DISQUS

Well this is the first I've heard of it.. so I only know what little I can find on this site

I usually don't care what a film is about, or who's in it, or anything like that.. I care about it as an art form.. which makes me terribly snobby about films..

So I guess I'm sorta interested in.. what's interesting about what we're trying to do here.. Like speaking as an artist.. / film maker.. like are you trying to say anything that hasn't been said before, or needs to be said. Are you trying to do anything innovative..

My inner wannabe film maker is interested in stuff like the experience of the RED work flow in practice.. and how it's working for the project.. sorta the subjective experience of it.. what's the DP / Cinematographer folks feeling about.. perhaps that super technical stuff.. what sorta aesthetic implications might it have..

I guess also.. just what are the challenges of the production.. Do you find your self going down unusual paths because of this or that set of choices, and how you wrestle with the implications.. sharing the excitement of a discovery or a victory in one of these battles.. I guess just the drama of film making..

Speaking as both an artist and someone who's been into social media since 04..

I think the point about business models.. well it used to be that the single biggest thing that distinguished a business that succeeded versus the one that failed would be.. did they have a business plan? But now we find our self in a situation where you kinda wonder about the shelf life of a business model, let alone a business plan.. do to the rate of change, and that's only accelerating.

Social media and this web 3.0 stuff is still so new that.. well its only been a couple of months that it's felt like the folks on twitter weren't all in just in the fish bowl. I mean the audience is still mostly not up on what's really going on.. which I think has dramatic implications for any business trying to leverage he space.

So I think the fact is #1 that we really have no idea yet what all of these changes are going to mean for the music business. #2 I don't think its best that we all look for the holy grail of business models.. I think what's best is we all try and experiment and search for what works for us. #3 Most musicians, and indeed labels and management and whatever, its my impression, don't yet have a very strong understanding of this space.. #4 The space is very immature still.. I think it was David Wienberger who said something of the order that its as if we've just landed on the moon.. versus.. star treck.. we need to bare in mind how primitive things are today..

I'm def looking forward to reading this one..

I've been thinking a lot lately about what I'll retweet.. and even what I'll tweet.. and often I'll find something I really want to retweet.. and I'll so edit you! And not only that.. I'm finding that after I edit your tweet.. I find other people retweeting it.. and.. get this.. editing it still further!

Of course you want to make it so folks don't have to edit.. you want to remove friction.. but at the same time.. sometimes you just want to make the best damn tweet you can.. and sometimes you need a little extra length.. and sometimes that's the more important thing.. so I think its a question of balance.. and what the right balance is.. changes from moment to moment.. as a combination of.. lets say your will.. and the will of.. lets say strategic / tactical considerations, and that of the ecology of the folks you're following / following you..

You know.. its like relationships.. good relationships are give and take.. and you don't want.. if you just went to the middle of that.. you'd never be giving or taking.. so I guess what I'm trying to say is its ok to be one way one moment, another another moment..

Don't know how well i got to what I meant to get to but....

If I see something interesting, I re tweet it.. I try and be generous about it, but its always to the question of "does this have value in relationship to the values I'm trying to keep at the core of what I'm doing," does it have value to my network? My network is.. well its not like I'm purely connected to one group.. like its not all marketers.. so the guys trying to work out the future of the music business.. might find value from something a marketer was sharing.. a marketer getting into creating videos as a part of whatever.. might find value in finding out about something to do with sound or video that might help with production values.. So I don't think I'm usually a part of the echo chamber in how I re tweet.. I see it like innovation comes from a synthesis of disparate stuff.. and so I'm just synthesizing.

So I don't really see it as lazy.. I see it as curation..

I've def had bad luck with adobe customer support to.. and for a company that produces soo much in the way of web design and development tools.. you'd think there site would be better from a usability stand point..

I will say I got in from a somewhat cheap perspective.. I had Macromedia Studio 8, and it was a $500 upgrade to the web premium... which meant upgrades to Flash, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, plus my first time owning photoshop, illustrator, and acrobat..

