I am excited. Two very good girlfriends of mine have asked me to help them out.
One of them is a coach – her offer is diverse, and her clients are varied. She provides guidance on intercultural leadership and communication, corporate management and team building, family coaching, one-on-one career coaching and successful generational wealth transfer.
The other is a lawyer. She is a partner at a small employment firm and manages not only other attorneys but a large case load.
They’re both super clever and I have a lot of professional respect for each of them. Both are interested in learning about technology in a broad-based way because they want to diversify their careers and have asked me to provide instruction. Not only am I flattered, but I feel that these ‘tutorials’ as I’ve been calling them, will be a great mental exercise and excuse to do some research into a space that I’ve become active in.
Having little to no experience in tech (Facebook, instant message and a few different email clients sums up their familiarity), I put together a list of 7 tutorials I want to explore. My goal is to provide a framework for them to understand the trends occurring today and the major shifts in innovation, media and culture. To do that one requires perspective and history. So we’re starting at the beginning. Here are my topics:
1. History of the WWW
2. Buzzwords & Definitions
3. Business Models
4. Major Players in the Space
5. Media Evolution
6. Social Media & Cultural Impact
7. Green Tech
My coach friend is interested specifically in learning more about the dynamic between young entrepreneurs, their start-ups and the VCs that back them. My lawyer friend is looking to leverage her legal experience and apply it to a different vertical – potentially technology.
Our second geek session is tomorrow over brunch. Might be a few guest posts in their homework assignment. Check back in over the next couple of weeks.
My Cozy Void
My blog is a cozy place. I use it as a platform for reflection. Sometimes I give my opinion on others’ ideas. Occasionally I myself possess that diamond in the rough thought that just needs a bit of polish to shine. I like that I can make a post as long or as short as I want. I can ask WordPress to crunch some pretty images to break up my text. I can embed video. Or just link to someone else’s post in lieu of my own.
It’s a fluid medium. But sometimes it’s tough to get the creative juices to flow. As my to do list sky rockets, blogging falls down my priority list. Actually – it tumbles. I feel guilty about not having posted in so long. To whom am I responsible?
Namely, myself. Torn Paige is a commitment to take the time to reflect on the industry I’ve found myself caught up in. Once I sit down to start writing, I actually enjoy it. It’s sort of like going to the gym in that respect. It’s the getting there that’s the hard part.
Why does my blogging become relegated to the bottom? Is the bar for entry set too high? Of course, there are other options. Twitter, for one. Micro-blogging on Twitter would enable me to capture those fleeting thoughts that tickle my attention as I’m walking to work, iPod on and coffee in hand. It’s so easy to publish on the go, and it seems that I’m more mobile than ever these days. What’s stopping me?
Well for one, you can’t stop Twittering once you begin. I have a fear of commitment. Whereas a formulated and articulated idea can have a longer shelf life in blog land, an old Tweet seems a bit stale and sad. Past its expiration date.
I also like the anonymity of blogging into the void. Not that I hide my identity, but rather I don’t know who’s reading these words. I write as if someone is listening, but I can’t see anyone’s face. Comments theoretically make blogs a two-way conversation, but most readers recoil from that type of commitment. Trying to sound witty, knowledgeable and provoke thought in a short comment is a tall order. I’m scared of them too.
I suppose the purpose of this blog is to defend why I’m not on Twitter. One size does not fit all, and for now Twitter just doesn’t look good on me.
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