Fleeting Memories

"You don't take a photograph, you make it."  Ansel Adams

News of Kodak preparing for bankruptcy made me rather nostalgic.  It is indeed is bittersweet to see such an icon stumble especially since they helped pioneer the marketing of consumer technology products.  This is not so much an article on the business strategy, but rather a reflection of photography on my life and how something is lost for me as film fades away.

Christmas -- 1980s

One year I got a Kodak Disc camera for Christmas and I loved taking pictures with it.  On every family trip, I would take pictures documenting the experience.  As the camera got older, the pop out flash broke and stayed popped out.  As a result, I rigged it with tape so it wouldn't stick out and flash for all pictures.  There was one time I recall taking pictures with my cousin Wes with each of us shooting one another with our respective camera and saying "Gotcha with my Kodak Flash."  I don't recall if that was the marketing tag line, but it made for an enjoyable time.

High school -- early 1990s

Given my interest in photography as a kid, I decided to take a photography class in high school.  My first few pictures were pretty pedestrian, but with the help of a great teacher, I started to get a feel for composition and the art of film.  I loved spending time in the darkroom developing the film, making prints, and perfecting my technique.  Pretty soon, I was that guy with the camera in high school shooting for the yearbook.

College -- mid to late 1990s

One summer I worked for a photographer who had his own photo lab.  The place was not so OSHA friendly but I loved being in the darkroom.  I didn't like the spiders or the equipment failures, but it was still a memorable experience that I appreciate today.  I also managed to continue working with photos in college, where I shot for the publications office and school paper.  As a result, I even managed to get some things published in random journals and local newspapers.  I enjoyed that experience so much that I tried to pursue journalism as a career path after school (more on that later).

Chicago -- 1999-2001

After college, I hit the pavement looking for work in journalism -- photography or otherwise.  Fortunately with the aid of my network, I landed a gig working with MSNBC.  Granted, it wasn't photography, but it was a related aspect of the business.  It gave me a taste of film in a different light, but already it was clear digital was the way to go.  Despite the huge battery packs with early digital cameras, and the relatively low resolution by today's standard, it was only a matter of time before the technology improved and digital would dominate photography.

Seattle -- 2001 to current

Since moving to Seattle, I haven't really gotten back into photography as I once knew it.  Part of it was not finding a darkroom to rent like I did in Chicago, and part of it was the pace of change with digital cameras.  In the span of a few years we've gone from 3.x megapixels being the top of the line for a point and shoot to an 8 megapixel in my phone.  

Reflections

While I love the instant nature and always present nature of digital photography, I do miss those darkroom days.  I miss the feel of the paper between my fingers after it's been fixed.  I miss the trial and error aspect of Polaroid transfers.  I miss the physicalness of dodging and burning.  I miss the sound of the water, washing the prints.  I miss the smell of the chemicals with film and photo processing.  

Filters, auto-correct software, and now incredibly awesome multi-focus cameras like Lytro -- while they make photography easy, and accessible -- for me they lose that special quality of something I made.  Yes, the memories are captured and the image looks great but the tangible aspect for me is gone.  They say memories are reinforced when multiple senses factor into its creation -- smell, sound, touch, etc.  With the old school way of film and photo processing I engaged many of those other senses; with digital, not so much.  As camera technology improves, do we run the risk of losing our memories by making them so easy to capture?

Seattle Leadership

Since moving to Seattle more than ten years ago, I came to realize that local leadership has often been derided as the "Seattle Process."  Indeed, when you look at some of the recent articles on Crosscut, it's easy be dissatisfied with today's leadership in Seattle:

• http://crosscut.com/2011/10/28/history/21374/Mad-Men-were-all-the-leadership-in-1960s-Seattle-/
• http://crosscut.com/2011/10/17/mossback/21428/Can-Seattle-get-its-leadership-groove-back-/

Though it may be easy, I don't think it's really accurate.  When looking at the big picture of problems facing the country, I am proud to see Seattle well represented in providing leadership.

The first example is Amazon.  Recently hammered on Wall Street for missing their quarterly estimates, I think the article in The Business Insider is spot on:

The most pressing problems in the US economy right now are two-fold:

1.  Near-record-high unemployment at the same time as near record-high profit margins
2.  Income inequality that is now the highest since the late 1920s, just before the Great Depression

By balancing near-term profits with investing for the long-term, Amazon is helping to address these problems.

