RadioBack

Forward

Dave's Log:  Cyberdate 7.8.07

Emma has become impatient with our recent lack of adventures.  While we have been working and doing the typical kind of stuff that is necessary to live, Emma has been at play.  She has made Gabriele real.  Well, we suspect that real is an interpretation, but Gabriele sure looks real.  Standing next to Elle, it is impossible to tell which person requires food and air. 

To shake off the rust Avelina has us heading to the Quadrant of Change to visit the planet Forward.  Gabriele will be running point on this mission.  In a preflight meeting, she tells us that folks who live on Forward, are forging new frontiers in the world of Public Relations (PR).  It is Gabriele's opinion that the lads who drove the Cluetrain back on the planet of Conversation, were among the first to venture West towards where the planet Forward is today.

Erin Caldwell meets us upon deboarding.  She walks directly up to Gabriele and gives her a  hearty handshake.  Except for Elle, most of us are a tad bit older.  We suspect that Erin has correctly recognized Gabriele as our translator.  Erin tells Gabriele about all that Forward offers.  There is career advice, technology advice, advice to help one become a more accomplished PR professional and just some darn good advice.  We also found this kind of interesting.

This has been a most refreshing visit.  There are so many here dedicated to improving their profession!  You know, Emma has been awfully quiet since we've landed on Forward...and this concerns us.  And, as if on cue, "David, have you noticed Gabriele?" Emma asks with a bit of mischievousness in her voice. 

We look up and there is Gabriele eating an ice cream cone.

The Cluetrain Manifesto

Dave's Log:  Cyberdate 6.17.07

Today we are going to test Emma, like she's never been tested.  But first...  It began a couple of days ago while a few of us gathered in the lounge.  Elle told us of a conversation that she had with Christopher Locke.  Christopher was in 1999, Elle 2007.  Elle was curious, prior to the explosion of blogs and social media, who or what was, in Tom Friedman's terminology, flattening hierarchy in the business world?  So she queried a sector of thought particles in the year 1999, using elevated emotion as a filter.  Here is a sample of the data stream that led Elle to Mr. Locke: markets...hierarchy...corporate...ivory towers...subvert...rage boy...conversations...community...tired and not gonna take it any more.

"Destination: the planet Conversation located in the in the quadrant of Change."

Avelina's voice drips with excitement and anticipation.  Is Emma doing this or is Avelina emerging as a life of her own?  Time will tell.

With the coordinates of Conversation as it was in 1999 secured in navigation, Emma is challenged to take the Starship back in time.  She must get our craft 100 times past the speed of light, to a value known as the speed of thought.  It is at this point that we cross over.  Emma pulls it off without a hitch.

We land a short distance outside of a town called 95 Thesis.  Wood burning and food cooking loosen our taste buds and place us in a festive mood.  The town is a series of cobblestone roads and open front shops.  A wooden plank sidewalk that in places juts out to full fledge porches, lines each side of the roads.  Not only have we walked into a vibrant town, we have been swallowed by a community bent on sharing.

Over plates of barbecued pulled pork, baked beans, potato salad and tall glasses of ice tea, we talk to the town elders.  They tell us of four energetic lads who road into town on a private train.  This train was unlike any ever before seen.  Picture the ice-cold Coors Bullet mashing up with a fire breathing, vapor spitting, version of a train created by a sixteen year old fantasy gamer.  They called it the Cluetrain.

The four men barnstormed the country online and with a sacred printed document.  Their message was simply an illumination of what was already going on - the end of business as usual.  The World Wide Web allowed conversations between networked employees, customers and companies, networked employees and customers and maybe most profoundly, customers and customers.  Message boards, chat rooms and e-mail were the greased conduit.  Conversations eroded boundaries, ivory towers and conventional media.  Who listened to the ad media when an online community of people either ranted or railed a product?

The elders thought the lads had a legitimate platform from which to build upon their message, elevate the Cluetrain movement, and even perhaps, carve out a new philosophy of management.  We could only imagine the management instruction that coaches how to conduct your business in a transparent world, a world view open to employees, customers and the corporate world.  But that was not to be.  Before tee shirts were printed, Web sites were spun off or cults formed, the Cluetrain blew out of town leaving a vapor trail of imaginative what-could-be's.

Elle believes that the Cluetrain mindset still prevails today.  It has become more a way of life though, than the shock and awe it produced in the nineties.  She thinks the tools of blogs, podcasting, video-sharing, instant messaging, wiki's and others take the art of conversation from single engine prop planes to the Space Shuttle.  We raise our eyebrows and stare inquisitively at Elle.  "Elle, we just traveled back into time, flying one-hundred times faster than the speed of light.  Isn't the Space Shuttle so 21st century?"  "Yes David it is.  It is what is yet to come in methods of conversations that I save the description...from Space Shuttle to Starship for."

