Hitchhiking with Aloha

It started while hitchhiking. Not the kind of hitchhiking where I am standing by the roadside, one hand in my jeans, the other stretching out my thumb up looking for a ride, any ride, as long as it is headed to Chicago for SOBCon!

No, it was hitchhiking through the blogosphere, clicking a link here, and a link there. Following a stream of conversation, a train of thought, a host of images, a world of wonderful learning. Sharing what I found and learned along the way.

And there she was, talking story. Her accent is so enchanting (though I did not know that then). We hadn't talked. I read, and read some more. She wrote, and wrote some more. I commented to add my two cents, here and there. She commented back. Sent an email. This was new. This was different. Miles away yet on the same wave length!

She had just published her book: Managing with Aloha. I clicked through, hitchhiked to Amazon.com, ordered a copy and read it cover to cover when it came in.

As I continued to visit, I found I wasn't the only visitor to talk story. She had a group of followers, growing in number as they too arrived, and became engaged in talking story. It was this thing called "aloha". One word with such a richness of meaning.

We did a good thing. We decided to surprise her. Actually Dave Rothacker, author of Rothacker Reviews, gets the credit for starting it. He had received a copy of Rosa's book directly from her. He signed it and sent it on. Rosa recalled with pleasure that the book began its journey

the first of thirty one trips to nineteen different states across the USA. In between were stops in Canada, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Those were the homes of the first thirty-four bloggers of the Ho‘ohana Community. Dave, with Stacy Brice of Virtualosophy as his very willing accomplice, had decided that a properly marked up MWA at the hands of the Ho‘ohana Community would be a good Christmas gift for me (Rosa). A private Google Group was started to track the book’s progress, password protected so that any ego-surfing I’d do wouldn’t allow me in, and the surprise would be kept intact.    

I did my part. Receiving it from Felix in Spain and sending it on to Yvonne in NY. It ultimately made its way to Hawaii where it was well received and treasured.

Rosa joined myself and a few others to explore Synergy across the miles. The group blog achieved synergy and we went our separate ways.


Rosa returned to Talking Story and amongst other efforts started a Joyful Jubilant Learning celebration in September 2006. The line up for that first month was http://talkingstory.org/2006/08/line-up-for-learning/

The energy and engagement during September carried the group forward into a new group blog, aptly named The Joyful Jubilant Learning blog. This group effort continued. Monthly themes were developed like 

• March reserved for A Love Affair with Books (book reviews by members of the community) 
• 7 Wonders of Learning (to celebrate 07/07/07) 
• and Rapid Fire Learning (a quick recap of five things learned during the month)

However, all good things do come to an end. JJL was no different. The group blog closed up at the end of January 2010, coincidently with our 1000 post!

But this is not really an end.
This is a new beginning.
A commencement of the rest of our lives.


The Ho'ohana Community powered by Aloha is still strong.


It is strong because at the heart of it is Rosa Say.


Someone who without question walks the talk!


Someone who has shared her Hawaiian principles with us so that we can go forward and share Aloha!


Someone who someday I will hug in person.

We have hugged virtually many times. Rosa was with us in spirit when there was a small meetup of the Ho'ohana Community for SOBCon 2008. Terry Starbucker, Phil Gerbyshak, Joanna Young and I managed to all get here for the conference. 



Mahalo, Rosa!


So how has Rosa helped me? Let me count the ways:



Ho'ohanohano - is at the root of my work on Franklin Matters growing its reputation as a respected source of reliable local information on what matters in my home town of Franklin, MA.

'Imi ola - drives my writing on Steve's 2 Cents revealing the good experience in daily life and in particular developing the "job search notes" series to share the learning I have found or accumulated in my personal job search effort.


Ho'okipa - inspires my volunteer efforts to meet and greet folks at the Welcome/Registration desk for over a dozen unconferences since 2006.


Lokahi - is at the heart of my efforts to bring teamwork and collaboration to every group I am part of; together with the "power of we", we accomplish more.

Some of the other values of Managing with Aloha overlap with those mentioned here. I could go on but Ha'aha'a in particular, is holding me back. This shouldn't be about me. I will succeed when others have achieved their goals. That is what I am looking for. I learned that coaching my track and cross-country runners. All the preparation in the world, still required their execution at the time of their event. I needed to prepare them to handle themselves in the event no matter what occurred. Only when they achieved their personal best was I able to count that as a success.

So how can I help you?


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Flickr photo credits:

The first two photos are from

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rthunder/3084964169/  by http://www.flickr.com/photos/rthunder/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rosasay/2627701146/  by http://www.flickr.com/photos/rosasay/

The last two photos are my own.

