Kevin Koym

Archives for September 2007

Social networks: public thoroughfares or private tollroads?

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The following is an email that I sent out to a number of friends and collegues, some of whom I know through Bootstrap Austin’s Web Group.  Given that there are a number of people that I would like input on this, (many that are not in Austin, much less not in the web group) I am posting this note here.

Bootstrap Web and a few bcc’ed friends,

As some of you know I have been working on a book over the last six weeks. I have been pretty silent during that time.  I am back.  (Imagine hearing Jack Nicholson say “Here’s Johnny!” when I say this). After all of the writing, I am getting prepared to set out implementing some of the ideas that have been bouncing around in my head…. and I have a question that I would like to pose to the community at large to get your input on this… both on choices of technology and philosophy.

In the time that I was away, I received numerous invites to a number of social networks.  Eight in total, with 6 of them being from this continent, and most of them being from the Austin and Dallas areas.  What I find striking about each one of these new sites is they are all walled gardens– sites that are private “toll roads”, but at least at this time, do not have any notion of being publicly connected.  Even Facebook, which is a favorite of mine because of its API, is still a walled garden.

My concern is that some of these walled gardens will fail. Some of the owners of these walled gardens will eventually charge rents- or might take their networks in directions that do not align with the work that I am doing and or perhaps with my values.  I too, want to have a social network, but I too, see the problem with having Kevin’s walled garden.  It will be really pretty, and I am certain that great value will be afforded to the entrepreneurs that interact in this social network… but I feel that right now as a community builder that I should be talking with you guys to see what you think- what can we do together to build public thoroughfares?  Is it possible with the technologies that are out there?  I have looked at OpenID, and I am a fan… I do not see yet how to build the network on it…. only how to create single source logins. I have also looked briefly at Plaxo’s Pulse network.  I don’t see yet it really connecting people, but it feels like it could be interesting.  But doesn’t it all feel like there is something missing on these sites?  Doesn’t this all feel like sites like the very limited sites like Tripod.com or Angelfire.com of 1997?  Doesn’t this feel like those friends that have AOL.com addresses (back then, and especially today) that are kinda stuck- dependent on some company that might change their policies, making those addresses a servere liability?

My questions to you are this- what is the proper way to go forward building public thoroughfares, but still having “my corner” of the internet where I conduct my business, and where you and other entrepreneurs can conduct your affairs… Just like down on 2nd Street here in Austin.  How do we make sure that there are not ten gazzilion freaking logins, limited connectivity to the different sites?  Or should I just forget about it right now, and build out my own private Idaho (my own private social network) and connect into other sites at some point in the future when the technology is here?

What are your thoughts?

I am going to post this as well at my blog. Given that this is going to Bootstrap-Web, we can interact there, although some of you will be bcc’ed on this conversation.  If you want, please come make public comment on this on my website. I intend to be out in the open on this, for this is how I think that we can together build a stronger community.  Here is the url where this is being posted: (this blog post)

Thank you for your thoughts.  Now let’s go build our community together.

Kevin

It’s What’s on the Outside that Counts – TIME

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As many of you know I am in the process of writing a book- a field manual of how social networks can be used to facilitate getting real work done, with my personal focus being about how to support fields of entrepreneurs build their businesses together. Well… the great thing from having y’all help me out is the great leads on research that supports my thesis. Thanks to Ken and Robin for forwarding this link to me.

One of my premises of my work is for a business to be truly successful (in a climate of increasing competition) it needs to be well connected to the outside world. In fact, I write about being “open, but not vulnerable” in the book. The following article published in Time Magazine verifies this. In this article, they say:

The idea that the power of the group comes primarily from the group itself is as outdated as the rotary dial

Deborah Ancona from MIT has recently written a book called X-Teams: Teams get extroverted which goes further into the premise that I have been talking about for the last four years- to build robust ventures we need to get “the experts” out of the way, and get our organizations (and entrepreneurs) better connected. Deborah Ancona’s work verifies this.

Oh… and one note to MIT… thank you for the research you guys do. Whether Peter Senge, Deborah Ancona, Rosalin Picard, Nicholas Negroponte, or one of the many other researchers and educators that I read at MIT that shares their cutting edge insight, thank you.

Creating peace on this day

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In memory of September 11, I thought I would share some quotes about making peace.  These were assembled together in a book called The Right Moment p. 146.  It just did not seem like I could let this day pass without doing some small token gesture.  If you have other quotes to share about peace, please share them.

Make Peace

Nonviolence is the first article of my faith.  It is also the last article of my creed.
Mahatma Gandhi

Anger is the wind which blows out the lamp of the mind.
Robert Ingersoll

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
Mathew 5:9

Henceforth the adequacy of any military establishment will be tested by its ability to preserve the peace.
Henry Kissinger

All anger is an attempt to make someone feel guilty.
A Course in Miracles

We train in hopes of being of some use, however small our role may be, in the task of bringing peace to mankind around the world.
Morihei Ueshiba
Founder of Aikido

Wilth malice toward none, with charity for all…  let us finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds.
Abraham Lincoln

When women have a voice in national and international affairs, war will cease forever.
Augusta Stowe-Gullen

When faced with angry conflict, it is easy to get lost in the issues and lose sight of the fact that any form of peacemaking is a commitment to a self-inquiring process of communication.  How I / you / we relate to the issues is the deeper issue when faced with conflict.  Within this process, I am discovering that my own anger can be transmuted into passion when I reframe my relationship with the issues- from what I am fighting against to what I am prepared to stand up for.  And what I am willing to stand up (and speak out) for is my faith in the innate goodness in human beings, our willingness and desire to srive toward a peaceful coexistence and our infite capacity for growth.
Julie Knowles

I think that people want peace so much that one of these days government had better get out of their way and let them have it.
Dwight D. Eisenhower

Peace, like freedom, is no original state which existed from the start;  we shall have to make it, in the truest sense of the word.
Willy Brandt

Everybody today seems to be in such a terrible rush, anxious for greater developments and greater riches and so on, so that children have very little time for their parents.  Parents have very little time for each other, and in the home begins the disruption of peace in the world.
Mother Teresa


Take care,
Kevin

Coming soon- my book

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Over the last few weeks of silence here at my blog I have been working on a book about how to apply social networks for organizing entrepreneurs- called Peer Production.  The world continues to see the flattening of most organizations- where knowledge and decision making happen at the edges of the organization.  This especially happens when you get a bunch of entrepreneurs together- no centralized decision making, but great disruptive innovation, not to mention strong companies can result from this set of interactions.  My favorite example of this to date comes from the Linux community– although peer production has now left the confines of the open source software industry, and is disrupting (and innovating) in many different industries. With social networking platforms, together we can rapidly build businesses together.
I will be using this book as a platform for both building entrepreneur support networks, both inside of and outside of existing organizations.  I have written the book in such a way that it will be applicable for both the economic development manager building a self-support entrepreneur network, as well as for a company that wants to leverage individual entrepreneurs (or small businesses) outside of their company.

If you are interested in either being a part of my review community, or in getting an early copy, let me know by clicking this link and sending me a message through the Enterprise Teaming website.  My intention is to use this first version of the book to drive the next round of projects that I do with this model. I will write some more about this on this blog in the coming days and weeks.

Oh… and thank you to my handful of friends that kicked me in the butt hard enough to take off and write it…  August 2007 was very productive on working on this, and has helped me strengthen my model for the next round of entrepreneurial networks that we build together.  Thank you!  And viva la revolucion!

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