Oh, Meg’s post today made me smile. My favourite, because it annoys me every morning: “It’s the people who try to get on the train before others have a chance to get off”.
This morning the postman knocked more than once. PY, who always jumps out of bed for parcels and post, decided to answer the door, where he discovered a large parcel from Out – my lovely black fleece had arrived (from OutOnTheStreets to be precise). This event, and Tom’s post (which I highlighted the other day and started out as a response to this), set me thinking about notions of community.
Now Out is an online community of (mainly) gay men from around the world – although at the moment it’s predominantly UK-based. It’s a great place to be and very unlike many of the other commercial gay sites. It’s all about social interactions and not about sex (like some) nor about profit (like others). It funds itself through a non-compulsory licence fee and sells merchandise to supplement that. It encourages real-world events and traditional social interaction.
Now, I have never attended one of the events, and I don’t log on every day (like some). I don’t count many of my friends (online or otherwise) as being members, and I can’t say I have made any lasting friendships on Out – although many have.
However, it is still a community, and I am still part of it. I choose to contribute financially, and I should do more in real life. There are many issues raised by Out that I shall discuss in more detail at some point soon (paying for online content; the concept of zero exploitation and the concept of online communities), but at this point all I want to say is that I feel similarly about blogging. I do it primarily for my own record/entertainment/amusement. As a by-product, I get to tell the world how I feel about things and strike up some interesting discussions and relationships along the way. It’s a place for me to express myself and, most importantly, it’s another community that I belong to. Again, I’m not the most active member of this community, but I certainly feel it is a community and one I am happy to be part of.
I am about to embark on a Friday night out in Clapham. More specifically, a colleague (we’ve worked together now and previously) and I are off to meet two ex-workmates (from our last job) for Friday night drinks. I think I am turning into some kind of hermit because I want to stay in the whole time, so although I know I will have a great time (and possibly one too many drinks), I would rather catch the 19:07 home. A bit sad, isn’t it?
plasticbag.org has a great new item about the community of UK webloggers – plasticbag.org | files | Who’s afraid of community participation?
I do consider myself a member of a community of UK webloggers. And I feel that way because we all have something in common – a shared experience maybe, or a desire to learn from one another, an interest in other people who validate our ‘hobbies’ or maybe it’s just because what matters to one of us is more likely to matter to other ones of us. I don’t share my politics or my sexuality with many of these people. Nor my gender, many of my interests, my ethnicity or my obsession with Buffy.
I’m too tired – as it’s too early/late – to comment, so go read it!
My trusted Palm Vx – from which sprang the Listen To Musak blog (why just write stuff for my own reading when I can bore everybody else?) – contains many useful freeware/shareware and fully paid-up pieces of software that didn’t come pre-installed. The most useful is DateMate. DateMate is a simple little program that stores birthdays, anniversaries, and events, and can populate the Palm Date Book with updated information so that I can always recall how old somebody is and how many years they have been married. If you own a Palm, I would wholeheartedly recommend you look at it.
Sadly, however, I have done two silly things in the past months:
Ah well, maybe it would be easier to maintain a paper diary but it wouldn’t be as much fun, would it?
Well, according to a report in this weekend’s Observer newspaper, the Ministry of Defence is interested in the technology that allows us all to be monitored by our mobile phones. Apparently, there are many positive uses of this ‘spy’ technology – following people on the move (walking or driving) and monitoring areas (nuclear power stations, roads, etc.) when visibility is bad. Nobody seems to ask what happens if you loan your mobile phone to somebody or (gasp) switch it off. Observer: How mobile phones let spies see our every move
Do you ever think that there is nothing to read online? I have to say that today is one of those days. Perhaps tomorrow will be a better day! Still, Boys Will Do Boys is a great -ooking weblog!
It may be October, but the weather doesn’t suggest it at all. Anyway, my current three favourite blogs are saying this today:
Wonder how this will read in a year’s time?
A recycled plastic bag. Well, a new look anyway.
If you’re a regular blog reader, I am sure you have your favourites. The best ones are usually the ones where something is really happening in the blogger’s life. Well, all I can say is that my thoughts are with Bart – I hope all goes well for you. Coming out isn’t easy, no matter how many times you do it.