Month: August 2009

Collaboration is distance agnostic. Of course you knew that!

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

I get a kick out of seeing how ordinary folk use simple tools of collaboration.

I do a lot of collaborative work here at the Decision Theater. This is often all about web-based tools, putting people in a room full of screens oozing with data, pulling up GIS maps with interactive features…

And then there’s this. Playing For Change. Collaboration on a whole different scale.

Proof that people of different cultures can be knitted together through music, with nothing more than a makeshift ‘recording studio’ powered by golf cart batteries.

You can’t listen to this version of Stand By Me and not be inspired. And it’s not just the words, but the sheer possibility of connecting people irrespective of distance. Enjoy!

Twinterview with Silvia Cambie today

/ Angelo Fernando / 2 Comments

Today will be the 5th Twitter interview in the series I have been conducting over the past few months.

This one will be interesting to IABC members, particularly, since I will be talking to the co-authopr of a just-published book, International Communications Strategy. The book has won a major award.

Silvia Cambié is a cross-cultural communicator and journalist, and advises clients on strategic communication, stakeholder relations and social media.

As the formayt goes, I will conduct the Twinterview via Tweetdeck, and live post the  Q and As here. It begins at 10 am, Pacific.

Let’s get started. Some basic housekeeping matters:

I will be using the tag #hoipolloi to make it easy for followers.

AF: @XCulture Good morning (or evening for you?) Silvia. Thanks for agreeing to this interview.

SC: @heyangelo Good evening from rainy London. You are welcome. Looking fwd to your questions

AF: @XCulture For those who don’t know you on my blog, describe who you are and what you do –you could take 2  tweets #hoipolloi

SC: @heyangelo Cross-cultural communicator , journalist. Used to cover Eastern Europe. Worked for international trade associations. #hoipolloi

SC: @heyangelo Founded London-based Chanda Communications. Advise clients on international comms, social media and the female economy.

AF: @XCulture Journalist, too? We need to pick up on that since we have so many journalism-related issues today I’m v interested in #hoipolloi

SC: @heyangelo Sure, Angelo. Any time #hoipolloi

AF: @XCulture What got you into publishing the book? Was there a  book lurking inside your head? #hoipolloi

SC: @heyangelo #hoipolloi Got the idea in Eastern Eur. I believe cross-cultural comms is essential for real economic progress and peace

AF: @XCulture #hoipolloi You have one awesome co-author. How did you find her? Tell us a bit about who she is

SC: @heyangelo #hoipolloi I met Yang-May through City Women’s Network where I served as a board member. http://bit.ly/Nf1e9

SC: @heyangelo #hoipolloi YM is a blogger and a writer. Born in Malaysia . Is the best co-author ever! So well organised… it’s almost scary.

AF: @XCulture #hoipolloi Let’s talk about the book. With the rise of globalization & offshoring what’s the new comm mindset we need to have?

SC: @heyangelo #hoipolloi Communicators need a new set of skills to be able to interpret complexity and deal with ambiguity

SC: @heyangelo #hoipolloi Communicator of the future will need to be an integrator able to aggregate info and understand new cultural settings

AF: @XCulture #hoipolloi The word ‘control’ has got a bad rap. With orgs so decentralized, and no one in control, is it a recipe for disaster?

SC: @heyangelo #hoipolloi We believe in a new approach to leadership. Integrative Thinking developed by Roger Martin of @rotmanschool

AF: @XCulture #hoipolloi Sounds a lot like integrative decision-making –something we promote -if I may shamellessly plug http://bit.ly/36l3Nv

SC: @heyangelo #hoipolloi Sure go ahead. I love a good plug! Particularly if it supports Integrative Thinking!

SC:  @heyangelo #hoipolloi Replacing control with leadership models able to integrate different cultural elements http://bit.ly/NjdOG

AF: @XCulture #hoipolloi We tend to take digital access to content for granted. What would we be shocked at to find in other countries?

SC: @heyangelo #hoipolloi The story is actually quite different! China is no. 1 in terms of on-line content creation! http://bit.ly/1Q6K6f

AF: @XCulture  #hoipolloi Most people may not have even heard of QQ.  Twice the size of FB? We are cultural frogs in the well, I suppose

AF: @XCulture #hoipolloi To return 2 journalism. You speak of new forms in your book. What are they and why should we pay attention?

SC: @heyangelo #hoipolloi Am great believer in the power of participatory journalism http://bit.ly/UmgLt http://bit.ly/30d1Y7

AF: @XCulture #hoipolloi Great post. FutuRoom? Cafes to chat with journos? Is this in the book? Maybe Spot.Us will be interested

SC: @heyangelo #hoipolloi http://bit.ly/1s2OpQ And We can’t expect people to get their info from the media any longer

AF: @XCulture #hoipolloi I’m going to do something different in this Twinterview, and bring someone else to join the conversation…

AF: @fusionview @xculture #hoipolloi Welcome Yang-May. Glad you were able to join

SC: fusionview @heyangelo #hoipolloi Exciting having YM joining us from the bus! BTW Which bus?

