Brian Solis has a great post on conversation and value that talks about how to get a fresh drink of water from the firehose of content streaming across the Web. While the proliferation of living online content started with "pushbutton publishing for the people," (thank you Ev and Blogger-of-old), it's come to a point where we're losing the 'people' behind the 'pushbuttons.'
According to Brian: "...the barrier to entry has been lowered to a point where new user-generated content is only going to increase in volume and frequency and not necessarily in value along the way. But, for those who pay close attention to the shift in the behavior of adoption, creation, and consumption of media in all forms, it is also blinding with insight."
While I bristle old-school-style at the word "value" as it relates to conversation -- conversation being something so subjective and personal to a hippie blogger like me that talking about distilling value from it feels creepy -- I have to, at the same time, admit he's onto something. And that's NOT just because we work together in the PR-osphere.
Because while I agree with him, I have to find a better word than "value" so I don't trigger another episode of hives.
Not so long ago, Scoble and I tossed around the idea of engagement. I called it the likeability factor. Sure I'll bring you my little piece of traffic when I hit your site whether I like you or not. But unless you engage with me in some meaningful way, in a way that goes beyond content into context and relevance to my experience, my heart, my passion, then my little piece of traffic is worth far less than someone who actually comes toward you because they like you, they think they like you, or even because they like to hate you.
Brian gets to the crux of it here:
"It’s not just about the source, it’s about the dialog that ensues and the ideas and discoveries that emerge along the way.
"This goes beyond the original premise that anyone with an important idea or thought will simply blog it. In my experience, the most enlightening part of any topic is always the conversation…and in the world of Social Media, that conversation is in the form of the very actions that are triggered by the original topic."
In talking about mechanisms to help sift through noise, to find every participant's strong and true signal, Brian makes a valid point about what's downright exhausting for those of us trying to participate in discussions on blogs and other social media:
"...you find brilliance, perspective, and new opinions that allow a topic to genuinely flourish. At the same time, you can also find a series of comments that are completely pointless and distracting--that take away from the value of the conversation."
At the same time, again, combining "value" with "conversation" does make me a bit hivey. I have to ask: Whose value? Whose conversation? And who's measuring?
It is critical that the mechanism for discerning 'value' or 'engagement' or whatever we call it never, not ever, throw out the baby with the bathwater.
Let me say that again: It is critical that the mechanism for discerning 'value' or 'engagement' or whatever we call it never, not ever, throw out the baby with the bathwater.
That's what concerns me about the idea and exercise of discerning value from conversation. BUT it is also where new technology and tools can level the playing field so that Big-V-Value does NOT equal the Gold Standard Techmeme-type algorithm.
What we need are ways to ensure that even the quietest, meekest voices can be heard, and that even the most critical, contrary opinions are voiced. Without that, we become a little dumber every day from the resounding homogeny of our wham-bam discourse.
The annoying leaderboard popularity metric can be changed forever if we find new ways to elevate voice based on participation ACROSS the continuum of social media, and across the length and legacy of our online lives. If our history mattered, if our track record and reputation was part of the living web.
I want my conversational legacy, I want to control it, I want to track it across media types and tundras, and I want you to know me. I want to give you a bridge to me now, then, and later.
That way when I end up in a kurfuffle, debacle, or literal Federal Case, let's just say, you've got the proof in my pudding that doesn't demand you sift through six years of blog archives here, five years on Blog Sisters, five other sites, and thousands of comments I've made to make an informed opinion on Who I Am.
Brian makes a great point about losing ourselves and our friends within the layers of archives, about how we've sacrificed substance for currentness:
"...we’re groomed to think that older posts are also aging in context and relevance. Unfortunately, rather than continuing to live, breath, and evolve, these discussions are often buried by new content often to be recreated from scratch elsewhere. How quickly we move away from what could become timeless masterpieces."
I've been searching for a way to easily organize my most meaningful content for years--WAY before we called it content. And it would be even better if my friends and readers were the ones doing that for me as a natural part of their participation.
