Lingolook

So here we are at last.

Just a few more miles and this leg of the journey will be over. A few more twists and turns and the road will open up. A slight reprieve before it closes in on the biggest junction of my life.

There are only two choices: left or right. Both will take me on a journey of discovery. I’ll see the world no matter which way I turn, but I’ll see it from different points of view.

One then, excludes the other.

Turn left, and join the ranks. Promotion awaits with all the rewards and satisfaction that working for a big brand can bring. Daddy brings home the trophy of success, and the family celebrates this newfound stability with a sumptuous meal and smiles all round.

Turn right and I’m on my own. A lone voice with no safety net, no support and certainly no guarantees. My family depends solely on me so the risks and consequences of failure are unthinkable.

Left is the obvious choice. I have put in ten years of sheer hard work to get to where I am today. I have a voice that counts in my corner of the world and my craft is appreciated and promoted by the corridors of power.

So why am I even considering right?

I have the Cluetrain Manifesto to thank for that.

One year ago, there was no right. There was no left either, as there was no choice.

One career, one strategy, one result.

Then the Cluetrain arrived and opened my eyes like a new religion.

I had felt the tremors of change underfoot, I had read about it while trying to deepen the consciousness of my profession, and I had even sampled its power on two occasions and in quick succession. But before Cluetrain, I had never really understood it.

As the saying goes, when the student is ready, the teacher will appear.

The Cluetrain hit me head on. I was ready for it before I even knew what it was about and once on board, everything about me changed.

And now my dear friend Richard has dragged me into this new meme, and I have to explain what the Cluetrain is and whether it’s had an impact on my professional outlook. Me?

Let’s start with question 1.

1) What does the Cluetrain manifesto mean to you? How has the book and theses influenced or not influenced you?

My answer to this question is not difficult to surmise, given the way I started this post. For me, the Cluetrain was the precursor to the events that are beginning to engulf me. But whereas before they were impossible to comprehend, now they are impossible to ignore.

It is, of course, about connections, dialogue and transparency.

It’s as much about getting inside the hearts and minds of customers as it is getting inside the hearts of businesses. It’s about breaking down corporate walls that serve no other purpose than to protect the status quo. It’s about a change in attitude that affects us in equal measure whether we are marketers or customers.

The Cluetrain Manifesto starts off with a statement that more or less sums up the entire philosophy, a phrase that succinctly pinpoints which side of the fence you’re on with the precision and real time accuracy of military grade GPS positioning systems:

“A powerful global conversation has begun.”

You’re either participating or you’re not.

Every single word of this phrase is key to understanding the true meaning of the Manifesto.

“Powerful”

Thanks to the time-honoured practice of command and control, companies have stopped listening to customers and in doing so have chosen to ignore the force, wisdom and power of the many.

Now that customers have the technology they need to interact with each other, their numbers, opinions and voices have suddenly started to count.

Even the Buddhist concept of Itai Doshin (many in body, one in mind) is built on this principle and was used to great effect by Nicherin Daishonin in the 13th Century.

“If itai doshin prevails among the people, they will achieve all their goals…”

Translation: Ignore your customers at your own peril.

“Global”

It’s bigger than you think. Everywhere people rediscover the value of their own voices, conversations will emerge. “Everywhere” on the web is not geographical, nor is it temporal. Everywhere on the web is technological so the more ways people discover to communicate their opinions, the faster their message will spread and louder their voices will resonate.

Translation: You haven’t got it covered anymore. It’s out of your control.

“Conversation”

This is the biggest word in the opening sentence and not just by size. It gives cause for existence for the first two.

As the Cluetrain makes painfully clear, marketing departments were introduced to bridge the gap between mass products and mass markets and in doing so, wiped out conversations between producers and their customers and replaced them with alienation and mystery.

Now customers have a voice, the official version of business as usual can finally be debunked in full view of everybody.

Translation: The true you is out in the open. Are you ashamed of it?

“has begun”

This is in the present perfect. i.e. it started at some point in the past and is still continuing in the present.

Translation: There’s nothing you can do about it, except join in. You can’t ignore it forever no matter how much fear you have of engaging your customers in real dialogue. The longer you wait, the bigger the gap between you and your company’s chances of survival.

In short, and in answer to question 1:

• It’s a measure of how afraid companies are of change.
• It’s an indication of how far they still have to go.
• It’s the reason companies “get it”, or not.
• It’s the reason I’m turning right.

