Saturday, November 22, 2008
Social Media Changing History
I have a presentation I regularly go out and give that is all about bloggers and how they are transforming their own lives, their communities and, in fact, the world, with the simple act of blogging.
I touch on the obvious: political blogging and its impact. But I spend a lot more time illuminating the power that comes from blogging as a personal platform.
One of the things I always talk about is history. Throughout time History with a capital 'H' has focused on war, government and commerce. And until quite recently those three things were male-dominated. Thus History has really been mostly men's history. Yet, we are fascinated by the details of people's lives and culture when we find evidence of it. What is the most compelling part of Ken Burns' Civil War documentary, for example? Is it not the letters? Just regular people sharing intimate thoughts and feelings.
Blogging is changing how our history will be written. We have unprecedented access to what people across all walks of life are doing, individually and as part of societal groups.
Not only is it a gift on a very personal, individual level to hand down our lives to our children and grandchildren (or nieces and nephews, for that matter.) It is a gift to future anthropologists and historians too.
Ben Parr over at Mashable digs into this particular subject in more detail than I can as part of a larger presentation with is post: 5 Ways Social Media Will Change Recorded History. Just about everything he says resonates with me.
How about you?
I touch on the obvious: political blogging and its impact. But I spend a lot more time illuminating the power that comes from blogging as a personal platform.
One of the things I always talk about is history. Throughout time History with a capital 'H' has focused on war, government and commerce. And until quite recently those three things were male-dominated. Thus History has really been mostly men's history. Yet, we are fascinated by the details of people's lives and culture when we find evidence of it. What is the most compelling part of Ken Burns' Civil War documentary, for example? Is it not the letters? Just regular people sharing intimate thoughts and feelings.
Blogging is changing how our history will be written. We have unprecedented access to what people across all walks of life are doing, individually and as part of societal groups.
Not only is it a gift on a very personal, individual level to hand down our lives to our children and grandchildren (or nieces and nephews, for that matter.) It is a gift to future anthropologists and historians too.
Ben Parr over at Mashable digs into this particular subject in more detail than I can as part of a larger presentation with is post: 5 Ways Social Media Will Change Recorded History. Just about everything he says resonates with me.
How about you?
Labels: history, mashable, social media club
Sunday, November 09, 2008
Audio interview with me from Marketing & Online Communities event
Bryan Person from Live World conducted a brief (~10 minute) interview with me, post-presentation at the Marketing & Online Communities Conference in NYC last week.
In but 10 minutes we covered a lot of ground, though, as Bryan's show notes reveal:
It's a pretty efficient run-down, so check it out if you are so inclined.
In but 10 minutes we covered a lot of ground, though, as Bryan's show notes reveal:
Show notes:
* Elisa recounts the genesis of the BlogHer conference and the launch of BlogHer.com and BlogHerAds.
* Elisa talks about the motivation of many mommy bloggers to leave behind a digital legacy for their children and future descendants.
* Elisa notes the overwhelming percentage of women who consider blogs as a reliable source of information, and who make decisions to buy and not to buy based on what a blogger or blog commenter writes. (Check out the BlogHer 2008 Social Media Benchmark Study [PDF] for more details.)
* Elisa offers advice to brands and PR professionals wanting to pitch bloggers.
* Elisa shares her top takeaways from the conference.
It's a pretty efficient run-down, so check it out if you are so inclined.
Labels: blogher, bloghercon, interview, LiveWorld
Friday, November 07, 2008
This month's Silicon Veggie: New Owner, New Attitude
Goes all political.
Usually I try to pull in some marketing or customer care or communications issue that applies...to make it even a little bit relevant to my tiny, but loyal, Worker Bees audience.
But nope, this one is just political.
Usually I try to pull in some marketing or customer care or communications issue that applies...to make it even a little bit relevant to my tiny, but loyal, Worker Bees audience.
But nope, this one is just political.
Labels: Silicon Veggie
Monday, November 03, 2008
BlogHer continues its Awards roll...but this time you need to vote, or rate, or...
We found out late last week that BlogHer is a finalist for the Game Changers Awards, associated with and presented at the WeMedia Conference next February in Miami, FL.
This reminds me quite a bit of the Fast Company Fast 50 awards, because it asks folks to rate the finalists and even leave a comment with your thoughts.
You can see our entry and do that rating and commenting here. (No, we didn't write the entry, by the way.)
So just like you did for the FC award, I hope if you are so inclined, you will visit their site and rate us, comment about us...and check out the other talented folks too.
This reminds me quite a bit of the Fast Company Fast 50 awards, because it asks folks to rate the finalists and even leave a comment with your thoughts.
You can see our entry and do that rating and commenting here. (No, we didn't write the entry, by the way.)
So just like you did for the FC award, I hope if you are so inclined, you will visit their site and rate us, comment about us...and check out the other talented folks too.
Labels: Game Changers Awards, WeMedia
Today is Email Bankruptcy Day
As I've mentioned before, I've started a new policy that does nothing but make me feel falsely less burdened once per month.
On the first business day of every month I take everything left in my email Inbox, create a new folder for it, and move all those emails into it.
If it's in my Inbox that means I believe I should respond or take action on it...I'm a filer, not a piler, so the Inbox is my "Action" folder. But now, I have a string of "Action" folders by month of all the actions I just couldn't get to. That I should get to, that I want to get to, absolutely. But that I haven't gotten to and don't know if I ever will.
Now, sometimes while on a plane or in some other "trapped" situation I do go through all the old month's Action folders. I've actually managed to eliminate some months. It's not all that pretty though. Right now it looks like this:
2007: 185 messages
February '08: 46 messages
April '08: 11 messages
July '08: 36 messages
August '08: 1 message
September '08: 13 messages
October '08: 52 messages
For a grand total of: 344 messages that were at one point touched, read, and determined to be worthy of a response from me :(
See what I mean about creating a false sense of less burden?
Sigh.
If you're waiting for a response form me to an email from before today, i suggest pinging me again.
And let me just apologize, in advance, for my egregiously delayed reply!
On the first business day of every month I take everything left in my email Inbox, create a new folder for it, and move all those emails into it.
If it's in my Inbox that means I believe I should respond or take action on it...I'm a filer, not a piler, so the Inbox is my "Action" folder. But now, I have a string of "Action" folders by month of all the actions I just couldn't get to. That I should get to, that I want to get to, absolutely. But that I haven't gotten to and don't know if I ever will.
Now, sometimes while on a plane or in some other "trapped" situation I do go through all the old month's Action folders. I've actually managed to eliminate some months. It's not all that pretty though. Right now it looks like this:
2007: 185 messages
February '08: 46 messages
April '08: 11 messages
July '08: 36 messages
August '08: 1 message
September '08: 13 messages
October '08: 52 messages
For a grand total of: 344 messages that were at one point touched, read, and determined to be worthy of a response from me :(
See what I mean about creating a false sense of less burden?
Sigh.
If you're waiting for a response form me to an email from before today, i suggest pinging me again.
And let me just apologize, in advance, for my egregiously delayed reply!
Labels: Email bankruptcy day, GTD, productivity
