TheCommonBee

Welcome to the New Economy
It’s an exciting time to be in business.  The generation of baby-boomers that shaped our post-Cold War reality is retiring, and a younger generation is taking over in the workplace, entertainment, and politics.
These new leaders came of age with the Internet in a symbiotic relationship that allowed them to define, and to be defined by, this powerful communication tool. As a result, our society has never had so much access to knowledge, to news, to culture, and to each other. With increased access, traditional boundaries between people, countries, institutions, and cultural constructions, such as work life and home life, are being blurred.
Open access, intense volume of information, and rapid speed of communication in the Internet age have made each of us simultaneously more transparent and more accountable.
What does this mean for business leaders? Is it possible to harness these powerful cultural changes?
Mindset Shift
We are in the midst of a major cultural shift that is changing the way we understand and relate to one other. As old ways of communicating and interacting change, old ways of doing business need to evolve, as well. To succeed in business in this new age requires a mindset shift that will be easier for some and harder for others.
The new business creed necessarily revolves around the new cultural themes of access, transparency, authenticity, and accountability. In our research, we have identified several key factors that enable us to determine how well a company will succeed in this new economy. We use these factors to determine and score a company’s Social Velocity™—the probability that a company’s message or offering will succeed in this socially-driven online environment.
Social Velocity™: the new business creed
1. Quality and authenticity are more important than ever before
When we are approached by prospective clients, we give them a Social Velocity™ screening to examine their value and relevance and to predict their online success. The following 16 companies are representative of results that we see every day. The companies with the highest scores are typically those that have quality offerings, relevant messages, and good website content.
The Social Velocity™ Engine is a patented formula with which companies are tested and graded on factors that include online relevance, popularity, messaging, and content. In this example, the highest Social Velocity™ scores were in the following fields: online jobs, product wholesaler, online marketplace, religious organization, natural health products, and online travel deals.  The lowest Social Velocity™ scores included e-marketing/e-advertising firms, local small businesses, cause promotions, and borderline scam websites (work-at-home and low income loans).
Yovia works with companies to improve some of the factors that predict online success; however, a big portion of success is driven by the quality of the offering and the company itself.
Remember, the web is a transparent democracy, and only quality content will rise to the top.
In our tests, we found that content is 4 to 6 times more important than other factors in predicting whether something will grow exponentially. And the reason is: you can’t fake it. You can spend tons of money advertising or driving traffic, but if the content is bad, spammy, inauthentic, or forced, people are never going to return to your site, and they certainly won’t recommend it to friends.
The question you need to ask yourself, then, is: How is my company or offering adding value?
Answering this question is the only way your company will truly thrive in the new economy.
The Old Advertising Model vs. Social Media Organic Growth
Yovia has been examining the differences between traditional and social media online marketing for years, and in the process, we have observed trends emerging. Traditional online advertising (Google AdWords, pop-ups and banner ads, for example) is a form of interruption marketing, much like television and radio commercials or spam emails. The ads appear when a user conducts a search, and while the ads are matched to the content of the search, they are also completely one-way in their messaging. They send out information about a product or service, rather than create an opportunity for two-way, interactive communication. They are not a function of an active community or valued connections; rather, they are similar in design to a cleaning product ad that appears on TV during daytime talk shows, or a motor oil commercial that airs on the radio during an automotive segment.

This sort of traditional advertising is part of the “old way” of doing business we discussed earlier. The historic method of putting a one-way message in front of the consumer does not translate well to the evolving, socially-driven online world. When was the last time you clicked on a banner ad or pop-up ad online? The conversion rate for these forms of advertising is terrible, and well it should be. One-sided ad techniques no longer work. The online marketplace continues to transform into an actively networked community of people who share interests and recommendations based on their own experiences, not on some slick ad campaign. This is where Social Velocity™ becomes exceedingly important when establishing a viable online presence that can benefit from these communities.

Another factor to consider when making the switch from traditional to new online marketing is the cost. Traditional marketing campaigns are very linear: the more money spent, the greater the return on investment. When the spending drops off, so do the sales. The Social Velocity™ Engine doesn’t work that way. Instead, the initial ad spend sets up a campaign that can go viral through the many online communities, “growing legs” and spreading organically as people tell each other about the product or service. This is what is meant by a people-driven ad network: Individual bloggers, social network users and website contributors share what they know, and their recommendations carry weight with the others in their communities. Before you know it, the viral campaign has spread across many communities, and most importantly, it continues to spread long after the ad spend stops.

