Running 23 Things

The best thing about getting into web 2.0 is that now that I'm in a workplace that is introducing the 23 Things program I'm in the fantastic position of being able to help others understand it. There are two of us running the program, the other fellow is mostly putting up the blog posts and keeping the blog running, I have rss feeds to each of the people who are in our pilot group and if they post that they are having a problem with something it's usually me who has the solution or suggestion. I'm delighted to find that some of the others in the group are offering help. Often it's little things such how to make a link clickable and sometimes people are just complaining about some of the usual such as ending up with too many passwords. A few never got started and at least one has freaked out and not got past the first post. I made phone calls to the 3 who didn't get started hoping to see if there was something I could say to jog them, but frankly I think we've lost them. The one who has freaked out would do it if I was sitting next to her, but we are not located close to each other.

We have limited support - I've heard someone senior to me express a lot of impatience with people who don't just jump in a learn new stuff by themselves. She's obviously one of those who do. So am I. I did the 23 things by myself as a way of filling in the gaps of what I already knew. I've found her Facebook page and I know she uses other stuff. The difference between us is that I understand that she and I are a bit unusual because we have so much curiosity and confidence. Most people don't. I also understand that of the ones who don't a big proportion of them can be encouraged to learn more and therefore gain extra confidence. There'll always be those who will never cope, but they are just as much a minority as we are.