Why I Don’t Watch TV Anymore

I have a confession to make.

I, Suze, don’t watch TV anymore. In fact, I’m pretty much turned off of just about every show out there. It’s an interesting irony, really. After all, I produce TV. Right now I co-produce a series that airs on our local cable station. We have a bunch of other shows in various stages of development and pre-production. I contribute directly to the industry, but I don’t really participate as a viewer.

Here I am, on a Friday night, flipping endlessly through the hundreds of channels that I have available to me on my digital box. And aside from one or two interesting documentaries, a few movies, the odd cooking and home reno show and, well, our show, of course …I can’t get over how little actual, good content there is on mainstream television anymore.

Now, before I continue, I must admit that I have never been a dramatic series watcher. Aside from the occasional episode of Law and Order or CSI, I really have never been able to commit to watching a series week after week. I do appreciate that there are some good series out there – Lost, Heroes, Grey’s Anatomy to name a few – but if you look at the current lineups of the major networks, even those types of shows are becoming the minority.

It seems to me that the major networks and U.S. specialty networks are obsessed with drama. And I don’t mean “E.R” kind of drama. I mean the staged, exaggerated, over-the-top “reality-based” Drama Queen type of drama that makes up a good majority of mainstream television these days.

I love video. I always have. It has the power to impress, to entertain, to really move people to change for the better. But these “reality” shows are an insult to the medium and frankly, an insult to my intelligence. These programs seek only to bring out the worst qualities in people – they are stories about greed, revenge, deception and negativity. Why anybody finds this sort of show entertaining is really beyond me.

The more time goes on, it seems, the more shows like this are becoming the mainstream. Obviously, somebody is watching them. Why they are so popular puzzles me greatly. As much as I love the medium of television, I’m losing faith in it, fast. More often than not these days, I am turning off the TV and turning on my laptop.

The Internet is so ripe with awesome content, it makes me want to burst. I can watch shows about any topic imaginable, produced by people who have skill and talent and heart and passion. I can do it on my own schedule, from my bed, my livingroom, my coffee shop or my backyard. Through the Web, I have regained the capacity to be impressed, entertained and moved by video.

And that’s where I start to see hope for the future.

What do you think? Where does TV sit in your life these days?

On Kitchen Parties and Social Networks

I’ve been fortunate to spend a good chunk of time in Newfoundland and Labrador. Even though I’m not from the Eastern part of Canada, I feel very in tune with the people there. Perhaps it’s in my blood, because my Dad is from New Brunswick. Perhaps I can relate to the culture because I grew up on an isolated island on the West coast. Perhaps it’s my family’s Scottish roots. Whatever the reason, I have a really special place in my heart for that part of the country.

One of my favourite things to do in Newfoundland is go to kitchen parties. The best parties always end up in the kitchen. The East coast kitchen party is a legendary event. It’s all about friends, music and stories. Kitchen parties can happen at any time of the day or night, and it’s a come as you are kind of affair. People drop in and out as they please, have a drink, say hi, meet new people, see old friends, and share a laugh or a story. Everyone is welcomed with open arms to participate, whether it’s telling a story or playing a tune. It just makes you feel good to be there.

Not unlike the social network.

In a social network, I can show up when I want and leave when I want. I can talk to my friends or make new friends and bring them into the conversation. I can do it any time of the day or night. I can tell stories. I can listen to stories. It definitely makes me laugh often and hard. I feel welcome in this space. I am encoruaged to share my stories as much as the next person. And I feel good being there.

When I think about what really motivates me to be involved in social networks, I guess it’s because I get a lot of the same things out of it that I get from going to parties. I’ve never been to an East coast party where I didn’t meet someone new, learn something new, hear wonderful stories and laugh my butt off in the process. And it seems like with my online life these days, I meet new people, learn new things and hear really great stories every single day. And I absolutely bust a gut much of the time too.

So, I believe the essence of both the kitchen party and the social network is to connect people.

Lately, I’ve been working on some ways to teach people who are new to the concept about social networks and social media. Technology has a tendency to be very impersonal. To the outside world, there is a lack of understanding about how much of a connection one can really make through a keyboard and mouse.

