Reflecting on SOBcon

I spent this past weekend at SOBcon in Chicago. SOBcon stands for Successful and Outstanding Blog Conference and is an annual gathering of bloggers founded by Liz Strauss of successful-blog.com and Terry Starbucker of Ramblings of a Glass Half Full. I was lucky enough to be invited to represent Ashoka as one of the citizen sector organizations featured on the final morning of SOBcon, the "give back" session, coordinated by Geoff Livingston of Zoetica Media.

Conferences are more than just an exchange of information, they create temporary and in some cases permanent communities. The good ones convene a group of practitioners to share ideas and co-create the experience, bringing together expertise, passion and commitment in an inspiring mix. At the very best conferences a feeling of togetherness is created almost instantly, leading to a level of openness that is rare, where people care for and want to help each other, where no-one need be a stranger to another. SOBcon was this type of conference.

What was it about SOBcon that created this atmosphere, energy, connection?

Intimacy. SOBcon took place at a human scale, with only 150 attendees. The organizers could no-doubt sell several times more tickets than this, but they know that something would be lost in the process. They are not simply looking to run a profitable event, they want to host something meaningful. As a result real relationships are made, new partnerships forged. (The flip side of this intimacy is the cost of course, with the event costing almost $1,000 full price).

Interactivity. SOBcon had more than just the usual speakers and panels, it concluded each session with time for each table to brainstorm how the ideas presented relate to their organization, business or idea. This interactivity created a strong sense of creativity in the room, and a deeper connection between otherwise-random tablemates. The Give Back session harnessed this creative energy on behalf of the featured organizations.

Openness. Thanks to the above a sense of openness was created. People shared their struggles and successes, aspirations and accomplishments with the same open good humour. No-one seemed trying to impress anyone particularly and a genuine curiosity permeated most conversations. The speakers seemed to pick up on this vibe, mostly giving thoughtful and reflective speakers devoid of the rah rah you often get from the stage.

A commitment to something bigger than itself. The reason I was at SOBcon was for the session devoted to cause-based organization on Sunday morning. Along with Ashoka Vitamin Angels, InvisiblePeople and Anixter presented about their use of social media and what they are trying to achieve. The room then worked in groups for 45 minutes to generate suggestions and ideas for us based on the questions we each posed. The passion with which everyone focused on this task, the palpable desire to help and the insight of the suggestions was inspiring to behold.

Love. There really was a lot of love in the room at SOBcon. Love for our fellow participants. Love for social media and the medium of blogging, for what it had brought into so many lives and what it allows so many to achieve. And a love for those less fortunate, a desire to give back and contribute to creating a better future for all of us.

This love came through in the stewardship of Liz and Terry, in the passion of the participants, in the honesty of the presenters. And there were some fantastic presenters: Steve Farber reminded us that "oh shit!" moments are often the indicator that we're doing something significant, and not to be feared. Ted Murphy shared his journey with us, and what he overcame on the way (he also put up a $1000 Izea voucher for best idea for an online exchange platform, which my conference buddy Carol Roth and I won for an idea about intergenerational connections). Chris Brogan gave us some real talk about sustainability and becoming an overnight success after 11 years of hard work. Jay Jay French of Twisted Sister shared hilarious story after hilarious story.

A huge thank you to Liz and Terry for organizing such a great event and to Geoff for inviting me to present on behalf of Ashoka. It was a real honour and a pleasure.

Being comfortable with uncertainty

When it was recently announced I was leaving Ashoka most people assumed I had something specific lined up, that I would only make this announcement, this leap, if I knew exactly where I was landing, that I would land on my feet. But I don't, and I feel okay about that. Humans are hardwired to generally dislike uncertainty. We hold off on making decisions in the face of it, or avoid risky life choices all together, missing opportunities as we do. We have constructed complex religious mythologies around filling all possible uncertainty in the cosmos (repeatedly!).

I'm sure we all know or have known people who are unable to leave a job until they have another assured. Indeed I've known people who could not leave their partners until another came along, even if the passion had gone out of the relationship.

However this is not true for everyone. Amongst many other traits entrepreneurs have an unusual capacity for uncertainty. If you're going to make a bet on the future, and your capacity to make that future, you're going to risk being wrong. But taking that risk is the only way to create the future you desire, to live your dreams and make a difference.

