DISQUS

Via @technosailor, I found this piece you wrote.Your development and ability to see your path to and through it, and your sharing of it all, are beautiful. Thanks for being willing to bring this public.

Beautiful. Congrats, Shaun.

Along with some friends, I started using Socializr a couple years back. We use it inside of a local community where many events/people attending overlap. I've never thought it to be a perfect product, but I have always found their development team responsive, curious and open: a big plus for me.

I think there is value in focusing on one event tool inside a community of people, yet, as we're not (thankfully) living inside a dictatorial country, people are at choice as to what tools they use for events. I look forward to learning more about / experiencing this new integration. And thanks for reporting on it.

Fantastic. Sending the idea/concept/wiki link along to a number of people now.

Haha, Kenny. Went looking for the hashtag for the inaug. Found your blog in top 5 search results. ;-)

Weighing in on said subject again. No generation can be understood in a vacuum. Capacities that one generation has in spades come about because of capacities and weaknesses of other generations. For example, GenXers are profoundly capable of functioning inside of chaos and fragmented systems. Millennials (Gen Y) aren't. Millennials orient toward peer-based activities and collective efforts; GenX couldn't be farther away from that. Just as well, Millennials' hubris will bring about, in the generation that follows them, an orientation toward nuance and sensitivity. Just as the generation behind them (the next wave of Boomer-like people), will orient toward big vision and principle-based messaging. And so on.

So, yes, Millennials are great. In the ways that they are great. But so is every other generation, in the way that they are great. Would Theresa be willing to write a piece about the profound "weaknesses" of her generation? I doubt it. But people in other generations could come up with a laundry list of "weaknesses." Again, are they weaknesses, or just a balancing? After GenXers, a following generation that was fragmented would undermine societal strength. But the Millennials would be lost and dysfunctional without following behind GenXers who have tended to technical efficiencies, entrepreneurial knowledge and do-more-with-less than any generation in 80 years.

So, let's be happy for the newest generation to enter into young adulthood. Equally,j let's remember that they are but one of four generations. They gotz some good stuff to offer. As well, they will cause their own specific pain as a generation. And so the cycle continues.

Oooh, Mark. Did you stir up quite a conversation. Fascinating. I agree that transparency, voice and being a person behind a brand is important. I do that with the account I use at my J-O-B. I am the person behind @Vectorworks, and I'm an integrative communications/PR kinda gal, too. So my tweets vary from posting about a great product review that just came out, or a link to some pictures we took at a big user group event to my mortification that I might be fired because of my potluck dish disaster. I own the range from the corporate mouthpiece (via Twitter, and with all the Zen of a good tweet) to being a flesh-and-bones person who thought she messed up her corn casserole in a big way.

Interestingly, I find myself quite open to following company's tweets. It's much, much better than getting an email from them; rare is the day I actually check my RSS feeds; and it takes an awful lot of work for me to go check a company's website. So tweets are a nice solution for me to get bits of data in a timely way ... and to feel more connection to a company even when the twitter name is a company/brand.

See you 'round town, @cheeky_geeky. ;-)

Dang, sorry about all the bolds. Yeesh. Jessica: You may enjoy Strauss and Howe's book, "13th Gen: Abort, Try, Fail, Ignore?" Theresa: You may enjoy Strauss and Howe's book, Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation. As well, The Fourth Turning will resonate, I do believe.

Theresa, Thanks for sharing your age.

Jessica Margolin - I agree with you, wholeheartedly. Theresa is actually describing GenX culture more than Millennial. Big conversation also over at Geoff Livingston's Buzz Bin: http://is.gd/aMyj

What's your birth year, Theresa? I'm curious where you stand among the "Gen Y"?

Another excellent post, Taylor. I believe I will only benefit more from spending time in the company of your thoughts. You echo much of what I think and ask questions where I haven't asked them yet. The beauty of the downturn is that -- even in the uncertainty and inevitable hardships many will experience -- Society has the potential to emerge anew after some rather slothful decades.

My guess for business opportunities? Watch what the Boomers articulate as morally important (key word: moral); and watch where Millennials align and move forward together. In there is where many a GenXer (the largest generation and the most entrepreneurial of them all) will find the juiciest business opportunities.

Fascinating. Thought-provoking. Need to read your blog more.

