Ezra's posterous - because i'm too lazy to think of something witty.

November 24, 2008

POST: Living and Dying. Online and Off.

I finally figured out the best way to describe what I do.

I am a translator. I see things that happen in the real world and attempt to translate them onto the interwebs. And then, at times, I enjoy translating events from the interwebs to the real world. Call it social strategy, or whatever you will.

I have been a citizen of the online world since my dialing up to various BBSs. I went from there, to Prodigy (KNSH79E), to AOL (EzBu) (where I was kicked off, but that's a completely different story), IRC, wrote and participated in blogs, and many other communities before arriving on Twitter. In each location, I attempted to forge relationships with people who I did not know previously. As I knew that the way to strengthen friendships was to frequent the same locations, and interact with the same people. As the medium changed, so did the conversation.

Somehow, with the advent of the world of Social Media, the conversation has gotten to be more real. People are not some senseless handle and avatar anymore, they are real. Their name is their name. There is no more hiding and screaming profanities. People take responsibility for what they say. They are tracked across sites.

The web is no longer anonymous. Sure, you can create fake accounts, but you are not going to get far. Unless you are authentic, or anonymous for a good reason, people will ignore everything you write.

For this reason, I rarely see hateful things written on Twitter or among friends on Facebook. (We know the sardonic people, but I am talking about hateful right now.) Because when you forge a relationship with people, you care enough not to be overtly mean. You critique but you don't lash out.

Last Friday I tweeted back and forth with @ozsultan about the tragedy of a 19 boy committing suicide (and streamed it) after being taunted by members of a bodybuilding forum. As a natural voyeur, I clicked on one of the links, and saw a picture of a screenshot of the paramedics coming in. On the side of the video, there was a chat feed going on, with people writing "LOL". The three letters that I thought of were WTF?! Someone just died, and the response is laughing?

Oz then sent me the myspace page of the kid, which had the comments of his friends. You could see the pain in their words, the not believing of the tragedy that occurred.

His loved ones cared. The people who just treated him as a picture with less developed muscles than their own, did not.

In the real world, friendship doesn't usually remain sequestered to one topic. You meet people at the gym, and you talk with them about many different things. You naturally develop one commonality into many. You see them on a semi-weekly schedule. You become a person who has good days and bad days, and they know that. You celebrate your birthday with them, because they become your friends. You do business with them. You exchange phone numbers, you go out for drinks.

Friendships develop, they are not hatched.

Forums do not translate the world onto the Internet. I am actually not sure what a forum would look like in the real world. Perhaps a bit like the British Parliament or the Israeli Knesset. Are those the sort of examples that we wish to emulate?

Do not get me wrong: There are people who thrive in such environments, become positive members of forums and do a lot of good, and convert the forums into real communities. I marvel at people who do.

But on a larger scale, the more that we put our real names and pictures out there, the better the relationships will become. The more we will be able to trust the content. The better the quality of the content will become.

More than anything, I know that when I walk down the street, someone may recognize me. So I actually to think about what I say, and how I treat people.

Just a thought.

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November 21, 2008

VIDEO: Ezra Friday Cleaning

It's true. I am actually cleaning. Have a great weekend!

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November 20, 2008

A Pic: the first official glass of the season

I had an awesome time with @ShiraAbel, @NivCalderon, Oran Singer, @pop_art, and my friend Yoni Levinger that runs an awesome store on Ahad Ha'am 4 (in TLV).

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November 19, 2008

Ezra in Or Yehuda

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November 18, 2008

How to Critique

I was enraged over the weekend. I read an article in the NYTimes about how Benjamin Netanyahu's campaign plagiarized Obama's internet campaign and website. I started writing an open letter to the MK, but then I stopped. I wanted to scream all about the meaning of Social Media and conversation. I was full of vitriol.

But then I remembered that words are cheap. It is very easy to sit here and say that everything that is being done is wrong. If you noticed my "critiques" of both Magpie and Qwitter, I tried to see both sides of the issue, and show who the applications would be helpful for. Critiquing by simply tearing down is not productive.

The important first step in critiquing is to wait. Breathe. Have a glass of wine. Walk around the block. Run to your happy place.

You don't have to respond right away. In today's day and age, you can't really take things back. My big brother, Google, remembers everything. (Besides, of course, things that I really want to remember, but big brothers are like that.)

