I want to suggest four conversations this week, each sparked by recent conversations I’ve had with trusted friends.
War in the context of everything else
On Facebook last week, longtime friends Julia Wasson (a.k.a. @OrganicPlanet)and Cassandra Woel, unknown to one another, each shared an anti-war clip entitled, “Amazing Speech by War Veteran.” I’ll hold my reactive thoughts to this piece, but let them develop in their own time.
As soon as I’ve published the post, I’ll come back here to provide a link.
Envisioning information, thoughts illustrated
Friend Dave Davison has a passion for the language of illustration, its utility. One such post last week, “What makes good information design?” evoked a WTF! response from mutual friend, Mark Safranski (a.k.a @zenpundit). So begins the conversation of learning to envision and express information. More to come, Wednesday.
Honduras, connecting in conversation
I have an affinity for Honduras, which began a few years ago, evoked by the stories I heard at the annual Conference on Honduras, in Copan Ruinas. Plenty good things are happening in Honduras, and I want you to know about them.
Thursday, I’ll write about my affiliations and interests. Again, I’ll link from here, as well.
Bounce: Conversation Base is back
I once owned the domain name conversationbase.com, but managed to let go of it in spectacular failure. However, now, bouncing back, I’ve decided it’s the right thing to do–build my online brand as Conversation Base.
Aid Groups Focus on Haiti’s Homeless New York Times
JACMEL, Haiti — Haiti has approved plans for more than a dozen sprawling tent cities in and around Port-au-Prince, the first step in an epic relocation effort that could reshape the country as up to one million people displaced by the earthquake find new places to live.
Highest level of Trust attention, though not necessarily vis-à-vis.
How that works in my day to day life
Though we’ve never met in person, I have a high level of Trust for friend, Rob Paterson; and I read Rob’s Twitter stream daily, then. It’s reasonable to say that, within my social network, I have a strong tie to Rob.
Jacob reports, “I recently finished reading Morten Hansen’s fantastic book on Collaboration in which he states that the real value of collaboration and of networks doesn’t come from strong relationships and networks but from weak one’s. In fact one of Morten’s network rules is actually “build weak ties, not strong ones.” According to Morten: “[ ] research shows that weak ties can prove much more helpful in networking, because they form bridges to worlds we do not walk within.”
Thus Jacob concludes, “We shouldn’t be trying to figure out how we can maximize the number of strong relationships we can build or how we can beat Dunbar’s number; that task is as fruitless as it is irrelevant. Build weak ties where you can because they are extremely valuable, more so than strong ties.”
“But if you wish to have influence, the Trust is the key.”
Disclosure: I knew Chris Brogan *before* he was famous
That is, before the first Boston PodCamp, anyway.
Once upon a time, we’re in Austin, on the way to San Marcos and Blogtoberfest. After lunch, with @conniereece and @Pistachio, Chris and I are walking across the parking lot to my rental, and I tell him, “I think you–what you do–is more important than Scoble, what Scoble does.” Why did I think that, then? Because Chris was busy walking in worlds Scoble did not walk within, leveraging his strong ties to include networks of weak ones.
And that’s how, now, in a world of worlds–influencers influencing influencers–Trust is built. And, evidently, it’s working out well for all of us :)