Facebook

I've started using Facebook. I was planning just to use it as a handy way of staying in better touch with friends and family (it does work well for that) and as a place to base an alumni contact group (it works very well for that, too: check out the "Physical Geography at Keele" group at facebook.com). Then I discovered that you could use it to play chess with your friends, and started playing with Paul Johnson, who was a postgrad here at Keele years ago and worked with me in Greenland. He keeps beating me, but I'm gradually remembering how to play! Because of the way facebook works, complete strangers have been getting in touch asking for games. I didn't join facebook to meet people I didn't already know, but it is a good way of getting to play chess with all sorts of different people. There's also a really good geographical game on there that I've been playing with colleagues and friends and might use for teaching! It's interesting how different people use facebook for different things. Like the internet as a whole it can be used in lots of different ways and the trick is just to use it in a way that suits you. If you are on facebook, look me up there and say hi!