Monkeys with typewriters

Noam and I are living in some weird warren-like commune/ community/ educational institution. It’s underground, but not deep, just covered - inside a mountain, I think. There are hoards of people moving through the corridors, and lots of meetings going on in dimly-lit rooms. It’s like a mix between my old school (Holland Park) and some other place: with lots of long glass-sided corridors and childlike artwork on the walls.

It’s not hard to get outside – but outside isn’t pleasant: I scrabble around, find a doorway and see a vast, Styxian landscape in front of me; the air is scorching, dry and hot. There are huge rubbish heaps everywhere with people clambering over the heaps, all carrying out some kind of terrible, manual work. The point of their work is unclear. There’s sea, and a beach, but it’s all polluted, contaminated.

Then there’s a third place, a garden: above ground with manicured lawns, topiary, statues and deep, cool ornamental ponds to swim in. Some of my older women friends are there, sitting on the edge of the pools, with their bare feet dangling in the water. Somehow, if you dive right down to the bottom of a deep, dark pool, it connects with the warren-like commune below. 

Someone gives me a cup of bright pink ice cream and I’m compelled to go outside into the Styxian landscape to buy more. The ice cream affects my ability to move or talk, but I want to eat it. I’m slurring my words and fighting to move.

I’ve no idea what time it is, or whether it’s day or night. At one point I’m in an airport with a group of people. We’re trying to catch a plane, but I can’t work out what airline we’re meant to be on. Then the dream cuts back and I’m in the commune/ warren again.

I try to tell Noam what was happening. I try to warn him against eating the poisonous pink ice cream and I can see he’s trying to understand what I’m saying but he can’t because the words won’t come out of my mouth properly.

Just then, I notice that the corridors and rooms of the commune are dotted with hundreds of discarded, empty, ice cream pots. Look (I want to shout) - everyone’s at it!

Some random thoughts that passed through my head yesterday: 50 airlines are changing terminals at Heathrow (wow, that really is a big aiport); my watch is broken (again); Fantastic Mr Fox by Roald Dahl is pretty grim (but Lila likes it); my friend is working way too hard on her micro-finance business in China; China has a choice to follow the West or pursue a different path of growth (if the former, we're doomed); two bags of landfill rubbish from our little household every week seems way too much and that’s just one small household; this Baileys is out of date but it tastes okay.

Photo: sea turtle

We’re constantly hearing about the ‘Net generation, digital natives and web-savvy teenagers. There’s wistfulness and a touch of envy as we talk about young people’s ability to deal competently with all sorts of techno-gadgets, and to move with apparent ease between online and offline worlds.

The under ‘30s, we’re frequently told, take to digital technology like ducks to water, free of the inhibitions and hang ups their parents, grandparents and older siblings might have. They are born with digital technology in their DNA while we, the older generation, are doomed to sit awkwardly on the sidelines. The young, it’s implied, represent funky, state-of-the-art new builds while we are the dated Victorian terrace house – charming, perhaps, but decidedly quaint, and in need of some serious retro-fitting.

But Xers and Baby Boomers have something no other generations can have. We sit on the cusp. We remember what it was like to communicate without mobile phones, to carry out research without the internet and to sustain friendships without social networks. Like Elizabethan courtiers experiencing their first taste of sugar, we are able to truly appreciate the miracle we have at our fingertips.

On Computer Weekly's Social Enterprise blog, Suw Charman-Anderson warns businesses against the perils of focusing too much on the younger generation while “ignor[ing] the vast pool of older tech-literate people who have grown up with the technology and who understand it in their bones.”

I agree - the older generations have a special something: we are the pioneers and no-one can ever take that from us. And we continue to forge new frontiers every day.

Photo credit: Christian Davies

I’m often guilty of giving my three year old a treat when I need her do something quickly - without asking questions. I know this is probably Not Good but, stuck for time and patience, I do it anyway.

Now I read over on my friend Graeme Semple’s blog that parenting expert Elizabeth Hartley Brewer has published two whole books on the subject, Raising and Praising Girls / Raising and Praising Boys, where she points out that once a child realises that treats are available, they simply manipulate their parents in order to secure more treats.