The second example is from Starbucks.  Recognizing the need for jobs around the country, Starbucks is teaming up with the Opportunity Finance Network to get money into the hands of people creating work.  More information can be found at http://www.createjobsforusa.org/

If those aren't examples of exemplary leadership, I don't know what is.

Humbled

Today I start my new job at Ant's Eye View as a Director of Social Business Strategy.  In many ways, I have been building my way up to this since I started at Participate.com in the late 1990s.  Back then we called this space an "online community."  Tools of the trade consisted mostly of message boards and chat rooms.  Now we have Facebook, Twitter, mobile and countless other platforms and tools at our fingertips.  The tech may have changed over the years, but the need for businesses to adapt to the changing social landscape remains incredibly important.  Having worked on the product and community development side of things for various companies over the years, I believe the need for a holistic Social approach for all organizations, regardless of where they are on their journey, is even more important now.  That is why I am humbled and excited to be joining such an amazing team at Ant's Eye View.  Not only are all of the Ant's incredible in their own right, but I feel incredibly at home the nature of the work.

I look forward to working with my new colleagues, and wonderful clients in the years ahead!

Update on the Psychology of Sharing

A few months ago I storifyied some posts about the "Psychology of Sharing" report from The New York Times.  Not having been there for the presentation, I captured what seemed to be the more salient tweets from the event.  Now, I ran across the actual presentation (hat tip John Porcoro) and there are some great nuggets I missed.  Specifically, they identified key motivations about why people share.  At it's most basic, it's about relationships:

• bringing valuable and entertaining content to others
• defining ourselves to others
• grow and nourish our relationships
• self-fulfillment
• to get the word out about causes or brands

For me, the motivation for why someone does something speaks volumes.  If you are a business or organization wanting to address the needs and challenges of prospective customers/clients, understanding the underlying motivations will help everyone be successful.

Book clubs and social objects

Recently I had an exchange with Rich Millington about community building.  He made a comment about the need to modernize traditional ways of community building -- book clubs, game nights, etc, and also wondered about a better, modern unifier.  Whether or not community gatherings need to moderinize  is a good discussion to have, but this got me thinking about why people gather and what ultimately comes from it. 

Personally, I think it's less important as to why people gather as it is that they gather in the first place.  In my own experiences, I find that the initial reasons for people connecting may wane but the relationships will remain.  Here are two such examples:

Pub quiz.  When I first moved to Seattle over 10 years ago, my friends and I started going to a pub that held weekly trivia competitions.  We did this religiously for years.  Team members would come and go, but a core group of us remained until the quiz master retired.  The team still gets together often to socialize, but it has been several years since we went to a trivia night together.

Team Works.  This is a program through a local nonprofit geared at team based volunteering.  The premise is that people gather in groups and volunteer in the community once a month.  After each volunteer session, people would typically gather for drinks and food at a local establishment.  I inherited a team from a long time team captain, and I brought on some of my friends to the team, who in turn brought their friends.  The team has now changed ownership multiple times, and I'm not as involved, but several team members still volunteer frequently.  We have been to each other's houses for informal gatherings, in addition to significant milestones in our lives.  Though it did not happen in my team, I know of people who got married as a result of volunteering together.

In both of these examples, the impetus for gathering -- pub quiz and Team Works -- sparked connection between people.  These individuals then chose to continue the relationship outside the initial bounds of the gathering. In many ways, I am reminded of "social objects" as described by Hugh Macleod:

The Social Object, in a nutshell, is the reason two people are talking to each other, as opposed to talking to somebody else. 

Objects will come and go, and that's fine.  It's the relationships and connections that make it all worthwhile.

Where is content shared the most?

VatorNews - StumbleUpon bests Facebook in sharing... maybe

According to the article, sites using https are not factored into the data on sharing.  Does this mean that sites with https enabled are undercounted? 

