Social network

A quiet weekend of solitude is a very rare occurrence for me.  I can’t remember when I last had the luxury.  As I faced the prospect of this time away from home I was anxiously planning activities out of fear I would lose my mind from the cabin fever.

Wrong again, Batman.

I am in Geneva, Switzerland — which is a lovely city of pleasant, human scale.  The Genevois have a certain style: confident and cool.  The people are progressive in many ways (green, public services) and centuries-old traditional in others (private banking, watchmaking).  I’m here often, and have nearly burned through the sensor on my DSLR wandering the streets.

Strolling about the village of Carouge during the weekly Farmer’s Market, I passed this repair shop for bicycles (cycles) and motorcycles (motos).  I’ve passed the place many times, struck as I was (and not sure why) by the weathered and ancient building, the bright and new graffiti, the contrast of chaos and confusion with elegance and simplicity.

What does this have to do with the transformation the web and new media are putting businesses through today?

Bear with me.

1. Durable innovations recapitulate ancient human instincts and behaviors.  I totally agree with and admire how Chris Brogan has begun to evolve his focus.  A true leader among the social networking set, he just published a new book along with co-author Julien Smith: Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust.  Chris seems to me (not a long-term watcher, mind you) to be refining his focus and interest — moving as we all have from (IMHO) a long period of hot romance with the new tools and new channels of social networking — to a focus on what is genuinely human about the new media world.  He astutely observes that social technologies are recreating, online, human interaction models that have been crucial to western civilization for a long, long time.  Word of mouth, spreading so freely at the Farmer’s Market among neighbors yesterday in Carouge, spreads via Facebook or Twitter today.  Special interest groups are today’s guilds, they merely convene online and asynchronously thanks to new technologies.
2. In any market disruption, there will be chaos and confusion. Gartner’s notion of the “hype cycle” provides solace in this atmosphere of hyperchange in the media.  It reminds us that although the proliferation of tools and utilities, applications, devices and wizards, and the squillions of tips and guides out there continues unabated, market forces will eventually come to bear.  Crowded categories will thin, understandable segmentation will set in.  Some graffiti becomes accepted as art, the rest gets painted over.  And if tenet #1 is true, standards of conduct (call it “netiquette” if you must) will take hold, and drive out the fringe behaviors by consensus of the community at large.  I’m among those who believe that the level of civility within a community will have a higher impact on the long term success of that community than sheer numbers (Twitter, Facebook included).
3. Durable innovations conform to Einstein’s definition of elegance: they must be “as simple as possible, and no simpler.”  Already, the problem of online identity portability is being addressed.  Many web sites and services today allow you to “connect via Facebook,” using those credentials to establish your identity and authenticity with additional web sites.  Soon I’ll be able to digitally shred the encrypted office file I keep with the dozens of user IDs and passwords I once needed to navigate the web.  On the other hand, it will take longer for us to answer the broader questions relating to online identity: how do I manage the very natural separation I want between personal and professional spheres?
4. Market disruptions will accelerate the retirement of one generation of leaders, making room for a new one. Just as the novice cyclist glides across the frame in the image at the top of this post, so too will the generation behind us live and learn in a technology and interaction ethos only subconsciously aware of the pain and confusion which today’s transformation is causing.  The next generation’s leaders will not simply pass “through the frame,” however.  They will stop to study and learn from the past, and exploit that insight to fuel innovation based on those experiences, not in blissful ignorance of them.  I work with organizations every day that are caught between these two worlds.  Men and women of good will and trust want to understand the new communication media and channels — but aren’t quite sure how they need to drive behavioral change in their wake.  Organization response: the eternal challenge of the business leader, isn’t it?

As always, please leave any reactions or comments.  Thanks for reading.

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