The end of things

Our USQ 23 Things pilot is ending with a reflection. With the orientation that makes a total of 10 weeks across 8 things. That’s a somewhat truncated version of the full 23 Things, which is itself a truncated version of the original 43 Things that I found when I did some digging a week or two ago. I assume that 43 Things was derived from the 43 Folders idea. That I understand. 43 = 12 + 31 and is the number of folders needed for a tickler system in which things are filed for the day they are due in the current month or under a future month. The originator of 23 Things apparently thought 43 Things would be too many and arbitrarily reduced the number. If our pilot is any indication that was a smart move. We appear to have struggled with 8 Things over 10 weeks.

The invitation this week is to reflect on the past 9 weeks. I looked at the 4 suggested readings about social media and academia. They were interesting and confirmed some existing ideas but I don’t think there was much that was truly new for me in there. Coincidentally Corinne Weisgerber tweeted a link this morning to 10 Rising Social Networks You Should Explore. That’s 10 more things just waiting to be explored for those who made it through this pilot and really wanted 23 Things 🙂

Beyond the readings, our task this week is to reflect on how it went. There are 7 questions offered to get that started, so here goes:

1. How have you managed to complete the tasks, and what were some of the challenges you faced? I think I did complete the tasks. I certainly read the post each week, wrote my own blog post here in response, and checked out the suggested activities. I think I may have skipped a couple of activities that looked like they might consume more time than I had available but I did what I could. Time was probably my greatest challenge.
2. How have you enjoyed (or not enjoyed) the ‘sharing’ experience? There has been less ‘sharing’ than I anticipated. Having committed to participating I felt an obligation to engage by reading and commenting on the weekly posts and by posting some more extended thoughts here on my blog. Activity kicked off at the start of the program but it tailed off over the weeks that followed so it wasn’t clear that I was sharing with anybody much of the time and there was little evidence that others were sharing in comments or their own blogs. Perhaps I was missing some activity in the ‘real’ world.
3. Is there someone you have met or learned about through this learning experience that you feel will continue to follow, or who has inspired you? I linked up with some more USQ users in Facebook and Twitter and will maintain those connections. Those will have some institutional value. I don’t recall anything else that hooked me but I’ve been exposed to these topics and most of the information previously so I’m already following many of the people who were mentioned and that I might otherwise have added.
4. Did you learn something completely new? I picked up a few additional aspects of LinkedIn and had some ideas about other topics refreshed.
5. What concept or idea has been introduced to you that was a surprise? I’m not sure anything was really a surprise.
6. What is one thing you have learned that you will utilise into the future, and why? The copyright thing got me thinking about simplifying some processes and I found the flickr cc attribution helper which I have added to my browser toolbar and expect to find use for.
7. Which was your favourite blog post, and why? My favourite was probably Ron’s post on LinkedIn because it highlighted some lesser known features of an evolving service.

I think I now qualify for recognition as having completed the program.