An EdTech Stories Legend...

This post contains the legend to over 200 articles that are included in the #SeaTurtlePirates hashtag, which was set up as knowledge transfer for educators and the @BeMorePirate community in February.

As well as 16 short Twitter stories in 5-20 Tweet threads.

Sales to #Cmgr
In 2010 I realised that my current skill set of traditional sales and marketing were becoming less and less effective or welcome in the education/EdTech space.

Since then I have been reskilling to include the more in-demand skills of content marketing, inbound marketing, social selling and community management.

Since finding out about the #Cmgr community (Community Management) in 2014 thanks to a quick Tweet from @TameraRV during BETT, I've done my best to follow the CMAD business objective of

"Our business objective, if you will, in hosting these 24 hours of panels is to reach as many people as possible to educate them on the community industry"

In Scotland and within my education network. 

#Cmgr Support
I have done this in a number of ways including 

1) Supporting educators with EdChats (#UKFEChat, #StartUpEduChat/#EdTechBridge) and projects that were important to them (#SaveEdShelf, #DigCitSummit, #Get2ISTE, the CMAD inspired #CEduAD).

2) Research and data curation

3) Attempts at knowledge transfer

Ideas that are 100% sound but not ready yet require explanation, but the first time it's suggested the posts are too long and/or the idea is too abstract... only for it to be beyond obvious a few years later that it doesn't need any explanation.

This has happened with most projects. In November 2015 I suggested a #BlackFriday for education... 4 years and three attempts on the idea got traction on Friday and I've no doubt it will take off in 2020.

Last June I suggested an EdTech incubator with a strong #Cmgr provision... and feel this idea is also closer to getting traction.

The third point above has also proved to be tricky... Educators are time poor and there's no easy way to either

1) Convince people that what you have to say has value or to
2) Encourage them to read 100+ articles

My first attempt at this was with curating this Community Manager Resources Community Manager Resources. 

My second attempt was in February when we created the #SeaTurtlePirates hashtag.

The hope here was to share a little about our experiences with building edu movements, and share resources we found useful in a way that adults and children (Whether teachers and students or parents and children can learn about building movements together... Especially quiet people who don't have a voice).

It was no easy feat to try to make the thread make sense whether scrolling up or down and attempting to make the links relevant to adults and kids, but the feedback has been positive.

The third attempt was via this thread which consists of 16 stories/threads that are made up of 5-20 Tweets.

This latest attempt has been to look for the 'bright spots' and, in this case has come from the unlikely source, the unholy Bannon/Trump alliance... They have demonstrated how you can get ideas to 'stick' on social media.Thank you Steve!

Articles relating to the early online community The Well like Howard Rhiengold's Virtual Communities, Marc Smiths 'Voices from The Well' and the Epic Saga of The Well feature regularly in the hashtags and stories below... as does 'How Superman Defeated the KKK'

These articles, along with story telling, the ability to edit and community building hold the key to the last two goals that we are exploring...

1) Seeing a return to The Well's mantra of YOYOW (With a #YOYOWJOI twist) and
2) Answering Tim Berners-Lees call to fight #ForTheWeb

Can't see the bickering 'lying' political classes doing either any time soon... can you?

