Do We Really Need Associations, Anyway? Do They Need Us?

Written by Russ on December 1, 2008 – 12:00 am

Within the past few weeks, I’ve noticed a lot of things happening around me that have made me wonder about the validity of professional associations of sorts, and if we really need them.

In general, I think the answer is “yes”, but mostly, I have to wonder if the add-on to that is “but for how long?”.

I’m not going to pretend that organizations like the IAI (full disclosure: I am on the Board of Directors) and IxDA haven’t helped me, personally, make many of the social and professional connections that I have today.  But, that was before.

Before all this social network stuff sort of just asploded in our faces and made everything so intimate, public and NOW NOW NOW!!

I’m grateful for these organizations, actually, as long as they work.

So, to answer my questions, I’d say the answer on both parts is:  YES

But the time is critical for them, I fear.

BUT… I think both need to evolve a little in order to find the right way to keep it all under the same roof.  There’s no problem with people owning initiatives, and it’s awesome that people can, over the course of a holiday weekend (in the US, of course) crank out 110% awesome.  The world wants things RIGHT NOW, and that makes waiting even more difficult than Tom Petty ever imagined. Organizations love to talk about and hate their red tape and people love to talk about and love/hate their organizations response times and excuses of the red tape.

It kind of stinks. But, it’s also a reality.  There’s got to be a way to make things happen and get organizations and “their people” all engaged, enabled and empowered to “get stuff done” so they can meet in the middle. There’s got to be some sort of an open framework we can create where people start running as fast as they can and as fast as they want with great (or not great, half-cocked, hair-brained) ideas and make them work for both in a way where both reap the rewards.

I’ve watched as people have identified a number of reasons why events should be near them (and sadly, watched while even less than Pareto would be happy with identified themselves as those willing to take part in the preparation and organization of such things), griped and/or yelled and/or bullied about certain attitudes and approaches to different locations and even, I’m sad to say, as people have thrown up their arms and politely asked, urgently requested and all-out yelled and hollered their requests for assistance.

Unfortunately, I watched those requests get sent, and then watched forward motion get made without support.

In fact, over the course of a holiday weekend in the United States, I watched Steve Baty take his half-baked “UX Book Club” idea and start to bake the hell out of it with his peers–many he’s never met, and some he may never meet in his life.  Will Evans and Andrew Boyd jumped-in to help, without any real call for support and they helped inject more excitement and energy into the project.

They organized.

They plotted.

They schemed.

(Admittedly, I got involved, thumb-tapped away on my iPhone as furiously as I possibly could and tried to keep up from the remote reaches of the inner-midwest USA)

They found new ideas from their existing ideas.

They created new ideas–blew them up to bigger than better than any one of them had dreamed-up before.

Mountains were made out of idea molehills, and frankly the whole world looked a helluva lot better from a “wow, that’d be really kick @$$” perspective.

They used the hell out of the back-channel to get people active, excited and to make sure they were missing as few opportunities as possible while engaging as many people who could help them.

They did this without the assistance of associations, organizations, fax machines, the USPS or DHL delivery service.  The did this without worrying about whether or not the location was one that suited everyone.

They did this because they love what they do, they love being active and they have heart, soul and no real spare time to donate to their communities, but they figure they can give up an extra hour of sleep a night to make something worthwhile.

How come so few people want so much but can’t come up with the same type of inertia–if I tried to stop Steve right now, he’d plow through me like a Mack truck going over a puddle.  This thing is happening!

And it’s awesome.

But “they” own it. That is, there is no owner beyond this collective of unorganized people who decided that their locations could read books once a month.

They DO need the support of organizations–organizations can help them with (perceived?) purchasing power, greater reach, and the potential for more opportunities and growth beyond these local book clubs.

I mean, if someone has the gusto to pick up a book and read once a month, maybe they also want to sit down once a month and watch a presentation on <something> or they want to grab a beer with others and talk about <something> or they want to schedule their own “camp” type of thing.

They DO need organizations. As Marc Andreesen says (courtesy of Christina Wodtke), “Organizations are GREAT distribution channels.” (okay, so Christina clarified this below, but I think it still stands)

Hell, they’re a great place for like-minded people to get together and change the world, rattle the status quo and shake the foundation of just about anything they set their minds to.

Organizations DO need them-these people are THEIR leaders of TODAY and TOMORROW.

One can do without the other, however. One can create the other, however.

One SHOULD inspire, engage and activate the other.

My point is that I think a lot of us get frustrated–I know I have, and I do–and we forget that these things all really do have connecting points and dependencies.

Most of us work in the User Experience space (if you’re reading this blog, at least I think you are)–you/we should all be connecting these boxes and we should all be wanting to solve these problems. We should be taking advantage of this “whatever-point-oh” web/world that we’re in and FIND NEW WAYS to be excited and energized and CREATE SOMETHING BETTER.

Because if we don’t, someone else will.

Will you?

I will.

In the upcoming weeks–nay, days, I will be sharing my initiatives for 2009 as a member of the Board of Directors of the Information Architecture Institute. None of these are impossible to achieve and all of them are valuable and will be worth your time if you choose to participate and/or lead these initiatives with me.

I can’t do it alone, and I want your help.

And you can make my ideas better. More awesome. More YOU. Oh. My. God. Think of how cool that is to see a seed turn into a tree right in front of your eyes and/or from the work of your own hands!

There are so many opportunities for us–from having fun to getting really dorky-technical.

It’s there. If someone hasn’t thought of it–and even if they have–pick up the idea torch and give it a try.

There are big things to be accomplished in 2009, and there are all types of leaders needed–in organizations and in the world at large.  Organizations always need more leaders and volunteers and will present you with opportunities you’d never dreamt of.  If an organization cannot or will not support you, challenge them–better yet, challenge yourself–and start building something great, and present it to them.

Don’t just BE the change you want to see…

CREATE the change you want to see.

Posted in Community, Information Architecture, Rant, Rave, Resumes, Social Networking, User Experience, UXD Book | 4 Comments »

Friendship is Dead – See You at SXSW! (Core Conversation)

Written by Russ on November 30, 2008 – 9:21 pm

Way back in May I started noodling with the notion of a panel for SXSW in 2009.

