I'm a big fan of open source software because it's idealistic, it's a community enterprise, and it's a rising tide that lifts all boats, including yours and mine. I attended ComputerWorld's Open Source Business Conference in 2010 with a favorite former client, The Outer Curve Foundation (formerly called The CodePlex Foundation), where I got to learn more about the pervasiveness of open source  in the business world, in your computer, in your car, and just about any place you can imagine. This video that I produced is still as relevant today as ever. Open your eyes. Open source is everywhere.

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Look out, Don Draper wannabes. The best product placements are free. They are produced by real people using real products in real life in quirky and interesting ways that are conducive to the brand's image.

The fact is that slick, staged, overly produced handycraft just can't compete with "real." Have you noticed how television news anchors seem to be morphing into  parodies of themselves, with the fake asides, plastic chuckles and contrived head moves? It's because as YouTube  becomes ubiquitous, we are becoming more and more familiar with authenticity -- so we can spot a phony a mile a way.

Here's an idea for a 21st century ad firm: become an aggregator and distributor of homemade videos featuring effective product placements, like this one featuring Bud Light. It's a smart as anything produced on Madison Avenue for megabucks, and it's F-R-E-E. And it's generated 3.5 million views in less than two weeks.

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As 2012 approaches and the Mayan calendar readies itself for the ashbin of history, we face before us some daunting risks, and tremendous opportunities. A recent scientific analyisis of Twitter chatter finds that we're becoming sadder. Through it all, I say to you and to myself:  frown not and be grateful.

It is nonsense, of course, that Mayans living thousands of years ago would posess some supernatural ability to be able to predict the future. We are much more knowledgeable and sophisticated than they the Mayans ever were, and yet we are unable to predict where the second sock of a pair out of the clothes dryer will end up, let alone describe how and when the world will end.

Yet the human proclivity to be so interested in end-of-the-world scenerios says something about the times we live in. We live in dread of global warming, burgeoning government deficits, wars without end, pollution, overcrowding and a general malaise coaxed by an uneasy feeling that the best times are behind us and not ahead. 

But are they? They don't have to be. And is it a question that even matters to us as individuals? Not really, because we are all mortal and as each of us lies on our deathbeds I guarantee that all the problems of the world will not yet have been solved. The situation has always been daunting and always will be.  It is the nature of human existence. So too is the ability to advance, to find joy and to be grateful for what we have. 

Social media is one of those glass half empty or half full human creations that offers both complications and opportunities. Social media can be as confusing and distracting as hell. It can also help illuminate the world around us and enlighten us about ourselves and others. Social media can be isolating, causing us to avoid the real world in favor of a preoccupation with a virtual one. Or it can help us connect with friends and colleagues past, present and future in honest, meaningful and genuine ways that can even be life changing. Social media marketing can be the insincere posturing of a business pretending to be your friend. Or it can be something that encourages win-win interactions with customers that help consumers find better values, and help businesses offer better products and services.

The bottom line is that reality is not a fixed and static thing, but that it lies in our perception of the way things are. If we feel gratitude, we find things to be grateful for. If we see potential, we realize it. If we sense opportunity, we find that, too. 

My resolution for 2012 is to realize the potential, to celebrate the opportunities and most of all, to be grateful.

Happy New Year.

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So Twitter has unveiled a new site redesign, and with it comes the predictable pattern of public reaction that I like to call The Five Stages of Social Network Redesign Acceptance:

Anger. "How dare these overpaid geeks toy with MY social network!?" (The one that doesn't charge me anything to use and that I nevertheless access compulsively no matter where I am morning, noon and night.)

Whining. "Hey everybody, have you seen this new redesign? Is iit lame or what? Seriously, the losers behind this monstrosity (the twenty-somethings who in a few years have become billionaires thanks to their creativity, ingenuity and overall brilliance when it comes to web development) don't know what the hell they are doing! Epic FAIL!"

 Acceptance. "In today's world you gotta get used to new stuff, right? After all, change is the only constant! And I'm passionate about change!" (It just takes a lot of anger and whining to get there.)

 Wondering what all the fuss is all about. "This redesign is no big deal. It's pretty much like the old site anyway. I figured it out in a few minutes. Maybe people who aren't into the whole social media "thing" will have problems with it, but not me!” (At least not anymore).

