en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/304992 Comments by Mary Walker http://www.anthrogoggles.com/2009/06/19/6-learnings-about-community-management-from-the-2009-online-community-unconference/#IDComment41025602 Hey Arvind - thanks for commenting -- yeah, it's still very early days in our understanding of online communities -- and even earlier days in terms of businesses having any clue of how to interact with them effectively. Per the title "Community Manager" -- you're right about the misleading connotations of "Manager" -- but then, job titles serve multiple purposes, so job titles are often rather laughable when read literally. I mean, my current job title is "Senior Director" which sounds like I'm either 80 yrs old, or running a old people's home. Job titles serve as status signals to people within an industry -- certain words become seen as having a specific meaning within that industry -- so the companies really have to use those "code words" -- or their jobs get misunderstood, they attract the wrong kind of applicant, etc. So most companies are very unadventurous in how they do their job titles. The exceptions are the creative industries where creativity and uniqueness is expected. For example: in the industries of banking and of market research, the title "Vice President" is a very common title. It is applied to many professionals who are considered seasoned or fully trained in that business -- you can easily become a VP before you're 30 yrs old, for example. But in Silicon Valley -- VP is only an executive level title -- there aren't many of them in any company. So the VP title signals different things in those different industries. The job title "Manager" is often used to signal that the job is considered a "professional level" job for a person with some level of experience --it's not a job for a newbie -- and it's not an administrative-level job. Whereas if the job had the title "Community Coordinator" or something -- it might sound like a not-for-profit job, or more of an admin-level job. And we know the connotations (pro and con) of "Community Organizer", because of all the discussion around Obama's having had that job. also note that inside organizations, job titles are tied to pay grades and rankings -- so "Manager" jobs across the company are linked to a salary range of $ to $$. Thus changing the title can cause confusion and put the salary level into question. Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:46:10 +0000 http://www.anthrogoggles.com/2009/06/19/6-learnings-about-community-management-from-the-2009-online-community-unconference/#IDComment41025602 http://www.anthrogoggles.com/2009/04/18/17-roles-that-emerge-in-online-customer-protests-with-amazonfail-examples/#IDComment19433503 Thanks for reading and commenting! Yes, that's my feeling too -- that while there are differences in each online crowd action -- there are underlying common patterns. There's been a lot of research done over the decades on the patterns of in-person crowd actions -- protests, riots, etc -- I hope some PhD student who's studying online behavior will do some more in-depth study of online crowd actions. Mon, 20 Apr 2009 14:09:55 +0000 http://www.anthrogoggles.com/2009/04/18/17-roles-that-emerge-in-online-customer-protests-with-amazonfail-examples/#IDComment19433503 http://www.anthrogoggles.com/2009/04/18/17-roles-that-emerge-in-online-customer-protests-with-amazonfail-examples/#IDComment19405522 Good observations -- yup, mine was very much a first cut at a model / typography. As you say, there's a higher order of abstractions -- and there's a timeline for how the protest develops, that ties into the roles. And the roles interrelate, as you observe -- a single participant/post can serve the purpose of multiple roles. I do hope somebody's doing serious research on this -- other than people like me, speculating in our spare time -- it's a rich topic, and there's plenty of data out there. thanks for commenting! Mon, 20 Apr 2009 04:25:23 +0000 http://www.anthrogoggles.com/2009/04/18/17-roles-that-emerge-in-online-customer-protests-with-amazonfail-examples/#IDComment19405522 http://www.anthrogoggles.com/2009/04/18/17-roles-that-emerge-in-online-customer-protests-with-amazonfail-examples/#IDComment19404947 Aha -- thanks for the heads up -- I'll check it. muchas gracias. Mon, 20 Apr 2009 04:21:09 +0000 http://www.anthrogoggles.com/2009/04/18/17-roles-that-emerge-in-online-customer-protests-with-amazonfail-examples/#IDComment19404947 http://www.anthrogoggles.com/2009/02/22/four-sf-books-for-social-media/#IDComment17188294 Hi Chris -- thanks for stopping by and commenting! (and thanks for the Digg!) Your book list is excellent -- wonderful set of thinkers/writers. Per your comment about Snow Crash and Second Life -- apparently SF and the real world have been mutually influencing each other since back in the 19th century. The book "Different Engines: How Science Drives Fiction and Fiction Drives Science" by Brake & Hook gave some interesting examples. Wed, 18 Mar 2009 15:29:31 +0000 http://www.anthrogoggles.com/2009/02/22/four-sf-books-for-social-media/#IDComment17188294 