#SeaTurtlePirates Hashtag
(Knowledge Transfer... With a little fun sprinkled in there too)
Walking Dead Bad Lip Reading
How Pirates Changed the Course of History, and how you can too
Almost half of Britain’s most deprived areas of the last 40 years are in Glasgow
Yertle the Turtle
This Will be the Number 1 Business Skill of the Next 5 Years
The Secret Structure of Great Talks
How to Start a Cultural Revolution
Be More Pirate Code
Skypeathon 2015 & 6 Virtual Field Trips ZeeMap
Sea of Thieves Trailer
Alan Turing Quote (Tweet)
Rosa Parks & Yertle the Turtle (Tweet)
Steve Jobs About Managing People
Crossing the Chasm in Consumer Markets
Tribal Leadership Ted Talk
Are you a Giver or a Taker
Power of Introverts
Level 5 Leaders
Worst Pirate I’ve Heard of
Tech Story 1 - What Further Education can learn from Pixar’s Toy Story
Red Hot Chilli Peppers Yertle the Turtle
Young Artists for Hati – Waving Flag
Dignity
Aiming for the Top…Not the Bottom
Transforming the National Health Service when Resources are Scarce
How to Tell a Story
Common Structure of Greatest Communicators
Everyday Leadership
Obama Tech Day
Ships Log & Pirate Articles
9 Out of 10 People Are Willing to Earn Less Money to Do More-Meaningful Work
Skype Master Student
Misfits Trailer
Charting Connections in your Community with NodeXL
DigCitSummit Spy Quest Mission
DigCitSummit Closing Remarks
Virtual Communities – Heart of theWell
4 Elements of Community: Part 4 Connection
Voices From The Well (Tweet)
Flipgrid – Oh The Places You’ll Go
Connect with your PLN to Empower Students
The Class I’d Like to Teach
Using Core Values to Find a Brands Voice
Social Rejection
Cyberball
Bullies, Takers & Ostracism
We Want to Help you #Get2ISTE
The Greenwich Village of EdTech
Reading ISTE Like a Book
ISTE2016 Pirates Log: Week One
ISTE2016 Pirates Log: Week Two
ISTE2016 Pirates Log: Week Three
Aggregate-Then-Curate: How Digital Champions Help Communities Nurture Online Content
Pokemon Go Report: Technology Cycle Section
The Community is the Company
21^st Century Diggers Revolt
The Gift of Presence
Site of the Niantic
So You Want to Build an Edcamp
So You Want to Build an Edcamp
Connected Educator Appreciation Day all Wrapped Up
So You Want to Build an Edcamp
Cooking with Gas
Connected Educator Appreciation Day
Nike Believe in Something
A Day in the Life of the Internet… Or the Plot to a Toy Story Movie?
Arse Piece
 CMAD Building Relationships to Ignite Movements
What Jason Russell Remembers about his Breakdown
Twitter Chats: Chat or Change
Scaling Personal Connections
Oh MyCmgr! You’re a Wizard Harry
Epic Saga of The Well
Are you a Giver or a Taker
Why, in a world of injustice and vanishing human rights, I choose to hope
Charting Connections in your Community with NodeXL
Charting Connections in your Community with NodeXL
Steve Jobs Stanford Commencement Speech 2005
Walking Dead Bad Lip Reading (Apples & Dolphins)
This Will be the Number 1 Business Skill of the Next 5 Years
How to Become Insanely Well Connected
There is No App for Patience
Google Culture Meets Steve Jobs Hustle… At a Scottish Local Authority
Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast
Community First: Building Brand Loyalty and Word of Mouth
The Importance of a Glue Guy
The Unheard Story of David and Goliath
What have Lobsters got to do with Innovation
This Book Should Contain a Warning
Steve Jobs is a Rorschach test: To be a good leader, you don’t have to be a jerk
Why Good People Turn Bad Online
Am I part of the Problem
CMAD 2016 Reflections of a Newbie
Edcamp UK – DYW and Tech Companies
Love for Imperfect Things
Creative Power of Misfits
What is an Online Community – The Basics & Benefits
Mind Time - Connector
Why Great Leaders Forucs on Mastering Relationships
Where Good Ideas Come From
DigCitSummit SpyQuest Mission
ForTheWeb Foundation
Why Are You #ForTheWeb?
CMAD Building a Global Community
30 Years on what’s next #ForTheWeb?
What has the Internet ever done for you
Fred Rogers Look for the Helpers
The Gentleman Pirate
The New Dirty American Range
The Turtle Rehabilitation Sanctuary
Muppet Treasure Island – Professional Pirate Ships Log & Pirate Articles
10 Reasons Why INFJs are Walking Paradoxes
When Competition Between Coworkers Leads to Unethical Behavior
How Buildings Learn – The Low Road
USS Abraham Lincoln Vs Lighthouse
The Art of the 5 Minute Favour
The Duck Song
Why we want complaints
Brick Ocean Live Display at Edinburgh Zoo
Rory Sutherlands 10 Rules of Alchemy
Woody He’ll Never Give Up on You
Collaborate Vs Collaborate
Dogtanian
Ralph Breaks the Internet – Comments Scene
Former Facebook Exec: You Don’t Ralise it but you are Being Programmed
Sean Parker Unloads on Facebook “God Only Knows what we’re doing to our Children’s Brains”
How We Need to Remake the Internet
5 Super Powers of the INFJ
Virtual Communities – The Heart of The Well
A Day in the Life of the Internet… Or the Plot to a Toy Story Movie?