 Saying you liked it all along. “I have a friend from college who works there (who I haven't seen for years but let's not dwell on that), and I'm really psyched that he decided to take my advice and they added/changed/got rid of ______. Let's face it. The site is much better than it used to be. Very intuitive, [latest buzzword], and [latest buzzword].  I love the new redesign! Passionately! Always have!

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The majority of business professionals are really, really insecure when it comes to social media. Have you noticed that? I have. Relax, there’s nothing to be afraid of. Here’s why:

You own the special sauce, not the "gurus." Social media snake oil salesmen, of which there are many in the field, are very good at pitching social media "theory" using psychedelic PowerPoint charts, wearing fashionable glasses and dressing down like Mark Zuckerberg. They want to make you think that they know something you don’t. Jargon rich ideas are one thing. Execution is the key. And the only way you can execute successfully is with great content. The fact is, you own the content, not them. 

No one is more of an expert in you than you. We all have a PhD. I have a PhD in Tim Allik. You have a PhD in you. You know yourself better than anyone else does. All of your experiences, personal and professional, have been boiled down over the years and decades into who you are now. That’s a lot of experience -- and a lot of compelling stories and information that matter to your audience. Be confident in that. Content is what counts. The latest widget or social network of the day are the blood vessels, but you are the brain. 

Don’t forget how smart you are. The nature of work today is that we often live in a bubble with other people who, like us, are experts in our field of endeavor. We tend to start speaking in professional shorthand about ideas that we take for granted, but that are target audience will find interesting, even groundbreaking. You’ve learned a lot over the years. What you might think obvious, your audience will find fascinating. 

It’s not dumbing it down, it’s keeping it simple. Have respect for the intelligence of your audience, but remember that all the stuff you know and take for granted is probably not identical to all the stuff they know and take for granted. Don’t write for you. Write for your audience. If you are writing at a level to impress yourself, you’re doing a research paper, not a blog post. Be a teacher, not a researcher. Whether it on a blog, in a webinar or on video, communicate online about what you already know as clearly and simply as you can.

It’s just a conversation. Successful business professionals must also be excellent communicators. At a cocktail party, they are usually great at talking about what they do and all of the exciting things going on at work and in the industry.  But for some reason, when they get in front of a keyboard their brains freeze up. That’s usually because instead of trying to communicate to someone on the outside, they are writing to someone on the inside, to themselves. As I said before: wrong audience. If the keyboard trips you up, bring a portable recorder with you on your commute and just start talking, not to yourself, but to that person you are trying to reach. You’ll be surprised at how much you have to give. 

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Social media is like summer camp, and I'll give you five reasons why. 

1. Like summer camp, social media is adventure where you get to meet and get to know people from all over the country and even the world.
2. Both social media and summer camp allow people to dabble in a bunch of different things without having to be an expert in anything. Both say, "just go ahead and get your hands dirty."
3. Social media and summer camp both encourage independence. Campers become less dependent on their parents. Social media practioners become less dependent on other people to do their writing, photography, videography, job searches and travel plans for them. 
4. Social media and camp are both addictive. Once you've had a taste of either one, you'll want to keep coming back for more.
5. Social media and summer camp both teach the power of cooperation, that by working together and helping each other you can achieve a lot more than you can on your own. 

I was really lucky to attend Camp Choconut for Boys in Friendsville, Pennsylvania for five summers when I was a kid. I loved camp like nothing else. In the dark days of winter I'd count the days until I'd be able to dive back into the clear waters of Lake Choconut and see my old friends for another summer of fun, exploration and adventure.

I had a blast putting this little video together after the annual Camp Choconut reunion that my family attended this past August. For three days a bunch of old and new friends of all ages hang out and "do summer camp." I think I'd do summer camp all year long if I could. But social media certainly helps get through the winter. Right, campers? 

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I had an experience this week reminding me that getting together with someone face-to-face can advance a discussion in a way that online interactions cannot. Online helps to get the plane in the air, so to speak. Meeting in person safely lands it. 

Real life is more nuanced than the well-crafted thought bubbles we tend to post online. Truth isn’t binary. There are many other flavors in life’s kitchen cabinet than good and bad, right and wrong, yes and no, do it this way and not that way. But you wouldn’t know it from what appears online. Why is this? Two reasons. 

First, before our communities became virtual, we actually had to share physical space with other people when we wanted to be social. Now, though, we can be “social” by sitting alone in front of our computers while talking to ourselves (as I am doing now) and relaying that information to others via the web and social networks.  This format does not encourage subtlety (I’ve found that people who talk to themselves are rarely subtle). 

