DISQUS

My daughter and I took it in turns reading it aloud at bedtime when she was about eight (she'd read a few pages, and then I'd finish the section/chapter) - I can still remember her bursting into tears because she couldn't read it as well as I yet, and she SO wanted to ... she got there, and that book still represents one of my favourite periods of her childhood (we celebrated her 21st a few weeks back ...)

I don't mind the idea of following and @replying to @lotd ....

Used up code 62KufO31fG - thanks Steph!!

Steph - bold move! Don the flak jacket ... you might need it.

I think your problem may be this: your current set of readers will see this as a change of direction, and may not continue with you. If you set up another blog for the experiential marketing, not all of your current "audience" will follow you there. Both of these outcomes affects your marketability and the value of your offering. At the moment you are making money (hopefully) "because" of your blog, not "with" it - the marketing effort will need to be approached carefully so as not to disrupt the normal flow of posting, and will have to be restricted so it doesn't overwhelm your current style of posting - a delicate balance perhaps, and you should set your pricing with that scarcity value in mind.

Can you "pilot" this - a trial period with a graceful exit strategy if required?

One of the problems of the "new social order" some of us early adopters inhabit is that we are in the middle of technology-inspired changes that are moving faster than the appropriate "social norms" can keep up with. As you've discovered (ref this post and your birthday in the US earlier this year), the etiquette we've been brought up with doesn't adequately equip you for some of the situations you find yourself in (me - I don't have your problem because I'm less visible ATM ... I'm still "just a fan"!) and the "new etiquette" is still very much a work-in-progress.

Transparency like this is a crucial step in that progress - somebody needs to start the dialogue rather than just block people or ignore them at conferences (declaring "social bankruptcy"?). Perhaps the next step is to advertise to your network your "social goals" PRIOR to attending the next conference - who you'd like to meet up with, what time you might have available for meeting "new" people, etc.

That may seem a bit cold to those of us raised with a less confronting way of dealing with "real world strangers" socially (I suspect that our children will have less difficulty accepting this sort of approach), but I know I would find it less embarrassing and intrusive to know ahead of time whether or not you were willing to talk to me (as a "fan", and someone only known to you virtually), and when/where it might be preferable to do so, if I were attending the same conference as you.

Whatever the outcome (and assuming that your fireproof suit is up to the task!) I think this is a useful step towards a new set of social norms - brave work indeed!

Fred - you can ... see screenshot: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rhayman/1194181096/ - the "more actions" dropdown includes close comments and close trackbacks ...

If you scroll down to the bottom of the comments it invites you to follow the discussion at Fred's Disqus site ...

That's neat - I made that last reply on the Disqus site and it appeared here on A VC pretty snappily ... nice so far. If you follow the discussion on the Disqus site you can double-click the Name/Email/Website boxes and the browser will help you with previously-entered values, but that doesn't work on Fred's site until you start entering something

Looks like Disqus to me ...

Hah - should have read below the fold before asking that question ... notice it doesn't remember my details (name/email/blog) for the next comment

Is this SezWho, or an alternative?

So in some states of the US, my younger daughter (who most would have assumed was a TARGET of online predators) would have had her MySpace account terminated because she mooned some friends from a bus window on a sports trip ... d'uh!

From where I am it didn't feel like you'd left at all! But seriously - don't you at least take your own pillow when you're away that long? (I do!)

Steph - done!

Stowe Boyd's /Message http://www.stoweboyd.com/message/2007/03/flow_t...>

Stowe's at Reboot somewhere - catch up with him!

Steph - that's exactly what I meant, yes. I haven't tried Google Docs yet, but you may be able to invite selected people to contribute, or you may have to invite the world to get a few people (that may be a little scary!)

Oh, forgot! Good to see you found Mindmeister - there's a couple of web-based mindmapping tools around - Anne Zelenka blooged a few at Web Worker Daily (at about the same time as I did!)

Good topic, and what that should generate a fair bit of discussion. It is rapidly becoming an issue when you think of the Chinese population - the chance of English remaining so dominant is slim.

The other issue you rightly point out is that of translation - how do we EASILY make the Web multilingual? The "Babel Fish" we do have at the moment is often unintentionally hilarious - but you wouldn't want to have your livelihood depending on it. Bob Sutton also highlighted a similar problem getting the title of "The No Asshole Rule" translated so that the SENSE of the title was preserved.

Good luck ... should be interesting. BTW - are you daring enough to open up access to the Google document?

"Take care, there seem to have been problems with the comment form lately" - Steph, you don't need to copy to clipboard if you have coComment turned on ... if it gets lost here, retrieve it from coCo (hey - you're allowed to encourage use of the product!)

@Dr Frank - does that mean you are now "addicted" to travel? I don't think Steph is trying to make judgment here one way or another - rather to point out that before a technology becomes so ubiquitous as to be a part of the fabric of life (think of paper money, or cars as examples) then early adopters seem to be seen as unhealthily attracted to it, or addicted. While it IS possible to be that, the 'unhealthy' part is measured not in time, but in psychological dependence.

Most of COULD stop using whatever technology you might name, but if it adds to our life in some way meaningful to us, why would we?

(BTW - I find it very easy to spend time away from my computer - even weeks at a time!)