I’m not a psychologist, anthropologist or any other kind of “ologist” but I think I might see a trend taking hold on our society and I would love for us to take a moment and discuss it’s possibility (or impossibility). I suppose we could just call it human nature and leave it at that. But I believe we are capable of learning from our past and growing beyond it if we agree to look at ourselves objectively and seek the truth behind what is going on. What if we just stop for a second to evaluate if we really know who we are and how we belong over what we do, what we have, what we have achieved or what we know.
In my opinion, we are perpetuating a virtual land grab all too similar to the bloody conquest of territories we’ve seen throughout our world’s history. We tend to call ourselves civilized and above all the bloodshed of history past. But just because there’s no physical blood being spilt, doesn’t mean there’s no casualties in this war.
It seems that there are more people talking about starting networks, founding conferences and gaining followers than actually taking the time to listen to each other, participate and collaborate. Since the dawn of time, or at least as long as I can remember or read about, human nature has been a lot about possessing and conquering. I am reminded of Napoleon and he’s just one of the mass conquerors of our history. But think of even today where in the US we have corporate giants that have conquered all sorts of “land” (either physical, figurative or otherwise) and the inherent trait is always the same. Possess, control and retain!
I think there’s a big difference between what social media is becoming and open source, what I believe to be its core value. Open source says that all individuals are equally important. There’s open communication, open information, sharing and mutual respect across all platforms. Granted, there should be some things that are protected and remain sacred, but I hope you get my idea and not focus on what could be mistaken for a socialist point of view. That’s not my goal here. Social media was once open source in it’s mentality, and that was only like a couple years ago. But now that it’s going mainstream, I’m starting to think that maybe it wasn’t after all. I could be wrong. Maybe social media started out as an open environment and our greedy tendencies took hold and perverted it. It is possible that the founders of various networks we now occupy had divisive motives, but that is beside the point. The core belief, in my humble opinion, is this semi-utopian idea of open source and the thought that we can still fight for the purity of its ideals to stand strong and not die.
Open source says that all are parts should have a voice. Now I understand there needs to be leadership, standards or at least some form of rules to adhere to. I’m not talking about socialism and please don’t get too political on me. I’m not a political kind of guy and really don’t think I could debate on that level. I am just posing a topic for discussion so we can figure this out together. I’m hoping to bounce this idea off some great minds (you and yours).
Ok, so think about it… With a mutual respect for all other parties and a pure cooperative, collaborative attitude, can you imagine how awesome this planet would be to live on? Capitalism isn’t entirely a bad thing, but we have taken it to a horrible new level (ahem Wall Street) and a lot of people are getting trampled in the process. In the US especially, we apply this thinking process to everything. How many times have you heard, thought or even said “What’s in it for me?” In a pure environment, it could be an honest question, but most of the time, it’s nothing more than a pavlovian response because of the culture we live in and the experiences life in this country brings.
The best example of what I see going on today, especially in the social media sector, is all too similar to that game “Hungry Hungry Hippos.” It’s like a virtual land grab, with a “Get more followers” here, and a “Join my page” there. Or, “Come to my event” and “That’s MY [insert just about anything], don’t touch it!” Does that sound familiar to you? Sounds almost like a preschool classroom at playtime to me. People, I think we’re better than this! Don’t get me wrong…
- Should you start another event?
- Should you create a page on Facebook?
- Should you seek out more people to follow?
- Should you go after sponsorship?
- Should you become more visible on the internet?
I believe… YES!
But why not first consider these questions…
- What are your motives?
- How will the people around you think/react/benefit?
- What is the big picture influence you have or will have through this?
- Does this already exist in your local community?
- Do you HAVE to be in charge?
- Are you going to care if someone else does the same thing?
- Are you ready to really listen to those around you so that together you can make the best decisions?
