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Author Archive for Amy Lenzo – Page 16

Images

Adding images to your
page can work miracles…

An image breaks up blocks of text, adds color and
interest, illustrates your points, and introduces another language to
reinforce your core messages.

Visual content is often even more effective at conveying the essence of
your meaning than words are. Together, they make a powerful combination.

Expand your concept of what an image is. Not just photographs and
illustrations – even list bullets and line separators can be beautiful.
Use graphs and cartoons if they are appropriate. Try blocks of color, or
background images. Beautiful or enlarged font types can as images; so
can highlighted text.

Use your Imag(e)ination.

…oo0oo…

Changing the World with Online Design

Good
design is a crucial element in any online
communication
– it makes a difference to our experience even
when we aren’t consciously aware of it. In design that consciously
focuses on beauty, that
difference can be significant.

Paying attention to beauty in
your design doesn’t just mean crafting a pleasing surface – though
Goddess knows a pleasing surface can be delightful. Beauty that reflects
a deeper multi-dimensional integrity can help ‘humanize’ technology;
its presence creates a welcoming environment where people want to stay
and play.

Designing with beauty in mind means paying attention to
the details, all the way through the process. Even things that seem
‘invisible’ like clean code, or keeping in right relationship with your
readers, clients and vendors inevitably ripples through to what can be
seen. Offering a clear navigation structure relaxes the mind; leaving
plenty of white space gives spaciousness and focuses attention on what
is important. All of it matters.

Beauty itself is full of
life and promise – it reflects an implicate wholeness, speaks to our
senses and connects us with nature. If we keep beauty at the center of
our lives and work, we can’t go wrong. 

Whether you design online
spaces for a living like I do, need a web presence that reflects your
professional needs and personal sensibility, have a community you want
to support and nurture, or just want a cool profile page on FaceBook, my Squidoo lens has some ideas and resources to inform & inspire
you in bringing more beauty to your online communications.

Join the Beauty Revolution
today! Do your part to Beautify the World Wide Web!

(Thanks to Nancy
White
for the glorious photo that graces this post)

European Salon

Just 10 days or so ago I was in Reichenau an der Rax in Austria (an hour or so outside of Vienna) for a European Salon put on by World Cafe colleagues.

Mountains

Stunned by the beauty of this lovely country, I was once again moved by the beauty of the human heart as we naturally and collectively answered the gravitational pull towards deep connection and the spontaneous expression of community.

Centerpiece

The latter (community) was my particular passion and interest for this salon, which was focused on the themes of dialogue, leadership and community. Several of us spent some time exploring a definition of community that could address the range of new community forms being created by the reality of geographic dispersal.

I was fascinated to find a direct connection, in practice, between the depth of community that was formed and the other two themes of the event – leadership and dialogue. It was through our experiment in shared leadership – a truly collaborative expression – that our powerful sense of community was forged.

I am continually amazed by this human need and drive to find depth and connection through dialogue – we hosted an online World Cafe on the subject of community – "What is your most powerful experience of community and what were the elements that made it so?" – using my new favorite "tech tool", the extremely simple to use MaestroConference. Once again, I was absolutely stunned at both the depth of our inquiry – from the roots of community to the historical and contemporary rituals that bring us into or out of it – and the feeling of true connection it engendered among a group of virtual strangers, or at least we were when we began.

Contemplative Twitter, or #co-tw2

Picture 1 I've just finished taking part in an experiment on Twitter initiated by the consummate Techno Shaman George Por. The idea and instructions were posted online, and the invitation was sent out through the Presencing Institute's online community site yesterday afternoon, but for those of you who like their news delivered directly, here's the gist: it was a one hour experiment laid out in four 15 minute segments – the first of which was to contemplate the following question in silence, somewhere away from our computer screens: "What is needed for openness and dialogue through tweets to scale and affect positive change in consciousness and society?

In our next 15 minutes we shared any "fine fishes" that we'd "caught in our stream of consciousness" during our contemplation, tagging them with #co-tw1. Then we spent 15 minutes reading what others had written and the last quarter of the hour in summarizing or re-tweeting those ideas that had stood out for us, and what the experience had been like (#co-tw2).

I thought it was a very successful way to enliven the potential of social media, and it made me feel great; like I am not the only one who cares about the seeds of intention and consciousness we plant in these powerful tools of global communication.

So, not only was it an invitation into collective awareness and collaborative meaning-making, but many of the ideas that emerged might trigger further reflection – in me, in you, on FaceBook, where all my tweets go automatically, and who knows where else the light beams from this multi-faceted prism may travel. Here are some of the sparks:

"Collective organs of sensing and meaning-making nurture our self-organizing collective consciousness, intelligence & wisdom."
~ TechnoShaman

"The emergence of an evolutionary worldview serves as attractor for community and cohering action"
~ TechnoShaman

"Changing the culture of social media from trivia and marketing to one of depth and true significance."
~ AmySue102

"The unfettered heart's call to connect with others and the collective urge to create shared meaning will lead this"
~ AmySue102

"During the 1st 15 mins it was important 2 let go of the question & tune into its spirit / let that spirit emerge"
~ Mushin

"Letting go of all possible results, including scaling, intelligence or wisdom, or any view whatsoever to be open for the Emergent"
~ Mushin

"Coherent intent creates resonance, brings signals into alignment, radiates outwards"
~ IdeaHive

"Hearing nature expressed in so many birdsongs while contemplating "tweets", dialogue, positive change in the world"
~ Cleeengel

"Clear: intention, purpose, alignment Across: chasms, media, boundaries Letting go: into emergent, depth, collective sensing"
~ Cleeengel