Groundswell Winning In A World Transformed By Social Technologies By Charlene Li (Forrester Research) and Josh Bernoff

Groundswell Winning In A World Transformed By Social Technologies By Charlene Li (Forrester Research) and Josh Bernoff

Groundswell is about social technologies. According to the authors on page 9, Groundswell is,
"A social trend in which people use technologies to get the things they need from each other, rather than from traditional institutions like corporations."

Using Wikipedia instead of the Encyclopedia Britannica would be an example of Groundswell. Going to a free technical support forum on the internet instead of reading the manual for your camera would be Groundswell as well.

This book is a practical book about how corporations have succeeded in using "groundswell" in their business transactions. For example, Proctor & Gamble created an online community called beinggirl about growing up for teenagers to sell feminine products like tampons. All of the examples are from corporations. There are over 25 different cases in this book. It is a nuts and bolts book.

There is no theory in this book. It gives a working model on you can market, participate, strategize, and profit in the the groundswell environment. To give a better context of what this means, Charlene Li is the vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research in Web 2.0 and Social Computing. Josh Bernoff is the Vice President and Principal Analyst for Technographics. I am not sure what Technographics is...

The business model includes charts, graphs, and other indicators of ROI (Return on Investment). I don't particularly understand it. It sounds like consultant, analyst, or MBA talk. Pieces of this book are way over my head. But then it is printed by Harvard Business Press, and c2008, Forrester Research.

The parts of this book which were understandable were the lists of action steps they created to use groundswell. For example, on P. 114, they have a very interesting list of what it takes to succeed in building a corporate blog.

Despite being a complicated business book, the book is not dry. The writing is quite lively. I especially liked the section on the AFOL (Adult Friends of Lego) and http://www.lugnet.com/ International Lego Users Network. The image of an adult building a lego star wars star destroyer comes to mind. It is the epitome of geekiness.

There was one corporate example that bothered me a little bit. Best Buy has an internal corporate network for its sales and marketing people called Blue Shirt Nation. In the history of World War II, the falange or Spanish Fascists were called Blue Shirts. It is a corporate gaff which most people would not pick up.

The authors claim that the Groundswell will permanently change the corporate landscape. I agree with this. Collaborative tools and systems thinking are quickly moving into every aspect of everyday life. I see the world speeding up and many things becoming on demand. It is both disconcerting and exhilarating.

The book has bibliographic notes, a case index with a variety of companies, and a subject index. here are numerous charts and graphs throughout the book. I don't understand many of these because I am not an MBA. The book has a website at groundswell.forrester.com

Good Morning, Poetry, Good Afternoon, Good Evening

The Tyger Poem, William Blake

Good Morning

Sometimes the most surprising things crop up during presidential elections. I thought this article on whether or not Sarah Palil asked to censor books and fired the Wasilla, Alaska city librarian was kind of interesting. This election is turning out to be full of things which are unexpected. Sometimes, I wish it would just go away. Censorship is always a tough issue.
http://www.adn.com/politics/story/515512.html

Last night on the train, I finished reading Groundswell, Winning In A World Transformed by Social Technologies. I will be writing a review of it in a while.

I just started reading Impact, How To Get Noticed, Motivate Millions, And Make A Difference In a Noisy World by Ken McArthur. The book reads like a business guru type book. It reminds me a little bit of Napoleon Hill, however, there is a big difference. Each chapter includes goal setting exercises, self motivation exercises, and direct actions which you can take to make it more likely you will achieve your goals. This is what separates this book so far from most of the other business guru books I have read.

On a side note that has nothing to do with reading, I found an entertaining game beta. It is called Good Old Games. They are selling all the old classics upgraded so they will run on modern pcs.
They should be sending out keys on September 8, 2008. I signed up yesterday.
http://www.gog.com/en/intro


Poetry

Tides

On rip tides forgotten
We swim in the wide green ocean
Forgetting about the shore

Commenting

click, click, clickety, click

One Site, One Comment, One Click

Count the hours going by

We are looking about getting a new microphone for our poetry readings. I think I am going to read the William Blake 1757–1827 poem, The Tiger.


