More Collaborations Abound

In a recent post, I extolled the virtues of collaboration and open cooperation. Every day, it seems further opportunities for such cross-pollination continue to make themselves known.

Just the other day, I was meeting with some regional public health colleagues, and I let it be known that I have started publishing a blog for my local health department. One individual claimed to not know what a blog was (as he lifted his head from under a very large rock). Then the light bulb went off: I would offer a class in Blogging 101 to my colleagues so that they could also have blogs for their local health departments. They were (mostly) thrilled, except perhaps for the hapless middle-aged man emerging from under aforementioned rock.

Moving on from blogs, I entered the Twitterverse several months ago, and began to utilize Twitter for the purpose of micro-blogging and networking. Just this week, my public health and emergency preparedness colleagues realized that Twitter has only recently hit the big time, with the events in Mumbai and the plane crash on the Hudson River being disseminated on Twitter before the mainstream media knew what hit them. Seeing this new reality, many colleagues now see the usefulness and immediacy of Twitter, and I will apparently be offering another class in the art of tweeting quite soon. Hooray for new technologies.

So, my use of the latest technnology and communication tools has parlayed itself into my being able to offer an introduction to such tools to my colleagues who so desperately need to fully enter the 21st century. However, change is the only constant in this universe of ours, and by the time I master Twitter and the art of blogging, a new form of communication will emerge, calling for my (slightly divided) attention. Until then, blogging and tweeting are the forms of the day, and I will soon introduce a very interested cohort of professionals to these extremely useful and contemporary technologies.