To me if you're going to put something up public, then, well, it IS public. But the web is kind of super public. Like you can wander through Main Street if your town has one, or wander around downtown in a major city, which is one kind of public. But on the web millions of people can check out something you're doing, from all over the world.
To me that is mega public. So it's like being on Main Street times a thousand, or more.
If you're jumping up and down shouting on Main Street, people are likely to notice, but how will they react?
Public on the web is VERY public. But I think it can be hard to see it that way. Especially if you feel like no one is paying attention, as they may not be. Or you've tried lots of things and don't have the response you want.
So I like to flip things and imagine I'm looking at someone doing what I'm doing. What would I think? What might I do or not do?
Sometimes I like to emphasize things to try and get a handle on them, but it is different, the public reality of public on the web. So will admit I find myself drawn to public people to see how they handle it.
They do get the most practice I would think.
James Harris
Thursday, August 13, 2015
Tuesday, August 11, 2015
Abstracting global-local concept
Late last year brainstormed Globloc, a hypothetical idea for a social media company where that name comes from: global-local. And now find myself thinking more of that concept itself so will abstract it here.
The idea is to have one central company which deals with global issues, while local is robust enough to handle MOST things. The point in my mind being having a lightweight main corporation which can have unlimited growth with local reach.
For that to be feasible though you'd need to abstract ALL elements that can be handled globally, where I'm thinking that the connection is through the cloud and web, which can let you monitor locally with limited interference.
So the key to such a thing in our time is the web. It lets you, for instance, maintain a room locally which gives a 24 hour camera feed, which might activate if someone entered into that room to communicate something up the line. Not even knowing if it would be seen, but assuming it would. And regardless the recording would be saved.
Or if there were an escalating consumer complaint, a teleconference could be set up to the main offices along with the local person to try and address the issue with maximum expertise.
As much as I can speculate here, might be easier to brainstorm with a hypothetical situation, so imagining a social media work corporation. Where I know some exist but not going on anything in the real world but simply looking for something to hang concepts on. Anything here is open source.
Like you could have licensees for this Globloc Work company, who might pay some fee which could be rather light compared to heavy infrastructure franchises, as their main task might be finding the best people willing to go to people's homes to do odd jobs for them.
So the global might give a territory. Guidelines for hires and do national background checks, but also expect the local to do background checks as well using available resources, which could be people in the community. That is, the local would be like a small business. Where the global would handle things like the insurance company, hiring procedures, and work procedures. And things like uniforms, which it might ship to the local.
Benefit to the local person might be focus on things that can't be done as well at the national level, like finding very engaging, energetic and personable people who will work hard, satisfy the client, without breaking rules, or especially any laws. The local person is in the best position to oversee the work.
If that all worked the global could be in a major city, like San Francisco, and for the most part handle things at the national level. But every once in a while handle issues as they arose at the local level. But maintain constant connection through the web.
And you know you can go to the limits these days. Employees could wear body cameras, for instance.
Hmmm...that could get oppressive though, but I think depends on the employee. For some people it would be awesome to always be on camera, and you could even allow them to post great work at their discretion as long as customer privacy was preserved. Which could be hard. And now feeling that brainstorming flow hemmed in by not fun things as legal issues start to crop up.
Worrying about legal issues seems to just stop the creative flow for me.
James Harris
The idea is to have one central company which deals with global issues, while local is robust enough to handle MOST things. The point in my mind being having a lightweight main corporation which can have unlimited growth with local reach.
For that to be feasible though you'd need to abstract ALL elements that can be handled globally, where I'm thinking that the connection is through the cloud and web, which can let you monitor locally with limited interference.
So the key to such a thing in our time is the web. It lets you, for instance, maintain a room locally which gives a 24 hour camera feed, which might activate if someone entered into that room to communicate something up the line. Not even knowing if it would be seen, but assuming it would. And regardless the recording would be saved.
Or if there were an escalating consumer complaint, a teleconference could be set up to the main offices along with the local person to try and address the issue with maximum expertise.
As much as I can speculate here, might be easier to brainstorm with a hypothetical situation, so imagining a social media work corporation. Where I know some exist but not going on anything in the real world but simply looking for something to hang concepts on. Anything here is open source.
Like you could have licensees for this Globloc Work company, who might pay some fee which could be rather light compared to heavy infrastructure franchises, as their main task might be finding the best people willing to go to people's homes to do odd jobs for them.