Next step is to stand in their shoes. People aren't bad inside. They may be a bit stupid, but not evil. Usually. Unless their name is Doctor Evil. But that is not a common occurrence. Try to understand where they are coming from. Again, they probably are wrong. But at this point, we are assuming that people are not trying to be malicious. Know where they are coming from, and understand their thought process and their lexicon.

Look for something positive. I know that its hard, but trying and say something nice or good. "At least they are trying" is a good starting point. Because of the previous step, we know that there probably is a good idea that got translated into something really really bad. Start from this point.

Ask yourself: Where did it go really wrong? Then compose what your plan would have been, and how you would have been different. Why did they not choose your plan? Is it because you are more creative than they are, or because they ran into a different issue/technicality? Personally, I usually am a lot more creative than the other people, but everyone is different.

Start writing your critique. Remember that a person, with feelings, is reading it. Many may take it as an ad hominem attack. Make sure that it isn't. Compliment the positive aspects that you ascertained. Don't bullshit, don't be cheesy. Be honest. But be respectful.

Talk their language. A critique is meant to converse with the offender. A good critique should show what kind of person you are, but should be understandable without knowing you. A critique is not about you. It's about a product, a campaign, a politician, a clown car (it only fit 23). Show that you know their field. Your ideas should be able to talk for themselves, without you having to write your CV (resume).

Highlight the negatives. But offer a solution. What is the point of complaining unless something can come good out of it?

Read your critique. Would it annoy you if it was about you? Is it positive or negative? Does your point come across clearly?

A critique should enable the conversation, not hinder it.

And the hardest step:
Take action. It's easy to be a critic. To sit back, drink a nice glass of Beaujolais, and pontificate on the errors of everyone else.
Get up and do something. Put your time and effort where your mouth is. You think that you are creative, smart or strategic? Bring it.

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November 16, 2008

How to Sit Through Boring Conferences

We've all been there. At least I have.

You come to a conference to meet people, and you enter a panel or lecture because you kinda have to.

So I am sitting at a panel in WordCampIsrael 2008, and have decided to write a post about what to do while I am bored.

Please, don't misunderstand me, I think that its a great unconference. But I get a bit bored.

First of all, make sure that you have wifi.

If you do not have wifi, you have two initial options. The first is to text witty tweets from your cell phone (that is if you don't have GPRS or internet on your phone). You may also decide to access twitter via your browser, and respond to random people's tweets. Or to comment on random friends statuses on Facebook via Facebook Mobile.

Wikipedia is your friend.

Let's be honest. A conference is not the time to write a brief for a client. You have already decided that today is not for working, so educate yourself. Learn whatever you want about watches, sushi, or the history of the "Old Stone Hotel". Use the random button. Go Crazy.

Teach a friend (or a thousand).

I learned about Ulysses S. Grant and the "Old Stone Hotel". The truth is kinda boring, just like the panel that I am still sitting through. So I partake in "creative history". I think "Why would Grant need a hotel near his house? Because his wife probably kicked him out." So I tweet that. I even got a response. (I chose not to say that he had an affair or anything torrid like that, because I will not act like Valley Wag.)

Sit next to someone fun who twitters as well.

Tweet with a partner, competing who can tweet the most outrageous thing, while still chatting with each other about the panel. **This requires a skill called "Multi-Tasking" that not everyone can do.**

Go to websites with the term NSFW.

You may make a new friend with the person sitting behind you. You may also receive a bottle of cold water thrown on you, with people pointing and staring and calling you a pervert. Ok, perhaps you should not go to sites that are NSFW. Use your discretion.

Make Fun of the Speaker on Twitter.

DO NOT DO THIS IF: 1) the speaker is on twitter or 2) you put a hashtag that causes your tweets to go straight to a large screen in the hall. But make fun of how the speaker dresses or things that the speaker says. But - do not make fun of people with disabilities. Use your discretion again. Political speakers are perfect targets. You don't feel that anyone is getting hurt.

Remember above all, have fun!

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November 13, 2008

Crowdsourcing's a Bitch

I finally learned the difference between men and women.