Comparing the social network to something everyone can relate to, like a party, starts to foster some kind of understanding of what the real benefits are. It doesn’t matter if you are a blogger, a Twitterer, or an Instant Messenger…just like it doesn’t matter if you’re a late night kitchen partier or an afternoon barbequer. It’s about the incredible things that can happen when people connect with each other. And that’s something anyone can understand.

Forget the Message – What’s Your Medium?

“A light bulb creates an environment by its mere presence.” — Marshall McLuhan

I’ve been thinking a lot about WHY people choose certain mediums to communicate. In McLuhan’s day, the options were much more limited. Not by their ability to tell stories, but by their accesibility to the general public. At that time, we relied on “professionals” – journalists and authors were the only ones that had access to the medium, therefore they were the ones that told the stories.

Today, that’s no longer the case. There are abundant options now for people to tell their stories. Blogging, micro-blogging, and podcasting are prolific and available to anyone with an Internet connection and an inclination.

Yesterday, social media monitoring company Radian6 launched a new concept called a Twebinar. The concept was to present an online seminar that encouraged participation and interaction using Twitter. A lot of the discussion revolved around what the point was of integrating Twitter to the mix, instead of just using a regular chat window. But what I was compelled by was the use of video. I was fully expecting to see presenter Chris Brogan giving an hour long talk on his subject, and I would use Twitter as a sort of side conversation. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised to see Chris playing the part of roving reporter, running around with a camera crew, talking to a wide variety of media experts about some really cool and interesting stuff. Then he’d pop in on live video in between segments and talk a bit. The Twitter conversations were the backdrop but the use of video stole the show.

The Twebinar was a great example of choosing the right medium to convey the message. When McLuhan talked about the lightbulb, he meant that the lightbulb itself doesn’t contain any content. It’s simply a vehicle that enables content (i.e. provides light that people use to create spaces in what would otherwise be darkness).

Choosing the right vehicle to enable your content is key. The Twebinar could have been approached differently. Chris could have just talked for an hour. He could have just compiled all of the information from his interviews into a blog post or eBook. But it would not have had the same impact. Instead, seeing a live breathing human engaging with other live breathing humans allows us as viewers to feel the energy and passion of the speakers. It connects us to them. And the result? People want to talk about it. They want to explore it. They want to share their own experiences. And that’s where Twitter comes in. See how it all works? It wouldn’t have made sense to tell this story any other way.

Everyone has a story to tell, and social media has burst the art of storytelling wide open. However, the medium you choose to tell that story is critical. The medium serves to set the tone, attract a certain kind of audience, and generate a certain kind of response.

So the next time you come up with your next great story, spend some time figuring out the result you want. Do you want to encourage feedback? Conversation? Do you want immediate results? Determine the best medium to use to tell your story to get your desired results. Only then can you ensure that your message gets across.

Hmmm… I wonder what Marshall McLuhan would have thought about all this social media business, anyway?

Person Chris Brogan

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Feedly Gets It

I discovered Feedly this morning and in just a couple of minutes it changed the way I interact online.

One of the things that drives me bananas about many social media apps these days is the lengthy process I need to go through just to get it to understand who I am and what I care about. Feedly eliminates this pain entirely. I simply went to the site, installed the Add-on to my Firefox 3 browser, and when the browser restarted, I saw a view of all of my blog feeds (grabbed from my Google Reader), neatly organized into tabs corresponding to the categories I set. It asked me to log in to Twitter and boom! My feeds were there, as were links to all of the people I follow on Twitter who also have a Feedly account.

The best thing about Feedly is that I immediately saw the value in the tool. Many tools claim to be the most useful thing in the universe, but after weeks of exploring I still don’t see their real usefulness. BrightKite and Sprigley are two examples that come to mind. Not that they are bad ideas – they are both actually pretty good ideas. But their their real value is not apparent up front.  Nobody has time to dig around for the usefulness of a tool. Show me value right away.

With Feedly, I immediately saw all of my information on the screen. I saw how I can read through my posts and annotate, favourite, save for later, or even say “no thanks” to a post I don’t want to read. My favourite feature is being able to Tweet someone’s blog post FROM THE ACTUAL POST. I click the “Tweet” link and a box appears with the title of the post and the link (already conveniently in TinyURL format). I click send and it’s posted to my Twitter feed instantly. WOW.

