From the Video Archives, A Conversation about Social Media and Business

This past fall, Shel Israel dropped by Dell to participate in a project he dubbed "braided journalism".  It resulted in an article I have read several times .  Its all about building or realizing Social Business and that involves alive and vibrant Ecosystems. To this day I enjoy re-reading it because it makes me think:

 a) about the journey we have been on for four years at Dell, and,

 b) it reminds of the possibilities and potential in realizing the "transformation" of  Dell’s ecosystem into a living, breathing entity....a truly human business and company that is connected and human in so many regards, striving to do more and be better, always knowing we can improve through our connections with others, especially customers.

Anyway, during Shel's visit here, my good friends and colleagues, Dell's Adam Brown, Lionel Menchaca and I had a chance to answer some questions on camera for Shel.  Found this video in the archives and thought it was a good conversation and worth posting....so here it is....Just a conversation about social media and business covering various fronts. 

Hope you enjoy it

Cluetrain, Hughtrain, Bluetrain

Call it what you want....I love it and it is so true (to me anyway).  I had to have it.  And, I got it before the limited edition ran out.  Thank you, Hugh!!! It arrived and is awesome.

PS:  In my excitement and haste to publish, I forgot.  Check out more at GapingVoid Gallery

SXSW, Time to Learn, Hear about Experiments, New Things and Connect

SXSW is a great opportunity to learn and connect, engage in some great conversations, and as I often like to say “make online real offline too.” As a person who moved here just a few years ago, I can testify to Austin's live-ability. It has become home to this former Canadian. And to the guests from far and wide, I say welcome, come and enjoy.

There are so many great things to do, I’m not even going to try and start. However, check out Steph Agresta’s Techset Blogger Lounge and her blog listing with a great set of events. Update: My colleague and friend Lionel also has a post over at Direct2Dell with our info. It includes some info about the Dell team members at SXSW and other nifty things

The “Fashionable” AllHat…No Cattle Event: The "AllHat….No Cattle" Shopping and Socializing excusion (#allhat) is on Sunday from noon to 2pm . It includes shopping for hats, boots, buckles and a light lunch/refreshments (cash bar/food donation $ if you choose). More Details below.

Hat Tip from the AllHat team: Imagine, a few individuals came together with a different idea…"lets get together and have some fun shopping for a cowboy hat on Sunday at lunch.”

WOW…..Twitter and away we go. YOU, our many online friends, networks and individuals, have come together in a big way to join in (See Twtvite tab on who is attending, or the tweets, #allhat and more). Looks like we have a great crowd, but most importantly an event where we can share some fun, food and chance to talk to each other in person….many of us I suppose get to meet in person for the first time and exchange more than a 140 characters at a time. The results testify to the power of connecting, I think….so please be sure to not hesitate to introduce yourselves and we can all put faces to avatars.

So, HatTip from AllHat to ya'all, for the opportunity to meet, for joining us.

Team AllHat says thanks…to each of you.

Who is AllHat...and WHY?

Your Co-hosts: @Richardatdell and David Armano. Why? Because we had cowboy hats already and even shopped at Allen’s on another occasion

Special Guest: Mack Collier… Why is he a special guest? You will learn that at the event (hints have been in twitter and below).

Fashion Advisor/Crowdsource opinion leader: We “roped in” Steph Agresta following concerns that the two cohosts and special guest did not bode well for success in terms of fashion sense. Steph is a regular at Allen’s boots when she visits Austin. She has a red pair….hope she wears them :-)

Your Photographer: Brian Solis (I let you pick the link from google) and that search just goes to prove Brian is everywhere – on the the ranch, off the ranch, twitter, flickr, life streams, books, blogs – he’s like the Paparazziso, everywhere. But, we “roped him in.” Why a photographer? BECAUSE if ya’all make a scene at the AllHat event/brunch,(etiquette tips in some pics) modeling your newest hats boots and buckles, that’s like the red carpet at the Academy awards. Best that be captured and shared (and besides, Mack may need a new twitter avatar, so that we can start a trend of cowboy hats for twitter avatars)

The Roadie: Mark Drosos (with the band, again you choose the link) comes from the entertainment business…and this event is “entertainment,” – by, for and with you – pure and simple. He just volunteered….no, actually he just “stepped into it.” He’s the best roadie with the band we can have….and he is social too. Mark Chose the theme song and it captures the spirit we hope you feel, that Big warm Texas grin.

