I will be honest and admit that I found curating @femedtech at Twitter to be quite difficult, compared with the last time I curated in 2021. Possible explanations include my state of mind, an overload from trying to work on Twitter and Mastodon, and other actions from Social Media platforms. I have a distinct impression that engaging with Twitter has become more difficult because of changes that have happened in the Elon Musk era. This article in Forbes lays out the changes and they are jaw-dropping. Many communities have done great work via Twitter that is compromised by changes like flaky moderation, re-admitting high profile banned users, the ‘for you’ feed, the change in the ‘blue tick’ system. Their challenge is how to deal with it. The individualistic #Twexit response does not work for communities/ networks: we can find other ways of being online even though we may not yet fully understand what they are. Communities/ networks migrate imperfectly as platforms fail but networking can enable serendipitous partial repair. This is where I think we are at FemEdTech.
In my previous post, I laid out some intentions for curation:
1. “I intend to use my time as curator to explore ideas with the FemEdTech network about what curation means at FemEdTech – where and how can we curate? What can we do and share?”
I have tried in modest ways to engage with what curation means at FemEdTech. This post relates to that. Curation at FemEdtech can be done by the nominated curator @femedtech and by all of us at the hashtag #femedtech on Twitter, the Mastodon universe, Instagram and elsewhere.
The @femedtech curator can make intentional decisions in a changing and uncertain context. They could choose to review and retweet and/or respond to Tweets in the @femedtech stream. This is all possible for a FemEdTech curator active on Twitter.
2. “I am going to be cross-posting between @FemEdTech on Twitter and my account on mastodon @francesbell@mastodon.social.”
I did not find that easy at all. I logged into to @francesbell at twitter.com and added the @femedtech account. Meanwhile I was using the Metatext app on my phone for @francesbell@mastodon.social. It has been encouraging to pick up followers there, in part via #FemEdTech. I will be at OER23 4-6 April, so I am hopeful that #OER23 and #FemEdTech will reinforce each other at Twitter and the Mastodon Fediverse.
3. I also appealed to people at Twitter and Mastodon
“So what can you do ? You can respond and share @FemEdTech at Twitter, #FemEdTech at Twitter and Mastodon, and follow my Mastodon account @francesbell@mastodon.social during March.”
#FemEdTech is still active at Twitter and is beginning to appear at the Mastodon fediverse, hopefully boosted alongside #OER23. I am thinking how it might be difficult for an @FemEdTech curator active on Twitter to impact on #FemEdTech at Mastodon, and equally difficult for a FemEdTech curator active on Mastodon to impact on #FemEdTech at Twitter. A solution might be for curation to be seen as collective activities on both platforms with FemEdTech people regularly posting to #FemEdTech wherever they are.
This post and Post 1 bracket my reflections in action during my time as curator of @FemEdTech, and #FemEdTech on Twitter and in the Mastodon fediverse.
Let’s keep playing and reflecting !
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