In March 2015 I published a post called
This was before finding out about and reading Katie Hafner's book about The Well.
Last year Community Manager and org culture guru Scott Moore (@ScottMoore) shared this post, and I saw that my ideas from a few years ago were not far off the mark:
Last year Community Manager and org culture guru Scott Moore (@ScottMoore) shared this post, and I saw that my ideas from a few years ago were not far off the mark:
Before starting any new projects I always revisit some of The Well's resources. Last December I re-read Howard Rheingold's (@hrheingold) book 'Virtual Communities'
At the end of July 1992, Flash Gordon reported that Elly was in a hospital in New Delhi. In a coma. She had severe hepatitis and reportedly suffered liver failure.
Within hours, people started doing things in half a dozen directions on their own initiative. The raw scope and diversity of the resources available to us by pooling our individual networks was astonishing. People who had medical connections in New Delhi were brought in; airline schedules and rates for medical evacuation were researched; a fund was started and contributions started arriving. Casey used the net to find a possible telecommunications site in New Delhi where they could relay information for Frank, Elly's ex-husband, who had flown to Asia to help with what was looking like a grave situation.
After a tense few days, the news made its way through the network that she did have some liver function left and might need access to special blood-filtering equipment before she could be moved. Within hours, we knew how to get such medical equipment in New Delhi and whose name to mention. We knew whom to call, how to ask, what it cost, and how to transfer funds to get Elly delivered to a hospital in the San Francisco region. "It gives me goosebumps," reported Onezie, as the topic unfolded on the WELL. "This is love in action."
(Did you spot similarities with this 'Love in action' with the potential that the post-vote Scottish Independence #The45 movement had for a week or so in 2014 when food was donated to food banks etc).
When reviewing Howard's book I discovered Marc Smith's (@Marc_Smith) 1992 college dissertation 'Voices from The Well,' which is not only awesome... but seemed extremely relevant to life online today. Whether looking at
- Early online communities like The Well
- Data with informal education collaborations like Edcamps
- My own experiences with projects and movements
(I found Brendan Rodgers experiences with Celtic heartening regarding some of my experiences) - The world of politics
(whether Steve Bannon and Donald Trump, May/Farage's Brexit or Salmond/Sturgeon's #IndyRef), - Reading books like New Power, Be More Pirate (@BeMorePirate) or Twitter Founder Biz Stone's (@Biz) 'Things a Little Bird Told Me'
#DigCit and Politicians
The world of social media and digital citizenship has clearly changed since Twitter's early SXSW appearance... some are calling social media today 'The Wild West' of the internet.
The world of social media and digital citizenship has clearly changed since Twitter's early SXSW appearance... some are calling social media today 'The Wild West' of the internet.
During the 2015 UK general election politicians where throwing their hands up saying:
'What can we do about it?'
When they are responsible for education policies!! Lunatics!
(David Cameron's words about his Education Secretary... Not mine!)
Today politician's line regarding social media is their favourite game (Blame!) and
'Tech Companies need to do more'
When some of the people responsible for the tech companies who need to be doing more are former politicians like Nick Clegg, I don't fancy the 'Wild West of the Internet's' chances... Do you?
I think you'd get more answers from
1) The kind of people who changed the world twice and those involved with Circle the Schools
2) "Identify the right core values (Or Pirate Code 2.0) and Tribal Leaderships 'Noble Cause'"
3) Add people like Ivan Humble (@NewDayStarts) and brave educators like Justin Schleider (@SchleiderJustin)
...And you *JUST MIGHT* have the kind of solution that would prevent the kind of extremist recruitment that radical groups employ and rely on and - some would argue - that the political classes have created!
For no reason in particular ;)... The rest of this post includes the 6 points that Biz Stone considers in the 'New Rules' chapter of his awesome book 'Things a Little Bird Told Me'
- We Don’t Always Know What’s Going to Happen
- There are More Smart People Out There Than in Here
- We Will Win if we do the Right Thing for Our Users
- The Only Deal Worth Doing is a Win-Win Deal
- Our Coworkers are Smart and They Have Good Intentions
- We can Build a Business, Change the World, And Have Fun
If we think we know what will come next, we’ll fail. Instead, we need to
leave the door open for unknown developments and surprises. Some of Twitter’s
most popular features – hashtags, @ replies, retweets – were by and large
created by users. We didn’t know they were going to emerge. By being open to
the unknown, by not forcing our will or vision just because it was ours, by
watching what people were doing and looking for patterns, we were able to build
a service whose function matched the way people wanted to use it.
