Here Comes Everybody

I just finished reading Here Comes Everybody by Clay Shirky (@clayshirky on Twitter). I took a bunch of notes and wanted to pull out some key things are really impact the development of social network and apply them to what I'm working on at Microsoft.

First up is the notion of "publish, then filter" - with the massive amounts of information being published today both online, broadcast and offline, filtering has become the real issue. As I think about my own ways of consuming information, it's the filters that are available to me that make big differences. For example, Tivo's search functionality, wish list/keywords and swivel search has revolutionized what I watch on TV. Similarly, I consume almost all of news and technology data via RSS feeds from a browser. I still read the NYTimes on Sunday, but I'm not convinced that I do it for any real reason other than I think I ought to.

Emerging platforms continue to accelerate the publish then filter trend - sites like Meetup.com allow users to "filter" by looking at participation. Interestingly, this means that publishers are going to fail a heck of a lot more than they are used to - there's just too much out there for groups, content, and information to succeed at the same rate they did in the past. This failure thing is going to be hard for lots of traditionally thinking companies - it's not in their DNA to embrace failure. I've seen this personally so much in my career in both the non-profit and for-profit sectors.

The open source movement provides a pretty good example of this in motion. Open source movements have no employees, no plan, no nothing really. It's not an organization, it's an ecosystem. The book points out in a blow my mind moment, that open source doesn't reduce the likelihood of failure, it reduces the cost of failure. This massive reduction in transaction costs (Coasan theory) is at the core of the book and is affecting companies across the board.

Shirky lays out a very compelling argument around how technology has enabled us to rapidly create new groups, and populate them with people who formerly would never be able to congregate (either offline or online). The top list of groups on meetup.com includes things like Pagans, Witches, Tori Amos and Slashdot. This, as Shirky puts it, is unlike any other group list, anywhere.

My favorite chapter of the book however is "Promise, Tool, Bargain." Shirky lays out a foundation for how to think about constructing communities. He's careful not to call this a recipe, because while every community needs a promise, tools and a bargain, the mix of interactions is simply too complex to prescribe anything other than a framework. That said, the order of promise, tool, bargain does matter.

The promise creates a basic desire to participate. In my case, the Microsoft CIO Network makes both an explicit and implicit promise to users that we'll connect our CIO's to each other, and give them new ways to access Microsoft insiders. Getting the promise right however is quite different than traditional marketers are used to. The distinction is that the marketing isn't done by us for them (our users), but is done with our users in collaboration. That's a trick you shouldn't try at home.

Tools are obviously what allow members to get involved. Here's where things get tricky (and interesting). CIO's aren't generation Y/millennials in how they use online technologies. While we do have a few members that blog and tweet, the majority just aren't contributors to online forums and spaces. We initially chose a message board/blog tool, but have recently started to add things like teleconference calls, interviews, audio podcasts and in-person events. I do believe we're breaking some new ground here in explicitly trying to build an online community of C-level execs - so we've got our work cut out for us.

Bargain is the implicit bargain among users - it's the culture and the expectation. In our case, I believe it's the humanization of Microsoft. That feels odd to say (and is a tricky subject), but I do believe that if we get this right, members will have an unprecedented doorway to us to help us craft products, deliver strategy and have a conversation with our customers. It's also why I took the job. The opportunity to help a company like Microsoft try something like this is a once-in-a-life opportunity.

There is so much more that I want to write about this book but for now, that's it. Get a copy and read it!

Book Notes; Groundswell

I just finished Groundswell: "Winning in a world transformed by social technologies." Groundswell is a much reviewed and commented on book, so instead of my normal book notes, I figured I'd provide some links for you to follow.

The core premise of the book is that much of what's happening in marketing today revolves around creating "conversation" or "social spaces" where brands (er, brand managers) can have conversations with their customers. There's been tons and tons written about this in the past few years, but Groundswell provides a terrific framework that really helps clarify a lot of what many of us haven't been able to articulate to date.

In addition to the framework, the authors have also created a profile tool which allows you to profile your customers to see how likely it is that they are partiicpating in the new world of marketing and online conversations.

As you'd expect, there is also a discussion board where you can jump in yourself to chat about strategy, and marketing tactics.

If you want more.. check out delicious "groundswell" tags and/or "groundswell" on tweetscan to see who is tweeting about the book.

Like most books of this kind, Groundswell includes some terrific case studies and interviews like this one, that one and all the other ones. Like most books of this kind, Groundswell also suffers from bouncing back and forth between trying to please and inform noobs and salty old dawgs.

For my money, the framework alone is worth the price of admission.

And.. here it is:

Clay Shirky: Where Do They Find The Time?

