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I Don't Tweet, I Twadvertise

Me. Me. Me.

My favourite note on which to begin a song about my favourite subject.

Which.

Of course.

Is.

Me.

Eons ago in blogdom, when Google was a mere eight-year old, I blogged about what I called the Generous Web. People like Kathy Sierra & Doc Searls - to name but two of hundreds - blew my mind with how willing they were to freely share their creative thoughts and ideas with any and all who visited their outposts on these interwebs. They were and still are great examples of how social media can be powerfully positive. (Although the ungenerous web took Kathy out of blogdom.)

But the interwebs are also a great place for narcissists to sing their own praises - to shout "look at me, look at me" from the interweb rooftops - places like Twitter and Facebook. (The Facebook fan concept did make me slightly crazy - although I probably was already close.)

After a slow start, I became a committed Twitter user 3,328 Tweets ago. Unlike many, I follow a limited number of other users - 212 to be exact - people whose thoughts, ideas & humour I'm interested in.

At the writing completion of this blog post - that number will be 211.

A well known blogger, who I already follow via Google Reader, only uses Twitter to announce his blog posts. He doesn't Tweet, he Twadvertises. His engagement with Twitter is simply to shout the aforementioned, "look at me, look at me."

The Cluetrain promise of social media is conversation and, in fairness to this Twadvertiser, he does engage in conversation at his blog - but Twitter is simply an advertising medium for him.

Now, I do use Twitter to make people aware of new blog posts - but try to limit my blog Twadvertising to two or three times during the day - and feel guilty about doing that. I more often try and point folk at something I've found interesting, share what I'm up to or feebly attempt to be humourous.

Of course, the irony is that right after I unfollow the trigger for this post - I'll Tweet about it's publishing.

Ed Brenegar on the Power of Saying "Thanks!"

My friend, Ed Brenegar is one of the three finalists in Dan Pink's Johnny Bunko contest for the 7th Lesson to be added to the book's six. Ed's lesson is Say Thanks, Everyday - and effectively deals with the power of simple thankfulness. It is the best of the three entries and I'd ask that you consider voting for Ed.

Voting ends next Thursday - and you can vote more than once. I would be very thankful if you would support my friend.

Ed Brenegar, Thanks, Thankfulness, Dan Pink, Johnny Bunko

Ubiquity and My Inner Geekiness

The Scoble-bunny pointed to Ubiquity, a cool game-changing Firefox plug-in, last week and I'm enjoying it. If, like me, you suffer from a little inner geekiness, you might want to play too. (I should note also that my buddies, Ed Brenegar and BigDaddo also pointed it out.)

Ubiquity is a 0.1 release that promises to bring web mash-up tools to everyone. Below is a simple map search (of the Centre of the Universe), that provides the ability to embed the map in an email. (Watch this video.) This doesn't even scratch the surface of Ubiquity's power. (Check this out for a lot more info. And come play with me.)

Ubiquity, Firefox Plug-In, web tools

Doc on Conversational Marketing/Pinker on Words Pushing Emotional Buttons

Quoted in Doc Searl's blog post, Can Marketing be conversational? - from a white paper that Doc helped write for the Conversational Marketing Summit, with points that seem particularly appropriate to the continuing Scornucopia conversation that appears elsewhere on this tiny slice of blog space.

• The purpose of conversation is to create and improve understanding, not for one party to “deliver messages” to the other. That would be rude.
• There is no “audience” in a conversation. If we must label others in conversation, let’s call them partners.
• People in productive conversation don’t repeat what they’re saying over and over. They learn from each other and move topics forward.
• Conversations are about talking, not announcing. They’re about listening, not surveying. They’re about paying attention, not getting attention. They’re about talking, not announcing.
• “Driving” is for cars and cattle, not conversation.
• Conversation is live. Its constantly moving and changing, flowing where the interests and ideas of the participants take it. Even when conversations take the form of email, what makes them live is current interest on both sides.

In one of the comments on the Scornucopia post, Ed Brenegar points to this Virginia Postrel post on Language and Human Nature where she quotes writer Steven Pinker in discussion of his book, The Stuff of Thought:

I think the reason that swearing is both so offensive and so attractive is that it is a way to push people's emotional buttons, and especially their negative emotional buttons. Because words soak up emotional connotations and are processed involuntarily by the listener, you can't will yourself not to treat the word in terms of what it means. You can't hear a word and just hear it as raw sound; it always evokes an associated meaning and emotion in the brain. So I think that words give us a little probe into other people's brains. We can press someone's emotional buttons anytime we want.