The Quantitative Analysis: In Support of Social Velocity™

Yovia has conducted beta tests and other research in order to provide concrete support for the notion of Social Velocity™, and also to further refine the Social Velocity™ Engine to maximize the client’s return on investment. The chart below gives some examples of companies that were marketed with multiple methods, including the Yovia Fidget™, a fan-driven widget that permeates online communities and stimulates conversation about products and services.

The Long Tail and Online Niche Markets

In online advertising, the “long tail” describes the niche markets that are just outside of the products/services/topics that encompass the bulk of popularity. Simply put, online content doesn’t have to be driven entirely by what’s most popular to the most people, because the breadth and depth of the people and interests online allow for the smaller, more focused areas of content to get traffic, as well.  Yovia has mastered the long tail by building a diverse and active network of bloggers and social networking users who simply write about what they know and like. The diversity of topics and interests allows Yovia to drive specialized traffic and generate real results. Thanks to Yovia’s broad and complex network, even clients who represent narrow niche markets can see a greater ROI than with other marketing methods.

Moving Forward with Social Velocity™

Yovia is continuing to grow, and investors are taking notice. Recently, Yovia received an angel investment to continue the development of its people-driven ad network. Social Velocity™ is a proven concept, and Yovia is working to develop new educational materials, new research and new tools that will allow our sponsors and partners to achieve the highest return from social media marketing. Yovia is always seeking new bloggers, new sponsors and new partners with whom the company can establish mutually-beneficial relationships. The mission is to spread the word, and Yovia is achieving that mission, one real person at a time.

Jalali Hartman
CEO - Yovia

The petrol fueling SMO success consists of Social status. Social status is the honor or prestige attached to one’s position in society (one’s social position). Social media success is the honor or prestige attached to one’s blog, youtube video, myspace and or facebook account (one’s technorati ranking).

So how does one increase their social media status? Answer: By the “network” of friends they keep and or belong to.

Social marketing is very much like returning to high school. Obtaining high school popularity and SMO success are one and the same. The more friends you have the taller your soapbox becomes. To be considered popular in high school one must be the topic of conversation whether good or bad, this will create X friends and X enemies. The same rules go for SMO for example you publish a youtube video and you have X amount of friends subscribed to your channel one of those friends is bound to have facebook, myspace, Digg and or a simple wordpress (Metcalf Law). The enemies you create are as good as a backlink. If they don’t like something you did they will send it to their circle of friends that probably won’t like it either, all the while you just infiltrated their network.

Congratulations, you were just voted most popular.

Ill take SMO for $500 Alex.

An Unconventional system of promotions on a very low budget, by relying on time, energy and imagination instead of big marketing budgets.

What is Guerrilla Marketing?

The nature of the beast known as Social Media Optimization is such that it could be considered a form if not a definition of guerrilla marketing. Website owners and blog owners have the choice to be creative and devise his or her own unconventional methods of promotion in order to generate traffic from social sites. As long as your efforts are directed appropriately, the more work you put in the more reward you will reap.

In Guerrilla Marketing the marketer uses all of his or her contacts, both professional and personal, and must examine his company and its products, looking for sources of publicity. First and foremost the publicity that comes from already established contacts is free.

According to the rules of Guerrilla Marketing In order to sell a product or a service, a company must establish a relationship with the customer. It must build trust and support. It must understand the customer’s needs, and it must provide a product that delivers the promised benefits.

Ill take SMO for $600 Alex.

The established rules of Guerrilla Marketing.

What are the precursors to Social Media Optimization?

If you are new to social media, it can feel like learning to swim by getting pushed in the deep-end without your floatie’s.   You feel like you’re drowning in the massive sea called Social Media that is engulfing your being. You think to yourself; how could I possibly ever tackle something this large and win … its just too big?

The truth is … its not impossible because of the word ROPE. A rope is a length of strings or fibers, twisted or braided together to improve strength for pulling and connecting. This is where two strings or fibers of media support one another, and the resulting whole is stronger than the mere sum of the parts. Another way to look at it is; don’t fight, but rather join forces.