2) Which companies have best implemented the Cluetrain Manifesto in your opinion and how were they effective?

Like Richard I am not in a position to give any real answer to this. Yet the one thing I do know, which won’t surprise any of you, is that the number of those that haven’t implemented it far outweigh those that have.

Having said that, I also don’t think that the Cluetrain Manifesto is something you simply slot in to a business model. Each company has it’s own take on how much they are prepared to let go and my feeling here is the bigger their exposure to risk, the shorter the leash on transparency.

Many of the companies in my own area act as if it’s in the interests of everyone to keep things as they are. After all, millions of dollars worth of marketing processes have been painstakingly put in place and the system can’t justify a reversal in policy just because Joe Public wants a say in things.

I know it’s unfair and I know it’s not correct but until Joe Public makes a large enough fuss so that the company panics into a response, the shift isn’t going to happen.

Dell backed its way out of a very ugly situation thanks to a change in mindset and was advised extremely well by those behind its digital media arm. Yet I can’t help feeling that others are waiting for a similar catastrophic reason to get involved, as if it were Plan B or even C on their crisis management policy rather than an opportunity to rekindle all the trust and loyalty squandered over the years through command and control policies.

The other hole in the system comes from the companies who should be advising big corporations to give it a go. Again, in my experience, there are often more important and more lucrative things on the table. Balancing a shift in approach, commitment and transparency with the laws of diminishing returns on the significant investments needed to keep a social media presence afloat isn’t something they have the balls to push through right now.

Perhaps the market isn’t ready for it just yet. Perhaps Joe Public isn’t ready to take on the liberties offered to him by the Cluetrain Manifesto, no matter how ideologically sound it may be. I don’t think this is it.

In my experience, the few of us who get it don’t have the necessary influence to bring its principles to the discussion table, no matter how hard we try and for how long.

As it turns out, fear runs at very high levels.

In the unofficial blog I created to test the conversational water for Acer, TheAcerGuy, I have tried to apply the Cluetrain principles from the start, only publishing reviews of Acer products written by genuine customers, who are given full control over their message and a semi-official platform upon which their voices can be published, whether they are helping, complaining, gloating or venting.

Once over the initial and understandable fear of losing objectivity, this approach has turned out to be the single most intelligent thing I have so far done with the site.

Yet no matter how good the reviews, I cannot convince any of my superiors to see the immense value in this approach.

Again, another reason I’m turning right.

3) In thesis 57, the Cluetrain manifesto states, “smart companies will get out of the way and help the inevitable to happen sooner.” In light of that thesis, is encouraging employees to use social media and blogging a good idea? Is it really effective, when an employee is encouraged but not directed?

Again, my response to this question is based entirely on what my limited experience has taught me.

In the IT world, there are two approaches to corporate blogging: indirect and full on.

HP has, at last count, 66 blogs (http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/blogs/bloggers.html) and all of them without exception have this footer:

“Opinions expressed here and in any corresponding comments are the personal opinions of the original authors, not of HP and may not have been reviewed in advance by HP.”

Over at Dell, there is just one blog, and no footer.

On the contrary there is a single page dedicated to underlining the commitment to standing behind the conversations http://direct2dell.com/one2one/about.aspx

Both companies’ blogs contain articles by people trained to stick by the corporate message, but one of them puts the interests of the company first, so that you read the blog through a sort of legal filter that at a moment’s notice would distance itself from a perilous comment to save the integrity of the company.

Meanwhile the other stands by what it says. Everything there is on the record and policy.

I know which approach I trust more.

4) How can a company encourage employees to use social media, and empower them to answer customer questions and learn from customers?

By understanding that respect, trust and loyalty are the greatest assets a company possesses, and that through these core values, a company builds a reputation for excellence and permission to engage its customers.

By building an environment that promotes these values among its employees before anything else.

By carefully explaining the opportunities and implications of social media to its employees with regular updates and raining sessions.

By showing trust in its employees by allowing them to engage freely in answering customer questions.

By standing by its employees if the conversation becomes negative.

From a concierge of a downtown hotel to the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, if there’s love, then that will come through in the conversation.

5) Do all employees want to talk with customers? If not what percentage want to internetwork and converse?

