Those arguments speak for themselves and you can see them on this Squidoo lens started by Seth Godin.
What I find interesting are that the tactics being used and the roles being assumed look very much like those employed during a change management effort within an organization.
There are people advocating, recognizing, and interpreting change (Anderson and Godin) and there are those seemingly resisting change or debating its impact (Gladwell).
Those that bring up alternatives or poke holes at the new direction are regarded by the "change visionaries" as resistant, threatened, or sometimes, simply ignorant. Often, while some are truly resistant to change, many are simply raising issues and perspectives that haven't been fully considered by the change management effort.
On the other side, change visionaries are often resistant to considering anything contrary to their position. Adaptation or adjustment of the change being implemented is viewed as selling out or lacking faith.
It's the healthy debate between these groups, and the shades of gray between them, that allows the organization to find its way and avoid some costly mistakes in the process.
"What matters here isn't technological capital, it's social capital. These tools don't get socially interesting until they get technologically boring...when everybody is able to take them for granted."
"They had understood that their role with my.barackobama.com was to convene their supporters, but not to control their supporters."
I’ve wanted to learn Spanish most of my life, but I’ve never gotten passed a couple of classes in high school and college.
I tried again a few years ago. Even after spending a few hundred dollars on Rosetta Stone, I stopped using it after a couple of weeks.
That’s about to change thanks to LiveMocha, a social networking site focused on language learning.
LiveMocha offers me something I was missing, community.
Taking Lessons Every lesson has four required sections (Learn, Review, Write, Speak) and optional exercises.
The
software grades the Learn and Review sections and the optional
exercises. The community evaluates the Write and Speak sections.
Feedback One
of the most satisfying features of Live Mocha is helping others in the
community learn English. Reviewing submissions is addictive!
In offering feedback, members of the community can type comments and record responses. The recorded responses are terrific. They allow the learner to hear the nuances of native pronunciation and sentence formation, much like what we’d hear in a public setting.
As you review exercises and others review your submissions, you start build your personal network.
I’ve found myself committed to certain connections. As soon as I see an email (delivered both to my LiveMocha and external email inboxes), I attempt to offer feedback as soon as possible.
Why It Might Work
A human connection.
A large and growing community. Even without connections, submissions are reviewed relatively quickly.
Mutual benefit. Many of my connections are native Spanish speakers learning English.
Notifications to external email. Having emails delivered to my inbox has helped me stay engaged. This is especially true because the emails are from people that need their work reviewed, not marketing copy from a faceless company.
Free and paid options. There are tutors, exportable content, and other options available to premium subscribers.
It's been almost four weeks now.
I may not be as far as I’d like, but I’m still engaged.
Someone puts an idea out there, someone adds to it or adjusts it, and the group iterates through possibilities.
Many ideas come to surface. Some are “good” (meaning that for our particular purpose they have potential application). Some aren’t.
Until recently what we’ve called brainstorming has usually occurred with a limited number of participants, often people we know, over a fixed time period.
But social networking has changed all of that. If you allow them to be, social networks can be giant brainstorming sessions.
Throwing around ideas with a changing group of people we know, don’t know, and know of, but never actually met is a tremendous source of both innovation and energy.
We can churn through concepts, tools, business models, or whatever interests us over an indeterminate amount of time with whom ever happens to be available. At any time we can jump off with an idea and play with it in another context.
It's experimentation and idea sharing that's completely organic, unstructured, and "open source."
Everyone has access.
All we need to do is stay connected to the group and see what happens - because I'm willing to bet that we’re no where near done yet!
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