DISQUS

I totally agree with you on this Chris!

And yes, BrightKite, you may be finished - unless you got that BlackBerry app out yet!

Um, got me. :@

I would add, "do what you love, and the money will follow." This is a little tip I picked up 30+ years ago and it has worked for me. I've had two or three wonderful careers (depending upon how you count), and they have each included some level of writing and speaking - in addition, each better prepared me for the next.

I know write and speak weekly. And, I love what I do! But I didn't intend to be a public speaker - it just kind of fell into my lap.

I remember years ago, I awoke in the morning with faint recollections of a dream. I dreamed that I was making a public presentation to hundreds of people and they were laughing - not at me, mind you, but with me. At the time I was doing some small-time emergency services training, but I wasn't all that good, or funny.

Within the next year, I had pulled together a presentation that I ended up giving all over Oregon and SW Washington. One of the last times I made the presentation, there were a couple of hundred people in attendance and they were laughing - with me. It was thrilling to see that dream fulfilled.

When I left that career 13 years ago, I had been invited to write for some publications and was presenting at national conferences. It was fun! And then I started over.

Do what you love, not what you think others will love, do what you love, and the money will follow.

Hilarious!

Exactly!

BTW, @samer, my bank's online bill pay has a lengthy process for adding or changing payee info. It is large, well known, and trusted bank. (The one held up in 'Good to Great').

I used to use CheckFree and was very satisfied. I trust PayPal now. I don't see the issue.

Chris, I too have come to respect your opinions and link references, which is why I was surprised to see this sort of post. I, for one, am glad to see the disclaimers - it helps me to know that you didn't enter into this "arrangement" lightly.

In the heard of the rural community where I live, a lady recently bought the local "greasy spoon" cafe. Talking to her then, she told me about her plans. Fresh ground coffee, a bakery, upscale foods, etc.

I stopped in last week and asked her about the construction they were doing. I assumed it was for the bakery, but I was wrong. They were putting in a video lottery/poker room.

I was so dissappointed. My hopes for a great wifi boutique cafe were gone.

"I guess a girl's got to make a living," I said.

She sighed.

Great story! Thanks for sharing!

This is a fascinating conversation - and one that is playing out all over.

Recently while trying to convince someone to incorporate social networking in their web presence, I suddenly stopped and realized that anyone over 30, who has no experience in this, is going to have trouble getting it. (BTW, I'm 50). So, I pulled back and told my friend to do whatever he wants.

His response was to tell me to quit my job and go start a Web2.0 company. Which are what many are saying here. However, this isn't as easy as one may think. Besides, I happen to like what I do, as Life Coach; why would I want to leave this, just because I understand online social networking.

Meanwhile, I'm meeting with another corporate communications officer this week, to help him understand the value of these tools. First, I'm going to suggest he read Chris' post and the following conversation.

Thanks everyone!!

Wow - what a fascinating case-study, real-time. This is exactly why I started the blog (linked to my nom de plume above). I too am struggling with some of these issues.

http://oxidation.wordpress.com

While I have not yet been "ordered" to stop blogging (at another, unnamed, site), I have faced some hurtful, threatening feedback.

A couple of posts above sparked some thoughts in my head:

@Cynthia Closkey is absolutely right (as were others making the same point). Employees have a duty to respond to authority, whether they like it or not. If the educational process fails, the employee needs to find other outlets for their vision and creativity. That may be an off-duty hobby or another employer/career field.

@Katybeth spoke great words of wisdom from the lessons learned as a mystery shopper. "The company didn't want to hear anything negative, even if it cost them money and customers."

In my few short years on this planet, 50, I've learned a few things. And though I know this lesson intellectually, my idealism and morality, not to mention my pathological need to do the right thing, won't let me stop pointing out that the emperor is naked!

This is going to give me some pause as I seek to survive the last 15+ years of my working years, and still find financial security for my family.

I hope that "Bob," obviously reading this conversation, will stop disobeying his superior's direction. You can't fight "the law." The law always wins - or you get shot in the crossfire.

On the other hand, Bob, you are right to pursue this. But let it go until you can find an employer who values your strengths.

Recently a physician friend of mine wanted to start a new kind of medical clinic. One that didn't just prescribe medications and rush people out the door. He wanted to incorporate holistic practices that would deal with the social, emotional, and spiritual, as well as the medical/physical needs.

I recommended that he start a social network that would allow people to interact online, as well as offline, in his office. After hours of phone conversations, he rejected the prototype I created on Ning, and put up a site that included a moderated forum.

For lack of options, I pulled out of the project. I choose my new projects carefully, and it was obvious we weren't in alignment.

Bob is clearly not in alignment with his superiors. Given that we can't change others, only ourselves, there are two options:

1) submit to authority
2) find other employment

Right on!

Now, if B-Kite would just develop a Blackberry app that rivals the iPhone app. Check out the Get Satisfaction conversation on this. ( http://is.gd/6ZQa )

Don't people understand the marketshare of the Blackberry?

Oh, and while I'm ranting, Verizon: let my GPS go! Give my GPS access to 3rd Party apps!

