Allison Aldridge-Saur

The Artisit is Present by Marina Abramovic . What can this act...

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 22:43:43 -0500

The Artisit is Present by Marina Abramovic . What can this act of personal art and human connection teach us about our presence with eachother online?

Digital Tribes: Pillar 3, Organization

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 23:59:00 -0400

There are only a few more topics I have laid out for this Digital Tribes series of posts. The next few are centered on group organization, because not knowing where you stand or how to influence your status is one of the worst forms of stress.

You hear a lot of social media proponents (of which I am one) espouse transparency and merit based value assessment. This is one of the great promises of the digital participation age

It can feel like a Kafka-esque nightmare when you don’t know how things work and where you stand with in a group. People will stay in terrible situations rather than dive into the unknown, because “at least” they know what they are dealing with.

Groups prefer transparent governance, whether that is a monarchy, dictatorship, federalism, democracy or anything else. When the forces that drive decisions are opaque, corruption or conspiracy charges surface along with discontent.

For the purposes of building community in this wild west we call social media, there are very real, practical lessons to be gained from Native American tribal governance practices.

(Image of Chief Quanah Parker of the Kwahadi Comanche thanks to Commons.Wikimedia.org)

In the next few posts, I will dig into the applicable tribal models of:

1. Merit based valuation

2. Consensus driven leadership

3. Tribe versus clans/ bands

Discussion of these 3 topics are intended to give online community leaders and participants a tribal foundation for their organization and governance options.

I am always looking for good, current examples to explore in my digital tribe posts. If you have any examples of community organization or governance models that went wonderfully right or terribly wrong, please do share in the comments below, or email me: dgtltribe@gmail.com

Pops of Thought: When Wonderful Happens, A Social Media Fairytale

Sun, 04 Sep 2011 13:35:17 -0400

Pops of Thought: When Wonderful Happens, A Social Media Fairytale :

allisonpops:

Once upon a time, some years ago, a small team of intrepid workers was tasked with building their first business Facebook Page.

They were good corporate citizens who had studied hard in the hallowed halls of PR, Marketing, PMI, ROI and business process engineering.

After…

… about a…

Note to you: An Alternate Space

Sat, 03 Sep 2011 16:19:33 -0400

This blog is dedicated to my series on building online community. I didn’t want to clutter it with other topics. I have started an an additional blog where I will post all my “other stuff.” Here is the URL, incase you want to pop over: http://allisonpops.tumblr.com/

12 Most Powerful Tools for Creating a Strong Digital Tribe

Sun, 24 Jul 2011 00:23:00 -0400

A lot of folks, from best selling authors to us social media plebeians, use the word “tribe” when talking about our online communities. I have been thinking about what significance and implications come with this word for some time now. How is it different from “group” or “community?”

I started my search by reaching back to my own Native American heritage, to unpack my own personal definition of “tribe.” The indigenous peoples of North America know a lot about community, identity and loyalty. Native American identities have survived hundreds of years of assault on their tribal existence, yet continue to persist and even thrive.

What can emerging digital tribes learn about building strong and fulfilling communities from Native Americans? I have been working on this topic for several months, pulling from anthropology, social media and gaming communities case studies as well as from my own experiences, particularly as a Native American. Each of the 12 items below are rather large topics. I am working my way through this blog series with more detailed exploration on these items. If you are interested in more detail, you can jump back to the beginning of the series: DgtlTribe

Here I provide a summary of my Digital Tribe findings. These are the 12 most important things to be mindful of in order to create a community with the tribal strengths of:

culture
identity
resource pooling
pride
loyalty
long standing commitment

(I have grouped the 12 in to subgroups, mostly because I have chronic-bulletization syndrom-disorder, which forces me to put everything possible in bullet format, ideally in groups of three. I am not seeking treatment.)

Naming

Think of something nameless… Couldn’t do it, could you? Naming something calls it into existence in our consciousness. It creates definition. Naming is a powerful phenomenon in any culture. We name groups, events and people. Many Native American tribes have a tradition of naming people as a rite of passage, to mark transition, identify familial relations and status within the community.

1. Name your group and I don’t mean the “Quilter’s Circle of Springfield, South.” It will work if you are in a pinch, but it is better to give yourselves a name that can bear the weight of identity, something unique that defines the “us” as opposed to the “them.” Think of your favorite brands. Think about the feel of these brand names: Nike, Sanuk, Apple vs. Home Shopping Network, IBM, General Motors.

2. Name your events and I don’t mean the Quarterly Meeting, Northern Chicago Webdesigner’s tweet up. Bleh! What does Red Earth Festival convey to you? Better yet, what does it convey to the folks who attend every year? What about calling your event: Ghom? That is Klingon for “to meet.” I looked it up. This is fun, people!

3. Name your people: In modern, western society we give people titles, this is an echo of name giving, but doesn’t carry near the power of identification. Nobody actually addresses me as Director of eMarketing. Besides, those titles can and do change frequently. It is a little different in the military, but there, hierarchy is at the core of fulfilling the military’s mission.

Our avatars are great examples of the link between naming and identity, particularly in online gaming groups. (Check out this interesting post from Adriel Nation on this subject.) But imagine the impact of being given a name within a community, based on the role and accomplishments in that community. This creates another level, a deeper level, of self-identification with a group.

