Modus Cooperandi’s 10 Principles of Social Media. The Remix.
Food for Thought - Social Media from An Bui
Jim Benson and I spent this morning discussing Principles of Social Media. Throughout the course of the morning, the list went from 10 to 13 before we folded various thoughts into the others to make room for the thoughts resulting from my feedback.
Moving forward, Jim will discuss each principle in turn and I’ll be offering my thoughts in response or conjunction with his.
My approach to social media considers information and relationship hiearchy and prioritization, so that you can make decisions that are optimal for you, given desired impact, value and the constraints of life/business.
Jim says:
These principles help us communicate and relate better. With these principles we can establish networks and understand our place in them. These principles give coherence to the creation and exchange of value. All of these help us build better communities and working relationships.
These principles help us communicate and relate better to each other and surface ideas, thoughts, formulations we find interesting and that we can build upon. Quick iteration of ideas plays like a high speed game of telephone. As they spread, the value proposition changes, with new (or more) information. The ability to make optimal decisions (and what those decisions are) also changes.
My interpretation of the principles follow, in a different order of importance:
1. Decentralization is freedom: Freedom enables us to pursue our thoughts and interests in a social space. Thus decentralization is of primary value.
2. Information wants to be free: The cost of obtaining information is rapidly declining, but still capable of providing and creating value. Freedom is necessary for free information.
3. Findability is power: Without findability, the information’s ability to provide and create value is greatly diminished.
4. Karma is real: The more you give, the more you get. You just don’t know what at the point at which you’re giving.
5. Rules beget rules: At some point, organization happens so that common understanding of interactions are possible.
6. Economies have currencies: Trade is possible with Karmic infrastructure and rules of engagement.
7. Communication is blood: Communication is the transport mechanism for information flow.
8. Immediacy in all things: Acting on new, validated information when appropriate moves things forward more quickly than before.
9. Context is fluid: Things change more often, as does your frame of reference. Think about the information you have at various points and look at developments along a continuum.
10. Associations are inherently good:
I’m not sure I believe that they are inherently good. I’m leaning towards associations are agnostic - it’s the value you add that make them good.
Note: I’m using principle in the philosophic sense, to guide my thinking about social media and by extension, digital culture.
December 11th, 2008 at 5:08 pm
I really enjoyed this post/
“Karma is real: The more you give, the more you get. You just don’t know what at the point at which you’re giving.”
and
“Economies have currencies: Trade is possible with Karmic infrastructure and rules of engagement.”
Pretty much hits the nail on the head for me. The communication mediums are changing alongside the way we communicate.
December 13th, 2008 at 1:14 am
[...] my 10 Principles of Social Media. The Remix: Freedom enables us to pursue our thoughts and interests in a social space. Thus decentralization [...]
December 13th, 2008 at 10:47 pm
[...] Jim’s Defintions | An’s Definitions [...]
December 14th, 2008 at 10:52 pm
[...] More Principles of Social Media: Not to encourage jargony corporate-speak, but maybe someone should write these in a way that they can present to company brass, while selling social media. Not that this was An Bui’s intent for the blog, but I have trouble imagining saying “Karma is Real” when trying to ask the Big Boss for more social media budget. [...]
December 18th, 2008 at 8:35 pm
[...] under: social media principles | This post is the second in a series of my interpretation of Social Media Principles. More to come in the near distant [...]
December 18th, 2008 at 8:52 pm
[...] search, social media principles | This post is the third in a series of my interpretation of Social Media Principles. More to come in the near distant [...]
December 18th, 2008 at 10:04 pm
[...] Posted December 18, 2008 Filed under: Uncategorized | This is a companion piece to 10 Principles of Social Media series. This post provides a framework around understanding Free Information in the context of a [...]
December 19th, 2008 at 7:54 am
This blog post does not make any sense. Just say what you want to say. This blog looks like you are just trying to SOUND smart, as opposed to actually sharing your thoughts, ideas or sentiment. You’re selling yourself short writing posts like this. You should clarify and back up your assertions. (And probably a little fact checking, as well.)
“The information’s ability to be found is power?” Power for who? information? you? me? Seriously, I came across this… and every word and sentence, first provoked me to think, “What the f@#$ is she talking about?”
Articulating great ideas or thoughts is so much more than big words, strategically placed throughout a blog post without a purpose or passion.
If your going to engage in a self-promotional blog, at least TRY to sound genuine. (and maybe have a friend help you edit.)
December 19th, 2008 at 5:50 pm
Mary, thank you for your feedback and I apologize I wasn’t able to clarify my thoughts for you. I see that you’re local - I’d like to get together to discuss your points.
Best,
An
November 15th, 2009 at 11:51 pm
[...] I’m sure there’s a lot of this stuff out there. But I’m going to use these principles and in particular the remixing of them here. The 10 principles are (quoted from here): [...]