I came across this great talk by Adam Bosworth, VP of Engineering at Google about Intelligent Reaction. In it, Bosworth explains the evolution of software development from the “Ivory Tower” mentality of software developers being the resident experts on what customers needed to today’s model of Intelligent Reaction - listening and learning from customers in real time what their needs are and then developing to those needs.

Here are some of the basics of Intelligent Reaction, according to Bosworth:

• Learn from your users in real time. Don’t be obsessed with the grand plan, because grand plans can’t survive reality.
• Start with creating the basic application, then evolve it based on user reaction. Listening to others will make the end product better.
• Customize the experience (tabs, UI, widgets, events). This means lots of releases, lots of chances to get closer to getting it right.

That got me thinking…could intelligent reaction be useful to more than just software development? What if people started to live their lives this way? Here are my thoughts on Life Development Through Intelligent Reaction.

Don’t Be Obsessed with the Grand Plan
Too often, we are so worried about getting to the result we desire, that we forget that the process is just as important. Why? Because each little step along the way is our chance to learn from others. Intelligent Reaction means taking a real-time approach to achieving your goals. Each day, as you strive to reach your goal, pay the most attention to the little steps you take on that path. This helps to ensure you don’t miss anything. Watch for those little signs, those circumstances that can become opportunities. And most importantly, learn from what those around you are teaching. Those people are there for a reason. Don’t step on their heads on the way to your goal.

Bosworth is right. Grand plans can’t survive reality. Only by taking each step as it comes can you properly adjust along your path.

Listening to Others Will Make the End Product Better
Want to achieve something? Take a step. Afraid it’s not the right one? Take it anyway. Then listen. You’ll know pretty quickly based on the reactions of people around you whether you’ve taken the right step. If you have, then great. Keep going. If not, then listen some more. This is what Intelligent Reaction is all about. Listen. Do. Listen. Repeat. Unfortuately, many of us get so swept up in our own fears, trapped inside our own egos, that we can’t just stop and listen and learn.

Who do you listen to? Seek out people whose opinion you value. LISTEN to what they have to say, whether it’s advice, words of encouragement or connections. But don’t just listen. Turn those words and gestures into action. If you don’t know, ask. If you still don’t know, ask again. Then guide your actions based on what you hear. Your end result will always be the best result possible.

Create Lots of Releases
In software development there are no perfect releases. With every new version, bugs are fixed, features are added, usability is increased (hopefully). But it’s never going to be perfect. There will always be new bugs. There will always be new features to add or improve upon. There will always be better ways to make it usable. With every release, there’s improvement, but it’s never complete.

Each day when you get up in the morning, you have an opportunity to build your own new release. You can make adjustments based on the previous day’s bug reports, add a few new cool features, and open yourself to more feedback. Once a software bug is fixed, the users quickly forget about it. It’s the same in life. Did you seriously mess up yesterday? Well, do what you can to fix it, then forget about it. Today’s the only day you’ve got. Focus on improving today’s release, not on dwelling on the imperfections of yesterday’s.

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Intelligent Reaction is about more than just making something greater and bigger. It’s about making yourself open to feedback and being willing to make adjustments based on that feedback. It’s not about taking over the world with the latest greatest thing. It’s about taking small steps and adjusting as necessary in pursuit of that goal. In the end, not only do you stand to achieve more, but you will have truly made the journey worthwhile.

What do you think?

My idea is a simple one. Any Canadians who use Twitter should change their avatar picture to something that represents this great country of ours, in honour of Canada Day tomorrow.

So get in there, Twitterers and get your maple leaf on!

Happy Canada Day!

My idea is a simple one. Any Canadians who use Twitter should change their avatar picture to something that represents this great country of ours, in honour of Canada Day tomorrow.

So get in there, Twitterers and get your maple leaf on!

Happy Canada Day!

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.

“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?

One of the things I love about social media is how I’ve been able to meet people from all over the world.  Over the past couple of years, I have met a ton of people from the U.S., England, Australia, and even Israel and Japan. Through my conversations with these people, I’ve learned about their lives, their culture, and what makes them proud about their country.

Next Tuesday is Canada Day, and in honour of my country’s 141st birthday, I want to share with you what I love most about my country and about being Canadian.

I have been tremendously fortunate to have been from coast to coast to coast in Canada. I’ve been to the most Western point on the Queen Charlottes and I’ve been to the most Eastern point in Newfoundland. I’ve lived 125 miles north of the Arctic Circle. I’ve driven through the Rocky Mountains, seen the night sky in the Prairies, and watched whales in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. What amazes me most about my country is the diversity of terrain and how untouched much of it still is. What makes me proud is that we care deeply for our land in this country, and we take pride in our natural surroundings.

As diverse as the land is, the people are even more diverse. Everywhere I go in this country, I am surrounded by music and art and passion and culture. We know how to celebrate life in this country. Newfoundland kitchen parties, full of music and stories and love. Aboriginal art and legends, full of history and passion and wisdom. French Canadian music, full of joy and honesty. I’m proud of the the amazing blend of cultures, languages, and history of Canada. I think it makes us pretty unique.

Many people will talk about other things that make Canada great too. Hockey is like a religion here. So is beer. If I get sick and go to the hospital, nobody sends me a bill. I can swear on television after 9:00 at night.

But for me, Canada has always been about wide open spaces and warm people. Our country is about acceptance of those things that make us distinct: our languages, our culture, our music. And that makes me so proud I want to burst.

I’d love to hear from you too. Please leave a comment, and share what it is that makes you proud of your country.

