Positively Glorious!

Have you ever had the feeling that the universe is trying to tell you something? Really trying to tell you something? Like “I’m about to smack you upside the head because you’re so damn stupid”-trying to tell you something? I just did. It’s a terrifying feeling, actually.

Imagine, you’re going through your day to day business, just trying to scrape by,  paying bills, working, spending time with family- a decent life over all. Yet something keeps bugging you. Not something tangible, more like an itch that you can’t actually scratch away, but that’s not bad enough for you to figure out why. Continue Reading »

Yeah, I know, your organization doesn’t need one. Your organization has different goals. Your organization is… whatever people. Look, I’ve talked about this in previous posts¹² but want to give you another example.

You don’t have to care about Yahoo!, and you don’t have to know what OpenID is. You don’t All you have to do is know that there are two important things that a blog will add to your organizations interaction with the public. The first is called humor and the second is called humanity.  It’s Interesting that those words are rooted in the same place, is it not?. Continue Reading »

1. What do you mean websites are outdated? [↩]
2. Posterous proves why Twitter works for Customer Service [↩]

I’m sick. Well, actually, I’m almost sick, which is worse. I’ve been fighting something now for about 2-3 weeks. It’s not your usual cold where you’re down for a bit and bounce back, and it’s not that quick punch in the head of a flu that drops you in bed for two days of solid moaning. Continue Reading »

Kathleen McDade writes an excellent article on ACORN’s practices essentially leading to voder fraud through greed, lazyness and mismanagement. It’s a good read, with source links to follow.

According to ACORN, “there have been several times over the past ten months that our Las Vegas Quality Control program has identified a canvasser who appears to have knowingly submitted a fake or duplicate application in order to pad his or her hours.” It’s about money, not politics. It’s still not good, but it does not point to an Obama conspiracy to steal the election.

Check it out at TechnoEarthMama.

There’s this florist in Portland who has a really great idea.

He’s not your normal florist… well, he’s not actually a florist at all, in that he doesn’t sell flowers. His name is Rick Turoczy and he started a blog in Portland (The Rose city) about Silicon Forest technology- the startups, people and blogs that fly under the RADAR of major media. He named it Silicon Florist, and it’s become one of the major stopping points for all things PDX Tech. There’s a lot of great stuff happening in PDX tech- much of it never seen by most people. Rick is there to shine a light.

Now, the cynical side of me does see the market potential in such a plan. I mean, Rick does own a business called Return that specializes in helping startups. It could be that he woke up one day and said “Hey, that’s a kick-ass way to let the people constantly see my name- equate me with the center of PDX tech- then hire my company.” In other words, it could all be a sly marketing gimmic.

Then there’s this other side- this as yet unsuccessful entrepreneurial side of me- that thinks: “Of course it is, stupid.”

Seriously, folks, the man would have to be… well… just really really dumb not to think that.  Rick’s a smart guy. Does that change things? I think not. You see, there’s also another side to me: the community-centered, small town romantic.  That side sees Silicon Florist doing one thing exceptionally well:

Making people look good.

I can’t express to you enough the awesome power of this single concept.

I can’t express to you enough the awesome power of this single concept. Imagine, there’s a person there who wants nothing better than to find you, learn about what you’re slogging away on, and tell people how cool it is. You can’t people how cool it is because you’re too busy slogging- and don’t know who to tell anyway- and even if you did, they’d say “of course you think it’s cool- you’re slogging away on it.”

Enter The Silicon Florist.

Eventually, people starting telling the Florist about what they are working on. People send tips about what was going on, more people read it to see what other cool stuff people were slogging away on. And, yes, Rick did end up as one of the foci of PDX tech, a position he likely encourages- as do I, now.

You see, he never charges for any of it. He never sells. You never interact with Rick and think “When is the pitch going to come?” That’s because, whether it’s because he’s crazy or because he’s honestly altruistic, he actually wants to make people look good.

I know, I didn’t get it at first, either. But it does make sense.

He’s even started another organization centered specifically getting feedback for what you’re slogging at. Hello Kumquat is a site specifically designed because, as it says:

“We believe that there are far too many people, working far too hard, with far too little meaningful feedback.”

What? A site specifically designed so you can track feedback for what you’re slogging away on? Another site just to tell the world that what you’re slogging away on is really cool?

Man, this dude’s setting up mad infrastructure just so you look good!

Is it marketing? I hope so- because having his consulting gig stay successful is the best way for him to have the time, money and energy he needs to help the rest of us look good. Of course it’s marketing, but it’s also…

…Wait a minute… that’s it! It’s marketing and community involvement all in one.

And it’s genius.