Second, the web encourages what I call “the congregation of the likeminded.”  Many an online community consists of likeminded people agreeing with each other on as much as possible  -- and dehumanizing anybody who doesn’t share their point of view. Civil disagreements just don’t happen that often in the online universe. What we really need is a web community that is designed specifically to encourage civil disagreement (but I’ll save that topic for another blog post).   

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If you've heard recently that "content is king," take stock of the notion -- but realize that it's far from a novel concept. I first heard those three words strung together in the context of online publishing back in 1997.

People have been arguing about what drives a successful online content strategy since the dawn of the web.

Generally speaking, it's been a binary debate. Are you on the side of content? Or are you on the side of distribution? Is great content what it takes to really break out and reach an audience? Or does it take a creative, effective use of social media channels to hit it big? 

Binary "either/or" arguments are endemic in our society today - and also overly simplistic. Of course it takes both great content and excellent distribution to make things really hum. But just like anything else, successful execution of any content strategy relies on one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration. In the end, while both content and distribution are important, discipline trumps everything. 

What do I mean by discipline? The idea is simple: come up with a plan and then stick to it. The planning part is relatively easy (although people have a tendency to bite off more than they can chew in the planning stages). What people find most challenging is actually following through with the plan they've come up with. How many times have you stumbled across a great blog full of excellent content that ends in mid-sentence in a post that was published six months ago? 

Why do I think discipline is more important than content or distribution? Here's why: because if you combine mediocre content with half-assed distribution using Twitter, Facebook, etc. - but do so according to a schedule, religiously, over a period of time - you will end up with much better results than the blogger who posts excellent content sporatically, or the dude who tweets nonstop but only occasionally links to decent original content. 

It sounds easy, but is it? No, it isn't. Web publishing and social media in general include a powerful built-in sabatoge device that is perfectly designed to blow up the most well-intentioned plans. It's called distraction. Let's be honest about it: countless hours of time have been wasted on Facebook, Twitter and just surfing the web. Here's the paradox: the more you're really into this stuff, the more these Sirens of Distraction beckon. Embrace your enthusiasm about social media, but reign in the distraction by creating a realistic, achievable content generation and distribution plan, and then stick to it. Discipline is the key. 

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I worked in public radio news in the early part of my career, and I learned a very important writing lesson there. Short and simple always beats long and complicated.

I jumped from WBUR and radio to Boston.com and the web in the late nineties by pitching the idea that writing for the web and writing for the radio share a lot in common.

Writing for online is closer to radio writing than it is to print writing for one very important reason: channel flippers.

Just like radio listeners, web readers can always "turn the dial" and find something else that's more interesting, less verbose, and gets to the point. Or something with no value at all besides mindless entertainment, like the video below:

One trick that broadcast writers use to craft copy is to read whatever they write out loud, to make sure that the words flow easily. It works for web writing, too. So do contractions. Not to mention incomplete sentences. The high priests of print media have frowned on these devices in the past, but I've been using them in web copy for years and haven't been struck by lightning yet.

Short sentences work better than long senses. Thin paragraphs work better than thick paragraphs.

If you keep writing after you hit 300 words, you should understand that not only are you probably wasting your time, you are actually scaring some readers away.

Readers who confront lengthy blog posts full of dense paragraphs often become overwhelmed at the sheer mass of words. Their trembling, long-suffering attention spans simply can't take it, and they flip the dial on you. Check out your bounce rates and see for yourself.

Write short.

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I enjoy doing video projects for clients because it can be a really fun, creative outlet and can have a major impact on how you and your business is perceived. But there is one cardinal rule that I always follow: Never, EVER, promise that you're going to deliver a "viral video" for someone.  You are setting yourself and your client up for almost certain disappointment. 

You can't "make" a video go viral -- a video that's going to do you or your client any good, that is. Sure, you could always have the CEO of the company run around in the office parking lot dressed in a chicken outfit with the rest of the company pelting him with eggs, and that may well go viral. But so what? How does that help anybody? It doesn't. In fact it makes the CEO and his company look like a bunch of clowns. 

It's much better to offer a concise video that makes a point and offers value through information. Don't focus on total views, but the quality of those views. Especially in B2B social marketing, just a few views could make the difference between a sale and no sale - enough of a bump to make your number for the quarter, or not. 

