Spend at least 30 minutes a day replying to @ mentions or promoting someone else’s blog or retweet someone

I have to say that’s perhaps one of the things I enjoy the most – retweeting. Naturally, I do promote my own posts, hence why I schedule a few tweets indicating to my Twitter followers that I’ve posted on my blog something that I think will be useful to them. But for the most part, you’ll see me retweeting stuff All The Time.

I find that while retweeting itself does not build community directly (or alone), it does help build the online relationships that you can then take offline and build a strong network of supporters. My tweets are frequently retweeted and even though it takes a lot of me to thank people individually, I do make a point to say “hey thanks for that retweet” (I will fully confess that in the past weeks, the number of retweets that I have gotten has been so large that I have been remiss in thanking people individually – same with the Follow Friday mentions).

So if I may give you a piece of unsolicited advice, follow Scott’s advice and spend some time promoting other people’s posts. It’s good karma, and it feels good (at least for me!).

Related posts:

1. Does retweeting build community online? Twitter as a real social media platform?
2. Build a blog entry around a photograph (Blogging 201)
3. Retweeting, contests and social media etiquette

I don’t know who is teaching the newbies in the social media world in British Columbia, but whoever it is is about to get an earful from me (and an unfollow as well). Automated direct messages that say “thanks for the follow” must cease to exist. While some folks in the social media world may find them engaging, I find them annoying and generating absolutely zero engagement. Moreover, what happens whenever I get one of those automated DMs (direct messages) is that I unfollow that account immediately. It’s about as annoying as the “please follow me so I can DM you”. Uh, no, sorry. I’ve made it clear why I hate DMs. If I hate DMs as they are, can you imagine how much I hate automated DMs? As I have tweeted frequently:

An automated DM sends you directly to my unfollow list, fast than a rock in still water

Please, everyone, stop this annoying, disrespectful practice. RIGHT NOW.

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2. Tip # 8 – Listen to your Circadian cycles and follow them
3. Social networks, LinkedIn and our professional lives

Well, that’s actually not exactly true. I just connect people, I don’t make a living out of it. Sometimes I wish I did, though. It’s a fact that I enjoy making the synergistic interactions amongst people happen, quite frankly. But I don’t like feeling obligated to introduce people to one another, but more so when those linkages seem the right fit or when the people to ask me to be connected aren’t using me. This last statement sounds harsh, but we all know those people. The ones who scour for connections (one of the reasons why I hate calling social events “networking events”). I feel that growing networks organically is the right way to do it. And I love helping people grow their networks, even more so when the kindness is reciprocal.

My good friend Meriko Kubota (Vancouver Foundation, Give Music) mentioned to me a couple of weeks ago when we met that she was amazed at the fact that I wasn’t afraid of connecting people. I’m not, it’s true. But more so because I know how to differentiate when someone is trying to use me than when I think someone needs help or I can refer business to. I am ALWAYS happy to connect my friends, in particular when I think there’s a chance for synergy.

On the topic of referring business, I think that’s one of the great things about having a rather extensive network, both online and offline. I am often able to refer business to other folks, or I retweet job advertisements. And I do so because I know that things have a way of paying themselves back. I have been referred consulting business and/or speaking engagements by great friends of mine and I am always grateful (and try to show it!).

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1. Living my life as an open book: The Living Library Project at UBC’s @ikblc
2. VEF Momentum Connect: Leadership event – June 24th, 2009
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I was recently contacted by a very close friend of mine whom we will call the Photo Credit Police for purposes of this post. My good friend indicated that I had not provided credit ON THE BLOG POST, even though I was linking back to the original photo on Flickr and there, I filled a complete credit line. I’m glad my friend caught that, as I agree with this viewpoint. I’m not perfect, and even though I do think that I am a pretty damn fine blogger, I could perhaps improve on my practices. So I will be going back on my posts trying to catch where I did not provide credit on the blog post.

I will also continue with my extensively long disclosure statements. Why? Because I think I need to be one of the people at the forefront. If I am to be considered a power blogger, then I need to hold myself to high standards. And for 99.99% of the time, I think I hold myself to really high standards. But I must set the example, so I’ll make damn sure that I provide credit ON the blog post IN ADDITION to on the Flickr upload. If you see photos that are not credited (and you are 100% sure that they are not mine) then do let me know and I’ll fix it.

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2. Blogging about blogging, Twittering about Twitter…
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Anybody who knows me well knows that I’m always skeptical of anything that looks or smell like a fad (did anyone say Google Buzz? or Formspring?). Given my social media activities, I’m always exploring new platforms, knowledge sources, etc. But I’m not a bandwagon-jumper. Thus, despite the recent hype on Quora, I haven’t joined. I’m very wary of following an overwhelming stream of content, and thus, I’m pondering whether to join Quora.

So, those of you who DID join Quora – why did you do it? What are the advantages you see in it?

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3. Persuade Me: Why and how should I join Facebook?

In 2011, please reconsider your Foursquare-to-Twitter behaviour. In the little impromptu poll I did on whether people found value from Foursquare tweets, the vast minority were saying “yes, I find value”. And those who do find value, it’s because the tweeter in question provides additional context within the Foursquare check-in.

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1. On the uselessness of Foursquare and Gowalla
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Anybody who has read my blog before knows that I’ve been extremely critical of the regional transit authority and their online behaviour. I have never been shy about it. But in the past few months, and specially in the past few weeks, I’ve been witnessing (as have most of my friend in the Metro Vancouver region who are on Twitter) an increasing level of interactivity with the @Translink account.

[UPDATE - In my original post, I had intended to praise Jennifer Siddon, the fantastic woman behind @SkytrainLady and in my humble opinion, the model of interactivity and customer service that the rest of Translink's staff followed. You may remember how on top of things Jennifer was while the 2010 Winter Olympics were taking place, and she's kept that same pace, at times checking her Blackberry on the go and answering customer inquiries outside what you could consider normal hours - Jennifer DOES deserve a lot of kudos, and I have said so publicly as well, as shown on the tweet below]

Staffed by a multiplicity of folks who work for the communications area of Translink, the Twitter account has worked hard at keeping up with mentions of “Skytrain”, “Canada Line” and other services. In fact, sometimes they go back in the conversation and track it to the point where they can find what the problem was. This happened to me recently when an 8 Fraser didn’t stop where it should have dropped me off. I didn’t complain, but the folks behind the @Translink Twitter account tracked down the conversation up to the point where they realized what happened.

I asked Erin McConnell from Translink to comment on how they feel about the response from the public and the rationale behind this expanded effort to provide real-time updates and how successful it has been. Below is her response.

I believe the pilot has been a remarkable success for two reasons: customer support and the team running @translink. TransLink customers on Twitter have been tremendous. They have helped us improve the type of information we share by engaging with us directly and have been instrumental in growing our Twitter community by sharing transit and service updates with their followers, allowing us to reach more people across the system. We are thrilled that customers have sent us more commendations for our work on Twitter than for any other project to date. The Customer Information team tweeting from our @translink account has done an outstanding job at providing passengers with real-time, personalized service information. In addition to being extremely dedicated, they were Twitter naturals and truly love engaging with customers through @translink.

In the same way I have criticized Translink before on what I think they’ve done wrong, I have to praise them on what they’ve done right. And I want to give them kudos. Not surprising, most people are feeling the same way!

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1. Translink, social media and the issue of instantaneous updates on Twitter
2. The return of the liveblog?
3. My recent Social Media Club Victoria talk: “Towards an Action-Focused Agenda for Social Change Using Social Media” (#smcvictoria) @smcvictoria

Ah, the re-tweet (RT). That good ol’ friend. I would say “long time, no see” but truthfully, I can’t stay that. My stuff gets re-tweeted all the time, and I am extremely grateful for that. That people will think of my stuff relevant enough to share it with their own networks makes me happy. The way I have thought about retweets has evolved quite a lot, though. I am pretty sure that’s this evolution is result of the fact that my 5th year of blogging is soon over (April 2011) and that I have thought about this topic quite a lot.

In my two most recent speaking engagements in the field of social media (WordCamp Fraser Valley and the Canadian Public Relations Society Student Chapter in Vancouver Social Media 101), I indicated that one of the easiest, fastest and best ways to contribute to building your own community online was retweeting people’s stuff. I often do that, intermingling my own tweets (pre-scheduled, for the most part) with retweeting stuff from other individuals.

But the interesting thing is, not everybody thinks this way. The reason why I retweet what I read, mostly, is because either (a) I find it valuable (b) I agree with it and/or (c) I think there’s a reason to share it with my broader network. I retweet Translink’s stuff because my own online network is fairly large and well connected. I would (and probably will) do the same for the Vancouver Police Department (which is now on Twitter, and YouTube – and apparently Second Life?).

I look for ways to make my relationships bidirectional, and I think retweeting other people’s stuff is one way. But some folks might disagree with me. What is YOUR take on retweeting?

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1. Build online relationships, promote others as you do yourself
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Despite the fact that I am now geekier than I have ever been (heck, I even created a whole website all on my own, “look Ma no hands” style), I tend to NOT follow social media fads. I wait until I have seen how others have explored the platform, how I see them working, I play around with them for a bit and then I decide if I stay or I go. It took me a solid 3 years to decide whether I wanted to join Facebook.

There are a few social media platforms that I dislike, particularly Foursquare. As I said at a recent Social Media 101 Roundtable where I spoke, I can’t see Foursquare building community. You could say “hey, but I have my friends on Foursquare already and when I tell them where I am, they may want to check the place out or share it with their friends as well”. Um, no, actually that’s not totally true, particularly if you already have a community built (likely, by being on Facebook or Twitter, or simply by having met them in real life) and Foursquare imports your contacts. Foursquare, I repeat, is not a community-building tool. I have criticized it before.

I’m less likely to follow your Foursquare updates if I don’t know you even if you’re Foursquare friends with my own friends. But I may follow you if you are followed by my friends on Twitter or friend you if you’re Facebook friends with mine. I have used both Foursquare and Gowalla and I got bored faster than you can say “I’m here”. And I have all but looked at the many ways in which I can try to erase “Facebook Places” on my Facebook account (you can’t, but that’s another story about how Facebook manipulates what you do).

I have a few friends who are Foursquare happy (some of the check ins make me roll my eyes – albeit, just as much some of my Twitter updates make THEM roll their eyes). That wouldn’t be a problem if they didn’t have their check-ins cross-linked with their Twitter account. But sometimes, the frequency of those check-ins (particularly those that don’t offer ANY value, e.g. “I’m here” instead of saying, for example “here to try their allegedly fantastic pancakes”) just drives me insane. I finally found where I can remove all Foursquare checkins on TweetDeck (HootSuite, I’m waiting for you to have that option).

photo credit: minimalistphotography101.com

But there are two areas where I think cross-linking is actually good. The first is Flickr-to-Twitter (thanks to Rebecca, Gus and John for letting me know how to set up my Flickr to cross-link via e-mail). And the second one, that I was kind of reluctant to accept, is the Twitter-to-Facebook. Because you can hide it from your Facebook, if you’re friends with someone you follow on Twitter.