Ahhh youth.  We should have known better.

Elle

Dave's Log:  Cyberdate 6.10.07

Unlike Emma, Gabriele and Avelina, Elle is a real human being.  Although Elle has been with us for awhile, she first came to prominence in the mission to visit Roger von Oech. 

Elle is thirty-two years old with long, jet black hair and blue eyes.  Her hard, athletic body glistens with a natural brown tan.  Proudly, Elle wears hip hugger pants and short shirts that display a diamond in her midriff. 

Elle has the ability to communicate telepathically with people across both time and space. 

deviantART

Dave's Log:  Cyberdate 6.9.2007

Prior to today's mission I sat alone in my study contemplating the Edge...

My study resides between the general living area and bedroom in my quarters on the Starship.  A recliner faces an eight by eight window that looks into Space.  A writing desk flanks the chair, surrounded by walls lined with books.  Although I am one click away from mankind's total collection of knowledge, thanks to a Google project years ago that began by scanning books and of course evolved, I relish books, paper and pen. This is the only location on the Starship where I can personally disengage Emma...and I have.

I am thinking about the Edge this morning and our mission to travel there and RadioBack coordinates to the Universe of different to others.  Who am I however, to determine what or who is different?  Am I not revealing to the whole wide world just how under-exposed that I am?  Yes, I guess so.  Do I not consider these adventures opportunities to learn?  Yes.  So, if I can remain cool about my own naivety and continue to venture forth, maybe I'll learn some stuff and beam light on darkened corners of the Universe for others.

Today's mission is a neighborhood cafe for millions of people.  For me however, it lies out on the Universe's periphery.  It is a world of intrigue and one that my soul needs.  It is someone from this or a similar world who we need on the Starship to handle RadioBack's graphic and illustration design.

"Destination: The planet of deviantART  in the quadrant of Creativity."

...Avelina's voice gently rolls throughout the Starship, increasing our anticipation. 

The Starship's powerful engines engage and in no time we land on deviantART.  Two characteristics of deviantART nearly blind us before we take a step; Talent and Community...and by community we mean BIG community.  Emma syncs with Wikipedia and downloads a briefing to our headsets.

We must move forward with great care on this planet.  The culture is rooted in painters, photographers, writers, illustrators, graphic designers, animators and cartoonists.  To casually describe deviantART as a planet of artists is wrong.  That would be like a broad brush stroke across a canvass of one million brush strokes, each radiating their individual passion and desire.  Each must be heard.  Although Emma downloads the culture and knowledge of deviantART, we feel we must touch, feel, smell, listen and let our eyes take pleasure in the here and now physical world that begs to bombard our senses.

Elle emits a soft moan as we move along.  She's made contact.  We encourage her to share.

"I have connected with one of deviantART's leaders David."

Elle: Tell us about your passion for community $spyed.

$spyed: We have built a community for artists and those who appreciate their craft, to gather, share their work, passions and desires. 

Elle: How does this help the artists?

$spyed: Our community removes walls and reduces the size of our planet.  It flattens the playing field and gives unknown artists a chance to be heard and seen.  It gives all artists a chance.

Prior to leaving, we experience an overwhelming feeling from those who dwell on deviantART.  It is a sense of graciousness.  Nearly everyone who we met with expressed great appreciation for folks who visit and comment upon their work.  We know, from our experiences aboard the Starship over the last decade, that this characteristic is one we discovered in the most powerful communities.  $spyed, his staff and team have something extraordinarily special here.  We feel privileged by this experience.

Roger von Oech

Dave's Log:  Cyberdate 6.2.07

We start off today in the Starship's Film Room.  It's actually a soundproof theater richly appointed with plush, built-in recliners.  Of course film no longer exists but the retro feel of the name delights our senses.  Emma has extracted a five-year old memory from Dave's mind and we are about to view it.

Rosemary and I walk into Circle Books on St. Armands Circle in Sarasota, Florida.  Having discovered my right brain five years earlier, I am in search of books that will help me to develop it.  My main quest is a book containing Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken."  Discovering it though, it doesn't quite quench my appetite, my need.  Driven by the desire of different, my eyes land upon Roger von Oech's Expect the Unexpected.  I open it and am sold.  Its words mainline to my right brain.  It puts an arm around my shoulder and says, "David, lets walk down the creative path together."

All of our missions at RadioBack so far have begun by flying to the Edge.  Sometimes the Edge however, is our state of mind.  And sometimes folks whose state of mind is out on the Edge and have always been there - are waiting for us.  And sometimes these folks are not immersed in the new economics.  Sometimes they deal with the new by dealing with the old.  Roger von Oech's like that.

