We Live Here Sydney Project

(c) Cathy Topping

A long time ago (ok maybe in 2009) in a galaxy far far away (San Fransisco) an ex-interior designer named Julie Michelle developed this amazing idea where she could improve her mad skillz in portrait photography whilst also learning about her city called ‘I Live Here SF’.

The basic concept is that anyone is able to collaborate with Julie to share their story about SF; they choose the location, they write the story and Julie is able to experiment with her photography. In return for their involvement – they get a copy of all the photos (ready for posting on Facebook!)

Fast forward a year – and enter Cathy Topping.

Cathy is an awesome freelance photographer living in Sydney, and one day she stumbled across the I Live Here SF and knew that she had to bring it to Sydney.

Julie was completely for the idea – in fact, there are currently 5 other ‘We Live Here’ blogs running - but they’re all in North America/Canada/UK – so Cathy started ‘We Live Here: Sydney’ at the end of 2010.

Cathy posted on SourceBottle (a highly recommended call out website) to find some subjects and one day I happened to stumble across her post. I responded as soon as I saw it and a few days later I got a response back from Cathy and we arranged to meet up a couple of weeks later.

I met up with Cathy last week after work, and we decided to explore The Rocks - although I’ve been in Sydney for the last 15-odd years, I’ve never actually walked around The Rocks – I’ve done the markets and walked down the road before, but never actually explored it; so it also was a great opportunity for me to learn about the history of Sydney.

So how did it all turn out?

Freaking awesome. Check out all the photos here. There’s also some additional photos on Cathy’s Facebook page as well.

(c) Cathy Topping

Seriously thank you so much to Cathy and We Live Here: Sydney for letting me get involved with this. It was an absolute blast – and if anyone else wants to get involved, please contact Cathy through her SourceBottle link here (don’t want to put her email out for spamtards to access). It was so much fun, and the more people she can get involved, the more awesome it will be!

Finally – as a part of the deal, I had to write up a blog; so because this year is all about defining my focus – I thought it would be a great way to start to explore my thinking around how I want to define who I am:

Social Media isn’t going anywhere.

It’s the new email – a long time ago in business, people thought that the only way you should be communicating was via post or phone; and that there was no place for email. It was a niche product, but then one day it reached a tipping point (a time when it reaches the masses) and now people can’t live without it.

Sound familiar?

Social Media is going through this same process. It already passed its tipping point (especially with Facebook) but other niche platforms such as Twitter and LinkedIn are not far behind. Regardless of platform, it is ingrained into everyone’s lives – there haven’t been that many organisations where their company name, and trademarks, has become a verb in everyday language – think about the last time you said you would “Facebook someone”. Even Defriend and Tweetup have made it to the Oxford Dictionary.

So what can you do?

Embrace it – but don’t overwhelm yourself with it. Once you start a social media account on a platform you can never leave it – an abandoned account is worse than no account at all. Dabble with one platform and then start exploring other platforms that are right for you. There are many ways of integrating platforms (like your Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn) so you only need to post

Segment it – Use each platform for a different reason. Personally I use my Facebook for people I know; Twitter for people I want to know; and my LinkedIn for industry connections. It’s about being anti-social with the platforms – don’t use the same platform for multiple things and even if people pressure you to join a platform, don’t join it unless you can find a real use for it in your everyday life.

Join a platform and discover.

You can find people who are interested in the most amazing and niche things – and if you feel that you are the only person in the world with an interest – chances are you aren’t alone. I’ve met so many awesome people through Social Media – and if I wasn’t able to explore my hobbies online, I know that I wouldn’t have the wealth of knowledge and connectivity I have now at my fingertips because of Social Media.

It’s just one click away.