There is a place for cross-linking content across your social media platforms. I’m not 100% sure everything needs to be cross-linked, though. Sometimes it drives me crazy to see Facebook updates from friends I also follow on Twitter and those updates are actually Plancast-to-Facebook-to-Twitter. Just as I have tried to tone it down on Twitter (and also, really, I don’t have as much time to tweet anyways), I’d hope people tone it down on the excessive cross-linking.

And for the love of God, if you test “TweetBuddies” or any other of those applications that automatically tweet for you, please check off the box that says “post to Twitter”.

Related posts:

1. On @Translink as a case study in public service delivery and interactivity in social media platforms
2. Reconsider your Foursquare-to-Twitter behaviour in 2011
3. DemoCamp Vancouver 7 (Social Platforms Edition)

As someone who is an academic and an educator but at the same time a power user of social media, I felt it was important that I volunteer my time to this type of events, because it is by spreading my thinking on social media to other folks that I’ll be able to enhance and further the field (a goal of mine since I arrived into the social media scene in Vancouver).

You can read tweets associated with our conversations by following the hashtag CPRS101SM on Twitter. I will try to do a series of screencaptures as I know that tweets are rather ephemeral and I did not live-blog the event (as I was speaking). I hope everyone found our insights useful! And thanks Nick Seliwoniuk for the invite.

Related posts:

1. My recent Social Media Club Victoria talk: “Towards an Action-Focused Agenda for Social Change Using Social Media” (#smcvictoria) @smcvictoria
2. Social Media 101: A Conversation with Vancouver’s Top Influencers (CPRS Student Event)
3. Does retweeting build community online? Twitter as a real social media platform?

I have always been interested in the behavior of networks, in particular social networks within an industrial agglomeration complex (e.g. a cluster of firms that are located close by from each other). That was one of the reasons why I wrote a PhD thesis on the economic geography of decline of industrial clusters. Networks have a way of mesmerizing me. I’m fascinated by connections between people and firms, and the social commerce phenomenon is one that I’m puzzled by. I’m really interested in understanding the drivers of purchasing social commerce coupons. What makes YOU choose to buy into a ‘Groupon’ or a ‘Grooster’ or a ‘Good News Van’ or ‘Social Shopper’.

Even more interesting is, JT is subscribed to all of them. We (JT and I) had a text message conversation today about why he chooses to buy into them, what kind of things he buys, etc. He is not someone who is a heavy social media user at all (much to the contrary, rarely uses Facebook and is definitely not on Twitter). He is, by all measures, your average Vancouverite. So, if even he is interested in participating in social commerce as a customer, there must be something going on (I’m totally a skeptic when it comes to fads, so I have never acquired any deals).

Side note to all of you providers of social commerce coupons – please STOP using “X dollars for Y dollars worth of”. Maybe I’m just a grammar tyrant, but we all know it’s not worth Y. Please use “X% discount” if you can. I feel ripped off if I’m told “X dollars for Y worth of”. Seriously. One of the reasons why I am somewhat turned off of social commerce.

So, to my readers, your day-to-day average folk – do you buy social commerce coupons, and if so, why? What makes you buy into them?

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1. My recent Social Media Club Victoria talk: “Towards an Action-Focused Agenda for Social Change Using Social Media” (#smcvictoria) @smcvictoria
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3. Go for dinner at one of the The Heather Hospitality Group restaurants (on the house)

It’s been a relatively long while since I have liveblogged the way I used to in 2008 and 2009, but I have always (well, at least since I began dipping my toes into the social media world) thought that there is value to having an event liveblogged. I no longer have the luxury of enough time to liveblog events and thus have been really happy whenever someone else takes on that role.

For example, at a recent event that the Social Media Club Vancouver (Social Media 101 with Tris Hussey, Guacira Naves and Kemp Edmonds) had liveblogged, I took over from Sascha Neth (who was the designated liveblogger) as soon as I arrived to the event (but I would have not been able to do that if Sascha hadn’t volunteered to start it!). Unashamedly, I’m well-seasoned in transcribing (as I type close to 100 wpm), and I’m proud of the liveblogs I’ve done.

I was intrigued today by a tweet sent by Jeremiah Owyang (now with Altimeter), someone who is very well respected in the social media sphere. See his tweet below. He indicates that folks should think long-term and not rely solely on Twitter, particularly if they are live-tweeting conferences.

What *I* do is create iFrames (I have experimented with CoverItLive and ScribbleLive and have chosen to stay loyal to CiL) and grab the tweets that are hashtagged with a particular keyword. I then download the content locally as HTML and that way I preserve both my liveblog and all associated tweets. I am a bit puzzled to see Jeremiah’s tweet because, well, I thought *everyone* did what I do. But it seems they don’t.

For a recent example of a combined liveblog-incorporating-livetweetage you can see my coverage of Convergence’s Corporation 2.0 panel.

Three factors I suggest people consider when pondering whether you need to have your event/conference liveblogged:

1. Liveblogging requires valuable skills (not only typing, but ability to summarize content, find links and add your own commentary). Don’t expect your events to be liveblogged for free. This is a service that is important, and thus should be rewarded monetarily
2. Tweets are fleeting. If you are going to use CoverItLive or ScribbleLive, consider downloading your liveblog locally
3. Make sure you link and credit your sources.

I think that as more people realize just how fleeting tweets are, people will return to liveblogs. At least, I hope so!

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3. Alexandra Samuel (@awsamuel) on Coping with Social Media #nv10 liveblog

I am a very, very frequent Twitter user. To be quite frank, there is rarely a day when I don’t open my Twitter client (I use both TweetDeck and HootSuite). I use hashtags (words preluded by a # sign) in my tweets to be able to track conversations around any particular topic (for example, for Mental Health Camp Vancouver 2010 we are using the hashtag #mhcyvr10). The hashtags I use try to add information about the specific topic I am tracking. Amongst the people I follow (and even some people I don’t follow but whose tweets are re-tweeted by people I do follow), I have a number of what I call “hashtag-happy people“. Folks who use LOTS of hashtags within their tweets.

While I appreciate the value of adding metadata, I rarely can retweet those tweets because they are filled with hashtags. My username (@hummingbird604) occupies 16 characters (if you include a space between my username and the actual tweet. That means that I need to keep it brief when I retweet stuff. And I appreciate people’s brevity and the reduced use of hashtags. So most frequently, I simply remove all of their hashtags (or at least, the ones I think won’t be tracked and won’t expand the conversation further) and try to shrink their message as much as I can.

I am not one to preach about specific best practices (I believe we all crowdsource rules of engagement in social media channels, but I would strongly suggest to my hashtag-happy people to cut down on the hashtag use, so that your message doesn’t get diluted. I found a video of Chris Messina talking about hashtags at Northern Voice 2010 (video by Stephen Hui of The Georgia Straight) that I thought would be interesting, for instructional reasons.

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1. Reflections on Twitter, “grow your network organically” and #nofollow
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I am not usually one to suggest rules in the social media world. I firmly believe that rules online evolve from crowdsourcing. I also don’t brag to be a social media star, much to the contrary, I mock myself. Every time somebody tells me “oh but you have so many thousands of followers!” the first thing I answer back is “just to keep things in perspective, about 10,000 people have unfollowed me, so…”

But there’s one thing that makes me a bit queasy – when people ask me for a re-tweet. And also, when I have found myself asking for a retweet. I am not beyond having asked, on occasion, to have my tweets retweeted. Mostly, I will plead guilty to have asked a RT for Mental Health Camp, and other initiatives similar that I’ve participated in.

I recently tweeted a link to the journal Theory, Society and Culture. Their most recent volume is freely accessible (usually, it’s a paid journal), and it’s on a topic that I find important – climate change. So, I wrote at the end of my tweet “RTAYSF”, which means “Re-Tweet As You See Fit”. I feel that by adding that acronym at the end, I give people the choice – if you think it’s worth retweeting, please by all means do so.

What do you all think? Or should I just assume that, if people deem stuff worthy, they’ll retweet directly without me suggesting it?

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At FreelanceCamp Vancouver 2010, I gave a workshop on how “Freelance Is Not Free“, a refined version of my 2009 BarCamp workshop. During the workshop, one of the participants asked me what I was mostly interested in, specifically, when it came to my research. Not exactly sure how the question came up, but I mentioned that I have been, primarily, interested in cooperation for the last 15 years of my life, possibly even 20.

That has been quite visible in my academic and consulting work. I have been interested in the concept of cooperation for decades. Why do people cooperate and collaborate? – this led to an increased interest in Game Theory (a branch of microeconomics that I studied when I did my MBA coursework, under two of the best professors of the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business, Dr. Thomas W. Ross and Dr. Helen Michelson).

I have explored questions of cooperation in my MBA thesis (where I developed a game-theoretical model of strategic alliances amongst biotech and pharmaceutical industries) and my PhD thesis (where I explored the industrial/urban transformation of geographically-concentrated industries – one of the chapters deals with game-theoretical models).

Even after I completed my PhD I have continued to explore issues of collaboration and cooperation (specifically with my involvement in the coworking community, and through one of my research avenues on the economic geography of industrial decline).

When I was giving my seminar, I mentioned that I approach freelancing from a perspective of collaboration (something that, at first glance, could be seen as contradicting the Prisoner’s Dilemma theoretical underpinnings). In a traditional Prisoner’s Dilemma, from the viewpoint of the law enforcement agency, they want the prisoners to NOT collaborate and thus blow the whistle on each other (lowest payoff in what is called a 2×2 game).

However, you’ll see, I think that freelancers who collaborate are like the prisoners, and from their viewpoint, they collaborate. If neither of them blow the whistle on the other, both of them get the maximum payoff for THEM. But if they don’t collaborate and share information, perhaps even about a potentially bad client for both of them, then they both lose (minimum payoff, maximum loss).

I teach microeconomics, and I’ve taught Game Theory before, so I was really excited to bring the issue up. I do continue to collaborate with people, even when my trust has been previously betrayed at some point by others. The truth is, I think only in cooperation can industries flourish. Competition is important, but so is collaboration. That’s why Brandenburger and Nalebuff coined the term, cooperative competition – coopetition. I believe Vancouver’s industrial and freelancebase could learn a bit from using game theory, both online and offline.