It’s like 2am and I wake up and think “Shit, the man’s not just smart, he’s brilliant.”

I woke up a few weeks ago with that thought. It’s like 2am and I wake up and think “Shit, the man’s not just smart, he’s brilliant.” I’ve been trying to figure out how to accomplish something here in The Gorge, and could never put my finger on a workable solution. He figured it out years ago!

My wife, The Glorious One, has spent the better part of two years developing a visioning process for The Columbia River Gorge called The Gorge Future Forum. This is incredible work she’s doing: conferences, town hall meetings, research- work. All of it to find out what we- the entire Columbia River Gorge Community- want our community to be. It’s a vision, and it’s probably one of the most important things to happen here since the Scenic Area Act was signed.

And about 16 people have heard of it.

That makes me mad. Because the possibilities of this are astronomical. Why don’t people know about this? If they know, why don’t they see its importance? I struggled with how to get the word out, and could think of nothing short of standing on top of Dog River Coffee every morning and shouting at the top of my lungs. It seems to work for people in Pioneer Square, so I tried it. Unfortunately, Bruce- our chief of police- told me to shut up and get down from there.

I went home and tried to think of where else I could shout from. I wanted people to know about it. Then, I started thinking about the other great people here. The ones doing smaller, everyday things to make The Gorge great. They need recognition too. This should all be part of the same goal. The things that people are working on to make our community better.

Of course, you see where this is going- the complete and shameless theft of an idea.

I’m not as smart as Rick, so I’ll have to keep my unrelated day job. However, over the next couple weeks, I’m slowly building up the infrastructure for a way to Engage The Gorge (the Site launch scheduled for November 1st). It’ll start small, because that’s all I can do. It’ll just be an article here and there thanking someone for what they’re doing. Just some quick write-ups and podcasts helping to make people look good. Maybe one day I’ll have the time to make it as important as The Silicon Florist.

Of course, it may not work at all, but I have to at least try. It’s just such an amazing concept that I can’t get it out of my head.

Thanks Rick!

I’ve been thinking for a long time about creating a blog for my radio show on Radio Tierra. One issue for a while is that I haven’t had enough time to get it up and running. Recently, we’ve decided to revamp our internet presence with a new site, individual show blogs and other goodies. Enter WordPress.

My show is That Dusty Road- so I thought “That Dusty Blog” would be a pretty good title. We’re still building the main domain presence and training people in Joomla, so the front page to Radio Tierra is still the old one. I’ve gone ahead and started building subdomains for each show, and mine is the first to go live.

So check out That Dusty Blog but, you know, don’t mind the dust. I’m still ironing out some kinks.

The wonderful post by Cami Kaos on communication has had me thinking over the past day, and I’ve come to some realizations.

This is a post about communication. It’s about the greatness and the biggest failure of social media. It’s about the love of two people, and the silence that grows between them.

The Issue

I’m a quiet person.

In many cultures, silence is important. In some, silence is just a bad thing.

I’ve always known that I’m a fairly quiet person. This is not new to me.  Yet I’m somehow realizing the outcomes of this fact more and more as I advance inexorably toward 40.

I don’t mind being a quiet person- in fact, it’s what I strive for most of the time- but I realize more and more now that it does come with some very serious downsides. In many cultures, silence is important. In some, silence is just a bad thing.

The Background

First, I should explain what I mean by “quiet,” because the meaning is jumbled by the mixed-race heritage it stems from. This means that in order to explain what I mean by “quiet,” I have to explain this heritage. I’m a Black Indian. My family history consists of escaped slaves who moved north (my “maiden” name was Pennington, as in James W.C. Pennington), and of Lenape who refused to move west. It’s the hidden story of much of the eastern seaboard, either group of Dark people seeking coverage by intermarrying with the other.

My family history consists of escaped slaves who moved north, and of Lenape who refused to move west.Like all families anywhere, there are subtleties that are inherent and often unexplored, many having to do with communication. A family’s entire communication strategy may have been developed because of historical and cultural context that was forgotten centuries ago. A family of Scottish descent may interact with each other, and with the world, based on a multigenerational event that ended with them crossing the ocean 200 years before.

Thus, it seems, is the case with me. Yet mixed-race families are often even more strange. I have a German mother, and a Black Indian father. Consequently, I have four Black sisters, one white sister, and I- the only boy and the only one with whom my father took the time to impart upon his subtle, quiet, troubled thoughts. As my aunt, his sister, says: I’m the only Indian left.

Now, there are family issues with that statement which I’ll avoid in order to get to the point, that being that Native Communication is very different that European Communication. Although it’s hard and confusing at times, for the most part, I do just fine wearing two hats.

