Tuesday, December 18, 2018

A Dream becomes a Goal becomes Reality

The difference between a dream and a goal is that the goal is written down and shared. I know this doesn't have all the details yet, but here goes:

I want to start and run a creative incubator / startup village / NGO hub. I'm not sure what title/description is best, this concept seems as though it would work for multiple purposes. 

And yes, this is like a mishmash of Breather (private meeting spaces), WeWork / Knotel (open spaces), Convene (private and meeting)

I'm imagining a facility with multiple spaces, and multiple uses in these spaces: 
- 2 (or more) Large Rooms suitable for conferences, meetings, trainings
- Large workshop space with hand and power tools, sinks, studio space, suitable for teaching
- 4-6 Private smaller spaces, can be used for interviews, 1:1 meetings and client consultations, ie, dieticians, acupuncture, massage therapists, phone calls
- Open, combined use space that includes
---- a Cafe with open seating
---- a commercial kitchen offering low price healthy food for day visitors and long term tenants. Shifts in the commercial kitchen would be available to small scale food entrepreneurs for their catering
---- Open hot desk seating
---- Retail space showcasing food products and products of local entrepreneurs
---- art from local artists

And programming - oh my ideas for programming. Workshops and training sessions on a zillion topics.
But that's another post.

Saturday, December 8, 2018

What's it like to be the product, not the customer?

We are the social media platforms' product, not their customers. When these platforms think we're alienating customers (the people that click on stuff and the people that buy ads) it has policies that silence the production of disturbing content.

This is something I've been aware of for a long time. I've seen transgender friends encounter problems with the "Real Name" policy and I've seen friends lose access to the communities they painstakingly built over time because the topics they're dealing with are too hot (or science-y or kinky or political) to touch.

I try to have more than one form of contact for my friends and family, I try to keep backups of the information I find valuable, especially resources I have created myself, like this post. The seed of this post was originally created over on FB, where I found myself locked suddenly locked out.

Why did this happen? Well, in case you only check my updates occasionally, among other things I think the man who lives in the White House is a traitor to the American people. I have no problem telling everyone that I think that AND why I think that (I don't pile links on top of my comments though - google was invented for a reason, I encourage people to check my facts). I've been blocked because of it, I've had people stop talking to me, I kept on doing it.

Today I was once again sharing a few of the many of the reasons why the godless cretin pushed forward by foreign criminals should be held to the same standards we hold all of our elected officials, and I suddenly lost access to my account. Yes, that's right. Somebody's feelings were so hurt that I have an opinion that they managed to get me kicked off a social media platform.

No surprise there. A social media platform can do that. It is a private platform, and I was disturbing its customers. It happens all the time. A lot of the time it happens and users lose their online voice entirely.

Isn't it lucky that I've been down this road before and was able to bounce right back on?

Sadly, not everyone does. Here are some of the things I do, although most of my content is more of the vaccinating-kids soccer mom with no guns in the house variety.

Mostly it comes down to this: Distribute information and access
- Let people know how to find you online and off.
- Let people know where to find your content online and off.
- Share access/permissions. Have more than one owner for groups and pages and sites. Try to have have a trusted silent partner in the group, someone that is less likely to be targeted and shut out but can update if you lose access.

Good luck out there.

Monday, December 3, 2018

Priming the Pump

I'm all written out.

A week ago this time I was pondering the whys and wherefores of my lack of creative output this past year. Then I spent the rest of that week traveling around the country and then this weekend working on a review of policies and writing up our findings.

And today at SUAW! I have nothing to say.

I get it. All my mental writing energy has been used up. And yet, and yet - I still have so more I want to say, I just need the oomph to get it to bubble up again.

If the first step to fixing a problem is identifying it, then I'm on my way to fixing this. I think what I need is some dedicated concentration time. This next week I'm going to try to walk in the mornings and practice yoga, both of which have helped in the past to restart my creative flow.

Any other ideas for how to keep the creative output flowing when more structured work is dominating your life?

SUAW! Writers