Related posts:

1. Game Theory (Orkestra Futura)
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But when I took the microphone, I told Gladwell that instead of seeing me as a social media guy, I was speaking as an academic who has studied transnational networks of environmental activists for over a decade. I told Gladwell that my research contradicted what he had just told the audience (about how revolutions aren’t created through online tools – he really misinterpreted Granovetter’s findings). And it’s true. In my research, I have found that transnational networks of activists are strengthened by the use of online tools. So, the ‘weak ties’ become with time, ‘strong ties’. Gladwell said that my research showcased people who were using online tools the right way and that we should learn from those cases.

I found it kind of ironic that one of the points that Gladwell made (that anonymity hinders trust) is actually very true, and highlighted by a curious gaffe that occurred during this event and the follow up. I met Gladwell and had a chance to have a very brief conversation where he told me he wasn’t even on Twitter, and that whoever was behind the @Gladwell account wasn’t him. Funny enough, during F5Expo, another fake Malcolm Gladwell account was created. See screenshots below.

So, ironically, Gladwell was simultaneously right and wrong. Right in that online tools foster anonymity and anonymity precludes trust. Wrong in that social media and online tools can’t create revolutions. You have the case of Iran, you have the case of RETC activists (ask me in person about my research on these transnational networks). More importantly, I can easily say that my own life has been revolutionized thanks to social media.

I know that Nels and Lindsay are doing a follow-up event on Wednesday (and I can’t make it, unfortunately, as I teach right at that time), but I do hope that the issues I present here are raised. And if they know who is behind the fake Gladwell accounts, I’d LOVE to knwo.

Related posts:

1. On authenticity in social media
2. Social media tools and academia
3. My recent Social Media Club Victoria talk: “Towards an Action-Focused Agenda for Social Change Using Social Media” (#smcvictoria) @smcvictoria

I looked through my own Privacy settings, and I have them cranked to the max apparently (e.g. only my Friends can post to my Wall, etc). Still, I wish there were other features for MORE privacy on Facebook, rather than LESS. There has been a lot of debate online about how Facebook keeps making it more difficult for users to keep their privacy. My question to everyone is – if Facebook is THAT “evil”, why are we all still using it? Why not be completely democratic and demonstrate (with our vote, e.g. with our not-having-a-Facebook-account) that this loss of privacy is unacceptable?

The answer is – because not enough of us care. If the millions of users of Facebook really cared that much about their privacy, they would make the Big Brother/Sister accountable (e.g. Facebook). But in a society that is valuing privacy less and less, accountability has become an afterthought and not mainstream. Sadly, that also means that we have lost the power of protecting our privacy to commercial interests. And that’s a sad thought (and for the record, I do keep a Facebook presence, but not really by choice, but because I think it’s important for me to test all social platforms).

Related posts:

1. On privacy, Facebook and the future of our information online
2. Is Facebook decreasing the relevance of MySpace?
3. Yes. I caved… I am on Facebook now!

I am quite wary of increasing the number of people I follow on Twitter (something that has led more than one person to try to “force” me to follow them – which, actually, most of the time goes horribly wrong because I react very, very badly to being pressured to do anything). This has led more than a few thousands of people to unfollow me (which, to be quite frank, is quite alright).

I don’t think I’m an elitist, but I just have a limited amount of brain to process stuff. Plus, I HATE receiving direct messages that can easily be either emails or public replies. I just HATE IT. I am even more careful about the people I add on Facebook, because there mostly I have family members, close friends, a few selected members of the social media community that I’m not that close friends with but whom I like to get to know, and many of my academic research colleagues.

The one network I am delighted to Olympically ignore is LinkedIn. And the irony is, lots of people seem to think I’m committing a mistake by ignoring LinkedIn. Now I can’t really ignore it that much since I sit on the Executive Committee of the Social Media Club Vancouver, and they have created a LinkedIn group (why this is the case still escapes me, but then again, I ignore LinkedIn). I have heard so many different stories as to who should I accept to connect on LinkedIn that I just simply try to ignore it. I have a few of my friends (mostly, close friends) on LinkedIn. People with whom I have interacted mostly on a professional level. Even if they’re my friends, I can indeed vouch for their work.

But adding everyone and their mother to my LinkedIn kind of worries me, because contrary to Facebook or Twitter, being connected on LinkedIn seems to appear as a tacit endorsement. And admittedly, in my case, for the most part, I think I am more than happy to endorse those who ARE already on my LinkedIn connections. That said, I don’t have a professional connection with everyone who has me or whom I have on my LinkedIn list. SOME of those connections are, indeed, professional (particularly those related to my research). But a vast majority, are my friends, and some folks whom I know through social media.

But what happens when you don’t accept those connections? That does NOT mean, in my opinion, that I wouldn’t be willing to endorse the person with whom I’m not connected. I just hate all these assumptions about social networks. If I follow you, people assume it’s because I find you interesting or whatever. And if I don’t, people assume that I am not interested in what they have to say.

Life in a networked society, it seems, is filled with assumptions. As for me, I would like people to stop assuming how I think and what I think. If you need to know, ask me point blank. Don’t assume anything about my relationship with you on account of any social networking connection we may (or may not) have.

Related posts:

1. Ning-based social networks
2. When to say NO on LinkedIn?
3. Studying the behavior of social networks and scholarship

1. Expand Media Literacy
2. Share Lessons Learned Among Practitioners
3. Encourage Adoption of Industry Standards
4. Promote Ethical Practices through Discussion and Actions

There are several reasons why I accepted Mitch Baldwin and Eric Weaver‘s invite to be part of the organizing committee of Social Media Club Vancouver. The first one, quite obviously, is because I really like both Eric and Mitch. The second one, quite obvious as well, is that I knew I’d be joined by a bunch of very talented social media folks who work in a variety of areas.

My involvement with Social Media Clubs isn’t new. I spoke at Social Media Club Victoria in April of 2009 (almost a year ago now!) thanks to an invite by Catherine Novak and Paul Holmes (both of whom have grown to be good friends of mine). My intent was to galvanize the Victoria social media community to move and effect change, and I shared my experience of co-organizing Mental Health Camp with my dear friend Isabella Mori (my highest achievement of 2009, hands down).

For the past couple of years, I given numerous talks about social media for public policy, sustainability, marketing and non-profits. I’ve explored the use of social media in politics and public policy and in non-profit & health. But more importantly, I pride myself in having challenged my readers, the attendees of my talks and my fellow social media practitioners to think beyond the use of social media tools. To explore the high-level discussions on social media, the Internet and its impact on the composition of the social fabric we are embedded within.

I know I have asked the tough questions and I want to continue to do so. I am, after all, an academic. I’m slowly moving from educating ON social media to educating WITH/USING social media. That is precisely the reason why I am involved in the Social Media Club Vancouver. I want to continue to challenge my peers to think beyond “how do I use Twitter” or “how do we create a Facebook fan page” to questions of privacy vs publicness, of the challenges to achieving diversity in social media, to the realities of crowdsourced rules within social networking sites to the evolution of norms and etiquette in social media.

I am delighted to be joined by the talented group of people who are participating, and more importantly, I’m delighted that the group is inclusive. So if you want to change the way social media is done in Vancouver, be part of the change. Join us. Feel free to contact Eric, Mitch or even me should you want to get involved.

Related posts:

1. My recent Social Media Club Victoria talk: “Towards an Action-Focused Agenda for Social Change Using Social Media” (#smcvictoria) @smcvictoria
2. Vancouver Bloggers Meetup and Social Media Club Vancouver Event March 18th
3. Upcoming speaking engagement – Social Media Club (Victoria, B.C.) May 2009

This idea has been resonating in my head for the past few weeks, and I don’t really know how to tackle it. I enjoy social media (all of it – the social networking sites, the offline aspect of gatherings, tweetups and meetups, the community building element). But the one reason that I keep getting turned off is the broadcasting aspect. Admittedly, I’m talkative on Twitter.

So talkative that 7,740 people have decided to follow me and then unfollow me (yeah, if you want to do the numbers, 1/3 of the people who chose to follow me continue to do so). That’s awesome. Their choice and for those who choose to read my stream, thanks a lot too – I am very grateful. But the thing that makes me feel a bit uneasy me is that some folks in the social media world just keep broadcasting instead of engaging. Over 50% of my stream is replies to people and conversation. Obviously, different strokes for different folks. I am not one to say what people should or should not do.

The problem is that arises is that I question the validity of the content of a social media message when it’s provided by someone who does not engage. If social media is all about conversations, engagement and community building, what to do when there is only broadcasting and not actual conversation? As social media enthusiasts (and I call myself one), do we look in the mirror often enough and ask of ourselves am I really engaging or just pushing my message out?. Is social media becoming an echo chamber again? I thought that 2010 would be the year of “going back to the basics and learning to engage”.

It seems my prophesy is fulfilling itself a couple of months earlier than I expected.

Related posts:

1. My recent Social Media Club Victoria talk: “Towards an Action-Focused Agenda for Social Change Using Social Media” (#smcvictoria) @smcvictoria
2. On authenticity in social media
3. The @CPRSVanStudents event on Social Media 101

Today I was part of the social media panel organized by Elisha McCallum (Director of Communications for Plutonic Power) at the Independent Power Producers conference, held in Vancouver, November 2nd and 3rd, 2009. I was honored to share the stage with Alexandra Samuel (Social Signal), James Glave (Hoggan & Associates), Chris Hatch (PowerUp Canada) and Gillian Shaw (Vancouver Sun). While I hadn’t met Chris before, I am friends with the remainder of the panel so the chemistry and flow of information in the panel was incredibly smooth. I created a ScribbleLive iFrame so that people could read the live-tweets (it’s embedded on my research blog but you can also read it below).

I was the last panelist, which is almost always a total risk because you never know what the other speakers are going to say. Two themes resonated within the panel: the importance of sharing your story online and building an online presence and brand. I spoke about 4 things that social media will not do for your power producing company and my top 10 best tips for doing social media within the alternative energy online space. These tips are definitely applicable to other brands, verticals and online spaces, but I spoke directly to energy issues in this talk. What follows below is a very loose crib of my actual talk.

The crib begins here

Thank you everyone for coming to our panel. I am the last panelist so my points will definitely resonate with what you have heard from my amazing colleagues. While I admit that I have a bit of split personality (I have two online personas, one that is social media and consulting and the other, my academic self), my talk will actually discourage you from doing what I do (yeah, Raul, practice what you preach, eh?) and instead, I will urge you to create a unified, coherent and cohesive online presence. There are reasons why I keep my identities online separate that I can share with you in the question and answer period if you are still interested.

First of all, I am going to tell you the 4 things that social media will NOT accomplish for you:

1. Social media will NOT replace your all of your other communication strategies. Social media will augment whatever other communications efforts you are using to put your message out there. But what it won’t do is to substitute for a solid strategy. So, if you don’t have a solid, coherent and broad communication strategy within which you insert social media tools, you probably should start with that, first of all.

