From Naked Conversations to Global Neighborhoods

Naked Conversations Copy 1Shel Israel reminded us yesterday that Naked Conversations left the printers one year ago.

This caused me to pull my well-used copy off my book shelf and scan it again. Yes, social media has evolved rapidly in the past year. I’m sure that if the book were written today, Shel and Robert would give substantial treatment to podcasting and video blogging. (Heck, Robert’s now living la vida vlogging!) However, the book has held up remarkably well and I’m keeping it on my “must read first” list for clients and friends who want to be introduced to social media.

Now Shel is on to his next project, Global Neighborhoods (or Neighbourhoods for those of us in Canada and the U.K.). And to recognize this new project, he’s rebranded the Naked Conversations blog as the Global Neighborhoods blog and a new domain name.

Shel has already begun the process of asking readers of the blog for comments on the new book’s publisher’s overview and table of contents. If you haven’t taken a look at this, have a read and offer Shel your comments. Naked Conversations incorporated a great deal of reader-generated content and I’m sure that Shel will incorporate reader comments and suggestions into his new book.

My Link Blog – Thornley's Shared Items

Google ReaderSeveral months back I attended a blogger dinner in Chicago with Robert Scoble. During the discussion, Robert mentioned that he had just switched to a new blog aggregator, Google Reader. He talked about how it had helped him to manage and read the large volume of blogs to which he subscribed. He also mentioned a great feature that enables users to share items from blogs they’ve read so that others can also find these posts.

I’ve set up My Link Blog to share items through Google Reader that I find particularly interesting and think others might also find interesting. Please feel free to subscribe to it. I hope that you find useful information in the posts that I share.

Welcome two new members of Our Community

Capital PRThe New Year is a fitting time to take the wraps off two new members of our social media community, Capital PR and The Talking Shop.

Capital PR has been started by the PR consultants in our Ottawa office. The Talking Shop is the personal blog of John Sobol of our 76design shop. I hope you’ll subscribe to both blogs and participate in their conversations.

On the other side of the ledger, we’ve also seen one of Our Community move into Our Alumni.

The Talking Shop

John Wiseman has decided to return to school in Halifax to complete his degree. John’s a smart guy and we benefited daily from his determination to explore the full potential of social media. We wanted to keep John with us. But it’s hard to argue with the long term benefit of completing university. So, we’ve moved John into our Alumnae. And the door’s always open. Maybe he’ll decide to rejoin us after he’s completed his degree.

So, here’s to 2007. Beginning with change. Sure to bring more.