Alchemy of Change - Latest Comments

Re: How to Better Target Your Tweets on Twitter: “Tweet to List”

Gideon Rosenblatt — Mon, 14 May 2012 16:35:32 -0000

Thanks Wyndham. I just tried doing this and couldn't get it to work, at least not in a useful way. I tried tweeting to one of my lists, but not only is that tweet showing up in my profile stream (as I would expect, as all replies do), but it was showing up in other lists of which I am a member. I guess this would work for getting your tweet into the stream of a list that you're not a member of, but that's not really the thing I'm trying to do. What I'm trying to do with Twitter is segment tweets to just certain groups of people - like I can do today on Google+.

Re: How to Better Target Your Tweets on Twitter: “Tweet to List”

Wyndham — Mon, 14 May 2012 15:42:04 -0000

This explains how http://www.ehow.com/how_844946...

Re: Why Facebook Needs to (Really) Open Up its IPO

Wileycoot — Sun, 13 May 2012 13:31:24 -0000

I'd love to see facebook suceed along with all the people that put their time and effort into building it. Everybody wins is always a great business policy. Building partnerships is frequently better suited to weather future down turns then trying to compete and take over your competitors.

Re: Social Reading and the Social Book

Gideon Rosenblatt — Fri, 11 May 2012 18:12:14 -0000

Thank you for the very thoughtful comments, Cynthia. You bring up so many excellent points. I think the two that pop most for me are the "slow reading" and the "chaperone" ideas.

The idea of using the book as a social object that acts as a chaperone is very interesting...almost like a talisman, that brings greater forces into play, unleashing and given permission to thoughts and emotions we wouldn't normally expose in a group. Nice.

And the slow reading movement idea is interesting too. I would probably be later in that adoption curve, even though I badly need it. The mind is willing but old habits die hard, I guess.

Thanks for connecting. What kinds of work were you doing in book selling?

Re: Social Reading and the Social Book

Cynthia Morris — Tue, 08 May 2012 15:34:17 -0000

Fascinating, Gideon. I love this discussion. You make several huge points here that I'd like to respond to.

Books have always been a social object. When I was a bookseller, I saw how much books allow us to talk about meaningful things. A book is an object that we use to engage in conversation that would perhaps be too intimate without the 'chaperone' of a book.

We become known for what we read and what we say about it.

Whether for personal or professional reasons, reading is always a means to an end. We read to enjoy, escape, learn, travel...so many reasons.

I appreciate and agree with your point about this greedy gobbling and sharing of information. This scanning reading doesn't challenge us to dig in with the material and develop our own thoughts about it.

I'm guilty of this. I consume a lot of books and am among the people for whom the thought of not being able to read everything is devastating. So I rush, and I share what I'm reading. It's the bookseller in me, whose world revolved around what I was reading, what my friends were reading, and what we had to say about it.

Perhaps a 'Slow Reading' movement is in order?

Clearly, this is an incredibly fascinating time for all of us, especially those in writing and publishing. I am very excited about it and curious about how we think of reading now as 'consuming'.

The fact that the available technology has driven reading and books to the top of the discussion across several industries is something to celebrate. There's a lot of fallout as the publishing industry simultaneously collapses and rebuilds. But at the end of the day I see a lot of opportunities for creativity with books and I am glad I get to play.

Thanks for this post, Gideon. I'll come back and digest it more later.

Re: When Personal Brands and Corporate Brands Collide

Gideon Rosenblatt — Mon, 07 May 2012 14:13:48 -0000

Two to tango. Yep. Totally agree, Bernd. Relationships can not be owned. Many of the social change organizations I used to work with would become confused about this at times when it came to managing "their lists."

Re: How to Better Target Your Tweets on Twitter: “Tweet to List”

Gideon Rosenblatt — Mon, 07 May 2012 12:36:12 -0000

Unfortunately, Susan, Twitter seems to almost be moving in the opposite direction. In the new design, lists are even more buried than before:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/10...

Re: The Sole of a Business

Gideon Rosenblatt — Mon, 07 May 2012 12:11:52 -0000

Thanks for asking, Bernd. Here's Mr. Lee's shop:
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=...

Re: The Sole of a Business

CoCreatr — Mon, 07 May 2012 09:59:54 -0000

Wonderful. Now, where on a Google map would an interested but less locally conversant prospect find Mr. Lee's shoe repair shop?

Re: When Personal Brands and Corporate Brands Collide

CoCreatr — Mon, 07 May 2012 08:21:52 -0000

One of the root causes of such clash of interests is the belief hat relationships can be owned. Really, can they? I think no, because it takes two to tango. Relationships are co-created and if one party ceases to put energy in, the connection dissipates.

If someone ceases to represent a company, we do not divvy up off hours and on. It does not matter, except to people who make money from litigation. From a customer's viewpoint, both company and personal relationship continue and I want my choice to continue one, the other, both or neither.

Re: How to Better Target Your Tweets on Twitter: “Tweet to List”

Susan Maricle — Mon, 07 May 2012 08:08:54 -0000

Gideon, I found your article after Googling "how to tweet to a list," as I'm trying to do that very thing. Your article is 1 year old. Has Twitter made any progress since then? Tweeting to a list seems like a no-brainer. Thanks for writing this! Susan

Re: How ‘Engagement Roles’ Blur Organizational Boundaries

Gideon Rosenblatt — Fri, 04 May 2012 12:44:30 -0000

Thanks Bernd. Agreed.

Re: How ‘Engagement Roles’ Blur Organizational Boundaries

CoCreatr — Fri, 04 May 2012 10:34:05 -0000

Thank you, Gideon, for guiding me here. Getting "clarity on engagement outcomes" is a more compelling vision than a list of responsibilities or tasks. Just state what and why, and people can take the role and make it work.

