Deborah Schultz

The spark of "offline" connection

There is nothing like face to face - a hug, a handshake, a smile.  I am sitting in the middle of a ring of 800 bloggers at Blogher watching connection happening LIVE.  A fresh reminder that the drive to connect online is a basic human need that is solidified in the "face to face/off-line/3D world". 

I love the punch and extra spark that happens at that unique moment when you shake someone's hand, hear their name or read their badge and then realize you have shared thoughts and links and comments across "the tubes" with the real flesh and blood person standing in front of you.  It is a unique feeling that re-energizes me every time and deepens the relationships I have both online and offline.

Something to remember as we increasingly spend more and more time connecting online - personally or professionally and another indicator of how we truly live in a relationship economy.

For the visually oriented....

Information Architects a design firm from Tokyo - has done a brilliant job mapping current web trends as a subway map.

You can download it at a bunch of resolutions too.

Nicely done!

[Nod to HG for the link]

Breaking News: The day the Internet Crashed

Breaking News: All Online Data Lost After Internet Crash

Gosh darn it I love the Onion.

Reiterating a theme - a few words to live by

Relationships take work.  We all know this and yet we take shortcuts,  in our personal and professional lives.  There are no quick SUSTAINABLE hits in the always one world of the Relationship Economy.  It *IS* hard to keep up.  The amount of data available to follow, manage, read, mash together etc is indeed overwhelming.  Here are a few points I like to bear in mind when I get a bit overwhelmed myself. 

1. Do not ignore your customers, it WILL come back to haunt you
2. Constant iteration is NECESSARY - build in flexibility so you can respond quickly
3. Don't LIE - you can't HIDE the truth anymore
4. Build LISTENING into your DNA (Put it in customer service, marketing, product management - just PUT IT SOMEWHERE)
5. Learn to BALANCE the listening with PERSPECTIVE so you are not constantly in REACTIVE mode.
   
6. DESIGN matters - Make it EASY (iPhone anyone?)
7. Be CLEAR & CONCISE - who has time for long winded-ness
8. Be EMOTIONAL - tell a story [read this to learn the basics]
9. Be HUMAN - talk like one, act like one.  Sounds like a big DUH but it is amazing how easy it is to get lost in complexities when we forget this one. 
10. Take a BREAK - and step back to think BIG thoughts

Bonus Links must reads from Umair and Brian, two guys I really respect whose blogs are always are in my top ten feed list:

You can't fake the funk - Compromise kills. Amen brother!

Stop playing king of the mountain: everything is not a competition, win or lose, black or white, cool or uncool, sell or IPO