Friday, November 18, 2005
Conversations lead to community...
"Capitalizing on the Net" by Quan-Haase & Wellman (Ch. 10) describes the impact of the internet on three types of social capital: 1) network, 2) civic engagement, and 3) sense of community. Their research focused on the National Geographic website users and whether they felt a sense of community in their everyday offline life, as well.
This study found that people using the internet reach out to more people via email and the internet, drawing on weak ties (Granovetter, 1973). Granovetter explains that while we traditionally think of strong ties like family as being important, we cannot dismiss the importance of acquaintance or weak ties, as they can be important bridges to jobs, news, information, ideas, etc.
We would expect that the Sun bloggers would have strong ties to each other and weak ties to people outside of Sun. In examining Dave's blog, he has an interesting blogroll. There are some names I notice from Sun, like Tim Bray, who is Director of Web Technologies for Sun. It is interesting that Tim does not have a blogroll of his own, however. Then, I remembered that Dave had blogged about his Roller team earlier in the year about how he started at Sun alone developing Roller, so I was happy for him when I read he was up to a team of seven (!) working on Roller. I know these guys have to be on his blogroll: Matt, Lance, Anil, Henri, Allen, and Elias. Other Sun employees he links to: Claire, Jim, Linda (and she lists him), and Will (who also lists Dave in his blogroll).
The concept of weak ties is very similar to word-of-mouth. We rely on weak ties for a movie review or for a product endorsement all the time. How can business participate in conversations leading to weak ties, ultimately resulting in community? Dave is a great example of someone who is using his weak ties to create community through his blogroll list. I've noted that he is better than most people at actually posting a blogroll--some people don't even do this (guilty as charged). This is a similar concept to Malcolm Gladwell's point in his book The Tipping Point, when he talks about Connectors, or people who are good at making connections with other people. When you read Dave's blog, you know he is a Maven (another Gladwell term), someone who enjoys sharing information, and then when you see his blogroll, you see that he is also very good at connecting people to each other. His non-Sun blogroll includes two people we have talked about in our class: Joi Ito and Chapel Hill's own Ruby Sinreich. In my interview with Dave last spring, he talked about the larger Java community, and his desire to see that expand and improve. He enjoys seeing his software be a catalyst for creating community.
One other way to create conversations is through comments on blogposts. In my interview with Dave last spring, he mentioned that he is blogging about Roller so that users can know what is going on, but does not expect too many comments. I went through his most recent posts and noticed that, indeed, he does not have comments on every post. The comments are an interesting variety from colleagues to his mom congratulating him on completing a recent 10k run. I'm very impressed that his mom reads his blog--my mom recently said she googled me and found the word blog associated with my name, but has absolutely no idea what a blog is!
This study found that people using the internet reach out to more people via email and the internet, drawing on weak ties (Granovetter, 1973). Granovetter explains that while we traditionally think of strong ties like family as being important, we cannot dismiss the importance of acquaintance or weak ties, as they can be important bridges to jobs, news, information, ideas, etc.
We would expect that the Sun bloggers would have strong ties to each other and weak ties to people outside of Sun. In examining Dave's blog, he has an interesting blogroll. There are some names I notice from Sun, like Tim Bray, who is Director of Web Technologies for Sun. It is interesting that Tim does not have a blogroll of his own, however. Then, I remembered that Dave had blogged about his Roller team earlier in the year about how he started at Sun alone developing Roller, so I was happy for him when I read he was up to a team of seven (!) working on Roller. I know these guys have to be on his blogroll: Matt, Lance, Anil, Henri, Allen, and Elias. Other Sun employees he links to: Claire, Jim, Linda (and she lists him), and Will (who also lists Dave in his blogroll).
The concept of weak ties is very similar to word-of-mouth. We rely on weak ties for a movie review or for a product endorsement all the time. How can business participate in conversations leading to weak ties, ultimately resulting in community? Dave is a great example of someone who is using his weak ties to create community through his blogroll list. I've noted that he is better than most people at actually posting a blogroll--some people don't even do this (guilty as charged). This is a similar concept to Malcolm Gladwell's point in his book The Tipping Point, when he talks about Connectors, or people who are good at making connections with other people. When you read Dave's blog, you know he is a Maven (another Gladwell term), someone who enjoys sharing information, and then when you see his blogroll, you see that he is also very good at connecting people to each other. His non-Sun blogroll includes two people we have talked about in our class: Joi Ito and Chapel Hill's own Ruby Sinreich. In my interview with Dave last spring, he talked about the larger Java community, and his desire to see that expand and improve. He enjoys seeing his software be a catalyst for creating community.