For me I feel my life has taught me that it's vital to commit myself to the path I wish to walk. If I had not been prepared to focus my time and energies into Vibewire, sacrificing the comforts of a proper paying job and, potentially, years of my life, neither it nor I would be where we are now. For years I never had more than a few months worth of funding to pay myself. Once it got down to two weeks reserves before new funds arrived. Uncertainty was a constant.

Now you certainly can't do that forever. But going through times of uncertainty is usually (perhaps always) a necessary part of the most exciting and rewarding journeys. When we left Australia and came to America I didn't have a job confirmed. I had some good leads but knew I had to be here to finalize them. I bet on my success and came over. And now I am prepared to do it again.

I also think it's critical for organizations to accept the uncertainty that comes from trying new things. Especially when technology is involved I think an iterative approach to change, constantly tweaking and experimenting as you go, constantly being in beta, is the only sensible approach.

A blogger I admire, Sean Stannard-Stockton of Tactical Philanthropy, wrote about this in the context of philanthropy last year:

Humans don’t like to take risks. We are evolutionarily designed to be risk adverse. But good philanthropy, just like good investing, requires taking risks. Maybe a Zen approach to evaluation isn’t just a new age joke. Maybe accepting discomfort rather than trying to overcome it is the key to navigating uncertainty.

Having said all that I normally would not announce my departure from a job without another lined up. The reason I did so this time was more for Ashoka's sake than mine. While we had been quietly looking for a possible successor for a couple of months I felt we needed to accelerate that process by announcing that we were looking. My job is the most outward-facing one in the entire organization and it is essential that there is continuity. As a result of the announcement we've had several strong applications and I'm hopeful of finding someone in time.

My Life. By Tom Dawkins.

Recently our esteemed Regional Contact for the DC Burner Community, B, decided to organize a monthly get together called the Burner Salon. Each month a member of the community would be interviewed, talk-show style, in order to give us an insight into their life and work. There's an amazing variety of people of all walks of life in the burner community and I love the effort so many people put into showcasing the talents and stories of our community. I was honoured to be the featured guest at the third Burner Salon, after being nominated by the ever-supportive K. It was actually a lot of fun; I thought we had a great conversation, and those there seemed to enjoy it. I met some great people and got a chance to reflect on some aspects of my own journey.

The whole thing was filmed and is now online. So, to anyone who has ever wanted to hear me talk about myself for an hour, this is for you:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3r-9r6Xt_q0]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1VJAK93MuE]

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MeUEKbApBM]

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjGOo2KEh18]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbfTD_WEL5Y]

Learning in Community

This most recent weekend was one filled with learning and community, leaving me feeling both smarter and more connected to Washington DC than I was before. It made me realize, or remember, that learning from one-another is one of the most vital components of community; where we are connected by our common ideas, ideals and aspirations; where we realize that all of us know so much more than any of us. On Friday night I attended the opening night of the Social Justice Camp, an unconference bringing together the grassroots social justice community in DC and emphasizing the importance of arts in bringing about social change. Friday was an Ignite-style event, with a dozen speakers giving short presentations on their work. It was great to hear more about the work of homeless advocates, food security organizers and social change muralists. It had a nice feel to the event, as unconferences always do, of everyone being on the same level, there to share and learn, without a divide between presenters and audience.

This feeling continued on Saturday night at the first Columbia Heights Arts Salon. This was an event for local artists in the Columbia Heights area of DC, hosted in four local homes. A series of house parties combined with showcases for local talents - with houses dedicated to performance, visual art, photography and digital installations. K performed to open the evening, the first time she's performed solo in two years. The fact that she felt encouraged and inspired to create and present a work in five days is testiment to the platform this sort of event creates. The event was put on my the newly-formed Columbia Heights Arts Foundation (CHARTS), which you can find out more about here. K and I are going to try and get involved and see how we can help them as we're really inspired by their vision of building community through the arts.

Then on Sunday it was K's birthday which we celebrated at a tea party for about 16 at which everyone presented/taught something. The variety of things I learnt that afternoon was amazing: drama games, canvas stretching, the scale of the universe, productivity techinques, how to draw a superhero, speak Russian and wear a corset. Everyone had something to share, a passion or a skill, a professional competance or a hobby. We all have things to share, but rarely are we invited to share them. Everyone came away from the experience inspired and uplifted - having maintained our attention for almost six hours and enjoyed every moment of it. This is a really different way of learning from what we get in our institutions - peer-to-peer, relaxed, and human.

