Old technology but it works

Electronic Mailing lists are by no means a new technology. Simply, an electronic email list works like a traditional email list where many people share address and emails are mass emailed in a public way. Almost every subject has list that you can join. Also if you are worried about getting too much email just sin up for the digest form so you get one email a day that contains all the traffic for that day.

The Latest Ideas

The main reason I like mailing lists is they have the latest and greatest ideas. Since the lists can react so fast to things they offer a forum for ideas immediately and with a diverse range of opinions.

Meet people

Another reason I love mailing lists is that they allow you to contact people you might never have met before who are interested into what you are in. I have met fellow students and professors from all over the world doing interesting work.

Other Research

Mailing lists also introduce you to new research subjects and methods you might never have known. Several times I have seen things I could never think of or new connections.

Etiquette

One caveat of joining lists is there is high level of etiquette expected on mailing lists. Be sure to read an list rules closely and I would recommend reading the list for a while before posting to it. Happy listing!

My Lists

These are the lists I am on:

SLED – Second life Education list. - https://lists.secondlife.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/educators

SLRL – Second Life Researchers List (I run this list with Intellagirl) - http://list.academ-x.com/listinfo.cgi/slrl-academ-x.com

SOCNET – From INSNA, the professional association for social network researchers (http://www.insna.org).

air-l - Association of Internet Researchers http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org

Mike Bloxham

Question: So how about using a site like LinkedIn to build your business network? The importance of blogging?
Bloxham responded that he’s not convinced that such sites really work to increase contacts. He stated that, though he’s on LinkedIn, he doesn’t really use it. Rather, he said he’d rather build his contact face to face or through conversation about common interests.
“I have to say since I started writing the blog at the beginning of this year on Media Post’s tv boards which I do every week, that’s been really interesting because there are some people I have met at events since then who have commented that they read my tv board and then there are others who I already knew but none the less it’s another conversation point and it gives me a feel for the reach of something like that.”
Bloxham added, though, that he thinks blogging on a reputable site which already has an audience is far different from a personal blog. So rather than blogging on your own, why not try to be a blogger for a larger site? However, Mike also added that blogging on your own can still be a valuable way to prove to readers that you have something to say.
Bloxham uses Google Alerts to track down links back to his entries and to the CMD.
Mike and I then talked about writing effective blog posts. I asked him about his sense of humor and whether he had ever been misunderstood in his blogs:
“It’s a very critical stage because they’ll [visitors] come back sometimes having misread it, which is actually hilarious. I don’t actually indulge in correcting people; I just let people argue among themselves. You’ve got to be able to write well; you’ve got to be a good communicator and I think a lot of people look at digital forms and digital tools as a means of avoiding the more difficult forms of communication and I think those who view them in that way are going to fall foul because they’re lost, you’re just fooling yourself.” Though blogs are often written in less formal language, it’s important to be sure that your text accurately presents what you’re trying to say. You can have incredible things to say but if you write them poorly no one is going to get your message.
Bloxham also had interesting things to say about attracting an audience. Rather than writing what you think people will be interested in: “I think one way in creating an audience is being in tune with your audience, to kind of set the tone for the audience; they have to decide whether or not they want to be your audience.” Mike’s advice seems a little contrary but I think he’s right. Your message, your blog, will read as being more authentic, and therefore more engaging, if you think less about pleasing everyone and more about engaging the audience you’re most concerned with.
When planning conference presentations and blogs Bloxham says it’s important to have an opinion: “People aren’t drawn to boring material. One of the things I always say to people who ask me to present is that I’ll have opinions on things. You may not agree with the opinions but you’ve got something to disagree with there. Something people are interested in….. yeah like if everything is very mutual, very matter of fact and desperate not to offend anybody or come up with any original ideas, and then just give it up and get a good sleep under a duvet. Why bother getting out of bed? You simply just want to get paid. I want something to justify my time which is obviously more valuable then doing it just for cash.” Bloxham is all about stirring people up whether it’s through presenting unique research, using humor to get the audience involved (he once pretended to snort coke off of the podium during a presentation), or being controversial. His approach makes sense. What blog entries get passed around the mailing lists you’re on? The ones that agree with the majority or the ones that stir people up? “I don’t think you need to be desperate to please the audience all the time. If you’re polite about it you can very easily turn around and say, ‘you’re not going to want to hear this. You may fervently disagree with this’ and then we can have a striking argument with a nice beer together. I’m going to agree to disagree and that’s absolutely great because there may be the argument; we’ll have an original thought each and wouldn’t that be a valuable use of our time?”
Bloxham is a treasure trove of fantastic advice. From being controversial, to tips on remembering names, his perspective and attitude set a high bar for those of us who aspire to create mutually beneficial networks of like-minded people.

