New Post on My Obama Blog

I posted a new entry on my Obama blog that came to me in the wee hours.  It means something to me.  http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/blog/nonarichardson

I'm back, evolved further still

So I ventured off to try out social networking - in the midst of nurturing children,  husband, demanding career, graduate school and random free-lance gigs - and I got completely hooked.  I joined Facebook some time in May, and after a few weeks it became a life line, and I've checking almost daily ever since.  I'm not sure if that's good or bad. 

How do I describe what happened?  If my memory serves me correctly, some friend from LinkedIn lured me over to Facebook.  Facebook actively encourages members to invite friends in, and to link them with other friends who are already a part of the network.  It also uses data management technology to make suggestions of people you may know, based on entries in your profile.  Almost as soon as I filled in my profile, I received suggestions of people I might know who went to my high school, college and grad school around the same time I did.   I instantly had 20 friends in my network. They were excited to reconnect with me, but gave me my space and time to get oriented and participate in the community at my own pace.  Before I knew it, I was reconnected to 60+ friends whom I had adored in another life, just never kept up with as life took us each in different directions. 

I received emails from Facebook when people posted comments on my wall, and when I logged in, I could see  at a glance whenever someone added new pics, comments on others' updates, or updated their "status".   It took me a minute to step out there with my "status".  Once I did, I felt an odd connection; as if I was answering the question, "how are you doing?", and I could safely assume that my friends really did want to know.  A comment like, "feeling tired, but pressing on..." might prompt an empathetic, "I feel you sista," or simply, "me too."  It was really cool to see the long list of happy birthday wishes (prompted by reminders from Facebook) among friends.  I learned a little of the whole Facebook universe at a time, and focused on my favorite features.  I learned to squeeze in 15 minutes between the end and start of work projects, or between seeing the kids to sleep and packing lunches.  I learned it was much less cumbersome than finding the right time to call one of 15 people in the course of a week, and worrying about either of us being cut short by other people and obligations.

My favorite feature, and oddly the one that leaves me the least exposed, but others much more so is watching for updated pics.  I see the new babies, birthday parties, outdoor adventures, vacations, boyfriends, girlfriends, and spouses in frozen-activity poses.  But after you see enough slightly compromising pics (in PJs, dirty dishes/clothes in the background, crazy faces), you realize you really are among friends.  

And it's pretty cool to sorta be there, even if virtually.  I do realize that I run the risk of getting too complacent with my virtual participation.  But while I have 25 hours of things to do in 24 hours, I can maintain some connection with people whose lives I would otherwise miss for decades or forever.  Perhaps some of those interactions may inspire connections that move from virtual, to a phone call, to coffee, and later to dinner with the family.  This could be a good thing.    

Fast Forward to 2008

So I've moved on. I've fully embraced all that the information age, 2.0, has to offer - well almost.  As a communications professional, I can do all things to get messages across, or rather to exchange information with key audiences. We don't talk at anymore. We talk with now. It's a two way street; it's more than two ways; its networks; communities; we don't need the mainstream middleman; it's our game to lose.  Or more precisely, it's our chance to facilitate shared winning (what used to be win-win for the old school, but is now mult-dimensional winning, so we call it "shared").  

Here's where the almost comes in.  On the personal side, I just haven't moved to the part of 2.0 that requires you to completely open your personal life and personal business to the stratosphere, while distancing yourself physically from the ones most dear to heart.  

Facebook, Myspace, YouTube, Second Life.  As a child of the Cold War era, they feel so out in the open to me.  Having grown up in Wasington, even the personal blog seems like a risk.  Later, when you're applying for some top secret clearance, or waiting to get confirmed for some high-level appointment, what will the media or political opponents drudge up, misinterpret, or quote out of context?  I'd rather just call my family and friends and get together for tea or brunch.  Worse, I just look forward to those traditional gatherings that come enough during the year for me to get my fix and then get back on the treadmill that is my normal existence.  Like when we were kids. We had gatherings of family and friends for birthdays; Easter, Memorial Day, Fourth of July and Labor Day cookouts; the Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years Eve Day season; graduations, weddings, funerals, baby showers, performances, games, and family reunions/vacations.  Everyone came to almost every event.  There was plenty of personal interaction. People ate great food, talked, laughed, took pictures, harassed babies, embarassed pre-teens, pressured the single adults, and tolerated the complaints and unsolicited advice of the elders.  We got our fill, and went back to our respective corners to carry on until the next event.  And I might add that the Family News Network (aka FNN) carried "news" 24/7 around the globe way before cable, internet, email, and cell phones.  