This is what community looks like. It is open, vulnerable and participatory, based on common values and able to support its members to share and grow. Experiencing community like this, inside a room, with our shared energy strong and perceptible, is like a jolt of electricity - it animates and inspires. But elements of this community are also found online, and social media has given us a platform to replicate many of these features.

The people I feel most connected to online are those I actively share with and learn from. Twitter, in particular, has given me access to a set of peers who share my values and are looking to collaboratively learn how best to use these tools to affect social change. It is only through trial and error that this learning will take place, and the more we share the faster we can learn. This is why I was part of launching the monthly #4Change twitter chats. This is what inspired the estalishment of sQuareOne (now called the Vibewire Enterprise Hub) in Sydney. The creation of spaces where peer-learning happens.

As my friend Morgan puts it, We Operate Best Together. And we learn, build and grow best together too.

Year-end lists

It's always a bit of fun to put together "best of" lists at the end of the year and despite this being a bit late I thought I'd note a few things that moved or impressed me in 2009, for my own record as much as anything else. Best books: Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Everest Disaster - Jon Krakauer, Outliers: The Story of Success - Malcolm Gladwell, Chasing the Flame: One Man's Fight to Save the World - Samantha Power

Best live music: Infected Mushroom at Burning Man, Hallucinogen at Orb Festival, Haltya at Gaian Mind Festival, Deadmau5 at the 9:30 Club. Honourable mention: Mum at the Black Cat.

Best new artists discovered: Azax Syndrome, Deadmau5, Beireut, Beats Antique.

Best new album: Ineffible Mysteries From Shpongeland - Shpongle.

Best play: Rock’n’Roll by Tom Stoppard, directed by Joy Zinoman, at the Studio Theatre.

Best website discovery: GrooveShark

Best moments: January 20 - the inauguration of Barack Obama, September 3 - an amazing day at Burning Man, featuring chinese restaurants in the desert, giant prawns and prawn trawlers, the billion bunny march and carrot counter-protest, September 13 - our return to Sydney picnic/party with so many wonderful friends we  hadn't seen in too long.

Biggest disappointments: Copenhagon, the American health care debate.

News and Notes from the New Year

So obviously I've been really really slack about keeping up the blog since Christmas, my apologies for the long pause between posts. It's been a busy time, with one of our best mates from Australia visiting and several days of relentless partying over NYE, followed by the inevitable recovery period. Good times, but poor commitment to this blog. Anyway, I'm back. As mentioned above NYE was a ball. In the days before and after NYE I was surprised by how many people mentioned to me that they didn't have any special plans for NYE, and that NYE was always "over-hyped" and they never had a terribly good time anyway. How could this be? As with any party you mostly have the time you choose to have, and NYE is the ultimate excuse to have a really, really, good time - it's the one day when the whole world (seemingly) is letting loose and having fun. It's when people usually give themselves a few days to do something nice, whether that is getting away to a cabin in the woods with close friends or rocking out at a big commercial party or something in between. I have had fantastically fun NYE's every year of my adult life, and this one was no exception.

What did make this NYE a little different was that I attended a house party for the first time in, I think, 8 years. Last year I was at a warehouse party in Montreal, the year before that on a houseboat in a river north of Sydney (with 30 friends spread over five boats, with two sound systems - perhaps the best NYE ever) and then for five years before that I attended outdoor festivals and parties. I really feel being outdoors is the way to celebrate NYE, but that clearly doesn't work in the northern hemisphere winter. So, a house party it was, and a lot of fun was had. The house had a lovely basement dance floor area and I DJed from 3-6am. I'll get the set online later this week if I can work out how.

NYE is also a wonderful time to reflect on the year that was and goals and aspirations for the year ahead. I have a card in my wallet which I created to remind myself of my goals for the second half of 2009. Here's how I did:

• Exercise more, improve fitness - 7/10 - I bought a bike and started riding to work (although I haven't since injuring my back in September followed by it becoming horribly cold and icy), joined a gym and usually go 2 or 3 times/week.
• Go to bed earlier, get to work earlier - 1/10 - Abject failure. Something I want to focus on this year.
• Write more, experiment with video - 8/10 - A decent success I think. I started to blog to help with the writing goal and despite somewhat fluctuating commitment I write much more than I was previously. I also created three little films this year, a completely new medium for me.
• Be proactive looking for additional opportunities - 4/10 - I got involved in a few things and was part of setting up the monthly #4Change chats on Twitter. This didn't go as far as I'd like though, and is something I'd like to focus on in 2010.

