E L S U A ~ A KM Blog Thinking Outside The Inbox by Luis Suarez

The Social Revolution – Remember Us

We live in rather interesting, intriguing, complex, uncertain and wonderful times. We surely do. We live in times of extreme negatives juxtaposing themselves with extreme positives. We live in times where the Social Web has become that amplifier of (global / local) events, of our passions, of our emotions, of an unnerving polarisation of opinions and beliefs, where tolerance, compassion, empathy and caring, some times, all shine for their absence. Just like in the real world. Where did we leave all of those characteristics behind in our human nature? Have we forgotten what makes us all, human beings, unique in this world, where we have been given an exclusive, uncompromising, cherished opportunity to enjoy and celebrate it accordingly? Where have we left behind our innate social nature? Is there any hope left? Please do tell me there is. Please. Do.

In times where the world seems to keep rejoicing on narrating rather painful and excruciatingly demoralising extreme negatives, I just can’t help but for the rebellious and hippie 2.0 side of me to come out and fight back in search of extreme positives. I guess there is a reality out there that we may not be able to escape, tame nor mitigate, even, in terms of the amount of pain and suffering one might get exposed to, or suffer themselves, but the thing is that I am starting to feel it’s everyone’s responsibility to fight back. There is hope. There needs to be hope. Otherwise, what’s the alternative?

I do apologise to those folks who may be reading this blog post today, as I am fully aware it may well not be the article they were expecting. I know this is the kind of philosophical reflection that’s very rare to see in this blog, but I just couldn’t help fighting back. Please bear with me. I need to get it out of my system. Then things will be back to normal, the new post-normal. Like I said, having seen the unnerving (That word again!) increase of extreme negatives we all keep getting exposed to in our daily lives, I want to strongly believe there is a different way. A much different way. A better way. For all of us. 

And there is, apparently. Phew! I am really glad there is. I surely needed this extreme positive to compensate. I guess serendipity just decided to do its own magic once again, right when one needs it the most. Earlier on this week, and coming through my Google Plus stream, I bumped into this absolutely delightful, energising, refreshing, inspiring, jaw-dropping, thought-provoking YouTube video clip, that I am sure that once you all watch it through in its entirety it will restore your own faith in humanity. It surely did for me. If anything, because of that strong sense of hope permeating throughout the entire clip of the true potential we can achieve with that amplifier effect that is the Social Web.

In an age of polarisation, balance is key. It will always be. And although I certainly realise that video contains lots of kool-aid about us, human beings, it’s also undeniable that we are more than capable. Yes, indeed, we are capable of the most horrifying things, BUT, at the same time, we are more than capable of the most wonderful things. And that’s the reason I wanted to share this blog entry across to perhaps use it as a gentle reminder for us all about what we are here for. Remember? We live in rather interesting times. For real. We should just seek each and every single opportunity we may have to make a difference, to have an impact, to share, not through those negative experiences, since they are always the easy way out, but focus more on the positive ones. The ones that allow us to understand the negative being turned into a positive.

Those experiences that the Social Web has helped us treasure over the course of time with that amplifier effect of what we could all achieve if we just put our mind and intent into it. That’s just what the Digital / Social (R)evolution is all about. And, if not, judge for yourselves. Hit Play, sit back, pump up the volume, watch AND enjoy what we are capable of. Today:

See? There is hope. We, too, can do better. Much better. All of us. No exceptions. I guess we just need to be reminded every now and then that right when an extreme negative happens there is another extreme positive in the making just right around the corner. And perhaps that is the intent of this reflection in this post, that, whether we like it or not those negatives may always be with us all, as part of our daily lives, but I guess it’s also going to be up to us to decide how we are going to amplify them, or not, by making a much smarter, sharable, responsible and thoughtful use of the digital tools at our disposal.

Welcome to the Social (R)evolution!

Happy birthday, mum! [I love you very much!]

The Future Is Ours

Now that I am, once again, back home, after another round of business trips, I just couldn’t help reflecting on the fact that, lately, over the course of the last few months, perhaps couple of years, we seem to be going from extreme negatives to extreme positives and back. Somehow it’s starting to feel like being on a non-stop roller-coaster, and although I quite enjoy those rides, I am not too sure it’s something I would want to do on a permanent basis. Specially, getting exposed to extreme negatives. They can be just so much energy draining altogether, it’s probably not even worth it focusing too much on them. Yes, I know, I, too, have been missing the Inspiring Video of the Week series of posts over here in this blog, so I’m hoping to bring them back, once again, and perhaps with such enticing and rather optimistic message as The Future Is Ours. 

No, don’t worry, nothing serious about my own persona or those around me for that matter. I am all right. In fact, I’m doing really well, specially, on the final week before I will be sharing some further details on that previous blog post where I talked about Who Moved My Cheese? and where to next. It’s just that the whole world has gone really weird and for no apparent reason. And that’s where the extreme negatives keep flourishing all over the place, distracting us all from what we should really be focusing on at this point in time: make the world a better place. Not for you, not for me, not for any of us, but for our future generations to come…

That’s why, when I bumped into The Future Is Ours (A beautifully inspiring and thought-provoking short video clip of a bit over two minutes), I just couldn’t help thinking that it wouldn’t hurt us to have some sort of reminders, every now and then, that allow us to keep that focus intact on what our purpose and potential meaning truly are, never mind those distractions that we seem to keep bumping into more often than not. 

