Comments on: Internalizing http://www.darcynorman.net/2006/03/07/internalizing/ apparently much happier in person Sat, 21 Nov 2009 05:03:04 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: D'Arcy http://www.darcynorman.net/2006/03/07/internalizing/#comment-81530 D'Arcy Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000 1921636923#comment-81530 Thanks all. No thoughts of dropping my own H-bomb. I'm just struggling to understand how/why my online and offline "worlds" are diverging. I find my online connections much more rewarding than the vast majority of my offline ones (excepting family, and my small circle of offline friends). It just feels like I'm putting all of this energy into the online stuff (and finding it so much more rewarding/engaging/challenging) than the offline stuff (the "real world" that pays the bills etc...) Maybe they can be separate things, and I should stop trying to keep them overlapped? But then I worry that I'm going to spread myself so thin that I'm not really contributing to either. Don't think I'm making sense here. Just feeling a bit stretched and disconnected (or is that overconnected?) I was thinking about this post this morning (best thinking happens in the shower for some reason) and realized the title I chose was absolutely perfect. What I'm going to do is try to re-internalize much of my thinking - without stopping blogging, or commenting, or anything, but changing the nature of what I post. Subtly, perhaps, but maybe if I approach this stuff from more of a publishing perspective than an online telencephalon, I might have more success reconciling the online/offline stuff... Thanks all. No thoughts of dropping my own H-bomb. I’m just struggling to understand how/why my online and offline “worlds” are diverging. I find my online connections much more rewarding than the vast majority of my offline ones (excepting family, and my small circle of offline friends). It just feels like I’m putting all of this energy into the online stuff (and finding it so much more rewarding/engaging/challenging) than the offline stuff (the “real world” that pays the bills etc…) Maybe they can be separate things, and I should stop trying to keep them overlapped? But then I worry that I’m going to spread myself so thin that I’m not really contributing to either. Don’t think I’m making sense here. Just feeling a bit stretched and disconnected (or is that overconnected?)

I was thinking about this post this morning (best thinking happens in the shower for some reason) and realized the title I chose was absolutely perfect. What I’m going to do is try to re-internalize much of my thinking – without stopping blogging, or commenting, or anything, but changing the nature of what I post. Subtly, perhaps, but maybe if I approach this stuff from more of a publishing perspective than an online telencephalon, I might have more success reconciling the online/offline stuff…

]]> By: Alan http://www.darcynorman.net/2006/03/07/internalizing/#comment-81531 Alan Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000 1921636923#comment-81531 Scary, I think you were channeling my own thoughts over the past year...having come to a similar recognition that my external network relatiionships energize and vitalize my own much more than my local ones. I just accept it, and deal with local relationships with a different set of expectations- there are many local colleagues I enjoy working with and spending time with, but it is just.. different. And it pays the bills. I just consider the local stuff the price to pay to be able to tap into the external. Thats said, Cole's experience above is very encouraging... it's the time lag, the differential speed of movement that we deal with. I was championing, pleading withg people to take up blogging 3 years ago, preaching about RSS, and then moved on. Now the requests, interest for these are finally bubbling up. Yup, bomb's are a droppin' so keep your helmet on. Scary, I think you were channeling my own thoughts over the past year…having come to a similar recognition that my external network relatiionships energize and vitalize my own much more than my local ones.

I just accept it, and deal with local relationships with a different set of expectations- there are many local colleagues I enjoy working with and spending time with, but it is just.. different. And it pays the bills. I just consider the local stuff the price to pay to be able to tap into the external.

Thats said, Cole’s experience above is very encouraging… it’s the time lag, the differential speed of movement that we deal with. I was championing, pleading withg people to take up blogging 3 years ago, preaching about RSS, and then moved on. Now the requests, interest for these are finally bubbling up.

Yup, bomb’s are a droppin’ so keep your helmet on.

]]> By: Cole http://www.darcynorman.net/2006/03/07/internalizing/#comment-81532 Cole Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000 1921636923#comment-81532 Virtual has been the catalyst for me in my real space ... starting a couple of years ago I jumped into the blogging waters head first -- stopped writing so much in my leather journal, stopped hiding my work in closed places, and stopped asking my students to have conversations in the dark corners of the University's LMS. Some strange things happened, people started asking me questions -- they called, they invited me, they wanted to hear what I had to say ... everywhere but at PSU. Weird. I then set out to see if I could apply some of the same effort I was throwing at my blog world ... and it worked. I started just going out and meeting with people on campus, getting invovled with various groups (actually asking to be on a committee here and there), hunting out smart people and talking to them about all these amazing ideas you all throw around everyday, and introducing people to the stuff we are all so jacked about. Working hard online feels easier to me ... but at the end of the day it isn't all that hard to walk across campus and talk to a new friend. I guess all I am saying is that in real life we are just people who may or may not like real live social interaction, but the only way to be recognized for who you really are is to show up as you. Does that make any sense at all? I don't blog nearly as much as I could/should, but I am talking to more people at the moment. It is strange ... blogging made me get out and announce to people what I thinking about and it has now given me the opportunity locally to defend and expand on that. Kinda cool ... and oh, DO NOT drop the H-Bomb on us ... just balance the real and whatever the hell this other place is. Virtual has been the catalyst for me in my real space … starting a couple of years ago I jumped into the blogging waters head first — stopped writing so much in my leather journal, stopped hiding my work in closed places, and stopped asking my students to have conversations in the dark corners of the University’s LMS. Some strange things happened, people started asking me questions — they called, they invited me, they wanted to hear what I had to say … everywhere but at PSU. Weird. I then set out to see if I could apply some of the same effort I was throwing at my blog world … and it worked. I started just going out and meeting with people on campus, getting invovled with various groups (actually asking to be on a committee here and there), hunting out smart people and talking to them about all these amazing ideas you all throw around everyday, and introducing people to the stuff we are all so jacked about.

