1/17 Twitter Debate with @mediamum (Transcript)

I just an interesting debate with @mediamum on Twitter. I thought it may be interesting to post a transcript of the debate because you probably just heard my side of the debate.

*Order is reorganized a bit as a couple of conversations with @mediamum were happening at the same time through part of the debate.

@warrenng:  It made me incredibly happy to see a homeless man sitting on the ground in front of the coin-operated news stand reading the morning ‘paper.

@mediamum:  Can I ask why?

@warrenng:  For a moment in my observation, I imagined many destitute lives proactively on a road to recovery thru education & information.

@mediamum:  You think that will happen reading a newspaper?

@warrenng:  A ‘paper by itself wouldn’t do it. As I said, I imagined it only briefly. The point was how education can improve quality of life.

@mediamum:  Can I invite you to read one of the homeless’s blogs, or even Max Weller’s blog at the Daily Camera http://maxweller.pmpblogs.com/

@mediamum:  education and information goes both ways. The haves need to learn more about the homeless too.

@warrenng:  140 characters aren’t to be taken literally. Education curricula would have to be created based on practical needs.

@mediamum:  I disagree. 140 characters should definitely be taken literally, or invitations for explanation are fine too.

@mediamum:  I’d ask you for more detail, but I fear that wasn’t what you were expecting.

@warrenng:  I invite you to query me for more explanations… I fear my point is being lost in translation

@mediamum:  I don’t want to be seen as attacking you.

@warrenng:  thus why 140 char. shouldn’t be taken literally cause it sounds like we’re in disagreement when I don’t think that’s the case

@mediamum:  I think we probably are in disagreement. But we don’t need to continue this. Have a great day.

@warrenng:  What just happened?

@warrenng:  Yes education & info go both ways, but the homeless must assimilate to the world. The “haves” role is not to alienate them.

@mediamum:  By not alienating them, that would actually mean finding out more about them? Many homeless are well educated in bad situations.

@mediamum:  I(sic. ‘ll) let you off the hook. You’re saying some big statements that probably need a lot of time to disseminate.

@warrenng:  ”let me off the hook”? Seriously?! All this for caring about homeless?

@mediamum:  Yes. By let you off the hook I mean I’m not going to ask you details about why you feel the way you do. That’s all.

@warrenng:  Flat out, what is your stance on the homeless?

@mediamum:  My stance? I believe many ppl make assumptions about homeless people that are condescending and misinformed.

@mediamum:  I don’t understand what you’re saying. How does education improve quality of life for a homeless person? (yes, I’m detailed)

@warrenng:  for starters, it shows them the public & free resources available to them to improve their “bad situation”

@warrenng:  for an academic I’m shocked that you disagree that education improves quality of life

@mediamum:  How do you know this? (RE: free resources improving “bad situation)

@mediamum:  I didn’t say I disagree with that. I do, however, believe that it is one of many factors. Very naive to single it out.

@warrenng:  by participating in the Boulder Shelter’s fundraisers. I’ve seen & heard many accounts of the + effect of these resources

@warrenng:  I think it’s presumptuous for you think that was the only factor I’m considering.

@mediamum:  Free resources, etc, is publicly available “education”. Not traditional education?

@warrenng:  Education & information is what I said. It includes all forms of education, the focus I said was *practical* education.

@mediamum:  It was the only one you said. And you said it was a universal truth, standing alone.

@warrenng:  again you are reading 140 too literally! Universal as in the point applies to all “homeless or not” as I said.

@warrenng:  …not to mistaken for “the only reason…” or “causal relationships”

@mediamum:  Okay. This is obviously way too big a topic for time, as I previously thought it would be.

@mediamum:  I hope you have a nice day.

@warrenng:  you have a nice day as well. when you have more time, i’m always here.

I can’t believe that this transpired on Twitter for pointing out something that seemed like such a positive.  Why @mediamum was so argumentative, I’m not sure.  I don’t believe for even a moment she empathized with my intent.  She misinterpreted my comments and that tone must have carried through the entire conversation.

