The Attention Crash, a recent post on Steve Rubel’s blog, Micro Persuasion, addressed the struggle to absorb all of the information coming at us. Here is one part of his post:

We are reaching a point where the number of inputs we have as individuals is beginning to exceed what we are capable as humans of managing. The demands for our attention are becoming so great, and the problem so widespread, that it will cause people to crash and curtail these drains.

This isn’t a new topic; I’ve commented many times about the need to find balance in work/life situations. Most recently, I said that the new online social networking sites are adding to the demand for my time and attention–and I will choose how to spend that time based on value back to me–along with my level of emotional energy.

I left a comment on Steve’s post, pointing out that people not only look for more efficient ways to handle the flood of information and commentary coming their way; they also seek ways to take a ”mental break” from the activity. That’s part of the allure of computer games like Solitaire and both paper- and electronic versions of Sudoku. I checked back sometime later and left a second comment that led to this post.

We have to remember that it isn’t enough to manage the side of our brain that processes data. We also need to balance that activity with the side of our brain that is intuitive and creative.

To that end, here is a conversation string that I and Judy Gombita shared recently. I read her messages and replied during mental breaks, and the fun exchanges sharpened my creative thinking somewhat. If you need a break from your information processing, feel free to add to the string as a comment to this post.

(Me) Will be tied up most of today with some internal desk shuffling (we’re moving desks and cube walls around). Of course, everyone checked each time to see who had the window, and now, everyone hates me.

(Judy) What a sad cube tale. I don’t hate you, although now I’m a little afraid to meet you, knowing you are “the guy with the window.”
(I have a window, but it looks directly out to the wall of the building next to us. Those churlish people have not painted me a mural as yet.)

(Me) I’ll ship some taggers (graffiti artists) up your way. The wall will get colorful very quickly.
Don’t fear me because I have a window; fear me if I close the door to my soul.—Anonymous

(Judy) The one with a window can see opportunities. But an open-door policy sometimes leads to a drafty soul.—Confusdcious

(Me) The glass window lets in the light. The glass ceiling keeps out the bright.—Oparahparah

(Judy) Star light, star bright. Sometimes the moon goddess must tail behind the mighty Tom kite.—Concededefeaticus

Any others?

I was fascinated this morning to read a news item on Yahoo! regarding how a 13-year-old in the United States came across a 2.93-carat diamond lying in the rough. I can draw a comparison to social networks.

One of the facts that I learned from the news story was that anyone can walk into the Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas and look around for diamonds. More than 25,000 diamonds have been found there in the years since the site was designated a state park in 1972, with about 600 diamonds being found each year, on average. These are “real” diamonds, varying in size and quality, with some being quite valuable.

My perception of diamond mining was more along the lines of the movie, Blood Diamond, so I was thrilled to learn that I could join a diamond hunt without worrying about being shot. That might make the process too tame for some of you, which is fine–more diamonds for me.

I feel the same way about those of you who have not joined one, or both, of two free new social networking sites for communicators: Melcrum Publishing’s The Communicators’ Network and Ragan Communications’ MyRagan. Fine–more “diamonds in the rough” for me and the others who have decided to join.

I understand a reluctance to give up more precious time to explore and participate in these sites. I’ve already found, however, that the time that I’ve spent hunting through each site has produced some valuable nuggets of information.

Now today, as Melcrum’s TCN has surpassed the 1,000-member mark, the publishing company’s managing director, Robin Crumby, made the following announcement on the site:

We have just changed the ‘News’ section on your ‘MyHome’ page to include news and free resources from Melcrum. This will include free articles from Strategic Communication Management and The Hub for Internal Communicators, together with news items, blogs posts and executive summaries of Melcrum reports to download for free.

It’s a great bonus to TCN members, and I applaud Melcrum for doing it. Tired of hunting around for ideas and ways to improve communications within your organization? The answer might be laying in open sight on one of these two free open sites.

Today is the one-month anniversary of the official launch of MyRagan, Ragan Communications‘  social networking site for communicators.  In contrast, Melcrum Publishing’s The Communicators’ Network, has been “live” for less than one week. Is it too soon to compare the two? Yesano (yes and no).

MyRagan (MyR) and The Communicators’ Network (TCN) share some common functionality that can be compared and contrasted. In addition, both offer (or plan to offer) features that are distinct from the other. Finally, the tone of the site designs and writing are dramatically different, and well worth discussing.

