Category: Stories
I Dream of Networking
by Jonathan Kleiman
I have been running a professional network for Canadians, Probook.ca, for about 2 years now. I have been able to meet a ton of people through the site, and many great stories have come out of my experiences with the various people that I’ve been able to connect with.
The most interesting story, at least so far, is when my two hobbies met by accident. I am a 3rd year law student in Canada, and I’m about to graduate. I was at a networking event, and I started talking to a young man around the same age as myself. We started talking about our experiences on the internet, and I started discussing a problem I had with somebody with the same name as me having a negative listing on Google. He instantly empathised, because he had the exact same problem. In fact, it turns out we had the same problem. We had the same name!! The story has a happy ending. We recently were able to work together to convince the site that had posted the bad info to remove it.
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Jonathan Kleiman is a law student at Queen’s University and is the founder of Probook.ca and Law-Wiki.com
From many, a magazine…
by Joe Meno
It was about 8 years ago that I became part of the online LEGO community, and soon after that, I became involved in events and building the community. During this time , I was working at a local newspaper as a graphic artist, but I really wanted to do something a little more meaningful than car ads. After working on events and creating a few, I hit upon the idea of starting a LEGO fan magazine. This isn’t a unique idea. There are a few clubs that have their own publications, so what I wanted to do was something larger in scope. There were others who were interested, but after a false start, I was on my own. But not for long. Once I got some plans set and a coule of friends I got to know through events and onlline, I started asking people to join my effort, and thanks to e-mail and meetings, I got people from the US and Europe to contribute to what became BrickJournal, which first launched online in 2005.
The magazine grew in the next year as more people onlline joined and wrote and provided photos, and even the LEGO Group took notice. A publisher also saw the quality of the community effort, and with the help of TLG, BrickJournal, after nine online issues, became a print magazine in 2008.
Currently, the staff is all volunteer, with people contributing from the US, Europe, and now Asia. BrickJournal has become a great example of what a community can do if given a common cause, and it continues to grow and folllow its mission: to inspire those inthe community and to invite new people into the community.
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Joe Meno is the Editor to BrickJournal, and was a graphic designer and art director before launching the mag. Before this, he worked in advertising, from political advertisng to pharmaceuticals. And somewhere in there, he worked at Walt Disney World!
Never Underestimate the Power of Your Travel Blog
by Lee LeFever
On Christmas Eve of 2004, Sachi and I made a decision. We decided that, in one year, we would depart on a year long trip. We reserved a web site address that night: http://www.theworldisnotflat.com (TwinF). In January of 2006 we departed, dedicated to blogging the whole trip.
After a glowing recommendation from another traveler along the way, we added Sri Lanka to our itinerary, with some apprehension. Sri Lanka experiences some domestic terrorism, but it mostly stays in the northern part of the country. Further, the southern part of the country was devastated by the tsunami a year before. We knew it would be an adventure. Thanks to connections via Lonely Planet’s Thorn Tree Forums we were introduced to Mervyn, our driver for 10 days in Sri Lanka.
Like others in the tourism industry in Sri Lanka, Mervyn depends on tourists coming to their country. Tourists who start their plans by searching the Web. We became friends with Mervyn and had a wonderful time in Sri Lanka. We always felt safe and Mervyn was a perfect driver and guide – he gave us a local’s perspective and became our friend. He introduced us to Arrack, a favorite alcohol of locals. We told him that we would write about him on the Internet and hoped it would help his business. It was the least we could do. Last night, on Christmas Eve, 4 years after deciding we would go on the trip, we received this email message from Mervyn:
DEAR SIR, HOW ARE YOU? I AM FINE AND ALL OK WITH ME. I HAD GOOD BUSINESS FOR THIS YEAR. THAT IS BECAUSE OF YOU. THIS YEAR 90% FROM THE BUSINESS I GOT FROM YOUR WEB SITE THAT YOU RECOMAND ME. I SAY AGAIN AND AGAIN THANK YOU VERY MUCH. I WISH MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU AND YOUR WIFE. MERVYN
This message made our Christmas extra special this year. Mervyn is honest, has a good heart, is very hard-working, and deserves to have a successful business. It’s inspiring to me, as a blogger, to think that a couple of blog posts can make such a big difference to someone like him on the other side of the world. Our post is the #3 result for “Driver Sri Lanka” on Google. I hope we can continue to help Mervyn’s business in 2009.