I’d say a few thousand people started noodling with the same notion, and then about 1300 of us took the plunge and submitted panels and topics to the Interactive part of SXSW.

My panel topic was “Friendship is Dead” and it is meant to be an exploration of how the word “friendship” came to be and around how our online social networks have begun to erode away at what friendship has meant. Friendship has become increasingly NOT dependent upon location and has odd sort of ways of being defined now, and it seems that the word itself gets tossed around loosely as a noun or a verb (She’s my friend, Friend me on Facebook and I’ll add you) and that once ever-valuable handshake seems to be dying away.

On the submission, I wrote:

So what is a friend anymore? Is it a checkbox or something to collect? Have social networking tools diluted the meaning of “friend” to be someone to add to your collection? Or do these tools allow you to connect with people you’ve never met before? How does friendship differ offline and online?

And, it apparently was not picked as a panel.

They selected somewhere around 200 of us in three different rounds.  I received the first two rounds of rejections, but never really noticed that I didn’t receive the third–I just noticed that I did not make the cut when the last round was posted.

However, on November 25th around 1:30p CST, I was just returning from lunch and got an email that pretty much knocked me on my rear end. Here’s the (minorly edited) email I received:

Hey Russ,

Greetings. I hope that you are well and that you are having a great November. Any big plans for Turkey Day?

As you are probably aware, we received more than 1300 panel proposals for the 2009 South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Festival. Most of these ideas are extremely impressive in their analysis of current (and future!) issues in the new media landscape. Unfortunately, we only have the physical space at the Austin Convention Center to host about 200 of these proposals.

To this end, we really like the “Friendship is Dead” idea that you submitted. While the panel program is now pretty much full we would very much like for you to present this idea as a Core Conversation.

WHAT IS IT?
Like panels, Core Conversations last for 60 minutes. What is different however is that Core Conversations remove the traditional speaker / audience interface. Instead, imagine one person in a chair (you) surrounded by 30-50 attendees who are intensely interested in your topic. Your role here is less to give a presentation and more to direct a conversation (as the title implies) about the topic at hand.

VERY POPULAR IN 2008
Introduced last spring at SXSW, Core Conversations proved to be an extremely popular part of the event. But, don’t take my word for it. This is what Scott McDaniel of SurveyGizmo says about the Core Conversation he led at the 2008 event: “We were blown away by our attendance at GTD for Startups. We counted about 50 people there and most off them stood for the entire session. Because it was more intimate than a panel, our crowd really interacted with both questions and their own tips. We felt even we learned a lot from the session. If you have a good topic people care about, you’ll get both a great turnout and a great discussion.”

WHAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN NOW
If you want to be a part of the Core Conversation program for 2009, then please respond to this e-mail ASAP with a simple “Yes, I’m on board to do a Core Conversation.” At that point, we will get you a little more information on this program, as well as send you comp information.

As always, please fire away if you have questions.

Best regards,

Hugh Forrest

SXSW Interactive Festival
March 13-17, 2009
Austin, TX

http://www.sxsw.com/interactive

So, uh, yeah.

That is, “YEAH!!”

I’m still a bit taken aback by even the remote consideration for such a thing, but I’m excited as hell about it.

The Core Conversations at SXSW appear to be something that has growing interest, and while it does not allow me to hang out with all of the insanely brilliant panel members I had selected to work with, it still allows me to talk about a topic that I think is growing more and more relevant. While I will miss my partners in crime: Matthew Milan, Bill DeRouchey & David Armano (this just in! David & I will be unveiling our Felix & Oscar routine together!), I believe that the topic is relevant and will spark some great conversation.

If you’re at SXSW, I hope you’ll join me us.

If you’re not at SXSW, I’m nearly 100% positive that we’ll find a way to have a little fun with this and engage as many people around the world as possible.

Posted in Community, Conferences, Presentations, Social Networking, SXSW | 1 Comment »

An Opportunity for Twitter, Recognized as Aching Mothers Band(wagon) Together

Written by Russ on November 17, 2008 – 11:05 pm

I swore that I would not jump on the Motrin bandwagon myself and talk about how awesome it is that all of the moms came together to rally against the big bad advertisement.

So, I won’t.

Most people are observing the groundswell, sharing the videos, talking about how powerful Twitter is, and the voice of the consumers really is.

I say that’s only partially true, and to be honest, the voice of the consumers was only effective to a point–and then largely ineffective.

Yeah, I said it.

I think the voice of the “Motrin Moms” did a great job of “getting their way” and getting the advertisement pulled.

And Motrin did a great job of saying, “We heard you” to a select handful of people who are a small margin of the users of the web, but who have the power of Twitter, the blogosphere–and may, or may not, actually sell a few of those damned slings that seem to get everyone so riled up to begin with.

But, as Gabby Hon poetically said:

“Okay motrinmoms, now that you’ve “won”, so what? What did you honestly achieve via your twitter tantrum?”

Anyone who’s dug a little deeper into this blog will know how much I love the “So What?”, so I’m totally hearting what Gabby’s saying.

Michael Rivera takes things a step further and makes suggestions (which, by the way, seem to be in short supply out there–lots of criticism, but few people trying to be part of the solution) for what Motrin could do:

Build the Motrin Mom’s Advisory Board

Own the idea of “mommy ergonomics”

Co-brand with a baby sling manufacturer and send out free, and branded, baby slings to all the offended twittermoms, with an invitation to join the Motrin Mom’s Forum.

Good, solid suggestions–for Motrin.

In fact, I’ve been saying all day that this whole fiasco is a brilliant opportunity for Motrin!

I mean, OMG! Like, thousands of “Motrin Moms” all started twitter-screaming at the top of their lungs that this is ridiculous! This is hurting my feelings! Motrin doesn’t get moms!  Slings are totally FTW!

All. Weekend. Long.

Oh–for an ad that was released on September 30th of this year, for what it’s worth.