One other way to create conversations is through comments on blogposts. In my interview with Dave last spring, he mentioned that he is blogging about Roller so that users can know what is going on, but does not expect too many comments. I went through his most recent posts and noticed that, indeed, he does not have comments on every post. The comments are an interesting variety from colleagues to his mom congratulating him on completing a recent 10k run. I'm very impressed that his mom reads his blog--my mom recently said she googled me and found the word blog associated with my name, but has absolutely no idea what a blog is!
Conversation in Everyday Life...
We read "The Internet in Everyday Life" (Ed. by Wellman & Haythornthwaite) and the interesting thing is that we could exchange the word "conversation" for "internet" in the title of the book. This would be the thesis of the Cluetrain Manifesto--the internet is speeding up the rate that markets are having the conversations they are apt to have, whether corporations are involved or not, and those conversations are not distinct from the rest of our life, but are intertwined into the fabric of our daily life.
Important points in this book:
1) Researchers and businesses need to understand what happens in all aspects of a consumer's life, not just their on-line life. When you read Dave Johnson's blog to learn about the blog software Roller, you know he is a serious geek (I mean that in the most respectful way!), but you also know that he is a father because he either blogs about his children or has pictures of them on his blog. In other words, the man "has a life!"
In "Smart Mobs", Howard Rheingold (2003) observes that "The virtual, social, and physical worlds are colliding, merging, and coordinating (p.xviii)."
I wish that Harris Teeter would understand this better--when we lived in Winston-Salem, I could do my grocery-shopping on-line, but now that we've moved to Durham, this Harris Teeter does not offer this service and I have to actually go into the store to shop. The mantra at my house is "mom, we are out of food again." There is a good reason: I hate to go grocery shopping. I want my Harris Teeter on-line shopping! The Winston-Salem store has emailed me many times asking why I stopped shopping there (you can guess I was one of their favorite shoppers!), but they don't seem to be listening to the answer: I moved. Guess I'll have to find someone else to have that conversation with.
2) We need to understand that internet savvy people are chronic communicators. Howard Rheingold (2003) calls this group "smart mobs" or "people who are able to act in concert even if they don't know each other (p.xii)." What does this mean for a company? For Sun, it means that they encourage chronic communicating. Just look at how many blogs they have and how much activity is going on. How can companies take advantage of these chronic communicators? Jackie Huba & Ben McConnell, authors of "Creating Customer Evangelists" and the blog Church of the Customer call these people Customer Evangelists. If they are loyal to you and your product, harnessing this energy and enthusiasm, this authentic voice, can be very powerful.
This can also work in reverse, by encouraging employee evangelism. In the Cluetrain Manifesto, they remark that "Companies can't stop customers from sepaking up, and can't stop employees from talking to customers. Their only choice is to start encouraging employees to talk to customers--and empowering them to act on what they hear. Workers can generate enormous goodwill as everyday evangelists for products and services they've crafted themselves, and thus take genuine pride in (p. 72)."
As Tom Hespos comments in a recent MediaPost column called Online Spin,
If, on the other hand, the marketer invests what it might put into a buzz marketing campaign into an online program, where paid employees of the company could monitor and participate in online conversations with potential customers, wouldn't that result in better relationships?
3) TV vs. On-line
Their research has found that people view tv activity different than on-line activity, which may be true, but the point that I think is lost on most folks is that chronic communicators are probably doing both--at the same time, as well as talking on cell phones and IMing their friends. If they are talking about you and your company, don't you want them to be saying good things in all of those places? A recent survey found that most execs are still wed to traditional advertising and are hesitant to jump into the new media fray. This is too bad--their customers are already there. Even six years ago, the Cluetrain observes that "Your effectiveness depends on how networked you are, how hyperlinked you are (p. 128). Hyperlinks are created by people finding other people they trust, enjoy and yes, in some ways love (p. 131)."
Important points in this book:
1) Researchers and businesses need to understand what happens in all aspects of a consumer's life, not just their on-line life. When you read Dave Johnson's blog to learn about the blog software Roller, you know he is a serious geek (I mean that in the most respectful way!), but you also know that he is a father because he either blogs about his children or has pictures of them on his blog. In other words, the man "has a life!"
In "Smart Mobs", Howard Rheingold (2003) observes that "The virtual, social, and physical worlds are colliding, merging, and coordinating (p.xviii)."