Language

I learned to speak German fluently in my teens. For me, having an alternate language for expression opened up the impact of language as an influential frame around my perception. Language itself is a part of our culture interaction with one another and a core to our culture. While it is unlikely a group will develop a language from whole cloth (Klingon is a great exception!), there are options available to groups.

4. Specialty language or insider languages develop naturally over time. This is obvious in various disciplines (math, science, medicine, engineering, post-modern literary theory, etc. ). You can barely understand folks speaking within a highly specialized discipline. But it actually occurs within any group, given enough time. Pay attention to your group’s use of code language and find ways to support it, like creating a dictionary of terms, or using it in your naming practice (above.)

5. Symbolic language is also very powerful in the digital space. Interesting examples are the heraldic practices of Europe (see image above) and today’s emoticons. Logos essentially create a mini-symbolic language and name around a brand. Does your group have any symbols in practice?

Culture

Culture is a complex topic, but for the purposes of online communities, I wanted to focus on two aspects that can and should be addressed in digital groups.

6. Rituals are my favorite tool! This is any practice we do regularly and consistently the same. An anthropologist blew my mind when he told me the ritual comes first and the meaning comes afterward. So a group ritual can be anything! Have fun with this. Support what sticks and be consistent!

7. Value systems is a big, tough topic. Most important is to know that your group values are evident in the behaviors your group practices. It is great to document these, review them regularly and celebrate them.

Organization

Above all, people need to know where they stand. Not knowing the rules of engagement, how decisions get made and your own role in that is one of the worst stresses a person can experience.

8. Consensus governance: Decision making in most tribal cultures is based on consensus, not voting. This is not democratic or corporate style governance. If a decision needs to be made or a project undertaken, you have to get the influencers in the group behind it. They in turn influence their subgroup. This is highly participatory governing and…

9. Merit based: …it is based on the philosophy that people and ideas rise to the top based predominantly on merit. Social media appears to inherently support merit based activities. Merit based is not “one person, one vote,” it looks at the value of an idea and a person’s contribution and assigns influence accordingly.

10. Hierarchy: Just as we love ritual, we are hierarchical animals, by nature. There is some kind of hierarchy in your organization. Acknowledge it. Celebrate it, even! As long as you practice consensus governance based on merit, the hierarchy will feel natural, empowering and provide stability and efficiency. Native American tribes and nations are groupings of smaller clans or bands who had their own leadership and culture. As your community grows beyond 150 to 200 people, look for those subgroups. Get clarity on the hierarchical relationships in those bands and how they fit in the larger group.

Be Intentional

11. Diversity: As is the case in neighborhoods and countries, tribes are diverse. There will be folks who don’t agree, who refuse to fall in line with behavior standards. Do you want a closed community of like-minded people or an open community that incorporates or tolerates variation, even disruption? Change is inevitable if you are aiming for a long surviving community. The naysayers often carry the seeds of a successful future, but they can also create tension and division. Reach back to your values to understand where your community draws the line.

12. Don’t Force it: You can force culture, identity, values to some extent, but we tend to refer to those instances as totalitarian regimes and they rarely result in successful, multigenerational communities. This is about being mindful of these opportunities and forces at work in your group. It is about being intentional in strengthening and deepening the community connection.

Whew! You made it to the end! If you got this far, I would appreciate it if you would take a moment to leave a comment. Do you see any of these tribal attributes at work in your online community? What can you do to better support it? Have you seen groups fall apart because of a struggle with one of these dynamics? I would love to hear from you!

Digital Tribes: Pillar 2, Values

Sun, 17 Jul 2011 23:54:00 -0400

(This post is part of a series. To read more jump back to the beginning.)

If they are good, values discussions are tough. Values are complex, personal and highly subjective. Mountains have been written about them in the fields of psychology, religion, anthropology and corporate culture.

You are probably reading this because you are interested in understanding the fundamentals of building strong, dedicated communities. Understanding the explicit and hidden values of your group is critical to that effort.

Quick term discription:

1. Explicit Values:

These are the stated values of the group. This is what we all say publicly and proudly about a group.

Example from IBM’s website

“IBMers determined that our actions will be driven by these values:

Dedication to every client’s success

Innovation that matters, for our company and for the world

Trust and personal responsibility in all relationships”

2. Hidden Values:

These are in conflict with the explicit values. We tend to be less comfortable advertising them and they are not always clearly or universally understood. Understanding them is critically important, however, because they are a source of great dysfunction when pervasive.

Example from Eastern Germany

Before the iron curtain fell, East Germany (German Democratic Republic) celebrated the values of Communism as their own, but the hidden values of control and totalitarianism created one of the largest internal spy networks on the planet. At its height in the 90s, the East German Stasi (secret police) employed almost 100,000 people and had as many as 2 million citizen informants/spies gathering information on more than 5 million people. Communism and totalitarianism are not happy bed fellows and led to a schizophrenic society.

Honestly, I have been stressing on how to tackle this topic for weeks. I have never thrown out as many drafts as I did on this one.

Drafts where I try to “sum up” the vast body of work done on value systems in my own brilliant mini-dissertation (boring!). I recommend a search for “values” on YouTube to see lots of experts talk about values.
Drafts where I lay out examples of value misalignment in various countries (I did try to offend Americans, Brits, Canadians and Germans equally). Oh, I am sure my comments fields would have exploded!
Drafts where I exposed value misalignments in my own family! That was not going to be popular at Thanksgiving.