AF: @XCulture #hoipolloi @fusionview Now that I have both authors, I have 2 start by asking u both the story behind your Twitter handles

YM: @heyangelo #hoipolloi Fusion View like fusion food. East & West. I’m from Malaysia, now in London. Name of my blog FusionView.co.uk

SC: @heyangelo #hoipolloi It was actually YM to come up with XCulture as a name for my blog on cross-cultural comms http://bit.ly/yHuPm

AF: @XCulture @xculture #hoipolloi Fusion, cross-culture, collaboration, IABC… I can see a great thread here –great material for the CW blog

AF: @fusionview @xculture #hoipolloi Yang-May, could you talk of a great example (in the book or otherwise) on the interactive use of the web?

SC: @heyangelo @fusionview #hoipolloi Yes, I guess that’s what IABC is all about

AF: @XCulture #hoipolloi Could you tell us an example of cross-cultural use of the interactive web –from the book or elsewhere?

SC: @heyangelo #hoipolloi I love the story of the multicultural YouTube Symphony Orchestra http://bit.ly/DZZuM

AF: @XCulture #hoipolloi So… communications is like an orchestra. Does it need someone to wave the baton, however? Who might he/she be?

SC: @heyangelo #hoipolloi Someone able 2 create a connection that leads 2 sharing. Someone with high cultural sensibility

SC: @heyangelo #hopolloi Yes, it is overstated. Sharing is the name of the new game.

AF: @XCulture #hoipolloi On your blog, you address digital activism in S. America. What’s your take on how the web is empowering people?

SC: @heyangelo #hoipolloi Chile has some great examples re. digital activism. So refreshing! http://bit.ly/4gxgwD

AF: @XCulture #hoipolloi For some it might be unsettling, not refreshing. Could you explain what happened there?

SC: @heyangelo #hoipolloi I also believe that part of the role of comms is 2 unsettle people… get them thinking. Anything but the status quo

AF: @XCulture #hoipolloi Great definition! Be unsettling. Be the catalyst. Be heard 🙂

SC: @heyangelo #hoipolloi I love Be Usettling. We should put it on a T-shirt

SC: @heyangelo #hoipolloi People got 2gether online 2 boycott pharmacies in Santiago accused of collusion. Used FB and Google 2 organise it

AF: @XCulture #hoipolloi Finally, back 2 the book: $40 is  apretty steep price http://bit.ly/r6zgk  Give us 2 reasons 2 beg/borrow/steal /buy it

SC: @heyangelo #hoipolloi Helps communicators 2 function in the Flat World. Has unique case studies gained from broad network of global contacts

AF: @XCulture #hoipolloi Thanks so much for your time, Silvia (and Yang-May if you are online) Good luck on the book. I see it’s won nominated for an award!

SC: @heyangelo #hoipolloi Thanks to you, Angelo. The book has been nominated for the FT Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award.

Angry mobs or groundswell? Or just paid marketing?

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

What do you call a flash mob that has been paid for? Think hard before you answer this.

Now let me complicate it a bit for you:

When connected to a PR campaign, we tend to see it as the evil astro-turfing. Plenty of these examples around us. Those the angry mobs showing up with signs to loudly disrupt town hall meetings as a form of protest against healthcare reform, are suspiciously PR-backed astroturfing practices. TechPresident ‘reveals’ that there is a method behind this madness.

When connected to people protesting against a stolen election, we see it as citizen action —as we saw in Iran. streets

Then there’s the third kind. When connected to marketing, the flash mob could be used to bring attention to a product in a public place. Funny how we have no problem with this, even though it also disrupts civilian life, and appears to be a spontaneous expression of the hoi polloi.


This highly choreographed event earlier this year by Saatchi and Saatchi, for T-mobile at London’s busy Liverpool Street station is a good example of how the lines are being blurred as the radius between sender and receiver gets stretched.

Quotes for the week, ending 08 Aug, 2009

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

“The narrow prism of terrorism”

John Brennan, President Obama’s new counter-terrorism chief, saying the present administration won’t be looking at allies and other nations this way anymore.

FACT: You do own your brand and brand messaging

FACT: You don’t own relationships customers have with your brand

Beth Harte, at SocialMediaToday.com on Brand Vs Brand Relationships

“Washington Post Magazine ceases its XX Files feature in Sept. Probably cause?…the essays tended to focus on negative experiences with men.”

