As I understand it, Twitter added “lists” because people wanted a simple way of grouping the people they follow according to some sort of structure that made sense to them.  Tweetdeck had added that capability through “groups” and I had even started using that feature.  I had built groups based on my major categories of interest:  Family. Close (real) friends.  Local people. Educators.  Twitter took that idea, allowed us to create lists through them, and then also offered the option to make the lists “public” and subscribe-able.  People can see your public lists, and if they like them–follow them!

Once Twitter released that option I had actually abandoned the notion of groups and lists.  I wasn’t so sure about what I wanted to use them for anyway.  I have since gone back, adding a private list of just family and friends.

So here is what I am wondering as I peruse the 35 lists that have listed my brother, and the lists that have added me:

Are they all really that different?  And if not, are they a “waste” of time?

In my lists, I see I am listed on a number of Supply Chain Management lists.  And educator lists.  My brother’s lists are understandably predominantly discipline related, and education related.  There are a few others, but those dominate–and that’s the point.  There appears, on a curory look, to be significant overlap on these lists.

The concept of “Wisdom of the Crowds” and “Crowd-sourcing” is that crowds, when gathered together, make better decisions, and are more creative.  Potentially (and grossly oversimplified).   By building lists of people that share common interests we can see the views of others who are thinking about the same things, and get a wide range of perspectives. ²

So here are the “research questions” (or “investigative questions”) that I have:

1.  How many groups have identical or very similar themes? (Like “supply Chain Managers”)

2.  On similar lists, what is the membership overlap?

3.  How much time is spent developing these similar, and perhaps redundant, lists?

4.  Is there a better way to “share” lists, so people aren’t always reinventing the lists (and taking time to do that?)

5.  Is there some psychological need that gets filled by creating one’s own lists, rather than following someone else’s list?  Control? Ownership?

What to do?

How about this–build your own community!  The tools are already here–we just need to come up with a coordinated way to share.

Let’s start with Twitter as the “hub.”  You can use Twitter to keep in touch, and follow your friends.  Of course, it is important to note that your public tweets are just that.  PUBLIC.¹  So what to do?  First, watch what you say (always good advice.)  Second, if you want to add an extra layer of privacy just create a “Blocked” account, and only allow your followers to see what you post. So you can share with your friends what you are doing, and they can share with you.  And let’s not forget the direct, one-on-one messages you can share, or “DMs.”

But that’s just the start.  Do you like sharing your photographs?  Flickr is a much better site for photo storage and sharing anyway. It’s the purpose of Flickr. And in Flickr you can create or join photo groups that are focused on things that interest you, ranging from entertainment groups you might have been in, to people sharing the same interests in photographic subjects or cameras.  In addition, you can make your photos public and visible to everyone, or just to friends, or for family.  You can control the access to your photographs and even control who can download the image or reuse it. On top of all of that, you can even choose to make your photo available to photo services to use and pay you for the use! If you haven’t checked out Flickr, you really should.

And when you add a photo to flickr, and want the world to know about it–tell them on Twitter!

Now maybe you want to share videos.  There are many sites for doing that, as well.  Certainly YouTube is the most well known but Vimeo is making a strong showing as well.  Again, you can share your videos publicly, or share only with friends.  (And Flickr also now supports limited videos, as well!)

This is just the tip of the iceberg.  These three sites (Twitter, Flickr, and YouTube) really address the majority of how people use Facebook–to connect, share conversation, share photos, and share videos.  Why turn over control to Facebook, when you can “roll your own?”

So let us know–how else do you use Facebook, and what other community tools do YOU know that could help wean ourselves off Facebook?

And let’s start with Twitter.  You can find me there as @scmprofessor

Now, I won’t make any bones about it–I am not attending all of them.  Heck, I am trying my best to attend the few that I think I can get the most from for either Supply Chain discussions, or (yes, surprise) Social Networking analysis.

Why Social Networking? Setting aside for the moment that I think it is simply “cool” I am also quite interested in what we can collectively learn from these networks.  But apparently my interest is not the same as the interest of those doing the research.

Each and every presentation I have attended has focused on the math.  How many connections are there?  How often do those connections share something?  Can we come up with a measure that shows the diffusion of (music/pictures/videos/ideas)? Or, to put it in the language of the Operations Researchers and the Management Science folks, they are “interested in the connections between nodes.”

I think we are missing a golden opportunity here.  I am not interested in the connections, but the content and the context of the information being diffused, shared or otherwise “networked.”  I think there is much we can learn if we can somehow take this Great Discussion and somehow contextualize the chats.

Let me explain:  I was enjoying reading the Twitter stream for Penn State’s Teaching and Learning with Technology Symposium back in March 2009. They were using the hashtag #TLT09 so we could easily mark, and track, comments made about, for and at the Symposium.  There were quite a lot of great ideas bouncing back and forth as some reported on what was being said in the sessions, others commented on those thoughts, and still others added new ideas into the stream that otherwise would have been lost.  Mixed in was the occasional “I need to get a bagel” or “This reminds me, I need to update my blog.”

