horsepigcow

This is a shot of Ryan Carson’s feet, taken at the San Francisco Future of Web Apps. Ryan scored some heat over that particular conference, namely because of the homogeneity of his speaker roster at the time. In his response to this criticism, I gained a great deal of respect for Ryan. He stepped up. He made darn certain that his future conferences reflected a greater diversity….and for the better! I think the Carson conferences are some of the best ones out there…and quite reasonably priced, too, so accessible to non-corporate sponsored types like me.

Not only that, but as a speaker, Ryan and his awesome team (Hi Lisa, Gillian and Mel!), treat you like gold. I felt honored to be asked to be a speaker, but I felt doubly honored that they reached out to help me make the best presentation possible (sending tips, offering help), covered all of my travel expenses (including a gorgeous hotel in Kensington…with a separate room for my teenage son! Talk about cool!) and paid me for the time spent putting a 1/2 day workshop together. I would not only speak at another Carson conference, but I would highly recommend anyone I know speak at their conferences. They also treat their sponsors and their attendees well, being open and generous and offering an incredible value to any who pay.

Through the Carson ability to respond to community feedback and the way they treat others, they’ve created an amazing brand for themselves. People associate Carson conferences with quality and community and they are expanding to many other properties in this area.

Now, in the case of SXSWi, another fave of mine, it’s a bit different. Except for the headliners, none of the speakers I know of are paid nor do they have their travel expenses covered. For sitting on a panel, you are comped a interactive and film badge. Panels, though, require far less prep time in my experience. Usually some conference calls, a bit of research and notes and a good rapport with your fellow panelists. And SXSWi isn’t really about the conference anyway. It’s totally about the community. There are a zillion free or cheap great things to do and parties to go to when you are there. Plus, since everyone in the tech universe are in the same city at a time, it’s a great time to meet all sorts of potential partners, clients and coworkers. Because the community aspect is so strong, travel expenses covered aren’t really essential. There is enough of a value built into being there that it’s worth the $350 return flight on Southwest (for us) and the $400-800 on hotel (some of us share as well). Plus, the ticket price is way reasonable ($325), so the cost of the full 5 days will be lower than the mere ticket price for a 1 day enterprise conference. This means that many artist/student/open source/startupy types will be there.

BlogHer Conferences are similar to SXSWi. The community benefit is enormous and the networking opportunities are high. The cost per ticket is accessibly low and they work with hotels and hostels to keep accommodation reasonable. They even provide free childcare so that moms can enjoy themselves guilt-free (or almost guilt free). I don’t think they even pay the keynote speakers (although I could be wrong about that). They end up delivering a very valuable conference and I walked away this year with alot.

It is perfectly fine for SXSWi and BlogHer to say, “Sorry, we don’t pay for travel expenses”. When I’ve spoken with the organizers of both conferences, they’ve expressed their wish to do so, but have also noted that doing so would mean that they’d have to raise ticket prices, which would end up upsetting the balance of attendees. Both conferences use the panel format in order to respect the time of their speakers and have loads to offer to offset any pangs one may feel at not being reimbursed for time. Still, the lack of reimbursement may have discouraged a potential speaker or two, which I’m certain both organizing teams are aware of and are concerned about (BlogHer has a scholarship fund).

Now, although it may be perfectly fine for conferences like SXSWi and BlogHer to do this, I’ve encountered at least two conferences this year (Defrag and the Affiliate Summit) that don’t have the same community feel that have invited me to speak and also told me, “We don’t cover travel expenses.” On both occasions, I’ve checked the cost of registration and found that it was more than double that of BlogHer or SXSWi. There has also been a healthy list of sponsors listed for both. I don’t think this is cool at all. The organizers stand to make a profit on the conference, but the producers of the content of the conference have to pay their own money towards that.

Now I understand the cost of putting on an event. I’m no stranger to it. I’ve organized several conferences, unconferences and symposiums over the years. BarCampBlock cost us over $24,000 to produce and it was a D.I.Y. (and a very casual) conference. We paid for one venue at $5,500 (2 days) and didn’t have fancy food (although we had enough for over 600!). I’ve also been part of the budgets of many bigger conferences. Ones that cost $500k to produce, but brought in $2M. Unless the speaker was a sponsor or another vendor who paid their way into talking, I’ve found that speaker fees and travel reimbursement are pretty standard. I know that the cost of some of the bigger speakers were offset by collecting sponsors for that spot (“Oracle presents Blah Blah”).