http://www.anthrogoggles.com/2009/02/22/four-sf-books-for-social-media/#IDComment16062615 Hi Gordon -- glad the list was useful -- thanks for letting me know! Mon, 2 Mar 2009 16:50:17 +0000 http://www.anthrogoggles.com/2009/02/22/four-sf-books-for-social-media/#IDComment16062615 http://www.anthrogoggles.com/2009/02/22/four-sf-books-for-social-media/#IDComment15872787 Aha great minds think alike -- that's the book a friend of mine recommended to me awhile back, and he suggested it for this list too (Paul Henderson -- a brilliant guy, does business strategy and IP consulting, and reads an enormous range of books, including a lot of SF -- you can find him on LinkedIn). Just like you mention though -- I was worried that the later parts of the book would lose people. Again I was trying to pick books that were super accessible to non SF readers and that stayed pretty close to today's world. Actually now that you mention Stross, Halting State would have been a pretty good one for the original post...shoulda had that one in there.... Fri, 27 Feb 2009 15:08:39 +0000 http://www.anthrogoggles.com/2009/02/22/four-sf-books-for-social-media/#IDComment15872787 http://www.anthrogoggles.com/2009/02/22/four-sf-books-for-social-media/#IDComment15872633 Hi Caspar - hmm that's a great suggestion -- it didn't occur to me but of course the Amazon links would be country-specific. I'll look into how to do the UK links. But in the meantime, don't hold off buying books. Thanks so much for thinking of my affiliate money but no reason to hold off. (also -- some additional good books were mentioned in the comments, so definitely check the other comments if you're thinking about buying something). Fri, 27 Feb 2009 15:03:45 +0000 http://www.anthrogoggles.com/2009/02/22/four-sf-books-for-social-media/#IDComment15872633 http://www.anthrogoggles.com/2009/02/22/four-sf-books-for-social-media/#IDComment15862577 Thanks for the suggestions! I had actually thought about Doctorow's Little Brother for the post.:-) I'm not familiar w/ the Global Frequency series, though, I'll have to check it out. Fri, 27 Feb 2009 07:11:29 +0000 http://www.anthrogoggles.com/2009/02/22/four-sf-books-for-social-media/#IDComment15862577 http://www.anthrogoggles.com/2009/02/22/four-sf-books-for-social-media/#IDComment15852576 Yeah, my name is pretty common (Mary not Mark :-P ) My email is mary at interwalk dot com -- that may help you find me on FB. FB interface can be annoying -- I clicked on all 5 Alison Lowndes and each one says they have to confirm me before it gives me access to anything... Fri, 27 Feb 2009 02:07:22 +0000 http://www.anthrogoggles.com/2009/02/22/four-sf-books-for-social-media/#IDComment15852576 http://www.anthrogoggles.com/2009/02/22/four-sf-books-for-social-media/#IDComment15852270 Hi Cat -- thanks for coming by ! Both of those great books! But they didn't fit the purpose of my post as well as the others. The filter I was using for the post was books with the following characteristics: - near term future which is very like today's world (ie same national states, similar lifestyles, similar economic system etc -- ie no apocalypse / post apocalypse) - the protagonists are basically today's people, with somewhat more/better net tech - the net tech / social tech / social media is an important piece of the book/plot Again, these recommendations were meant for people who don't usually read any of this stuff. These aren't recs for the genre cognoscenti who know this stuff inside and out. There's a whole bunch of people for whom the Sci Fi section of the bookstore is off limits; they don't get it, don't enjoy it, don't read it. As one person told me, "That stuff is so ridiculous, I've tried but I just can't get into it. It's too silly." So "SF / not really SF" etc. -- those aren't distinctions those people make. Their preferred reading is authors like John Grisham and Jodie Picout. They don't want "weird" stuff like apocalypses, clones, singularities, etc; they want fiction that looks a lot like the world they see today. So I tried to suggest a few books that might be enjoyable for them, but that also had examples of future uses of social tech / high connectivity societies. Fri, 27 Feb 2009 01:59:04 +0000 http://www.anthrogoggles.com/2009/02/22/four-sf-books-for-social-media/#IDComment15852270 http://www.anthrogoggles.com/2009/02/22/four-sf-books-for-social-media/#IDComment15834294 Hi Will -- D'oh! Fixed it (back when you first reported it). Thanks for the catch; that's what I get for writing blog posts at 2 am. :-P And I like your comment about "cultural brainstorming" -- that's a great concept. Thu, 26 Feb 2009 17:07:44 +0000 http://www.anthrogoggles.com/2009/02/22/four-sf-books-for-social-media/#IDComment15834294 http://www.anthrogoggles.com/2009/02/22/four-sf-books-for-social-media/#IDComment15834273 Hi Alison -- thanks for dropping by and commenting. Yeah, the time crunch impacts everything. But it's tricky figuring out what you're not going to do -- there's a cost to not doing stuff -- but you can't do everything either. I'd love to read