Tagging Myself

At  InnovationCamp on Saturday, I was completely stumped when asked to write my “tags” on my name badge. I have spent a lot of time working through tagging frameworks professionally, and I have used existing tagging paradigms to add my ideas, content, etc. to established frameworks, but this open ended, free form request was a little overwhelming… Should I use personal vs. professional tags? How specific or general should my tags be? How will these tags be used/useful?

My usual response to a conundrum… ask people and do research!  For the last few days, I have been pondering my tags, and I’ve been asking friends and colleagues, “How would you tag yourself?” Most folks are just as stumped. (However, my friend Oren  - www.orenrosenthal.com -  just pulled out his business card with some tags on the back!)   A lot of things that come up when I Google search for “tag yourself” are directed toward the job seeker (e.g., what skills you list on LinkedIn), and I feel a bit better because a lot of folks out there are equally puzzled by the more general “How do you tag yourself?” question. 

Tagging: People-Powered Metadata for the Social Web by Gene Smith – http://genesmith.ca). I have used this material/guidance to seed tagging frameworks for specific applications in the past, but many of the same principles can apply to social self-tagging, too… According to Gene Smith, tagging “offers a passive social component that lets you participate, share and contribute without actively engaging other users.” The keys to successful tagging, however, are context and consistency, and effective tags are “specific and relatable”.   

So here is my working version of self-tagging rules:

1. Adapt your tags based on your audience and objectives – People are pretty complex, and it is overwhelming to think that one set of tags fits every situation.
2. Be specific but use common terms and phrases – The goal is for people to be able to find you based on their interests/tags. If you use long or esoteric phrases, they won’t find you.
3. Throw in something a little bit creative to spark conversation – Once you draw someone in with something recognizable, deepen the exchange by encouraging questions and discussion. (This is probably my biggest challenge – getting creative!)
4. Don’t over-tag yourself – This dilutes the value of your tagging and people stop paying attention when the list gets long.

Alas, I’m still working on my tags but hope to be prepared the next time this comes up!

NOTE:

InnovationCamp was an open-agenda event with a diverse group of attendees. The personal tags were used as potential ice breakers and conversation starters , but imagine the power of a central tagging system and framework at this kind of event.

People could dynamically connect people based on shared interests before, during and after the event
Attendees could evolve their tags dynamically over the course of the event
Leaders could track interest areas by event, region, etc. to drive future topics of discussion
Participants could organize and explore cross-event ideas, strategies and outputs

InnovationCamp Austin – June 28, 2008

Yesterday, I attended an all day “InnovationCamp” event… (http://innovationcamp.wordpress.com/)

The goal is open idea sharing and solution building, and the agenda is built on the fly by the attendees. Really fun, but made for an intense and tiring day! InnovationCamp has been held in India, but the Austin event was the first held in the U.S. The program is modeled after several other “camp” events that have been around for a bit: ProductCamp and BarCamp (http://barcamp.org/ProductCamp).

As the nature of the event is that it is largely unstructured and adpative, some sessions I attended were more productive than others… There were two types of sessions. The first were scheduled for two hour blocks and focused on a specific challenge or issue. The second were pitch, proposal or program reviews in one hour blocks. I participated in four sessions…

1. Problem: Management of Distributed Virtual Teams – This topic had a lot of unrealized potential, and we had some difficulty clarifying the problem statement.  The basic issue is how to develop working norms – process, culture, etc. – in dynamic teaming environments. This issue was proposed by a company that is developing a model that coordinates independent, peer-to-peer teams to deliver projects. (www.enterpriseteaming.com)  Resources come into a project only when needed, but resources may be used on multiple projects over time based on need. I want to crystallize my thoughts on this topic in a separate post, but the session focused more on team building (e.g., the importance of social relationships) and accountability/project management than the broader concept of establishing the culture of teams and building cross-project communities and norms.
2. Innovation Challenge - I didn’t quite grasp the mechanics of this fun exercise until about half way through! Six folks volunteered to participate. They each drew for an industry and a characteristic – e.g., travel and fun – and had less than an hour to create a pitch for a new idea. In the session, each participant had five minutes to pitch and five minutes to answer questions (some of them pretty tough!). At the end, we voted for the “winner” who received venture funding from some virtual mystery source! This ”challenge” could work well as a company team-building exercise, too, as the point wasn’t perfection but rather creative idea sharing.  
3. Topic: Socially Responsible Business – Non-Profit, For-Profit or both? This session topic wasn’t quite clear on the agenda. I was thinking – “How can we build stronger public/private partnerships?” – something I have thought a bit about. The actual goal was to discuss business models for socially responsible businesses. Interesting topic…
4. Topic: Eliminating the Paper Receipt – Probably the most fun session I attended. This was a relatively small group of folks with diverse experience. The initial thought was that eliminating receipts has a positive environmental impact, but we explored issues around customer privacy, data collection, revenue models, retailer incentives, etc. Great, free flowing conversation that provided the facilitator with a richer problem statement and solution framework.

 InnovationCamp is probably coming soon to a town near you; I highly recommend it!

Introductory Post

So… here we go!

I have been planning to kick off my blog for quite a while, but never seem to get past that initial writer’s block… I regularly read many blogs; some of them are 100% just for fun but many are tied to my current professional interest – social media applications in the enterprise. This blog will mostly be a synthesis of my thoughts and research in this area, but I’m sure to digress occasionally!

I’m also going to try to stay true to my favorite blog characteristics…

• Regular posts that synthesize information from other sources - An old college friend (Dr. Eric Barchas) is the blogging veterinarian on dogster.com, and he posts something new every day. Often it’s just an answer to a question posed by a reader, but he will also blog about something that he found interesting or relevant. I love several things about his blog… He always provides links to previous posts that are relevant (very handy), and I can hear his “voice” or personality in his posts. It helps that I love dogs, have a dog, and find the information useful and interesting! http://blogs.dogster.com/vet_blog_information_advice/
• Careful management of blog culture - I have to admit that I am a regular reader of Perez Hilton’s blog (www.perezhilton.com). Mostly, it is just a good source of random information about famous people, but kind of addictive. I never read a single comment or venture beyond the main posts because the culture of the blog involves thousands of folks who sit around trying to be the “first” to comment. Don’t like this or blogs where people just pick on each other or are confrontational. Open, healthy discussion and debate is great, though!
• Proposing or providing new ideas and frameworks – Several folks I follow in the enterprise 2.0 space use their blogs to get feedback on new models or perspectives, and they’ve collected a set of followers that actively provide assistance. I like that they are sharing a working model and actively incorportate input into the final approach. Andrew McAfee’s blog does this really well (http://blog.hbs.edu/faculty/amcafee/) and I love to read his posts and know that every comment will be insightful and thought provoking.
• Surfacing new ideas and products - If you want to hear about companies, products or ideas in the Enterprise 2.0 space, Ross Mayfield, founder of Socialtext, does a great job of picking up on trends or ideas and providing insights on strengths, weaknesses and opportunities. (http://ross.typepad.com/) I enjoy his blog for some of the same reasons I love the dogster vet blog… I can hear Ross’s voice, thought process and personality in his posts.

Enjoy!