Expecting someone to donate their time to making your event ‘da bomb’ may be okay for someone who works at Yahoo! and needs to promote their latest work, but is problematic for an independent contractor. For me, time spent preparing a presentation can run over 40 hours between research, writing, designing, practicing and tweaking, and those 40 hours detract from time I can bill to clients (at $200/hour, that is lost revenue of $8,000). Then there is the fact that, when traveling, I’m not there for clients. We’ve actually lost a client or two over our travel schedule. That’s more revenue lost. When a conference says, “Now you have to pay for a hotel and your airfare to get here,” they are expecting me to spend another $500-1000 (at least). Maybe, just maybe, if our company desperately needed new clients we would be ahead after all of this, but I’ve gotten far better leads doing my own events and from word of mouth than I’ve ever experienced at conferences.

And this becomes even MORE problematic when we take into account other women speaking (not that I’m an exception to the following rule). We’ve talked alot about “why women don’t speak” on the BlogHer Women in Technology listserv. One of the number one reasons that women give is the COST of speaking. Many of the very talented women I know are also independent contractors, but they are also juggling family lives. They would have to arrange for childcare and getting time to do client work is precious enough, let alone trying to work 40 hours on a presentation. And these women on the list are pretty affluent. I can’t imagine women and men from lower income families or students working on cool projects…not paying for travel becomes a barrier for entry for those willing, but unable to afford giving their time to another’s successful event in the hopes that they may glean some interest for their own business. Money would be wiser spent in a yellow pages ad!

And it isn’t really even about the money for me. Not really. It’s more about what an organizer, who is charging $900+/delegate and pulling in a good sponsors list, is saying about how s/he values his/her speakers. If my reimbursement for putting together a presentation that makes your audience happy is worth less to you than the other money you are spending, I feel like an object. And if you didn’t make me feel like an object, maybe I wouldn’t even give a damn. I know lots of people who forget to send in their receipts for reimbursement. Don’t give me a line about ‘community’, either. An event that costs over $900 is not a “community” event, it’s a corporate event. An event that has no community activities (the social abundance of SXSWi or the generosity and togetherness of BlogHer) is not a community event. An event that exploits and undervalues its speakers, who ARE from the community, is not a community event.

If you are making $$ off of an event, all of the power to you. I applaud you and don’t fault you for that. But you may want to take a lesson from Ryan Carson, who nicely balances making $$ and respecting those who help him make $$. Otherwise, the way you treat others will be your undoing.

And for those of you who are taking these raw deals: STOP IT! You are worth more than that. You know who you are. I know you are doing it to build your business and your reputation, but there are loads of opportunities to do this and be treated fairly. IMO, these conferences exploit your desperation. There are more ways to get yourself out there. Better ways to give. My Mom taught me that if I wanted others to value me, I had to start by valuing myself. At the time, I rolled my eyes, but I totally started understanding that when I became an adult and realized the more I bent to the desires of people who didn’t respect me, the less they respected me. As soon as I walked away to get a better deal, I got their respect.

So the lesson here is that, if you are throwing a for profit conference that looks to be a profit-maker, you need to, at the very least, offer to cover the costs associated with the travel for the speakers. It is their content that will make you look good and they are worth every penny. The place to cut back is NOT on human beings.

(thanks to Brian O for encouraging me to vent this out on my blog…he doesn’t necessarily share my opinion, but he’s right that I should share mine)

This is a very very rough draft of the outline for what the Archetypes look like in a community (mostly thrown up here from TextPad notes). It is important to note that all of these community archetypes play highly positive roles in various communities. Any tension caused by the ‘clashing’ of personality types is good for balance. Not all Archetypes exist in every community, but quite often pair up to make up certain types of (or fingerprints for) communities.

You may either recognize yourself below, or fall under a couple of categories. I’ve paired each up roughly with the Meyers-Briggs classifications, which I know are very North American centric, but they seemed to map very nicely to many of the personalities I’ve seen along the way. If you want to take a test to see what you are, go here: http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp Further explanation of the ‘types’ is here: http://www.typelogic.com/

Keep in mind that the mappings to the Meyers-Briggs is somewhat imperfect (although as I read more into it, I may find stronger ties), so if you have alternative suggestions, they are welcome as well.