Sharing options bring new opportunities

Given my earlier posts on sharing, this article seems relevant to broadcast to a wider audience Mashable - The Social Media Guide

Funding transit yields happiness

Below is my submitted written testimony to the King County Council on sustaining funding for Metro Transit. For more information, please refer to the links below

• Background on Metro Transist Funding
• Submit written testimony online

Thank you for ensuring that public testimony can be submitted online. This is quite helpful for individuals like me who cannot always attend hearings due to work and child care responsibilities. With that, I want to voice my support for sustaining Metro funding through a council vote, rather than turning it to the voters at large.

Like the majority of Metro riders, I depend on it to get to work. While I can drive, I actively make a choice not to do so. Part of this is a financial concern. Another concern is that for the environment. Most of all, I ride Metro for my own happiness. Having driven to work in previous jobs, when I am stuck in traffic, I am stressed. This was not good for interpersonal relationships with family, friends, and even my neighbors. Now, my time on the bus enables me to put aside the stresses of the day, and of traffic. I can choose to engage with my other passengers, read a book, or just relax and look out the window. No matter what I do on the bus, this helps my piece of mind and makes me a better partner, father, neighbor, friend, and resident of our great region.

The proposed cuts to Metro would dramatically limit transportation options for me, and millions of other residents. If just a fraction of them take time on Metro to have a moment of happiness, not funding Metro will lead to an overall decline in the overall well being of hundreds of thousands in the region. I encourage you to represent the residents of King County with your vote to sustain Metro funding and lead us all to a place of greater happiness for us all.

a look back at Participate

Recently, I ran across a re-post by social business analyst, Jerimiah Owyang, about his experiences at a "dot-bomb" company in the 1990s. This post resonated for me on many levels because there are some that think we are in a similar bubble in the industry today, in addition to my own experiences as a dot com survivor. Below are my reflections on that era.

Fresh out of college, I entered the job market in 1999. Armed with my liberal arts degree from Carleton College, I wanted to go into journalism. After pounding the proverbial pavement I eventually landed a gig at MSNBC as a part-time producer. Because of the lack of hours, I also took up a job at a startup called Participate.com.

Participate.com basically built and ran online communities for businesses back in the day. Some of our clients included AT&T Worldnet, Ace Hardware Corp., Cisco Systems, SAP AG and Microsoft. My first role at Participate was that of a chat host for AT&T. Basically this meant I was there to answer questions (like a support desk) and make sure people weren't doing things they weren't supposed to do. In many ways, I thought my experience as a college dormitory resident assistant was the perfect training for the job. Anyway, I did this for a few months, and eventually started managing the community for another account (Careerpath, now CareerBuilder), and then MSN Games. But enough about the job, and let's explore the environement and culture at the time.

Being situated next to the El in a Chicago loft, the environment was interesting. There were rooms where you would not hold meetings for when the train passed, you couldn't hear a thing. Being a loft, the heating and cooling was always a challenge. There were days where it was so cold (hot air rises in a loft) that I would wear gloves to type. Also, the ceiling leaked. There's something to be said about affordable rent, I suppose. For the most part, the office was an open floor plan with desks grouped together in pods, and offices around the edges with no ceilings. As the company grew in size, we added folding tables like you see at picnics, and folks moved downstairs to the basement. We affectionately called these co-workers the "mole people." We eventually outgrew our space in Lincoln Park and moved to the western loop. For reasons beyond me, we also had our name on the building -- but that was what you did back then, I suppose.

As for the culture, I could not have asked for a better group of co-workers and friends. Everyone there was incredibly warm and passionate about life in their own way. Aside from working together, we drank, hung out, and generally had good times together. In many respects, my life at PDC set the bar (no pun intended) for what a work environment should be.

A few times stand out in my head for life at PDC. One was St. Patrick's Day. Being in Chicago, this was a big deal. I remember that we pretty much wrapped up the day after lunch and headed over to the local pub (conveniently, less than a block away.) We spent many an hour there, only to go on to a different bar when it got dark. Another time that sticks out in my mind was the first company holiday where we shut down the bar/restaurant/pool hall. Our VP at the time was passing our $50 bills to people leaving so they could take a cab. Bear in mind, we were next to the El, so taking a cab seemed rather silly. Who was I to argue with the VP though -- I took the money and then got on the El. When we moved downtown, the culture did indeed change, but the people were still great. When it was time for me to move on (literally, to Seattle), Participate offered to move me out to Seattle. It helped that I worked on the MSN Games account and would be in the Redmond, WA region. Still liking the work, how could I say no?

