posterous – JAMES MICHIE

Cultivating a brand (caring for your digital self)

Since part way through last year, I have been working on leveraging control over both my digital identity and digital self. This has included closing a number of accounts, redesigning my home page, this blog, and leaving Facebook again. It has entailed making some tough decisions about which social networks I will invest time into; which apps and services I am prepared to share my data with.

This process has, and continues to be motivated by two values:

First, it is important to own as much of your own data as possible. Too many of us invest time in various apps, networks and other online tools, without considering whether or not we will be able to get that data out, should we decide to stop using them.

Second, it is important to give mindful consideration to the information that you publish online, as this is how many people will form their opinion of you. For all intents and purposes, your digital self is like a brand. It needs to be cultivated and cared for. It is therefore, my intention to ensure that brand ‘James Michie’ is well cultivated.

It was with these principals in mind that I decided to move my ‘other’ blog ‘Et cetera’ from Posterous and integrate it with my main blog.

Twitter’s recent acquisition of Posterous, provided the final push I needed to make this move… one that I had considered doing last year. Do I think that Twitter is going to shut down Posterous? I am not sure but the signs are not great. Recent trends on the web would also suggest that either the service will fall into neglect or eventually close.

In making the move, I decided that it was also an opportunity to do some cleaning up. Before importing the blog, I removed any content which I felt did not fit in effectively with my main blog; this included the remnants of a failed #365 project and a few other posts.

If you were a subscribed to Et cetera, then please consider subscribing to this blog either by RSS or Email.

Owning your data and caring for your digital self is very important. Putting in, what I believe to be a reasonable amount of effort, has allowed me to take (greater) ownership of my data, and to better establish the version of my digital self that I wish for people to engage with. I encourage you to do the same.

Writing: From idea to published post

For the second time in less than a month I find myself inspired to write a blog post after sharing a screen shot via Twitter. Last time, it focused on how I was using Evernote to organise my notes for my MA. This time is slightly less direct in that the item I’m going to write about had nothing to do with why I tweeted out the screen shot.

The screen shots purpose was to document the fact that I was giving Twitter for Mac a try and was enjoying the small amount of screen real estate that it consumed; meaning I could have other apps open and visible at the same time. In this case Notational Velocity. Not giving a great deal of thought to this at the time I grabbed the shot not realising that the image also offers an insight into my writing process. What is revealed in the image is the earliest written draft of a blog post. I call this the earliest “written” draft as the first draft is the version in my head. Rarely the version that ends up on my blog though.

Ideas for blog posts come to me at all times of the day, from many different directions, but more often than not – after a day of work. At that time I’m not usually at my most productive so save writing posts for the morning or weekend. What I do though is write down the idea, usually as a series of points. This some times translates directly into the paragraphs that will make the post and other times the final post has no resemblance to the initial idea that was written down.

Most of the posts on this blog have gone through either 3 or 4 drafts. After making my notes (draft 1) I will leave the idea to simmer a little. I then return and flesh it out (draft 2). This is all done in Notational Velocity. At this stage I may have collated some links but certainly have not thought about visuals if I choose to use them at all. I have simply focussed on the writing – the most important part IMO.

If I am happy with this draft I will copy and paste it into WordPress, add all of the links and any images/media that is to be included; check the code; add categories and tags; and voila a post (draft 3) ready to be published. From time to time however I will get this far, read back over the post and decide that something is not quite right. If that is the case I will leave the post as a draft for 24 hours and return to it with fresh eyes. Nine times out ten I will realise what was niggling me, correct it and then hit publish (draft 4).

There are times that I’d like to be one of those prolific bloggers who posts daily, pushing out first draft after first draft but I just can’t do it. Partly because I’m a perfectionist and partly because many of the things that I choose to write about need a little gestation time. That said, I have found using Posterous for a more personal / non #edtech blog has given me a bit more freedom to post with a little less need for polish, but then that blog is not as widely read as this one.

Writing is a very personal process – it deserves focus, time and more than a little TLC. F,or anyone who is thinking about starting a blog the most important things you must do early on are: 1. Find a writing methodology that works for you and: 2. Find the right writing tools that will help you focus on the writing, whether that be pen and paper, direct into your blogs editor or on a dedicated writing app. Making your blog/posts colourful; embedding media; adding buttons and feeds are not as important as the writing. All of the bells and whistles can be built up over time but for people to return to your blog regularly the writing must be good.