Again, I am not the right person to answer this question but I have an observation. From my own conversations, I have found people willing to talk from the most unlikely situations and reluctance from the most obvious.

Current thinking says that people in command should do the talking but that’s not the case.

I have college students willing to answer on behalf of a client, support staff from a repair center in the middle of nowhere desperate to change the way they talk to customers and managers who like the idea but don’t have the clout (or the balls) to start.

Not everyone can hold a conversation. Not everyone should. It would be nice if all CEOs had mega-personalities but as so often happens this is hardly ever the case.

I believe that companies should listen to themselves before launching an online presence and allow anyone on the payroll to have a say if they want to. If they’re honest, they only have to gain from the experience.

Now that I’ve answred all five questions it was supposed to be my turn to nominate another five people to do the same. Cluetrain doesn’t follow rules and besides, there is only one person I want to hear from regarding Cluetrain, and she needs no introduction from me. So over to you Valeria Maltoni.

I am going to be keeping my eye on this meme, especially as Groundswell seems to be gaining momentum. In the meantime, if you’re interested in reading more on this subject and how it’s affected people like me and businesses like your clients’, you couldn’t go far wrong with these:

Cluetrainings - Doc Searls - Here are the slides from the Cluetrain @ 10 talk I gave at There’sa New Conversation, in New York last month and a video of the talk… Cluetrain at 10 - The Cluetrain Manifesto is all about fundamental changes that we are living and experiencing… Approaching 10 Years After Cluetrain, Most Still Don’t Get It - Is it really the 10th anniversary of The Cluetrain Manifesto…? 2 On Cluetrain At 10 - Phil Gomes and Richard Binhammer have both answered the five questions I asked them in my post related to the critique the cluetrain manifesto…. After 10 years, most still don’t get it - the Cluetrain Manifesto … - Let’s take a couple of minutes to talk about The Cluetrain Manifesto because many of my readers are new to social media marketing… The Cluetrain Manifesto at 10 - Dell’s Richard Binhammer was kind enough to ping me in a meme going around about The Cluetrain Manifesto as it approaches its 10th anniversary… Cluetrain, 10 years after - In Forrester’s Josh Bernoff / Charlene Li blog, on how Lego changed by engaging with AFOLs (Adult Fans Of Lego, sometimes referred to as ALE: Adult Lego Enthusiasts). … Cluetrain Revisited: Doc Searls, still radical 10 years later … - Doc Searls started his talk at the Cluetrain @ 10 event talking about the genesis of The Cluetrain Manifesto… After 10 years, most still don’t get it - the Cluetrain Manifesto … - There are some people with very strong voices & Valeria Maltoni has one that’s worth listening to… The Cluetrain Manifesto Conversation - If The Cluetrain Manifesto is still news after 10 years from its publication, the conversation that ensued has evolved… Have You Heard of Cluetrain? - Just under 10 years ago a website then book was released called The Cluetrain Manifesto. I did a quickie poll on Twitter and found around half of people questioned had heard of it. Today I want to repeat the experiment here. …

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Damn.

I knew this was coming. Only I’d hoped it would happen later rather than sooner.

My best friend online and possibly the only one who really understands what I’m going through tagged me.

That’s right. I think the best way to start this post is by stating right here that there is no-one out there who has dedicated more time, more energy and more honest-to-God goodwill to my online persona than Richard. He’s the reason I got online in the first place (secret #1) and is without question one of the best reasons to stay here.

Right now isn’t exactly one of my most productive moments. While I refuse to become what Hugh MacLeod eloquently calls an “echoblogger“, I’ll openly admit that I’m following a LOT more than producing.

And as you can see from the photo, my evenings are spent absorbing just about everything on the recommended 2.0 reading list. You’ve probably all been where I am. There’s an awful lot to take in and if you’re anything like me, you need to hear the same message over and over again from different people before you can safely say “I get it” and can recommend it to your clients.

Oh, and if Jeremiah should stop by, Cluetrain and the other usual suspects are in my office…

Speaking of Cluetrain, remember how much of a shock to the system the changes the book describes were? Remember the vehement way Chris and the other authors made their point. I read it last summer but “got it” only recently - that’s also one of the reasons I’m keeping a low profile (see secret #2 an #3).

Change is one of the words I can’t get out of my head. It’s on my mind, in my work and driving almost everything in my life right now. Obama’s keeping it fresh too.

