Rebelling against personal branding

This post was prepared as a response to Just How Valuable is Personal Branding on Des Walsh’s blog Thinking Home Business. I have modified it slightly here.

Re personal branding, I am with the contrarians. The term ‘personal brand’ began to peeve me some time ago, perhaps because I have always hated anyone’s attempts to pigeonhole me. I wondered how I was going to do that to myself. Then I decided I wouldn’t, no matter how fashionable it is.

I am in the process of re-starting this blog yet again, a blog which I think shows some of the pitfalls involved in personal branding. Initially, I spent a lot of time developing a clear focus for the blog, which was to be an academic blog about the shared nature of creativity. I called it ‘Culture is a Conversation’ based on a phrase in a book by JD Lasica. That brand ended up being a conversation stopper, which constrained me from posting most of my thoughts.

I decided to move from that focus, and explained why. It would be possible to read that post either way, as a further exploration of how to arrive at a personal brand, or as a rejection of personal branding in favour of emergent practice. I favour the latter.

Today I was editing the ‘about me’ page of this blog when a tweet came past about Des’ discussion. There I state the limits of my self-branding:

‘I like the education I have had, as it gives me the ability to approach anything from a humanities, scientific or creative perspective; and to see things from the intersection of all three. Emphasising this diversity is as close as I am prepared to get to the current notion of ‘personal branding’. I mistrust anything that might make my life smaller, and I have no interest in defining any presets for my thinking. I will use whatever tools I have in whatever way my content requires.’

To constrain myself to a ‘brand’ would risk limiting my vision to things that already exist. Then again, maybe I could just add ‘contrarian’ to that brand-like list above, because I usually end up being one

A hundred years…

Today is the centenary of the birth of my father. If it were possible to communicate with the dead*, I don’ know how I would begin to explain to him what I am doing now.

Dad was born in a horse-drawn cab in one of the main streets of Sydney, New South Wales. His parents were old-fashioned, and dressed him in velvet and lace, with waist-length ringlets, until he was six. (Photos of that were purposely destroyed – he hated it. The one above is the first after those ringlets were cut.) He became a double orphan at age twelve, and rather than see himself and his sisters put into orphanages he pretended to be fifteen and got a job pushing barrows at Sydney’s Paddy’s Market. After he had paid for the education of his sisters, he set about getting himself educated. He worked as a telegraph operator, translating the ticker tape messages into English at 120 words per minute. Riding out the Great Depression in the Navy as radio officer, he got his education at Duntroon Naval College. After he left the Navy he trained as a draughtsman and later became a design engineer in his forties. That’s about when I turned up. Dad died in 1982, an era ago.

Dad worked in electronics at one stage, so he would comprehend some of the science behind the technology I use. If I showed him how easy it is to use this stuff he might even want it himself – after all, I did get my late mother-in-law onto the internet. But explaining the social changes that have taken place since computers became a communications medium via the Internet would be daunting. Explaining the political issues at stake would be as difficult. As for the cultural effects – dad wasn’t really into culture, he had been preoccupied with survival – so that would be harder still.

“I’m doing Internet Studies.” That didn’t exist then. Nor did much of the vocabulary I use every day (even if I avoid using kittah). “I’m doing it because…” Communication would be lost about there.

One thing dad would understand for sure about today is climate change. He often told me that the climate was changing, based on his detailed memory of his early years. He blamed it on industry and pollution. He used to get put down for saying this, but he wasn’t wrong.

“Andy” as he was called by his Navy mates.

Image restored in MacPaint years ago by my son

* I don’t believe in that, I’m just trying to stretch my imagination across an epochal gap.

(almost monthly) MACS

It’s almost a week since I went to MACS, short for Media and Culture Studies. A group of academics from various disciplines meet (almost) monthly, mostly at the University of Queensland but the next one will probably be at QUT. Last Friday’s meeting was another “what I did in my holidays” presentation with five speakers.

For me, the most interesting perspective was from (the bespectacled) Sal Humphreys. One of the meetings she spoke of was “Amateur Hour” at New York Law School, which was a conference about the interface between user-generated content, Web 2.0 and traditional media.

