About
Who am I? I’m a thirty-something woman, native of Cheadle (South Manchester), London-dweller for longer than I care to remember, with a stint of working abroad – Asia, continental Europe, USA - that got the travelling out of my system. I’m a little bit geek and a little bit girlie; I’ve been online forever (still remember my compuserve email address), blogging since 2002, and consult for a huge range of media companies about all manner of web2.0 / online-type thangs.
Call me a conundrum.
My politics are left, but I’m right on education. My lightbulbs are low-energy, but sometimes I go on a plane. I’m a vegetarian, but I occasionally eat fish (out, I don’t cook it anymore). I’m extrovert and I’m shy, I’m good and I’m bad, I’m nice and I’m naughty. I’m a twentyfirst century girl: there’s not exactly a niche that I fit into, apart from my own, and sometimes that makes me feel good, and sometimes I wish I could open the Boden catalogue and fall in love with everything within, even the wellies.
And I’m Jewish. I often think that the (Jewish) world is divided into people who say “hello I’m Jewish” and people who don’t, and if it is, I may fall into the first category. I once heard a non-Jewish friend describe my blog as a “Jewish blog” and I overheard a Jewish friend describe me as the most Jewish person they know. This does not mean that I’m a super-frummer who never goes out, just that being Jewish kinda informs my life in a big way, and I write about it. A lot. I once harboured a desire to write a column in the Jewish Chronicle (known as “The Paper”, just like the Israeli Embassy is known as “The Embassy), and wrote a column in the Jewish Quarterly for four years, write for online magazines, copywrite for agencies, and other people, and I’ve been writing a novel for longer than I care to own up to. It’s a complex, nuanced tale about identity in the online age, how virtual worlds can change how people think about themselves.
I also run my own company – The Virtual Economic Forum – a niche media company which creates content around virtual worlds and MMOs (fast converging anyway) – we blog, host almost-monthly parties – the Virtual Worlds Salon – across Europe, and host the Virtual Worlds Forum – Europe’s largest trade show and congress about virtual worlds in London in October. This year we’re back for the second time – bigger, better, funkier and with a nicer logo.
Of course a huge swathe of interesting things happen in my personal life, but hey, who wants to share all that on the internet. Let’s just say I’m happy.
This whole thing got started because I started blogging in 2002. I’ve never looked back. And what with all the blogging and writing and freelancing and strategy I think it’s possible that I’ve written nearly a million words.
Although not all of them are good, obviously.