Caretakers – ENFJ

Caretakers are the people people. They can sense when someone needs more support and will drop everything to go and give that support. They quite often neglect their own needs for that of others and are at risk for being taken advantage of. These powerfully charismatic types make everyone feel safe around them and are essential to communities that have a more mentoring attitude than meritocratic attitude. Caretakers will swoop in and navigate newbies through the early stages of their community involvement

The thing to watch out for with Caretakers, is that they don’t know how to delegate and will often take on too much, burning themselves out. They won’t understand exactly why they are feeling the need to distance themselves from the community, but if their needs aren’t met (or their burden isn’t relieved), they will eventually back away.

Leaders – ENTJ

Leaders can’t stand to let things idle for too long. As soon as there is an opening, they will come along and direct a project. Once in that steward position, there is no stopping the leader. If pointed in the right direction, Leaders will be your saviors in getting things done.

Leaders need to be teamed up with Creators and Caretakers in order to be effective. They may sometimes have good ideas, but quite often, they are too effective at leading people astray. Think the Pied Piper.

Creators – ENFP

Super creative and full of ideas, Creators are always thinking up new ways to make things better. They are spontaneous, often zany and fun, and attention getters. They are also very strongly opinionated (but usually right) about direction. They hate structure and bureaucracy and have high ethical standards.

Easily distracted, you’ll want to let the Creator know they are listened to…and really actually listen to them because they are pretty innovative in their thoughts.

Gamers – ESTP

Gamers are thrill seekers. They love competition and challenge. Give a Gamer a system in which s/he can win points and keep upping the ante, and you will have her/him for life. Very very strategic, Gamers get the most pleasure out of numbers, winning and status.

If you put Gamers in with too many Spectators, Workers and Caretakers, you run the risk of major conflict. Gamers need to have motivation and love to show off their winnings…they also respect other Gamers’ prowess, so it’s best to keep the Gamers together. Dreamers work well with Gamers, though.

Gate Keepers – ESTJ

Gate Keepers are the members of the community who believe strongly in a meritocracy and will make certain that every new member pays his/her dues before proceeding (“No free rides here”). Gate Keepers are also very good at reminding others of the rules and guidelines. They make excellent filters for ‘bozos’ and ‘drive-bys’.

Gate Keepers and Caregivers may play Bad Cop Good Cop with Newbies. Once you have won the respect of a Gate Keeper, it is hard to lose it.

Hot Doggers – ENTP

Hot Doggers love taking a look at information and finding ways to glue them together in new, unorthodox ways but what they love even more is being recognized for their wit and cleverness. Think “The Comic Book Guy” on The Simpsons. They often have a great deal of deep knowledge that should be heeded, but because they can tend to be terse in their delivery, many will ignore them.

Hot Doggers are very smart and if pointed in the right direction, can be invaluable for problem-solving and getting things done right. Pair them with the Planners and Leaders, and expect them to irritate the Peace Makers, as they will ruffle feathers along the way.

Networkers – ESFP

Networkers have the gift of gab. A Networker will walk into a party or enter a social network and befriend 90% of the people in no time. A Networker is good at making people laugh and feel good, so they get along with people easily. They are amazing storytellers and quite cultured, so they know a little about many subjects.

Networkers have more surface than deep relationships, so you can’t always count on the Networker to stick around and be incredibly loyal. For a networker, the thrill is in the networking, not in cultivating deep relationships. There is always another network to conquer.

Peacemakers – ESFJ

Peacemakers have a strong feeling towards balance and harmony. S/he will strike out at those who threaten it. S/he will also exert all of the power s/he has in order to keep the peace. Peacemakers don’t care who is right or wrong, only that harmony is maintained.

Peacemakers are hyper-sensitive to unrest, so it is possible that a tumultuous community will eventually lose all of its Peacemakers to frustration an anger. It is crucial that Peacemakers don’t feel that they are holding up the peace for everyone. Much like the Caretaker, they will suffer burnout.

Workers – ISFJ

Workers are characterized by their need to serve others. Being introverts, they get more satisfaction from knowing they did a good job to support others than being recognized for it at all. In fact, in some extreme cases, they will actually react negatively to being rewarded for their hard work. The hard work is reward enough. Workers are reliable and loyal as well as efficient and accurate.

Workers need lots of instruction and loyalty in return. Being told they are appreciated is crucial. They will never tell you what they need, so you have to be highly cognizant of where they are at. To win their trust, show your appreciation appropriately and win their trust completely by being loyal back.