PreParty Prep, Etiquette Tips, Church of Customer Counsel : Window Shop if you want to get a little head start on decisions. You can start by window shopping over at Flicker. There are some different collectibles page 2, as well as a special treat: Church of the Customer Blog, Jackie Huba provides some perspective on one of the most highly viewed items, in the pre shopping warm up collection.
However, Jackie showed no patience (a virtue I am told) and decided to get her shopping done ahead of time in order to deliver a warm Texas welcome. Watch for her new purchase she already tweeted about using new hashtag #allhat.

Unboxings : When you get home (or back to your hotel room) with your hats, boots and buckles, just a reminder, like new computers, you can do an unboxing (sample here toward bottom of page and on the next one).

Prep Done? Ready for shopping now? .....Come have fun

On Measurement and Social media

Its not a simple formula, but rather looking at objectives and what is appropriate to measure...and then getting after it.  More about Dell and measurement of social media in a guest post I was invited to post over at Lewis' blog.  

Money quote, because no business is perfect and we all want to constantly improve: :-)


These conversations are going to occur whether you like it or not…do you want to be part of that or not? My argument is you absolutely do. You can learn from that. You can improve your reaction time. And you can be a better company by listening and being involved in that conversation.--Michael Dell in Business Week Discussion.

Lewis' bizsolutionsplus

Learn and Share: Tomorrow's Twebinar

Expect a great trip down the road tomorrow at the Twebinar -- Game Changing Moves Doing Business with Social Media.

Radian6 and CrossTechMedia have partnered on an interesting journey that looks at how businesses can benefit from social media. With 30 interviews of people practicing social media and hosted by blogging powerhouse and social media mentor to many, Chris Brogan, it should be a great opportunity to learn and share.

Yup...this is no normal webinar. Its not just learn....its share and practice/use social media. It combines a Twitter conversation with it, making it interactive and a true use of social media. Lets hope Twitter is not upside down or a whale surfing the page :-)

Register and join us: http://twebinar.com

Dell Community and Online Ambassadors

People have asked me why I am RichardatDELL and what if I leave Dell etc etc. The moniker RichardatDELL has to do with our online policy of making it clear where you work.

As for the "what if I leave Dell" or issues of tying myself to "Dell"...I have often explained there are a bunch of great people working together to listen, learn and engage with our customers.

You will start to see more of them over at Yourblog talking about personal tech...and we hope you'll come post there too. I have a couple posts going there about photography and personal tech.

Most importantly though, check out the Dell Community Ambassadors page over at Direct2Dell.

You will find these great team members who I have the pleasaure of working with every day around the web, commenting on blogs, on Facebook, on Twitter and more. Its all of them that make (or I hope help us make) Dell a human company.

I just wanted everyone to know this is a great group of people committed to connecting, conversing and doing what is right for our customers and working hard to keep up with the web, your conversations and your views. I toast them all, each and every one, every day and tip my hat to say what a great team....and watch out, more to come :-).

Blogging Gets A Second Wind | Six Pixels of Separation - Marketing and Communications Blog and Podcast - By Mitch Joel at Twist Image

 

I think Mitch Joel has a pretty good post about the value and sustainability of blogging.  It's a bit in keeping with a previous post I wrote about blogging being in the dip (to use a Seth Godin concept).  Mitch Joel references the challenge of video and Twitter to blogging. My earlier post was related to the then attraction of Facebook.  

I still believe that blogs are the most powerful of the many emerging online tools or mediums.  Their open and accessible nature (versus the walled gardens or specialized tools that are needed for video etc); the unfettered frank perspectives that blog authors deliver through a blog; and the blog's/authors availablilty to interact, connect and share in a conversation are tough qualities to beat. 

Other mediums and outlets help bring it together or add some icing to the cake. But so far, the real and substantive connections, it seems to me, are found in blogs. 

Its why I love my job and am always thrilled to break away from meetings and go out and connect and see what's up.

Here is the link to Mitch Joel's post: Blogging Gets A Second Wind | Six Pixels of Separation - Marketing and Communications Blog and Podcast - By Mitch Joel at Twist Image

The Canard of Control

Canard, not as in duck, but as a "false or baseless, usually derogatory story, report or rumor."

Previously, I wrote about three of blogging's dirty little secrets. I continue to hear people say that businesses wanting to enter the social media and blogging space have to "give up control."

Of course, the social media evolution/blogging requires corporations to engage in very meaningful and human ways; to listen, to learn and to converse. This is a fundamental change from the mass media era.