However, "back in the day" I also owned premier and After Effects.. premier left the Mac.. they recently came back.. and there were no discounts on bundles.. even though I owned those two plus the Macromedia Studio 8 Stuff.. now..

Then they changed the upgrade path when I wasn't looking.. so that I can no longer upgrade my old version of After Effects.. which only runs on OS9.. it is old after all.. but it looked like I'd be able to upgrade it.. and now.. I have to spend 1000 for that upgrade... I haven't upgraded the web premium bundle.. which is like $500 or $600... a kind of pricey upgrade if you ask me.. so I'm going "hmm, maybe I should upgrade to like.. the complete adobe bundle..

The complete bundle is appealing to me as you get the whole meta tag work flow thing.. with Premier, After Effects, and there audio stuff.. which is perfect for the kinds of video projects I have in mind.. I could use some spectral audio editing.. and I'm very much wishing I had InDesign for print work.. but then once you get all that stuff it's $800 to upgrade the whole thing.. plus.. I think I really need Flex.. which really should be a part of there web bundle!

So I'm thinking "well, maybe I'll wait till they put out there next version." My 3D graphics software, C4D, is like $1000 for an upgrade.. so comparatively.. when I think how much is in that complete Adobe bundle.. it actually doesn't seem that unreasonable.. but...

Well if you don't buy stuff in bundles.. and you don't really need all the stuff in the bundles.. or you need stuff that's not all in one bundle.. it's ridiculous.

You look at a program like Dreamweaver and its like.. What exactly is the use of a WYWYG web editor if what comes out the other end isn't standards compliant to begin with? You look at there AJAX framework and its not unobtrusive.. so its like out of the box.. the software does stuff the wrong way!

You look at Flash.. there's a whole lot of advanced stuff that you really need to do if you're going to do Flash right.. as far as usability, SEO, accessibility is concerned.. but it takes most folks at least 6 months to learn the software well.. and learning about that stuff isn't a part of that.. cause the software doesn't address that stuff easily.. and it's stuff that you really do have to have a decent command of AS3 and OOP... and this is the real reason the Flash platform has such a bad reputation.. 90% of reason people say "Flash is Bad" in web design.. is not because it's actually bad.. but because people aren't using it right.. and Adobe, at this point.. is responsible for that! And when you consider what Flash can do with Analytics.. there's an argument that can be made that Flash is probably the better route to take in way more situations then most people really think.

For what I do.. and aspire to do.. I don't really feel like there's reasonable alternatives to the Adobe stuff.. There's alternatives to After Effects, but they are for people with much bigger budgets.. Photoshop for digital illustration, photography, working with 3D, motion graphics.. I don't see there being a realistic alternative.. there doesn't seem to be good stuff out there anymore to compete with Illustrator.. Dreamweaver isn't necessary as it once was.. I like the site management features, and I've just sorta grown used to it.. but.. other then being able to drag stuff around between folders and have all the links updated.. and having a somewhat visually orientated working environment.. I don't really feel like.. I need to be here.. Fireworks is.. well a lot of it's legacy doesn't make sense.. but.. being able to do vector and bit map graphics, in the same app.. is pretty cool.. haven't gotten around to checking out its prototyping features.. or see what its CSS output looks like.. and frankly I probably prefer the hand coding route at this point.. even if I'm not good at it.

Premier's an interesting cat.. Final Cut as rubbish media management.. and Avid has a lot of issues to.. so a lot of people are looking to Premier as a possible alternative.. and when you look at the Adobe Production bundle versus a Final Cut or an Avid system.. it does look rather nice.. back in the day I bought Premier and After Effects.. for the same money as Final Cut.. figuring I was going to primarily be interested in Animation anyway.

My sense is there's lots of alternative graphics programs out there.. particularly on the Mac with its core graphics in the OS.. Arguably the problem with Photoshop is that it tries to be all things to all people.. which is what makes it seem like a bloated beast.. but at this point I kinda feel like I'm trying to do all those jobs..

