MediaCreole

The evolution of myth

2012-01-29T17:07:00.000-08:00

I just finished Book #2 A Short History of Myth by Karen Armstrong. In it, she walks through each of the stages of civilization and
discusses the myths of those eras. She's quite matter of fact, which on a subject like myth can be a bit disappointing, because it seems like the richness of the subject is lost in her translation, but she did outline an evolution of myth that I found quite interesting and wanted to share.

People have pretty much always spun myths. These weren't codified in writing, obviously, in the early days, but signs of them still remain. Traditions formed around the myths and children were taught their intricacies. These were life lessons - beliefs on how to deal with the existence we are faced with and as existence changed, so did the character of the myths, although they always dealt with answering the main questions about our life and death.

The earliest myths (based on paleolithic graves and observations among pygmie and Aboriginal tribes) were about transcendent experiences. The Sky God overlooked all and represented the ultimate transcendence. But transcendence is a hard thing to hang your understanding of the universe on. Myths cannot focus on the supernatural alone, but need some connection to humanity. They need to be put into practice in order to reveal their hidden truths. The Sky God eventually "disappeared". Some cultures have myths that details how he was removed from the picture. It would put some mobsters to shame.

Shortly after the Sky God exited, myths were formed that focused more concretely on the reality of death. Society was becoming agrarian and struggled to tie the cycle of the harvest to the passage of their lives. Strong, vengeful female goddesses emerged who set the cycle of life, death, and rebirth in motion.

From the farms, man moved to towns and cities. Myths in the era of urbanization were built to explain order's fight with chaos.

Finally, at the dawn of many of today's established religions, in the scientific era, man turned to logic before myth. To order, to experiment, to evidence. Without myth to give structure and meaning to life, society began to despair. Cruel acts of unspeakable violence emerged as the myths that taught compassion, the ability to identify with your fellow man, were pushed aside in favor of cold, hard facts.

So here we sit. Desperately seeking someone to pull us back to a life full of stories and myth and hope. In need of myths that can help us to understand the latest permutation of life on this planet. Who will take up that lead? Organized religion is mired in ritual that has lost its meaning. Perhaps the arts is a better place to look. And to each and every one of us, telling stories and making life a little better for all who listen.

We need myths that will help us to identify with all our fellow beings, not simply those who belong to our ethnic, national, or ideological tribe. We need myths that help us to realize the importance of compassion,which is not always regarded as sufficiently productive or efficient in our pragmatic, rational world. We need myths that help us to create a spiritual attitude, to see beyond our immediate requirements, and enable us to experience a transcendent value that challenges our solipsistic selfishness. We need myths that help us to venerate the earth as sacred once again, instead of merely using it as a 'resource'.

We need stories - go tell one.

My day job is all about data, and yet...

2012-01-15T15:37:00.000-08:00

I believe in data driven decision-making. I believe that data can be the backbone to a story and is often a compelling aspect of changing corporate minds.

But data isn't everything. Data alone is a snore to those not equipped to or interested in swimming in it. Personally, if I'm thrown a bunch of data and forced to digest without the ability to look at the angles that I want to explore myself, I get quite upset and then bored.

In Lincoln on Leadership: Executive strategies for tough times by Donald T Phillips, he talks about Lincoln's proclivity for using story to bring his message home. Many important statements and answers had a story involved, often stories of simple folk on the frontier. Phillips includes a quote from Thomas J Peters and Nancy K Austin:

"It turns out that human beings reason largely by means of stories, not by mounds of data. Stories are memorable. ... They teach. ... If we are serious about ideals, values, motivation, commitment,we will pay attention to the role of stories and myths."

So it depends in part on what the objective of your communication is. Data still has a role in making reasoned decisions. But when seeking emotional buy-in, excitement, motivation, commitment to a cause or value, then the most powerful tool you can use is story.

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Leveling up in 2012

Challenged to think about my next level and how I plan to attack it, I focus on much of what I've already posted regarding my themes and challenges for the year. The next level for me will mean cutting down on piles of materials (physical and mental) by starting to USE them. Taking risks, making commitments, staying disciplined - all at levels that aren't default for little miss "you'll find me in the corner with a book".

On this journey, I expect some key guides to help (no commitment needed guys, just by being you). J. Jack & Lorraine. Jenny. Mom & Dad. Probably others.

Let the games begin. (Or crank, since we're a couple of weeks in already.)

What ties us together

2012-01-12T03:21:00.000-08:00

There are different arguments about how and why we as humans feel a need to connect with others of our kind.

I've been reading and rereading an outline by Stowe Boyd about Social Cognition. He starts off the presentation talking about how language is universal, in a social environment. Lose a kid in the woods to be raised by wolves and he will have no language. Drop two kids on a desert island and they will create their own language.

Stowe then moves to how relationships/ conversations/ and connections unite us and have been proven to help advance adoption of new ideas, scholarly performance, happiness in the workplace, and so on.

Cognition is social, at the core, and much of what people do, or decide to do, is channeled and amplified through connection with others.

Social Cognition, as a discipline, studies how our brains work on relationships. It's a key element of understanding the struggles of the autistic, who make fewer social connections in their brains than the average Joe.

So we are wired to think socially. To draw from relationships to solve the problems that we encounter day to day.
We are also wired to socially build and evolve language.
Social transcends the development of both.
And I would argue that story transcends it all. We are compelled to share our experiences, to work through problems, morals, wonders, and discoveries together, via language and the way we encapsulate this and work things through together is story.

It's universal, fundamental, and shapes our lives at the core.

2012 challenges

2012-01-04T19:50:00.000-08:00

So, I've had this thought about story for a while now and I haven't really taken it anywhere.

I recently took the Strengths Finder 2.0 assessment for work and came out as:
Learner - Kinda' obvious. A love of learning. On a whole string of topics.
Ideation - Again, straightforward. Coming up with new ideas.
Individualization - Focused on understanding what makes each person tick in their own way - realizing that people are different and that solutions need to vary to accommodate (one diet does not fit all, e.g)
Maximizer - Highlighting the strengths in myself and the people around me, rather than getting stuck on what needs improvement. Playing those strengths together to get the best results.
Input - Collecting data from all sorts of sources. Hence my tons of open tabs, bookmarks, to read piles, and whatnot. I'm an information horder. Deal with it.

Taking the first and last of this list, you start to get a bit of a picture of my dilemma around story. I have been absorbing, gathering, bookmarking, reading. Trying to get all the angles I can and in the meantime not doing much movement at all on my own.

This is part of the reasoning behind the theme of Initiative in 2012. One of my big challenges for myself this year is to move from gathering info into action. I'm pretty excited about it actually. It's like when you talk and talk and talk about a project or trip and then it finally starts falling into place. I'm doing a little bit of the jump-up-and-down-and-giggle-and-clap-hands - on the inside, anyway.

The plan is to share challenges more often here, too, throughout the process.

What are your challenges as you set out on your 2012 adventure?

Passages - from one year to the next

2011-12-29T18:08:00.000-08:00

2011 revisited
The year started with a lot of promise. New job and new outlook were going to change things up a lot. I don't think it got quite there. I got tangled a few times, lost in labyrinths of work and stress and questioning myself. Other stessors arose like monsters from the bogs, intent on tripping me up, dragging me down, and getting me lost forever in dark, dank, and smelly places.

How did I do on my three words? Not horrible, but there's definitely opportunity for improvement.

- Creativity- Apparently I was going to work on monthly themes. While I did more this past year than I have prior (including 30Days of Creativity on Pinterest, several cool projects, learning new things online and off), I did get stuck on some (Mom's tray took tooooo long) and creativity fell to the wayside when work got nuts.

- Confidence - Again, a strong start, but a weak finish. We'll leave it at that for now.

- Energy - While changes didn't impact stress levels as much as I thought they would, I think energy has improved. Especially since I've been playing SuperBetter and working on the Core workout.

