For the last couple issues, Springwise has been talking about a trend to businesses building space in virtual worlds. SecondLife (a virtual community for 18-year-and above) has become a virtual home for Scion, Aloft Hotels, American Apparel, and
This is an interesting trend and business. Not sure how big it will be but it does open new questions about space, commerce and reality.
“I’ve heard of Alex Presley, but I wouldn’t know any of his music.” Sister Mary Pia
A longtime resident of Hollywood, Sister Mary Pia lives completely separated from this “Babylon of the USA.” She spends her days cloistered away in prayer at the Monastery of the Angels. Having entered the novitiate in 1950, she completely missed the rock-and-roll revolution: not to mention other earth-shattering culture shifts.
This little piece on the Monastery of the Angels in today’s NY Times sheds light on a population that lives separated from the cultural overdrive that most of us experience on a minute-by-minute basis. I find it refreshing to encounter folks who choose to live intentionally as opposed to living driven. While I may not take to the cloistered life (although it can be deeply appealing), I can learn from their simplicity and willingness not to give into the “needs” of our current cultural fixations.
In one of Van Gogh’s most productive creative periods, he was exchanging letters with a friend. Apparently the interaction spurred his creativity. As I’ve studied creativity and community over the years, I’ve noticed that relationships can be helpful for spurring new ideas, encouraging
An online expression of this tendency is surfacing in some of the online communities. 
Jeong-Hyn Lim (photo by Seokyong Lee for The New York Times)
The New York Times today tells the story of a young guitarist whose identity remained in shadows until now. He had uploaded a video of himself playing the guitar and soon it was a web world phenomenon. Not only was everyone talking about it, everyone was trying to duplicate it. In the process, musicians were exchanging ideas about technique, and helping one another improve their skills.
This type of trend shines positive light on the possibilities of online interaction.
I came across another article on customer-centric thinking today on Click Z by Heidi Cohen. Cohen relates a story of planning her summer vacation online, making reservations, and then canceling after reading a bad review. She later received an email asking for more feedback about the cancellation. This causes Heidi to wax eloquent about how small hotel managers are very sensitive to online ratings and work hard to listen to customer needs so they can make sure their customers enjoy the service.
The rest of the article lays out a few tips for listening to customers, gathering information and applying it. I appreciate this current focus on customer centrism and usually try to follow what people are saying about it. The trend toward customers seems like a good thing.
Especially if is for real.
Listening is an art. If I listen to a customer just to figure out a plan for the best way to manipulate them to purchase my goods, I may not listen for long. Or they may not speak for long.
Granted most of us listen to other people for selfish reasons. It is hard to listen for the sake of listening. This is challenge of turning and facing another person in all their ambiguity; valuing them as unique person; and listening to what they say (without immediately figuring out how to use or retort it). Our culture has little time or capacity for really listening, but if we learned it, it might change our lives.
Can this kind of listening work in business? It depends on the business model. Does the business exist for pure profit? Or are there other reasons? Under some models, a company might be willing to lose some profit if it means listening and responding to some genuine customer concerns. Then this stuff becomes real.
Otherwise it is just a means to end. Another method to ultimately use another for our own ends. If we practice this in business, I’m not sure we can turn it off when we go home.
I have a silly idea (maybe its purely eschatalogical), but I believe there could be another kind of commerce. Commerce is good because it involves exchange, thus presupposing relationship at some level. So could there be a commerce of love? And could it happen on this planet in this age?
I guess this why I’m a bad blogger. Too much writing and not enough linking! So I’ll stop.
Here’s a family safe social networking site called Famster. The whole thing is in flash. I think the interface actually looks pretty cool.
Springwise tells about a Dutch bank that is helping children try their hand at business.
Children who open an Easy Blue account receive a briefcase containing materials for printing their own t-shirts (aka bizznizz attire), stickers, letterhead, flyers, and business cards. To get started, the young business person logs on to bizznizz.postbank.nl and decides what type of business he or she would like to run. Postbank suggests washing cars, walking dogs, household chores and mowing lawns, as well as an intriguing ‘entertainment’ category…..Once a client has been secured and the first job completed, the kidpreneur can log back on to the website to print an invoice, and have the client transfer the carwashing fee to their bank account.
