Keyboard Karma ~ by Helen Crozier

Meetup: revitalising local community via the web

Last time I wandered through the Meetup site there was not much there - certainly very few Sydney groups. Tonight I was pleasantly surprised.

Sydney has 209 Meetup groups. The Sydney Online Bookclub Group has 280 members who meet in the city monthly but also communicate via the group page. Loads of other interesting groups exist - language, film, writing, business, technology, sport. If there isn't already a group in existence near you then by all means join and start one yourself.

Meetup is the world's largest network of local groups. Meetup makes it easy for anyone to organize a local group or find one of the thousands already meeting up face-to-face. More than 2,000 groups get together in local communities each day, each one with the goal of improving themselves or their communities.

Meetup's mission is to revitalize local community and help people around the world self-organize. Meetup believes that people can change their personal world, or the whole world, by organizing themselves into groups that are powerful enough to make a difference.

I'm so excited that this has taken off and shall be joining a couple that interest me and writing about the journey. I'd love to hear from members of meetup about their experiences in the comments.

Friday night $2 bubbles to start the weekend

To end a week which seems to have been hurtling at breakneck speed I met with a small group of small business women at the Blues Point Hotel. My parking karma was in horrific form so I was running very late. Driving round and round the block waiting hoping wishing for a space that did not want to eventuate was a very frustrating exercise. I made it into the hotel just before 7pm so was able to claim one of the last glasses of 'friday night $2 bubbles'. What a cheap night out!!

The company however was by no means 'cheap'. It was a great group of women and with the exception of two whom I had met independently there were three more that I 'knew' only because of twitter. I was most excited because I had been chatting with Valerie Khoo for some months virtually and finally it was time to meet her in the flesh! Having read her great newsletters and fun tweets I felt as if I already knew her extremely well - a bit like internet dating perhaps!! There was no awkwardness or unsure moments of what to say. We couldn't stop talking about many things... technology, writing, iphones, Biggest Loser etc.

I continue to hear much negative sentiment towards twitter but I would like to reiterate that it is what you make it. If you let the noise flood into your twitter stream and if you yourself tweet meaningless nothings - you will get very little in return. Valerie reminded me that I had helped her out in the early days of when I was on twitter and she was really grateful for that. I didn't do it with any ulterior motive - I was just pleased to give her the contact details of someone who might be helpful for her to know. The two most valuable things about twitter are the chances of deep and meaningful connections/relationships plus the opportunity to use it as a resource or directory just like google.

Yes there's rubbish on there but there is also rubbish on the internet. Filter out the rubbish and you will find gold I promise you!

Special thanks to Catriona Pollard from CP Communications for organising - look forward to the next one! Great to also see Robin Powis from Defining Style, Susanne Thiebe from Less Mess and Karen Andrews of Shine Sales Solutions.

10 absolutely fabulous women - seven of them are on Twitter so start following!

Since joining Twitter in October I've been very lucky to connect with some incredible women. This has led me to provide a list of links to their sites on the left hand column of this blog. If you are low on inspiration or motivation to get you moving towards your purpose or at least finding out what might be your purpose I would strongly suggest that you follow these girls on Twitter.
@JulieAnnStor, @londoncowgirl, @valeriekhoo, @cheyannebrae, @sarahprout, @Ellifordyce, @sammutimer

I've also included three women who I can't seem to find on Twitter (alert me if I've just not been thorough enough in my searching please).
Carla Coulson, Petrea King and Paula Constant.

Ladies, you are as exquisitely beautiful as the water lily I photographed in the grounds of the Alhambra, Spain in September. Your courage, insightfulness, compassion, generosity and drive inspire me to overcome any barriers I have created for myself so that I too might make the journey towards business and personal success, completion, creativity and philanthropy. Thanks to Elli Fordyce who recorded her first CD at 71 I now know there is no age barrier to my dreams but having connected with these wonderful women I feel that I am being drawn to my purpose at a far greater speed. Thank you!

I hope the readers of this post will also benefit from learning about and connecting with these women also. Follow and learn but this is by no means an all inclusive list. I shall be adding links to other ab fab women in due course!

Twitter gives me the warm fuzzies

Happy 2009!  Back from Fiji, survived Christmas/New Year and one 'child's' birthday along with renovations. Is it a holiday when builders are banging on the door at 6.45 each morning? I'm not sure but gradually this house that hasn't been touched in the 12 years we've been here is getting a bit of a facelift. 

I'm still using Twitter and now after almost three months. I've not been madly racing to get hundreds (or thousands) of followers but I've been slowly involving myself with a small group of very interesting and inspiring people and now I'm really enjoying and 'getting' twitter. Sometimes it feels like a tiny window into someone's world that you would otherwise not experience. Other times it feels as if I am in an enormous room and  can hear all the conversations going on. Occasionally someone will start a conversation that I can contribute to and that makes me feel good. What's also kind of cool is that I've just launched my iPhone blog and within my group of people I follow I can see who actually has an iPhone from their tweets. I was thinking for a while that I was a bit of a lone ranger on the iPhone front but now it's great to see I'm in company.