This is my entry for the "Blog it, Earn it" SOBCon 2010 giveaway

#sobcon2010  #blogitearnit

#the5

My good buddy Christopher S Penn has started a new hash tag this year, #the5. When you find good things to share, particularly at the start of the day, share them on Twitter with this tag. You can then search the tag and see all the items shared this way.

This reminds me of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Blogosphere that is now in hibernation and more interactive than the Very Short List.

My sharing for Wednesday:

@bethrobinson writes "take different perspectives into account to create a new whole" http://bit.ly/610C5f #the5

@pauldiamond writes "what keeps you going is a source with great potential for moral support" http://bit.ly/4nzKI4 #the5

 

@rickhamrick writes "great change is more likely if you first drop everything and start again" http://bit.ly/8T07zv #the5 @jjlhui

 

@mcleod shares "School is no longer constrained 2 how far bus can travel in AM. Schools will be last 2 notice." http://bit.ly/5tt0Z4 #the5

 

@anildash writes "Nobody has a million followers on Twitter" http://bit.ly/6lcQiT #the5

 

 

What have you found worthy of sharing?

 

Have you used the tag #the5?

 

5 for Friday

Yes, it is Saturday. My eye appointment yesterday changed my schedule when the dilated eyes took a couple of hours to return to normal. Of course, if I had remembered that this would occur, I could have scheduled things differently. So one learns and goes on.

1 - From Jane Genova, who I found when hitchhiking the blogosphere sometime ago, has written "The Last Blog Post" and says:

Blogging also has been a way to keep the demons locked in the basement. In Manhattan there is that old joke: If the rats stay in the cellar and don't join the diners upstairs the restaurant is doing just fine. Having demons no longer preoccupies me. They're down there. I'm up here. The end of story.

Fortunately, it is not really the end of the story. Click through to her site to read more of her post. You can pick up her e-book "Geezer Guts" here.

2 - Keith Ferrazzi, author of Never Eat Alone, has this video tip from his blog


Find more videos like this on Greenlight Community


3 - From Robert Scoble a Twitter tip to Twickie

OK, so, what is the tool I was using earlier in the evening to get lots of responses from my Twitter followers and copy and paste them into my blog? Chris Pirillo’s Twickie.

How does it work?

I ask a question on Twitter.

People respond.

I log into Twickie. It lets me see the tweets I’ve posted. I click on a down arrow to see all responses.

One great thing with Twickie, it users your Twitter id/password so you don't need to set up another one.

4 - From the Blogger Buzz, a timely post on integrating your blog into Facebook.

Over the years we've heard lots of great ideas for promoting your blog, and have been compiling them here as a handy reference. From simply adding links to enabling cool newer features such as Following, we're always happy to update the page when we stumble across something new.

Our latest addition comes from our friends at TypePad, who have put together a great video on How to add your blog feed to your Facebook profile. After trying this ourselves, we've found that integrating your blog feed into your Facebook profile can be a really effective way to keep your friends updated on the latest from your blog.

I realize that I don't have an easy way for folks to join the "I Believe Franklin (MA) Matters" group in Facebook on the blog itself. Duh! About time I do so.

5 - Teresa Brazen writes on the Adaptive Path Blog

In December, a blind man led me into darkness. I had a cane, but it only partially helped. I felt around with my hands. I listened to the voices of the people around me, gauging their distance by their loudness, shifting so I didn’t bump into them. The smell of grass helped me understand I was in a park. When I put my hands into a basket, I touched oranges and knew it from the feel of their skin, not their smell.

I was in an exhibition called, “Dialogue in the Dark.” As the organizers explain, “In completely darkened rooms, blind people lead small groups of guests through an exhibition in which everyday situations are experienced altogether differently, without eyesight.” Prior to this, I’d never experienced blindness. Actually, I’d never experienced the loss of any sense before.

Read Teresa's full post here.

I think it most fitting to end here with Teresa's post since I began by talking about my own eye dilation issue.

Use all your senses!

Google Docs post to blog

For those like me who have multiple blogs, the Google Document "post to blog" feature does not work so well.

It does not provide a choice for which blog to post the document to!

So if your reader picked up a posting here today for Tim Draayer's Live Your Best Life, sorry about that.

Click on over to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Blogosphere to read where it really was published.

Steve Garfield's Vlog Soup

Video blogger extraordinaire, Steve Garfield does a regular feature called Vlog Soup. He surveys video blogs, finds ones he likes and shares with his own video posting.

Kinda of a Hitchhikers Guide to the Video Blogosphere!

Interesting videos!

Follow the link to see for yourself!