After a day of working and being hungry, I decided to go to the (sorry excuse of a) mall across the street from my apartment, for a bit of dinner. I walked in to one of the 3 cafe chains that operate stores in the mall, and I ordered a dish that consists of potatoes, tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese on top. Think of a pizza, without the dough, but with potato pieces instead. (I don't eat flour, as it has gluten, which is evil.)

I take a table number, I sit down, mouth salivating in anticipation of the delicacy that is being prepared for me, and I finally see the waitress come over to deliver my meal. I squint, I blink, and then I turn around the plate. I saw no cheese. I inquired as to the lack of cheese. A waiter, standing nearby, quickly responded, "It doesn't come with cheese." Irritated, I answered, "Yes, it does, it says so in big letters on the wall." Annoyed at my persistence, he left the area of the tables and walked into the store to go the kitchen, leaving the dish, with its fragrant smells wafting into my nose. After 30 seconds, I began wondering "Why the hell did he not take the plate?" I stood up, took the plate, and met him as he was leaving the store with sliced cheese on a plate. I shoved the plate into his hands, said that it was supposed to be a hot meal, and to send it back to the kitchen to melt the f*ing cheese onto the non-glutenous potatoes. He glared at me, took the plate, and took care of it.

I went back to my table, and immediately sent a few tweets. The first was:

"and the food place f's up my order. And then screws up the fix up."

and the second was:

"is there a male equivalent of being "bitchy"? Looking for a good word to describe myself today."

The second was an attempt at crowdsourcing. To that tweet, I received four answers, which I believe demonstrate the difference between how men and women think. (I obtained DM'ed approval from all people to post their tweets on this bloggery.)

@michaelnobbs: @ezrabutler butchy?

@amyguth: @ezrabutler I try to make bitchy unisex. Ditto a**hole.

@cheeky_geeky: @ezrabutler Maybe "snarky"

@evablue: @ezrabutler it's called PMS. men have cycles too. ;)

Now let us analyze the answers by gender of responder.

@michaelnobbs is male. He realized that men can't be bitchy, but butchy is a close enough wordplay that takes a masculine word (butch) and overlays it unto the feminine one (bitchy). He created a new term.

@cheeky_geeky is male. He attempted to find a synonym for bitchy, but did not care about it sounding similar or not. He researched the essence of the term. He is extremely utilitarian.

@amyguth is female. She thought that being bitchy is a unisex activity, not reserved for women.

and

@evablue is female. She not only agreed with the sentiment of @amyguth, but she went to blame the cause as PMS, and assert that men have PMS as well.

I cannot argue with her, because only a few hours before, I mentioned that

"I don't understand human physiology. I ate this morning. Why do I have to eat again now?"

After that, I can understand why anyone would think that I am an ignoramus when it comes to the human body.

Bottom line:

Men try to find similarities, but realize that we are not alike. Women are special. They are to be placed upon a pedestal. But some of our actions are able to mirror some of their actions, and we must figure out how best to describe those similarities.

Women assume that we are all the same. A man can even have a baby! (http://twitter.com/mtlb/status/1004180997 [thx to @evablue])

And you wonder why the book "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus" was written by a man.

Click here to download:

Crowdsourcings_a_Bitch.zip (216 KB)

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November 12, 2008

Flying Saucers in Tel Aviv

I have heard of life imitating art, but life imitating social media is new to me.

Last night, I ventured into the center of Tel Aviv, and played frisbee in Rabin Square. (Full story: @nivcalderon tweeted it and posted it on FB. I happened to be in the city for a meeting, and decided to stay. Smartest decision I have made in at least a week.)

Before I arrived, I had no clue as what to expect. Would it be a a game of Ultimate? Would all the cool kids laugh at my ineptitude at throwing a flying disc through the air?

A bunch of people came, and started throwing frisbees around, everyone having fun. Suddenly, one guy told everyone to stop, and to form two lines, facing each other. He made sure that there was at least 1 frisbee for every two people, and he started teaching us how to throw and catch correctly, with different techniques. (I got decent at the Chicken Wing throw.)

For the next few hours, we practiced what we just learned. For a guy in decent shape, I got a pretty good workout.

If you missed the point, I will repeat it slowly and bold it for added emphasis. Some guy, out of the goodness of his heart, not for money, fame or women (perhaps for the women, on second thought), decided to teach a bunch of random individuals something that he was good at.

