The Connection between the Amish and Web 2.0 Communities.

I recently finished reading a book by Jodi Picoult entitled, "Plain Truth". http://www.jodipicoult.com/ It was a light summer read however, I believe very well researched. It takes place on a Amish Farm in Lancaster County, PA. It was the first book I have read by this trendy novelist.

As I was reading, the word COMMUNITY jumped off the pages as the members of the Amish family continued to explain the importance of blending into a group and being part of the COMMUNITY was more important than being an individual or standing up for oneself.

I have been struggling to understand if this is an entirely different way of the "English" or non "Plain" way of the definition of how community is described in the web 2.0 world. Yes, their is a sense of wanting to belong to be sure. Web 2.0 and community is based on peer to peer communication and a sense of belonging to a group of people with similar interests or profession. Yet, there is an important part to individualism with current day COMMUNITIES. We update our profiles, post photos and comment on them, we project our thoughts in blogs as being a profound statement and encourage others disagree with us... We twitter away about the importance of being "me". These are not part of an Amish definition of community.

So what can we learn from looking at the Amish definition of Communities?

Well....

• The "Plain" leverage the strength of their community to complete tasks together as one faster than an individual. (Amish barn raisings are a keen example)
• They believe in the strength of numbers to give them a sense of belonging and comfort.
• Socialization is a keen part of the Amish community with hymn sing along, quilting circles and most centric .. the church services that rotate between the homes of the community members..

Finally, I am finding a common thread in my blog posts regarding this isn't a new idea. It is a return to the way humans have interacted for centuries. We have depended on each other's skills (Begs and brags in discussion boards), ratings and reviews (idea share), and experiences (blog entries) to learn and grow as society. Web 2.0 based applications simply "Bring the Conversation Online"....

New pictures of Fiona at 15 weeks

When is Clean ...clean enough?

Confession:

I get panicked about the appearance of my home prior to having a certain sect of people visit me. Typically, these are people that:
A) Don't have pets... especially hairy dogs
B) Don't work outside the home (currently or ever)
C) Have young children

Why?

A) I can live with the tumbleweed of dog hair that appears between my weekly fight with the Oreck but I don't have a clue how others do it... I have given in to the work / life balance that life is messy but haven't gotten over I care about other's opinions of me yet.

B) Since I work remotely from home, some have the impression that it is easy for me to get everything done. WRONG!! I may be able to slip in a 10 AM run to the dry cleaners easier but I am working from 7AM to 7 PM often and the draw of my lap top and clients will always beat out the laundry mound or vacuum beast.

C) We don't have children. Our house is set up for adults and dogs. I worry about all the PC stuff that is suppose to enable kids never to experience pain and that they are closer to those hair balls than the rest of us.

That being confessed, I LOVE having company. I love to entertain and fairs' fair... I like the motivation and valid business reason to scrub the shower and door jams.

I like knowing what delights my guests. For example, my dad would be a home baked sugar free dessert. My best friend would be flowers in her room and a pile of magazines she hasn't read yet along with a shot of tequila. My good friend and house sitter loves having her shampoo in the guest bathroom. My nephews love the lolly pops, teddy grahams and matchboxes.

So as I am waiting for guests to arrive this week, if I answer the phone like a grump... tell me to put down the sponge.... everything is going to be okay....

I think the kool-aid has finally settled into my DNA

When do you realize an adoption of a new way to communicate? How do you know when it is pervasive in your life? I had such an Epiphany last night at the dinner table. We had planned a family dinner party by connecting with each other on Facebook. Yes, I did have to have one conversation with a family member that is not "LinkedIn" with "Facebook". However, this device and communication tool has allowed me to establish a faster and easier relationship with a new member of our family than I would have ever with the phone. Because of the following:

1) Our schedules are completely different.
2) There is about 14 years difference in age. (She is younger)
3) It makes sense to be able to put one thing out into the universe and keep everyone updated.

I just now have to get her to Twitter and I will be golden! The non kool family members at the table were a bit shocked at how we organized the get together without speaking and without email. I looked at their 3.5 year old boys and said... time to figure it out or you are going to be so far behind the times when they reach whatever is the future of the MySpace generation.

It also dawned on me how people are able to stay engaged more with remote friends and family with social networking. Have a sister in California or neighbors in Georgia? It is easy not to have to find the time for a conversation if you can update them on your life through a feed on Facebook, Twitter or an old fashion blog post.

Start counting the times people mention connecting with others via the social networking tools like a blog entry, FaceBook or MySpace page or tweat. I bet even you Barney Rubbler's will be amazed and prompted to look at joining the party!

Credit Crisis

I was listening to the Mike Church radio show on Sirius on Wednesday morning. He said something very interesting about the credit crisis and pending bail out. He was right on!

These people that have the sub prime loans and can't pay their bills aren't losing THEIR homes. The loans were no down payment type loans. They have NO equity. They were basically renters okay renting to own. Why are we bailing out people on home loans that they SHOULDN'T have qualified for in the first place?

I am not even going to start on bailing out financial institutions that knowingly lent money to people that didn't qualify.

Talk Radio.... Old time Community

Only children often pick up strange habits that are more adult like than other children that have siblings to influence them. That can be seen with food choices, reading material, and sports. As an only child, one of the weird habits I picked up from my mother was an interest in talk radio. I would set my clock radio to a huge Boston AM station to listen to Larry Glick nights as I went to bed. During Basketball season, I went to sleep (or eluded it) listening to the famous Johnny Most giving the play by play for Larry Bird, Danny Ange, and Tiny Archibald and the rest of the Celtics.
Today, I am still a talk radio junkie. I do this in a more technically upgraded way from an old clock radio. I stream it on my laptop and have satellite radio in my car. It dawned on me the other day how talk radio is a community. There is a host or a site. There is a group of like-minded people which congregate to talk and listen to others on issues that are important to them. People participate by calling in with their own UGC (User or 'Listener' Generated Content). Many lurk and just listen. Others take the information and have discussions with family and friends. They become better informed as even the SME (talk show hosts and guests) learn from the masses. It is an original technology based We Are Smarter than Me concept. The next time your radio dial hits a talk radio station figure you are part of an old time grass roots community.