Like anything in this new world Twitter takes time to develop and turn into something useful or worthwhile. I'm loving the way it makes it easy to make good connections and I'm also loving the way everyone loves to share helpful stuff.

What more can I say? Give it a try... go on.

Big Juicy Twitter Guide

I'm studying the validity/usefulness & fun of twitter and came across this excellent guide written by Caroline Middlebrook. It's a superb easy to read comprehensive work - brilliant. Thanks Caroline!! If you have any questions or queries as to whether you should be using twitter or HOW to use it then this guide will have the answers.

Big Juicy Twitter Guide

Google Video Chat

Well this is interesting. Google Video Chat has finally arrived.

We've been having huge problems with Skype when trying to link to family in England so I'm looking forward to testing this out.

Will need to do it at the office however as my bandwidth is on slow speed due to being hacked? yesterday.

Check it out here and I'd love to hear what it's like.

Busy week....reading/writing & linking!!

My son was back at school this week after the dramas of last week but my daughter had exams - I had promised to volunteer as a reader/writer for some of the kids sitting exams so I was up at the school a big chunk of the week getting writer's cramp!!

Aside from that I've been spending literally hours finalising my online booking system - adding appointments and workshops then 'testing' to see how it all looks. It was set up previously but I've decided to rejig what's on offer so this is what has caused all the work. I've also been incredibly busy on Linked In - adding contacts, adding to my profile etc.

Due to feedback from the AAPO conference I've scheduled three weeks of workshops with topics that I briefly covered in my presentation. I've scheduled the local ones and will publish dates Monday.... will also include some remote options for those not close.

A wave of new work is rolling in which is good.... like many others I"m refusing to acknowledge all this global recession talk....

Twitter in plain English & why I've succumbed

So I finally succumbed to Twitter!! This is the tag line....     
"Communicate and stay connected through the exchange of short status messages"

I watched the cute little video about it I was sold. I can get where they are coming from and partly I suppose because I've been spending a little time on facebook since returning from my trip. Finding the 'status' updates particularly useful and quick so twitter will most likely be similar.

I'm not going to flood the blog with updates... just the one most recent.... am keen to see how this all pans out :-)

Last.fm radio: your musical taste completely organized

Last year I visited last.fm and liked what I saw. It's a social networking site for music with free/paid membership - so very useful and inspiring. On my blog (just below the zen habits info there is now a 'player' "Helen's Calm Playlist where I've tagged some of my most favourite tracks and they are available now to listen by clicking on the 'play' button'. Feel free to listen while you explore my blog or just keep the window open while you work! I've found some great new bands/vocalists in the last week or two - Duffy, Phoenix Foundation, etc. Go check last.fm out. You can sign up as a member, download the free software and then every time you play a track on your computer or ipod your music profile will be added to - you will then receive recommendations - a great way to broaden your musical knowledge/library beyond iTunes. After an hour or two on here you will be able to compete with your teenagers & their MySpace I promise you!

Google Docs: collaboration cuts down on emails

At our school reunion in February there was a scrappy blue piece of paper being passed around with contact information and email addresses. This was a very valuable piece of paper because a lot of us had been out of touch for THIRTY years and we were really quite emotional about being back together. I put my hand up and said 'Yes leave it to me, I'll take care of it!" It's in terrible shape - this paper - wine/coffee stains.... I could barely read it so I kept postponing the job of typing it up and distributing the list.

Two emails came today saying quite rightly "Hey where's the list?" - so I took the plunge and after much squinting and guessing put together a spreadsheet. I decided to use Google Docs. Why is this good idea? Well I'm figuring my translation may leave a lot to be desired and there will be corrections. It has 17 contacts on it and if there are mistakes I could potentially get 17 emails back asking for things to be fixed. By using Google Docs I have been able to send it out to the 16 other girls as 'collaborators' who have the power to do their own changes to the spreadsheet online. No backwards and fowards of documents with revisions - we just keep it there and update it as we move or change email address. The spreadsheet doesn't move anywhere -  the  collaborators all just receive a link to it where they can view, make changes or print.

How can you use Google Docs? All you need is a gmail account. Once you have Gmail you have access to a lot of google applications - Google Docs is completely free and gives you online access and storage of word processing, spreadsheet & presentation docs without the complete bells and whistles of Microsoft Office but with more simplicity. I store frequently used documents in the google account in case I ever need to access them when I'm on the road and for some reason without my portable hard drive. Perfect!!