2. Social media will NOT avoid the NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) phenomenon for your company. I am an academic. I know that NIMBY happens, and it actually happens with a multitude of alternative power producers’ technologies. I’ve read the literature on NIMBY opposition to wind farms to extensive lengths. I would not be surprised if people oppose your alternative power projects. And whether you like it or not, you have to accept that social media won’t avoid NIMBY conflicts. It may, however, help you manage your relationships with the community you are immersed within. And perhaps, that might just help you deal and mitigate NIMBY opposition.

3. Social media will not create your community just by producing and maintaining an online presence. It’s up to you and your company’s staff to build a community around your website, around your company and around your online platforms (Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, to name a few).

4. Social media will not pay back immediately. Whoever tells you that social media will produce an immediate return on investment and that it doesn’t cost a cent is lying to you, and you should refer them to me so that I can slap them silly. I’m just half-kidding here. Social media is about community building, and the same way that Rome wasn’t built in one day, online communities aren’t built in 3 weeks. Whoever tells you otherwise is lying to you. And that, in good time, will come and bite them back.

Now, for the top 10 tips I can give you on how to best do social media…

[The rest of my crib is actually just going to be the tips themselves. I think they're self-explanatory]

1. Tell a story. Your company has a story to tell. Tell it!
2. Go multi-platform. Don’t just stick to Twitter or Facebook. Go where your audience is.
3. Be authentic. If you screw up, admit it and clean up after yourself. We are all humans behind the computer screen.
4. Monitor your brand. Your company is being talked about online, even if you think it’s not.
5. Build a community. I can’t stress this enough. Social media is about building a community around you.
6. Be patient. Success overnight takes between 10 and 15 years. So, don’t expect to build a community in 4 weeks.
7. Hire a good consultant. Same as with coaching, there’s only so much you can do. And then, you get someone to help you move forward. Be choosy when you ask for consulting services.
8. Align your social media strategy to your overall strategy. Nothing worse than having a social media strategy that achieves only part of the overall goals of the company.
9. Build a cohesive online identity. Create a central platform (I use my blog and recommend you do too) and then use social networking sites to share your message and bring the community back to your core platform.
10. Remember to network wisely. Don’t abuse your networks. Share stuff, be generous, and remember that everyone is connected in this day and age.

I hope that these notes are helpful. Comments, as usual, most welcome.

Related posts:

1. The power of vulnerability: A TEDxHouston talk by Brené Brown
2. My #nv10 @NorthernVoice panel on Teaching with Social Media w @trishussey @ramcio
3. My interview with David Berner on The Power of Social Media in Public Policy

In a move that promises to shake the way in which social media consulting is done, they’re (slowly but surely) open sourcing their consultancy. Alex and Rob explains in their blog post:

We’re taking the intellectual property we’ve generated and gleaned from Social Signal’s four years of consulting, strategy and development and making it available for free online, under a Creative Commons license.

What are the implications of this for the social media world? Many, I believe. But I would like to point out to the last part of the above sentence. Under a Creative Commons license. That means, that their intellectual property can be (depending on the specific license they choose) reproduced, built-upon, adapted, etc. NOT STOLEN. So, those sneaky evil types who may want to steal Alex and Rob’s acumen may find themselves on the other end of a really nice lawsuit should things go awry (please note that this analysis is mine and only mine, not Alex and Rob’s – knowing them, I am pretty sure that they aren’t the litigious type. I, being the son of two lawyers, on the other hand, very much am, hehe).

What this means is that yes, you may build upon what Alex and Rob have created (in this case, they’re open-sourcing one of their first products, the concept jam). But (a) you would be expected to credit them, (b) you would be expected to link to their posts, most likely (as it happens with any Creative Commons license) and (c) if the license is Share-Alike, you would be expected to share with the community your new concept. So, if you reproduce and adapt the concept jam in a way that grows the initial concept, you may have to share it with the world too.

This has HUGE implications for the community at large, in that the impact is definitely longer-lasting and much more far-reaching. I don’t believe this will reduce the amount of work that Rob and Alex will get, but it will definitely refine the way in which social media is done. Open sourcing their consultancy doesn’t mean that they’re giving their knowledge for free (a topic we debated here on my blog for a long, long time). It means that their knowledge base will help further the social media field.

Even though my leg is still hurting, I’m probably going to go get a bottle of wine and hunt down Alex and Rob and share a glass with them, because frankly, this is a bold, strong, daring, brave, valiant move and one that makes me even prouder of calling them my friends.

Related posts:

1. My recent Social Media Club Victoria talk: “Towards an Action-Focused Agenda for Social Change Using Social Media” (#smcvictoria) @smcvictoria
2. Where is the diversity in social media conferences?
3. On being jaded with social media for social change

I seem to be on a roll in my pot-stirring ways. Not only have I wagged my finger at Alex Samuel for meta-hand-wagging the hand-waggers, but I also asked the question about diversity in social media conferences over at One Degree. Alexa Clark asks why aren’t there more women in conference rosters (I’m going to assume, given that it’s published on One Degree, that we are going to narrow the scope to tech/social media/public relations – we could talk about science and technology too, or medical or environment, but I’ll just make that bold assumption).

I threw in two comments that, more or less, imply that if we were to look for diversity, we need to broaden the conversation beyond gender and include race and sexual orientation, as well as ask why are we inviting the same women to speak all the time. Surely, there is a gender imbalance in many professions and I wouldn’t be surprised that this is the case in the speaking circuit. In my comment, I did note, however, that all the potential speakers I recommended for TEDxVancouver were women, and that the person who has influenced me the most in how good a speaker I want to become is Glenda Watson-Hyatt, a Vancouver-based blogger and consultant on accessibility who has cerebral palsy. My mother has been one of the most influential people in my life and many of my best friends (and most articulate speakers) are women.

But, as very aptly said by Tamera Kremer (and I’m not saying this because she said “this is why I love you, Raul“) –

Diversity actually means diverse voices too. And I also would throw in that while lack of women’s voices is a HUGE issue, we should also be talking about opening the field beyond white/ straight/ physically capable. Let’s define what being truly diverse really means.

Tamera is absolutely right. Why isn’t there a conversation around diversity and what it means both in general for the speakers circuit and for the social media world overall? As usual, have at it on the comments section.

Related posts:

1. #NetCulture”: Stories of Culture and Diversity in Social Media (April 5th)
2. My recent Social Media Club Victoria talk: “Towards an Action-Focused Agenda for Social Change Using Social Media” (#smcvictoria) @smcvictoria
3. Social Media Club Vancouver launch

Duane was suggesting that I should just install BuddyPress (and seeing as the creator of BuddyPress is a good friend of mine, Duane’s suggestion is actually quite a good idea – I feel confident that if I need any help, I can ask either Duane or Andy Peatling), but I’m just wondering why the proliferation of Ning-based social networks. Frankly, the framework sort of annoys me.

1) I can’t seem to be able to integrate it with all my other networks. Thus I have to manually add friends and ask them to add me to the network.

2) The previous problem also leads me to wonder how I can integrate my social networks across (for example, the League of Kickass Business People network with Social Media Club Education).

Argh. One day I might become a hermit and abandon all social networking sites

Related posts:

1. Social networks, LinkedIn and our professional lives
2. Studying the behavior of social networks and scholarship
3. My recent Social Media Club Victoria talk: “Towards an Action-Focused Agenda for Social Change Using Social Media” (#smcvictoria) @smcvictoria

Social networking sites have the same promise and effectiveness in creating drama as they do in creating change in the world. -[Raul]

Yes, this is me quoting myself.

I remember a very hot summer day of last year having beers with several good friends from the Vancouver social media community on the rooftop of Redwerks. I had just recently read about the Emily Gould story (a former co-editor of Gawker) and I mentioned to Lorraine and Heather that I didn’t want to be the next EG.

Not that I had anything to worry about, for starters (my blog is way too clean cut and wholesome) but simply because social networking sites and blogs DO have the potential for creating drama. God knows I’ve been (marginally and tangentially) touched by that.

There have been times in my life when I have regretted having launched a blog.

Having joined Twitter.

Having become addicted to social media in such a way that I joined every single social networking site (I’m hummingbird604 on everyone just in case you’re curious).

But Blogathon 2009 reminded me (despite however many times I cursed the moment that I decided to do it again) that there is potential in social media to do good for humanity.

Mental Health Camp 2009 made it possible for me (and for my dear friend Isabella to make a difference in people’s lives. We built on the work of our predecessors (those who have been brave to speak out and try to break down stigma).

I may be physically exhausted and mentally tired. I may be cranky sometimes, and I may swear off of all things social media.

But there’s one thing I’ll never be – inconsistent with my own thoughts and beliefs. I act like I think, I do as I write. I set an example on how social media should be used by using it in that way.

And that’s who I am.

[EDIT - Clearly, I was sleep-deprived and brain-not-functional. The phrase "xoxo Gossip Girl" derives from the popular show Gossip Girl - one of the background characters is a famous blogger who - as you can imagine - destroys peoples' reputations and lives - hence the title of my post - a reflection on how some people use social media for bad and not for good]

Related posts:

1. Ning-based social networks
2. My little girl is off to college!
3. Bad Girl Chocolates and an adventure with Emme Rogers

Twitter is amazing as a tool to engage and create new relationships . I had the pleasure to meet Paul Holmes (President of IdeaZone) and Catherine Novak (who now does the Social Media for IdeaZone) as Catherine invited me a few months ago to cross the pond and head to Victoria (in Vancouver Island) to be the keynote speaker for the Social Media Club Victoria. I have been warmly welcome to the Vancouver Island social media community and I look forward to collaborating in a few projects.

When Paul asked me to write a sponsored overview of Idea Zone I thought that it would be a good idea to combine the post with my top 5 social media tips. Their portfolio is substantially focused on Web 2.0 and thus it makes sense. The generous donation of Idea Zone will provide much needed funds to the BC Cancer Foundation.

What is Idea Zone? In their own words:

IdeaZone.ca is a Canadian website design and full-service marketing firm based in Victoria, British Columbia, with clients throughout Canada, and around the world.

We offer many services, including print and web design, e-commerce solutions, custom programming, photography, audio, video, and search engine optimization.

Most recently, we have become recognized local leaders in social media, with expertise in consulting, planning, policy, training, implementation, and social media integrated website design. We also offer seminars for organizations that are interested in learning more about using these emerging channels to extend their marketing reach.

