A.Connector

Came into the office this morning refreshed and well rested from our long holiday weekend. Fired up my 2 computers and…they worked fine but…THERE WAS NO “NET CONNECTION! This can not be. In this 24/7 connected world what can you possibly do with your computers if they’re not connected. I quickly called my China Telecom technician friend on his cell phone, “Mr. Lin good morning are you at work yet?” Well of course he told me no and it was probably not a system problem…and of course make sure to call the office and he’d stop by later.

We take hyper-connectivity for granted until the unthinkable happens and it comes to a grinding halt. Then the usually seamless, invisible, dependable all becomes a worthless intangible-the new reality is you’re cut-off. Anxiety comes rushing in until…just as suddenly it goes back to normal. For an independent person like myself to be made to feel so utterly dependent is not a good feeling. How did we ever cope before with just phones and fax machines? The Net truly is a disruptive technology.

When I was a kid it was, “I want my, I want my MTV…” That won’t do anymore. Now it’s broadband or bust.

Today I was playing instead of working(3rd day of 4 day holiday) and started out on Twitter and then migrated to SL. One of my new Twitter friends fireton a real live scientist(you know me-I’m a sucker for intelligent conversation) and I chatted for a while in SL. I came to realize that NASA had some sims in SL and were open to the public. Nice This kind of stuff appeals to the infovore in me. Plus I got a personal tour and viewed some of fireton’s builds. Got my Moon Festival video done here for TaiwanOn my videoblog & Moon festival podcast day before here. Nice to skip around and social media shape shift. Look for new A.Connector Cast coming soon.

This is one of those posts that started out with clear concept/idea but a concern on how to state my thoughts in an inoffensive way. On second thought, I opted for the direct approach. So to all my Facebook friends. I’m totally fine with you poking and being poked, vampiring, zombieing, pirating, comparing yourselves to everyone and declaring how I’m one of your best friends.

However, I choose not to participate for personal reasons:main one-already having too many other time sucking activities, 1) my life(including business and family),2) practically a half dozen blogs and 3 podcasts with new video addition, 3) Twitter, Skype , telephone and e-mails, video and voice mails, etc.

No I’m not better than you, or pooh poohing your choice of fun FB apps. We all need to draw lines somewhere for the sake of preserving time and or sanity(think I failed on the latter a long time ago). Hope you understand, if not maybe one of my friends with those cool apps will bite you for me?

Many of you know I’m assisting my good friend Moshang(Jean Marais) with viral marketing project on free download for Asian Variations Remix Web album. Love to see how via the response of these social networks and the creativity and inclusive nature of Creative Commons licensing we get things like from Dave’s Lounge here. I guess this video I did with help from my talented 13 year old son(yes I’m biased-can you blame me? :)) here is another example of the mashup. This was for the premiere of Asian Variations CD give away here in Taichung, Taiwan.

Today has been a particularly connected one in the social network virtual world and Twitter time space continuum. I got to my office early which is always ahead of most of my online associates except for Japan and Eastern Australia. I saw a Tweet from a friend needing audio chat assistance for a SL presentation he was doing. Rather than replay to the message I just logged in to SL met with him and helped walk him through the interface until he was dialed in. Nice to meet him virtually in SL . Later in the day, another Twitter friend mentioned doing some call ins. So I surprised him with a Skype out call from Taiwan. I think this call helped him reach the tipping point to signing up for his own Skype account. He was very excited by it’s features for road trip meet ups with other Twitter friends (face to face) and using Skype to allow the addition of friends afar to talk and see each other via built-in video connection.

Mind boggling? Well I’m kind of an old hand at this by now…but not jaded enough to say it doesn’t make me shake my head and smile when I stop to think about this. Here’s a freebie. Just thought of a very talented friend of mine that I met in Taiwan way back when. He does one of the most successful free language podcasts in the world-Chinese Pod for learning Mandarin Chinese. They also offer language practice services via Skype for podcast listeners desiring additional help. How’s that for new media/marketing connectivity?

I know many of you are lovers of photographs. The web makes it possible to enjoy multi-media quickly and easily. I’ve become quite reliant on Flickr for hosting and using for some of my other blogs, and Creative Commons for setting up licenses for easy use. Behold was pointed to me by the Creative Commons blog-an excellent new resource for Flickr tagged search. Try it.

Once again old media (in this case a major label record company) realizes the power of new media and “games” the system-read here.

What the release failed to mention is that Hollywood Records signed Ms. Digby in 2005, 18 months before she became a YouTube phenomenon. Hollywood Records helped devise her Internet strategy, consulted with her on the type of songs she chose to post, and distributed a high-quality studio recording of “Umbrella” to iTunes and radio stations.

Guess they missed out on Transparency 101 class @ New Media U? Hey guys-don’t game us engage us OK? Then if we like your product/media/widget/whatever-majiggie we’ll feel good about it and become word of mouth agents of prosperity for you. Now there will just be a sour taste over your flavor of the minute/flash in the pan. Oh well the old pearls before swine paradigm strikes again.

Well it seems that CC Chapman former VP at Crayon is taking time to work on his book and contemplate some other new media options for his next career move. CC is a very well known and well liked person on the new and social media fronts. We are posting this to wish CC all the best and inform you if you have some projects or offers for him. You can reach him here

Well we made it to the dime-and this episode features some really dynamic individuals.
# Connection-Len Edgerly. Met on Ustream test, followed on Twitter and now am subscribing to video blog and enjoying his video perspective and output
# Connection-Jim Long(New Media Jim) . Met via mutual Twitter friends. He was featured in excellent 2 part video by Len Edgerly. Jim says he is a “new media soul in an old media body.” Jim works as camera man for NBC news. Very cool dude and very cool that someone from his background/profession really embraces new media. Here is Crafty Nation social network link.
# Conventional marketers starting to look at widgets as web 2.0 style replacement for old banner ad. Must offer some utility with branding. I made a similar suggestion in discussion with China Ogilvy friends.
# Moshang-Asian Variations viral campaign going well, check out music here and progress reports here
# Special guest Connector contributor Mur Lafferty. What can I say about Mur? Well she is incredibly natural at expressing deep and meaningful things in an effortlessness kind of way-truly a new media treasure and an emerging new media “brand.” Mur’s Twitter

Sorry but where is it written blog posts have to be talking about the latest shiny bit of technology or spammy social networks or “bacn” or even Kevin Bacon? Bryce Moore just posted a nice bit of gripping fiction that you can get down before you finish your coffee. Check it out here. If you like it, please help by bugging him to do more.