StayFriends

Believe it or not when I wanted to to get into my blog site to write today's post I could not find the icon!! Silly me I then realised that I had to move the page as it had been hidden, did I know how to do it on my mac, no?! Guess what I am terribly proud of myself because I managed to find out how to do it all by myself.. if I remember how to do it next time is the one million dollar question of course! So here we go!

I found this site 'StayFriends' to connect with old school friends by chance and signed in! It will be interesting to find out how many will find me since I started school. My network is growing.

Imagine today I was asked by one of my friend's daughters, a high powered young lady what professional network I would recommend her to join! I thought these young people knew all about networks. Needless to stay I felt honoured and need now think what I shall recommend her. She is already on LinkedIn. All this conversation carried on over Facebook of course.

I really love Facebook and to follow what all these young people are up to! Found out last night that my son Marcus has a new girl friend. Would he have phoned and told me? Doubt it. Another friends son had problems with his vaccuume cleaner and I suggested a small Miele. He had no clue what of a small Miele was nor did apparently his friends. The comments were hilarous. I never could have imagined that these small comments could give me so much pleasure. Even I have now started to post thing on the wall, imagine me?? Where will this all end. Back to Christmas decoration if I shall be ready by Friday ...

Twittering!

I have now done a couple of twitters! Why is it so hard to actually do it when you think about those good one liners? I must say that I enjoy reading the ones that I am now connected to. Still feel very much that I am sitting on the fence looking at what is going on around me.

I have been on Facebook and Linkedin today, a few more connections. Still have not quite figured out how I can use LinkedIn professionally. Trying to find out the value of having recommendations as such on line. How much are they worth as such? I still have to up date my Summary.

My challenge for this Christmas is to see how many of my Christmas presents I can buy on the net as I do find it hard to fight with one million other people in the stores and the time it takes! I have a pile of catalogues that has come through the post that I hope will give me the necessary inspiration.

Until next time ..

Where does time go???

I promise I am keeping IT fit, it is just getting it down on paper that I am not disciplined about. I have managed to get a rid of an old bunk bed via internet. I first tried Ebay but no success in getting registered as it was for free. They were meant to call me to verify my home number but never called. Therefore, I then tried Gumtree an Australian site which has an English off spring and the moment I had it on line it took a mere five minutes before the bed was gone and picked up the following evening. I thought that was amazing, quicker than the Council picking up old furniture and it then would have cost a minimum of £15 I think.

I have managed to register a few people that I would like to follow on twitter but I then forget to read the twitters!!! Not in my daily routines yet - how do I get used to all this?? Daniel is up set that I am not twittering more on Goodwille's home page and so am I. I am still a bit shy about all this, believe it or not. Noone ever thought i would admit to being shy!!!

Having had my mind opened up to all this digital stuff I must admit that my thinking has changed positively and I definitely feel that I am part of the change that is taking place around me even if I am not at speed with all the twitter, linked in etc. It is amazing!

I now have 234 connections on LinkedIn which is pretty good I think. It is so exciting and I think I can get in contact with a lot of people that I have lost contact with over the years. It will now be much easier to keep up with people when they move. Another thing about Linked In that I had not thought about before is that you can find a list of all the companies that you have a connections with one way or another in your network. How cool is that? I was amazed of my list of contacts. I just like to find a comfortable way of announcing my various trips so instead of me contacting people they will contact me when they hear about my travels. Much more positive and I do not feel that I am arranging a meeting that is not of direct interest. Any ideas for me??

I am still feeling that I am very much sitting on the fence figuring out how I shall really use all these tools and what impact that they can have on my life!

Until very soon ...

British banks!!

I have been trying to set up my online Natwest account since they changed it so that you need a device to make transfers and payments! What a nightmare .. I thought I had finally cracked the nut today only to find out that for some odd reason my debit card was now blocked!! I have been into the bank three times, had numbers sent, been back new numbers and cards sent, I am about to give up! I have had my Swedish internet banking for years and it is just soooo easy. My next challenge is going to be to get on line with Barclays... Maybe I am just having bad luck.

The next digital challenge is that I have is to sell a bunk bed on Ebay, first time on ebay here I come.

Trying to find my son Oskar on Faceback as we cannot get hold of him, phone turned off. He tells us that he is a Facebook addict but I have not seen him there for days. Hope this means that he is having a good time. Chatted for the first time on Facebook, rather cool. No clue how Johan knew I was on line, will have to figure that one out.

