Well, I suppose it is safe to say at this point we all know how much I love to foray the unfamiliarity of the less chartered networks that make up social media. I attempt to master the sign up wizards, understand site's capabilities and pit falls and then spend the rest of my free time (that little bit I have between working or sleeping) to offer some fecund insights, in the hopes that you can take my words, and enrich them like a musical composition is enriched by a composer. I trust that some day you, or some other tech evangalist like (Geoff Livingston, Chris Brogan, Joseph Jaffe), will produce a completely novel proof that will uncomplicate the future of social media, but for now the steps to social media bliss are like a highly sought after unwritten theorem that I am waiting to read.
The web is like Newton discovering gravity with an apple. Every piece of our puzzle is present, in front of our noses even, and waiting to be defined. Waiting to hit us on the head so that we can gain the empiphany of truth. As John Burg's Blog recently stated, "Excellence will be defined by the dynamic mix of the old and the new, the experienced with the excited, the well worn and the fresh faced." The online populous is beyond strenuous grasping of credulity searching for any hack to reveal a quick fix to our over-discussed lectures regarding things like money, social media roi, connecting with customers, or understanding the hype of various sites. Please remove yourselves from that group and simply empower yourselves with knowlege, you've already taken the first step, by reading blogs, studying books, contributing to wikis, and watching podcasts. It is something you can do on a train commute to work, or by multi-tasking, but you will never move forward unless you take that first step. One of my favorite quotes (and I can't remember it perfectly right now or find it on Google so if you know who it is by please leave it in the comments) is a quote that simply states that the future will not by defined by methods that already exist, because the future holds inventions that are yet to be discovered.
Until then, I leave you with this quote:
"Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The trouble-makers. The round heads in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status-quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify, or vilify them. But the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do."
The web is like Newton discovering gravity with an apple. Every piece of our puzzle is present, in front of our noses even, and waiting to be defined. Waiting to hit us on the head so that we can gain the empiphany of truth. As John Burg's Blog recently stated, "Excellence will be defined by the dynamic mix of the old and the new, the experienced with the excited, the well worn and the fresh faced." The online populous is beyond strenuous grasping of credulity searching for any hack to reveal a quick fix to our over-discussed lectures regarding things like money, social media roi, connecting with customers, or understanding the hype of various sites. Please remove yourselves from that group and simply empower yourselves with knowlege, you've already taken the first step, by reading blogs, studying books, contributing to wikis, and watching podcasts. It is something you can do on a train commute to work, or by multi-tasking, but you will never move forward unless you take that first step. One of my favorite quotes (and I can't remember it perfectly right now or find it on Google so if you know who it is by please leave it in the comments) is a quote that simply states that the future will not by defined by methods that already exist, because the future holds inventions that are yet to be discovered.
Until then, I leave you with this quote:
"Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The trouble-makers. The round heads in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status-quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify, or vilify them. But the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do."
-- Think Different, Apple Computers Advertisement
Ed Newman also has a great post on Web 2.0
Image from Filmaker One Podcast and Blog
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6 comments:
Its only been out for a couple minutes and I've already received a few twitter dms about this. Simply put, we are close, but some people are over eager for answers and it feels like everyone is simply regurgitating what they've heard at professional networking events or on the "A-List" blogger sites. No one is really diving in for deeper answers, just trying to understand. Which is ok to a certain point-- it's like the scientific hypothesis period, but eventually that era needs to end and people need to either begin true guess and check experimentation. Everyone claiming to be social media experts and mavens-- I'm not getting on your case, it's fine to be an amateur, everyone starts somewhere. In Batman Rachel said, "But it's not who you are underneath, it's what you do that defines you." in this case I say to you"It is not what you say (that you think will work) but your actions that define you."
Anyone that can "prove the future of the internet" will be talking nonsense.
Social media is even more unpredicatable because it is social. The best way to predict the future is to attempt to build it. Use social media, learn and then strive to make it better.
In the mean time, here's so key trends
http://jaycousins.wordpress.com/2008/07/17/key-factors-in-the-future-of-social-networking/
Yes well anyone who wants to tell you your future is a fortune teller or a fool. That is not at all what this article is about.
It is the lack of respected standards, structure, or ideals that are yet to be established. The post also represents what could be: where are we going? Is ROI going to be someone's apple that proves gravity? It's the little things that are missing and little things sometimes become the most important.
I appreciate and enjoy peoples opinions on social media, but when they are not their own opinions and the person cannot back them up, what does that make that person?
I go to many industry events. In fact in my area I go to 0ver 80% of all the AdFed, Ad2, MIMA, Social Media Breakfast, and Tweetups. My issue is simply with originality and accountability.
I commend you for addressing the issues. As for prediciting the future, there are simply so many variables. On the one hand we have a popular book that touts the Wisdom of Crowds (James Surowiecki). But the very title is a parody of the book Extraordinary Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (Mackay, 1841) which detailed the phenomenal Dutch Tulip Bulb Mania (which we replicated with the Tech Stock Bubble of the 90's)...
Is the future unalterable and prognosis impenetrable? I love the quote you have from Apple (it, too, was filched and modified from its previous context, but still valid) in which people who break outside the boundaries are the ones who change things.
The Master Planners hate all those who color outside the lines (see my blog entry of that name within past week or so) because we can't be controlled and manipulated for their purposes.
This is why Michael Crichton told the National Press Club that the networks were doomed. People DO want to be free. Social media equals freedom for many. When everything else is controlled, we have a human need to be in spaces uncontrolled. To quote a popular sixties song, "Sign, sign, everywhere a sign, messin' with the scenery, blowin' my mind. Do this, don't do that, can't you read the signs?"
Anyways, good luck with all your endeavors. Thanks for the link/reference today.
I commend you for addressing the issues. As for prediciting the future, there are simply so many variables. On the one hand we have a popular book that touts the Wisdom of Crowds (James Surowiecki). But the very title is a parody of the book Extraordinary Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (Mackay, 1841) which detailed the phenomenal Dutch Tulip Bulb Mania (which we replicated with the Tech Stock Bubble of the 90's)...
Is the future unalterable and prognosis impenetrable? I love the quote you have from Apple (it, too, was filched and modified from its previous context, but still valid) in which people who break outside the boundaries are the ones who change things.
The Master Planners hate all those who color outside the lines (see my blog entry of that name within past week or so) because we can't be controlled and manipulated for their purposes.
This is why Michael Crichton told the National Press Club that the networks were doomed. People DO want to be free. Social media equals freedom for many. When everything else is controlled, we have a human need to be in spaces uncontrolled. To quote a popular sixties song, "Sign, sign, everywhere a sign, messin' with the scenery, blowin' my mind. Do this, don't do that, can't you read the signs?"
Anyways, good luck with all your endeavors. Thanks for the link/reference today.
>>>"Excellence will be defined by the dynamic mix of the old and the new, the experienced with the excited, the well worn and the fresh faced."
This quote echoes the Marxist view of history> thesis plus antithesis becomes synthesis.... The System incorporates the status quo and its counterpart, which we have seen so often. Abstract art (radical, free form) shakes up the whole art world, but eventually (and you see this in every classy hotel lobby in America) the free form designs, tapestries, etc. are simply part of Capitalist culture. Nothing shocking at all. In fact, today's generation would probably wonder why there was even a fuss before.
The internet is evolving in the same way. Excellent quote.
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