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My Christmas: Information as gifts…

January 2, 2009 By Dan Thornton 1 Comment

One of the detractions around social media, social networking and blogging etc is that there are plenty of people in the ‘real world’ who don’t give a monkeys about the internet.

Which may well be true, but in addition to the somewhat reasonable 140 million+ active users on Facebook, this holiday season emphasised how the world is changing on a personal level – namely the relationship between an online geek (me), and his almost technophobe parents.

It started pre-Christmas, when my folks replaced their aging desktop with a shiny new laptop and signed up for broadband. (For reference, the desktop must be about 10 years old, and they were still on dial-up!)

Then they started asking me to find albums by relatively niche Irish folk artists on Amazon. And my mother decided to borrow Tribes - which is promising as she completed a degree in sociology in her spare time a few years ago with marks I’ll always be proud and envious of!

But Christmas really was The Tipping Point.

For starters, their gift to me was a copy of Malcolm Gladwell’s new book, Outliers: The Story of Success.

My gift in return was a webcam, and a quick lesson in using Windows Live Messenger, Gmail, and Flickr. (We tried Twitter but that’s probably a step too far!)

The reasons were simple:

1. They already have a hotmail email account, and although there might be better IM clients, not only is Windows Live Messenger pretty simple and easy to use, but enough people use it that I wouldn’t be sole technical support.

The main reason is that it means they can see their grandson on webcam whenever we’re online.

2. Gmail is intended to be a starting point for them to hopefully move to Google Calendar, Google Docs etc.

The main reason is that it means I can share my calendar so we can all schedule our lives and events without playing telephone tennis for days and weeks beforehand. Facebook might also be useful, but that’s for Phase 2!

3. Flickr is a nice way to start seeing the value of sharing images, tagging, etc.

But the main thing is that my dad has always had an artistic side which is always underexploited, and has always be into photography. Plus they can see ‘family only’ images of the family.

We’ve already had a couple of webcam enabled chats over IM, and I’m hoping it’ll encourage them to explore and try other new ways to share and communicate with friends and family. I’m certainly past the age of worrying that connecting with my parents might make me seem less cool, or that they’d see an inappropriate picture or comment – at my age, the chances to behave inappropriately are frustratingly rare!

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Filed Under: Digital Culture Tagged With: amazon, connecting, Digital Culture, facebook, flickr, gmail, information, msn messenger, parents, windows live messenger

Isreali Consulate using Twitter for Press Conference on Gaza

December 30, 2008 By Dan Thornton 1 Comment

Just spotted that the Israeli Consulate is using Twitter for a press conference on Gaza attacks.

Spotted via Doc Searls.

More information, here.

Really interesting example of how politics and world events are intertwining with what some people still see as a niche networking platform – but one which in my opinion radically changes the dissemination and interaction with information.

I wonder how international diplomacy may change with UK, U.S and Canadian politicians already in evidence. For instance, UK ministers on Tweetminister, US Congresspeople on TweetCongress, and the same opportunities and tools for collaboration and interaction which individuals and businesses are already able to benefit from?

Update: @rafaelprince has a log of the conference here.

Update 2: It’s also inspired a great post by Laura Fitton on ‘Microsharing as Humanitarian Act‘ – well worth reading.

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Filed Under: Microblogging, twitter Tagged With: collaboration, doc searls, gaza, information, interaction, israeli consulate, politics, press conference, tweetcongress, tweetminister, twitter

Every Single One of Us should look at Every Single One of Us

December 12, 2008 By Dan Thornton 2 Comments

I’m learning that you can always rely on someone like Jonathan MacDonald going that bit further! And he’s certainly doing that by driving a new movement with a simple aim ‘making communication better‘. It’s well worth taking a look at Every Single One of Us for the whole story, and then making sure you subscribe to hear about any updates.

From Every Single One of Us:

The world we are now in, will show an astronomical shift in commercial budget toward this area – but currently, few people know for sure how this can come about.

There are a number of reasons why that is and this movement proposes the following 4:

A lack of pertinent information
A lack of understanding how to interpret information
A lack of will to action on information
A lack of skill to action on information

Taking these 4 points and applying them to any other nascent situation, we see they are common.

In our ‘No Way Back From Here’ volume, we will apply these 4 points )although some may already have one or more covered).

For example, you may have the will to action on information and a great deal of skill, however there may be gaps in the understanding or access levels. The gun is loaded, you know how to fire it, but why, at whom and when?

Alternatively, you may have the world’s leading information from research and popular opinion, but lack the will or skill to action anything.

Its all OK. We are all ‘right’.

It doesn’t matter which part you are involved with or which part you are ‘covered’ on. We can move things forward together – but this movement proposes we first need a way to ensure we all have access to the information required for us to collectively interpret it (or at least, those that wish to).

Once we have this, we can help others gain the will to action and the skills to do so (if they desire).

He’s also laid out a 7 step plan to achieve this, as well as initial activities within step 1 – covering the lay of the land. It includes a major research project, a series of TV interviews, an ongoing series of conferences, seminars, workshops and master-classes, information gathering and looking at VRM.

I think this is probably one of the movements with the clearest idea of purpose and direction, and possibly most likely to succeed in achieving some sizeable goals, judging by the starting point. The biggest risk might be Jonathan exhausting the rest of us….

Seriously, go to http://www.everysingleoneofus.com right now, if you haven’t already. And take some time to look at what’s being established…

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Filed Under: Digital Culture Tagged With: Advertising, Digital Culture, every single one of us, information, jonathan macdonald, making communication better, marketing, permission, relevancy, research

Another great tool for improving email – this time, Outlook

November 19, 2008 By Dan Thornton 2 Comments

I’ve already shown how to improve your email experiences with the Remember The Milk gadget for Googlemail, and OtherInbox for filtering signups and other email detritus. But, like many people, I’m tied to Outlook for my main corporate email – but there’s an easy way to improve it with Xobni, that just got even better.

It’s an add-in for Outlook which search funtions, email anlytics and more, including a useful list of which documents have been sent to other people in email conversations. Plus it also already featured integration with LinkedIn for more details about who is emailing you.

Now the latest release includes integration with Yahoo Mail!, Facebook, Hoovers and enhanced Skype functionality.

If you’re using Outlook, Xobni is highly recommended.

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