Content: a harvest festival, a gathering of vendors and businesses sharing information, crafts and all kinds of stuff.
Conversation: what happens when people meet. They stop and talk, about the weather (if the rain would stay away) and perhaps get into a more serious topic after catching up on the other's happenings.
Community: if the content that brought the group together and started the conversation, such that the conversation continued to build among the group, developing a respect and trust for those participating, then there is a possibility of that content and conversation creating a community!
There were seeds of such a community (or communities) planted on Sunday at the Harvest Festival in Franklin.
One of the signs added to the Franklin Community Gardens:
While it makes sense to say this to help ensure that the time and effort of those caring for the gardens is indeed enjoyed by them, I feel it is lacking.
What does it lack?
It lacks the encouragement to build community. To foster the conversation that can occur over this plant or that arrangement. The kind of conversation that I was fortunate to have on the recent walk about with Chris Clay.
What do you think? Any suggestions for re-wording this message?
This image tells the story for how you want to and need to get your message out.
You have your community, these you can reach. These you can talk to. Those folks have their network. Your message will spread via their conversations if compelling enough. If the message is indeed, clear, consistent, and has a compelling call to action - then the larger crowd can join in.
You don't focus on the crowd. You feed the community, the circle that is close to you.
The 5th PodCamp Boston runs today and Sunday. I will be at the Welcome/Registration Desk and am also scheduled for one session on Blogging 100/101/102. The session will go where the participants want to take it. From the beginning to, or off in a related direction.
Why PodCamp?
It is one place where I know that there will be passionate people intently focused on conversation around good content. When you get those two C's (content, conversation), there is a natural outgrowth called community. And when that occurs, it is special!
What happens when you hear overhear a conversation between two people who are clearly having some fun?
Don't you find yourself saying: "Gee, I want some of that!"
Take that "G" and add it to "Big" and you can understand how "Bigg success" got it's name!
I happened to met George and MaryLynn at SOBCon a couple of years ago. We found ourselves at the same "master mind" table, really getting into the discussion with Anita Bruzzese and Kristen King. The schedule slipped, the master mind sections disappeared into the ether and we felt a lack of closure.
This year at SOBCon we arranged to get together for the Saturday sessions and along with Ben Curnett, we all had a great discussion.
"in the cross of two shadows, there lies a darker diamond" I wrote that many years ago. I come back to that from time to time. Recognizing patterns, recognizing intersections.
Here’s the skinny on what I call Page Rage. Page Rage is the emotion that overwhelms you when you realize that continuing to use the term Web Page curdles opportunities for evolving user experiences. Why? Because the word is an artifact of the woefully outdated book metaphor — a metaphor that limits thinking.
The word “page” means paper and books. And although it never made literal sense, it was a helpful metaphor when the digital stuff on the web was mostly about static content…when it behaved more like books. But the capabilities and possibilities for digital interfaces have shifted dramatically.
Equally disconcerting is the union’s rejection of the Superintendent’s plan, not based upon the plan’s potential effectiveness, but based upon selfish and misplaced priorities. It’s impossible to determine from this article exactly how the union came to its position and whether or not that position actually reflects the view of the faculty at large. However, the union’s position is troubling. When demands to negotiate take priority over the overwhelming need to work together, that’s a problem. When more time is spent searching the fine print of a contract or seeking a legal opinion than researching best practices for motivating and connecting with students, that’s a problem. When education is waning and students are suffering and the voice of the teacher goes unsolicited or is organizationally silenced, that’s a problem.
I suggest that you go and read the full posting on the Franklin School Committee blog here. The Central Falls High School teacher situation is not good. It will not be solved (if it can be) in the newspapers and blogs. Especially when the readers are presented information where the words chosen are already coloring the points of view. Negotiations can not be conducted in a public discourse when the goal of newspapers is to sell papers or the goal of TV is to attract eyes to sell advertising.
The darker diamond that I opened with indicates where the two articles (Kate's and Bill's) come together. Kate is struggling with describing a website in page references where the page is not reflective of the "thing" itself. Bill is assuming that there was no negotiation and that the teachers priorities are misplaced and selfish based upon what has been written in the papers. I read between those same lines and see a different story. I see negotiation. I see desire to help. I see a breakdown due to a miss understanding of an issue that has played here in Franklin and may indeed return.
The real issue is time. The teachers did agree to the extra summer work. They did not agree to the extension of the school day as the compensation was insufficient.