Looking forward to 2012
2011 was rough. Besides the other stressors, it was a year marked by loss. There were some very great moments - Sonny & Pam's wedding and the trip to Paris were standouts. Sometimes those get lost in the shuffle, so it's good to call them out here.

So, what am I thinking for next year?

Following @fitarella's lead, I MAY come up with monthly challenges, but I'm wary about swearing that now - going to think on it over the weekend. I want to keep my 3 words top-of-mind and active, but don't want to feel like all I'm doing is making my list longer when I was time stressed already, so I have to figure that out.
I did like Chris Brogan's idea of a 3 item list each day with one item per theme.
By the turn of the year, I hope to have a better plan of attack.

Here are the 3 words that I've set as themes for Aprille for 2012:

- Initiative - I have sooooo many ideas in my head, on paper, fluttering around in various places. I need to organize and act. Hopefully you will see a big impact from that on this blog, in particular.

- Conversations - I went from a job where part of the definition was to constantly watch the social space for trends and ideas, where I prided myself on being the shy chic who was able to emerge from her corner in the online space and chat with cool people all over. From there to a job where I have yet to fully integrate trend watching into my time and conversation opportunities are minimal to none. This drastic difference in time spent in the social space has really limited my conversations. I've also been horrible about email (that's not necessarily new). 2012 will reverse the trend. I'll make time for convos. They're important to the story.

- Discipline - I need to stick to everything more. Workouts, chores, themes, projects, etc. A big part of this will be planning and focusing on keeping this stuff going. Using tactics I'm learning in SuperBetter to motivate myself properly to not get distracted. Distract-i-girl should not keep me from accomplishing what I hope to in 2012.

I think these three themes are what I need in order to do what I want with exploring, discovering, creating, story, and all the rest. They should keep the year interesting!

What are you thinking for 2012? Do you have 3 themes?

Stories and Paris

2011-07-12T10:28:00.000-07:00

My husband and I went to Paris recently for a wonderful, though brief, vacation. After our arrival, and a nap to return us to humanity, we headed to Notre Dame. It would be, I thought, a good place to visit without having to think too much.

We approached from Ile de la Cite, crossing to Ile St Louis at the back of the cathedral. And the bells were ringing. My heart and soul filled with the sound, it echoed in the tingling of my fingertips and toes. The line to enter, we discovered, was quite long. Instead, we spent our time scrutinizing the exterior, the statue of Charlemange (talk about 'staches! but that's a different story), and the buildings & people visible in and around the square.

For me, Notre Dame is a great representation of one of the reasons I love Paris. Walking the square, eyeing the gargoyles, being there, I connect to the stories of ages past - of its creators, real and fictionalized accounts of life in days gone by. I feel a part of something big and long-lived. I feel closer to those who inhabit these stories, as well as those that I see around, and those who have been before.

It is energizing, a rush, and can become overwhelming.

It brings to mind a brief synopsis I read of Stowe Boyd's talk on Social Cognition from the 140 Characters conference in June. I have just found this link and plan to read it more and report back. I think stories are a key element of the connections he is talking about.

Stories are powerful tools that, as I've said before, help us to process our experiences and to pass our learnings and culture on to others, to create and explore identity and a whole slew of other things (running out of time for this post).

Adding another layer of contact - standing beneath the gargoyles or shaking a hero's hand - boosts the power of stories exponentially. It brings them home and puts us inside them.

I have to take this somewhere.

Quote

2011-03-07T09:35:00.000-08:00

For me, a good story is all about setting up expectations and delivering on them in an exciting and surprising way.

- The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

Innovation thru the eyes of others

2011-01-26T18:27:00.001-08:00

Let's take the last story post to othe aspects of business tonight.

Sometimes a new perspective, a new way to see old ways of doing things, is needed in order to get change to happen. We get stuck in our old ways of doing things and lose sight of potential opportunities for change because "that's how things are".

It takes an outsider to shake up our view of the world.

This week saw two great examples of this in the medical space.
First, the TEDMed presentation by Thomas Goetz. He speaks on involving patients more in decisions about their care by giving them information about their health in a digestable format.

"It took Wired less than $10,000 to do this. Why is Wired doing this?"

Second is the story of a UK engineer faced with a frightening diagnosis. He saw flaws in the device doctors wanted to implant in his heart and set out to develop an alternative. Two years of modeling and rapid prototyping later, he had the device implanted and it's now being used for other patients with Marfan syndrome.

Two stories of outsiders looking at the status quo and saying "This can be better". V cool.

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Seeing through another's eyes

2011-01-18T13:29:00.001-08:00

When I was building the career map that led me to "story", I was trying to understand what theme ran underneath my varied interests.
Why Oliver Sacks, Caro & Jeunet, creole literature, and indie music?
The answer I came up with is "perspective". I love seeing the world through someone else's eyes.

This is an important element of story. Hearing and telling the tales of others gives you perspective on what life is like for others. How they deal in times of crisis. How different life can be.

They broaden horizons, letting you witness and process experiences that will never happen to you in life. Living in a waterless cabin in Alaska ( ; ) Hi, Kriss!), performing an operation with Tourettes (sp?), fighting for your life against people who hate you for who your family is.

They inspire and activate you to make connections, right wrongs, change the way you treat people.

Stories are personal. They help us understand our lives. They connect us to our past. And they connect us to each other by opening our eyes.

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3 words for 2011

2011-01-10T18:16:00.001-08:00

(Btw, this is the picture that I couldn't get where I wanted it the other day.)

(This is my first full post from my phone, as I'm have a dispute w the desktop's monitor@ the mo. Plz forgive spacing errors& other typos)

3 words to set the tone for 2011. I like this idea better than resolutions. I've always been one for themes above discrete concepts.

Funny that it's 3. So many things are in 3s. 3 points in a callout list. 3's in fables (pigs, bears, & whatnot). Tries for the prize. And the 3s that permeate so many classic stories. Why do we gravitate so to 3?

Anyway. Mine are:
- Creativity- In blogs, work, crafts, food, home. I'm always excited at the thought. I intend to theme each month around a type of craft or specific project - besides ongoing other stuff. Since january is a break from crafts, creativity will come in handiwork on the tub (wahoo!) And organizing my study.

- Confidence.- I'm changing a bunch of stuff up this year. Treading where I have not yet put footprints in the snow. I can rock it. I just need to keep remembering that.

- Energy.- To feed the rest. To break down that wall my scale has raised before me. To be someone who stirs excitement in others thru her own enthusiasm. I refuse to let nonsense bog me down any more. Done!

What are your 3?

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New perspective

2011-01-08T12:31:00.000-08:00

(grr the photo I wanted is not cooperating, skipping it)
If you read RoelleKids or follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you know already that I've started a new job. I've left Kodak and joined a small, young, but fast growing market research supplier called KJT Group. As always, what I post is my opinion alone and should not reflect on my work.

I spent the first few days at the new job absorbing. Trying to get a feel for the projects and clients underway. The style of KJT storytelling/ reporting. Market research is in my blood, so that won't be a big adjustment.

I also tried to start my brainstorm engine of a brain on thoughts on how I could grow the business - in what new directions I could take it. I struggled a bit because my brain kept going to things to make instead of questions to ask, but hey, I've been on the job all of 3 days - and ideas are starting to form.

What should be cool is that, minus certain stressors that left me headachey, tormented, with a sour stomach the last few falls, I'm thinking I'll be able to do a lot more here. Watch for it. Consider this a transition post - I'm kicking the game up a level starting now.

More soon! Next up - my 3 words for 2011 - only a week behind!

Ringing the death knell? Try another path.

2010-09-29T13:45:00.000-07:00

Think about personal gaming and what defines the space. Think about Nintendo. How long do you think they've been around? Since the 80's, maybe? Make that the 1880's and you'll be right. Nintendo was formed as a personal gaming company in 1889. They sold:

... playing cards. (Image: ShinyShiny)

The company struggled a bit in the 1960's, branching into love hotels, taxis, TV networks, and noodles, prior to stumbling upon light guns and developing their first home gaming console in the 70's.

