Sharing, Human Nature, and Digital Data
It appears I’ve been on a perpetual coffee break for weeks! And yet, it’s not so.
Many of you know I started a full-time job in mid-January — a “real” job some may say. A job teaching and using social media on a daily basis leaves me little time for staying in touch with you.
Anyway… I was fortunate to attend South by SouthWest Interactive (#SXSW) for several days as a benefit of working for Network Communications, Inc.
Nothing prepared me for seeing the internet on feet! The streets of downtown Austin were filled with people immersed in all aspects of the web. The 256-page program guide weighed 8 pounds!
- Design and Development
- Workshops and Panels
- Book Readings and Signings
- Business Applications
- Core Conversations
- Featured Speakers
- Content Strategy
- Web Psychology
- Causes for the Greater Good
- Networking and Funnel Cakes
- Interactive Lounges
- Emerging Technologies
One highlight for me was Clay Shirky’s presentation “Monkeys with Internet Access: Sharing, Human Nature, and Digital Data.” The blogs excerpted below provide an in-depth review of the informative — and entertaining — talk.
Shirky looked at the organizing power of the internet and its disruptive force. The sudden wealth of organizing and communicating tools, he argued, have upset many comfortably established systems, generally through their ability to provide better service than the status quo.
“Abundance,” he said, “breaks more things than scarcity.”
~ Mike Miner, The Fifth Column
Shirky argues that, in comparison to the sharing of goods or services, primates — including humans — have evolved to want to share information. “Sharing information is something we’re biased to do and to like doing.”
“Behavior is just motivation filtered through opportunity,” he said.
~ Dr. John Grohol, The Huffington Post
Media companies are freaking out about this change, but rather than realigning to a new reality they are trying to protect the old one. He noted that businesses create workarounds to problems, but part in parcel with that is that this builds in a desire to not solve the original problem lest the solution make itself obsolete. There is no profit motive in fixing something once and for all. ~@ Jeremy Littau
We have a word for not sharing if there’s no cost to you: That word is ’spiteful.’ ~ Liz Gannes, gigaom
Be sure to check back for an update on “How To Not Be a Douchebag” as presented by Ed Hunsinger, Violet Blue and John Adams.
Enjoy Pride of Ownership | Morning Coffee Break
We choose the thoughts we allow ourselves to think,
the passions we allow ourselves to feel,
and the actions we allow ourselves to perform.
Each choice is made in the context of whatever value
system we’ve selected to govern our lives.
In selecting that value system, we are, in a very real way,
making the most important choice we will ever make.”
ENJOY PRIDE OF OWNERSHIP!
Remember the day you made the decision to go to college? What about the day you decided to buy that sporty red car? Surely you remember the day you decided you would get married. What about your present career path? Did you purposely decide it’s what you want to do? Do you remember making a conscious decision to have three children?
Some decisions are relatively simple. You decide to buy a TV, go to the store, write a check – and it’s yours. You own it! Other decisions are also easy to make, i.e. the red sports car, but carry a higher price. The decision comes quickly, but entails both a down payment and a commitment to make payments on time for several years. Again, you make the decision to buy and the car is yours – you own it!
At some point in life come decisions that shouldn’t have been made, but were, as well as those you should have withheld. In high school, a day of classes skipped may have resulted in grades lower than acceptable to your choice of colleges. Later, a poor choice of friends may have resulted in a blemish on your “permanent” record. As an adult, poor decision-making not only may reduce the quality of your life, but of those you love.
Regardless, each decision made is yours to keep – you own it! You also own the responsibilities created by the decision, i.e. following a healthy lifestyle to stay trim, working two jobs to keep your commitment to the mortgage company, giving up poorly chosen friends and activities to provide your children with a happy, nurturing home life.
Every decision made can turn positive or negative, depending on the actions taken once the decision has been made. Either way – making the decision is followed by ownership of the results. Does “pride of ownership” appeal to you? Buy it, own it, love it!
Make this a great week!
Can You Have It Both Ways? | Morning Coffee Break
and you keep and hold that picture there long enough,
you will soon become exactly as you have been thinking.”
YOU CAN’T HAVE IT BOTH WAYS!
Walk into a totally dark room. What do you see? “Absolutely nothing,” you say. Now, turn on the light. Where did the darkness go? Really – where is it now? Hopefully you will agree that darkness cannot exist in the face of light.
During a lifetime, we experience many types of “darkness.” It may appear in the form of discouragement, fear, hopelessness, grief, ignorance, or poverty. Yet, in every case, there is a “light” in which such darkness cannot exist.
Fear, for example, cannot exist in the face of courage. Education denies ignorance any chance of survival. Grief disappears in the presence of peace-of-mind. Discouragement ceases when hope prevails. Wealth denies poverty its chance.
No matter what form darkness takes, it cannot exist when faced with its opposite. That also means we have the ability to send darkness on its way at any point in time. No matter how overwhelming the darkness appears, it is our thoughts and our minds that ultimately control the outcome. How powerful is that?
In the words of several favorite authors: “Think you can, think you can’t, either way you’re right.” “Your life is what your thoughts make of it.” “We are what we think about all day long.” Finally, in the words of Tom Bodett, from one of his Motel 6 commercials: “We’ll leave the light on for you!”
Make this a great week!
Other Places We Can Connect
