Liza With A "Z"

He Said, She Said: Anatomy Of A Twitter Thread

Image by DailyPic via Flickr

Some people will never understand Twitter. They don't understand how it is possible for people to communicate in 140 characters in a sea of millions of users. These critics assume that because there is plenty of nonsense on Twitter, that it is all nonsense

Beneath the noise, however, connections form, personalities emerge, and we communicate on a level that seems impossible to non-Twitter users.

Like most people I "met" Chris Brogan on Twitter, but, I am also fortunate to have met him in person. Each of us has our own lives online and offline, and every now and then we cross paths. This afternoon, our paths crossed. This is what exactly what we said.

From Chris Brogan:

@marlamarkman - my 3 yr old is a scaredy cat. My 7 yr old girl is brave until she's not. : )

From Liza Sperling:

@chrisbrogan I am your 7 yr old, but somehow turned into your 3 yr old. Working on getting back to my old ways.

From Chris Brogan:

@lizasperling - now that was interesting to read. : )

From Liza Sperling:

@chrisbrogan Did it make sense?

From Chris Brogan:

@lizasperling - made perfect sense. I just liked the poetry of it.

This took place in a about a minute. At that same moment, similar communication took place amongst millions of people sending their own messages. Earth shattering? Hardly, but it shows how much meaning can be conveyed in an isolated thread. This communication was public, and, yet, it is a pretty personal exchange. There is meaning on Twitter, if you take the time to unravel the strands.

- Liza Sperling

Are You Having Fun Yet? The Lost Art of Play

Image by lizasperling via Flickr

The Lost Art of Play: Are Your Having Fun Yet?

by Liza Sperling

I am 33 years old. I have spent nearly a decade on Wall Street, two years starting a fund and volunteering as a Mounted Patrol Officer in Wyoming, and I am currently enjoying my second year in San Francisco. I have proven that I can hack it in the toughest of professional and social environments. I read voraciously, DVR Charlie Rose daily, and need my Sunday New York Times, but it recently ocurred to me that these activities had become so routine and feel like a part of my life's carefully planned choreography. I was doing just about everything while focusing on the next rung on the ladder. I had forgotten how to "play".

What is "play"? My definition: to explore or engage in an activity with enjoyment as the sole objective, or doing something for sheer pleasure rather than factoring in the potential learning quotient, monetary gain or the intellectual value the activity provides. Sure, the desire to master, achieve fame & fortune and tackle new goals may result from playing, but it's NOT play if we seek out those outcomes. I set out to relearn the art of play and to have fun for the sake of having fun.

I doodle. Using my sublime set of 36 dual-tipped Copic markers and a massive pad of inexpensive newsprint, I draw swirls, polka dots, whatever comes to mind. I post the doodles on Flickr.com and received an handful of offers to purchase my doodles, but they are not for sale. Instead I give them to friends or use them as wrapping paper. You can see one of my doodles in the photo above.

I take pictures: I bought a point and shoot camera, and I take photos of whatever draws my attention, without any criteria or purpose. I began posting the pictures on Flickr and found others' examples as inspiration that even the mundane can be fun to photograph. You can check out my Flickr feed here:

I Tweet, Friendfeed, check-in, follow & engage online & offline: I am an an active participant on multiple social media networks, and have made a point to take my online friendships offline. Somehow I have managed to make great friends who I would otherwise never know had I been hesitant to engage in these online networks.

I Whuffaoke: Yes, that's me in the Whuffaoke or Bust track jacket, singing without a care in the world.

(I produced Whuffaoke.com, which is an entire post, if not a book, in itself. I will just say that being a part of Tech Karaoke and Whuffaoke is the single activity that you can enjoy without any skills.)

I blog: I do not publish as much as I would like, but when I do a post it is because I want to, not because I have to, and I don't worry about who, if anyone, will read it.