I wish that Harris Teeter would understand this better--when we lived in Winston-Salem, I could do my grocery-shopping on-line, but now that we've moved to Durham, this Harris Teeter does not offer this service and I have to actually go into the store to shop. The mantra at my house is "mom, we are out of food again." There is a good reason: I hate to go grocery shopping. I want my Harris Teeter on-line shopping! The Winston-Salem store has emailed me many times asking why I stopped shopping there (you can guess I was one of their favorite shoppers!), but they don't seem to be listening to the answer: I moved. Guess I'll have to find someone else to have that conversation with.
2) We need to understand that internet savvy people are chronic communicators. Howard Rheingold (2003) calls this group "smart mobs" or "people who are able to act in concert even if they don't know each other (p.xii)." What does this mean for a company? For Sun, it means that they encourage chronic communicating. Just look at how many blogs they have and how much activity is going on. How can companies take advantage of these chronic communicators? Jackie Huba & Ben McConnell, authors of "Creating Customer Evangelists" and the blog Church of the Customer call these people Customer Evangelists. If they are loyal to you and your product, harnessing this energy and enthusiasm, this authentic voice, can be very powerful.
This can also work in reverse, by encouraging employee evangelism. In the Cluetrain Manifesto, they remark that "Companies can't stop customers from sepaking up, and can't stop employees from talking to customers. Their only choice is to start encouraging employees to talk to customers--and empowering them to act on what they hear. Workers can generate enormous goodwill as everyday evangelists for products and services they've crafted themselves, and thus take genuine pride in (p. 72)."
As Tom Hespos comments in a recent MediaPost column called Online Spin,
If, on the other hand, the marketer invests what it might put into a buzz marketing campaign into an online program, where paid employees of the company could monitor and participate in online conversations with potential customers, wouldn't that result in better relationships?
3) TV vs. On-line
Their research has found that people view tv activity different than on-line activity, which may be true, but the point that I think is lost on most folks is that chronic communicators are probably doing both--at the same time, as well as talking on cell phones and IMing their friends. If they are talking about you and your company, don't you want them to be saying good things in all of those places? A recent survey found that most execs are still wed to traditional advertising and are hesitant to jump into the new media fray. This is too bad--their customers are already there. Even six years ago, the Cluetrain observes that "Your effectiveness depends on how networked you are, how hyperlinked you are (p. 128). Hyperlinks are created by people finding other people they trust, enjoy and yes, in some ways love (p. 131)."
It's a Matter of Trust...
In Ch. 6 of "We the Media", Dan Gillmor says blogging "is a question of trust." He describes the characteristics of blogs, including
+voice
+focus
+real reporting
+good writing
+credibility by listening to critics
In analyzing Sun's blogs by each of these characteristics, they are all written by individuals, allowing each person's voice to come through. If you read through any of these blogs, you will notice that each person's personality comes through. I've been reading Dave's blog for awhile,which is a good example of all of these characteristics. Dave has a unique voice when he writes, as the author of the blog software, so his focus is on sharing his knowledge, yet being open to questions and critiques from others. He reports and writes well enough that he is now putting his knowledge into a book, "RSS and Atom in Action." I have started (trying) to read other blogs (some are very technical) and luckily for me found one that is slightly less technical that I can enjoy, MaryMaryQuiteContrary. She lets you know right up front she is quite unapologetically a marketing vehicle. That is transparency for you.
In Ch. 7 Gillmor calls blogs "a tool that fosters trust by giving up control." The Cluetrain Manifesto would agree with this premise when it talks about the fact that businesses have to stop controlling information through marketing and PR departments and start engaging in the conversations that are already occurring about them as a way to become more trusted by the market.
Trust is a big research and professional interest of mine. I have been studying how to build and maintain trust for over 10 years, so this aspect of blogging is what convinces me that companies don't really have a choice about whether to participate in blogging, especially if they are concerned with consumers' perceptions of their trustworthiness.
One of the biggest ways to build trust with others is by listening, not just talking. Gillmor reinforces this in Ch. 4 when he supports blogging as a way to be "learning by listening." This is so contrary to natural corporate communications to think about actually listening to what your customers think of your product and/or service. Gillmor sees this as a PR opportunity, not a threat. What they teach you in B-Schools, however, is the 4Ps: price, product, place and promotion--telling people about your company in creative ways--listening is not part of the equation. There is a newer approach (created by UNC's own Bob Lauterborn and his co-authors Schultz & Tannenbaum) called the 4Cs Marketing model:
• Not Product: Customer wants and needs
• Not price: cost to satisfy those needs
• Not Place: convenience to buy
• Not promotion: communication with the customer
This approach actually puts the customer at the center of everything that is done to consider the best way to communicate and take care of the customer. This model is only effective by listening to the customer.