This reminds me of the Interwebs, the Blogosphere and Twitterverse in particular. (It also reminds me of one of the websites that I was shown yesterday by the guy who created it: www.articlesbase.com)

People give free knowledge out, because they can. They write tutorials, answer questions, inform and educate, because the have the ability. (Don't get me wrong, I'm not naive: I know that people are trying to build up their brand and their practice, but they give out quality information out nonetheless.)

If you have ever spoken with me, you know that I have a pretty positive view of "people". This experience just fortified that view even more.

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November 11, 2008

Numbers 0, People 1

In the end of the day, numbers don't tuck you in at night. Numbers don't bake Gluten-Free birthday cakes. Numbers don't listen sympathetically when you have had a bad day. Numbers don't do much of anything. Numbers freak you out. We always either want the number to be higher or lower.

I don't believe in numbers. I was thrilled when I saw a post yesterday that "SEO is dead". SEO gets numbers. But they are just percentages, clicks, visitors, times, they aren't people. They can be faked, manipulated, and played with.

I can see how many people clicked on my last post. It was an extremely long post, admittedly. I don't know how many people read the whole thing. You can't really track that. You can't track if it made them a different person.

You can track that with how many passed it on to their friends. It's about the people. You can track how many people commented or sent me messages via one medium or another. But the numbers lie.

Don't get me wrong, numbers can give you some sort of picture, but they leave you wanting more. (Unless you are Avril Lavigne and your video "Girlfriend" became the number one viewed clip on YouTube.)

It is hard for me to believe in something that I do not understand. In the real world we don't have SEO, but we do have people. We have pictures, we have songs, we have slogans. Even when a company goes "minimalist" or becomes starkly utilitarian, they are still broadcasting a brand.

It is finally official, or semi-official, or unofficially official, then that numbers have lost.

I am happy that, at least according to that post, the people behind the numbers win.

(Note: This has nothing to do with the TV show Numb3rs, which I love.)

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November 9, 2008

Is Social Media the Opiate of the Masses?

My friend @DanieleRossi interviewed me last week for his podcast "Stuttering is Cool" . In a short followup conversation we had yesterday, he asked me the relevance of my MA in History of Religions and what it has anything to do with social media and social networking.

The answer is: everything.

Indeed, the more that social media advances, I would say that it comes closer and closer to being a bona fide religion. And, no, I am not saying this tongue in cheek or sarcastically.

Religion is social at its foundation. The rules and laws that are part of mostly every religion are created to strengthen the ties between the adherents, and to keep them apart from the others. Through religious discourse, practices and sources, a language emerges that is unique to the members of the fold. Religion requires people to interact with others, whether by communal meals, public prayers with a quorum, exhortations of how to treat the neighbor. Food plays an central role in religion, as well. Through restricting food, religion causes people to shop and eat food with other members of their group, but forbids them from eating with outsiders.

For instance, whereas alcohol is haram (forbidden) at all times in Islam, both the Jews and the Christians came out with laws forbidding drinking wine with the other at different points in history. But both the Jews and Christians use wine in their own ceremonies. If we cannot eat or drink together, we cannot be friends. If we do eat and drink together, we will become friends. If you are in a religion, especially in the modern world, you can always find a sympathetic soul in any place in the world. It gives you a natural commonality. Religions would always have their adherents dress specially, for a double edged reason: on one side they will feel most comfortable with co-religionists, and on the other side they will not be able to assimilate simply into any other culture.

In certain eastern religions, tea has a special place and job, instead of wine.

There are real benefits for the social cohesion caused by religion. Durkheim, for one, notes that the more cohesive religions are, the more that your religion causes you to interact with your neighbor, the lower probability you have to commit suicide.

Anthropologically speaking, religion finds importance in both the details and the large events. They need both. The details keep people involved between the events. There are everything from rites of the various life-cycle events to the minutiae of the daily grind, and everything in between.

In order to bring people together, religions create special songs or hymns that everyone knows and further them brings them together.

Again, commonalities for the sake of community, which means that an adherent has many commonalities with members of his/her religion, and not much with people of other religions.

Knowledge is something aspired to in most modern religions, but was always revered. Much ink has been spilled on the internal corpus of each religion, each with its own laws, norms and practices. The internal writing and responsum connect the literati of the faith.