Note to self:  Twitter’s 140 characters allow your message easily to be misconstrued; despite your best efforts in wordsmithing to ensure proper communication.

I apologize for what probably seemed like Twitter spam, but thought I’d keep it publicly available so their was some closure on the conversation.

Why Ghandi and entrepeneurs aren’t so different.

Ghandi, an entrepreneur at heart...

Ghandi once said,”Be the change you want to see in the world.” As a man driven by passion, Ghandi’s drive is not unlike the motivation that spurs many passionate entrepreneurs to pursue their business ideas.  To clarify, there is a delineation of entrepreneurs; those that are driven by money and those driven by passion.  Let’s forget about those driven by money for a moment.

Ghandi staked his life for what he believed in to the point of starvation and I can say many bootstrapping startups experience this starvation period.  While it is arguably less life threatening, the countless nights and weekends spent away from home, our families and warm meals is testament to our commitment.  We forget many of our foundational Maslow’s needs with a prioritization of our company’s needs.  We become selfishly, self-less in search of the salvation that only fulfillment of the end goal can break us away from.  Yes I know that is an oxymoron so let me explain.

Selflessness is the quality I believe good entrepreneurs have, after all without it the company is at risk.  Selfishness stems from the understanding that without you the company will be at risk.  Similar ideas, but on two different sides of the coin, one as a member of a company and the other as the company (remember we’re bootstrapping so to begin with YOU are the company).

The Money Driven Entrepreneurs – There will always be the money driven entrepreneurs but the likelihood of success for those driven by passion I argue to be higher (that’s a whole ‘nother debate stay tuned….), but the underlying idea is the same – do everything you can to make change happen.

Social entrepreneurism or not, what drives entrepreneurs to push innovation into the world is the same – “be the change you want to see in the world.”

What do you think? Do you agree or disagree?  Leave a comment below or sent a Tweet to @warrenng

Responsibility (or lack there of) of Crowd: Gestalt Principles in Action

Faces by Lee Conklin. Gestalt's idea of the sum of the whole being greater than its parts in psychedelic concert poster form.

 

Corporations exist for a reason. That reason most likely is attributed to the power of many, yet corporations break down when executives make bad decisions and the remainder of the company suffers. Promotions and bonuses are put on hold or worse jobs are lost. Seems that corporations haven’t figured out how to utilize the man power effectively.

Enter crowdsourcing where the power of the crowd as you so often hear remains, sans reliance on key executives. Redundancies are built into the system so reliance on any one individual is gone. This allows individuals/employees to come and go as their interests pleases them, and a true meritocracy to form where rewards are a function of input, a professional-Darwinism of sorts. This of course if metrics of merit are clearly defined without any ambiguity as to what is encouraged.

Hierarchy is replaced by motivation to do the best work and the best work is measured for specific projects than reset to encourage continued success.

Meritocracy has largely been a utopian philosophy relegated to idealists and optimists but with the proliferation of social technologies and access to information, we now live in an age where the realists can utilize the infrastructure in place to implement meritocracy ideologies into practice; an age where the sum of the whole is greater than it’s parts.

Gestalt Principles in the Practice of Open-Source Development

If you haven’t noticed lately, Open-Source Development is becoming much more common practice thanks in large part to the success of Linux which is an operative system created in large part by Open-Source Development.  Much of this success can be attributed to overlying trends rampantly being discussed all over the web.  There is Radical Transparancy, Crowdsourcing, Co-Creation, Design Thinking just to name a few; regardless of the nuances or foci that makes each of these ideas different from one another, the fact of the matter is that these ideas are born from the practice of Open Source Development.
Consider that Open-Source Development requires faith in the development community in regard to intellectual property issues, uninhibited communication of the inner workings that can make the idea irrelevant; in short, is that not Radical Transparency?

Consider that Open-Source Development harnesses a developer community fueled by passion and/or the need to create tools that better serve their needs that they’d like to share with others.  Is that not in part Crowdsourcing?