Indeed, this new era may in fact be revolutionary for creating amazing new ways and opportunities to further realize what Michael Dell recently talked about: "joining the conversation and speak directly and candidly with our customers. The more we engage, the more we learn and the better we can do for our customers."

When has that not been the case for business and the basis of relationships with customers?

This issue of control continues to be a red herring. It creates false fears and false assumptions. Companies didn't have control to start with. To suggest that business entering this space must give up something (especially the alleged concept of control) when they did not have it to start with puts a false sense of security into maintaining the status quo, while also scaring people (read businesses) into complacency and maintaining a false condition of security that does not exist anyway.

And, much as "practices" by business might have been used to give some illusory sense of control, the fact is a brand cannot be controlled. What business had the control to move its brand from X to A, from Pink to Yellow or from ugly to pretty.

In a similar vein, corporate reputations are not controlled either. Again quoting Michael Dell in his recent interview with Shel Israel "We don't own our reputation we just own our actions. That's something our customers give to us in return for us exceeding their expectations."

Check these definitions out...as further demonstration that philosophically "control" does not exist. This issue of control is a false security, predicated on leaving something behind that did not exist. People or businesses need not leave behind "control" in order to enter the field of social media. They need simply to want to more actively engae with their customers.

Look at what Wikipedia says about "free markets":

"A free market is a market in which prices of goods and services are arranged completely by the mutual consent of sellers and buyers. By definition, in a free market environment buyers and sellers do not coerce or mislead each other nor are they coerced by a third party.[1] In the aggregate, the effect of these decisions en masse is described by the natural law of supply and demand. Free markets contrast sharply with controlled markets, in which governments directly or indirectly regulate prices or supplies, distorting market signals.[2] In the marketplace the price of a good or service helps to quantify its value to consumers and thus balance it against other goods and services. In a free market, this relationship between price and value is more clear than in a controlled market. Through competition between vendors for the provision of products and services, prices tend to decrease, and quality tends to increase."

Or check this out. Wikipedia says this about brands and how the customers were are are in charge:

"By the 1940s, Mildred Pierce manufacturers recognized how customers were
developing relationships with their brands in the social, psychological, and anthropological senses. From that, manufacturers quickly learned to associate other kinds of brand values, such as youthfulness, fun, and luxury, with their products. Thus began the practice of 'branding', wherein the customer buys the brand rather than the product. This trend arose in the 1980s 'brand equity mania'.[8] In 1988, Phillip Morris bought Kraft for six times its paper worth. It is believed the purchase was made because the Phillip Morris company actually wanted the Kraft brand rather than the company and its products."

My suggestion? Control and issues of power are canards. Lets move the dialogue on.

Lets talk about participation and engagement; listening and learning together. It is here where the dialogue is fruitful, productive, hopeful. It is here that it is real and it matters.

The SXSW Facebook Interview Controversy

Brian Solis takes an inside look and analytical background look at the Sarah Lacey-Mark Zuckerberg SXSW interview and quotes Sarah Lacey as saying:

“I feel for Mark because he sometimes people don’t understand his personality. I wanted to show a more human side of him and share with everyone the Mark I know. I asked the hardest questions that no one has succeeded in earning answers, and we all shared in his responses.

I’m lucky and thankful of my friendship with Mark and the time

I was able to spend with him at SXSW.”

You can watch the interview here: http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/03/10/mark-zuckerberg-sarah-lacy-interview-from-sxsw/ and see all the hoo haw here

Jeff Jarvis, a pro on the media and of the media, noted she failed to understand her audience. Perhaps its a question of her style...and yes, she made mistakes.

Here is another thought: was the audience really ready for conversational interviews?

Maybe what has happened here is symptomatic of the challenge to conversational marketing? Are we all stuck in the mold of wanting "mass media" interviews? Are we so used to traditional mass media interviews and marketing that it is ingrained deeply within us, so deeply that old ways of what interviews "should be" prevail in our own expectations?

I dont know ....I was not there.....but it's a questions worth asking.

Maybe you have a perspective or thought

PS: More: http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/03/10/the-nuclear-disaster-at-sxsw-was-nothing-more-than-a-witch-burning/

A Squared: Atlanta and Austin: listening, learning and conversations

Next couple weeks have some exciting conversations, where I'm excited about taking online conversations offline, listening and learning together with people I get to meet.....It's a great part of the job.

