Welcome to 'The Battenberg Effect'!

A friend Facebooked me recently to suggest I revived “thebattenbergeffect”. This could, tenuously, be described as a back-handed compliment for my oft-neglected tech-blog. While choosing not to read anything into his substitution of a classic English tea-time cake for, arguably, the inventor of modern mass media, I am going to revive ‘thegutenbergeffect’ with immediate effect.

My situation has changed since I last posted. I was a cog in the wheel of the media/marketing/communications machine of a mid-sized UK-based church/charity. Some of my posts where definitely informed by the experiences and insights of that environment. Now I am a self-supporting charity worker with a UK-based organisation, living and working in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It brings a fresh set of perspective to the challenges facing charities in using new media.

The continuity between the two is my personal engagement in new media, particularly online video. As I post this I have 325 video on my talk74 YouTube channel – the most active of the four channels I post on. I’ve lost count of how many videos I’ve actually made for these and a number of other channels. While I am by no means e-famous I was amused, and perhaps a little flattered, that when UK YouTube spotlighted just one video about St George’s Day just over a week ago it was the one I made last year.

Living overseas means a greater reliance on digital media to stay connected with friends, family and financial supporters. So getting it right is not an academic exercise, it really matters. As corporate old media muscles in on the new media party and people become increasingly cynical about the authenticity of online communication there a need to keep communicating with honesty and integrity, along with generous helping of ingenuity...and perhaps a slice of Battenberg!