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.

Double Down on Enterprise Social Networking

I mentioned the "We are Smarter than Me" project in a blog entry a couple of months ago. Well, the first revelations are in the process of being fine tuned into a book that was written by the crowds. I am extremely privileged to have an copy of the compiled book. My prediction is it will be the Fall 2007, "Good to Great" for the business world. I am not going to give away the end or even a sample of the case studies that are included. You are just going to have to read it for yourself. Remember, the proceeds of the book are going to charity.

I was working on a project today with the manuscript while getting a pedicure and manicure. It got me to thinking about the history of community and the Internet. It made me want to "double down" on my bet of the future of enterprise social networking. I feel like my company has two aces with a dealer on a bad luck streak. Time to double down!!

Having moved around the past couple of years, I have consistently had to depend on the members of the new community to provide counsel and advise on EVERYTHING. I ask colleagues, neighbors, and strangers for recommendations on landscapers, doctors, nail salons, hairdressers, mechanics, and restaurants. I relied on the community for my immersion into a new environment.

I observed a small example of this while in the nail salon today. I had just finished reading a small blurb in the text about people have historically depended on their communities for direction .... think of the bazaars and farmers markets still in existence in the third world. This is a place for shopping for information and goods and services.... Don't by fish from him for x reason or the stall over two has a great price on widgets.

Today, three perfect strangers were swapping restaurant reviews about area restaurants. The top spoons go to Good News Cafe in Woodbury and Thomas Moran's Petite Syrah and Forsythia's in Washington and New Milford respectively with a communal nod that the Cookhouse was certainly a great establishment. Weren't we all lucky to have so many great options? Then it happened! The oldest member of this gaggle of women and the youngest started talking about Restaurant.com. "Isn't it great? You can rate the restaurants, read reviews, see menus and make reservations." said the Matriarch EUREKA! This is socialized networking and enterprise networking .. and more than that a multi channel community that restaurant.com had in a nail salon.

There are people which believe that this is a bunch of hooey. I know them. As a person that respects and consults history to predict future social behavior, I bring up the history of email.
Question, did you have a personal or professional email first? Most people had an AOL or CompuServe account? Before your time? Sorry, I am an old timer for personal computers. I had one of the first TRS-80's from Radio Shack prior to getting out of middle school. I also one of the first email accounts of my friends. I wasted more time than I want to admit in the 1990's waiting for the words "You've Got Mail". My husband and I developed our relationship through emails prior to meeting in 1999 and spent hours "IM'ing" each other during the day. My love notes disappeared into the oblivion when I closed the conversation...

In 1999, the company I worked for did not have corporate email. This was all done on a laptop and email account I personally funded. My boss was nice enough to have a data line installed in my office when she realized the impact of Monster.com on the recruiting industry was starting to have. Imagine someone trying to do placement and HR recruiting today without email? Role forward just eight years. EVERYONE has email.. personal and professional. I get my email on my Blackberry. I have a crackberry problem. I am not looking for therapy or sympathy. I love it. The non corporate environment demanded access to email from their companies. The same will be true of the people that are accustom to FaceBook, Friendster and My Space for companies to employ Social Networking as part of their overall customer communication, product development and customer retention.

My mind went nuts about other examples of communities that have spread like a virus on to the Internet. I am sure you can all think of examples. Do tell! Hit the comments link and share. Be part of my community. I dare you...