New Year's Wishes

I'm not a big fan of New Year's resolutions - resolutions to do better should be an all year activity in my opinion - but let's pretend for a second... 

I came across a poem many years ago - it was a prayer actually - and I love its message and I find it befitting for a New Year's message. I went looking for it on-line to make sure I had the wording right and had to laugh; I found it on a German teen-girl site. I now remember learning the poem the summer I was 16 and working in a senior home run by Deacons. So, here goes:

"May you have the courage to accept what you cannot change, the strength to change what needs changing, and the wisdom to know one from the other." 

All I can add to that is: "Cheers for a sensational 2014 with all the right changes!"

If You Ain't Livin' On Edge, You're Takin' Too Much Space

The first time I heard the quote: "If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space" was at "The Conversation" at Columbia University, March of 2010.  It was an exciting time, the internet and social media in particular were changing how a filmmaker - or any artist, content producer and creative - shared their wares with his or her audience and fan base. We now had direct access to audiences without layers of sales agents, distributors, aggregators, studios, etc.  We could engage directly, get our messages out AND (potentially) make some money.

Context - Part 3

A guest post Leadership Unplugged on Brian Solis’ site (yes, again) started out being about leadership and then went into context and content.  Written by Roland Deiser and Sylvain Newton the article makes some very relevant points about an ‘unplugged’ and less perfect leadership style in a fast changing and moving world.  What struck the nerve for me were the following paragraphs:

Social (yawn) Media – Social (what?) Business

The title sums it up: the term social media is a tad overused and social business is in theory happening but not really and who really gets it (other than Brian Solis)?

 

To start the conversation I want to highlight a few blog posts I’ve been reading by the “initiated”. They all just so happen to have been guest posts on Brian Solis’ blog as well as Brians’ two cents.

 

October of this year Chris Heuer wrote a guest blog on Brian Solis’ site with the title “Social Business is Dead! Long Live What’s Next”. In response Philip Sheldrake writes in November on the same blog: “Impatience is a Virtue: What’s Next for Social Business”.  And then Brian Solis sums it up in December with: “Social Business in not Dead: New charts and data reveal the real evolution of social businesses”. 

Giving Thanks

Dear Friends and Miscellaneous Others who read this blog:

I know I say this every year and at the risk of sounding like a broken record, or an endless hour glass for those of you who weren't born yet in the dark ages when records were in use - let me reboot and say, as every Thanksgiving, how thankful I am for another great year with lots of diverse work, tons of travel, and most importantly, new friends made and old ones revisited.

The best part about my work are the people I get to meet and work with, and constantly being exposed to different ideas, new impulses and places.  So, all I can say is: keep it coming!  

Thanksgiving is not only a time to eat turkey (or tofurkey), but also a time to say 'thank you'. Thank you to all of you for making sure there's never a dull moment! 

I know it's a repeat - but it never gets old...

Social Media for Business

17 Gapingvoid Cartoons That Will Change Your Business from gapingvoid

I've followed Brian Solis for a long time and have read both his books: What's the Future of Business and The End of Business as Usual. If you are in any way shape or form interested how Social Media impacts EVERYTHING - not just business - both are a must-read and well worth your time.

The cartoon above links to slide share and shows a quick summary of some of Brian's and his design collaborator, Hugh MacLeod aka @gapingvoid comments on social media insights.  My favorite is slide 20.... the prosa summary is:  

ignorance + arrogance = irrelevance.  (Nuf said)

Remember that for all eternity!

Outsourcing

Do you know the feeling that the universe is trying to tell you something when a topic keeps coming up and up and up again?  Well, I do and it just did these past days.  The New York Times had several articles on outsourcing.  One in particular, Outsource Your Way to Success, talks about how a couple invested in a housekeeper even when they were starving students to be able to focus on their studies and be more productive. I wish I had that kind of singular focus, actually, no, I do not. I’m interested in just about anything; at least for a while.  But you get the gist.  I get excited.

So, the other day I decided that it was silly to pay programmers and designers to do all the work on my websites and I could go ahead and learn with the help of templates and WordPress, or Square Space how to set up and implement websites myself.  I signed up at General Assembly for a two day class called “WordPress Bootcamp”. Our teacher Nate Cooper was awesome (that is patient, humorous, and of course, super hero knowledgeable) and off we set into the sunset.

Digital Citizen

I became an American citizen a few years ago and I feel very comfortable being an American.  Actually I should say, being a New Yorker.  The rest of the country can be a bit more challenging, then again: I don’t think that’s an issue of being American or not American, but merely goes to show that New Yorkers are a breed of their own.