So here comes secret #2. I’m up for change and if anyone is interested in hiring a strategic writer (does that even exist?) I’m up for grabs.

I am The Acer Guy but might not be for much longer. That blog this week will see its 200,00th visitor which is something I never even imagined remotely possible when I started it (again, thanks Richard) and is a milestone I am extremely proud to pass.

In these two years, the blog has allowed me to get over the mono-directional relationship I previously had with my “audience” and put into practice what Doc Searls eloquently described as “there is no market for messages” more of which in Geoff Livingstone’s great new book (not in the photo).

It doesn’t take a genius to see how opening up to this degree has screwed with my brain.

And here’s secret #3. I’m having trouble taking the conversation back indoors. Sure there are a few believers who really want to see the blog work, but the truth is, and it really hurts to admit this, the powers that be don’t get it. They are, to use an insalubrious metaphor from Seth Godin, meatball makers who just don’t see the point of sundae toppings… Is it just me or is does this reek of wasted opportunity?

Secret #4: I love cycling. Up until my first son was born, I was clocking up over 15,000 km a year. A couple of years ago I spent €6,000 on the bike you can see gathering dust in the background of the Seesmic video. If only I had more time I could worry Lance Armstrong. Right now, I feel like Homer Simpson could run rings around me. Check out this photo of me in somewhere in France aged 14.

Secret #5: My home town. I am from Portsmouth (UK) which up until recently was the kind of place you hoped anyone you met had never been to. Now it’s pretty cool (in places). I went to Portsmouth Grammar School and wore the same dinky uniform for 11 years. I don’t get back nearly as often as I’d like and whenever I do, I always consider staying.

Secret #6: I came to Italy aged 18 looking for fame and fortune and found love and the inevitable debt that comes with it instead. Never went back

Secret #7: I have an older sister, Caroline, and our relationship has always been, em, edgy. I love her dearly and miss her like crazy but never get around to actually telling her. This is her and me on Holiday in Ibiza waaay before the Ministry of Sound arrived.

Secret #8: is a lot more entertaining as it concerns my wife. She is going to be my next business partner. In the next 12 months we’re going to open no fewer than three web projects together that I have mentioned a couple of times on this blog in recent months. Still trying to get Dell interested in sponsoring the big one, failing miserably of course…

Secret #9: I write almost all Acer’s marketing material on a Dell.

Secret #10: I recorded the video to RichardatDELL on a Mac.

Secret #11: I desperately want to meet everyone I’ve connected with online in the real world. Sounds like a pipe dream at the moment but you never know how things are going to turn out.

I think I’ve overdone my secrets a bit. But I’m really glad I did.

Now comes the hard part. Who do I tag? Two people come to mind instantly. Adding anyone else would be pushing this interruption meme too far.

The first is Alex Badalic, a fascinating copywriter I met online and who I had the pleasure of speaking with through Skype only recently. There’s obviously a lot more to Alex than what he’s allowed to tell through his blog and I can’t wait to find out more.

The second is Marco Camisani Calzolari who I met when I screwed up his first attempt at setting up a wiki. Marco must be one of the most forward-thinking, proactive Italian bloggers out there. Journalist, loving father and entrepreneur, he not only started Italy’s YouTube alternative, but writes for the tech-pages of one of Italy’s most respected and influential newspapers. Make no mistake, he gets it.

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I’ve been giving DreamHost a really hard time of late and apparently they have not been acting without cause. For whatever reason, best left to techies, I’ve been abusing their procwatch program whatever that is - they even explained the way of the world with an emphatic “procwatch kills NG lingolook killed 30846″.

Good Lord. Lingolook was killed?

Tech support says it’s a combination of poor code (probable) and high traffic (improbable) which leaves me with the understanding that I have a duff site that no-one visits. I like to think positively so I’ve replaced that possibility with another opinion and it has something to do with my 2008 online resurgence. I have been murmuring about my projects for long enough and the hard-working Sarah from Blogging Expertise is finally coming up with the goods and her uploading and tweaking has put the cheap but oh-so-very-cheerful DreamHost contract I had under too much strain. So, despite all her hard work, it’s all her fault

Still at least it brought me to my senses. I’ve upgraded my account to a Virtual Private Server which sounds like the IT equivalent of the Champagne Room and I’m sure will work out just as expensive but at least it should keep things running. If I disappear you now know why.

