Telling it how it is ...

Last week I was determined to get a blog set up for the Tower Project. But, being new to all this stuff, the process was a bit baffling and by Sunday night I was thoroughly confused. Happily, on Monday I took my laptop over to the Cam23 drop in session, where Libby and Emma Jane smoothly resolved my bafflement over how to set up a Wordpress blog. Monday afternoon I wrote my first post. By Tuesday morning three other project staff were editing, and by Wednesday afternoon we had a project blog (due to go live this week). I must emphasize that other Tower Project staff have done most of the work on design and set up. But I did manage to organise it. Which I still find both amazing and exciting.




Setting up a blog was a totally new kind of work-related experience for me and to be honest, a bit unsettling. Let me explain. In the past, when we acquired a new cataloguing system/program, some authoritative person would turn up and issue instructions, and we would follow them (or not). But when we're trying to implement things with skills we've only just acquired I think we might find that it's a bit daunting. Especially when there's a quite different hierarchy of expertise and skills and it's usually the younger (and more junior) staff who are at the top.

I'd never used Wordpress before Monday lunchtime, and I could have waited until I was less of a beginner at it, but I was keen to get on. So, for example, the process of adding contributors to the blog became a process of trial and error. I certainly didn't know what I was doing. But here's the thing (as they used to say on the West Wing). It doesn't actually matter. You don't have to know it all. You can work it out as you go along and do some cursing and (when it goes right) excited squeaking.
We're learning, and it doesn't matter if things are a bit messy.

I hope this doesn't sound patronising. I'm writing it a bit tentatively. I'm sure some people will put into practice their Cam23 skills in a far more planned fashion. But for people who face a September that's already packed with work to do and might put off trying out new things, I would encourage you to have a go: it's so satisfying, you feel like you've really achieved something.