Background

On the 1st of June in 2011, I joined the online social media platform, ABC POOL, managed by the public broadcaster, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

I decided to participate in one of the ABC POOL call out projects for the month of June where participants were asked to upload one piece of creative content, as a word document, an image file or sound file for each day of the month.

Having recently moved from working in a large city office to a solitary home office, I found the concept socially and creatively stimulating and began to communicate with other members of that online community, gradually getting to know them through their work, the material they shared in the online galleries and from general online comments and discussions.

 

The ABC POOL projects and platform facilitated members actively participating and sharing their media content with fellow online members and the ABC, at times this User Generated Content (UGC) was featured in ABC branded projects and broadcasts. 

 

My background in graphic design and the fine arts helped me to work with interdisciplinary medias and I was invited by the ABC POOL team to become more engaged with the online community by becoming an ABC POOL Community Editor.

At monthly telephone conferences I received direction about new projects, which projects and how to promote and encourage this institutional online community, one that was constantly producing and uploading new work, participating and co-creating within a nurturing media framework. Everyone was keen to learn how to navigate new digital file-sharing pathways.  I became fascinated with skill sharing possibilities offered through collaboration with artists in other creative fields taking place online with people from many different parts of Australia. 

 

When the ABC POOL platform was closed down by the broadcaster, I was keen to maintain connections with collaborators and sought ways in which I could continue to work online in my virtual studio with my virtual collaborators. By working alone at home, they had become a virtually 'real' part of my creative community of practice.

 

In 2013, I created the Facebook group POOL and was joined by some of the original

ABC POOL community. Having lost the branding and exhibition potential of the ABC broadcaster, many predicted that this group would not survive beyond a few weeks.

Today the Facebook group POOL has 770 international members who belong to an interdisciplinary group of writers, spoken word artists, sound artists, photographers, printmakers, film makers and interested audience members each contributing to an

online global community of practice. 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/poolgroup/ 

​

This background informs how my research project builds on my previous experience, observation and interest in the unlimited resources and connections afforded via technology to an individual artist working collaboratively online within the framework of a virtual community of practice without borders.

 

​

​

​

​