Now, I originally meant to post this last night, before news of poor performance/ weak results came out today. Still, I like the transformation/ refocus story. (and apparently I like "/", too) The company was faced with a shift in the definition of personal gaming and found another path to success.

So often, we see posts nowadays exhorting readers to "just get going", and I so agree. It's easy to see obstacles. But instead of spending a bulk of time talking about the existence of the wall, let's find a way around it. X is an issue, get over it, figure out how to move on - something I'd like to think is a mantra of mine.

Another spin on this is covered in The Art of Possibility.

Downward spiral talk is based on the fear that we will be stopped in our tracks and fall short in the race, and it is wholly reactive to circumstances, circumstances that appear to be wrong, problematic, and in need of fixing. [...] Focusing on the abstraction of scarcity, downward spiral talk creates an unassailable story about the limits to what is possible and tells us compellingly how things are going from bad to worse.

Gloom and doom. It's pretty easy to get mired in it and the misery just becomes exponential.

Shine attention on obstacles and problems and they multiply lavishly.

The solution? Step back and look at the facts of the situation. They'll show the problem area, but they'll also show other paths and opportunities. Think different. And go!

It's a challenge. But I'd like to think that some really cool possibilities can come out of this.

Define "real work"

2010-09-09T07:42:00.000-07:00

Last night, J and I went to a lecture at RIT by Matthew Crawford, author of Shop Class as Soulcraft. I read the back of the book when J bought it and was not sold. J was excited, though, so I went as a skeptic, trying to keep a relatively open mind.

First, the things that I DID buy.
- People have different skills, interests, and brains work different ways. We should not build an even remotely elitist system that might prevent people from pursuing careers they are passionate about. Vocational training can be as valid as a college degree.

- It's better for all around if you can land in a job that sparks your passion and helps you feel that you are doing something worthwhile.

Beyond that, I was insulted. J saw the points differently than I and I'll try to share his views here, but I'm really hoping he comments (nudge nudge) to spur discussion. There are 4 areas (2 major, 2 minor) that I totally disagree with and the enthusiasm of the packed room disturbed me a bit.

Those of us who do not care to take apart washing machines, cars, or TVs when they break live in a state of "learned helplessness" - bereft of individual agency. Crawford also used "lack of responsibility" and, my favorite, "idiocy". To be a productive member of society, you should know every part of every device you own and how it works. - NOT ME! Sorry, I don't have an affinity for machinery and I would rather spend brain cells on other things that have a positive impact on my life and the world. It's just like those differences that send some to college and some to the trades...

As a secondary argument to this, he cites the surge of interest in urban farming and craft as a search for compensating "self-reliance" or, as Crawford put it the "home-economics of Grandma". - NO. It's about creating and taking joy in that, not about being less dependent on others.

Office work is not real work - only the trades are real work. Crawford would back away from this, saying that some office jobs are OK, then return to that dreadful phrase. - I do REAL WORK. My job may be frustrating at times, but I do cool stuff and creatively solve problems for our users and work to make their lives better, ultimately. Just because I sit at a computer or in meetings, don't assume I'm a drudge! You're just as biased against non-tradespeeps as you claim society is against the trades...

At one point in the Q&A, after saying that college is fine if you have 4 years and the money to throw away, he urged a father to NOT let his son attend business school - "you'll never learn anything worthwhile there". Applause in the room as I repressed a bit of Hulk. Maybe B-school isn't valuable to everyone, but I am grateful for my time there - I had some great teachers and teammates who pushed me to my analytical and dot-connecting approach today.

J tends to take a broader perspective. That Crawford's main message is the one about fulfilling/ rewarding work. He feels that the principle can be applied to office workers just as much as to tradespeeps. I'd like to agree, but Crawford's turns of phrase were too negative, kept bringing it back.

What do you think? Is work done with your hands as part of a trade like plumbing, electrical, or mechanics more REAL than product development, marketing, social media? Has anyone read the whole book?

Punching holes in the walls that surround us

2010-07-28T18:43:00.000-07:00

I recently watched a talk by novelist Elif Shafak on TEDGlobal 2010. She talked about her background growing up in a diplomatic life, about the expectation critics have that her books reflect Turkish issues, even when she's writing novels in English set in Boston.

She described the circles we build around ourselves, the walls we use to enclose our groups of friends who tend to live lives so similar to our own. How associating with others like ourselves can blind us to the way other people live, and the stories that they have from their own point-of-view.

One way of transcending these cultural ghettos is through the art of storytelling. Stories cannot demolish frontiers, but they can punch holes in our mental walls and through those holes we can get a glimpse of the other and sometimes even like what we see.

This is one reason why my bookshelf, Google Reader, and Twitter friends are so diverse (at least I think so, hope so). I love seeing the world thru different eyes, getting a perspective on lives so different from my pretty sheltered Western NY existence. Being obsessed with stories and language as I am, it's not just about the subject material, but how the stories are told - the language people use, the tone and meter of their prose. For more on the benefits of following a diverse Twitter crowd, see Twitter Strangers on The Frontal Cortex.

Now, Shafak is adamant that her work is "JUST A STORY" and doesn't have any underlying meaning other than what the story intends to say - no hidden messages. I don't think that holds true across all stories.

Explore, open your eyes, punch holes in your walls - see what life can be like beyond the circle of those just like you. And let me know what you find.

Art in the Community

2010-07-25T18:23:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year again. Humongo (formerly Plaid), the agency that is super-smart about everything social media and confectionery, is touring the US and visiting bunches of cool people on the way. My favorite stop so far was early on in the tour - the NuPenny store.

Image via boingboing

The store is an art installation in retail space by Randy Regier- a store of retro-looking, not quite real toys in shades of grey - that you can only see thru the windows.

I love this on 2 major points:

Unexpected Art. As most of you know, my brother, CW Roelle, is an artist. While in Baltimore, he'd often show his work in a cafe. He did not want people walking into his show with "expectations" or preconceived notions about "art". Instead, he wanted them to see the art in "living spaces", to be surprised by it, and therefore elicit perhaps a more honest response. NuPenny is much like this, as it could be just another store on the street, but there's something special and unique about it.

Peering into someone else's dreams. Regier talks about the project as a dream space. Seeking to give people the impression they're peering into someone else's dreams. Giving an almost tangible essence to the experience, akin to the physical reactions we can have to vivid dreams. By not letting people into the space, he's keeping the experience at arm's length. It doesn't become "too real" so the dream-like atmosphere is not broken. This is awesome. It brings TOM associations with the film Inception and with the intense dream-communications Shadow experiences in Gaiman's American Gods. It is a physical embodiment of the principles behind good stories. I'd love to hear stories from visitors about the experience...

Won't you be.... my neighbor?

2010-07-05T15:27:00.000-07:00

Neighbor is one word where the British spelling always seems better to me - neighbour - random note.

It was roughly 2004 when I really started digging into blogging - when the list of blogs I followed grew exponentially, I started RoelleKids, and I started noodling on a potential whitepaper "Personal Encounters in a Digital World" - shortly thereafter I was moved to a different assignment where I was not required to produce whitepapers and didn't really have time for that anyway. Not that I stopped obsessing, just never wrote the paper.

Part of the fodder for the paper was the book Bowling Alone by Robert D. Putnam. It's been a while since I've read the book, so no extensive review here. My feelings for it were mixed. It's a great treatise, but also annoyed me enough that I lashed out in my margin notes. Part of the problem is that the social sphere of the web that Putnam described seemed dated to the days of primarily usenet groups and he didn't seem to get that people were connecting in ways that made it accessible to everyone.

I dislike the implication that if you're connecting online you're not connecting in the real world and society is going to pot. We all know the power of Meetups - that online connections become more valuable when you can meet face-to-face. And many people who are active online are active in other aspects of community as well.

Community isn't deteriorating, it's adapting.