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My name is Lee LeFever and I run Common Craft. We make explanatory videos from our home in Seattle Washington. In 2006, my wife Sachi and I traveled around the world for a year and found lots of ways that we are, indeed, connected by distance.
Toy cars from strangers
by Kelly Abbott
When I started Dandelife.com, I started it because I myself had a need for the site. I found blogging to be too un-focused. Ironically, I found that a site dedicated to the idea that someone can and should be writing about himself somehow less self-indulgent. I loved the power of blogging. But what I hated about blogging was where Dandelife was born from.
Blogging in July 2006, when dandelife launched, seemed to be about getting attention. Seen through the blogging lens, Dandelife is little more than expose. True enough. But what’s interesting is that you rarely get true exhibitionism. Instead what you find it honesty. People sharing a part of themselves publicly that they wish to no longer keep a secret. Some stories are painful. Some, funny. But all stories on Dandelife share one thing in common: they are stories written for small audiences.
I’d like to think I designed Dandelife that way. I did not. I simply designed Dandelife to offer a framework for writers to make sketches of their lives. Hence the timeline. Hence the notes feature. What it eventually became was a bit of a mistake. Error by trial, you could say. I started with good intentions, then quickly got in over my head.
I had always wanted to find out if there was a way to write your story without ever writing your story. That is, writing for most people is exceedingly difficult. I’ve heard it told that 2/3 of all people want to write their own biography some day. But nowhere near 2/3 of consider ourselves capable of doing so. That’s the need I thought I could address with Lifestreaming.
Boy was I wrong. Lifestreaming, it turns out, is more like exhibitionism. Whereas Dandelife is powerful because it condenses the audience into a handful of intended recipients (oneself, one’s family, one’s very close friends), lifestreaming is powerful because it’s transparent, quick, and random. You get lots of noise with lifestreaming. You get lots of signal with Dandelife.
And that’s how I came to Tweet one of the most memorable days of my life: the birth of my son, David. It wasn’t a play-by-play. One day I will go back and fill in the details. But for now, I have a placeholder.
To this day, I got more direct messages for my baby announcement via twitter than I did letters from the baby announcement we sent out. The funny thing is, the people I consider to be my closest friends and family, are not on Twitter.
Most of the people who are connected to me on Twitter are people I have never met in person, rarely if ever chatted with online, and may only know me through my online persona. One of which is someone I met on Dandelife. She was a frequent poster at one point. I introduced her to Twitter, I think, as well. A few months after D was born, a package arrived in the mail from her. It was a very nice toy car that D is just getting old enough to appreciate now (a full 13 months later). It was a very thoughtful gift. And, to me, a sign of how much she appreciated Dandelife being there for her when she needed it.
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Find more of Kelly Abbott at:
Builder of Products: http://www.linkedin.com/in/kellyabbott
Dad, Husband, Friend, Son: http://www.dandelife.com/kga245/stories
Socialite: http://www.facebook.com/privacyprofile.php?id=508331579
Wit: http://twitter.com/kellyabbott
Writer: http://lifehacker.com/people/kga245/
Prelude to Peace
by Louis Landon
I live in a suburb of New York. I don’t really know any of my neighbors well. I have very little connection with the people in my physical community. The connection that I lack in my own community, I have found online. It feeds me in so many ways. It keeps me connected to what is happening in the world, and it keeps me in close contact with many people who I can have real relationships with and who I care about. It is also helping me find new fans of my music and my mission. My mission is to create a peaceful world by writing, recording, and performing music from the heart.
The story that I would like to share here is about how my online community supported a very important concert series called “Prelude to Peace.” Featuring Stanton Lanier and Dana Cunningham, two other pianists for peace, we performed 4 concerts in the Washington, D.C. area. There was also an unofficial fifth concert at the International Student House that Dana and I performed. What was amazing to me was the power of my internet community. I had people at every one of our concerts who were online friends or fans. I am not talking about major numbers, but I see the direction that online social networking is going for me and I like what I see happening. It makes it possible for an indie recording artists, such as myself, to go into a new city or town and have an audience. I am really only at the beginning of this journey. But I really believe that as I continue to utilize all the social newtorks available, and connect it with my blog and my website, things will continue to move in a more positive direction. I believe that I can have the kind of strong fan base that indie artists used to find impossible. And my connection with these fans is very strong and very real. I truly know my fans. And I can stay connected with them online.