I code (?!): In an effort to learn HTML, I am using a website targeting 10 yr. olds,(www.Neopets.com) My interest in blogging and technology, lead to exploring Wordpress, Posterous, Blogspot and the integrations of tools and widgets like Zemanta, Disqus et al. While incorporating some of these tools into my blog is easy, others have forced me to look at the underlying code. After breaking many templates, it is fun to finally understand the components of a new language.

The big question: am I having fun? Yes! Of course, learning or relearning anything takes time, and many activities are an acquired taste that require patience before the enjoyment kicks in. Many people have been playing since the day they are born, some do little more than play, but there are also those of us who forget the basics as we transition into adulthood.

Don't let any more time pass without asking yourself these questions: Do you know how to play? What do you consider play? As always, I want to hear your thoughts, so please join the conversation.

Authenticity Backlash: Are You Grumpy? Me, too.

Feeling grumpy? Me, too, and my informal research indicates that we are not alone. Something has gone awry in the Twitterverse. No, I am not referring to the Twitpocalypse. Rather than ignore this creeping feeling, let's discuss it.

Recently several Twitter events left me with a bitter taste in my mouth. Many others are also not their usual easy-going selves. Flaring tempers, personalized attacks and a 'shoot first, ask questions later' mentality have crept into that I once deemed a safe place to mull ideas, discuss conflicting points of view and be my quirky, eccentric self without expecting personal attacks. Others have attempted to explain the recent increase of snarky attacks on astrology. I wish it were that simple to explain, but I don't think we can blame it on the stars.

My anecdotal evidence:

A friend mentioned that the recent negative vibes on Twitter were contagious, causing her to feel under attack. Several others chimed in and readily agreed. Typically positive folks, all rattled by the increasing frequency of their tweets being misunderstood and resulting in extreme reactions.

Another friend with a large Twitter following remarked that more frequent negative interaction caused him to limit his level of engagement, frequency and transparency. He is considering abandoning Twitter completely.

Several friends and followers suggested that I monitor my outgoing tweets more carefully to avoid my words being taken out of context and sending an unintended message. (Huh? I thought I define my boundaries in this place!)

I think this is authenticity backlash, or the result of a semi-public sphere going mainstream. Now that Twitter has attracted a larger audience, there is a sense that Big Brother has entered the room, and he is not going away anytime soon. Big Brother has many of us on edge, questioning and defending Twitter (and ourselves). Corporations and celebrities are using and misusing Twitter and then publicizing its flaws. Trolls are multiplying beyond Twitter's ability to quash them, and they are amping up their efforts to incite negative reactions. With so many people looking for chinks in the armor, should we be surprised that they have found them? It is only logical that increased scrutiny makes authenticity more difficult, but I am not ready to throw in the towel.

Online authenticity is a new phenomenon, and we are just now exploring it's complexities. Each of us has the option to self-censor, to protect our reputations and public identities. Personally I am unwilling to spend my time honing my tweets to ensure that they are morsels of perfection. I propose that we accept the inevitable trade-off that online authenticity demands. Online communication is a medium that lends itself to misunderstandings, and if you increase the size of the network, the rate of misunderstandings is likely to increase.

Let's take responsibility and remind ourselves that many of us opt-in to Twitter to be ourselves and to interact with others eager to do the same. This only works if we agree to follow a simple rules: debate without personalizing, respect others' personal boundaries, don't take yourself or others too seriously, own up to screw ups, etc...basic golden rules, right? The kicker is to also accept that each of us will break these rules from time to time, because we are, after all, human. Authenticity requires acknowledging human imperfections including crappy moods, hot tempers, dropping F-bombs, drunk tweets, occasional stupidity, the list goes on...

Do you really want to hold a grudge, seek revenge and remain grumpy or recognize that growing pains are an inevitable part of Twitter (and each of us) growing up? Let's admit, it is getting crowded in here, but there is still plenty of room for each of us. It's okay to be grumpy, I was when I started writing, but I feel better already. The note in the movie, Juno, said it best: If you're still in, I am in.

