From communication to conversation to Roadshow: Where’s your head at? « John Sumser Presents The Recruiting Roadshow

"I think one-on-one communication is best. A personal note or email, phone call or face-to-face conveys more meaning for its immediacy, relevance and directness than being copied or conferenced in ever could.

The medium is important too. Reading leads us to hear the sender’s voice in ways that a telephone call makes impossible. The nuance of a word and the inflection of a voice cannot convey the same messages communicated by facial expressions and body language."

Five Degrees of Friendship: Part 1 « Snarky Behavior

"I was reading at Micro Persuasion that the virtually overnight popularity of social networking sites has dynamically changed the meaning of “friendship,” or at least drastically changed the threshold by which friends are categorized.

Rohit has written the seminal entry on the economic cost-benefit analysis of interpersonal relationships, and I highly recommend that all of my readers give it due consideration. His sub-categorizations may be cynical, but they’re also extremely insightful and speak to the matter at hand of quality vs. quantity (plus it always feels good to be commoditized by your friends)."

Linked Intelligence » Blog Archive » Networking Lessons from Gene Simmons

"This brings to light a very important networking concept: the action threshold. The action threshold is simply this: how well does someone have to know you in order to take action on the request you’re making of them, or in order to proactively take action on your behalf when they see an opportunity?

You probably know at least one or two people, maybe more, who are capable of making a $10,000 donation to charity. Would they do it for you?"

The Social Grid | Leveraging the Power of the Web and Focusing on Development Simplicity

The Social Grid | Leveraging the Power of the Web and Focusing on Development Simplicity

Tony Hey | Corporate Vice President of Technical Computing at Microsoft

Social Psychology Network

"Welcome to Social Psychology Network, one of the largest Internet sites devoted to psychological research and teaching. In these pages, you'll find more than 15,000 links related to psychology."

Talent management is not the same as human capital management « Donald H Taylor

"Is talent management the same thing as human capital management?

Certainly not.

Of the many differences between these two terms, at least one is fundamental. Does it matter? Yes, for lots of reasons. Yet, when I open this Friday’s eLearning Network conference on Talent Management, I shall argue that for now, at any rate, we can ignore the differences.

Here’s why."

Why Enforcing Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is Morally Questionable | Dennis Masaka

Docketed literature on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) exhibits heated contentions on the nature of business-society relations. This paper seeks to explore this contentious issue in the light of contemporary incorporation of CSR in business strategic plans. It notes that enforcing CSR on business might lead to its manipulation to advance corporate organisations’ purely self-interested ends rather than pursuing intrinsic philanthropic activities for the good of society. An insight into the undesirable consequences of enforcing CSR is given. Using Kantian ethics, the paper notes that the instrumental use of CSR by corporate organisations is immoral because it does not treat CSR as an end in itself in the same way as the profit maximisation is conceptualized in business circles. The paper, therefore, concludes that the integration of CSR in corporate organisations’ strategic plans is seen as instrumental to the realisation of their profit motives other than a genuine show of social concern.

The 4 Building Blocks for Creating Strong Service Relationships - RainToday

"Some of my most pleasant memories as a child are of playing with wood building blocks. Once I mastered the basics of stacking one block on another, my goal was always to build as high as I possibly could. Being the quick learner that I am, I soon discovered that the stronger the foundation, the higher each stage of my skyscraper could be.

Sacrificing width for height (I only had so many blocks) would result in skyscraper collapse.Some of my most pleasant memories as a child are of playing with wood building blocks. Once I mastered the basics of stacking one block on another, my goal was always to build as high as I possibly could. Being the quick learner that I am, I soon discovered that the stronger the foundation, the higher each stage of my skyscraper could be. Sacrificing width for height (I only had so many blocks) would result in skyscraper collapse."

Psychological Disorders Affecting Bloggers & Social Media Addicts | Laughing Squid

"The Online Journalism Blog has outlined (here and here) some of the common psychological disorders that often affect bloggers and social media addicts. Examples include “Twitter Rage”, “Meme Orphanism” and “User Account Phantasm”.

Recently the beta launch of the popular new invite-only web service Pheltup has been causing some people to suffer from “Social Network Exclusion Anxiety”.

If you are aware of any other disorders like these, please report your findings."

12 Tips To Grow the Subscriber Base on Your Second Blog

12 "One of the biggest benefits to having multiple blogs is the ability to transfer many of your readers from one blog to another. Building a significant audience is obviously not an easy task, so if you can get a boost in your subscriber count and number of visitors by having multiple blogs, you’ll be able to grow much faster than you could otherwise. Not only can this help in terms of numbers, but readers that subscribe to all of your blogs will tend to be more loyal and more responsive to you"

10 Optical Illusions in 2 Minutes

Internet Evolution - Editor's Blog - Whose Data Is It Anyway?

"There's been a lot of chatter and fist flinging surrounding data portability over the course of the last week.

