Deborah Schultz

A rose by any other name ....

 

The recent flurry of posts on "the death of blogging" or blogging versus twitter versus [insert latest cool tool here] are mute. It is the motivation behind the effort that is interesting - our human [and business need ] for connection and expression and the impact that micro-connections have on our memory, analysis and objectivity.  There is a big difference between living in the moment and stepping back and analyzing an event, business or feeling.

There is benefit to both - and they are not interchangeable.  Living & communicating in the moment serves one purpose and so does thoughtful analysis.   More varied media creation adds layers and multiple facets to our experiences and personalities.   The important distinction is when personal crosses into professional without full disclosure - i.e the impact on journalism, promotion, PR and marketing.  This is not about whether it is a blog or "an official newspaper" - it is knowing the role of the individual communicating and understanding whether the 'content' is analysis or spur of the moment observation. 

As blogging and social media grow up, tools as labels are less important. 

Am I a "phoner" because I use the phone?  No.  A phone can be used for an interview with a journalist, to order cable service to phone sex.  It is the role I play in each, who I am communicating with and the objective of the call that makes the difference.

The same holds true for blogs or tweets or videos - the tools is simply that a tool.

Related posts [in case you missed em]: 

Fred on real time blogging - well said - the distinction between sharing experiences later versus during. Just compare the difference between sharing your recent vacation with non-connected friends and family to the ones who follow your flickr or twitter stream - BIG difference - not better or worse- just different.

Scoble on Tech blogging:  What Robert taps into here is the blurring of the lines. He got into blogging to learn cool stuff and share his experience then he got an audience and then somehow the lines got blurred and is he now journalist, PR shill? There is a value in both professional formal analysis and observational discussion - we just need to know the role the communicator is playing.

Social Media - dig a little deeper

I was on a plane to NYC last week and missed Brian, Jeremy & Jeremiah's great posts on "social media is NOT conversation".  AMEN!  Point being that the current social software tools impact SO much more than simply talking.

I too dislike the phrase Social Media and have shruggingly accepted using it because - frankly, I am often accused of over-complicating this stuff. Well, this stuff is complicated!  The social web is not ONLY about Media and it is not ONLY a new channel.  It is powerful stuff.  I have posted about this before [here, here and here for starters] but the way some are embracing social media reminds me of the first incarnation of the web when everyone thought it was only brochure-ware or "new media" until people realized, "Oh my goodness, e-commerce? I can sell stuff here? This impacts customer service, product development, government, organizations, family? friends? lifestyle?

The internet is fundamentally about connection and communication, but that is only the surface.  We need to dig a little deeper.  The low hanging fruit is to see it only as communication and "conversation".  Communication fuels human connection and human connection fuels everything from - well - procreation to war.

Now, here is a perceived irony...

I have spent the past 8 months working with the world's largest marketer - P&G- to develop a Social Media Lab.  The objective of the Lab is to spend some real thoughtful time and analysis on understanding how the social web impacts the relationship between company and customer, how P&G can better serve their customers within the social media space and what are the potential new business models for technology partners and start-ups in this space. We have partners and brands developing experiments exploring the realities of this new world.

So, you would think I sold out, drank the cool-aid and am enabling the exact behavior I rail against.  This couldn't be further from the truth.

This stuff is so new and complex -- no one knows all the answers or even exactly all the questions.  P&G has always been an innovator when it comes to understanding people and as much as I am bringing new ideas inside their walls, I am learning just as much from them about how to think about these issues. P&G understands the social web is indeed about you and me and looks at this  new world from the lens of earning a place in their customers’ lives and where they should or should not be engaging.

Call me Don Quixote, say I am tilting at windmills, but when they approached me I saw it as a huge opportunity to transfer knowledge between some really smart folks in the social web space and the world's largest advertiser to create the world I want to live in.  I would rather be part of enabling and educating and leading the way on what works and what doesn't than to sit on the sidelines. 

Is this easy? NO. Big changes never are. There is no manual, no guidelines and no rule book - and don't let anyone tell you differently!   Will there be stumbles before there are wins - definitely.  This is a marathon and not a sprint - there will always be shiny new objects to play with but as you know "technology changes, human's don't". And we people are complicated! 

I plan to share more in the coming weeks and months on this blog as well as in a few new places to be named later.  I look forward hearing your feedback and thoughts.

Snackbyte - social ball of string

Everyone is all 'aTwitter' about Google's FriendConnect  announcement and last week's MySpace & Facebook announcements. I am ALL for open social standards.

