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New Category! Common Craft LLC.
Now that I've rounded the corner towards independence, most things in my life will center around my new career and company, Common Craft. I'll have a new site up here in a matter of weeks (commoncraft.com), but this category will be an ongoing part of my personal site here at leelefever.com. That's right- I'm double-dipping on the web sites soon. Watch out.
CommonCraft.com will have blog elements too, but it'll be very focused on the business.
Really though- I submitted my official notice of resignation to my manager today. My last day as the Solucient Online Community Manager will be Friday, May 16th.
This opens a new, more independent chapter in my life. I will now pursue a career as an independent communication planning consultant- something I've had planned for a few months. My one-man-show will be called Common Craft, LLC. I'll spare you the elevator pitch for now- but there will be more on this soon.
I guess I haven't really grasped the whole situation- that is, quitting a perfectly good job with nothing too specific lined up. It all seems a little surreal. The bottom line is that I know exactly what it is that I want to do in my career and this move is a necessary step. I figure that now is a good time for me to be risky.
We made it back to Seattle on Sunday night with some good times and long days behind us. Luckily my friend Dave Stitcher came through with some great hook ups for the weekend. Through some friends of his, we were able to stay in the French Quarter for the weekend for 50 bucks- and we had a condo with a balcony and all- so nice. Then we met his friends and went to bars, restaurants and Jazzfest with those folks- who helped us see New Orleans through their eyes. Once again, it’s knowing good people that make life easier.
I’d have to say that I see New Orleans in a different and cooler light than I used to. As Dave said a few times- New Orleans is not the South. I’m a southern boy and I do love the South, but I really don’t think that New Orleans is representative of it’s geographic location. It seems like an island or another world plopped down on the gulf of Mexico. The locals don’t even have the sweet southern drawl that you’d expect- it is really more similar to a Brooklyn accent- believe it or not. You hear the accent called “Yat”- as is “Where yat?”. Apparently one reason is because New York and New Orleans received immigrants from Europe around the same time and the accents evolved similarly. Also, you don’t find sweet tea in New Orleans- which may the biggest indicator of not being Southern. Lastly, the population doesn’t seem to represent the culture of the south in the same way. From meeting locals to seeing everyone at Jazzfest, I was surprised to see so few good ole boys with mullets, Oakley blades and NASCAR tee shirts. I expected many more of these folks.
Oh boy and then there is the whole Bourbon street scene. Everyone should experience Bourbon Street during a festival at some point- there can’t be another place like that in the world. Of course it’s all related to good ole fashion debauchery. It amazes me what people will do for beads. I call it the bead economy. Nudity is bought and sold for beads on Bourbon Street- I swear someone could do a study on how beads are the social currency of those few blocks. I was happy to see at least 6-8 flashers myself.
I’ve never seen alcohol flow the way it does there. First, drinking on the street is legal- so you can get your beer to go. Second, it’s cheap. I’m still not sure why, but you can get a 64 oz. beer there. Anyone who’s ever drank a 40oz. beer knows that the other 24ozs are nothing but warm flat backwash. We started many nights with the famous Hurricanes at Pat O’Brian’s.
I could go on, but why not say it pictures? Here is a selection of pictures that I like from the trip:
Here's Dave, me and Sachiko on Friday seeing the band Won Ton Lust outdoors at the Southport (I think that's the name).
The "Dave's friend discount" condo- that window open to the balcony. Man that place rocks.
My favorite picture. We were playing pool at a local joint (The Mayfair) and these guys rolled in with suits on (at 12:30 Am!) and proceeded to be total tools. Here is Dave reluctantly getting schooled on the ins and outs of "New Orleans Rules" pool.
Ah and Dave and Macon at Jazzfest. We got to know Macon well- he's a fellow healthcare administration nerd.
I didn't expect to see this in a dirty bathroom at the Shim Sham club in New Orleans. Pretty psyched to get a picture though.
If you have no idea what this is about, watch the video here.
Got up at 4:15 AM and caught a flight down to NOLA via Houston. The airport in Houston had no wireless access or Laptop lane things. About to go the client reception and do some schmoozing. The pic is me in the hotel room at time of posting. Later.
I'm off to New Orleans until Sunday. My company is having their annual users conference in New Orleans this week and then Sachiko and I are going to stay for the weekend and hit Jazz Fest. Should be cool.