Entertaining your network?

I was asked what the difference was of networking in an 'analogue' way and in a digital way. I think you have to meet the person first and shake hands with them before you add them to your network such as LinkedIn ie you need to know who you are doing business with, I know all the people I have on my network! Furthermore, to have LinkedIn makes it much easier to entertain your network and reach out to it. It is also interesting to see who my network contacts are connected up to with and what companies they are working for. A way to see if they have some useful contacts in turn.

I was thrilled to learn how to get groups downloaded on LinkedIn to see whom I could invite. Efficiency, I love it. I invited around 100 and within a 1 minute I had 50 replies!!! They were just sitting there waiting for my invite to how cool is that!

I have to admit I am still like a child on woobbely legs finding my way forward. I still feel frightened about the thought to put something on the web and knowing that the whole world, maybe not quite, but a lot of people can read it. I still have not dared to tell people about my blog, still some have still found it, how?? I make some small remarks on Facebook which is fun but that is it. I did not know either that I could be this shy but it apparently happens to the best of us.

Twitter is still something I have to put my head around and use! It will never stop. Someone asked me about Google Wave and I could at least say that I have heard about it and that it was discussed at the Hyper Island master class.

What has taken me so long to come back??

Well I have been in Sweden for nearly a week and of course I got out of my habit of not visiting my blog ie doing my exercise as I should! I have missed my page, seriously, and every day thought about what I should write next. Hence the reason when I now was trying to get in on my blog it took me, seriously, four attempts, typical, God punish some directly! Can anyone tell my why those funny words you get when writing your password could not be more legible? My eyes just cannot read them most of the time, wobbly glasses may help?

Stockholm was great and I realised that even the Swedes I met were not as digital as I had expected and not all of them were as old as I am either... a REAL surprise to me and I can assure you it made me feel a lot better.

The most amazing thing that I encountered in Stockholm was when meeting my sister in law's father who is a priest and his name is Stanley Sjoberg. Stanley, age 73, told me that he has started the first web church in Sweden. He bought the web site on the internet from a US site for the significant amount of SEK1000, $80 or so, got a friend to tweek it a bit and off he went!! If that is not cool what is? I had a look at it and it impressive for what he has paid. As a preacher he needs to be heard so he is regularly on YOU Tube and a friend of his who has got a bit more sophisticated recording assists him. If you like to check it out look at www.webkyrkan.se!

I promise I will try to do my exercises more regularly! Like all exercises it is so hard to get started but once done you rather enjoyed it and like to do more ...

Confused but still curious ... Skype here we come!

I have finally today managed to install Skype! First go took hours, have no clue why it took so long to down load and for nothing. I did though learn what a web browser is, where the application folder is found and believe it or not managed to get the Skype icon in the application folder! The language and all these abbreviations are driving me bananas ... The next challenge is to find how to dial, get the number off my friends who have Skype and learn to dial to mobiles and landlines. I did try to find my friend Marianne's contact details but at no avail as she is the only one I know who has Skype! I probably shall get some head phones as well. I have to say the thought to be able to phone for free is a carrot in itself. I probably will find out that I have more friends than I thought who have Skype, I am the one lagging behind.

Whatch out for those phone calls!

Tips - Google any questions you have when trying to figure out what they really mean! Takes a bit of time but well worth it!

LinkedIn is coming on and I have even managed to update my profile, still some more to do there. I have also managed to connect a few more colleagues which is great and found some that I have now reconnected with which felt a bit like a triumph.

Tonight at a dinner party I brought the discussion up about LinkedIn and asked if the two gentlemen I was talking with where on LinkedIn? I was amazed that they had never heard of it! Even I had heard of it before I was completely converted!! It was interesting to have to inform them why it could be a good idea. I actually felt quite convincing even if they were far certain if it was such a good idea. They both had interesting comments why it would not work in their business. I actually felt they were missing out on something, imagine! Even if I have to admit I am not quite sure yet what I actually will gain from it. One thing I have noticed for sure is that this game is full of surprises...

Tips - found a lot of contacts by going through my contact list and looking a their contacts!

Twitter is still something that I have not quite come to terms with - will see what I can do tomorrow...

I must also decide if this blog is worth making others aware of and if it can be of any interest to others!!??? Only two followers so far and they are whiz kids on this stuff.

More challanges and for sure more frustration to come ....

This is just so stressful!!!!