The friends (fibers) that you make in one social media network, can often become friends in other social media networks, and can help you establish a presence elsewhere.

How Does This Concept Help?
The implications of becoming part of the rope are this; to gain a foothold in the world of social media, you do not need to be an expert in all the major sites. Choose 1 popular social media site to begin (Digg, Reddit, Stumbleupon, twitter, facebook), and participate fully. Become a power house of that site.

Once you’ve become a power house on that site, maintain your profile and effort there, and expand to another form of social media where you see your content already doing well as a result of others.

All in all its very simple … maybe too simple. This is the key though to gaining a strong social media presence! Divide and conquer, then expand slowly to broaden your influence. When done properly, your reputation and work will pave the way in new frontiers, entirely due to banding together to improve and strengthen your connection.

“How do I increase the chances of getting a blog post to the front page of Digg?”

Let me begin with a disclaimer: I am in no way guarantying you success on Digg - but from my experience this is the KEY DIGG FACTOR.  The person who submits your post to Digg is the key Digg factor in how well it does.

There are two kinds of diggers in the blogosphere: Power Diggers and small time Diggers.  The power Diggers have an arsenal of friends that will Digg their article for the sake of staying on good terms.  So what happens when a Power Digger submits a story?  It gets seen by their friends on Digg and voted up quickly.  However the value of a friend Digg is less than Zambian curency in the digg market. Small Time Diggers have little to know friends but are of great value.  If a smalltime Digger submits your article and a power Digger Diggs it followed by his arsonal you have non friends digging.  Your article is now celibrity status being Dugg b/c of the content not the friendship.  30 of these organic Diggs could be as valuable as 300 friend Diggs. This is where you realize that it’s not about how many people you can get to Digg a story from your network that matters but whether you’ve actually written something that appeals to Diggers out side your network.

Not being a kid that grew up in a house of Trekkies but rather in a home that impersonated Yoda when ever applicable to the conversation at hand.  I found the new Star Trek to be more than enjoyable.  It was better than all three prequels combined with in the first 10 Min.  I Know nothing of the original U.S.S. Enterprise crew other than the names Kirk, Spock, and Scott.  So I am not able to give a educated critique on the cast however the  storyline was great as well as the action keeping you engaged from opening to closing credits.

I would totally go see this movie again.

JOB WELL DONE STAR TREK!!!

This is long, but enlightening. Lest you think it was written by some right-wing kook, David Kaiser is a respected historian whose published works have covered a broad range of topics, from European Warfare to American League Baseball. Born in 1947, the son of a diplomat, Kaiser spent his childhood in three capital cities: Washington D.C. , Albany , New York , and Dakar , Senegal . He attended Harvard University , graduating there in 1969 with a B.A. in history. He then spent several years more at Harvard, gaining a PhD in history, which he obtained in 1976. He served in the Army Reserve from 1970 to 1976.

He is a professor in the Strategy and Policy Department of the United States Naval War College and has previously taught at Carnegie Mellon, Williams College and Harvard University . Kaiser’s latest book, The Road to Dallas, about the Kennedy assassination, was just published by Harvard University Press.

Dr. David Kaiser
“My friends, we live in the greatest nation in the history of the world. I hope you’ll join with me as we try to change it.” ~ Barack Obama
History Unfolding

I am a student of history. Professionally, I have written 15 books on history that have been published in six languages, and I have studied history all my life. I have come to think there is something monumentally large afoot, and I do not believe it is simply a banking crisis, or a mortgage crisis, or a credit crisis. Yes these exist, but they are merely single facets on a very large gemstone that is only now coming into a sharper focus.

Something of historic proportions is happening. I can sense it because I know how it feels, smells, what it looks like, and how people react to it.. Yes, a perfect storm may be brewing, but there is something happening within our country that has been evolving for about ten to fifteen years. The pace has dramatically quickened in the past two.

We demand and then codify into law the requirement that our banks make massive loans to people we know they can never pay back? Why?

We learned just days ago that the Federal Reserve, which has little or no real oversight by anyone, has “loaned” two trillion dollars (that is $2,000,000,000,000) over the past few months, but will not tell us to whom or why or disclose the terms. That is our money. Yours and mine. And that is three times the $700 billion we all argued about so strenuously just this past September. Who has this money? Why do they have it? Why are the terms unavailable to us? Who asked for it? Who authorized it? I thought this was a government of “we the people,” who loaned our powers to our elected leaders. Apparently not.