There’s so many things to consider but the core of the thinking here is that I believe what we are all going for is a mutual, honest, caring, respectful perspective on each other. I know there are many out there that don’t have that frame of mind and will try to take an unhealthy advantage of this attitude. But that doesn’t make it wrong. And yes, I understand that this could be viewed as kind of an unobtainable utopian perspective. But does the fact that we don’t believe we can obtain this in it’s entirety mean we need to revert to cannibalism and just give up? I honestly think that the last 20 years has really evolved some of our thinking and given us a chance to begin to form something that society has really never come closer to in the past. All I ask is that we all think about it, discuss it and try to just go for it.
Please stop this game of Hungry Hungry Hippos and focus on the truly great things in our freedom, society, culture, relationships, communities and even our capitalism. Let’s hunt out and kill only the things that tear at the core fabric of what could make this all so great. Please stop to consider who you really are, and how that is translating into the social media world.
Now, here’s where you come in… Like I said, I’m not a scholar by any means, or even claim that I have landed on the absolute solution. I just want to kick off the conversation and see where it takes us. So… What do you think?
B-
you covered a lot of ground there, but you’re definitely on to something.
We’re definitely in a formative era for how we’ll all connect and communicate in the future. Many of us in the space have a certain disdain for the giant networks/corporations, but if we keep trying to own our own little piece as you talk about, none of us will have the traction or resources to keep up with the giants…
I guess I don’t have a ton to add to the conversation in a comment form, but I’d love to have some face-to-face-to-face conversations about it
Great points, and I agree to a degree. There’s a lot going on now, and its time to build those things up vs. compete.
I can tell you though, from experience, that the ‘Its MINE…don’t touch it!” mentality is sometimes necessary to maintain. Not so simplified, but…when you start something successful, people find out and try and take part and often try and take over.
There are tons of wonderful collaborative-focused minds in our circles, but there are just as many vultures, ready to pick at things.
I think the Hungry Hungry Hippos metaphor works for certain parts of what you’ve said, and I agree with you completely. But, theres also the game of keeping ideas/events/goals pure and free of those who would take advantage. Maybe a better metaphor is that of a bird.
A bird needs to eat some food and keep it in its mouth and selectively feed those who are involved, keeping the idea safe and makeing sure those involved are happy as well, without risking a free for all.
And, I’ve been in love with this quote lately:
Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people.
Taking the time to make sure that the event isn’t just for the sake of having an event, is the first step towards making something great.
I’ve never made the connection between Social Media and Open Source before, it is an interesting comparison to make.
The root philosophies are definitely similar, but the communities are vastly different. While Open Source has been around for along time and is guided by policies like GPL and GNU, Social Media is still in its infancy and is too often incorrectly defined by its implements (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) than by its true philosophical goals.
Social Media’s popularity explosion has happened before most of us truly knew what it is. As such, it has formed into a universe of micro communities, each with their own goals or agendas and facilitated by the wildly popular and simple tools that have been created. This has opened the window for so many to exploit Social Media for personal gain.
Great post! Looking forward to continuing this conversation.
You should have been here today at Gangplank; we just dicussed how to open the process even further and make things more collaborative. I think everyone in social media is trying to go in the same direction, but human communication is faulty, and we do an awful lot of it lately with no intermediaries or interpreters.
Social Media Club is also having this discussion, mainly around best practices and ethics. It seems to me all these topics are connected.
You started a great discussion here. Social Media is that James Dean of pop culture right now, the badazz that everyone wants to be like or be a part of. It’s independent of mainstream rules, open source, etc. Traditional media is starting to take a bite into it (Pete Cashmore writing for CNN anyone?), conferences popping up for everything from blogging tools to Twitter. Some of it seems exciting, others a bit rediculous. But by nature, it being open source, there is that fear that it will be taken over by big wigs, crazies or manipulative types and utterly destroy it.
I think, like any movement, there are going to be the bad apples, the fools and zealous idiots and then there will be the passionate, truly genuine gamechangers out there that want to embrace social media in the all the ways that it can and should be…and alter our society for the better.
It’s a tool that could be used for good or evil.
Did my comments make any sense? I’m trying to type my thoughts with two very noisy crazy children are dancing around me. kind of makes it hard to keep on point. ;P
man all of these comments are great thoughts!!! love how Mark and Chris explained. Wish I could’ve been at Gangplank to hear the discussion!