Anyway, there is more to think about here, but I wanted to get started on thinking it through, and point you to Brian who takes it further than I have brain cells or time for at this late hour, EST.
;-)
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January 18, 2008
January 16, 2008
January 11, 2008
best find of the week
J.P. Rangaswami just led me to Genghis Blues, which I'm sure George knows about, and if he were at home right now I prod him to tell me everything, because I just followed J.P.s links and then went to the itunes store and listened to snippets of New Train (can we link into the itunes store--i mean i want to share the link but it's a desktop app on my macbook and i don't know how to show you where I am).
All of this left me in that weird place -- you know, of feeling at the same instant overjoyed to have encountered special music and devastated that the musician making that music is gone -- so it's kind of a simultaneous embrace and release, which, mirror-mirror, you also feel listening to Pena's music...
...because sometimes artists are born forward from their death into our lives, if you know what I mean, which is to say that's how they meet us so succinctly, right at the exact spot of the hole in our hearts where they resonate...
...which is to say, I found Paul Pena and reading his bio and am listening, which at least you can do partially on amazon, so then you can buy it.
All of this left me in that weird place -- you know, of feeling at the same instant overjoyed to have encountered special music and devastated that the musician making that music is gone -- so it's kind of a simultaneous embrace and release, which, mirror-mirror, you also feel listening to Pena's music...
...because sometimes artists are born forward from their death into our lives, if you know what I mean, which is to say that's how they meet us so succinctly, right at the exact spot of the hole in our hearts where they resonate...
...which is to say, I found Paul Pena and reading his bio and am listening, which at least you can do partially on amazon, so then you can buy it.
imagination images and emotion
imagemotion, twitterized.
 | jeneane "imagemotion" = the emotion evoked by powerful images in patterns of appearance. less than 5 seconds ago from web   |
| | jeneane Nicknaming @davewiner's FlickrFan "trauma tv" because I can't reconcile the image disonance of deep tragedy followed by tragic shallowness. less than 5 seconds ago from web |
January 03, 2008
I have not voted in 27 years
It doesn't seem like that's possible: the last time I voted was in 1980, when I worked on John Anderson's campaign as an undergrad and Independent at the University of Buffalo.Turn around and 27 years have gone by. How do you lose a couple-three decades? In politics, you basically give up, stop believing. As the years go by, you lose hope, see that the country your child stands to inherit has turned into a place you are very close to running away from. Because it is ugly and doesn't resemble you or your family or anything you even remotely believe in. Because it doesn't feel like home.
Two weeks ago I made a decision to try again. At the public library, I registered to vote.
This will be my first election in nearly 30 years. I will vote for Barack Obama, the one candidate who I believe can help heal a couple of hundred years of trauma that America can't seem to get past.
I would like to be able to say to Jenna, "Yes, that is President Obama." I will not vote Republican, even if that means I have to vote for Hillary.
Lots of things have kept me from registering to vote over the past couple of decades -- from complete lack of faith in the process to moral resistance to the endemic immorality of politics. And lots of other reasons too.
But before I give up on America and the democratic process for the next 27 years, I will try to stand up for change again. I will volunteer. I will donate. And I will vote.
If you haven't voted in a few elections, come along with me. Let's look ahead and suspend our disbelief, even if just for this next year, to see if we can make a difference. To see if it is possible to change course.
I don't think it has ever mattered as much as it does now.
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January 02, 2008
Solis Rolls out PR E-Book
Brian Solis' new e-book on Blogger Relations is available free - get it, read it, do it. Also, interesting this ThinkFree Docs platform Brian put the book on. Worth checking out.
Claimer, no Dis: Brian is my sometimes boss. I also like him. In many instances during my long career, those two sentences have been mutually exclusive. Not so with BS. And that's no BS.
I slay me. You?
---
Claimer, no Dis: Brian is my sometimes boss. I also like him. In many instances during my long career, those two sentences have been mutually exclusive. Not so with BS. And that's no BS.
