The interweb communication thingy...

As someone who found the love of her life online I am no novice when it comes to an online chat and the sharing of good ideas. I was very fortunate to have a good grounding in a progressive school which did not block Facebook and Twitter or Youtube from the kids and staff but rather used them to forge stronger communication channels and share success and failure in a manner that was not washing your dirty laundry all over Teleman square.  I had conversations with students and their parents in the same Facebook post about the benefits and joys of things like "Bike Day" which would never of happened had i not been able to post pics of the youngsters haring around the playground on a 7 seater or a penny farthing.

Since the change in our lifestyles we have continued to use online media in so many ways and have debates, discussions and even the occasional dirty washing session with local councillors, others running their own businesses, MPs, bloggers, friends and reporters on a huge range of topics.  We have used social media to get our business name known and received great feedback on our products and projects as well as enlisting all kinds of support along the way.  So I felt it was time to gather some of the benefits we have experienced from online interactions, so here goes.

To date online interactions have offered the following:

1) Suggested solutions to our mite problem in our large chicken coop, which has so far been 100% effective, suggesting the products, routine and then where online to buy it at a fraction of the commercial shop prices.

2) Reassurance and guidance about our broody Bantam hen hatching her own chick whilst in the coop with daddy and 2^nd mummy, and a continued online debate about the gender of that little chick which is still to be proved one way or other.

3) Advice from freelance writers about the best available software for outlining the structure to a novel or ebook and where to download a free beta copy.

4) Immeasurable fun and laughter at the responses to news items from milk prices to Olympic disorganisation and the multi U-Turn nature of the current government.

5) A torrid online battle with a staunch Boris fan who blindly supports him and suggested he is saintly in his spending of public funds, which resulted in a win for me and the sounds of truth and evidence about spending in support of LGBT community and the World/London Pride events.  I will never miss an opportunity to educate a bigot or an ignorant big mouth.

6) Continued collaborations and offers of support with schools and local growing groups on our future produce market plans.

7) Freelance online remote work, and some of these offers come through the most unlikely channels.

8) Free tickets to the picturehouse, when complaining in person got the bloke from the seat in front of us nothing on the day, yet we got 2 free tickets and an apology, they are lovely people and we salute them.

9) Taste swapping ideas from other home made producers where we all send our new product samples by post and offer feedback online, a great test for new products and we get to try out other peoples work, yummy. (well mostly yummy!)

10) Offers of volunteer work, so far this year have been asked to help at a festival pulling a few pints, the torch relay in Bexley, lavender harvest in Carshalton and running a market stall for a day at Borough market for someone in a bind.

11) When the growing season bites and we have an abundance of one crop we head to twitter for suggestions and one outcome was a superb recipe for lettuce, spring onion and mint soup. I didn't even think about cooking lettuce!

12) An introduction to Freegle and all it has provided us.  We knew of Freecycle years ago but thought it had fallen a bit flat round here in recent times, until we discovered it had moved to Freegle.  Oh we have picked up some amazing gifts for free and met some fabulous people along the way too. Freegle we salute you too.

+1) Prizes from loads of companies including a Stonewall goodie bag from Friday quiz, Neff recipe book for tweeting a recipe comment and as well as free teabags in a giveaway.

This list of more than 12 benefits that spring to mind is to say nothing of the value of keeping in touch on FB with friends and colleagues from past jobs who share in the excitement of our adventure out of the rat race and we can share in their lives in a way I never could with teachers or school friends that I now live away from.

I cannot speak highly enough of the blogosphere and its myriad of ideas, inspirations and opinion which have guided all sorts of projects we have become involved in, pointed us in the direction of some of the best kept secret places to eat drink and be merry in London and the south east and saved us hours, days and possibly weeks of graft reading the story of someone else's journey before embarking on the same errors ourselves.

We have based a number of our workshops for up-cycling, recycling and traditional crafts on ideas and information gleaned from blogs and micro sites.  We can now make a natty newspaper gift bag, turn old cans into funky tealight holders, have a toothbrush handle become a pen and break glass bottles with precision with just string acetate a match and water. 

Finally of course if you want to know how to do just about anything then Youtube is your classroom. Go on I challenge you.  Find 5 ways to kill a chicken, including the one with a lady in a lumberjack shirt in the woods with an axe and a traffic cone.  Get a lesson in garlic plaiting and don't forget to catch the episode of country tales teaching you how to make squirrel skin slippers.