ext337

May 6, 04:18 am: Things I should be writing about

I’m a list maker and here’s the stuff I’ve told myself I should write up as blog posts:

• FriendFeed – doesn’t crank my tractor. I mean, I want context not just a stream of info.
• Attention is the marketplace. And social benefit projects have a secret sauce. Twitter friends think it’s about the story (1, 2, 3, 4). I think it’s about the data. And the juxtaposition of that data. Social benefit organizations collect a lot of stuff — how many people need food, get food, need shelter, are seeking mental health assistance, need a surgery, leave near a polluted water source, don’t have access to water. How do they use this secret sauce to make the change they seek?
• Does social networking, and the way it helps you reach out to the like minded, just give us more ways to preach to the choir? It’s the think tank, baby.
• What can Facebook do to be less annoying? Anything? Anyone?
• It’s a post-fact world. How about a post context world? Blogging lost some context. Twitter loses more. Good? Bad? Does it matter?

Whatcha think? Any of those worth more effort than that?

Tags: net2, blogging, lists, friendfeed, nptech, socialnetworking, facebook, post-fact, attention

Apr 17, 04:33 am: Are specialized tools contributing to the fractured conversation?

I don’t know. I’d like to get that out of the way upfront. Okay. Now that the pressure is off.

Three years ago, five years ago, I was saying that blogging was about the conversation. About the ability share short snippets of information or thoughts easily and quickly.

And now I’m saying that about Twitter

And it seems Twitter has taken on a kind of blogging – microblogging is to easy a phrase. It’s seems there are a passel of tools that have taken on microblogging. Twitter is one, okay, but so is are social bookmarking tools like del.icio.us and ma.gnolia. Tumblr also has a place in that list. Taken together, those tools are specialized bits of what used to be blogging.

Does that mean that blogging has matured? Is about making a place for the wide range of sharing that used to happen under the label of blogging?

I’m not trying to get old school here (back in the day we all used blogger. And we liked it. Hell, we loved it. There was snow). I am trying to understand how the tools are fracturing along with the conversation.

And if the tools that we use to talk on the Internet are becoming increasingly more specialized it makes sense that the conversation is fractured. Things like friendfeed, Facebook, and even some of the revamps in MyBlogLog approach the problem from one direction, by pulling together a life stream and giving people a way to subscribe and interact with it.

But is that helping. Sure it creates a unified presence but I’m not sure that really unifies the conversation. And do we even need to unify it? I mean, in regular walking around life conversations are fractured. Interactions with the same people are dictated by the environment (we may be talking to the same people, literally, but we probably to talk to them different in a bar than we do in a meeting room). They change because we are moving through time and space and changing our minds. Why shouldn’t the Internet be like that?

In the 3D world, though, we know the strength of our ties. But do we know them on the Internet? I mean, maybe I can upload my address book and be connected to people on anyone of a gazillion services but there might be someone, on one service, with whom I have a deeper relationship. How do we measure and see those?

What do you think? Are fractured conversations good or bad? If we want to unify them, what do we use to do that? Is it already there? Or is it missing?

Tags: nptech, net2, conversation, fractured, tools, evolution, tools, socialgraph

Mar 15, 03:30 am: Speed geek your own staff meeting

I work at a place with 150 folks and I can barely pay attention to what my own work group is doing before I find that brain is filled.

That’s why I love it when we speed geek. Basically, a handful of projects set up stations, the rest of us count off into groups equal in number the stations, and then we rotate through, 10 minutes at each station, and we get a rapid fire update on bunch of projects. I always leave these staff meetings with a bunch of scribbles on a note card and I ideas for connecting with my co-workers.

So, here’s my question: how we replicate this with a piece of internal tech? Or is it replicate? I get that a huge part of the value comes from listening to the questions that folks in my group ask; I learn a lot about what they are concerned with and what their perspectives are.

I’m thinking more about this as now find ourselves spread out across a San Francisco block in three different buildings and multiple floors.

What have other people used to make sure their growing and spreading organizations stay in touch?

tagged: nptech, organizational, development, growth, intranet

Jan 5, 05:03 pm: 2007: It's got to be better

I have, on my todo list, “write 2007 post for ext337.org.” But I’m stuck. I know what I mean — what I’m excited about for this year and what I’m not excited about. But, this year, for me, has started out with so much personal relief. I’m feel like the flood of anxiety has that has been pulling at my ankles for the last 10 months has receeded. I can still see it. But I’ve got some distance from it.

