My wife is on a mailing list for daily quotes, which are sometimes almost suitable for framing. I particularly enjoyed this combination:
The only really valuable thing is intuition.Apply a little conversational algebra, and we end up with this:
—Albert EinsteinNever use intuition.
—Omar Bradley
Never use the only really valuable thing.That explains so much.
—Albert Bradley (or was it Omar Einstein?)
Is your company in the listening business? Monitoring, measuring, analyzing social media? Using your own technology (not third party tools)? I have a simple request for you. It involves very little effort on your part, and there's free marketing in it for you.
Ready?
I'm in the process of turning my database of listening companies, which I've compiled over the last five years, into an online reference for everybody. Since the killer part of my earlier research projects was writing descriptions of every company, I'm letting you write your own, this time.
If you're on my vendor mailing list, you should already have an invitation. If you don't have it, or you're not on the mailing list, send me an email. The directory goes live next week. It's up to you to fill in the blank on your page.
Tick tock…
I didn't mean to take three months off from blogging. I just put it off, one day at a time. Next thing you know, the leaves are changing colors, and it's cool enough to play outside on a sunny day. Now I'm back, although I never really went away.
Let me 'splain.No, there is too much. Let me sum up.
—"Inigo Montoya" in The Princess Bride
This summer, I started a job, which ended along with the summer. No hard feelings, it just wasn't the fit we hoped for. Now I'm putting more energy into a startup idea I've been kicking around, something that's different from almost everything I've seen. I won't be doing any more syndicated reports, but I am available for consulting projects, and I still cover industry news at Social Media Analysis (see? no summer break there, and we've had investment and acquisition activity to keep up with).
I'm still behind on my reading (some things don't change).
Staring at the draft folder
Blogging returns. There's more to the Omniscience framework, some of the ideas it's led to, and—who knows?—maybe some social media stuff. Defrag is just around the corner, and we're making progress on doing AnalyticsCamp in more cities. I need to write about some of the social media management and metrics books on my pile, too.
Mostly, I'd like to get inertia back on my side on the writing front.
In other words
Nothing much. What's new with you?
Photo by lokidude99.
I have a pile of books on social media, measurement, and management that I'd like to get to. It sits next to another pile of books, and that's become a bit of a problem. While the social media books look potentially useful, my other exploration keeps adding books to the second pile. It's amazing stuff, so I thought I'd share them with you.
Well, that's random
Sometime last year, I decided I needed to start learning about complexity science. I knew that complexity and uncertainty were unavoidable, so I wanted to learn more about how to work through them. I thought that the emerging discipline might be helpful, and Melanie Mitchell's Complexity: A Guided Tour (2009) was the introduction that suggested I was on the right path.
You might not think you're interested in complexity (if you've heard of chaos theory, this is the next generation). It's still fairly obscure, and even its definition isn't completely settled. Because it's inherently interdisciplinary, you'll probably find parts you don't care about. If you're interested in social networks, though, guess what.
Connect this
If you're up for a challenge, read two books by Albert-László Barabási, back to back. Start with Linked: How Everything Is Connected to Everything Else and What It Means (2003), which fills in the background on ideas you know, such as social networks, network analysis, and power-law distributions (the math behind the long tail). Eight years after its initial publication, it's still an excellent source for anyone who has ever used the term social graph. You're using this stuff, so you may as well understand it.
Barabási's newer book, Bursts: The Hidden Patterns Behind Everything We Do (2010), digs into patterns in human activity and how much of what we do can be predicted. I'm not quite sure what this one means, but I suspect it's important.
Plus, where else are you going to find a book about predictions that uses the story of a 16th century peasant uprising in Transylvania to make its point? Yes, it's full of math and theory, but this is a fun one to read, too.
One point I'm going to take to heart is based on the discovery of power-law distributions in communications patterns. It only emerges when people are overwhelmed and start to prioritize, but university emails and Einstein's correspondence show the same pattern. What it means is that bloggers don't need to apologize for quiet periods when they're busy behind the scenes.
Catching up, adding more
Walking people through the framework I'm working on turns out to be bad for clearing the reading backlog. The first person who saw it suggested Nassim Nicholas Taleb's The Black Swan (2007), which was sort of like The Long Tail (2006): one of those concepts that's been discussed so much that you feel like you've read it, even if you haven't.
The basic idea, if you're not familiar with it, is that improbable, high-impact events will occur, and they can't be predicted. Rather than trying to predict them, then, we should structure our environments (not just business) to minimize our exposure to the bad ones and maximize our benefit from the good ones. I'm not ready to give up on attempts to analyze the future, but it's a good reminder to incorporate a healthy dose of uncertainty into the process.
Which leads us to scenarios
The second person I told about the Omniscience framework heard the bit about planning methodologies and pointed me toward GBN and Peter Schwartz's The Art of the Long View (1991). It turns out that I had read the important parts on scenario planning when the book was new, which was reassuring. At some point, though, I need a more detailed source on that topic. Plus, the 20-year-old predictions of trends that are now obvious give the book a distinctly vintage feel.
Fortunately, scenario planning was already part of the mix. So far, it's holding up.
About that framework
I know, I've mentioned the Omniscience framework too many times, and I need to show it to you already. I will. But while that's in draft, I thought you might like some of these. If you feel stuck in the social media bubble, they're are a good antidote.
Update: The post introducing the Omniscience framework is now up.
Attacking the backlog of social media management/measurement books in 3… 2… 1…
School started today, and I'm getting ready for a rush of productivity: new projects, new clients, and new writing projects. But first, let me recommend a few books I read this summer. It's not exactly "what I did on summer vacation," but they might just kick-start some ideas that aren't part of your typical day.