This helps me answer some of the questions I was asking here: http://is.gd/6PRE

Now, I just wonder if I have the courage to pull it thru...

We have a very strong-willed 3 1/2 year old Darling Daughter. Sometimes, in a test of wills, I'm going to show her who's actually in charge. I'm learning to walk away, use distraction, etc. I play to win, too often.

Great post!

Great post - thanks for taking the time to talk to Paul. Paul, if you're reading, thank you thank you! As a struggling and starving amateur blogger, you have sent a lot of traffic my way.

Also, as one who flogged a non-profit community service startup for five years, I understand the pain. I too always said, if it ever starts dying, I'll kill it.

Unfortunately, it didn't start to die until we left - and now it is hard to watch it writhing.

Thanks for your involvement in this Metadore - from someone on the Lower end of the Gorge!

Wow - I'm so sorry I didn't get to meet you (even though I don't think you're following me back on Twitter) - but I put two-and-two together @kram's Flickr photos and the kilt and figured out who you were.

I wasn't going to try the savory pies, being a vege and all, but when they pointed out the ingredients I took a taste - it was great. But yeah, how'd you know @tbutler would be there.

Great pie and now I'm printing this out so @wifenkids will make one for us - and so she'll believe me that I didn't eat any dead animals. ;)

Good job man!

It was so much fun! What a great community-building event! Way to go to the Portland Pie Commission!

Yeah, if anything, I'm frustrated with the slow response of many churches and denominations to get on board with socialmedia. Back in the pioneer days of the Internet, my denomination had its own forum on CompuServe. within a few short months there were several thousand of us from around North America, and other global outposts, communicating via 9600 baud modems.

We had forums, chat, posts, group chats - virtually everything that can now be obtained through many of today's technologies. Unfortunately, due to the inability of the denomination's inability to "control" the content, they shut it down after a few years. That was sad because there were several people with emotional, social, or physical (deaf and hearing impaired) challenges that were able to reconnect through this medium.

I started my first socialnetworking church website about three years ago, using Ning.com and am currently using a variety of tools (Ning, Twitter, multiple blogs, FriendFeed, BrightKite, Ping.FM, Flickr, Last.FM, GoodReads, etc) to communicate with not just my church, but the world around me.

Unfortunately, one of my more enlightened leaders (and board chair) asked me to drop my online contacts in favor of taking care of the old guard. I don't know how to understand this argument.

Thanks Chris for a well written article!

I'm really looking forward to this day. Trying on different judges personas by watching back episodes of American Idol.

Should I wear an apron? How about a fire helmet? Maybe something normal? A suit? Tie? Oh, the pressure!

PS: Betsy, as Lelo will tell you, you're not the first to misspell my name - and probably not the last. It's all good!

Check out my blog for my comments on being a judge!

@rich brueckner - Just install FireFox's Adblock addon. No more ads!

Well, the sucking up might have been more effective had you spelled my family name correctly. As it stands now, you've shot yourself in the foot.

I may not be a world-class pastry chef, but after 20+ years eating world-class firehouse chow, I know good when I taste it. I've stared death in the face - pies will be fun!

Malcom Gladwell, in his book The Tipping Point says it is about Connectors, Information Mavens, and Salesmen. As I look over the projects I've been involved in, I couldn't agree more.

What I've noticed here in the Portland Twitter/Tech/Creative community is that we have a lot of connections, and several infovores, but we lack salespeople. In fact, I believe this is what socialnetorking in general is missing - salespeople, vision casters, promoters, etc.

We early adopters are growing bored with the lack of growth in Web2.0, however, the majority of the human race doesn't even know the beauty of these tools. What we have is great - connected information, however, we need to promote this to more people.

Once this takes off with the general population, it will no longer be a zero-sum game. There is plenty of room for more products.

Ah! You were there! I would have loved to have met you. I'm sure 45" was hardly enough time - I barely had time in 120"

Glad you're getting connected Tricia!

It was indeed a great time!

I am a registered user of about 80% of these items. But since the advent of Ping.Fm, some of them have become redundant. Ping lets me cross post to many of my favorite social messaging/microblogging sites.

Plurk, Pownce, Jaiku, and some others just don't have the appeal of identica and Twitter.

Then of course, FriendFeed and Strands do a great job of collecting "stuff" from my friends.

Great idea @thaumata - I think doing what you're doing, with the addition of your Twitter stream and maybe the feed from your primary blog might be a nice touch too.

There are plenty of tools (greasemonkey scripts and FF addons) out there that others can use to limit your stream (see http://internetductape.com).

I have trouble getting into FF for many of the reasons mentioned above - the primary one being the firehouse quality of the stream. Twitter remains my #1 source of quality info.

I have carefully selected who I follow on Twitter (mostly folks from Portland, OR - and a host of others) Through this stream I"m kept informed of the news I can use. I find out about new posts, tools, sites, and even breaking "real life" news comes to me faster through Twitter than any other tool.

Twhirl brings FF into the realm of real time, but unless I see the Fail Whale, even identica's superior tool can't usurp Twitter.