Somewhere out there, one rather vocal–and rather popular–twitter/blogger/etc. social mom got her feathers ruffled and shared those feelings outward and the pond rippled from there.

But, as Gabby says:

So what?

This is where the Twitter opportunity comes in to play.

The joke I made today about all of this to Cindy Chastain was:

Twitter was great to allow them to bully and megaphone their way into getting attention–from Motrin to the New York Times to David Armano, Jeremiah Owyang and anyone else who could catch on.

Good for them.

Bad for Twitter.

The reason this is bad is because this group of “Motrin Moms” had a somewhat collective voice–they were all pissed off. Most likely, this was all for similar reasons, however, there appeared to be no true leader identified–regardless of who posted what first to uncover this egregious ad that had been out for nearly 1.5 months.

They had no Jesse Jackson of their own.

They had no single point of contact to make some demands, to stand up as an organized mob and get more than just an ad pulled down.

So, to a point, they achieved an unknown–yet mutual–objective. But, now, they go away.

Fade…fade away…

(Oh, and thanks for all of you standing up and providing Motrin with an idea of who all the right people are to talk to–seriously, you just made it really easy for them, and I would personally relish that opportunity if I were them!)

So What?

So, Twitter, your opportunity is here. Allow the disorganized mobs to organize. Allow them to find their leadership and voices and share within their sub-communities inside of your Twitterverse.  Allow new communities to form, grow and thrive with focus and purpose.

Heck, I bet you could even make some money at it.

Posted in Community, Social Networking, Viral | 8 Comments »

How To Stay Up When The Chips Are Down (You Know, When The Economy Stinks)

Written by Russ on November 13, 2008 – 8:23 am

I think that the state of the world right now is the scariest that I’ve seen it since that whole post 9/11 bit.  At the same time, it’s very exciting; there’s a world of opportunity in front of us, and if I had the stones, I’d be starting my own business.

But my stones aren’t really the important topic at the moment.  In times like these, people are anxious and often stir crazy. It’s easy to be frightened and be concerned about the next bit of bad news–which, thanks to the media, it’s always just around the corner or one CNN alert away via your favorite medium.

But I’ve been through this before, and while I will admit to my own concerns, distractions and sometimes all-out fear, I learned a lot from the last time and I think there are a few things that are useful to hold on to when you start to get caught up in the crazy times around us.

Without further delay, I’ll share some of the things that I do to fight of the the crazy, battle the negative and stave-off defeatist feelings:

• Network - Get in touch with your colleagues and peers.  That can be via a mailing list (and in my opinion these are still valuable, allow you the opportunity to lurk-and-learn and participate), through LinkedIn connections you’ve fallen out of touch with, or by simply attending an event.
• Go to Events – Go to events. Someone is always hosting some sort of an event from MeetUps to TweetUps to IxDA local events to David Armano streaming a ride in weiner mobile. Things happen and you should find a way to attend.  And if you’re not finding something, then…
• Plan an Event – That’s right, plan an event yourself. There are plenty of organizations looking for volunteers, many would love to have a local presence in your community if they do not already.  And if they do, get in touch with the local planner–that person would be happy to have your assistance, as this type of effort is often thankless.  Many places are starving for an unconference or a BarCamp (and if you’re interested in something like that in the Chicago area for, say, January/February/March of 2009, then get ahold of me as I have something brewing!).  Just dive in with both feet, ask a lot of questions and start to figure it out.  You’ll feel better about yourself, learn a lot and meet new people.
• Volunteer – See above, but don’t stop there. There are plenty of organizations in your community that could use your help–not just professional groups.  Deliver some meals, serve food, canvas an area for a cause or help build a house.
• Be a Mentor, Get a Mentor – There’s a good chance you’ve got some experience that you could impart to someone else and that could help them immensely.  Do it.  Get involved in a mentoring program (like the one at the IA Institute!) and give back a little–even if, if not especially if, the chips are down.  This is a great way to earn some karma and add to your balance.  Also, don’t forget to get a mentor of your own–I can think of several people that I consider mentors, many of whom are peers, as well, and they’re invaluable.
• Get Involved in Pro-Bono Work – It’s no time to sit on your duff and do nothing. If you’ve got skills, apply them. So, if there’s a Habitat for Humanity that could use some of your carpenter skills, get up and do it.  Take pictures, add it to your resume and discuss it as part of who you are. If that doesn’t work, find a non-profit organization or cull CraigsList to find someone looking for assistance that would utilize your skills and talents.  In some cases, you may actually get paid. In all cases, you’ll get experience and you’ll keep yourself busy.
• Get Involved in Communities – This may seem obvious, but it’s an easy thing to do. This can be online or offline–from Mom’s groups to a Facebook group for like-minded people to setting up your very own fan club for David Armano.  It doesn’t matter what it is–either get involved or get to creating and evangelizing and getting others involved.
• Update Your Work Examples -There’s no time like the present to get your stuff together. I know far too many people who wait until a few days after bad news to update their resumes and their samples of work, and frankly, that’s just a little too lazy than anyone can afford to be right now.  Don’t wait to find your next gig or job because you’re not prepared; every day you lose is a day where someone else is applying for your next dream job (or getting through crappy times job, whichever).
• Go Out to Dinner at Least Once a Week -This is a big one. I was unemployed for a healthy 6 months many years ago (and by unemployed, I mostly mean self-employed, project-to-project, little stability) and it was horrible. I’d wake up when my wife got ready for work and I’d surf the world all day, refreshing job boards, applying for things out of my league and getting fairly stir crazy.  We adopted a policy of going out at least once a week for dinner–often these weren’t fancy places, but at least a step up from McDinner.  This gave us something to look forward to and often was the hinge pin to getting me to shower.  Just saying.
• Spend a Little Money Once in Awhile -Yeah, I know, that’s hard to swallow. But do it. Buy yourself the video game or go to a movie or something similar to that. You don’t have to go buy a brand new MacBook Pro, but at the end of the day, $50 is not going to make or break your success in surviving turbulent times.  It just isn’t.
• Plan How to Run Your Own Business -You’ve probably thought about this for a long, long time anyway.  What would I do if I were the boss? Figure it out. Write it down. Ask friends and family for input, sketch the office layout, research the cost of rental space (if needed), figure out what kind of equipment you’d want/need…
• …And Design Your New Business Cards – Why not? It could be a little frustrating, but it could be fun. If you’re really serious, get ahold of the folks at crowdSPRING and invoke the awesome power of crowd sourcing to find you a bunch of logo options and then start dinking around on your own (or with their help) and put it all together. It may be something you can start doing today, and it’ll give you a rush!

