Girl Guides and Mixology

Thanks to today's BBC's Pointless quiz show I discovered that Girl Guides can earn a Mixology badge. For those that don't know what mixology is, it is the mixing of ingredients to make a drink. This raised an eyebrow or two. Mixology is normally associated with alcoholic drinks. What is the Girl Guides movement thinking? Surely they aren't getting young girls to mix ingredients from their parent's cocktail cabinet.

Rest assured this is not the case. One look at their website and your mind is put at rest. Mixology does not have to involve alcohol. A tasty drink can be non-alcoholic. Indeed the Girl Guides website suggests experimenting with different juices, fruits, herbs, and spices. A simple recipe cold just involve adding cinnamon to a vanilla milkshake. It's all above board then.

Shame. I could just imagine a guide's mother asking her daughter to make a "slow comfortable screw up against the wall" on a Friday evening. On well. Maybe a more subtle "kiss from a rose" will have to suffice.

How to ensure good content

Last week the Society of Technical Communications (STC) declared bankruptcy and went out of business. It's demise won't have sent shockwaves through the world's stock markets. The news won't even have figured on intelligence reports for CEOs around the world, but perhaps it should have.

The STC is (sorry was) an organisation dedicated to the advancement of technical communication. It's vision, "To be the international authority in content design and delivery, advancing the professional development of our members and articulating the value of technical communication within industry and academia.", was laudable.

That's all well meaning, but unlike other professions you don't need to be an STC member to work in the content field. Accountants, lawyers, and doctors must be members of their professional organisations to work in their field. What's more they must regularly prove they've continued their professional development. So why does this not apply to the field of technical communication? 

The STC was founded as a reaction by content professionals in in effort to maintain standards in a fast growing profession. It did this to a degree, but as a relatively niche profession it didn't have the muscle or exposure to change the world. Roll on a few decades and the content world has changed beyond all recognition.

The problems faced by the STC, and other organisations like the Institute of Technical and Scientific Communicators (ISTC), are many. First and foremost, the technical communication field changes constantly. It's gone from just producing technical documents, to producing UI copy, electrical wiring diagrams, flat pack furniture instructions, localisation, and much more. Neither is technical communications the domain of IT. Content is produced everywhere with marketing, finance, and everyone in between involved, seeing a rise in content strategist roles. After all, why have the same content produced two separate departments. Content reuse reduces cost and increases productivity.

Perhaps the biggest problem the STC faced is that as a largely volunteer run organisation, it never had the manpower or clout to become mainstream. In an agile industry that by necessity made up the rules as it went along, it was never going to become a category defining organisation without significant resources.

When it comes to working in the technical communication field, I've never been asked by a prospective employer if I was a member. Even if I've volunteered my membership of the ISTC, it rarely raises more than an inquisitive eyebrow. To my knowledge it has never been the defining factor is me getting a job. The reality is that organisations like the STC just haven't got the eyes and ears of those they are trying to educate about the need for good content.

Perhaps that's why STC membership has dropped off a cliff in recent years. Why should young workers struggling to pay off their student debt and get on the housing ladder, have to pay a couple of hundred pounds a year for something they don't need.

In the days of social media and online content, perhaps the STC had a brand problem. Was it seen as something too academic? Should it have renamed itself to something more appealing to a younger and diverse communications audience? Not all content is technical. As a social media specialist at a marketing agency, I wouldn't join the STC even if I knew it existed. 

That's the real issue here. In a world where the amount of available online content has increased exponentially, and in areas not envisioned by the original STC membership, it was always doomed to sit on the fringes of an ever expanding content world. It simply was never going to have the resources or contacts to fulfil its aims. That's a shame. We can all point to examples where poor content has cost companies millions, led to people being injured or killed, or just left frustrated users. 

Good content is important. The STC made a valiant attempt to implement a world where good content was the norm. It just came up short. Perhaps we should ask, is content in a better place now that it was when the STC came into being? That's near impossible to quantify, but it did its best whilst it existed.

What's in a name?

What does your last name say about you? In western cultures it describes where you've come from, who your family is, and who you identify with. For a man or unmarried lady, this is simple. It shows your lineage, perhaps going back centuries. It shows the world where your family got up to. The same is not necessarily true for married ladies. 

Tradition dictates that when a woman marries, she takes her husband's name. In effect she surrenders her identity in favour of her husband's. My problem with that is that who she is, or what she's become? What about her family's history and identity? Does that not matter?

More recently some women have taken to changing their surname to a double barreled variety when they get married. Using both their and their husbands surnames, this acknowledges the union of two people whilst maintaining a own identity. That's alright, even if it normally only affects the lady. The husband's name normally remains unchanged, leaving the legal necessities of a name change down to one half of the partnership.

What if there was another way that was less discriminatory? A young couple I met recently both changed their surnames when they married to a combination of their family names. One's surname was "Fan" and the other's was "Shaw". When they married they both changed their surnames to "Fanshaw". The romantic is me thinks this is a lovely way of two people agreeing to unite their pasts. It may be a genealogist's nightmare, but it signals a new beginning together.

