Whisperings from Whispered Pearls

Once again, I am inspired by Rox, from Beachwalks with Rox.

She was talking in Beachwalks 551 about “the freedom to give,” specifically mentioning her yoga class and how she ended up giving more when she could give whatever she wanted, as opposed to a set fee.

I think the band Radiohead learned this too, when they offered their album online for whatever people thought it was worth. They ended up having quite a few downloads (with people giving various amounts), but the fascinating thing is that once the physical album was available, it didn’t suffer in its sales at all.

The most important thing about these experiments, I think, is not the dollar amounts given or not given, rather it’s the change in thinking that is propelled here, that needs to be encouraged. Give me what you can afford. Give me what you think I’m worth.

I know that when I’m in a restaurant that forces a 20% tip onto the bill, they get not a penny extra from me. But if it’s variable, I tend to be a good tipper as a rule.

I can see the whole Internet economy (certainly as regards podcasting) going this way. If you like my show, drop a few dollars in the PayPal box. Or pick something off my Amazon wish list and send it to me. And if you’re broke, and can’t afford it, that’s ok too. You can still enjoy the show too.

It somehow puts the whole package into the heart mode, instead of the capitalist pocketbook mode. It is an exchange of good faith. I give you my good faith. Most people will respond with good faith in return. And really, isn’t the whole thing Radiohead was saying was: let’s get it BACK to touching your heart, instead of being money-grubbing pigs here?

I don’t know how Radiohead feels about it, but what encouraged me most reading that story and listening to this show that Rox did, was that. Let’s deal in the commerce of the heart more. Let’s get it back to the square that it needs to be in. A love-based, faith-based economy, instead of the fear, when am I gonna get mine?, place that it’s been in for too long.

All of that being said, right after I finish this, I’m going to explore how to put a PayPal button on this site, cause right now, I do my podcasts for absolutely no money. But I have faith it’s all going to work out, anyway.

First, let me explain. For those out there who aren’t currently on Twitter, don’t use it, don’t know what it does, what purpose it serves, let me explain that I can hardly imagine a life without Twitter.

You add people that seem interesting. They add you if you seem interesting. Social etiquette of Twitter has decreed that if someone follows you, you follow them back. To do otherwise has been deemed rude.

Out of all the social networks, Twitter was one of the ones I couldn’t imagine living without. In short, it is like a real-world IM service WITH the entire world. Kinda like AOL used to be way back in the early days of the Internet. Where you could tell where the sun was setting and rising by who was logging on. There’s England, now the East Coast, now the Midwest people, now the Californians, etc.

It’s biggest advantage so far, other than keeping those in your network intimately connected to you, is that you hear REAL time news in real time. The last California earthquake was Twittered, and beat AP’s reporting of it by 20 minutes. That, probably, is the reason I’ll continue to stay on it, cause no one else offers that.

But, and this is a note to budding social networking gurus out there: when you come up with your great next social network, prepare for growth. Structure it into your business plan. And whatever you foresee for growth, multiply that by ten, and do that.

Twitter stumbled badly lately when their servers choked from unexpected exponential growth. They also had a problem with bots creeping in and destroying business. Their answer for all of this was to limit the amount of followers a person could have. However, they didn’t tell anyone this. All of a sudden, you just couldn’t add anyone anymore.

The first problem (other than being non-communicative, and what the hell is that for a social network? built on people TALKING to each other?) is that finding anyone to communicate your problem to is next to impossible. Hearing back from anyone is absolutely impossible. I’ve even Twittered directly to both of Twitter’s founders, and have heard NOTHING to this date.

The second problem is that the whole thing is completely arbitrary. While it’s clear to absolutely everyone who uses Twitter that you are required to speak in bites of 140 characters, it is completely unclear exactly how many followers you can have. Or how many you can follow.

At this moment, for example, I’d really like to add my sister, who arrived at Twitter after me. According to what they are telling me, I have to delete followers to add more. But how many? I had 3,106 people that I was following when all this transpired. (1,770 are following me.) Do I need to drop 6? 60? 600? Nowhere is this stated.

Many have said to me, why do you need 3000 followers anyway? Why do I need 15,000 friends on MySpace? Why do there need to be limits? How many people are in the world? If I want the ability to talk to all of them, shouldn’t I have that ability? Sure, maybe many will only use Twitter to talk to friends and family, but I have a wide social media circle. The depth and beauty of Twitter is in the variety of people you are talking to, in my estimation.

I have many more thousands who listen regularly to my podcast. What if every one of them wanted to read my Tweets? They probably couldn’t. It would probably max out Twitter’s system.

I communicate with many people. People from all areas of the various social networks I belong to. People from many places all over the world. People I know intimately, and people I just met. Rather like life. Why limit that?

