Disqus - Latest Comments for timdavies

Re: Brief thoughts on risk

timdavies — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 06:26:06 -0000

Hey Carrie

Thanks for carrying on the discussion. Certainly I appreciate your position is not the 140 char one - I'll see if I can tweak text above to make sure I'm not giving that impression. T'is though a really useful point of departure in the exploration. Quick thoughts below:

* Clarifications:

- Risk model (2) is risking your job either by action, or, inaction.

* Risking a different, but equally bad outcome

- This is where the "Risk and Ethics" element comes into play. If a client is in a bad situation (a), and my actions put them in a different, but equally bad situation (b) - I am responsible for (b) where I was not responsible for (a).

- But, if I can judge that situation (b), whilst it will look equally bad from outside & in the short term - will open up possibilities of change
and progress in the medium to long term (that were not available in (a)) - then I may be right as a practitioner to exercise my judgement.

- My judgement in this second case is a judgement not that moving from (a) to (b) is a risk to the client (though there a possibility that (b) will not lead to the change that could justify it) - it is a judgement that moving from (a) to (b) is a better course of action. However, as a practitioner I may have to accept that I take a career risk if my managers etc. do no agree with my justification of the mode from (a) to (b).

(I'm not sure this ties down and distinguishes the different things we may be talking of when we talk of risk well enough - but hopefully it offers another angle on the conversation...)

Re: Discussion

timdavies — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:10:38 -0000

Leave your comments here.

Re: Guide to Youth Engagement & Social Media

timdavies — Tue, 12 May 2009 06:06:12 -0000

Adding another comment.

Re: Guide to Youth Engagement & Social Media

timdavies — Tue, 12 May 2009 06:05:13 -0000

Seesmic video reply from Disqus.

Re: Getting Online (part 1)

timdavies — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 10:17:34 -0000

Hey Mike

This looks fantastic. It links to a slightly more meta-project I've worked on for Brent LSCB on using digital media content creation as an opportunity to explore citizenship and safety issues online.

It could fit in well with a personal development programme. I've written up the first parts of it in this post:

http://www.timdavies.org.uk/2009/02/04/e-safety...

In particular - this diagram looks at the different stages of creating any digital media and asking critical questions -

http://www.timdavies.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/...

Would love to explore more as the open source youth project develops...

Tim

Re: How Will Youth Work Use The Web in 2009?…

masyomo — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 10:08:19 -0000

this stuff I think is very exciting - I'm certain there will be much more emphasis on retaining full control over personal data in the next year or two - being able to move and remove it as you see fit.

I'm really keen on the integration into every day lives and by doing that I think a lot more people will see benefit in using web tools. It is at a further stage though and I think that was apparent by the reaction to discussions at our meeting in Exeter.

Re: How Will Youth Work Use The Web in 2009?…

masyomo — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 10:04:38 -0000

Hi Tim - I agree with all that - maybe next time it would be good to add predictions for the longer term too.

I agree with the thing about engaging in the common spaces too - of course the occupation and 'invasion' of space goes two ways too - I have many requests from young people I barely know to become 'friends' on my personal profile. I think this just takes time as people become clearer about how those spaces are used and what is appropriate etc. and links well to the various discussions about having a 'professional profile' (although that too provides an interesting thought the other way which is that young people too may wish to separate their personal persona from their 'professional/volunteer/project' one - some potential here for personal aggregation etc.)

Re: How Will Youth Work Use The Web in 2009?…

timdavies — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 09:57:37 -0000

Re: SNS

Social Network Sites are not a single space. Each site is made of many sub-spaces. There are some we should interact within, there are some we shouldn't go near.

By analogy: It's ok for the youth worker to approach me & mates hanging out in a group in the park, providing we can tell them to get lost if we don't want to talk - It's not ok for them to barge in when we're meeting at each others houses.

Of course, we're still working out what is analogous to what in terms of social networking spaces - but they key is to identify these as vast and complex spaces where patterns of engagement need to be negotiated and constantly renegotiated.

Re: exclusion
Social media has to be about additional forms of engagement - and becoming literate in what platform to use when - rather than about wholesale moving into one space.

Promoting inclusion involves equipping both workers and young people to be blended facilitators - connecting one space to another and always having an eye on inclusion. That might involve taking the photos of a face-to-face session onto Flickr, feeding them into a Facebook group, and pulling out the discussions from facebook onto print outs to discuss face to face again.

Re: How Will Youth Work Use The Web in 2009?…

timdavies — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 09:48:20 -0000

Re: SNS/social media/holistic approaches...

Two key points:

>Good youth work is about relationship - social networking (whether through social network sites, or through other social media tools) is also about connections which can provide foundations for / support for relationship building. Hence, whilst in part the focus I've taken on SNS was driven by the need to have focused research questions I do find that engaging with online social networking (the activity, not the sites) is a key part of youth work engaging online.

The story may be different for other professional groups whose role is about 'promotion' (health promotion / activity promotion etc.) where creating dynamic content may have a greater importance.

>On holism - related to the above, holism requires not simply using many different tools, but having a rational that relates and integrates them. And crucially, a rationale that relates social media tools with people's day to day existing practice.

I know from experience that offering that rationale when dealing with audiences from vastly different work settings, and from very different levels of experience using technology, is tough indeed. But I would argue for it being a core part of introducing tools and technologies to the sector.

Re: How Will Youth Work Use The Web in 2009?…

timdavies — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 09:39:28 -0000

Re: Twitter

I think if we were looking at predictions two or three years out rather than one then I would be expecting most young people not to be paying for their texts at all (or having unlimited data services which make SMS less relevant) which is when the emergence of twitteresque platforms becomes interesting... (where the key element is being able to direct a status update at someone/an entity within your network which could be a provider of youth services...)

Re: How Will Youth Work Use The Web in 2009?…

timdavies — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 11:21:02 -0000

A really interesting set of predictions.

I really like the ideas about real-time feedback on activities via Twitter. Will be interesting to see how Twitter does play with a younger audience. I've not yet come across any younger twitter-packs as it were...

@dk I think you've got some of the story, but missing bits of it when it comes to social network sites (also want to call you out slightly on your claims to have inspired the first youth work blogger, and the next one and the next one... be careful to make sure you can back up that claim...). Organizations and agencies shouldn't push their way into MySpace and Facebook - but MySpace doesn't = exclusive young people's space. Providing engagement is based on a voluntary principle (young people can ignore it if they want), and respects young people's right and privacy - then it's important for /some/ youth-supporting professionals to engage with the social networking space (after all, bands, brands and others are in there... are you willing to argue that they should get out...).

I'd agree that SNS shouldn't be described as a frontier if that means we're diverting effort there. But SNS should feature as a tool youth workers, youth professionals can and should use in their work, where appropriate and based on their professional and ethical values.

Re: Ideas for Social Innovation Camp selected

timdavies — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 07:55:24 -0000

It strikes me that PowerLeague (http://www.powerleague.org.uk/) might be the way of getting to the best ideas - comparing lots of ideas pairwise and limiting the number of ideas each person can compare to stop people looking out for and bias voting up their favourites.

A tool like this allows you to harness collective intelligence - without giving people the chance to just vote up their favourite ideas...

Re: Online Youth Work - Parental Involvement & Awareness?

timdavies — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 07:42:53 -0000

Information about what young people are being encourage to do should certainly be provided in most contexts...

...and that could include signposting to information on supporting young people to use the web.

Re: What is Open Source Youth Work?

timdavies — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 10:17:11 -0000

Just a quick reply for the mo -

If you're looking at Comment Press then you may also want to take a look at this site. Similar model but slightly different implementation: http://www.co-ment.net/