Surfin' the 'tinterweb... so you don't have to #9

Some more links for you to chew on... First few have a twitter theme:



I really like Richard Millington's blog :: feverbee. He posts on building/developing communties and I have taken a lot from this post on 5 lessons on building community from Twitter's experience... To summarise his points:

1. Don’t Set Restrictive Objectives. If the Twitter team had tried to guide their community to set objectives, they would have killed the business.
2. Spam-Free Philosophy. Friends of the creators joined, then their friends, and more people. No-one spammed strangers to join.
   
3. Ignore the Media. No-one pitched the press to write about it. Instead they grew until they became too important for the media to ignore.
4. Low Costs. The cheaper it is to launch the community, the less the need for instant results and profits.
   
5. Don’t Ask For Anything. They didn’t make us jump through any hoops or try to make money directly from us.
   

Valuable insights worth considering when seeking to start something new... especially, in the context of this blog, a new expression of church.



Richard, in the above post, links to this post on the origins of Twitter...

Our board was not feeling optimistic, and we were forced to reinvent ourselves../

I’ll never forget the family-friendly feeling of that day. We all knew that we were going to change the world with this thing that no one else understood. That day stands out in memory as the deep breath before a baby’s first cry../

Makes for great reading.



Last on the Twitter tip... there was a nice wee article on the BBC News website about Twitter.

/..after celebrity endorsements and pictures of miraculous plane landings on the Hudson, the Muggles are coming, and what's more, Twitter is changing as a result - I think for the better../

On a different tangent... I got really excited when I saw this right up for the six month MBA on psfk...

/..Seth Godin is running an alternative MBA program that has, at its heart, a new vision of learning about being a businessperson. Nine participants are currently learning about entrepreneurship, freelancing and marketing in a practical, real world apprenticeship with Godin rather than going the traditional business school route../

Boy would I love to be one of those nine.



I am so grateful to psfk for their ongoing inspiration. They link to some awesome sites. The SAMBA (six month MBA) blog (as mentioned above) is one such awesome site. A real source of inspiration, influence, challenge and encouragement. Check out their 999 business ideas for example... whilst remembering:

Ideas are a dime a dozen. The money is in the execution.

Brilliant. This is an important lesson that I need to learn... I have loads of ideas but I'm not so good with the execution... and need help in transforming these ideas into something valuable.



Lastly... I love the Beatles and enjoy the lyrics to their songs. I found The Beatles Lyrics Archive to be a fab resource... ideal for 7,000th tweets and more.