I think the real problem at this point is that Adobe is basically a monopoly in a lot of areas

I'm not real comfortable with the distinctions between creativity and innovation.. feeling like they don't quite get at the real essence, you know? I think part of the problem is I like to think in depth psychology terms.. and even think about business in those terms.. and the definitions seem... like they might have some use value.. but I'm worried about what they might obscure.

I will say this though.. the importance of creativity is on the rise.. everything we consume.. it's for the creative content.. that's the big commodity... and it's value.. I think at least.. is only likely to rise..

But it's soo hard to tease out creativity from other things.. I mean if you look at it under a microscope.. structurally you do see it all over the place.. as common as breathing..

I guess what I feel like is.. and this is terrible to say.. but that business is sorta screwed.. or maybe it's that rule that only 10% of stuff is the good stuff? So maybe 90% of business is screwed (and hey, the economy seems to be backing me up on this one) And so the problem you're really talking about is the latest idolatry designed to help stupid people avoid becoming smart people..

And I mean if you really, really, really, think about it.. isn't that the big problem with social media? Or hasn't it been? That it's so "disruptive" which roughly translates to.. forces you're brain to get off autopilot a little bit?

I mean if you ask me what the problem was in that last dot com bubble.. it would be the stupid auto pilot people. I'll tell you a prayed for the bursting of the bubble.. cause I love the computer stuff so much.. I wanted a stupid person exodus...

but back to creativity and innovation..

I think it's a mistake to think of creativity as in anyway results orientated.. because.. if you try to manage creativity that way.. you often loose you're golden goose.. And innovation, I guess.. I see as creativity self actualized.

Or at least that's how it strikes me at this moment

I'd imagine if it were good or bad for your personal brand would probably depend on the values of your personal brand.. I'd imagine if you're brand shares the values of say... Dirty Harry.. or something.. that might be a pretty good mix.. anything with a good macho bent to it.. on the other hand.. I could see something excessively queer being fun to!

I think the notion of using condoms for marketing is just toooo much fun to pass up..

God, wouldn't Buddy Christ, from Kevin Smith.. make for an awesome thing to put on a condom?

If indie bands put there likeness on them.. it would be a fun spin to the plaster casters...

OMG, i gotta get some condoms made up!!!

Perhaps you should go read, or listen to, some Joseph Campbell.. he does a pretty good job of describing what's up with the calling stuff.

Its kind of complicated.. to try and describe the underlying psychodynamics of the calling.. of hearing voices, and all the rest of it.. But basically.. the best advice one can give is to listen.. for it is often of a higher order then the silly stuff our conscious mind takes as reality.. and even if its not of a higher order.. the more you listen, the more you follow, the more the voice matures.. just liking using any other muscle.

There is a spiritual dimension to life.. but often when we hear someone say something like that we think.. well some of us might thing that kinda talk isn't really grounded in anything solid.. or I mean saying you believe something is different from saying you know something, and its a common misunderstanding to think you can't get to KNOW the spiritual dimension of things.

There is a whole self that extends far beyond whatever is occupying our consciousness at any given moment. Many times I will say "this is the position I'm taking on this thing" and not quite know why I'm taking that position, cause whatever it is that lead me there is not in my conscious mind.. though it might have been there a month ago.. and if I went to the trouble of trying to call it up.. then I'd understand.. but the point is that what we have to go on.. is very limited.. when you try to tie things down rationally.. when your basis of rational has to be limited to what you can be conscious of this moment..

So the calling and voices speak for this larger self.. a larger version of you then you even realize you are. I mean if you really want to get deep about it.. who do you think you are? Who you really are.. well, that's a mystery.. but... we all live more or less by these mythologies of who we area.. and somehow that seems safer then the crazy voices!?

So I think it's important to be open to the mystery of who you are, to acknowledge that you're more then your definitions.. and the same holds true for when we look at the people around us... and spend a little time, regularly, entertaining the possibilities of who you could be.. and engage in that becoming process.

yeah...