This is the social media app I’ve been waiting for. Give me everything I need in one place, make it fast, make it pretty and let ME control what I see and how I interact with it.

Congratulations, Feedly. You totally get it.

Is Social Media a Square Peg in a Round Hole?

Last night I attended the Third Tuesday Ottawa meetup for the first time. It was a great event, with excellent speakers. I highly recommend it for anyone in the Ottawa area interested in social media and networking with like-minded people. The discussion was entitled “Shiny Object Syndrome” and the intent was to explore social media tools – what’s working, what’s not, what’s the next big thing, etc.

However (as is often the case at these types of forums), the discussion ended up being not so much about the tools, but about the impact they are or are not having on corporate and government communications. It seems these days, the question du jour is – how do I get my Boss/Director/High Ranking Bureaucrat to understand social media and advocate its use in my organization?

That makes me think…is it possible we are trying to force social media into a space where it doesn’t belong? Are we trying to push a solution onto a problem without really understanding what it could solve?

By sheer coincidence (or fate, as I tend to believe in cases like this), one of my former Senior Managers was in attendance at last night’s Third Tuesday. It was extraordinary to see him at an event like this, because after the high tech bust he got out of the business altogether. But there he was.

Back in the day when we both worked for “Giant Corporation”, my boss used to gather our team in his office for what resembled a daily sermon. One of the things he often talked about was whether or not the solutions we were providing to “Giant Corporation’s” business problems were the right solutions or if we were “trying to fit a square peg in a round hole”. His point being, even though we worked for a technology company, throwing technology at a problem was not always the best solution.

These days, it seems to me that some (certainly not all!) communicators think that throwing the latest new fangled social media tool into an organization is going to help solve problems these organizations have with marketing, communications and PR. “If we tell our customers and employees to get on Twitter and Facebook and YouTube and FriendFeed and so on…they will understand us better.”

The truth is, the next FriendFaceTwitterTube is not going to make organizations communicate better. All the Twittering in the world is not going to make employees adapt to a new business process, and setting up a Facebook group is not going to soften the impact of massive layoffs. Spending money and resources to produce a fancy marketing to post on YouTube in the hopes it will go viral is not going to close more sales. In these cases, the solution doesn’t suit the problem.

Now you may argue, “But yes! Social media is the answer! I use Twitter to communicate all the time! My Facebook and LinkedIn networks are powerful! My blog gives me a voice inside of my faceless organization! Think of all we can accomplish by getting everyone connected on these tools! It’s about personal communications!”

The problem with social media is it’s intensely personal. And most corporations and governments are not set up for personal communications. They are structured in a top down fashion with sets of checks and balances that ensure that information is funneled and filtered and controlled through the right channels. And with good reason.

When I worked for “Giant Corporation”, we were strictly prohibited to speak to anyone from the media about what was happening in the company, good or bad. If blogging had been prevalent back then I’m sure we’d have been prohibited from doing that too. They told us they could take legal action if we were caught talking to media or publishing any sort of information about the company. Why? Because it’s a public company and when shareholders are involved, information MUST be controlled, or the shareholders can get antsy and that is not good for the stock price. Bottom line.

Transfer the same philosophy over to government, and it’s a similar situation. Someone says the wrong thing to a reporter (or posts on their blog, or Twitter, or Facebook page) and boom! Scandal.

I’m not saying that the way corporations and governments communicate is perfect by any stretch. But, social media tools, by their very nature of being for the people, by the people, are a square peg in this environment. Frankly, these tools do not necessarily fit in the round hole of corporate and government communications. In order for it to work, the traditional model and culture of corporate communications must be burst wide open and I can’t see that happening any time soon.

Don’t get me wrong. I am a HUGE proponent of social media and all of the amazing possibilities it holds. I think it is a tremendous marketing, communications and PR tool for small and medium sized enterprises as well as non-profit organizations. Every day I move forward in some way in my own business as a result of social media and the marvelous network I have been able to develop in the past few years.