The Pew Internet & American Life project recently released a report citing that, while face-to-face encounters and phone calls are still the top ways neighbors communicate, 27% of adult Internet users connect to neighbors or neighborhood orgs via online tools. I think that's cool. You're going to get to know neighbors faster if you start interacting with them online, rather than spending months or years waiting for friendly nods to turn into a conversation. People who may be bashful about in-person neighborhood meetings (me) may be more more comfortable speaking out/ volunteering from an online forum.

I'm pleased that there has not been a wave of concern or backlash around these findings - that people realize this is just one piece of the puzzle.

TV conversations

2010-06-16T18:06:00.000-07:00

I should have learned by now that it'd be tough to write a post while J plays Halo on the big screen. Yet here I sit.

The post on episodic stories got me thinking about changes in television viewing. Gavin Purcell made an interesting observation at the 140 Conference - that "living room conversations are now shared with millions". We've moved from raptly listening without uttering a sound to radio theatre, to silently absorbing TV, to cracking remarks with those in the room, to today.

Today's TV shows are enhanced when viewing by SMS, Twitter, Facebook, and various live blogs, fan boards, etc. People try to adapt language to avoid spoilers for the time-shifters, though that doesn't always work. As I type and J kills Covenant beasties, I'm seeing quick blurbs come in about a fellow Red Jacket alum on this season's Top Chef (since I don't have cable, I have to get the iTunes version, hopefully not too delayed).

Bringing in a community of fans to the living room conversation could be viewed by some as yet another distraction from the family in the room with you. To me, it makes the show and conversation with family in the room that much more interesting. Just as in the episodic reading of American Gods, in the collective TV viewing space, I'm keeping an ear out for good quotes, trying to spot subtle references, connections, plot points (and getting help from others when I miss something). And being part of a community of fans discussing it live gets me more excited - like being at a crowded gig for a band vs a practical private show - because sharing my enthusiasm is one of the best parts.

Plus, J thinks I'm weird if I talk to the TV. If I talk instead to Twitter friends about what I would say to the people on TV, he's none the wiser. ;)

Last fall, Fringe aired a Tweet-peat - a repeat episode where they invited live Twitter conversation. Certain members of the cast & crew were also tweeting live & answering viewer questions. A portion of the tweets appeared at the bottom of the screen during the show, or users could follow the hashtag elsewhere. The additional layer of information on a live episode is something TV has been experimenting with off and on for a while - special 3D moments or pop-up video commentary are examples that come to mind. I hope to see the Twitter experiment repeated, it was fun.

Episodic stories

2010-05-22T19:07:00.000-07:00

My favorite TV shows are enhanced by sharing with people who love them [almost] as much as I. With Mom over the phone, with friends at work. Heroes was that much better for the Tuesday Heroes review lunches at work. We shared our favorite details, theories, I shared the scoop on the graphic novel backstories - alas, no more :(.

This is also enhanced by getting the story in bits & bites. It gives you enough to talk about but not so much that details are forgotten in favor of the overall gist.

I'm noticing the importance of this as I participate in #1b1t (One Book, One Twitter) - a twitter-wide bookclub started by @Crowdsourcing. We are reading Neil Gaiman's American Gods - there's a reading schedule that the general conversation (using the hashtag #1b1t) follows. Chapter-level discussions allow those who are reading faster to still talk about details without spoiling for others (hashtags #1b1t_1c, _2c, etc).
Because of this setup, I find myself pausing after I finish each chapter to spend some time in the discussion for that chapter, before moving on.

I've been in a bookclub before, where we'd read a book over a month (or a couple of months) and discuss it when everyone had completed the whole book. I'm afraid I wasn't a great bookclub member. When I read a book straight through, I'm finding that what I get from it is mostly gist of plot. I focus on language and tone and style of storytelling, rather than absorbing details about characters, placenames, and whatnot. (I also tended to take a much more critical view than others - sorry I just don't find Mitch Albom's style compelling)

In an episodic construct, however, the Heroes fan comes to the fore. I'm tracking conversations, doing a bit of research on my own, keeping threads at hand for when the story weaves them back in. Part of this could be that it's my second time through the book, but I really think it's the way #1b1t is running. The book is striking home more.

And it follows me around, so that I look at things through the lens of the book's premise of the gods we bring with us from our countries of origin - and what happens when those beliefs and traditions are left by the wayside.

It's those bits & bobs - the bite size story consumption rather than a massive binge. Hmmmm - Twitter-style storytelling (like the stories told by @AngelaShelton a few weeks ago to showcase abuse) is a bit like this - although it needs a bit more structure to accommodate varied paces and thread conversations a bit more clearly. Potential, potential.

"Ecstatic truths" and everyday stories - some thoughts from 140

2010-05-17T18:40:00.000-07:00

Returning from 140Conference, I got hit with a massive cold and slept two days then continued in misery several more. When that was over my parents moved. So now, here I am, finally able to share some of my thinking following the mega-meetup...

The night before the conference I shared the seed of an idea from Jonathan Harris - contrasting "accountant" and "ecstatic" truths and the type of stories that emerge. How the truly powerful and amazing stories are the ones full of emotion, the "ecstatic" stories that require something more than our day-to-day status updates. I headed into the sessions thinking about how to make the stories we share in social places more powerful, or how to transfer them to a place where the power could be put back in.

And then 140Conference happened and the wonderful people that took the stage had me hollering, wiping my eyes, laughing, and yes, making farm noises. The stories they told in the brief moments they took the stage ranged across a wide spectrum, but there was one huge point - Twitter and other networks & spaces provide a tool to share big emotions, too. To rally people to a cause. To save lives. To give voice to the voiceless. Pretty darn emotional.

I realized, too, that the day-to-day does not lack value. I skimmed an article recently on the similarity of tweets to diary entries from the 1800's (or earlier, I don't exactly recall), when ink, paper, and time were in short supply and people just conveyed quickly (in, oh, 140 characters or less) what they were up to. But imagine finding such a diary from an ancestor. It wouldn't be like reading American Gods for plot, but you'd find it fascinating to get the view on their life.
"Accountant's truths", the every day flow of life, have value, too.

There are so many stories we can tell and each day brings new ways to tell them. This is an awesome space!

The stories of objects

2010-05-17T10:46:00.000-07:00

During each of the last couple of moves I've helped with, I've found areas of surprise & delight. Themes that keep popping up and bring a smile and giggle each time they do. Giggles that can be shared with the others in the house because the themes are so universal for that particular case. For dear Jenny, it was marveling at the sheer number & variety of her collections :).

At my parents, it was Dad's paystubs. For the past 20 years or so, he would collect his weekly paystub at the store, bring it home, and tuck it away somewhere "safe". We found them EVERYwhere, tucked into drawers, corners, shoeboxes... We took a paper-box of them out to a burn barrel in the backyard and fed them in bit by bit. And still found more.

I find it exciting that even such simple things can generate a story. Mom and I will be able to giggle about this months from now as we recall the move.

My parents move brought a lot more stories to light, especially because we had a little more time to pack than expected... The outfit I wore in kindergarten that our neighbors, the Goebbels had given me. Dad's Boy Scout uniform. Strange things from Danny's closet, like art projects none of us had ever seen before.

I think that's part of where I got my appreciation for story. When we were kids, we moved several times - the longest in one place was 4 years (until the house my parents just moved out of, where they had stayed for 20+). Mom asked this time why it was so much harder than when they had kids to herd and our stuff to deal with. I think the relatively frequent moves forced us to create a system. Each kid had a paper box of their important stuff. Each kid knew their room & stuff. There was a tomato box of pictures. As part of this system, we reviewed the contents of these boxes. We shared the stories of what was in them and why it was moving with us. All very informal, of course, and I probably see more of a pattern than my brothers might.

But I appreciate it, these stories of objects - important and trivial - in our lives. I'm adding them to the pile of story types that I want to explore further.

