Acoustic panel from the Hangar Studio in Sacramento.

Rightround.com decided to pull the plug. Too bad. They’re a nice group of people and I liked what they were doing. Doesn’t help much to say so now…

Perhaps it does help to direct your attention to savenetradio.org.

I learned about savenetradio from Elise’s very clear story about SoundExchange and the RIAA’s attempts to destabilize independent online music distribution.

Net radio is a powerful tool in helping artists connect with people who care about art. The net radio value chain delivers quality entertainment with minimal help from lawyers, financiers, or major label managers. Therefore the net radio value chain is a threat to lawyers, financiers, and major label managers.

Soundexchange and the RIAA are trying to destabilize the forces that threaten their business model. With the current state of the web, they know they can’t win. But they can fight (lawyers!) and some people who fight back will lose. This fight obviously isn’t limited to teenagers, grandmothers, or unpaid indie rock dj’s. The real action takes place in Washington.

Soundexchange and the RIAA have government relations budgets. It’s time to help them spend those budgets. You can help by visiting Savenetradio.org.

Free soundtrack generously provided by your friends at SomaFM.com.

[tags]Savenetradio.org, SomaFM.com, Rightround.com[/tags]

Few days ago the SF Chronicle had a Sunday cover story about “neo-nomads” and shared workspaces. The “coworking” wiki and google group have been unusually active too.

What’s this mean for Plan Resonate? Right now, not much. The space on Alabama street isn’t open to the public. Sharing the space was a good experiment. There may be more of it in the future, possibly in a new location. Interim, I’ve decided to deflate the jumpy castle that we had set up in the courtyard.

Pretty interesting to see the Chron using nomadic language. Several years ago it seemed like there was a viable management strategy in the nomadic model. Deleuze and Guattari’s interpretation has several attractive elements to it. It’s possible to adapt their rhizome model too, and I’ve seriously studied and experimented with how that might work for Plan Resonate. The results have been inconclusive.

Maybe nomadic thought works better as a fashion statement than as an intellectual framework? I’m not sure, and I’m sure not the first to suggest it. You can now amaze your anthro buddies by ordering this utterly conclusive D&G t-shirt at cafe press.

Selection from D&G’s “A Thousand Plateaus” (1980):

“Orientations are not constant but change according to temporary vegetation, occupations, and precipitation. There is no visual model for points of reference that would make them interchangeable and unite them in an inertial class assignable to an immobile outside observer. On the contrary, they are tied to any number of observers, who may be qualified as “monadic” but are instead nomads entertaining tactile relations among themselves. The interlinkages do not imply an ambient space in which the multiplicity would be immersed and which would make distances invariant; rather, they are constituted according to ordered differences that give rise to intrinsic variations in the division of a single distance.”

Some of it might be applicable – it’s very much open to your interpretation. At least it’s an interesting example of the intersection of pop culture and academia. Whether or not you think it’s trash, D&G still have a powerful brand. How many of their contemporaries have created as much of a cultural impact?
[tags]shared workspace, nomads, jumpy castle[/tags]

Had a great meeting today with undergrad SCNO students from my alma mater, Michigan State University. SCNO stands for Students Consulting for Nonprofit Organizations. SCNO has invited Plan Resonate and other management consulting firms to play a mentoring and advisory role on student led projects. I’m honored and excited to be involved.

The other mentor firms are:

• IBM Global Services
• Accenture
• Hitachi Consulting
• Mckinsey & Company
• Spartan Internet Consulting

It feels great to have this connection with the students in East Lansing and it’ll be fun to support their work on meaningful projects. A group of us are engaged in some food system development work on behalf of the Greater Lansing Food Bank’s Community Garden Project.[tags]Michigan State University, Greater Lansing Food Bank[/tags]

It’s easy to view collaboration skills as part of an individual’s capabilities; we all know people who’re plain easy to work with. While individual skills are important, and we can all work to develop better collaboration skills, there are other major factors to consider. Successful collaboration often has less to do with individual skills, and more to do with the dynamics of the system in which the collaboration is taking place.

Systems language and analysis can be an immediate turn off. I sometimes tune out when consultants drift into the stratosphere of nebulous day dreamy org fluff. Other times though it’s worth paying attention – understanding basic systems thinking can improve your ability to make good business decisions.