What I am against is forcing a solution into an organization just because it is cool and hip and trendy, without giving serious thought to the ramifications of implementing it.

(Thanks to the lovely and talented @G_reg for contributing his insights and helping my poor worn out brain to edit this post tonight. I couldn’t have done it without him!)

Trading Snake Oil for Wolf Tickets

This morning I am inspired by a Twitter debate I had with Amanda Chapel. We only started following each other on Twitter yesterday but she chose to engage me this morning in a conversation about Web 2.0 and her prediction of a forthcoming bust to this whole business.

I shall say off the mark that I fundamentally disagree with Amanda on many of the points she makes, particularly around the perceived “guru-ism” of the many thought leaders that are out there right now in the Internet space. She claims that it’s just a lot of snake oil. For the record, I want to say that that is categorically untrue, in my opinion. The so-called “gurus” that she speaks of are legitimately out there trying to define and explain all this Internet business right now along with everyone else, and, with all due respect, Amanda, ABSOLUTELY know what they are talking about. I also don’t particularly care for her debating style. But that’s neither here nor there.

However, she did accomplish one thing…she got me thinking.

What will happen if Amanda’s right, and all this Web 2.0 business does go bust? Well, I can tell you, there will be plenty of hurt and broke people out there. Just like last time. There always is. What does that mean to all of us who are doing the thinking, and the strategizing, who are trying to figure out business models and actually make a go of it in this space?

I think what it comes down to is flexibility. It’s all about understanding the ebb and flow of the technology industry and being able to adapt.

I was around for the last bust. In fact, I worked at one of the most busted companies, Nortel Networks, as they rose to the top and then fell hard. As an employee, when it was good, it was very very good. We got free stuff like DVD players and barbeques if we did a good job. We got free beer and wings every Friday. We had pool tables and fooz ball and air hockey and free snacks in the lunch room. But when it all fell apart, it was awful. Not just the for lack of perks. Morale tanked. People’s self esteem got destroyed along with their careers. And I got out as fast as I could.

At that time, as the bust happened around me, I realized that it was adapt or fail. I wouldn’t survive if I was just a web designer. So I started to shift over to communications, a place where, at that time I saw a lot of potential. I became a writer and a teacher, a producer of concepts and content instead of a “do-er”. And I got lots of other jobs as a result.

My point is, nobody really can predict whether all this Web 2.0 stuff is going to go bust. Anyone who says definitively that it is, is touting snake oil of their own. As individuals, we must decide how we are going to adapt if it does all fall apart. It’s something we all should be conscious of, so if it all blows up in our face, we can bounce back relatively unscathed.

(Note: “Trading Snakeoil for Wolftickets is also the title of the 2001 album by Gary Jules”. )

Gotta Love the In-Person Stuff! Ottawa Geek Dinner

Tonight was the Ottawa Geek Dinner and I was thrilled to see some old pals and meet some new people who, until this point I had only known through their tweets and blog posts.

There were a good 20 people who came out, which made for a long table. I’m sorry I didn’t get around to meet and talk to everyone.

My friend Andre and I discovered a jet lagged Jeff Parks of I.A. Consultants and the Boxes and Arrows Podcast sitting at the bar when we arrived. We didn’t immediately suspect that the rest of the group had arrived so we sat at the bar and had a beer, and Jeff told us all about his trip to San Francisco’s MX Conference.

Eventually we ventured up to the second level of the Blue Cactus (who knew they had a 2nd level?) and discovered our geek friends had already settled in. I received a warm welcome from my Podcamp Toronto and Ottawa pal Mark Blevis, whom I hadn’t seen since Podcamp Ottawa in November. How is it that we live in the same relatively small city and never run into each other?

At our end of the table I had the pleasure of sitting with Bob LeDrew of Bobcat House Concerts and Flacklife. (He’s shown above with Chamika who I met at Podcamp Ottawa) He and his wife open their home once a month and host amazing musicians like Penny Lang, Tony D, Suzie Vinnick and David Gogo for intimate musical events.

I also got to meet Jay West (that’s him on the left, and my good friend Andre on the right), who I had come across on Twitter, and he had many interesting and insightful things to say, including what I think might be a record for number of consecutive years developing the same web site for the Ottawa Jazz Festival – he’s been doing it for 13 years. Would love to see the various iterations of that site over the years!