It's a very strange thing to me.. I guess I've been in social media for a while now.. 3 or 4 years I guess.. I have business goals but I haven't really bothered to execute on them too much.. so instead I've just been wandering around developing relationships with people, and having fun..



Still I'm the sorta personality that likes to fly before I learn to crawl.. always like to jump into the deep end of complexity before I've bothered too much with the basics.. the basics just don't interest me too much.. and I think of this.. and that there are some personalities that like to just go and jump in, and other's that tend to be a little more analytical about it.. if you jump in and make a lot of mistakes.. get bitten in the ass.. well, maybe you gain some wisdom that way.



I'm a little adverse to things like best practices or "this is what you should do" stuff.. not that it doesn't have a pragmatic value.. but because often this sorta thing can get in the way of our experience of the wonder of things.. And in a certain way, I think social media is sorta like that.. such a spirit of power diffusion.. the sorta economic creative destruction it brings to business as usual is like the voice of Dyonisious.. clearing the way of the old values to make room for the new..



None of this is to in anyway disagree with anything you've said.. its more about the question of how do we relate to it.



So idk.. hope that adds something to the conversation here...



matt

yeah...


It's a very strange thing to me.. I guess I've been in social media for a while now.. 3 or 4 years I guess.. I have business goals but I haven't really bothered to execute on them too much.. so instead I've just been wandering around developing relationships with people, and having fun..



Still I'm the sorta personality that likes to fly before I learn to crawl.. always like to jump into the deep end of complexity before I've bothered too much with the basics.. the basics just don't interest me too much.. and I think of this.. and that there are some personalities that like to just go and jump in, and other's that tend to be a little more analytical about it.. if you jump in and make a lot of mistakes.. get bitten in the ass.. well, maybe you gain some wisdom that way.



I'm a little adverse to things like best practices or "this is what you should do" stuff.. not that it doesn't have a pragmatic value.. but because often this sorta thing can get in the way of our experience of the wonder of things.. And in a certain way, I think social media is sorta like that.. such a spirit of power diffusion.. the sorta economic creative destruction it brings to business as usual is like the voice of Dyonisious.. clearing the way of the old values to make room for the new..



None of this is to in anyway disagree with anything you've said.. its more about the question of how do we relate to it.



So idk.. hope that adds something to the conversation here...



matt

yeah...

It's a very strange thing to me.. I guess I've been in social media for a while now.. 3 or 4 years I guess.. I have business goals but I haven't really bothered to execute on them too much.. so instead I've just been wandering around developing relationships with people, and having fun..

Still I'm the sorta personality that likes to fly before I learn to crawl.. always like to jump into the deep end of complexity before I've bothered too much with the basics.. the basics just don't interest me too much.. and I think of this.. and that there are some personalities that like to just go and jump in, and other's that tend to be a little more analytical about it.. if you jump in and make a lot of mistakes.. get bitten in the ass.. well, maybe you gain some wisdom that way.

I'm a little adverse to things like best practices or "this is what you should do" stuff.. not that it doesn't have a pragmatic value.. but because often this sorta thing can get in the way of our experience of the wonder of things.. And in a certain way, I think social media is sorta like that.. such a spirit of power diffusion.. the sorta economic creative destruction it brings to business as usual is like the voice of Dyonisious.. clearing the way of the old values to make room for the new..

None of this is to in anyway disagree with anything you've said.. its more about the question of how do we relate to it.

So idk.. hope that adds something to the conversation here...

matt

On twitter, I have multiple interests... vectors by which I actively connect on.. or am more likely to connect to be based on those interests.. I imagine we are all somewhat like this.. we have lots of interests.. and we seek information in proportion to our interests along these vectors. It seems to me that.. on a certain level.. this collectivized is what creates social hierarchy.