So the global might give a territory. Guidelines for hires and do national background checks, but also expect the local to do background checks as well using available resources, which could be people in the community. That is, the local would be like a small business. Where the global would handle things like the insurance company, hiring procedures, and work procedures. And things like uniforms, which it might ship to the local.
Benefit to the local person might be focus on things that can't be done as well at the national level, like finding very engaging, energetic and personable people who will work hard, satisfy the client, without breaking rules, or especially any laws. The local person is in the best position to oversee the work.
If that all worked the global could be in a major city, like San Francisco, and for the most part handle things at the national level. But every once in a while handle issues as they arose at the local level. But maintain constant connection through the web.
And you know you can go to the limits these days. Employees could wear body cameras, for instance.
Hmmm...that could get oppressive though, but I think depends on the employee. For some people it would be awesome to always be on camera, and you could even allow them to post great work at their discretion as long as customer privacy was preserved. Which could be hard. And now feeling that brainstorming flow hemmed in by not fun things as legal issues start to crop up.
Worrying about legal issues seems to just stop the creative flow for me.
James Harris
Saturday, August 08, 2015
Figuring out the foundations
Remember when blogs arrived and at first was incredulous about them being free, but it was great! I had a website up talking about some math ideas of mine and at least one web stalker was relentlessly reloading pages trying to make it expensive for me. Such silly behavior.
Along with the blogs came advice on how to blog, which you may notice I gleefully ignore.
But the web supposedly has moved on from blogs to the next thing, where again there is lots of advice. And my opinion is often you have people exploiting the emotion, claiming expertise even when things are so new there isn't really any, trying to make money at the expense of others.
But we all have a responsibility to our own outcomes and each must make their own choices. Where I choose to try and figure things out on my own, which is speculative, risky, and I could be very wrong. But at least I feel better that I'm not helping some person pretend at my expense.
For myself and those interested in my opinions I like to at times show the structure around them, as a really big deal was understanding money. I like to say it's just a way to get services from strangers in limited social contracts. Why limited? Because close community is where you should get unlimited trust. You can't put your trust in every person you meet that way. (Yes, I know plenty of people have families where trust is very limited. But isn't that also sad?)
So without money you need what I call close community, like friends and family. Like for instance, your friend could offer you a cup of coffee, but with money, you can buy a cup of coffee from a store full of strangers who make it for you. And isn't that nice of them? Actually, no. Money is the point. Your friend is being nice. The people at the coffee shop have a job.
In my opinion, money was invented as a way to get services from strangers.
But how do you make money? You need to find things that other people want which you can provide.
For example, you may enjoy making coffee for strangers, so a coffee shop works for you! And, so you work there. Which actually also involves a lot of people skills, and other skills as well.
And how can people know you can provide them something they want under a limited social contract? Well, for that to happen I think you need something that advertises it. And I have pondered quite a bit on advertising where I'll link to my latest post at this point. But I don't try to tell how to advertise, but just think about why it's necessary, and how it can go wrong.
But what if you're going with the latest, and want tons of social media followers? Have concluded that you have to entertain to get a lot of them. Which is work! And don't just think someone is getting it done because that person has millions of followers, as I think they are like venues, like a stadium. And just because a person built up a following to a massive size does not mean they're still filling it up. That is, engagement may not be there.
And a person who did the work to get millions of followers, if said person slips, may find few if any of them are still paying attention, even if that social media account still looks impressive. Though it can fall. Unlike say, Madison Square Garden, your venue is dynamic as followers can drop you. But it is admittedly, just a theory of mine.
Putting all of the above into a succinct statement: I think you need to figure out what you like to do for strangers within a limited social contract that people want done. And advertise that you can do it. If you wish to build a social media presence though you need to be entertaining, along with whatever else you bring, or don't expect big numbers.
Like I don't have big social media numbers, but I have theories.
And it's my blog so I can give them.
James Harris
Along with the blogs came advice on how to blog, which you may notice I gleefully ignore.
But the web supposedly has moved on from blogs to the next thing, where again there is lots of advice. And my opinion is often you have people exploiting the emotion, claiming expertise even when things are so new there isn't really any, trying to make money at the expense of others.
But we all have a responsibility to our own outcomes and each must make their own choices. Where I choose to try and figure things out on my own, which is speculative, risky, and I could be very wrong. But at least I feel better that I'm not helping some person pretend at my expense.