Sal says the traditional media people don’t yet understand the new marketplace they are working in (one exception: the advertising industry). Most of the CEOs and VPs couldn’t get beyond piracy as undermining their industries, yet were happy to harness user-generated content for free.  They were unable to see the contradiction in their position.

I wonder what it will take to open their eyes to that?

Hai I has teh internets again!

The sales people at various ISPs had explained to me in great technical detail exactly why I couldn’t have every one of the broadband options available.

“Definitely not cable. There is no cable in that area.” Well what’s that cable going down the street? Into a Telstra box on the neighbour’s house? Anyway they found a way out of that, by saying the installation had to be at the landlord’s expense.

“Definitely not ADSL. Too far from the exchange.” I believed them for a while.

Wireless would have needed a $300 modem plus a booster aerial, and is $120 a month for a lousy 3 GB. It wouldn’t have worked in the rain.
Unfortunately someone in another apartment fell for that. But the guy at the back didn’t. He already had ADSL. So armed with that information I got ADSL. Just plain ADSL, as ADSL2+ is out of my price range at present. I’m paying just over half the wireless rate, for four times as much in downloads.

I’m wondering if that is why they are pushing wireless as the only option. We pay a lot more for it, and get a lot less.

Anyways, more on topic blogging to follow soon.

My ISP said I could have ADSL2+ at my new apartment, yet it looks like I can’t have broadband at all…

I checked that with my ISP before I signed the lease. I knew there is no cable in the area. Today I phoned my ISP to transfer my account from here to there, only to be told that I can’t have either ADSL2+ or ordinary ADSL. I checked again, and the sales guy said yes I could have ADSL2+. I then told him about the conflicting advice I had been given. He said hmm that might be right, the best thing you can do is get your phone connected by Telstra (because Telstra messes them around too much) and then enter the number on the web site to test whether the line will work with ADSL2+.

So I phoned Telstra. The woman there gave me a better trick: take a handset to the new place, and if there is a dial tone type in 12722123 and that will give me the last number connected there. Key in that number on the web site. But then she had a good look at her databases, and said there is no ADSL where I am and wireless is my only option.

So I checked out the wireless broadband plans and availability. Telstra’s wireless might reach me, but their best download limit is way too low and their price way too high for me. Then again it might not actually reach me. According to 3, which has a detailed map, I am in the middle of a black spot so I can only do chat and messaging not wireless broadband.

OK a friend says it isn’t so bad, I will be eligible for the Australian Broadband Guarantee. He sends me the web page, and sure enough it gives me what looks like zero suitable broadband providers. I fill out the form, and the form is continually rejected because I do not have the phone connected.

Catch 22: I can’t afford a landline unless my internet comes through it too. I can’t find out if I can get the Australian Broadband Guarantee until I connect a landline.

Needless to say I am really angry about being misinformed by my ISP prior to signing my lease. I would never have signed if I had been correctly informed. And funnily, they don’t have a record of my original call.

[mood: very grumpy]

moving house

This blog has been really quiet lately, and will continue to be while I look for a place to live and move house. That is taking all of my limited energy supply.

There may be an exception when I go to the Oxford Internet Institute seminars by Ralph Schroeder at QUT on 8 February. I’m not missing that day for anything. Seminar 1 is “Social aspects of e-Science, e-Research” and Seminar 2 is “Shared Virtual Environments”.

More reflections on the Australian Blogging Conference

Not only is my university OK with blogging, students doing my current unit have actually been asked to get out there and participate in the political blogosphere.

Which reminds me of the Australian Blogging Conference a couple of weeks back. Vidcasts of some sessions can be got from a link on larvatusprodeo including the session on political blogging (that I didn’t go to).

I enjoyed the session on citizen journalism, particularly the section on photojournalism led by Rachel Cobcroft. Citizen photojournalism is changing the way breaking events are being reported. Rachel says, for example, that nowpublic.com will post on your Flickrstream and ask if they can blog your image of whatever issue they are reporting on. Rae Allen said that the recent Pasha Bulker incident was 80% citizen journalism on the ABC web site – he works there, so he knows.

