Below is the comment I wrote on the @adamlashinsky and @padmasree post “Another view on Twitter”

Not only do ideas get stronger when shared, but working relationships, mutual support, motivation, collaboration, etc. also explode.

One reason “microsharing” is so powerful is that it oddly mimics the dynamics of how natural human relationships form. Oblique interactions, gradual knowing, discovery of common interests and other social objects build trust and connect minds together in surprisingly powerful ways.

And by the way, I’m not too worried about what the “intended” uses of Twitter were, because I see dozens and dozens of “unintended” uses becoming deceptively powerful and helpful in people’s everyday lives.

What consistently creates professional and personal value for people on Twitter are some of the very oldest principles of success. Things like building your professional network, harnessing the power loose ties, surrounding yourself with successful people, finding mentors and collaborators, conferring on best solutions/practices, interacting socially as well as professionally (Twitter as golf course), etc.

Building personal caring and affinity between co-workers is an important part of creating a productive business culture. Microsharing has the potential to boost that and unlock some pretty compelling business value through a number of use cases (the most compelling of which we may not even know yet).

These slides are from my recent keynote on the topic at Jive software’s enterprise UI/UX Summit in Aspen: http://www.slideshare.net/pistachio/uiux-aspen-jive (see thumbnails in the post just prior to this…)

Community, duh, equals people with things in Common. Those things in common are what Hugh McLeod at Gapingvoid has been calling social objects.

Apple’s lack of “social media” efforts have been widely criticized, BUT. Who has arguably the strongest cult, err, community following of any technology company going? Oh yeah. Right.

They did it by creating things people feel so passionate about that the community arose on its own.

If your company is smart enough to value community, what can you learn from this?

Community sin #1 Community without love. iPod is a social object because people have a passionate relationship to it. How does your company stir passion?

OK, stop laughing. Your work matters to someone. There’s a headache you solve or you wouldn’t make money. Take waste management. Passionless. Yawn. Except, someone SURE cares when there’s the lack of it. And the person whose job it is to take care of personal and commercial trash disposal sure as hell cares when the service sucks.

Community sin #2 Trying too hard. I won’t even bother to google for examples, surely you’ll have plenty in the comments. Picture yourself standing in the middle of the playground at recess yelling “hey guys! let’s make an M&M Mars community!” FAIL. Instead, try “hey guys! who wants some M&M’s?”

Communiy sin #3 Community as destination (and to benefit the company only) instead of as means to something mutually interesting. Be useful. Be convenient. People have enough obligations in the circles they currently frequent. Don’t build another damned place for them to go. Build stuff that fits and goes wherever they already are.

The bottom line is that someone already cares or you wouldn’t be in business. That’s your community. Serve them well.

What are your “Community Building” pet peeves? How would you guide a company trying to generate real business value through community?

I rely on “shared items” feeds in my RSS reader. I “subscribe” to hundreds more feeds than I can follow and a firehose of ideas pours through every day. Shared items allow friends to highlight the “best of” their reading experiences and stream out little personal “highlight reels” from all the material they happen to read.

When friends share what’s exceptional, the river of incoming information is concentrated into a manageable stream. I miss alot, but I also get more value in less time. Honestly, I *like* how the “social media echo chamber” bounces good stuff to the surface to get shared much more widely.

South by So Much
Crammed with panels, parties and thousands of smart, creative people, South by Southwest Interactive festival (SXSWi for the under-140 crowd) was both wonderful and (for me, almost totally) overwhelming.

Speaking with Clarence (@DYKC), CC Chapman (@cc_chapman), Steve Hall (@adrants) and others at the airport, I kept feeling disappointed about people and things I’d missed.

Shared Items Metaphor for Events
Instead of feeling sad, why not consider storytelling part of the event? What if the videos and blog posts and photos and podcasts and personal recollections now pouring from my friends and contacts are as much a part of attending SXSW as actually showing up at a panel? Nobody can absorb all the best ideas, consume all the content, meet all the people or attend all the parties. Life just doesn’t scale. And to try is to spread ourselves too shallow and thin.

Though I know from stories told that I missed important things, by seeking out what my friends noticed and took away from the experience I’m extending the depth and breadth of being there. Of *course* you can’t do it all yourself. Do your part well. Dive deep, absorb, process and reflect. Then, make it a priority to engage and exchange stories with with others who did theirs.

Your knowledge and experience is not as firsthand that way. The experience is (literally) socially mediated. Stuff will be lost in translation, sure. But tackling a conference like that head on and trying to do it all spills plenty of the good stuff too.

