would consider it for a one-to-one meeting rather than a larger group.

Another network - LinkedIn

As per the FO2010 course activity, I've joined LinkedIn. At first glance it is hard to imagine using this one as much as some of the other social networking platforms because to me it looks like it is for people who want to be 'head-hunted' or to find new jobs, but I'll give it a go, explore a bit more and see where it gets me...promotion?? Further up a career ladder?? Who knows!

Network Weavers

I used to pride myself in having the ability to connect people together with common interests and put them in touch with each other; that was of course using the older techniques of introducing them face to face at business functions, social gatherings, etc, or in more recent years by sharing email messages with them.

I now realise the power and potential of using online methods to connect not only individual people, but entire networks and groups of people - the reach of the network is huge and geographical location need not be an issue. The level of support one can achieve as the network extends can way exceed expectations.

I need to brush up on my network weaving by transferring my face-to-face skills to the online environment. I used to take every opportunity to physically go to events and functions where I knew I could meet people and 'network'. Now I need to be a more active member of the online groups, blogs and tweets, etc, by joining in when I can and by using clear subject matters and maybe hashtags to complement individual needs and streamline the connections between networks.

Blog Comments & Followers

Reading Gina Trapani's guide to web blog comments has helped me understand a bit more, and her point on know when to comment and know when to email hit a chord.

Many of the comments I read on blogs are more like two-way conversations and don't necessarily contribute to a multi user discussion and I feel I am already guilty of the same sin. I've just commented on the FO2010 blog with a question to Sarah, something that was probably more relevant to drop in an email to her.

I am planning to actively follow some of my fellow learners' blogs, but for this to work for me I have to make it a weekly activity which I think will be made easier by using the Blogger Reading List . I just don't have time to read several blogs a day.

Skype

I've just had a play around on Skype and trying to add some of the other FO2010 learners to my contacts.

It was great to have a quick response from Jean who explained to me about using the little emotion buttons, thanks Jean, fun!

Having watched Sarah's quick YouTube video on how to set up a skype conference call, I'm keen to give that a go at some stage. It will be great to use with my work colleagues as the 3 of us are based in 3 different locations.

Just had a quick mini-conference call with Sarah and Malcolm, oh so easy, and because I don't have a webcam it helped they had their photos added to their profiles. Putting a face to a name helps me communicate better.

The next stage would be to try the skype video conference facility at some stage, but that would require investing in a webcam and since I've lost my investments in this weeks's collapse of Southern Canterbury Finance spending is off the agenda!

Its free tools only for me at the moment.