Welcome to the Neighbourhood

(https://twitter.com/EdTech_Stories/status/1095505412806402048)
How Pirates Changed the Course of History, and how you can too
How Superman Defeated the Ku Klux Klan
Charting Connections in your Community with NodeXL

The Story So Far
(https://twitter.com/EdTechStories/status/926704887769063424) 
SeaTurtlePirate Tedx

The Story So Far Kids(https://twitter.com/EdTech_Stories/status/1116757281255886848) 
Site of the Niantic

Pirate Code 2.0 For Kids
(https://twitter.com/EdTech_Stories/status/1198615777345179649)
Virtual Communities The Heart of The Well 
My Book – The Next Big Innovation in Tech
CMAD Building Relationships to Ignite Movements
EDL Member Reveals how he Turned his back on Group – After a Hug from a Muslim Man
Four Arrested, Over Govan March Disorder
Epic Saga of The Well
Lost in the Ghetto
The Power of Introverts

Be More Pirate
(https://twitter.com/EdTech_Stories/status/1198588727574106112)

How to Be More Pirate Ships Log & Pirate Articles
SeaTurtlePirate Tedx Be More Pirate Code                                        
Biz Stone’s New Rules

Rough Diamond- #SkypeMS
(https://twitter.com/EdTech_Stories/status/1019334664086065158)

Jane Jacobs on the Nature of Economies
The Potential of Technology to Scale Global Education and Build 21st Century Skills

#DigiEndurance Voyage
(https://twitter.com/EdTech_Stories/status/1193244028793475072)Where Good Ideas Come From                      
5 Super Powers of the INFJ

Yu-Gi-Oh
(https://twitter.com/EdTech_Stories/status/1196763234260443136)

Dark corners of the web fight back against New Zealand’s strive to restrain the far-right after Christchurch massacre
How We Need to Remake the Internet
Female Politicans Speak out Over Twitter Abuse
Greta Thunberg UN Climate Action Speech
Donald Trump Says he’d Like to Punch a Protester in the Face
Steve Bannon is on a Far Right Mission to Radicalise Europe
EdTech50 Schools                                             
How to Train Your Dragon Classroom Skype
A Message from Stan Lee                                
How Superman Defeated the Ku Klux Klan

Pokemon – Part One
(https://twitter.com/EdTech_Stories/status/1197106664287195136)The Answer the Fake News, is not censorship… But critical thinking 
#DigCit Vs Trolls: I'm A Student Friendly Social Media Educator
How Superman Defeated the Ku Klux Klan
What Roald Amundsense Polar Exploration ‘Comedian’ can Teach us about a Mission to Mars
Virtual Communities Heart of The Well
1960s Rebels Stewart Brand – Tech Visionary
A Highly Distinctive Brand Jane Jacobs on the Nature of Economies

Pokemon Go – Part Two
(https://twitter.com/EdTech_Stories/status/1197461181834944517)

Virtual Communities Heart of The Well ACEing Made to Stick
EDL Member Reveals how he Turned his back on Group – After a Hug from a Muslim Man 
Epic Saga of The Well
Why Good People Turn Bad Online
Facebook Finally wants to Help Humans Build Meaningful Connections
ACEing Made to Stick
5 Super Powers of the INFJ