The core element of this assumption is humility. Just because you work for a successful business doesn’t mean you know everything. As individuals and as companies, we see our fortunes rise and fall. Neither success nor wealth makes you omniscient. The ability to listen, watch, and draw lessons from obvious and unlikely places breeds originality and growth.
The core element of this assumption is humility. Just because you work for a successful business doesn’t mean you know everything. As individuals and as companies, we see our fortunes rise and fall. Neither success nor wealth makes you omniscient. The ability to listen, watch, and draw lessons from obvious and unlikely places breeds originality and growth.
There are More Smart
People Out There Than in Here
This assumption also speaks to a core humility – don’t think you’re a genius (even if your business card claims you are). But it also considers the sheer fact that, at the time we came up with these assumptions, there were forty-five people in the offices of Twitter and six billion people outside its walls. It was an absolute truth that there were more smart people outside than inside.
What this implied was that we shouldn’t look only internally for answers to challenges. I instructed our employees to look elsewhere. Ask people. Look around. Research. Keep a level head. Don’t think you’re so great. Don’t assume that we’re the only people who can solve our problems. Should we build a data centre, or has someone already built a better one?
There are corollaries to this belief. Your first idea isn’t always the best. Your idea isn’t always the best. Our group’s ideas aren’t always the best. It’s easy to agree with this notion in concept, but it’s much harder to swallow your pride when you have to let go of an idea you’ve championed. I wanted our company to acknowledge and appreciate those sacrifices as much as we applauded the great ideas.
This assumption also speaks to a core humility – don’t think you’re a genius (even if your business card claims you are). But it also considers the sheer fact that, at the time we came up with these assumptions, there were forty-five people in the offices of Twitter and six billion people outside its walls. It was an absolute truth that there were more smart people outside than inside.
What this implied was that we shouldn’t look only internally for answers to challenges. I instructed our employees to look elsewhere. Ask people. Look around. Research. Keep a level head. Don’t think you’re so great. Don’t assume that we’re the only people who can solve our problems. Should we build a data centre, or has someone already built a better one?
There are corollaries to this belief. Your first idea isn’t always the best. Your idea isn’t always the best. Our group’s ideas aren’t always the best. It’s easy to agree with this notion in concept, but it’s much harder to swallow your pride when you have to let go of an idea you’ve championed. I wanted our company to acknowledge and appreciate those sacrifices as much as we applauded the great ideas.
We Will Win if we do
the Right Thing for Our Users
I don’t love the word users, because it sounds so software-y, but the Twitter staff was pretty software-y, so I was speaking their language. I wanted them always to keep in mind what would make the service better for the folks who used it. It was the positive spin on Don’t Be Evil. Every time we made a decision about what to add, change, or take away from the product, the big, simple question was: Does it make the experience better for people?
After I left, Twitter acquired Vine, a mobile video sharing service. I thought it was a great acquisition. If the question is: Will this make the service better for people? The answer is obviously Yes – sharing videos through Twitter makes it more fun, more engaging, and easier for people to express themselves.
Often, when product managers are hashing out whether a product should do a certain thing, if they can’t come to a decision, they make that thing a setting that users can turn on or off. But this is wishy-washy. We know – all developers know – that more than 99% o people just leave the settings on default. How often do you go to your TV settings and increase the contrast? Making a feature optional is like throwing it into the junk drawer. You’re keeping it, but it’s essentially useless and lost. Instead, it’s our responsibility to decide what makes the most sense. If we’re going to build it, let’s use it.
The place where companies most frequently lose sight of what’s best for their customers is when it comes to monetization. Should we make ads 50% bigger so we can make more money? It makes the page ugly and hard to read. Is that good for users? No. Should we split our company into two separate buildings because we can’t afford one building? It leads to confusion and poor decisions on the product end. Is that good for our users? No. Should we deceive the users into clicking on an ad? Obviously not. Should we trick our users into clicking on anything? Hell no! These can be tough choices, especially if you really need the money. But there’s got to be another way. Creativity is a renewable resource. Don’t sell out your product. Keep thinking. Consider whether the average person is going to benefit. Measure every decision against that requirement.
I don’t love the word users, because it sounds so software-y, but the Twitter staff was pretty software-y, so I was speaking their language. I wanted them always to keep in mind what would make the service better for the folks who used it. It was the positive spin on Don’t Be Evil. Every time we made a decision about what to add, change, or take away from the product, the big, simple question was: Does it make the experience better for people?