Religions are structured as such that there is an inherent hierarchy in job, in importance, and in power. Individuals, both clergy and lay, receive this power because of a combination of their knowledge, their devotion (as measured in time), and in many cases, their charisma and/or wealth. Some other religions also include concepts such as heredity and bloodlines. Its difficult but not impossible to rise in the ranks. It does have a lot to do with the aforementioned traits.

The first critique that I hear from people who do not Twitter is: why should anyone care what you ate for lunch? Food brings people together. After Alltop came out with bacon.alltop.com, I started seeing how many people loved it, and starting chatting about it, exchanging recipes and whatnot. Every Friday as many people prepare their Friday night dinners, I see people salivating over other people's menus, even if they are thousands of miles apart. Gary Vaynerchuk's WineLibraryTV creates a community of people who are all drinking the same wines, or at least assisting other people in choosing wines. Those people then go out, and meet new people who enjoy wines together. I am a celiac, and I can personally attest how often that comes up in online conversations. It has brought me closer together with people. Social Networks have been spawned because of epicureans, cooking shows like Eric Ripert's Get Toasted Avec Eric on Blip.tv, and even @RadZack 's Bottles Blends and Brews on Revision3. People have meetup.com's, tweetups, and Third Thirsty Thursday Tasting Groups . Tea has also acquired a healthy following of aficionados on different sites.

In many cases you are able to easily spot an adherent Social Media. They may be wearing a tshirt from a startup, a wristband from @garyvee , or many other things. Some dress like their avatars so they can alway be recognized, no matter the situation.

Viral memes, songs and videos are common currency that members of social media can talk about, and knowledge of them is critical to being part of the group. In the same vein, there are many articles and bloggeries which are considered vital for any member of social media to know about. Common starting knowledge is key for conversation, as is common frameworks in which they operate.

There is a veritable lexicon of phrases, words, and variant meanings that exist in many different social networks on the interwebs, that people then include in their own correspondence with others. They create content in a similar way, because it becomes an accepted style for their social group (or because they wish to mimic).

Using various forms of social media, the mundane details of life attain more meaning. My friend @EstherK has even described tweets as "modern day Brachot (blessings)". I know the daily rituals of my twitter friends. There is beauty in the details, which like in a religious life, is seen on a larger backdrop. That ritual may be running to get the bus in Chicago, or getting a cup of Coffee in Tel Aviv. They do them every day religiously, and tell the world that they are doing that.

There are large events, networking, conventions, conferences, dinners, and anything else that you can think of. These holidays (in the British sense) exist and give the sense of belonging and create the memories that carry relationships through the rest of the year.

A member of Social Media will combine the details and the pictures from the major events together.

I am not only writing about the Twitterati or the power-users, the movers and shakers behind the Silicon Valley, Alley and Wadi. The regular rank and file users of all forms of social media, while not wielding the same power can be likened to regular people who belong to religions. They may not be extremely religious, but there are certain things that they do. The bloggers, podcasters and broadcasters receive power because enough of the regular people follow them, religiously.

Social media makes people feel that they are not alone and that they belong. They are not weird, because there are many other people just like them, with the same arcane, unhealthy obsession with Gossip Girl or arachnoids. People create their own daily rituals surrounded by it. It gives their life renewed meaning.

These groups are engineered to bring people together. The entry is usually very simple, but not always. There are social networks that are extremely difficult to infiltrate, or to receive an invitation to. To become a true member of any network, one cannot just join, but they also have to participate.

The cream rises to to the top in Social Media as well. But anyone can become someone. They just have to have the right gifts or determination to succeed.

I am talking about the macro right now, but the micro rings true as well. Communities, both religious and SocMed, can be large or small and share the same attributes. Change happens when the adherents do not like the status quo, and they revolt and start something new.

Oh, and we cannot forget the heretics. They are needed as well. Thank you @1938Media .

In the end of the day, they both bring people together. They both can be quite elitist, but allow for lower level people to rise.

But social media does something slightly different than religion, which scares me. Religion sets up walls for you, so you cannot interact with others. In social media, the user decides who he/she will interact with, and cut off someone who does not share a commonality without a word.

We socially set up walls for ourselves.

Who needs religion anymore?

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