Recently in community Category

I do something stupid and you're all there for me.

Wow.

This post is written specifically to you, my social network. This week, I've done something crazy.

I quit my job.

I hear the shrieks now. "What??!?! Are you nuts?" "Don't you know the economy has taken a nose dive??" "We just saw you at a national conference! Why didn't you say anything then?" Believe me, I doubt you're saying anything to me that I haven't already said to myself. But I think being at High Ed Web only highlighted that, in Milwaukee, I was surrounded by people from across this hemisphere who love what they do and put up with a lot in order to do it. You tend to see that kind of drive and motivation within social media and higher ed. It's one of the many things that trips my trigger. In my case, however, the technologies I use, the events I engage with because I love being part of them were not things I was doing for my specific job at Penn State. They were things I was doing for me. The last four conferences I've been at? Not funded by my department. That's right, folks. Over $2000 in hard earned currency for two national conferences, because I felt that strongly about presenting and connecting with others in this field. I've also had to take vacation time in order to pursue the kind of professional development I've felt was necessary and relevant to my interests. Thank goodness for friends who felt it was important I was in the mix as well, because they let me room with them to make this happen. Those are good people, folks. I don't take that lightly.

I can hear you, you know. You're sitting there, shaking your head, asking "Why?"

I'm still a bit overwhelmed by the amazing response and attention I've received these last couple of days from both the Penn State Web Conference, and the Social Media Summit the day after. It's really gratifying to see people recognize you and come over to say hi and reconnect. I am incredibly fortunate to get that kind of reaction from so many. Because, let's face it: to know my kind is not necessarily to love my kind. I'm outgoing, I'm loud, I'm boisterous, I have lots of enthusiasm and very little filter. It can be a bit overwhelming to those not inclined to befriend that kind of person and, truly, I understand that.  It takes all kinds, it's not you, it's me, it's all good.

My strength, it must be said, is my connection to my community. I find, more often than not, I am a connector and a conduit between people, groups, and ideas. I actually like that about me; I can take an idea and generate enthusiasm--get people talking and excited about something. I'm especially good at events. Call it a gift. I like to think of it as one part marketing, one part coordinating, one part socializing, and one part caring. Because I care about my community. I might not be involved in the sexy stuff at work, but I can watch other groups as they work with new ideas, and create new ways to mash up data, tools, and communications to engage each other. I find the dialogue is exciting and, while I am an arm's length from it, what about those others who are a campus away? How much fun is it to have people reach out and say hey; look what we're doing. How could you use this idea where you work?

This link recently showed up in my twitter feed, and I must admit I sat and watched the whole thing, impressed at the quality of the effort despite the fact they were lip synching.
 

Lip Dub - Flagpole Sitta by Harvey Danger from amandalynferri on Vimeo.

My thoughts afterwards:

1. Hey, I remember this song! It's a catchy little ditty.
2. This is fun.
3. This is community.
   

The One Post A Day challenge continues as the end of the month marches steadily towards us. I watch on the sidelines, encouraging others and still reading. It's nice to connect, even at 6:00am while the coffee is brewing and I can't yet get into ANGEL for another hour. As I peruse my community's progress in the long distance running event, I see that many of my comrades are starting to stumble with the onslaught of additional work which the beginning of a semester invariably brings with it. Most lasted longer than I did, but are still, in the end, being forced to make choices of work priorities over personal priorities. The ones that continue to post are almost demi-gods, in my book; certainly they don't seem to be as radically effected by the students' return to UP. (Right now, I'm wishing I wasn't radically effected either.) I'm glad others are continuing to blog, because those of us who've had to stop are still watching from the sidelines shouting encouragement to those bloggers still in it to the end. These have been really thoughtful posts, allowing me the chance for some great insight into my fellow coworkers' daily lives and passions. Between twitter, the LDSC, and this blogging event, I am learning a lot about my community, and it's really been an eye opener into just how smart these people are (yeah, and perhaps even a bit intimidating).

I was downloading LDSC "stuff" from my camera this weekend and stumbled across some community love which kind of choked me up. Chicken And Stars is a podcast that I do along with @Reginaldgolding and @Micala, and it is VERY grassroots. We talk about local community, things that are happening now, what people are talking about, and try to highlight someone so we can all get to know them better. It is a lot of fun to do, and Wednesday nights are C&S nights, complete with adult beverage in hand, as we sit down to create more madness and mayhem.What I really love is that the community is willingly coming to play with us and engage in this little experiment of ours.  What makes this relevant on my professional blog is that, at the end of LDSC, three of our listeners decided to create an homage to C&S and presented us—in front of EVERYONE at the summer camp—with a fan poster and a canned goods drive that was then donated in our name to the local food bank. Voila the poster:

Summer Camp has finally wrapped up, much to my disappointment.  It wound down about an hour ago, actually, but I find I don't want to stop the voices in my head. I think for most people, we try to do anything possible to extend the post-event high of a really great experience. For me, I have all these ideas still running around playing tag in my head, so I am avoiding going anywhere that is going to infringe on that. Ironically, as I take the back road home, I pass a large group of small children and their camp leaders (in bright green t-shirts almost exactly the same color as my own, no less!) as they head back to base camp after a day of fun at the park. Happy, excited faces, kids talking to one another and totally engaged in the moment. On an impulse I pull over to write this because the looks on the kids faces absolutely captures the spirit of their ETS Summer Camp counterparts. Over the last two days, I have watched the campers engage in discussion, dialogue, and community. I'd like to think that this was a snapshot of how they really felt about being a part of the conversation: happy excited faces, talking to one another and totally engaged in the moment. It's a really great thing to see.

The Learning Design Summer Camp is today. Starts in less than 10 hours, in fact. I am on my way to bed after an evening of checking and rechecking my slides and wikipages, but I had a couple of observations I wanted to touch upon, and get my thoughts posted before I fall headlong into the hustle and bustle of camp. I feel the gearing up of anticipation for this camp, and it's great watching some of these new additions to our twittersphere actually get excited about the event. I, too, am looking forward to another opportunity to meet some of these people I only know by their screen names.