your blog post but the bitly url is just putting me on the main Facebook page -- I'm not seeing your page or a post....there are 2 Alison Lowndes on FB so I assume one of them is you? maybe FB won't let me through to your FB home page.... Thu, 26 Feb 2009 17:06:57 +0000 http://www.anthrogoggles.com/2009/02/22/four-sf-books-for-social-media/#IDComment15834273 http://www.anthrogoggles.com/2009/02/22/four-sf-books-for-social-media/#IDComment15834269 Hi Andy -- thanks for dropping by! Yeah, you're right, ordinarily a reading list wouldn't include the same author twice. :-) I wanted to focus on books that were both accessible and very near-term SF -- books that non-SF readers would have a chance of actually appreciating and getting through. A lot of great SF is impenetrable to people who don't often read SF. (Just like high-literary fiction is another walled garden, so it's not just SF.) And, despite the fact that I work in Silicon Valley -- the great majority of the businesspeople I know, don't read SF *at all*. (They may have seen movies/adaptations like Minority Report -- although many haven't even done that -- a lot of midcareer business people I know don't seem to go to movies that much either). I've seen it happen multiple times, in book clubs and with other friends, where the non-SF readers don't enjoy or finish an SF book. Things get a little too weird, the language a little too inventive, or the plot a little too strange (from those readers' perspectives) and they get turned off and drop it. For example, a friend of mine suggested that Accelerando by Charles Stoss be on the list. But I've seen multiple non-SF readers not be able to get through it. The good thing about Pattern Recognition and Spook Country is that they're both pretty accessible. Most people have heard of of cool-hunting and so can relate to that angle in PR, and many people can grok the basics of the 3D tech discussed in SC. (And, most people have actually heard vaguely about Gibson, and that's also useful.) So that's why the list isn't longer, and why there are two books from the same author. I just wanted to put a few initial suggestions out there, that won't overwhelm non-SF readers. Thu, 26 Feb 2009 17:06:35 +0000 http://www.anthrogoggles.com/2009/02/22/four-sf-books-for-social-media/#IDComment15834269 http://www.anthrogoggles.com/2009/02/14/what-animal-emotions-can-tell-us-about-customer-experience-design/#IDComment15774469 I completely agree. Most of the enjoyment is in the seeking, not in enjoying the final prize. It's no fun when you find what you're looking for too quickly or too easily. As you mention -- you can observe this in animals. Dogs chase things because the chasing is fun for them. As the saying goes, if a dog actually caught a car, the dog wouldn't know what to do with it. Ditto cats -- one reason cats play with their prey is to make the hunting/seeking part last longer. Unless a cat is super hungry, it won't necessarily rush to kill. It's not as much fun when the prey dies too fast. Fortunately humans have invented ways to fulfill our seeking drive without having to kill things (and we've even invented ways for us to redirect our dogs' and cats' seeking drive -- into training, tricks, toys, etc.). Wed, 25 Feb 2009 04:36:59 +0000 http://www.anthrogoggles.com/2009/02/14/what-animal-emotions-can-tell-us-about-customer-experience-design/#IDComment15774469 http://www.anthrogoggles.com/2009/02/22/four-sf-books-for-social-media/#IDComment15645435 Ooh good call -- you're right, that's great one that also seems eerily prophetic these days (the US on the verge of bankruptcy, virtual world/online gaming banks as a key part of the plot, etc.) Sun, 22 Feb 2009 19:43:47 +0000 http://www.anthrogoggles.com/2009/02/22/four-sf-books-for-social-media/#IDComment15645435 http://www.anthrogoggles.com/2009/02/14/what-animal-emotions-can-tell-us-about-customer-experience-design/#IDComment15423592 Hi Peter -- thanks for reading and commenting. Completely agree with your point about the importance of empathy and attentiveness for staying in sync with the customer's experience. Combine that with all the new Web 2.0 tools that allow for much more 1:1 interaction and grassroots organizing (a la Clay Shirky's observations) -- and you get a very different power dynamic from the one that many of the traditional sales and marketing techniques were based on. Wed, 18 Feb 2009 19:19:50 +0000 http://www.anthrogoggles.com/2009/02/14/what-animal-emotions-can-tell-us-about-customer-experience-design/#IDComment15423592 http://www.anthrogoggles.com/2009/02/14/what-animal-emotions-can-tell-us-about-customer-experience-design/#IDComment15269897 Thanks Steven. I've enjoyed reading your blogs and your tweets. And I agree with you about education. As industries and institutions age, they develop geological layers of sediment that can lock them into old ways of doing things...it becomes more about protecting the existing interest groups than evolving and moving forward. That's certainly a big problem with much of the US education system. Sun, 15 Feb 2009 18:19:56 +0000 