Graeme asked whether bankers’ bonuses really work, and linked to David Bolchover's new book, Paycheck: Are Top Earners Really Worth It? Bolchover's work reminds me of Dan Pink’s research into intrinsic versus extrinsic motivators (see Pink’s great TED talk on the subject).

The trouble with intrinsic motivators is that they take a lot more time to establish: a strong sense of community, a set of meaningful values and cohesive social capital don’t appear overnight (unlike bonuses).

Look at famous examples of truly networked organisations: Dee Hock’s Visa, Ricardo Semler’s Semco and The Co-operative. It’s clear that listening and collaboration have been built into the very fabric of these companies – and that these values have been built upon over time. From the outset, bosses like Hock and Semler took time to really pay attention to employees’ needs.

In this way, good management is very much like good parenting: there are no shortcuts. 

An oasis of colour on a cloudy London day - this gorgeous cake shop in Covent Garden is enough to brighten anyone's mood. Which reminds me why it's good not to wear too much black in winter - or any time of year, in fact. Especially if you're trying to motivate and inspire the people around you.

Gordon Brown is clearly so unhappy. I can't wait for the general election to put him - and the UK - out of our communal misery.

I appreciate that Andrew Rawnsley has a book to sell, I accept that he may have lied egregiously in his previous book covering the Bernie Ecclestone furore (among other stuff), but, as us old wives like to say, there’s no smoke without fire.

Even if Rawnsley has exaggerated or bent the facts, few members of the British public must doubt that there’s some truth behind his depiction of Brown as an insecure bully.

IBM’s Luis Suarez recently wrote about how old command and control methods should be consigned to the dustbin once and for all. I commented that while, intellectually, people might accept that carrot and stick techniques are outdated, it’s easy for them to fall into old familiar patterns of operating ‘on the ground’.

Especially when they’re supremely stressed – as Gordon Brown must be. For Brown, the old familiar pattern seems to be (allegedly) ‘power and cower’.

In my comment on Luis’ blog, I mentioned Chris Argyris’ observation of ‘espoused theory’ vs ‘theory in practice’: Argyris noted that it was common for managers to pay lip service to one idea while clearly ignoring it in practice.

Brown denies all claims of bullying: he talks about being passionate, sensitive and sometimes over-emotional. I’ve no doubt he believes that. But the reality of the situation seems to be that some of his staff in Downing Street feel oppressed, humiliated and victimized. And that’s not healthy for any of us.

As Daniel Goleman pointed out in his brilliant book, Emotional Intelligence, one of the first laws of good leadership is to 'know thyself'. I fear that Gordon Brown really needs to get his own psychological house in order. 

It pains me to say it, but the best way for Brown to address his problems is to step out of the spotlight for a while.

Popped into Cass Business School this afternoon to have tea with the always entertaining Professor Clive Holtham (one of my fave lecturers when I did my MBA at Cass back in 2000-1). We chatted about lots of things including how great Moo stickers are - Clive has now printed off his very own sticker series for The Intelligent Exploiter, his latest book/ project with Nigel Courtney.

1. How relevant is Metcalfe’s Law to social networks?

2. If we apply modern neoevolutionary principles rather than C19th, deterministic ones, accidents and free will have an important part to play in social evolution. Does social media enable these and, if so, does social media therefore enable social evolution?

3. How instrumental is social media in creating less hierarchical organisations?

4. How are social tools changing our behaviour, if at all?

5. What is the long-term impact of the type of self-organisation identified by Clay Shirky in Here Comes Everybody? (We can blog on Wordpress, customize our Myspace page, set up a community on Ning…)

6. Are we seeing a new type of hero emerge and, if so, what does that signify? Craig Newmark, Lauren Luke, Barack Obama and (our local hero in London) Lloyd Davis - all these people built businesses/ careers by building a community first.

7. As various factors (environmental, social, political) push for an end to the consumer age, does social media have a role to play in bringing other values to the fore (or does it simply accentuate consumerist values?!

8. How realistic is Jamais Cascio’s idea of the participatory panopticon – can we attempt to control surveillance through sousveillance? Does the Twitter/ Carter Ruck/ Trafigura episode prove we’ve turned a page, or simply that the censors will pay more attention to Twitter next time round?