Consider that Open-Source Development is an iterative process of need identification, development to satisfy those needs, and refinement of those tools by and for those that need them.  Is that not Co-Creation?

The alliteration continue but the point is the Gestalt Principle inherent in the practice of Open-Source is driven out of need in a world that is fearful of product failure & immense costs; in a world where individually we are not smart enough because of the incredible combinations of advanced technologies & thinking that creates new products/services; and in a world that demands immediate results.

The whole is greater than the sum of all the parts!
How can your business use Open-Source principles ?

I am WOMAN, hear me roar!

“I am WOMAN, hear me roar!”

Not something you would have heard say forty years ago or even twenty years ago for that matter, but more and more the voice of the independent woman is echoing with veracity in the marketplace that has all but embraced it in it’s entirety. Similarly, with the symbiotic effect that one would expect, men are changing the way they think as well, moving from a machismo style of messaging to a subtley more evocative and emotional messaging.  This is not to suggest a complete step change for either sex and the messaging that appeals to them, but more simply to suggest the rich white space for differentiated communications.

Statistics suggesting the increasing age of the average age women marry (22 to 26 in the last century) and the inherent & delayed age woman give birth plays well to the independence of women seeking time for professional advancement.  For men, who dare not openly demasculate themselves with public displays of emotion, latent but certainly present heart strings are pulled with the ever present love story that accompanies any good action movie.

Probes:

- Considering the validity of the above thought starter? What arguments exist that disprove the above insight? What arguments lend credibility to the above insight?

- How do marketers tap into the latent but powerful heart strings without demasculating men?

- How do marketers tap into the independence of women?

Strength in Numbers

Thinking a bit further about an old post and how Leonardo DaVinci’s incredible ability to innovate was a function of his practice of discovery and experience, I thought about the idea of “strength in numbers.” We as humans generally are a pack oriented society.  Individuality is often shunned by society (arguable but think about mass appeal).  Ironically, mass trends do not magically appear from out of the blue, they transcend from a source….in other words some sort of individuality.

It seems to me that DaVinci, as aloof as he may have been and innovative without doubt; he must have had some sort of support to realize his fanciful ideas or perhaps he just didn’t care what others thought.

Give it a good college effort!

My external pondering of staying cutting edge (*credit Riley for being a sounding board for this thought):   

 

 

 

Last night I discovered perhaps one of the most innovative starting-points for future technology (see link below…you have to see it!). I say starting point because while the innovation that was created was unique in itself, it’s application will unlock some significant innovation in itself.

I digress…

To stay cutting edge (did you get the oxymoron)….I restate, to evolve the cutting edge (to be the leading edge) we must remove ourselves from the restrictive bounds that contain our risk aversion. Let me explain….

We often have these big blue sky ideas. Ideas that we are unsure are feasible or not. That is true innovation. However, success is measured only in our ability to make the innovation happen in real-life. Knowing this and working with our clients urgency to produce successful results, the ideas that seem less than feasible in the present are pushed aside for ideas that are feasible in a historical snap-shot. For example, last week we were at the planetarium learning that the light our sun emits is 8 minute old light. Much like that 8 minute old light, concepts that are green-lighted because of urgency for success (near term feasibility) are 8-minute old ideas; they are reacting to historical needs. Real innovation a consumer wouldn’t be able to tell you what he/she needs; directly at least. I’m not saying consumer research is obsolete because they can hint at trends or “like to haves.” I’m saying that we must deliver upon those “like to haves,” consider the what the next issue will be and START (not end) the innovation from there.

(from an old scribble on a journal) Coming back around to the youtube video I saw last night that uncovered what I believe to be one of the most innovative ideas is an example of boundless innovation. A guy by the name of Johnny Chung Lee who as a Carnegie Mellon student developed a phenomenal technology that is the leading edge for television and gaming as we know it. Johnny’s unstricted innovation happened by way of University work. The innovation process was not contingent upon urgent bottom line dollars, pay raises, or fear of termination, but motivation of being a change agent.

