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Like most things in life, the universe and what’s still being called social media , you can pull up some aphorism from some Greek that’s been dead for over two millenia to anchor your point to. Do no harm isn’t a bad one, and it’s a lot easier to pull off than do no evil yet neither are as compelling , or succinct as Wil Wheaton’s “don’t be a dick” as an almost libertarian reduction of the non aggression principle into the vernacular. (Sadly his writings on politics really don’t ultimately follow this but let’s not get into that)

In short it’s a set of rules for the relationship between creators, promoters and fans around Sci Fi / Fantasy conventions which can be extrapolated to most commercial interactions.

E.G Are we customers, consumers, data points or people that want to get things done?When you have a “voice” for a corporation engaged in social media maybe it’s a good idea to think about the above because the mode of address you choose in 3/4 cases is going to be wrong.

Can a corporation really be your friend? Does this construct sound real? X is out buying yummy things his company make , Y is out watching their Movie etc Does this sound remotely like a relationship your engaged in? If it doesn’t it’s for the obvious reason that it ISN’T.

I love dealing with people from companies, hate dealing with company names that have a rotating cast of interchangeable responses that would make Turing dance with glee. I can’t tell them apart from a machine or human either.

Wer in ur boahdroomz wutchin yu wit intrst

*invisible pink unicorn peace be unto her hooves.

Like most things in life, the universe and what’s still being called social media ,  you can pull up some aphorism from some Greek that’s been dead for  over two millenia to anchor your point to.   Do no harm isn’t a bad one,  and it’s  a lot easier to pull off than do no evil   yet neither are as compelling , or succinct as Wil Wheaton’s   “don’t be a dick”  as an almost libertarian reduction of the non aggression principle into  the vernacular.    (Sadly his writings on politics really don’t ultimately follow this   but   let’s not get into that) 

In short  it’s  a set of  rules  for the relationship between creators, promoters and fans  around  Sci Fi / Fantasy conventions which can be extrapolated to  most commercial  interactions. E.G   Are we customers, consumers, data points  or people that  want to get things done?

When you have a “voice” for a corporation engaged in social media  maybe it’s a good idea to think about the above because the mode of address you choose in 3/4 cases is going to be wrong

Can a corporation really be your friend?   Does this  construct sound real?   X is out buying yummy things  his  company make  ,  Y is out  watching their Movie  etc  Does this sound remotely like a relationship your engaged in?    If it doesn’t it’s for the obvious reason that it ISN’T. 

I love dealing with people from companies,  hate dealing with  company names that have a rotating cast of interchangeable  responses that would make Turing dance with glee. I can’t tell them apart from a machine or human either. 

Wer in ur boahdroomz wutchin yu wit intrst

*invisible pink unicorn  peace be unto her hooves.

 This is an argument I usually lose and most because the other side wishes to resort to violence.  I wish I had the insight to tie my experience with how the Scots act based on their institutions and beliefs  versus what I understand the American ones to be since  I don't fit into either of them. 

 Sure there are quite a few touching points but  I'm arguably able to cope in both societies and have been fortunate enough to  secure work  , mostly interesting work, since I was  16, remain solvent and have evaded the law for any but the minor transgressions, that are impossible to avoid.

Yet I hold views contrary to the masses of both countries re their national myths of identity and character and where that intersects with reality. Does beating up the English and burning their holiday homes doesn't make you more Scottish , or does it but in an entirely different light? Same way with the Americans who appear to be fixated by freedom won by the restriction of others and does that make you more American?  Seemingly yes. 

Which reminds me there's a  radio show in Phoenix called "Ridin Dirty" on KFNX which today advocated ignition interlocks for all cars as a solution to  DUI,  not as a joke  but as a default behavior of all new cars.  It's an interesting idea but  socializing the cost of this crime makes as much sense as a tax on kitchen knives to pay for domestic violence ... then again how many taxes really make sense?
 
Why not have cars locked to speed by their location as reported by a mandatory onstar gps?  Disable cars  when their insurance runs out,  when the reg tag expires or hell  only allow you to drive between home and the DMV when your papers aren't in order.  All are readily done with today's tech.. do we want to?     How about health plans that give you a credit card hooked up to your real time vitals?  Sorry today the card doesn't work at BK but..  you can  get a Sub, no cheese 6" max.  Sweet tooth replaced by  a blue one. There's no end to this "freedom" 

The freedom to laugh is about the best I can do.

Anytime you tell me the people are too stupid to manage their own affairs I have to sadly agree with you.   My solution is to leave them alone. Yours is to rely on those same people to tell us what to do. 

 And I'm the crazy one?  

  

We've talked about it,  threatened it  and I've been living with the peer embarrassment of assisting many people get their podcasts up and running  yet not having a regular outlet of my own. The good news is Creddy is now interested in following through with a  2-3 times a week < 20  min show  "Reivers of reality"  which is not a misspelling and a deliberately  arcane choice.   Reivers are  from the area of the Scottish borders from which I originate and are raiders, pirates, rustlers and a few other   less savory behaviors which I assure you we don't partake in.    Why now?     Basically there's not enough exposure for our world view. Even in  groups that are meant to  have a reality  based outlook the ability to  go of gods in the  form of the State and the man upstairs seems to be sorely lacking.     Oh and we need friends too as well as stocking up on the enemies list.  :) So expect a few shaky weeks until we get used to this ...

Here is an interesting problem with podcasting, and many other forms of social media.  One might almost call it a beggar's banquet when you consider that we're a very large party with millions of people who've all chipped in their contributions yet somehow the waiters are not getting a tip.Even worse than that the bill is short.

