About me

* I have been on Twitter (@mediamum) since the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco, in 2007. When I signed up, I didn’t “get” it and dumped it for six months, but then took it up as my summer project over the Christmas break that year, and … boom. I lifestream. I love the promise of what Twitter represents for society, and I enjoy researching the communities that use social media.

* After a very successful career as a magazine journalist and PR consultant, I decided to teach. I completed a BA with a major in Comms as a Distance Ed student over three years while raising my four wonderful children, graduating in 2005 with a Distinction average. At various stages, my children saw me cry, dance – and work my butt off. At my graduation as I walked across the stage to get my degree, my daughter screamed “Go Mum!” from somewhere in the middle of the Queensland Performing Arts Centre. Best. Day. Ever.

* I was employed as a full time teacher of Marketing, Advertising, Event Management and Journalism by TAFE NSW (Australia’s public community college network.) While there, I completed a Graduate Diploma in Adult Education through Charles Sturt University, fully funded by TAFE NSW.

My research home. Purdy, ain't it ma?

* I received a fully funded position and wrote my Masters thesis, called The Latent Sphere of the Network Society, at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Colorado at Boulder, USA. I began working towards my PhDin August 2010, in the ATLAS program at CU. I work in the Project EPIC lab with some incredibly smart and talented people. The PhD should take me about 3 more years – or until I go mad. Either one.

* I am one of the most rare commodities – a woman who has completed a high end IT incubator program. I graduated from the inaugural Founder Institute program in Silicon Valley in Summer 2009.

* We are a bootstrapping start-up family. I know what ramen is, how to clip coupons for almost everything and how to dumpster dive. Really.

The Enz, March 2008, New Zealand.

* I am one of the biggest Split Enz/anything-Finn fans in the universe. My tagline is part of a lyric from The Devil You Know, a Neil Finn song. (“Hung on a cliff, in search of something big.”) I have travelled to see these guys. Not just to different cities, but to New Zealand where I was invited to a full dress rehearsal with just 24 other people in Wellington.

* I love flyball (dog sport). I used to play it in Australia, and now I enjoy scoring at tournaments for the RUFF Flyball Team in Colorado (not that kind of scoring). Our dog, Jet, is one of the family. The one that hikes hard and chews things.

* Trivia 1: Before my journalism and media career, I used to work in the music industry. I started in Australian band management (The Allniters, Sharon O’Neill, Dragon) and moved to international touring artists (Elton John, Lionel Ritchie, etc). I’m even thanked on Moving Pictures last album.

* Trivia 2: I’ve been in a couple of music videos, was on Home and Away a few times, did voice-overs for radio and those telephone automatic messaging systems people adore , and presented on a tv show called The Zone.

* I was editor of GAMESTAR magazine, chief sub-editor on Australian Personal Computer magazine, and Deputy Editor on PC User magazine for Australian Consolidated Press.

* I worked in Public Relations (the dark side) for numerous IT firms in consultancy, inhouse and freelance. As an IT writer, I am proficient at taking technical copy and turning it into copy that can be read by a layperson (I consider myself to be a layperson, but others might disagree).

* I can tie jelly snakes and cherry stems into a knot using only my tongue.

* I dearly wish I had time to quilt and scrapbook. But I’d probably be really crap at it. (Hasn’t stopped me yet.) I just completed my first Wilton cake decorating course and I loved it!

* I like Letterboxing, have planted my own boxes in Australia and Colorado, and really want to do some more of them. My husband thinks if there is a freaky hobby to be had, I’ll be the one to do it. He’s probably right.

* I adore all my mom blogging friends, social media pals, and offline never-gonna-be-online friends too. Our lives are a blend of all of it. It’s wonderful to explore and be grateful for those connections.

* Oh, and I do, in fact, Rock.

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