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Mavericks at Work


0927061944
Originally uploaded by HowardGr.

I attended the launch party for Mavericks at Work last night.  This photo is of the authors, William Taylor and Polly LaBarre. Several of the mavericks were there, as well as Bill’s old college buddy, Elliot Spitzer. (The future governor was quite the friendly party going story teller, very casual and every-man like. Not what I expected.)

I met former Goldcorp CEO Ron McEwen, now at a US Gold. I had a good talk with Jack Huges of TopCoder and his communications director JamesMcKeown. At the end of the night, James and I left and walked down the street talking about how social media and online tools can build community and value. These folks are people I can learn a lot from.

I reconnected with Vernon Hill, Founder and Chairman of Commerce Bank, whom I had the pleasure of inviting and hosting at the NYU Entreprenurship Conference 2 years ago. He’s a real maverick’s maverick.

More later. This is an excellent book that I’m really enjoying.

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Business social media socialmediaclub web2.0

Social Media – the future

I know you’re out there. I can feel you now. I know that you’re afraid… you’re afraid of us. You’re afraid of change. I don’t know the future. I didn’t come here to tell you how this is going to end. I came here to tell you how it’s going to begin.

—Neo, The Matrix

 

No, I don’t know the future. But I’m watching it begin. Getting involved with Social Media Club was just the thing I needed to kick start my brain again. I had spent a lot of time thinking about Web 2.0 in this article for Optimize Magazine, but hadn’t had a lot of places to discuss my thoughts and to help them grow.

Thankfully I met Chris Heuer via Shanon Clark’s MeshForum.  Chris has spent a lot of time thinking about Social Media, including an excellent post here on the future of Social Media which he wrote for BlogOrlando’s event last week.

One of Chris’ predictions, “More individuals will band together in networks small and large, changing the very notion of freelancing and employment” is something that I’ve seen as a prediction before, whether via Dan Pink’s Free Agent Nation, Sara Horowitz’ Freelancer’s Union  (I was an original advisor to Working Today) or other folks. But it seems more timely now than in the dot-boom/bust timeframe.

Reading the upcoming book Mavericks at Work by William C. Taylor and Polly LaBarre has pointed to some excellent examples. (Thanks, Polly, for the advance copy!). Examples of companies like InnoCentive, which helps companies find solutions to difficult problems using the net and the wisdom of distributed crowds of scientists, researches, and labs around the world, really shows not just a freelance model but a new way of working for a company by working as a small team. InnoCentive, NineSigma, TopCoder and others provide an interface – an open API if you will – for small or medium size teams to collaborate, mashup and provide data to large collections of revenue and R&D dollars (also known as major corporations.)

How do these methods of finding innovation meet Social Media? All  the projects these companies do are done based on net and real world-based relationships, created first via the net, facilitated by collaborative software, nurtured via relationship building that’s often virtual…sound familiar? Sounds a lot like the way business is now done, and will be done. This is where Social Media meets Corporate Media (insert plug for the upcoming event of the same name this October, done by Chris and a few co-conspirators).

Getting back to Chris’ article, there are some other excellent points about how Social Media can save the world and change business. I made some connections in my head to what Chris said and what Greg Narain says about BizDev 2.0 as well:

The Wet Edge in the Web 2.0 world is the Open API. The edge is constantly moved by the developers that come along and increase the surface area – extend the reach and use of the underlying system by innovating the brush, so to speak. The survival of this enterprise assumes that the mixer (system developer) constantly adds new colors (features) to the palette, hence keeping painters (web developers) interested in the offering.

Business, Social Media, everything seems to grow more when we open the conversation, and yes, it has to be a conversation, up to others. As Tom Watson said recently, “Blogging isn’t about big stories or mainstream journalism. It’s about giving voices to thousands and thousands who didn’t have them before (beyond their dens and livingrooms and local barstools), providing real open distribution, and creating a vast patchwork quilt of conversation, thought, and passionate argument.” [emphasis is mine]

I didn’t come here to tell you how this is all going to end. I’m here to tell you how this will begin. We’ll be having another meeting of Social Media Club in NYC in late October. There are camp type events all over. Meetup hosts lots of good events. Pick one, and go talk to people. I hope you’ll join in the conversation with us.

 

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Required Reading



Required Reading

Originally uploaded by HowardGr.

I was at the NYU bookstore the other day, looking for a text book. I noticed that some smart marketing prof had set Naked Conversations as “required reading” for class. Good to see they’re up on things!

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fun howardgr onewebday Random Thoughts web2.0

Happy One Web Day

Sorry I couldn’t make it to One Web Day. I’m home with a sinus thing and bad or no voice (depending on how recently I drank hot tea).
But I made a video to celebrate One Web Day.


A message of support to the organizers of One Web Day from Howard Greenstein, co-founder of Social Media Club (http://www.socialmediaclub.com/) and co-founder of the World Wide Web Artists Consortium (wwwac.org)
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Random Thoughts

My Voice, MIA

Well, many people tell me I talk too much. Between Monday’s meeting of Social Media Club, Tuesday’s birthday festivities, and 2 NYU related events yesterday, I’ve basically lost my voice.

If you find it please return it.

Tea and Honey are the order of the day.