Now curious to learn more, following your link trail.

Re: The Biology of Organizational Intelligence – It’s People

Gideon Rosenblatt — Thu, 03 May 2012 10:15:59 -0000

Yes, agreed Bernd. You might be interested in this piece on "engagement roles":
http://www.alchemyofchange.net...

Re: The Biology of Great Organizations

Gideon Rosenblatt — Thu, 03 May 2012 10:11:25 -0000

Thanks for the note, Bernd. Glad you like the oreo approach. It's kinda hard not to like oreos.

Agreed on the internal, nucleus membrane. To me that center space is the soul of the organization; it's defining reason for being - the mission.

Re: Social Reading and the Social Book

CoCreatr — Thu, 03 May 2012 09:45:51 -0000

Yes. "The result, I believe, is a relatively new kind of pressure to share content prematurely, to share it before we’ve fully digested it – and in some cases, before we’ve even fully finished reading it!"

At this point I tweeted this article. Hours later came back to comment. Realizing when I started taking twitter serious I had it as a habit, "to keep being interesting for followers". Soon I noticed we all were generating an exciting phenomenon: news find me. But the noise level rose, so I scaled it back and shared only what I found truly interesting and worth being seen coming from me. And with links checked.

Open sharing is already great in that it relieves me of the old (paper and e-mail) habit trying to guess who might need this information, now? That said, I aim to share to improve upon the silence.

Re: The Biology of Organizational Intelligence – It’s People

CoCreatr — Thu, 03 May 2012 05:17:01 -0000

Thank you, Gideon. Mentally reviewing a bunch of position description templates I am co-creating for the membrane aspects. Might be good to divide responsibilities/authorities into engaging employees, engaging customers - partners, and enabling customers - partners to engage others and society.

Re: The Biology of Great Organizations

CoCreatr — Thu, 03 May 2012 05:04:11 -0000

Thank you for a great piece of edge wisdom here. I like the oreo cookie boundary membrane metaphor. In terms of permeability, the organization's applied criteria for confidentiality and trust are primary factors. And behind the outer mebrane I sense another nucleus membrane that protects an organization's forward-looking genes, its perpetuation, i.e. purpose, management intention, and strategy.

Re: Social Reading and the Social Book

Gideon Rosenblatt — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 09:42:55 -0000

Thanks for the comment. That kind of sharing - passing the whole book on for others to enjoy - is something that I didn't even really think to touch on - as an aspect of "social-ness". But I think you're right. It's probably what first comes to mind when people think today about sharing a book.

What e-reader are you using now? Have you played with the Kindle Fire yet?

Re: Social Reading and the Social Book

jpuddle — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 06:52:43 -0000

Very interesting, and I daresay true. It leaves me in a quandary. For my part, I'm choosy in the non-fiction that I buy, and I there's any suggestion that I might like a book enough to share it around, I'll buy the paper copy. Once I'm done I can then easily share with it others. No one can tell me that ebook sharing is as easy as paper book sharing, at least not yet.

During the reading of such books though, I'm stuck with the burning desire to share parts of it, as you describe. I suppose I'd love to see ebook sharing become a lot easier.

Re: Wikipedia Now Crowd-Sourcing Article Ratings

Worms2u — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 22:31:23 -0000

The rating options are very poorly structured. Trustworthy? An article can cite lots of trustworthy sources but do so very poorly. It can list them without seriously using or understanding them. Objective? It's easy to be fair but stupid. Complete? OK, this one at least makes some sense in terms of rating options. Well-written (=well organized and well-written)? Again, something can be well-written (good grammar, even engaging) and still be riddled with lack of actual comprehension or even errors.

Re: Social Reading and the Social Book

Gideon Rosenblatt — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 14:10:17 -0000

Thanks Jodie. That's focusing more on the upside, huh? And a cool idea - reinvigorated, virtual book club. It would be cool to think about a virtual book club app; kind of a collaboration space for sharing key passages and notes with other people in the book club. The club could be made up of pre-defined members (like book clubs work today), or be more open, as a way to meet like-minded individuals.

Re: Social Reading and the Social Book

Jodie — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 07:40:00 -0000

Great article Gid. I have been bumping up to the limits of the technology that supports social reading for the last year since I have had an iPad and switched to reading most books electronically. What I most want is to purposefully share highlights and notes with colleagues and see theirs. A sort of group mind around our reading. I don't feel the need to read the latest business book if Steve Andersen has already read it and highlighted what he felt was most relevant. I want a new kind of book club where I have my audience and purpose in mind while I read it and I am reading and highlighting with them in mind and vice-versa. This is of course not for all reading but for key texts that are relevant to my network of colleagues.I use the Kindle app for iPad with the Kindle Amazon functionality -- but it leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to sharing.

Re: We Are The Filter Bubble

Eric Van Buskirk — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 22:27:52 -0000

Fantastic website. So few writers are taking a step back and doing their own analysis of the social Web. The most widely read tech sites, like Mashable and TechCrunch are merely trying to rank for recycled news most of the time. Or they are doing "top 5," "top 7" type simplistic stories.

Re: Testing the Wisdom of Crowds

Lucas — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 11:42:48 -0000

As I said in my first comment on this subject; while
teaching elementary school several years ago I was amazed at the collective
intelligence of the students. What I didn't say is that it took a considerable
period of time to gain the trust of the students so that their answers would
not serve as a source of ridicule. I rarely would undertake such an effort
prior to the second semester.

Intelligence is poorly and very incompletely measured in our society, particularly
in our school systems. Realizing that my questions were purely subjective, I
made a concentrated effort to not tie them to individuals, but instead, to put
their answers together in such a way as to form a "shadow" person who
became a "whole" of many parts.

It took a lot of homework. I also became aware that factors other than
intelligence could be derived.