http://www.anthrogoggles.com/2009/02/14/what-animal-emotions-can-tell-us-about-customer-experience-design/#IDComment15269897 http://www.anthrogoggles.com/2008/03/05/the-rule-of-simple-cafeteria-design-and-student-behaviors/#IDComment14765157 Hi Will -- thanks for dropping by. I'll follow up with you in email so we can talk in more detail. Thu, 5 Feb 2009 01:51:30 +0000 http://www.anthrogoggles.com/2008/03/05/the-rule-of-simple-cafeteria-design-and-student-behaviors/#IDComment14765157 http://www.newsless.org/2009/01/on-bad-journalism/#IDComment14381153 Hi Matt -- just followed a link to this blog -- love the topics you're addressing. I'm not in media but I'm a huge consumer of a wide range of written media (online and paper), so I'm very interested in where the industry is going. IMO you're absolutely on to something. The entire media universe/system is changing, but the various pieces, parts and players are all evolving at different speeds and directions, so it's not clear what the end game looks like. And some parts of the media universe are more out of sync than others. I agree with you that it's not helpful to blame individuals for being "bad journalists." Yes, of course there are bad journalists out there -- but that's not what's causing the crisis in the industry. So scapegoating individuals is a red herring that keeps you from seeing and addressing the systemic issues that are allowing these multiple failures/lapses to happen (as Edwards Deming would say). In terms of media professionals as a group: the sad thing is that it might be one of those generational paradigm issues. It's often difficult for people to change their thinking when their world undergoes a paradigm shift. People spend the bulk of their career in a certain industry model, absorbing unconsciously the skills and mental tools of that industry model....like fish don't notice water, people don't even see how their deepest assumptions are no longer applicable. Thomas Kuhn would have said that big paradigm shifts are often generational; you literally have to wait for many of the old guard to retire / die, before the new model/paradigm can fully be adopted and flourish. Which is a bit grim but does often seem to be true (Detroit, anyone?). My experience is that, of all the traditional media forms, the daily local newspaper is the one that's in failure mode, because its primary purposes are all under attack from new forms/approaches (disseminating "breaking" news; distribution channel for local ads; editorial opinions; local news). Out of all of these -- the "breaking" news is now covered by online services. Ad distribution is increasingly online or done by "free" local papers. etc etc. Local news and needs are being most poorly served at present IMO -- so there's a gap there to fill, for deeper stories and deeper editorial content, that won't be filled by the "free" local ad papers. So where will it come from? (given that the current business model for local papers is failing) I think you're correct that the best mechanism visible to us today, is a local wiki / discussion board (with some strict Slashdot-type screening and ranking tools to help the cream rise to the top). As an example: I'm reminded of the rumored "National Security Wikipedia" which members of our multiple national security agencies use to pool their expertise and data in real time. It's the place where the breaking news is consolidated as it unfolds -- as one example, apparently there was a new wiki page on the Empire-building-airplane strike within minutes of the event, and over the following hour or so, the multiple contributors did real-time research and quickly determined that this was a genuine small plane accident and not a terrorist incident. And of course the NSWiki is also the place for discussion and research consolidation on longer-term security issues, not just breaking incidents. (This is all hearsay on my side, since of course this wiki is off limits to the public.) I would love to see something like that for local news -- like a Yelp for local news, or perhaps done as a Facebook app / attachment or something. But, it's true that a lot of people don't use those types of online services yet (again a generational issue). So we're dealing with very disparate demographic use patterns for consumers of news/info. Another thought: as the traditional daily newspaper dies -- the specialty news magazine / expertise magazines still seem to have success/demand. A few of the big daily metro papers seem to be evolving themselves into the "magazine" format -- ie the New York Times with its national Sunday edition, and increasingly the Wall Street Journal daily (as it challenges the Times). NYT Sunday edition basically seem to be in competition with The Economist for providing me with substantive insights into the news. This means those papers have to provide deeper, more substantive content -- less emphasis on breaking news and "names-dates" simple facts -- more on in-depth research, analysis and well-written summary findings. Tue, 27 Jan 2009 07:08:17 +0000 http://www.newsless.org/2009/01/on-bad-journalism/#IDComment14381153