Blog Report for January 2022 Seminar : Introduction to Radical Knowledge Management

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Summary

The speaker (Stephanie Barnes) started from the premise that in this global and digital age we must focus on people, processes and technology. We are all leaders and we must use the knowledge and tools available to us in creative and innovative ways. Therefore we must employ critical thinking, resilience and reflection in a sustainable way to continually adapt to the volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA) in our environment. We are forever dealing with uncertainty and having to learn continuously. We must adopt ‘trial and error’ in our practices. These new practices are drawn from art, artistic practice, artistic attitude, artistic process and, above all, artistic creativity. We will need the space to be creative and analytical.

The new work requires us to be sustainable. The new work requires the whole person to be involved in their work, not just part. It requires on-going learning and engagement; and it requires creativity and self-fulfilment. Many of these things are learned through adopting a creative and artistic approach. Stephanie spoke critically about education. She believes that creativity is ‘educated’ out of us and we must re-discover it. We broke up into small groups and drew images suggested by Stephanie and then showed them to each other via zoom to share our understanding of her instructions to us.

However, the most important ‘take-away’ from this seminar was quite simple – ‘be creative’.

Rob Rosset 05/05/2022

 

Blog for November 2021 Seminar : Writing for the web – perspectives and practical advice

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This blog is the result of the work of one of the ‘break-out-groups’ during the NetIKX seminar held by Teodora Petkova on November 25th 2021 entitled “Writing for the web: perspectives and practical advice”.

For an excellent review of this seminar please start off with a blog written by Carlin Parry which ‘sets the scene’ so to speak https://www.visucius.org/2021/12/02/writing-for-the-web-perspectives-and-practical-advice/

Our group was asked to write a script for a short video of a few minutes. The video was entitled ‘How to propagate strawberries in a community garden’. Teodora asked us for our ‘beautiful first ugly draft’ and for ‘meaningful content’ and for us ‘to think before we ink’, which to us meant being concise. Here is the result :

The Script

An Interview with Conrad who is running a Community Group for gardeners.

Personnel : Conrad – gardener; Anke – tutor; Gerard – dolly grip/best boy/cameraman.

Robert – interviewer

Robert –

‘Here we are in Fareham House garden. Conrad and Anke are going to tell us about propagating strawberries.

Conrad is a student who planted strawberries in May and they have spread all over this raised bed’.

Conrad –

‘We only had 5 strawberries and Anke is telling me what we can do about it’.

Gerard moves camera from Conrad to Anke and also shows the strawberry bed itself and goes back to Anke for her contribution….Anke talks about the proper way to plant strawberry runners, which she regards as the easiest way to propagate strawberries.

How to grow strawberries on the ground – US video.

https://youtu.be/upqmvFFHLw0

How to grow strawberries in pots – US video.

https://youtu.be/stw9KEpSNEg

Conrad – ‘I think that all members of our community would like to find out about these things and then they could take a strawberry plant home to foster in their own homes’.

[In 2022 Conrad wishes to make a video of next season’s strawberry planting which will supersede the first video above].

Conrad then explains to camera how viewers can join the Community Group.

End of script.

Now, we can open this up and show the idea of ‘the strawberry’ in different socio-cultural contexts. We have foraged the web for information and found the following ‘knowledge bits’ in architecture, art & fabric design, film, food, music and poetry.

Strawberry in Architecture

Strawberry Hill House – Community Garden – website page. Strawberry Hill House is the Gothic Revival Villa built in Twickenham, London by Horace Walpole (1717-1797).

https://www.strawberryhillhouse.org.uk/get-involved/community-gardening/

Strawberry in Art and Fabric Design

The strawberry as art in ‘The strawberry thief flower and bird pattern’ by William Morris (1834-1896) – image

https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O78889/strawberry-thief-furnishing-fabric-morris-william/

Strawberry in Film

‘Wild Strawberries’ by Ingmar Bergman (1957) – video

An old University professor goes on a long car trip to collect an award and he reminisces about gathering strawberries with his girlfriend in his youth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwH-gJ0c5E4

Strawberry in Food

Strawberries as food – How to make chocolate strawberries – video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpKmU2_acM4

Strawberries as food/art – How to make strawberry art decoration – video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNFC82zFFzM

Strawberry in Music

‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ by the Beatles – original video

John Lennon used to play as a child in a Salvation Army children’s home in Liverpool  called ‘Strawberry Fields’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtUH9z_Oey8

Strawberry in Poetry

‘Strawberries’ by acclaimed Scots poet Edwin Morgan 1920-2010 – website page

https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/strawberries/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

November 2021 Seminar: Writing for the Web: Perspectives and Practical Advice.

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Summary

This meeting was an unusual choice for NetIKX, but it proved extremely wide ranging and informative.  We considered how writing for the web  is different from other content? What are the processes and principles guiding web content and are there any hard-and-fast rules to stick to when crafting texts for the Web?

These are the three questions that Teodora Patkova, our speakers, looked at in this webinar. Following her passion for making the Web a better text, Teodora led us towards a broader understanding of the Web as a new writing environment. She shared her experience with writing content for the Web as well as her academic findings, related to connecting with audiences online.  Using a fascinating set of slides which drew from a hugely eclectic set of sources, she opened our eyes to ways of thinking about web content without falling back into standard content production methods.  It was hugely stimulating, thought provoking and enjoyable.

We considered:

  • Why write for the Web: We learned Teodora’s perspectives about the web as a public sphere, the blog as a way for engaging in dialogue with your audience and about a new SEO ‘on the block’.
  • What to write for the Web: ‘Content writing’ is not necessarily a dirty phrase if there are good editorial requirements for content and high quality digital texts which can be found by search engines.
  • How to Write for the Web: We all took part in a hands-on group session so that we were able to think through and then write up: a product page; a blog post brief; and a social media share.

Speaker

Our speaker was Teodora Petkova, a content writer fascinated by the metamorphoses of text on the Web. Very much in love with the Semantic Web, she explores how our networked lives transform, and are transformed by, the expanding possibilities of the written ‘webby’ word. She has an educational background in Classical Studies and Creative Writing. Currently Teodora digs deep into words and concepts as part of her PhD studies at the Sofia University and her teaching at the FH Joanneum University of Applied Sciences.

You can connect with Teodora on Twitter (https://twitter.com/TheodoraPetkova), explore her thoughts at http://www.teodorapetkova.com and read excerpts from her book on Web Writing The Brave New Text at http://www.thebravenewtext.com/. The book is also available on Amazon (only available on Kindle) at https://www.amazon.co.uk/Brave-New-Text-Perspectives-Writing-ebook/dp/B07HQ5TYQ5/
Teodora is also on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/theodora-petkova/.

Time and Venue

This was a Zoom on-line meeting at 2pm on Thursday 25th November 2021

Slides

Slides will be available for members.  They are high quality and very delightful.  Any member can ask for access to these slides, through the NetIKX document management systems.  Ask the web editor for your member’s password.

Tweets

#netikx113

Blog

There is a blog available here:   https://www.netikx.org/blog-for-november-2021-seminar-writing-for-the-web-perspectives-and-practical-advice/ 

Study Suggestions

Look at Teodora’s website, slide set or follow her on Social Media (see above for details)