If you're wondering where all the angst about facebook has come from you can blame continuing education. Last weekend I was at a conference and one of the speakers used a podcast from http://www.ted.com/ to explain social connectivity, leadership and social media (pretty smart guy named Seth Godin). The idea was tribal cultures and how people of like interests connect through tools like the Internet. How someone from England can connect to someone in Canada through social media to create tribes of people with similar interests.
So in the middle of this conference am I thinking of connecting to other Chiropractors? No, I'm wondering who was the first tatter to trespass into this brave new world? In 2001 or 2002 I had a monumental brain storm to search for tatting on the Internet. At that time there was already a flourishing community of tatting websites based on tatting. Georgia Seitz was already up and running with her online class. Chat rooms had been running. There were lots of free patterns available on the Internet and I spent lots of time printing off patterns and techniques I had never seen before. Now there's even tatters twittering...
I was just curious if anyone remembers when they first started looking on the Internet and when it became a community (or a tribe as Seth would call it)?
Oh, I learnt to use the internet and build a web site just to get the Tattysaurus off my hands!! That would've been about 15 years ago. Very interesting question - dying to see what others say.
ReplyDeleteI must of had the same idea as you did in 2000 or 2001, that is when i started looking on the internet for tatting. And it has bee great since then such wonderful friendships i have found here on the wonderful internet
ReplyDeleteIn 1997 I was trying to relearn tatting & kept getting stuck on that "flip". I also had my first access to the internet & somehow found the tat chat group and what is now In-Tatters. In-tatters had a completely different name and that was even before it was a yahoo group. I was one of the first 100 members but I was so green I think I glowed. LOL! There were no tatters locally, that I knew of, so the internet definitely put me in touch with other tatters and prompted me to continue tatting, learning more and more and more.
ReplyDeleteI love the internet. In the "old days" I would spend hours at the library hunting through musty old books for a trickle of information on any subject. Today, the libraries are fabulous and have so much more, but I think they grew too because of the internet.
I started searching the internet at about the same as GinnyW, in about 2000. I got really hooked when I came across the tatting site on BellaOnline. I went to many other tatting sites through the many links that I found on that site.
ReplyDeleteIn 1995 (after returning to the workforce at age 50), I was asked (in hushed tones) if I wanted to see something called the 'Worldwide Web'.
ReplyDeleteThe "Web" was up and running in a special room. I had no idea what it was all about (like something out of Star Trek!) , but I was amazed when they 'called up' some craft websites which were already 'out there'.
The job ended by 1996, so I had no access to the 'new' internet until libraries started offering the service (around '98?) I was quite intimidated by it, though! I had learn 'how' to surf the net!
One day in '98 I mustered up the courage to look up tatting, and managed to print out some sheets dated Dec 1998 (in black and white) of a list of tatting books from something called "Snogoose". I was delighted with this list!
Then in 1999 I was amazed to discover Elizabeth Zipay's website! (I had met her in 1998!) And Carol Lawecki also had an early site! LaRae Mikulecky's Celtic bookmark was shown (via Geocities) in 1999. I couldn't figure out how anyone could have a website!
Then by 2003 I was able to surf the net at my husband's office where I was able to make COLOR copies!!
I didn't get the internet at home until 2007, and I finally discovered the blogging world. I think Gina (Tatting Goddess) was one of the first to have a blog, starting in 2003 !!! !
Now I'm totally addicted to the internet and the blogs, and this fabulous world-wide tatting community, with 'instant'communication capability!
It's all quite astounding, especially to us 'older' folks!
Hee hee, I started the first tatting Yahoo "club" back in the early 1990's after searching for one in vain when "Yahoo Clubs was first formed. (Yahoo Clubs later became Yahoo Groups - in 2001) After about a year or so my job started demanding more of my time and I had to hand off administrative (or "list mom") priveleges to two other wonderful tatters. Shortly after, Yahoo Clubs turned into Yahoo Groups and several other tatting groups began forming.
ReplyDeleteThose are my meager two cents on the subject. I remember being extremely excited very shortly after forming the Yahoo Tatting Club when I saw it had grown to 285 members and very simple exchanges had begun. Of course, now those numbers are quite small. Still, it is the Internet that saved so many of us from living in isolation.