DISQUS

Wow how much time have you got. okay well the key is to ask a question like twitter does , and why not use twitter to get the results. so lets the 6 basic questions

who/what/why/where/when and how and lets create six user accounts on twitter.  and place the question in the profile.

so

1. Who do you look to follow
2. What does twitter do for you
3. Why do you use twitter
4. Where does twitter work
5. When do you twitter
6. How would you improve twitter

Since every one can then respond something like.

@twitterWhy, it lets me share an idea or a random thought with the community whilst I work at home


You can then track the answers for each twitter account RSS feeds.

The  thing about asking a survey is to ensure that your not asking questions just to ensure you can lead up to an answer. I mean sure you can conduct a survey in that fashion but its understanding what was understood in the questions that its the key to good stats.

So I cant do the survey because it doesnt include enough scope to handle the width of  the answers for each individual.  For instance I have unfollowed a person simply because they were outright offensive ( racial slurs ) and I have unfollowed a person simply for talking about their product to much. I have also unfollowed people who have stopped twittering.

but what about my followers .. how many of them are actually still active today ?

Theres more to it than this survey and its a great start but Im not convinced its designed to find answers.

Chris,

When Sara Nicole ( a new user of twitter ) asked about where were the Starter Packs we kicked of the conversation at Podcast Boston and from there created the Social Network Starter kit.

What surprised me was the amount of people who just dumped on the idea as not being sensible or feasible. At the time I applied to the Rule of Two Feet to them and suggested that a large group wanted to build a list so why dont we ?

I confess that the wiki caught me short since it wasnt clear to me on several readings that the password and invite key had been posted on the front page. Honestly I kept seeing it and not reading it .. Screen Dyslexia if ever there was. So of course I felt excluded ( not at all what you intended or planned ) but I liked the list and I saw a value in it.

The List the Pack didnt fail there were issues raised by others but the list itself was a grand plan.

As usuall another great idea Chris, although hey no Loudmouthman in the sections so far ? I cant have disappeared that quickly ?

Adjusting or inflation I have provided you my $2.0 which is more like $3.95 give or take a Yen. Talk about twitter its way more interactive when you ask us all to tweet for you during your talk.

Congrats on making the big 10k I guess its time to make a run on the 15k now and try to beat down the doors of twitterdom.

For me, I like knowing their Twitter profile it says more about where they are at than where they have been or are heading to.

Leo, its Fabulous your back. I tried following on Jaiku but it was just a little to many conversations and content in the streams for me. On twitter its a conversation and a link. Easy !

Good to see you back

Nik ( Loudmouthman ) Butler

Chris,
When you glide , your freaking Soar !!!!

You continue to inspire me sir , you continue to improve upon the moment and the opportunity with a deftness and understanding that can only be intuited and not planned.

Thank you for sharing and including us in this.

Now go have a weekend of fun !!!

Nik

First of all Chris,
Congratulations and huge best wishes from a very Loudmouthman. As Billy Connoly says, Change is as good as Arrest.

I sure from your position the view to the future is far more interesting and daunting than we can imagine. However if there was anyone who I could say has the ability and the awareness to judge the right moments for change it would be you.

Your going to do brilliantly sir and I am again wish you all the very best and well being.

Nik

The first thought that struck me when I read this post and when I read other articles relating to (un ? ) Conferences was as follows:

"this is the how to make money in blogging or podcasting conversation but with different platform"

We are all seeking a new way to make old money. This is not a bad thing since money helps with things like food and shelter and ( in my case ) medical supplies.

The Audience has woken up to the fact that it doesnt need to be spoken at or to. It has realised that within the audience are far more experts and professionals whos depth and breadth of experience outways the speaker from the front. Which is why ,Chris, you have asked the audience.

I actually dont have an answer to the whole malady but I have some observations for what is antagonising the symptoms.

Words like Fans, Followers, Leaders ,Experts are emotive and quite subjective. When they become part of the conversation leading up to or part of the conference then the Audience begins to feel discomfort.

The platform is no longer the opportunity to sell your business. The Audience values ideas and creativity now. A Speaker should not be trying to define credibility by promoting his own companies successes or assets.

Sponsorship should mean approval and validation , not an easy pass to sell at all the visitors. Having money or lots of readers, subscribers, does not equate to being an expert or having opinions that are more important than anothers. Success is very rarely linked to being a well rounded professional with great expertise.

Pedestals, the ones in our minds that we put people upon, lets truly understand what it is we are validating about an individual before we ascend someone to a higher emotive place.


So there we are I hope that helps and thanks for posting Chris , I really appreciate your ideas.


Nik

Oh , My , Gods !
Yes well thank you for reminding me of my Foreign Diplomatic Drunk Scotsman style !

Im sure it occured but for the life of me until you mentioned it I have not much recollection of standing in the street shouting at taxis! How can a city have that many taxis and not a single one stops unless you captcha them at a junction !

Another great write up of experiences and I imagine you met so very very many people It no suprise it probably feels like a Blur !

Glad to see it left you positively boosted

I twittered this after youd posted but I think the best advice to any speaker is to keep the public timeline for twitter open in your field of vision. You may spot he bored people quicker !

Great post though , thanks.

The thing about the Calculating type of person is they are not very good at spur of the moment or intuitive leaps of thought.

