vanderwal.net

Understanding Collective and Collaborative

I have finally blogged about the different between the two terms of collaborative and collective, which has been something bugging me for some time. Comments there are open, but are moderated (as they always have been). Those who have been to any of my workshops in the past year or so will see familiar information. Hopefully, the post will help those discussing and crafting social tools for the general web (or mobile) or large organizations will read and work to grasp the difference. I have had plenty of academics, researchers, and service developers push me to make this public for far too long so to start getting the misunderstanding around the two terms corrected.

6th Internet Identity Workshop Coming Up

The other event that I am finding to be fantastic is also in the Bay Area the week of May 12th is the 6th Internet Identity Workshop. This is the event for people working around identity related issues (any social application or service) that are now the core of nearly all products on the web and intranet. I have found that those who attend this event really grasp the meaning and deep impact of identity along with the needed tools and services around identity. It is really rare that I find somebody talking or writing about identity related issues in a smart manner that has not been part of one of the past IIW events.

As the discussion around the social graph has become hot identity (and the issue of privacy) has come to the forefront even more. Most services are not dealing with identity in an intelligent manner that is recognizable by a huge majority of people who are using these digital services. Much of the mangled discussion around social graph is missing solid understanding from a digital identity perspective and the use and reuse of statements of relationship that do not transcend various services.

Discussions around persona (not the IA persona variety) and identity abound and the need for services that grasp these differences are worked through. The need for better understanding the incredible value the role of identity in tagging services has also been discussed here, which is something many services do not grasp and are doing a dis-service to the people who want to tag items in their own perspective and context to ease their own refinding of the object (Twine really needs a much better understanding of tagging as their automated tagging is incredibly poor and missing many tangents for understanding that need to be applied for full and proper understanding of the objects in their service).

I am really hoping to get to part of the IIW event this time around my workshop in Las Vegas to continue with the great identity conversations from the past IIW events.

Data Sharing Summit Announced

The Bay Area the week of May 12 has a couple great events that many who read this blog should be attending. I will be in Las Vegas (putting on a Enterprise 2.0 Jumpstart workshop with Jevon MacDonald) for part of the week, but should be in the Bay Area for the remainder of the time (at least that is the plan at the moment).

Data Sharing Summit

Following on the success and interest from the event last year is the Data Sharing Summit held April 15th at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View. Data sharing is getting to be the next hot spot that social web services and enterprise tool makers really much deal with as people are not satisfied living in their single walled gardens that inhibit their ability to share, find, hold on to, and refind information, media, and knowledge that is of interest or needed by them. Understanding the limits of the partitioned spaces and embracing more open (particularly securely open) uses of the contributions made by the tools and services participants is vitally important as the participants and system owners are realizing there is rich value to be gained from a much better understanding of these interactions with participants and other services.

We are living in a digital sharing realm that was dreamed up by designers and developers scratching their own itch and in doing so the tools are self contained and not living in a social ecosystem that is based on intelligent interactions. This will likely be the focus of the discussion as people on all sides are working to vastly improve the value of their services and tools and the value that people get from using them with other tools. This is not an event to sell products, but an event for smart people to discuss where things are, where they are going (or went when we were not looking), how to progress with opening up in a manner that all the parties gain value (understanding what and where the value resides is critical), and how we can all move forward.

I will see you there, right?

Solo Agents Needed

I have a large stack of things to blog and that I should be blogging, but I have been a wee bit piled on with work and bouncing office space. This will be one of a few quick post to get some things out there that really need to be surfaced.

Agent to Solos

I was chatting with Stephanie Booth at SXSWi about the ups and downs of being a solo (freelancer) consultant or other non-developer. One of the struggles is the sales process (selling, negotiating, closing, and getting the money in) and I stated what we really need is an agent for this type of work. Steph has written this up in her blog post, Marketers and Salespeople: Agents for Freelancers.

One of the things I have learned is I really love my book agent, who found the best deal and best environment for me to write my book ("Coming to Terms: Understanding Folksonomy" due out in the late Fall 2008). He negotiated, got the contract, and is dealing with the money side of things (as well as bumps along the way). When I went through that process it was relatively painless (with the exception of dealing with on publishing firm, who I am deeply happy I did not write for, but the pain was mostly not mine (other than the huge delay)). At the time I thought my business life needs this, but the thought faded.

I am finding that much of my time is spent pitching (I rather like pitching), meeting, and working to get to contracts/agreements. When this is done it is doing the actual work (I normally work in sets of brief engagements) and invoicing. This is relatively enjoyable. Getting organizations to pay or going through mediaeval payment paperwork processes is not a joy. The book keeping is not a joy either.

