Conceptually, I started down this road years ago. The term myspace, to me, was always something owned by the MySpace organization and was certainly not "my space". Alas, connecting personal internet properties of the blog/site kind such that the user can participate in any number of social engagements, perhaps even without leaving home, so to speak, remained only an idea for me. It looks like Chris Messina is one of several acting upon it.
I watched his video, and have been reading some (okay, much) of the commentary/discussion around the subject.
What interests me most here is the focus, and some of the assumptions. As for focus, it appears the idea of "friends" as the central element defining the social graph, remains. That is limiting progress towards my personal goal of a broadly accessible learning/knowledge focused social network experience. Anyone spending any time developing their "web worker" skills will know that strong tie relationships of the social networking "friends" kind have only limited value.
As for assumptions, one stands out in particular, though perhaps only for me and principally because I want to hear it. It seems that while most everyone is still paying homage to Facebook, an increasing number of people are coming to believe that it is not the last word.
I don't think the time is far off now when the majority realize that the only reasonable way of creating and maintaining an online presence, or persona, or multiple personas, will be on properties you own and control to the greatest extent possible. If all you do is rent space from MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, or any of them, you're limiting yourself.
Why rent when you can buy? You can still visit the renters.
Here are a few diagnostic questions. When you answer “yes” to any of these, remind yourself what your larger goals are to get out of the trenches, and shift from comparing yourself to your direct peers and compare yourself on a larger stage instead.
- Is this work BIG, or is it a task? (Email is a task)?
- Is this work MEANINGFUL, or is it time consuming?
- Is this work POWERFUL, or is it what we’ve always done?
- Am I GROWING, or am I at the top?
- Am I STRIVING, or am I coasting?
- Am I REACHING for more, or am I checking off a box?
Squint at the capitalized words and I think they might be a good measuring stick.
From a guy named Chris Brogan and post called Trenches and Ponds.
Interesting. Some adjustments are finally surfacing. My exposure to PR professionals to date has suggested to me that they were taking an evolutionary approach to understanding and reacting to the online social experience. That's understandable, but not necessarily the most accurate perspective.
Of course, I'm not referring to the people you'll come across in places like this or this. Those places make it look like there's broad industry experience and understanding of PR and marketing in the new world. I believe that would be your (and my own) confirmation bias at work.
This blog, however, is looking like one that is building some real bridges between new think and old think.
Saying things like this is likely to get traditional PR folks listening to you:
I use them in conjunction with traditional releases and they work extremely well. Personally, I prefer using a blog platform to create and distribute them.
A little compromise goes a long way.