Hello my potential readers!

  I am very happy to announce that this week our group has managed to contact our NGO. The result of the meeting is very positive.  Children of Mexico are open to any good crowdfunding and crowdsourcing ideas. On the one side it is very good, because it gives a lot of possibilities. At the other side the beginning can be more difficult, because we ourselves have to specify the direction we are going to go to.

The last lesson was dedicated to crowdsourcing and online social structures. We focused mainly on the division between ME, WE, and the NETWORK society. ME represents individuals who are involved in the project, WE stays for small groups working together on it, sharing ideas and the network is created by a group of people who are interested in what we are doing.

First of all it all was blurry for me and I didn’t understand why do we need to think about it. I didn’t know how it should contribute to our work. Just LOST. But then I understood that this is more or less job of the designer. Disassemble everything, both possible and impossible things. And then analyze it. Our last task from Visual Communication course was to analyze a pencil sharpener and then redesign in 30 ways. In able to achieve it you have to think about each part of pencil sharpener separately, you have to understand the dynamics of it and then come up with something completely fresh and new (Am I really writing about the dynamics of a pencil sharpener? Unbelievable what this tumblr blog is taking out of my head.)

If you start to think about the me, we and the network, you describe everybody who is or can be a part of the project. If you point everybody separately, it is so much easier to say where the company or organization is doing well or what parts can be more extended. It gives you a big insight in the structure of this one specific society. Then you can also think about the communication between those groups.

The NGO consist first of all people who are in the board of management, then of other employees. Second group can be volunteers, people who are going for events, donators etc. . Then we can talk about the target groups like Mexicans in the NL, people who are interested in Mexican culture, finally everybody who liked it on fb. Thank you Gabriella that you have explained this to us!

The other I thing which I’m slowly starting to understand is that I need to catch up with technology.  I have always preferred  to meet in real with somebody and then talk about problems than using social networks for it. But as I moved out from my country, I understood that  technology is not only this worm who keeps people home, but also a very useful tool to actually stay in touch with somebody and be more updated about the changes in my friends lives. You are also able to have more friends, just because it is so easy to communicate. Letters are sweet, but it takes too much time as for the modern world.

This week in Project Communities we have been introduced to ‘Me, We, Network’ and how we use this in terms of not only what we personally do, but also how it can be used to help others.

I was never really interested in computers when I was a kid. I was the type that was outside kicking a ball around the park with friends or building various things with my dad. This was all until I went to secondary school anyway, whereby peer pressure amongst other things coerced me into online social networks. It seems like only yesterday when I signed up to Bebo and the biggest arguments in the playground were about who was in your top 8 friends list, that was displayed on your page. How times have changed, I am now an active user of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google Drive, Instagram, LinkedIn and since 4 weeks ago, Tumblr also!

The idea of the ‘Me, We, Network’ is about the interaction that we personally have with the internet and also what it can provide to us.

‘Me’. The easiest way to describe this term is when I am using the internet for research, or for general browsing purposes and don’t actually get involved with any discussions or interactions whatsoever. I would say that the two main online spaces that could be referred to as ‘Me’ would more than likely be YouTube and Instagram. These are both online spaces where I personally only browse and research items that are relevant to me, even though there is the opportunity to interact with others I choose not to. But these are only two that I mainly use, there are obviously more that I can use when the occasion arises, for example I am currently using lots of online resources to find relevant information that can help us with our NGO project. One example would be http://projectcommunity.info/resources/ where funnily enough, all the resources and information has been ‘crowdsourced’.

‘We’. Refers to bounded groups. These are groups of bounded people who have something in common with you that you communicate with. I would say that the main online spaces I use for this would be Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. These are all different online spaces but all have a different function and purpose. I have been using Facebook for nearly 4 years now and have been in countless bounded groups. But more recently I have been highly active in only a few. These are ‘New Open Innovators (IDE)’, ‘IDE Group 3 – Proj Comm’ and one called ‘The Commonwealth’. All of these groups are either closed or secret so that there is still a platform for interaction between the members involved but with a certain amount of confidentiality. They are all full with people that are involved in one way or another in a certain aspect of my life, whether that involves a professional or social aspect that we have in common and are easily and quickly available whenever something needs to be discussed or organised. This has been used by my group during project communities so far, by using firstly Facebook but secondly Google Drive. This is a tool where we all have access to and can see the work each other has completed and also have the opportunity to work on something together at the same time, from different locations around the world, which is invaluable.

 ‘Network’. The World Wide Web. Somewhere where I can interact with people regardless of whether I know them or even have anything in common with them at all. I think that the main online space I would say I use, that incorporates this would be Twitter. This is where I can voice my own views, give constructive criticism on others (politely of course) and sometimes have a generally good debate. On the other hand however, away from my personal endeavours the ‘Network’ section has proven to be and I personally still think will prove to be even further an invaluable tool for research and interaction for our NGO.

I would say that the most valuable to me would be the ‘We’ aspect or the bounded groups that I am currently involved in. This is because at the moment it is so valuable to myself and our group as a whole to be able to communicate effectively on Facebook whilst also being able to work in conjunction with each other on Google Drive. It means that we can efficiently work together and in the progress be more productive. The most comfortable, for me would actually be the ‘Me’ as I am quite happy to be in my own little world, browsing and researching things online and not getting involved with anything more than that. I would say that my preferred tools that come under the ‘Me’ section would be YouTube and Instagram. However for the ‘We’ section would most definitely be Facebook and Google Drive.