Certainly, these aren’t the only things you can do, but these have helped me in the past.  They’ve helped me retain my sanity (if not my marriage!) and they keep the wheels spinning.

It’s not easy to do anything when there appears to be doom and gloom at every corner. Put one foot in front of the other, don’t be afraid to fail and keep moving. You’ll be fine, really.

We all will.

Do you have some tips of your own? Please share!

Posted in Community | 4 Comments »

My Name is Russ. I’m Running for the Information Architecture Institute Board of Directors

Written by Russ on September 5, 2008 – 1:32 pm

And I’m running on a platform with Matthew Milan and Livia Labate.

Over the past few weeks, we have spent a lot of time together working through some of the key issues that we think are real, real important and that are in the best interests of the membership of the Information Architecture Institute.

Unlike many election (ahem, POTUS), this isn’t an “us versus them” thing. We’re not “against” anyone, per se, we’re simply like-minded on things from a high-level perspective and we are passionate about the organization and the members. There is absolutely nothing but respect and appreciation for those who are current board members or who have been board members in the past.

I’d say we would all agree that the IAI has had nothing but a positive impact on us, and we want to give back.

That said, I’m posting, verbatim, my Bio and Position Statement, as submitted for candidacy to the IAI Board of Directors. Here goes…

Russ Unger’s Bio

I have been working on websites since 1993—when there was only Notepad to code with and Mosaic was the only browser around. That was when I found that my interest in User Experience Design and Information Architecture began to flourish.

Since then, I have worked with a number of major brands on large-scale Intranet and Extranet applications. I have also worked off-line, creating unique biometric (fingerprint reader) applications and have been responsible for creating user interfaces for mobile. I have also taught courses in Web and Interactive/Flash Design.

I have been active in our community as an editor for Boxes and Arrows and have recently explored the role of author. In addition, I am currently co-authoring a book on User Experience Design with Carolyn Chandler for Peachpit Press.

I am a mentor for the IAI and have worked with several mentees to assist them in their careers.  This experience has allowed me to revisit and renew my appreciation for people who are just starting out in their careers and what we, as an organization, can do to further support them.

I am the current Event Coordinator for the IDEA Conference.  I have actively pursued and landed several sponsors for the conference through my personal contacts.  I have assisted in identifying various speakers and have encouraged many to become speakers. I have supported the effort for many months and have learned a great deal about the Information Architecture Institute and conference planning and marketing.  This has been a lot of effort—and a lot of fun.  I would like for my involvement to continue beyond IDEA and feel I would be a valuable member to the board.

Position Statement: Vision, Empowerment & Transparency

Matthew Milan, Livia Labate and I are running on a common platform in the hopes of being able to make a more meaningful impact to the Information Architecture Institute if we are elected.

We believe that the IAI needs to be a more transparent organization.  We need to open a dialog with our members, encourage their involvement and find improved methods of making people aware of what is happening within the organization.

We believe the IAI should take a leadership role in educating our membership, people who are new to the workforce, new to working within our field and the companies that will hire them.

We believe that the IAI needs to get better at marketing and selling Information Architecture. We need to, as an organization, provide the services to companies who want to hire our members and begin practice areas where our coaching would be invaluable.  Likewise, we need to train our members how to do this within their companies.

Finally, we strongly believe that the IA Institute should have a clear vision of its role within the User Experience community and more importantly how it contributes to the advancement of the field of Information Architecture. With strong vision comes strong capability, and we have a duty to our membership to provide this role.

The Information Architecture Institute is an organization that our founders and previous boards of directors have built-up and established as one that is well respected. I am constantly reminded of how proud I am to be a part of the IAI every time I meet or engage another member of this thriving community.  My goal is to continue to guide our organization into a long-term future of sustainable growth.

We are at a critical time in our growth and evolution as an organization.  To me, the highest priorities are to establish a more transparent organization with a long-term vision that empowers our membership. We have an incredibly gifted member base, many of whom are very interested in becoming more active, helping to grow and shape our organization.

Moving forward with the doors wide open, it is crucial that the IAI continue evolving as a transparent organization.

IAI members need the ability to become as aware and active within the organization as they choose to be—with ease.  Support can come in ways large and small: through publicly displayed meeting minutes, open-attendance Board of Directors meetings or other methods, such as via Twitter, Directors blogs, etc. An increased transparency of our on-going efforts and activities is something that we can be proud of, and reach out with.

We need to identify new ways to empower our members further by helping them in the field, where it counts the most.  As a dynamic organization of professionals, we do a fantastic job of being at all of the places where we all are supposed to be.  We need to get better at being at the places we currently are not at.

Now is the time to use our membership’s successes to help them open doors into other industries and start reaching out to organizations where the relationships are as untapped as the mutual benefits.

A few introductory approaches to this could include:

• Encouraging our membership to present at other industry conferences; selling is one thing, educating and sharing knowledge on the value of Information Architecture throughout the business world will create true long-term strength.
• Improving upon the established marketing of the organization and help our members “Sell IA”.
• Engaging beyond our members, to the companies who are interested in working with us. These companies need coaching and education that foster understanding common career goals, paths and placement of these roles as pillars of their organizational structure. We can help them “Sell IA” to the companies they work for.
• Expanding IAI outreach to aide and assist the people in our field who are (or will be) new to the workforce. We should start in the college years by speaking to students and counselors.  We need to help them understand what skills companies value, and to help them locate jobs.  We need to coach them on appropriate types of work product and examples to be able to show and highlight experience and growing expertise.  As a mentor, these particular issues strike close to home; many of our members who are new to the workforce are communicating that they are having difficulties finding their first jobs.