When talking to Native peoples, I speak native, often not speaking at all. I can sit and listen to someone else, or to a shared silence, for weeks at a time. I take a long time to build a relationship with people- sometimes spending the better part of a year to think before mentioning some small interaction that the other person may have all but forgotten. I’m not burying it- because it may be good, bad or ambiguous- I’m considering it. In the words of my Grandfather, I’m letting the seasons tell me what to say- or whether there is anything to say at all.

I grew up mostly with, and truly loving, my mother’s family; but I also grew up with an almost comical inability to communicate with them.

Then there is the White side of me- which is not necessarily “White” so much as “Depression German from Western New York.” They are forceful, they are loud, they are direct and often angry while not actually talking directly about any issues. I grew up mostly with, and truly loving, my mother’s family; but I also grew up with an almost comical inability to communicate with them. In my mixed-race, child mind, I thought that “this is how white people communicate.” It was often painful and hurtful, it was loud. But it was also incredibly loving. To put it bluntly, my Mother’s family will do absolutely anything for you- they’d swim through broken glass if you needed them to. They’d just complain about it the whole time and never let you hear the end of it.

Thus, my childhood: Confusion.

Now, this story is probably something anyone can relate- two separate families and two separate communication styles. I realize that I’m not anything special or significantly different. It took me a long time to realize that this was not “the way White people communicate,” mostly because I never took the time to try to understand. If I was on a reservation- I spoke Native. If I was with white people, I spoke like my mother’s family (I’ll save the issue of Black communication for another day). It’s a technique the linguists call “Code Switching,” and something that bi-lingual and bi-racial people learn from day 2. For me, they were the only two languages I ever knew.

The Consequences

So we arrive out of history to the present day. A man, approaching his forties, having studied Anthropology and Linguistics mainly out of a need to understand his European side, still learning about how he communicates- and about how confused he is about communication in general. So I read a post by Cami Kaos- a delicate, thoughtful post about love and communication, and I’m suddenly confused again.

If I really like a person, I’m quieter. The more I like them, the quieter I get.You see, I still have strange issues from childhood, the result of which is that the more I learn and respect a person, the less I want to say. When I meet people, I’m fairly reserved, but talkative and generally gregarious. Direct and vocal. If I really like a person, I’m quieter. The more I like them, the quieter I get. Why? Because I automatically switch from my “confusing” Mother’s family’s communication to my “comfortable” Father’s family’s. I stop wanting to speak every thought I have. I stop talking about anything that crosses my mind.

I want to give that person the space they need to speak. I want to allow that quiet that lets thoughts grow and develop. I want the subtly that only years of silence can bring to a relationship. In short, the more I like a person, them more I want to interact with them like a Native person.

Jessica is my second skin. If there is anyone who I want to communicate with in Native style, it is her.

Of course, this can come across negatively to people of European decent. It’s often hard on our relationship. Friends who I have such deep respect and love for end up thinking that I dislike them because I’m just silent and don’t say much around them. Can I say this to them? Can I tell them “I don’t speak because there’s a beauty in the silence surrounding you that I don’t want to disturb.”

And then, there’s Jessica. My love, my wife, my best friend. And sometimes my hardest communication companion. Jessica comes from a family who speaks everything- often, by their own admission, without ever thinking about it. We come together mostly directly because I speak “White.” But often, we glance by each other because she is my second skin. If there is anyone who I want to communicate with in Native style, it is her.

The (lack of) Finale

Where does all this go?

Nowhere, really. There’s no conclusion. There’s no resolve.

There’s an absolutely beautiful post by Cami that I don’t comment on because I’m confused. I unconsciously start thinking that she and others like Katherine McDade that I’ve met recently are people who are slipping into the “Native” side. But how does that work? It can’t.

In an online community- silence doesn’t have meaning. Silence just means that you are away from your computer. Silence means that you are upset at some little quip that someone made- something you might not have even read.

This isn’t something about the economy or politics that I can just throw out there- this is important. This is human relationships.So, in order to interact, I have to post a comment about Cami’s article- about the subtly of her love for her husband- before I even have time to truly consider it. I have to post it immediately. I can’t wait until the spring to tell her that it touched me. Yet that’s hard, because it’s just the type of thing that I want to let sit. This isn’t something about the economy or politics that I can just throw out there- this is important. This is human relationships.

All day I think about this and reach no conclusion. The more I respect someone, the less I say, the more silence I give them so that we together can hear the wind between our thoughts. It’s hard enough to make this work with most people in person. It seems impossible in an online community.