+voice
+focus
+real reporting
+good writing
+credibility by listening to critics
In analyzing Sun's blogs by each of these characteristics, they are all written by individuals, allowing each person's voice to come through. If you read through any of these blogs, you will notice that each person's personality comes through. I've been reading Dave's blog for awhile,which is a good example of all of these characteristics. Dave has a unique voice when he writes, as the author of the blog software, so his focus is on sharing his knowledge, yet being open to questions and critiques from others. He reports and writes well enough that he is now putting his knowledge into a book, "RSS and Atom in Action." I have started (trying) to read other blogs (some are very technical) and luckily for me found one that is slightly less technical that I can enjoy, MaryMaryQuiteContrary. She lets you know right up front she is quite unapologetically a marketing vehicle. That is transparency for you.
In Ch. 7 Gillmor calls blogs "a tool that fosters trust by giving up control." The Cluetrain Manifesto would agree with this premise when it talks about the fact that businesses have to stop controlling information through marketing and PR departments and start engaging in the conversations that are already occurring about them as a way to become more trusted by the market.
Trust is a big research and professional interest of mine. I have been studying how to build and maintain trust for over 10 years, so this aspect of blogging is what convinces me that companies don't really have a choice about whether to participate in blogging, especially if they are concerned with consumers' perceptions of their trustworthiness.
One of the biggest ways to build trust with others is by listening, not just talking. Gillmor reinforces this in Ch. 4 when he supports blogging as a way to be "learning by listening." This is so contrary to natural corporate communications to think about actually listening to what your customers think of your product and/or service. Gillmor sees this as a PR opportunity, not a threat. What they teach you in B-Schools, however, is the 4Ps: price, product, place and promotion--telling people about your company in creative ways--listening is not part of the equation. There is a newer approach (created by UNC's own Bob Lauterborn and his co-authors Schultz & Tannenbaum) called the 4Cs Marketing model:
• Not Product: Customer wants and needs
• Not price: cost to satisfy those needs
• Not Place: convenience to buy
• Not promotion: communication with the customer
This approach actually puts the customer at the center of everything that is done to consider the best way to communicate and take care of the customer. This model is only effective by listening to the customer.
Rules of the Train, per Gillmor...
In Chapter 4 of "We the Media", Gillmor specifically takes on public relations and marketing types with some rules he has developed. He starts, though by confessing, "I'm always glad not to be doing PR or marketing."
I'll confess that my combination of MBA and now Journalism coursework, I'm appreciating all sides of the discussion, but I would still be glad to be doing pr or marketing work. Here are his rules, and my commentary...
1) Listen hard. Check. I've blogged about this here. In any context, you can never listen enough. Listening builds trust. You also cannot have a conversation if one of you is not listening while the other is talking.
Here is Sun's contact us page. There are a million different ways for a customer to talk and for Sun to listen.
2) Talk openly about what you're doing, and why. Check, check. This is transparency. I learned the hard way a long time ago. I was working for a company that was building a new plant, but wanted to keep it a secret to surprise the customer (go figure). When the customer specifically asked, "Are you building a new plant, right next door to us?" my boss replied, "No, why do you ask?" This customer looked at me and just shook his head. When my boss left the room, he said, "Do you honestly expect me to believe that you are not building a plant, when your plant has already told my plant?" I told him that we were, indeed, building a plant and he was relieved to know the truth. But, we both were confused about why my boss would lie about something like that. All my boss could say was that it was going to be a great surprise to the customer when it was finished. All the customer could say was that it was an insult to be left out of the process from the beginning.
While Sun appears to be very open about everything they are doing all over their site and across all of their communities, The Press Community of Sun, focused directly at the media, makes it easy for the press to find the latest news and information about Sun, whether it is generated internally, or externally.
3) Ask questions. There are customers who know more about your products and services than you do, and may also have interesting ideas for new products that you might not have thought about before.
At the bottom of most Sun webpages, there is a question asking how useful this page was to the user, expecting a response.
This site met my need today.