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Louis Landon is a solo pianist for peace who performs concerts through the United States. You can visit his Web site or blog for more information.
Solo pianist, Louis Landon has dedicated his life to music. There’s no doubt about it, his passion is for peace. His career has taken him around the world playing a variety of styles with some of the most recognized names in the entertainment industry. He’s been on stage before hundreds of thousands of people alongside James Taylor, Bonnie Raitt, Carly Simon, Bruce Springsteen and many others using music as the vehicle to protest nuclear energy in the No Nukes Concerts of 1979.
Landon’s seventh CD, and second solo piano release “Peace Revolution” launched earlier this year, and continues to receive radio airplay worldwide. This CD has remained on the Top 100 New Age charts for 10 consecutive months. “Skye’s Song” the CD’s third cut was No. 1 on Music Choice the music wing of the cable network. He’s been interviewed on several NPR stations in support of “Peace Revolution” coinciding with critically favorable reviews of the 12-track CD. His first solo piano CD, “unwind” rose to No. 3 on the NAR charts and was nominated for Best CD of 2006, and Best Solo Piano CD of 2006 in the New Age Reporter Lifestyle Awards.
How Lauren got her groove back
It all began 26 March, 2008. I was preparing to go on a three-day weekend retreat with my girlfriends and also coming up on a hard deadline for a freelance project. My mind was blank. I could not concentrate to write the needed copy. So, I turned to my Twitter pals and asked for music suggestions to get me focused and into a writing groove. Little did I know, this solicitation would rock my world!
A gentleman I did not follow at the time, responded with several music recommendations. The lush voice of Kelly Sweet and other smooth jazz/blues tunes brought back my writing groove. I thanked the responder. A few days later, the same gentleman sent me additional music suggestions. This time, I checked out his Twitter profile. He was from Brazil, definitely not part of my “regular” social network and his Twitter bio read: Half screenwriter, half technical guy, half shy, half extroverted… (yeah, this sums up more than 100%). Interesting hodgepodge like me! I followed him back and continued to enjoy his musical selections. He had become my personal DJ…from halfway across the world.
The tweets led to blog posts of translated Brazilian sambas that led to IM chats, then Skype conversations. For three months, I poured out my heart and soul to this digital stranger…connected by distance with an Internet connection; brought together by a random tweet. Yes, everything logical in me screamed, STRANGER! Yet the mystery of this man and brilliant mind behind the words and music intrigued me beyond comprehension.
On the heels of a bitter divorce and juggling several jobs as a young single mom, I could not and would not get swept up in the fantasy of a long distance romance. Especially with someone I had never met face-to-face! In June, my Brazilian beau arranged to meet me in Canada after I completed a business trip. We would meet in Montreal, a neutral location. Although, I must admit, I was a bit scared of not being in the US for our first meeting. What if I were sent home in pieces? Luckily, my friends kept in touch…one friend even called on the hour ever hour to check my pulse! Also, I had arranged to attend a Social Media Club event in Montreal with another Twitter pal during my stay…so other “real” people knew where I would be staying.
At the beginning of 2008, I made the heart wrenching decision to divorce my husband and father of five-year old daughter. I was stepping out into the world completely raw. It was a miserable start to the New Year. This year, I will be ringing in 2009, with Leo, my Brazilian beau! After meeting in Montreal, we hit it off and arranged to meet a month and a half later in Seattle, then a month and a half later in his home city in Brazil. In two weeks, he will be here in the US for my birthday and at the end of the month, he will whisk me away to Paris for the New year celebration.
Nervous with anticipation and jittery with excitement, it is hard to believe my travels this year have been real! Never would I have imagined my online social network would have such personal results! Leo is the love I only imagined, but I have also been blessed this year meeting people I only knew by their avatar and online voice. Friendships have been established. Love attained. Yes, Lauren got her groove back.
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Lauren Vargas, Community Relations Manger at AAFES and principal of 12Comm Public Relations, is based in Dallas, Texas. She is a well known public relations blogger and speaker who has developed an expertise in integrating social media tools into marketing and business strategy.
