Seems everyday tools, gadgets or widgets are popping up to help us with our intense online information overload...often just to keep us aware of the information we are overloaded with.
I wondered if it would be the same with Google Realtime. I was curious to learn if continual updates of online info on my topics of interest would be useful to me or simply remind me of all of the information I did not have time to wade through.
http://www.google.com/landing/realtime/
I choose as my topic Knowledge Transfer. To those of you who might raise an eyebrow and say...hmm, how about painting or cheesemaking for a change, I do have other interests. I wanted to find out if my work could be enhanced by online listings. So, I chose my topic and set a daily alert for myself.
So far, the jury on the question of information overload is out, but the tool is quite fun and probably useful, especially for anyone who spends a lot of time searching or surfing.
Mostly, I use it to quickly view what's being said, to spark new thought, to build on what I am working on or thinking about. It's still about context and connection for me most of the time, but if I want quickly take a pulse on what's up out there...this tool is worth the small amount of effort required.
The short video on Google Realtime's homepage is worth the time to quickly understand what is available.
Showing posts with label tweets. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tweets. Show all posts
Friday, August 27, 2010
Is Social Media No Longer a Conversation?
Mitch Joel, in his blog "Six Pixels of Separation" talks about the end of conversation in social media. Before some of us Baby Boomers have even caught on to the power or potential or possiblities around social media, the communication has already changed. In Joel's view, and I tend to agree, there is no longer actual conversation in social media, but simply feedback.
http://www.twistimage.com/blog/archives/the-end-of-conversation-in-social-media/
As I read the blog I could not help but relate it to what happens in an organization when the culture is less than trusting. In a less than trusting culture, few people feel comfortable standing in a place of not knowing or in a place of curiosity. They don't ask big, wide open questions....they ask safe, less risk taking questions. They are less vulnerable, they are less apt to let on that they are beginners. Couple this with intense workloads and reduced resources and you have little time for honest, open, big, wide, juicy, exploratory conversation.
I wonder if that is true now on the web and in social media as well? Because everything we say or respond to or dialogue around can be found and reported and re-read, re-tweeted, re-published, have we lost trust and the ability to engage in authentic dialogue?
Did we ever have big, wide, open, honest, exploratory conversation online?
If not, we should have...the web and social media allowed us to reach out and connect to minds and views and experiences we could not have reached in this lifetime. What a great time to really, deeply, mine and explore and learn.
Perhaps Mitch is right. Perhaps blogs are now simply a place to publish with a bit of feedback, but only one way feedback, and tweeting is simply too constrained for real conversation. Which leads me to wonder if we have missed a rare and beautiful opportunity to delve into some of the deeper questions with those you would have never had the opportunity to meet through other means, to ponder the mysteries of life, to dialoge around why things are the way things are and how we might shift them for the better. I wonder what you think, what your questions are and what the dialogue, the conversation would be around it.
http://www.twistimage.com/blog/archives/the-end-of-conversation-in-social-media/
As I read the blog I could not help but relate it to what happens in an organization when the culture is less than trusting. In a less than trusting culture, few people feel comfortable standing in a place of not knowing or in a place of curiosity. They don't ask big, wide open questions....they ask safe, less risk taking questions. They are less vulnerable, they are less apt to let on that they are beginners. Couple this with intense workloads and reduced resources and you have little time for honest, open, big, wide, juicy, exploratory conversation.
I wonder if that is true now on the web and in social media as well? Because everything we say or respond to or dialogue around can be found and reported and re-read, re-tweeted, re-published, have we lost trust and the ability to engage in authentic dialogue?
Did we ever have big, wide, open, honest, exploratory conversation online?
If not, we should have...the web and social media allowed us to reach out and connect to minds and views and experiences we could not have reached in this lifetime. What a great time to really, deeply, mine and explore and learn.
Perhaps Mitch is right. Perhaps blogs are now simply a place to publish with a bit of feedback, but only one way feedback, and tweeting is simply too constrained for real conversation. Which leads me to wonder if we have missed a rare and beautiful opportunity to delve into some of the deeper questions with those you would have never had the opportunity to meet through other means, to ponder the mysteries of life, to dialoge around why things are the way things are and how we might shift them for the better. I wonder what you think, what your questions are and what the dialogue, the conversation would be around it.
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