I slay me. You?
---
December 30, 2007
Twitter Litter Control - Don't Spam Me with Links
I recently jumped into a Twitter discussion between Shel Israel and Guy Kawasaki, both of whom I follow (I'm currently not following Guy for the reasons referenced in this post, but maybe he'll cut down the Truemors links and the bother-value ratio will improve; then I'd follow him again.
The reason for my popping into Shel's comment to Guy was that I agreed with Shel about the annoyance factor from the inordinate number of tweets (oh lord i hate that word) Guy posts that are nothing more than links to mainstream news stories on Guy's business site, Truemors.
A typical Guy Kawasaki tweet? Cat Returns After 7 Years http://tinyurl.com/2598kh
shelisrael @guykawasaki Just once, I'd like to follow a url from you that did not take me to Truemors. 03:39 PM December 27, 2007 from web in reply to guykawasaki 
guykawasaki @ shelisrael Why? Are they not interesting? Here's one for you then: http://urlthat.com/62244f3 10:01 PM December 27, 2007 from twhirl in reply to shelisrael
shelisrael @guykawasaki That was diverse, but my baby is 35. I just wish you would converse more & promote less. It would put me more on Truemor's side
guykawasaki @shelisrael What if I don't feel like conversing? Is it a requirement to bare my soul with every tweet? 10:21 PM December 27, 2007 from twhirl in reply to shelisrael
jeneane @guykawasaki no, but it is a requirement that you not link-spam on twitter. 01:24 AM December 28, 2007 from web in reply to guykawasaki 
guykawasaki @jeneane What is the definition of link spam? Why not just not follow me? 10:28 PM December 27, 2007 from twhirl in reply to jeneane
jeneane @guykawasaki I want to follow you, not truemors. Why not start a twitter ID for truemors. 01:31 AM December 28, 2007 from web in reply to guykawasaki
guykawasaki @jeneane Actually, there is one. It has all the Truemors in it. Here's the thing: my feed is the 3rd-4th best source. It "works" 10:34 PM December 27, 2007 from twhirl in reply to jeneane
jeneane @guykawasaki OH you DO have a Truemors twitter account. So why double duty the links? 01:33 AM December 28, 2007 from web in reply to guykawasaki
guykawasaki @jeneane 2736 people follow me. About 300 follow Truemors. What would you do? 10:37 PM December 27, 2007 from twhirl in reply to jeneane jeneane @guykawasaki maybe tinyurl's the problem. if I KNEW you were doing a Truemors link for the 20th time, I'd skip it and just read YOUR stuff. 01:38 AM December 28, 2007 from web in reply to guykawasaki
guykawasaki @jeneane Then you can skip anything that comes in via Twitterfeed. All of those are truemors. 10:41 PM December 27, 2007 from twhirl in reply to jeneane
jeneane @guykawasaki thanks for the tip. still it's your face, with peas. Could you add some personality? As is, how is it not bot-ish? 01:46 AM December 28, 2007 from web in reply to guykawasaki
jeneane @guykawasaki re: "what would you do," I would decide why only 300 people are following truemors. Has the over-linking increased the follows? 01:54 AM December 28, 2007 from web in reply to guykawasaki
guykawasaki @jeneane I never promote @truemors. It started way after @guykawasaki. I took @guykawasaki and ran with it. 10:56 PM December 27, 2007 from twhirl in reply to jeneane
jeneane @guykawasaki you asked what I would do if I had 2000+ followers and my company/client had 300. Constant gratuitous links would not be it. 02:08 AM December 28, 2007 from web in reply to guykawasaki
guykawasaki @jeneane You and I define gratuitous differently. Truemor is my labor of love. I think it's highly interesting stuff. If you'd rather hear 11:12 PM December 27, 2007 from twhirl in reply to jeneane
guykawasaki @jeneane about my cat rolling over, then you're going to be disappointed with my tweets. 11:13 PM December 27, 2007 from twhirl in reply to jeneane
jeneane @guykawasaki - So you love the business and every piece of content you link to? You are linking specifically to stories you love? Ok then. 02:22 AM December 28, 2007 from web in reply to guykawasaki
