How are we going to cope with the Buzz?

Time, not the sky, is the limit for people using social media. The new Google Buzz is trying cut into our daily life and attract us to spend more time Buzzing.

As a result, this means less time for Facebook, Twitter and many less populated social medias.

We still need some time to take care of our daily works and even traditional emails.

Time management is becoming an issue again. Mobile tools makes it possible to socialize while on the move, but there is still a limit to all of this.

Australia leads world in time spent socially online

Mike Bantick  writes in his blog iTWire Sunday, 24 January 2010 that Facebook, Twitter and other social based internet systems saw massive increases in usage through 2009.  Despite having some of the best weather for getting outside, Australians lead the world in spending time on social networks according to The Nielsen Company.

Helge: Let’s have a look what they are doing online. Need to call my brother Helmer in Sidney to learn how he thinks about the local online activities.

2009 was a big one for social networking online.  The latest Nielsen Company numbers showed the continuing trend for social networks has not waned in the past two years.

 Helge: We can see the same trend in Finland. The average person in street suggests “let’s get connected over Facebook". Twitter is still a little geeky.

Figures just released for December 2009 showed an increase of 82 percent in time spent in social network sites such as Facebook and Twitter over the previous year.  On average in December 2008, social networkers spent just over three hours, this increased to more than five and a half hours in December 2009.

Helge: Do people have more time for online engagements and activities due to the global recession. Are we looking for new jobs, contacts and opportunities?

According to The Nielsen Company: Globally, social networks and blogs are the most popular online category when ranked by average time spent in December, followed by online games and instant messaging. With 206.9 million unique visitors, Facebook was the No. 1 global social networking destination in December 2009 and 67% of global social media users visited the site during the month. Time on site for Facebook has also been on the rise, with global users spending nearly six hours per month on the site.

Helge: I guess we are moving in the same direction. I don’t have comparable figures. Maybe they can be found through the reference information.

In the battle(!) to see which countries population spends the most time online socially, Australia topped the table with a average time per person of 6 hours 52 minutes and 28 seconds racked up during December 2009.  Perhaps it is the tyranny of distance for a small population spread over such a vast geography that entices Australians to keep in touch online.

Helge: I figure that big countries with long distances between villages and people lead to increased online activity. USA and Canada are big as well. Finland has a small population in a large country.

By comparison US folks hit 6:09, the United Kingdom notched 6:07 and Italians came in fourth spending just over six hours Facebook’n, Twittering or Myspace’n at the end of last year.

Helge: We’ve national platforms as well so the figures aren’t comparable with English speaking countries.

Of the popular social networks, using US based data, The Nielsen Company charted the rise of both Facebook, and in particular Twitter over the past year: both Facebook and Twitter.com, outpaced the overall growth for the category, increasing 200% and 368%, respectively. Among, the top five U.S. social networking sites, Twitter.com continued its reign as the fastest-growing in December 2009 in terms of unique visitors, increasing 579% year-over-year, from 2.7 million unique visitors in December 2008 to 18.1 million in December 2009. However, month-over-month, unique visitors decreased 5%.

Helge: I guess both Twitter and Facebook are growing here as well. Qaiku is a better service for online collaboration but it’s still a local / national thing.

Using Computers in Learning adn Knowledge Transfer

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The Bamboo Project Blog: Welcome to Employee Learning Week: Seeing Yourself as a Learner

Michele Martin writes about Life long learning in her The Bamboo Project Blog.

The Bamboo Project Blog: Welcome to Employee Learning Week: Seeing Yourself as a Learner: "After 15+ years as a training professional, I've come to believe that school was the worst thing to ever happen to learning.

"It taught most of us to wait passively for someone to feed us pre-formatted, pre-filtered information that we could then regurgitate back in some pre-selected form. It made us believe that for learning to take place there must be a teacher, classroom, books, quizzes, papers and worksheets. " Writes Michele Martin in her blog.

For many of us, it killed our curiosity and stripped us of our ability to learn on our own. It changed us from the learners we were at birth, into students who must rely on others. This model of learning continues in many professional development settings because

1. many trainers were educated as teachers and
   
2. learners demand it--it's the only way they know how to 'learn.'
   

"I can tell you from personal experience that one of my greatest challenges as trainer has been when I try to move trainees out of that classroom comfort zone. It's what they expect and they don't like it if I violate those expectations." Michele Martin continues.

But to be successful in a world where continuous learning is the norm, not the exception, we have to see ourselves as learners, not students.

We have to feel the personal sense of empowerment that will guide us to say "I need to learn this and this is how I'm going to do that" without waiting for our bosses to tell us it's time to learn or for a class to be available for someone else to teach us.

We have to take responsibility for our own learning. It's the only way to control our professional destinies.

Who is Michele Martin?

I'm Michele Martin and I'm responsible for this blog, an ongoing experiment in life-long learning and exploring the opportunities of the Web.

For the past 10 years, I've consulted to government agencies and nonprofits on issues related to workforce development, career planning and education and training. I have designed and implemented numerous staff and client training programs, including an 8-week career development program for Job Corps, a "Train-the-Trainer program" for "accidental instructors" and a 120-hour professional certification program for workforce development professionals. I have also helped design and implement assessment, career planning, case management and other program elements for One-Stops and human service agencies. Writing winning grant proposals, developing RFPs, and facilitating standard-setting and strategic planning sessions are also in my toolkit.

While I continue to do this kind of work, I've also been exploring the use of social media and Web 2.0 technologies for staff and clients in workforce development organizations. For a while I was the host of an Internet radio show, which is where my interest in new media began. More recently, I've been exploring how to use blogs, wikis, social networking and other tools to improve collaboration and staff skills and knowledge. This blog is part of my own life-long learning and my intent to try to practice what I preach.

I live and work in Philadelphia, PA although I have clients all over the country. I have the great fortune of working for myself from a nice home office where Starbucks coffee is always within reach and my cat can climb on my lap whenever she wants. On the personal front, in addition to the afore-mentioned cat, I have a handsome, sensitive husband and two wonderful daughters, one at NYU and one who's still in high school.

The Impact of Language Variety and Expertise on Perceptions of Online Political Discussions

The Impact of Language Variety and Expertise on Perceptions of Online Political Discussions: "The growth of the Internet has fostered hopes that it will promote active democracies around the world. These hopes are based on the multiple sources of information available to users on the Internet, which is believed to lead to better political choices, and the freedom to express one's views online, regardless of social status differences.

However, the Internet also hosts various forms of deviant behavior, such as flaming of other discussants, malicious spreading of falsehoods, and hacking into private networks. These harmful acts may instead inhibit widespread participation and deliberation."

Helge: The Mikkeli Social Learning Seminar is a good example of what an initilly small crowd of 80 people is capable of doing. It wasn't an ordinary seminar with start and ending. The seminar continues to produce ideas and practical extensions of the ideas and findings of the seminar. I'm proud to be a part of that team.

Star Wreck Production Team in Mikkeli

Now, listening to a Star Wreck movie production presentation; how this Open Source movie was made by a group of young students and amateurs with a budget of €15 000.

Congratulations to everyone behind the film for the release :)

I've been listening and watching a webcast from Mikkeli.

The Social Learning seminar is embracing the social media and its potential as a learning environment.

Most of the participants are from the educational community. Outsiders, like myself, are participating through an Adobe multimedia platform.

You can find a link to the event from this blog "The wisdom of the crowd".