Here’s a useful tip from Eugene Eric Kim that can help you to apply systems thinking skills to improve workplace collaboration. Consider:

“To be good at collaboration, you have to treat it as a system. That system includes things like communication, community, KnowledgeManagement, learning, and leadership.”

“Most CollaborativeTools companies are either in the communication or the KnowledgeManagement business. They’re usually selling pipes, PIMs, or document management tools. All of those things have something to do with collaboration, but they are not in and of themselves collaboration. Then again, no tools are. A hammer is a tool for hammering, but it is not itself hammering.”

Pipes = process integration technology, PIMs = personal information management systems. Also, I’d add “context” to the list of key system variables.

[tags]collaboration, applied systems thinking[/tags]

Quote from a National Academy of Science news release that caught my attention:

“The combination of limited water supplies, rapidly increasing populations, warmer regional temperatures, and the specter of recurrent drought point to a future in which the potential for conflict among existing and prospective new water users will prove endemic, the report concludes. This will inevitably lead to increasingly costly, controversial, and unavoidable trade-offs among water managers, policymakers, and their constituents.”

“It was therefore a welcome development when the seven Colorado River basin states presented preliminary proposals for managing water shortages in a letter last February to the U.S. secretary of the interior, the committee said. Such interstate cooperation will prove increasingly valuable, and likely essential, in coping with future droughts and water demands. Likewise, a commitment to two-way communication between scientists and water managers will be critical. In addition, the federal government should ensure that the U.S. Geological Survey has the resources to maintain and expand the Colorado River gaging system, which collects streamflow measurements essential for sound water-management decisions.”

Water problems certainly do highlight how some types of complex problems are affected by decisions from huge numbers of stakeholders. We all need water.

When the NAS stresses the importance of “two way communication between scientists and water managers” it sounds like they’re considering an investment in telephone technology. Maybe it’s just a point of language. Maybe not. Either way I think we’d all agree that two way communication isn’t the type of communication needed to address a water problem affecting all residents of 7 states (and arguably many more).

How do you organize the participation of broad groups of stakeholders? It’s awful easy to use blogs and wikis.

If you’re learning about wikis I recommend listening to this conversation between Dan Bricklin and Asheesh Birla.

[tags]National Academy of Science, many to many communication, wikis[/tags]

The announcement of Merlin is interesting if not a little confusing (couldn’t find their website).

I’m all for any business that attempts to improve market conditions for independent artists. Merlin’s deals with MySpace and SNOCAP are being touted as a significant power shift in the music distribution business. Apparently this shift will benefit smaller labels. Theoretically it will benefit independent artists. That would be a good thing.

A couple questions: should we be skeptical of a web oriented new media licensing business that doesn’t appear to have basic website? Not necessarily.

Is this new Merlin non-profit attempting to become the first large scale fair trade body in the music industry? I doubt it. These aren’t bedroom operators. They’re much smaller than the majors and they seem to have a different set of values. They’re also successful organizations with a history of gold and platinum records.

Regardless, there are macro forces at work that strongly affect the music industry’s mid-sized players. Music supply chains have been going through a phase of disintermediation. This has been a good thing for independent artists and producers. Undoubtedly new forms of mediation will emerge and Merlin can be viewed as an alliance of SMB’s proposing their own form. It will be interesting to see if their form of mediation will offer many advantages to media savvy independents.

UPDATE: Grant McCracken has an interesting perspective on pricing strategies for the music industry. He and I have different patterns of music consumption. His proposed system wouldn’t work for someone like me. His ideas are worth a thoughtful read. I’ve been reading him a lot lately. Smart stuff.
[tags]Merlin, independent music, disintermediation[/tags]

And vice versa. The borders between internal and external stakeholders are constantly shifting. Networked communication allows off the bus people to play a large role in determining the course of the bus. The role of a new type of off the bus/on the bus person is becoming increasingly acknowledged as an important role.

When Jim Collins, author of Good to Great, wrote:

“Great vision, without great people, is irrevelant.”

he was referencing data that largely came from a different economy. The difference doesn’t affect the importance of Collins’ book, or the importance of great people, although now some of those great people may be outsiders to the organization. Many of the great people might be found in the community that surrounds the organization.

No doubt someone has written about this elsewhere. The conclusions drawn from the Good to Great data are impressive. Several people have recommended this book over the past couple years and it’s living up to the hype.

