Mass Relationship

Posted on March 19, 2010 by Scott Gould

In the comment section of our discussion this week on Social Media not being ‘social’, Robin Dickinson and I discussed the future of conferences, namely that the future could be a future without them altogether. Robin and I have been discussing this on Skype since July and his point is, ‘why in the 21st century are we still using 1950s conferencing models?’

Many of the ideas of Social Media, like engagement, conversation, friendship, follower, social and discussion, are based around relationship. That’s the whole point: it’s social and it’s relationship.

But I notice a few things that don’t line up that I’d like your feedback on:

Despite all this talk of community, why do we still idolise content over everything else? Talk about hypocritical!
Conferences are good becuase they allow people to make and strengthen relationship, but the conferences aren’t actually made for this. Should they be? Or should we be building relationships ourselves anyway?
The idea of conversation, when considering Dunbar’s number of 150 friends is the max you can handle, means we have to enter into mass relationship. Can we have an ‘online gathering’ whilst still retaining connections? What if people get lost? Or is that their fault?
How do we operate in a world where we have micro relationships and mass relationships? Do mass relationships just send us back to pushing content again?
Some people say face to face is best, others say should evolved. How do you scale face to face into mass relationship?

Did you see what I said there? Micro relationships and mass relationships. It brings me back to this diagram from my article on Preaching to the Converted:

I’m unsure about where we go from here, and what the implications of mass relationship are. I’m hoping we can talk it through.

P.S. If you are wanting to get past content and into real connections with real people to really collaborate, you might want to read this.

Do Talk Do – What Collaboration Looks Like

Posted on March 18, 2010 by Scott Gould

I’m on a warpath.

I’ve decided that most of the content consumed on a daily basis is the digital equivilent of frozen ready meals that get warmed and served up in 5 minutes, before being forgotten, having added no nutrition value to the body, and being dropped out into the toilet a day later in the chain of useless bodily consumption.

The irony is that I’m posting content to declare a war of sorts on content, but hear me out: today I’m beginning a collaboration project that you are all invited to.

Do Talk Do

The other day my friend Robin Dickinson said “DO-TALK-DO: continual talk without action lowers your credibility. Far better to talk about the action you took.”

When people ask what collaboration looks like, I’ve now got an answer. It’s this. Collaboration is that we do something. We talk about it’s successes and failures. Then we go and do again.

There’s twice as much doing as there is talking. And the talking is based on action, not theory.

Here’s How It’s Going to Work

I’ve been speaking to you in the comments, on Twitter recently, and face to face with many of you, about a collaboration project. About connections over community. Today it begins. This is how I see it happening to start with:

We’ve all done something. So we arrange a time to talk vision – probably on a bit conference call – along the lines of a rough agenda. If you haven’t done, don’t come.
If no one responds in the comments and on Twitter to this – then fine – I’ve clearly got it wrong. I’m not going to push it.
The aim is that we move ourselves from being content creators to those who make it happen. Goodwill and all that.
Put your name in the comments below if you’re in, with contact details.

Want more info? Like what we’re actually going to collaborate on? I don’t have it. The whole point is that this isn’t me, it’s us. And we don’t yet know where we are going.

Let it begin.

By the way, thanks to AJ Pape who inspired me no end last night with a short call where he showed me all the ideas he had ready from Like Minds. You can see them in the picture above. He’s already onboard. Thanks AJ.

What can we do with our collective Like Minds?

Posted on March 5, 2010 by Scott Gould

In a world where many are caught in a Catch 22, you have to wonder, what can we do with our collective Like Minds?

If we could convert our community into connections, I bet we’d find ourselves accomplishing things we never thought possible. I know that’s where I’m finding myself at the moment.

- What change could we make in the local community?
- What differences could we make for those living with tragically poor quality of life?
- What opportunities could we open for those who have none?
- What people could we connect together who could change the world?

So the question is, how are you leading the way with the connections you’ve made?

Photo courtesy of the stellar Benjamin Ellis.

Are you build Community or Connections?

Posted on February 28, 2010 by Scott Gould

So I’m sat here at the Like Minds Summit reflecting over the last few days at Like Minds where we’ve played host to over 300 people, and I don’t know where to start.

First off, I’m not one to chest beat and bang my own drum (as much as Chris was telling me I should), so I’d rather you watched this incredible video put together by the always excellent Documentally.

I guess that main thing I want to say to everyone is what I’ve been saying for a little while now about Connections Over Community. Community support is great – but it only gets you so far. If you really want to do something, and achieve something, then you need to begin building connections out of that community,

The takeaway from Like Minds, then, is to go and pick up the phone, or send an email or a tweet, and get some face-to-face time with the connections you’ve made. There’s too much much talk and not enough action these days – so often because we’re so busy building our own communities rather than developing connections that enable to us to really be helpful.

Surely all the talk of ‘social’ needs to come around into this?

100 Blog Posts On, My Number One Lesson

Posted on January 15, 2010 by Scott Gould

Scott Gould

Tag Archives: connections

Do Talk Do – What Collaboration Looks Like

Do Talk Do

Here’s How It’s Going to Work

What can we do with our collective Like Minds?

Are you build Community or Connections?

100 Blog Posts On, My Number One Lesson

My number one lesson: That it’s better to have connection than community if you want to achieve greatness. Continue reading →

Do Talk Do

Here’s How It’s Going to Work

1. Preach them full.

My number one lesson: That it’s better to have connection than community if you want to achieve greatness. Continue reading →