The Tiger

TIGER, tiger, burning bright

In the forests of the night,

What immortal hand or eye

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?


In what distant deeps or skies

Burnt the fire of thine eyes?

On what wings dare he aspire?

What the hand dare seize the fire?


And what shoulder and what art

Could twist the sinews of thy heart?

And when thy heart began to beat,

What dread hand and what dread feet?


What the hammer? what the chain?

In what furnace was thy brain?

What the anvil? What dread grasp

Dare its deadly terrors clasp?


When the stars threw down their spears,

And water'd heaven with their tears,

Did He smile His work to see?

Did He who made the lamb make thee?

Tiger, tiger, burning bright

In the forests of the night,

What immortal hand or eye

Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

Good Afternoon

There is a real sense of quiet on this blog without Entrecard. I realize that most of my vaunted traffic was ephemeral much like dandelion seeds blowing in the wind. But, there is also a sense of peace. Now, I can start building my traffic up focusing on people who are interested in books.

Speaking of blog traffic, Darren Rowse of Problogger has a book, Problogger, Secrets For Blogging Your Way To A Six Figure Income by Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett. It is a relatively short book 220 pages. I have it sitting here next to me.

I also have a little more time to get things done, I wrote two rough drafts for film flyers.

Good Evening

On the train home tonight, I read Problogger Secrets For Blogging Your Way to a Six Figure Income by Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett. It is one of the books which I ordered for the library. On page 179 of the book, they list their twitter addresses http://twitter.com/chrisgarrett and http://twitter.com/problogger.com I may comment on the book tomorrow. It was a book that was short and fairly easy to read. It is only 229 pages long.

I am trying out a new advertising card exchange, SPOTT, it looks a lot simpler than Entrecard.

Good Afternoon, Good Evening

One of the best possible uses of a dollar bill. A dead president becomes an elephant.

Good Afternoon

This morning, I spent a little time working on my post on the concept of a turbine future. I just felt compelled to write something a little different.

I had my coffee this morning, so I am feeling pretty good. I spent an hour and a half weeding the social sciences books, then I spent another hour and a half going over social science titles to buy.

As usual, I found something interesting to order, The First Billion Is The Hardest, Reflections On A Life of Comebacks and America's Energy Future by T. Boone Pickens. This book is supposed to have a complete description of his energy plan and investments in alternative energy. If this is true, it would be an interesting opportunity for exploring some green investments.

I got a few minutes to look at the new books which came in. I put a few books on display, and put aside two items to read, Impact, How To Get Noticed, Motivate Millions, and Make a Difference in a Noisy World by Ken McArthur and Rebel Visions The Underground Comix Revolution 1963-1975 by Patrick Rosenkrantz. This book is published by Fantagraphics which is my favorite of the alternative comic book publishers. Fantagraphics publishes The Comics Journal. This book is definitely for adults. It has mature content. The book lists a lot of very interesting comics artists, Bill Griffith, R. Crumb, Vaughn Bode, Richard Corben, Kim Deitch, Denis Kitchen, Dan O'Neill, Art Spiegelman, Trina Robbins, and many others.

This morning, I also spent some more time reading Groundswell. It is describing how to put together message boards, blogs, and community sites for corporations. It even gives some guidelines on how to choose which type of social networking tool for a company. I think I will finish reading it on the train home tonight.

Now, that I am not clicking away at Entrecard, I got a chance to look at some book sites.

This is a rather interesting article from Library Journal. http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6592086.html?desc=topstory

It is absolutely true in my experience that we cannot provide enough computers with internet access at our library. From the moment we open to the moment we close there are people waiting to use computers to get internet access. We expand the internet access and more people come to use the computers. People get an hour to use the internet per day. At my local library, there is usually a waiting list for the computers as well. I usually have to wait for half an hour to a full hour to get the computers.

Like many of the people waiting for the computers at the library I work at, I am looking for some light reading while I wait. Many people read graphic novels (comic books), magazines, or the newspapers while they are waiting for their turn. I usually read graphic novels while I am waiting if I go to my local library.