This week I’ve been reflecting on how far I’ve come in the past several years, as I’ve made the transition from worker-bee to creator. I used to be the typical high-tech worker. I knew how to do a lot of stuff, like build a web site, write a communiqué, build a document library, write a technical manual. But I didn’t really UNDERSTAND any of it. I didn’t really get how what I was doing in my little cubicle was affecting the rest of the company. I just worked away at my little job, and took home my paycheque.

Understanding Comes From Experience
Anyone can pick up a book, take a course, or be shown how to do something. But understanding  why you must take action “A” to achieve result “B” is key to success. I know how to tie my shoes. I know the techincal process I need to go through to put one lace over the next, loop it around and pull through. But it’s something entirely different to understand why I must tie my shoes. Until I do, I’ll be a sloppy, tripping mess.

So how do you make that transition from just knowing something to really understanding it? Experience. There’s no other way. I must take knowledge I’ve acquired and put it into practice. I must get up and do it every day, as long as I need to until I understand it. Only then can I see the true value in the knowledge I’ve acquired.

The Bottom Line is the Big Picture
I think a lot of people in the social media world are getting caught up in the little details. They are getting stuck in a rut of acquiring knowledge, and not taking the time to really understand what they are learning. Instead of working to acquire understanding, they keep busy rifling around looking for some social media expert to give them all the answers. They are relying on other people to give them top 10 lists, strategies and quick fix solutions instead of spending their time working on understanding. They are reading endlessly, but putting nothing into practice.

Be Accountable for Your Understanding
If there’s one thing I’ve grown to understand over the years, it’s that I am responsible for my own understanding. The experts are not there to solve all my problems. The role of the expert is to pass on knowledge to me. Then it’s up to me to take that knowledge and build an understanding for myself and how that knowledge applies to my situation and my goals. And that can only be done by coming up with my own solutions, applying them and gaining the experience I need to move forward.

There is a world of knowledge out there for the taking. There are dozens of great teachers in the social media space who are willing to send that knowledge out to you. But none of them are going to spoon feed you the answers - it’s impossible for them to do that and it’s too much to ask. You are the only one that can take the knowledge you’ve been given and turn it into your own understanding.

Understood?

I know lot of women who are truly geeky, very technology savvy and aware. I have met some online, and some at various meetups around town. But my experience in general with the online communities I’m involved with (mostly web technology, social media and business) is that it is still a very male-dominated area. Most of my Twitter friends are male. Most of the people at the technology meetups and PodCamps I’ve attended are male.

For a long time I’ve wanted to create something that appeals directly to women who are interested in this space. A place where women are encouraged to make a contribution to the community and embrace the power of the Web, technology and social media.

Several weeks ago my good friend Sheri and I were sitting on a sunny patio and we came up with idea to do The GeekGrls Podcast. We are both super-geeky in our own right, and though it would be fun to share some of that geekiness with the world. The show is by women, for women, about the things that women care about when it comes to technology. We’ve posted our first show at www.geekgrls.com. On this show we talk about our vision for the show and a bit about ourselves.

I encourage you to go and subscribe for free, Episode 1 will be available next week. We really want to encourage participation in the show, so if you have suggestions for topics or guests, ideas or just want to drop us a line, we’d really appreciate it.

And even though the show is presented from a female perspective… you boys are allowed too!

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.

There’s an interesting debate going on this morning over at FriendFeed. It appears that Robert Scoble has blocked one of his followers (I’m not going to name names, if you want to find out who it is, I invite you to seek it out yourself. Go ahead. Google to your heart’s content. I’ll wait).

You back? OK. Well it appears that some feelings have been hurt as a result of this “cyber-shunning”. Scoble is being called elitist.

Oh, come on, people.

If the biggest part of your day is hoping that some “A-list blogger” (a term, incidentally, coined by the media and fans, not the bloggers themselves) is going to give you the time of day by @replying you on Twitter or responding to your FriendFeed comment, then I’m afraid you’ve got this social media thing all wrong.

The popular bloggers (Vaynerchuk, Scoble, Brogan, Belmont, Laporte, and so on) give of themselves daily to inform, entertain and enlighten their audience. You may like them, you may not, you may be indifferent, but the fact is, they are people too and as much as their fans love to get their continuous undying attention, there are only so many hours in a day. I have personally engaged some of these folks in conversation on more than one occasion and I find them to be extremely approachable, friendly, and helpful - as long as I am respectful don’t over stay my welcome, and make a valuable contribution to the conversation, then I, in turn get to stay at the party.

Social media is about sharing, I agree. But ultimately, everyone has control over who they share their information with. I block people on Twitter and FriendFeed all the time, for various reasons. Maybe our interests aren’t compatible. Maybe they are spammers. Maybe they are offensive to me. Or perhaps I just don’t like their approach. At the end of the day, its up to me who I choose to engage with. And if I don’t engage with you - don’t take it personally.

We all have the right to shape our own social media experience. Nobody, including those with many fans and followers, is under ANY obligation to be “friends” with everyone. So Robert Scoble doesn’t want to be your friend? So be it. You can still read his blog, and comment, and participate on that level.

You don’t have to be invited to the A-list parties to have a good time in this space. In fact, you may have a better time forming your own communities, having your own conversations. Becoming your own “A-list” blogger. You may even get some fans. At the end of the day - respect others, and you will gain their respect. Be an active participant, but contribute value. The community will thank you for it.

Photo credit: Lightfoot from MorgueFile.