Twitter saying, well, it’s set up so that you talk in 140 characters, you should be used to restraint, doesn’t really wash when you are talking about growing your business. The ideal for any social network is to have as many people talking as possible, isn’t it? To say nothing of all the people IN my social network whom I promote (or promoted) Twitter to, on a daily basis.

It’s frustrating, it’s counter-productive, and it’s causing me to use and promote Twitter less. I hope you’re happy, Twitter founders. And I’m going to keep writing and blogging about my dissatisfaction as long as these problems go on. That’s how social networks actually work.

Who knows? Maybe someone out there will realize what Twitter’s doing wrong and be able to build the next Twitter. You let me follow as many people as I want, I’ll jump over there in a heartbeat.

blech

Was just watching an old episode of one of my favorite podcasts, Beach Walks with Rox. (Actually, I don’t know how relevant the concept of “old” and “new” really is anymore, since the temporal way that people watch TV and podcasts and every piece of media we take in has changed so much. We get to it when we get to it… But I digress…) 

Beach Walks (www.beachwalks.tv), as you may or may not know, is a podcast filmed in Hawaii. The amazing host, Roxanne, aka Rox, gives us insight or inspiration or just thoughts as she goes through her day (kind of like what we do on Whispered Pearls). But she’s walking along the beaches of Hawaii. A must-watch, btw. 

She also gives various Hawaiian words to us to learn and embrace. For me, a linguist, it has been very interesting. It makes me sad that the Hawaiian language is dying out so much, because Hawaiians seem to embrace language in quite a different way than any I’ve been exposed to. The words quite often come more from spiritual principles, and descriptions of feelings, than the more concrete things that Germanic languages derive from.

Well, at least part of this derives from the fact that Germanic languages come from places dealing with snow and ice, and Hawaii is beaches and sunshine. It does provide people with a different mindset (having lived in both types of places). 

Which brings me to the word she talked about today (well, in the episode I watched today): mahalo. Silly me. I thought I was all over the word mahalo. I knew, roughly, that it meant thank you. I also knew that Jason Calcanis (one of my favorite web stars) had designed a cool site around it (www.mahalo.com), and from that arose Mahalo Daily, another cool podcast. I’m all over mahalo.

Then Rox explained it.

Mahalo, you see, is not only thank you. In fact, it actually is more the word for gratitude. And, as Rox described it, it’s “gratitude mixed with respect.” A typical Hawaiian word. Coming from the spiritual.

And it is now that I can truly embrace mahalo. When I’ve heard people rally around mahalo, I just didn’t get it. Mahalo, I realize now, describes my life, the way I’m trying to live every day. Gratitude, mixed with respect. It is the way I approach people. It is contained in every interaction of every day. Mahalo is one of the best words I have ever heard, in fact, streamlining, as it does such essential stuff, big stuff, into one useful word.

And now that I think of it, I can’t even think of a Germanic equivalent of mahalo. Germans being all stiff and cold, and Hawaiians being all embracing and giving from the heart. (Not to stereotype…but there is some truth in this, again related, I believe to the weather of the areas.)

Fascinating stuff. Thanks again, Rox. Even though I’m so behind with your podcasts, you enlighten me every time I listen.

Sincerely: mahalo. –Michelle     

Sometimes I think I know the answer to that. At any rate, I have a bit more of a clue than WP listeners do, so here’s a shot at an answer for the sake of those interested. I’ve known Susi for about eight years now and it’s as if we have traversed eight light years of experience with each other. The initial “location” where our relationship evolved was in deep dark Swabia (although it isn’t dark anymore, in fact, some summers spent swimming in native lakes were very sparkling indeed!). This was due to the fact that I would drive there on a regular basis to teach. And Susi listened. But, as is always the case with being a teacher, at some point, when you least expect it, your students will begin to teach you. A humbling and lovely moment. Subsequently, Susi flitt off in all directions: Hong Kong, here, there, everywhere, Namibia … for a variety of reasons. There’s a time in your lifetime, often when you’re young, where you flaunt your talents in the hopes that they’ll be directed to the right avenue (though this does happen more than once in a lifetime, I am finding…). For whatever reason, nowadays you don’t just become a baker or candlestick-maker and stay that way for the rest of your lifetime. Or very few people have that … “privilege” … Most of us wander through worlds of activity, most of us looking to have these activities bring us some standard of living, whatever standard that may be. Some of us do things just because we simply MUST do them or we’ll burst into flames by virtue of the pressure of not letting the power loose that flows through us.The thing is, that power changes. Moves. Recharges. Or simply dies out – perhaps replaced by another. In the interim between stages, Susi gave us, gave me, quite a charge of her power. Her sexual energy should be bottled and sold, I swear. But more importantly for her, it needed to be channeled into a direction that was good for her. Enter: the magic man. Literally, Susi’s heart, body and soul was swept away by a man. Don’t think it’s all pink fluffy clouds from there, we girls are long over that dream. But the challenge a relationship presents is part of what it’s all about. And there are, as difficult as this may be to accept (especially for people in my profession!), only 24 hours in a day. Relationships take time, sex takes time, everything leading up to (and sometimes progressing from) sex takes time …  I am happy to report that our dear Susi is tucked away comfortably, back in Swabia, near her birthplace, near the place we met, near the place where… as the twists of fate will have it, the WP sisters’ family history evolved. Setting up a household and a life with the man that’s taking all of that power and energy for his lil’ ol’ self and, indirectly but firmly, away from WP listeners. That may seem to be a loss, but in truth, for me, that’s (one of) the point(s) we hope to lead listeners to: find LOVE, LIVE love and follow the winds that blow around and touch your heart. Go with them, bloom with the lessons they bring. I assure you, she is doing just that.