9. What do we think of the UK Conservative Party’s attempts to embrace the social web? David Cameron has talked about storing NHS records on Google, his advisor Steve Hilton (partner of Google's Rachel Whetstone) has coined the phrase post-bureaucratic age, former New Labour new media advisors like MySociety’s Tom Steinberg have swapped sides…?

10. We could argue that the many-to-many structure of social networks enables a ‘long tail’ of human opinion to be heard. But can any diverse, 'bottom-upness' be sustained, or will it be back to 'business as usual' once the Web 2.0 dust has settled? Can the durable Pareto Principle (80/20 rule) ever truly be inversed?

It was great to see a fab bunch of people turn out for the Monkeys Tweetup last Friday as part of London Social Media Week. The Drunken Monkey did us proud with decent Dim Sum and beer. And the weather was unseasonably gorgeous, enabling a hearty group of us to brave the 40 minute walk from Tuttle Club in Kings Cross to deepest darkest Shoreditch, with only a handful getting *lost* on the way.

The idea behind the Tweetup was to have an informal discussion around one of the themes of Monkeys with Typewriters: the ‘anthropology’ of social media – its impact on people, society and culture.

In true swot style, I’d prepared ten open-ended questions or pointers for debate the night before. But the acoustics were dire and at first there were far too many people - around 25 or so – to have a single, structured, conversation.

So I started off posting the questions on Twitter so that people could chat in small groups. Hmmm. That was sort of successful. Then - luckily - the free bar ran out. Random people politely made their excuses and left. The dedicated hardcore remained!

I'd love to post the lively, convoluted discussion that commenced. Unfortunately my note-taking was non-existent and it being a Friday afternoon, the weekend and toddler have intervened and it’s only now (Weds) that I’m trying to recall exactly what happened.

A few points stuck in my mind: Nic Butler made a lovely one all about (cultural) memes - social networks accelerate communication and therefore social development/ evolution. Re changing values, Alison Wheeler said it used to be the haves and the have nots, now we’re seeing people relate in terms of the dos and the do nots. Love that!

Keri Hudson said she felt people around her age (20) are much more into sharing everything than previous generations (partly as a result of social tools). There was one Angry Young Man who made some great acerbic observations but left (Angrily) before I got his name.

My fave humourous exchange was between FJ van Wingerde and Patrick Hadfield:

FJ: All these CCTV cameras have ruined public sex!

Patrick: But surely they’ve enhanced public sex?

He he.

Great big thanks to everyone who came along. And a special thanks to those above, plus Anke Holst, Documentally, Ben Walker, James Governor, Bill Reyn and the others whose names I didn’t get, for staying long after the free beer had gone. And last but not least Kat McMann for brightening my day after a long time no see!

It's tough getting decent work done on a Friday, so what better way to spend the last day of Social Media Week hanging out with interesting people: collaborating, networking, drinking, eating, philosophizing or whatever else takes your fancy?

Tuttle Club will be taking place from 10am – midday at The Centre for Creative Collaboration near Kings Cross. If you’ve never been, you really should: this week will be a good ‘un. Lloyd Davis, Tuttle’s lovely founder, is now working as Social Artist in Residence at the CCC, and I’m sure he’ll be talking a bit about that new role, as well as doing his usual – meeting and greeting the Tuttle newbies and generally ensuring everyone who attends has a good time and at least one cup of decent coffee.

Whether you fancy a bite of lunch after Tuttle or whether you’ve worked hard all morning and reckon it’s time for a break,  on Friday afternoon, from 1pm – 4 (ish), there’ll be a Monkeys Tweetup at The Drunken Monkey in Shoreditch. With free beer for the early birds. And delicious Dim Sum for everyone who wants it.  The aim is to chat about the anthropology of social media: I see this as a kind of holistic look at the long-term social and cultural impact of social media (if any!), but please bring your own ideas and input.

Linking the two events, a 40 minute walk through the wondrous zone that is (or was?) Silicon Roundabout. [Update: just saw this Wired article indicating that Silicon Roundabout is very much alive and kicking] Why tube it when you can take your time and marvel at the myriad offices of so many tech start-ups? Last FM, Poke, IDEO, Moo, Trampoline, Dopplr and many more have all made their homes between Goswell Road and Brick Lane. Maybe some of these brilliant people will even join us for a drink :)