Australian midwives, Second Life, blogging and Twitter friends

I have just got back to Darwin after a wonderful week hanging out in Sydney and Adelaide. The main aim of the trip was to catch up with Deborah Davis and do some brain-storming about where we want to go in the future with the virtual birth unit. We were supposed to be writing papers to submit for publication, but we got too engrossed in our plotting and scheming.

Australian midwives and Second Life
The second aim of the trip was to attend the Australian College of Midwives conference in Adelaide, and facilitate a workshop looking at how Second Life can be used in midwifery education. We had a lot more interest in the virtual birth unit project than I thought we'd get, so it will be interesting to see if that enthusiasm and interest in both educators and clinicians translates into concrete collaboration.

Highlight
I have to say that one of the highlights of the trip was meeting people I have become firm friends with via Twitter and blogs.
It was lovely to meet Moira Stephens, who is @moggy99 on Twitter. We have an joint interest in how Second Life can be used in healthcare education. I haven't known Moira for very long but we felt like old friends.

In Adelaide I met up with a mad bunch of people who I have known for some time via blogging and Twitter. I dragged Deborah along, and she couldn't believe that we hadn't met before because we had such a wonderful sense of camaraderie. I was particularly grateful to Kerry for organising things. Kerry, Rhys and Cheryl have been sharing my life for nearly two years and it was a real privilege to meet them face-to-face.

Midwifery bloggers
The other huge treat for me was to meet fellow midwifery bloggers Lisa Barrett (who has a fabulous homebirth blog) and Infomidwife (whose blogging interest is in legalities and professional practice).

I know there are a lot of nay-sayers who do not understand social networking, but I really felt the power of it when I caught up with all these wonderful people who have been such an important part of my life over the last two years.