Yes, Bill can apply all sorts of adjectives to the situation. He has. Just be aware that there is an inherent bias in the words chosen. Just like Kate's issue with talking about web pages. The web is so much more than a page but continuing to talk about a page is limiting. Accusing the teachers of "selfish and misplaced priorities" assumes one takes the higher road. Taking a higher road will not resolve a negotiation that requires coming to a meeting of the minds in the middle.
Good ole' Punxsutawny Phil is reported to have seen his shadow on Feb 2, otherwise known as Groundhog Day. I saw mine while out for my morning run.
I realized while running that I needed to catch up on my three word goal for 2010. I had been busy with work, et al but now with that project complete, this is as good a time as any. I continued to draft this in my head as I finished my run through Franklin.
My three words for this year come from a discussion with a good friend as we re-work my resume. My prior versions as accurate as they are of my corporate and chronological work experience leave out the developments I have made outside the workplace all along the way. I felt that the community building work with the unconferences and Franklin Matters was not fairly represented. Over the course of several conversations, some themes revealed themselves and I'll use these are my 3 word goals for this year.
Conversation - continue to explore creative ways to engage folks in a conversation. I want to get to the heart of the matter for their point of view. Sometimes easier said than done. It will take time, patience, and good listening to 'read between the lines' as to what they really mean when they say what they say.
Content - the subject matter at hand. I have a few areas of content creation. I used to have more and skinned down to writing about Franklin, job searching and exploring the good experience. JJL has ended but the life long learning needed to do more than survive in this economic world will persist.
Community - My good PodCamp buddy Chris Brogan in his book Trust Agents (co-authored with Julien Smith) advocates building an army. In Franklin, I have grown my subscribers to over three hundred. With 19,000 registered voters, my BHAG is to get to 10,000! There is plenty of work to do.
How do the three words connect? I am looking to create good conversation around content that matters and build an engaged community.
If you were looking to find "the" silver bullet, there isn't one, yet. In the web of what is occurring within social media, there is hope.
Joe Cascio said, “The nature of a communication medium is that it tends towards a standard.”
We don't have 50-plus phones in our homes to communicate.
Michael Durwin teased us with gathr.me, a product/service in development with plans for public beta later this year (November-ish) and possible launch in time for next year's SXSW Conference. He modified a line from an old Peter Lynch marketing campaing for Fidelity Investments:
"Know where you are and why you are there"
to help explain what gathr.me will do for us. The service will enable us to manage our profile across any service that requires a profile; social media sites, banking sites, etc. You can view the brief video he showed here. It is worth clicking through to see!
Marta Kagan, yes, she of the Twitter Bio that proclaims "Managing Director, US for Espresso (integrated marketing agency) http://BrandInfiltration.com. Also a Bonafide Marketing Genius. Also very humble."
Michael Troiano, provided an overview of the new tool, VoxTrot, from Crimson Hexagon. I liked the story behind the name for Crimson Hexagon. The name derives from a short story by Jorge Luis Borges that speculates about a room containing an index to all the books ever printed, the name of the room was "Crimson Hexagon".
He was able to provide additional details during the group Q&A. From the Crimson Hexagon blog, I find this video interview with Jason Falls and Mike that sums up the tol capabilities very well and quickly (just over 4 minutes).
Plenty of food for thought from this Social Media Breakfast. Keep your ears and eyes open for the next one. Who knows, one of these days we will find the silver bullet to managing the social media overload.
Mr. McLeod argues that professors have been too slow to adopt Twitter. Academic discussions online often take place on closed e-mail lists, he says, when they should be happening in public forums like Twitter, so that a diverse group of outsiders can join in. "I think academics are actually missing a lot by not being involved in more of these social tools," he told me. "There are a lot of academics who think, 'If it's not coming from some other academic it's not worth a damn,' and that's not right."
He admits that some of the messages on Twitter are banal, such as people describing what they had for lunch that day, but he said such notes are part of what makes Twitter such a powerful way to feel connected to far-flung colleagues. "It's like those daily interactions you have with your neighbor — sometimes they're highbrow and sometimes they're lowbrow, but after a while you really get to know the person."
Mr McLeod is Scott McLeod, who I have quoted frequently here and elsewhere.