Pirate hoard of the Rings
(https://twitter.com/EdTech_Stories/status/1197841825857490950)

The Story of the Golden Buddha
The Choice – The Capacity to Love and Hate
Aiming for the Top… Not the Bottom
How to Train Your Dragon Classroom Skype
The Potential of Technology to Scale Global Education and Build 21st Century Skills
UK Edcamp – DYW & Tech Companies

NP Super Heroes
(https://twitter.com/EdTech_Stories/status/1193834303039377408)

5 Super Powers of the INFJ
#GE2019 #IndyRef2020 #Cmgr Edu and Life in Scotland
CMAD Building Relationships to Ignite Movements
From Good to Great – What Defines a Level 5 Leader
Please Help
My Book – The Next Big Innovation in Tech
Social Media and Better Job Prospects


An Incredibles Story
(Will Follow Soon)


Pak Tai, Mysterious Black God of the North


A Story from BeYonder – Lessons from Hoover Guy & Damn Mans Project
(Will Follow Soon)


#YOYOWJOI
DigCitSummit Closing Remarks
Virtual Communities The Heart of The Well
Voices From The Well & Analysing Social Networks Using NODEXL
So You want to Build an Edcamp
So You want to Build an Edcamp
Connected Educator Appreciation Day all Wrapped Up
Arse Piece
Courageous Followership
Using Core Values to Find a Brands VoiceBe More Pirate Code  
Epic Saga of The Well
How to Become Insanely Well Connected
#CEduAD Introductory Session (Vladtka)#CEduAD Introductory Session (Vladtka)
Virtual Communities The Heart of The Well
Virtual Communities The Heart of The Well
#CEduAD Introductory Session (Tim)
https://twitter.com/Anupam_Sharmaa/status/1097176585633853441 Why Good People Turn Bad Online
30 years on, what’s next #ForTheWeb?
30 years on, what’s next #ForTheWeb?
Facebook Finally wants to Help Humans Build Meaningful Connections
Facebook Finally wants to Help Humans Build Meaningful Connections
What has the Internet ever done for you
EdTech Strategy Vs #GoDo #ScotlandCan & Fair Start Scotland
When Competition Between Coworkers Leads to Unethical Behavior
What Role can Schools Play in Developing Young People’s Social Agency
Steve Jobs About Managing People
Rough Diamond
SeaTurtlePirates The Story So Far

#VizLitCit 
The Class I’d Like to Teach
Ships Log & Pirate ArticlesWhere Good Ideas Come From
NodeXL #CEduAD 2018

#YOYOW A Return to The Well #ForTheWeb & Our Young Well Beings... Getting a Jump on It

In my last post I updated two other posts trying to figure out how to make an impact, when you don't have a voice (And enough to have economic dignity in today's poverty stricken and manically depressed Scotland).

The previous two plans discarded I have decided to explore Steve Wozniak and Susan Cain's advice of 'Work Alone.' 

This post details why I feel a return to The Wells mantra of #YOYOW is needed for the sake of our young Well Beings... and how I've been working on this idea since I first read Katie Hafner's book in 2015.

The Most Powerful Things in the World

Our kids know the following to be true because we tell them constantly!

"Words are the most powerful things in the world"

(You have the power to change the world, you really do... with an idea -> Nancy Duarte)

"Books are the most powerful weapons in the world"

('Ah but what about swords, guns, bombs etc etc?' comes the reply... 'How you gonna learn to make those things?' asks a smart arse dad... 'Oh yeah, with a book'

"It's not what you say... it's the way that you say it"

"If you've nothing nice to say don't way anything at all" 

...You should practice what you preach William!

"But you've been really snarky to people online - especially on your blog and on Twitter" I hear you say.

Well now I'm glad you mentioned that, maybe I've been 'Clearing the Path,' and 'Lowering the Barrier' as New Power puts it for others to follow and pick up on the work?