Atlanta: While I am no Diva, I get to join Atlanta's Diva marketing guru and Dell customer, Toby Bloomberg. If you don't read her blog, you are missing something. True to this online world, I've never met Toby, but can't wait based on the impressive, helpful and enjoyable online interactions I have had with her to date.

And, what a great event: the AiMA - Atlanta Interactive Marketing Association -Social Media Marketing Gets Some Respect! Feb. 27, 2008 - 6:30 PMGA Tech Global Learning Center 84 5th ST NW, Atlanta, GA, 30308 . Goodwill, Home Depot, moderated by Geoff Livingston, author of "Now is Gone" (I am still passing out copies of his book at Dell). Im looking forward to learning from them all and sharing the journey we are on.

Austin: If you are going to be in Austin for SXSW interactive, have we got some good things going.

March 11, our own Lionel , will join moderator Mack Collier, who does great corporate blog reviews, and measurement and communications guru Kami to talk about future directions for corporate blogs.

March 10 We are going to blow out online connections and make them even more real offline. A special night of "Conversation Starters" (social evening, event RSVP required) sponsored by Dell (we are going to be listening), Federated Media, BulldogSolutions, The Conversation Group and Social Media Club of Austin.

Over drinks and appetizers, you'll have a chance to share ideas with a number of people who have volunteered to start conversations: Shel Israel, Robert Scoble, Jeremiah Owyang, Charlene Li, Chris Heuer, Mack Collier and Lionel Menchaca, as well as several Federated Media authors.

More information here:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=10870488407
http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/435087
Register here: http://conversationstarters.eventbrite.com/

Look forward to seeing and hearing from you! Gotta go work on the Atlanta notes and a Q&A I promised Toby...

Art, Conversations and the Web

Jeff Jarvis asks a number of great questions today over at Buzzmachine that takes us off the beaten track and back to the Christmas postings.

He suggests that "once the artist stands before an audience, it can become an act of showing off. It becomes, almost by definition, self-conscious."

Now I just do a little photography on the side and have a few group exhibits, won some awards and have a number of private and corporate collectors. So I am by no means Peter Gabreil, Yo-Yo Ma, Paulo Coelho or the other stars Jeff is hanging out with. However, art is very much a bit "self-conscious" expression, not necessarily showing off though. Artists often speak from their soul....you don't get more self conscious than that.

He says that he was struck by the difference between performance and conversation, and goes on to point out the benefit and value of conversation. But from an artist perspective, Jeff forgets that the "performance" is about igniting the conversation...That performance is the unveiling of something the artists created. It is a very rich and largely personal unveiling of a conversation the artist had between himself/herself and their creation. And then the artist shares that very private and personal creation or conversation with others. Perhaps its the most emotional and personal conversation there can be. Sometimes art is all about conversations -- with the heart.

And, if you love the artists' creation, you have a conversation too...with the art, with your friends about what the piece of art makes you feel and think....and if you are lucky like Jeff to hang in Davos with the artists Jeff is with....WOW...you get to connect with them about what the art is about and have even more conversation.

As I said in one of my own "artisist statements"

However, as a means of creative expression, photographs capture not just a specific time and place in reality. They also create, offer options for exploration and realization. There is more than meets the eye.

Photographs turn everyday visuals, and the everyday, into something else -- a dream, a stream of light, a place to go in our imagination, something beautiful and unexplored, or to be explored. A moment of reality becomes a creation; a path to realization; a
personal perspective and moment of quiet solitude....A piece of reality turns into something other than simply the image itself. The viewer, too, can wander and wonder, imagining and creating again.

Jeff closes relating art, content and the internet saying "Is art at its heart content or a relationship, a conversation?" The answer is YES -- to all.

Or at least, I hope mine is. Certainly my collectors collect it for content, because they have a relationship with it and (I hope) conversations. Certainly the art I collect is all of the above.

And, its why, at the urging of Shel Israel, some of my "art" is now on Flickr and even referenced here.

Food for Thought at Christmas

It's Christmas eve. I'm in Virginia, celebrating with family. It's real. It's important. It's love.

It's why I always read Shel. I love what he writes. I adore Shel -- he has taught me more than he knows.

So have the all the folks I recently added to the blog roll here and lots of others. Neville and the other Shel....so many more. You all have shared and taught much (more another time.....its all about generousity of web 2, I spoke about it in Toronto and will write more)

Today Shel Israel writes about someone who I love working with. How appropriate.

Lionel is a treat to work with, and a joy to be associated with.