I will end this as I end and begin most conversations, with a question: Are you in?

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An Open Invitation: Show Up (and let me know how it goes...)

Image via Wikipedia

There are hundreds of articles a day about why or why not Twitter and/or other online communities provide the human connectivity that we all crave. For me, a personal story is more effective than a lengthy analysis in proving a point, so let me tell you a story about about Catherine Grison.

Yesterday I met a friend, Adrian Chan, for coffee and coworking at the Creamery. As Adrian's laptop lost juice, and I grew tired of editing a document, we decided to grab a beer at Hotel Utah. It was the first day of the Apple Conference (WWDC), so the wonderfully divey Hotel Utah was filling up with other laptop toting-types. Adrian suggested I send an open tweet and invite others in the area to join us. Catherine Grisone, a name I did not recognize, immediately responded to say she was on the way.

Catherine is a self-proclaimed designer extraordinaire and owner of Your French Accent. She woke up that very morning wondering if Twitter was real or "full of sheet" (imagine the french accent). She saw my tweet while sitting in her office in Potrero Hill and recognized the serendipitous timing - it was a chance to see if the online connections are, in fact, real. Would we welcome her? Would be be anything like the people we claim to be online? Would we be "full of sheet"?

I give a lot of credit to Catherine for showing up. Nowadays more people than ever work from home, cowork or do not work at all. It is easy to feel isolated, to rely on online communities to feel connected and to forget the value of showing up in real life (IRL). It is a snap to become an active part of an online community (or thirty), but it demands far more effort to find a pair of clean jeans and meet people offline. Conversations are indeed going on everyday in restaurants, museums, bars and coffee shops, but an open invitation is the best opportunity I know of to join the conversation and connect in person. The options are unlimited, and often times taking online relationships offline is as easy as heading to a nearby bar at happy hour for a Tweetup.

While discussing how much we enjoyed meeting Catherine, Adrian asked a fair question: Do the same opportunities exist in less digital locales? Perhaps he has a point, so here is my advice: if you aren't able to find an open invitation, extend one. Pick an inexpensive location, and broadcast it to your social network of choice. If no one shows up, try a different strategy, but don't give up.

Show up, smile, contribute to the conversation and repeat. Throw an open invitation out there every now and then for fair measure. And let me know how it goes.

I am curious. I ask a lot of questions.

I write about people. I write about what happens when I ask people questions.

Sometimes I write about well-known people, other times I write about the charming gentleman I met at the doctor's office.If someone enjoys reading about who I consider notable, who am I to deny them a peek?

*Feel free to follow me on Twitter if you think my posts are too infrequent: http://www.twitter.com/lizasperling

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He Said, She Said: Anatomy Of A Twitter Thread

Are You Having Fun Yet? The Lost Art of Play

Authenticity Backlash: Are You Grumpy? Me, too.

Feeling grumpy? Me, too, and my informal research indicates that we are not alone. Something has gone awry in the Twitterverse. No, I am not referring to the Twitpocalypse. Rather than ignore this creeping feeling, let's discuss it.

My anecdotal evidence:

A friend mentioned that the recent negative vibes on Twitter were contagious, causing her to feel under attack. Several others chimed in and readily agreed. Typically positive folks, all rattled by the increasing frequency of their tweets being misunderstood and resulting in extreme reactions.

Another friend with a large Twitter following remarked that more frequent negative interaction caused him to limit his level of engagement, frequency and transparency. He is considering abandoning Twitter completely.

Several friends and followers suggested that I monitor my outgoing tweets more carefully to avoid my words being taken out of context and sending an unintended message. (Huh? I thought I define my boundaries in this place!)

I will end this as I end and begin most conversations, with a question: Are you in?

An Open Invitation: Show Up (and let me know how it goes...)

I am curious. I ask a lot of questions.