About this time last year I wrote a little round up of activity, and I sort of chastised myself for not blogging enough of the year. I think I might have made, well not a resolution cos they always fail, but a little “note to self” to try and get back into the blogging habit. Seems those “note to self” things are about as useful as new year resolutions. Anyway, this week I have been getting a number of automagic, AI fuelled, end of year summaries, which has prompted me to get my fingers out and onto the keyboard.
Linkedin was first. A “smooth, business like, with as dash colour” (note” that’s my description) video giving me “my numbers”. Actually, what it really illustrated was that my colleague Simon Birkett is really good at sharing useful information that often directly relates to me and my work, and I am a pretty good passive “liker” and “share this post” user. But hey, according to LinkedIn my influence “just keeps growing”.
This morning, I got my “wrapstadon”. I actually love the corniness of the title (well it is almost Christmas!). I’m not particularly active on Mastadon but I do check it most days as I feel connected to lots of “good people” there. I got this nice little infographic. Which is probably an accurate summary of when I have used it most – conferences, particularly OER25. Apparently, I am “the oracle” as I “create more new posts than replies”. Or am I really more of a self-publicist? Posting more about “me” than sharing, replying and being part of a community? Not sure how oracle like that really is.
All of this does take me back to the heady days of twitter (when it was a genuine community), and social media analytics. I was genuinely fascinated by how we (well when I say we I actually mean Martin Hawksey and his amazing Tags Explorer google doc) allowed us to explore online communities and visualize often hidden, or at least not obvious connections. Now, I know people (myself included) are disconnecting and connecting in different, more strategic ways. AI engines are gobbling “up all the data”, and I’m not so sure they are actually giving us any really valuable information back. But do I really need a little video to know what I am doing on Linkedin for example? I do know I’m using it more, posting, replying and sharing there seems easier, seems to have a greater value to me, my work, to connecting with my network than other channels (for the moment).
Anyway I will try and write something more reflective about what I’ve actually done this year, but I right now I am basking in the glow of getting my yellow badge in Padlet. Just trying to figure out what this achievement will mean for 2026 . . .