Psyched to meet some storytellers

2010-04-19T20:33:00.001-07:00

I'm in NYC tonight for the #140conference - a gathering of hundreds of Twitter folks telling stories about social media, technology, education, and connecting. I'm very excited! I have interests in many of the topics, as I believe all feed into the storytelling strategy I'm about to start drafting - and to my general appreciation of and understanding of storytelling overall. (Plus I get to meet Twitter friends IRL!)

PSFK has a post about a presentation by Jonathan Harris. In it, he talks of Werner Herzog's two ways of viewing reality "accountant's truth" and "ecstatic truth". To Harris, gathering status updates and tweets provides an "accountant's view" of reality. For the storytelling that moves souls and mountains, we need the "ecstatic" - to build on the accountant's view with emotion.

Ideas are bubbling. I think I'll force some retreat time on Thursday, after my great encounters this week, with my whiteboard, colored pencils, and colored paper and see where the bubbles take me.

The wonder of stories

2010-04-13T04:33:00.000-07:00

I left ... that afternoon, marveling at how different stories can be, how some stories can make us laugh, while others make us cry. I thought about bedtime stories, which send us off to sleep, and Zen stories, which wake us up with their strange paradoxical twists.

In his book, The Beggar King and the Secret of Happiness, Joel ben Izzy explores the power and meaning of story. As a travelling storyteller who loses his voice, ben Izzy takes us along on his journey of discovery. A wonderful, quick read - interspersed with classic tales that have a direct relationship to his path.

It's the beauty of stories; whatever you give, you get back more - if you listen.

I am excited to listen and absorb the stories of those around me - and learn from them how to help others build their own.

Where I'm headed right now

2010-03-10T18:28:00.000-08:00

A couple of events converged recently to get me seriously thinking about career stuff again. I grabbed my favorite bright paper and sat down to map out my thoughts in an effort to figure out where I should be going.

As I worked, it became clear that a common thread ran through both my external interests and my highest passion points about my career. Storytelling.

If you read this blog at all, which I know not many do [YET, Aprille, YET], then you've seen that fascination here.

As a kid, I thought I'd become an author. I still might, although I don't feel the nugget of a unique, unborn story rattling around my head at the moment. In high school, I wrote many Twilight-style short stories - typically an underappreciated witty, spunky village girl who wins the affections of the sarcastic on the outside, but really quite sweet prince.

My years in market research were focused on building stories from the data we gathered from our potential customers. The real plus to me about working in the company I do - we are a significant player in helping people to build & revisit their own stories. (Insert Italian handgestures here).

My fascination with stories is broader than creating or telling them, though. It's how they're told, what they mean, how this changes with technology and multimedia mashups, across geographies. What are the psychological principles behind them? How can companies help? Besides the straight-up reliving of memories and bed-time imagining, what role do stories play in how people learn? Heal? Grow? How can stories be used to better communicate what people need in products to companies? To better share what companies have to offer to people?

I'm really excited by this discovery, which was really right in front of me. I think becoming a storytelling subject matter expert (or storytelling "master") is something tangible that I can do for my current employer and it lays out potential opportunities ahead, if that is the path I choose or need to take. I can also see it shaping the crafting and reading I do in my personal life. Oh, this will be fun!! Let's go!

In that light, I reach out to you readers and those I'm pointedly sharing this post with.

Any book recommendations? Conferences? People to connect with? I'd love to hear suggestions. I have some initial ideas, but want unbiased suggestions first.

More to come!
[Funny, as excited as I am, I'm nervous too, and sat on this post for a day after completing it]

Ghost stories

2010-01-24T18:21:00.000-08:00

In Haunted Providence, Rory Raven talks of his penchant for collecting ghost stories. Even though he is very much a skeptic, he enjoys the tales people share. He sees ghost stories as a "gateway" to spur interest in history.

He also touches on the impact our beliefs have on the volume and impact of ghost stories in a culture. In discussing Native Americans (and he admits this is a generalization and is not based on knowledge of all tribes):

"Most tribes have a tradition of feeling very connected to the spirits of their ancestors in general. This tradition is often a source of great comfort and even strength. Their spirits are there to help, not to haunt."

Raven has found little evidence of Native ghost stories prior to the arrival of the white man. After their first encounters with Europeans, ghost stories increased - where ancestors returned to warn their kin of the danger and evil of the whites.

This fascinates me - how would a different perspective on death, a different perspective on what, if anything lies after, and different encounters change what we share? That needs more thought and another post.

Ghost stories thrill me. Partly because I love the idea that something unexplained and funky is out there. Partly because of the personal histories they reveal - the personalities of those who once occupied (and maybe still do) a certain spot. They give depth to a building more than the 5 senses can reveal. And partly because of the oral tradition they represent. Gathering around the campfire and scaring each other exercises our minds, our imaginations, and brings us closer to the people we're sharing with.

So pull up a stool, and let's tell tales. To start, let me tell you about an apartment I lived in ...

Connecting

2009-11-13T07:45:00.000-08:00

I had the pleasure to hear Chris Brogan of New Marketing Labs speak in Rochester the other day at the SM2Day conference - and the thrill to meet him in person (and even though he's quite friendly and I've talked to him on Twitter before, when he's behind a table signing books and there's a line behind me, I turn into bashful mush-mouth. Silly.)

He's an excellent, casual speaker and, much like on his blog, treated the presentation more as a conversation with the people in the room. You can look for video of his talk here.

There were a couple of things he talked about that, combined with other speakers at the conference and other things I've seen recently, struck a chord. These really center around connecting with people in marketing and communications efforts.

First, Remember Mobile -
Mobile phones are increasingly important in our lives. As Chris pointed out, we won't go more than 10 paces from our phone, even when we leave wallet, keys, etc behind. Research shows that higher and higher numbers are accessing social networks from mobile devices, and that more people are shopping on mobile devices, too. Companies need to communicate with their customers as people in this space.

Imagine the power of a conversation with customers as they're making a purchase decision via the social networks they look to for advice.

Second, Customer Service -
Conversations with customers need to shift from product push to customer service. To tending relationships. Enabling the people having conversations to resolve customer problems. This builds trust, appreciation for any brand.

Third, Make More Connections in Person -
Meeting Chris IRL, connecting with SMC Rochester folks who I don't see often enough at meetups because I'm a slacker and don't go. It's warm fuzzies. It gives that extra layer to stories and conversations. While connecting and storytelling in new media is powerful and revolutionary, even, the handshake still has a ton of value. That can be easy to forget as tweets pop up and pics are posted on Facebook - it's nice to be reminded. A bit like Drew Olanoff's talk at the 140 Conference in LA - reminding people about phone calls.

Some new storytelling thoughts coming in the next day or so. 'Til then - enjoy.

The stories we tell shift with the language we speak

2009-09-28T17:52:00.000-07:00

When I was a kid, my cousins had a game that intrigued me. We never played, but it became associated in my head with a spy-mystery who-dunnit where "The Brain" was actually a villain behind a vast bank of consoles and controls which he used to control the world. The metaphor stuck.

I have long been fascinated by how people perceive and process the world. What does that console look like for them? Do other people have the same type of running monologue in their heads - with the occasional conversation run-through every way possible - that I do? What's the impact of differences in culture, background, disabilities/ abilities? I think this is a large part of the appeal that Oliver Sack's works hold for me.

My brother is colorblind, with a red-green deficiency. To him, the lawn is orange. How does that impact his appreciation for stories where color plays a key role? Take that to an even higher level for my Uncle, who sees in black, white, and shades of grey. I remember how frustrated he got playing Trivial Pursuit, because he never knew which category he had landed on. In Island of the Colorblind , Sacks describes a society where color does not play a role (or just a very minor one). He also tells of colorblind artists who paint with such subtle shifts in greyscale that color-sighted people cannot distinguish the patterns that my Uncle, for example, would.