 

About being a ‘digital citizen’ I feel similar. I’m definitely not a native, I was born in the wrong place on the time line, but I feel totally comfortable moving around in the digital arena. My job and my personal curiosity have made it a necessity and have given me the drive to learn ‘digital’ as much as I have learned and continue to learn being American.

Let’s “Meta” one More Time

The New York Times Magazine had a “Riff” on Meta, called “Welcome to the Age of Heavy Meta” by Devon McCann Jackson (aka David Zweig).  A highly recommended read.  He says it so much more elegantly than I did in my riff, “Big Data, Megatrends and Meta Trends” in this blog back in July. The article’s subtitle sums it up perfectly: “Somewhere between Aristotle’s “Metaphysics” and “Family Guy”, the world “meta” became shorthand for wry knowingness.  But the advent of metadata shows us just how much – and how little – we truly know.”  

"I love you; you're perfect; now change"

Yesterday I had an epiphany of sorts.  At the kitchen sink no less.  Of late I have been thinking a lot about people and their behavior and the realization that people do not change. Not fundamentally so. I think a person can learn to modify certain behaviors, but our basic wiring is our basic wiring. Of course we learn along the way and modify behaviors and change our opinions (or not) and hopefully become more attune with our surroundings and wiser in our decision making, we might mellow and be more forgiving, but we will fundamentally and with our gut always be “who we are”.  

Internet 3.0

So where are we going? Quo vadis? That could be asked, no: that has to be asked of all aspect of our lives. (And yes, we’re back to one of my fave topics) This entry: quo vadis www? Where are we headed with the internet, and these days the internet seems to be near synonymous with social media. 

So: we moved from being consumers to being co-creators. That means media now engages with communities (niche audiences) and (should) no longer cater just to a generic audience. Companies that communicate to the outside no longer push information (or products for that matter) to a community, but need to be ready to pull information into their organizations and to LISTEN.  Organizations that are traditional hierarchical need to rethink being flat(er) in structure and allowing for a network of employees to listen and communicate with consumers.  Flexibility is key.  Leadership needs to move from control to empowerment.

Coincidentally that jives with my earlier entry (the Culture Code) on generation y – or generation “me” (aka Millennials): the need to be heard, to be empowered and to be co-creators.  So, at least www. 3.0 is squarely catering to generation y – surprised?  Ok; I agree it’s a chicken and egg situation. Did you know that by 2025, 75% of the work force is going to be generation y-ers (aka Millennials)?    

In summary, below a table put out by Vodafone Enterprise Plenum after their work trip 2013 in New York and Boston:

	www 2.0	www 3.0
Individuals	Consumers	Co-creators
Media	Audience	Community
Organizations	Hierarchy	Network
Markets	Products	Platform
Communication	Push	Pull
Leadership	Control	Empower

Blogging

The other night I found myself at the bar of one of my favorite restaurants, Cedric in Harlem and sadly watched Roger Federer lose a match in the quarter finals in Flushing. After getting over my Swiss pride being hurt, I started a conversation with the gentleman sitting next to me and we soon where in a deep conversation about blogging and selling.  His wife has a flower boutique, Katrina Parris Flowers a few blocks from my house and they are big on social media. 

The Culture Code

There’s a book with that title I wish I had read after a year or so of living in the States.  The Culture Code found me in 2006, the year it was published and it was a veritable “aha” experience.  Clotaire Rapaille, cultural anthropologist and marketing expert (not without controversies), originally from France takes an advertising approach of distilling each experience, i.e. cultural differentiator into one word.  He gives the example of car advertisement in The Culture Code. 

 

What would the one word be that comes to mind when advertising cars to Americans?  It would be “freedom” – look at the truck commercials in particular – the car in the wild-wild west scaling some desert mountain, or roaming freely deserted down town streets:  it screams freedom to move around as you please.  How would you sell a car to Germans?  “Precision” – Germans want to know their car is of highest quality precision engineering possible.  No “over-engineered” Mercedes would ever come out of Detroit.

Big Data an Economic Dud?

James Glanz of the The New York Times asks the question if Big Data is overrated as the big new diver to spur the economy in an article from August 17th: Is Big Data an Economic Big Dud?

Big Data has been called the "new oil", a new asset group, but I agree with the article that we're talking about lateral shift of economic spending, not real growth. As Glanz points out as far as retail is concerned the digital world is replacing the physical one so there's no economic growth per se, but a shift. 

Zwei Spie-gel-ei-er, Bitte - sunny side up!

My name sake, Nina Stoessinger posted a wonderful story on cultural mis-understandings.  It's in German and if you are reading it make sure to catch the comments too.