We have spent two or more decades intentionally de-industrializing our economy. Why?

We have intentionally dumbed down our schools, ignored our history, and no longer teach our founding documents, why we are exceptional, and why we are worth preserving. Students by and large cannot write, think critically, read, or articulate. Parents are not revolting, teachers are not picketing, school boards continue to back mediocrity. Why?

We have now established the precedent of protesting every close election (violently in California over a proposition that is so controversial that it simply wants marriage to remain defined as between one man and one woman. Did you ever think such a thing possible just a decade ago?) We have corrupted our sacred political process by allowing unelected judges to write laws that radically change our way of life, and then mainstream Marxist groups like ACORN and others to turn our voting system into a banana republic. To what purpose?

Now our mortgage industry is collapsing, housing prices are in free fall, major industries are failing, our banking system is on the verge of collapse, social security is nearly bankrupt, as is Medicare and our entire government. Our education system is worse than a joke (I teach college and I know precisely what I am talking about) - the list is staggering in its length, breadth, and depth.. It is potentially 1929 x ten. And we are at war with an enemy we cannot even name for fear of offending people of the same religion, who, in turn, cannot wait to slit the throats of your children if they have the opportunity to do so.

And finally, we have elected a man that no one really knows anything about, who has never run so much as a Dairy Queen, let alone a town as big as Wasilla , Alaska . All of his associations and alliances are with real radicals in their chosen fields of employment, and everything we learn about him, drip by drip, is unsettling if not downright scary (Surely you have heard him speak about his idea to create and fund a mandatory civilian defense force stronger than our military for use inside our borders? No? Oh, of course. The media would never play that for you over and over and then demand he answer it. Sarah Palin’s pregnant daughter and $150,000 wardrobe are more important.)

Mr. Obama’s winning platform can be boiled down to one word: Change. Why?

I have never been so afraid for my country and for my children as I am now.

This man campaigned on bringing people together, something he has never, ever done in his professional life. In my assessment, Obama will divide us along philosophical lines, push us apart, and then try to realign the pieces into a new and different power structure. Change is indeed coming. And when it comes, you will never see the same nation again.

And that is only the beginning..

As a serious student of history, I thought I would never come to experience what the ordinary, moral German must have felt in the mid-1930s. In those times, the “savior” was a former smooth-talking rabble-rouser from the streets, about whom the average German knew next to nothing. What they should have known was that he was associated with groups that shouted, shoved, and pushed around people with whom they disagreed; he edged his way onto the political stage through great oratory. Conservative “losers” read it right now.

And there were the promises. Economic times were tough, people were losing jobs, and he was a great speaker. And he smiled and frowned and waved a lot. And people, even newspapers, were afraid to speak out for fear that his “brown shirts” would bully and beat them into submission. Which they did - regularly. And then, he was duly elected to office, while a full-throttled economic crisis bloomed at hand - the Great Depression. Slowly, but surely he seized the controls of government power, person by person, department by department, bureaucracy by bureaucracy. The children of German citizens were at first, encouraged to join a Youth Movement in his name where they were taught exactly what to think. Later, they were required to do so. No Jews of course,

How did he get people on his side? He did it by promising jobs to the jobless, money to the money-less, and rewards for the military-industrial complex. He did it by indoctrinating the children, advocating gun control, health care for all, better wages, better jobs, and promising to re-instill pride once again in the country, across Europe and across the world. He did it with a compliant media - did you know that? And he did this all in the name of justice and … change. And the people surely got what they voted for.

If you think I am exaggerating, look it up. It’s all there in the history books.

So read your history books. Many people of conscience objected in 1933 and were shouted down, called names, laughed at, and ridiculed. When Winston Churchill pointed out the obvious in the late 1930s while seated in the House of Lords in England (he was not yet Prime Minister), he was booed into his seat and called a crazy troublemaker. He was right, though. And the world came to regret that he was not listened to.

Do not forget that Germany was the most educated, the most cultured country in Europe . It was full of music, art, museums, hospitals, laboratories, and universities. And yet, in less than six years (a shorter time span than just two terms of the U. S. presidency) it was rounding up its own citizens, killing others, abrogating its laws, turning children against parents, and neighbors against neighbors. All with the best of intentions, of course. The road to Hell is paved with them.

