Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
"trying to read Twitter as somehow continuous, keeping up with every
post, could drive you stark raving mad."

More than that it is unnecessary since much of it is repetitive with
retweets coming up continuously. Especially if you are looking at a
twitter feed associated with a talk in real time.
  

    
Howard, having been a heavy user of the Internet since 1993, I find
your book just filled with practical tips and how-tos. Love the
drawings by Anthony Weeks, a pull-out section all by themselves. I also
like the way it's organized, you can jump in anywhere you want to
learn or follow the index for topics of interest. Just a great job all
the way around.

Was one section more difficult to organize than another? And what's
next?
  

    
You know, Ted, the tools for finding and organizing research material
are so much more powerful today that they have become a problem for me.
I use Diigo, Devonthink, and Scrivener. The wide end of the research
funnel has become much larger, but the narrow end, the part that goes
through my brain, has not changed. So I gathered enough material for
each chapter to be a book. I had to drop entire sections -- I dropped
the smart mobs part of the collaboration chapter because I could refer
people to an entire book (I will publish that sub-chapter as a blog
post). I was going to write a concluding chapter about how to use the
Web to make us smarter, but didn't have space for it. The good news is
that I am writing a short e-book for TED on that subject this summer.

I'm teaching a course on cooperation theory this summer: 
http://socialmediaclassroom.com/host/cooperation3 and working on the
TED book and also blogging for the Digital Media and Learning community
http://dmlcentral.net/blog/3663  I've organized a course for Stanford
next Winter:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pIxVqXT6EO_CoxCCD3tj9uYujVzhHzGWcYgT31LGQh
c/edit

and I'm getting on a plane a few times to do some bread-and-butter
speaking (including, it appears, a trip to Bogota at the end of June).

Summer is when I try to learn new tools. I'm going to refresh my
knowledge of Personal Brain. I might teach a course for teachers on Net
Smart. Then back to Stanford in the Fall for 
http://socialmediaclassroom.com/host/vircom
  

    
Amazing pace you keep up. I'm very glad that Tedx is going to allow
you to expand on your book; looking forward to what you have to say.

I realize the future holds a lot of rough water, but what are one or
two things that make you hopeful in regards to folks implementing the
tools you provide in Net Smart?
  

    
Howard Rheingold ‏ @hrheingold tweeted:

"We need to understand more deeply how human-computer works & apply
that knowledge to cultivate more humane, mindful technology practices."


Amen! on these lines see Chris Berendes' post:
http://citizentools.netalyst.com/2012/who-first-planning-successful-social-med
ia-strategies

He's grasped the meat of the matter. We pay attention to the tech and
says "So, those first technology questions are, almost always, really
questions about People, Objectives, and Strategy. Technology, in Post
(http://forrester.typepad.com/groundswell/2007/12/the-post-method.html)
and in life, is the last question, not the first one."
  

    
We've featured Howard's book (and link to this discussion) on our blog 
today:

<http://tinyurl.com/digifam-netsmart>

The blog is for the Digital Family Summit, a new conference that I am 
co-organizing along with my wife at the end of June.

<http://www.digitalfamilysummit.com> 

I was just at a similar conference <http://www.mom2summit.com> for Mom and 
parent bloggers, and there is a weird paradox-- you want to get as much as 
you can out of the conference, so having people tweeting out important 
quotes/salient points is great)  But the entire plenary room was full of 
people not looking at the speaker, but looking down at their 
phones/ipads/computers.

When you speak at a conference like this, is it disconcerting to you?  Do 
you feel the need to speak in short 140 character sentences, knowing that 
people are mediating you in real time?  And as an organizer of such a 
conference, what tips do you have for me to ensure that both you and the 
audience have the best experience possible?
  

    

I have learned greatly from this discussion and will print it out to add 
it to the wonderful resources in your book. Thank you, Howard.

I do hope you will return to the Well from time to time.
  

    
I've now ordered a copy of the book as a result of the discussion
here.
  

    
Excellent. Today is the final day for this two-week discussion. We've
barely scratched the surface here; the book is rich with information
and guidance.
  

    
I pinged Howard. He's on the road and can't make it back to answer
final questions until next Thursday. He thanks everyone for the great
conversation - look for his final responses soon.
  

    
Thanks, Jon, Ted, Howard and all the readers. Best continued luck with
this book!  

I liked it for a deeper dive, but I do find I like reading you best
interactively, Howard.  I think conversation is your sweet spot. 

Virtually drop by the <vc.> Conference you launched so ling ago, and
check up on the locals who follow this stuff, ok?  That would be good
serious fun.
  

    
Thanks everyone, especially Jonl and HLR
  

    
writes via e-mail:

Howard,
Hi. Enjoyed your other books and this discussion. We like your work
and want to buy this one.  We are regular readers of Inkwell.

What do you like best about the Well now compared to back in the day?
You are a visitor who was once a regular (I gather from the comments
anyway) so you are in a good position to observe --  how has the
members-only area evolved?

Peace and !!!
  

    <scribbled by jonl Fri 18 May 12 12:19>
  

    
Sorry for the delay! I was gone for a week and then it took me several
days to catch up. While I was on the road I gave a talk at the Media
Lab, followed by a conversation with Joi and Mimi Ito. It has received
a lot of comment:

http://www.media.mit.edu/events/2012/05/10/media-lab-conversations-series-howa
rd-rheingold

I will try to return to catch up on some of the questions that were
posted in my absence. And thanks for the nudge, Gail. I will check out
VC. I found myself thinking about the Mind conference a while back. I
think I started that around September or October, 1985!

Yes, I love the conversational mode and spend way too much time in the
forums and blog comments for the courses I teach at Stanford and
Rheingold U.
  

    
THe mind conference!  What fun we had in there.  Laundromania was one of the
all-time great playgrounds.