Are you a Bachelor addict like I am? C’mere, let’s discuss it, just us girls… What really goes on behind those closed doors in those “fantasy suites”? How does true love triumph over rigid ABC censors? Tune in to the next Whispered Pearls to hear Michelle’s thoughts about the real down and dirty of “The Bachelor: London Calling.” 

Wow. I think I endured more stress in the past two weeks than I have since I’ve been in California. We are revamping our product totally at work, and it’s been tense. Lots of overtime and such.

So I’m spending the weekend trying to relax, not be in front of a computer screen, be outside enjoying the sunshine. Yet, here I am, listening to Adam Curry’s shows (trying to catch up…I’m so behind on my podcasts…sigh). How did we create this reality? It seems like there is always so much to do, and never enough time to do it all.

I really hope to tape all three shows this weekend, since I’m behind on that too. Or maybe just be good to myself and do nothing but get lots of sleep and eat good food. (Healthy food, not fast food, that is.)

So whatever it is you’re doing right now, I hope that you are treating yourself well, and putting yourself and your life in front of your job. Ya know? Do like I wish I could do, not like I’m actually doing… heh.

Take care, everyone.

–Michelle

PS–I hope someday to figure out how to give Maureen and I both our own separate space here. But learning WordPress is down on my list of priorities. However, if anyone can lend a suggestion, I’d appreciate it. Thanks.

In my daily perusal of the Twitterverse today, and the ensuing reading of Scoble’s column, I realized again that not everyone is at the same place I am in the whirl of social media. It still kind of astonishes me when I hear about friends who still don’t have either a MySpace, Facebook or Twitter account, or ALL of them, as I do. (To say nothing of Pownce, Mahalo and all the other ones that are popping up after them.)

Scoble’s assessment is that you are only as strong as the people YOU follow or add as friends on the various sites. I would agree with that. But I would go further to say that media has changed. It is very much a pro-active game now. And WE, as in WE THE PEOPLE, are in control of it now. It’s an essential distinction.

I actually had someone on my friends list on Facebook try to sell me on his new application which featured movies from Paramount that I could add to my site. When he approached me, he explained that people like it ” because it gives them a measure of fame and some contact with Paramount.” I promptly wrote him back, and said, boy howdy, YOU are the one who doesn’t get it here.

We have surpassed Paramount. Why do you think YouTube is so popular? Because Paramount seeded it with its movies, and bowed down to us little people? No. Because WE (we the people) decided what we liked and thought was funny (much as we do in our regular lives) and passed it along to our friends.

And what he was essentially asking me to do, as I pointed out to him, is to pimp out my friends, and blast Paramount’s videos at them. Essentially an ad for Paramount. For FREE. On my page. What does he think I am? Stupid?

So, after I unfriended him, I replied that I don’t do that, and that if he’s working for a social media company, he better get with the way it really works out here in social media land. People are my friends (even on MySpace, where I have close to 15,000 on one account) because I DON’T blast ads at them. Or, if I do, like my choices on iLike on my Facebook account, it’s because I personally think it’s cool. If they choose to click on it, they can decide for themselves.

It is the height of arrogance and a sure way to get unfriended on any social media platform to blast ads at your friends. This is even true on platforms like Second Life. Remember, first and foremost, these are ALL communities.

Sure maybe all 15,000 of my friends aren’t close and personal, but I treat them as if they are. I respect them enough to not sell them crap. And expect the same treatment in return. It’s the unwritten etiquette of the world of social media.

What others who don’t get who aren’t participating in these new worlds yet is that it’s a fabulous way to meet new friends, colleagues, people with like interests. Just respect the turf, man.

This is to prove that one of the sisters can wield a digital sword through the thick cords of technical, geeky mind-blowing and boggling weeds and threads…