(More) Framed Webcomic Art

I hope you’ll forgive me a moment of fan-girlness to share two new additions to my webcomic art collection. I actually picked both of these up a while ago, but only just now have gotten around to framing them. I encourage you to check out both of these comics. Lots of fun and each has an interesting and unique story.

Gunnerkrigg Court

Paradigm Shift

Taking the “31 Days to Build a Better Blog” Challenge

Over the next 31 days I’ll be running Maastricht Minutiae through it’s paces with the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog challenge (31DBBB) along with the other lady bloggers in the SITS community.  31DBBB is a eBook by Darren Rowse, the owner of the wildly successful Problogger and all the various products that go with it.  The book itself takes you through a series of tasks that force you to think critically about why you blog, how you write, and what you do to build a community.

I’ll probably be posting frequently about the challenge here in addition to my usual blogging, so if you have any thoughts or suggestions feel free to make them. Now with no further ado, my answer to the day one task.

Day One Challenge: Write an Elevator Pitch

“A spotlight on the adventure and realities of expat life in Maastricht.”

Are you a Lady Blogger?

If you’re a lady blogger, feel free to join me and 400 other bloggers at the SITS community as we work through these challenges. You can learn more about the 31DBBB book here.

Social Media Day & Maastricht’s Bid for Cultural Capital 2018

Wednesday’s evening I joined a couple dozen people in Maastricht for a celebration of Social Media Day. We gathered in the rather warm upstairs room at Cafe de Twee Heeren to listen and talking about social media and, more pointedly, Maastricht’s bid to be the European cultural capital in 2018.  Although the group was organized by Jules & You (a student organization), the ages were well mixed, which gave a nice variety of perspectives. The event was actually arranged by the excellent European Journalism Centre and individual volunteers. Jules & You was the original location, which was changed because of a larger than expected turnout.

Ultimately it was a nice event, although most of the talks covered things I already knew since I spend a lot of time on Twitter and Facebook as it is. I would have liked to hear more of a discussion of blogging, but so it goes. I was intrigued by the presentation from Maas-media, which is a participatory journalism organization in Maastricht, and how they’re trying to encourage the cyclical consumption and creation of media by the general public instead of the old-fashioned simple consumption models. A number of interesting tools were also shared including: SocialMention, Tweetboard, and Reclaimprivacy.

The broader discussion of Maastricht’s bid for Cultural Capital and how social media can be used to promote it was interesting as well. The European Capital of Culture is designated once a year to give a city the chance to showcase and invigorate cultural development. As you might imagine it is a prestigious designation and has strong socio-economic consequences for the winners. Maastricht wishes the bid to promote not only the city but also their unique border region.

In the LinkedIn workshop, we discussed how the LinkedIn group about the bid was only in Dutch, which excludes internationals, as well as French and German speakers from bordering countries. Sueli suggest that something needed to be done to allow people from many language background to feel comfortable participating if Maastricht’s bid was truly going to be representational. I really like that idea; even if LinkedIn doesn’t offer any sort of translation tools. But with a good enough translation tool and maybe a team of translators to help out with mistranslations, a multi-lingual forum could be very interesting. And more accessible.

We also discussed, vaguely, ways to increase the cultural activities happening in the city that would attractive a broader section of the population including possibly having non-Dutch theater performances, etc. I’m usually hungry for English-language activities, so I can totally get behind that.

Curious about other efforts being made by the official VIA2018 organization (I hear a lot about it from other people), I dug up their website only to discover that it offers translations in French and German, but not English. Part of me can understand. Dutch, German, and French are the official regional languages of South Limburg and the “Maastricht Region”, and I haven’t really gone out of my way to be involved. But to be frank, this tells me that my opinion and participation as an expat is not welcome. It also tells me that international students, the same ones being discussed as vibrant and full of ideas at Social Media Day, are going to be discouraged as well. And some of them are better prospects to be come long-term residents, bring business, etc. than someone like me. It is a half-measure to tell internationals that you want their participation, but then close them out of formal conversations.

Maybe before any social media efforts are put in place, the people in charge of Maastricht’s bid for cultural capital in 2018 need to decide just who they want involved and start sending the right messages. Not necessarily to me, I know I may not be their target audience, but for the students and internationals who have made this area their permanent home.

Join Me at Social Media Day 2010

Next Wednesday, June 30th is Social Media Day and Jules & You is sponsoring a meetup in Maastricht to “celebrate the revolution of media becoming a social dialogue”. The event will be held at the Jules & You office and will include a short presentation, 4 mini workshops, and information discussions about social media. There will also be a video interview of thoughts on how social media can help Maastricht’s 2018 City of Culture bid.

Given that Jules & You is a student support organization, I expect the attendees to mostly be younger than me, but the subject matter is interesting enough that I think anyone who enjoying blogging or other social networks will find something valuable. Dan & I are planning to attend and if Social Media Day sounds like fun, we’d like to meet up with you too. Just comment below or send me an email. There is also a Facebook page with some more information and a place to RSVP your attendance.

We hope to see you there!

Get to Know your Potatos

No one commented on my pun when I Twittered it, so instead I must terrify you with my comicing abilities. For those of you unfamiliar with Dutch, “Patats” is what they call fries up in the Northern parts of the Netherlands.

Cheers!

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