Also I was able to meet and chat with Twitter pal Simon Chen from Ramius, they are doing some really cool stuff in the enterprise/communication/community space. Check out their site if you get a chance.

All in all it was a great evening, and I’m really happy I went. I love meeting new people, especially those who I have only “virtually” met before. Thanks to Mark Blevis and Robin Browne for organizing the evening. Can’t wait for the next one!

Twitter in a Nutshell (for my Facebook friends)

I was twittering with @GinnyK today, and she is in a similar predicament to myself. We both have many Facebook friends who have no idea what Twitter is. At least 3 times a week, one of my FB friends asks me “What the heck is Twitter?” This is because I am a complete geek, so that means that my Twitter posts automatically update my Facebook status as “Sue is twittering….”.

@martin_english just posted on his blog about a boilerplate explanation of Twitter that has been posted at Smart Mobs. So I’ve decided, for the benefit of all of my FB friends who read my blog (which is also automatically linked on my FB page every time I update) to copy the boilerplate message here, so now I can just point people to this post whenever they want to know what the heck Twittering is.

Hopefully some of them will join the fun, too!

What Twitter Can Do For You

Hey Facebook Friend,

I was thinking it would be great if you had a presence in Twitter [ http://twitter.com ]. In a nutshell, Twitter is sort of like the Facebook status update and IRC chat rolled into a single social application where people write, read and respond in real time. The result is a kind of live collective unconscious of all those you follow.

Twitter posts, AKA “tweets,” are 140 characters in length including links. Think of online news headlines and you get the picture. I think of Twitter as a [your metaphor here] “sensibility subscription” because it allows me to subscribe to other people’s ongoing thoughts and activities and share my own.

Here’s a great animated video by Common Craft that explains it all much better than I can. It’s called “Twitter in plain English:” http://www.commoncraft.com/Twitter

One of the most popular uses of Twitter is as a micro content delivery system. Tools like Twitterfeed allow you to configure an RSS of your latest blog posts, magazine articles, website content, news, social bookmarks, flickr photos, etc. to your Twitter profile: http://twitterfeed.com

BBC, WIRED, Boing Boing, NYT and many other publications use Twitter as a means of extending their reach and expanding their audience. Here’s the BBC feed: http://twitter.com/bbc

Many educators have done interesting things with Twitter as well. University of Texas media professor David Parry is a Twitter-teaching pioneer: http://academhack.outsidethetext.com/home/2008/twitter-for-academia/

And Howard Rheingold has the most extensive collection of Twitter links I’ve seen:
http://del.icio.us/hrheingold/twitter

Last but not least, here’s my Twitter …
twitter.com/suzemuse

If you were in Twitter, this is where you’d be:
Twitter.com/[your handle here]

Let me know if you’d like to Twitter. I’d be happy to help get you started.

Sincerely,

Suzemuse

Twitter vs. Facebook – The WIIFM Wars

Hubby and I were having a great conversation over breakfast for dinner tonight. It all started with Gary Vay-ner-chuk, and his chime in the other day about Twitter vs. Facebook. In his video post, he talks about how apps like Facebook need to become more immediate and instantaneous or they are going to be eclipsed by the Twitters of the world.

These are great ideas and I think Gary has it bang on. But he really got me thinking about why this shift needs to occur. And what I think it comes down to is WIIFM (pronounced “Wiff-umm”). What’s In It For Me? Here’s my theory.

When I first started using Facebook about 6 months or so ago (that’s like 3 years in Interweb time), I thought it was just the greatest, most fantastic use of the Internet I’d ever seen. I reconnected with elementary and highschool friends whom I had not spoken to in 22 years. I found former colleagues, and discovered what they had been doing with their time since we’d last spoken. It really was as if a whole new world had opened up for me. I mean, who ever thought I would get to (or want to!) talk to my first boyfriend ever again? I certainly didn’t. The fact is, at that time, I was getting something out of it. It was entertaining, like a virtual highschool reunion that never stopped. Every day someone else would come to the party and that would make it even more fun.

