renegade element: Comments

Comment on "Corner of the sky."

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 18:21:25 -0500

Woohoo! It's a match made in heaven. You rock, lady!

- Dana Carlisle Kletchka

Comment on "Corner of the sky."

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 18:02:28 -0500

You go girl! Most excellent! I was thinking about you and how it was going today and there it is! So very happy for you! listening to "Crazy Train" on the radio..take that train to your corner of the sky... Have fun and keep your feet under you! ;)

- Tim Aley

Comment on "Corner of the sky."

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 18:01:27 -0500

Congratulations, I knew you'd find your place. I'm so happy for you!

- Erica

Comment on "Corner of the sky."

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 17:47:18 -0500

Rock on, woman, and ENJOY THE RIDE!!!! :)

- Stevie Rocco

Comment on "Harnessing that feedback goodness."

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:31:59 -0500

Can we use this tool as a PSU student? Where can we find it? Thanks!

- Kaka

Comment on "First rule of Fight Club."

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 06:56:24 -0500

Wow! You're getting to a point where you could write a book with your conference-related adventures (or at least a coffee-table one, anyway). Do take care for the rest of the trip. =)

- Nikki Massaro Kauffman

Comment on "First rule of Fight Club."

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:02:26 -0500

Sheesh, glad you're going to be OK, but sorry for your predicament/injury. I could never operate without my glasses.

- MARY ELIZABETH JANZEN

Comment on "First rule of Fight Club."

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 22:25:10 -0500

I'm glad you lived to tell the tale, but be careful. We (I especially) need you to come back in one piece. Now get Audrey to knit you a mummy bandage and get some sleep.

[Seriously, I'm glad you didn't get more seriously hurt and you have a sense of humor about what happened.]

- ALLAN SHAWN GYORKE

Comment on "First rule of Fight Club."

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 22:03:00 -0500

Glad you're ok. That is some seriously good field dressing. You learned that from your Hawk hubby, didn't you? Glad you're ok!

- ERIN CRAMER LONG

Comment on "First rule of Fight Club."

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:54:06 -0500

I'm so confused. You went into a bar and didn't have a round? Talk about head trauma, see a doctor immediately.

- Todd

Comment on "First rule of Fight Club."

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:46:21 -0500

You got an actual (not virtual) round of applause for this post from the #knitPistols. Well-recovered, ma'am. And have a great time! Be well!

- Stevie, Hannah, Nancy, and Beth

Comment on "First rule of Fight Club."

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:44:49 -0500

bummer... I know of some good lawyers in NYC!!! ;)
Were you in midtown when this happened?

- cliff

Comment on "First rule of Fight Club."

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:44:18 -0500

Sheesh, Robin. Glad you seem to be okay.

I hope the tough old city duly noted that you, as they used to say in the old days, are one tough broad.

- Jamie Oberdick

Comment on "Connections."

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 11:44:52 -0500

@Mark: I love that we continue to explore Twitter and how our use of it continues to change and adapt. I like the way you phrase it: water cooler conversations with professional colleagues. That is a great way of looking at it, and really my primary use of it. Nikki and I have talked in depth about how our coworkers include all of you, and I even have a slide in one of my presentations that shows just how many educational institutions I'm connected to through the power of social networking (specifically, Twitter). Yes, the challenge now is to filter so we can maintain those connections. As always, priorities matter. My way of making family first? I totally disconnect from the ethers, and focus on the real life relationships. We all do what works best for each of us. Thanks for weighing in on this discussion.

And scratch Kohl's ears for me -- I can't wait to meet him in person next year!

- rb smail

Comment on "Connections."

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 10:49:18 -0500

June 10, 2008 - the day I "got" twitter.

You (and your great PSU colleagues) showed me the light at the social media workshop that day. This workshop was one of the best I've been a part of and one of the many things I learned that day was how to frame my own personal approach to using Twitter. I had been on Twitter for a long time but never was able to derive value.

For me, Twitter is about "water cooler" conversations with professional colleagues. It is the most valuable social media platform I have to connect with my peers and benefit form the wisdom of the crowd. @NikkiMK said it best earlier this year: "Twitter has redefined the word co-worker".

The other thing I did immediately after that conference was set up a 2nd Twitter account for my personal life. This has allowed me to keep the @markgr account on point and hopefully improve the signal to noise ratio.

Moving forward, I am going to be interested to see how the technology evolves to deal with information overload. We need better tools to aggregate the information that interests us, and then filer the signal from the noise. (See Clay Shirkey's takes on "Filter Failure").

Finally, I couldn't agree more with Brad on the importance of family and work/life balance. And with that, I'm off to play with Kohl, who can't wait to come to the PSU conference next year!

- Mark Greenfield

Comment on "Connections."

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 16:14:12 -0500

@tsand: Thanks! Sadly, I didn't even have this in a draft folder. This post has been rattling around in my brain for a long time, and when I read Brad's post, I literally couldn't wait on it; it opened the floodgates (I was in transit) and I had to find a place to stop and capture the thoughts into some semblance of order before they made a mess in my car. :)

@Shelley: I think that people lose sight of the forest for the trees. The thing I love about social media is that social aspect that connects us. The thing I hate about social media is that social aspect that excludes us. We've seen it in the whole follow/unfollow crowd divider, and now we have lists where *I* think we're tight, but I'm hurt you don't have me on a list that says so for others to see. I've been a renegade element for a long time, and I'm used to not being a part of the cool kids club. My thing is that we have to remember that THIS IS ONLY A TOOL TO HELP US CONNECT. Or do business. Or whatever it is that we do. I like to think of it as going to the party, and I hang out with this group for a while, but then I casually sidle over to another group, and then the group in the corner has someone laughing REALLY LOUDLY (oh wait, that's me) and I have to go see what's up. I'm engaging with most everyone there, but in many different ways. As for you, you are indeed on my private HAWT list. That is all.