jeneane @guykawasaki but you're linking to truemors stories almost constantly. Are you in love w/ truemors or the content there? 02:16 AM December 28, 2007 from web in reply to guykawasaki
guykawasaki @jeneane What is the difference between loving Truemors and its content? It's the same thing. 11:17 PM December 27, 2007 from twhirl in reply to jeneane
jeneane @guykawasaki, by the way I have no prob whatever you want to do--just trying to point out more than a few people are like: alright already! 02:17 AM December 28, 2007 from web in reply to guykawasaki
guykawasaki @jeneane Fair enough. And honestly, not sarcastically or bitterly, if they don't like it, they should not follow. No harm, no foul. 11:19 PM December 27, 2007 from twhirl in reply to jeneane
guykawasaki @jeneane There are six or so truemorists. I have total faith in all of them to post very interesting stories. We now moderate non-truemorist
guykawasaki @jeneane so more or less, no "crap" will appear on Truemors. 11:25 PM December 27, 2007 from twhirl in reply to jeneane
guykawasaki @jeneane This is not to say you'll love every story. But you can't say that about NPR, CNN, NYT, IHT, WS 11:26 PM December 27, 2007 from twhirl in reply to jeneane
jeneane @guykawasaki they are not people. you are a person. i don't follow those entities, and I don't follow truemors. 02:27 AM December 28, 2007 from web
guykawasaki SF Zoo director said the tiger's cage wall was too low! http://tinyurl.com/24krjl? 11:29 PM December 27, 2007 from web
jeneane @guykawasaki you just sent me to a broken link, and I saw that story on drudge 5 hrs ago. ok i'll stop bashing my head against the wall now. 02:32 AM December 28, 2007 from web in reply to guykawasaki
guykawasaki @jeneane Link worked fine for me. We'd love to have you as a truemorist since you're so on top of the news. 11:36 PM December 27, 2007 from twhirl in reply to jeneane
jeneane @guykawasaki how much does it pay? 02:42 AM December 28, 2007 from web in reply to guykawasaki
guykawasaki @jeneane Goes here: http://tinyurl.com/24krjl If it went to the blank AP page, how did you see it in Drudge? 11:47 PM December 27, 2007 from twhirl in reply to jeneane
jeneane @guykawasaki the news that the wall was too short was all over drudge a few hours ago (2-3 story links). 02:48 AM December 28, 2007 from web in reply to guykawasaki
jeneane @guykawasaki it still goes to a blank AP page for me -- can someone else check guy's link? maybe it's my browser? 02:50 AM December 28, 2007 from web in reply to guykawasaki
jeneane @guykawasaki okay reports from others are that the link still goes to an AP blue page. Just trying to help. sheesh! 02:56 AM December 28, 2007 from web in reply to guykawasaki
guykawasaki @jeneane wow, that is bizarre. I go here: http://tinyurl.com/24krjl 12:00 AM December 28, 2007 from twhirl in reply to jeneane
jeneane @guykawasaki - Strraaange! ok well i have to go to sleep. i'm sure everything will make sense when i wake up. ;-) 03:02 AM December 28, 2007 from web in reply to guykawasaki
guykawasaki @jeneane I can't control it. I pasted in the story link and Twitter put in the tinyurl! 12:01 AM December 28, 2007 from twhirl in reply to jeneane
----------
...all of which begs the question: should we be trying to control conversation on twitter or should we be participating in conversations that develop organically on twitter. Sure, there is room for both. For everything. Twitter is wide open if you can fit wide open in two lines of text. But spamming me continual links to mainstream news stories that I can see on 10 other sites is not talking to me, it's not engaging me. IT'S YOUR FACE WITH A BOT DOING THE WORK
It's broadcast, old boss-new boss, it's like metametaspam - you have a site that aggregates news from other sites and then you aggregate it again for me in a feed I subscribe to expecting to hear from you.