Tweet by InVocus

“But the pleasure of turning the page! I protested. The feel of something organic, not electronic, in your hands. The crispness…”

Jessica Burnette-Lemon, on looking at the Amazon Kindle

“Scare you away yet?”

Job description for AXIS Inc., for entry-level marketing position that requires knowledge in PR, customer service, sales…

“Successful candidate will have: 1) LinkedIn, MySpace, and/or Facebook account; 2) Twitter account with consistent, frequent updates; 3) Personal blog”

Job description for Social Media Director at ADF

“It’s a big surprise to me that my blog has meant that 250m people have not been able to enter Facebook.”

A blogger names Georgy, on the reason for the denial of service attacks on popular networks Facebook and Twitter.

“Military computers off-limits to tweeting GIs.”

Headline of article about the Marine Corps banning soldiers from using military computer networks to access FAcebook, Myspace and Twitter.

Four lessons after United Airlines faced the music

/ Angelo Fernando / 2 Comments

I wanted to follow up on that United Airlines story I wrote about recently, how the neatest form of push back against dumb customer service turned out to be a song.

United Airlines very quickly jumped in and responded, and Dave Carroll, the band leader whose guitar was smashed by incompetent baggage handlers, is coming up with a second song.

In this happy ending (Big Corporation listens to small guy because of YouTube song) there are some sidebars worth noting:

  • Some things you can’t repair. In his video statement, Carroll says that United offered to ‘generously but late” compensate him. Compensation is great, but when it is forced out of the company, it’s not really damage control.
  • Better late than never. Carroll is now unexpectedly very supportive of the Customer Service person –the infamous Miss Irlweg– he ridiculed for obstinately sticking to company policy.
  • Don’t exploit the situation. Taylor guitars  jumped in on the response to say how they ‘see a lot of damaged guitars’ and offer some good pointers to packing guitars, and airline security policy etc. Unfortunately, Bob Taylor used the YouTube video in a way that came across as crass, rather than helpful.
  • Put the handbook aside. Information in a handbook is designed to help employees. As Dave notes in his long statement, he was up against a “system is designed to frustrate customers.”  Company policy makes lousy communication.

Sidebar:

Southwest Airlines, which practically owns the word ‘fun’ pre-empts this kind of negative experience by reversing the process: The employee creates the music, and the passengers sing along!

The best news this week, release of Ling and Lee

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

Back at work after being off the grid for four days, it was great to see the news of the release of Laura Ling and Euna Lee.

The photos from Clinton’s visit struck me as being one of the most ridiculous photo-ops (since George Bush on the deck of an aircraft carrier).

Eight people looking shell shocked on the green rug, the wave mural in the background… Sheer political theater, with bad stage management.

How could this photo save face for a government that held two journalists captive? Everything about it reveals how tense, and cold the situation is. Why bother even taking this photo?

Incidentally the photo comes via the Korean News Agency which ran a story on ‘Trial of American Journalists” reporting their ‘crimes.’ I wonder if the State Department comments on, and the local media questions how KCNA frames the visit:

Clinton expressed words of sincere apology to Kim Jong Il for the hostile acts committed by the two American journalists against the DPRK after illegally intruding into it. Clinton courteously conveyed to Kim Jong Il an earnest request of the U.S. government to leniently pardon them and send them back home from a humanitarian point of view.

Of course, we know this is the stuff of propaganda.

Quotes for the week, ending 1 August, 2009

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

“One over-riding rule: do not ask how long your episodes should be. Ask yourself hows short you can make them. People have a limited time to watch/listen to content.”

Evo Terra, co-author of Podcasting for Dummies, when I interviewed him for an upcoming article and, podcast.

“It’s at the point where we almost don’t need to use press releases,”

Martin Murray, senior corporate news representative for the Public Service of New Hampshire, on using Twitter as a way to update customers on an power outage due to an ice storm

“With no correspondents allowed on the ground, the BBC, like almost all major news organisations, is forced to rely on the honesty of citizen journalists to provide details from the protests.”

BBC report on how citizen journalism is on the rise in Iran

Media reports speculated that “Bruno” suffered from the “Twitter effect…”

Reuter report on how movie studios are using Twitter, but how it can sometimes backfire. Tweets about Sacha Baron Cohen’s gay-themed comedy, Bruno, created buzz but also scared people away.

“Lifestyle Lift regrets that earlier third-party Web site content did not always properly reflect and acknowledge patient comments or indicate that the content was provided by Lifestyle Lift,”

Press Release by the the company after New York Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo came to a settlement with cosmetic surgery firm for published fake consumer reviews on the Net.

“Hey, that’s Apple. They do what they do, and they don’t really care what the rest of us think, as long as they make cool products that we’re willing to pay for.”

Shel Holtz, commenting on the problems of how all reviews on iTunes do not show up the same in all countries. On For Immediate Release, episode 468.