I owe you an apology. Part of my role is to help manage the blog and keep the conversation among those in the WeMedia community going strong. I dropped the ball in a big way. I haven’t posted since the WeMedia conference at the end of February. I haven’t followed up on many of the ideas that were shared in Miami or with the people who helped launch those ideas. And I haven’t kept you apprised as we plan for the future, or had a chance to ask for help. I promise you, I will do better.
I don’t want you think that I haven’t been doing anything over the past month. Quite the opposite. I have been doing a lot of thinking, writing, and connecting — trying to make sense out of everything that came out during WeMedia and what role I can play to help keep things moving forward. This is an going process for sure, but some things are becoming clearer to me.
Here is where my head is on two big things (today):
- We need a complete reset… a new approach to just about everything we are doing. Dale introduced the concept of the new balance sheet at WeMedia, but that is just one part of the whole equation. I wrote a post for my Fast Company blog about this idea this morning – and how everything needs to change. The short version goes something like this: the challenges that we are facing in our society, and the opportunities that we want to pursue, require more than just an update to our existing plans or a tweak to the models that we are currently using. We keep talking about how individual groups are succeeding or how one piece of action is going to spark the kind of global transformation we all know is possible. I think that’s too narrow a view. Big challenges require big changes to the way we think and act.
- There is something about being a ‘must-read’… and that something holds the key to the future of media (and everything else too). I am doing some writing about what makes something worth reading (or watching, listening to, etc), and have had some incredible conversations with people about this subject in the past few weeks. What I know is that being a ‘must-read’ is more about about the quality of the information or experience, and less about the format or mechanism for delivery. That seems obvious, but it re-affirms my belief that media isn’t the only way that ideas are communicated or influence is applied, and that technology doesn’t completely answer the question of why people do, or do not, get and share information the same way they used to. You see, if something achieves that must-read status, people will pay for it, pass it around, make time to consider it, and the like — at least enough people to create a marketplace, or shift thought, or drive changes in behavior. That’s a big deal.
These are just two of the thoughts bouncing around in my head — there are many more, and I hope some clarity about each of these hiding somewhere as well. I promise to use this blog, and the WeMedia community to help figure them out, instead of trying to keep all those details inside. I can’t do it without you, but together I feel confident we can do some real damage (in a good way).
I need your help though – your thoughts on what makes something a must read, or your ideas on how a complete reset my be applied to your work (whether its business, or social change, education, politics and government, or anything else). Post a comment, drop me a note [ brian [at] wemedia dot com], craft a post and send it to us to share, etc. We have a lot of work to do coming out of WeMedia, and it all begins (again) now.
Brian is Managing Director of little m media which provides strategic guidance and support to organizations around the use of the internet and technology to facilitate communications, engagement, education, and mobilization.