I know these types of services much be around as there are book agents, speaking agents, and agents for other types of work. This is not people trying to connect me with opportunities (if you know of opportunities where I can help I am always willing to engage in that conversation) as the font end marketing and sales leads I have avenues that are finally working well for that who understand what I do and where my service provide strong value for organizations considering social web/computing tools, improving the value their current tools and services provide, or working with vendors to identify the value gaps and greatly improve their products. I need a closer and billing service all working for a percentage of what they close (I know of very few people who will sign with exclusive services).

Go read Steph's piece and leave comments there or drop me an e-mail (see connect above).

Continental Airlines I Loved You This Past Week

This past trip to SXSWi was filled with more than one's fair share of travel drama (including being heavily doused in gasoline, changing 6 flights, 2 hotels, and adding a drive from San Antonio to Austin). To get to a SXSW that was over booked and made for a completely un-SXSW experience. But, along the way I learned a little something. I love Continental Airlines. This is an open letter to Continental on the appreciation for customer service that was fantastic. I am a Gold Elite status (because I fly a fair amount for work and conferences) with Northwest Airlines (NWA) and I am a huge fan of their customer service and wonderful kindness, but I am not a direct member of Continental (they do honor NWA status and provide similar service).

When I was completely covered with gasoline on fueling up on the way to the airport and had to turn around, shower, and change clothes I also had to reschedule my flight. I called Continental and they were utterly swamped with massive weather delays and cancellations. They were kind, courteous, and very accommodating. They constantly were apologizing for the delay on confirming my changes. When my new flights were badly delayed I had to work to find a new route and worked to get to San Antonio instead, which later needed to be cancelled as it too would not work. I cancelled the flight to Austin, but they were accommodating on helping keep my flight still schedule for the return trip back. Continental also did not charge me a change of flight penalty only the difference in the cost of the ticket.

Southwest and its Non-plus Attitude

I ended up switching to Southwest to get a direct flight to San Antonio, which was not going to be impacted by a transfer through a city having weather problems. Southwest was not rude, but they did not exist nor really extend the courtesy and kindness that Continental did. To Southwest I was a number, B55 to be exact. When I checked in they were not helping the woman next to me who was having a horrible time with their kiosk, so I was pointing out the what she needed to click as I had just gone through the same confusion (JetBlue used to have the best Kiosk interface for clarity of task and ease of use, but they have changed it). The flight was good and the crew funny (scripted funny) as is the Southwest norm. But the loading process is really bothersome (I paid more for my Southwest flight at the last minute than all the changes I made on Continental and that leg of the ticket combined) and the price I paid got me near the end of the loading process on a very full flight.

Continental Return Flight

My return flight from SXSW was on Continental and I had messed up my return time and had cut the flight much closer than I thought (35 minutes to make the flight after I walked in the airport). Many times on United or Delta (Delta is partner with NWA also) I have been less late and they have not let me get on the flight and have been rather discourteous about it (I had Premiere status with United last year thanks to their seeing my status on NWA, but that only helped when I would complain about them being discourteous, at best to the Premiere Desk). But, Continental staff in Austin helped with their kiosk interface (even though I had no problem), they were very kind pointed out how to get to the gate most quickly. Once on the plane the staff had its hands full with a passenger across from me who refused to put her bag fully in the overhead bin, complained when they asked her to turn off her phone, was nasty when they said she would have to wait a moment for change for a $20 for her drink (they gave the guy with change a free drink), and when she refused to sit back down as we taxied to the gate. On the next flight the there were issues and they were rather kind with the people who were so large they did not fit in their seat and had to have the person who was so sit next to them in the middle seat take another flight (and get a free ticket), could not understand the quite sweet but elderly Latin American woman with a difficult to understand dialect. The staff on that Houston to Baltimore flight was kind and courteous, and the male flight attendant said I was very patient and kind, which was only a reflection of the Continental staff.

Fans Get Positive Feedback

I am a fan of NWA and now Continental for their great kindness and help to their loyal customers. The Southwest experience is even, but its fans get roughly similar treatment as do the non-fans. With Continental, it seems their non-fans or irregular fliers are getting courteous, helpful, and kind service. This is far and above the Southwest experience. But, in a world where we see companies embrace their fans online and encourage interaction and fandom there is not better thing than great service. In this space Continental rocked it this past week, it was flat out wonderful.