Working hard online feels easier to me … but at the end of the day it isn’t all that hard to walk across campus and talk to a new friend. I guess all I am saying is that in real life we are just people who may or may not like real live social interaction, but the only way to be recognized for who you really are is to show up as you. Does that make any sense at all? I don’t blog nearly as much as I could/should, but I am talking to more people at the moment. It is strange … blogging made me get out and announce to people what I thinking about and it has now given me the opportunity locally to defend and expand on that. Kinda cool … and oh, DO NOT drop the H-Bomb on us … just balance the real and whatever the hell this other place is.

]]> By: Sami Khan http://www.darcynorman.net/2006/03/07/internalizing/#comment-81533 Sami Khan Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000 1921636923#comment-81533 I was dwelling upon what I just said and here's what came up. Say that I visit you blog... Then I should be required to login to your site in order to view anything but content tagged as public. When I login I provide simply a url for my site with some sort of non-reuseable passphrase. The site calls my site and verifies that it's me and logs me in. Then on your blogs there is a levels of trust function (say a number from 1-10) that you can mark my url with and that determines what I can see or not see.. Being a bit more selective about sharing information. Drupal can right now do something similar, but we need tools that make it simply to set up decentralized identity networks that rely on your blog to identify you online and then allow you to share your content with who you know rather than every single person who happens to visit your site... In some ways this fact makes everyone less of a stranger, which may not be such a bad thing, but it might have some limited consequences in terms of people that you don't want gaining too much information about you. I was dwelling upon what I just said and here’s what came up. Say that I visit you blog… Then I should be required to login to your site in order to view anything but content tagged as public. When I login I provide simply a url for my site with some sort of non-reuseable passphrase. The site calls my site and verifies that it’s me and logs me in. Then on your blogs there is a levels of trust function (say a number from 1-10) that you can mark my url with and that determines what I can see or not see.. Being a bit more selective about sharing information. Drupal can right now do something similar, but we need tools that make it simply to set up decentralized identity networks that rely on your blog to identify you online and then allow you to share your content with who you know rather than every single person who happens to visit your site… In some ways this fact makes everyone less of a stranger, which may not be such a bad thing, but it might have some limited consequences in terms of people that you don’t want gaining too much information about you.

]]> By: Sami Khan http://www.darcynorman.net/2006/03/07/internalizing/#comment-81534 Sami Khan Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000 1921636923#comment-81534 I wrote a diatribe but I thought I would rearticulate, I don't related well to people around me... I find people online, though geographically spread out, are more like minded than people geographically around me. So until I win that million dollar lottery ticket so I can move to be closer to people who are like me, online is the next best place. I have once again abandoned my blog, but I still feel like I can relate to you and a lot of the Drupal people than I can to people that I physically interact with daily. We should physically hang out more, but these days I am not even at the university much. Also, that whole C-Train thing brought this home, people that I interact with close to me could care less, but the online community came through, and since a friend in need is a friend indeed I know where and who my friends are.. my few cents. I have some thoughts about where this is going and we're becoming much more connected, but perhaps we should be more selective in what we put online for everyone to see and what we keep confined to those that we hold closer to us, using certain features of say Drupal may make this possible... Much more so than just the private function that Wordpress provides. I wrote a diatribe but I thought I would rearticulate, I don’t related well to people around me… I find people online, though geographically spread out, are more like minded than people geographically around me. So until I win that million dollar lottery ticket so I can move to be closer to people who are like me, online is the next best place. I have once again abandoned my blog, but I still feel like I can relate to you and a lot of the Drupal people than I can to people that I physically interact with daily. We should physically hang out more, but these days I am not even at the university much. Also, that whole C-Train thing brought this home, people that I interact with close to me could care less, but the online community came through, and since a friend in need is a friend indeed I know where and who my friends are.. my few cents. I have some thoughts about where this is going and we’re becoming much more connected, but perhaps we should be more selective in what we put online for everyone to see and what we keep confined to those that we hold closer to us, using certain features of say Drupal may make this possible… Much more so than just the private function that Wordpress provides.

