Reality is Relative

Start-up on the Need for Social Media Clarity…

(Cheat Summary: For clarity think and write first- read others later- although you risk looking like a fool. Also try coining terms like “social media clarity”- googling it with and without quotes to ensure you are reasonably first and can say you did something.)

I found Mack Collier’sRevenge of the Z-List via NewsPaperGrl.com…It had me grinning and then a desire to write…

The Z-List is sort of a mini-backlash against what is sometimes called, the “Blogging Caste System“…Nicely recapped in the link to your left…

Especially this part on Rubel’s post that irritated so many…my favorite one liner from the thread was “have your people call my people?”. For anyone hung up on the entire popularity thing read this piece from IdeaGrove.

Caste System and A-List

“This person is an ‘A-Lister’ or a ‘B-lister’”…most bloggers have heard the terms. I find the entire concept of grades in general rather silly and restrictive, so no surprise I feel the same about someone’s blogosphere-listing. As in Steve’s case I can appreciate any human being feeling overloaded or the inability to respond to every e-mail. Just say it, don’t spray it.

According to someone at Wikipedia this A-list thing originated in film (I am not linking to WikiP this time to conserve their bandwidth- that’s right- I am starting the Wikipedia Bandwidth Conservation Movement. For all I know this quote will be different when you read it anyway and I want to punish them whoever “they are”.)

The A-list is the roster of the most bankable movie stars in Hollywood.

The list was created by veteran entertainment journalist James Ulmer, who developed a 100-point method to quantify a star’s value to a film production, in terms of getting a film financed and the cameras rolling.

“Bankability” is determined for films according to three budgetary levels:

$5 million or less (typically independent productions)
$5 to $25 million
$25 million or over (studio films).

North, North by Northwest…somewhere

The amount of “links in” or even “page rank” are very dicey metrics to go on and often gamed- especially with tools like Alexa. Google’s algo has had to be become quite complex- we made it that way. Our own logs are only one view if you want to get puritantical. Why do we continue to do it?

BECAUSE WE HAVE NOTHING BETTER.

WE ARE ALL USED TO NAVIGATNG ON A BROKEN COMPASS OF SOME SORT.

Web metrics, in general, continue to lack tone, depth, and texture- blogging metrics can be worse. Until we do have something better, we will probably continue down the same “Wisdom of Crowds” failure circuit. I could almost go all 1938Media (S-Lister- Loren you always will be an S-Lister and better for it.) on this one- the wisdom in crowds can get very limited. I am referring to: James Surowiecki’s : Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economics, Societies and Nations. I’ll try to cap it very quickly at 1000 meters.

Cheapenng Surowiecki

Surowiecki’s book makes some interesting observations on disorganized decisions which are lumped into three primary types- the Tri-C’s: Cognition, Coordination, Cooperation. He also asserts that four primary elements are needed to create a “wise crowd”- Diversity of opinion, Decentralization, Aggregation and Independence. There you go- 1000 meters. The blogosphere, in my opinion, lacks a certain amount of independence because people’s opinions are so easily determined by the opinions of those around them. Anyone can fall prey to it- I am no exception. For example, I am surprised books have yet to been written on informational cascades in the blogosphere- I feel or sense they have had to occured.

Perhaps it is healthy to try to blog, or write on a subject before really digging into it with peers, or uttering or rehashing too many opinions? This means you will run the real risk of looking like a complete jackass or worse yet winding up on the “S List”- in the blogging world of thought shaping and influence or just simply being perceived as anti-social. This also means you start with a certain amount of, for lack of a better term i will coin, “social media clarity”. Perhaps this SMC will allow you to place individualism in your writing, thoughts, ideas and potentially more influence with influencers longer term if you manage to think and not just link well.

You also flex that part of the brain where you think on your own- the skill college would have taught me had I hung in there. I can’t help but dip from one of my favorite chambers- Sam (Tara inspired I am sure) who pens:

In other words, making the front page of Techmeme everyday is a fun goal (and even more fun when it becomes a reality), but it’s just not worth it.

A few weeks ago I made these realizations, and it has made all the difference in my outlook on blogging, my attention to thought and my willingness to go out on limbs rather than letting my feed reader determine the content here. While I still pour through my feeds everyday, I’m not letting them control or direct my thoughts as much as in the past, and oddly enough CostPerNews’ page rank, page view, reach and feed subscribers have grown another 50% from this time last month. So, there must be something to escaping the echo chamber after all.

Of course Sam falls into using various metrics to quantify the effect of all of this…but he is an academian at heart- who else who write a book about obscure Art? I would expect no less, and that is how we are often judged. We don’t have any direct metrics for Quality, Risk Taking, or Uniqueness only indirect and inferred metrics.

Value in a Process

I feel the numbers are growing at an astounding rate because Sam is really damn smart and has incredible insight- I saw that early on. He is not just borrowing or spinning off the insight of others (he does at times of course), but more often injecting his own unique aspects and experiments into the flow. The growth, the blitzkrieg maturation of his thinking IS Open Source. If you follow the path from start to present- there you will see the real value…it is a blueprint for thinking, experimentation and feedback. Easy to miss…

but I’m constantly thinking of new ways to improve your experience here, and my abilities to reflect on the current scene in online marketing. Just wanted to share my experience and realizations with you.

With that said I can still appreciate Andy Rutledge though…

Lemur not Lemming

I laid the blueprint metaphor into concrete when I revisted the concepts of Open Source and Free Software after a cartoon at the head lemur’s spot and recalled the subtle difference between the two. They are different schools of thought. Which is perhaps the point of this long post- yes I tend to write long posts…. I am blogging more for myself, and a few people, but if it adds something to the collective wisdom of the slaughter house errrr crowd- then so be it.

The Teaser

This brings me to the promise of a future entry on conversations with one of the world’s late and perhaps greatest biochemists, the insight I shared with Professor Harrelson during our Gonzo experience, and what this biochemist taught me one evening while we got pretty drunk on a remote Canadian island after fishing all day. People could probably charge crazy seminar fees for the gist of this conversation- I am going to give it some thought and put it out there for free- it is quite amazing what happened when he put on a blindfold.

With that in mind…

Patience and Tolerance

I want to remind myself not to scourge people too much, throw things at them in a quick rage (hi Chris Abraham!) or fling crap on their ideas too fast (even if an idea really sucks)- even the holy A-listers. I can be and will be more tolerant and try to help people with critical thinking, risk taking, ask for help in my own, pacing their own ideas, and thought shaping- their own or mine. If I feel overloaded- I will just ignore it all until I do not feel that way.

It can be a dynamic and interconnected process- it can also be a lonely, vulnerable and scary one. In fact, at times it should be lonely and scary. If it doesn’t feel that way then maybe one should check around and make sure they aren’t throwing up too much social puke or media vomit. ( I think you will enjoy those metaphors Greg… )

Here is a nice long list of books someone put together on information cascadesY2K Bibliography of Experimental Economics and Social Science Information Cascades and Herd Effects. with an Alexa rank of 6 million + meaning they probably aren’t that important anymore or this .edu site isn’t optimized. The Wisdom of Crowds for those who want to read or much better try Firefly - The Complete Series- a completely unrelated and short-lived- yet incredible show about space colonization and exploration I thought I would hate- yet loved, old but not forgotten.

Private Note to Self: There is often more wisdom in cabals.

A List alexa bad metrics bloggers filmmakers Free Software group think history independent informational cascades observational learning Open Source Software page rank Ruble social media clarity team thinking

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