So, when I think about what I’m looking forward to this year, some of it work and technology. But, you know, what most of it isn’t. Mostly, I’m just happy to not be worrying so damn much. With this out of the way, here’s my list:

• Figuring out Second Life. I’ve posted in the past (1, 2). I start to get it and then I. Can’t. Quite. Get. There. I’m not a very visual person. I read comic books for years before I really got that the pictures were important. But I’m resolved to try harder.
• Getting some of the thoughts that spend a lot of time boiling around in my head and in conversations and in blog posts into a more organized form. I’ve started some of that here. I don’t really know where that is going or what I want from it. But if I don’t work with it I’m not going to figure it out. I do know that there are a whole bunch of people I’d like to talk to about these ideas.
• Having another NetSquared conference. Yes. We are. The real announcement will be up soon.
• Digging deeper into 10 ways to use Web 2.0 to change the world. I’ve been wanting to get into each one of the points — either pulling together exisiting resources and otherwise fleshing them out. I’ll put it together as a series.
• John Edwards. I’m excited because I think he’s electable. And getting the front man into office is the first step.

tagged: resolutions, 2007, personal

Nov 7, 04:05 pm: Our time shifted world

Like an increasing number of Californians, I use an absentee ballot. I voted two weeks ago. The plethora of information that has come out, from the San Francisco Chronicle recommendations to the Sunday afternoon phone calls from Bill Clinton to the sea of ads on radio and TV, in the ensuing time, means nothing to me. Even though some of it might have. Some of it might have changed my mind.

And, you know what?, I use a DVR. I’ll talk about the most talked about TV show of the season a few days behind schedule. I even watch football games after they’ve happened.

The advantage of this time shifted world, of my control over the where and when of receiving different bits of media, is that I can do it at my own pace, in a way that fits into and makes sense of my world. But I become isolated from a common culture as a result of that. And I’m not alone in my isolation (you know what I mean). A whole bunch of us are voting and watching TV shows but we’re doing it at different times and with different bits of information and different contexts — from the personal to the group to the common.

What does all this mean to activists? To those who pedal influence, how do we make sure that our tactics work in the world that’s distributed across both space and time?

tagged: culture, experience, community, activism, timeshift, distributed

Aug 22, 08:32 pm: playing with microformats

(I’m just a little obsessed with this and keep testing out different things. Here’s one of the ways that obsession is showing)

tagged: microformats, nptech

Jul 27, 03:20 pm: We're heading for BlogHer

Thanks to the child care that BlogHer has helped arrange, LucyBeck is heading off to her first conference this evening. She’ll be staying at the hotel with me and hanging out with other kids while soak it all in.

Every conference has at least someone counting up the male:female ratio. And that’s good. We need to keep our eye on the people delivering the information, stirring up the conversational pot. But that talk often results in a “but I asked women. No one said yes.” BlogHer doesn’t just ask. They don’t ignore family and the need to take care of it even when you’re doing something for yourself and they went the extra step to be sure that they weren’t leaving anyone out.

That’s a lesson for me: how do you put your money where your mouth is? Do your actions back up what you say you believe? If you want a diverse audience — whatever that may mean to your group — what are you doing to support that audiences participation? Really support it. Not just ask.

tagged: diverse, conference, blogher, childcare

Jun 23, 04:54 am: K-I-S-S-I-N-G: Microsoft and Creative Commons Sitting in a Tree

I don’t think it’s about Bill Gates stepping down.  Or about Microsoft stock shares.  I think it’s about the fact that Microsoft is smart company that understands and wants to survive. Yeah, of course, it’s not an organism.  It’s made up of people.  But, I think, with any great company there’s a place where the individual will joins and it becomes organizational will.

And that’s why, I believe, Microsoft and Creative Commons have forged a partnership. It’s good for both of them. It starts to place on in the infrastructure of mainstream technology.  It positions the other for the change that’s coming. In both cases, it’s about relevance.

(via the whole damn Internet but first, I think, NevilleHobson.com)

Jun 2, 04:16 am: Web 1.0 to web 2.0

A very nice list of how web 2.0 and 1.0 are different. There’s some money in the comments, particularly Marc Smolev. Marc starts by writing, “Web 2.0 is only about renaming and making ‘old thing’ easier, not about ‘brand new thing!’.” That, in and of itself, isn’t a new sentiment. I’ve sat, with wine and friends, listening to the same thing. And you know what? I think it’s bullshit. Sure, maybe it isn’t innovation in the same way hyperlinks were innovation but let’s be honest: how many times are you going to get that? It really does count that people can upload pictures with a right click and that they can write to the web easily. All kinds of people can do this. And they are (check out Andy Carvin’s nice piece on the recent Pew report).

That really is the essence of web 2.0. It’s made what was always possible easy and encouraged adoption. It’s that adoption that will make the real potential, and the next innovation, happen.

