My New York City Experience
July 23rd, 2008 | by Brad King |This book — or more accurately the process of the book — is about exploring the new ways we create, consume and connect with stories, information and data. That has changed dramatically despite what you will read writers telling you.
They are wrong. The world has changed. A good story is still important. It’s just not AS important as it used to be because there are more ways to tell a story and more people telling them. I grew up in Appalachia, surrounded by the best storytellers you’ve never met. Trust me on this when I tell you that it’s an art form that can be mastered by anyone.
But hypocrasy is a nasty beast in the new media world. Jeff Jarvis reminded me of that today when he published the “excuse” part of his upcoming book, which basically said that while new media is the dominant force of the future he was writing a book because it paid the bills.
There’s a grand tradition of these apologies in the world of new media writing. Former MIT Media Lab director Nicholas Negroponte did it artfully in Being Digital. And, frankly, I can understand why it’s there. Still, I understand why the nail gun is there too, I just don’t shoot a nail in my hand. That doesn’t make sense.
Since my book deals with new media storytelling, I thought it about time to do a few things: the Wiki for the book is now launched and you can get to that using the link on the right side of the page — or by clicking here; and I booked a flight to New York City with no interviews set up and no idea who I would talk to. You know, kind of like you get an assignment in the morning and have to figure out what to write by the end of the day.
Within four hours, that was fixed. Here’s how:
I’d been Twittering the possibility of this trip for a few weeks with absolutely no response at all. My followers, it turns out, are shy — or ignoring me.
So I created a writer’s list on Facebook from my contacts and I put together a list of media types on LinkedIn. I sent out notes to everyone explaining my book, when I’d be there and asked for help setting up interviews.
I was almost immediately swamped with names. I spent the better part of the afternoon emailing folks, talking on the phone and explaining the project — and within a few hours, I had:
- a tour of AP set up
- several meetings with rather well-connected media types
- a tour of a think-tank set up
- a tour of a marketing agency
I even found out that a friend from Texas was going to be in town (we’re having dinner) and Dan Gillmor introduced me to a travel network, Dopplr, that allows me to connect with other friends who are on the road.
All by activitating ( you like that word, marketing people apparently use that word) my social network to work for me. On faith. I knew my network was big enough to help me, I’d just never used them before.
As for my apology, well, I won’t have one because the book is a Red Herring, a ruse for something bigger.
That doesn’t mean it’s not important. It certainly is. It’s just not the end. And I make no apologies for it.
