CarlaBorsoi.com

I jokingly twittered earlier today that Joe Bob Briggs is penning my life script. This is mainly because of a series of deaths for various friends parents, grandparents & friends - Joe Bob would simply tally the body count, give it 3 1/2 stars and move on. However, in real life as experienced online, some have chosen to twitter or update their Facebook status as a way of letting large groups of people know about the passing of this family member or loved one. However, what’s odd for me is how people respond to these public announcements in such a public way.

Is it really appropriate to merely @ someone on Twitter, or to post on someone’s wall on Facebook? I’m not certain. I had breakfast today with Dr. Keely Kolmes, who will be covering relationships and social media in a core conversation at SXSW2009. This may be yet another area for her to cover at that time. For me, the most important thing is a direct communication to the person without expecting a response. A hand-written letter expressing condolences is always appreciated. A call offering assistance with specifics is good if you live nearby. Simply typing “I’m sorry” and doing so publicly, is probably okay, but it seems to lack the element of meditation that should come with offering condolences to someone.

Are we escaping the discomfort of confronting the mortality of those close to our own lives by using a few simple words to comfort others?

Inspired by Tantek’s Communication Protocols wiki, I’ve started my own.

This details my preferred methods of communication, motivations and how to interact with me. My sense of etiquette is also detailed and will be updated over time.

Please note these are my preferences and everyone likely has their own, so create your own!

After a very exciting victory for Barack Obama, it’s time to roll up our sleeves and get to work.

My friend Ryan summed up the current feeling of elation in a recent post:

“I didn’t think I’d ever see masses of people on the streets of San Francisco chanting “USA! USA! USA!”. You see, the left coast liberal elite loves America too, we just sometimes can’t get excited about it.”

Now the thing is, we actually have to show that all the bake sales, fundraisers and concerts can translate into ongoing action.

I’m totally impressed with the transition website, http://www.change.gov/,  but what excites me in this time is the number of places people are talking about what they can do. Check out the thread on Get Satisfaction about “What Can I Do to Help?” What are the things we should be doing to change our own behaviors to create a better country and deal with the abundance of domestic issues at hand.

My comments on this thread are related to Barack’s nomination acceptance speech, in which he stated that we would all have to make sacrifices. While I am anxious to hear specifics of what he envisions, I also feel that this very much has to come from the populace as well. This is our duty as citizens, to figure out how we fit into the overall fabric of this country and how our actions impact everything.

I want specifics on the sacrifices we can make from our President-Elect’s perspective, bucketed into different areas: finance/economy, education, environment, etc.

I think there’s some basics: increase the amount that is put into your savings account each month, live within your means, take public transportation where possible, shop local, buy made in the USA, pay attention to key local initiatives, attend a school board (or other governmental meeting), reduce your electricity needs.

What suggestions do you have?

I’m here in Los Angeles this fine weekend, to celebrate the birthday of the ever-lovely Slackmistress. Nomi and I have made our trek this year and anticipate in-person viewing of BeTheMarriage: Live on Ice. This is Nina & Will’s weekly show to chit chat, philsophize and tell us what’s been going on in their world.  Tune in tonight at 8 pacific to check it out!

Just a public note of appreciation for Elea who created the lovely WP template you see in use, who spent the time actually pull all the site together and who figured out how to express the urban and the mermaid so succinctly.

An early Happy Birthday to Elea as well!

I got a lovely email from Paul Terry Walhus today, asking about the SXSW Charter project, and reminding me of the lovely video he made after our How to Rawk SXSW Panel earlier this year.

CC Chapman, Kevin Smokler, David Dylan Thomas and I talked about how to keep the inspiration going after the always fabulous week. We got some guests to join and were able to extend the conversation beyond the panel presentation.

Check it out.

And yes, I know, I talk too fast.

Thanks to Micki’s timely tweet, tonight I heard about Contxts. I agree with Micki - somehow we have to find a way to easily incorporate this info - but I do like the ease of use and the SMS short code will be easy to remember. Please, as an early user - you can’t beat just telling people to text Carla to 50500. Having one of those surnames that always gets butchered - there’s just not that many of us - this is a real treat.

My creative juices seem to have been flowing recently, or maybe it’s just excessive conversations with a wide variety of friends, co-workers, former colleagues & family members.

A lot of encouragement to dive into side projects — including an invite to help with BarSleepawayCamp, push further on Immortal Dating Service, and energy for PopSkipJump. This, on top of my desire to create some social things, such as a Charter Flight to SXSW 2009 and to do some actual creative writing with Nadir.

Watch this space as I forge on those efforts, and they do battle with social time.

In agrarian cultures, the fall is the time for harvest, and prepping for the calmer winter times, when work happens inside the home. In the world of information, that sort of ebb and flow doesn’t happen to the same degree. However, once summer is over, it seems that people get back to the serious business of looking at their work. Calls and efforts seem to re-double after Labor Day here in the US, tough questions get asked, launched happen, new products get ideated, and then someone has to measure the success of those efforts.

Throughout that cycle, research plays a role. Insights can provide a creative spark to the ideation process, or explain unmet consumer needs at the beginning of the product cycle. During the development process, researchers can help figure out what ways a program or product might be evaluated. After launch, research helps to measure initial and long term success.

At Ask.com we do a fair amount of qualitative research, mixed in with click stream and quantitative data, used in each of these ways. Recently, in preparation for Online Market World, I recorded a podcast discussing some of these items. You can check out some more specifics as to particular research programs and their application.

Online Market World Podcast

I’ll be speaking at Online Market World October 3rd on the topic of Social Media Metrics with the esteemed Jim Sterne, Todd Parsons from BuzzLogic and Esther Lim from Crimson Consulting. Each of the panelists brings a different perspective, mine being that of a marketing organization evaluating the effectiveness of various programs.

This fall will be all about travel, some of it for work, some of it for play.  If I am coming to a city near you, hopefully we can get together and catch up. If you’re one of my San Franciscan friends, please be patient, I want to socialize with you too!

Recently, I went to Zaaz and had the opportunity to just talk shop for the whole day. A good exchange of ideas served as inspiration to want to try new things and use new methods.

Other trips coming up include time to be spent in Los Angeles and Austin.

See you soon!