While the company lived on for several more years before being acquired by another company called Outstart, for all intents and purposes my life at a dot com in that era ended when I left for Seattle. Looking back, I am certainly one of the lucky ones. While I didn't become a paper millionaire overnight, I also didn't lose my job. Things were crazy at times, but I'm not sure how much of that was the industry as it was a certain time and place with the right people.

I cannot thank my colleagues from Participate enough. Not only was it a great place to work with wonderful people, it helped me find my passion for community -- online and offline

What, why, and how we share

Facebook is a funny place. It seems that sharing something on Facebook now means essentially the same thing as "liking" something. This change likely occurred when Facebook announced their plans to broaden their platform. I thought then, and still feel now, the term "like" is rather overloaded. Not only does it mean "Fan" as it was called in its former iteration, but now it means "like" and possibly "share?" Wow, that's confusing. Terminology aside, this got me wondering, what does it mean to "share" something? Why would someone "share" something rather than "liking" something? Thankfully, I'm not the only one who's been thinking about this. Apparently there's a lot of content out there on why people share, and how people share and what people share.

Let's start with the "what" people share. This one comes paraphrased from Clay Shirky's SXSWi 2010 talk. People Share:

• Goods
• Services
• Information
  

He goes on to make some great comparisons on how they compare to one another.

In terms of "why" people share, I ran across a few presentations, loosely summarized, by the following list:

• enjoyment in helping others
• presentation of one's identity
• reputation
• potential for new connections
• receiving feedback

As for "how" people share, I ran across an interesting presentation on that talked about three types of sharing:

• spontaneous
• planned
• gaming (or experiential, in my opinion)

Out of all the pieces on "sharing" that I found recently, the "how" people share was most notable. I think what intrigued me the most was that it really sums up the differences in something like sharing. Sure, the motivations and the what may all be different...but how are they really manifested? it's in the "how" people share. Sharing a bit of information in person is a lot different than doing so via text. Just think about the visceral reactions we get when we hear about relationships ending over text messages -- there's something not quite right about that. Having a way to segment how sharing occurs helps make sense of why we share what we do.

So what? Why do I bother posting this? Aside from my desire to share this with folks (to get a response, to hopefully help people, etc), it's also a way for me to organize my thoughts around it. Thanks for your attention.

Somewhat related:

• http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/13/health/research/13alzheimer.html?_r=1
• http://www.ageofautism.com/2010/07/why-we-share-stories.html
• http://www.forbes.com/2010/04/23/randd-research-sharing-cooperation-leadership-managing-mitsloan.html
• http://russelldavies.typepad.com/planning/2010/06/sharing.html

Flow in everyday things?

David Hayward brings up some great points about the potential for system fatigue in systems that employ game mechanics. Indeed, if we lived in the game apocalypse world envisioned by Jesse Schell, it all might be a bit boring in the long run.

That said, I don't think it's really a question of do we use game mechanics in whatever system we design. Rather, how is it that we facilitate flow in all experiences?

Related:
an old post of mine on flow
Cultivated Play

Gov2.0 needs solid product managment

During the recent Gov 2.0 Camp in Los Angeles the notion of jargon came about. I can't help but think about parallels with product management in general.

Let's say you have a product (or service) can do X, Y, Z. It's very tempting to crow about the fact that the product can do X, Y and Z. The reality of the matter is, no one cares about the product (it's not about you, it's about them). All a prospective person who encounters that product cares about is how can it help me kick ass. If it doesn't, they move on to other things.

To facilitate this process, the product manager really needs to know their audience. What are their needs, desires, stressors and the like? More specifically, what are they doing now at and how can you build from it? Think of it as basic marketing, or even basic community organizing. No matter the specific discipline, hopefully the net result is the same -- a deeper understanding of your audience.

It seems to me, government (1.0 and 2.0) is in the same boat. How does government help the average person be better at what they do? Whether it's getting on a bus, or getting a pothole fixed, everyone has a role to play in getting people into flow state of empowerment . While the initial discussion that triggered this post was about jargon, I really see this as effective product management.