Paul Holmes
IdeaZone.ca President

Credit: HubSpot

Much of the conversation that Paul, Catherine and I have had has been over social media platforms. I have been invited to speak on the topic of citizen engagement through online community-building several times particularly this past year. Understanding the behaviour of networks is something I have been passionate about, fascinated with and researched extensively. Online tools enhance the abilities of people to create strong networks. If we combine the tools with the passion, the result can be explosively positive. But there are drawbacks to irresponsible or ineffective use of social media.

Credit: Matt Hamm

So, given that I am so passionate about (and engaged in) social media, what would be Raul’s Top 5 Social Media Tips. Here is the lowdown:

1. Engage with your audience. This tip may sound a bit too obvious but you’d be surprised how many companies believe that they have a social media strategy because they have a Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube account. Of course, you need the tools and platforms, but if you are NOT monitoring your audience, you are doing yourself a disservice. Use Twitter Search, Google Blog Search and a number of other tools to allow you to monitor what people are saying about your product or service. Then, ENGAGE with the audience. Respond to customer service complaints. Praise people for what they are doing well. Provide information that proves effective and useful to your audience.

2. Be reciprocal and bi-directional. A number of people would say that I’m a bit contradictory in suggesting reciprocity given that I don’t follow everyone on Twitter on my personal account. But I do have a research account where I do practically follow everyone back. I believe that as a business, you can’t really afford NOT to follow everyone back. This is the case with every other social media platform. On Twitter, both on my personal and research account, I ALWAYS ensure to have a conversation. If you send me a reply (@) you can be assured that I will, for sure, respond. As a business, so should you!

3. In social media, giving is getting. You got to give if you want to get. If you want your stuff re-tweeted, your Facebook page fanned, your Flickr group joined, you NEED to be able to do the same for your audience. Your network will not place trust on you if you are unable to give. It’s a give-and-take game here, not only for reputation but also in cases where you support charities (goodwill building will take you places, believe me!)

4. Use a variety of social media platforms. Sure, you can be on Twitter all day responding back and forth, and sending messages about your audience. But you have to go where your audience is. If the customers of your business respond better to images, then use Flickr (photos), Viddler/Vimeo/YouTube (video). The virality of video is sometimes overhyped but it’s a fact that people respond when image is coupled with audio. Make your information portable (podcasts, videocasts) and easily accessible.

5. Test before you launch your new social media strategy. So you’ve created accounts in every single social media platform. Did you test them out? Did you ensure that the deployment of your social media strategy won’t create conflicts? (see for example the case of Skittles). Even if you have the perfect set of tools for your social media strategy, if your integration process is poor, you can rest assured you will have a headache faster than a rock falls in still water.

So there you have it, my top 5 social media tips for businesses who are engaging in/want to launch a social media strategy. Obviously, this list is NOT extensive but should provide some guidance. Of course, feel free to contact me if you have any questions (or drop a comment on this post). Thanks to IdeaZone for sponsoring this post!

If you would like me to write a blog post about your company or a topic of your choice and pledge to the charitable cause I am supporting, please get in touch with me via my contact form. Sponsorships range from $ 50 to $ 200.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider donating to the BC Cancer Foundation. You can find my donation page by clicking here. Every bit helps. Thank you in advance!

Related posts:

1. My recent Social Media Club Victoria talk: “Towards an Action-Focused Agenda for Social Change Using Social Media” (#smcvictoria) @smcvictoria
2. On authenticity in social media
3. The @CPRSVanStudents event on Social Media 101

Every so often, I come across yet another attempt to measure of influence in social media and (geeky and academic as I am) I go and test it out. The most recent one I’ve tried is the Klout score. I recently received an email indicating that my score had suffered a reduction (the graphs you are seeing are from the previous time I checked my score) and that they willing to help me try and become more influential. I have been named as an influential social media before (thanks Nate Elliott from Forrester Research!) but frankly, I don’t really pay attention to whether people in the community perceive me as influential UNLESS my influencing activity has a specific goal, like when I wanted to co-organize Mental Health Camp with Isabella

For example, if I want to ensure that my objectives for social change are well-heard and well-known, and widely spread, then I use ALL of the tools I have at my disposal. I use my (yes, very, very strong) social network to disseminate my ideas. I am well connected to many people who are considered social media and tech stars not only in Vancouver, Toronto, or Canada and the US, but even worldwide. These social media powerhouses do trust me in what I say, but that’s a bi-directional, long-time-established trust that has emerged from actual interaction, both online and in many cases, offline.

Does it upset me that my Klout score goes down or that my Twitter Grader score doesn’t rank me in the top 10 (as I’ve consistently been ranked for the past year or so)? Um, no. Not really. Real influence comes from behavioral change that is effected through the creation of long-lasting, trust-based bonds. One example – does my opinion influence other people and do they listen to what I have to say in regards to water governance? Probably. And why is that? Well, because I have built a credibility around my research (both pre- and post- my PhD). Same with social media.

If somebody comes to me and tells me “I’m in the top 10 for Twitter Grader” and I don’t know them I actually probably will giggle (since, well, I’m the organizer of the Vancouver Bloggers Meetup so chances are, I *should* know them). Why? Simply because I would argue that this is just one of many measures of influence. But I’d be curious to see what other people think about influence.

Have your say, as usual, in the comments section.

Related posts:

1. Is measuring real influence in social media possible?
2. Measuring influence Part I: Social media
3. The Walk Score

This preconceived idea of mine (i.e. the Peter Principle) was shattered this past Saturday. Even though I’ve closely followed the careers and social media insights of Erica Hargreave, Gillian Shaw, Monica Hamburg, Megan Cole, Alexandra Samuel, Rebecca Bollwitt, Maura Rodgers and Victoria Revay, I gained a substantial number of new insights at CWC ’09. For example, this is the second time I’ve heard Maura Rodgers (Strutta) speak about venture capital, investors and fundraising. Given that I have (most of my life) worked either for a university, a research centre, a consulting firm or for myself, I had rarely thought about having to meet with investors, “angels”, sharing a percentage of your business. Like this little tidbit, I was amazed at all the new things I learned from Rebecca, Megan, Alex, Gillian, Erica, Maura, Victoria.

I told Colleen Coplick too (as she made a few good points as well at the conference) that it was interesting how we have evolved in the space. Even I threw a few ideas of mine, findings that I’ve gained while spending time testing the platforms, the tools and sharing the same online space. For example, one of the things I shared is how my writing has shaped my readers’ behaviour as well. People who read my blog know what to expect, know what I’m going to let through and what I won’t tolerate (like bigotry, hate or aggression).

I couldn’t help but reflect on the notion I wrote about earlier on the networked production of social relationships

using social networking sites as mediating spaces that build bridges amongst individuals at the nodes of the network.

(although I’d now like to explore now two intertwined concepts = the networked production of social spaces and the evolution of each individual within the online social space).

I believe that as time has gone by, each one of us (the folks in the Vancouver social media/tech/PR scene) have evolved within both the physical space (we have gained more insight into the actual platforms) and the online space (we have tested the tools and created the online networks that then translate into the physical inter-relationships). I’m still not 100% sure how to tease out the main insight that I’m trying to draw here, but I firmly believe that there is still space for us to evolve even within our own physical spaces. Even if we are still hanging out with the same friends, attending the same events, there’ll be a turning point (a punctuated equilibrium) where the next evolutionary stage of ideas in social media in Vancouver will take place.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. Please drop a comment on the blog.

Related posts:

1. The space/time continuum in social media
2. Twitter as an online social space to hang out virtually and enable offline interaction
3. My recent Social Media Club Victoria talk: “Towards an Action-Focused Agenda for Social Change Using Social Media” (#smcvictoria) @smcvictoria

I don’t particularly think of myself as successful, but I would attribute any success I’ve had in social media (and in general, in every single realm, but particularly in the ones where social networking comes to play) has been the fact that the Raul you meet in person at a meetup/tweetup/social event or on the street (I bump into people who recognize me quite a lot these days) is the same Raul you read online both on Twitter and on this blog.

How do YOU, my dear reader, identify authenticity online? Comments, as always, very welcome.

Related posts:

1. Authenticity, social media and Malcolm Gladwell
2. My recent Social Media Club Victoria talk: “Towards an Action-Focused Agenda for Social Change Using Social Media” (#smcvictoria) @smcvictoria
3. On being jaded with social media for social change

Credit: 7Son

There is a GAZILLION people I would LOVE to follow but I’m unable to, not because I don’t want to but because I simply don’t want to make the relationship non-existant. I know that TweetDeck would allow me to filter, but it’d be inappropriate of me to make people believe I am paying attention when I am not. Much rather have a lower number of people I follow than to be dismissive.

The same way I don’t like to do a #followfriday (simply because if I had it my way I’d recommend everyone both on my follower and following list) I don’t like the idea of the #wontfollow hashtag. I strongly believe that by saying “oh I won’t follow you because of … and ….” the beginning of the relationship is hostile.

I am really against popularity contests in the Twittersphere and I am also a firm believer of building real, authentic relationships on Twitter. I really strongly believe that we need to cut people on Twitter some slack. I am sure that the people who know me well and that follows me and I don’t follow back know that it’s not because I don’t want to but because I have a limited capacity for following people. At least, I would hope so! And I hope that people know that I can’t be forced into following someone back. At the same time, I don’t preclude anybody by saying “I won’t follow you”. Well, except Oprah, Ashton Kutcher and Perez Hilton

I also dislike the concept that businesses “must grow their network organically”. How the heck do people think that we are going to notice that a business is on Twitter unless the person behind the business account follows us? As I was writing this post, Todd Sieling (a friend whose opinion I respect and value) mentioned that businesses can have organic growth of followers by “talking to people talking about your domain and using hashtags”. As I answered to Todd, I don’t think both are mutually exclusive, but complementary.

The most important thing for me on any Web 2.0 platform is to maintain and continue the conversation. So, chime in with your thoughts on here

Related posts:

1. Reflections on Twitter etiquette
2. Have we lost the bidirectionality of Twitter this early in the game?
3. Unfriending on Facebook, unfollowing on Twitter

Related posts:

1. Upcoming speaking engagement – Social Media Club (Victoria, B.C.) May 2009
2. On being jaded with social media for social change
3. Social Media Club Vancouver launch

What follows is an unedited crib of my talk. I am also including my slides on SlideShare. As usual, the Creative Commons License is Non-Commercial, Attribution, Share-Alike. Please include a link to this blog post AND to the SlideShare site if you use my concepts/work/ideas. Thanks!

The crib starts here.

Good evening everyone. I am very honored to be sitting in a panel with excellent colleagues, who have accumulated substantial business savvy. It’s hard for me to speak after Shane Gibson, who is a phenomenal speaker. He is a hard act to follow. I was hoping I would be the last, but since I am in the middle, I just need to hope that you enjoy my talk, as I am 100% sure you WILL enjoy JP’s.

