stephen blyth’s blog

Waiting for the first guests to arrive at a party is always agonising. Nervous glances at the clock as nibbles sit untouched. Glasses empty. Silence. Will anyone come?
At the EYC unConference, held on a glorious spring Saturday, the worry wasn’t so much would people come. But would participants dive into the process of setting the [...]

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There’s something really addictive about being involved in an event that grows before your eyes. As the organiser for the Engage your community (EYC) unConference I can’t help myself from looking at the list of potential topics to see if anyone has added anything new.
Today a new topic suggestion arrived on the wiki: a [...]

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How hard can it be to find 200 people sitting at their desks logged into a computer with a web browser open. On a Monday afternoon. Tummies full from lunch and legs stretched after a stiff walk around the block. Willing to join a short online conference. For just 10 minutes.
I’m about to find out.
Next [...]

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To say that I use Google everyday is an understatement. As soon as I start my web browser Wellington’s weather flashes up on the screen as part of my iGoogle start page. When I actually start desk writing or researching when I’m at my desk I tend to search random topics at least once every [...]

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If the web industry in the USA is anything to go by, there doesn’t seem be a recession. Of the dozen or more speakers from Silicon Valley at Webstock conference not a single one mentioned anything to do with an apparent economic downturn.
Job losses? Shrinking incomes? Not in start-up land.
Indeed we heard about the [...]

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It wasn’t exactly hidden in the fineprint. The guidelines for running a mini-conference session clearly included something called a back-up plan. Most of my other classmates on the Facilitating Online Communities (FO09) course referred to some sort of alternative should things go astray during their session.
Based on intermittent access to Elluminate, the online learning [...]

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Not all the resources I’ll be taking along to share at the workshop I’m leading at the Engage your community conference on Friday 13 November are actually finished.
My copy of a “Website owner’s manual: the secret to successful websites” by Paul Boag is available online as an unedited draft. It comes as an [...]

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It’s a busy time in the community ICT world here in Wellington. I thought I’d share details of some of the things that are happening soon.

e-day, 12 September 2009: annual collection of unwanted computers and other electronic equipment (or e-waste as it’s known in the trade). There is a drop-off point in Wellington, one of [...]

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In the list of websites in the photo above you’ll find the curious saying ‘browse like a sheep’. Doug, a tutor at WelTech, didn’t share a favourite, interactive website during our round of introductions. Instead he described his appetite for websites in these omnivorous terms.
I was reassured to see that people still surf the net: [...]

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Most of the activist and grassroots community organising I’ve been part of has struggled with some of the basics. It was something that took up a surprising amount of effort. Where are going to meet? Are there enough chairs? Can we make a cuppa after the meeting?
I don’t remember a time we ever had chardonnay [...]

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