One reason for the comparison to the Great Depression -- whether folk consciously or "un" -- know it is this: Cyclically, we are at the same point in the generational cycle where we were at the onset of the Great Depression. So, while most pundits talk of this subject by pointing to numbers and data, the deeper underlying point is that the constellation of which generational archetypes are at which point in their life cycles matches that era. And one of the known and predictable components of generational theory is that when this particular set up of generations (Boomers entering elderhood, GenX entering midlife, Millennials entering young adulthood, and the new gen being born) occur, there is *always* a crisis. But it's not just "a crisis," it's a Crisis Era, about 15-20 years in length ... and ending when Millennials start moving into midlife and GenX, into elderhood. et cetera

The Fourth Turning, by Strauss and Howe, is the best written source for the data and history to understand the cycle. A very timely book for now. And written a decade earlier, predicting "The Great Devaluation" around 2005-2008. Who woulda thunk it?

What surprises me is how little attention is directed at identifying statistical differences and trends among generations. I'd find these numbers and stats even more informative were there an assessment of 16-26 year olds, and how that differs from 27-37 year olds, for example.

There's much to be gleaned in knowing generational theory. Much to be gleaned.

Big props to Peter and his crew. And to all the sponsors as well. 'Twas fun carpooling and metro-ing in together, Steve. Especially singing along with songs from Dr. Horrible's Sing-along-blog. ;-)

I noticed that I was enamored with certain social media -- Facebook and Twitter, in particular -- when I felt I had a connection to the people in my sphere. I felt the early adopters were engaged and interactive. As more people started using said tools for their own reasons, and my volume of friends went up, I found my interest flagging a bit. I tried -- valiantly, but only for a while -- to keep my FB friends below the magical 150 mark, but that was near impossible, and I've given up on that strategy.

I think FB has done a better job, of late, in allowing me to turn up or down volume on people and by reducing the friend feed activity. I find in FB, it's the one-on-one comments and status updates that interest me the most. Twitter, to me, is much more of a living, breathing organism. I have to follow and unfollow people based on their impact on my whole network. More than once I have un-followed someone whose tweet content I like and whose person I like, but whose *impact* on my Tweet feed I didn't like, e.g. massive tweeting and pushing out other people's tweets.

Anyhoo, I find that much of the value of social media is, interestingly, developing and strengthening the skill to navigate a shifting terrain. Does that make sense? It's not so much about social media being perfect. And a perfect static tool. I experience that it's very much about a dynamic interaction with a community of people and that I have to be aware of the changes in the community, changes in what I want and then to adapt, in real time, so that the social media tools continue to work for me. As much as the environment of each tool changes, with new people coming in, old timers slowing down their posts and such, my own interests fluctuate, and I'm the one that has to make the tool work for me ... all while being in relationship to the dynamic world of others, and their relationships, at the same time.

Thoughts on a Saturday morning. Have a great time at BWE08. See you at Dobbin Starbucks soon.

I sayz you iz right. I agree with your thinking here.

Kenny, Are you moving? For real? Dang! I just started to get to know you a bit. Well, thank goodness for social media, life streaming and such. I really like how you think.

Fabulous. And you owe me lunch, Mr. Corbett. Informative, charming, easy on the ears. Good for my brain. Full of integrity. Living what you claim. Walking your talk (both of you). In person, you are engaging. And you manage to carry that though on video -- that's for both of you, actually. Admittedly, I multi-tasked during most of this, but you had my mind's attention, if not my eyes.

Excellent post and ongoing conversation, Mark. I met you at your first social media event. It was my second. Your curiosity and openness impressed me. More so, your capacity to put a human face on the intelligence of our government gave me hope and struck a chord in me.

Though no one would have known it when Ms. Shana invited you to join her to that party back in March, I do believe you are becoming one of the more credible and enticing voices on the subject of Gubment 2.0. ;-)

My thoughts on Milllennials, business start-ups and a new model of funding. http://is.gd/1ml0

Thanks for having me on your show, Aaron. You do know how to get me talking. ;-) I was amazed by how quickly the hour flew by. Thanks, as well, to all the people who listened in and participated in the chat room.

Looking forward to yet-another engaging conversation, Aaron. 'Til Saturday.

Hey, Aaron. Good to see you today. You look great! I'm happy to be on your show this coming Saturday night and am looking forward to yet-another interesting conversation with you ... and, this time, with your listeners as well.

Hi Kenneth, We met a second time at Twin Tech. I see now that you live in Jessup. Hey, submit your blog over on HocoBlogs.com, a planet page for people who live in Hoco and blog. Also, find HocoBlogs group on Socializr.com and sign up. We have monthly BlogTale parties, and I think you'll fit in and be quite an addition to our informal and friendly gatherings.