Longtime readers know that I contributed to last year's The Age of Conversation, a crowdsourced book about the impacts of social media that raised more than $15,000 for Variety the Children's Charity. This year, editors Drew McLellan and Gavin Heaton -- with the help of more than 200 contributing authors -- are looking to raise even more money with Age of Conversation 2, on sale today at Lulu.com.
AOC2 is an exercise in collaboration, with 237 authors from 15 countries coming together to produce a volume that demonstrates lots of good and diverse thinking about how social computing and digitally-enabled conversations are changing the ways we work, play and live. AOC2 is also an impressive effort to prove that online conversation can have tangible real world impact -- we're a bunch of bloggers raising money to help children in need.
In my chapter, I use my love/hate relationship with Twitter to tell a personal tale of social media burnout. Don't worry -- my tale has a semi-happy ending. OK, maybe bittersweet is a better word for it but anyway...
I hope you'll grab a copy (or two or three or ten) today. If you're a social media junkie, odds are good you'll find at least one interesting thought or perspective between the covers. Even if you're not, AOC2 is a good way to provide a helping hand to children who can use some help -- as with the original AOC, all profits benefit Variety.
Congrats to everyone who made AOC2 possible: