Read about and watch Rahaf Harfoush’s Exclusive Interview of Noel Hidalgo (@noneck) Video Blogger deported from China for Taping Protest: http://blip.tv/play/AcfaboyfXg

Citizen journalism is a really significant real-world application for microsharing tools. Qik.com and other mobile videostreaming-from-your-phone applications make it easy to get coverage of an event out to the world quickly, in more or less real time.

They also don’t leave video footage on your device and vulnerable to seizure. As strongly as the Chinese government reacted, they couldn’t do a thing about the video already streamed safely to the viewing public, and they didn’t have the direct evidence they would have if the video was still on Hidalgo’s phone. That’s really significant.

“They were more concerned about what images we had on cameras than anything else.” -Noel Hidalgo

(Via @rahafharfoush.)

YouTube - Tweet Up Blood Drive

Our friends in Austin used Twitter to coordinate a blood drive tweetup that seriously boosted the attendance and success of a local drive. David Neff made this great video of it:

http://www.youtube.com/v/7DdkLMGtQnM&hl

(Via @ChrisBrogan.)

Tonight I told a friend how Twitter can be lovely company when you’re alone and bored. That it’s a nice place for the sharing of simple joys and concerns.

Though I’m agnostic, I grew up in a strong, compassionate church community (Congregationalist) in Connecticut that I still feel connected to. A ritual part of church was the weekly sharing of joys and concerns. A simple book lay at the entry to the church. Anyone could add a line, and their words were read for all to hear.

This simple, ordinary sharing of joys and concerns is one of the tremendous human strengths of Twitter and microsharing in general. Both can inspire, especially when the concerns are outside ourselves — not self-indulgent, but concerns for others and for the changes that we can make in the world.

Some mistake “social media” for something “new.” But the most compelling truths I notice in this space are simple ones that echo furthest back in human experience. Humans gather. They share joys and concerns. They hope for one another and try to create better things.

Compelling platforms set conditions for people to replicate these in a natural, accessible way. We shouldn’t kid ourselves that it’s the software.

These have been rumbling around my head all morning:

1. Present your ideas, NOT your slides.
‘Nuff said.

2. Speak. To people.
Of presenting or speaking, always choose (in your own mind) to speak. Engage humans in your “audience” almost precisely the way you would engage them at a wonderful dinner party. Tell them your best stories. With love, and with interest in their interests.

3. “Which Means That.”
Live by this. Explain your concept/idea/plan/business/offering, and then append the words “which means that ___________,” and fill in the blank. Apply this repeatedly until you get to the core significance of the message and the reason that your ____ needs to exist. There is something meaningful and universally relevant at the core of anything worth doing. Tease it out and then lead with it.

(Though I forward this as a technique to make presentations better, it’s really a way to make whole organizations better. Find the significance. Share it. Always.)

Social media tools can help you rock out the next event you attend. Some general ideas to get you started (add your tips in the comments)…

Know the Territory
See if anyone has set up an RSS compilation (such as Grazr) app. to compile event related news, participant blog posts, into a single stream. Spend some time with the event’s website itself, to review schedule, tips, attendees, etc. extra handy if the site has any RSS feeds.

Take a look at who else is going, per Facebook page, event website, etc. You might actually send some polite notes/connection requests (describe similarities, relevance or something to do with their interests) to those you hope to see at the event. Events are a flurry of activity and attention. If you have specific questions, contact the individual/s in advance so that you’re not surprising them. Try to see meeting someone from their side and keep it respectful, engaging and mutually beneficial. You’re at your best when connecting to and sharing with humans, not pitching.

Ask your friends if there is anyone in particular that you “really should meet” at the event. (note: this should be meet for a reason: something in common, etc., not meet because they’re famous or you want to extract something from them etc.). Tune in to who else is going and see if you can be helpful. Not sycophantic, just helpful. Just before Leweb3 I learned on Twitter that a friend of a friend needed an iPhone brought to France. I live near an Apple store. I was more than happy to help.

Listen!
Keep an eye on streams of commentary/community such as Twitter. Try to follow/connect mutually with folks who will be attending that you might like to meet. Subscribe (follow them or use RSS from their profile pages) to the feeds of others who will be there, so you can see at a glance what is going on as the event unfolds. You can go to www.summize.com or www.terraminds.com, search for a term or keyword (like the conference name) and then subscribe to an RSS feed of those search results. Often the event will also have a twitter feed or keyword tags (like hash tags) to use in compiling event-related tweets. Most of this advice also applies to blog search, general search and more.

UPDATE: Very easy and efficient way to listen: go to @eventtrack, find your event, click and/or subscribe to follow along.

Speak up!
Blog about it: post that you are going and a little bit about your interests in the conference. You may get the opportunity to meet blog readers, followers, friends of friends, etc. You can also use Twitter or your blog (or social networks. or all of the above.) to ask: Who else is going? What is going on? Who wants to connect?

Go With the Flow
The best advice came from @shelisrael: go with the flow. Your plans will change. Synchronicity and serendipity will send opportunities your way. Don’t be so tied to plans that you can’t experience them fully. Don’t be afraid to invoke the “law of two feet,” that is, to move on if you are not deriving value. Try another session or hallway conversation or social group instead.