The IAI can continue to expand and lead with a clearly defined vision for our future, initiatives to empower our members by providing appropriate marketing, training and tools that meet their needs, and by becoming a more transparent organization that we all have the power to engage and influence.

I hope to be a part of this.

Contact Information
I would be happy to further explore our position in greater detail.  Please feel free to contact me via any of the methods below.

• Twitter:
• http://www.twitter.com/openiai
• http://www.twitter.com/russu
• Join the discussion on Facebook at:
• http://bit.ly/openiai
• LinkedIn:
• http://www.linkedin.com/in/russunger
• I blog at UserGlue UserBlog:
• http://www.userglue.com/blog
• I can be reached via email at:
• russ [at] [this domain]

Posted in Community, Information Architecture | 2 Comments »

Passive-Blind Voyeuristic Social

Written by Russ on August 26, 2008 – 1:52 pm

That title alone makes me feel like this entire post should be written by a slew of people who are a whole heck of a lot smarter than me, so I apologize in advance if you stumbled across this and thought you were going to get something highly academic.

It seems to me that there is a perception that “being social” means that you have to actually engage other users actively.

I do not think that is true.

I think that you can be socially involved with someone by quietly watching them–lurking, if you will.  In fact, “lurking” has been going on in email discussion lists, online forums and, dare I mention it, BBSes for years and years.

Lurking, I believe, is sitting back and watching the conversation–letting it all happen around you, without anyone knowing you’re even there.  However, with lurking, you also begin to understand the behavioral patterns and personalities of others.

Just by watching.

Seems kind of passive, if not voyeuristic to me.

So, if someone serves you up content based upon the actions of others who share similar traits with you, or have identified similar likes and aspirations, then it would seem to me that is rather blindly doing so–you don’t know who those other people are, just that they’re like you.

It’s like seeing a bunch of nameless, faceless “you”-types running around and doing their business and getting content served to you based upon their–and your–collective actions.

So, Passive-Blind Voyeuristic Social would be sitting back and watching content as it is served to you based upon actions that others, identified as being similar to you, and then acting upon it, which in turn influences someone else’s results as they do the same.

Or, at least, so I think it is. Sure, there’s a good chance that someone else has already thought of this and has a better definition, but this kind of works for me right now, and it makes sense to me as another way in which we can interact–socially–without having to actually cross any lines of “faux friendship” and add to our ever-growing lists of contacts that we may not actually even know.

It’s a great way to provide context and direction to users without forcing them to reveal themselves to each other.

There is an unbelievable amount of power in the following statement:

People <like you> who <do something> also <do something else that you’re not doing>.

Don’t you want to know? iTunes has been doing it for us for quite awhile (and have since taken quite a few nickels from my coin purse), but that is very loosely based upon qualities of music–and not “qualities of Russ”; there’s an opportunity to go a little deeper and deliver content to our users that don’t require them to becoming visibly engaged.

I’m going to go ponder this for a bit. I’d welcome additional thoughts.

---

Note: Search engines have been offering up “What People Are Searching For Now” types of content since, like, forever.  This is different as it is actually based upon some identifiers that you have selected, and have in common with others, without actually having to engage them.

Posted in Community, Social Networking | 7 Comments »

IDEA 2008: An Interview with Bill DeRouchey

Written by Russ on August 18, 2008 – 4:22 pm

If you do not know by now, IDEA 2008 is going to be in Chicago on October 7-8, with a pre-conference on October 6th, put on by MAYA Design.  The conference is going to fantastic–we’ve recently added Jesse James Garrett to speak about the Aurora concept browser.

Behind the scenes, I’ve been the “Event Coordinator”–and while it has not always been clear to me what that is (it’s mostly “do as much as I can in every situation possible–fast!)–and it has been a lot of fun working a little deeper with the Information Architecture Institute and getting to understand “how things work” a bit more.

One of the roles I took on was to interview some of the talent.  We’ve got a great line up for IDEA 2008, including:

• David Armano
• Jason Kunesh
• Dave Gray
• Elliot Malkin
• Edwin von Gal
• Jesse James Garrett
• Chris Crawford
• Albert Canas
• Jason Fried
• Aradhana Goel
• Bill DeRouchey
• Andrew Hinton

My first interview was with Mr. Bill DeRouchey.

Many moons ago, Bill and I happened to have been up late on the same night. It may have been a weekend–well, it was any night, really, as we’re always up late.  Christian Crumlish had turned me on to some Brian Eno music and I was asking about alternatives. I don’t even recall what the selection was, but Bill made it–he set up a muxtape for me so I could find some new tunes to work/study by.

I checked out his website, watched is presentation from Interaction08 and we started some email chatter.  Before long, we were doing random emails, talking about book ideas, swapping war stories and a bunch of general back-and-forth humor.

We built some trust.

We became friends.

We hashed out a panel for SXSW called “Friendship is Dead” (and you should vote for it, please!).

We reviewed secret paperwork for each other.

We (gasp!) even spoke on the phone!

And I even asked Bill his thoughts about this in the interview that is now live on Boxes & Arrows:

RU: Over the course of 2008, you and I have become “friends”—at least I’d say that, and I believe you’ve said that. We most likely will not meet face-to-face until October at IDEA in Chicago, yet I’d say we have built a level of trust and respect for each other—we’ve even worked “virtually” on putting together a panel presentation for SXSW together. How do you think that happened, and who should we blame?

This fascinates me too. It’s true. We’ve never met face to face and we’ve only talked on the phone once, but we’ve had enough online interaction to build both trust and friendship. How the hell is that possible? Tracing it back is an interesting case study. On Twitter, I noticed a few friends (people I have met f2f and trust) keep talking to @russu. Okay, I’ll see what this guy is up to. Seems harmless enough, okay, follow. Then we made some connection on music, and the conversation developed from there. But is this really different at all from meeting people in the “real world”? You meet through mutual friends, connect on something simple, and then just keep talking. That’s the beauty of Twitter. People are giving you many opportunities to connect in some way. Sometimes it clicks and you make a new friend. If you never actually meet, so what? Yes, it’d be a shame, but geography should never be a barrier to connecting with other people.