So, overall a passing grade, although with clear areas to work on. All these aspirations remain relevant to me.

My resolution this year is to be better at time. I want to sleep more and get to work earlier. I want to be more punctual in general and get things done on-time.  I've never been very good at time, it's always been a bit mysterious and difficult to manage, but I know that getting better at this will help me achieve everything else I want to do.

Goals for 2010:

• Learn more. I want to seek out some professional development and skill-building opportunities this year, I feel I let that slip last year. To kick things off I've signed up for a speed reading class.
• Explore more. Last year Kate and I visited several cities on the East Coast, as well as the week we spend in Nevada for Burning Man, but beyond that we didn't really explore the United States at all. This year I want to see much more of America, visit cities like New Orleans and Miami, and also get to nearby destinations like the Carribean and Europe. We won't be here forever and we should use it as a base of operations to explore this part of the world, keeping a travellers mindset even as we focus on our day-to-day jobs.
• Create more. Stay aspirational at Ashoka; look for other professional opportunities (I'd love to do more speaking, facilitation and consulting); be creative and have fun (do more video, continue to write, collaborate with others). Build an amazing camp at Burning Man, and bring some of my favourite people from Australia over to share it. Support K in her creative pursuits.

I'm excited about 2010, and not just for the futuristic quality of the date (but seriously, 2010! Who would have thought we'd come this far?). Our visa's expire in August and we have some big decisions to make - do we stay in America? (Probably yes). If so do we stay in DC? (Probably no). If not where do we go next? (San Francisco?). And what do we do there? A year for pushing ourselves personally and professionally, looking for new opportunities to learn and grow and contribute. For new friends and the deepening of existing friendships. For adventures large and small, little steps on a big planet.

The journey itself is the thing, and we will see where it leads us, and be grateful for all that we experience along the way.

Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dream.

-Paula Coehlo

Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.

-Goethe

DC Snow Weekend

As you might have heard (or lived through) DC got a bit of snow on the weekend. A record-setting amount of snow actually, an amazing 20 inches in 24 hours, near shutting the city down. Lots of funny and strange things seem to happen at times like this, and perhaps the strangest story to come out of what was dubbed snowpocalypse09 was a huge public snowball fight on the corner of 14th and Ust NW, in the heard of the U St shopping and dining district, at 2pm on Saturday. At some point during the ruckus, which had about 200 participants, some snowball enthusiasts decided to target passing cars, and in particular a massive Hummer. I can understand their desire, there's no car that more makes me want to participate in acts of civil disobedience than the Hummer, a converted troop carrier for god's sake. Anyway this particular Hummer contained an undercover police office, who got out of his vehicle brandishing his gun. At people bearing snowballs. Madness. It was all captured on camera thankfully and the detective is now “confined to desk duties” while the incident is being investigated.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAgQKJuriIo]

This was all odd enough, but what's really revealing is what happened next. Here's how the local news reported it:

A lively snowball fight on D.C. streets took a dark turn Saturday when anti-war protesters dressed in anarchist garb showed up, and a D.C. police officer pulled his weapon out of his holster.

But things started to turn for the worse when the crowd -- some carrying anti-war signs and dressed all in black with masks -- began to pelt passing cars. A plain clothes D.C. police detective emerged from a Hummer -- it's unclear whether it was his personal vehicle or an unmarked police vehicle -- after it was struck. The detective began yelling at the gathered crowd. At one point, he pulled back his jacket, exposing his service weapon -- it's unclear if he did this intentionally. That's when things took a darker turn.

So they blamed a group “dressed like anarchists” for causing the problems, and indicated that the undercover detective only showed his weapon rather than brandished it, and that the only gun drawn was by a policeman who arrived later. Okay, a couple of things here. Firstly, the “dressed like anarchists” bit. By this we can only assume they're referring to people wearing balaclava's and scarfs around their faces. But aside from the seemingly omni-present anarchists (and bank robbers) who wears this sort of get-up? You got it – people in cold places! Like places where it's snowing like crazy. Like DC on Saturday.

Secondly, re the gun, see the video above. There's enough evidence online that there's no excuse for a professional news operation, reporting hours after the event, to get this wrong.