All in all hundreds, if not thousands, of “tweets” were created during the event.  The ETS folks at Penn State created a “word cloud” from the Tweeting, so we could quickly see which words were being used the most, and thus we could get a sense of what the major thought drivers were throughout the day.  But I didn’t think that was enough.  I wasn’t just interested in the content I was interested in the context.

So I started thinking about what it was that I was seeking.  I would love a tool that we could point to a #stream (a stream based on a hashtag, like #TLT09 or #INFORMS09 ) and let a tool go through, analyzing the hundreds or thousands of tweets, and then tell us not only what was said, but what relationships existed between the words.  BLOG might be the number one word, but a collection of words such as “ereader” and “kindle” and “Digital textbooks” and “ebooks” may as a group have dominated the discussion.  And inside that group we may find that themes emerged, such as “ease of use” or “notetaking” or “portability.”

So here I am, at a “meeting” where over 3 thousand presentations are being given, and I have yet to find anyone here that is interested in the content or, more importantly, the context of the network.  When I have asked a few people about the topic, their response is unfortunately typical:

“That’s too hard. The data is hard to access.  We don’t know how to do that yet.”

I am not sure I buy that, but then again, if it was simple, I suppose I would have already done it.

So let me put out the call to anyone that knows a “Quant Jock” (quantitative analyst) that would like to tackle this problem with me, please, contact me.  I am ready to go!

The purpose of social networks is to be social, sharing ideas, let explore our content and our context, that all of us may grow!

Enjoy!

Jason

First thank you for all your newsletters and emails that you share with the world.  As a business professor at Penn State, I find it refreshing and useful to see a business person not only being successful and touting their success, but sharing the inner-workings of their decision processes.  Certainly this most recent email with the Twitter/$500K explanation is great to show students how to actually conduct an analysis for a business decision.

I did want to answer your three questions, and then as for what amounts to a “favor” from you (to someone you don’t know.)

First, the questions:

1. Am I crazy, or crazy like fox?

Crazy?  Well I would say not–but if the choice is simply either/or, then crazy like a fox.  I actually believe you are far from crazy.  You have conducted a detailed analysis of the situation, evaluated what history has shown, and made a deliberate and informed decision.  All decisions have risk, but it appears you have worked to limit the risk (or at least understand it.)

2. What’s the value of a Twitter follower?

This one, honestly, is a “it depends on the follower.”  Of course, you have accounted for the “it depends” piece by eliminating group after group, and working down to just how many out of a million followers with be “valuable.”  I have found that followers, AND following, are quite valuable for the ways I use Twitter–and I use Twitter in different ways for different groups.  I use Twitter to connect with at least 3 (sometimes overlapping) groups.  First, there are the “supply chain” professionals actively engaged in my profession and field of study.  Then there are the educators, specifically those that are using technology to reach students.  Finally, there is the geo-specific group of folks here in Central PA, that I reach out and touch to stay connected with my community.  ed: (Of course there always exists that 3rd group–actual friends and family!)

Each has value, but in different ways.  Can I monetize this? Perhaps–but that’s not quite what I am about in a direct sense.  Although I would like to think that, as we all improve our skill sets, learning from one another, we all enhance our earnings, potential and kinetic (to steal from Physics).

3. What’s the value of of being one of “The Suggested?”

This is an interesting one.  I think being one of “The Suggested” is great in your type of area, where you are offering services that are of value to nearly the full range of Twitter users.  I suspect if I were to show up on the list, I would end up with a large number of followers with whom I have little in common, and that “twitter-stream” would cloud the engagement with the communities I have worked to develop.
This discussion is actually what I like most about Twitter–it allows us to develop our own communities, meeting nearly an infinite set of needs and desires truly providing a platform for community.  The communities are no longer bound by time, or space, and can grow organically as people connect with what is of interest to them.

The “Requests”

//**requests deleted–for I hope obvious reasons**//

Thanks for perhaps reading this far down–I realize your time is far more valuable than mine.

Best wishes.

While I haven’t heard back from Mr Calacanis I wanted to at least share these thoughts with you, my reader.

S

I wanted to take a few minutes to write about ways to address the challenges of these three points.

I have commented on twitter (@SCMProfessor) that I don’t like the push to be “followed” but not to follow back.  Leo LaPorte, and many others, talk in their podcasts about how many people follow them, and either in jest or with serious intent, talk about wanting more followers.  There I find myself usually asking “why?”

Of course, people like Barack Obama, @LeoLaPorte, and my two personal favorites @BrentSpiner  and @bobbyll (two of the best TV androids around!) serve a role as thought leaders.  But what about the rest of  us? Should we want to be folllowed by millions and not follow back?