Please take a moment and read the entire interview, and get to know Bill DeRouchey a bit better!

Posted in Blogging, Community, Conferences, Presentations | No Comments »

New Word: Friend-igrated

Written by Russ on June 30, 2008 – 10:13 am

Oh, these wonderful social thingies allow for so much flexibility with our language.  Here’s a new one for you, and hopefully you heard it here first.

Friend-igrated:

When creating social identities, the ability to show friends intertwined in your own thread/feed/etc.

Example:

I just signed-up for Swurl and I like how it displays all of my feeds in a familiar blog-like format. I’m still looking to see if they let you see a friend-igrated display so that I can keep track of the people I follow, too.

(Catch that “friend-igrated” refers to people you “follow”? heh)

Posted in Community, Social Networking | No Comments »

We Are All Friends Here. Right?

Written by Russ on April 17, 2008 – 1:12 am

Alternate Title: How Much of Your Friend Am I?

I’ve returned from a ridiculously refreshing trip to Miami, and I am more exhausted than I’ve been in recent years. I feel like I’ve got so much ahead of me and a lot on my plate right now, but none of that is a bad thing.

The IA Summit was fantastic. There was a slight hitch in the initial giddy-up, but it did not take too long to forget about it. We moved on with the great learning, sharing, connecting and, oh dear lord the Twittering!

No, really. The Twittering was unbelievable.

The Twittering was constant; it was almost a backdrop to the entire event. Twittering was shared notes, timely jokes, a loudspeaker and an invitation system. Twittering kept pelople connected and helped in making decisions about various presentations, meals and meet-ups.

In 140 characters or less.

My New Friends

I’ve got all these new “friends” who are following @russu, and all these great people that I’m now following. I’d be lying if I didn’t say that we’re probably going through a touch of IA Summit withdrawal–but it’s very nice to hear that everyone is arriving home safely, or at least well on their way. In the time that has passed from authoring to publishing, I’m surprised to say that the twittering remains pretty active.

And that is all pretty cool stuff, right?

Right.

Really!

But it’s a “level” of cool. These followers–some mutual and some one-way–are possibly a “level” of friend/acquaintanceship that is introduced into Andrew Hinton’s preferably titled “Cyber Space”.

Huh. That all sounds like I’m new to Twitter. I’m not, but I’m a new and improved “extreme” user now, I think. I’m trying to dial it down for the folks who still have to listen–that is, I want to keep you listening, so I want my Tweets to be minimal on the worthless noise side, whenever possible.

As I was looking over my “Twitterati” (as Livia Labate coins), I was trying to figure out how many of them I have as friends on Facebook and/or LinkedIn, Instant Messenger or otherwise. I’ve also been trying to understand and evaluate the “currency” of the following/follower lists–and whether or not the currency is legit or just in/outbound popularity whoring. With someone like Guy Kawasaki, I do not believe it is the latter, but for a regular Joe like me, I think there would be a lot less value if my numbers skyrocketed for no real reason. I guess there is something to be said about selective-friending based upon your own ecosystem credibility.

Huh. Now I sound almost kind of pathetic.

Maybe I should figure out just who “Russ” is in all of this, first.

Who Am I?

If I could quote an Indigo Girls song here, I’d say this:

“I’m just a mirror of a mirror of myself” -Least Complicated (there’s some irony for you)

See that? I’ve always thought that line was really taken from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe:

“I am not who I think I am and I am not who you think I am, but I am who I think you think I am.”

That, to me, also tells me that with each Identity I create, I have the potential to become a different person to each person that I think is watching me at any particular moment. That also means that Identity (and I’m looking at you Christina and Gene) may connect to a variety of different channels that, based upon how they are used, force you to manage your multiple identities in multiple ways.

So, uh, WTF, right?

It’s bad enough that I have to figure out who I am as a husband, a father, a larger family ecosystem with its own subgroups, as an employee and/or an employer and as a client or a co-worker. That’s a lot to manage–you simply cannot just be Ward Cleaver these days.

I wonder if this is what Flip Filipowski meant when he said [paraphrasing here] that he would not want to be alive in the future, because even the smartest of people today would probably come across as fairly feeble-minded.

We have a lot more to contend with. A lot more social structures. A new personality for each identity and a new set of the 3 mirrors to consider, calculate and present. The layers upon layers of honeycombs that we’re forced to manage, keep up with, and continue to add to as each new Next Big Thing(tm) is introduced is only increasing.

Holy Multiple Personality Disorder Batman!

Maybe “friends” now has varying degrees of intimacy. On Twitter, my friends (people I follow/follow me) are people I can share micro-formatted quips with. Perhaps I know all of them, perhaps only some of them, but mostly, there’s some level of shared interest (with the exception of the TwitterSpam that was bound to happen). In many cases, they may be people that I find interesting enough to want to hear what they have to say and they’ve simply extended me the courtesy of returning the favor.

On LinkedIn, I’m Russ the Professional(tm). It almost sounds like it should have a theme song. But that’s who I am. I can perform a few activities that may provide a bit of whimsy around me, but I want people to see me as a resume.

On Facebook, I’m Russ the family man. Pictures of my family abound and my contacts are mostly personal or innocuous sort of connections with people that I probably would have had a difficult time saying “no” to.

On Twitter, I seem to have flocked toward connections that share the same professional passions, or people that I can learn a lot from. Watching the rapid-fire splatter of these 100 or so people pushes me more than I ever could have imagined.

Who am I everywhere else? More importantly, who do I think you think I am, right?

For some, this must feel like being in many secretive dating-like relationships, if you’re not managing your identities in the context of your “true” personality.

I Think What I Think You Think When You Don’t Tell Me How You Think

This does not imply that you are aware of my desire–or that you even care–about how I want you to think about me. It does mean that it has to be dealt with; dealing with friend/fan requests, messages, emails, tweets, etc. are all two way.