This video is stunningly good and thoughtful. Enjoy.

Anyone who seriously and academically claims that the sitcom is social lubricant under which the the wheels came off the enterprise (i.e. society) must be reposted as much as possible.

Makes me feel better for being such a d0rk.

Social Technographics

Groundswell
Originally uploaded by msirkin

I'm reading a great new book called "Groundswell" that is really helping me frame out what's next for the CIO Network I'm trying to build out. This chart clearly shows that if we lean on "creators," those that create unique content within the site we're going to have issues. Instead, we're focusing on how to drive spectators up the ladder, perhaps with polls, and other "frictionless" ways to rate content and participate on the site.

It's interesting to play with their profile tool and map out different ages and locations to see how different strategic approaches might work (or not work).

Twitter Is Killing My Will to Blog

I'm so used to posting short snippets on twitter here and here, that I just can't find the strength to write a blog post with any substance.

I'm knee deep in building out my new project and getting acclimated to Microsoft. What an amazing company. It's great to be up to my ears in community building again. Much better than what I was doing before, that's for sure.

There seems to be a fire hose of marketing blogs, Facebook analysis and stuff lately flowing at me - I'm about to declare RSS bankruptcy!

Seriously though, doesn't any of this Web 2.0 stuff feel like a retread, just a little? The hype-o-meter is seriously pegged as high as it can go right now. Wasn't it just a year or so ago when virtual worlds was all the hype? Go on - comment away about how this is sooooo different. I dare ya.

Headed to Seattle next week for another week in Redmond, and after that I'm back in CT for a bit until heading to Boston, then Ft. Lauderdale for some CIO conferences and such.

Driving Engagement

I've got loads of experience building social networks and community spaces for donors and general consumers - but my new project, building an invitation only, closed community for CIOs is proving a tad more difficult - though it is still very early in the game.

I was catching up on some different articles and found this one on Chief Marketer called "The Six 'C's of Social Influence". It's a decent article, but not completely on point for my own needs.

Then 2nd "C" is customization - which has me thinking and reconsidering how much or how little to allow community members to create their profile. Right now, it's super limited - basic photo and bio only. I'm considering however, opening it up a lot more just to see what folks start to do. Worst case, nothing happens... best case, I start to learn something.

This has already been a super interesting ride, and I've only just started a few months ago.

2007 Best Posts

Reposted with my own permission from the now defunct npMarkekting blog...

In no particular order, here are my favorite posts from 2007 - a year in which I again didn't blog enough (or by some accounts, blogged way way too much). It was a tough year and I learned a lot about marketing, myself and the world. I also played a lot of golf (but no where near enough by my count). Ok, here goes...

Favorite Post #1 - Great Marketing in the Oddest of Places A post about the good work that the MTA does with their newsletters and keeping their customers informed, and laughing.

Favorite Post #2 - How the New Web Transforms Your Organziation "Marketers do not have the right to interrupt you."

Favorite Post #3 - Authenticity It appears that it is working for Obama in a big way, eh

Favorite Post #4 - Best Development Resources I still get 7 or so hours of sleep, really.

Favorite Post #5 - Yikes, it's not working! I love failing, because it means I'm making progress.

Favorite Post #6 - Causes vs. Organizations I still think I'm right... yea, definately.

Favorite Post #7 - Leave the Ivory Tower, Now! And wow, the Africa trip really proved my point on this one.

Favorite Post #8 - “Edge”tion – Another Look at Causes vs. Orgs Lots of discussion, comments and goodness from this post... horrible title though.

True Names and The Semantic Web

If you've read Vinge's short story/novella "True Names" you'll be familiar with online/offline identity management. I've managed to create quite a collection of public "persona's" on a variety of sites including myspace, linkedin, friendster, orkut, classmates, meez, reunion.com and have been thinking about ways to combine these into a single identity or collection of identities that I can more easily manage.

In addition to social networking sites, I've also got my own web site, blog, professional blog and my own flickr photo sharing site. I've most recently been looking at some very cool new functionality that Yahoo! 360 provides, along with Squidoo.

Continuing the mind numbing madness, I've also started using Del.icio.us to social bookmark concepts, sites and ideas that I want to remember and share. I of course have a Google account which gives me msirkin.googlepages.com, access to base.google.com and just today - access to Google analytics (formerly Urchin).

My God - where does it end!!!

After listening to a talk given by Tim Berners-Lee on the Semantic web in which he talked a lot about linking, URI's and data sharing, I guess I'm trying to figure out how this all applies in both my personal, and business life.

Managing all my personas, protecting my privacy and extending my network all should contribute to my life, but I'm not yet sure how.