I was looking at Locus magazine and saw an interesting book which I want to get for the library (as well as for my own reading) Cory Doctorow, Content: Selected Essays On Technology, Creativity, Copyright and the Future of the Future. Cory Doctorow is a fairly important figure in the history of intellectual freedom on the internet. This is a brief bio from his site.

http://craphound.com/bio.php

Entrecard. Good Afternoon

Entrecard

As you know, I am not satisfied with Entrecard. I want my account deleted. With this kind of policy, I am not sure that I will get my account deleted unless I am very pushy.

You cannot delete your own account, but you can request deletion. To do this, first ensure you are signed into the account you wish to delete. Now go to the Feedback form on the Dashboard and write a message saying that you would like to delete your account. We will reply to you and confirm that you really want to delete your account.

Deleted accounts will lose all of their credits, all ads will be cancelled, and your site will no longer be in our system. Please do not request account deletion unless you are absolutely certain that it's what you want to do.

Ah, now I did it. I cancelled all the advertisements on my Entrecard dashboard, then sent my remaining 405 credits to the Thin Red Line. Now my account should be zeroed out.

Good Afternoon

Once again, I spent most of my day looking up social science books for purchase. This includes investing and military books. I found a book which looked quite interesting. As you know if you read my blog regularly, I am very interested in green investing. I placed Green Investing on hold by Jack Ulrich. Thomas Friedman has a new book that looks quite interesting. I think it will be a bestseller Hot, Flat, and Crowded, Why We Need A Green Revolution and How it Will Renew America. I believe strongly in green investing.

I also spent some time weeding the social sciences section. The two activities tend to go together. Hopefully, when I am done the sections I am assigned will have a much better, easier to use collection.

This morning, I spent more time reading on the train. According to the book Groundswell, it gives an estimate of $283,000 is spent by a large company for a blog, and there is a $393,000 annual return for the money spent. This is according to the Fastlane blog. I really don't know if I believe this. There are a lot of very interesting statistics in this book.

Afternoon Thoughts

Vladimir Lenin reading the newspaper, Pravda. Lenin is gone with the old Soviet system which in my view is a blessing.

Afternoon Thoughts

It seems like the day disappeared in the blink of an eye yesterday. I try to post every day, but right now, I am finding it more than a little difficult to do.

This morning, I did some more desk cleaning. I like having a clean desk before going on vacation like most people. So, I went through piles of papers and sorted things to put in different places. Mostly, I put things in the trash.

I also did a whole lot more business book weeding. I also picked out a few more business books for the display stand. It has been a slow but steady day.

Before going on vacation, people like to pick out books to read. I have a stack of them. Space Vulture by Gary K. Wolf and Archbishop John J. Meyers. This book claims to be in the tradition of the old science fiction pulps. Gary K. Wolf wrote Who Killed Roger Rabbit, so I am hoping they write something similar to Alex Raymond or Tom Godwin.

I also have Groundswell, Winning In A World Transformed by Social Technologies by Charlene Li (Forrester Research) and Josh Bernoff, c2008. It is printed by Harvard Business Press. It is about how social networks are affecting corporations. Another business book I intend to read is 101 Ways to Promote Your Website by Susan Sweeney, C.A. It is the sixth edition.

For comics, I picked out Dan Dare, by Garth Ennis and Gary Erskine. It is a new interpretation done by Virgin Comics. It is c2008 released in April. So, it is very new.

And for something a little different, I picked up The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Black Dossier by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill. This had very mixed reviews. It looks wildly over the top with some very unusual illustrations. This is a graphic novel for adults.

I also picked out some Manga, Manga The Complete Guide by Jason Thompson, and Path of the Assassin by Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima, Volumes, 9, 10, and 11. There is a parental advisory on the cover.

I still haven't had a chance to write a review of Saturn's Children. I have quite a bit to do. So, I have a quite bit to read on my vacation. I hope it is also a chance to relax a bit.

The diner where I sometimes go take my lunch is also on vacation next week. I read the paper there during lunch. I have coffe with my lunch and a paper. It really doesn't work too well lately reading the paper on the subway.