There are also a few other points worth making regarding any snarky tweets/posts

1) I almost quit social media because I was tired of being taken in by people who said one thing and did another... and/or were what can be best described as 'Fake Friends,' feigning friendship until they got all they could from your time, efforts and ideas*

*I fully accept that this may well have been due to either inexperience with movement building or the misunderstandings as social media is still quite new and in the real world 90% of our communication is non-verbal... so it's EASY to get things wrong when mostly text based. There is zero ill will about any of this, I'm glad something came of the ideas and my time/effort.

2) Hate groups in the Far Left and Right will no doubt say nice things to give vulnerable people a 'sense of belonging' before encouraging them to hate people who are different to them through 'othering'

This appears to be what happened with expert ISIS recruiter and Scottish school girl Asqa Mahmood, James Letts and Ivan Humble who is a former and reformed EDL member.

Where are the good guys giving these kids a hug and turning them away from hate... whether in their IRL communities or in their virtual communities?

"If you've nothing nice to say don't say anything at all" 

Might have worked online 4-5 years ago... but a different approach may be needed to keep our kids safe from the 'Dark Corners of the web'

3) I've seen enough political leaders since 2012 saying nothing but helpful and kind things 

'Celebrating London as a diverse city'

'Fair and Just Society'

'Make America Great Again'

'Strong and Stable Leadership'

'For the Many'

But whether in public or private say

'Muslim women look like letterboxes'

'Scotland is diverse and welcoming' but race hate in schools on the increase

'I just grab them by the p**y' and having hardly anything nice to say about their colleagues

Now I have a huge amount of sympathy for politicians in two respects:

•  In today's 'always on' society everything is up for scrutiny... whether silly comments made a few years ago costing candidates the opportunity to stand in their constituency in #GE2019.
  
  
• People have an opinion and are critical of the slightest of error... The things that we've seen trend in the last few weeks leads to total and utter dumbing down of politics.

Let's all laugh and comment about someone who put a foot wrong during Remembrance Sunday... and forget about the issues of Education, the NHS and the economy, before we know it we'll have another 4 years of The Conservatives (Which will be worse as it's under Boris Johnson's 'Leadership') and the Brexit party.

The Bannon/Trump and Farage/Cummings 'agitation' will have worked a treat. 

Instead of picking at the minutia I would far rather overlook silly and, in many instances, irrelevant comments and take Ayelet Barron advice in the Building Relationships to Ignite Movements CMAD session:

"I want to know what's in their heart"

We all say or do silly things and when every encounter, big and small, is recorded... some things in context others taken out of context and it must be a nightmare for people in the public eye, especially politicians where approval ratings are low, it is a tribal affair and there are so many videos, clips and soundbites going back decades for many MPs/MSPs.

Edward Snowden makes some excellent points about the internet of his youth Vs the internet of today, which political candidates are paying for today... How do we allow for our kids to 'just be kids saying stupid things' without it wrecking their job prospects/future...or worse their lives?

"My worries [about getting security clearance] were more personal, or felt more personal: the endless conveyor belt of stupid lingoistic things I'd said, and even stupider misathropic opinions I'd abandoned, in the process of growing up online. Specifically, I was worried about my chat logs and forum posts, all supremely moronic commentary that I'd sprayed across a score of gaming and hacker sites. Writing pseudonymously had meant writing freely, but often thoughtlessly. And since a major aspect of early internet culture was competing with others to say the most inflammatory thing, I'd never hesitate to advocate, say, bombing a country that taxed video games, or corralling people who didn't like anime into reeducation camps. Nobody on those sites took any of this stuff seriously, least of all myself.

When I went back and reread the posts, I cringed. Half the things I'd said I hadn't even meant at the time - I'd just wanted attention - but I didn't fancy my odds of explaining that to a gray-haired man in horned rimmed glasses peering over a giant folder labeled PERMANENT RECORD. The other half, the things i thing I had meant at the time, were even worse , because I wasn't that kid anymore. I'd grown up. It wasn't simply that I didn't recognise the voice as my own - it was that I now actively opposed its over-heated hormonal opinions. I found that I wanted to argue with a ghost. I wanted to fight with that dumb, puerile, and casually cruel self of mine who no longer existed. I couldn't stand the idea of being haunted by him forever, but I didn't know the best way to express my remorse and put some distance between him and me, or whether I should even try to do that. It was heinous to be so inextricably, technologically bound to a past that I fully regretted but barely remembered.

