Greg Verdino

Twitter, shunning, siberia and solitary confinement

During my travels earlier this week, I had the pleasure of listening to Michael Nicholas of Carat present about the fundamental importance of social connections and the impact of groups on individual behavior.  Since then, I keep thinking about one particular point he made -- I liked it enough that I'm bound to steal it and stick it in one of my own presentations somewhere down the line; but in the meantime I wanted to share it with you.  It's good brain-fodder and goes something like this:

You can understand a lot about the importance of social connections by looking at the punishments we bestow upon individuals who do wrong. 

By way of example, Michael pointed out that our criminals are locked up in jails and prisons -- taken out of the community and largely cut off from their normal social connections.  And what happens if you do something particularly bad when you're in prison?  We put you in solitary confinement, cut off from all social interaction.

Think about it; solitary confinement might be one of the most extreme examples, but you can easily find plenty of others if you look around. 

The Amish shun individuals who stray from their society's core beliefs.  A child who misbehaves is likely to get a 'time out,' which generally entails having him sit alone for a short period of time; a rebellious teen might get sent to her room or, if the offense is particularly heinous, grounded. 

The age-old Russian practice of banishing offenders to distant and sparsely populated Siberia has become a common analogy for virtually any fate worse than death (like being reassigned to a remote field office or a back-office department or division of your company.)

Not inviting someone to your party because they aren't cool enough?  Cutting off ties with a friend or relative who offended you in some way?  Yep, all part of the same thing.

Community is important.  It always has been.  In fact, it's fundamental to who we are.  Humans are pack animals, social creatures. 

Is it any wonder that those of us who turn to the web for community get a bit frantic when the social computing tools we use to connect with other people stop working, even if only for a short while? 

For the digitally inclined, a day without Twitter (for example) feels like banishment to Siberia (er, Cyberia), not because we love the technology so much but because it strips us of much needed interaction with our friends and peers.  Sure, this is a trivial instance and not really a 'punishment' even though, at the time, it might feel like the Gods 2.0 are punishing us.  But it seems that the inability to connect with our online network (the people, not the technology) is one part of the bigger whole; and one of the reasons social computing technologies are so important to so many people.

This last bit probably doesn't seem profound -- it isn't -- but the notion of understanding the importance of community by understanding the nature of punishment certainly forces you to consider this whole social media thing from new, interesting angles.

That's what I think, at least.  How about you?

A meditation on the metaverse

If you're like me, you sometimes need an excuse to take a breather in the middle of a hectic week.  Maybe this video, "Metaverse" by NYC-based visual artist Derek Lerner, will fit the bill.  If you can find five minutes of downtime -- or more importantly, if you need five minutes of downtime -- Lerner's piece might be just the thing to help you detox, de-stress and focus on something other than the chaos of your day-to-day grind.

Metaverse from Derek Lerner on Vimeo.

[Feed and email readers, click through to watch the embedded video.]

If you're totally geeked-out and want to learn more about the inspiration for this video, here is the story in Derek's own words.  Interesting stuff for those of us who expend even a small portion of our massive brainpower on topics like mobility, virtual worlds and the blur between our physical and digital lives.

"For the last year I have been heavily involved in virtual worlds, primarily Second Life. This has prompted many thoughts about the concept of virtual space in general as well as blurring lines between simulation and real.

Mixing of realities, infinite space, multi-user online 3D collaborative environments, and time travel.

When asked to contribute work to the NOKIA Trends Lab project I immediately started to think about the level of connectivity and immersive experience handheld wireless hybridized multifunction devices offer, resulting in a type of virtual space. The sense I get when walking down the street taking photos, listening to the radio, & then uploading images to a server is of a disjointed reality where one's mind is in another place but body is walking down the street.

Inspired by this, I used a NOKIA N93 to film video feedback loops creating abstract video drawings as a metaphor for 3D immersive virtual space. Infinite syndicated regurgitated communicative white noise evoking feelings of becoming so intertwined with digital communications that the grayness of life as we currently know it is a blurry place of virtual and real."

Nobody is wisia than us

I'm playing around with wisia.us, a new collaborative polling community that is in private beta right now. What, you may be asking, is collaborative polling? 

Well, let's say you want an answer to a question like "what are the best blogs that every marketing executive should read?"  You sign into wisia and you create a poll.

Then any other wisia community member can add their picks to the list of possible poll responses. 

When the list gets to eight entries long, wisia opens the poll to voting.  At that point, community members can vote for any of the suggested responses or continue to add their own choices to the list (at which point, those choices are also open to community voting.)