There will always be hippos and there will always be small minds that make everything personal. The best you can do is be yourself, be transparent and be open to new ideas.
I have more opinions on this topic, but am so poor at the written word it’s better I not say too much.
Mark, I do agree on the “MINE” being somewhat necessary. I don’t want to come across as everything should be free and open and whatnot. I totally believe in supporting (financially and relationally) each other. I just want to push for balance and I think we’re pretty out of balance right now in our society. My hope is that if enough people are talking about this, that we will eventually come to a good balance. Call it a Wiki-Culture or whatever
Francine, I agree. I knew that discussion was going on today and I tried to make it down. Just didn’t happen. I know you guys are on the same page here so I welcome more thoughts and ideas that came out of that discussion and the ones to come.
Thanks everyone for your comments so far. I really appreciate the participation. Keep it coming
Wow, like Krys said, you covered a lot of ground! I do agree that it often seems like people spend too much time and attention on creating events than they do on actually listening to each other. But, I think some of this is just human nature and isn’t necessarily all that bad.
Being the curious creatures we are, when faced with something new to explore we just go crazy trying everything we can. Social media feels this way right now. To me it’s less of a land grab and more of attempting anything possible. Sure, some ideas will succeed and others will be successful, but it’s really up to the community to decide that.
I do think that those who want to try something new (start a new network, conference, etc) should slow down and listen to what other have to say. Repeating mistakes others have made in the same arena doesn’t help anyone.
Finally, I really liked the quote Mark mentioned. Getting great minds discussing ideas is really the ultimate goal, right?
I think this is all I can cram into here. I’d definitely love to discuss this further in person over coffee. Wait, is this another event forming?
OK, I’ll stop now.
Alright… I’m not anti-event, c’mon people!
I just want to make sure people are listening and discussing more often and not always giving in to the urge to “monetize this”. I think in the end we should be more concerned with people and character than the wallet or personal bragging rights.
Concerning human nature: Because something is considered “human nature” does that mean we can’t change it? Yes, there are some elements of nature that are absolutes and unchangeable by us (if you wanna get all literal or whatever). But I am under the opinion these traits we’re discussing in this thread are learned rather than nature. Seems like a stereotype or learned response rather than actual (uncontrollable) nature to me. And thus, can be ratified and directed to a more balanced outcome.
I’ll weigh in from an advertising POV, because that’s my background.
I’ve never seen a strong, creative winner of a campaign that wasn’t a collaborative effort. Yes, most great work starts with one beautiful idea, but it doesn’t become great work until it’s nurtured by a group of minds with a variety of talents, perspectives, and experiences.
These days, everyone seems to not just WANT to lead, but to feel they are entitled to. In my experience, the best leaders enjoy spending some time following, because we learn an awful lot when we do.
I’m not anti-ownership (and I’m certainly not anti-intellectual property), but I’m very pro-collaboration. Exceptional work comes from it. And seriously, I know a lot of people were raised in that “Everyone’s a winner!” mindset, but frankly, there aren’t that many genuine experts.
There is no shame in being a vital part of a great team. In my opinion, it just doesn’t always have to be about me me me.
I was going to write some of the points here but I was beaten to them. I think it is easy to start an event or to start talking about Yet Another Event (YAE!) but I think the important thing to remember the “Why are we doing this?” And more importantly is “What is our desired outcome?”
Is is about how many people you can get to show up in one place? Then you’re doing it wrong.
Is it about getting press or recognition? You’re doing it wrong.
Is it about changing something or sparking dicsussion, or giving something to someone. Then you’re off to a right start.
Let me go against the common theme here and say there is room for every community to have their own ten conferences put on for their reasons.
If you look at % of participation, the conference market is poor. 10/10 poor. The biggest tech event in Boulder has a 1% population attendance, which is by far the highest I have heard about. We are still fighting for any level of acceptance.