I'm really looking forward to the trip for a couple of reasons. For one, I get to hang out with the members of my online community. Now that the community supports most of our products, I'm pretty well known and it's always fun meeting those people. Many of them I've grown to know online- but not in person. It's great for them and me to meet.
Second, I get to hang out with a good college friend for the weekend- David Stitcher. He's been living there for a while and will be able to show us a good time. It's been a while and it'll be good to see him. Dave's alter-ego is "NOLAmite". Check out the Nolamite site here: Nolamite.
I'll hopefully be able to check in while we're there, if sobriety permits. :-)
CNN.com - 'World's Biggest Cookie' in works - Apr. 21, 2003
I have to give a big shout-out for my fellow North Carolinians for going for the world record. I wish I could be there with a big glass of milk.
Business 2.0 - Magazine Article - Keynote Like a Pro
The image looks like this is a joke, but I found article this to relate some common sense things to think about in public speaking.
Went walking with friends yesterday in Columbia City and saw where a lady had so many flowers in her yard- I had to stop and take some pics. Spring has sprung- finally.
CNN.com - Private manned spacecraft program unveiled - Apr. 19, 2003
I believe that sometime later in my lifetime, I will make it into space- and hopefully back to earth again. :) This kind of project brings this goal another step closer.
Pew Internet & American Life Project
Really interesting and comprehensive data and analysis about Internet usage in America.
Interesting links:
What non-users think about the online world
What non-users would do if they went online
You can sign up for bulletins when new studies are released here.
Wikipedia is really an interesting phenomenon. It's a big wiki that has grown to be an impressive and comprehensive online encyclopedia of knowledge. Being a wiki, it allows anyone to contribute, edit, add or change any page.
It's interesting to me how much more information you can glean from something like this than you can an online encyclopedia. I think this comes from the linkability and editing power of a wiki.
You might look up "koi" and find links to a definition of koi that contains links to other pages with deeper information. In the koi wiki, there are links to "Cyprinidae", "goldfish" and "Japan". Each subject lets you link to more rich information- and it grows everyday.
I think this is something I'll use.
Shirky: Social Software and the Politics of Groups
Clay Shirky really speaks to me. Everytime I read his stuff I feel like he's writing about me, or something I'm all about.
Excerpt:
We have historically overestimated the value of network access to computers, and underestimated the value of network access to other people, so we have spent much more time on the technical rather than social problems of software used by groups.
What a point. I believe that the biggest problem facing social software in the future will not be solved by technological advances- it will be solved by advances in understanding how to communicate about technology to groups of non-geeks and leading them down the right path to valuable and constructive interaction.
CNN.com - Rodney King slams SUV into house
Perhaps it his celebrity that makes it seem like he is always in trouble. Nah, no way, he really does get into a lot more trouble than your average person. I can't imagine what must be like to be Rodney King on a day-to-day basis.
Excerpt:
King, 39, was spotted Sunday by a police officer who said King was speeding and weaving through traffic in his 2003 Ford Expedition when he slammed into a utility pole, a chain-link fence and then the home, police said. No one in the home was injured.
I'll bet that Salam Pax has been blogging on Where is Raed? throughout the war in Iraq, but has not had an Internet connection. Once a connection comes back, I bet he's gonna post his day-by-day account about living in Baghdad during the war.
I think it's going to be hugely popular. Where is Raed? was very linked-to before the last post on March 24th, but once it comes back, it will get the attention of many folks inside and outside the blog world- again.
Party Volcano, How Three Fun-Hunting Art Lovers Became Seattle's De Facto Social Directors
This is inspiring to me. These folks have a great idea, a loyal following and they seem to enjoy being the voice of the Party Volcano. I see a great opportunity to take the Party Volcano to a web site, which would allow the organizers to connect to the members on a whole new and improved level- plus it may be easier to manage. Here’s how I think it could work:
I would encourage them to think about a group web log “blog”. This would just be a web site (that can be set-up and run for free) that would allow the organizers (or anyone of their choosing) to post messages to the site on a regular basis- as easily as sending an email. This could be set-up on Blogger.com for free.
This site would/could become an online “home” for the group. Right now, using email, their community is doing great and people are into it. But, if they had a home, the group could take on a new level of interaction. It could start to become a more valuable and popular resource for the members. Here are some of the possible benefits:
So, what about email? Email would continue to be an essential part of the experience. Member’s would still receive regular email from the Party Volcano- but they would contain links to the site- where the real action is.