Finally, once a 'crowd' of 100 people has participated in the poll (either by voting or adding their choices to the list of responses), community members can view real-time results and see how their own votes are impacting the bottomline numbers. 

At the end of the process, the most popular choices on the crowdsourced list should represent a best-of-the-best for whatever topic the poll aims to address.

It seems like an interesting way to harness the wisdom of crowds and since you're my crowd, I'd like to invite you to give it a whirl.

All you need to do is visit wisia.us, click the button for people who have invitation codes, then enter YOUR email address and MY invitation code: gregverdino. 

I have 48 to give away, so hop on it if you're a private beta fiend.  

Have fun and let me know what you think.

In the meantime, ladies, I notice that my name doesn't appear on the poll for "the hottest men that every woman should fantasize about."

Social Graces: my latest bit of slideshow goodness

As I prep for tomorrow's trip to Charlotte, I'd like to share the slides I'll be showing during tomorrow's presentation.  No doubt you'll recognize some familiar themes but that's the nature of the "Social Media 101" beast, I suppose.

This presentation is also in the running for the Slideshare World's Best Presentation '08 - so please take a moment to hit the Slideshare site and give it a thumbs up.  I need all the votes I can get. :-)

| View | Upload your own

[Feed and email readers, please click through to see the embedded slideshow.]

As always, your comments are welcome -- feel free to chime in here or at Slideshare.

This week in freakin' speakin'

In addition to my usual crayon workload (or should that be work-overload), I am making a run up the east coast for three speaking appearances this week.

On Tuesday, I'll be in Charlotte, NC talking to the good folks at Wachovia Bank about how brands are using social media.  I'll share the presentation here; be sure to check back in the next day or so to get a peek at my wicked awesome slide set featuring some great examples of good and horrifying examples of bad social media marketing.

Update: This event has been postponed until September 15th.  More to come as the new date approaches.

Wednesday finds me back in New York, where I'm participating in a panel discussion about social network marketing best practices for today and tomorrow, at the Facebook Developer Garage meet-up.  This event aims to bring the Silicon Alley app developer community together with the Madison Avenue crowd.  If you're interested in attending, you can request an invite through the Facebook Event page.  Or you can join the Garage FB Group to connect with other interested Facebookers and learn about future events.

And finally, the end of the week brings me to Massachusetts for PodCamp Boston 3.  I believe the festivities kick off on Friday evening, but the real action happens at 11:15 on Saturday morning when I'm moderating a panel about "Smart Social Media Marketing."  My rock star panelists are Adam Broitman from Morpheus Media, Doug Haslam from SHIFT Communications,  and Philip Robertson from crayon client ooVoo.  This is a great opportunity to learn what works in social media marketing - and what doesn't - from a group of guys who know the real deal through first hand experience.

The full Podcamp Boston schedule (including the details about when and where you can catch my panel) is here and you can register here,  Or if you're a college student, find out how to attend for free courtesy of ooVoo.

I hope to meet some of you at one or more of these events.

(All day, all day) avatar dancing

Although I've been assured that this video is more creepy than cool, I can't stop watching it.  What do you think?  Totally creepy or totally cool?

My Life as An Avatar 06-08 from Annie Ok on Vimeo.

[Feed and email readers, click through to watch the embedded video.]

It takes two to tango, but only one for a trend

Who's ready to waste a bit of time on a Friday afternoon?

You are - you know you are!

One Person Trend Stories is a new blog that skewers the typically vapid trend pieces that run in mainstream media through a series of parody articles that highlight breaking trends based on anecdotal evidence gained by observing the behavior of just one person each. 

Launched just a couple of days ago, and written anonymously, it has already attracted the attention of the folks at PSFK and Gawker.  I suppose that means that One Person Trend Stories doesn't actually qualify as a one person trend. Oh the irony. But here are just a few of the one person trends that do qualify:

• The return of the perm
• The renewed popularity of patchouli
• Women peeing in subway station restrooms
• Aggravation with Facebook status updates

The site kinda reminds me of Bob Powers' Girls Are Pretty Forever blog and Happy Cruelty Day! book, both of which poke fun at Hallmark holiday overload by highlighting some truly crap days of celebration.  Anyone do anything special on May 7th? It was "Have Sex So Horrible You'll Go Home and Slap your Mama Day."

What would you do with 750,000 internet users?

You can take the entrepreneur out of the start-up but you can't take the start-up out of the entrepreneur.  Or something like that...

My buddy Darren ("My Friends Call Me D-Bone") Herman -- a serial entrepreneur now leading the digital media group at a media buying agency called Media Kitchen -- has issued an open challenge to any company or entrepreneur who might have cool ideas about how to monetize an audience of 750,000 U.S. Internet consumers. He is advising a company who can serve up the people and if you can bring a compelling business model to the table, you might land yourself an exclusive business development deal.  Love it!