Don’t know about you but I’m really looking forward to 2008.

For starters I get to see whether my attempt at putting emotion into the Acer brand gets a warm or frosty welcome. Their annual kick-off is due at the end of January and this year it’s going to be totally different as it’s no longer a “one-nation-one-station” event but something more along the lines of “welcome Acer, Gateway and Packard Bell to your new home (Acer Group), allow us to present ourselves and show you that we’re a hip, smart, forward thinking bunch who know what we’re about, where we’re going and how we’re going to get there”.

Acer 2.0? Well that’s the plan…

Of course there’s a lot riding on this. I might be a master wordsmith but if the company doesn’t believe its own hype then the battle’s half lost. My guess is the company believes in itself but doesn’t yet fully understand its own hype and by that I mean the ability to measure the value of what it does beyond profit margins and market share, so anything designed to get it away from its “spreadset” (the habit of looking at the world through a spreadsheet) has got to be good for morale. Good for customers, good for products and, yes, good for Excel.

What else? Well I’ve set my sights on Canon’s latest HD gem, the HV20. In a few weeks I’m going to start filming multiple episodes of my free English language course site and see where it goes.

Allow me to explain a little about my past: like most English-speaking people who end up in Italy, my first job was teaching English. In fact I’ve been involved with my own language ever since just in different measures. Just check out my über glamorous career path:

Teacher –> translator –> creative translator –> copywriter.

That third category is an important moment in the life of any translator. Its like professional puberty and it comes when the translator’s balls suddenly get big enough for him or her to say: “Hey! This sounds crap in English (or whatever the destination language is). Why don’t you re-write the whole thing like this?” More than experience, this moment requires quite a lot of courage and really does separate the men from the boys or whatever the female equivalent to that is. From there on in, you’re good enough to write your own stuff.

Anyway, despite a stellar career as the world’s most invisible copywriter there is nothing like teaching. I think it has something to do with live feedback or something. Whatever. I really miss it so I’ve decided it’s time to get back into it, although in a version more in line with my way of seeing the world and that’s through a blog. I know how it should end up, but not how it should start so I’m just going to start recording and see where it goes.

Things to look out for in 2008?

I think Dell are going to take online conversations to new heights so expect to see Richard on Oprah in 3Q. I think 2008 will see Acer updating its frankly appalling website in tune with the newest kids on its family block. I also think this is the year flash memory notebooks finally go mainstream which means no or very few mechanical parts which means long, long battery life. Expect to see the word “longevity” come back into favour. How about calling it the UHT laptop (Ultra High Transportability)? Well it worked for milk…

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Hot on the heels of Richard’s end-of-year wrap up and well-wishings, I feel morally, professionally and compassionately compelled to do the same.

For all his generosity, consistency and more-than-welcome attention though, Richard has been unable to overcome those barriers that confine me and this blog to the dreaded but unquestionably deserved “occasional writer” category.

Yet his is the sort of support that keeps you afloat, and so if there is anyone I must thank for encouraging me to take this medium further, it is him.

2007 has been a watershed in my career as a copywriter or, as I commonly refer to myself, the IT world’s biggest ghost-writer.

I have always been out of the spotlight, whisked secretly into meetings with high-level management to help put sense to the latest initiative/product/idea and get the message out.

And this year I’ve written for occasions, launches, announcements and anniversaries that were once beyond the scope of my wildest dreams and aspirations. Now I’m churning out a couple a month.

But in 2007 with the arrival of the kind of relationships possible through blogging that this blog can only claim to scratch the surface of, everything I do and stand for changed ever so slightly but enough to raise questions. No longer absolute and unquestionable, it became relative.

There is a wonderful passage in Sir Ken Robinson’s book, Out of Our Minds, in which he says:

The dynamics of culture result in an irresistible process of change. Contemporary ways of life are not only different from those of the Victorians, they were largely unpredicted and essentially unpredictable. Cultural change is rarely linear and uniform. It results from a vortex of influences, which is hard enough to understand with hindsight and impossible to plan in advance.

I think the relativity of blogging is a pretty damned good example of the vortex of influences Sir Ken refers to and the accountability of thoughts, opinions and most of all ideals leads to the irresistible process of change he mentions at the beginning.

How far we’ve come is easy to measure. We all use the New Year to join the dots. I personally can claim a small victory in changing the way my biggest client sees itself in relation to the outside world and believe me that’s no mean feat.