Wanderers – ISFP

Another word for a Wanderer is Experimenter as a Wanderer isn’t one who is likely to commit. These are free birds, flitting from one place to another and don’t want to be tied down. They want to explore before they commit and even once they commit, it takes a great deal for them to become really engaged.

Wanderers can often be very much like Gamers, and if you catch their attention long enough, they will spend significant time in your community. You have to keep the challenge up and the experience high.

Organizers – ISTJ

Organizers are, well, organized, devoted and responsible. Organizers are much like Workers, but with much more drive. They are very methodical and like to stick to standards and logical ordering. Organizers perform well on wikis, often adopting the nickname ‘Wiktator’ – restoring order to haphazard ramblings and slapdash pages of information.

If anything seems too erratic and out of control, you will lose your Organizers, which is a loss no one can afford. Defending their sense of order is a good thing as they may come across a bit terse to others who are more casual about their process. It is best to give an Organizer a great deal of responsibility on a site.

Critics – INTP

Critics are the types of community member that will always point out your type-o’s and very rarely give you positive feedback. This is not a bad thing, you just have to take it with a grain of salt. Critics are there to help. They wouldn’t do it if they didn’t care. Critics also don’t often understand nuanced jokes and will correct you if you use non-logical grammar (ie. “The Best Game EV-AR”).

Critics are also good to put with Gamers and Dreamers as they have a competitive edge to them. They are quietly competitive compared to the other two, but incredibly responsive to positive feedback themselves.

Promoters – ISTP

When Promoters get an idea, there is no stopping them. They usually lie dormant in a community until they have an idea or an event that requires attention, then they take over for the time period necessary to be heard and have action taken.

On the negative side of Promoters, they will mow down the needs of others in order to get their point across. A good example of this is the recent outbreak of people promoting the anti-Flickr censorship in the comments of photos unrelated to the cause. Still, pointing Promoters in the right direction will create all sorts of good buzz for a project.

Spectators – INFJ

Spectators are those, who, after a trust relationship is created, will tell you that they’ve read everything you’ve ever written. They are not dormant, passive people, but they don’t have the need to be ‘heard’.

Spectators may not be leaving comments or very active in forums, but their presence there is crucial for getting the word out further. They are every bit as passionate about the communities they observe as those with high participation levels. They will probably end up resenting a ‘points’ driven model that appeals to Gamers as this is not their style. The key to Spectators is to create enough content to keep their interest and to create safe spaces (and offline meetups) to tease them out from behind the scenes occasionally.

Planners – INTJ

Planners are your project managers and they are the best. A planner has the uncanny ability to imagine an event or an experience and account for every little detail. They are good delegators and hard workers. They are also extremely hard on themselves and strict perfectionists.

Planners expect a great deal from others and would not do well paired with Dreamers, Spectators or Networkers. To them, these types are flaky. Planners are people you want to pair with Workers and Organizers to move forward methodically on a project, especially an event.

Dreamers – INFP

Dreamers are the super positive, highly rosy version of a Wanderer. They will swoop into your community, pointing out all of the wonderful, delicious, awesome things that are going on, then swoop out just as fast. They have fun, crazy ideas that will lighten up any community.

You can’t ‘count’ on Dreamers, but when they are around, everyone has fun. Dreamers will make everyone feel good, even if it’s only temporary. The key to keeping Dreamers around is to keep the fun dial on high and have a mass of other Dreamers around.

Non-Community Member Archetypes:

Hecklers
Spammers
Vandals
Self-Promoters
Hi-Jackers
Bozos
Drive-Bys

——

Feedback is necessary and will be very helpful.

I am a Caretaker. ENFJ. That person who, in social situations, takes it upon herself to make sure everyone else is taken care of. The member of any given community whose sense of responsibility to the needs of others outweighs her own.

This is often a female role, as reported in Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships, but not exclusively. Alongside the other 15 roles: Leaders, Creators, Gamers, Gate Keepers, Clevers, Networkers, Peacemakers, Workers, Wanderers, Organizers, Critics, Promoters, Spectators, Planners and Dreamers, the Caretaker is a very important one. In some communities, the Caretaker is absolutely essential, in others, the Caretaker plays less of a role.

Who is the Caretaker?