Maybe I'm expecting too much of the Twitter crowd. And maybe that's why blogging still gives me what I need.
-----
The reason for my popping into Shel's comment to Guy was that I agreed with Shel about the annoyance factor from the inordinate number of tweets (oh lord i hate that word) Guy posts that are nothing more than links to mainstream news stories on Guy's business site, Truemors.
A typical Guy Kawasaki tweet? Cat Returns After 7 Years http://tinyurl.com/2598kh
shelisrael @guykawasaki Just once, I'd like to follow a url from you that did not take me to Truemors. 03:39 PM December 27, 2007 from web in reply to guykawasaki guykawasaki @ shelisrael Why? Are they not interesting? Here's one for you then: http://urlthat.com/62244f3 10:01 PM December 27, 2007 from twhirl in reply to shelisrael shelisrael @guykawasaki That was diverse, but my baby is 35. I just wish you would converse more & promote less. It would put me more on Truemor's side guykawasaki @shelisrael What if I don't feel like conversing? Is it a requirement to bare my soul with every tweet? 10:21 PM December 27, 2007 from twhirl in reply to shelisrael jeneane @guykawasaki no, but it is a requirement that you not link-spam on twitter. 01:24 AM December 28, 2007 from web in reply to guykawasaki guykawasaki @jeneane What is the definition of link spam? Why not just not follow me? 10:28 PM December 27, 2007 from twhirl in reply to jeneane jeneane @guykawasaki I want to follow you, not truemors. Why not start a twitter ID for truemors. 01:31 AM December 28, 2007 from web in reply to guykawasaki guykawasaki @jeneane Actually, there is one. It has all the Truemors in it. Here's the thing: my feed is the 3rd-4th best source. It "works" 10:34 PM December 27, 2007 from twhirl in reply to jeneane jeneane @guykawasaki OH you DO have a Truemors twitter account. So why double duty the links? 01:33 AM December 28, 2007 from web in reply to guykawasaki guykawasaki @jeneane 2736 people follow me. About 300 follow Truemors. What would you do? 10:37 PM December 27, 2007 from twhirl in reply to jeneane jeneane @guykawasaki maybe tinyurl's the problem. if I KNEW you were doing a Truemors link for the 20th time, I'd skip it and just read YOUR stuff. 01:38 AM December 28, 2007 from web in reply to guykawasaki guykawasaki @jeneane Then you can skip anything that comes in via Twitterfeed. All of those are truemors. 10:41 PM December 27, 2007 from twhirl in reply to jeneane jeneane @guykawasaki thanks for the tip. still it's your face, with peas. Could you add some personality? As is, how is it not bot-ish? 01:46 AM December 28, 2007 from web in reply to guykawasaki jeneane @guykawasaki re: "what would you do," I would decide why only 300 people are following truemors. Has the over-linking increased the follows? 01:54 AM December 28, 2007 from web in reply to guykawasaki guykawasaki @jeneane I never promote @truemors. It started way after @guykawasaki. I took @guykawasaki and ran with it. 10:56 PM December 27, 2007 from twhirl in reply to jeneane jeneane @guykawasaki you asked what I would do if I had 2000+ followers and my company/client had 300. Constant gratuitous links would not be it. 02:08 AM December 28, 2007 from web in reply to guykawasaki guykawasaki @jeneane You and I define gratuitous differently. Truemor is my labor of love. I think it's highly interesting stuff. If you'd rather hear 11:12 PM December 27, 2007 from twhirl in reply to jeneane guykawasaki @jeneane about my cat rolling over, then you're going to be disappointed with my tweets. 11:13 PM December 27, 2007 from twhirl in reply to jeneane jeneane @guykawasaki - So you love the business and every piece of content you link to? You are linking specifically to stories you love? Ok then. 02:22 AM December 28, 2007 from web in reply to guykawasaki jeneane @guykawasaki but you're linking to truemors stories almost constantly. Are you in love w/ truemors or the content there? 