So, if I threw all that awesomeness out, what the heck am I gonna tell you about digital tribe value systems?

It isn’t new.

It isn’t easy.

It IS critical.

This is it: Behavior = Values

If there is behavior that does not align with the explicit values of your group, you have some conflicting value systems. These conflicting systems must be addressed, or it can derail anything the group sets out to accomplish.

Here are the 5 things to consider for a healthy set of cultural values for your online community:

1. Be “self aware.” Figure out the explicit and potentially hidden values of your community.

2. Articulate your values. Post them. Talk about them. Celebrate examples of them in action.

3. Take note when there is stress in any form in your group. Don’t just take them at face value. This is an opportunity to discover any conflicting values, even when it appears to be about personality conflicts.

4. Even though the examples given here are negative, hidden values are not always the problem. Be open to the possibility that those values you first laid down may need adjustments. Just because there are hidden values, it doesn’t mean those values are wrong. There may be needs in your community that cause those hidden values. Those needs must be taken into account.

5. If you are running a community for a company or organization, that community may have a very different value system. Let’s take Birkenstock shoe company, for example:

The Birkenstock Example:

Birkenstock shoe company became popular among the liberally minded community. Many of us that know the shoes have an image of modern day hippies. Birkenstock was established in 1774 and has a long conservative tradition with leadership that has supported consistently conservative politics. If they created a Facebook fan page that aligned with their conservative disposition, they would alienate a huge portion of their customer base.

I did want to share two more real world cases for your consideration:

1. The Military: A case of value alignment at work

The military places the highest value on hierarchical obedience and discipline. Since the purpose of the military is to serve in the crisis of war, this value is critical to success. They practice this value in the most menial of tasks. Military personnel will hold to this value while facing chaotic life and death threats that would normally trigger the trumping value of self-preservation.

2. The Catholic Church: A crisis of conflicting values

As the Catholic priest pedophile scandals unfolded, the practice of moving offending priests from one community to another to avoid exposure became increasingly apparent. This behavior stood in stark contrast to the explicit values of the monastic catholic organization: to serve their community. Service to the community was trumped by a different set of values, the values of protectionism for the organization. This continues to drive major discord within the church community.

Understanding all values in an online group is critical to the community’s efforts,

if you are leading a community and want to increase the identification and commitment levels in the group
if you are trying to figure out what your governance and hierarchy should look like
even if you are trying to roll out some new initiative

In my next post, we will discuss how value systems can develop. Different types of groups will require different approaches.

(Whew! I think we got through that okay?)

Does your community have a set of documented values? Have you seen strife in a community based on conflicting value systems? I would love to hear your comments below!

Digital Tribes: Pillar 2, Ritual

Sat, 25 Jun 2011 22:18:00 -0400

I am absolutely addicted to @StephenCaggiano’s daily #UsGuys #NightShift Clock in on video on Twitter. Check it out below. It will only take few seconds.

StephenCaggiano Stephen J. Caggiano http://twitvid.com/CZK28 - #UsGuys #Nightshift Clock In

You might not be so impressed. #UsGuys doesn’t care! It is a daily group ritual and you are not in this group. People in the #UsGuys community wait for it nightly and Stephen delivers consistently. Sometimes others join in either by tweeting a ‘clock in’ or making their own video, but if Stephen skipped a night, many of us would feel like the whole night was off, just not the same.

What is going on here? Why should you care?

Group rituals are the cement of human community. Are you interested in creating or participating in a cohesive, sticky community that has longevity, loyalty, dedicated resource pooling and a strong sense of identity? Here you go! Ritual practice generates that hard to pinpoint, fundamental attachment to a group of people that will transcend all kinds of adversity!

And look at how easy it is. What Stephen does is not complex, but it is consistent. Variation in the videos is commented upon. Was Stephen at home? Out on the town? Was he in a t-shirt, dress clothes, shirtless? Was his hair a mess, is he sick? Recognizing variation creates insider status. Commenting on those differences illustrates #UsGuys culturally versant status.

This reminds me of the odd South by South West Interactive Conference ritual I stumbled upon. At 3 am every year at SXSW in a hotel lobby, this happens:

No one could tell me what it was about, but the large crowd was dedicated to the experience. “Stick around, you won’t be sorry,” I was told.

Quick Bit of Context:

This is a blog series that addresses how to strengthen our digitally based communities by leveraging the wisdom found in Native American tribal experiences and beyond. This post marks the halfway point in the journey through the Three Pillars; three tool types you can use to increase identification, loyalty and resource pooling for the longevity and cohesion of the group.

A Step Back:

Pillar 2 is Culture / Ritual. Here I am focused on my absolute favorite tribal aspect, Ritual. The term ‘ritual’ often carries a religious connotation, but it is really any sequence of acts done in a set manner, repetitively. Pledging allegiance to the flag before the ball game is a ritual ceremony. We have personal rituals, family rituals, community, religious and cultural rituals. My own Native American tribe gathers multiple times a year for late night stomp dancing around a fire that has burned without interruption for untold years. It is documented that the fire survived the Trail of Tears in the 1800’s until today, under 24 hour supervision. Powerful stuff, no?

