I've been meaning to do this follow up to a post I made last week about liveblogging the ASTD-OC meeting last Wednesday. What wasn't communicated was some interesting conversations I had with professional colleagues after the meeting. (Guys, I'm tellin' ya, if you're in ASTD and don't take advantage of your local/monthly meetings, I'm tellin' ya, you're missing out on some great opportunities to connect.)
After the guest speaker's presentation a few folks who saw me furiously typing away during the presentation had questions for me about liveblogging, blogs, Twitter, our chapter's discussion forum on LinkedIn, etc.
Basically, I got lots of questions about social media and social networks, in general.
I was especially interested to learn there are many opportunities to help train members of my local chapter about the ins/outs of social networks. To hear one of my colleagues mention that they'd like to participate more in the dicussion forum but can't remember how to navigate their way to the forum, and must typically wait for the forum digests so they can click-through, sorta clinched it for me. I suspect where there are two or three who are visible, there must also be ten more who aren't.
So, in my ongoing effort to change hearts and minds, I'll be creating a screencast series about getting around LinkedIn and other things social network-y. Be on the lookout for those in upcoming posts. (If you'd like to help, let me know. I'm thinking we might develop an outline together, agree to some standards for video format, dimensions, and so on, and then divide and conquer.)
Along those lines, I'm also considering hosting a workshop early in the new year for my local chapter. If you're in ASTD-OC (Orange County) and believe this would be a value-add, please comment or send me an e-mail. Let me know, too, if you'd consider co-hosting that workshop with me. Afterwards, I'll share with all of you any materials I use by posting links to them on this blog.
Another point of interest from last Wednesday's meeting was a little side discussion about the culture of social networks. In the process of explaining the value of Twitter, as on example, I found myself describing community values in some networks to be such that an underlying culture has evolved based on respect-in-exchange-for-giving.
I wonder if you agree: My point was that more and more social networks seem to be evolving an uderlying set of values that bestows respect upon those who give to the community, while chastising those who push their links and wares without having first "earned the right."
Do you agree?
That got me thinking: Is that what I'm doing? I'm incurring personal cost and effort to create things to give to my peers? In part, for the purpose of earning the right to receive respect from my peers?
I guess, in a word: yes!
*Gasp...* Wouldn't that be a terrible thing? That we should all go around helping each other, seeking to share knowledge, make things so we can ultimately give them away; to make connections for new acquaintances with others whom we know from our personal network? All this so I can be respected and accepted by my peers? Gosh, how pathetic is that?
Or, how cool is that?