Quick thoughts on motivation

Some great minds talked recently about extrinsic and intrinsic motivations with regards to designing social systems a la leaderboards. The notion of extrinsic and intrinsic motivations also came up in some posts (part 1 and part 2) talking about motivations of volunteers.

Personally I think we are at our best when our internal and external motivations are balanced. The challenge is getting there.

What nonprofits can learn from the recent outages on Twitter, Facebook

Nonprofits (and any organization) can learn a lot from the recent outage on Twitter and Facebook.

1. Don't put all of your eggs in one basket

Much like the websites of Facebook and Twitter being a potential single source of failure, is your organization at risk?

Some questions to consider:

• How diversified is your funding stream?
• If a key member of your board, staff, etc fell ill or left, would the organization still survive?
• How diversified is your social media strategy?

2. Foster innovation of your service(s)

Despite the news that Twitter and Facebook were down, I experienced no problems getting information through TweetDeck (where I manage both my FB status updates and Twitter messages). Had these sites only relied on their website as the only way for people like me to access their services, I would have been out of luck. By opening themselves up to the innovation of others, my service was uninterrupted.

Some questions to consider:

• Does your organization create opportunities for people to build upon the experiences you offer -- perhaps in a manner you did not anticipate or plan?
• How do you encourage people to engage with your experiences in a way that is meaningful for them?
  

3. Have contingency plans

I don't know the details of what Twitter and Facebook are doing/have done in light of the recent outages but I think it is safe to assume they have mechanisms in place to deal with this in terms of restoring service, communication, etc.

Some questions to consider:

• What is the plan for your organization?
• How up to date is your plan?
• Do the people that need to know/execute said plan aware of it? Or does it sit on some shelf or in some folder on your computer?

4. No matter what, learn from your mistakes

If by chance none of the lessons mentioned previously have been applied, it's not the end of the world. Each challenge that confronts us is an opportunity for improvement and learning.

Community change through agile software principles?

I finished day one of "Certified Scrum Product Owner Training" and I am reminded of why I like agile development. While it can do great things for products, I really appreciate the community building aspects of it. Taking a closer look at the values of agile...

• Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
• Working software over comprehensive documentation
• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
• Responding to change over following a plan

...to me, these have direct parallels to community work.

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools -- people and their interactions with one another are pretty much at the center of any community.

Working software over comprehensive documentation -- Ok, so community work is not software. That being said, I interpret this as focusing on what we can do together (build working software, communities, interactions, etc) rather than focusing on how people think we get there (detailed documentation, program initiatives, etc)

Customer collaboration over contract negotiation -- again communities aren't always made of of customers. To me, I see this as really getting all of the people involved in decisions and issues that impact them.

Responding to change over following a plan -- communities are dynamic, as are product roadmaps. You have to adapt to be relevant whether in business or in our communities on a day to day basis.

I love it when my work and civic life blur.

Loosely related...
Achieving that flow state for user experiences
When individual interests and the public good intersect

mmm, johnnycakes

Just ran across this video clip of Obama talking about Dixie Kitchen's johnnycakes. Man, I miss those. Maybe next time I'm in Chicago....

Leaving Microsoft

Today was my last day with Microsoft. It seems rather fitting that the snow and ice pretty much rendered everyone home bound. It is reminiscent of an earlier post when snow and ice also hit this region, except this time I was at home.

Being my last day and all, I can't help but be a bit reflective. Working with Microsoft as a vendor and then as an employee is an incredibly humbling experience. With so many smart, talented, and passionate folks how do you change the world? One step at a time. As with all community work, change does not come quickly. It's not uncommon that your first go around at something will be tweaked and baked a little longer. Sometimes the priorities may change all together to better do what you set out to accomplish in the first place.

I also learned that I need to take more risks to further my learning. While there was certainly more to be learned from others at Microsoft, having that access makes it a bit too easy. For me, much of the learning takes place during the process of wrestling with tough questions. It also takes place from being wrong, rather than learning and building from the experience of others.

Lastly, I learned that there is so much more I want to do than sit in traffic for at least an hour and a half each day. I shudder to think about all the time with family, friends, and the broader community that has been lost due to traffic. As I get older, the more I realize what is important for me.