02:16 AM December 28, 2007 from web in reply to guykawasaki guykawasaki @jeneane What is the difference between loving Truemors and its content? It's the same thing. 11:17 PM December 27, 2007 from twhirl in reply to jeneane jeneane @guykawasaki, by the way I have no prob whatever you want to do--just trying to point out more than a few people are like: alright already! 02:17 AM December 28, 2007 from web in reply to guykawasaki guykawasaki @jeneane Fair enough. And honestly, not sarcastically or bitterly, if they don't like it, they should not follow. No harm, no foul. 11:19 PM December 27, 2007 from twhirl in reply to jeneane guykawasaki @jeneane There are six or so truemorists. I have total faith in all of them to post very interesting stories. We now moderate non-truemorist guykawasaki @jeneane so more or less, no "crap" will appear on Truemors. 11:25 PM December 27, 2007 from twhirl in reply to jeneane guykawasaki @jeneane This is not to say you'll love every story. But you can't say that about NPR, CNN, NYT, IHT, WS 11:26 PM December 27, 2007 from twhirl in reply to jeneane jeneane @guykawasaki they are not people. you are a person. i don't follow those entities, and I don't follow truemors. 02:27 AM December 28, 2007 from web guykawasaki SF Zoo director said the tiger's cage wall was too low! http://tinyurl.com/24krjl? 11:29 PM December 27, 2007 from web jeneane @guykawasaki you just sent me to a broken link, and I saw that story on drudge 5 hrs ago. ok i'll stop bashing my head against the wall now. 02:32 AM December 28, 2007 from web in reply to guykawasaki guykawasaki @jeneane Link worked fine for me. We'd love to have you as a truemorist since you're so on top of the news. 11:36 PM December 27, 2007 from twhirl in reply to jeneane jeneane @guykawasaki how much does it pay? 02:42 AM December 28, 2007 from web in reply to guykawasaki guykawasaki @jeneane Goes here: http://tinyurl.com/24krjl If it went to the blank AP page, how did you see it in Drudge? 11:47 PM December 27, 2007 from twhirl in reply to jeneane jeneane @guykawasaki the news that the wall was too short was all over drudge a few hours ago (2-3 story links). 02:48 AM December 28, 2007 from web in reply to guykawasaki jeneane @guykawasaki it still goes to a blank AP page for me -- can someone else check guy's link? maybe it's my browser? 02:50 AM December 28, 2007 from web in reply to guykawasaki jeneane @guykawasaki okay reports from others are that the link still goes to an AP blue page. Just trying to help. sheesh! 02:56 AM December 28, 2007 from web in reply to guykawasaki guykawasaki @jeneane wow, that is bizarre. I go here: http://tinyurl.com/24krjl 12:00 AM December 28, 2007 from twhirl in reply to jeneane jeneane @guykawasaki - Strraaange! ok well i have to go to sleep. i'm sure everything will make sense when i wake up. ;-) 03:02 AM December 28, 2007 from web in reply to guykawasaki guykawasaki @jeneane I can't control it. I pasted in the story link and Twitter put in the tinyurl! 12:01 AM December 28, 2007 from twhirl in reply to jeneane ----------
...all of which begs the question: should we be trying to control conversation on twitter or should we be participating in conversations that develop organically on twitter. Sure, there is room for both. For everything. Twitter is wide open if you can fit wide open in two lines of text. But spamming me continual links to mainstream news stories that I can see on 10 other sites is not talking to me, it's not engaging me. IT'S YOUR FACE WITH A BOT DOING THE WORK
It's broadcast, old boss-new boss, it's like metametaspam - you have a site that aggregates news from other sites and then you aggregate it again for me in a feed I subscribe to expecting to hear from you.
Maybe I'm expecting too much of the Twitter crowd. And maybe that's why blogging still gives me what I need.
-----
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