I will admit that my research has focused primarily on environmental issues and environmental public policy. I took up blogging as a hobby, and since I started (2006) I have experimented with social networking sites and social media tools enough that I now give consulting and advice on social media. I give this advice from the perspective of an academic who is very interested in human behaviour, not only in environment and sustainability, but also in regards to the impact of the Internet in society.

Slide 2 – As I was thinking through and finding the elements that connect my scholarly research with my social media consulting, I found a key insight. I am primarily interested in networks and the actors that comprise these networks, the flow of information amongst the nodes (or actors) and the ultimate outcomes of networked behaviour. I have in my research studied networks of environmentalists, as well as transnational coalitions of environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs). Therefore, since I recently found out that the basic framework of my interest is the networked society, I have begun to study business networks and public policy networks. As a side note, I am very familiar with the literature on polycentric governance and policy networks, and with social network analysis (both the quantitative and qualitative elements).

Moreover, realizing that I was interested in the networked society has been on the back of my mind for over 10 years. I just hadn’t realized until recently how it connects both of my interests (environmental policy and social media). As Slide 2 shows, we live in a networked society, where we are no longer isolated, and we don’t live 9am-5pm lives. Nothing is purely private, and the boundary between private and public lives blurs. Given that business is all about networking, why not use the networking tools the right way?

Slide 3 – As this slide shows, and aptly within the fact that I am giving this talk on Easter Monday, I can show you how well connected Jesus was in this social network of the New Testament. Everything in society is networked and everything now is connected by electronic means. We are ALL connected to The Matrix.

Slide 4 – Coming back to what I mentioned before, the flow of information in social networking sites has 4 important properties:

1. Reciprocity
2. Durability
3. Traceability
4. Scalability

If you think hard about the implications of each one of these properties, you can very well apply them to your business setting. You need to be reciprocal. If somebody talks to you, answer back. Remember that the information that you put out there, stays on the internet for a really long, long time. So think before you hit “Publish”! Remember that the information you put out there can easily be traced back to you, and that once information flows publicly, it may escalate and you will never be able to put a lid on it, ever.

Slide 5 – These are some quick-and-dirty lessons for you on how to make the most of the properties of information flow in social networking sites for business. Apply some of these lessons to your own business and let me know how it went.

Slide 6 – The following six rules are the basics of what I call Social Media For Business 102. That is, once you’ve mastered the basics of blogging, Twittering, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, etc., you can move on to these lessons. In short, here are my top 6 rules of applying social media to business:

Rule # 1 – Not everything that is on the internet is true, so don’t follow every single online social media fad. Anybody remember Plurk? No? Neither do I.

Rule # 2 – Not everything that is on the internet is false, so beware of social media mistakes that may affect you negatively. Monitor your brand, and make sure that whatever statements people are making about you are actually true, otherwise, be quick to debunk them. And if they are true, and you made a mistake, apologize and fix it!

Rule # 3 – Be a human out there, even if you are behind a corporate brand. Don’t just push your own agenda, give people something to work with. Make sure that people know that people know that you are a Brandividual (as I mentioned in a previous post, referring to Kate Trgovac‘s excellent talk where she described the concept of Brandividual and spoke about a few excellent ones). I indicated a local example of brandividual with the folks of Build Direct (Rob Jones, Jeff Booth, and mostly, everyone at Build Direct ). I mentioned a Canada-wide example with Bryan Cox, Fergie Devins, Tonia Hammer and Adam Moffat from Molson (whose work in Brew 2.0 was very well enhanced with the amazing expertise of David Jones and Meghan Warby from Hill & Knowlton). Shane mentioned Zappos as an example of a global group of brandividuals.

Rule # 4 – Give back, give a little, get back a lot. Sponsor events, give out gift certificates, demonstrate loyalty to your customers and a genuine care for them. This will pay off handsomely, trust me.

Rule # 5 – Don’t be a one-night-social-media-stand. Just… don’t. If you are going to delve in social media, commit to it. Don’t romance bloggers and then ditch them. This is a really bad idea. Hell hath no fury like a blogger scorned. Trust me. I KNOW. As I mentioned already, Molson did a fantastic job with Hill & Knowlton on Brew 2.0 and it was a winning case study in blogger relations!

Rule # 6 – Be a good business through-and-through. No matter how good your social media marketing is, if you are not providing a good product and/or service, you are definitely going to fail. Good customer service and great products and services are the key to success. Engagement is key.

Slide 7 – You can read my recount of Brew 2.0 (and those of my fellow bloggers, all of them are linked on my post) for a quick-and-dirty of why it was so successful and why they remain successful.

Slide 8 – A local example of good brand monitoring and reputation management is Doolins (who by the way is a client of Shane’s). They followed up on my complaint and made me feel valued as a customer. Brownie points to them!

Note – during my talk I spoke about #amazonfail – I have a blog post about it so I won’t repeat what I said (Slide 9). Just know that it’s a good example of the importance of brand monitoring and crisis management. People should have learned the lesson with the case of Motrin Moms (although, of course, and as I have mentioned before, not every issue galvanizes public opinion thus launching mobilizations and activism – see the case of net neutrality!)

Slide 10 – These are some quick and dirty suggestions on how to use Twitter for business. Simply put, offer your audience information about your business in a way that is engaging and valuable. Don’t make Twitter etiquette faux pas. On that topic, next month’s Vancouver Blogger Meetup will be about etiquette. Join our meetup. It’s fun. Also, if you want to learn a lot about social media, join the social media meetup, Third Tuesday. You can contact my good friend Tanya Davis if you need more information on Third Tuesday.

Slide 11 – So, a few quick, last minute thoughts. I know I’ve already over-stayed my welcome, but I want you to know that if you do social media, you should go multi-platform. Only blogging won’t do you much good unless you use some of the other platforms. Ensure that you monitor your brand, there is Google Alerts and Summize/Twitter Search. Be bi-directional and reciprocal. I have preached this very, very frequently on my blog. I even touched on the importance of bi-directionality for Canadian politicians!

Most importantly, don’t be afraid of testing and experimenting with social media. Skittles failed miserably in their experiment, and see… they are still in business! So don’t worry about it. Just try it! And, as I mentioned in my talk, even if you live your life online, take it offline. Engage. Be real. And if you have questions – ASK!

EDIT – I had come across this report before, and JP just tweeted recently about it, so I am linking to it – a report on social media marketing.

Related posts:

1. On the need for higher-level, philosophical, theoretical social media discussions
2. My recent Social Media Club Victoria talk: “Towards an Action-Focused Agenda for Social Change Using Social Media” (#smcvictoria) @smcvictoria
3. Measuring influence in social media (the Klout score)

The participants of the first Gastown Dialogue on The Future of the Web were:

Evan Leeson (whose amazing new Gastown digs were the venue) President of Catalyst Internet
Trevor Junck, Junxion Strategies
Jacqueline Voci, Soya Marketing
Mitchell Anderson, science writer and the proud owner of www.freakyweather.com
Julie Morgan, longtime blogger and socialite
Raul Pacheco-Vega, researcher: http://www.raulpacheco.org/ and super-blogger
And Kevin Grandia, managing editor DeSmogBlog and New Media Director for Hoggan and Associates

Credit: Rob Cottingham

What are the Gastown Dialogues on the Future of the Web? Here, let me give you some information from Kevin Grandia’s email to all of us. I’ve edited some bits and pieces but you get the gist.

The Gastown Dialogues will be a once-a-month small (8 people max.) intense (2 hours, 2 topics) roundtable discussion (with wine and beer) with a mix of new media users and practitioners from professionals to casual users and people just starting out. The idea is not to have a 2 hour “hey look at how smart and cool I am” rap session. Instead this is an opportunity to share knowledge, create new ideas and network with like-minded people.

The roundtable will be recorded (bring your camera if you want, we have 2, but the more the merrier) and we will create a vidcast on a Gastown Dialogue YouTube channel, thus making it available for everyone to share and spur further conversation and ideas within their own networks.

While I do expect a fuller post to emerge from Kevin and Evan, I will share one of the interesting questions we discussed:

Topic 1: We’ve all heard by now and started to see what will be “Hot in 2009″ in new media, so that’s said and done. But what will be “Hot in 2010″ in new media? Will the semantic web finally come of age, will Facebook still be the behemoth, will blogging the written word be killed by video? What about mobile tech?

Related posts:

1. Guu Otokomae (Guu Izakaya, Gastown)
2. Six Acres (Gastown)
3. Sitar (Gastown)

Nora spoke for quite sometime to the notion of a “new ecology of information”. Given my interest in sociology and social media, I poked around a few sites to try and find more information about it. From a sociological and anthropological perspective, Nora’s point of “it’s not what you know but WHO you know” is more and more relevant in our era of networked spaces, where technology becomes an enabler of interaction and relationship creation. As I have mentioned in previous posts, my use of Twitter is primarily to stay in touch with my friends and create new friendships.

I would have never dreamed of staying in touch with, say, Nora (who lives in Toronto) or Nancy White and Chris Heuer (both of whom live in the US) if it weren’t for Twitter. I have a lot of wonderful individuals (including these three social media awesome folks) with whom I would NOT be able to keep in touch if it weren’t for Twitter, or more broadly, for social networking tools.

While doing some research on the concept of a new ecology of information (and given that my background is in environmental studies) I looked for works that examined the production of what I call the networked production of social relationships – using social networking sites as mediating spaces that build bridges amongst individuals at the nodes of the network.

In my search I came across the Creative-Commons licensed book by Professor Yochai Benkler at the Harvard Berkman Centre for Internet and Society (I tell you, I am going to end up doing a post-doc there or something – I keep feeling drawn to it!), The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom. Of particular relevance to the concept of a new ecology of information I think is Chapter 10 (PDF link) Social Ties: Networking Together.

The fact that we can now share in the production of information (as very aptly indicated by the participants in the social media and citizen journalism panel) means that the way in which our online behavior shapes the content we produce/remix/cut-and-paste is also mediated by our online and off-line interactions. Bernardo Huberman‘s book (The Laws of the Web) also speaks to the concept of ecology of information.

Attending Nora’s keynote made me me feel again as though I might have a chance to undertake some research in internet and society. I have the training to try and examine social media from an academic analytical lens (I’ve got training in sociology and anthropology so that helps, and I’m a blogger too). Thank you Nora for stirring my thoughts and making me sit and reflect on the idea that yes, social media is there to help solve problems and make the world a better place.

Northern Voice 2009 – Nora Young on Buried Hatchets and Better Tomorrows

(02/21/2009)

  

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9:11	Raul:  Lauren Wood and Kris Krug are providing the introductions.

9:16	Raul:  Kris is now giving the thanks to the amazing organizers – thanks to you all.