Why I believe an 11″ MacBook Air is the ideal laptop for me

I briefly posted on my Posterous blog that I hope to make the new 11″ MacBook Air my next laptop. After considering what I want out of my next laptop here is why I believe that the MacBook Air will be the ideal machine for me. Due to the quality of a number of web based apps and a handful of open source, light weight, desktop apps the 128GB (with 4GB RAM) 11″ MacBook Air offers more than enough power, speed and space for me. I thought I would share what I plan to use the laptop for and the apps that I would install. It offers some insight to the way I maintain my productivity, write and keep up with my day-to-day life. Here goes:

Surfing the web – Google Chrome (and here’s why)
Email – Gmail / Sparrow
Calendar – Google Calendar
RSS – Google Reader
Twitter – Twitter for Mac
Managing my iTunes library – Have added less than 300MB this year in comparison to 30GB over the previous four. 128GB is more than enough space for me to maintain my iTunes library.
Blogging – Notational Velocity (I run a forked version which can be found here at elastic threads)/ WordPress
Making Notes and Lists – Notational Velocity / Evernote
Writing papers for my MA – Notational Velocity / Evernote / WordPress
Presentations – Google docs / Preview

The footprint of the free and open source apps that I will be installing (Google Chrome, Sparrow, Twitter for Mac, Notational Velocity and Evernote) is very minimal – less than 300MB. This small footprint combined with the fact that the laptop is light weight (1.06kg), small and yet durable with a full size keyboard makes it the perfect laptop for a minimalist like myself. In addition to this, it is simply a beautifully designed machine. Now, I’ve just got to save up the cash.

Image: Dan Taylor

Sharing What You Do Online – FTW!

A little under two years ago I had been teaching for six years but had not considered keeping a blog and I wasn’t on Twitter. Both of these outlets have had a significant impact on my teaching and the learning that takes place in my classroom. This morning I was reminded of just how valuable sharing what you do online is.

Catching up with tweets during New Years Day, I decided, very much on a whim, to have a go at a #365 project. A 365 project is where you take a photo a day for 365 days. I already had a Posterous blog set up that I had been using for posting photos and thoughts that didn’t really fit on this blog. Therefore, I had to do little more than start adding the photos. Having had a significantly hectic day yesterday, I got home, ate dinner and then, while working on my MA realised that I had not posted a photo for the day. In fact, I had not taken any photos at all during the day and there was nothing on my phone or laptop that I felt like posting. Instead, I decided that I would simply post a screen grab of what I was working on at that moment.

As you can see I am using Evernote to organise my MA. I have folders set up for each module and within those folders I have note books where I have recorded meetings, research proposals, notes on readings etc. I shared this on a whim, more out of ensuring that I kept up with the #365 project than anything else. I didn’t expect anyone to really look closely at the image. But in this I was wrong. If you zoom in on the image you will see that I was working on my ‘Action Research Proposal’ for my ‘Assessment for Learning‘ module. I have decided to put a ‘No Hands Up’ policy in place with two of my classes. This morning, checking my email, I saw that I had a comment from Christine Roberts (@Christiner733). She shared with me how she deals with the idea of ‘no hands up’ in her classroom and also shared her feelings on how her students respond.

What had been for me more a formality of keeping up with my #365 project; an innocuous post which had no intended outcomes, led to the sharing of good practice and ideas. Once again proving that sharing online is valuable.

For those of you who are not into your acronyms – FTW stands for ‘For The Win’ and I believe this to be true of sharing what you do online. Take the time to reflect on the teaching and learning that takes place in your classroom. There is no better way to do this than to write about it – IMO! Blogging is so simple, particularly with platforms such as Tumblr and Posterous that require almost no set up or web expertise to get started. And join Twitter, there are a plethora of talented and genuinely nice people out there who are willing to share ideas and help you grow as an educator.

In these tough financial times, the sharing of ideas and resources online may just well be the best way forward…

Lifestream

I’ve added a lifestream to my blog. I had read about the idea via an article [Working on the web – Joss Winn] that Doug Belshaw shared back in November. However, being particularly busy at the time I was unable to act on it. On Saturday, Doug mentioned the article again explaining that he has added a lifestream to his blog. This prompted me to re-visit the article and I decided that I would follow in Joss’ and Doug’s footsteps. Why? Well, it’s important for me to be able to access my shared information and being able to bring it together into one space (that I have control over) is excellent.

Adding a lifestream to my WordPress blog was very easy as there is a plugin that can be installed from within WordPress itself. I have collated the following feeds:

You can access my lifestream from the links bar below my blog header.

I hope that you will find it as useful as I will.

Image by Stuck In Customs.