I thought I would revisit this topic if only to shout out a about a woman  in my network I admire greatly and one of the the most generous people I know in my network.

If you missed the previous post on the issue of being generous to those in your network you can catch up here

Ces is the brains behind Brand Buzz. She  is an avid advocate for my work and has used her expertise in branding to develop a whole new look for the following websites

Africa on the Blog

Let Them Help themselves out of Poverty

Ida Horner

I was pleasantly surprised when her and lovely hubby dropped in one evening to understand what I do and how they can help, bearing in mind that they lived in Liverpool at the time.

Ces’ generosity is legendary  amongst those of us in her network. She is currently running a free- yes a free Promotion  for producers of handcrafts in UK and if you would like to participate in this promotion please click on the diagram below

I decided to revisit this topic primarily to  acknowledge a woman that understands the meaning of networking and being generous to those in your network.

Secondly those who know me will be familiar with my community work in South West Uganda . I am not a rich a woman by any stretch of imagination  and one of  the questions I get asked a lot is Where does your funding come from? The simple answer is that from my networks both on and offline- in other words the generosity  of others enables me to help those less fortunate than I am and Ces is one of those that help by volunteering her skills and as such saving me a time and money. She never expects  anything in return!

Unfortunately some of us do not get this whole notion of networking being about building relationships, sharing what you know and have  with those in your network without expecting anything in return.

I recently  approached someone  for  contact details of someone  in their organisation. I went through my work and explained that I was trying to reach that person at the organisation he works at to find out if they would be interested in sponsoring an event we are organising to raise money to complete a water project in SW Uganda

I was unprepared for the answer I got back

“that is all very well but what’s in it for you”?

I must admit I was taken back by that answer and was at a loss of what to say and mumbled something along the lines of “hopefully God’s blessings” I am not sure what was behind that question and 2 weeks on I have not heard back from that person.

I have asked myself a few questions  following that exchange

1. Am I falling foul of the networking etiquette
2. was I wrong to expect that because I know this person they would help me?
3. should givers gain?

I don’t have any answer to those questions but I am grateful to people like Ces that have reached out to me

If you have any branding questions or would like a fresh look for your website Ces can be contacted at  ces@creativelyminded.co.uk

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There is a new theory that the #FollowFriday recommendations on twitter are open to abuse/SPAM
Nikki Pilkington an expert on twitter advises that in order to avoid this SPAM it is best to write your recommendations in a blog and then post a link to them.

I have a great deal of respect for Nikki’s views on twitter and other Social Media platforms and in my view what she doesn’t know isn’t worth knowing. She has come up with a Twitter mentoring scheme called Tweetmentor and I am currently working way through it. Nikki’s twitter handle is @nikkipilkington if you would like to follow her and to find out about her twitter mentoring scheme visit her website http://www.nikkipilkington.com/

@peter_blanchard is a dear friend who want everyone in his network to succeed, he knows a great deal about selling smartly and IT. To find out about his work visit his company website www.ecom90.co.uk

@procphil another dear friend, he is very generous to those in his network . to find out about Phil’s work visit his blog http://streamliningprocesses.wordpress.com/

@SuButcher is great at connecting people, and what she doesn’t know about the planning system isn’t worth knowing here is Su’ website http://www.barefootgilles.com/

@essex_courier another generous soul that shares tips about all manner of things she taught me how to feed my blog into twitter. Read more about Sarah at her blog http://arrowlighthaulage.co.uk/arrowblog/

I love twitter as you may have figured by now but that is it about #followfriday this week . Oh and if you want to follow me I am @ethnicsupplies

I don’t know when or how I got into Twitter but frankly it doesn’t matter. However what does is the ability to connect with others that Twitter provides. I have no doubt folk will debate the inns and out of Twitter for some time to come of as we say in Africa until the cows come home but I would urge you not to dismiss it.

My Twitter story starts with a post sent by Ed whose Twitter handle is chiefmoamba . Ed posted a Tweet in which he mentioned an Africa gathering in London.

This is someone I didn’t know nor he and I can’t even remember how he became my “Follower” nor me his. He politely answered my questions one of which was how could I get hold of tickets to the event in London.

He informed me that the tickets were sold out and asked if I would mind leading on one the seminars! Phew! all of this in just a few minutes of exchanging what is technically text messages!

Having reviewed the details I asked him what on earth I would talk about as the whole gathering appeared to be about ICT. Well those who know me will not be surprised by this.
He suggested that I could talk about my work at Ethnic Supplies

That is easy enough I thought, so I agreed to join them. Here is how the actual day went. I sincerely had no idea how much I relied on ICT in the running of Ethnic Supplies.

What happened next following my appearance at the Africa Gathering knocked me for six. An email arrived in my in box, I along with the other speakers at that event were invited to submit a paper for a conference on Ethics, Roles and Relationships in Interaction Design in Develop and given a deadline of May 10 2009.

I had the usual doubts, will I come up with a good enough paper to submit and even if I do, will it be good enough to be selected etc..

One thing was certain if I didn’t submit a paper I will never know what the outcome would have been or would be. I therefore sat down and wrote a paper and sent it off and waited for the results that were promised on 24 May.

And right on time the results were in on 24 May my paper had been accepted and this is what they said

Reviewer 1
Accept. This author, who is not a part of the traditional ‘community’ of HCI4D, brings similar insights about listening to people impacted by development is critical to success. I think that her perspective would be very interesting – that we could learn from her experiences and vice versa. I also think that there is a potential for interesting collaboration as well. Although she does not explicitly mention ethical issues, they are implicit in what she has written.

Reviewer 2
Accepted, The author has clearly has done some serious thinking about the relevant work. I agree that we can learn by engaging with this person.

I could not believe my eyes and was glad that I had taken the time to submit the paper. I started to reflect on the power on Twitter as well as that following leads through

Have you had an usual experience or amazing results as a result of being on Twitter?