So.. lets say I'm a musician and interested in music business stuff.. I could connect up to a lot of marketers.. and we could look at how influential a marketer is in the marketing community... but that person might have very little to say on the subject of music marketing.. So.. in terms of my interests then.. that person might have some value in my conceptualizing what I'm doing.. but you could have someone.. who is much less of an influencer in the larger marketing world.. but is focused on music marketing.. and then, for me.. the balance of who's going to be more influential to me.. is going to be weighted a certain way.

I don't know that you can build an automatic recommendation engine that would work for this.. Further.. there's a difference between who I'm connected with now, and who I might want to be connected to moving forward... Or maybe.. of all my followers.. there are certain people who would have more weight in my thinking about who I should maybe follow.

I think.. if you wanted to do something that went this far.. you'd need to allow me, when I go to the page.. to some how say "well, this is how I look at it." Further.. at some point, if you're successful enough.. people could put in some kind of information about how they would characterize them selves.. so that you could have the interaction of what they put in, with what I'm trying to pull in, with the conventional recommendation engine stuff.

Other wise.. I think there's a certain subtlety factor.. in how you things work.. that can very easily not be revealed.. I'm thinking?

I must confess that I have never actually encountered a link blog.. but

It seems to me if you make a blog that is basically just a lot of links, you have more curation powers then with micro blogging or social book marking...

A link blog could be something like a record of some of your online adventures.. and in that way it can tell a story that can be a kind of subtext to the links.. that could be a unique attribute to the link blog..

I think this is really the central issue to all of social media.. it's not a question if anything is good or bad.. but what is it good for.. or what is good for you with whatever it is you're trying to do.

I think a problem with best practices is that they have to do with what's the best practice for doing X.. which assumes a kind of ecological context for which the best practice is a crystallization of both that ecological context, and what folks are collectively trying to do. In this way it's really an expression of statistical norms.. but the ecological context is one of flux.. and what do we say of the unique moment? And it seems to me that.. in some special way.. social media is about the unique moment.

I really liked the instructor in the top video... and you're lesson was fun to

i confess I haven't thought to much about what my home page out to be.. so it's generally always the defaults.. google on firefox, and apple on safari.

Truth is most of the time i have one or another browsers open.. maybe more then one.. and often about 10 pages open, each with several tabs open.. and at the point.. home pages don't really matter too much.. since I'm generally just opening a new tab.

I find that I don't like apple as a home page simply because it takes too long to load.. makes me impatient... I think my preference would be to have a blank page.. and I suppose google is as close as you get

i confess I haven't thought to much about what my home page out to be.. so it's generally always the defaults.. google on firefox, and apple on safari.

Truth is most of the time i have one or another browsers open.. maybe more then one.. and often about 10 pages open, each with several tabs open.. and at the point.. home pages don't really matter too much.. since I'm generally just opening a new tab.

I find that I don't like apple as a home page simply because it takes too long to load.. makes me impatient... I think my preference would be to have a blank page.. and I suppose google is as close as you get

Well I kind of disagree.. I don't think we are going to see the end of the album or concept album.. It may very well be that the the prominence of the album or concept album.. as we know it.. will grow less and less.. but I don't think that spells the and of it..

I mean to the extent to which an album.. or a concept album.. a sorta longer form sonic experience.. has value to us.. as a unique experience.. that my friend.. is a market force.. that creates a demand for such things.. if it gets subordinated to mash up, lets make our own play list sorta thing.. that doesn't quite spell its doom, I don't think... It just means we get less of it.

If you spend much time working on music.. wrestling with music making.. you realize that what you're doing is kinda a dialog with a sonic ecology.. the way that you could classify experience into statistics and see a norm develop... and see that for something to exist, cognitively speaking.. it's going to be how it deviates from that norm, that its that deviation that we become aware of, as a pose to the thing its self.

So when you create an album.. and you sequence your tracks into a particular order.. you're playing with that contrasts of norms.. of the ecological norms of different tracks, and how they evolve over time.