Of course, this is all just speculation based on the article. Regardless, I think the opportunity is a big one that could make the Party Volcano an even more treasured resource for us Seattlites.
Big ups to Seattle's very own listener supported radio station, KEPX 90.3 for being nominated for a webby in the radio category. They deserve it.
My dog Amos is no spring chicken, but he isn’t a geezer just yet either. Throughout his life he’s had consistent reason to visit the vet. Two knee ligaments repaired, many many lumps removed (one cancerous), various sores, etc. We say he’s limpy, lumpy and humpy and always wondering what’s next.
Recently he’s been mopey and his tail and ears reflect the not-feeling-well attitude- not a good sign. So we took him to the vet and got it check out. Turns out he has a subluxed tail bone (a little out of joint) and it should get better with time. While we were there, we had blood tests run- which could reveal cancer or any other terrible things. It turned out that he is fine and the tests were negative. Good news.
It wasn’t until we got home and started looking at the receipt until we realized that he is officially an old dog. When they did the blood test- it was a “geriatric panel” which means- “old dog blood test”. Just as we had expected- he has officially become an old dog. We’ve been telling him for a while, but now it’s in print- a doctor said so.
After all the things he's been through, I should be thankful he has made it to the part of his lfe where he qualifies for a geriatric panel. I hope he's around for many more.
Communibuild Technologies, Incorporated (CTI)
Today I had a quick email exchange with Noel Dickover at Communibuild. We seem to share some of the same philosophies on community. His post to the community of practice discussion group originally inspired me...
Excerpt:
Undertaking work culture transformation to move an organization from
an information hoarding environment to an information sharing one
may take all aspects of human performance technology to succeed.
Communities are just a part of this.
Check out various t-shirts and mugs adorned with Anthony's (of The Useful Arts) suave designs. I might just have to get me something.
Last night on my blog "Communication Culture" I posted an amateur explanation of wikis and how I could envision using them- at first blush.
A couple of weeks ago, I posted a similar explanation of Trackback
Today, I went to a site that I saw from the online facilitation discussion group and was encouraged to do an experiment that would be a test of all these things at once.
At Channel wiki, it says: "To post to this channel... ping the URL http://topicexchange.com/t/wiki/ with your TrackBack-enabled blogging tool."
So I'm writing this post and I'm going to ping the Channel wiki and see if it works. If it does, we should see these words appear on the channel wiki...
Here goes...
I've heard a lot about "wikis" as a collaboration tool lately and I'm trying to get them figured out. I think I have the concept down...but I think I have a long way to go.
If you don't want my amateur analysis go here to read a wiki philosophy FAQ.
BTW, wiki is short for wikiwiki, which means "quick". The buses at the Honolulu airport are the wikiwiki buses. :-)
Basically, a wiki is a system that manages web pages that anyone can edit and is encouraged to do so. That's right, anyone.
So, I could have a web page up that has Frequently Asked Questions for my online community, for instance. If I wanted the members to add, remove, edit, change these questions without my explicit involvement, a wiki page/site would allow it. The reasoning would be that collectively, the members would create and maintain a better FAQ than I could do on my own. I'd be involved of course, but everyone else would be about as involved as me. This could work in work groups, etc.
On high level, it's a little like open source software, except members don't add/edit/improve code over time, they add/edit/improve what others have written in the wiki.
It's hard for new users, it has it own linking and formatting convention, it's disorganized, it depends on the good intentions of like-minded users, it has its own subculture, it's not pretty- it's fabulously geeky.
Here's an example based on my knowledge so far:
I start a wiki and invite 20 friends to come help me define the principles of online community building. These 20 folks become part of the wiki system and are free to start posting their thoughts on these principles by creating their own wiki pages. Some will, some won't. Initially, we all go in different directions and things are disorganized- there isn't collaboration.
Then, the basis of wiki, editing and linking, comes into play. We start to look at each person's principles and see elements that we like and some we don't. We change the wording of someone's principle to be clearer. We copy someone's principles into our own version. We see the directions and styles of others and comment in their wikis. We brainstorm on a wiki. We link to others and they link to us.
Over time, consensus starts to emerge. We notice that there are a few pages that represent what we are all working toward. Eventually a single wiki page becomes our final version of the principles of online community building. And even then, we can all tinker with it until we finalize it and move on. It becomes a product of everyone's collaboration and interest.