After I left, Twitter acquired Vine, a mobile video sharing service. I thought it was a great acquisition. If the question is: Will this make the service better for people? The answer is obviously Yes – sharing videos through Twitter makes it more fun, more engaging, and easier for people to express themselves.
Often, when product managers are hashing out whether a product should do a certain thing, if they can’t come to a decision, they make that thing a setting that users can turn on or off. But this is wishy-washy. We know – all developers know – that more than 99% o people just leave the settings on default. How often do you go to your TV settings and increase the contrast? Making a feature optional is like throwing it into the junk drawer. You’re keeping it, but it’s essentially useless and lost. Instead, it’s our responsibility to decide what makes the most sense. If we’re going to build it, let’s use it.
The place where companies most frequently lose sight of what’s best for their customers is when it comes to monetization. Should we make ads 50% bigger so we can make more money? It makes the page ugly and hard to read. Is that good for users? No. Should we split our company into two separate buildings because we can’t afford one building? It leads to confusion and poor decisions on the product end. Is that good for our users? No. Should we deceive the users into clicking on an ad? Obviously not. Should we trick our users into clicking on anything? Hell no! These can be tough choices, especially if you really need the money. But there’s got to be another way. Creativity is a renewable resource. Don’t sell out your product. Keep thinking. Consider whether the average person is going to benefit. Measure every decision against that requirement.
Our failure surrounding the release of our platform for
developers in 2007 is a perfect example of this. If we’d kept the user
experience foremost from the start, we would have saved ourselves, users and
developers a lot of trouble.
However, when we launched sponsored Tweets, we did it right.
Our ads were monitored by an algorithm that used starring, retweets, and
clickthroughs to measure how interested people were in a given ad. If an ad
wasn’t getting a positive response, it could be pulled. This meant we could
give our users ads they liked. Ads were good for our users, because if Twitter
made money, then Twitter would continue to exist.
The Only Deal Worth
Doing is a Win-Win Deal
There’s no such thing as a good deal in which one party gets the short end of the stick. Deals are like relationships. We want deals that are going to last. I’m not just talking about acquiring another company. I’m talking about partnering with another company, or divvying up tasks within your group, or getting married. Think of the toll that derivatives took on this country in the mortgage crisis. Derivatives are a zero-sum game - when one party wins, the other loses. There’s no net benefit. It’s win-lose. This is of course oversimplifying, but generally markets rely on gains and losses. However, in a business deal, if the terms aren’t mutually beneficial, a short-term win will turn into a long term loss. You lose that company’s faith in you and its willingness to do another deal. You lose your colleagues willingness to stay late and help you out on a deadline. To some extent, in every deal your reputation and your business are at stake. Think of it like scuba diving. There has to be equal pressure inside and outside your body, or your lungs and eardrums will start exploding.
Kevin Thau, a colleague at my current company, Jelly used to run all things mobile for Twitter. While there, he did all the deals with the carriers. He recently got a message from someone who runs a major mobile carrier in the UK. It said, “I don’t know what Jelly is, but if you want us to pre-install it on our new phones, call me,” Nobody gets that kind of thing unless they have a history of doing fantastic deals together.
Another example of this would come later, when I left Twitter and started Jelly. Two of the people who helped me develop the idea left their company to join me. One of them happened to be on his company’s list of engineers they couldn’t lose at any cost. When the engineer told them he was leaving, they offered him the moon regarding stock and salary. They told him he could work on any project and have any team. Then one of the most important executives from Twitter joined me. I didn’t set out to poach anyone – it happened by accident – but when this happened, Dick Costolo, Twitter’s CEO (And my friend) had a professional obligation to meet me for a drink and chew me out.
There’s no such thing as a good deal in which one party gets the short end of the stick. Deals are like relationships. We want deals that are going to last. I’m not just talking about acquiring another company. I’m talking about partnering with another company, or divvying up tasks within your group, or getting married. Think of the toll that derivatives took on this country in the mortgage crisis. Derivatives are a zero-sum game - when one party wins, the other loses. There’s no net benefit. It’s win-lose. This is of course oversimplifying, but generally markets rely on gains and losses. However, in a business deal, if the terms aren’t mutually beneficial, a short-term win will turn into a long term loss. You lose that company’s faith in you and its willingness to do another deal. You lose your colleagues willingness to stay late and help you out on a deadline. To some extent, in every deal your reputation and your business are at stake. Think of it like scuba diving. There has to be equal pressure inside and outside your body, or your lungs and eardrums will start exploding.