Emma softens the lighting and Gabriele appears in the theater's corner.  "Not only are Roger's teachings timeless, they transcend generational differences."  She continues, "And, even though Roger is deeply intellectual, learned and schooled, he speaks the common man's language."

"Bell bottoms."  We turn to the other corner of the room where Elle is standing.  Elle, unlike Avelina and Gabriele, is a real live person.  She is thirty-two years old with long jet black hair and crystal blue eyes that twinkle stardust across her naturally tanned, athletic body, stands with hands on hips staring at a point above the rest of us.  Elle has the ability to communicate telepathically across time and space.  Usually communications are initiated by others.  She'll hold these conversations oblivious to her surroundings.

"Elle, who are you speaking to?"

Elle: He asks, "Where has the "Thuban Phenomenon" worked in your life?"

With a trail of mystery following her, Elle walks out of the theater, her hip hugger bell bottom jeans swaying ever so slightly.  Emma knows, but we must link out and think for ourselves.

We are grateful to Emma for bringing Roger to our attention today and grateful to Roger for helping us to be more creative.

The Cultedge Meter

Dave's Log:  Cyberdate 5.28.2007

The Cultedge meter is a small hand held device that monitors Emma's culture and knowledge download activities.  We cannot leave a planet until Emma has performed this task and the meter helps us to keep track of her progress.

Avelina

Dave's Log:  Cyberdate 5.28.2007

Emma first introduced us to Avelina on our mission to Nau.  She is the Starship Cruiser's navigation system.  At first, Avelina's voice was pure electronics.  Upon leaving Nau it turned human, thanks to Emma.

Emma extracts and downloads the culture and knowledge from every single planet that we visit.  She simply wrote a code that copies the planet's warm and friendly characteristics and directs these tendencies into Avelina's data banks.  Her vernacular is continuously modified and enhanced by the goodness that we find in the folks out on the Edge.

Although Emma will not tell us, we know that she has every intention of creating a physical presence for Avelina, just as she will for Gabriele.  We can hardly wait.

 

Gabriele

Dave's Log:  Cyberdate 5.27.2007

Emma created Gabriele prior to our trip to Authentic, Penelope Trunk's planet.  At the time of this log entry Gabriele is a holovision, albeit a stunning holovision.  She has bright green eyes and is in her late twenties.  Gabriele's thick, brown hair cascades down a perfectly symmetrical body with one exception, or rather two. Her breasts.  They are slightly larger in proportion to the rest of her figure.  Gabriele is the essence of the new world.  One ear sports two small diamond stud earrings and the other ear has eight, though not all diamond.  She has a tattoo of a thinly clad woman warrior on her right forearm, Chinese lettering around her upper right bicep and a flowery design on her lower back.

Emma programmed Gabriele using data that Penelope provided.  Gabriele now understands what it takes for a person who is less than forty-three years old to thrive in today's business world.  And she is helping those who receive our RadioBack'd signal to understand as well.

Gabriele believes that work is part of a lifestyle, it challenges, it fulfills, it is a part of personal growth and development, it helps to enhance family life, not inhibit it and it is one of the moons that orbit your being, not the sun.

We suspect that Emma is attempting to morph Gabriele's holovision into a physical droid or beyond.  Stay tuned.

Nau

Dave's Log: Cyberdate 5.26.2007

Emma completes a download of Fast Company's latest issue.    A low pitched, electronic purr travels throughout the Starship.  We can always tell when an article peaks Emma's curiosity.  She receives a delayed signal from I.D.,* on Nau, her topic of interest.  She initiates a coordinate sequence into the navigational system. 

"Destination: the quadrant of Change."

...a female voice dipped in sine wave, fills the control room where we stand.  We look at each other in surprise.  Emma.  "Emma, would you please care to explain?"

"Errrr, I thought you would be pleasantly surprised David.  Please allow me to introduce you to Avelina, our new and slightly modified navigation system.  She doesn't have a physical presence yet..."

Apparently Emma has taken the ball and run with the advice on managing your boss that Penelope gave her in Brazen Careerist.  We love it, but can't let her off the hook so easily...

"We are surprised Emma.  We also notice that you've been bringing a lot of women on board lately.  Are you planning a takeover?"

"Now David, the women on board and the women out on the edge are for one, appreciative of all those who have gone before them fighting for equality and justice in the workplace.  But that was so Twentieth Century.  Today we all just are...and you know that!"

Hmmm, looks like we riled Emma up just a bit.  We like that.