Last year, I was surprised to hear from an anthropologist that rituals often develop meaning after they are established. The repetitive action happens first, then comes meaning. We have so many rituals we practice without being intentional about the meaning, yet we wouldn’t skip them without great gnashing of teeth! I would be delighted to hear about rituals you feel strongly about!

So let’s get to some more examples:

1. Gaming

My cousin has been in a guild of between 50 and 80 people on EverQuest for more than a decade. Their guild is extremely dedicated.

Some of their ritual practices:

They have met on the same nights every week for more than a decade. Some nights are raid nights, others are planning nights.
At the end of a raid they “buffer” each other which means they give each other various forms of strength for the next log in.
When someone in the guild has a birthday, they “kill something big,” to quote my cousin.

The people in this guild have been at the hospital for major medical issues before family members showed up. Legal and engineering talents in the guild have offered support to other members when they were in need, free of charge. This guild inspires enormous resource pooling and commitment that translates into “the real world.”

2. The TwitterChat phenomenon

TwitterChats are everywhere on Twitter. I have noticed a common practice on many of the chats. There is a good 7 minutes of greetings and welcomes before the chat gets started. This is the opposite of every meeting ‘How To Guide’ you will find: ‘Get to the point, rock through the agenda, make the meeting relevant and a good use of people’s time.’ But on TwitterChats we like to work the room before we settle in for the agenda. If you cut that short, your chat will feel bumpy and wrong somehow. Dedicating those first several minutes to welcome chatter is culturally versant.

In fact, TwitterChats have a ritual aspect by virtue of the weekly rhythm. People organize their day around a chat time.

I also love how folks do imitations of real world physical gestures in TwitterChat greetings, like “*waving* across the room” to bring another level of real world meet-n-greet to the experience.

3. There are all kinds of rituals on social media communities:

#FF (whether you like it or not)
Regular giveaway days, like Luxor Casino’s Facebook Fridays

Take-aways:

Ritual will cement a community feeling like nothing else. Ritual practice is powerful and fun. Things to remember:

You can’t force culture and you can’t force ritual. Try something. If it doesn’t take, it wasn’t meant to be.
Keep it simple and extremely consistent
Allow others to participate, but remember, anything that is reliant on the participation of the group, while the most powerful, is the hardest to get off the ground.

Please share the rituals you have encountered on and offline! Digital tribes are still in their infancy. We are learning together.

Digital Tribes: Pillar 2, Culture

Mon, 06 Jun 2011 00:43:00 -0400

What do Italians, Harley riders and Trekkies have in common?

They each have their own multigenerational sense of group culture.

Culture is the most powerful tool for developing longevity and loyalty within a tribe. Looking out across the digital community landscape, it also appears to be the most underestimated. Marketing professionals have long tried to harness some of the power of culture through branding as expressions of values, experience and identity. But we don’t confuse brand with culture. Well, most of us don’t.

Culture is tough for us to nail down, yet we know it when we experience it. We get upset when it changes or is threatened. How do you define culture?

Here are two dictionary definitions of culture from http://Dictionary.reference.com to kick us off:

1. The behaviors and beliefs characteristic of a particular social, ethnic, or age group: the youth culture; the drug culture.

2. Anthropology. The sum total of ways of living built up by a group of human beings and transmitted from one generation to another.

The origin of the word is interesting too:

Mid-15c., “the tilling of land,” from L. cultura, from pp. stem of colere “tend, guard, cultivate, till” (see cult). The figurative sense of “cultivation through education” is first attested c. 1500. Meaning “the intellectual side of civilization” is from 1805; that of “collective customs and achievements of a people” is from 1867.

Looking at these references, I see three things:

1. Repetitive behavior shared across a group of people and across generations

2. Common beliefs

3. An origin referring to caring for, guarding, cultivating

Repetitive behaviors, ways of doing things, jumps out at me. Last year, an anthropologist told me that despite our perception, repetition develops first and meaning is assigned afterward. Anyone who is superstitious can attest to this! It brought to mind a cultural struggle in my own household:

My husband is German. They open Christmas gifts on Christmas Eve. We opened gifts Christmas morning. It took seven years and 3 kids to create a compromise on this issue. Of course, when gifts are opened has no bearing on the meaning of the Christmas ritual, but changing “the way” we do it was unexpectedly difficult for both of us. It felt like changing how you did it could change the ritual beyond identification.

What rituals have meaning for you? Do you have any that have developed in your family, friends or region that might surprise us?

So let me know if this makes sense:

If repetitive behaviors become rituals, are cultivated and shared with others and develop deeper, common meaning; culture no longer seems so amorphous and challenging as a goal for our online communities.

You may ask, are we really talking about developing culture around a common interest or a product?

Multigenerational interests gone cultural:

SciFi
Social gaming

Multigenerational products gone cultural:

Harley Davidson comes to mind as a multigenerational product/culture.
I also want to lump DeadHeads in this bucket with the pursuit of Grateful Dead music and concerts as representation and expression of a lifestyle.

Emerging product cultures:

Apple
Sanuk, with their leverage of surf culture

In the coming posts I will talk about specific cultural examples and opportunities available in digital groups and the approach needed to “cultivate” their emergence.

I would love to hear about examples you have experienced in your online travels!