When we do a custom play order.. we are thinking about those contrasts.. and in some sense creating something new.. If I follow Frank Zappa's Hungry Freaks with Public Enemy's Fight the Power.. and somewhere further down the line is Bob Dylan's Hard Rain.. and maybe somewhere before the Zappa is Allan Ginsberg reading something or other.. well now I have a new thematic continuity... but things that are more about musical DNA.. strange habits of an artist.. modal, hormonic, whatever.. there relationships are now largely the product of chance / indeterminacy..

But like right now.. i'm in the studio.. for a particular period of time.. so that all the music I'm creating is somehow representative of my state of consciousness.. There are certain set patterns.. along multiple axis's...

So for instance there are certain patterns regarding chord changes that are like.. harmonic minor modalism with microtonal abstraction.. but in each specific track.. this gets explored and stretched in a different direction.. over here it's dark, a little scary, bordering on the atonal.. over there it's stretching out into a feeling of falling in love while in a kind of vertigo... and then over there we are wrestling with the mysteries of existence... or.. over here we have Marilyn Manson like timbers.. over there we got some.. crazy Jazz timbers.. and then over there it's Brain Eno esk sounds..

So it becomes like a sonic adventure that we travel deeper and deeper into.. It maybe that I'm old school.. but generally.. I listen to music as albums... though it depends. A lot of albums are like.. a few good singles with a lot of filler.. and in those cases I'm not generally interested in hearing it as an album.. or sometimes it's like.. I'm not feeling like going into that album experience.. and I just want to hear that one song I really like.. or something like that.. so it all depends.

But I guess what I'm trying to get at is that it depends on what it is you want.. how you're feeling.. that there are values to each thing.. and that that value is connected to a market force in one way or another.. and even if the markets are in a state of rapid flux... the underlying dynamics driving it all is really just you and me.. it's a bit like we're just getting rid of the insulation and friction between the want and the content.. I'm thinking anyway

So that atomization of content makes it the fluid, and we are the containers who's shape it takes.. and that shape.. can include the un-atomized album.. if that makes sense.

I want to comment on some of the criticism of Bob here..

One of the biggest challenges business face in our modern age is how you manage change.. An answer to this is to empower your employes.. Management, as we inherit it, is to often based on ideas that.. it's all about this kind of command and control of making x happen by applying why force.. like its all this big mechanical system.. this system of managing things.. means that the folks doing the command and control have multiple layers between them an the market place.. between them and whatever it is that are the external market forces that they are operating in.. which is a big problem if you're dealing with a situation that's changing fast..

So you need to empower your employees to take initiative. Now we don't know that much of the larger context of Bob's plight in the company.. but it doesn't sound like they treated Bob terribly well. Did they bother to talk to him about what he thought he was doing, why he thought he was bringing value to the company? Or did they just shut him down without even even bothering to be open to what where he was coming from?

Yeah.. I think the right course of action for Bob would be to have tried to educate people in the company about what he was up to.. No question about that..

I also think.. there's certainly best ways of doing social media.. and some of the criticisms of Bob is.. sorta not understanding that part of the equation. I mean there are often issues to be cognizant of.. as far as what you can talk about.. and blah blah blah, that has to do with the particulars of your company.. but that doesn't mean there's no roll for this kind of communications...

My feeling about the future of business.. social media needs to be incorporated into businesses DNA.. There are huge changes that need to be made if you want to stay competitive..

If we look at Bob from the stand point of... someone not doing what "he was supposed to be doing," I think that's a kind of command and control centric view point.. I think.. well.. what are your values? It's not a black and white world.. its not one value at the expense of all else.. I think ultimately you have a kind of hierarchy of values... We don't really have enough to go on to evaluate how Bob relates to these values...

Values... and there hierarchies is a complex subject though... I think there's a way we can look at one person and say "bad person" and another as "good person" but I think this often obscures certain things.. like isn't Bob, in a certain sense, an expression of certain systemic forces that are forcing change at Bob's company? And perhaps the people making Bob's life difficult is the same sorta thing.. If you view it from this point of view.. I think Bob is a hero in so far as he is a force working for the companies survival..

I mean basically

God bless creative destruction! ...That force that makes the world end, not with a bang but a whimper.. as new ages are born.