This programs companies real world activity (opening bank account, starting business) with online activity (creating online presence, billing, transferring funds). I this combination of real world and online activity represents the a key element in the future of the web (activities or clubs that bring together both physical interaction and physical activity with online interaction and activity).
The development of social networks for older Americans continues. In addition to the memories sites I mentioned the other day, there is now an adult version on MySpace.
US News and World Report presents an interesting introduction to Eons, a 50+ social networking community for baby boomers and above. This is a total lifestyle community that provides information on health, money, relationships, goals and even obituaries. It also gives the member an opportunity to build a lifemap of memories and pictures. Plus it has an interesting search feature, cRANKy returns top four pages based on Eons member rankings.
Thanks to e-Fluentials for the tip.
Update: The more I think about these online community/social networking sites, I see the natural development for some of these sites is to mashup with sites like meetup, so that you have a hybrid between online and offline community. The interesting thing about sites like eons or ourstory or families is that people can create photo albums and story journals. This is very similar to the scrapbooking phenomenon that is so big in the nation. Scrapbooking combines preserving memories with community, so that people gather in small groups to talk, tell stories and put their scrapbooks together. I see the same potential for some of these sites focused on memory sharing and connecting.
It seems there are more and more Eleanor Rigbys sitting by the door. Just a few weeks ago I linked to several articles about the growing sense of isolation in America. Now MSNBC has picked up as AP story on the theme. It is a growing problem that even threatens the health of many Americans:
In its most pronounced forms, loneliness is considered a serious, even life-threatening condition, heightening the risks of heart disease and depression. A sense of isolation can strike at almost any age, in any demographic sector — parents struggling to adjust to empty-nest status, divorcees unable to rebuild a social life, even seemingly self-confident college students.
In one disturbing line, they point out that some students opt out of chances to meet people to talk online instead.
John Powell, a psychologist at the University of Illinois counseling center, says it’s common for incoming freshmen to stay in their rooms, chatting by computer with high school friends rather than venturing out to get-acquainted activities on campus.
When I was first exposed to the Internet in 1992, I was concerned about the possible ramifications this might have for isolation and loss of the ability to enter into genuine face to face dialogue. When I read lines like that, it seems like for some that fear is coming true. There is value ot online conversation, but we as humans are more than just word producers. And we cannot ignore the dynamics, rewards, and challenges of face to face encounters. Avoiding the challenges, some may lost a vital link that protects them from isolationism.
There is much on this topic and maybe I’ll write sometime about community and why I believe relationship is an essential part of being human.
Whereas MySpace focuses on the youth culture, now there multiple layers of social networking sites focusing on various niches. E-fluentials pointed me to a group of sites now emerging directed at connecting families and giving families a place to tell their story (OurStory, Families, Jotspot). I think this could take off. My dad wanted to write a memoir and then said he rather create an interactive website about his life. Something like these could facilitate that.
While I am fascinated by online communities, I am more interested in face-to-face lived communities. While there is an ache in many hearts for actual community and intimate relationships, we live in ways that counteract such desires. But some people are trying to change the coldness of dead city space into lived places.
Thomas Merton once said “”A city is something you do with space. A city is made up of rooms, buildings, streets. It is a crowd of occupied spaces. The character of the city is set by the way the rooms are lived in, the way the buildings are lived in, and what goes on in the streets. The street can be inhabited if the people on it begin to make their life credible by changing their environment. Living is more than submission; it is creation. We can begin now to change this street and this city. We will begin to discover our power to transform our world.”
The Project for Public Places sent out an interesting article today about some Zealous Nuts who are transforming their public places. Knoxville has a few folks who have been visioning a new South Waterfront. The city recently got on board and it looks like some exciting things may happen there.
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