My name’s Rob Bell, and I’m a Webaholic

I can’t believe it’s been 2 weeks since I posted to the blog, in that I’ve been on it every day and have been incredibly busy online, but I’ve been so busy the last 2 weeks it’s been hard to actually sit down and write a new post. Even with all my aggregation tools and time-saving devices, just sitting down and writing a new blog post has evaded me for a bit! But here I am, and here it comes…

I find myself a little concerned this week about the gap I feel developing between Technophiles such as myself and people who don’t see the massive potential for communication and human growth the technologies offer them. Working online, and via computers for 20 years now, has made me forget that there are people out there for whom it’s still terrifying, and they don’t see how, by using web applications, social networks, websites, VOIP like Skype, messengers and so on and so forth, that they can enrich their life, save money and meet fantastic people from all over the world via the monitor in front of their eyes.

When I broke my back, the Internet was the only way I could get out and about, or see people unless they came round to my house, so in a way I guess that was the biggest thing that increased my use of the Net to do day-to-day things much quicker, without having to go out to the level it’s at nowadays. Prior that I still used it more than anyone else I knew though, such is the price of being a secret nerd!

People shouldn’t have to break their backs to discover this for themselves, and fortunately for them, many don’t!

On an average day, I send and receive a number of emails, whilst listening to downloaded music or tunes via the awesome Last.fm’s recommended stations guide - which seems to magically know music I’ll love most of the time. I organise my projects and to-dos via Web Apps, which also provide my timetracking, invoicing and accounts services - and all of these talk to each other, saving me a need to do things multiple times. I also organise my projects via online apps, although I haven’t decided on a favourite yet!

I also have an autoresponder which enables me to provide hundreds of people with information they’re looking for 24 hours a day - instantly - without any need for my input, once I’ve written the information and posted it to the autoresponder. One such service I have provides 48 useful free tools and websites - one each day to prevent information overload, you can sign up for that by ‘Joining my Gang’ via Rob-Bell.com . When I want to tell everyone on my lists about something, I only have to write it once and it gets personalised and sent to each subscriber - each of whom can respond to me via the email I’ve given them, which promotes some fantastic two-way, three-way and more discussions. I’m hoping discussions here on the blog become more frequent in time, but I realise I have to post more often on the blog to get that going!

Meanwhile, I’m posting what I hope are interesting links and information on Twitter almost every day now - which via the magic of aggregation service ping.fm gets sent out automatically to all the social networks I use regularly (about 20 of them), reaching an audience I couldn’t possibly hope for in my local area, where we net nerds are few and far between. I have fantastic 140 character exchanges with all manner of people via Twitter even getting to speak directly to people I look up to and would never have expected to be talking to. I’ve maybe even got to help out one of the most helpful guys in the world, self development guru Tony Robbins, when a few people recommended my Ultimate Guide to Twitter to him!

These applications are all hosted in data centres, guaranteeing me the data is safe from any hard drive crashes at home, and so much safer than I could ever make it.  A hard drive-corruption incident I experienced recently cost me almost 5 years of music and 3 years of Photos, so now I use Flickr to store many of my pics. I recovered most of the data using snazzy software, but it was a close call - I’m glad all my business processes are online,so this will never affect my business. I’m also glad I have a good backup policy for my stuff.

The best thing about getting everything online is this one simple fact - I can deal with any of it, from almost anywhere, even via my Blackberry in remote locations and overseas! I’m getting an IPhone in 6 weeks (stupid no upgrade til last month of contract O2!) which will then enable me to use applications already written by many of the services I already use, meaning I can then run my entire business, globally, via my phone - no matter where I am as long as I get a signal! True indepence of location and interface has almost arrived - and it saves me time and money, and expands my experiences and my sphere of influence globally to wonderful people throughout the globe.

I provide clients with the same ability, no matter how small their business or what market they work in. This stuff works whether you’re a beauty salon, a garage, a window cleaner, an office, a solicitor, dance teacher, a vet - in fact, whatever you do this stuff helps you do it better - so why do people fear it so? Clients often greet the process with some trepidation - although this soon dissipates when they see how easy it all is once set up. That they fear it at all has always confused me, as someone who embraced technology from a very early age - heck I was there when the ZX80 came out, as an 8-year old nerd in the making!

So I guess what I’m saying is that I can’t get my head round people who can’t see the potential the internet offers them. You people make no sense to me - does that make me wrong? I believe the Internet offers you, whoever you are, such fantastic opportunities to meet people who share your interests, all over the globe, and make real connections and friends for years to come - a lot easier than you could befriend your neighbours who live next door. I believe it offers you independence, freedom and more interesting and wonderous people, videos, sounds, music, information, news - in fact, you can find anything you want out there - and if you can’t find it, you can be the first to put it on, possibly creating your own piece of the Net where you lead your followers into a world of joint experiences.

I lurve the Web, I can’t help it. I bleed silicon!

My name’s Rob Bell, and I’m a Webaholic (zero minutes dry!). Good to meet you, wherever you’re from and whoever your gods may be, if indeed you have any