When I married I didn't expect my wife to take my name. Why? I've always felt uneasy about the concept of engagement and wedding rings. Society expects the lady to wear a ring, but what about the man? To me this points towards a notion that the female "belongs" to the man. She's taken and off limits. My wife most definitely does not belong to me. She's her own woman with her independent thoughts. So why should she have to wear a ring to show she's taken, but I don't have to? It shrieks of misogyny.  

I was secretly pleased when my wife said she'd prefer to keep her family name once married. After all I'm proud of my family's heritage, so why shouldn't she? I like the idea of combining surnames, although it works better with shorter names. I'm less certain it would work with our names. It would be a bit of a mouthful and make filling in forms more tricky. Our status quo works for us, and that is what matters. Besides it helped eradicate a lot of post marriage administration!

What nationality am I?

I've been thinking a lot about my nationality, and how I identify myself to others. I'm in a strange situation where I was born in Ireland to Irish parents, have an Irish passport, but have lived in England for the vast majority of my life. I speak with an English accent, although I can slide into a slight Celtic brogue when visiting the homeland. I'm educated in the English system, yet have taught myself about my country's recent history and formation.

The importance of identity

We all like to belong to something. It makes us feel protected. What we belong to depends on your view. I spoke to someone once who was half English and half Indian. He was born in Malaysia, went to school in Manila, Hong Kong, and Singapore, worked in Australia and London, and was married to his French Algerian wife. When I asked him what he identified with, he looked at me a bit confused. After a few moments thought he said, "Well, I live in south London and support Chelsea FC."

That's a pretty extreme case, but it perfectly highlights why some people don't identify with one thing. We all like to place people into neat categories, but sometimes that just isn't possible.

Why it important to be...?

In short, it isn't, but that's a shame. In England most people would struggle to say when St.George's Day was, but would have no trouble telling you about St.Andrew's, St.David's, or St.Patrick's Day was. They may identify as English, but could equally identify as a Yorkshireman or Londoner.

What's more, if you asked them what it means to be English, they'd think for a bit and say something like roast beef and yorkshire pudding lunches. Food references could even include such non-English delicacies as pizza, curry, and hamburgers.

How you identify as English depends on your background and experiences. As a former super power whose empire in the late 19th century held sway over 23% of the world's population, it's only natural that many British cities have a large ethic minorities. In London you can find one of the most eclectic and diverse food scenes in the world.

So who am I?

It is easy to say I'm more English than Irish. Speak to me for the first time, and you'd not think of me as anything else but a typical English man. I enjoy a life mixed with both English and Irish traditions, and feel all the better for it. 

Life is all about experiences, and if that includes learning from other cultures the world will be a better place for it. Ask me where I come from though, and you'll only get one answer. I remember where I've come from, my country's history, and what it had to do to identify as Irish. We forget that at our peril.

The role of traditional music in Irish life

Traditional Irish music is known and loved around the world. Tourists flock to Ireland to experience the magic of music sung and played in bars around the country. Traditional Irish music is a major export too, with musicians playing at music festivals around the globe. The Irish diaspora obviously plays a big part in that, but the popularity of traditional Irish music goes way beyond that. You'd expect it to be popular in the USA and Australia, but Germany and India?

Irish culture

Traditional music in Ireland is about our identity, experiences, and culture. It is who we are. It's been around since the dawn of man, with small groups of musicians signing to their family and friends at home. It underwent a resurgence in the late 19th century, with the rise in popularity of the Irish language and independence movement from Britain.

Today it's easy to find an Irish bar in just about any town or city around the world, many of which play Irish music of some type or other. Traditional music is intrinsically married to a pint and a group of friends enjoying the craic. Places like Dingle in Co. Clare are meccas for traditional music fans, and there are music festivals frequented by Irish musicians around the world.

Is our culture under threat?

Pubs and bars around the country play a big part in the life of a musician. It's easy to stumble across a bar in the evening just about anywhere in Ireland with music playing. If you're lucky it will be a small group in the corner just singing and playing songs in the same way they have been for hundreds of years. Locals and tourists alike sit and salivate in its foot tapping loveliness.

If the music is tied to pubs and bars, what happens if the number of bars available to play in are diminishing. Like other countries around the world, the hospitality sector has taken a massive hit since the Covid pandemic. Many are closing because they just can't make the numbers add up. Others are adapting the experience they offer by appealing to the lowest common denominator. You can't blame them for doing what is necessary for their business, but if it continues the opportunities to display who we are diminishes too. With that will we become less Irish?

Tradfest

This is why events like Tradfest is important. Now in its 20th year, Tradfest brings together the best Irish musicians from around the globe together for a week of magic. What is wonderful about it is that you're unlikely to hear names like Enya and Christie Moore. Great musicians they most certainly are, but Tradfest is about the less commercial folk. Yes the artists sell records and make a professional living from their craft, but they genuinely do it because they love it. It just so happens they're good enough to make money from it. Enya and Christie can do their own thing, and thank the almighty they do, but just like a small pub corner in Tuosist, Co. Kerry there's room for everyone.