Caretakers are the “people” people. They can sense when someone needs more support and will drop everything to go and give that support. They quite often neglect their own needs for that of others and are at risk for being taken advantage of. These powerfully charismatic types make everyone feel safe around them and are essential to communities that have a more mentoring attitude than meritocratic attitude. Caretakers will swoop in and navigate newbies through the early stages of their community involvement.

In a competitive environment, Caretakers will be eaten alive. Take, for instance, DIGG. A Caretaker revealing him/herself would probably lose the respect of his/her peers. DIGG is a meritocracy and the strong survive. The more individualistic and meritocratic a community is, the less likely you will find Caretakers around.

Alternatively, Caretakers are essential to a community that is built on inclusion and mentorship. Without them present to make certain that newbies are validated and given encouragement and gentle guidance, the attrition rate for newcomers will be deadly high. It is important in a community of mentorship that there are multiple Caretakers.

The thing to watch out for with Caretakers, is that they don’t know how to delegate and will often take on too much, burning themselves out. They won’t understand exactly why they are feeling the need to distance themselves from the community, but if their needs aren’t met (or their burden isn’t relieved), they will eventually back away.

—

Over the next while, I will be delving deeper into the archetypes of community. As well as the anti-archetypes (those who are not members of a community, but are quite damaging to community versus ‘negative’ characters or situations between members of communities). Not all archetypes exist harmoniously or at all within various communities, but a combination of them is necessary to create a cultural footprint.

This rough outline will also be expanded upon and further researched to make a section of my book, so your feedback would be helpful.

If I was to capture magic and make it an event, it would have been BarCampBlock for me. Sure, I may seem biased, being one of the organizers (alongside Liz Henry, Chris Messina, Ross Mayfield and Tantek Çelik – with Tara “2.0″ Anderson as our star volunteer), but in truth, I usually hate the events I am involved in organizing. The combination of high expectations, energy output and amplified negative feedback (I have a habit of hearing the bad stuff more than the good stuff) leaves me feeling like a big loser almost everytime.

Except for BarCampBlock.

So, what was different about it? Well, for me, a big difference was that I let go of responsibility and enjoyed the event. I think I finally did a better job of balancing responsibility and delegation. But it wasn’t just an internal shift…people at BCB were really, really, really awesome. Everyone stepped forward and helped and made the event theirs. I didn’t encounter a single person who walked by someone in need. In fact, although nearly 600 people were participating on Saturday, it never felt like more than a handful. At the beginning of the opening ceremonies, I asked who was at a BarCamp for the first time and the majority of people put their hands up. Yet, it seemed that everyone had done this many times before. It was totally great.

Number two, we provided a great deal more ‘guidance’ up front. Not rules. Not structure. Guidance. We created a ‘Welcome to BarCamp’ handout that provided ‘Stuff to Know about BarCamp:‘

1. BarCamp is ABOUT YOU. This isn’t one of those conferences where you sit back and wait for something to happen…you MAKE stuff happen! Pitch in! Lead a session!

2. BarCamp is NOT ABOUT YOU. It’s about everyone here. Be ready to share all of the cool stuff you are working on, but also be prepared to listen to what others are doing. BarCamp is about relationships, not selling.
3. Take a chance and present! What do you have to lose? All of us here feel the exact same apprehensions. This may be your lucky break!
4. You will learn more here than you have ever learnt anywhere else…if you make yourself available to it. Go to as many sessions and meet as many people as possible. Even better, go to sessions you know nothing about and by people you don’t know.
5. The beauty of an Open Grid is that we also get the chance to practice our negotiation skills. If someone has a similar talk or has put themselves in a time-slot you covet, talk to them about switching or merging. It’s all about collaboration.
6. Everyone participates. Ways to participate: volunteer to help, give a session, record your notes on the wiki, clean up, etc. BarCamp needs both giving and receiving to function.
7. You, too, can throw a BarCamp. After it’s all over, just go to the wiki, copy some ideas and roll your own! [made possible by the fact that thousands of BarCampers before you have recorded everything on the wiki...which is why it is important to document everything today]

Several people approached me throughout the event to tell me how they experienced entire paradigm shifts by being at BCB. I think our clarity and positive nudges in the direction of openness and creating the culture of inclusion and generosity made a huge difference to how people approached the weekend.