And since you are on the "other" Nina's Blog - browse a bit it's worth it - the other entries are all in English. I met Nina in New York, not as one would think because we share a name or are both Swiss, but volunteering at the New York City Marathon only weeks after 9/11. 

I've been watching Nina's graphic work and one day, I hope, there will be an opportunity for collaboration. We share a love for words - hers laid out and presented, mine spoken and heard, but I could switch any old day if only I had the skill set. 

I am thrilled to see that we also share the joy of the written word and musings about cross-cultural differences. 

 

My Future

All this talk about trends makes me think about what I would like to see happen in the future. 

I had a talk with my friend and editor of my film, Terry Katz about what the next ‘big’ thing is going to be.  He agrees with me that Big Data will continue to capture our imagination for some time to come, but he’s hot on 3D printers.  I still have to wrap my brain around that. I’m thinking of cartridges in my house that contain, glass, plastic, metals, paper, poop?  At what temperatures are these 3D printers ‘printing’ if they work with metal – how safe are they?  I can go and BUY glasses I do not need to print one each time I wish to enjoy a glass of wine.  

Big Data

Big Data has been holding my attention for a while, as it might by now be obvious. I was lucky enough to accompany a group of C-level executives from Germany on an East Coast trip to industry leaders in Big Data to gain a glimpse at the cutting edge this spring. 

 

The question I think is less, what Big Data is, but where Big Data is, because it’s everywhere, literally.  Think George Orwell’s 1984 on steroids times infinity plus one. Big Data is the information the NSA requested from Verizon, Big Data is the advertising pushed to your screen after doing research for blue socks. You get to see are blue socks for the next few days, until your next search and then you see LED light bulbs everywhere. Big Data is all the information we output all the time with the many devices we use and the endless apps on them. Keep a training log online? Play solitaire on your iPhone? Upload your photos with geo-tagging, as default, courtesy of your camera? Your metro card? Your built-in car GPS? And that’s just the simplest of lists from our consumer world.  

Big Data, Megatrends and Meta Trends

We use the word megatrend so often today; it’s a trend all of its own, it has passed from neologism, to buzzword, to vernacular. I was however curious in my digging around in what I believe to be the most talked about megatrend today: Big Data, what the commonly understood definitions of mega- and meta-trends would be. I wrote about megatrends a few months back. 

I understand meta as a prefix to be referencing a higher hierarchy, or description of the word it’s affixed too (it also happens to be my sisters nick name – just in case you were wondering).  Meta-linguistics would be the science about linguistics rather than the science of linguistics. Metadata would be a definition or description of data.

Content Delivery

Back in 2011 I wrote a post about owning a TV.  This week my friend Gary Delfiner posted an article about the future of program delivery and I agree with all he observes, but that the water cooler effect is gone. It’s not it’s just different.  And before ANY water cooler talk with colleagues about a TV show you do have to set some spoiler alert rules; that’s all. I actually found it very helpful to be a season behind with Scandal in a recent situation as it gave us a much needed opportunity for a bonding moment when I finally caught up to the final episode of season two (OMG!). 

Context – Part 1

After posting Part 2 before Part 1 – I should get with the program, so eight months later, here’s Part 1 with some more general thoughts about context.  It’s really about content within context. 

 

I think content and context are intrinsically linked. We watch plays or listen to an opera today with the understanding that when they were written there were other times. We take them as a social comment on their times and within that context they become understandable. Of course there are the great classics that tell us truths that hold true to this day. And I take the word truth in its broadest sense, as there is no absolute truth as we so well know (or should know).  

Reading and Responding

Patience is not one of my strong suits. It serves me well in the heat of production to be comfortable to make quick decisions and to act on instinct. And I am usually right.  But I do have some ground rules. 

 

I have learned (yes, the hard way), to never respond to an email that elicits an ‘emotional’ reaction, or a complex answer on impulse, or as I might rather call it, with efficiency. Best case scenario I can afford to sleep on an answer, or go for a walk in the park.  If not, I get up from my desk and wander around the office for a bit.  We are so trained to answer immediately, be it because we feel it’s expected – the 60 minute rule - or be it that we desperately try to stay ahead of the curve on our in-boxes.  We’ve all come back from a meeting or lunch break to the mother-load of all inboxes.  That’s the moment we are thankful for the few spam messages that eluded the filter.