A brief recap: MySpace, Facebook, and Google each introduced its own version of data portability, allegedly making it easier for site users to port their friends and data about the Web, magic-carpet style. The happy, slappy blogosphere cheered... until last Friday.

In a blog on Friday, Facebook said that it was banning Google Friend Connect from accessing Facebook user data -- essentially dropping a big old boulder on the road to data portability. What came next was finger pointing: Facebook at Google, and the blogosphere at Facebook."

The Praized Blog » Blog Archive » Is Word of Mouth the Great Local Search Disruptor?

"Was reading this morning a great analysis by Mathew Ingram about a New York Times article describing the way “young people” get/read their political news. It’s clearly more and more about word of mouth and your social graph.

As Mathew says: “It’s not that there is anything earth-shatteringly new in the piece, mind you. But I think it does a great job of describing how digital “word of mouth” — in other words, social networking of all kinds including Twitter, IM, Facebook and so on — has become a dominant means of news delivery for young people in a way that I’m not sure old geezers like myself quite grasp, no matter how often people describe it”"

Hit the Road, Jacque « John Sumser Presents The Recruiting Roadshow

"Imagine this: An expectant mother decides she will go to the hospital because it seems that the baby is coming, no time to wait. Her sister carries the bags to the car, helps her sibling get in and they leave for the medical center.

So it was with Rose Mireille Exumé and her sister Alta Grace Garcon who one Monday afternoon left their home in Deerfield Beach, Florida to travel the 15 miles or so to Broward General.

What is normally a routine journey on I-95 was for this family anything but and Olivier Jean Paul Exumé was born in the fast lane in the back seat of his auntie’s SUV."

Digital Ethnography » Blog Archive » Teaching with Twitter

"The World Simulation was an amazing success this year, thanks in part to the use of Twitter and Jott, which allowed students to send live updates of major events through their mobile phones. You can check out the tweets here. Below is a video of the tweet-stream roughly synchronized with the events of the world simulation (sped up about 4x to compress all the events into less than 5 minutes.)"

Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity | National Interest, The | Find Articles at BNET.com

"ONE OF THE standard put-downs of economists maintains that 'about half of what economists say is right -- the trouble is they don't know which half.' In the same vein, Nobel Laureate Paul Samuelson, with a mixture of derision and contrition, has observed that 'economists have correctly predicted seven of the last four economic recessions.' In Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity, Francis Fukuyama is, ostensibly at least, more generous, conceding that neoclassical economics is '80 percent correct.' The 'missing 20 percent of human behavior' is the concern of his provocative, insightful, and deftly-written book."

The Social Organization: The Power of Raw Transparency

"Raw emotion and transparency are very powerful things - and they cause humans to have searing memories of information. On my way in to work this morning, I was listening to NPR as I often do and they had on their typical Friday StoryCorps piece. This week it was a young son, Rahsheed McKenstry, interviewing his mother Rhonetta. It was probably only 1-2 minutes long but it was a very powerful couple of minutes. Why? Both Rahsheed and Rhonetta gave us the gift of raw transparency. And it had a very strong impact.

Part of the power of social media is that it encourages this transparency by allowing for conversations, story telling, and personal perspectives. And those are the very things that make data, content, entertainment, and information memorable."

Connecting the Dots: The Cognitive Age: Why Social Media Matters

"Our economy is down, gas prices are up, jobs are being lost and outsourced, we're at 'war' with possible escalation (e.g., attacking Iran), and there is tremendous uncertainty in nearly every industry being disrupted in some way by the connecting of the globe and the increasing influence of the Internet.

Let me submit for your consideration that the impact of social media -- technologies, software and approaches connecting any of us willing to participate with them online -- is pointing the way toward new systems and behaviors that will enable us all to move higher up the value chain as we learn how, together, we can create and deliver what the world needs in new and innovative ways."

Social Media Breakfast

"Some 90 social media experts, enthusiasts, and newbies packed the Ryles Jazz Club in Inman Square, Cambridge last Thursday morning for Boston’s Social Media Breakfast 7.

The event featured four short presentations on the topic of “hiring and getting hired in the Web 2.0 world,” as well as Christopher S. Penn’s demo of his “power tools” for LinkedIn."

Trust, OpenID, VRM, Data Portability and how does it hang together? « Is this Future Shock?

"… or who am I, anyway? Do *you* trust me?

I’m a moderately keen Facebook user. I have a number of friends, and am in a few groups - although I avoid all zombie battles and the like.

I’m a member of a number of web forums, and a newsgroup user.

I also blog in a couple of places, Twitter, and use some other Web2.0/blogging tools. I use last.fm intermittently.

I don’t think any of my online contacts know all the places I am, and I have differing reputations/standing in all of them."