Bandwidth is "expensive" roughly $90 a terabyte give or take a few bucks depending on how large a user of it that you are .There aren't many services that for a nominal fee will allow you to consume "infinite" resources hedged against the vast majority off their users using a minimal amount but that's where the net has ended up ( at least the marketing of it has done so)

Ergo it should be obvious that the vast majority are subsidizing the top of the pyramid yet by an "amazing"  coincidence those are the ones  agitating for such noble and egalitarian causes such as net neutrality you know that's were the evil corporations limit access based on the idea that if they do not recuperate the cost of providing the service then that service and indeed the company will no longer exist.

Which is a victory for whom exactly?

Nearly every business has already built in the costs associated with the percentage of bad customers, internal theft and things that just go wrong but somehow that's meant to fall to the whims of people that are basically saying give me a free  pass or we won't give you business ( I'd agree to that)   sadly they are saying give us a free pass or we'll force you to do so... lovely.

I have never been a fan of the term net neutrality and feel that it's all too often used to obfuscate the issues that occur at carrier or network level where the network owners prevent rival services from even connecting or being allowed to exist against the terms and conditions that they wish to sell their access on

Australian state bans YouTube from schools to curb bullying - Breaking - Technology - theage.com.au Obviously I was never bullied due to a lack of the internet connection in the mid 80's. This reaction from the state sucks because I like people posting their crimes online, I fucking love it and whole heartedly endorse people providing their own petard :) DV or otherwise. Usual bullshit, Oh my prisoner abuse, ban digital cameras.. have a war on, don't let people take pictures of the aftermath etc. Then even more annoyingly

Girls were 2 1/2 times more likely than boys to be victims, the newspaper said. A copy of the study was not immediately available.

Yet we're going to print it anyway.

Social Media Release » Blog Archive » The Social Media Release is about getting the facts right Ah I presaged the joy of this debate a few posts back, and indeed a couple of weeks back on my work blog but it looks like people that have the ability to gather some attention ( Oh we're very "the Island" in a Huxley sense over here) have weighed in with a more weighty assessment on what was my visceral reaction to being sold on being sold to. One of the proponents of the SMR Chris Heuer appears to be having an interesting time rebutting these including this interesting reference to something that derails the Cluetrain so many of the SM group seem to be waving their ticket stubs in the air to show we're all on the same track, that we are, sadly I don't think we're going in the same direction though:)

as a result, here comes the pile-on, where all bloggers are going to attack the PR industry - without knowing all the facts, giving more credence to that stupid “Attack of the Bloggers” article from last year.

Is this saying that bloggers are the coolest when their interpretation dovetails with our purpose of communication but otherwise are just not playing fair? Maybe, just maybe we see through PR and the idea that we need these modern day shapers to translate from the 'king boardroom to the buyer is soon to be lost in the mists of time? Grendel.... supper's ready.

BBC NEWS | UK | Scotland | B&B compulsory registration plea A "nice" group of business people in Scotland have a problem. There problem is they can't compete with poor food,lack of amenities  and hygiene so rather than let people know what they have for sale  it's time to  restrict what others can't do you know licensing, regulation  things that have the state decide what's acceptable level of compliance (  From the people that brought you hospitals, prisons and  school .. your vacation room doesn't seem to have a ring to it) Anyway let's see where the problem is..

The policy document says: "Our members are concerned about the actions of some individuals who hang a B&B sign outside their home during the tourist season.

"Not only does this unfairly steal their custom, it also offers the visitor a lower standard of service, which reflects badly on Scotland."

Ah there it is, "their custom" Bollocks it is it has to be earned fairly and not by using the force of the state for the benefit of some winging  suits that reflect badly on  business people regardless of origin.

The Paying for TV lifestyle is going well. There's been enough on Adult Swim, You Tube and various vidcasts to keep me amused for 2 days ..:) The wireless keyboard/mouse work pretty well and I've found that Opera is the most useful browser for my long distance viewing with friendlier and more consistent zoom settings than IE or FF. I'm still trying to get through "The Fatal Shore" it's not that I don't like the book it's just that so many pages a night prior to sleep doesn't work as well. Just bought "Calculated Chaos" by Butler Shaffer and Hayek's "The Road to Serfdom" because feeling something is obvious doesn't equal the ability to convince others who have been "taught" by the state :) Social Media, ah the joys of traversing this increasingly self aggrandizing movement which seems to be missing the point or more likely "this" point is missing the movement:D In one corner: Those that are tired of the coercive, manipulative tactics and outright falsehoods perpetrated, partly through regulatory constrictions and partly through choice , of old media and seek to create an alternative to the wilderness of smoke and mirrors that one could argue that MSM seems to promote and then.... And then are those that want to sell to these people.It may be better to start a split between social media and social marketing. What a minute I thought I was close to being an anarcho capitalist.,.. yeah well I'm 50% there I just need to work on the latter.. so why would should I give a rat's patoot about what the marketing maniacs may monetize? Mainly it's the self serving bullshit. I saw/ see cluetrain as a very obvious set of ideas, just repeated x 3-4 on each point but hey , ink's free on the web:D, but ultimately I am not sure it's considered a "how to" guide to fake a connection in the bid to sell more crap :D None of the people I've met in marketing have been remotely convincing that they really are helping us rather then helping their message and how it should be framed... The people actually walking the walk the owners and producers of companies "that get it" don't need an interstitial tier . Shame that middle tier is working so hard on making themselves relevant .