A Personal Digital Tribe Experience

Wed, 01 Jun 2011 00:28:00 -0400

It has been a month since my last blog post. It seems like it has been longer.

I have been rather quiet in my social media circles as we absorbed the initial shock of our 3 year old daughter’s diagnosis of a rare autoimmune disease (JDM strikes 2 in 1 million children). We are starting to adjust to our “new normal” and I wanted to return and reflect the personal way that SoMe helped me through this first phase. I will include an update on my daughter’s prognosis at the end.

I have been blogging about the possibility of a deeper connectivity via social media and even gave a panel on it at South by Southwest. I expressed a belief that people can and will build tribal communities that can be as strong as systems found in Native American tribal culture and identity. I pulled from my own experiences with my Native American tribe to explore this possibility. However, because this event, illness of a child, hit me at my core, and because my online community is so “new” (relative in online terms), I was and still am surprised at the role my burgeoning “digital tribe” played for me.

When it is bad, I am lazer focused and action oriented. I am the gal you want on your crew when the Zombie Armageddon hits. No wailing or B movie screams. I pick up the shotgun, come up with a plan and take action. There will be plenty time to crumble and cry later.

Faced with the suffocating fear for a child’s health, I researched, told friends and family the facts and organized logistics for doctor visits and the like. I announced to my social media community that I would be away and told coworkers, I might forget things and be abrupt, but not to take it personally. All business, data, action.

What I didn’t know was that social media would become that safe haven for the emotion, that I would find support in my expression of fear in a way I could not do with those IRL (in real life). Early on, I had to stop reading responses to my previous blog post. I was not ready. But when I came back to it, when I was ready to return to twitter, I could free fall in unexpected grace.

Here are my big 3’s:

1. “You are not alone”

One twitter person in particular, with whom I had had sparse but always good exchanges, offered support. He lost a child to illness caused by a medical mistake. On a recent evening we met on twitter and he offered his story, wisdom, experience and simple fellowship. It was the first time I cried. It was a little bit of healing.

2. “Hey there!”

Every time I ventured into the twitter stream, mostly in a super brief drive by, I got the shout outs. People asked. Then they let me go on by. They wanted me to know they were there, aware, open if I wanted to wade in.

3. Jamie

Today, I logged on to my blog for the first time in nearly a month (I used to be a 4 time’s a day blog checker. I know! Ridiculous considering how new I am to it) and there was Jamie in the comments. She is 18. She has JDM and she wrote to me! To me to offer her support. What an amazing young woman! This was the second time I cried.

(Note, When I say cried, I mean some tears. No bawling for this Zombie Armageddon soldier!!)

Today, I also read Pam Moore’s (PamMktgNut) blog post on authenticity. It really hit home. She talks about not giving up that you will meet authentic, amazing people on Social Media platforms. I have met very real people while being very real myself, and received very real support. I am with you, Pam. They are out there. We are out there. I am so grateful and empowered by knowing this. It has given me relief and strength.

So, with the plan to withdraw from social media during a critical time for my family, I found that my digital tribe was actually there for me in a way I did not even know I needed. I am filled with gratitude.

Prognosis update:

Our daughter is reacting very well to treatment. Her muscle enzymes are currently back with in normal range and treatments have been spread out. No additional drugs from the arsenal at this time. We cautiously hope for remission with in a year. She may never have it again, or may have flair ups when she has an infection. We will have to wait and see. She acts much more like a normal 3 year old and episodes of arthritic aches are only once or twice a week.

I read the comments on my previous blog post today and am grateful that all of you took the time to write them. They will be there for me again and again, when I need to go back and hear your encouraging words. They are a gift.

We are thankful for all the prayers and thoughts.

Where is Allison? An Easter Post.

Sat, 23 Apr 2011 22:38:00 -0400

I love social media. I love the DgtlTribe topic that this blog series is about, but I have been away from both for a while. I am a rather private person who believes strongly in the tenants of professionalism. But after thinking about the SoMe themes of authenticity, transparency and consistency often discussed on #GetRealChat, I thought I should write this post.

We recently found out that our 3 year old daughter has a rare autoimmune disease called dermatomyositis. We don’t know enough about it, yet. We see the pediatric rheumatologist on Monday.

The good news:

It isn’t a lifelong condition. It seems to run a 3 year course and then you are done with it.
We caught it early which is the best indicator for controlling the severity
She doesn’t really have any pain (yet)
I have a very supportive work environment

The bad news:

It is attacking her muscles
There is a lot we don’t know, yet. How bad is it? What kind of effects will the drugs have on her development? What will the next several years look like?
She is 3 years old

So many parents know the fear that I, that we, are currently fighting.

I had a day where I was a complete “dear in the headlights” wreck. Then I moved into the beginnings of knowledge and a plan. I thought, “We can do this.” Then my body started to hurt all over. I was sporting a low grade fever. I forgot stuff I was supposed to take care of. I got really angry at someone for nothing. My house is a mess and I can’t seem to tackle it.

This low hum of fear vibrates through our house, under our conversations and silences, in my “Mommy snaps” to my two older children if they don’t immediately do as told. It is like I am in the room and standing behind a 2 way mirror at the same time.