And then, after thinking about this all day, I get home and poor Jessica gets frustrated because I don’t immediately answer a question out loud. I thought I answered it- I honestly did. I always think I answer it. I don’t always use my voice to answer. I answer with actions and with time. Sometimes I even answer with silence. It makes no sense when I wear my White hat, but is the obvious answer in my Native mind.

It’s a small, everyday question- something about eggs. My reaction is to maintain silence and just begin to work together on the answer. The question itself doesn’t really matter. I go to the fridge and get out stuff, still thinking about the other question- the important conversation we were having while cooking- the one that mattered. Both of these questions I’m silent on. I try to give the space they need, and begin to move instead of to speak. I’m still listening.

I love her, she means everything to me, so the silence is not a bad thing. The timespan grows. Seven… eight seconds. I don’t answer her. I love her, she means everything to me, so the silence is not a bad thing. I’ll just start to prepare the ingredients while I’m thinking about all of this…

nine… I grab the cheese- the larger discussion still broiling in my head… ten seconds.

… Then it hits me. Her frustration. This silence is not a good thing. She’s waiting for an answer. What kind of eggs do I want, dammit? Why don’t I answer her? Why do I just ignore her when she asks me a question?

I’m sorry, Jessica. I thought I was answering. I really did.

I’m sorry to my friends, too. Jenny and Cody, Jon and Lori, Robin and Lynne. I love you. I sit silently around you because that’s a space I want to give you. I know that sometimes, you feel this silence differently than I do, and I’m sorry.

I’m sorry to my online friends too, because our communication will be exactly what the developers of online social media designed it to be. I’m sorry that we cannot hear the wind between our thoughts. I’m sorry that our silence has no meaning.

But mostly I’m sorry to Jessica, my love. Because silence for me is often a gesture of that love, yet it is easily- and understandably- mistaken as ignoring you. I’m not ignoring you, my love. I’m giving you everything I can. I’m giving you space.

I love you, Jessica.

Wow, I go out into the field for one day, and the US government goes crazy! Driving back from an environmental assessment in The Dalles, I heard Henry Paulson’s voice on the radio, Details can be found on the Wall Street Journal.

Real Time Economics : Paulson: ‘Aggressive’ Global Effort Planned; U.S. to Take Bank Stakes.

the Fed is not going to buy the bad debt of lending institutions, but rather will buy stock in those institutions.

The simple version is that the Fed is not going to buy the bad debt of lending institutions, but rather will buy stock in those institutions. Under the previous plan, the Fed would have bought the risky debt from the banks, thereby saving the banks from loosing if the debt went sour. The positive thing here is that the banks are stabilized, but the negative thing is that the Fed- and the American tax payers- loose if the debt goes sour.

This is the plan that pretty much everyone thought they were signing. A late night rider that was snuck into the Bailout Bill which allowed this new “stock injection” action- an action that was almost universally avoided by the House and the Senate.

The new plan has the Fed leaving the risk of the bad debt in the hands of the banks and instead injecting cash directly into the banks by buying stock- thereby becoming an investor themselves.

Many finance analysts approve of this method because it allows the Fed to have a share of the rewards that is commenserate with the risk it is taking. Others oppose it because it is direct government influence on the banking sector- possibily influencing business decisions based on politics.

The hope is that this will not happen. Paulson’s statement seems to suggest that The Fed will take a backseat to decision making by purchasing non-voting stock; however, the speech came with few solid details.

Personally, I believe that if we, the taxpayer, are going to be responsible for the bad decisions of the financial market in times of great risk and disruption, then it is only fair that we share in the profits during the good times. This plan will allow that to happen.

However, I do worry about the effect of this on the market, and about the government’s reaction to crises in the future. This is the closest that the government has ever come to nationalizing such a private infrastructure as the financial market. It is something we will have to watch, both for the outcomes and for the precident.

Clearly this is a time of turmoil.

Found a great post about 20 wordpress plugins to make the blog a CMS. I’ve got a few, but there are more I need to tap into! Thanks @justinkistner!

This is a follow-up to my previous post on the use of Social Networking in Business. It’s meant as a real-life example of Twitter being used for excellent customer service by the folks at Posterous.

It’s also meant as a very serious suggestion to all tech companies- including non-tech companies who have tech-savvy customers.

Use Twitter!

Twitter is one of the greatest things to happen to customer service since the telephone.

Seriously, people. Twitter is one of the greatest things to happen to customer service since the telephone. Well, maybe that’s a bit toward hyperbole, but not too far off. It works, and if you’re not using it, then I’ll tell you it works better than you can imagine.

