Words to Inspire

Having an off day? Need a pick me up?

Try these words of inspiration from gonzo marketing guy Seth Godin:

• When you love the work you do and the people you do it with, you matter.
• When you are so gracious and generous and aware that you think of other people before yourself, you matter.
• When you teach and forgive and teach more before you rush to judge and demean, you matter.

For more of the same see "You Matter."

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Photo credit: "August 20, 2008 - Inspiration pt3" by Stephen Poff, courtesy of Flickr.com

Revolution in the Twittersphere

Fascinated by what's going on in Iran? BuzzMachine blogger Jeff Jarvis and Thomas Friedman of the New York Times offer a pair of useful commentaries on social networking vs. despotism.

In "The Virtual Mosque," Friedman writes:

What is fascinating to me is the degree to which in Iran today — and in Lebanon — the more secular forces of moderation have used technologies like Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, blogging and text-messaging as their virtual mosque, as the place they can now gather, mobilize, plan, inform and energize their supporters, outside the grip of the state.

For the first time, the moderates, who were always stranded between authoritarian regimes that had all the powers of the state and Islamists who had all the powers of the mosque, now have their own place to come together and project power: the network. The Times reported that Moussavi’s fan group on Facebook alone has grown to more than 50,000 members. That’s surely more than any mosque could hold — which is why the government is now trying to block these sites.

Adds Jarvis:

Of course, Twitter - and Facebook and blogs and camera phones - alone cannot win a revolution. They cannot protect their users from government’s bullets and jails, as we have seen all to tragically in Iran. ... Fighting for freedom requires courage and risk we must not underestimate. But at least these tools allow allies to find each other and to let the world know of their plight. For thanks to the fact that anyone in the world - outside of North Korea - now has a printing press and a broadcast tower, they can be assured that the whole world is watching.

Also see:

• "How Twitter Creates Social Bonds with the Iranian Protesters" on Reportr.net.
• New York Times slide show
• Twitter Lessons on Revolution
• MediaShift on Iran's Citizen Journalists
  
• Twitter and Personal Branding
  

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(Photo credit: "Iran Protests for 5th Straight Day" by .faramarz, courtesy of Flickr.com)

The Times They Are a Changin'

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Seth Godin's "Amazing" MBA Experiment

Many of you know that I'm two-thirds of the way toward earning my MBA, which is why I'm fascinated by this "MBA" program put on by marketing guru Seth Godin.

Essentially, Godin set out to teach a select group of people everything he thought they should know to become expert entrepreneurs. They read books, went on field trips, considered great ideas (discover why Ideastorm and MyStarbucks "are brilliant"), met interesting speakers and challenged each other and challenged themselves. As Godin notes, "It’s surprising and disappointing that real companies don’t expose their people to this sort of learning. Too busy working, I guess."

The premise for the endeavor is fascinating; also fascinating is reading the class blog -- SAMBA -- where the "students" share all the interesting ideas they've pondered over the past six months.

Here's one example:

Do something amazing

The Zen Habits guy - Leo Babauta - made a rather radical suggestion recently. One that came down to essentially working for just a few hours a day, then rewarding yourself with a nap. (Not Seth, obviously.)

The difference in this kind of day versus the eight, nine, 10 hour days someone else worked?

That two to four hours was only to be spent on something amazing.

The kickers (which he doesn't get into) are these:

1. Amazing isn't necessarily fun. So picking that something amazing to work on doesn't mean the time is going to fly by. It's work. And sometimes the most amazing results come from doing the stuff we hate most.

2. Can you even pick something amazing to do for that time? Or has your job come down to so many unimportant details that you find your plate doesn't actually have any amazing projects on it to work on?

Do you have something amazing to do for a couple of hours a day? Can you find it? Less than amazing is just wasting your time. And you don't get your nap.

Excuse me, now, while I go do something amazing ... then take a nap...

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Dave Eggers: "Print Lives!"

Anybody who has taken Media & Society knows what a huge fan I've become of Dave Eggers - educator, entrepreneur, writer, buccaneer... Besides his writing, I most admire his enthusiasm for the written word and his gung-ho quest to engage young people with reading, writing and publishing.

Along those lines, here's an e-mail Eggers sent out via gawker.com and his faith in the future of print! In part, he writes:

Reports that no one reads anymore, especially young people, are greatly overstated and almost always factually lacking. I've written about youth readership elsewhere, but to reiterate: sales of young adult books are actually up. Total volume of all book sales is actually up. Kids get the same things out of books that they have before.

And about journalism, he had this to say:

We're convinced that the best way to ensure the future of journalism is to create a workable model where journalists are paid well for reporting here and abroad. And that starts with paying for the physical paper. And paying for the physical paper begins with creating a physical object that doesn't retreat, but instead luxuriates in the beauties of print. ... As long as newspapers offer less each day— less news, less great writing, less graphic innovation, fewer photos— then they're giving readers few reasons to pay for the paper itself.

Onward, Mr. Eggers!

(If you haven't seen the TED.com video above, you must! Called "Once Upon a School," it chronicles Eggers' quest to encourage communities to involve children in reading and writing -- and even buccaneering!)

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The Next Wave of News?

Maybe we will get our news from wikis accessible anywhere in the not too distant future. Check out this interesting post by Jeff Jarvis that begins with observations about Wave, Google's answer to Twitter.

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