At the moment, I don’t care what caused it, where it came from. Scientists don’t know. I just want to understand what we can do. I know the anger is coming though. The Why my sweet, sunny daughter? What kind of life is this? What kind of universe? It takes me a long time to get angry and once there my rage is ruthless. It takes me a long time to cool down. I am afraid of that anger, afraid of what might break in me.

This all has me thinking very deeply about Easter. Since having children, I felt I understood the significance and power of sacrificing the only child. But this situation, the visceral experience of a very real looming threat of pain, suffering and bodily harm to one of my kids is changing everything, is changing me.

I don’t want to lose the SoMe friends and network I have begun to build. As I have indicated on this blog, I believe that the DgtlTribe can be a framework for community as powerful as those in “real life.” I have made very real friends in the ether and I don’t want to lose those connections because I may not show up at the old stomping ground as often. I may be slow to respond in a realtime environment and have little to say when I am there or worse be testy or overreact to irritants. I won’t always want to talk about how my family is doing. But please believe, I am interested in what you are doing, what you are building, what you are thinking and I want to be supportive. That is who I am.

I don’t know what is going to happen. Things may look eminently manageable next week, even. But I wanted to say, I appreciate your support, your prayers and (with emphasis) your patience.

Digital Tribes: Pillar 1, Symbols, Heraldry & Anime

Sun, 10 Apr 2011 15:26:00 -0400

I am getting an anime education from my cousin. She has a stack of DVDs for me to watch. As a westerner, the different cues in manga drawing jumped out at me right away. I have found few online guides to these visual codes. Video: “How to draw…” and Robin E. Brenner’s book Understanding Manga and Anime.

Here are some of the anime visual triggers I have learned:

During excitement, rage, anger the facial features are reduced to the most simple cartoon lines, like an abstraction of the face.
The bigger, more doe-like the eyes, the stronger the indication of innocence.
Vertical lines on the cheek or a horizontal pink bar indicate blushing.
If you don’t know what nosebleeds mean, you do need to watch more anime.
Some drawing standards unique to manga/ anime:

    Eyebrows are visible through transparent hair
     Small noses
    Small, often pointed chins

This is as far as I have gotten in my anime training concerning these visual standards, this symbolic language. I am not sure my sensei (Hi, cousin) is impressed with my progress.

The examples of symbolic languages are endless! In my previous post I referenced Kanji and middle ages still life painting. Since exploring examples is so much fun, here is a list from my brainstorming. Think about all of these in terms of a group language:

Pictograms
Emoticons
Graffiti
Heraldic, the language of coat of arms.
Rich symbolic references in paintings of Madonna and Child.
Andy Warhol’s treatment of icons has become iconic itself. This shows us the level of sophistication available within symbolic expression.

If we widen the list to body language:

Everything from insulting hand gestures to head wobbling to indicate “yes” or “no” are specific to a culture or group
Traditional indian dance poses
Sign language, of course!
Semaphore, the communication using towers and visual signals or flags to send messages quickly over long distances.

We are surrounded by visual systems of communication, many of which are very sophisticated. In marketing and advertising we create visual language systems we call brands, including but not limited to logos, color treatments, fonts and so on…

So what does this have to do with building strong digital tribes?

We know that verbal language and naming, addressed in previous posts, is foundational and integral to shared group experience and perspective. Systemic visual expressions are additional, effective and really fun mechanisms to build a communal language. This can work as an external indicator, like coats of arms, or be a completely insider language, like Graffiti.

Do your communities have a visual language or symbols? Considering how ideal the digital medium is for this kind of expression, I am surprised at how infrequently I see this in action. Really, at a minimum, every group should have a visual symbol, a shield, a logo.

Some things to think about for your community:

A heraldic approach can be taken to create a visual “shield” or logo of a group, subgroup and individual. What should make up your coat of arms?
Even simple symbols can become powerful shared expressions of a cause, values or humor. Think of the pink ribbons, fish and darwin symbols on cars. (Looking for a good example of a humorous symbol)
Since it is unlikely that an entire verbal language will form for your community, leveraging visual, symbolic communication can go a long way to strengthen the bonds of “us-ness.”

Do you have examples of symbols being used effectively by a digital tribe? Have you seen visual languages go terribly, terribly wrong? (Don’t say math! I almost failed that class, too. But that isn’t what we are discussing here.)

DgtlTribe Case Studies

Sat, 26 Mar 2011 11:19:32 -0400

I would like to start interviewing people who feel a strong connection or identity with a group that interacts predominately online. I am building case studies to dig deeper into the tribal experience of online communities.

If you are interested or know a group that might be interested, please email me at:

DgtlTribe@gmail.com

Your story may be included on this blog or a book!

A personal thank you: SXSWi 2011

Sun, 20 Mar 2011 18:13:00 -0400

I had a great time at #SXSW this year. I finally got to sit down with all my co-panelist face to face after months of Webex discussions. These folks are brilliant and funny and dedicated. They are my first choice for a deep discussion, a panel and getting stranded on a tropical island! We are all having withdrawal symptoms and hoping for another project together! Thank you: @LOrdorica (Lou Ordorica of Web Achiever), Circe Sturm of UT Austin and @CounterBeaver (Holly C. Beaver of Lighthouse Experience Design, the moderator with the mostest).

Thank you to the phenomenal SXSW staff. Everything ran like butter and the volunteers always greeted you with a smile! What a pleasure.