I just read an article by Lera Boroditsky, titled "How does our Language Shape the Way We Think?". Fascinating! She details experiments that compare and contrast perceptions between cultures with very different language structures. Like considering spatial orientation/ reference in English, where the reference point is our body, to a tribe where the reference point is the compass. Because their language is so tied to compass directions, they always know which way they face. Or how visual cues relate to perception of time in English, where time is tied to distance, vs Greek, where time is volume-related. Very cool. How does this impact how we tell stories? How and what we choose to mashup in online storytelling? Would love to hear folk-tales from the tribe that points to the compass.

Creoles themselves, as a language mashup, must get interesting. I'll have to dig more to see if they tend to stick to the same fundamentals, make new rules, or pick and choose from the source languages. Imagine being part of the emergence of a Creole tongue that not only is a new way of expressing yourself - but could be a total right turn in how you perceive the world, as well.

What have I read in Haitian Creole, in French, in translation that did not take into account these differences? Has it impacted my experience of the story?

Now I have to learn a lot more languages. Or at least understand how their rules are built to make sure I get these subtleties.

Just missing the bunnies

2009-07-24T13:26:00.000-07:00

So I've been following the guys from Plaid on their summer tour through the heartland - Detroit, Milwaukee, Chicago, Indianapolis, St Louis. I've been meaning to post about it - but haven't been thinking in longer hunks than tweets the last few days.

Anyway - their stop in the Windy City was awesome. I loved the creative workspace and startup personality of Threadless. The cupcakes, flavors, and pregnancy-craving inspiration of Bleeding Heart Bakery.

They bleed personality. Add all of this up and you get a successful business that's not afraid to be who they are, and speak to a niche audience. Loudly.

(Something more should learn to do)

Finally, I've long been a fan of 826 Valencia - The Pirate Store - and anyone who comes up with novel ways to encourage learning - especially reading & writing, so it was fun to see the Boring Store.

Thanks to Plaid for sharing their tour - every little bit - and the insights into success from companies big (Ford) and small.

BUT - I think the flames on the Flex need some bunnies!

I wear my friendships online....

2009-07-06T15:14:00.000-07:00

Let me start with a bit of backstory. I have always been quite shy - but friendly. I try to get to know people of all types, but it takes me a while to work up the gumption to do so. The bashfulness combines with homebody instincts to keep me from many parties and nights out on the town. In high school, I'd strike up conversations with those seated around me - sometimes, if they seemed OK. I went to college with the aim to be more extroverted - and did make many friends I may not have otherwise - but still played the homebody a bit.

And so it's pretty much continued.

Now, I follow 424 on Twitter. I have 207 friends on Facebook. I'm connected to bunches on Friendfeed, LinkedIn, through blog networks, etc. There are people I consider friends, who I've never met in person. I exchange ideas, reactions, commiserations with many of these new connections.

The other day, I commented on someone's Facebook status - trying to give a bit of support to someone having a rough time, and the thought struck me. "I wear my friendships online." I can get closer to people faster without the shyness barrier that can emerge in person.

Not to say I don't have friends in person (or IRL) - they're just usually pretty hard won and so not as prolific.

So I started this post, to work out the thought. Because of bad habits around leaving tabs open forever, that was a week ago. Oh, well. Since I started, Ramsey Mohsen posted on "ambient intimacy", hitting close to what I'd been waiting to write...

The term ambient intimacy is more than just a definition- it’s a construct that helps make sense of why the usage of social media appeals to the masses. [...]

Ambient intimacy is about being able to keep in touch with people with a level of regularity and intimacy that you wouldn’t usually have access to, because time and space conspire to make it impossible.

@leisa summarizes it well; It helps us get to know people who would otherwise be just acquaintances. It makes us feel closer to people we care for but in whose lives we’re not able to participate as closely as we’d like.
Social media helps me get closer to more people. Some are those same people I tried to connect with in high school - easier to connect when social cliques are more in the past and instead we're just chics in their (gulp) mid-30s with a common element in where we came from. I like what this can do. It's probably a key reason why I'm still active in these spaces.

And I hope to run into some of these new friends IRL someday!

Meet me on the steps of St Claude's

2009-06-17T03:08:00.000-07:00

Ah,Paris. For those not watching my tweets, Facebook, or RoelleKids blog, I took an unexpected 2 day trip there last week. One day was spent in the back room of a facility, but the other we got to spend wandering the city.

One thing we noticed as we walked by various little parks, plazas, and almost any place with steps, was the people gathering just to hang. Picnics, bocce games, and people getting together to sit and chat and ... be. Why was this so novel? It seems like a really social, peaceful, great thing to do! Still, it seemed foreign to us.

In Rochester I can understand a bit why, since it tends to be such a car-based city. It seems like a car-focused culture is less likely to encourage casual hanging. I'm not interested in sitting if I have to drive to get there.... (Well maybe I AM, but I'm not totally the norm. And a campfire would be needed to really get me interested) But what about cities with parks, plazas, and steps that people can walk to, just like in Paris? New York, Boston, Chicago? I was actually hanging with my vendor (Meghan), who lives in Chicago, and she was as struck as I was. It just wasn't the same.

Maybe it's due, in part to that classic "American drive" - the one that leads to marvelous achievements, but also to stress levels through the roof, way too many work hours, overbooking non-work time w/ other commitments, running, running, running, doing, doing, doing. Sitting, relaxing, may be something the French lifestyle is just better suited to. As I type, it occurs to me that the 35hr work week may also have played a role in the number of people hanging out on a Friday afternoon.

I read Bowling Alone by Robert Putnam years ago as I started to think about the impact of social networking on relationships. Great book, but one of those where I filled the margins with counter-arguments. Written in the days of discussion boards and usenet groups prior to blogging, microblogging, and mainstream social networks, much did not seem valid or fully explored to me. And I still hear in headlines here and there how technology and social media are ruining relationships and community.

Personally, I think that's bull. Social media can give us a bit of that sitting on the steps bond w/ friends - hanging out, sharing the inconsequential, or maybe if the mood strikes debating deep philosophical issues. Where cars and stress and workaholism may have pulled us away from old world social gathering, I feel social media has filled a bit of a gap. It's so easy for people to blame the new guy. If you feel relationships are suffering, more people are stressed/ depressed, maybe think more about our choice not to hang just to hang, not to meet on the steps of St Claude's (btw, random name, DK if there even IS a St Claude).

A quick note on how not to appeal to me as a woman -

2009-05-15T10:48:00.000-07:00

Copying here an email I sent to some friends -

I appreciate ShinyShiny and PopGadget. I appreciate some of the cool new flower designs and pink (most of the time) and green and cuteness like the Nissan Cube.

What really really irks me is "this is for chics so the techy side of things needs to be about weight loss and yoga" - Way to insult more than half of your demographic. GRRRRRRRRR

Della

In the moment that seemed to say it all. Now I feel a need to explain a bit more.

I get highly offended when I am told something needs to be adjusted for me "because I'm a girl". I grew up with two brothers and lots of guy friends and I see no reason "girl" needs to equal "froofroo". When searching for colleges, I got highly offended by brochures for women's schools that said "We know girls can't perform to their top potential if there are GUYS around." Consider the gauntlet dropped, dude!

So, in my quick glance at the Della site, and its list of reasons why a netbook is the way to go, I couldn't help but focus on "calorie-counting, yoga tips, and planning dinner for your family". And I didn't have time to do more than gut react - There are a whole lot of elements to chics - and if you want to market to them, don't confine yourself to '50s housewife stereotypes. Then we get angry. And you might not like it when we're angry. ( ;-) )

Sharing is a circle

2009-01-06T13:53:00.000-08:00

I'm back. Got a bit distracted there for a while. Over at The Roelle Kids, I talked yesterday about my themes for 2009. (Focus, Calm, Circle - soon it will be a mantra I've embroidered into my clothes...)

Circle ties back to much of the storytelling theme I'm working on developing here - when I get around to posting, that is. Yes, Circle is about sharing of all types and it's partially a reminder to participate and keep in touch. But it ties to my work and to anyone who hopes to engage in conversations with people, too.