It is also changing the whole flavour of election reporting – for example the Blair Watch Project which has a great Flickr archive . (I just love the Blair Watch motivation: “ We felt the election was going to provide the nation with a tidal wave of bullshit and someone had to provide an umbrella.” )

Jean Burgess asked how do we get it across to people that it is citizen journalism. I took that up, suggesting that we are witnessing a convergence (yes, that word again) of journalism and citizenship, and that it need not be political as such but covers the whole spectrum of people’s activity. Mark Bahnisch made the point that we need to separate civic action from political action, to separate citizenship from voting. Jean sees an opportunity to link up all the active citizenship that is already there. I am not sure if she means establishing a site to do that, but Axel Bruns mentioned the possibility of repurposing youdecide.2007 for ongoing activity.

Somebody reminded us of Clay Shirky’s observation that in traditional media you filter and publish, whereas on the web you publish and filter. I just realized that is something that I will take and apply to research blogging as well.

my political views, or lack thereof

It has been suggested by an academic colleague that we post our political views online. Could be a good way of making sure we never get that job we are after, but never mind. Let’s not be silenced by that kind of intimidation… After all, the silences we participate in can be damning.

Anyway, having been through 1960s radicalism / revolutionism, a few years ago I wryly came to the conclusion that contrary to orthodox left opinion, the revolution actually did happen, but most of the lefties were looking the other way at the time. The revolution of our era is the one you are looking at now – the digital revolution, the networked society. It is mind-blowing, and at the same time it isn’t all good. It is a stupendous collaborative achievement, but it is so far from doing everything and righting every wrong.

My brain hurts (mostly) when I have to listen to conventional politics. It reminds me of when my mother used to participate in market research. She’d be given two packets of laundry powder, one yellow and one blue. She had to use them both, and answer a questionnaire about the differences between them. But she wasn’t dumb. She knew they were both the same, and they were testing the color of the packaging. Nonetheless she kept it up for free stuff. But I get sick of “Brand A” and “Brand B”, same-shit-different-bucket, especially when it’s not just washing powder – and people’s lives and our entire habitat is at stake.

But I can’t fix it all by myself, in fact there is very little any of us can do. So then I start thinking that if each of us does our little bit it might be good. For this reason I have decided that while I will no doubt support some political issues and causes as they come up (e.g. I’m attending a memorial vigil for the SIEVX in late October), my civic engagement is going to be mainly with the politics of the internet. I’m well placed to do that, as I am working toward a Master of Internet Studies.

Most people aren’t aware of internet politics, so I have a lot of work to do (along with all the others who are doing this) in a limited time frame, because the structures being developed now will have a decisive impact. Our collaborative tasks incude educating the public, and all decision-makers, about the social and economic importance of a neutral internet; curbing the excesses of digital copyright so that creativity can flourish; and maintaining the networked public sphere free from undue political or corporate pressures. Of course, there’s an endless list really. Just like everywhere else, it is about ownership and control, and the social implications of that.

So there, good people, are my political views. If you expected something along the right-left dichotomy, go to politicalcompass and see why I don’t think like that. Who will I vote for in this year’s election? Wishing the Liberals would listen to Malcolm Fraser but they hate him; wishing the local Labor guy wasn’t a speedbump; wishing the local Greens hadn’t expelled some people I trust; keeping an eye out for a Climate Change Coalition candidate… sigh.

the spam monster has been eating real comments

I was looking around my WordPress dashboard, still getting used to it, when I found that Akismet had saved my blog from four spam comments. I checked to see what they were, and there was only one there, from sajbrfem. So I un-spammed that. But I wonder about the other three.

If you commented and it wasn’t approved, please try again.

a question re Turnitin

I am still feeling edgy about blogging my work before I have submitted it for assessment. My university is trialling plagiarism-detection software (Turnitin). I wonder does that just search a database of submitted papers, or does it troll the web also? If it does the latter, and it finds our own words there, what happens?

Any humans involved in this process?