Comments
Tell us what YOU did a great job absorbing/learning/discovering at SXSW. Better yet, give us a link to your blog posts, media and other ideas…

UPDATE
Some gems seen on Twitter:

• SXSW Blogger Beatbox
• SXSW Sketches

As a shortcut for checking out recaps, here are some readymade Google search links:

• SXSW Recap 2008
• SXSW podcasts 2008

I had very nice bursts of productivity on the train to and from NYC this week. I was also privileged to see the work environments of several folks I know. Walking down Park Avenue I thought “Ah, so THIS is where Jane Quigley works.”

The last year taught me lots about my own continuum of “modes” between work and play. Some of the most arbitrary and meandering of which have yielded the most valuable business results (ahem, Twitter… social networking…)

All of this got me wondering how you would answer the question “Where do you work?” Most who replied via Twitter did NOT answer with just a company name. *That was a pleasant surprise. Maybe because I hinted that any kind of answer was cool. In the comments, add yours.

(*Tho I admit, I *am* still curious what company you work for…)

Photo credit: Susan Piver

Sean Buvala (@Storyteller) I work all over the US in business, schools, libraries, fields, churches, stadium, gyms, coffee shops, offices. I’m a storyteller

royblumenthal (@royblumenthal) I work where I can play, be me, exercise my creativity, curiosity. Where I can doodle in my Moleskine, paint on my tablet pc.

LaGringa (@LaGringa) on the web

BIMwebTV (@BIMwebTV) where?-worldwide

Goza Family (@Activated) We work on the road, performing at schools and libraries all across the U.S.A.
continue

It’s Blog Action Day, Gore & the IPCC just won the Nobel Peace Prize, and I sure as heck have something to say about how that happened. So I give you: What Good is a Presentation?

So you present. So what? Why? Because someone makes you? Because you have to? Seriously, why bother? PowerPoints are mind-numbing. Nobody wants to hear you stand around and talk talk talk. Can’t we all just get out of this meeting soon, anyways?

It doesn’t have to suck. Not if you’re really trying to do something, and not if you connect to that.

So, what good is a presentation? It’s a sh*t way to deliver a whole massive lotta content, concepts and ideas. It’s not even a good way to persuade if you make it all about you and what you think and you know. It has to be about the audience. It has to connect with them where they are today.

Watching Inconvenient Truth you can see how Gore used metaphors, comparisons, stark visual displays of information and appeals to emotion to show that — and why — the audience should be concerned about climate change. There was nothing in that movie that I hadn’t heard about while studying environmental science and public policy 15 years ago. The difference was in the connections he made with the things people care about. You can’t change people, but you can move their hearts and minds.

By now you’re laughing. Move their hearts and minds at the weekly (weakly) Monday morning status meeting? Ha. I’m lucky if they even look up from their coffee!

You’re not going to care about your next status report or even client pitch as much as Gore was concerned about the environment when he set out to start speaking on Global Warming, sure. But so what? Presenting is going to take up your time and “their” time, so it’s worth doing well. Figure out what you need to accomplish when you present?

How can you move hearts and minds, even just a little? That status update? Don’t just dump everything you’re doing and where you’re at. That level of detail works better in a list anyways, not in a presento. Take it a step further and consider why the team needs the update. What are the most valuable, pertinent bits you can shave off the top of your mass of information and deliver in a way that your audience needs? Share some excitement for what you do & why it matters. Make your report connect to their emotional & professional lives. Talk about what’s relevant, then shut up & sit down.

You don’t believe me? Your subject matter too dull to matter?

“This week I ordered paper, pens, sticky notes and toner. I checked that we have sufficient supplies of pencils, pens, binder clips, staples and white out…”

OR

“Since it sucks to waste time looking for office supplies, I made sure we have enough of everything. Here’s the list. Let me know if you need anything else.”

I haven’t engaged in discussions on it publicly and intellectually in a long, long time. But, I am extremely concerned about the disconnects between science, policy and the environment. There’s a great deal that we have known, for a very long time, that is very bad news. Lots of folks with an axe to grind will try to pretend it ain’t so, and do all in their power to undermine the messengers. Go ahead and hate Gore, hate the movie, hate the super-mega-international-jetfuel-burning lecture tour if that makes you feel better. But what that won’t do is change the message — the Inconvenient Truth of it all.

And the brutal truth is that it’s ultimately not about “Saving the World,” it’s about saving ourselves and each other. Looking long, long back through the scientific record it is plain that “The World” will survive no matter what we do to muck with it. Life’s like that. But if we muck with it enough, it will have “no qualms” killing us off and getting on with its day. So, um, yeah.

More links on the Peace Prize award: AP News, MSNBC , Newsday, Boston Globe

The deck is the deck is the deck (not the “presentation”), but some decks stand out. Here’s a new, striking, smart example:

| View | Upload your own

From Chris Brogan’s talk on presenting at PodCamp Pittsburgh2.

The basic premise was that presentations are relationships, not to waste people

You know exactly what you mean to say. Do they?

Theoretically not safe for work in a French-speaking office, but I very much doubt it.