How To Generate Mass Interest in Your Business During Tough Times

"How To Generate Mass Interest in Your Business During Tough Times

Leveraging educational techniques to pull in high quality leads"

B2B Lead Generation Blog: On giving away ideas

"I had coffee with a potential partner and our conversation ebbed to a discussion about marketing philosophy and lead generation. He said something like, 'I think companies [like yours] give away many of their trade secrets on their website. They provide too much information. If I wanted to compete with you... all I would need to do is read your website or blog. The purpose of a website is to solicit interest... you've got to get people to respond... to generate leads.'

My response..."

The day there was no news

The Right Brain vs Left Brain test | PerthNow

"The Right Brain vs Left Brain test ... do you see the dancer turning clockwise or anti-clockwise?

If clockwise, then you use more of the right side of the brain and vice versa.

Most of us would see the dancer turning anti-clockwise though you can try to focus and change the direction; see if you can do it."

Click on the image...

Rainmakers and Expert Salespeople on the Secrets of Sales Excellence

" I was at a networking meeting where everyone in attendance was expected to stand up and give a commercial that would describe to everybody else in attendance who they're looking to meet. Someone who works in the real estate industry stood up and said, 'What I really need is someone to fix this economy!'

I was at a trade show on Wednesday talking with a CEO and asked, 'How's business?' He leaned in and whispered, 'We're up 48%.' Me: 'Holy cow!' He then spent the next few minutes telling me all the things that he and his employees started doing months ago to make sure that the economy was an opportunity, not an obstacle."

Windridge - Identify. Develop. Retain.: Trust is an Economic Driver

"A great conference call this morning with Stephen M.R. Covey on the Speed of Trust ....

This is a powerful concept: Trust = Speed = Results. In other words trust is directly tied to the economics of an organization’s performance and desired outcomes. It is not simply a soft concept of personal development but a very real and validated fact that when trust is present in an organization, costs go down....it’s that simple."

Johnnie Moore: Open Source Marketing

"Conventional marketing is under a lot of pressure these days and many of the techniques that worked in the past aren't working any more.

People are becoming smarter, better informed and better connected. It's increasingly hard to pull the wool over people's eyes. This affects every profession in the UK. For example, many patients are now better informed than their doctors about their particular illness, thanks to the internet. This applies really strongly to marketing, where consumers are able to bite back against misleading or fanciful advertising.

On top of this, the media are becoming fragmented. There was a time when to get publicity for a product, you just needed to run a series of 30 second TV ads on one or two channels. Not any more. There is a proliferation of channels and more and more people are simply skipping the ads. The growth of blogs (personal websites) and podcasts (downloadable radio programs made by individuals) are signs that individuals can create their own media now, rather than listen to the voice of authority."

Enemies of Reason

Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

The Rhythm of Business - Leading Thoughts

"Evidence abounds that Professor Drucker's prediction is coming to pass - that the world of business is changing fundamentally. What's next? The rise of relationship business.

The Rhythm of Business is chronicling a profound transformation of business. Driven by powerful, well-informed customers, this century's relationship-focused companies are quickly replacing last century's business-centric companies."

Cultural Socialutions – Oxymoron or Logical Thought Process? | A Relationship Economy....What Say You?

A "The marketplace is buzzing with the new way of solving problems.

Though is hasn’t been posted at Dictionary.com or Webster.com (yet) “Socialutions” is defined as people, communities and organizations leveraging technology to interact with people for the purpose of solving problems; the act of working together with others to create new solutions to old paradigms of communications and interaction without boundaries and with limitless reach."

Internet Time Wiki / social networking

"What is social networking trying to do? Most of the applications so far offer one or more of the eight features or functionalities shown in blue on the mindmap above:

- Finding people (discovering, rediscovering, or locating them)

- Building directories, network maps and social networks

- Inviting people to join your networks

- Managing access to your networks ('permissioning')

- Connecting with people in your networks (using various media)

- Managing relationships across media (e.g. making the jarring transition from e-mail or weblog-based relationships to voice-to-voice or face-to-face)

- Collaborating with people in your networks, and

- Content sharing with people in your networks (and other learning, knowledge-finding and knowledge-sharing functionalities that are arguably the domain of Knowledge Management rather than Social Networking)"

The evolution of the internet | BrianBreslin.com

"Let me preface this post by saying I dislike the versioning of the web, especially the “Web2.0” term, however I do feel the web has gone through evolutionary stages. Also for all intents and purposes, this historical analysis starts in 1995. This post is inspired by a chat that Alex and I had last fall, and which was brought back up a few days ago"

Science Faction

"Science Faction
Exploring links between neurology and human consciousness via art, culture, technology, music, design, and science"

The Cognitive Age - New York Times

"If you go into a good library, you will find thousands of books on globalization. Some will laud it. Some will warn about its dangers. But they’ll agree that globalization is the chief process driving our age. Our lives are being transformed by the increasing movement of goods, people and capital across borders.

The globalization paradigm has led, in the political arena, to a certain historical narrative: There were once nation-states like the U.S. and the European powers, whose economies could be secured within borders. But now capital flows freely. Technology has leveled the playing field. Competition is global and fierce"