I admit, I enjoy watching the following numbers go up.  It is in some sense a boost to the ego.  But I also feel it is important to follow back.  If we are to be part of a “community” then that community should encourage discourse and exchange.  We should want to follow the people that follow us, so that we can learn from them.  @TheRealDvorak (John C Dvorak) actually was doing this.  He would follow back.  He would engage.  Of course, leading the way in following back is Scoble (@thescobleizer) who follows 70K people, and is followed by 65K.  He engages!

Here’s my suggestions for engagement on Twitter.

1. First, when someone follows you (and they aren’t a scam-bot) follow back.
2. Don’t block people you disagree with–engage, and learn.  Neither of you will likely change, but both can grow.
3. Seek out experts in your field on Twitter, and acknoweldge them
4. Ask questions!  A true community should be willing to help one another, which leads to;
5. Answer questions!  When someone asks for help, and if you are qualified, respond, and finally;
6. Engage people at the personal level.

I have tried, in thinking through these suggestions, to address Keen’s legitimate concerns regarding Web 2.0.

First and foremost if we make this conversational and if we are willing to follow and engage with people whom we disagree, we may find that while ideologies separate us, we can be friends.  And through it all we may learn that the “I” is not as important as the “we.”

Second, by seeking out, and acknowledging, experts in a our fields, we help to quell the cacaophony of amateurs, and reinforce the importance of depth.  This approach also helps build sub-communities in Twitter where practitioners (for instance in my fields of education, and supply chain) can grow and share and learn.

Finally, by engaging in these social networking communities of practice we open doors for further growth and development of knowledge.  The professional benefit of Twitter can be that it answers questions to immediate needs, and opens doors for further (monetarily rewarding)

Take a minutes, and contribute to the community. Leave a comment, and if you are on Twitter, leave your twitter info!

I welcome any thoughts you might have on how we can better use technology in business education, and specifically how we can better prepare students to use technology in the “real world” when they graduate.

Brief and quick thoughts about Kindle and higher education.

Like you I see the Kindle as a ‘killer device’ in higher education.
Just as I saw the mobile phone/smartphone in 2002. Colleges & Universities were motivated by finances to devise a way to recapture the income lost to dorm phones on traditional landlines. 6 years later and few schools have been able to construct a means to generate revenue from mobile student based mobile technology. A segment of the faculty don’t want mobile devices in their class. Some faculty adopt the technology to aid learning (interactive, polling, twitter, etc.). The administration can’t figure them out.
They got sidetracked with the cell phone as an emergency notification device.
Where is the $$$$?

So, how to motivate higher ed leadership to adopt the Kindle as an instructional tool integral to learning? The answer may be in the money stream.

Your suggestion of self-publishing or co-publishing with commercial publishers has merit.
The landscape is strewn with disjointed efforts to self-publish. Use of learning management systems, faculty blogs, twitter, course/faculty facebook accounts, iTunes University, faculty generated web pages, etc. etc.
The challenge here is to provide a platform to aggregate ‘published’ works across diverse platforms.
How to get all these self-published works loaded onto the Kindle?

There is the green consideration. As more faculty select e-texts for their courses students inevitably will print pages/chapter(s)/books at college provided printers or printers in their dorms. Defeats the inherent value of e-texts: lower unit cost, ease of transport, bookstore floor space & inventory management, etc.
Interesting side note. I use an e-text for my digital photography course. The primary rationale is the text is updated more frequently than publishers can print new version. The main argument from students is they are restricted to read the text while at a computer. Can’t time-shift reading assignments, read on the train/bus/standing in line. Annotate, highlight, dog ear pages, etc. And there are the inherent challenges of laptop technology.

There is the possibility of providing all incoming freshmen with a Kindle: included in the tuition. This is no different than colleges that require the purchase of a laptop. In fact it is better, IMHO. A joint effort with Amazon would seal the deal. As would a partner relationship between Amazon and publishers.

In any case it seems Amazon has given this some measure of consideration. Where do they go from here?

How quickly can those of us who have a shared vision for e-readers like the Kindle advance this technology along the Rodgers innovation adoption curve?

Hello, Gurulib.com! 

At Gurulib you can enter books from a web interface, which moves you away from a specific OS, and allows for that whole “open community sharing” idea.  This free site not only lets you enter books into the online database by scanning the ISBN (or entering by hand, or searching on the title, or… you get the hint.)  It also allows you to share, if you wish, your library with others.  Both virtually (a “hey, check out what I like to read” sort of sharing) or literally, by allowing others to request to borrow a book, and allowing for a real exchange.  This is another great way to have some “social networks” that connects people with like interests, and enables you to share those interests.