Number three. Liz mentioned the Kid’s Room in her post, which I believe is one of the most important parts of BarCampBlock. It’s where I’m proud we went and where we also fell short (as Liz points out). I’d like to see more of the attention to diversity and needs of families and moms in all BarCamps as well as with our coworking spaces. Leisa Reichelt just sent a timely message to the Coworking list about this very subject. We talk about kids as this free, creative energy source, yet we isolate them from our creative ‘adult’ spaces. I’d love to see them incorporated more. I brought Tad down to help at the registration (he did an awesome job), but I would have loved to see more teens there encouraging him to do a session on his latest passion: scripting for WoW.

Many of the things I would have done differently are in Liz’s post. Her summary is totally kickass. And thanks to Kirrily Robert and Kent Bye for doing such awesome thought summaries of the weekend. Summaries that lead to many experiences that really capture the feeling of the event.

So…to share with you some of the ‘stats’ of BarCampBlock (only important after you read the stories, of course):

• 564 of you checked in on Saturday
• 260 of you came for a second day (Sunday)
• 386 of you blogged about it: http://tinyurl.com/ywyryo
• 1,885 of your photos tagged barcampblock showed up on Flickr
• 350 of you joined the BCB network and made 1,188 connections
• 92 of you held sessions
• 105 of you sponsored it so that everyone could enjoy it for free

I want to also shout out to the many volunteers and point out individuals such as Yohannes Wijaya (who sat at the registration table all day Saturday, cleaned garbage, moved tables and was absolutely dedicated and awesome)! And the attendees (listed at Eventbrite)! Without all of you, we would have been sitting at SocialText with hundreds of pizzas, playing foosball alone.

Oh…and as a last minute bragging point…check us out in Wired Magazine! Lane Hartwell took amazing shots (as usual) for that spread.

Pokes, Tweets and Bozo Filters:
the Intimate Life of Online Communities

What do you think?

If I were to write a piece on the current state of API’s, this is what I would call that post.

a.k.a. Event Planning While Negotiating the Leaping Between the Ivory Towers of Social Networks

['cause even those that sorta exist kind of look like this...]

So, I’m in the midst of organizing and trying to promote BarCampBlock, using many of the tools at my disposal:

• PB Wiki – ’cause we organize BarCamp on a wiki…that’s just what we do…
• Eventbrite – it’s a really great way to keep track of the actual attendee numbers and follow up later if anything goes awry or needs to be clarified (venue change, etc.). It’s really awesome for events you are collecting a fee for as well.
• Facebook Events – because they have that oh so powerful Social Graph there…and my ‘friend list’ is well over 700 people.
• Upcoming – because it is THE place to post your events in SF.
• The Squidlist – because this is ACTUALLY THE place to post your events in SF. (still awaiting approval)

Of course there is more and all sorts of helpful friends have suggested them to me…but I don’t want to know of YET ANOTHER web app or social network for events or posting board or blog…I want to organize my damned event! Unfortunately, managing the multitude of options for posting this event has become a full-time job.

Now, NO…I don’t want someone to come along and say either of the following, either:

• “Our firm will post and manage your event on the multitude of sites out there for you for a small fee.”; or
• “We have a new network that aggregates all of the other event data so that you only have to post once.”; or
• “Hi, on OUR LARGE LOOMING UNNAMED NETWORK, we have many independent event apps that are deeply integrated into our platform.”
• “We have a new app that posts your event to all of the multitude of sites out there and manages your updating for you.”; or even
• “You can use Yahoo!Pipes to create a management tool to help you upload and manage your event on multiple sites.”

Nope. I don’t want more of this or that…what is out there is just fine for me. Everyone does a fine job of doing what they promise to do. I don’t want widgets or exported xml files or deep integration. What I DO want is these sites to stop competing for my attention and to start bridging between them. I don’t know how? OpenID maybe? Oauth perhaps? Microformats? Brian did a fine post about this conundrum over here that explains some of the technology of building those bridges.

And It’s not for anyone to be owned or monetized or patented or famous for or any other type of ego/industrial complex type of a solution either. This needs to happen for me…who is representing your customer who is creating a great deal of the value you ‘own’ on your network or site or app. Consider it a ‘gift‘ that shows your ‘gratitude’ for our implicit partnership towards creating a better world.

C’mon…start playing with one another or else we’ll just have to protest by doing something like – crap, I don’t know. In fact, I feel totally disempowered to do anything but hate you all deeply and pray everyday for your ivory towers to fall into the sea someday soon. Maybe I AM open to another solution…the solution that cares about my experience and works hard to create those bridges rather than padding one’s own network.