Putting out feelers seems like a bit of an understatement.. but then I'm a stubborn bastard.. never been too good with authority.. I mean isn't this kind of a twisted sister moment?

I suppose maybe my stubborn streak is might be nieve.. but.. what motivates you? What's getting you out of bed in the morning? If you're company kills that, and they're own sense of self interest is... well heads stuck up certain nether regions.. I mean how can you even stand that?

Grrr

I find myself kind of disagreeing.. in the big picture. What I mean is I think we are focusing on the surface.. and the behavior of causality webs.. I'm not sure you're really get at.

I was reading, a few weeks ago, some stuff on the psychological structure of marriage from Carl Jung.. I'm used to the notion that.. you might very well choose a mate that.. doesn't really fulfill your needs.. you made the safe bet after all.. and so there remains a kind of lingering part of you that's still seeking out that fulfillment.. that can be the cause of the affair.. and you could argue that in some sense this might be healthy.. or.. perhaps the morality we impose on issues of fidelity are sometimes short sided and miss a larger good.

But what I was fascinated to meditate on is.. the structure and dynamics of the.. course marriages follow.. and there really is a stage where.. like it or not.. one of the partners is getting pushed away.. that this is the usual course of things, to one extent or another.. and that there are many factors that can influence the way things unfold.

There's an old debate in the story of sexual dysfunction.. if we should take the surface approach of sex therapy or the depth psychology type approach of Freud.. and clearly advances in neuroscience, socio biology, brain imaging, and what not.. do further complicate the debate, and its challenges.

I tend to look at these things from a.. Foucault meets Zen sorta perspective.. which is to say it's power relationships that are defining our definitions of good, bad, healthy, unhealthy.. rather then the intrinsic state of things.. The Zen problem is realizing that you are "it" despite the world constantly telling you are not.. another words its the power of "it" that should be doing the defining, not the external power relationships," because.. after all its what we might regard as inward subjective reality that's really driving the show here.

From an "it" centric point of view.. a psychotic crack up is healthy.. it's the psyche inflicting equilibrium on its self.. the question should not be if a thing is good or not, but what is the good of a thing.

So you know.. when we look at powerful men falling.. as a result of sex.. could that be a situation where in.. they where emphasizing external metrics of success over an inward, more subjective, reality? And perhaps it was that subjective reality imposing its "auh-thor-ah-tah" on the person in question.. that then forced them into a life where these subjective realties get more attention? And if so.. if the metric is mental health.. perhaps that's a more healthy condition then where they were before?

I believe in economics the term is "creative destruction?"

Which I suppose is not totally disagreeing with you ether.

yeah, I've been thinking I need to look over my profile / pay a little more attention to the linkedIn... I suppose it's that I feel a little.. well mixed about if I actually want work right now... I guess it comes down to needing to kinda find the right balance..

I'm finding that, to the degree to which it's possible, I'd prefer to do work for folks whom I have some sort of a relationship with.. Which social networking / media is making more and more viable for me. So I suppose if I look at my profile from that perspective, well, I think it's a little different then how you would normally think about a resume because it's really more about relationships... It's not "hey look at me, aren't I the sexy thang."

The other part of it is that I'm basically crazy: I'm a sucky contortionist when it comes to fitting into the boxes that are a part of the prerequisites of the usual job search.. I'm a screaming red flag to the sain human services person "how can you say you're a mix engineer, composer / music producer, animator, interactive designer, painter, video artist, social media person.. who knows something about marketing and communications... and what's all that jive talk about psycho-social dynamics, jungian psychology..."

It's a lil like I took a giant dive into R&D, to the extent that.. well I'm kind of a contrarion product... so I probably need to work out a different sorts way of selling myself, and with this, where linked in fits in that mix. In a lot of ways I'm really just waiting for social media / the new web stuff to mature to a level where... well a level that's probably a few years off still

Chris,

my gosh, and you told me you didn't know anything about marketing!