As a practical thinker, one not overly prone to emotional decisions, I have a choice: I can either believe what the objective pieces of evidence tell me (even if they make me cringe with disgust); I can believe what history is shouting to me from across the chasm of seven decades; or I can hope I am wrong by closing my eyes, having another latte, and ignoring what is transpiring around me..

I choose to believe the evidence. No doubt some people will scoff at me, others laugh, or think I am foolish, naive, or both. To some degree, perhaps I am. But I have never been afraid to look people in the eye and tell them exactly what I believe-and why I believe it.

I pray I am wrong. I do not think I am. Perhaps the only hope is our vote in the next elections.

David Kaiser

Jamestown , Rhode Island

United States

June 01, 2008

Identity is the fact of being who or what a person or thing is.

A great many of you have know idea who I am, so I am very grateful for the enthusiastic applause.

The ones that do know me might identify me as the guy with a complicated order concerning the condiment selection that resides on his Angie’s sandwich as well as a YoungLife leader and dare I forget the self-proclaimed superstar known as SWEATBAND MAN.

All those Identities are true however they are associated Identities.

I was walking the beach this past memorial’s day when a pretty young woman approached me with a gorgeous smile.

I identified her as the principals’ daughter as well as being very short when compared to her brother.

Those are associated identities that Mariah has.

Like Mariah I to had associated identities in High school.
I was the son of a preacher, a middle child and Ben Swanson’s little brother that was and is an inch and a half taller than he is.

There are some obvious differences between Mariah and myself like
Are names are spelled different
I have blonde hair she has not blonde hair.

However there is one thing that is obvious that Mariah and I both share
We are both short when compared to the height of her brother.

It has been seven years since my High School Baccalaureate.

Little did I know that my associated identities, the identities that I unconsciously identified myself with.

The identities that were as shallow as a superlative were three months away from extinction upon the day I received my High school diploma.

It was the last week in August when my Dad and I set out for Asbury College 800 miles away from anyone that knew I was homecoming king.

After the car was unloaded and I waved good by as my dad headed back to the sunshine.

I realized I was no longer an associated identity.

My identity as a grown man was not lost it just had not been established.

Richard R. Grant said
The Value of Identity of course is that so often with it comes purpose.

Purpose is the reason for something being done it is a person’s sense of resolve or determination.

Purpose and identity have to go hand in hand.

Without purpose your identity has no substance.

The purpose that I am presently striving for is loving my God with all my heart soul mind and strength and loving my neighbor as my self.

What does that mean?

Loving the giver of life with the rhythm of every beat in my chest,

the inner most core of my being, every creative and imaginative thought,

with all of the energy that my body contains,

and love every person that I engage in the same way I am learning to love my self.

So to recap purpose and identity are completely intertwined and the only purpose that I have found of eternal value is love.

Who I love and who loves me is not an associated identity.  The love I receive from he who gives me breath and the love I give to him and everyone else is timeless and true.
And it is in this love that my identity is found.

So I am encouraging you to seek truth,

give and receive love with all the energy you can muster

And it is here that your identity will be greater than your last name, GPA, homecoming crown, or what ever your associated identities are.

But establishing an identity is not something that is going to happen over night it is however hinged on a decision.
So my question to yall
Who are you going to be?  Not what are you going to be.
Will the world be a better place because you were a part of it?

I am not telling you or even asking you to except what I have adopted as the truth.  What I am asking is that you not accept an identity. But you establish one.