But that’s not all.  How about entering other things.  Videos.  Games.  Software packages. Yup, you can do that too!  You can even put the items on different shelves.  Some actually create virtual shelves that mimic their real ones making physical search and retrieval possible.  Others create “different” linkages that make sense for their arrangement.

As I mentioned, it works right off their website.  If you have a webcam that can be focused to within a few inches, it will use a flash plugin to read your ISBN/UPC codes right from the page.  Heck, you can even send a photo of an ISBN using a cellphone, and it will scan that and include it in your “Wishlist.”  Imagine that, you are at a library or a bookstore, and see a few books you are interested in.  You snap a shot, send it to the site, and when you get home you can read reviews and order from Amazon.com directly (most likely saving a significant amount of money as well!)

So what sort of other magic does this site do?  Well, once you enter the book ISBN (or title) the site then uses that to pull down all the information available (usually from Amazon) for that item, and includes that.  This means that you have access to reviews, summaries, and even current “used prices” for these items.  Hey–it even will tell you what your library was worth new, and used!  Care to learn how much money you have spent on DVDs, or how much you could get in that “get rich quick” liquidation?

I could go on forever, but let me just mention one other “cool” feature.  You can build a wishlist right there on the site, and your friends and family can work off of there for those big “gift giving” events.  (You know the ones.. that come around every year… and you always have to ask for a list…)  Just put those items right into the wishlist and there you have it. In fact, you can order right from the wishlist using Amazon.com (I suspect that is the way http://gurulib.com is able to remain a free resource–they make money by providing us with this great way to purchase more cool things–similiar to my amazon ads here on this blog.)

I have loaded many, many items already.  I love the site.  Go check it out–and find my library.

To answer that question, I have this post. But this post is the first in what may be a long series about moving new-media social networking disruptive technologies out of the echo-chamber.

I found myself at a conference this weekend arguing for the importance of social networks and, at the end of it, I realized the challenge we face is taking social networking and new media out of the hands of the techno-saavy, and put these tools, “embed” them, if you will, into the lives of the every day practitioner.

So what do I mean by practitioners? What practice do you think of when I write that? Doctors? Lawyers? Bartenders? How about almost anybody that does something. Now, in my specific instance I was first thinking of researchers, and then extended that to a discussion about connecting textbook authors to their customers (both faculty and students!) The lesson I am taking from this however is that this goes further. We need to take the various lessons of social networking and apply them where we are.

So for this first post of the series, let me share the discussion about researchers. I sat on a panel discussing how to get research (and funding) from the “public sector.” Once we reminded the audience that the public sector includes more than just the Federal Government, we talked about the various ways of “finding” the requests for proposal, and we even talked about the importance of “contacts.” One of my colleagues even jokingly commented that “once you can fake sincerity you have it made!”

Then it hit me–it’s really about developing social networks!

I first asked how many in the audience were using Linked-in or some other social networking tool. Not surprisingly, less than 10% in the room were members, and of those who weren’t literally NONE had even heard of it. I then used that as an example of how one can build networks (professional social networks) with people who not only have similar interests, but hopefully a network of people who sincerely want to help others succeed.

And what was the big secret I brought to them? No secret, really, but just something that I think has often been lost in these communities. As I mentioned in my talk on Social Networks the success lies in the development of relationships. These relationships are best when everyone brings something of value. If one wants to succeed, then develop these networks, and ensure that you are a “giver.” if you honestly seek to help those in your network, you will find that others will come to you, and often come to you with funding.

I ended up recommending a very good, very easy reading book, Love is the Killer App. This book talks about the importance of sincere sincerity, and the importance of truly putting others well being ahead of your own. What I really like about the book is his emphasis on improving yourself so that you have something of value to offer. It’s about being ready to give, not being ready to take. Now, some would say it is the application of the Golden Rule, others would say it’s just Karma, but the reality is you will find that caring about others, and helping them make the important connections in life, really does work–for them and for you!

So far, there’s nothing “new media” here. Stand by for other posts. In the meantime, please, share with us how you have successfully made “the connection” with people.

I am a regular listener to most of the TWIT podcasts produced by Leo Laporte.  For a while now they have been sponsored by Audible Books.  The pitch, which is rather formulaic across all of the podcasts, is this.  The podcasters present a “book of the week” that they recommend from Audible.  And, if you go visit audible with their “secret code” your first book is free. That’s right–FREE!

Now, I am curious about several things, which I will list here in classic bullet fashion:

• How long will it take before every listener will have an account? (1st book free only lasts for one book, after all…)
• How many people actually buy the recommended books?  (Anyone? Does the recommendation influence your buying patterns?)
• How often do YOU listen to audio books?
• And how often do you listen to podcasts?  How many do you follow?

So, there ya have it.  Perhaps I will some day add the polling widget, like my brother has over at his blog.  Until then, let’s engage here in the comments!