But like Sir Ken infers, how far we as a community are going to take it is anyone’s guess.

I for one have a few things I’m going to try out in 2008. After all, if it’s irresistible, why fight it?

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I made an important discovery yesterday. One of those blinding flashes that sneak up on you when you least expect them, yet are so bright they burn colourful imprints onto your retina so that you can still see them even if you close your eyes.

It seems I have more in common with Hugh McLeod than I imagined.

Many years ago I dropped out of university before I even had the chance to start. I went to a very good private school in England and was all set to follow the crib-to-grave groove and enter the medical profession.

Until I went to hospital.

The school organized a works-experience week and I and two others (who made it to the other side) were shuffled into an operating theatre to see what surgeons do first hand. It also gave me the opportunity to see who the surgeons were.

That day I learnt the most important lesson of my life. Who you are and what you do aren’t necessarily the same thing.

The English education system makes it almost impossible to back out of your chosen career path at the last minute which is why at the tender age of 19, I found myself on a plane heading to Italy, where I’ve lived ever since.

That day returned to me recently during one of those “what am I doing with my life??” moments when I was blinded by that flash I mentioned earlier.

It seems that the cutting edge of the blogosphere is social networking. It’s like a massive, uncontrollable Hollywood-style scandal rag reporting ‘round the clock on who’s sleeping where, who said what and how my judgement is invariably wiser than yours.

Getting on this train is easy: Read, write and link. Read, write and link. Hugh calls it “people talking” and people talk perpetually.

Like mainstream chat show ghosts, the stars of the blogosphere are beyond reproach. They’re sneezers, opinion makers, forces to be reckoned with. The rest of us drop like flies.

There is a holier-than-thow element to this. Apparently, to be successful, you’ve got to have your ear (aggregator) to the ground, know the movers and shakers and hang out at the right blog expos. Even better, vlog about them. Corporations in particular can’t miss a beat.

Now I’m the first to admit that, expos aside, I do this myself – I’m doing it on this blog and in this post. It’s also how I met my friend, colleague and rival Richard and it’s how I plan on meeting many others in future.

That’s what I do. But is it who I am?

Didn’t blogging start out as a “web log”? A diary of me, my thoughts and a way of sharing my chunk of life?

I guess at some point some big-boy bloggers’ personal conversations dried up and they sought out other conversations, building traffic for no other reason than because they channelled their thoughts into the comments of others (link love), fuelling a never-ending conversation that systematically leads them towards a conversational anti-climax they knew was coming anyway.

Boy does this system get you noticed (and ranked).

But what exactly is the point?

In my book, the only things that ignite and build genuine interest either have a start and a finish or, at the very least, a sense of purpose. Anything else is just a scratched record, with clicks replaced by links that, sooner or later, take you back to where you started.

For my job, the Edelman/Vista fiasco had a start and a finish and it was an amazing experience to be in the middle. Following and countering the adverse PR for my client was an education in syndication management. The bickering about who got the damned Ferrari notebooks and who didn’t frankly didn’t light my pipe at all.

So where’s the link with Hugh? Hugh writes passionately about purpose in the epic “How to be Creative” article.

“One evening, after one false start too many, I just gave up. Sitting at a bar, feeling a bit burned out by work and life in general, I just started drawing on the back of business cards for no reason. I didn’t really need a reason. I just did it because it was there, because it amused me in a kind of random, arbitrary way.

Of course it was stupid. Of course it was uncommercial. Of course it wasn’t going to go anywhere. Of course it was a complete and utter waste of time. But in retrospect, it was this built-in futility that gave it its edge. Because it was the exact opposite of all the “Big Plans” my peers and I were used to making.

It was so liberating not to have to be thinking about all that, for a change.

It was so liberating to be doing something that didn’t have to impress anybody, for a change.

It was so liberating to have something that belonged just to me and no one else, for a change.

It was so liberating to feel complete sovereignty, for a change. To feel complete freedom, for a change.

And of course, it was then, and only then, that the outside world started paying attention.”

I just walked that same path with my wife and our Runaway Parents and Genitori in Fuga projects. The fact is, it’s got nothing at all to do with what we do, but everything about who we really are.

There’s a different flavour to projects you have, to use Hugh’s words, “complete sovereignty over”.