Industry is both a proponent of innovation and a limiter….kind of ironic isn’t it.

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd3-eiid-Uw (you have to see this if you haven’t already)

What’s next in research….

 Here is an old post that was suppose to be posted November 11, 2008…better late than never right

…perhaps even more exciting the action that could come of it.

Linked below is an article that speaks about some research that hypothesizes a strong correlation between purchase behavior and social networks. While this is largely believed in the sociological sense of social influencers/peer approval, it hasn’t been applied to social networks like MySpace and facebook. Companies are looking to capitalize on that correlation as an outlet for targeted advertising.

The action that would/should follow is research that taps into that these social networks in the same way, to gauge purchase intent, etc., etc.

I believe that this would be an incredibly differentiated practice. Obviously better for some consumers than others, but a practice none-the-less that is revolutionary and could set us apart from our competitors.

 

 

http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=132582

Thoughts?

 

Life after the Information Age….

I’ve been thinking about what life will be like after the Information Age for some time now and while this isn’t a formalized and thoroughly researched post with validative information, here is what I’m seeing and what that will mean.

Radical Transparency, Open Source, Web 2.0, Web 3.0, Crowdsourcing, Co-Creation, Design Thinking, Distributed Innovation…. so many methodologies and philosophies each with a unique take on how business “should” and “will” be done; yet no one has connected the dots and strung together an image of what is really happening from a macro perspective.  What is it then Warren you might ask and my answer is this…everybody is right!

While I joke, I mean that in a couple ways.  The theories behind each of the methodologies & philosophies is proveable and the sum of all the parts is exactly what I believe will take place.  To summarize for sake of a concise post, each and every person on both sides of the buyer-seller equation will become their own business contributing to industry with their expertise through social mediums.  Their perspectives as both buyer and seller will optimize/innovate products/services without overhead costs that weigh down margins all at an incredible pace created by telecommuting through social-professional mediums that break down the geography constraints that necessitate travel and create down time.

What this will net our civilization is mass cooperatives without borders of competition.  If done correctly we’d create a more free market system, one that stimulates jobs in a recession, motivates employees with proper and equitable incentives, allows people to pursue their passions with focus, encourages cammaraderie with clear and unifying goals, accelerates the pace of innovation to a level that consumers demand, and of course drives market demand to a level that is both attainable and profitable for consumers and industry.

Just what’s on my head…

What do you think?

Pursuit of Passion, an entrepreneurial endeavor!

…life seems to have passed me by but a recent epiphany is leading me to freedom to pursue my passions, the same sort of passion that I tell many of the students that seek some guidance from me to pursue as they explore life after graduation.

I won’t trade anything in the world for the experiences I have had to date helping to develop products and positionings for Fortune 500 cpg companies like Pepsi, Kellogg’s, ConAgra, Heinz, Domino’s & Unilever (to name a few).  At the time these experiences were EXACTLY the passion I sought but as time continuned my independent opinions congealed in a PASSION that has taken it’s own course. While these passions are relevant to what I currently do, this new course is derived from new methodologies that fundamentally cannot be pursued by my current employer…

…so what’s an empassioned, motivated person to do?  a) find a company that does what I am passionate about and see if I can get a job there, b) try to get the company I work for to do what I’m passionate about, or c) start up my own company.

Reminds me of this http://whatconsumesme.com/2009/what-im-writing/how-to-be-happy-in-business-venn-diagram/  a great diagram on how to be happy in business…

Well after some time now A & B are dead ends; what I am passionate about doesn’t exist and the company I currently work has bitten but the hook won’t set which leaves me to C) start my own company!

A very great professor I had once told me that no amount of money will make me happy if I’m not doing what I’m passionate about…and coincidently if you are passionate about what you are doing the money is likely to come.  Good advice…now I just hope he is right cause living off of savings that will sustain about 12 months of life is an adventure with an ending that is TBD….

And now that I’m about to have more time, I vow to be a better blogger so stay tuned…