Both MyR and TCN have to be considered works in progress–each site has its share of items that will require tweaking or repair. TCN co-owner Robin Crumby has provided some glimpses into new features that will be added to TCN in coming weeks and months. MyR, perhaps because it is more of an “out-of-the-box” solution, has announced less to add in terms of features. Both sites need some tweaking, in my opinion, in terms of the user-experience.

Here is a quick listing of features that both MyR and TCN offer:

1. Site Home Page
2. Member Profile Page
3. Forum for general discussion threads
4. Groups for discussion specific to topic or interest
5. Blogs
6. Message notifications
7. Ability to invite others to join the site or a group within the site
8. Calendar for member’s events

With a couple of exceptions, most of the above features are available through the navigation bar at the top of each site’s pages.  The calendar feature (events) is more useful on TCN because it allows a member to see all public events posted, not just the member’s own events. Also, MyR’s calendar is accessible only through the member’s profile.

Each of the two sites promises functionality that the other does not offer. MyR has an audio/video chat button on the main navigation and within the member profile; but it did not work when I tried it. Sometime within the next few weeks, TCN plans to open a “Knowledge Center” where members can catalog and link to their favorite content (e.g., case studies, white papers, and articles), saving fellow communicators search time. When TCN also implements a rating system, its members will be able to rate the usefulness and quality of that site’s content catalog.  

One feature that MyR offers that I really like is the ability to set up RSS feeds and to link to the member’s external blogs through the profile. TCN allows a member to set up RSS feeds on the member’s home page, but it does not offer the easy way to link to the member’s external blog; its blog is strictly for content posted on TCN.

The final comparison points that I plan to cover in this blog post are site design and writing tone.  I asked myself if I would be comfortable having these sites visible on my work computer when a coworker or boss would stop by. The answer is a strong “yes” with TCN, and a strong “maybe” with MyR.

TCN reflects the appearance and tone of its “parent,” Melcrum Publishing. It is clean, clearly professional and expects more “proper” (my word) behavior by its members. For example, one of TCN’s rules for its forums is presented this way: “We are all adults here so we should be able to debate issues without resorting to bad language or insults. Depending on the context/nature, posts containing offending copy may just get edited.”

MyR reflects the design and writing tone of Ragan Communications–which is more in-your-face. The home page includes videos that poke fun at communication issues and situations. Headlines and captions such as, “We unstick heads from asses” and “Ragan writer/comic Kevin Allen shows us the King of Cocky, Mr. Sensitive, Suck-Up Sam and Larry Lazy Bones,” share space with amazing free content, including eight pages of tips related to intranets, written by ”intranet gurus.”

MyR has attracted thousands of communicators, while TCN is just getting started, and has several hundred. The larger community can be both a blessing and a curse, in my experience. MyRagan has a lot to offer, but it also feels congested, with too much coming at me all of the time.

Certainly the conversations within MyR’s forums and groups are constant and full of energy. David Murray is doing a terrific job as forum moderator/editor, and demonstrates the value of having someone leading conversations when necessary, or moderating discussions that become TOO lively.

However, I have noticed how my personal desire is waning to wade through the ever-growing list of topics. Search helps, but the search results for more common words or phrases can still be daunting. TCN has less conversations happening, but nearly all of the forum posts offer valuable input.

Do I plan to pick one of the two sites over the other? Yesano.

TCN and MyR are distinct enough to make it worthwhile for me to continue to participate in each community. Because I have to budget my time and energy, I’ll spend more time in whichever of the two communities provides me with the greatest amount of “value.”   

During breakfast this morning, my 13-year-old son asked me how those phone numbers work–the ones where you spell a word to dial, like 1-800-mattress (with one “s”), or 1-866-plumber. My 11-year-old daughter also was curious.

This stunned me, because my son text messages with his friends all of the time–when he isn’t playing an online game like World of Warcraft, or playing some sport like baseball, basketball or football. He is tech-saavy, so why is this simple dialing scheme a problem?

Turns out that modern-day technology has to take some of the blame. Kevin tried dialing one of the numbers like he would text message. For example, to get the letter “s”, he tried pushing the 7 on the phone four times (to cycle along “p,” “q” and “r,” to get to “s.” But he kept getting recorded messages that “the number you are dialing is not in service at this time.”

He is an honor-roll student–honest! Anyone else have an example of a youngster not being as proficient with technology as we might assume?

Kevin hopes so.

Melcrum Publishing has launched its entry into the social networking sphere. The Communicators’ Network now joins Ragan Communication’s MyRagan as the two social networking sites for communicators that offer free access to colleagues across the globe to networking, discussion forums, blogging, resources and more.