Sure they can plan and move and manoeuvre their way around life . In general they dont like, and usually plan to avoid, anything which smacks of thinking on their feet or making a decision quickly.

I tend to be the non calculator I like to leave it to my subconscious to do the planning and tactical and leave it to my concious mind to handle experience and understanding.

There is nothing ( other than the self marketing of the planner people ) to say that being a planner and a calculator is the best approach all the time.

Thanks for posting Chris.

It adds to my noodling over how to get a Macbook Pro for Christmas.

This advert is about as badly planned and understood as the Dell advert which showed dusty boxes of PCs awaiting collection. Their intention is good but dont they see the irony in producing an advert which repeats the mistakes the man in the advert is making ?

Dell managed a slight come reprieve with Ideastorm. They did it without "moderating" or "managing" the contributions of their consumers. Its not something I believe Microsoft is capable of. Possibly thats the first thing Microsoft should be doing, when they ask me all those questions ( where do you want to go today ? ) maybe they should have been listening...

Nik Butler
Happy Multiplatform user!

Ahmen Brother, sing it from the roof tops. I came to this realisation after IKEA. WhenI realised that our house was quite a bit like but not quite our friends houses. All our houses looked a little bit like an IKEA catalogue.

I would love a level of minimalism though my better half if she sees a shelf she clutters it end to end with books, nik naks and nuggets. sigh.

As with Chris there is now also the Child Factor which adds a level of , shall we say , random acts of dis organisation.

What even more amazing, as you point out, is we dont actually need all this "STUFF" but we seem to insist on collecting ever more of it.

Thanks for the post and yes I am a subscriber.

Cheers to Chris Brogan for pointing out your post.

Im off to the Dog house. .bye.

Great idea. now I am going to spend my afternoon asking my self how to make some of those things work with what I currently have. I would say thanks to Web2.0 most of what I am is available through my Deck ( Browser ) . I have wifi and bluetooth just about everywhere and the Linux box makes a personal server more personal. I am looking forward to OLED ultrathin displays in the hope that between them and multi touch displays we will have a more dynamic interface environment. ho hum .

its a pity we dont have the Star Wars generation coming out of University and School anymore.

Minds .. orbits ... amazed !

So what was I doing last night ? (well apart from sleeping ) I had a conversation over Skype ( social media ) about a Website design using a Content Management Systems ( social media ) using CSS ( web 2.0) with a designer whom I had met via Linked In ( social networks) that I couldnt have been introduced too except via an existing Connection ( Chris Brogan ) whom I had met via Twitter ( social Network ) .

The result of the conversation is that a level of business was agreed ( Money ) for the provision of a service ( Money ) which would benefit my own clients ( Money )

Thats Nik Butler, Chris Jennings and Chris Brogan whom can all point to an active value in social networks.

The ones who keep hammering away with the comment that it doesnt work and theres no cash in it are just Hoping that they might be right, we seem to know better though.


Great post and yet again thanks for the thoughts.

Sssssshhhh !

Your not supposed to be talking about the Emperors news Clothes were supposed to be so distracted by this internet thingy that we dont go bothering people in the real world !

Seriously though its a great post even If I do live in the real world.

I almost feel like saying "hey I told you so".When we chatted albiet briefly on Kyte.tv about the move Adobe are making which are securing their product within the 2.0 space.

I dont think that MS are "allowing" the competition to grow I think the size of the beast coupled with a "Vista must succeed" focus and the apparent disinterest in yet another Office release are causing Microsoft to be on the back foot rather more than it investors wish.

The Internet has never been a place were MS has managed to deliver clear products. Whilst they try to control its co option of the desktop via their Browser its not working efficiently to staunch the loss of interest in its desktop.

Thanks for posting this one Robert.

Hey there Chris I remembered your post here and thought I would bring to your attention a example of people building social communities online through just those things you discussed.

http://www.crawleyonline.org/portal.php

Its managed by John Bowers ( A Facebook friend of mine ) who has been building a local social community over time.

One word.

Innovation

And not that MS have not innovated. It is that you cant create great innovation using a MS backbone without ending up licensed up the Wazzooo with all the other thirdparty apps and products required to get the job done.

Compare this to developing on a open platform ( and for gods sake no I am not talking about desktops ! ) whre you allow the browser to be the gateway to your product and you can see the temptations for the next gen of developers.

If MS want to feel the love they need to make like the rest of the internet and really and freely open up their APIs in a way they have never done before.

Ive bee in the industry for as long as many of us here and can we really say we have seen real true groundbreaking Innovation come out of the desktop in the last 10 years ?

I would still shake Bills hand though. He got me my Job I do at least owe him a beer for that. But hes never helped printers and applications get installed any easier and so for that I feel he owes me a few more beers.

Great post and loved the Articles as ever.

Robert all good points and once again congrats to you and your new family addition.

In terms of Google dont you feel maybe a name that isnt already so well SEO'd would have helped the wee lad out a little bit ? Still theres always hope that Mahalo will give him a fair run of being found.

Seriously though , great story and great details enjoy your weekend.

Chris,

I am glad to see I am not the only one who finds interest in his Spam on a purely ironic level.

So if you enjoyed that you might enjoy these occasional slices of my inbox spam.

http://www.kyte.tv/talking_spam

Cheers Nik

Yep , I know that feeling I spent much of PodcampUK being asked " So whats your podcast ?" It was intersting to see how many people knew whom I was due to all the social network buzz.