9:18	Raul:  Julie Szabo is up to thank the sponsors. Thanks to all of them, you are all amazing.

9:19	Raul:  They are having giveaway prizes, including a pass to #sxsw09! A three month membership to WorkSpace, artwork, etc.

9:20	Miss604:  New blog entry ‘Northern Voice 2009 Keynote Nora Young’ – http://tinyurl.com/cqnyr3

9:20	Raul:  Nora Young is now taking the floor. Thanking everyone for the invitation and excited about the energy.

9:20	trishussey:  RT @Miss604: New blog entry ‘Northern Voice 2009 Keynote Nora Young’ – http://tinyurl.com/cqnyr3 #northernvoice09

9:21	LeftCoastMama:  Nora Young’s key note is starting. #northernvoice

9:21

Raul:  Nora will talk a little bit about the experience with her show, Spark. It’s sort of a case study of what’s going on more broadly on what’s going – a new ecology of information that affects any content creator (blogger, journalist, or anyone who wants to engage in the conversation). We all need to do a bit of a rethink of what our vision and our passion is.

9:22	Raul:  Nora will play archival audio. I can’t record it on the liveblog.

9:22	moneycoach:  Is Northern Voice (keynotes?) being livecast? ustream etc? Would love to watch from yellowknife #northernvoice09

9:22	[Comment From Michael Allison] Nora is playing archival audio of how to use a telephone.

9:23	Raul:  Hard to imagine a time when the telephone wasn’t an obvious technology. When a new communications technology arises, it often changes the culture. With the phone, people talked about what you should say “ahoy” or “what is wanted” before they finally settled on “hello”

9:23	rsodhi:  At Northern Voice conference at UBC campus. First keynote with Nora Young has just started #northernvoice09

9:23	yurechko:  Anyone have a live (audio/video) stream coming out of Northern Voice? #northernvoice09

9:24	andymiah:  at Northern Voice in Vancouver.

9:24	scales:  Listening to #northernvoice keynote by nora young … It’s a fine sunny day in YVR

9:24

Raul:  By way of practical example, Nora talks about how the “hello”‘s work at Spark (a show about technology and culture). Nora and her co-host are both bloggers and podcasters. A while back they came back to get into the dialogue about mainstream media and social media (transparency). They learned to open up the process and looked for ways to mirror them more open leaves, characters of blogs. What would a blog sound like on the radio.

9:25	Raul:  People can follow the conversation back through history. They worked to develop an aesthetic of transparency. Not live, and not perfect. What they do is they let some things that normally don’t appear on a broadcast.

9:26	wmrandth:  @lblanken I have a pic of teaching dial phone from 1920s – first slide in this preso – http://tinyurl.com/6ov4fn #nv09

9:29	wmrandth:  #nv09 nora young on – challenge of translating non-linear conversational reality into the linear format of radio (->with McLuhan “hot”ness?)

9:29

Raul:  Challenges to mainstream media. It’s reflecting changes and how people consume information and Nora thinks about this as a new ecology of information. This is where together indie media and how do we think about truth and the responsibilities does this shift place. 1. It’s not what you know but who you know. We live in an era of socialized information, where information is strongly intertwined with our social relationships.

9:31

Raul:  On Spark, they often use Twitter to create information medium. It’s mediated through the community. At the same time that they request for information, the socialization of information is being picked up all over social media. The kinds of personal contacts you have in the world has a strong influence on media literacy. 2. Collaborative truth – whether we are talking formally or informally (wiki or social media sites) it’s important but not as important as the collective truth (the aggregation, a sum total of what they choose to say about themselves and what others say about them). When you think about it, it’s a really big change. Some scholars have kind of put this like a McLuhan – the network culture of the web.

9:31

Raul:  We are moving from individual perspectives to establishing meaning and collaboration – it’s a shift from oral culture to book culture to web/networked culture. This impacts how we educate each other and impact each other. this new McLuhan ecology of information, highly fluid, affects how we teach our kids about information and so on.

9:32	wmrandth:  #nv09 it is a big change, but only compared to recent typographic book world, not a pre-modern village culture -> McL’s global village

9:32	Raul:  Where is this information ecology going? Towards the end of information scarcity. “Mobi-quity” – being continually connected in the mobile web. 3 billion cell phones. A lot of people access the web ONLY on their phones.

9:33	Raul:  What does that mean for innovations and what blogs look like? It’s a pretty familiar concept. It connects you to a broader technological shift.

9:33	bgilgoff:  @gtoews Me too. Had the greatest conference experience at Northern Voice yesterday with twitter open all day.

9:33	Raul:  We are starting to see our ability to layer the world around us with the information (mixing online with offline) – building up this kind of internet and things. Digital information is applied to the physical world.

9:34	Raul:  So, what happens when you have actual internet connectivity (GPS enabled devices) this means information is everywhere and the web doesn’t need to be global/detached from geography, can be about the local, the hyperlocal.

9:34	hummingbird604:  I’m including ALL tags for #northernvoice09 including #northernvoice and #nv09

9:35

Raul:  The power of number-crunching in the context of local (crime mapping analysis) [there are a number of localized geo-tagged information analyses] – information about their neighbourhood and what’s going around Gina Trapani – Flickr bike. GPS-cellphone – every minute takes pictures – this reminds me of @rtanglao and his mobile biking.

9:36	[Comment From Michael Allison] Hyperlocal content online takes the happenstance out of living in the city.

9:37

Raul:  How do we organize socially? For instance, Toronto has a series of farmer markets on different days of the week. In the summer, Nora’s farmer market was there. There’s tonnes of information about hyperlocal elements. At a deeper level, it’s not just about the technology. All the layers of social organization.

9:37	Raul:  Another shift Nora sees: 3.- Sustainability – it is not the end of information scarcity itself. Nora takes the example of “the ability to access all this information to change the way we consume from buying objects to sharing services”

9:38	Do you believe the future is in mobile web? Is Mobile Web 3.0? Yes, I only read on my iPhone/BlackBerry/Android  ( 20% ) Not sure  ( 20% ) No, I love my desktop/laptop  ( 60% )

9:39

Raul:  You don’t have to be at home on your home computer .That changes the consumption patterns for how we buy things. Jennifer Vandermeer (green activist and innovation strategist). There’s this gap between how people behave. More than 50% people say they want to buy green, but only 10% actually do buy the greener products. You can bridge the gap if you bring the consumers closer to the product.

9:40	Raul:  Our sense of more participatory culture – the fact that people volunteer to do things like blogs, express their interest in green products .Clay Shirky argues that the way participatory culture contributes and how it’s changing the economy is the example of the stock photo industry.

9:40	Raul:  Corporations had to pay. Once you have a phenomenon like Flickr (digital photos whose costs are low) the cost for stock photos does no longer exist

9:41	northernvoice:  @mirandal I think you mean: Ahoy, Northern Voice!

9:41	Raul:  So, this flight of information implies – who the hell has the energy and time to do all of this. People will spend a lot of their own volunteer energy. Simple tools are going to be more important than ever. Elegant mapping and display tools – show information that is easy to navigate.

9:42	hummingbird604:  NEW BLOG POST Northern Voice 2009 – Nora Young on Buried Hatchets and Better Tomorrows (Liveblog) http://tinyurl.com/cp7yfw

9:42	Raul:  What are some of the conclusions? Caveat – a lot of people don’t have access to basic information and internet. We could still say that… 1.- This new ecology of information is social, fluid, implies that we are just starting to see a big shift in the economy and the culture.

9:42	Raul:  Instead of bringing all the students together for a lecture, they decided to flick the classroom. In the class, the students did the homework with the teacher and worked in a more collaborative fashion.

9:43

Raul:  Why does it seem natural to have a lecture in the classroom? You had to be in the same room as the teacher. A lot of models are based on scarcity of informations. What are the unquestioned assumptions about how we live with each other. In the Colorado case, the way the teachers made it a conceptual change (an “Ahoy” moment”)

9:44	Raul:  What are our own “Ahoy” or “Hello” moments. Raises the distinct possibility of different information worlds. The people who read different sources of information – who do you know. You are going to get information from people who already think a lot about you.

9:45	Raul:  When the world around us is annotated with digital information you can pick and choose. It also makes us ask questions about how do we create deep meaning, rather than just links, comments, etc.

9:46

Raul:  Canadians need a responsible, democratic platform to connect ideas and create a platform to connect with each other (a public broadcaster on social media ground). Whether we are coming from a variety – we all have to wrestle with how do we keep the dialogue alive. A deeper truth – the cultural context isn’t obvious, it’s a site of debate, and it is an important debate to be a part of.

9:46	Raul:  There can be no excuse. Balancing collaboration with sustained arguments. It means a commitment to remembering what this fabulous conversation is for, problem solving and making the world a better place.

9:46	Michael Allison:  We need a variety of opinions and argument to avoid what is called “Digital Maoism”

9:47	Raul:  Nora is taking questions – Tod Maffin is asking now

9:48	Raul:  Nora is taking questions – Tod Maffin is asking now

9:50	mastermaq:  @trishussey @jeremylatham Northern Voice has always been that way, it’s great.

9:50	Raul:  I am done with the liveblog.

9:50

Related posts:

1. Liveblogging Northern Voice 2009 – I’m EXHAUSTED!
2. Northern Voice 2009 – How Social Media is Changing Journalism (Hermida, LaPointe, Tippet & Shaw)
3. Northern Voice 2009 – Keynote address: Stewart Butterfield (liveblog)

• Green Drinks Vancouver happens again on the third wednesday of the month (Sep 17th, 2008) at Steamworks.
• The Metro Vancouver Sustainability Breakfasts series continues, and this time, they will focus on the discussions we’ve been having on bottled water. I am SO definitely there!

About the Community Sustainability Breakfast [Metro Vancouver's website]:

Sustainability Community Breakfasts – Nature’s Health Drink – Always on Tap
Wednesday, 17 September, 2008
from 7:30 AM to 9:00 AM
British Columbia Institute of Technology
555 Seymour Street, Vancouver

About Green Drinks Vancouver Sep 2008 [Green Drinks Website]

WHEN the next regular Green Drinks is: Every 3rd Wednesday of the month (except in Dec and July) Our next event is on Sept 17th, 2008
WHERE: Steamworks pub at 375 Water Street on the edge of Gastown near Waterfront Station.
Please be aware that due to changing space availability we cannot guarantee we’ll be in the same room each month – if you can’t find us just ask Steamworks staff which room we are in.
TIME:5:45pm-until?

It’s lucky that both of these events fall on the same day, and that I’ll be back in Vancouver by then! And again, I’ve got a full week booked (Brew 2.0, Green Drinks, Launch Party AND a special day!). Can someone please clone me? Thanks.

