Judith is running a contest at the socialsoftwareweblog, inspired by a conversation with Rob : 

"Today I was talking to Robert Paterson, a well-respected member of my weblogging cohort, who lives on Prince Edward Island. We were conversing about attempting to explain the benefits of weblogging to our non-blogging friends, acquaintances, and business clients, and receiving blank stares in return for our efforts. [BTW, Robert has a great blog post on this today ó Sex Education and a 6 year old.]

As we were discussing this dilemna, we came up with the idea of holding an ëElevator Pitch Competitioní [extremely concise presentation delivered to potential clients ó not lasting more than a minute, or a short elevator ride] to describe the potential benefits of corporate weblogging. I have included related links to two current articles on creating an effective ëElevator Pitchí below.

There will be simple rules: One entry per author, entry between 50 - 110 words.

We will have an international panel of respected webloggers to judge the entries, and will publish the winning entry here on the Social Software weblog and also, potentially, on the weblogs of the esteemed panel of judges."

It would be lovely to get fresh views on the subject - there's been a lot of talk about finding this elevator pitch - give it a shot - and look out for updates, rules, tips, announcements and incentives coming up at the blog.  

12:54:04 PM    comment []  trackback []

Dave Pollard asks the question -  WHY HAVEN'T WE DEVELOPED 'WORK-AROUNDS' FOR BLOGGING'S LIMITATIONS : 

"To me, the greatest limitation is blogs' lack of integration and 'transitionability' with other communication tools. Why haven't we developed generally-accepted work-arounds that allow us to transition from blog comments to e-mail threads, IM, telephony, wikis and other tools, and back again? Have we become so used to being led around the nose by the functionality (and lack thereof) of communication tools that we've lost our imagination and social will to develop means to jump to better tools when the one we're working isn't optimal? Skype was one of the Top Technologies of the Year in Business 2.0's list, and it's wonderful, and free, so why isn't everyone using it to extend the relationships they develop on blogs? And why are webcams still ridiculed, when everyone agrees facial expresssion and bosy language add immensely to communication, and we now have the high-speed bandwidth (well, 47% of us have anyway per a recent study) to accommodate multi-media conversations? Why do so few people take up my (and others', from what they tell me) invitations to call them, Skype them, IM them, to allow the iteration (back-and-forth) that is the essence of true conversation? And why, when we do make that transition, and meet someone who's become a 'friend' through our blogs, is the first meeting or conversation in aother medium so awkward, even jarring?"

Interesting question .. something i've been working on for a while now.  Its also a question that people like Ton and Stuart have been thinking about. Sometimes in the context of blogs, at other times when discussing social networks and still others when re-looking at KM systems.  Ton, in a comment at one of my posts writes :

"What strikes me most in your sketch is the combination of the wish to 'flow', to come as close to physical presence over time/geographical/cultural distance as possible, with joining a whole spectrum of different media. The latter is the key to the whole thing, media mix, is my guess.  Every now and then, when I talk about blogging, someone says "yeah but blogging can't beat ... " or "isn't fit to " etc. Thing is it doesn't need to, as long as I can use a whole range of media alongside eachother.

One or two days ago I skyped with Stuart. While we talked we looked at my blog, I send him links through the chatbox, we edited a page in my Wiki, and visited several websites together.  Just as you would in a f2f conversation, pick a book from the shelf and read a passage from it, point to or leaf through a stack of papers on the desk, and jointly doodle on the whiteboard, referring to a presentation poster hanging in the corridor.

Being able to combine media, and let information migrate between them easily and effortlessly. The question would be if this is at all KM, or more communication science. I don't care really.

Would we be able, through the elegant combination of media, to reduce the hindering effects that technology mediation introduces into person(s) to person(s) communication. Or are there mediation aspects that actually improve the richness of communication above that in a f2f setting? This to me is an intriguing question. Can we make virtual presence feel real? "

Jon Udell in an interesting article on The Social Enterprise says :

"Computer-mediated communication is the lifeblood of social software. When we use e-mail, instant messaging, Weblogs, and wikis, weíre potentially free to interact with anyone, anywhere, anytime. But thereís a trade off. Our social protocols map poorly to TCP/IP. Whether the goal is to help individuals create and share knowledge or to enrich the relationship networks that support sales, collaboration, and recruiting, the various kinds of enterprise social software aim to restore some of the  context thatís lost when we move our interaction into the virtual realm.  In networked environments, everything we do can be monitored. Absent the natural cues that establish social context ó itís hard to see groups form at the water cooler or hear voices in the hallway through e-mail or IM ó social software systems ask us to strike a bargain. If individuals agree to work transparently, they (and their employers) can know more, do more, and sell more....

And ends with this :

"Are we entering a brave new world or is cyberspace catching up to the way things work in meatspace? The answer to both questions is yes."

All of these are related and important questions - questions relating to Presence - questions not merely restricted to blogs but that can be extended to all forms of 'virtual' communication in groups, communities and organisations that engender flow. 

Following links from Sebastian Fiedler's blog, i discovered more interesting stuff in this area - Jon Husband says :

"Building relationships and workable connections that create something - that takes time, frayed nerves, affinity, dialogue, sharing ... of visions, or values or desires. We have to find ways that are less "flat" of getting to know each other online, And, probably the only way to get there is by learning what "presence" is online and how we will each individually use it or respond to it or manipulate it "

And a wonderful paper titled, At The Heart of it All - The Concept of Presence [link via Therese Ornberg]

Back to Dave's post, as i read it, i really wanted to pick up the phone and chat with him right then.  And then, add Ton and Stuart to the conversation as well, as we have been talking about issues of integrating multimedia into blogs and other collaborative spaces. And have an impromptu group discussion there and then. 

Some of us have 'skype me' buttons at our main pages.- Stuart has gone one step further into building a Skyperoll and is running a prototype - a SkypeBlog - that attempts to bring bloggers and skypers together so conversations are accelerated.

I wonder if it would be a good idea to have that button and an IM equivalent at the bottom of each of our blog posts.  In the bar that has comments and permalinks.  Along with presence indicators - so the reader would know if i'm available to chat or talk.  Not sure whether existing blog software providers allow it - i'm pretty sure Radio doesn't yet. 

11:20:48 AM    comment []  trackback []