[tags]Good to Great, Jim Collins, community[/tags]

The other night I sat up late reading this Richard Waters article (FT). It’s not a bad article. Unfortunately it tries too hard to make a story out of something and in the process it unnecessarily polarizes the situation. Maybe I’ve lost my sense of humor… but Waters seems to be taking the issue seriously.I know, I know, I’ve read journalists before, they’re under a lot of pressure to create good stories. I should give Waters credit for looking into the issues of online collaboration and social media.

I should ignore Waters’ subtle cartoonization of things. Yet for reasons of style and context, it’s exactly his subtlety that concerns me. Waters seems to be crafting an innocent narrative, chock full of objective sounding references and name checking. He’s commanded a large piece of space on the front page of a section in the Financial Times. This isn’t a place for absurdist opinions. And so it’s almost as though the piece was designed to discredit some of the serious thought happening around these issues.

From the Waters article:

“On one side of this divide are the idealists who believe that individual expression and mass online collaboration, freed from the traditional constraints found in the offline world, can yield incalculable benefits. Traditional deference to expertise imposes a huge tax on society, argues Shirky – by concentrating perceived wisdom in a small number of people, it limits the flow of ideas. According to this view, the experts represent a ruling caste whose main interest is in protecting their own privileges. The internet offers a historic opportunity to undermine that authority.” Read the rest of this entry »

Hello Dear Database Enabled Grassroots Political Organizer(s),

Congratulations on all of your hard work around the 2006 election cycle. I support your goals of increased political participation. I’m pleased with the progress you’ve shown over previous elections. Good job.

Here are a list of thoughts that you can review at your leisure. Don’t review them during dinner time. Don’t interrupt your workday. Take a convenient moment, whenever it works for you, and give these thoughts a quick read. There’s no rush. No pressure. No partisan bias. Be calm. Take my thoughts in the spirit that they’re intended, as positive constructive feedback, composed with love, from me, your socially networked friend and compatriot of legally registered voting status in the fine State of California.

It’s time you gave my poor inbox a breather. Please. You’ve been pumping me with messages for a long time now, and I’d appreciate a break in the action. Don’t you ever slow down? Seriously. We’ve hit a climax. Let’s enjoy it together – if you’d shut up for a minute I’m sure we could both relax and maybe even feel good about the process. Peacefully. Stop acting so insecure about where we’ll be come next elections/petition/meet up/whatever. Be calm.

I’ve created a list of six database refinements that you can use to do better next time. Don’t read them at dinner time. In fact, don’t read them if you don’t want to. For real though. The list will be here when you’re ready for it.

Database tip #1: It’s crucial to optimize the subsets of your membership body. Find a way to respectfully connect with those members whom only want infrequent executive summaries. There are people, like myself, who resist and dislike repetitive messaging. Don’t take it personally. I like what you do. I don’t always like the way you do it. It shouldn’t be hard for you to tag my record so that I only receive the types of messages I appreciate. Do that, and I’ll reciprocate with respectful support.

It’s pretty hard to imagine that you don’t already have an elaborate subset of filters. If so, please keep refining them. I’ve recently received a large number of messages that actually made me feel alienated from what you’re trying to do. Some of those messages came from celebrities. One of them was a joke message that appeared to come from the opposition party. These types of monotonous and childish messages are not the way into my heart.

I want positive messages. Let the tv people obsess over the celebrities. Give me something with substance. Seek the high ground. Ignore what any analysts might say about reaching the broadest audience possible. Refine your filters and membership subsets. Your analysts are right that my preferences are different from the public at large. Fine. Allow for diverse subsets of member preferences. Give us all what we want. You know you want to. It doesn’t seem like it would be that complicated either. Databases are powerful tools and you have a powerful organization. Work your majik. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been a successful year for Plan Resonate and I’ve recently expanded the studio. I’m looking for people who are interested in occasionally sharing some of the newly available space here at 26th & Alabama in San Francisco.

A few months ago I was involved in an effort to organize a collaborative physical workspace in San Francisco. That effort became The Hat Factory. You can learn about them at their site and at the Coworking Wiki.

I’d like to do something that is similar to the Hat Factory and different. My space isn’t cafe like, it’s home like. The new office space is a former bedroom. This post includes pics of the entrance to the new office, and the office space, and a guest workspace in my downstairs studio. Read the rest of this entry »