I read Jeffrey Carr's Inside Cyber Warfare back in the spring, so when Richard Clarke's Cyber War started getting mainstream coverage, I knew I needed to read it. Carr made the point that we need better computer security on systems that do important things, but Clarke really bangs the drum and demands attention. Plus, his background guarantees that he gets attention when he wants it.
Clarke emphasizes the nightmare scenarios—power outages, train wrecks, and refinery explosions—so it's not bedtime reading, but if you stick with it through the scary parts, he makes some good points. If you've never thought about how quickly the lights can go out, this might be a wake-up call.
Over dinner at a conference (what do you mean, cyber attacks aren't dinner conversation?), Clarke's book drew a laugh and the comment that I was reading science fiction after starting with the science (Carr). But the real science fiction scare came from Daniel Suarez's Daemon, recommended by my old friend Dave Thomas. Daemon is the story of an AI (articial intelligence) from the world of MMORPGs (massively multiplayer online role-playing games) that takes over the world. If you believe this is possible, you might change your mind about the Internet off switch. Or at least check your offline contingency plans.
And oh, look, there's a sequel. Who needs sleep?
Vinnie Mirchandani's The New Polymath celebrates innovation in, and especially at the intersections of, various technology specialties. It's loaded with examples, and if you're like me—interested in too many topics to pick just one—it provides affirmation that that's ok.
The only problem I had with this book is that Mirchandani makes a major point about And not Or thinking, and people might think I got that from his book. It's really just something that becomes obvious when you regularly share ideas that cross boundaries. The New Polymath is great for pointing out ideas from many fields and connecting them to meaningful outcomes; read it and you'll be challenged and inspired, whatever your usual niche.
The summer's been long and hot—and realistically, we have another month to go before fall weather arrives here—but these books started the gears moving. Now we'll see what happens as a result.
Here's a simple tip that leads to thinking bigger thoughts: when confronting a list, think and, not or.
If we've talked in the last few weeks, you've probably heard a version of this. It's central to how I think about things, and it's why I'm having trouble with most of the usual labels for listening tools and services—the labels imply boundaries that limit the potential applications.
Most people seem to approach things as a series of or questions. I see a lot of it in social media circles:
The thing about or questions is that they expect right and wrong answers. What if both choices are right (possibly in different contexts)? What if options not on the list are also right?
Focus with Or; Explore with And
Or questions simplify things, which makes them easier to understand. They're great when you need to be very clear about what you're doing or what you need. When choosing between a hammer and a screwdriver, it helps to know if you're driving a nail or a screw. Once you know your objectives, or questions are invaluable.
On the other hand, I do a lot of exploring around the edges of the market. I want to know what change is coming, and where it's coming from. Approaching the market as a series of and questions helps me find the adjacent spaces that the or questions exclude. A typical yes, and question is "what else can it do?"
I find that most questions are more interesting if we replace the or with and, and see where it leads.
Soapbox photo by Steve Rhodes.
Searching for a title made up entirely of Boolean operators: priceless.
I was in London for the first time last week, having a great time. After a lunch meeting in the shadow of Tower Bridge, I walked around the Tower of London. As I looked up at the main residence, the first thing that came to mind—no kidding—was, "Oh, king, eh? Very nice!"
Which would have earned me the wrong kind of castle tour back in the day.
Among the many sights I saw, I think the funniest was the warning sign on some construction scaffolding: "Pedestrians beware: water on sidewalk and pavement."
It was raining.
Posting has been light here lately, but I have a good excuse, really. I've just gone through 30 demos in a comparison of 23 social media analysis platforms, from Alterian to Whitevector and including all the usual suspects. Now, I'm in the testing and writing phase of a comparison report that will be available in a few weeks. I'm getting hands-on with a lot of software, so blogging, tweeting, and even lunch are taking a back seat to the project.
The focus this time is on software that's designed to support social media capabilities in a multi-user, multi-project environment (which describes most companies and agencies). While asking the usual questions about features and coverage, I'm noticing interesting trends:
Nose. Grindstone.
Update: The report is now available: Social Media Analysis Platforms for Workgroups.
In my copious spare time, as they say, I'm also working on an analytics unconference—mostly because it will be an event I want to attend. We're not quite ready to announce the details, but the wiki gives the general idea.
I've been busy behind the scenes, but some of my contacts missed the news. If you saw the not-quite-announcement on my not-exactly-secret vendor mailing list, you know what's going on. If you didn't—and your company sells social media analysis products or services—let's get you on the list.
A better way to keep in touch
When I set out to find all of the companies that monitor or measure social media in 2006, I thought I was researching 20 or 30 companies. Today, the database includes more than 170 companies, and it's become impossible to stay in touch through individual emails. To better manage the volume, I set up a mailing list for my vendor contacts.
This is not a client newsletter (that's later). This is my tool for staying in better contact with over 200 vendor contacts around the world. I'm replacing scattershot conversations with a more systematic way to include everyone in what's going on at Social Target. I'll use this list to share:
The first big announcement went out three weeks ago. If you missed it, let me know, and I'll send you a personal copy.
I had seen a review of The Decline of Men
Male-targeted reality shows such as "Ice Road Truckers" and "The Deadliest Catch" tap masculine nostalgia for a time when physical brawn and bravery—not PowerPoint and spreadsheets—defined manly work.I work at a computer, and my last paid job with a significant physical component was lifeguard, but work isn't life. I have other skills that you would never see in an office.
—Guy Garcia
Tagging David Armano, Mack Collier, Mark Hopkins, Marshall Kirkpatrick , and Jake McKee, just in time for your Friday Fun posts.
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