So then Shel points me in his wonderful way (he says "just go read it.")...with an instruction like that, how do you resist? He's right. Just go read it: http://www.gapingvoid.com/Moveable_Type/archives/004377.html

I adore Hugh too, even though we have never met or really been in contact. But his piece on creativity speaks to me professionally and artistically, often. His cartoons, speak to me every day...obviously, they get lead position right here. Its where I picked up today's theme...although I chuckled he should have put number 7 and 10 (pasted below) right beside each other (ie as number 7 and 8)...just for a little shock positioning.....and he should not limit 7 to websites, but all we are up to :-)

"7. A lot of what fuels The New Marketing is quite simply, the most important word in the English Language: "Love". It's hard to get someone to read your website if you're not passionate about your subject matter
10. Why is it so hard to explain The New Marketing to large companies? Because the people who work there are simply not prepared to relinquish the idea of control. Live by metrics, die by metrics etc."

So if its about love and losing control and jumping in, here are some folks to love, in addition to Lionel. For them its more than marketing, these individuals are humans from a large company that "get it" (and "it" is about web 2 and believing it is a significant shift that enables us (individually and BIG company Dell) to listen, learn and converse -- to nurture and strengthen relationships.

What a great group to work with: JohnPatdell, Caroline, Bruce, Vance, Geoff and the blog outreach team, Lynn and the IR folks, Bob and Michael, Andy and Mark....and so many others who listen and converse every day at Dell...and those who are learning to listen and converse and lose control (more about this control issue another time too).

Thats just a core team, a great team, in a large company. People, individuals, working to make a difference....even if we are not Apple or Nokia or LG (and some of the others Hugh mentions).

We are Dell. We are listening. We are part of many conversations. ...and we love that too

Four Conversations, 24 hours. Back to Austin Reinvigorated in our being a listening company

Those Canucks, Me Among them

I have a had great time coming home to Canada and chatting with social media pros, getting to know online contacts in the real world and hearing about others who are thinking about what the journey in social media might or could mean for them.

Third Tuesday on the first Tuesday Toronto, as well as on a First Monday in Ottawa were amazing groups. I am still dumb founded by your atttention spans. So much for Web 2 folks having attention spans of a "nano second".

Dave Fleet has an overview post at his place here.....and he and Connie Crosbie had a significant and accurate twitter stream going from Third Tuesday in Toronto....to add to Joe Thornley's from Ottawa, which I blogged about earlier. Next time I get to ask more questions!!!

The Journey

I am very impressed with the Web 2 savvy-ness. I am equally and importantly greatful. Thank you to everyone in Ottawa and Toronto for the support you all showed for the journey Dell has embarked on. The warmth, encouragement and helpful pokes, pushes and prods makes the journey even more exciting, perhaps even pioneering.

As I indicated, we have found social media a wonderful way to listen and learn and we do it every day -- more and more. It is a journey. It is a journey down a long and sometimes uncertain road, which is a change. Traditionally, "big companies" are suppose to have all the answers, not be uncertain, or even trip -- and we do....trip that is, and lack all the answers.

It's why we started Ideastorm, its why we are trialing all kinds of exciting new ways to really build relationships, not just transactions.

Listening companies

Listening companies, I think, enter a continuous learning process....and like I said in a presentation, you stumble, everyone gets to laugh at you (thank you "gaping void" for that cartoon) and my response is, "get up, keep moving, try again...and GET OVER IT"

To err is human and humanizing big companies = occassional errors.

But listening is never an error.

A listening company is a significant and bold evolution of the original Dell direct model -- moving from direct model and mass customization and price differentials to connections and listening with customers that nurture and build relationships -- on the web, one at a time, and revolutionizing business and the web, just as happened in the web 1.0 e-commerce era. It is also a big differentiation too. A solid and good one.

And, so we continue on that journey, pushed and prodded and supported by leadership with a vision to make a difference.

But also with the affirmation and support from people like I met in the last few days. Its that community support and conversations that nurture the soul and keep one going sometimes. I said at the conference Web 2 is generous, even in a crises. You have been very generous....and no crises right now thanks very much :-)

So as I board a plane in Toronto (with a cold, and Dave Fleet so you Know, I will likely sleep :-) I just want to say THANK YOU!!!!

Third Tuesday, Come snow or snow or snow in Ottawa and Toronto

Thrilled to be back home for a visit to Canada. Had wonderful dinners with friends, old and new, saw some great art at the national gallery, including the re-positioning of art from native and european peoples, interwoven in a distinctly Canadian way. BEAUTIFUL!