So I would challenge everyone to think of the advice they are giving and what it would have meant to SXSWi when it was a conference for CD rippers. Hungry hungry people trying to build brands can be just as self promotional as those trying to shoot their ideas down…
I don’t think that everyone is equal. I don’t think they we should all have a fair, equal voice in what happens in our society. I think we are all, in some underlying way, looking for recognition. We are looking for inspiration.
It’s the goal of many people to be intrinsically motivated, but far, far too few people are like that. They need and want extrinsic signs that they are doing the right thing, that they are liked and that they are appreciated. It is that way because they have small minds. They don’t get the big picture.
Social media has allowed anyone access to everyone else without barriers. No longer do we have to attend all the right parties in all the right places in order to even be heard. We should, of course, still network as much as possibly, but that trip to NYC or Tokyo or LA is no longer the barrier it has been for so long.
Our biggest problem is that we try to be too much. Everyone wants to be a member of gangplank, a participant of Ignite, a presenter at PodCamp, on the planning committee for ImprovAZ, a speaker at Radiate and a regular attendee of one of the FNs, but it’s just not possible to do so. We need to stop celebrating what makes us the same (for most people, simply being in the same place at the same time) and focus more on what makes us different. We need smaller, invite-only groups that don’t require public support. We don’t need to seek sponsorships of everything in order to make it worthwhile.
Hacknight is an excellent example of a step in the right direction for this. Everyone is allowed to show up, but only 4-5 ppl actually stay late doing something. They WANT to be there. They aren’t sponsored. No one else know that they’re there. They aren’t trying to control anything beyond their influence.
It’s amazing that, for me, the single most influential event every year has the most anonymous of planners. Sure, there are leaders, but no one is writing articles about them. They aren’t out to invite the world, they just want doers, not watchers to participate. Why we don’t have more events like PodCamp, I don’t know.
We all need to be more honest with who we are, what we can contribute and what we expect.
One of the challenges in living is a sparwaling city like Phoenix with a nascent creative class, as opposed to eastern cities with established hierarchies, is that there is a lot of room to start new things, and a lot of people looking to get their feet wet.
The key is knowing when to start your own thing, and when to support others already on the same path. I think anybody starting a new venture should be required to answer Brent’s questions first.
Phoenix has a lot of great things going on. Let’s support and build on them whenever possible, instead of stepping on peoples’ toes in rush for self aggrandizement.
At the same time, let’s also realize that there is still a lot of room for new ventures and innovative ideas and support those who are charting new territory, even if it means we have to take a step back and let others ‘be the hero’ every once and a while.
I think a lot of the answers actually lie within your thoughts and some of the comments. Social media, as we know it today, is in it’s infancy. A huge percentage of businesses now employ “socialites” and many school curriculums have changed to adapt and find their position in the crowd.
This is the same “herd mentality” that is the driving force behind human progression. Some (many) will fall in the process, some will not survive, but the strong-willed, passionate ones will thrive and continue to lead the way for the herd.
Interesting thread, but I think this makes it all too complicated. The tools at our disposal make it easy for people to organize, explore, meet, and share in all kinds of ways. Some work better for you, some work better for me.
I think it’s great that speaking events, unconferences, coworking spaces, and others all blend and meld into the tapestry. They build and learn from each other, and they all have their own lifespans. If new things suck, they’ll die. If they’re good, they’ll find an audience.
For me the only driving rules are to support (or at least not badmouth) other peoples approaches, and to not try and proclaim a Right and a Wrong way. We’re all exploring different paths, and that diversity is what makes exciting things happen.
Great points Brent and lots of food for thought. I think the “Hungry Hungry Hippos” mentality is sort of intrinsic to our society…well not even just ours…the global society really.
Sadly, I think it will always exist. Similar to any product’s life cycle – there will always be the early adopters who will collaborate on, and share with others, this cool widget they just came across. Soon it will hit mainstream and that’s when the “land grab” seems to occur. There’s nothing wrong with the mainstream (I would say I fall into that category more times than not) but the trouble lies in the motives behind it. Are you jumping on the bandwagon for fear of missing your piece of the pie or are you doing it because you truly feel you have something of value to offer?
There’s a lot of people touting collaboration right now, but in many cases it seems the definition of that word has been muddied.