While the two sites will invite comparisons, I’m going to wait a bit to see how The Communicators’ Network is received in terms of member signups and participation. I’ve participated in MyRagan for some time now, and separately have offered some suggestions to the people behind Melcrum’s product. I’ll have little trouble comparing and contrasting the two sites. Yes, there are some contrasts; these are not mirror images of each other from a cookie-cutter approach to site design.

Some great discussion already has surfaced within the communications blogosphere regarding how the emergence of these social networking sites may impact professional associations such as the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) and the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA).

Now that the game is on, that picture should become clearer. 

If you want to try podcasting, but aren’t ready to invest in a digital recorder, you should know about free Internet-based software–and services that might be available to you through your job–that would allow you to record discussions and conversations with nothing other than your dialing finger.

I cover the topic in my latest edition of the CommaKazi Speek Podcast, available for downloading and immediate listening here.

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This is the Memorial Day holiday weekend in the United States. It is a time to remember and reflect on the sacrifices that the U.S. Military has made for the benefit of the nation, and many would add, the world.

In May 2007, the nation and world are dividing over the value and meaning of the current war in which our nation’s soldiers serve: the Iraq War. As I write this, we are closing in on a total of 3,500 U.S. soldiers killed in the Iraq War. Of course, many more have been wounded.

I have to limit my comments to those of an American citizen. I don’t have any more “skin in the game” than that: I did not lose any close family or friends in the attack on the World Trade Center, none of my family or friends have been killed in Iraq, and I am not Iraqi in nationality.

Some people I know have served there, and I’m grateful to God that they were not hurt physically, and have returned to the U.S.

The U.S., along with other nations who have sent troops there, have taken an increasing amount of heat. That is understandable; the evidence that led us to invade Iraq and overthrow the Hussein rule has been discredited. The recovery of the fledgling independent Iraq has been mired by escalating brutality and infighting.

In a war, two opposing views will always emerge: one that says fight until we win; one that says no one wins in war, and let’s stop the madness. These views can coincide within the same person, where a soldier decides to deploy because of a sense of duty and mission, yet sees the seemingly impossible situation and wonders when it will get better. It coincides within me, as I continue to support the decision that was based on faulty evidence, but struck a major blow against terrorism–while seeing that the cost is much greater than anyone would want.

So here are two photos that I want to share. Both are from a summer parade in my hometown. The first shows the applause of grateful Americans, showered on representatives of our nation’s military, who proudly carry the flag. The second shows the flag flapping over a group of regular people–who are members of my church. They were raising support for a project to raise supplies and food for Americans left homeless and destitute by Hurricane Katrina. The project resulted in a semi-trailer packed full of supplies that was sent to Mississippi.

The first flag pictured represents our nation’s dedication to freedom, honor and sacrifice.

The second flag represents the caring heart of this nation, able to spread blessings to others in large part due to the sacrifices of our soldiers in wars current and past.

You are welcomed to send your comments, but I don’t want to engage in a debate about the Iraq War, President Bush, or American global politics. Save that for another day. This day is reserved for the sacrifice of soldiers–living and dead.

Ahh, it’s just like the holidays around the social networking world these days. Excitement about the “next new thing” (Ragan Communications’ MyRagan.com), anticipation about the “next, next new thing” (Melcrum’s Communicators’ Network), and a spat that leaves everyone hurt, disappointed and wondering where the love went.

I’ve read posts from the two people at the center of this spat, and really don’t care to spend much more time on the matter–unless one of them starts bitch-slapping the other; then, get me a front-row seat! In keeping with the holiday theme of this post, I’ll suggest that they meet under the mistletoe, kiss, and make up.

In the meantime, the more important lesson to be learned from this spat and the launch of these potentially ground-breaking sites (at least for the communications profession) is being missed. That lesson is: Use emotional energy wisely; it is not unlimited, and often is not renewable. I was reminded of that recently when I heard a radio discussion involving “Christmas cards in May.”

Who bothers with Christmas cards this many months after the holiday? Surprisingly, some people do, and the reason why might be useful for the people who run MyRagan and The Communicators’ Network. Actually, a radio show host and her recent guest were talking about the bother of unopened Christmas cards still sitting on countertops in their homes. The radio show host made a very astute observation about why she hadn’t dealt with those unopened cards in her home.

She said, “I realized that I didn’t want to open those cards because I wasn’t ready to spend the emotional energy” that would be drained when the radio show host would read those cards, think about those people, and have to deal with issues and memories that those cards would uncover. It was a necessary part of her coping mechanism to limit the expenditure of emotional energy.