There are so many things I love about Microsoft, but it is time for me to move on what's next. To all my friends, colleagues and everyone else I worked with at Microsoft -- thank you. It has been a privilege and honor working with you. I hope our paths will cross again.

Does X mark the spot for community?

Richard Millington has a nice overview of what it takes to build an online community. He concisely states what I've discussed in my presentations on blogging and social media. That being said, I now wonder if there's not a better question for all of us to be answering. Specifically, are destination communities relevant? Is there some magical place where we all need to find? Or rather, will a more distributed community model take root?

While I tend to agree with what is said in finding your first community members (or even how to build a user community), I look at this more from the perspective of tapping into the community that already exists. Do we need to bring them back to one central place? A few years ago, I would have said yes in a heartbeat but I am no longer sure that is the case today.

Thinking about my own communities, I engage with others through a variety of different experiences. Email, Twitter, and Facebook are just some online examples. Other examples include phone calls, drinks at a local bar, coffee at a local Starbucks, or purposeful gatherings (for work and/or fun). To build a destination site for one of my communities, well...I'm not sure that would be relevant. Sure, it can be valuable in things like asynchronous communication, outreach, education and the like. Archival, nostalgia and reconnecting are some other scenarios that could also work. But to have one place for the community seems rather limiting, and in my opinion, misses out on how communities work.

Related, I wonder if this is why we are seeing broader community initiatives such as what Nike does with their running clubs, Nike+ website, and Niketown?

Maybe that's really it then...destination communities unto themselves have their place, but really do not speak to the full complexity and needs of communities as a whole. Thoughts?

photo credit -- kierkier

Seattle Public School Closure Outreach?

A lot of is being written about the proposed closures, mergers, moves and the like for Seattle Public Schools. I won't bother trying to document all of the changes and intrigue, and instead I have a few questions:

• Where are the voices of the students and youths impacted by the potential changes?
• Where are the non-parents and other community members impacted by the proposed changes?

With regards to the current and future students potentially impacted, it would seem like that these voices would be important in consideration of changes. Not following it too closely other than through some blogs and mainstream news outlets, it's not evident that youth are organizing. I can't believe this is true...is it? Has the school board or district been trying to actively involve this audience? What about other youth oriented organizations or programs?

Likewise with the non-parents and other community members impacted...to what extent are they at the table? To what extent are these voices heard? To what extent is any outreach being done by the school board or school district? The same question applies to all of the neighborhood groups or home associations.

The thing I love about public school is well, that it's public. A few months ago through some volunteering with Seattle Works, my friends and I volunteered at an elementary school in my old neighborhood. Aside from the work and the weather, the other volunteers there made this one of my favorite volunteer events. Not only were parents and students helping out, but so too were people just from the neighborhood. So too were there people from other organizations throughout the city. Public schools are for everyone -- not just the parents, teachers and students. It's time we all started (myself included) to treat it as such.

A community building manifesto worth noting

For a few weeks now, I've been intrigued by Richard Millington's FeverBee. While he often has lots of great gems, today he posted a great Online Community Building Manifesto.

In a nutshell, he states:

1) We need to become experts on communities.
2) We need to change how we plan online communities.
3) We need to rethink the role of technology.

I couldn't agree more. Much like much touted POST methodology by Forrester Research, tech should be the last thing on the minds of anyone who works with communities. Focusing on the hows and whys of a community is much more important than the tools that are used. In many ways that is why I find a great deal of my inspiration for community work from nonprofits, community organizers, political campaigns, and games. All of these areas reach out to and mobilize a broad range of people. While I am not as familiar with Jeremy Dean, The Situationist and Of Two Minds, at first glance I see similarities with the wide range of folks I follow like Alinsky, Csikszentmihalyi, and McKnight.

Related, I am currently reading two books that seem to illustrate the points laid out in the manifesto. Community: The Structure of Belonging is one of the more comprehensive books on community I've seen in a long time. And strangely enough, the Counterinsurgency Field Manual also talks about how community building is an effective strategy in well, counterinsurgency.

Thanks, Richard. I look forward to changing this dynamic with you and others in this space.