"Education is not the answer to the question. Education is the means to the answer to all questions." - William Allin
As a life long learning, I am always on the lookout for good opportunities. So when PodCamp Western Mass popped up on the radar, I volunteered to help with the Welcome/Registration Desk. @mmpartee asked if I could set up the EventBrite registration and I said yes. I set about learning how to do so and it was relatively easy. I double checked my info, ensuring I had covered all the spelling and grammatical areas that I could and sent it out into the world. I registered myself and it worked nicely. Woot! Woot!
Spreading the word about PodCamp was next on the agenda. I set up posts on Steve's 2 Cents and Franklin Matters to run a couple of times each before the event.
I tweeted a few times. @writerjax set up a social media press release which made it easy to use. EventBrite also has a Twitter and Facebook function built in so you can post to those areas under your account.
The registrations started accumulating and closed the night before the event at 35. Pretty good for a first time event!
A few more registrations on the day off and the event was off and running. Lots of buzz in the main gathering spot. More buzz in each session room. Even more buzz as all came back for lunch.
@mmpartee @tishgrier @writerjax and others set up a nice event. The facility, Open Square, was a rehabilitated old paper mill. How cool is that? The rooms were abuzz with talk of new media where once paper was made!
While I get my thoughts and pictures together, here is a good video recap put together by Leslie Lambert (@leslielambert) on PodCamp Western Mass held in Holyoke on Saturday, March 28th.
Yes, anytime a podcamp happens, it is a great time!
I rode the train to Portland, ME last Friday to visit with a long time blogging buddy, Ronni Bennett.
She wrote up our visit better than I could do so if you haven't read that yet, you have my permission to go there to read it. Then come on back and see what else is here. We can start a conversation and take it from there.
With a little help (i.e. other elders willingness to participate) Ronni and I will try to arrange some gatherings for elder bloggers. Getting together in person is priceless!
-5:00 PM ET -Location: Ames Courtroom, located on the second floor of Austin Hall. Harvard Law School Campus (A map is below) -This event is free and open to the public - RSVP is not required -This event will be webcast live, and available via this link on Friday, April 4th at 5 PM ET.
10 years into the Berkman Center and 5 years into Creative Commons, former Berkman Center Faculty Director and current crusader against congressional corruption Lawrence Lessig is coming back to Cambridge.
Celebrate Professor Lessig's return to the Harvard campus on Friday April 4th, where he will speak about his new effort: Building the Change Congress Movement. This talk is co-sponsored by Harvard College Free Culture.
Change Congress is a movement to build support for basic reform in how our government functions. Using technological and internet tools, both candidates and citizens can pledge their support for basic changes to reduce the distorting influence of money in Washington. The Change Congress community will link candidates committed to a reform with volunteers and contributors who support it.
Change Congress organizes citizens to push candidates to make four simple commitments:
1. No money from lobbyists or PACs 2. Vote to end earmarks 3. Support publicly-financed campaigns 4. Support reform to increase Congressional transparency.
reception in the rotunda of Austin West will follow the talk.
Happened to notice that today I reached 1900 posts here, 470 posts at Franklin Matters, and 140 posts at quiet poet.
Lots of zeros!
I think if you spend a few minutes on these pages, you find something worthy. If not, please let me know what you'd like to see more of. We'll start the conversation and see if it can be done.
My stats reflect my limited usage. I can only access Twitter before and after work during the normal week and on the weekends from my personal system. The company firewall restricts the access (and for some good reasons) (not that I agree with all of them :-) ).
The alcove was empty. Quiet. It was a little after 5:00 PM. Lisa Stone is due to speak at 6:00 PM in the West Lecture Hall just around the corner.
I settle onto the bench and begin reading one of my magazines. A gentleman comes along lookng about, not sure where he is or if he is finding what he wants. He asks if Lisa will be speaking here. I confirm yes, and that nothing is set up yet. As we talk I think I recognize him but am not positive. If it is who I think it is, why is he asking these questions? He goes into the room. I confirm later that it was who I thought it was: Doc Searles introduces Lisa.
A few minutes go by. A lady comes by, similarly looking for the Lisa's talk. We chat and confirm she is in the proper place. She sits and we continue talking finding much in common.
Other than being in the same place to hear the same person. She also blogs. She also knows Beth Kantor. She comes from a small town in Western MA. We talk about prop 2 1/2, building community, and discovering common ground. We exchange cards and go into the hall to get our seats for Lisa's talk.
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