Select --> 6 strongly agree 1 strongly disagree
4) Syndicate your information to the widest audience in the most efficient way. Good point. You can never communicate wide or well enough. Brian Russell, founder of audioactivism.org touched on this theme when he spoke to our class about podcasting. His goal is to educate people about media literacy, with a focus on storytelling. The Cluetrain mentions that PR people aren't as interested in stories as journalists are, prefering happy endings and not the complexities of life that a story implies. There is a growing interest in storytelling in the nonprofit world, and Andy Goodman is a consultant doing an excellent job helping organizations do this.
At the bottom of the Sun employee blog page, there is an XML buttom for the combined RSS feed for the site.
5) Help out by offering more, not less. Here, he is encouraging firms to keep a lot of information on their websites so that journalists can find it and then customers can, too. There have been studies done in the pr literature that have found that it is not always easy for journalists to find the information they need on a corporate website. The links are not labeled well or the information is not tailored to their needs. Companies do need to think about who their publics are when they put websites together.
Looking at the community page for Sun, you can see that they think broadly about their publics.
6) Post or link to what your people say publicly, and to what is said about you. Brian Russell calls this "link love." The Cluetrain talks about a hyperlinked world, where information is decentralized, which leads to more innovation.
The press community includes links to articles about Sun in other media, as well as executive blogs. There is even a link labeled "Contrarian Minds".
7) Aim carefully at people who really care. Marketers are notorious for sending information out to more people than really care about them, which means that they are probably leaving out people who really do care.
Sun has a way for people to register to become part of the Sun community. This enables them to direct their information at people who really care.
8) Correct your mistakes promptly and honestly. I have noticed that newspapers are getting better at this--putting corrections on the front page. Maybe corporations can take a cue from this.
I did find one instance on the Sun site of an apology for a software glitch.
9) Thank the people who teach you new things. I can't count the number of times that I have given feedback to a company, because I cared about that company, and that feedback has been ignored or worse, been met with resistance. Firms don't often understand that if we are willing to actually tell you what is wrong, we actually do care. When we take our business and leave, we have decided that you are not worth telling what is wrong.
Jonathan Scwartz's blog publicly thanks Larry. I don't know enough about the industry to know who Larry is, but when you go to his blog, you can't help but notice it.
10) Experiment constantly. Risk-taking is not easy nor popular, but it is the only way to grow. Innovation is what keeps people inspired and interested in your company. Otherwise, they will always go to see who else has something new.
There is a page under Research that lists all of Sun's projects and that status of each. That is both openness and a commitment to innovation.
I'll confess that my combination of MBA and now Journalism coursework, I'm appreciating all sides of the discussion, but I would still be glad to be doing pr or marketing work. Here are his rules, and my commentary...
1) Listen hard. Check. I've blogged about this here. In any context, you can never listen enough. Listening builds trust. You also cannot have a conversation if one of you is not listening while the other is talking.
Here is Sun's contact us page. There are a million different ways for a customer to talk and for Sun to listen.
2) Talk openly about what you're doing, and why. Check, check. This is transparency. I learned the hard way a long time ago. I was working for a company that was building a new plant, but wanted to keep it a secret to surprise the customer (go figure). When the customer specifically asked, "Are you building a new plant, right next door to us?" my boss replied, "No, why do you ask?" This customer looked at me and just shook his head. When my boss left the room, he said, "Do you honestly expect me to believe that you are not building a plant, when your plant has already told my plant?" I told him that we were, indeed, building a plant and he was relieved to know the truth. But, we both were confused about why my boss would lie about something like that. All my boss could say was that it was going to be a great surprise to the customer when it was finished. All the customer could say was that it was an insult to be left out of the process from the beginning.
While Sun appears to be very open about everything they are doing all over their site and across all of their communities, The Press Community of Sun, focused directly at the media, makes it easy for the press to find the latest news and information about Sun, whether it is generated internally, or externally.
3) Ask questions. There are customers who know more about your products and services than you do, and may also have interesting ideas for new products that you might not have thought about before.
At the bottom of most Sun webpages, there is a question asking how useful this page was to the user, expecting a response.
This site met my need today.
Select --> 6 strongly agree 1 strongly disagree
4) Syndicate your information to the widest audience in the most efficient way. Good point. You can never communicate wide or well enough. Brian Russell, founder of audioactivism.org touched on this theme when he spoke to our class about podcasting. His goal is to educate people about media literacy, with a focus on storytelling. The Cluetrain mentions that PR people aren't as interested in stories as journalists are, prefering happy endings and not the complexities of life that a story implies. There is a growing interest in storytelling in the nonprofit world, and Andy Goodman is a consultant doing an excellent job helping organizations do this.