Big thanks to an awesome audience! The folks that attended were engaged and offered lots of great examples and questions. I wish I could have taken them all out for some BBQ and more discussion. I hope to chat with them more on #DgtlTribe or the DgtlTribe Facebook page, or here on this blog!

Thank you to OpenBeta6 and the awesome Oklahoma team who not only promoted our panel, but also took me under their wing and introduced me to all kinds of fascinating people who are building and sharing amazing work! If you haven’t looked in Oklahoma for your interactive projects, you are missing innovation. A particular shout out to @BeckyMcCray who instantly made me feel at home with prairie style hospitality! Check out her BIG work with small businesses, small towns and tourism.

Thank you Ogilvy Notes for selecting our panel for graphical representation! That is just a cool project and we were honored to be a part of it!

Thank you to #UsGuys for the IRL opportunities. It was so lovely to see so many of you. In particular, thank you @Josepf and @prosperitygal for the introductions to more interesting people who are getting stuff done! @prosperitygal, thank you for all the laughs! @Josepf is like a Sadhu Baba of networking (see him at work on Hashable). You know he saw something when he introduced you and it is your job to find the deeper connection.

I am also very grateful to have finally met the man that knows what he is doing, Ken Lingad of 1680PR, a company that showcases the incredible, cutting edge talent in the Native American community. He also made me snort giggle more than once! I hope to meet more of his gifted team in the future!

My SXSWi conference was fantastic this year! I look forward to many more.

Digital Tribes: Pillar 1, Naming

Fri, 11 Mar 2011 01:53:00 -0500

Does a group, phenomenon or event exist without a name?

Nope.

Well, barely.

You disagree? Go ahead and list a few nameless things.

What is my point? Pay attention to naming in your online community. But let’s back up for a second and reflect on the power in a name.

Naming is the core to our lingual ability. The first task God gives Adam in Genesis, before Eve even exists, is to name the animal kingdom. In Judaism, God’s name should not be uttered. In Harry Potter as in Lord of the Rings, the über-bad guy’s name is not to be said out loud due to the magical power of the spoken name. Names are powerful tools in defining, in calling forth or creating.

Naming is a fantastic tribal technique for digital communities to strengthen bonds and identification with the group. It harnesses so much of the power of language as discussed in the previous post, yet it is easy (and fun).

I want to look at three types of naming seen in some Native American cultures:

Tribe’s (group’s) name
Naming individuals
Naming events

1. Tribe’s (group’s) Name

The name of many Native American tribes translates into some form of “the people” in the native tongue. Some names of tribes mean “allies,” probably denoting an agreement between multiple clans.

Naming a group defines an us as opposed to a them. A name for your group is the foundational step in group identification. Having a group name implies group sovereignty. The Navajo decide for the Navajo, the Canadians for the Canadians, the Glamberts (fans of Adam Lambert) for the Glamberts. If your group has a name, the group can engage, as a group, with another entity. Just think of the treaties Native American’s entered into with various governments. There has to be a name to be sovereign. If a named group isn’t sovereign, we say they are oppressed.

Does your group have a name? Is it a good name? Does it mean something to the members, to the outsiders? A group name like: Quilter’s club of Stillwater Creek, lacks a certain something, a magic. Naming for a tribe should be accompanied with ritual, with the sacred. Naming a group calls it into being.

2. Naming Individuals

We give people titles to show transitions; Miss to Mrs., assistant to manager to VP, Senator, Governor, President. Many Native American tribes renamed people when they made a transition. The new role or status was the name. Today we have avatars, personal brands, profiles. We rename ourselves and begin to swim in the online universe. But what if we could get a new name based on the role or status we have in the group? A name that belongs only to us, that is earned and given? The group redefines us as individuals based on our relationship and place within that structure. Talk about tying an identity to an online community!

3. Naming events

Later I will talk about ritual events and culture, but here it is important to point out that repeated events, annual, weekly and so on, should have names. A meaningful name elevates the event to ritual, gives it a group-culture quality. Our Tuesday meeting just won’t cut it. It doesn’t express group identity. Try this on:

Don’t forget Mashtani next week! vs. Don’t forget our biannual celebration next week!

It is important to note that names are not always given from an authoritative source. Sometimes names evolve and are adopted (Trekkies, for example), but group leaders and members should be watchful and encourage names that support the bond and culture of the digital tribe.

Digital Tribes: Pillar 1, Language

Wed, 09 Mar 2011 23:38:00 -0500

In this post I begin to look at the first of my three tribal pillars from Native America, language, since it is so fundamental to our identification with and experience of community. In subsequent posts, I will talk more about first pillar techniques that you can use to strengthen your group’s identity, but since language is such a large topic, I wanted to start with a post focused on the power of language.

We are often not conscious of how much language is a part of our communal identity. However, many are familiar with the disorienting feeling that can hit us when we are surrounded by a language we do not understand.
In the story of the Tower of Babel, God says:

Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do; and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Genesis 11:6 KJV

God destroys the powerful unity of the people by giving them all different languages, so they cannot speak with one another. This led to the destruction of the community and isolation.