I’m crazy, right?

Think about it–barring the “email must have gotten lost in the tubes” or “caught by my SPAM filter” scenarios, in general, the emails make it through the system (and I still SWEAR I didn’t receive the Xbox emails from Microsoft!). The Tweets may not, and other “Beta” types of things may have failures, but email mostly works. Even if its usage may be declining in youth.

“You cannot not communicate.” -Erik Spiekermann

That is my point.

When you do not reply to an email, an SMS, a telephone call or even a D message or specific tweet, you run the risk of sending a message that is open to someone else’s interpretation.

If I send you an email and I don’t hear from you within a timeframe I deem to be acceptable, some little voice somewhere starts to churn out an interpretation.

“Russ hasn’t replied to my email in 2 days–he’s always online! What a jerk, he must be avoiding me…”

Ugh.

Now we’re dealing with response times that are becoming almost uncanny. Think about it–even in the mid-90s, people really weren’t using much email (but, oh, for those of us who were, Pine was simply awesome!). You still had to get a birthday card from your grandmother with a $5 bill in it. Now, your mom can send you an eCard and dump $50 into your PayPal account, and as long as it’s before midnight on your birthday, she’s cool.

This also forces us into shifts in etiquette–if not presence, right? This is where I am. This is why I’m not responding to you RIGHT NOW!

We all know how to set our statuses in Instant Messenger, but how do you handle explaining your (in)ability to not respond timely?

In Twitter, people sometimes “sign-off”:

Off to bed.
about 3 hours ago

Why? To formally announce a status and not offend anyone who is within the realm of Twitterspace that is being co-occupied. Apparently, there is some new twittettiquette going around (yeah, I just made that word up, but I own it now: twittettiquette).

That, however, just depends. Upon you. The type of person you are and/or the type of person you want to allow others to perceive you as. Sounds familiar…

My New Friends?

I’m not sure I’ve figured out exactly who I am or what I am thinking all the time just yet, but I feel like I can at least start to discuss this whole friendship thing a little better. Don’t get me wrong–I know who Russ is, I’m just not always sure that he’s being perceived the same in all places.

This exhaustive social system is sometimes hard to manage–and difficult to interpret.

How many places are we all connected today? We’re all aware of LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, Twitter, the blogosphere and all the other variations like Bebo, Naymz, maybe Spoke and the new one that will launch tomorrow.

We all have some of the same people in all of those connection points, but most likely not all of them. We share different friends with different people in the different social locations. The Cloud that connects all of the people in the world to me–and it’s not like I’m Captain Popular (more like Æsir, I’d say)–is probably so very large at this point that even a single new connection is likely to have a very large cloud of their own that would ultimately expand both clouds… The notion is kind of daunting.

Are We Friends?

That’s the big question, right? Has the word “friend” started to become as meaningless as Disney’s use of the word “princess”? Don’t get me wrong, Disney still makes tons off of princess (and many princesses’ fathers), but the more the term is misdirected to an inaccurate source, the more it seems to lose its value.

Does that mean I should not want my new “friends” to be my friends? Heck no! I consider myself lucky to have the connections that I have. I consider it to be a requirement on my end to stay connected and to reconnect in the future as much as possible.

What it does mean, however, is that some of our friends most likely aren’t people that we’re really friends with, at least not like it was “back in the day”. Back in the day, people had high school friends that were lifelong friends and who often stayed within the same communities for generations.

Today, we can meet new people online and form lasting relationships–I’ve run a message board for several years and more than one couple have met there and gotten married. I’m not making this up, but I’m not doing Warfel-level research, either. Certainly, most of us have heard of Second Life Marriages, right?

We’re Not Friends

Sometimes, it can be as simple as that. We’re not friends, I don’t want to be friends with you and I don’t want you to be lurking around in my “trusted” circle.

But sometimes you just can’t say “No”.

How do you tell the annoying co-worker that you don’t want them lurking into your Facebook? (How do you know if you’re the annoying co-worker? I’m not arrogant about my relationships, but most of the time I don’t want to impose on “acquaintances” lives by “friending” them inappropriately. Imagine the (mis)interpretations possible) They don’t need to be looking at your Jamaican escapades or peer into your family photos or whatever–but we fear the hallway discomfort or retribution from not accepting a connection. We feel obligated to share ourselves to the point that the selected membership of our friends starts to turn into a college kegger where someone always ends up throwing up in your room–and the door was locked when the party started.

Have you ever had someone on LinkedIn ask you for a recommendation even though you barely know them? How did that make you feel?

Exactly. Even the avoidance of the request can sometimes be difficult.

The concept of “Friend” is becoming more and more watered down. Acquaintance still exists, but acquaintance doesn’t sell page views.

Let’s Keep In Touch

Never since the IA Summit have I ever even considered that the notion of a business card could change so much. I wondered, in hindsight, if it would have been useful to have linked to my blog on my business card and if my twitter account would have been acceptable as well. Is that extending an open invitation to follow me around and converse? Am I desperate for friends if I do such a crazy thing? Do I think that anything I say is that important that I other people actually care?

For that matter, what do you think about it? What if my business card linked to a single page where you could sign-up and show a pre-determined part of your “online social-ness” to me and in return, I could show you as much as I am willing to show?

The image above represents all of the social presences/identities that you have, with one interconnecting point. The grey areas are “allowed” access points that each user is providing. The blue and green display the others that are unshared/private. That doesn’t mean that they’re still unable to be found, just not unlocked to someone else, which means that there is still a potential for social fallout with people that you are not sharing certain accesses with. Even if we find a single, unified standard approach to all of this… There’s still a management issue.

This, Too, Shall Change

I’ve recently gone “Facebook Dark” in my status at (where else?) Facebook. My interest has waned. My desire to keep my status updated to the dozens of folks who are connected to me has gone away. I’m tired of worrying how someone down the hall from my office will (mis)interpret something that may have nothing to do with them or work or whatever. I’m tired of the chore it is to be Facebook Russ, with the exception of uploading a few photos for a specific set of friends. Most of the people that are connected to me are not parents and most likely won’t care that Avery smiled for the first time today.

