In Defense of Donut Pictures (or Why The Mundane Matters)

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We sometimes decry original, compelling content not getting its due, at least in the face of what we consider mundane, even inane. We lament that people pour out comments on pictures of cats or donuts or tweets about what you’re cooking for dinner and where you went on vacation. We can’t believe how such insipid [...]

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Learn to Fall…Off Your High Horse

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One byproduct of the beloved two-way conversation of the social web is that we all feel the urge to offer our “feedback”. Because we can, because it’s expected, because how interesting are we if we have nothing to add? I love the freedom to express and share my viewpoint as much as anyone. But last [...]

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The Price of Wavemaking

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Being stagnant sucks. Digging the same trench endlessly just gets you a deeper trench. Recently, I put up a post with a decidedly more acerbic tone than is usually my style. I was frustrated, so I used the voice I have to express that. Some folks were right behind me. Some thought I was being [...]

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6 Ingredients for Successful Collaboration

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I’m often surprised at how folks say they’re collaborative in nature, but rarely bear that out in their actions. Collaborations are the ideal – we all know that more brains are better than one – but they’re not as easy as just having enthusiasm for working together. Collaboration is a bit science, and a bit [...]

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The Albert Einstein Guide to Social Media

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Albert Einstein knew an awful lot. And if you pay attention to his work and his most famous statements about it, you might just think he was talking about us, the social media crew. We might not be looking for a unified theory for all things quantum in our day jobs, or pondering the discrepancies [...]

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Rules and Education Aren’t the Same

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Social media needs more training teaching, not more rules. [update: if you read the post, you'll know that I'm talking about teaching more than training. But for those not reading past the first sentence, let's clear this up.] Guidelines are great, if they emerge from education. If they’re the arrival point through which folks can [...]

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