Not to mention special and FRESH photography from Africa. Congratulations to the International Center for Photography in New York, an old and favorite haunt, for the exhibit and National Gallery of Canada, for picking it up. Thanks to my dear friend and artistic mentor Jennifer Dickson for the treat

Now its time to join folks in Ottawa tonight, Toronto tomorrow and Wednesday at the Canadian Institute Social Media Conference. The Third Tuesdays (on 1st Monday in Ottawa and 1st Tuesday in Toronto) should make for some exciting discussions about social media and business.

Im going to focus on "listening companies" and corporate reputations, as well as on listening, understanding and acting...like the posts referenced below.

These folks have had some pretty special and senior speakers in the field. I am very honoured (note that "u")to be their guest, share what I can but also listen and learn and understand from those attending.

Just to prove I still have some Canadian blood, pop on over to Flickr or see video below. Thanks to my host Joe Thornley

Regeneration of Conversations too

Rather than posting commentary about this, I think it bookends the "Information is Not Power, Understanding Is"...put simply, here is more for listening, for the conversation and for understanding.

Information is Power? Nope. Understanding Is

Richard Saul Wurman’s Passion for Understanding

In 1962 at the “age of 26, Richard Saul Wurman began the singular passion of his life: making information understandable. Each of his 81 books focus on some subject or idea that he personally had difficulty understanding. Among his many publications is the best-selling book Information Anxiety.

Wurman is well known for creating and chairing TED (Technology/Entertainment/Design) conferences. I highly recommend spending time visiting the videos at that site. They are very interesting, engaging and thoughtful perspectives. There is now also the EG conferences bringing together the best creative people in the world to share with each other and guests. Share what? With each other it appears. And with the magnificent purpose of celebrating creativity in making entertainment informing and information entertaining. Imagine how exciting that must be to attend in California, next week.

UNDERSTANDING from Conversations about Information

In Richard Saul Wurman’s 2000 publication, UNDERSTANDING he noted we live in an era where public information is ours. As information increasingly becomes more publicly available it is our right to ask questions; and, get answers to the questions we asked.

He is a proponent for visual "architecture" being applied to enhance our ability to fathom questions and answers in ways that lead to a better, more nuanced and fuller perspective. Helping digest and communicate about data in deeper more meaningful ways fosters rich and full perspectives and perceptions -- that would be "understanding". He said:

“Conversation is the most natural, effective, yet most complex mode of human connection. The goal of conversation is understanding between the participants… Understanding information is power.”

“I dream of asking a question, a single childlike question and receiving an answer.
What a dream! The dream is here. We are at the cusp of the marriage of information technology and information architecture. Our extraordinary ability to store and transmit data will make this dream a waking dream.”

He called it the primitive formation of a new era and pointed out how he loved beginnings.

I recall this because it was the beginning of my own primitive formation too. His wonderful (although slightly dated today) publication has become dog eared and is falling a part from years of “understanding” efforts on my part. UNDERSTANDING is a visual communication of the social, commercial, educational, technological, media, political and other trends impacting the USA.

My UNDERSTANDING

My copy of his book means a lot to me. It was given to me by a friend the day I submitted the first “batch” of papers that would begin my journey to becoming an American Citizen. The statistics and data inside the book meant something because it was a personal gift on a personal occassion, from a personal friend. It became part of my personal journey to understand my soon to be country/citizenship-of-choice. Wurman’s book helped me to more deeply understand a different society than Canada (and yes they are different but that is another story for some other day). His book was part of my personal journey to more deeply understand the society and country I had decided to make my home.

Wurman says that successful visuals are like a “frozen conversation.” I marveled at how the visuals made the data understandable, multi-dimensional and nuanced, like a conversation and like the country itself. Wurman and his team gave the statistics (which I was never any good at, except in political polling) meaning in his frozen and absent way.

That personal journey led to my American Citizenship in downtown New York City – just a few months after 9/11. That personal journey and choosing one’s citizenship was an important personal decision and commitment. Wurman’s frozen conversation with me contributed to understanding. I listened and learned. Citizenship was granted and took place in the shadow and sorrow of 9/11.

Business, Meaning and Understanding

Just as I made my personal decision to become a citizen of this great country, I made a professional and personal decision to leave friends and a city I called home to come and be part of a company that is going through growing pains and change. Having been here, it’s the people, conversations and understandings that make it meaningful and powerful. Im not sure we are ever really objective. Im not sure understanding is objective.

