Anke’s Bio
Organising at Localgovcamp - Image by Janet Davis
After studying publishing and cutting my teeth in the printing and proofreading departments of newspapers both in my hometown of Rostock in North-East Germany, and in Berlin, I decided to do something completely different.
I moved into volunteering and spent 3 years working full time for a community centre in Cologne, fundraising and working in the new catering business. Once that was fully established, it was time for another stint in the publishing industry, this time in Sweden, with an academic publisher.
While mainly working with book publishing there, I also was involved in the development of the Bulletin Board System which allowed for the development of a very early online community of editors and translators working remotely.
Then came the World Wide Web and the first Instant Messaging systems beginning with ICQ by Mirabilis, which all changed the way we worked and made friends online. I moved to the UK in 2001 and instantly started building a network just by taking part in an online social networking experiment, Feesch, an early predecessor of Facebook.
For the next half decade I worked in a variety of capacities in the Thames Valley IT industry while working with online communities in my spare time – setting up online project management tools for small organizations and helping them to achieve their goals.
I then got interested in realising my own social enterprise ideas and moved to West Africa for 2 years to build projects around the thriving entertainment industry there.
After returning from there, and realizing that social networking had now entered the mainstream, I started working on digital inclusion projects with the real potential of changing how people interact.
An example of projects I am involved in and I have completed:
- Events. We are trying to find a new way of exchanging ideas that just work. For example: The localgovcamp unconference.
- Libraries and local government on twitter? Well of course. I consult on digital engagement. For example: developed and ran @haringeylibrary, training staff as I went along, and successfully handed the account over after 3 months.
- Third Sector and Social Media – involved in building a community of resources and finding a model to support that crucial side of our society in making the transition to taking part in, and shaping the online conversation. For example: media140/charities
- Speak For Yourself. A model of short, affordable courses for small and medium business to teach them digital engagement – crucial for them to take advantage of, and add their flavour to the local scene now that geolocating is becoming standard.
- And still helping organisations with their organising.
Connect with me:
Twitter
Facebook
Ecademy
LinkedIn