Kevin Thau, a colleague at my current company, Jelly used to run all things mobile for Twitter. While there, he did all the deals with the carriers. He recently got a message from someone who runs a major mobile carrier in the UK. It said, “I don’t know what Jelly is, but if you want us to pre-install it on our new phones, call me,” Nobody gets that kind of thing unless they have a history of doing fantastic deals together.
Another example of this would come later, when I left Twitter and started Jelly. Two of the people who helped me develop the idea left their company to join me. One of them happened to be on his company’s list of engineers they couldn’t lose at any cost. When the engineer told them he was leaving, they offered him the moon regarding stock and salary. They told him he could work on any project and have any team. Then one of the most important executives from Twitter joined me. I didn’t set out to poach anyone – it happened by accident – but when this happened, Dick Costolo, Twitter’s CEO (And my friend) had a professional obligation to meet me for a drink and chew me out.
When he was done busting my chops, I said, “Can I offer you
a little advice?”
He said, “Oh, geez. What?”
I said, “If you have a list of people that you don’t want to
lose at any cost, don’t wait until they quit to offer them more money and more
stock options” He agreed. Then we ordered another round and made up.
Our Coworkers are
Smart and They Have Good Intentions
This is the fifth assumption I presented to our employees at orientation. I
made up an example: Imagine there’s a guy named Scott in marketing who lays out
a plan for a product you’re developing. He says it will take three months to
execute. Three months later, the product is ready to launch, and Scott comes
forward with a different, scaled back plan. It’s not as good as the one he
presented to you. Instead of assuming that Scott is lazy or a stupid jackass,
why not go up to him and introduce yourself? Hi, I’m Biz. How can I help?
You don’t know how it all unfolded. There were certain turns
in the road, decisions that had to be made. You went through the same process
with the product you developed. It was supposed to have features w,x and y, but
now it has x and z. You had to pare it down, but you’re still proud of it. You
don’t want Scott to think you’re an idiot, either. In big, unwieldy companies,
everyone starts looking like an idiot at some point.
The unknown is scary. That’s why a caveman would rather not walk into a pitch balck cave. Who knows what might lie ahead? He opts to throw his spear in first, or to bolt. In a business scenario, this fear manifests itself in the assumption that your colleague is doing it wrong. Communication is equivalent to flicking on the anachronistic lights in that pitch black cave. This is especially true when you’re the CEO. If investors and board members don’t hear from you, they get worried that you’re doing a bad job. And they’re not going to come down to the offices to design a new product. The only power they have at their disposal is to fire the person in charge.
As Twitter grew, we had to go on faith, assuming that our
coworkers, who had all gone through a careful hiring process, were competent
and driven. Maybe Scott is a jackass – hey, it happens – but that shouldn’t be
the assumption. Maybe we would live in an environment of overinflated optimism,
but people shine when you give them the benefit of the doubt.
We can Build a
Business, Change the World, And Have Fun
It may sound like a lofty goal, but I want to redefine capitalism. What better place to start thatn in my own company? Traditionally, companies are driven by financial success. But I want the new world definition to include making a positive impact on the world – and loving your work. I want to set a higher bar for success. If any one of these three tenets is missing, then you shouldn’t be considered successful by your own terms or those of society. I told every incoming employee, “Here’s a new bar. Let’s reach for it.”
It may sound like a lofty goal, but I want to redefine capitalism. What better place to start thatn in my own company? Traditionally, companies are driven by financial success. But I want the new world definition to include making a positive impact on the world – and loving your work. I want to set a higher bar for success. If any one of these three tenets is missing, then you shouldn’t be considered successful by your own terms or those of society. I told every incoming employee, “Here’s a new bar. Let’s reach for it.”
Evan and I were now running an incredibly successful
company. We could have sent the new employees who joined Twitter to HR and
called it a day. Or we could have said “Welcome to the amazing world of
Twitter. We’re awesome. Good Luck” We had a different approach. The company
culture was introduced to our newest employees as one in which we listened to
one another and the people using our system. New employees saw that we cared
about the approach they took not just to their work, but to one another. They
realised that we weren’t all about the bottom line. Not only did our new
employees have an introduction to what the company was about, but they also
learned something about their leaders. We were level headed. We had theories
about not being arrogant and selfish. We weren’t jerks. These things matter.
The whole of this orientation was greater than the sum of its parts.
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