What's going on..? Thing 4

One of the best tips I got from Phil Bradley about how to keep track of what's going on is to use netvibes.  It does make life so much easier.  I can see at a glance my Twitter feed, Facebook updates, email, the weather, time the International Space Station is visible from my house and other essentials.  Netvibes uses RSS feeds to update the content...RSS feeds are not very interesting in themselves.  The "dashboard" is so handy because I do not need to waste time logging in to FB, yahoo, Twitter individually in order to see the latest update.  I do go into the websites if I need to see more detail or create a new post, but not every day.

There are some very keen Twitter users in Bridport where I live. I attended a meet-up in a local restaurant so I can put a face to some of the Twitter names.  I moved here relatively recently so the goings-on reported by the local Twitterers are of interest to me and I feel more part of the community.  I follow about the same number of people as follow me - I can't remember what that signifies...

Present and correct - Thing 3

I am enjoying thinking about Thing 3 - my personal brand.  I realise I have not got consistency in my branding in terms of design, but hey, I'm not selling artwork!  Getting a more up to date photo on my Linkedin account and a photo of me on the blog is top of my to-do list.  I find uploading photos a bit of a faff, hence the procrastination. A check on my name in google shows my twitter, linkedIn, FB and now blog pages all on page one.  I guess my name is not that common - unlike some (so glad I do not share the name of a murderer!).

I heard an interesting discussion on the subject of personal branding on the BBC Radio 4 series The Digital Human.  David White commented that once you get beyond about 80 people in your Facebook network, you are moving into the realms of broadcasting your image and from that you are then moving more into the world of celebrity.  What a thought! Glad my FB page has about 40 followers and that's enough for me.

Thing 2 - checking out the CPD23 blogs

In the last week I have discovered how inspired people are when naming their blogs.  For consistency, I have kept mine the same as my Linkedin profile.  I am relieved that not all the posts are about Libraries - phew!  I was fascinated to read about a sort of "chain cake" which sounds ominous, but it certainly looks yummy on the photos.  Thank you to Justmichthatsall for sharing.

Fiddling with fonts - Thing 1

I am feeling happier about the look of the blog now I have adjusted the background and made it less generic.  I've chosen one that reminds me of Angie Lewin's designs.  Mustn't get too carried away with the look when I should be thinking about the content...

Take a deep breath and...plunge into 23 Things!

I've been interested in this course since I heard about it last year.    I attended a talk by Phil Bradley in October 2010 and was really inspired to use Web 2.0 more fully, though probably more on the social side, say no more!  CPD23 is a good "peg" to hang a blog on so we'll see what happens.

Not cloud computing...

These are real, but an unusual variety - noctilucent clouds.  This photo was taken one June morning at about 3am.  In those days I had a good view of the Eastern horizon - that's flat Cambridgeshire for you!  Not so, from hilly Dorset. Thank you to Mark for the photo!