Sharing is not one way. Any system, process, or habit that is built with only one direction in mind is at high risk of failure because it will be unfulfilling.

Push communications from companies that don't conceive of the possibility of dialogue are unrealistic and as bad as TV commercials, because you know the company is not listening in return.

Social environments that focus on sending your content out without easy reciprocation can become annoyances to the target recipients. Twitter and Friendfeed have value in the conversation. Facebook mastered the newsfeed to key users in on what friends are doing.
- I need to think about that more. I totally see how a social environment that is a circle is advantaged, but I need to figure out how blogging fits in.
- I struggle w/ comments as an exclusive means of completing the circle because they are so infrequently used.

(Well, I'm focusing on this all year, so you'll be able to see it evolve and flesh out further. Your thoughts are welcome. This is a good start.)

Neil Gaiman recently made a comment regarding the different reactions people can have to the same book - and the fact that we're different people bringing different experiences to the reading totally explains this. (Totally true - I'm pretty sure a large part of my negative reaction to Twilight is because I wrote very similar stuff while in high school (and while not too shabby, it was silly high school writing then, too))
Anyway, here's his quote:

"You bring yourself to a book, after all; every book is collaborative."

Collaborative, circle, conversation - it's all good.

Latest storytelling quote

2008-06-13T12:35:00.000-07:00

From Stranger than Fiction: True Stories by Chuck Palahniuk:

Our technology for telling stories becomes our language for remembering our lives. For understanding ourselves. Our framework for perceiving the world.

Am I interesting ... enough?

2008-06-12T15:24:00.000-07:00

I've seen a few blog posts recently about being interesting. They take different paths related to their target audiences, but the nutshell is, to be interesting, be interested.

Image via pdphoto.org

Makes sense. And I'll throw my few cents into the pot, as well:
1 - Passion - I've always found that passion is what carries me through - what can help me shine in interviews, presentations both internal and external, in general conversations. And I do tend to get jazzed when talking about storytelling, community, new research methodologies aimed at getting better views inside customers heads - and giving them a better time while we're at it.

2 - Variety - A single focus makes you a great subject expert, but can also make you as dull as dirt. Perhaps it's a part of my multi-tasking, micro-attention-span side, but I find that the unexpected elements variety can bring make life, subjects, people oh, so much more interesting. I love throwing a monkeywrench into people's perceptions of me by bringing up factoids and interests that force them to shift their thinking. Here's some examples - I think they play off better when you meet me in person, but we'll give it a shot - do any surprise you?

One of my hobbies is smashing glass.
I only drink beer that you can chew.
My bookshelves include books on cities underground, the world's smallest man, Lizzie Borden, ghosts, women's roles in traditional fairy tales, Russian poetry, novels in French, Neil Gaiman, Eugene Onegin in verse, Alduous Huxley, etc. Umberto Eco is a favorite, as is Oliver Sacks.
I watch "Cops" to destress when home on Saturday nights.
My favorite flick is "Delicatessin"

Well, I think it's interesting, anyway.

3 - Freshness - Right alongside variety, you've got to keep it fresh. Not only keep abreast of what's happening in your product space and the nearby adjacencies, as well as in the field of social media and marketing, but keep an eye on News of the Weird, ethnographer's blogs, research in other areas like youth and trends. BrandFlakesforBreakfast, by Plaid, does this quite well, I think - watch the range of things they come up with.

In this spirit, I loved this post from Russell Davies. I plan to print the list and try to follow it for 3 months, maybe more.... It will help to bring my blogging and photo habits back up to speed. I already have ideas on how I can weave some of these elements into work tasks, too. Very excited. Stay tuned, things should be getting more interesting around here.

Update 6/13 - I didn't realize the Russell Davies post was from '06 until I printed it to start following the list. Ah, well - I think it's still good stuff.

Small shops in small tourist towns

2008-06-10T14:03:00.000-07:00

We just returned from a family gathering in Cape Vincent, in the Thousand Islands region of NY and Canada. The towns in the area are small and have a highly seasonal population. One person in a larger town claimed roughly 13,000 residents in summer, and roughly 500 year round - the 2000 Census lists a pop of 1,088 - so that's probably a good guess on the actual year round number.

Wandering through some of the less touristy shops that were more my speed, I noticed a trend. Dual purpose retail. A coffee shop that also does interior design. A tea shop that also sells art prints and apparently manages apartments. It struck home the need to have multiple ways to pull people in if only a few hundred are around all year.

Both of my favorite examples have a web presence, but no real social media outreach that I can spot. Interested customers still really should show up in-person. Perhaps the impetus for the web pages is the prospective tourist, checking out the town before heading up for the summer rush.

But how could this change in a social media environment? The shops could arrange for TweetUps and MeetUps from around the region to happen on the premises, potentially enticing people to remember to stop back when they're in the area next. They could create a virtual group of experts in one of their varied areas of business, so when you go to their shop, you're really reaching out to a much broader community. Or they could link into social charity programs like Kiva to rally the community for a global cause at the shop door.

I'm not sure if any of these are a really spectacular solution. The most obvious step, I would think, to ensuring a steady customer base in a seasonal location would be to sell online - to break the restrictions locale has placed. I didn't get into conversations with these shop-owners about why they had not done this.

What do you think? Are there ways beyond the dual-purpose diversification to bring a steadier stream of business in a seasonal town? Are there social media opportunities - beyond simple web retail - that could keep some of these pleasant, non-chintzy places around, where you know so many have struggled and failed?

The storytelling theme continues

2008-05-29T13:55:00.000-07:00

And as a writer, or as a storyteller, try to tell the stories that only you can tell. Try to tell the stories that you cannot help but tell, the stories you would be telling yourself if you had no audience to listen. The ones that reveal a little too much about you to the world. It’s the point I think of writing as walking naked down the street: it has nothing to do with style, or with genre, it has to do with honesty. Honesty to yourself and to whatever you’re doing.

- Neil Gaiman

I can't help but think about what an excellent guideline that is for brands! Storytelling and honesty as the ultimate expression of transparency. Some are moving that way ... slowly. Some are close.

As BusinessWeek said:

The extent to which you can create a sense of belonging, friendship, and dependability between your brand and customers is the extent to which you have a powerful brand asset.

How better to build friendships than to tell your stories? And, personally, I have a tendency to correlate honesty and dependability/ trust.

As a kid, I thought I'd become a writer some day. I'm an avid reader of a wide variety of authors. I have notebooks with teen Fantasy pieces in bits and pieces. And I'm terrified that I'll never have a really good idea - an idea for a story that will send people to buy/ download/ support an actual book.

Brands really don't have an issue here - they have stories to tell. I could see myself writing stories for several companies as I sit here (for those following me on Twitter (@eileen53), we won't have City Hall on that list at the mo, due to the passport snafu).

Not what I'd expect from...

2008-05-15T16:27:00.000-07:00

...WalMart. Yep, a post about the massive store that I have to say I rarely visit, because at the store nearest me, some of the clientèle, they're pretty scary. The brand who has made classic social media blunders in the past, from the fake RV-ing blog, to the super-forced, and therefore totally rejected, teen "community" attempt.

They surprised me twice last week.

First, Kevin Roberts had a post about the December-new WalMart blog, Checkout. It features a core group of bloggers for different departments, real employees who also give movie reviews, talk about pets and causes and whatnot. I glanced quickly at it and the tone and content don't seem forced or fake to me - I also noted that their "most commented" posts get quite a bit of feedback. As always, I need to explore it further, stick it in my feeds and watch it for a while. But a Kevin Roberts endorsement goes quite a ways and it seems like they've done a pretty good job this time.

Then, I got a catalog in the mail for Canopy. I took a look, thinking this was a new store along the lines of Pottery Barn or Crate & Barrel. Before anyone objects, I often peruse their catalogs, but besides a few wedding registry oddments, I don't ever get to shop there. The variety is more limited, but the presentation of the product was spot on, I thought. Only when I glanced at the fine print in the back did I make the WalMart connection. Google proved that I must have had my head in a hole in March, when the line was announced and many sites picked it up. I was neck deep in strategy data at the time, so I cut myself some slack.