However...

More social connections without greater intelligence built in is just gonna be more noise"

or if you prefer an equation:

 

I got my hands full tracking my fragmented world as it is.  Luckily as everyone races to claim the open data, social graph charge, there are those thinking about enabling better, smarter management tools that start with ME - the user/consumer/individual/PERSON. 

Related posts:

Dan Farber, Mashable, RWW, and Charlene Li

Related events this week: IIW,  Data Sharing Summit

 

Seriously, we can do MORE

Update 5/5: - Umair has a nice discussion going on over here that started right after I spoted this - it must be in the air! I promise to do a follow-on post as my post seems to have struck a nerve, basedo n all the comments below - yeah!]

Confession: For the past few months I have been growing increasingly bored and frustrated with the shortsightedness of many on the power and impact of social software for business and connectedness between people and ideas.  Yes, I am oft too earnest and impatient on this stuff - but I mean - why settle?

The last few weeks have really driven that feeling home. Time to reflect on long airplane trips, meeting with folks doing BIG stuff around the world, taking a pause from the echo chamber and some inspiring conversations with some really smart folks, have emboldened me to finally write some of this down. Many overheard conversations at Web2Expo yesterday further added to my feeling of malaise.  I am dropping this rant quickly but promise to focus more in these topics in the coming weeks and months:

• The social web and web2.0  - c'mon, this is so much more than throwing sheep and twittering that we are stuck in airports.  As I have ranted on this before, in various ways, if you *only* look at these tools as a bigger megaphone for communication you are not looking hard enough! Think real innovation, business and cultural transformation!

• Back in September, I was sitting with a friend at a conference  and he said it best: "never before have so many done so little with so much" [I will provide attribution once/if I get approval from him]

• The power of tech to bring people together is REAL and VITAL [my trip to Israel reminded me of this]

• This is only the beginning of some really cool stuff - the beginning. Per Clay's point yesterday: "the size of our collective cognitive surplus is so large that just 1% participation can bring about HUGE change. 

• How do we encourage and nurture greater participation and develop an "architecture of participation" [nice turn of phrase clay - more on this to come] that benefits business, cultural and political innovation.

• O'reilly yesterday finally discussed using this stuff to solve big problems - as the pied piper for many developers - I thank you for leading them to a higher cause -  hope they hear you.

Now, I am not saying we have all the answers or even know how any of this will pan out.  Existing infrastructures [technical, financial, organizational and cultural] mean certain changes will be slow while others will circumvent the roadblocks that stand in their way. 

What I do know is that if you do not ask the right questions up front and reach for the sky - well - you just ain't gonna get very far.

---------------

This post is a nod to Greg and my work designing and launching the Info Center - the project that is still my touchstone for the power and promise of integrating the physical with the digital at the intersection of technology, people and business -  "saving lives, baby, saving lives"]

[Addendum: As I was writing this I noticed Umair's post.  Lately, we are channeling each other on this stuff - I nod to his eloquence and ability to lay out the issues].

Snackbyte: A small rant on doing better

My brain has been popping with random bits and bytes over the past few days.  I have also been stuck in front of the keyboard A L0T.  So this may come out as more of a rant than intended, just think of me as channeling Andy Rooney. 

• I have looked at so many social media/web2.0 community sites in the last week that my brain hurts from seeing so many faces boxed into little 50x50 squares.  Where are the designers/UE folks who can think outside the box? There has got to be a new way to look at this. A grid of small faces is not organic and feels flat. Think about how Etsy reinvented the way we interact with items when shopping -- I want more of THAT.

• I am afraid that people - how they live and what they need - is getting lost in all the noise and geek speak around technology, media & social ads these days.  Let's put the social back in social software.  What do people want and need? And it ain't another bite on the neck or yet another place to "express, share and connect" with friends.

• We have reached a key moment in social media - I am now smarter about you my friends/connections/colleagues. This is fun and informative. Now, I would like to be smarter about me and you together.  Great - I know that you are stuck in traffic or eating a pizza or getting on a plane - but how about we take all this data and do a bit of analytic magic to tell me which of my friends I connect to the most and share the most with [no not just a simple graph]? Which are experts on X and which on Y? I crave a deeper mapping of my network and how I can use it better. 

If we are to live in a world  that is flatter, more expansive and more loosely joined - we can do better.  We have to, or all we will end up with is a lot of noise.