Another benefit of offering genuine information in your video is that it will retain its value over time. People will end up seeing it weeks and months from now, especially if you keyword it correctly for search algorythms, embed it in your blog with supporting editorial content, and ping your top influencers with it via Twitter and other relevant social networks. 

If it's viral, that means it's mainstream - and the quality of your audience automatically degrades.  100,000 views? Great. But how many of them aren't bored teens sniggering about the guy in the chicken suit? Quality, not quantity. Information, not laughs. Forget viral. Offer value instead. You won't be disappointed, and neither will your client. 

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Social media is like a gun. It has the power to save your life, and also kill you. Its power is in its ability to connect you with others. That, in itself, has intrinsic value. Taken a step further, social media has the power to connect you with others who will do something for you, if you do something for them. Are you seeking a job? Social networks enable you to show your talents and skills with people who are looking for them. Are you selling a product? Compelling social content with relevant keywords will attract people who are interested in your goods and services. Do you like butterflies? Someone else out there does as well, and will gladly help you find out all you want about them.

That's the bright side of social media. And it's very, very bright indeed. Social media is changing lives and changing the world.

The dark side of social media is also changing the world, but in a different way. Mindfulness is an important Buddhist concept dating back thousands of years. It's one of the Buddha's seven factors of enlightenment. The idea is to be fully aware of yourself and your surroundings, and fully present in the moment. This brings inner calm and peace. Today, cognitives psychologist use mindful meditation to treat anxiety, depression and obsessive compulsive disorder.

Used incorrectly, social media is the antithesis of mindfulness. Oftentimes, people just aren't fully present anymore. They are somewhere else, no matter how trite or meaningless that place might be. How often have you talked to someone you haven't seen for weeks or months, only to see yourself competing with their iPhone or Blackberry for their attention? Is this one of the reasons that prescriptions for drugs to treat anxiety and depression have skyrocketed by 400 percent over the past ten years? I think so. “Wherever you go, there you aren't” isn't a recipe for human contentment. People tend to shrug this off, chuckling or sighing about how they “always have to be on” for work, their kids, whatever. You shouldn't shrug this off. It's very, very important to realize how damaging this can be.

Social media is no substitute for genuine human connection. We are much, much more than words or pixels on a screen. We are each composed of countless atoms connected by a powerful web of energy. As yet, this energy field can't be transported over the web. When we're conversing over the web, we're not conversing with each other, but with recordings of each other. It is often entertaining and/or informative, but the idea that it is genuine human connection is an illusion. If you are Tweeting or Facebooking alone in your home of office, you are still in many important ways alone. As a species, we are not designed to be solitary. Being alone for any length of time is an historical anomaly – except in prisons, where solitary confinement is used as punishment and is considered by some critics to be a form of torture. Yet thanks to the “virtual office” and constant access to digital communications and digital media, more and more people are spending more and more time alone, each and every day. I would assert that this is generally very unhealthy.

So what's the answer? I think the answer is to maximize the good and minimize the bad. Use social media to connect with people. Use social media to help other people, and to find help for yourself. There certainly is a place for online-only connections. But the biggest, most powerful win of all is to use social media to meet those online friends and colleagues in person and in the flesh. This is the element of social media that is truly revolutionary and is changing the world – on a political level, in Egypt, on Wall Street and in cities throughout the US. On a smaller scale, Meetups are Tweetups are happening everywhere, all the time, on just about any topic you can imagine. If you can't find one that interests you, set up your own. One-on-one meetings with people who share your interests can be even more powerful. The web encourages linear dialogues on specific topics with a very narrow range. There is little room for discovery of wildly off-topic subjects that may be even more relevant and interesting than the topic at hand. Face-to-face meetings encourage this process of discovery.

Once you meet in the flesh, remember to turn your phone or laptop or iPad off – or at least put it away for a while. Feel the energy of the people around you. Notice how different and truly special these connections seem compared to the Tweets or Facebook updates to which you are accustomed. Look into their eyes. Be present. Be mindful. You'll get much, much more out of the experience, and you will be a more fulfilled human being. It could even save your life.