That is happening to everyone who is engaged in MyRagan and other social networking sites. The excitement about the possibilities and benefits of opening the “card” leads to a rush of unexpected issues and memories that cry for attention. One personal recollection: I remember having to stand up in my second grade classroom at St. Timothy Elementary School in Chicago, because I had just been introduced as one of the “new students.” I remember nervously looking around at the faces of these strangers, trying to find someone who was smiling in a friendly way. It took time, but I made friends and eventually felt comfortable in that “community.”

I’ve learned in the years following my experience in second grade that it is easy to make acquaintences, but friends are much fewer–and much more precious. Fast-forward to a few weeks ago when I joined MyRagan. I immediately had four or five members of the Ragan staff send me requests to be their “friend.” That was followed by several additional requests from other MyRagan members to be friends as well. I struggled over each request for “MyRagan friendship”…was it a good fit? Would I have the energy to engage each of these individuals in meaningful dialogue and friendly discourse?

Then I joined a couple of groups and checked out the forums. My emotional energy meter dropped as quickly as the ball in Times Square on New Year’s Eve (another holiday reference). Long lists of emails in the Message Center, asking for help, support, guidance. I soon became numb, seeing strings of identical message titles, including nine items identically titled, “Re: Advice on convincing execs to manage internal comms,” three items identically titled,”Re: Anyone notice communications is misspell…” and a seemingly never-ending string of items identically titled, “Re: Heard you Killed Em!” (from the Uncle Fester and His Peeps Group).

This is what is happening in some social networking sites: People are overwhelming the message boards with emails and gathering as many “friends” as possible, while bypassing the step of determining whether what they have to offer, or say, or ask, is germane and of interest to the person(s) who receive their invites, emails, or comments. Then you add spats like I’ve mentioned earlier, and people really question whether time spent reading and thinking and worrying about these things is worth it, emotionally.

Draining the emotional energy of members unnecessarily may lead to members deciding to avoid the networking site all together, or to limit contacts with it–just like the person who is facing those unopened Christmas cards. I mean, if the bitch-slapping doesn’t happen, don’t you just want to say, “Bah, humbug”?
tom+keefe MyRagan Melcrum social+networking emotional+energy

As a professional communicator and a member of the International Association of Business Communicators, I’m growing increasingly frustrated by a lack of communication from IABC leadership on two subjects.

The first subject is the IABC’s own international conference, set to open in just about a month (June 24-27, 2007 in New Orleans, LA, USA). I’d think that the association would have been promoting the conference for some time now, but with just weeks to go before the event starts, we’ve heard barely a word.

The last mention of the conference on IABC’s official blog, the IABC Cafe, was one I wrote related to a planned crisis communications preconference workshop. That post was on April 18. It was followed by two weeks of silence from the rest of the Cafe bloggers, until 2006-07 Chair Glenda Holmes, ABC, wrote a brief post on May 4 on an unrelated topic. No one has posted on the Cafe since then about…well, about anything.

No update either on In Session, the “official blog of the IABC International Conference.”   IABC staffer Chris Grossgart told us in a May 4 post to expect weekly podcasts, insider information and more from two well-known podcasters and a team of bloggers. Chris did state that the blogging wouldn’t begin until the start of the conference. My question is: Why wait? Don’t we want to generate interest in the conference in the weeks leading up to the opening sessions?

The second subject that has remained undiscussed online by IABC is the emergence of  opportunities and challenges created by social networking sites and ad hoc event planning. Professional organizations including the IABC historically have provided their members with a package of services and benefits that have added value to memberships. Join and receive networking opportunities with other members, proprietary research and opinion relevent to the member’s profession, and the opportunity to attend events developed and managed by the member organization.

As proven by MyRagan, the social networking site for communicators that recently was launched by Ragan Communications, Inc., people are willing to look elsewhere for the products and services that used to be tied to professional associations. When you toss in the fact that these social networking sites don’t charge for membership and basic services, you beg the question that has remained unaddressed by IABC and other associations: What is the business case for professional associations in this new world?

I can think of some answers, but like I said, it’s time for IABC and other associations to join the conversation.

A wise person said that if you want to know where your heart is, look at your calendar and your checkbook. We tend to invest our time and money into the things that we care about.

Well, today is Mother’s Day in the United States, and I’m only writing a brief post today. My wife and kids will welcome other members of my family here later today, and we will take time to honor the love and hard work of mothers that we’ve sometimes taken for granted.

Thank you, Kim, for being such a terrific mom to Kevin and Caitlyn. Thank you, mom, for being such a great influence in my life. Happy Mother’s Day, along with an electronic hug, to every mother out there.