Picture the scene, It’s March 2008:

A middle aged woman is sitting a room full of mainly strangers, sipping tea and eavesdropping on the conversations.  Two men are comparing iPhones, words like RSS, tag, feed, code, drupal, wiki, wordpress and blog are tossed around by confident men and the woman begins to think she’s come to the wrong place, a “Focus group on Web 2.0″ maybe wasn’t such a good idea, after all. She decides to finish her tea and then quietly slip away. Then someone leans across and asks:

Have you got any idea what these guys are talking about?

“No”, She says.  They begin to talk about where they’ve come from and what has brought them to a day on Social Media and if you want to know what digital exclusion looks and feels like, she was in that room, feeling lost and bemused. But – to give away the ending – I stayed, and I’m so glad I did.

Soon introductions were made, friendly smiles exchanged and we played  a game. Now, my background is community work, so I like games. They break they ice, allow people to start making connections and a competitive edge always helps.

The game was called the Social Media Game, it’s undergone a few refinements since then and is still useful. I learnt that social media is just another tool for conversation, finding spaces to share, to be social and to collaborate. I knew that in my work with communities we weren’t being heard outside our own neighbourhoods, the “powers that be” were often  oblivious to what was going on at the grass roots and if I was serious about establishing a network of low carbon communities, I had to get myself online. Not to replace the conversations we were having on the streets, post office queues and school gates, but to have more conversations with more people who felt the same.

After that day, I dipped a toe in the murky waters of “social media”, began to ask questions, google things I didn’t understand.  I’ve learnt a lot. I’ve made new friends who gave up their time to help me. I’ve had the opportunity to share some of my skills with others by running workshops  on blogging and twitter for community groups. The week after that focus group  I set up a twitter account, dived into facebook, even set up a blog (all by myself)!

So, fast forward two years to a freezing night in January. I’m in Manchester, sitting in a room once again full of strangers (though some friends are there too), I’m at the first meeting of the Manchester Net Tuesday at the recently opened Manchester Digital Laboratory on Edge St. We’re all here because we think we have something to offer and something to learn. Experiences vary and we’re all from different backgrounds -youth workers, IT professionals, volunteers, keen amateurs (like me),  we start playing the Social Media Game, expertly facilitated by Nick Booth and Amy Sample Ward – we begin to talk and more importantly to listen to each other and to talk about the potential we have to use our skills and create spaces for creativity (a phrase I stole from Amy, but I’m sure she won’t mind). We decided we’ll meet again, that we’ll find ways to collaborate to talk to each other to make things “happen”.

I left the meeting and walked back to the railway station with an old friend and a new one, then sat on the train, eating a hot pasty (it was cold) and thinking how far I’ve come.  I’ve learnt that anyone who tells you they’re an expert in social media probably isn’t, that the internet can’t be broken (just borked), that when you don’t understand something there are people who can explain, that the world is full of people trying to make connections and collaborate using  web based tools alonside traditional media.

Today I’m thriving on my social media adventures, I get a kick out of helping a community volunteer set up a twitter account, showing someone how to put a photo in the customisable header on a woprdpress blog. I can’t code, I can’t get the hang of wiki spaces and I still don’t  know what RSS feeds do (although I use them a lot).  I’m feeling ready to take off my armbands and swim out of my depth. But , if you’re still in the shallow end trying to figure out this whole social media  game, don’t worry  I haven’t gone so far I won’t swim back to help you and nor have my online friends*.

(*If  you want to know who they are read the acknowledgements page ).

Thanks to Paul Henderson and Nick Booth for the photos.