My name is Timo Luege and among other things I’m “the social media guy” at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). I want to use this blog to share my thoughts and information about how social media can be used to help international organizations, NGOs, relief organizations or other non-profits to achieve their goals. The focus of the blog will be on social media of course but occasionally I will stray from this path and talk about related web-issues.
I will also use this blog to experiment and have a little fun with trying to figure out what works and what doesn’t.
All opinions expressed on this blog are my own and not that of my employer. This applies even when I’m writing about work related issues.
I have been online since 1988, back then using Germany’s Z-Netz from a Commodore 64 and a 300 Baud Modem.
I first realized that online communication had the potential to be a game changer when Z-Netz users in West Germany started writing about how they experienced the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 and when some of them even asked East Germans to come to their appartments and write down their own stories. That’s when I realized that there was something different here, a communication channel that had the potential to reach as many people as mainstream media but without the gate keepers.
I then studied journalism at the Universities of Munich and Stockholm before starting to work as a journalist, first for a German wire agency, then for German public radio and tv in Bavaria.
After a few years of that I became fed up, tired and disillusioned with the day-to-day reality of being a news editor, quit my job, travelled around the world for 355 days and wrote about it. During that year I also decided to work in the humanitarian sector. And well, here I am.
Still want to know more about me?
- In case you have a professional interest in my life: www.linkedin.com/in/timoluege
- If you really like powerpoint presentations: www.slideshare.net/Timoluege/
- For truly dedicated stalkers: friendfeed.com/timoluege
