Category: community indicators

Twitter Focus (#seascorcher)

hot in the shadeI have been following the twitter hashtag #seascorcher where all of us Seattlites are connecting, communicating and often commiserating about our record breaking heat wave.

It has been interesting to reflect on a) how much I’ve been on Twitter today and b) what I’m Tweeting about. The local issue has caused me to connect and focus locally which is quite different than my normal pattern. (You can read the recent tweets here Nancy White (NancyWhite) on Twitter).

The heat has me hiding inside in front of a fan, downstairs, with my main computer off and just my little netbook on my lap. A large ice tea has been refilled many times by my side. It is too hot to focus on some of my work, so Twitter has been both amusement and communication, but with a very different use pattern than normally. I’ve tweeted FAR more than usual as well. I’m reading tweets voraciously when I normally dip in and out and skim, skim, skim.

What I find really interesting is the shift of focus. You know that old saying, nothing pulls people together like a crisis. Our heat is doing that. People are swapping cooling tips, places to get ice cream, air conditioned public locations for cooling off, and of course, the current temperature. The news media Twitterers are at it bringing many flavors of classic and citizen journalism into the story. The local coop is tweeting cooling food ideas. Everyone is getting into the game.

Is this community building? It could be. Some connections formed this week will grow. Others stay anonymous and ephemeral – the moment enjoyed and passed on. Very network like. But it gives one slice of a geographic community.

And you know what? It is fun. I feel more connected to Seattle that I usually do, since I work with global networks. Yet even my global friends are chiming in. This is fascinating. The power of events, of something at a specific point in time that captures our attention. And imagination!

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Online Community Building Strategy Advice

We are having record breaking heat here in Seattle and I just don’t have the energy to jump into my stack of half drafted blog posts. So I’ll take advantage of Robin Good’s interview with me in Rome earlier this month! Thanks, Robin!

Online Community Building Strategy: Good Advice From Nancy White

(Gee, I do talk fast)

Edit: It appears that Robin has some other videos from that day on YouTube here, here and here.

Video: Shelly on Leveraging Community/Free Frayed Wire Ticket

I know, it is not Monday. I had scheduled this post for next Monday, but realized I wanted to give away my Frayed Wire ticket and that is THIS SATURDAY. So here we go.

Via Ignite Seattle comes a great 5 minute rap by Shelly Farnham on Community Genius: Leveraging Community to Increase your Creative Powers. Shelly is not talking about online community specifically, but community generally. And bounded community where people know each other, not this pseudo community label co opted by marketers.  (Sorry, harsh but that’s reality!) My favorite part is her love analogies. Take a peek – I don’t want to steal her thunder!

This brings to mind the free ticket thing because Shelly is one of the organizers of Frayed Wire on July 11th – I’ll be on the road. I have a paid ticket if someone in Seattle would like to use it! First person to eave a comment ASAP get’s it. I’ll need your name and email (which is part of the comment form) and I’ll transfer my ticket to you!

Monday Video: The Seed and Online Ecosystems

Via GOOD comes today’s Monday Video called “Seed.” I picked this one for two reasons. First, it is a great visual explanation with creative use of stop animation and 3D paper-animation.  Visual thinking in action.

Second, it is a reminder of a principle of online interaction: reciprocity. Our success with each other online depends not only upon our individual choices, but other bits and pieces, the “soil, rain, birds, humans, etc” that help the seed along might be the willingness of others to amplify (i.e. retweet) what we do or say, to connect us with others, the ability of software to facilitate the transactions. Each act influences another – but we have a lot of choice about how we reciprocate. While the passing of a seed through a human gut may not have a lot of intent, our willingness to share information, for example, does.

In other words, our online interactions are by necessity part of an ecosystem. While the individual may appear to have supremacy, this is a process that requires many players. How we choose to play is up to us. And that matters.

Take a look

My Spring Online Reading

CC image on flickr by seenyarita This spring I decided to try and get back into a regular blogging practice. You may have noticed this in February, March and part of April. Then I fell back off the wagon when sunny spring weather lured me outdoors for garden projects. I have no regrets.

There are still tons of interesting things I have read and “intended” to blog about. But the river flows on and it is silly to think I’ll get around to it, so here is a little link love to all the links I saved in April and May (so far) that, if time and priorities were different, I’d point to and write about. Pick one link. Maybe you’ll hit a gold mine! Later I’ll share some of the books I’ve read. Yes, shocking, BOOK! On PAPER!

Photo by SeenyaRita