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At the 1978 Science Fiction Film Awards, William Shattner performed Elton John's song, "Rocket Man," in spoken word while smoking a cigarette ... and no one in attendance apparently thought it was funny enough to laugh out loud. I have to believe that many people in the audience wanted to laugh, but they didn't, not so much because it would have embarrassed Shattner, but because it would have embarrassed them. Today we are so conditioned to be voyeuristic that life can seem like a movie to be watched and critiqued. Thanks to our collective post-doctorate levels of mass media consumption, we have become expert observers and shamelessly outspoken analysts. This performance today would result in spasms and waves of loud and uncontrollable laughter.  The man who immortalized Captain Kirk is laughing all the way to the bank in 2011, with an estimated net worth of more than $1 billion thanks to his role as a self-mocking pitchman for Priceline.com. Now Shattner is in on the joke, and it's paying off. 

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I find this short film by Luke Rudkowski to be very moving. He asks random people on the New York City subway some pretty heavy questions about life, success, what it means to be happy, and the meaning of life itself. Their answers are powerful in their wisdom and humanity. 

I appreciate the opportunity to talk to strangers because it almost always makes me feel a lot better about the human race.  You'd think we were all selfish, cold-hearted cretins by the way people are portrayed in the market-driven media, or by how "success" is so commonly and erroneously defined. People who get rich by driving banks over cliffs, or by building nuclear reactors that cut corners on safety, or by peddling pharmaceutical concoctions they know cause more harm than good  - these are deemed "the winners" when materialism is the measure and "selfishness pays" is the message. The fact is that most people don't buy this garbage. We are naturally inclined to care about each other. In our hearts we know the true measure of success, of what it means to be human. It's a pretty simple formula, and people everywhere are much smarter about this stuff than we sometimes realize. 

We're all spinning around on the big blue ball at the same time and occasionally it overwhelms me how close we all are in time and space, no matter who we are or where we live, regardless of whether we know each other or not.  

Go ahead, just ask anybody on the subway. There are heroes all around us. 

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Retail people are smart because it's such a competitive space, but they are also "people" people - and it's a good combination. The National Retail Federation's Big Show celebrated its 100th anniversary but didn't look a day over two years from now. Seriously, what is this? Star Trek or something? Smart and social is an excellent combination for innovation, excitement and optimism  as you can see in Netezza's video series from the event.

Fortunately for me, the Netezza team pitched in and did an exceptional job in the "talent" department. Special thanks to Karina Bernier, the talented young broadcast interviewer and producer who set up and did many of the interviews. The camera, lighting, sound and editing team - i.e. me - wrapped up business and packed up all the gear at the Javit Center by 5:25 p.m. on Tuesday. for a 6:00 p.m. train. Everybody within a mile radius was hailing a cab to in a desperate effort to fool time and avoid The Big Storm and The Commute From Hell.  I ran walked and crawled from Javit to Penn Station carrying lighting equipment, a tripod, a metal suit case containing microphones and cameras, a briefcase containing two computers and my suitcase. 

Unfortunately for me, I didn't get there until 6:05 p.m. Not only that, the high speed Amtrak Acela train was late. Wait a second, that's good. Yessss. 

And one of the many, many warm, kind, generous New Yorkers saw me covered in flop sweat at the train station and helped me with my gear and with a few gentle laughs.

It's all true. I love retail people, and I love New York.

Check out Netezza's videos  from the floor of the Javit Center at NRF 2011 on YouTube.

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I've been working at Netezza for six months now and I'm finally getting my head around data warehousing, analytics, "big data," predictive analytics and so forth.  It's been a challenge, frankly, to get smart enough about this stuff to actually say anything publicly about it. 

When I was young and dumb six months ago, too bad I didn't access to some smart, easy-to-understand videos comparing Netezza TwinFin and Oracle Exadata that show how key differences result in two very different products with different capabilities. 

If you are a friend or relative or total stranger or anyone else for that matter and still have no idea what Tim's company does, you can learn about Netezza by viewing the three concise videos we just produced at http://netezza.com/compare. It explains the differences between Netezza's technology and our competitor Oracle Exadata. 

I'm a fan of Apple because their technology is easy to set up and use, incredibly powerful -- and respects your intelligence.  After six months at the company I can now say with informed confidence - same with Netezza. 

I almost forgot to mention that the narrator for these videos also did the VO for the Scuderi Engine video that went viral a few years ago after I posted it on YouTube.  I cracked up when I heard his voice. Not because it was funny in a hah hah way. The guy is good. More of a "when universes collide" kind of thing. 

Anyhow, enjoy: 

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Despite the popularity of the HBO television series Big Love, monogamy is generally accepted as a requirement for a mutually beneficial, long lasting relationship. Research has shown that divorce can be stressful enough to actually making you sick. So it puzzles me how breaking ties with coworkers after a job change or layoff  is so widely viewed as insignificant, an afterthought, something to be shrugged off.