For myself and those interested in my opinions I like to at times show the structure around them, as a really big deal was understanding money. I like to say it's just a way to get services from strangers in limited social contracts. Why limited? Because close community is where you should get unlimited trust. You can't put your trust in every person you meet that way. (Yes, I know plenty of people have families where trust is very limited. But isn't that also sad?)
So without money you need what I call close community, like friends and family. Like for instance, your friend could offer you a cup of coffee, but with money, you can buy a cup of coffee from a store full of strangers who make it for you. And isn't that nice of them? Actually, no. Money is the point. Your friend is being nice. The people at the coffee shop have a job.
In my opinion, money was invented as a way to get services from strangers.
But how do you make money? You need to find things that other people want which you can provide.
For example, you may enjoy making coffee for strangers, so a coffee shop works for you! And, so you work there. Which actually also involves a lot of people skills, and other skills as well.
And how can people know you can provide them something they want under a limited social contract? Well, for that to happen I think you need something that advertises it. And I have pondered quite a bit on advertising where I'll link to my latest post at this point. But I don't try to tell how to advertise, but just think about why it's necessary, and how it can go wrong.
But what if you're going with the latest, and want tons of social media followers? Have concluded that you have to entertain to get a lot of them. Which is work! And don't just think someone is getting it done because that person has millions of followers, as I think they are like venues, like a stadium. And just because a person built up a following to a massive size does not mean they're still filling it up. That is, engagement may not be there.
And a person who did the work to get millions of followers, if said person slips, may find few if any of them are still paying attention, even if that social media account still looks impressive. Though it can fall. Unlike say, Madison Square Garden, your venue is dynamic as followers can drop you. But it is admittedly, just a theory of mine.
Putting all of the above into a succinct statement: I think you need to figure out what you like to do for strangers within a limited social contract that people want done. And advertise that you can do it. If you wish to build a social media presence though you need to be entertaining, along with whatever else you bring, or don't expect big numbers.
Like I don't have big social media numbers, but I have theories.
And it's my blog so I can give them.
James Harris
Wednesday, August 05, 2015
Some musings on expectations of others
Gotta get back to San Francisco I've started telling myself. It's been over three years now and for one thing I need more photos. And yes, can take photos elsewhere, but for instance on this blog one of the most popular posts has a photo of a San Francisco street sign. I posted it over three years ago. Back October 31, 2012 according to the post. So I know for sure which one I mean will leave myself a ready reference.
And what if I'd established myself as a photographer who focused on San Francisco scenes? Well I might have fans wondering when I'd put up anything, please ANYTHING, new from the City.
Expectations of others are important. And if you look around at people who do a great job of setting expectations where they can deliver, you will notice they DO.
I like to call it the social contract: the understanding others have that you will be there for them in some way, like with continuing content after you have established a want.
Like you've been funny, and established yourself as a comedian--not surprisingly people will expect you to keep bringing the funny.
Maybe someday will establish myself more with photography. But necessarily then will need to keep taking pictures! And also do so with the expectations of others in mind, if I want them to keep paying attention. Of course there is also that artistic perspective of putting up things as the spirit moves you.
And some of the greatest portfolios of art were clearly done without caring at all who showed up to pay attention, where now millions do.
But that is the purity of the true artist. True artists don't get excited with whether or not you're going to show up or not. They're just doing it for the art.
Or at least that's what I believe but I also know of plenty of great artists in history who did what it took to pay the bills. Like the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, right?
Wait a minute, where do we get this notion of art for art's sake? What does that even mean? Possibly for many it can mean starving artist here you are.
To me if you're doing things you really don't like doing, then yeah, that's wrong. Almost changed to "questionable" but seriously, I think that's wrong. But if you enjoy doing something, why shouldn't you get paid for it too? Will ponder more.
James Harris
And what if I'd established myself as a photographer who focused on San Francisco scenes? Well I might have fans wondering when I'd put up anything, please ANYTHING, new from the City.
Expectations of others are important. And if you look around at people who do a great job of setting expectations where they can deliver, you will notice they DO.
I like to call it the social contract: the understanding others have that you will be there for them in some way, like with continuing content after you have established a want.
Like you've been funny, and established yourself as a comedian--not surprisingly people will expect you to keep bringing the funny.
Maybe someday will establish myself more with photography. But necessarily then will need to keep taking pictures! And also do so with the expectations of others in mind, if I want them to keep paying attention. Of course there is also that artistic perspective of putting up things as the spirit moves you.
And some of the greatest portfolios of art were clearly done without caring at all who showed up to pay attention, where now millions do.