What is more valuable ... Time or Heath?

Monday, I was spending a planned day off doing a bunch of to do items like getting the hitch finally installed on the car, dry cleaning, going to the gym to meet with my trainer at 9 AM. You know the stuff you can't normally do during work hours...

As I was sitting in the waiting area of the place that was installing the hitch reading my book, my head started to hurt and then pound. I related it to the machine across the street pounding into the rock wall trying to create more retail worth land into ledge.

By the time I got home, I was so sore and had a throbbing headache. Okay... It was early to be sore from my work out. Then about an hour later the chills and sweats started. By tour time (y'all know what that is... it is July at Brannydoon... There is only one channel.. VS. for the Tour de France... A month of Phil & Paul & Bob),

My fever was so bad. It reminded me of the ones I had as a kid where it got so high I would hallucinate. However, it seem to be better in the morning although the headache was still there. I struggled to work on Tuesday being back at work. My heart though wasn't in it. I was still having fever effects. By the night, I was right back there.

Beyond this, the horse fly bite, I had noticed on my hip over the weekend was throbbing and made it difficult to lie on my right side. For those of you in CT/NY, you probably know what I have. For those of you in NH/MA/GA and beyond, stay tuned.... By Wednesday, Mr. B told me to make an appointment with the doctor. Honestly, I think he thought I was faking it or was deathly afraid I was going to make him sick. I was still point person to take out Miss Fiona. I could barely move. However, I was dragging myself around the yard and up and down the street to make sure the 5 days of no mistakes was continued.

Go to the doctor for a fever? Why? All I am going to be told is to take Advil/Aspirin, fluids, and bed rest. However, I got a better look at the bite on my hip. The redness around it was now about 6 inches in the middle and didn't look normal 5 days after I noticed the bite.

So I picked up the phone and called the doctors office. Thankfully, they could see me almost immediately. (This typically isn't a good sign by the way). I started to think what if this is a tick bite? Could it be Lyme? I went to this trusty computer and typed in "Lyme disease and symptoms" into the Google search box. The Mayo clinic delivered the following link that pretty much confirmed all of my symptoms. http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/lyme-disease/DS00116/DSECTION=symptoms So did the doctor within taking my temperature and looking at my hip. Antibiotics and a promise that I should start to feel better in 48-72 hours but it would still be rough in between. Wednesday night was probably the worse but I finally started to feel better last night.

It got me to question my belief that 'you can always make more money but you can't create more time.' However, without your health do either money or time make a difference? I swear my head hurt so bad on Wednesday night I thought a guillotine would be a nice device? I know people with severe migraines have had similar thoughts.... What is your take?

A Letter to My Uncle Rob from Seamus

Dear Uncle Rob -

How are things at camp? How are cousins Winston and Sidney and Auntie Jen? I hope all is well and everyone has plenty of treats! Daddy said you had inquired about my near death experience last month. So here goes...

It was late in the afternoon on June 12th. Mommy had been very busy at the computer all day. I was bored and went into her bag where some times there are these tasty treats called "breakfast bars". I found a plastic bag but all it had in it were a couple of pills that weren't too filling.

The next morning (Friday the Thirteenth) there was a lot of commotion in the house when Daddy noticed the parts of the baggy I left as what he refered to as "evidence" in front of his bureau and my upstairs nightime beddie.

My human isn't too good. Here is what I got from the conversation. Mommy was upset because the baggy contained a couple of emergency "aleve and zyrtec" in it for when she goes "away" (Uncle Rob, I apologize for my language. I know "away"is a four letter word.)

Anyway, I got to go for an early morning car ride to visit the doctor. Neither of them were very happy with me. I got blood taken among an number of horrid tests and had this nasty charcoal stuff forced down my throat. It wasn't even flavored like beef or chicken. I had to stay there all day. Daddy stopped in for a talk with the doctor and to calm Mommy down. I don't know why she was soo upset. I was the one stuck in the cage with a needle in my arm with this bag of water handing off it. I got another dose of the charcoal again. Another four letter word.. YUCK.

I didn't see them for a couple of hours. They came back and we were off in the car. We stopped at this place that I got to go in. It didn't smell great. It smelled like fear. I went in with them. We went into what looked like another doctors office. I thought I was going home!! I got so upset I threw up. How embarrassing! Mommy and Daddy talked to the doctor and then handed over my leash to him. I didn't see them again until Monday. During this time, I had forced lots of water through my arm and I was confined to a cage. Prison with torture. I didn't even feel well. My tummy was very sore. The only good thing was the can food I got to eat.

I was so excited to go home with Mommy. However, when I got there .... I had a surprise named Fiona. I will tell you about that at a later time. I will say ... it wasn't the best surprise.

I didn't feel well the next day and I had well... problems with my bowels and Mommy had to go "away" again. She did have the pet sitter come.. but I couldn't hold it a couple of times. I was so ashamed. I ruined the living room rug. Daddy was quite upset when he came home.

I had medication and control issues for two weeks and several more trips to the vet. I am not sure what is to done about this. However, I thought you wanted to know. Hope to see all of you soon.

Your Furry Nephew,

Seamus...