I think this is one way a wiki could be used. There are many more I'm sure. I'll be keeping my eye on this stuff...
Most of what I've learned came from a site that is now known as THE wiki. It is a community of folks using a number of wikis for many many purposes. It was founded by Cunningham and Cunningham, Inc. years ago
SocialText also has a wiki workspace.
Despite his repeated requests for Kali to "be cool" and "quit playin" Amos takes his blows like a gentleman. He's a lover, not a fighter. More pics coming soon...
I just signed up for this service. It appears to be a directory of blogs that is organized and searchable. I like the fact that each blog is actually viewed by a person before it's added to the searchable list. Also, it seems pretty new, so maybe I'm getting in early. Just needing to get the blog out there somehow...
Business 2.0 - Magazine Article - Why It's Time to Take a Risk
Some days I think it is.
CNN.com - Music industry sues students over alleged file-swapping networks - Apr. 4, 2003
Here's a rant for ya...
I think the RIAA needs to spend their money on other things than sueing college kids for sharing files. File sharing is stealing as far a copyright law goes and I understand that. However, I don't think that there is anything that can be done to stop it and the RIAA should think about therapy more than prevention.
It makes me think about America's war on drugs...
We spend countless billions of dollars every year trying to arrest and jail the drug dealers. Drugs are bad and I understand that- I don't want any of my future-kids on drugs. But, the simple fact is that people like drugs and the government will never change that. No matter how much we spend, we will never win the war because its focused on the supply and not the demand. People want drugs and as long as this is true, the supply will find a way.
I think the same is true of the RIAA's war on file sharing- they are looking at it from the supply side. They are supposing that if they can sue people for sharing files, they will have a net effect on the supply and put an end to illegal file sharing. But, like drugs, people like file sharing and the only answer is to create demand for something better.
This relates back to my point about prevention vs. therapy. In both cases, I think that they need to look at ways to handle the demand- not the supply. To me, therapy means giving people the means to make the right decision- not preventing them from making the wrong one.
While I don't have much input on the whole war on drugs thing, I think there is a way for the record industry to deal with the war on file sharing: Create a viable alternative. I know- this is not a new idea. :-)
I think they should assume that file sharing is going to happen and they are powerless- stop wasting money on legal fees. Then, stop looking at their business model the same- it's outdated- the rules have changed. They need to stop looking at file sharing as the enemy and figure out how to make it work in their favor. Again, no big news there.
I honestly think that people want to do the right thing- they(we) want to pay for music they like- they want to support their artists. But, they simply don't have a next-best alternative. From what I've seen the Record label spensored sharing systems work, but not enough.
I fear for the future of the major record labels. I think a technology has come along that has crushed the very foundation of their existence. I hate to see the industry crumble, but if they keep trying to prevent rather than promote good alternatives, I don' t think they have a chance.
But, really and truthfully- what do I know anyway?
Online Community Report: Interview with Barry Libert, Rapid Insights
I wasn't sure if this was an interview or an advertisement, but it hit home once I got over the promotional tone of it.
This guy is the CEO of a firm that works with large companies to create online communities.
He makes a point that I think is true:
Online communities do not exist in a void. In fact, executives need to think of 'online' as simply a channel that is required by all communities to be successful. Consequently, it is only one channel - other channels are telephony (wire line and wireless) and brick and mortar. All three channels are essential to the success of building any community.
This point reminds me of the whole .com thing...
This point reminds me of the whole .com thing. When the .coms bombed, it was partially because a web site is not a business in itself. The bubble was built on the assumption that there was a new kind of business, the dot com.
At the end of the day though, the Internet and web sites are just a tool for a business. A web site is a means, not an end.
I think this is true for customer online communities too. The "online" in online community is just an adjective. It is just a means to the end of creating a community around a subject or business.
As the interview alludes to, I think that companies in the future will learn that they need to create a community of customers and they will have a number of choices in how to build communities. Doing it online will just be one choice of many. Of course, I also believe it may the most effective choice.
His conclusion was inspiring:
I am very excited about the future of communities, collaboration and its importance to business, commerce and our geopolitical world. In fact, as the world becomes increasingly connected, communities will play a more important role in business economics. However, communities as we know them will change. They will not only be online or off. And they will not just exist at home and among our friends and family. They will increasingly take on more political and economic significance. Consequently, vendors - be they software or services firms - will have to redefine themselves.