Populate your Village
Don’t just grab (and foist) business cards, find ways to loosely connect with the people you meet going forward. Leave doors open or ajar. Use a presence application or a social network to allow the contact to gradually become more known to you and to get to know you better. Read each other’s blogs, share ideas, allow the relationship to emerge organically instead of confining it to a contact management dead-end. This practice of gradually getting to know people and preserving an open line of communication is what inspired Twitter is my Village. Find a metaphor and platform that works for you.

I’ll post later this week with a follow-up on better meeting and connecting with people at events.

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.
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Ballast. The weight that rights your boat when it gets knocked over.

Ballast is great. It prevents capsizing. Snaps the boat back upright after something knocks it down. Did you ever have a Weeble toy? Ballast.

Want the physics? Ballast is weight as deep and low in the hull of the ship as possible and exerts a “righting arm” of leverage to keep the ship upright. In a knock-down, ballast pulls the top of the boat right back up above water. Excellent.

But too much ballast can be a disaster. When the boat gets knocked over, water floods in and adds to the ballast weight. The now over-ballasted boat rides lower in the water and slower. It also becomes much easier to tip. So ballast needs to be rearranged and reduced after a knock-down, usually by pumping out any water that flooded aboard.

So, my personal ballast gets me thru stuff. But then it has to be discharged so it won’t slow me down. And that’s what my new years re-gearing has been, pumping off the excess to build up speed and get underway. So I can start sailing — really sailing — again.

Ironically, I formulated this entire post *before* we learned that my husband was laid off today. I even have some drawing board sketches, trying to make it a cartoon post early this morning. (These will never see the light of day as, alas, I am not Hugh.) But as to this new development, well… Fortunately the pumps have been hard at work and we’re in fine trim. The ballast is doing its job. On we sail.

I’m a big fan of layoffs, as they always seem to lead to something better.

“Failure” is important in all human endeavors. How do you right yourself, pump and sail on? What do you rely upon? What can you call on for ballast when you’re presenting? Making any kind of communications?

UPDATE (1/23): Anand accepted a new job at www.wegohealth.com yesterday. We were very, very lucky this time. More than that, we were overwhelmed by the outpouring of support from my professional network here, on Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. My first social media birthday was astonishing on Monday, the number of folks who reached out, but our first social media layoff was even more moving. Thank you all. For all of it.

TED | Talks | Isabel Allende: Tales of passion (video)

PLEASE watch this for two reasons:

1) Most of all, just, wow. Listen and reflect on the power of stories, the strength of passion and the need to change the world. Listening to this called me to action on the Nine Million children living as refugees worldwide. It made me dream about what I want my life to become and what most matters to me to DO. Meanwhile, here’s more on the NineMillion:

• Nine-Million on MS Spaces.Live
• Media Resources

2) Because we learn to communicate well by listening and watching. “This is how you do it” folks, this talk (and any number of TED talks) is a gold standard to learn from.

(Via Chris Brogan.)

I told Twitter: I take issue with this world. I want your ideas. What can one kinda skinny, kinda angry, pretty fired up “girl” do about it? Srsly, IDEAS!?
(And I obviously realize millions of us feel this way. I believe nobody’s alone in that.)

UPDATE: Most concise germ of truth from Joel Dueck @joeld Think Specifically.

Some quick background: the seeds of this came up during my Christmas Eve Open House the other day (blog post forthcoming): What can technology tools DO to contribute to the greater good? While we answered, Steve Garfield sent out a live videocast from his phone: Direct Link

Anyways, this morning you all told me: (in no particular order, I’m compiling on the fly)
Brian Noe:

gandhi said “we will do what we can”
ultimately, though it’s often not very satisfying, that is always the answer
when i’m frustrated with the state of the world, i find something, however small, to do
example: when i became frightened and concerned about the erosion of our civil liberties, i started making monthly donations to the aclu, and routinely devoting some space to the subject on my weblog
that may not seem like much, but if each of us does a little something here and there, i have to believe that it adds up
we may not see the results we want even in our lifetime, but one never knows when the seeds we sow will come to fruition
so i do “something” - and have faith - that’s all one really can do, but i believe there is power in doing it

Michael E. Gruen @gruen

Depends on what part of the world she wants to change:

If she wants to change how people communicate, that’s a grass routes (sic) effort that need be thought out more carefully depending on how she wants to change it.

If she wants to change people’s opinions on something, there’s the Oprah route: find the influencers (the people that think for the people, like Oprah, Bill O’Reilly, Jon Stewart, etc) and convince them. Target their writers or get an audience with them… believe it or not, it’s not terribly hard to reach these people.

If she wants to change how people think, it depends on how quickly. Brainwashing is certainly an option, but an even better one is to infiltrate the school systems evangelists to your cause. But, make sure they’re the majority and/or the most compelling people in there. Otherwise, they’ll just seem crazy. This also takes a while, and your
results won’t be noticed for at least 20 years.

If she wants to change how people live, it depends on how. This is more complicated and requires further detail.

If she wants to change everything, pyrotechnics and duct tape: put the fear of god into everyone (what? God is a skinny, somewhat angry “girl”!). Make sure they believe!

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