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Change the World: Be a Bridge

Filed Under Motivation/Inspiration, Successful Blog | 8 Comments

Head, Heart, and Meaning!

Change the World!

I arrived home from nine day journey, thinking about all of the ways we move forward and around in our lives. Some ways are reflective, slow, and private.

horse and carriage by Andrew Dubber


Some take us to a crossroads that require a decision in due time.

crossroads by bjmccray









Some transport us over calm or troubled waters.

Wacker Bridge by Wendy Piersall













But the best parts of the journey are when we have friends, offering their experiences and insights. They offer hope when we’re on the darkest ride. They’re like human bridges as we move through our careers and through our lives.

Conversation on the boat by bjmccray












Bridges make roads seem more worth traveling. They can shorten a journey or offer a chance to think about where we’re going.

Bridge by xch.hu


Bridges can offer a lighted way to the other side.

Chicago bridges at night by bjmccray











After nine days traveling to see people I’ve met here and people who’ve never been to the blogosphere, I look at the Internet with new eyes. The interwoven content, context, and human relationships of the blogging Internet is network of bridges.

We were all new here once . . .

If we could offer an irresistible invitation, a sweet introduction, and a lighted bridge, people who never dreamed of talking might connect in a conversation that was more than meaningful and more than right.

Liz Strauss and Chris Brogan SOBcon08 2by Wendy Piersall



We can change the world — just like that.
–ME “Liz” Strauss

______________
If you’re ready to change the world, send me your thoughts in a guest post. Feel free to take the gorgeous Change the World image up there that Sandy designed back to your blog. Or help yourself to this one.

Change the World!.

Email me about what you’re doing or what we might do. Let’s change the world one bit at a time together. Together it can’t take forever.

Image sources: Andrew Dubber, bjmccray, Wendy Piersall, xch.hu (see alt tags)

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Stop Being Dangerous and Annoying the Blogosphere!

Filed Under Comments, Successful Blog | 31 Comments

Adjust Your Senses!

relationships button

I’ve been wondering, watching Internet relationships — how they are virtually the same and different from those in the real world. I’ve found patterns behaviors and looked through my experience to see whether those patterns hold up when I test them out.

My conclusion is that folks bring behaviors to the virtual world that don’t always make sense here. We do the human thing of continuing what we feel has worked for us before — without considering whether, in this new situation, it’s still the sensible thing to do.

Some foolish folks are getting this Internet thing wrong. That’s dangerous and annoying.

Read on if you are one of them. Better yet, read on anyway, we never know when a wave of foolishness has taken over us.

Here are the 5 senses that folks need to adjust to stop being dangerous and annoying the Blogosphere.

  1. Sense of Security Living online is more complicated than living in a real-world community. People here haven’t agreed to one single set of laws. The people can more easily falsify who they are, where they are, whose picture we see. If someone pulls a “fast one,” what you believe and have learned to be your legal right probably won’t mean a thing in this “world with no border.” Either way, it will probably be too expensive to enforce. If you know that, you’ll be more secure.

  2. Sense of Reality I can route my calls through Montana and answer them in Madagascar. I could be 93. You won’t know for certain until we meet. Most importantly, unless you have and have verified my street address, if I go offline, it’s possible you’ll never find me. On the other hand, you might find people who can trace back to my IP and the route my computer took to get to your to your computer’s door.

  3. Sense of Privacy Sitting at home locked in safe doesn’t make what we say secret. Writing in the middle of the night alone can feel personal and private. Remember the Internet is public and always open — forever. There is no eraser. In times of high emotion, stress, or other serious consequence, type into a word processor not your blog. Anything can wait 24 hours.

  4. Sense of Entitlement The woo of a “free” Internet can make us think everyone should serve up what we want — get over that. Re-read the story of “The Golden Goose” again. Or to put it another way, everyone has their own. It’s annoying to be asked or to be told to fulfill a request by folks who can’t bother to be polite or finish a sentence. First impressions last and last . . . and often are the last some folks will want to know of you.

  5. Sense of Humor Words in text don’t have the same context as words shared verbally. Tone is implied and easily goes askew. Here where many cultures meet, sensitivity means we use humor carefully. Make sure that everyone knows when you’re going for a laugh. It’s sad to say something seriously not funny when it was intended to be.

These five senses are critical to a successful experience in the Blogosphere. What other sense can you add to the list to make the Internet less dangerous and less annoying?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

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The Single W Seal of Approval

Filed Under Motivation/Inspiration, Successful Blog | 13 Comments

Can we talk about . . .

a seal of approval.

No, I’m not advocating that anyone be a “people pleaser.” For goodness sake, I just wrote yesterday about the incredible influence of being a 65th Crayon.

A comment on the post about saying “thank you” to folks on social networks got me thinking. Here’s the part of the comment that Rob Scott left . . .

Sending thank you notes is a good idea. My grandma would definitely approve too - and there’s not much on the internet that she would approve of!!

It’s not about Rob’s grandma, or my grandma, or that fact that I’m old enough to be someone’s grandma — even though I’m surely not. It’s about how the world has changed since we’ve gone from an alphabet that had one W to addresses that have three — www. It’s also about how, though the world has changed, people have stayed mostly the same.

So I’m thinking about the question and I wonder if you’ll think with me.

Be it my dad (born in 1907) or your grandma, or any hero you know from the era of the Single W . . .

What on the Internet would get your hero’s Single W Seal of Approval?

I’ll go first. You can find my answer in the comment box.

Liz's Signature

Work with Liz!!

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Reality Check from Kent Newsome

Filed Under Business Life, Customer Think, Guest Writer | 12 Comments

Pass It On

Sometimes a sentence jumps out and grabs me by the ears. It’s always something easily forgotten so simply and elegantly said that I must pass it on.

Those who promote blogging for one thing or another always pretend that corporate non-tech America has or is about to embrace blogging, when the reality is that other than email, corporate non-tech America hasn’t even embraced the internet. –Kent Newsome

How many ways do we only see ourselves?

Thank you, Kent!

–ME ‘Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

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Net Neutrality 10-05-2006

Filed Under Business Life, Community, SOB Business, Successful Blog, Trends | 8 Comments

Net Neutrality Links

I’m adding this link to the Net Neutrality Page.

MORE FROM:
Neutrality’ Is New Challenge for Internet Pioneer
an Interview on Net Neutrality with Sir Tim Berners-Lee By JOHN MARKOFF Published: September 27, 2006

[ . . .]
Q. Do you have a view about the behavior of the telephone companies in this debate? Is this simply traditional monopolist behavior, or is it more subtle? Have you talked to them to understand their motivations?

A. I have tried, when I’ve had the opportunity to find out, to understand their motivations, but I can’t speak for them. So all I can do is guess. But my guess is that it’s not that this is a nefarious planned plot to take over the Internet by a bunch of people who hate it. What I imagine is that it is simply the culture of companies, which have been using a particular business model for a very long time. So I think there is a clash of corporate cultures.

Q. What do you make of justifications involving quality of service, which would give certain types of Internet data, like voice and video, right of way over other kinds of data?

A. They say, “It will cost us an awful lot of money for this quality of service, and therefore we will have to disband neutrality.” They’re not actually logical. Some people say perhaps we ought to be able to charge more for this very special high-bandwidth connectivity. Of course that’s fine, charge more. Nobody is suggesting that you shouldn’t be able to charge more for a video-capable Internet connection. That’s no reason not to make it anything but neutral.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related
NET NEUTRALITY PAGE

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