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I expect that some would like to see this topic die, but I just saw a very effective communication and decision-making excercise, complete with real data behind it, happen in less than 4 hours.

Neil Gaiman is a long-time Twitter user (Really! he doesn’t have an admin assistant filling in for him) who often posts more than 15 messages a day. He isn’t trying to sell anything; his tweets aren’t carefully crafted, focused 140-character mini-campaigns to get followers to buy his books or go see the movies or plays so he will receive yet more royalties.

He basically (or so it looks to me) just shares things about his life to anyone who cares to know. Kind of like what you do when you’re kicking back with a beer and some friends on a Saturday afternoon get-together.

OK, he’s a VERY successful writer, who has more than a half-million followers, and he can put a sentence together. But I would estimate that less than 20% of his posts relate to promoting his works. The rest are about people he knows, things he likes to do, people he wants others to know about, and just kind of random stuff. I do exactly that (except I don’t have a speaking schedule that I want to remind you of), as do most of you. Usually via e-mail.

Why Gaiman’s example from today as a case for the benefits of Social Media’s importance, is that he seems to care an awful lot about certain causes, like free and open education, and logical and reasonable copyright, and is an enthusiastic proponent for people using the technologies available to the limit of their ingenuity (assuming that no-one really suffers as a result).

This morning, Gaiman posted a request to any teachers following him, or for followers to ask any teachers they knew, whether they would prefer to get a DVD of his recent The Grave Book, or just get to the multimedia via a website (search Twitter for #TGBDVD). The end of the story is that he got a very solid response back from his followers, which enabled him to go to his publisher (Harper Children) and tell them that 97% of teachers who responded wanted a DVD to be available.

A quick perusal of the tagged messages revealed loads of information that wouldn’t be obvious, like “websites can go away, and so would the media available from them” “I would BUY the DVD” and “My school’s firewall wouldn’t let the content through.”

I wonder if such insights were discussed at the production and distribution meetings at the publishers? My guess, from experience working at publishers, as well as other content “producers”, is that they would have been worried about the costs of copying DVDs and the additional distribution hassle. The numbers (as they see them) come first, the customers after. And, what the customers actually want usually comes as a complete surprise to the “content providers”.

So, with Mr. Gaiman’s presentation of a significant percentage of the marketplace, in less than 1/2 a day Harper Childrens has flipped from distributing the multimedia version of this book on web only to also distributing DVDs, possibly even for additional revenue (and profit. It’s WAY cheaper to burn a DVD that it is to print & bind a book).

The target market community was polled at a very high sample rate about their preferred means of acquiring product. The product creator did it himself, with virtually no overhead. Is it so difficult for the “content providers” to wrap their heads around the possibilities available? This affects everything about product and service. And it shouldn’t take long before the early adopter curve tops out and everyone gets on the train. Be prepared. We will all be affected.

This morning a colleague on the Graphic Designers of Canada mail list posted an article from the Tyee on Social Media, which prompted me to write the following mini-essay. My headline? Just because you tried FaceBook for a week does not make you an expert in Social Media, or qualified to judge the usefulness of the class of applications, or any one instance of a social media application.

I think Shannon is not really giving the technology-mediated social evolution enough attention, or a fair try.

I didn’t give FaceBook much of a go before surrendering to the(what seemed to me) continuous barrage of Vampire vs. Zombie vs. Werewolf Shannon writes about. That may have more to do with having a 13-year old daughter as a “friend” than the inherent silliness of the apps FaceBook allows. Poking, nudging, or otherwise trying to grab my attention with things I will not be interested in IS a major distraction, and due to the UI of FaceBook, and I daresay it’s overall architecture and the vision for commercializing it, makes it a non-starter for anyone NOT interested in a site that supports play, rather than communication. Which is not to say that communication DOESN’T happen while playing, but it’s not my cup of tea, or, I’m guessing, Ms. Rupp’s.

Twitter, on the other hand, seems to allow users to tailor their “Twitterience” for how they want to interact. Yes, there are celeb-followers. Yes, there are spambots, and “get rich quick” systems morons, who probably believe—for a day or two, anyway—that Twitter will make them rich. How, I’ve never gleaned from looking at the market-spiel sites, but other than as a study in human gullibility, I don’t care.

Twitter, for what it’s worth, is simple. You can embed a URL for more info. You can follow people you like, or work with, or are curious about. You can unfollow people when you find their tweets are not interesting to you. You can block people (or bots) that follow you. In the few weeks since I have been on Twitter, I have found:

1. I have access to information, whether just personal curiosity or objectively important to me, I would not have for days (or longer) otherwise. This is important to ME.
2. It does not eat up nearly as much time as anything else I’ve tried.
3. It seems to produce real dialogue between members, which (unlike real time IM clients like Skype) does not require me to learn new, awkward ways to end a dialogue or get out of a conversation.
4. Has a really simple interface, few bells and whistles, but allows the user to customize to a point of uniqueness, yet preserves the key components’ use and location.

The folks who created Twitter have done something right, at least from my perspective. Like predictive text entry on cell phones, it does require you do relax, try it out for a while, then decide if it works for you or not. But I think it’s a game changer.

Your comments are welcome.

I’ve been converted. Many, many people have been using blogs for yonks, and while I profess to writing as a unique strength, I’m not exactly getting the evidence out there to demonstrate my prowess (if you would permit me the liberty). WordPress seems like the best choice, as their appear to be more options and flexibility with site design, architecture, etc. Anyway, here it is, and here I am. Yet another hopeful voice in the digital wilderness, trying to say something that may amuse, inform, help or correct. I’m ready to take my lumps now. Even if those lumps are the windy, cold wash of being stuck in a lonely corner, being ignored.

Time shall tell!