But that is the purity of the true artist. True artists don't get excited with whether or not you're going to show up or not. They're just doing it for the art.
Or at least that's what I believe but I also know of plenty of great artists in history who did what it took to pay the bills. Like the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, right?
Wait a minute, where do we get this notion of art for art's sake? What does that even mean? Possibly for many it can mean starving artist here you are.
To me if you're doing things you really don't like doing, then yeah, that's wrong. Almost changed to "questionable" but seriously, I think that's wrong. But if you enjoy doing something, why shouldn't you get paid for it too? Will ponder more.
James Harris
Saturday, August 01, 2015
My take on performance reality
For me chasing reality is an important thing and found myself pondering open rehearsals a while back. My understanding is those are when the public can come and watch performers rehearsing, which is free. But when do MOST people show up? I'm certain most will come for the actual performance. And they'll even pay! So they can get a lot of it for free, so why don't they mostly show up for rehearsals?
On social media I think I see a lot of people doing the equivalent of open rehearsals which is ok, and a few people show up. And there are others who have polished performances that draw millions and tens of millions.
But should social media be a performance?
If it's not, then why would anyone show up?
To me that's such an important question, and I puzzle over it at times looking over things people have put online, as I try to figure out the reason for so doing.
From the perspective of some people, maybe people should show up because they like them, or support them, you know, like family. But in my experience with writing, even family can get tired of being pressured to read things.
It helped me out a LOT to realize that people all over the globe have no more reason to show up to read something I write than I have to keep up with things they do. While yes, close friends and family may care about any number of things. But for others, are you kidding me?
The people I tend to read tend to do things that get me to read which are very polished.
They no more expect me to just read them because I like them than I expect them to read me because they like me!
Social media is a stage.
And social media is global. So it's actually a lot bigger than just about any other stage on which a person can present things. But it can feel very intimate as you're sitting in a quiet room, maybe alone with your thoughts. That is an illusion.
When it is more public than anything that ever came before.
Putting things out there on here is like being at Madison Square Garden times ten on automatic, as a default.
When you fail out here people DO notice. And the web seems to never forget. But you can rise above your stumbling, or botched performances. But never think they're not noticed. They are.
I have silly stuff from over a decade ago that I know people are STILL coming across, and my reaction? Shrug. Wow. That's true too. But there isn't anything I can do about it, or would wish to do about it. Besides I don't think it's that bad, but it's worth mentioning if only to myself. I don't even remember all there is out there that I wrote.
Look at open rehearsals. There are dedicated fans who want to be there at every step of the process. But most people? They'll be there when it's all polished, if ever.
Talking to myself. Working on getting past that, but why don't people just like me? That whine gets old very quickly.
Social media is the endless audition.
James Harris
On social media I think I see a lot of people doing the equivalent of open rehearsals which is ok, and a few people show up. And there are others who have polished performances that draw millions and tens of millions.
But should social media be a performance?
If it's not, then why would anyone show up?
To me that's such an important question, and I puzzle over it at times looking over things people have put online, as I try to figure out the reason for so doing.
From the perspective of some people, maybe people should show up because they like them, or support them, you know, like family. But in my experience with writing, even family can get tired of being pressured to read things.
It helped me out a LOT to realize that people all over the globe have no more reason to show up to read something I write than I have to keep up with things they do. While yes, close friends and family may care about any number of things. But for others, are you kidding me?
The people I tend to read tend to do things that get me to read which are very polished.
They no more expect me to just read them because I like them than I expect them to read me because they like me!
Social media is a stage.
And social media is global. So it's actually a lot bigger than just about any other stage on which a person can present things. But it can feel very intimate as you're sitting in a quiet room, maybe alone with your thoughts. That is an illusion.
When it is more public than anything that ever came before.
Putting things out there on here is like being at Madison Square Garden times ten on automatic, as a default.
When you fail out here people DO notice. And the web seems to never forget. But you can rise above your stumbling, or botched performances. But never think they're not noticed. They are.
I have silly stuff from over a decade ago that I know people are STILL coming across, and my reaction? Shrug. Wow. That's true too. But there isn't anything I can do about it, or would wish to do about it. Besides I don't think it's that bad, but it's worth mentioning if only to myself. I don't even remember all there is out there that I wrote.
Look at open rehearsals. There are dedicated fans who want to be there at every step of the process. But most people? They'll be there when it's all polished, if ever.
Talking to myself. Working on getting past that, but why don't people just like me? That whine gets old very quickly.
Social media is the endless audition.
James Harris
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