Here's everything you need to know, in D-Bone's own words --

"I’d like to pose a challenge to all entrepreneurs or established companies who are looking to increase their distribution (and business) in the digital media world.  I’m friendly advising someone/company that has legal access to over 750,000 US Internet users and we are trying to come up with new ways to monetize the audience.

Distribution will come from access to a ‘portal’ like page and thru email announcements.  How can we monetize these better and/or release a new product/service/solution to this audience.

Since we probably aren’t going to build new businesses around this, we are looking to potentially partner (through business development arrangements) with entrepreneurs like you.  We are looking to hear from entrepreneurs or established companies who have a product/service/solution in the market today, or have an “idea” of what we could potentially pursue.

Think of this as an RFI (request for information.) The ultimate prize is having access to the user base which should help us increase our revenue (top and bottomline) and add value to the community.  In most cases, should you be picked, you would receive a business development arrangement that is mutually exclusive.  There is potential for us to fund “ideas,” but that is in a case by case basis.

Interested?  You can fill out this form.

Feel free to spread the link to anyone:  http://snurl.com/2vvbw

I’ll be closing the entries at the end of next week (7/18/08).

Happy entrepreneuring!"

ooVoo to send 20 college kids to PodCamp Boston

The grand daddy of social media unconferences, PodCamp Boston is less than two weeks away.  It all goes down on July 18, 19 and 20 in the Joseph B. Martin Conference Center at Harvard Medical School. 

I'll be there, along with more than 250 of my friends-I've-never-actually-met.  And thanks to PodCamp sponsor and crayon client ooVoo, maybe you can be there too. For free!

Let me explain.

As part of their PodCamp Boston sponsorship, ooVoo will provide 20 college students with paid-up PodCamp tickets -- that's a $50 value, since PodCamp has switched to a pay-to-participate model this time around. (You'll have to cover your own travel - so if you live or study in Boston, this is perfect for you.)

Now with only 20 free passes, ooVoo can only take care of the first 20 students who email them at ooVoo@crayonville.com.  But before you run off half-cocked, you do need to follow a couple of simple rules:

1. You really do need to be a college student and you'll need to have the .edu email account to prove it.  I know that professors and even lots of alumni use .edu address, but if you are a member of the fulltime workforce and feel no guilt in taking a free ticket that could have gone to a college student who actually deserves it... well, then I don't think we can be friends anymore.
2. You need to be an ooVoo subscriber.  But let's face facts; you should be an ooVoo subscriber anyway.  Maybe I need to say that, since they're a client, but I am also an avid fan who uses ooVoo for lots and lots of video chat.  Besides, ooVoo's Standard package -- which allows you to have 3-way video calls, send video messages to your friends, text chat and share files -- is free, free, free.  If you don't have ooVoo, sign up today and then see if you qualify for a PodCamp pass.

But before you run off two-thirds-cocked, you should probably check out the complete details at the ooVoo blog.

If you're a student, hopefully you'll be interested in giving it a shot -- and if you're one of ooVoo's lucky 20, hopefully we'll get a chance to meet.  Heck, I might even let you buy me a beer -- unless you're underage, in which case I guess I'll have to buy the beer (don't tell your parents.)

If you're not a student, you can help out by spreading the word to any college peeps you happen to know.  Once again, check the ooVoo blog for complete details.

Birds of a feather, flocking...

This morning, I happened across a video of flocking starlings that Rick Julian of creative agency Quo Vadis has posted to Facebook.  I don't know Julian but I suppose he's a friend-of-a-Facebook-friend.  So when that friend commented on the video and that comment showed up in my News Feed, I was drawn along and, before I new it, I was on the Quo Vadis Facebook page and mesmerized by the video.

Since Facebook doesn't allow embeds (boo) and I can't find the video on YouTube (boo), I've embedded a similar video below (as always, feed and email readers will have to click through to my blog to watch.)  The Quo Vadis version has a nice soundtrack but you'll definitely get the gist from this one.

I've also shared the Quo Vadis version on my Facebook profile so, if we're Friends, you can watch the actual video that inspired this post there.

As much as the video is fascinating, the Quo Vadis commentary about the video -- and why it's relevant to those of us who work in marketing or media, make a living helping others understand the social web, or fancy themselves trend spotters of one kind or another -- really brought it into focus for me:

"These starlings move in complete concert with one another, individual, yet of one mind.  We think people move in a similar way: flocking to locations, experiences, trends . . . often unaware of the forces that move them."