DISQUS

Yeah, like the problems started last year.

I'll say it again, keep up the much needed work. LOVE these:

"Something’s only worth fighting for after you’ve fought for it.”
and
"A marriage fully alive doesn’t happen by chance - it’s designed by both of you."

God bless

"Marriage is a relationship designed to help us grow up." That's the definition I'd give and you're the first person I've seen give it besides me - no wonder I like this blog! By the way, I took your recent survey about marriage necessities and turned it into a multi-part blog post.
Keep up the great, and MUCH needed work!

Yeah Bryan. Another well constructed, wisdom and grace filled post. Thanks for sharing your heart.

Powerful thoughts Bryan and I do look forward to part 2. My passion is to see people explore and use their God given talent and mental/physical "wealth" to the full. Unlike material wealth that is squandered in excess, this wealth is often left unused.

Both ends are tragic wastes.

I've been interested in this topic for years Chris because it seems like the perfect model for social networking. Social Networking today has two pieces: an ad driven business model that gives users functionality for free - MySpace, Facebook, etc.

Those two pieces support walls. Walls to keep the users in - and all their communications too.

What you're proposing removes the walls.
- Build me an "online home" with no restrictions in or out (controls, but no restrictions)
- Everything I send out - IM, e-mail, blog, link - has advertising representing my interests and choices.
- The "online home" host keeps the revenue in exchange for "free" or could split it with me and/or the destination site too. Whatever.
- The advertisers get direct access to people I know and presumably influence. Aka - targeted advertising to my friends, family, associates, etc.

Powerful thoughts Bryan, thanks for sharing

As a businessman and person who's not directly involved in advertising/marketing per se, I see the struggle summed up in the term "social media." What's going on today seems akin to having an endless number of product salesmen stop by my table while I'm out with friends. It's not the right setting, time or place for my "social" interaction to be disturbed by "media".

The resistance to much of online advertising is rooted in the same thinking. People are on Facebook and Twitter to connect with people. They're not there to pick out a new car or toothpaste and they especially don't want to fend off those messages. When they have to, the associated companies just come off as a nuisance - understandably so.

I think we'd all agree, Chris included, that this doesn't mean it's broken as much as not working yet - which I feel is true of much of the net. We can't possibly have feature rich sites like Facebook without revenue streams so in the end we will gladly pay for them out of our pockets or agree to what will likely look a lot like the "traditional marketing" that's supported media for years.

In addition, we'll have the right kinds of businesses interacting with us when two way conversations are truly needed - support, questions, information seeking etc. We're seeing some of that now, of course, and it will grow 'cause it works well.

The money quote for me is: "There seems to be two skills that women are unable to resist. One is handiness with a guitar or a set of drums. The second is the ability to throw together a damn righteous meal."

Then again, I'm handy with a set of drums.

Thanks for another top-notch and humorous post.

You forgot one. Use your abilities to create wealth and/or jobs.

Another top-notch post - thank you

Ryan M nailed it - not everyone we network with is everywhere we network. Ping lets me send out select messages to everyone at once. It's not for every message, just some. For that, it's incredibly useful and valuable.

Beautiful post Bryan. Thanks for the grounding...

Thank you for encouraging the best in us as readers and writers. I have a feeling you would also encourage us to do EVERYTHING with this mindset too.

You've set the bar high - right where it needed to be. Thanks again and here's a link to a recent speech:
http://bit.ly/4fMOT

Our God is, perhaps above all else, the creator. We are made in His image and should be creating, and encouraging each other to create, all the time.

"Friendfeeder" - a reverse FriendFeed/personal hub. It needs contact and content management that delivers everything I write - addressed and/or tagged - to the people who want it based. Reverse RSS could be an analogy. Each of us would have one of these as our "home base" (like Facebook, MySpace today) and it would interact with others - receiving AND sending.

I'd like to leave a trail of people who passionately and successfully pursued their dreams and lived life from their deep heart. I write to encourage people to do just that.

Nice set of principles here my friend, and I love your concluding thoughts. Particularly "make it easier to contribute" and "make participation a side effect." Would love to see them in action.

Thanks for sharing your heart and wisdom.

Thanks Steve, encouragement is rare and much needed.

What if our social web - which we don't yet have any control of to speak of - had a strand for exactly this purpose. Linked to your calendar and containing your interests, likes, etc., this would automatically do what you've written about. As your trip approaches, you'd be able to see potential connections and reach out accordingly.

Cool idea Chris

Powerful post John. I LOVE this: "I’m talking about the strong, brave, intuitive kind of love that takes guts to live and more guts to acknowledge in a business."

May we all live that way.

One of my favorite videos too. Have you seen this one? As a former drummer, I find it particularly amazing...
http://youtube.com/watch?v=JzqumbhfxRo&feat...

Yes and amen Brian. Eternal life is living forever, not living after this life. And this life is the one He died to give us because it is one life meant to lived WITH HIM! "I have come to give you life, and give it in full."

Oh, that we would grab hold and LIVE.

Might it be better if we used the words properly and definitively instead of abolishing them? For instance: responsibility. Used as response-ability, it is a powerful reminder of how to live.

Excellent post Michael. Great food for thought.