Thus I thought that since I am now back from my last round of business trips and in order to get things going again with my blogging mojo, it would be a perfect opportunity to kick things off with a blog entry on the Inspiring Video of the Week and this time around, since it’s been a while, to actually share a bonus one as well! And I think I may have just bumped into the right, quality materials for today. 

Michael Marantz quotes: “Imagine the future as a movie, consider this a trailer to that movie” as an introduction to this short video clip. I know most people out there reading this entry would probably say that it’s far too optimistic and perhaps utopian, but then again, I learned, a long while ago, to come back with why not? What’s stopping us from reaching out our highest potential, that is, “pushing humanity forward“? Probably nothing else than just us. So why not go ahead and do it? How? Well, here’s some inspiration to get in the mood: 

The Future is Ours from Michael Marantz on Vimeo.

Yes, I know, I need that, too! Well, here’s the bonus track. When you are done watching through that video clip take a look into this other one, of just under two minutes, on “Social Media Changes Everything“, which is just as powerful as the previous one, more than anything else, because it shows and demonstrates what has been crippling us all in the past and that we are finally breaking loose from it with the emergence of social technologies: “Knowledge / Information is power” is now shifting into “Information now finds its own flow“:

And if we are talking about the Social Web as a Flow, as my good friend Stowe Boyd would say, we are just getting started… See? That’s why every now and then I keep longing for inspirational video clips like the two I shared above, so I can get over from the extreme negatives, even if is it hard for a short while and continue to work really hard for those extreme positives that make everything worth while.

Yes, I know, I could probably summarise it with these two different sentences spread around on the first video clip:

“Let yourself be overwhelmed… Never stop dreaming“

Why not?

On the Road Again, on Another Special Day

Today, March 17th 2013, is St. Patrick’s Day. So while the rest of the world has already embarked on a massive celebration (Happy St. Patrick’s Day, by the way!!), I am also celebrating something rather special, so I thought I would let folks out there know about it, since I keep getting asked time and time again. No, it’s *not* my birthday, as the Social Web keeps proclaiming to the world and beyond. Actually, I have lied on the Social InterWebs, because my birthday already took place a few weeks back. However, on the Web, and a few years ago already, I updated all of my social networking profiles to put an incorrect birth date, just because I didn’t feel the world needed to know that personal detail. Oh, not to worry, I am not too fussed about my age, 41 this year, but it’s the principle that with that accurate date and a couple of other details people could impersonate you and steal your identity. So I thought I would lie about it and instead pick up a date that still is rather special and dear to me: St. Patrick’s Day.

Why is March 17th such an important date to yours truly?, you may be wondering, right? Well, mainly because 9 years ago, exactly today, I moved from The Netherlands to Gran Canaria, my home base, making it by now the second longest time that I have ever lived in a place, outside of my parents home. So, in a way, it is my home, don’t you think? That’s right! I wasn’t really sure whether I was going to be able to make it for that long, but I guess that once you settle in a place and you decide that’s going to be it, it kind of becomes a special place. One that is part of you, and you are part of it. And that, to me, is Gran Canaria. 

I guess time flies pretty quickly when you are having fun, right? Because even though it looks like as if it was yesterday, with the odd blink here and there, it’s already been 9 years since I moved to the island. And I wouldn’t change a single one of those years. It does feel like a re-birth, for sure, since when it happened I was going through one of those life changing experiences that you know you are going to bump into at some point in your life that makes you question and wonder about the small things, i.e. you know, the things that matter. So, perhaps in a way, I am celebrating today my re-birthday after all. Who knows… 

The thing is that life works in mysterious ways and does magical and wonderful things, because how ironic it is that today I’m celebrating that 9th year anniversary of having moved to Gran Canaria, in Utrecht, The Netherlands, where I am staying for a couple of days to participate and present at the Congres Intranet 2013 (#intra13 is the Twitter hash tag, if you would want to follow it up over the next couple of days…). Yes, I know, very ironic, isn’t it? 

Anyway, it’s still a wonderful celebration and I just couldn’t help dropping by over here in this blog and, like every year, share a short note of appreciation for how much of an impact such a tiny island can have in a person, like myself and everyone else who may have lived or visited there. So perhaps I thought I would share over here a couple of snapshots that would give you a glimpse of why Gran Canaria has got a special place in my heart for over the last 9 years and still going strong … 

And those pictures surely remind me of the warm weather that I am already missing while over here in Utrecht, where it’s rather cold [Brrr] despite spring being just around the corner! So I guess it will also help me as an incentive of what awaits me in a couple of weeks when I return back home. Yes, that’s right, Utrecht is not the only city I’m going to visit during this business trip. I’m going to be on a little bit of a European Tour that will take me in a couple of days to Paris (Where I will be attending and presenting at the Enterprise 2.0 Summit - Follow the hash tag #e20s on Twitter, if you would be interested), then from there onwards on to Leuven, Belgium, to present at BLUG (#blug) and over the coming weekend onto Prague, to present as well at the Heutagogy Conference event on March 27th. 

Goodness! I told you, a little bit of a European Tour, wasn’t it? I am excited already and I haven’t started it just yet! Either way, like I said, in two weeks time I will be enjoying the lovely warm weather, the lovely people, the lovely food from the one island that decided to become my new home 9 years ago: Gran Canaria.

Thus happy re-birthday to me!

PS: As usual, if you are going to be around any of those cities while I’m on the road, throughout this business trip, and would want to meet up for a drink or a coffee, or even a quick “Hi!”, feel free to reach out through the usual social spaces … I’m just about to end the self-inflicted Twitter and G+ silence, provoked by something I talked about a little while ago …