So, maybe I'm coming to the game late, but moves like this, while still not as cool as our friend Target, do boost the brand in my eyes.

Participating in stories...

2008-05-09T05:52:00.000-07:00

So many of the new toys today can be used to add to or build upon stories. Layer onto that social media, and you get an environment where the readers are pulled in, no longer passive – where they become puzzle solvers, commentators, contributors. It’s a frontier where the novel meets Alternate Reality Gaming. Oh, cool – Neil Gaiman could partner with Jane McGonigal – that would be awesome!

I’ve been playing with some of the latest. As usual, I haven’t yet finished fully exploring, but I’m very excited to check them all out - when I get a hunk of time.

One of the first examples I found was a Penguin wiki novel
Which reminded me a bit of Twittories, though the latter is a stricter, more linear contribution style.
But the best example is Penguin’s latest – We Tell Stories – where 6 authors told 6 stories over the course of 6 weeks. Each story has close ties to classic tale

Story 1 – A mesh of storytelling and Google Maps – follow the narrator on his crazy adventure.
Story 2 - Story of a young girl, told via her blog, her parents' blog, and Twitter streams.
Story 3 - Looks like a fill-in the blank/ mad-lib style story.
Story 4 - Written/posted real time over a week. In the moment, you could watch it unfold.
Story 5 - Page views of slickly designed pages stacked with factoids.
Story 6 - Choose-your-own-adventure style

There's also a mysterious 7th story lurking somewhere - I've found it, but don't want to spoil your fun - about a young woman named Alice....

I can see so many interesting permutations on all of this that I could probably keep typing all day - but I need to keep it reasonable. But just as the opportunity for public participation impacted journalism - maybe it will twist and tweak literature as we know it, too. I don't think novelists need worry - we'll always need their creativity and bigger ideas - this is just a fun offshoot.
More on this soon, I'm sure....

Casual well wishes - fundamentally flawed

2008-05-03T15:12:00.000-07:00

At San Diego airport, prepping to board a flight home, I hear an airport worker bid farewell to some Brits he had been chatting with while we waited:

"Have a safe flight!"

Why "safe"? Don't we have enough experience flying people to and fro by now that safety is pretty much assured? Once the fundamentals of service are covered, shouldn't the customary departure wish change to "pleasant flight" - "good flight" - "rockin' flight" - "kickass flight", whichever best suits?

When do you decide that the fundamentals necessary for the business to function are taken care of and give the customer clearer priority? (If I have to shell out $ for any signs of food on a 4 hour flight and I'm not warned of that at the last pizza place before the gate, maybe some fundamentals still need tweaking.) Too many companies don't give the customer a role in strategy at all, and that's plain scary.

A crowd of flashes

2008-04-30T22:09:00.000-07:00

PSFK shared this post about a photo of a concert where the crowd are reaching to capture the moment and broadcast it, in their words "for social status", to their networks. The post goes on to say that the act of snapping the shot keeps them from participating in the experience.

I disagree. Long gone are the days when capturing a photo meant hiding behind a camera. Cameras are smaller, quicker, easier, more subtle. Capturing a moment in today's space actually becomes a part of the moment - people pose, gather, smile - all quick and casual and living the moment. Arms length photos bring the photographer into the frame. Camera toss, food photos, foot shots - all represent new, engaging ways of capturing life - easier to capture and easier to share today. You'll see stories about this repeatedly at Kodak's 1000Words blog and on Jenny's ljcfyi blog also.
These photographers are living the moment differently from those just absorbing it, doesn't mean they aren't getting just as much out of it.

Next - why are they broadcasting the images? Gets at the entire root of why people broadcast - why do they blog, microblog, tweet, utterz, etc? Yes, some are sharing to boost their cred, but others could be sharing with friends who couldn't make it. Or to let the world know what music they like or how they spend their time. Limiting to status-seeking is, well, limiting.

Maybe it's me, but seems like a very limited perspective.

What a little more thought can get you....

2008-04-29T05:58:00.000-07:00

I've been a bit frustrated with search for a while, but have largely accepted that I have to deal with what is there. A Google search often takes me through 5 pages of results before I give up with my question only partially answered. I try to be selective and click only the urls that look like they may yield something, but it can be hard to distinguish when it all looks the same.

Someone sat in my office one day and asked "Will people ever get that Google doesn't cut it? Will they ever change their search paradigm?" At the time, I thought perhaps, but really didn't see where the next solution could come from.

Mahalo and Mosio have been on my radar for a while. People-powered search can have intriguing possibilities. Although I think if I turn to a group of people, I want it to be a group of people I know - ie those I follow on Twitter - so that I understand the perspective the answers are coming from. It depends on whether I'm searching for tilapia recipes or for data on the US foodie market and how foodies congregate online.

Now, I've started to play around with Viewzi - a new visual search tool - getting into the beta with a code from Marketing Pilgrim. For intense data searches, it doesn't seem to perform necessarily better than Google, but the real difference is the experience, anyway.

Viewzi has a few advantages that are fast winning me over:

The visual workflow is very slick - I like the animation, the way you move through results, and the screenshots and images are very well done.

Seeing the pages before you go to them is huge. I know other engines do this, but I haven't played with them. Viewzi also has a summary in the "frame" of the text on the page, that gives you a much better idea of the fit of the link than just trying to judge the URL.

- a Viewzi screenshot via Travis Isaacs' blog

I love that other categories of info are automatically included in each search. For example - a search on "tilapia recipe" pulls up standard search results, aggregate results from Google, Yahoo, Ask.com , and MSN - and also two different types of photo results, video, Amazon, mp3, weather, Reuters, shopping, and TechCrunch.

Google has increased the ease of searching images and video, but they're all in separate tabs, so you have to think about it more. With Viewzi, I may find video clips or books related to dinner without thinking of that ahead of time.
MP3? Probably not so much. It did pull up some audio, like "Recipe for a happy marriage" from Gary Petty of Good News Radio.

The search for recipes actually got me many more options than I would have considered from a search that returned a text list - and the dish I picked was pretty yummy - bonus!

How I got here

2008-04-24T08:09:00.000-07:00

In college, I ran through 3 market research internships & positions and still felt marketing was used car sales. Until my first quarter at B-school. In an economics class, one article, a single page from a magazine, stood out. It talked about a dress shop in DC that would send husbands notes around their wives' birthdays.
"Cindy's birthday is next week, and we happen to have the perfect dress in her size and colors in stock. Say the word and we'll gift wrap it and deliver it to your door."
...or something like that.

I was floored by the power of knowing exactly what a user needed and being able to communicate and deliver on it. I realized that marketing was where I wanted to be, after all.

Years later, I jumped at the chance to run my company's first online research community. As I started building relationships with our core community contributors, I was building an understanding of how people are communicating in this participatory culture.
My coworkers questioned the motivations behind blogging - was it a fad? are bloggers just sadly unsocial and need lives? - so I started informal research among those in the office who were already in the blog space (including Jenny). Jenny and others encouraged me to start blogging myself.

And I've been jumping in and trying new social media tools since.

***************

Before any of this, my love of languages clarified into a passion for exploring the different ways people/ societies express themselves. As a French major, I was fascinated by a class in Caribbean literature - Chamoiseau's Solibo Magnifique, Maryse Conde. The evolution of Haitian and Martinican creoles - melding languages in order to form one way to best express your experience and that blend becoming as legit as any language itself- some of the earliest mashups! Gullah is another example.

Clay Shirky, of NYU's Interactive Telecommunications program declared the "Creolizaiton of media" in talking about the attitude of Gen Y to sharing online (Say Everything by Emily Nussbaum). I see it more widespread, but love the phrase. So that's what we're talking about here. I'm hoping to get my thinking on modern storytelling and voice out of my head and into a space where it can contribute to the conversation.