If you add up all the minutes and hours and days you spend with our colleagues at work, the number of words exchanged, the laughter, the drama, the forging ahead through the daily grind together, you realize that you spend a lot more time with your work friends than you do with your spouse.  Yet when you leave your job for something new, breaking up with your work buddies is generally considered to be a non-issue, just another day living the American Dream.  

I suppose it makes sense. Americans have been reinventing themselves ever since they could get far enough away from whoever they were before.  To a certain extent, that means out with the old and in with the new. I’ve done it myself.  I’ve been through it myself often enough to know.  It’s a fresh start with new responsibilities, new people to know and new things to learn.

When I think about all the people I’ve worked with through the years, at the Christian Science Monitor, The Boston Globe, WBUR, from as far back as the Land Ho! Restaurant on Cape Cod until now at Topaz Partners, it reminds me that there are good, compassionate, funny, kind, creative, smart people in the world.  Not everyone has their name in lights, but there are plenty of superstars, people gifted in particular way that may be subtle but as unique as their fingerprints.

Facebook is an easy target for criticism. It’s a gigantic for-profit enterprise that sucks up your social DNA to the extent that Facebook knows you better than you know yourself if you aren’t careful. It’s creepy when Facebook tells you that you need to “reconnect” with a relative or friend. It’s even creepier when Facebook is correct.  But Facebook gets points for keeping me connected in some small way with old work friends.  I don't mean connected in pursuit of a networking opportunity job reference, or other personal gain. Ocassionally sharing a laugh, exchanging pictures of the kids, or just being there is what I mean. Insignificant things. Or perhaps the most important stuff of all.

In prior eras I might never have seen these people again. I would have thought about them, though.  Due to life’s daily repetitions, something would have triggered a memory once in a while. And I would have missed them.  Now we both know we’re here, we’re alive, we’re forging ahead.

That means something real to me.  What do you think?

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It has become nearly impossible to come up with a truly original idea these days, unless you have a PhD or some equivalent level of expertise and training in a niche area. Fortunately for us Jacks and Jills of all trades, there are an inifinite number of hybrid ideas - mashups of existing, time tested innovations and technologies - to keep us busy cooking up new stuff until the cows come home, which probably means never unless you live on a farm.

When it comes to media and promotion in general, nothing is older or time-tested than events listings. That's probably because events listings are great content - they are timely, interesting, and offer practical information that people can really use. Events listings predate the printing press by thousands of years. In New England, ye olde Town Cryer made the rounds promoting upcoming events as far back as settements began. Go to The Boston Globe headquarters on Morrissey Boulevard in Boston and in the lobby you'll see a wall-sized reproduction of a front page of The Globe from the late 1800's that among other things promotes, what else, events.

Combine events listings with Twitter (itself a mashup of sms texting and blogging) and you get BostonTweetUp, which along with @BostonTweetUp on Twitter and a weekly videocast includes a highly accessible Google calendar interface, which I include below for your convenience.

BostonTweet is run by social media marketing strategist Joselin Mane. Thank you Joselin! 

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James Stockdale was parodied as a senile buffoon after asking what at least seemed to be an obvious question: "Who am I and what am I doing here? during the 1992 vice-presidential debate. But Stockdale was no idiot. He was a war hero in Vietnam and held the distinction of being the highest ranked naval officer taken as a prisoner of war there. The question he asked that night is as relevant to you or me today as they were to the late vice-admiral, and not as easy to answer as you might expect at first blush. Who am I, and what am I doing here?

My friend Doug Haslam has talked about the "Stockdale question" in the context of PR and I give him credit for doing so. Now that every concept or idea ever concieved is footnoted somewhere on the web, practically nothing seems original any more, so forgive me. We all now know that original thoughts are few and far between. Creativity is expressed mostly in mashups these days - combinations of existing technologies and concepts in exciting new ways. And that's OK by me, because even if we've used up all the ideas once, the combinations are endless.

Who I am is a content enabler. I work with a short list of clients who I respect, I find out what they know best and gets them excited, and I help them tell their own stories. What I am doing here is talking about stuff I've learned over the years, months, days, weeks, and earlier today. In the interest of focus and in the context of my personal background and interests,  it's about communications, media, social media and public relations. That's who I am and what I'm doing here. How about you? 

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