Why can I never start anything on the internet without getting stuck on remembering all these passwords!!!! Even getting into my blog tonight I got it wrong to start with but finally remembered! I have now started a file on my Blackberry where I can make a note of all these passwords, for easier access. You smart people out there have probably thought about this ages ago... I have of course written them down somewhere securely. You know in a book with lock and key and hidden underneath something .... Well not very digital so let us see how this works? Hurrah I just have to remember ONE password, this is what I call progress and it has taken my only half an hour!

Twitter

So what progress have I done since that first day of our Master Class in New York? Well I did start a twitter and did twitter with great enthusiasm during the duration of the course but sadly I have not done much twittering since. Why, because now I am stuck again. I know how to send a twitter to the Master Class a they recognise a sensitive world like grrrrrr no hash sign on my computer, why???, hmc. No idea how to send it to the Goodwille's twitterpage. I will have to set that to be my homework for tomorrow. I like the idea of twittering short and quick and you can say it when it is on your mind and not wait until you have your computer to hand. Well that is of course if anyone is interested in it except me of course ...

Facebook

Already on Monday 19 October I signed up on Facebook! I shocked my sons who have already threatened to bloc me as they realise that I actually is checking what they are up to, they had definitely not expected that I should put it into action. Actually they think it is rather cool that I am 'out there'. I think I already know more about what is going on in their lives, in the nicest sense. What have I missed out on until now and imagine what I could have missed out on in the future? I have also managed to have lunch with a girl friend with whom I regained contact through Facebook, another crazy one, fantastic. Apparently the fastest growing group of members on Facebook is strangely enough women like myself, who would have thought that? How could anyone have time for such silly nonsense? I think I have 35 friends now. Just imagine to be able to keep track on how many friends you have. I noted that Kevin Swanepoel has over 600 friends. How is that possible? Well on Facebook ... I have however decided to keep Facebook for friends and for business I am on LinkedIn. Of course I see my business acquaintance as friends as, so do not worry.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn I started a while ago but I have done absolutely only the basic and it is a high priority to at least up date my professional profile properly - it looks as if I have done nothing in my life!

BBM

My goddaughter Nina managed to set me up on BBM so the two of us can now send messages to each other. I have to say it is so much easier than sending a text message on a phone which I only do if absolutely necessary. Here you can quickly type the message and you receive them as you receive a mail. I just now need to find out who else of my friends can be connected and learn how. You need some sort of a pin code that should be synchronised I believe. By the time I have figured this one out I probably have an Iphone anyhow and to be honest it sounds to complicated to contact people and ask them if they are on BBM. I am really pleased though that I am connected to Nina. If you like to be connected let me know.

My MAC

My other great challenges are to understand what everything means on every page that comes up whatever I am doing on my computer or when I am on line, on my blog etc. You navigate differently on Facebook and LinkedIn, they way you enter and up date matters. I will need to learn about Flickr which I had never heard about until my Master Class, which sounds so useful. When asked at the Master Class if we all had to be on Wikipedia, even I could raise my hand confidently, thank goodness, I think I would have had to leave if I hadn't, puuuhh. Imagine everything else they could have asked, fills me with horror to think what it could have been. Well I am working hard not to ever come in that situation. I have finally taken full advantage of my MAC instead of working on my PC. It is at once so much more user friendly than PC.

The biggest challenge is that I am, as far as possible, not going to ask for help! Help... I think my patience is going to be tested to its full on this point. I who like things to happen NOW.

No, no I am not going to say it, how am I going to have time for all this, it is a no no if I am going digital and not to die!

Go Digital or Die - here we go!

How on earth I got talked into starting a blog I do not know? Here I am and it is due to a comment made by one of the participants at a Master Class arranged by Hyper Island in New York between the 15 and 18 of October 2009 namely Rob Schwartz. By now I have talked so much about it that I thought I better get on with it!

The main objective of this blog is that I will write down my own experience and thoughts during my journey into the digital world. Everyone who knows me today know that my knowledge of surfing the net, being technical ie I hate reading instructions, being part of the social media world etc etc is extremely limited! In other words I have never made the time to sit down and learn and play ... Who has the time???? Well I have now realised that if I will be part of the evolution that is taking place in the media world I just have to dig in there. If I shall be really honest I have now for the first time understood the reason for it and I will never say that I have not got time for social media and all that other stuff! It is going to be like getting fit, taking a bit of exercise every day....

Watch this space!