And there's an additional layer, which would account for the fact that the content of swearing varies across history and from culture to culture. The common denominator is some kind of negative emotion, but the culture and time will determine which negative emotion is commonly provoked, whether it's disgust at bodily secretions, or dread of deities, or repugnance at sexual perversions. The second, additional layer is that you recognize that the other person is evoking—and is intentionally evoking—that negative emotion, and you know that he knows that you know that he is trying to evoke it. That's part of why it offends you. And that's why the choice of word matters, as well as what the word refers to—why "the F word" is obscene, but "copulate" is not, even though they refer to the same thing. But you know when someone uses "copulate," they're referring to copulation, whereas when they use the F word, they are trying to get a rise out of you. So there again you get to the pragmatics as well as the semantics.

Technorati Tags: Cluetrain, Doc Searls

Posters, Anyone?

“There is a world of difference between contending and contentiousness.”
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones [via the comments on this post]

Kairos Moment

Sometimes we are confused as to why we are actually in a particular place at a particular time. Today was one of those moments. We thought we were in this city for one reason and may well have discovered it was for another. (Is that cryptic enough for you?)

Imbi and I just had a great brunch with Jamie Arpin-Ricci. It was fabulous time of conversation and near the end of our time together there was the sense of something special (perhaps even Holy) taking place. Although I won't go into details now, suffice to say that we have much to think, pray and talk about coming out of that generative conversation. God is good!

And now we need to prepare for our journey back to the Centre of the Universe. <GRIN>

Thoughts on a Rainy Tuesday Morning

A meandering blog post.

I've been at my desk since just after six, this morning. 'Twould seem jet-lag finally managed to grab me last night after I thought I'd escaped its clutches with this. I was off to bed as the sun set last night. This morning, one wouldn't be able to locate the sun. Rain pours down outside my window. The air is a little chilly in this uninsulated cottage. I may need to plug the heater in...after a number of days of near 90ºF heat. (Canada has been Celsius for decades - ºF make more sense to me.)

I'm attempting to work on my Wikiklesia book chapter. Friends like Ed Brenegar already have theirs in. (Of course, Ed arrived in Scotland for a well deserved vacation, this morning.) John La Grou (co-ordinating the project with Len Hjalmarson) taunts the tardy with reports of the high quality of work already submitted. Anxiety up. Output down.

NakedPastor, David Hayward and I have been commiserating this morning - when we really should both be writing. (I hope David's chapter includes some of his killer cartoons. You are reading him daily, aren't you? Today's is priceless.)

How do I get the ideas out into a manipulatable form?

One of my more important writing tools is NovaMind mind mapping software. I used it last year when I wrote A Networked Conspiracy. I also used it extensively in my meetings last week. I find it really helps me "see" my thoughts and ideas. And, as it easy to move stuff around, it helps me organize them.

Here's the Mind Map from last year that I created to help me see the Generous Web meme I was part of instigating. It's also helping me write my chapter for Wikiklesia - The Generous Web (oddly enough).

Click on the pic for a larger view opening in a separate window.

Beth Kanter

I've become a regular reader of Beth Kanter in Google Reader. Beth is another example of the Generous Web at work. From her About Page on her blog:

Beth Kanter is a trainer, coach, and consultant to nonprofits and individuals in effective use of technology. She has worked on projects that include: training, curriculum development, research, and evaluation. Her expertise is how to use new web tools (blogging, tagging, wikis, photo sharing, video blogging, screencasting, social networking sites, and virtual worlds, etc) to support nonprofit. She is an experienced coach to "digital immigrants" in the personal mastery of these tools.

I'm listening to a Podcast from Stanford's Social Innovation Center recommended by Beth - and I'd highly recommend it to any of my regular readers - Paul Lamb and NonProfits of the Future. You can read Paul's bio here.

I've sent this blog post of Beth's out to a number of my colleagues. Check it out, please. (I've also just discovered that Beth's RSS Feedburner feed is not updating properly in Google Reader - so I'm about six days behind.)