“The sovereignty you have over your work will inspire far more people than the actual content ever will. How your own sovereignty inspires other people to find their own sovereignty, their own sense of freedom and possibility, will change the world far more than the work’s objective merits ever will.

Your idea doesn’t have to be big. It just has to be yours alone. The more the idea is yours alone, the more freedom you have to do something really amazing.”

Writing about who you are also puts what you do into perspective, draining some of its ultimate value perhaps, but forcing you to put your long-term strategy into perspective.

Even if you still can’t resist that one last link to someone further up the tree who absolutely, without question has something interesting to say about the state of the union.

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It is with a large lump in my throat that I have taken the decision to change my RSS feeds over there on the right hand margin.

Despite hanging on to the smallest glimmer of hope for the longest time, it seems clear that  Kathy Sierra really has decided that enough is enough. I am sorry to see her go as her blog was perhaps the first one that truly captivated me.

So how do you replace something of that calibre?

Many thanks to the ever-affable RichardatDell for pointing me in the direction of David  Armano’s simply fascinating Logic+Emotion blog.

The pace has risen. Can’t wait to get up to speed.

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You’ve seen the little widget on the right no?

Very clever thing created by Hugh Macleod over on his Gaping Void site. Sort of like daily guidance for geeks
I’m sort of in need of guidance myself right now. I’m just about ready to call a meeting and bring in the big boys to discuss their corporate blog.

It’s been a long journey helped no end by Richard@Dell (you’ve gotta love that surname!). I have already thanked him in an earlier post but as one of the (public) driving forces behind our single biggest “competitor”, his generosity and openness puts him (and Dell for that matter) at the very top of the social tree. Maximum respect.

I’ve got 2 brochures and a whitepaper to deliver by Monday (fat chance), and then it’s full speed ahead with the blog preparations. Now or never..

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I’m impressed. I never imagined blogging could be the new realm of like-minded professionals but this social medium has uprooted and tossed aside my fear of identifying myself and has, once and for all, demonstrated that even someone as far out on the long tail as me can add considerable weight to the debate.

I am a ghost writer. More than simply writing in someone else’s shadow, for the majority of my clients, I simply do not exist. I’ve been hidden away for so long I almost forgot my identity. But then along came a spider, sat down beside her, and scared my fear away.

There is something magical about the moment something clicks. The instant it dawns on you that what you have been doing so far was just scratching the surface, and that if you push a little harder, you can actually overcome obstacles you’d become so used to they have become part of your scenery.

Call it inspiration, call it discovery but from where I stand, that moment is happening right now. What’s really strange, is that the biggest encouragement has come from one of my client’s single largest competitors.

This form of encouragment is, I believe, a clear demonstration of just how important mutual professional respect is for healthier comptetition and, ultimately, a better relationship with the market as a whole.

So many thanks to Richard for his unexpected yet thoroughly appreciated comments both on and off the beaten track.

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The ongoing discussion over at Shel Israel’s blog is keeping me up at night.

Not only because it’s the single most interesting thing I have participated in professionally for years, there is also a serious time lag between my input and everybody else.

I don’t know where Shel is at the moment but I assume Richard Binhammer is in Texas, meaning he’s on the ball when I’m tucked up in bed…

Still, it’s a fascinating development, and one I am going to stay up for every step of the way.

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Yesterday I was part of the single most interesting event since I started blogging. That wasn’t too long ago either so I guess *events* lurk around every corner.

Masked Blogger claims he’s trying to reach Apple from the inside. He publishes an intriguing post and the world jumps. Apple has blogged!!

Within 12 hours there’s even an *official* response from Dell’s senior communications man and the thing looks like it’s about to snowball.

But it didn’t and in the time it took for most of the non-listening world to notice, the storm was over. Yet in just 48 hours MB had managed to raise enough dust to cover the entire Gobi desert.

The conversation has since moved on and MB is drawing his own conclusions. The one thing I truly felt is that some companies heard. No matter how far up or down the food chain, they noticed, gave opinions and shared their thoughts on the subject.

OK, I *defended* Acer and took a harmless pot shot at the press-release response from Dell but rivalries aside, an exchange of views took place and they weren’t at watercooler level either.

Some of the points on MB’s post today show that companies are both listing and willing to participate but also illustrate just how important it is for companies who come onboard the bloggeride to set the record straight.

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