You know, I drink the cool-aid as much as any other good fish bowl dweller.. but I don't know.. which is not quite to say I disagree.. I mean.. perhaps the question is "when talking about the future, just how far in the future are we really talking about," and that variable probably hides many a devil, don't cha know?

The strategy you propose makes a hell of a lot of sense in terms of our current understanding of communities and social media.. no question about it.. but how does technology contextualize our understanding? In all probability much of how technology contextualizes our understanding is unconscious.. or to put it more distinctly.. its simply taken for granted.. and when what is taken for granted gets pulled out from under our feet we call it "a disruption."

I find myself thinking "well just apply game theory to psycho-social dynamics and you'll have the answer." Of course you'll have to factor in some new fangled take on social biology.. and um.. other fun stuff.. but I mean.. the reason why I'd come at the question from this direction is because I think this is a way to transcend the issue of the container.. its a way to get out of the temporal flux and deal with the more or less none moving truths of things.. which are ultimately what are driving change anyway..

I mean one of the questions I find myself thinking is "well are with in the business of making the better mouse trap or in the content creation business?"

What I'm asking here is.. what is it that defines the box.. the box you live in.. the box that's "and this is the skill set I need to an inhabitant of this box." Think of box as.. like a persona.. a mask you ware.. it's the roll you're playing...

What defines boxes can sometimes be turf wars.. it can sometimes be power relationships (Foucault is the grand poe ba master of this subject ) we can see this in lexicographical evolutions.. in linguistics.. this is what David Weinberger is talking about with his miscellaneous shtick..

So.. you know.. what is marketing / communications, and whatever? Are they just boxes or is there something to them that is transcendent of human categories?

I tend to this of the differences of boxes as analogous to the differences in races.. its more a matter of ethnic identity then it's a matter of genetics.. and so.. if you want to be good at diplomacy.. you want to understand the history of a nation, in order to understand that national identity.. to know where its going..

That said.. when I look at the future of social media / the internet / technology / etc.. what I see is accelerating rates of granularity.. if the shifting power relationships of social media continue.. even after the feared business co-opting of it.. then eventually there will come a time where the lines that articulate the boxes are not externally imposed.. but internally imposed... which would spell the end of marketing and communications as we know it..

I'm not sure if I'm making total sense here or not.. probably flying through too many ideas to quickly.. but hopefully its food for thought anyway

Well I had an amazing time, and some crazy adventures.. met a lot of cool people.. got to know people I had met before a little bit better, found job leads, had some really great conversations.. felt more a part of the community then ever before.. learned a bit.. it was just awesome...

My take a ways were.. well kinda hard to articulate really. Some of it was like.. how we are all just really people.. something in the humanness of it.. There was something to seeing people new to this space.. trying to help them out a little.. and then on the other hand seeing people who are.. like way beyond me and being able to say "well what do you think focualt would say about the shifting power relationships in emerging channels" and have those kinda crazy conversations.. listen to people who have this stuff down to a science to give you some perspective of what is possible and.. I guess the biggest thing I took away was the inspiration to take things to the next level.. to say "yeah, getting my act together over here is really important."

I think if you wanna save the world you gotta start with your self.. I don't mean that in some.. selfish-e sorta way... more that in just being a vehicle of light in the world is a pretty huge thing... and it's probably one of the more difficult things to achieve in this life.. I guess somewhere in the core of my interest in social media has been an idea of seeking out a mode of living that would facilitate that sorta thing... and I guess that's how I'm trying to do it..

Wow.. one wonder's who's making the decisions over there.. can you imagine the meeting where this decision took place?: "yeah, lets take the folks with the most followers, and there for perhaps the most influence, and push them away from our site.. at a time when everyone in the world is getting frustrated with our service, and there's a huge rise of upstarts nipping at our heals... I'm sure no one will follow them and leave our service."

Well one thing is for sure, myspace will never over take friend.. err, can't even remember what that site was called!

I'm thinking frank zappa must have been onto something when he suggested that stupidity is a more common element in the universe then hydrogen.