But you know what? Eventually, I found every old friend and acquaintance I would ever want to be reconnected with. And the novelty, frankly, has started to wear off. And I’m not alone. I’ve noticed lately that of my 200-and some friends, only about 15% of them actually still post regular updates.

You know what? Facebook…I’m just not that into you anymore. WIIFM, after I find all my old friends? Not a whole lot, I’m afraid.

In terms of actual networking, well, I’ve never really used Facebook for that. Sure, some of my social media pals are also my FB friends, but it’s almost like it’s just common courtesy…well, I’m subscribed to your blog, I follow you on Twitter, so I may as well be your FB friend too, right?

So what is the WIIFM factor with Twitter? Well, as @garyvee says, it’s immediate, instantaneous. All Twitter wants to know is what I am doing RIGHT NOW. (Hmmm, Eckhart Tolle would be impressed!). The social network is shifting. People are becoming interested only in who is at the party now, not who was there yesterday or last week. They don’t want to see that video you made last weekend, they want to see the Qik interview you are doing with Robert Scoble in an elevator right now. They want to get your latest Utterz that you recorded on your subway ride home. In a sense, they want to be in your life as it happens.

The value of Twitter over Facebook is clear. Twitter has the ability to stand the test of time, because by its very nature, it is changing and adapting to its environment all the time, but it’s the community who is doing it, not the developers. @zefrank’s Color Wars and @bedtime stories are clear indications of that, as are the power of the Twitterverse when it comes ruling events like SXSW and Podcamp Toronto.

I think the question really is, is Facebook ready to adapt on the same level as Twitter?

Proposed Rules of Engagement for the Social Network

Social networks are fascinating. They are made up of all kinds of people, from all walks of life, brought together out of a shared interest or interests, into a big pot of text, audio and video soup. Sure, there are plenty of people who have become good friends on the Internet…fallen in love, even. Heck, I met my husband online! So I know that it IS a great way to meet and foster important relationships with other people.

But those aren’t the relationships I’m speaking of. I’m talking about people who may share a common interest, but may not see it the same way. These are people that  would probably not socialize in person…they are too different. It’s those differences of opinion that keep the conversation interesting. It’s impassioned, intelligent people talking about things that matter most to them.

There are many techniques for expressing differences of opinion, and strategies for debating, even arguing effectively. Toastmasters comes to mind as an organization that promotes effective debating skills. I’ve been noticing lately that although some people are extremely skilled at debate, argument, opinions, whatever you want to call them (Leo Laporte and his TWIT crew come immediately to mind), others are maybe not so skilled. After reading endless posts and videoblogs about the Sarah Lacy interview, and then today coming across the Duncan Riley/FriendFeed posts, I realized that maybe some people are not quite so skilled at expressing an opinion and perhaps more importantly, listening to other people’s opinions. When this happens, it ends up becoming nothing more than a defensive bitchfest. It becomes about one group of people being right and another group being wrong. It becomes more than a debate…it becomes a conflict. The point is, debate and opinion are positive forces that contribute to the overall good experience of being involved in the social network. Conflict is a negative force that causes defensiveness, overactive egos and hurt feelings. In extreme cases, it causes wars.

I am the last person who wants to do anything to disrupt the free flow of opinion, debate and conversation that makes the social network so powerful. However I’d like to propose the following list, to serve as a set of guidelines for people who want to debate, share opinions and, even argue without getting mired in conflict.

Proposed Rules of Engagement for the Social Network

1. Respect the opinions of the community. You don’t have to agree with everyone, and nobody has to agree with you. Be OK with that.
2. Listen to what others have to say before getting defensive. Sometimes there’s a lesson in other people’s critiques.
3. Don’t call people names. It’s just cheap.
4. Everyone is good at something. Figure out what you are good at and don’t knock other people if they aren’t good at it too.
5. Be encouraging. Don’t discourage.
6. Pick your battles.
7. If someone is spreading mean or hateful messages about someone or something, it’s the responsibility of the community to try to stop them. Don’t tolerate hate.

I want to hear from you. Do you agree with this or disagree? Do you think it goes too far, or is it necessary in order to maintain the health of the community?