Copyright, Copyleft and Other Considerations

Since we just recently were on the topic of right vs. left I thought I’d educate myself a bit on copyright law. My interest in the topic came up during the recent Digital Hollywood seminars here in New York on a panel about the art of the deal.  Lawyers on the panel used a lot of verbiage that I had certainly heard of, but lets face it, had little educated knowledge about.  Did you know what a “sunset provision” was? No, not a deal involving Sunset Boulevard, nor Before nor After Sunset. 

 

Here a quick overview of some of the concpets that came up during this and other pannels: Copyright, Sunset Provision, Creative Commons Licenses, Copyleft, Public Domain, Fair Use, and FRAPA and what they mean to me as a content producer and filmmaker.  Texts in italics are copied if not noted otherwise from Wikipedia or other sources (noted). 

 

To bring it to a point:  this is really a discussion to be had about the space between all our first Amendent rights (as US citizens) and our rights as content creators. With the event of the internet in general and social media in particular the landscape has shifted into a new dimension. Legal concepts and structures like Fair Use, Creative Commons Licenses and FRAPA give us protection, rights and options to negotiate that space between our right of freedom of speech and our right to protect our work as content producers.   

Storytelling

Attending the event I posted about last time was an amazing experience. My friend Susanne Mueller put on this evening at the PSYA at Marymount College where 15 of us where sharing stories about our lives involving holistic women’s leadership and mentoring. Each had about 2 minutes to share. I wasn’t sure what to expect and I had prepared the thoughts and story I shared in my previous entry called “Mentoring”.  

 

The evening was powerful. The fact that 15 people shared a story without holding back and the other panelists and the audience listened captively created an amazing energy around the room.  The women came from nearly all continents and backgrounds; some from academia, some from the arts, or with business backgrounds; a real hodgepodge of ethnicities and the ages ranged from students to retirees.  

 

Mentoring

I’m speaking at a panel tonight at the Marymount Manhattan College’s Psychology Alumni Society on Women and Holistic Leadership.  The topic is Mentoring. I’m curious to see what I learn, and in the interim, here some thoughts on the topic. 

 

I’ve met some pretty fantastic people, men and women, both in my personal and professional lives. Some I only realized later had been mentors; some were clearly in a mentor role to me from the start. I thrive to emulate what I admire or value in a mentor the most and try to apply it to my own live where possible. I feel however, being “infatuated” with a person and wanting to be just like your mentor, no questions asked, is not a mentor relationship, that’s just being a groupie or member of a fan club.

Right from Left

I have a pair of socks.  One with an “L” on it, the other an “R”.   Some days I bother some days I don’t’. You see, I have to THINK which sock goes on which foot.  When I see the “L” and the “R” it’s not an automatic process there is a bit of guess work and some thinking involved.  Maybe it’s because I’m dyslexic. 

 

The other day I was sitting on a hotel bed about to put my new iPhone 5 headset into my ears and yes, it now matters if you put them on right to right and left to left ear, or not.  I happened to look at my socked feet and voila – the thinking part had been taken care of in the early morning when THEY were put on.  “R” to “R”, “L” to “L”…. awesome.  That I needed my reading glasses to see the miniscule “R” and “L” on the ear buds is an entirely different matter.

Mode of Communication

Found on Swiss Miss Blog. Thank you!  I'm a sucker for these wimsical diagrams...

Disrupt

So, you’ve read and heard about disruption “this” and “that” and have maybe, like me wondered, what has been disrupted and how exactly.  Apparently there is “the Law of Disruption” – much like Murphy’s Law (more on that later) – and it has to do with the dissemination of change being uneven, that is the ‘analog’ world is not keeping pace with changes in the ‘digital’ world.  Digital changes grow exponentially hence being disruptive to our more contemplative analog world we live in physically that grows incrementally.  A world were our elders do not necessarily understand computers and new technology, where the rest of us who are not born after 2000 sometimes wonder how many new things we will learn, adapt to and unlearn because they were a fad in an effort to keep up and stay relevant, both for our jobs and our children.  

New Year Musings (Handkerchief Alert)

Granted 2013 is already 15 days old which is 4.1% of the year already – poof – gone, and I’m not one to ponder much on things past – a habit I gladly accepted from American culture – unless they were very good – the things passed that is.  

 

2012 was a very good year – which reminds me of the Sinatra song of the same name. I came to the full realization how fast our lives have become when I was driving to my parents’ house from our holiday vacation and had to listen to the full rendition of the Sinatra recording “It’s been a very good year” on the radio – had I not been doing 140 km/h on the Autobahn I would have jumped out of the car. I had to force myself to listen to the entire thing and while I listened I had time to dream up a seven-part science fiction youth novel – no, wait – that’s been done already. I could have changed channel, right, but I didn’t. I did need some time to think slower thoughts.