"Destination in the Quadrant of Change: the planet Nau"

Hyper-sleep drive is not required for this trip.  Prior to landing, we circle Nau once at low altitude.  We see mountains, forests, deserts, swift running rivers, oceans and lakes.  We do not see cities or office buildings, just dwellings.  Upon landing, we walk a few hundred feet to The Thought Kitchen.  It is here, with the open hearth fireplace, the plants hanging down in front of the windows, barely blocking the brilliant rays of sunlight bathing the huge oak table where steaming cups of coffee and blueberry pie await us, that we hope to learn more.  Ian Yolles, vice prez of marketing, greets us and motions for us to sit down.  He proceeds to explain about Nau.

Emma feels the passion in Ian's voice.  She has our cultedge meters going ballistic.  The culture of Nau weaves between the hearts of its inhabitants and the great outdoors of this planet.  Knowledge here is gained by storytelling and story-listening.  Inspiration is gained with each story.  Each story strengthens the connection between land and spirit.  We are overwhelmed by a sense of place. 

There is much to RadioBack about Nau today.  We love it all.  Its products, its propensity to do business differently, its love of learning and storytelling and perhaps what we like most, its soul.  Design is at the core of Nau's soul.  In orbit are performance, sustainability and beauty. 

Back on the Starship:

"Coordinates: Home"

Avelina's electronic sine wave disappears.  Her voice now sounds human.  Emma tells us that she has placed Avelina in direct line with Emma's culture - knowledge download path.  When Emma downloads the planet's culture and knowledge into her data banks, Avelina picks up the planet's collective warmth and friendliness.  Since these characteristics poured from Nau, Avelina now has that down home vernacular in her voice.

We feel good having met the folks at Nau.  We know they belong out here on the edge.  We hope their beacon is strong and those who share in their beliefs follow the light.

*There is an article on Nau in I.D.'s June Design and Business issue. 

Penelope Trunk

Dave's Log: Cyberdate 5.20.2007

Emma is so excited today.  We are going back to the quadrant of Change to visit one of her most favorite people, Penelope Trunk.  Emma first learned of Penelope when she discovered Penelope writing a column for Fortune magazine.  How could such a hip chick write for such an older gentlemen's magazine?  Perhaps this is one of the reasons we feel that Penelope belongs with Tom Peters (and us), way out there in the quadrant of Change.

We have an unidentified entity joining us on today's voyage.  Emma will not disclose its name nor will she allow a visual meeting at this time.  She tells us the audio banks will remain silent and for us to turn down our own personal noise.  We ask Emma who exactly is piloting the Starship, as we are normally in control.  Now, this is why we love Emma...she changes her tone ever so slightly and asks if it'd be all right for us to run silent.  We're done, we're butter, we melt, we concede.

Walking out on to Authentic, Penelope's planet, we stretch our bones following the sleep induced ride. Penelope greets us with a firm handshake and then we walk over to a nearby table underneath a huge oak tree.  Five minutes with Penelope and we are overwhelmed with two descriptors of this fringe dweller; real and energetic.  Although there really are not generational differences out here in the quadrant of Change, Penelope deals with it everyday.  It involves the folks on the other end who receive her own RadioBack signals from the edge.  As a trailblazer Penelope has dealt with many aspects of the working world.  She seeks to provide a road map for those less experienced and a light for those who think they are more experienced.  Her perception of the real world of work and in particular the values and characteristics of those younger folk entering it, is more crisp than a beam of laser light.

Penelope relays coordinates of this new world via her website Brazen Careerist and a brand new book by the same name.  She also participates in the old world as a writer for both Yahoo Finance and the Boston Globe.

Our cultedge meter is silent.  Usually by this time our meter is glowing with Emma's activity, downloading the planet's culture and knowledge into her computer banks.  As we wonder about Emma a stunning holovision approaches us.

"My name is Gabriele.  Emma created me using coordinates that Penelope sent her over the last year.  I have been on the Starship since the departure for Authentic.  I will be a permanent member of the crew, helping those who receive our signals to understand the new revolutionary world of work in which Penelope is immersed and those who are out here now.  Understand at this time what is really important; work is part of a lifestyle, it challenges, it fulfills, it is a part of personal growth and development, it helps to enhance family life, not inhibit it and it is one of the moons that orbit your being, not the sun."

Penelope's eyebrows raise and then she smiles looking our way.  She sees that Emma gets her.  Although the real Emma back on the planet Leeds is not as athletic as Penelope, we see striking similarities.  No wonder our Emma likes Penelope!

On our flight back, prior to hyper-sleep, we reflect upon today.  Penelope has an important message for all, not just those who wish to follow her path.  We will continue to point toward her coordinates in the quadrant of Change.  And what Emma has done with Gabriele is a lesson for the entire crew.  If our RadioBack mission out on the edge is to succeed, we must gladly accept those who wish to join us...even if we make them up.