My Biggest Web 2.0 Experiment Ever

With a title like that, this post has a lot to live up to.

In January I move up North to live nearer the mountains. Which means I leave my son behind down in the South with his Mum. The whys and how's aren't really relevant to this blog.

However I do have the problem how do I keep my relationship with my son going over such a long distance?

Yes I can use the phone. But 15 year old boys are not always the best conversationalists. Plus I need to engage him in stuff he likes to do.

Like all 15 year olds he is a keen gamer. Luckily for me I also like the odd video game.

So in my new home I will be mirroring the game consoles we currently have. The modern consoles like the Xbox360, PS3 and Wii all have to some degree a social media element. Which allows communication, online co-op games etc.

It seems to me that when people talk about social media they miss out these online communities that have developed on the consoles. You have friends lists, you can send messages and game invites, you can see what your friend is playing, how well he is doing. But because it is a closed platform it gets overlooked.

By using the social media element of these consoles I will be able to keep in contact with my son, play games with him, chat to him using voice chat (like VOIP I suppose) while we shoot aliens to pieces.

Before I move, I will also be getting my son a PC to play games on. To which I will add Skype, set him up on Facebook and Twitter so that I can communicate with him that way as well.

So by using these "Web 2.0" technologies I hope I will be able to keep my relationship going with my son. Now you can see why I call this my biggest Web 2.0 experiment ever. It not only is that, it is also my most important one.

Over the coming months I will be documenting this experiment, how effective it is, and it's short comings.