3 Skypephone - great mobile solution for your teens

Poor ET has been having mobile phone problems - the Sony that he had for just over a year has been constantly turning off (feels like there is some electromagnetic disturbance over here with all this shutdown/restart of gadgetry). We've been using Savvytel prepaid which has been moderately successful. Great for Poppy who has self-control and uses the phone as an emergency communication tool - not so great for ET who is a professional Gen Y specimen needing to be in communicado with 'everyone' 24-7.

Last week we investigated the options and I managed to persuade him to go with the 3 Skypephone on a prepaid plan. The phone cost $149AUD. It has a 2 megapixel camera and music playing facilities but the best thing by far is the Skype button. ET wasn't too enthusiastic to start with because Skype is not considered 'cool'  as a communication tool for 16 year olds. However when I explained to him that he could reach any of us in the family via Skype for NOTHING ie not eating into his prepaid he was prepared to give it a go. I'm hoping he will persuade his closest friends to sign up to Skype as well thus reducing the stress that evolves whenever we see him texting away. A kid without phone credit is no fun! With the 3 Skypephone you receive a 4,000 Skype to Skype call minutes and a very generous 10,000 Skype instant messages PER MONTH - gratis. He then only needs to purchase his prepaid credit at $29 which lasts 60 days.

If careful - his phone expenses should be down to $14.50 per month and if he can be an early adopter persuading his pals to sign up for Skype he will really be able to talk/text for free to his heart's content - will it make things happier? Perhaps.... just while I was writing this I sent him an instant message telling him what he missed out for dinner because he's at a friend's house - unusually we had a sweet mini-conversation about the great steak he had - perhaps because it was free he will be far less precious about his SMS credits now!!

All the family has their own Skype account and we have it running in the background. Our main home phone is the Philips Skype phone which is great - we can reach each other on this for nothing. I'm thinking he will be at least be able to reach one of us if necessary for zilch whenever he needs to and keep communicating with his mates without stressing out so much.

You can buy two phones for $279 - and you get $20 credit for each - worth considering if you are going through mobile phone teen angst at the moment!!

One thing to be aware of if you are purchasing however - the guy at the three kiosk was honest with us about the black version of this phone - apparently after a few weeks of use the black paint starts to peel due to the heat on the unit. Yes it's covered under warranty and they will replace it but that would be a hassle. Seems to be a design fault so be aware of this. I didn't think ET would go for the blue version (which is really white with a blue edging) but in the end he preferred that to a gothic black with paint peeling off!!

Pingg - now I am motivated to become more social!

Had a return visit to Pingg tonight and loved it so much I signed up straight away and sent out an invite. It seems so difficult to track people down these days and get them to commit what with such busy lives etc so I'm over the moon about this gorgeous tool.

Similar sites do exist eg myinvites.com.au but in my view Pingg is far superior to anything I've seen - here are some of the highlights

• Stunningly beautiful design and interface - despite the fact that email invites are free there are NO BANNER ADS!! (hallelujah.... have you noticed by the way how I refuse to put those on THIS blog!!)
• Very easy to use for host and invitees (you can check out who has opened your invite, who has responded yes, no or maybe)
• Option to add location google map as a link so your guests don't get lost
• Possible to upload your own images and pdf files
• Each event gets its own web page where the host and guests can communicate to each other (less email clutter)
• After a guest has responded they can download the invitation to their desktop or web calendar (how easy is that?)
• Reminders & thank-you notes quickly & effortlessly sent with just a couple of clicks
• Import contacts from any existing address book

SMS & print facilities for postcard invitations seem to be available at a reasonable price but I've yet to determine from the FAQ whether or not this would apply to users outside USA. It will be possible in the near future it seems to collect payments via paypal which will remove the headaches often associated with organizing any events with money involved!

Here's a little snapshot of an invite I just sent out .... 

I just can't wait to use this to the max.... Think of how simple it will be now to organise book club meetings, dinner parties, movie nights, board game tournaments.... thanks so much Lorien Gabel for such a beautiful web tool!

Good Reads: Easily keeps track of your literary side

GoodReads is a great website that allows you to see what your friends are reading. Members list their favourite books, discuss literature, forum groups and connect with others.  Kind of like a FaceBook but actually for books. It's fun going through your bookshelves and listing what you've read - I think we keep books just to remind ourselves that we've read them - with GoodReads you can give your books away knowing your reading history is recorded.  Great way to document what you've done in your offline book club. Tell me you've joined and I'll add you!!

How much MSN is too much?

Today at 5.30pm I was walking the dog at the ocean, grabbing some oxygen after too many hours working at the computer. I'd promised myself a swim because it was such a gorgeous day but the work was never-ending so this walk was a compromise.  Two girls got out of a car parked near by and walked past me. This is the fragment of conversation I heard as they were passing. They were possibly 18 or so.... hard to say.

Girl A: I've just spent five hours on MSN
Girl B: With "What's his face?"
Girl A: Yeah!

Call me old-fashioned but it was an absolutely brilliant sunny day and if I had five hours up my sleeve....... arrrrgghhhh.......