Communication World (CW) Tests The Virtual Waters

I was excited to receive May- June issue of CW, IABC’s magazine for communications management. Executive editor Natasha Nicholson got it spot on, the potential phenomena of Second Life, the realities of the collaborative discussions taking place in virtual world has changed the way we communicate. Revolutionised it really.

I found Slivia Cambie interview with Malaysian born writer Yang–May Ooi particularly relevant. In the article, A Novel Approach, Ooi discusses how she moved from the solitary process of writing two novels to the interactive world of daily blogging, an activity that opened up a whole new set of relationships and created new opportunities . “On line communications has led to real world connections,” says Ooi, “I speak at book events in Malaysia. I’ve been commissioned to write articles for the UK writer’s journal … and contribute to a book of essays on Malaysia…”

Her comments tacked back to questions that both my friend Karel Mc Intosh and my assistant Jamila Bannister asked me this week about the purpose of this blog (I am in the process of transitioning to a hosted, better designed blog). For me the success of this blog comed with the relationships that I build and the views that I help to change.

Like Ooi, writing is a fluid process. I channel my thoughts and I get to find a new way of reflecting on topics that are buried deep inside. Call it excavation. But writing has always done that for me. Blogging is just adding a new medium. If it helps the site to win top billings with some search engine. Great! But I am more concerned with a more fundamental principle: did I connect