Related posts:

1. Upcoming environmental events in Vancouver (March/April)
2. Upcoming environmental events in April 2008 – Metro Vancouver
3. Upcoming events – Nov 16-20th, 2008

Last week, I mentioned that I was worried about the lack of interest in local/Canadian politics and the excessive focus on the US election on Canadian and Vancouverite blogs and on Twitter. Well, with the news of an upcoming Federal election (October 14th, 2008), I am very, VERY happy to see the interest of our bloggers, readers and Twitterers renewed on Canadian issues

During the same week, I tried to remind my readers that in order for us to really participate, and put the public back into public policy, we need to focus on local issues while maintaining a global perspective. One of those hyperlocal issues that I think we need to focus on is the lack of homes and shelter for homeless people. On a side note, I am not too sure that homelessness will be taken up as a Federal election issue, but who knows.

Even though homelessness is mostly considered a regional, municipal/provincial public policy issue, there is an actual Federal Homelessness Partnering Strategy (launched in December 2006). From their About Us page:

Under the HPS, the federal government will offer the provinces and territories the opportunity to enter into bilateral partnerships, improve collaboration and develop linkages between the federal homelessness programs and provincial/territorial social services to help communities make strategic investments that will best serve their homeless populations.[HPS About Us]

Homeless Action Week will take place EXACTLY during the 2008 Federal election week, which is kind of timely, if you ask me. Why? Well, because everything is interconnected. With the 2010 Olympics and the discussions around the gentrification of the Downtown East Side, there will be a need to re-examine the Federal strategy on homelessness. And I have the feeling that Homeless Action Week may be the catalyzer for this re-examination.

Is lack of homes (and affordable housing) an issue? Well, let’s examine the data provided by the Regional Steering Committee on Homelessness.

A 24-hour snapshot count conducted on March 11 th, 2008 indicates that 2,592 individuals were found to be homeless in the Metro Vancouver region. This number is an increase of 427 individuals over the 2005 count data, or an increase of 19% over the number of homeless individuals found in 2005, and a jump of 131% since 2002.[HAW Research Page]

So, the question again is … how can you help? In addition to all of those great suggestions provided on the RSCH page for Homeless Action Week, you can also
- Blog about it.
- Tweet about it.
- Talk about it with your friends, family, etc.
- Write about it (in print).
- Discuss it on national media.

And, two additional things you can do…

One, you could donate your time, clothing items or food to local food banks. Rebecca has for very long been a champion of Metro Vancouver’s food banks, most recently raising over $10,000 dollars for the United Gospel Mission (along with Duane and with the generous help of Matt Good, Matt’s fans and many other participants). Lack of food would most definitely be an issue that homeless people face.

Two, you can participate in the events for the 2008 Homeless Action Week. Last year, I highlighted some of the 2007 HAW events and had a chance to participate in a few. As I mentioned in that previous post, sustainability, social change and social responsibility start at home, and Vancouver is my home, so that’s where I am trying to effect change.

On that note, I would like to invite you to follow @vanpoverty on Twitter, as this is a project where I am partnering with the brilliant Joe Solomon (@engagejoe on Twitter) to use our combined blogging/social media powers to bring issues of poverty and homelessness in Vancouver to the forefront.

Related posts:

1. Homelessness Action Week (Metro Vancouver) October 10th–16th, 2011
2. Homelessness Action Week 2010 in Vancouver
3. Homelessness Action Week 2009 (Oct 11th to 17th)

- Via Jenn Watkiss – Riann Batch is looking to be a Superhero for a Day! The Drop Zone Vancouver is organizing a fundraising event, and Riann is going to be descending single-handedly, as she lost the use of her right arm in a skiing accident last year. Link to Riann’s page is here.

- Via Jay Grandin – Giant Ant Media and The Urban Project are partnering to create a really cool project. In their words [Giant Ant Media - Tanzania]:

Giant Ant Media will be producing a film and web series that follows a group of street youth in the pursuit of recording a hip hop album, with the hopes of breaking out on the Tanzanian music scene. Urban Project, a Vancouver-based charity, will be providing funds to ethically compensate the youth involved via a salary and school fees, while also funding recording studio time.

Their next fundraiser will be a concert at The Anza Club on Sep 10th. Sadly, I won’t be back in Vancouver yet but you’re more than welcome to attend and let me know how fun it was!

And three causes I had already highlighted, but just in case you need a reminder

- Tanya Davis is joining Buzz Bishop’s Team Diabetes and will be running a half-maraton and she’s now going putting her money where her mouth is! Go check her blog entry right now and donate to her cause here.

- Karen Parker is doing the Bicycle Trek for Life and Breath, and you can sponsor her here. Karen is one of the kindest-hearted persons I’ve met. One time, I was feeling down and she took me out shopping and to the Apple Store. How’s that for geek friendship?

- And last, but never least, Barbara Doduk, Keira-Anne and Matt Good are all doing Paws for a Cause. You’ll find their personal donation pages in each of the posts I’ve linked here.

My friend Gus indicated that he was going to do a charity round-up, so I’ll link here and update the post when he puts his up. UPDATE – Go check Gus’ entry on charity, it’s up already!

Related posts:

1. My recent Social Media Club Victoria talk: “Towards an Action-Focused Agenda for Social Change Using Social Media” (#smcvictoria) @smcvictoria
2. On being jaded with social media for social change
3. Video as a tool to effect social change – An example from Giant Ant Media

If you need a photographic reminder of how awesome our past Meetup was, you can look at Karen’s and Cecily’s Flickr accounts, as well as mine.

Now, here’s the thing. I am not in Vancouver, as most of you know. Therefore, I can’t physically organize the August meeting. I’ll be back in Vancouver around mid-September, but we also have BarCamp 2008 in September (you must have known about this as we all blogged about it!).

So, I did a tally of the responses. I clustered the No, Maybe and I Don’t Care responses into basically “Not-Yes” (e.g. a response that isn’t Yes — God, I’m such a Captain Obvious!). Anyhow, the email tally is completely tied. 8 people said Yes and 8 people didn’t. Colleen and Keith were Twittering last night about how it might be better to send this VBM to September (an opinion that Isabella shared, and a number of other respondents to my survey)

I recognize that this date may be a tad too close to BarCamp Vancouver 2008, but if you think about what the Vancouver Bloggers Meetup is, (and I quote), “over time it’s become a close-knit group of friends who enjoy each other’s company” (David Drucker on the Vancouver Bloggers Meetup site, comment for July 29, 2008), the VBM is basically us (friends) getting all together to geek out and talk about stuff (as very appropriately said by Jan Karlsbjerg). So, let’s take a relaxed approach and do it in September instead.

To try and incorporate the majority of the feedback I got from everyone who responded, I decided to organize it for September 25th, 2008. Before I get smothered (I know, we’re going to be super busy for BarCamp Vancouver), let me suggest that we do it as a casual get-together. If we need to talk shop and do some fine-tuning about BarCamp (most of the organizing committee is also on VBM), we could always do that. Let’s take it as a relaxed, friendly get-together, and thank you Rebecca for suggesting that something might be done and potentially associate it with National Digital Media Day.

Rebecca is co-organizing with Jon Husband the Blogging portion of NDMD. [UPDATE - Sorry Rebecca, I think I jumped the gun! Ok, so here is the link to the Save-The-Date for NDMD] [ SIDE NOTE - Rebecca, I don't know how you do it, you're also involved with New Forms Festival 2008! I have the feeling we're going to have a VIDFEST 2008 redux ] Isabella had suggested doing something at her house, but we can always fine-tune the details as we get closer to the date. One thing you can be assured: two words – LARGER VENUE.

I really hope I didn’t disappoint those who wanted a VBM in August, but honestly, the September date works much better I think (even for me). Feedback, as always, appreciated. And… I miss you guys, I really do.

Related posts:

1. Upcoming event – Vancouver Blogger Meetup January 2008
2. National Digital Media Day and Vancouver Bloggers Meetup 2008
3. Recap of Vancouver Bloggers Meetup Nov 2008

I was invited by David Gratton to come by and visit The Donat Group. I had met Rochelle Grayson at a Tweetup and I read both David’s and Rochelle’s personal blogs, so it was a great chance to come by and see the kind of work that they do. I was shown a number of fun tools they develop, including SnipDev (for someone who is geekifying himself, there is no better fun than finding new ways to use technology to bring people together, which is one of the things that David, Rochelle and their group do). Good times.

Rebecca and I have been on a Mexican food roll, so we agreed to meet for lunch at La Casita in Gastown. Restaurant review forthcoming. I did miss a chance to hang out with Karen as our schedules didn’t match up, but I’m sure we’ll hang out soon enough. Since Rebecca and I were both invited to the Strutta party we ended up going there for a couple of beers (free booze – who can refuse that?). I had a chance to bug Jordan Behan about not following me on Twitter (jokingly), but now Boris Mann has created a mantra for me. See photo below (if you can’t read what the plastic glass says, it says “Follow Me on Twitter – hummingbird604). I took the joke in jest. As usual, I have LOTS of photos of the evening on my Flickr. It was good to see a lot of my fellow bloggers/twitterers/friends from the tech community.

Unfortunately I had to leave early as I was meeting with AF, NM and RO for Rock Band. I am in love with this thing. Hat tips and thanks to Tanya for those Rock Band invites with a bunch of friends, because I am now totally hooked. Usually when I hang out with Tanya and friends, I do a lot of vocals but I’ve begun to be more comfortable with bass (although I only play as high as medium). I got home at 4 am. Great times! NM and RO are always really fun to hang out with.

And to close off, here is one of my favorite songs from the many that we played last night: Wave of Mutilation. Hope you guys are having a great weekend, because mine is really busy (as always!). Darn. And I thought I was going to be non-booked. OOOPS.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U88t0JgawfY&hl=en]

Related posts:

1. Green Thursday, Raul time Friday and easy weekend
2. Spreading the link love on a rainy Friday
3. Upcoming environmental events in Vancouver – September 2008

I guess that comes from my recent increased coverage of tech events, including VIDFEST 2008, Cossette Convergence 2008, Launch Party IV. Even the PR events (if you consider Third Tuesday a PR event) have a tekkie component! Thus, I’ve come to accept that yeah, maybe I am in tech.

Moreover, this only comes to confirm what my friend HZ has told me all along: every time I launch a new endeavour, I follow through fully! And again, a substantial hat tip and thanks should be given to ALL MY BLOGOSPHERE friends, but especially Miss604 – Rebecca Bollwitt, for helping me with my blog, for guiding me through a lot of stuff and simply, for her friendship. Thank you Rebecca.

Related posts:

1. Out and about with Raul on a Friday
2. GMail is down… again! On the dependency on tech tools
3. Vancouver Young Professionals and Real Estate Tech Meetup recap