This blog entry is about the fatalistic view of Richard Taylor.  Fatalism is the view that forethought and action are pointless because the future will be the same no matter what we do whatever happens is unavoidable (p.55).
Fate vs. Freewill has raged in scholars unending rhetoric throughout history.  However freewill is not the monkey wrench that I will be throwing in Taylor’s direction.  My complaint is with fate and temptation.
In relation to determinism Taylor declares: if you believe the claim of universal causation or that every event has a cause and the theory of the causal determination of human behavior in other words causes are sufficient for their effects then you are a fatalist.  The consequence of fatalism is that a fatalist looks at the future like everyone thinks of the past, as settled and fixed.  According to Taylor we are all fatalists in that we believe that the sun will rise tomorrow, and that there is nothing we can do about it.  We believe that we will die, and that there is nothing we can do about it.
In the grand scheme of things driving 61 miles per hour in a 55 matters.  Consider for a moment seeing someone barrel through a red light at an intersection and thinking to yourself, “if I were going through this light any sooner that idiot would have killed me?” Similarly, you read about traffic accidents where someone does run a red light and kills the unfortunate person who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. What is the difference between you and them?  Was it fate or luck? According to Taylor how fast you go does not matter.  Taylor wants to say that dogging the crash was fate, and if fate made you the unfortunate person that died in the intersection mentioned above how fast you decided to drive would matter not.
Divine omniscience is to say God knows everything that is true.  God knows all truths He knows when you were born, He knows whether an ant walked across the desk last night, He knows when you will die; He knows whether an ant will walk across the desk tonight.  Of course denying that God exists could prevent the threat of fatalism, due to it starting with God’s existence.  Omniscience involves infallible knowledge of all facts.  It could be argued that God’s perfection does not require the infallible knowledge of all facts.  God’s foreknowledge of some future event is a fact of past history and necessary.  What God foreknew must necessarily come to pass, since it is impossible that God’s knowledge be mistaken.
The story of Osmo: Osmo finds a book called “The Life of Osmo” that correctly describes his past life (even his recent past) and predicts he will die on the runway at Fort Wayne.  Despite his best efforts, Osmo dies on the runway at Fort Wayne.  Why was Osmo a fatalist? There existed a set of true statements about his life, both past and future.  Osmo came to know what those statements were and came to believe them through experiencing them.
Fatalism is normally taken to imply that there is no such thing as genuine, human free will.  Fatalism takes logical determinism as a premise and concludes that there is nothing we can do about the future. Free will is a power given to us from God that enables us to choose an apple or an orange.  How can a man be blamed for his shortcomings if he is positioned stern side with his hands on the wheel but the rudder controlled by a predetermined path leading the crew to a capsized demise?   Richard Taylor argues strongly in favor of fate, the man stern side had to lead the crew to their death no matter what the capabilities he possessed for shore leave the following day, it was fate.  Was it fate, or was it God?  I don’t agree with Taylor, he assumes without justification a particular model of time and change that I don’t think stands up to very much scrutiny at all.  In particular, I think that such a model is incapable of dealing with probability.  Fate turns its nose to the age-old question of what if?
One funny thing about this argument is that it claims that belief in fatalism has some necessary consequences for people who adopt it, including freedom from temptation.  So should we embrace our shortcomings and blame them on fate, or maybe the predestined election of humanity?    As Taylor himself seems to want to believe in fatalism, which he defines as the belief that the future is a fixed “no win” situation in which the outcome is “fated” whatever we might do, and unchangeable as the past it is not clear to what he thinks about temptation, as clearly a creature that has no choices cannot be tempted, for what is temptation if not temptation to choose? If free will and determinism co-exist, then someone is able to do something not contained in that one possible future that is consistent both with the past and the laws of nature. If one is morally responsible for anything, it follows logically that one has had a free choice about something. Christ’s election leads to the election of the community of the church, and only in that context is it right to talk about the election or rejection of the individual and not blame it on fate.  Election is not presented so that it had to do with God’s electing of some to salvation and passing over others.  Instead it was God’s electing to be for humanity.  Jesus Christ, was the electing God and the elected Man. In other words, creation and history have to be seen as the fruit of God’s eschatological significant decision to be a God for humanity in the person of Jesus Christ.  Acknowledgment is key.  It is only our belief in the Son that we can also believe in the Father and the Holy Spirit, and therefore in the one divine election.  God elected God’s self for suffering and death in Christ and elected humanity for eternal life, simultaneously condemning Christ and raising up humanity.  So if we ask if Jesus’ death was fate?  Fate creates a fine recipe for limited atonement.
Fatalism, can’t lead to anything but amoralism, for only creatures that have choice have any need of morality.  Note that having choice does not imply a need of morality: cats can clearly make choices, but are equally clearly devoid of morals, and seem none-the-worse for it.  But not having choice certainly implies not needing (or being capable of) morality, as the only role of morality is to guide us in making moral choices (Excerpted from tom’s journal: topic: Metaphysics).