So besides being an example of a police officer completely overstepping the bounds of their authority it's also an example of the media completely overstepping their bounds of reporting, adding their own spin while blatantly mis-representing the facts, and doing so on the side of authority. This happens all the time of course, and this particular incident may not be the most important example in the world, but it is illustrating nonetheless. Protests in particular always get this treatment by a new media which is part of the status quo being protested. Not that this was even a protest, but the media were all too keen to fit it into their knee-jerk protest narrative of rowdy kids and put-upon police.

On a more personal note I had a productive snow weekend. Firstly K and I made a film with our flatmate D entitled Kiev: City of Love. It's a beauty I think you'll agree, we're very proud of it (My second film ever!).

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/8287052]

What do you think, time to get a pilot to the networks?

Then our visiting mate Scott and I made this snow Loch Ness Monster which is honestly the best snow sculpture I've seen since the dump. A weekend well-spent!

My flatmates: media superstars

Having recently moved into a share house for the first time since leaving Australia K and I are really enjoying having flatmates again, especially because we've got such good ones. One thing I like about share houses when they work is the sense of family which develops, a looking out for each other which goes beyond simple friendship. Part of this is the vicarious pride at their accomplishments you feel, or I do anyway. Recently I've been especially impressed with my flatmates media profiles, thought-leaders that they are.

First S was quoted in a Washington Post article on tattoo's in the workplace:

D.C. is culturally one of the most conservative cities I've ever lived in. I just see fewer people displaying body art in the workplace here.

Then D spoke to New York-based Chinese television network NTDT whilst attending a vigil at the Arc Avaaz have built on the Mall in DC, expressing the hope so many of us share that America might take the lead on addressing catastrophic climate change before it's too late and we all start building arcs for real (try not to be overwhelmed by the charisma of the New Zealand news reader):

[vodpod id=Groupvideo.4218033&w=425&h=350&fv=file%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fmedia.ntdtv.com%2Febrief%2Fnews%2F20091214-wn-06-environmentalists+build+ark+in+washington.flv%26overstretch%3Dtrue%26searchbar%3Dfalse%26image%3D%2Ffiles%2FContent%2F20091214-WN-06-Environmentalists+Build+Ark+in+Washington+D.C.jpg%26autostart%3Dfalse]

more about "Environmentalists Build Ark in Washin...", posted with vodpod

Well done guys! K and I are going to have to step it up, clearly.

Going for a walk

K and I are going hiking for the next four days, taking the train out to Harpers Ferry and walking back to DC along the old C & O canal. It's about 60 miles in all, so we'll be doing 15-odd miles a day. I'm really excited to get out of the city and exert myself, as well as to use the hiking tent we bought earlier this year but have never got out. Hopefully I'll have some nice photos to share when we get back. Meanwhile, have a very happy Thanksgiving everyone!

And if you want to contribute to a very good cause this Thanksgiving please consider supporting Tweetsgiving, which is raising money to support a school in Tanzania.

Government services

As we've just moved house we have had to deal with more government bureaucracy than usual while getting our gas, water and electricity set up, and it's been a real insight into why so many Americans don't believe the government can effectively deliver services like health care (although, of course, they already do in the form of Medicare). It was only today, six days since we moved in, that we got our gas connected, allowing us to, you know, cook. And turn the fireplaces and heating on. It has truly been a comedy of errors and has cost the household many many hours of time. They were initially booked to come between 8am-12pm on Monday, so K stayed home to be there when they arrived. At 11.49, driven crazy by lack of caffeine, she went around the corner to our local cafe (the Big Bear Cafe, popularly acclaimed as the best cafe in DC), leaving a note on the door with her phone number and explaining that she was only a block away and would only be gone a minute. When she returned 4 minutes later it was to find a note from the gas guy saying he was there at 11.51 and no-one was home. She called the gas agency, asking them to get in touch with the guy, who would only be a minute away, to come back, but they claimed this was impossible. When she pushed the point they hung up on her.

Both K and our flatmate Sarah then called back to complain, asking to be put through to supervisor. Both times they were hung up on again. This is the kind of service a monopoly can get away with I guess, when they're providing a service you cannot function without.

A new time was organized, with the promise that there would be a courtesy call when they were approaching, so a friend working nearby could come over and let them in. No courtesy call, no-one there to let them in, no gas for another 24 hours. And so it went, taking three appointments over four days to sort out. Our experience with the water and electricity companies has been much the same.

It seems fair to assume that this sort of experience makes people less predisposed to supporting government involvement in other areas of their lives, and more suspicious of government claims and services in general.