Archives for November 2009

You are invited to listen in on this morning’s Social Media Hour hosted by über connector Cathy Brooks.

Cathy was kind (and brave) enough to dive into the subject of doing social good with social tools with the likes of J.R. Johnson from Lunch.com, Chris Heuer from Social Media Club / Adhonicum, and yours truly from SF New Tech, on the program. 

Here’s how Cathy tee’d it up:

"This week it’s a deep discussion on doing social good with social media. There has been much talk, and indeed much action, amidst the digital denizens when it comes to charitable exercises. Twestival – an event orchestrated wholly online using Twitter – has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars, both for global efforts and local efforts. This, however, goes beyond that. As leaders and top participants in all of these social media platforms and technologies, there still exists a problem — we are not the majority. In spite of increasing numbers, the majority of people on this planet still do not use social media to the extent that some do – and that’s just talking about regular use. When it comes to doing social good, and by that I’m talking about more than just raising money for charity, there needs to be a distinct effort by those deeply steeped in the stuff, acting as responsible stewards of that which we promote, and find ways to engage and mobilize a better society. On this week’s show, Cathy will be joined by JR Johnson, CEO of Lunch 2.0; Myles Weissleder of SF NewTech and Chris Heuer of Ad Hocnium to talk about one effort in which they are engaged to do just this. Join us … and learn how YOU can make a difference."

Give a listen!

As you may know, I’ve been co-producing Lunch For Good, a very cool event series with the venerable J.R. Johnson from Lunch.com and the esteemed Chris Heuer of Social Media Club fame.

The second installment of Lunch For Good was on 10.22 and I must admit — this conversation just keeps getting better and better.   Our mission with Lunch For Good #2 was to explore ways we can help evolve the notion of enticing more critical thinking online.  The knee-jerk reaction to post a comment, press a button that says "like" or "dislike" (thumbs up or down), or jump into a comment thread with happenstance prose that’s far from developed, is in essence (and often in retrospect) a demonstration of poor judgment, not of good judgment.   We need to dial this back and improve the processes and the triggers of how people are invited to participate in online conversations.

The Internet is (still) a wild place and people have become too accustomed to reacting flippantly to others versus engaging their mental gears and thinking through the best way to engage and respond, that all to often leads to an unavoidable minefield of tit-for-tat chatter that’s meant to pass a conversation — but fails miserably at doing so. 

We have all been trained since birth to think through our actions before acting but online we tend to forget about this little life lesson and the result is not something to be proud of.  The big question — and the topic of this last conversation — is how can we move away from this short-attention-span-theater type of conversation and spark more critical thinking online for the benefit of not only the conversation at-hand but to better the online environment as a place that’s truly enriching and beneficial.

There are no easy answers here.  People are being coaxed to think in 140 characters or less, leaving little room for diving into critical thinking.  

The 80 or so passionate folks who joined us for lunch last week– a hearty crew of community managers, journalists, online conversationalists, and the like — were really engaged in our shared quest for finding ways and means of improvement….and mind blowingly so!

I urge you to view the videos from this event to see exactly what I’m talking about: that there are small, but significant, things we can do as members of the online community at-large to move the needle towards more critical discourse in our online dealings. 

Sometimes all it takes is a simple idea of action for the iteration process to begin … and with Lunch For Good #2, I must say, we made serious strides in exploring the nuances that can create a c-change in the evolution of community, dialogue and, yes, critical thinking online.

Interested in an invite to Lunch For Good #3 — the grand finale of this great series?  Click here for consideration (note, as much as we’d like to accomodate all those who are interested in joining us, due to limited space, we cannot guarantee all whom apply will be invited).