]]> By: Chris Garrett http://www.darcynorman.net/2006/03/07/internalizing/#comment-81535 Chris Garrett Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000 1921636923#comment-81535 I can empathise to an extent. What I would suggest though is if you do strengthen local relationships do not abandon your online one even a little bit. While you might be happy in your current position, if the time came to move on it would be your online reputation that would prove most fruitful. Speaking as someone who is A) geographically remote to you and B) not even of the education community any more, I for one enjoy your online musings and I can't see anything unhealthy in it. Perhaps of course I just have my compass out of whack though ;O) I can empathise to an extent. What I would suggest though is if you do strengthen local relationships do not abandon your online one even a little bit. While you might be happy in your current position, if the time came to move on it would be your online reputation that would prove most fruitful.

Speaking as someone who is A) geographically remote to you and B) not even of the education community any more, I for one enjoy your online musings and I can’t see anything unhealthy in it. Perhaps of course I just have my compass out of whack though ;O)

]]> By: Leigh Blackall http://www.darcynorman.net/2006/03/07/internalizing/#comment-81536 Leigh Blackall Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000 1921636923#comment-81536 Hi Darcy, me too. But this year (this time in a new job) I'm making a very big effort to interact locally. I'm offering sh!t loads of workshops. 1 workshop for each thing... egroups one day, blogging the next, wikis etc etc. I'm hoping that I will build a critical mass locally, that will eventually discover me online, then the two converge local, international... What interested me ost about your post however is the "what motivates me?" question. Why are the rewards online so rewarding, especially when they pitch us into local battles that can be very harmful. I think the point about our online networks being more valuable than our locally closed ones is important. But I don't think the support of the online network, in times of desperate need (such as losing your job for blogging) in any way measures up to the support that is needed... What is it that motivates us to be open and spread out? Hi Darcy, me too. But this year (this time in a new job) I’m making a very big effort to interact locally. I’m offering sh!t loads of workshops. 1 workshop for each thing… egroups one day, blogging the next, wikis etc etc. I’m hoping that I will build a critical mass locally, that will eventually discover me online, then the two converge local, international…

What interested me ost about your post however is the “what motivates me?” question. Why are the rewards online so rewarding, especially when they pitch us into local battles that can be very harmful.

I think the point about our online networks being more valuable than our locally closed ones is important. But I don’t think the support of the online network, in times of desperate need (such as losing your job for blogging) in any way measures up to the support that is needed…

What is it that motivates us to be open and spread out?

]]> By: D'Arcy http://www.darcynorman.net/2006/03/07/internalizing/#comment-81537 D'Arcy Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000 1921636923#comment-81537 d - it's totally not about recognition. it's about essentially not existing in the "real world" for whatever reason, vs. whatever I do online. dunno - maybe this is more a gripe with dysfunctional instutions than with online/offline dichotomies... d – it’s totally not about recognition. it’s about essentially not existing in the “real world” for whatever reason, vs. whatever I do online. dunno – maybe this is more a gripe with dysfunctional instutions than with online/offline dichotomies…

]]> By: davidicus http://www.darcynorman.net/2006/03/07/internalizing/#comment-81538 davidicus Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000 1921636923#comment-81538 now i see. as forward as alberta can be, remember that you're practically on the bleeding edge of things. if it wasn't for the specialized pockets you have access to on the net, you might feel completely alienated. keep marketing yourself and don't be afraid to toot your horn a bit. make sure your localspace is aware of you if you think their recognition or awareness is important. now i see. as forward as alberta can be, remember that you’re practically on the bleeding edge of things. if it wasn’t for the specialized pockets you have access to on the net, you might feel completely alienated. keep marketing yourself and don’t be afraid to toot your horn a bit. make sure your localspace is aware of you if you think their recognition or awareness is important.

]]> By: Chris Garrett http://www.darcynorman.net/2006/03/07/internalizing/#comment-81539 Chris Garrett Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000 1921636923#comment-81539 The numpties that surround us in the real world rarely "get it". A clue is something that has to be repeatedly bashed into their heads before they get it. Part of the joy of the online world is you *choose* to make those connections where in real life, other than obvious exceptions such as spouse, they are thrust on you and you have to make the best of a bad hand most of the time. Don't let the b@57@rds grind you down is the best advice I can manage. Also don't be so sure about the whole bank taking your house away, can't talk for the education aspect of what you do but there are opportunities in the blog/podcasting aspect! The numpties that surround us in the real world rarely “get it”. A clue is something that has to be repeatedly bashed into their heads before they get it. Part of the joy of the online world is you *choose* to make those connections where in real life, other than obvious exceptions such as spouse, they are thrust on you and you have to make the best of a bad hand most of the time.

Don’t let the b@57@rds grind you down is the best advice I can manage. Also don’t be so sure about the whole bank taking your house away, can’t talk for the education aspect of what you do but there are opportunities in the blog/podcasting aspect!

]]>