Having said that, I must admit that I feel some pressure to jump on out there into the social media mix.  My mom has a Facebook page and a profile on at least one of the social networks, and plays cards regularly with all sorts on the internet.  My pre-teen son has already posted a video on YouTube of himself and the baby clowning.  My child can out-tech me. My mom cannot.  So my humble foray into the new world begins back here at the blog.  This blog that I figured out three years ago, and then when back to my life and forgot about.  

I am thinking creatively how to do this, so it has some use to those who will take the time to read it. Who really cares about my evolutionary trials.  My call is to find some common ground, and a way to share what I gather and learn for those who are evolving like me.  Stay tuned.....     

Nona

Finally figured out how to post pictures

It took a hour that I didn't have to waste, figuring out how to post pictures to this blog. They aren't where I want them on the page, but I don't have time to work that out right now. At least now I have don't have to embarrass myself by sending pictures through the U.S. Postal Service.

Making the Transition

Ok, it's been nearly four weeks, and I just remembered I have a blog. Mainly because four people, in four different parts of the world, have asked me to "send" them pictures of the family. This reminded me of my dinosaur status. Send, not meaning get some extra prints from the drug store and put them in snail mail. Send, meaning upload them somewhere and then send the URL or whatever to find them. Those same people have done their part, sending me four different web-photo-hosting sites, that I had to sign up for, to view their pictures. [I need a phone book (electronic, of course) just to keep up with the hundreds of logins and passwords.] So I figured I could learn how to put the pictures on my blog, to keep it simple. The only downside is that then people might actually read my blog.

Who has time to blog, when you've got to answer emails and cell phone calls, download stuff, and when you have time, bring home bacon, fry it up in a pan....yes, I'm really dating myself now.... clean up all bacon-associated messes, and never, never, let him forget he's a man... I digress.

I've been transitioning the past few weeks from my humongous desktop at work, to a lightweight, megapowerful laptop - that I can take wherever I go. It has a wireless card which connects to systems and the web at home and at work. I can take my work, keep up with my email, calendar and contacts, update to-do lists for both places, and it fits into my big purse. This "convenience" enabled me to stay up past 1:00 am twice this week, fulfilling otherwise impossible requests of my boss and a local elected leader - after picking up kid, heating a home-cooked meal, and catching up with hubby on pressing house business. I was a hero at work and home kept running. This convenience is challenging my already shaky capacity to set limits. But now that I'm in, I've got to make it all work to my advantage. My goal really is to create more quiet time, while getting the same mind-boggling quantity of high-quality things accomplished. If all this getting up to speed can't do that, then I'm going back to the stone age.

So as I sit here on a Friday afternoon, contemplating my exhaustion, and the list for the week is still unfinished, I ask myself why I am taking time to blog. Perhaps it's a cry for help. But who has time to read it? I'm going away for the long weekend, to a place where no internet connection exists, and hopefully my cell phone will be out of range.

N

Brilliant, we're all squinting with the sun in our faces.  

The precious ones. They are my troubleshooters.  

Dinosaur Evolving

I feel like such a dinosaur. I literally live and breath communications, yet I know little of the new technologies. I thought I was doing something when I got an email account in the nineties, and then committed to not only owning and activating, but also responding to the calls on a cell phone several years ago. They keep adding new technologies that are supposed to make life "easier". I can attest to it being faster maybe. I don't know if being tracked down whereever I am by anyone who wants to find me makes my life easier. It does seem to inspire staying out of trouble and doing what you're supposed to do. I guess there's virtue in that.

Tell me again why I would want to have 5,000 songs on a little thing that I wouldn't even find at the bottom of my purse? Who can listen to 3 of those songs, before someone is ringing your cell phone or sending you an email that isn't really time-sensitive, but they expect an immediate reply because they know you received it immediately? Here's one more interesting paradox: all this advanced communication is less private, more intrusive, yet less personal. My dear friend from college sent me her whole wedding photo album from some website. I was grateful and delighted to be able to vicariously share in the wedding that took place thousands of miles away, but I'll probably never see her again. I remember how my girlfriends and mom rushed over to my house to see the newly printed photos from my wedding. What's more, they were actually at my wedding. I feel I'm slowly becoming desensitized to human contact. Why bother to brush my teeth or do my hair every day?

I'll admit it. All the new innovations and possibilities are exciting. They are stretching people like me, who are used to slow change, out of our comfort zone, into a whole new reality. Stretching creates flexibility, which creates more possibilities. Hopefully(?), I'll be one of those dinosaurs that adapts to the changing environment, and thrives as a modern beast.

So here's my first ever blog - for whatever its worth.

NMRich