(via www.darrenbarefoot.com)

tagged: pew, web1.0, web2.0, adoption,

May 18, 04:59 pm: Networking Your Networked Network

I send a lot of email. I get a lot of email. I’m like, oh, everybody else I know. Oh, I say, I’ve got too much email. I triage assiduously . Flag for follow up. Delete. One word answers. “Skip,” I wrote in an email recently. Only the one word answer emails get out promptly. I subscribe to listservs that come in and get – thank you filters – filed in a folder buried in another folder and occasionally – occasionally! – I make Outlook groan under the strain of deleting them. Unread. Sometimes, I’m telling you a secret now, sometimes I just delete everything that’s over a month old. If it’s really important, I tell myself, they’ll get back to me. Like everybody else I know, I’d really like to get my inbox to zero.

I have business cards. Stacks and stacks of business cards. My own and other peoples. I’m horrified when I reach and discover I’m out of business cards. It’s like my holster is empty. I come back from conferences and meetings and even parties with business cards. _Oh-, I say, I’ve got to do something with these business cards And occasionally – occasionally! – if the collection coincides with a long plane ride and my overflowing inbox depresses me too much, I’ll enter the business cards into Outlook. Those end up being just like the ones I toss in a drawer in my office.

I figure my own business cards and emails are sitting in drawers and being deleted and not out of malice. Maybe it’s out of boredom or a discussion that I thought was better than it was. Mainly, though, it’s just out of being busy.

But we have to network. I have to network. Guy Kawasaki tells me to network. I go to events to network. He tells me there’s an art to networking. I try to work the art. I shake hands. I say, “What are you working on?” I listen and nod. I think, This is interesting. I say, Tell me more. I want to store it away. I don’t know why exactly. Business cards and emails come out of these but we all know what happens to there.

And sometimes I get the it-was-great-meeting-you emails. I think, How good this person is. A short note to remind me of our talk. I think, They are getting the art right. They got my business card. I know they sent the same note to a whole lot of people. But still. The business cards didn’t just go in a drawer. Until, the third time I meet them. Or, the fourth. When I get the exact same note. Like we’ve just made acquaintance for the first time. An art, sure. Like Thomas Kincaid is art.

So, what do I do after the networking? What do I do with the interesting things. Throw the business cards into a drawer. Keep plugging through the email. Stuck in the daily grind of the one word answers. “Go,” I write a lot in emails. I write, “Hold.”

I’ve been asking myself this a lot lately. Nose-to-the-grindstone-crazy-busy with NetSquared. So, I was pretty interested to see a recent ChangeThis manifesto, The Care and Feeding of Networks.
CareFeedingOfNetworkCopyright.

Here’s the secret: introductions.

Two authors: Bob Allard and Richard Banfield. They help people to network professionally. Banfield, a “serial entrepreneur,” has a website out at http://youshouldmeet.com. I’m just saying: you’re going to need water to wash down the grain of salt.

But, still, introductions. They are great. They are useful to people. I thought you’d find this article interesting, or here’s a job I think you might like, or here’s a person that seems like you should know. Introductions. Giving something of worth that shows that you are listening. If the emails in my inbox were all about that, I’d be a hell of lot quicker to respond. In fact, the emails are too often here’s-what-you-can-do-to-help me. And it’s going to take a lot of your time. And I’m going to be unclear about the reason you should be remotely interested. Too many of the emails that I send are like that. Asking. Asking. Asking. Not making it easy for people to give the one word answer I’d like to hear: “Sure.” When do I pull out the old stack of business cards? When I have a paragraph in an email that starts “Here’s what you can do to help.”

Introductions.

Blogs, it seems to me, are a great way of, this is a horrible word, scaling those introductions. Here’s information I think you’ll find useful. Here’s a project I think you’d like. You can even point it to a single person – a blogger you read, for example – but make it publicly available in case, you know, someone else would find it interesting. It doesn’t all have to be about email. It shouldn’t all be about email. Or the Internet even. Sometimes it can be about hosting a dinner of people who might be interested in a topic and so might be interested in other people who are interested in a topic. MeetUp is, essentially, a networking tool. Upcoming. It’s all about making introductions.

This may be no big shakes to some people. But it really was an eye-opening-sit-up-in-bed epiphany. I’m bad at networking, I tell myself. I’m shy. Networking is about listening. Attentively. Not listening while scanning name tags or looking over someone’s shoulder to find someone better to talk to. Better=higher up the food chain. Better=able to do something for me. Better=equals someone who can get one of those “here’s how you can help me” emails.

So, listening, introducing broadly and publicly. Sharing. That can’t be that hard. Can it?

tagged: network, scale, management, relationships