Maybe it was the work on the Facebook Application that I did that had me playing in that sandbox a bit too long. Or maybe it’s just exactly what I stated above. Maybe I want a new walled garden and maybe I don’t want to have to hurt anyone’s feelings in order to do it. Maybe I no longer feel the need to keep count of my friends and maybe I no longer feel as connected to some people I (selectively?) added.

Maybe, as someone joked at the IA Summit, that “People You May Know” widget on the side is really just a “People You Don’t Like That Much or They’d Already Be Your Damned Friend.” Maybe I’m tired of being reminded about people that could be in my Facebook Posse. Maybe it’s just Facebook overload.

Do you even talk to everyone you’ve Facebooked? Have you ever felt like typing the URL for (insert social networking site here) is just too heavy of a task? Undoubtedly, someone you haven’t spoken to in years is trying to bite you with their zombie or someone has sent you the latest kitty photo that you’ve yet to see in one of your 20 email accounts. When it becomes a chore to keep up with an identity, it can be difficult to figure out what has changed.

Most likely, the change is in you.

The Nail in the Coffin

Death and the Social Networks: It’s kind of a grim thought, and no one really talks about it. I’ve had loose discussions with others about how companies simply do not think about death. Companies never really consider that someday, we’re all going to die. We’ve yet to lose an entire generation of emailers, if you think about it.

Sure, people have died, and Yahoo! has had to be taken to court to be forced to give up private information, but people and companies do not think about the mortality of their connections.

What happens when I die? Where do my social networks go? Who gets to see them? Who gets to tell them?

I don’t even know how obituaries work anymore! The new connections that I’ve been making are very rarely geographically close enough to read about my death in a newspaper. My wife wouldn’t know how to track down anyone and let them know. My “local” or “in real life” friends wouldn’t know about this type of thing; half of them are just barely getting into LinkedIn (although most of them now seem to have a Blackberry Pearl–I’m not sure what that means).

In the future, probably not long after we start seeing a generation of emailers begin to die, companies will have to face the morbid task of requesting users to select a “proxy” or some other designated person who can have access to their accounts and handle any affairs that may need to be wrapped up.

The social implications can be huge. The more global, the more connected, the more we are not required to pick up the phone to hear a voice or walk into another room and physically see someone in order to communicate together, the more it will seem as if a voice just fades, and then ceases altogether.

This Brand New Era of Communications can be awesome in its unending methods of connectivity.

But, it might even be kind of sad.

Posted in Community, Resumes, Social Networking | 5 Comments »

Blogging Everywhere! (Not) Enough Already?

Written by Russ on February 12, 2008 – 1:58 pm

Hi, I’m Russ and I’m a blogger.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one–or if I’m talking about you. Or you.

Like many people, I enjoy blogging. Like many more people, I learned a long time ago that blogging–and blogging well in particular–requires a certain degree of commitment and effort. Putting a bunch of jumbled thoughts or ideas into words that are easy enough to digest and interesting enough to get through can be pretty challenging. Ask any of those folks over on the right side of the page (and then see when the last time any of them updated their blogs, too!) and I’ll bet that they’ll tell you that they started out with a lot to say and that they saw blogging as something slightly different than what it is for them today.  I bet that they’ll tell you that blogging just happens to be a labor of love for them, as well–but that it also offers up rewards, too.  More than one blogger has had a prospective employer contact them with piqued interest based upon a posting or perspective.

Not me, mind you, but it does happen.

For quite awhile, the blogging scene was really becoming the bandwagon to get on. People still have blogs–but maybe now it’s called your MySpace Blog / Page or your FaceBook Notes or what have you. Those are more for the hobbyists, I suspect. People need to be able to whip out that poetry and prose as it strikes them during the work day, right?

And there are more Professional Blogs, which is where I’d classify places like TechCrunch and others–they serve a broader purpose than to just ramble on about your new kitten or what you had for lunch with Jeffers and Kimmers and whatnot. Your favorite newspaper will likely have a blogging section with plenty of spirited conversations and commentary to support it. Some (me) would argue that the UserGlue UserBlog is a professional blog–because I try to keep this topical and you’ll probably never hear me mention my wife, my children nor my pets here. Probably; there’s a baby coming and I’m suspecting I may be uber-proud and feel the need to post an announcement or something. Just saying.

A lot of people that I know enjoy blogging for themselves–they feel good about it. They feel as if they’re contributing. Some even feel as if their personal blogs, whatever way that happens, help them to stay in touch with their friends and family without calling everyone, say every time they have a near-perfect bowling game.

My friend Wil uses his blog in many different ways–it’s a way to hone his craft as a writer (sometimes providing content for books that we release under Monolith Press), keep his friends, family and fan base up-to-date on what he’s doing and it’s a good way to provide information to his consumers who want to know where he will be appearing, what he will be performing in and any new product that may be for sale. All in one tidy place. Well, all in one place, at least.

I blog here. I blog personally on a different site. And now, that place that I call “work” when I’m not dividing my time between UserGlue, family and school, has a blog for people to get involved in, if they so desire. No one is forcing my hand on anything, but I’ve been made aware that the mechanism exists, “if I’d like to participate”.

I think it’s a great idea and it can help foster a community and culture among your peers–help you take a look at how other people see things, what they find important and what they notice in their work lives. I think it’s the right approach to take to NOT force anyone to joining your club of bloggers, but at the same time, I feel you should try to be involved in opportunities like this as they arise.

The problem is, where does all the content come from? Personally, I try to contribute here and on mailing lists (such as the IAI mailing list and I try to do my best to be an effective editor at Boxes and Arrows and I even try to provide insightful responses to questions at LinkedIn. That’s a lot for a guy who also has to author 4 papers every 2 weeks for Business Administration courses and has a pretty full load at work, as well.

Is it okay to provide duplicated content? Is it wrong to actively not participate? Should someone try to provide topics for people to respond to in order to help foster the community of the bloggers?

Where does it begin or end?

Posted in Blogging, Community | No Comments »