At the bottom of the Sun employee blog page, there is an XML buttom for the combined RSS feed for the site.
5) Help out by offering more, not less. Here, he is encouraging firms to keep a lot of information on their websites so that journalists can find it and then customers can, too. There have been studies done in the pr literature that have found that it is not always easy for journalists to find the information they need on a corporate website. The links are not labeled well or the information is not tailored to their needs. Companies do need to think about who their publics are when they put websites together.
Looking at the community page for Sun, you can see that they think broadly about their publics.
6) Post or link to what your people say publicly, and to what is said about you. Brian Russell calls this "link love." The Cluetrain talks about a hyperlinked world, where information is decentralized, which leads to more innovation.
The press community includes links to articles about Sun in other media, as well as executive blogs. There is even a link labeled "Contrarian Minds".
7) Aim carefully at people who really care. Marketers are notorious for sending information out to more people than really care about them, which means that they are probably leaving out people who really do care.
Sun has a way for people to register to become part of the Sun community. This enables them to direct their information at people who really care.
8) Correct your mistakes promptly and honestly. I have noticed that newspapers are getting better at this--putting corrections on the front page. Maybe corporations can take a cue from this.
I did find one instance on the Sun site of an apology for a software glitch.
9) Thank the people who teach you new things. I can't count the number of times that I have given feedback to a company, because I cared about that company, and that feedback has been ignored or worse, been met with resistance. Firms don't often understand that if we are willing to actually tell you what is wrong, we actually do care. When we take our business and leave, we have decided that you are not worth telling what is wrong.
Jonathan Scwartz's blog publicly thanks Larry. I don't know enough about the industry to know who Larry is, but when you go to his blog, you can't help but notice it.
10) Experiment constantly. Risk-taking is not easy nor popular, but it is the only way to grow. Innovation is what keeps people inspired and interested in your company. Otherwise, they will always go to see who else has something new.
There is a page under Research that lists all of Sun's projects and that status of each. That is both openness and a commitment to innovation.
Transparency on the train...
In Chapter 3 of "We the Media", Dan Gillmor touches on the issues of transparency and openness, which are also related to trust. Dan says that blogs create a "higher level of transparency" because information of any kind can be verified by other bloggers and exposed as untrue or supported as true in the transparent world of blogging. This should be a good thing for companies as they want to be known as credible, trusted sources for products and services and information. A recent Harris Poll found that fewer Americans than Europeans have trust in the media: 62% of Americans don't trust the media, and 70% don't trust big companies. That leaves a lot of room for bloggers, who feel that they fill a gap in fairly reporting information of all kinds. As Dan also says, "You can't avoid more openness."
John Robinson, Editor of the Greensboro News & Record, discussed why the GNR started blogging and he discussed similar themes: transparency and openness. He wanted to find a way to let his readers "in" by understanding that they could ask any questions, or make comments on his blog. As I was listening to what he was describing I realized that this is a unique aspect of building trust: once you start the conversation, you open yourself up to others, and when you sincerely answer them, they realize that you are serious about having a relationship, and in that moment, you begin to build trust.
We were fortunate to have Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, speak to our class, and he also touched on these themes of openness and transparency, believing that they create a culture of mutual trust and an atmosphere of respect.
One of the (many) ways that Sun is transparent...
If you go to the Developer community, there is a section on an upcoming 2006 Java conference, where there is a forum asking for suggested topics to discuss at that conference. The forum includes: a way to register, a welcome message to me as a guest, and a list of the various topics the group is discussing.
Here is a portal to all of the Sun Forums.
John Robinson, Editor of the Greensboro News & Record, discussed why the GNR started blogging and he discussed similar themes: transparency and openness. He wanted to find a way to let his readers "in" by understanding that they could ask any questions, or make comments on his blog. As I was listening to what he was describing I realized that this is a unique aspect of building trust: once you start the conversation, you open yourself up to others, and when you sincerely answer them, they realize that you are serious about having a relationship, and in that moment, you begin to build trust.
We were fortunate to have Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, speak to our class, and he also touched on these themes of openness and transparency, believing that they create a culture of mutual trust and an atmosphere of respect.
One of the (many) ways that Sun is transparent...
If you go to the Developer community, there is a section on an upcoming 2006 Java conference, where there is a forum asking for suggested topics to discuss at that conference. The forum includes: a way to register, a welcome message to me as a guest, and a list of the various topics the group is discussing.
Here is a portal to all of the Sun Forums.