Snackbyte - It's about respect, people

There was a little brouhaha this week regarding  Lane Hartwell's copyrighted photography being used without permission in a recent YouTube video by an acapella group called the Richter Scales. Derek Powazek has a great rational write-up explaining all the details. 

The important takeaway for me is that as the community of folks creating collaborative media [i really like that term, Derek], has gotten larger and the tools that enable distribution get easier to use and more widely distributed, it is less likely that the originator of the work will actually know the person who is 'sampling it'.  As a result they may just not feel as beholden or even think about the original creator.  Not acceptable.  Additionally, we live not only in an increasing era of collaboration but in an environment of curation as well.  For a safe environment of curation and collaboration to flourish it is critical to maintain respect for the individual who created the original work.  This respect can come in many forms [ from payment to link love] depending on the nature of the work [copyright, CC, free- flowing ideas off a blog post or presentation or speech]. 

In the old days, you may not have cared if you were 'stealing' from the big bad media guys - heck they are making a fortune and there seems to be no individual person with skin in the game [whether or not what you might be doing is illegal].  Well, in the era of social media there is often an individual person affected. They may be trying to eek out a living directly from the sale of their work or building a reputation based on their ideas.  It definitely ups the ante on the rules of reciprocity and respect.

I have to say, I am a stickler for this stuff whether copyrighted material, Creative Commons or whatever.  I do my best to link and cite and stick to the use originally intended and identified by the original creator.  This is not to say I don't sometimes make mistakes as well [please call me on it], but I am conscious that we do indeed live in a collaborative environment.   [I am also the daughter of a librarian and think proper footnoting is embedded in my DNA].   I often go so far on my preso's to put an "inspired by" note on the bottom of any slide that uses a single bullet or even idea [graphic or text] from something I read on some one else's blog or website.  Not so hard and the effort goes a loooong way.  It's about reciprocity and respect for another individual's work.

And, if that is too touchy feely for ya--well--if nothing else there is the practical knowledge that this stuff travels! It is just good internet karma.

[Update: I forgot that I myself am guilty of having linked to the disputed video, until I had this needling in my head and went back and looked at it.  Amazing. This even further proves the point of how important it is for the original collaborator to just 'do the right thing'. Even those of us who should know better don't often catch this stuff. There is just too much info out there and it travels  really fast!]

Snackbyte: A view of the ecosystem

I have been meaning to clean this slide up - but with my [lack] of illustrator skills, by the time I do the universe will be radically different.

So, without further adieu, here is my snapshot of the social software and media ecosystem.  I think it is a pretty dynamic universe of cool tools and channels both individuals and company's have at their disposal.  Learning how to weave through this universe is a new, necessary and complex skill, whether you are trying to keep in touch with friends and family or customers.

Snack, byte, chunk, chomp, - here's the takeaway

We access information at greater velocity

In smaller bits

Requiring a different mode of behavior

Learn to weave or die.

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Here are some nice related posts

Measurement and vulnerability

Two words I never thought I would string together and yet that is exactly what seems to keep cropping up lately.

Chis Carfi has some great liveblogging posts from the Economics of Social Media conference today, [wish i could be there but alas I am networked out].

The topics and posts highlight  that although marketers are trying to 'get' the new landscape they are struggling.  Once again Rishad calls it like it is.

Three important points that I never get tired of reiterating:

• Control is an illusion
• Being vulnerable is essential
• New metrics & measurement are still elusive
  

Blogher: Where the smart gals are

Unfortunately, I will not be able to participate in Blogher Business 07 this week in NYC as I am still abroad but you can.  These are smart ladies putting together a fab event to educate and evangelize the brilliance that is social media.  Why a separate event for women is always the question -  wrong question.  This organization understands the nature of 'niche markets', community and authentic marketing these are ubiquitous.  The question is why NOT go?

Straight from the gals' site:

BlogHer Business '07 will strip away the hype and hyperbole and answer some questions that most businesses are still asking about social media:

    -Should my company blog? How do we decide and then identify the best people to do it?

    -OK…I get we're supposed to be “authentic”. What are the boundaries?

    -Do I have to allow people to say anything they want to about us on our business blog?

    -I hear a lot about blogger “outreach” and how it has to be done just right. Can I get some specifics please? How do I find the right bloggers? And how do I avoid offending them? Why can’t I just ask the Technorati Top 100 to blog about my product and be done with it?

    -Are blogs a religion or a tool? I just want to be able to measure results in some way…is that so wrong?

    Does the cost of social media ever outweigh the benefit?

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