This might be the most familiar problem of my generation, the first to grow up online. We were able to discover and explore our identities almost totally unsupervised, with hardly a thought spared for the fact that our rash remarks and profane banter were being preserved for perpetuity, and that one day we might be expected to account for them. I'm sure everyone had an internet connection before they had a job can sympathize with this - surely everyone has that one post that embarrasses them, or that text or email that could get them fired.

Christmas 2018... The Best PD EVER

Before starting a new project/movement I always go back to The Well (Esp Virtual Communities), The Epic Saga of The Well, Katie Hafner's book.

Last December when reading Virtual Communities again I noticed that NodeXL's Marc Smith had written his 1992 College Thesis on 'Voices from The Well' and read it three times in as many days... SOOOO RELEVANT today 30 years on!!

I laughed when I saw not just how predictable my experiences with collaborating online were; they were inevitable, it's all been done before... 30 years earlier by a group of true visionaries.

In Mosaic Science's article 'Why Good People Turn Bad Online,' they highlight that if you see behaviour you don't like and if you feel up to it 'tell them to stop'

I didn't like the way that some friends (Or, in some cases, people I hardly knew, who took my time, efforts and ideas and made me contribute them as a gift) with flattery and all their flowery words to get involved and then change the narrative - whether about myself and/or how ideas came together.

I called them out... was this to be mean? To try to damage their reputation? 

Nope! If anything it was my reputation on the line.

I called them out to experiment with what might work and what doesn't when taking the advice from New Power (The extract at the end of this ACEing Made to Stick post).

"Has my generation taught the youth well enough to prevent another Holocaust from occurring? Or will our hard won freedom capsize in a new sea of hate?" Edith Eger The Choice - The Capacity to Love and Hate

I think it's safe to say the answer to this is: Could do Better!

In a recent post I wondered if I had to choose between Books, the Internet or School which I would choose. Perhaps my books will help plan to #BeTheDigitalChange I'd like to see in the world.

One where friends don't simply reach for the 'Block' option if/when there is a disagreement.

One where our young people have the kind of 'sense of belonging Tom Mandel had on The Well' in their School Communities...Not go looking for this in hate groups where the sense of belonging is conditional on hating others.

One where their is the kind of 'Love in Action' that Howard Rheingold details in the Heart of the Well... and less of the tragic examples of Blair Newman, Amanda Todd and Molly Russell.

#DigiEndurance... Avengers Assemble for The End Game
The Dr Seuss books that we've loosely followed on our adventures include 

Oh the Places You'll Go

Yertle the Turtle

The Lorax (*Waves* to @ILorax)

I'm about to make a start on 'Tech Story 3 - Bolder City & Ol'augh" which will be a Mini NP Superhero adventure that will take place down yonder at the cross roads of old gold mining town of Bolder City and Mulberry Street.

Avengers Assemble! For the well beings of our young people and to answer the Tim Berners-Lees' Bat Signal to fight #ForTheWeb.

Anyone who answers the call may meet some familiar characters from Andy's playroom, Marvel, DC and Pokemon Go as well as some new characters like Hoover Guy? Damn Man? Ol'augh! and the Thunderbolt Kid?

Who writes this stuff? Anthony? I hate that freaking Turtle!

Personally I love them... and, just like Cinderella Man, I'm bringing a Turtle or two safely home at the end of this adventure.

I'll be spit balling some of these cra cra ideas to achieve these last two goals with a group of small committed citizens

...Or is it small citizens who have been committed to Arkam Asylum? 

...Or is it a small group of committed citizens?

I forget which, but I'll be discussing with a little group of little people until it becomes a big idea, one that is on the side of angels, spreading compassion and drains the battery of hate with Superman and Ol'augh leading the charge.