Statistics have not given the story meaning. People have. Being committed to listen, learn and do better is not a bad place to start. Its an “ethos” to believe in, if you want to make a difference in the world and for business, and for other people.

And then there are the people who are prepared to have that conversation with you, because you are a person, even if all is not perfect. Together we work to understand and do better…that is the positive power of understanding and consideration. Like the Social Media Workshop group; or the author of a book like the Fred Factor

Change Understandings or Stagnate?

And as Dell is 22+ years old, who among us at that age didn’t make mistakes. The real question is did you learn from them? And, did you keep going and growing to be the best you can be? Are you listening to those you want to have a conversation with? Are you learning? As Michael Dell said to Jeff Jarvis, business issues ebb and flow and you take action “in a continuous improvement sort of way.”

For those in other businesses -- irrespective of your age or your company's -- are you treading water? Afraid of change? Got the walls up to only interact when you choose? And only with your information? The trends do not bode well for those business or communications strategies. I suggest you get ready. As my frozen conversation friend might say, the information is going free. Moré more and more is coming and coming at you, with understandings others have imbued it with. We are just at the beginnings.

For example, there was more content on YouTube in 2006 than on the Web in 2000. I don’t want to pre-empt the video included with this post, but think about what is said in it versus these stats from Wurman’s 2000 book, with great visuals I cant re-produce here. Better yet, go have a conversation with someone about the numbers and see if these numbers start to come alive and have meaning in a much more powerful and meaningful way because of the complicated art of conversation. Talk about the changes between the video information and this data from Wurman seven short years ago:

• the Internet reached as many Americans in its first six years as the telephone did in its first four decades.

• When looking at a range of technologies, Americans expressed greatest enthusiasm for communications technologies like the Internet and saw technologies like computers and cell phones as continually contributing to a better life.

New Beginnings and Powerful Understanding

Im with Wurman. You got to love beginnings.

What he is up to today sounds like a "blow your mind" project. As for me, Im focused on no blow your mind project, just solid listening and conversing and seeing what its like to be a listening and conversing company in a time of change. For my friend David Armano, it is all beta.

The online connections and conversations will explode in the next few years. People will access information and produce more data than we can comprehend, maybe more than we can "manage". That information will be shared and mashed up and distributed. But on its own, the information is mere data. It is static. It has no meaning. And no company that I can think of will give that information meaning either.

That information produced and shared by people will access and whip around the web, around the world. All those 0s and 1's processed in cell phones or laptops and swirling about through servers and networks and complicated connections and held in large corporate data centers -- its nothing. Its data.

Information and data is only given meaning through the most natural, effective, yet most complex mode of human connection, conversation. Some of it may be frozen conversation, but is still people adding value through sharing and considering. Interactions that count.

Only people are capable of interacting, and buiding information into understanding and power. Conversations provide context, nuance and meaning to static information. It’s all messy and subjective. But messy and subjective is also meaningful, understandable, connectable, perceptable and real. Its why brands are suppose to have a "value"...they are not objective.

Businesses thrive on organized, objective data. Its "management" and "equitable. " Its not. Its people interacting. Its messy. Its real. People are not emotionless robots, they are human with values and subjective views. And that is why conversations are rich and full and can create meaning and understanding. Those shared perceptions are very powerful....just ask a so-called objective brand manager.

Video and Your Conversations

The video accompanying this post has some good data/ information. The visuals are part of the “frozen” conversation and contribute to several important issues. Those issues deserve rich and real conversations. The conversations could be between you and me, between you and Dell, between you and a neighbor, a boyfriend or girlfriend, your best friend, spouse, or another brand. That’s really not my business. Im just here as an advocate to have the conversation and make it real.

I am interested in you and others joining the conversations you choose to chat with and that you think are important. See if the conversation is natural, complex and yet results in better understanding. I am willing to bet that the understanding from a conversation is powerful and meaningful. The data-information on its own falls flat in comparison.

The video was used as part of Michael Dell’s keynote address at Oracle World this week. Yes, the video has its promotional elements. I encourage you to drop the cynical perspective, even just on a flyer, and have real conversations.

As the video notes we are 80,000 people around the world listening and wanting to do more. This is more than just Dell the company; it’s the people who work at Dell…a lot of us listening, learning and working to achieve some things we believe are right, while listening and learning all along the way. We want to do the right things for an increasingly complex, connected and resource-limited world.

We think we can accomplish a whole lot more by listening, learning, having conversations and working with others.