@Brad: First and foremost, thanks for understanding that this post is NOT about "bashing Brad"; it really was ignited by your post which touched on something I've obviously been thinking about for some time. Thanks also for being good enough to respond in kind. And yes, I've used Klout. As you might suspect, Klout does categorize me as a Persona, and by their definition (listed in your comment), I would agree. For the record, their definition of Connector is as follows:

Connector - You are a constant source of information to your friends and co-workers. There is a good chance that you probably introduced several of your friends to Twitter. Your taste and opinion is respected and your judgment is trusted.

Now, I really wouldn't go far enough to say my taste and opinion is respected, and I DEFINITELY laugh about my judgment being trusted; however, as an educational technologist, my job is to help people use the right tools for the job. That might be connecting them with the right technology, or the right ideas, or the right people. In that way, I still argue that I am a connector, but somehow my sparkly personality got in the way. :) As long as we all understand that there is actually a chewy nugget of value at the center, then we're good.

In terms of your follow number of 200, to me that is an abstract, but I will agree that there is a certain number of follows that is the right balance of being able to filter the stream and still engage with your audience. I tend to go through mine and whittle them down every so often, but what usually gets the boot are the social media/design/tech resources, because I end up subscribing to their rss feed instead. My number is a bit high right now, and I feel weeding process will begin soon (although using groups means the number I actively follow is significantly less, and contributes to added lag between weedings). I also consider it a self correcting process: When the noise gets to be too much, I go through and decide where the noise is coming from, and how to get that info without drowning out the rest of the twitterstream. As we've said, you're mileage may vary, and that's the beauty of social media. Thank you for your kind words. The second round is on me.

@Jess: If I could fave your "First time reader, long time fan" comment, I *so* would. That is shiny, Cap'n! I also agree that we use the platforms differently, and I constantly struggle to find the balance. I have friends who are relatively low tech and new to the social media thing; they only Facebook, and I have to be careful about that. Because I hate Facebook. I hate the apps, I hate the games, I hate the effort it takes to stay involved with everyone. I just don't have the time to commit to it. I'm also wary of exposing my family to others who may or may not know them. But when my Facebook only friends comment on a post, I make sure to comment back to them, so they don't feel as though I'm not connecting because I'm not interested. I'm just not interested in the tool they've chosen to connect with. They basically dragged me kicking and screaming to be more active on my Facebook account (I've had it for _years_), and I have. Not my preference, but that's okay. It is what it is.

@Adam: The thing that thrilled me about you is that our first time meeting was in a hotel lobby because you tweeted out that you had just arrived and was sitting there hanging. We'd never met before, and yet we sat down and started talking like friends. I thought that was great, and it is typifies what I love when social media meets in real life--the instant recognition and continuation of conversations that began online. Of course, you have a lot of pressure staying in that "totes-magotes" list; all I can say is glad I'm not you. ;)

Thank you everyone, for your comments. Really, you guys RAWK. (And yes, I'm eying you up, @shelleyKeith. HAWT.)

- rb smail

Comment on "Connections."

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:20:10 -0500

I'm on one of Brad's lists that also includes @tsand? And @fjgaylor? And @howardkang? This won't end well when one of us gets the boot. ;)

- Adam Epstein

Comment on "Connections."

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:35:41 -0500

Awesome, awesome, awesome. First time reader, long time fan. :)

Again - we do all use platforms differently. Maybe the sting comes from which is your primary...?

Excellent food for thought(s)...

@jesskry

- Jess

Comment on "Connections."

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:32:55 -0500

First, thanks for being specific and not beating around the bush. Not that I would ever expect that from you. :) Thanks also for joining me in the "too much work to be blogging" camp, but still making it happen. It's a timely discussion and you've greatly enhanced it.

I opened TextEdit and am just going to type my thoughts as I go. Ready? Rock.

Re: being a connector, have you ever tried Klout.com? According to Klout:

"Bradjward is a persona. You have built a personal brand around your identity. There is a good chance that you work in social media or marketing but you might even be famous in real life. Being a persona is not just about having a ton of followers, to make it to the top right corner you need to engage with your audience. Make no mistake about it though, when you talk people listen."

(I'd be interested to see if Klout looks at you as Connector, Casual, Persona or Climber.)

Love your explanation of why we are not 'Twitter compatible" but are Facebook friends. And yes, the first round is on me. :)

You totally pegged me on the List of Joe, Howard and @tsand. It also includes @epsteada, and it's called Totes Magotes. (http://twitter.com/bradjward/totes-magotes). I have a private list called clients, and a new list of family and IRL friends. But again, until this functionality is introduced to mobile, it's not of value to my lifestyle.

Not sure why I picked 200. It just felt right. It's like the packet that gets the intervention… you have to have a goal at first. I made that my goal. I'll undoubtedly creep back up towards the 750-1000 mark, but this time I will be much more conscious about who I follow.

In closing, you rock. Glad we've met, glad we're connected (facebook style), and looking forward to knowing you better.

:)
Brad

- Bradjward

Comment on "Connections."

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:27:42 -0500

Oh, and I'm mortally offended that you didn't mention me specifically and in triplicate. That is all.

- Shelley