Paul Madsen, Conor Cahill, Richard Piccarreto and I participated in Aldo Castaneda’s Digital Identity podcast last week. Have a listen! We discussed everything from OpenID to how digital identities are formed. It was a blast and I learned a bunch from these great guys. Have a listen and I’m sure you’ll learn a thing or two as well.

The Challenge

The Happiness project is a blog, by Gretchen Rubin, that has a post abut performing good deeds. Her list includes:

• Birthdays
• Thinking of you
• Help people think big
• Recommendation.
• Introductions

Read the blog entry and then post, big or small, what you have done to help other people in the comments. Link.

The presentation is based on St. john’s book, Stupid, Ugly, Unlucky and Rich: Spike’s Guide to Success. First the presentation is excellent merging graphics nd content in an excellent manner. The content is also spot on. St. John’s guide to success follows the following elements:

• Passion
• Work
• Focus
• Persist
• Ideas
• Good
• Push
• Serve

The quote I like the best is:

“Push yourself. Physically, mentally, you gotta push, push, push.” – David Gallo, Marine Scientist.

I ordered up this booky goodness on Amazon so I will have more for you once I get it. Has anyone read this? What did you think?

Presentation Zen Post
TED Presentation
Stupid, Ugly, Unlucky and Rich

This is really just part 1 of the post I thought up back when this blog began - but only now have I squeezed the five minutes into my schedule.

Who is Buddy Sprocket?

Well, he is my avatar in Second Life. Here’s a picture of him.

That’s Buddy wearing his “Cybering Your Alt” t-shirt.

In SL everyone gets to choose their appearance. We get to show ourselves as we want others to see us. As the by-line of this blog has it, we get to indulge in self-branding. We are our own brand in Second Life. Does this mean that unlike the real world we can judge a book by its cover?

I know I’m straying into Intellagirl’s territory here, but I’m interested in what Buddy’s appearance says about him. I’ll follow up this post shortly with another explaining the choices and decisions behind the appearance.

Hopefully it will be interesting to see how much connect or disconnect there is with my ideas about Buddy and those of everyone else who sees him.

It’s all about audience. Who do you hope to attract to your work? What aspects of you will be most desirable? This goes way beyond a resume, folks. In a resume you can’t list all the people you know, you can’t claim the power of being someone who is enthusiastic and engaging. In a blog, website, or social networking space you can do all these things and more. Online, through the web of self-representation, you can knit together an ethos for yourself that goes far beyond your skill set and work history. Creating a digital personality is a tricky thing. Text, and even images, can be easily misinterpreted. Others may not see you the same way you think you’ve represented yourself. A website that you think is funny may be perceived as snarky by someone else.

So here’s today’s assignment: Conduct an ego search. Go to Google and whatever blog search engine you prefer and do a search on your 1) real name, 2) blog title or website title, and 3) your most commonly used screen name. See what kind of picture the findings paint of you. Is it the picture you’re sending or is it warped?

Control your own digital ethos.

Welcome to Notes From The Digital Frontier, a new weekly newsletter linking to a first-of-its-kind blog. A unique collaboration between the students of Ball State University and MediaPost, Notes is an attempt to link the world of academia — more specifically, the next generation of media-savvy undergrads — with the commercial world of Madison Avenue.

Stop by and have a look and tell them what you think! Link.