Paving the Roads to and from Dell with Passion??? Conversations, Rooted in Listening and Learning

Talked a fair bit lately about conversations online and using various web 2.0 tools to realizing real world relationships. Some of them have been a sort of short overview, like man, get the post up.

Today I'd like to put some flesh on the bones. Partially, because some people are asking for more evidence that social media works, partially to fill out the longer story that culminated in David Armano's blog today and last week, as well as the Direct2Dell post/vlog interview by the wonderful and effervescent Lionel.

Here is the "more to" this story.
We first met David when we responded to one his posts about a session he had with a group of students. Like a lot of posts it didn't result in a lengthy conversation but more simply a chance to share perspectives. It sort of stopped there...publicly anyway.

A couple months later that rather regular engagement in conversation made its way to a BusinessWeek Story by David. We didn't know that was coming and I don't recall David ever telling us it was.

Sometime after that we found him on slideshare.net -- shocked to see that his presentation on "Twitter Blogs and Customer Experience" not only included the RichardatDELL comments, but David's review and commentary about some of the work we were doing to change www.dell.com. He had taken the time to assess and provide constructive feedback to us, also examining direct2dell and Ideastorm

There it was: a Naked conversations. "They" are talking about you whether you like it or not.

There it was: Transparency. Losing control -- we didn't ask for a public review of Dell.com (although we certainly get them and have learned how to listen and digest that too) or his other notations about our moving into the realm of social media (Ideastorm, Direct2dell...it was and is all there).

And now there are his ideas about geek chic discussed in the vlog and lots more.

And for doubters.....hey, we are ok.

In fact, we even started our meeting with David presenting a Dell "where we are at" overview. The slides? The first group of slides were Armano's own slides because our listening to him has infused our development and directions.

While we engage and enter conversations, we are also listening closely -- on Ideastorm, direct2dell, our forums, and the bloggers who choose to comment on us. We do not always agree with what we hear. We cannot always comment on what is being said. But we do listen.

David was thoughtful. He was constructive. He had something to say and did it well. And we began listening more. One of my good blog outreach "friends" was looking for a replacement for Cathy Sieria's blog (Passionate Users)...I told him it had to be Armano's. He blogged my thinking.

We began to let David know we were listening and exchanging views from time to time. And that all came together in a full day of meetings with David.

We shared ideas, discussed with David some things he might not have been aware of and solicited his feedback. He had done his own homework too. We also just got to connect -- real world, real conversations. There were several reasons for connecting:
1. This week some of our folks join David at the Forrester conference in Chicago, so our meetings helped get the presentation planning underway.
2. David had joined Critical Mass, an agency that does some work for us, so why not get him to come and meet some of the folks involved in social media
3. David didn't know, but we had been following him, his thinking and some of his graphics after we stumbled upon them. As I noted we started "listening" to David quite a while ago.

Good Ole Dialogue, free form
Now, I've been in government relations/lobbying and communications business all my career...and for social media "newbies" (like me) or those wondering about all these changes, there is something that is very refreshing about these changes impacting business and communications beyond the listening to your stakeholders and people.

The chance to sit down in a room, person to person, have a great conversation, share and dialogue...throw the briefing notes out, just share and kick things around. Sure, we used some formal power points to give an overview of what all we have underway. We demonstrated some tools we use and that we hope will emerge from the "development" stage soon ....but the meetings value was in the two way exchange. And David blogged about it and so did we....and guess what???? We are all ok.

OK...BUT Passion? Now whats that about
Not only are we ok, we didn't "plan messages" and look what emerges. Geek shiek, yes.....but David picks up on "our passion". When I first read that I thought, excuse me???? WTF?????????

Can you imagine putting in your executive briefing note "show passion"? Or how about a tech trade or mainstream media story " they are passionate about this"? Wow....that's an interesting note by David. Sort of stopped me

Well, ok....so our being passionate showed through. It makes us human. That's ok too. And I suppose, when we stumble (as we have and as we will again) perhaps people will remember "well they are passionate", even if we make mistakes. Since this is all new turf we are likely to drop some balls occasionally...and in the meantime, some will know we are "passionate."

I hadn't thought about that coming through in our meetings. In the world of "business" and "management," is it ok that someone saw and reported on our passion? I thought for a while....why not? OK then :-)

And our passion for David Armano is now public too. What Lionel didn't mention on direct2dell.com today is that Logic+Emotion has been added to the blogroll.

I hope we get to listen and learn more. I look forward to more passionate discussions with David...and likely others, now that I think about it.