Look, don’t believe the posts about Comcast’s success, or Dell’s strategy to collect and rank customer issues (but you should at least read about them.) Believe me. Here’s an example:

Recently I’ve been playing with Posterous as a way to facilitate blogging. (To learn everything about the tool, visit the site). Basically it is billed as a way to fill the gap between Twitter (140 characters) and long blog posts that are often closer to essays. Since I tend to be a bit loquacious, I thought I’d try to use it.

So I go set up an account, set up email, and start emailing my thoughts to my Posterous page which will autopost to Positively Glorious!. Very quickly I start wondering if it is worth it. Cool idea- but is it a solution in search of a problem? Realistically, I can email directly to Positively Glorious! using a Wordpress Plugin, so why should I use Posterous?

I can email directly to Positively Glorious! using a Wordpress Plugin, so why should I use Posterous?

I start thinking about it, and Tags and Categories would allow me to separate my Posterous blog entries, maybe using a different position on my front page to show them. It would still overlap the communications channels, because I would have my Blog and a Posterous page, but it would at least be the start of something possibly useful- and hey, I’m a dedicated early adopter, so starts and possibilities are all I need.

So, I make a short comment on Twitter (actually- I used Identi.ca- which cross-posts to Twitter, but those are details):

“Posterous would be more useful to me if you could autotag and assign categories when you autopost to your blog using it.”

Basically, I was just stating a mild frustration. However, that mild frustration was caught by a programmer at Posterous. The nice thing about Twitter is that I’ve never heard of this fellow, and he’s never heard of me, yet mere minutes after I make a comment about Posterous to no-one in particular, I get a reply:

“@Mettadore funny you should mention tagging / categories. that’s what i’m working on now. =)”

If you can’t see the power of this- then I hope you are directly competing with me.

I send a comment out to no-one in particular, and immediately get a response back… from someone in particular

I send a comment out to no-one in particular, and immediately get a response back… from someone in particular. Not only that, but from someone who is already working on my problem! Suddenly, I start thinking that even if Posterous is not completely useful yet, I may just use it anyway. Why? Because there are probably people already working on whatever stupid little thing I may want. Now I know- or at least think I know- that very soon it’s going to be something greater than I imagined.

Seriously people, this is an absolute no-brainer. And there’s more. Because this morning I sent another comment to the Twitter-verse:

“Oops. Turns out that if you accidently try to blog to Posterous from the wrong email account- it’ll automagically set up a new account. Bleh”

This time, I wasn’t even complaining about Posterous! I was mainly saying that if you accidentally post from one of the accounts you don’t have set up- then maybe you should pay more attention before posting. Posterous has a great system in that you don’t need to set up an account before you post- but that means those of us with accounts need to be just a bit more… well, awake, before posting.

Anyway, the whys are not important. What’s important is that minutes later yet another Posterous person responds to my note with:

“@Mettadore If you add your other email addresses to your posterous account, it will merge them all together.”

See the pattern? Can I make it any clearer? I’ve already got email accounts set up and was really just complaining about my lack of coffee- but even then, there’s still someone looking out for me.

And there’s even more! (I sound like I’m going to say “if you call now-”). I responded to both of the people who responded to me. Thus, everyone following me- nearly 100 people with my relatively small Twitter following- will see my response to them. They can (and believe me, often do) look back at the person to see what I’m talking about.

Suddenly, you have the opportunity to have someone who’s never heard of Posterous trying to find out more

Suddenly, you have the opportunity to have someone who’s never heard of Posterous trying to find out more just because I was happy and wrote a note back. Again- that’s not just a possibility. There are two of my friends who’ve asked me what Posterous is since this happened. They asked me specifically because of my Twitter posts.

I’ve still got issues with using Posterous. The main one being tagging and categories. Another being my frequent use of pull-quotes and such complex formatting. These are things that I’ll have to iron out before using it religiously. Still, here’s the meat: If my experience with Posterous were merely one of frustration and questioning- I might have given it up. However, my experience is one of possibilities and interaction. Thus, I’m posting this- a much longer post- using it. Something I never would have attempted before without pull-quotes (I may still add them manually to Positively Glorious!, since I’m a formatting junky).

Look everyone. You don’t have to run out and set up a Twitter account and keyword RSS feeds for searches relating to your company immediately. Just at least promise me you’ll think about it. Maybe as the nights get longer, you’ll sit by the fireplace one evening with a glass of wine and actually give it some thought? Can you promise me that?

Me? Hell, it’s fundamental to my business plan- even if the VCs never see it mentioned.

By the way, if you’re directly competing with me, remember: Twitter is all hype- completely useless.

Posted by email from Mildly Glorious (posterous)