If you have read any of my previous posts, you know I have a thing for 3’s. So here we go:

1. Languages:

I had the opportunity to be an exchange student in Germany and become fluent in German. The experience of framing all my thoughts in a different language was eye opening. I realized how much the structure of a language, the vocabulary and idioms shape your perception, humor and even the connections you make. One example from German that comes to mind is the word “Schadenfreude.” It is a word that expresses the joy one finds in the misfortune of others. To me this word expresses the high value German culture places on unflinching honesty regarding the human condition.

Even though I became fluent in German rather quickly, full mastery of communication in the language took much longer. I struggled to express my sense of humor. Humor simply didn’t translate easily. It took me a very long time to get comfortable cracking jokes in my second language and I am sure many of my German friends just thought I was goofy. :D

I have begun taking classes in my tribal language, Chickasaw. Chickasaw was not a written language. It is very dynamic and there are lots of variations in vocabulary and speech. This language of my people is rich with expressions from a very different experience of the world. What time is it?: Hashi’ kanalli katohta? is a question about where the sun or moon is in its movement across the sky.

The word for chair, aaombiniili’, literally translates to “place for sitting” or “where one sits.” The word okchamali means both green and blue, the color being clear within the context of a discussion. I am still wrapping my head around the implication of the fact that colors are verbs, not nouns, in Chickasaw. Perhaps this was due to the ever changing quality of the natural world: the grass is greening, yellowing, the sky is bluing, and so on. Many of the Chickasaw in my part of the country say chokma meaning “good” as a greeting. If you say chokma to me on the street and I respond in kind, we instantly know one another, we know how we relate, what we share.

The influence of language on our perception of the world is so integrated that it is hard for us to step back and reflect upon it. Language and that shared perception ties us powerfully to one another. Some fan groups adopt a fictional language, like Klingon and fantasy languages from Tolkien, as a sign of dedication and insider status. However, language isn’t really something you can spin out of thin air and I absolutely am not suggesting anyone try!

2. Jargon:

Then there is the creation of specialty terminology. I started my career in high tech at Sun Microsystems. There were so many acronyms and technical terms, it felt like learning a new language. It took me more months than I want to admit to feel somewhat fluent in the jargon.

The first 1:23 minutes of the Leeroy Jenkins video is a great example of specialty terminology dominating communications to the point of incomprehensibility to the “outsider.” This entire video meme became insider jargon throughout the gaming community. Calling out “Leeroy Jenkins” sharpens a sense of belonging, demonstrating competence in gaming culture.

3. Symbols

Language is not only expressed verbally but also through symbols. Consider the pictographs for writing Chinese.

Regardless of the language you speak, if you can read the symbols, you can communicate and share a common culture visually with one another.

A mystery that always irritated me is the meaning of middle ages’ still life paintings. I learned that it was believed everything in them was symbolic, that they conveyed a message. To this day, I stare at them in frustration, wishing I “spoke the language” and could “hear the story” shared with people of that time.

In addition to an exploded use in specialty terms, Twitter’s symbolic language is critical to the flow of conversation: #, @, <3, ». Twitter and texting have lead to an explosion on emoticons and other symbols. \_/> Coffee anyone? Please add more examples below in the comments. :-)

So how does a group harness the power of language to tighten communications and solidify group identification? The topic of my next post, Naming, will introduce tools that can be observed and deployed. Naming can be done intentionally and it has a profound impact on individual identification with a group or digital tribe.

Digital Tribes: An Introduction

Sun, 27 Feb 2011 14:11:00 -0500

I am starting a series of blog posts on what the Native American experience can teach us about building strong tribes in a Digital space. I am very grateful to all who have explored this idea with me, in particular my SXSW Interactive co-panelists, Lou Ordorica and Dr. Circe Sturm, and want to expand this discussion in a public dialogue.

The genesis of the idea came from two observations:

The term tribe is quite liberally applied to online groups and communities. Two books: Bernard Cova’s Consumer Tribes and Seth Godin’s Tribes, also apply the term more broadly to people sharing a common interest, identity or objective. The term tribe doesn’t really have a solid definition in these contexts, but definitely implies that people are gathering online in search of stronger connections and community.
Native American tribes have survived centuries of attacks & challenges as well as the single largest paradigm shift in their collective existence with the arrival of Europeans. In addition to attacks on Native resources,culture,beliefsystems,familial ties (see Indian Termination Policy) and, of course, their very lives*, Native American tribes had to learn how to navigate and in many cases adopt the European/Christian/Nation-State world view.

Those thoughts led me to these two questions:

Many Native American tribes, mine included, are enjoying a kind of renaissance in pride and commitment to culture. What makes up these Native American experiences and enables the tribes to continue and even flourish after such long and varied challenges?
Can digital communities achieve the same kind of strong bonds, loyalty and sense of identity through the realization of the practices of indigenous peoples?

My research so far leads me to believe that online communities that are developing strong bonds, identity and organizations are employing techniques also found in Native American tribes. I do believe that the exploration of the Native American tribal experience can lead “neo-tribes” to the kind of loyalty, longevity and rich personal commitment that is experienced by indigenous peoples.

The subsequent posts will explore the role of leadership, mission, language, culture and governance as well as platforms in the development of tribes in online communities. I look forward to your feedback, examples, critique and additions!

*I recently read Little House on the Prairie to my daughters and skipped the repeated line “The only good Indian is a dead Indian.”

21st Century Leadership: The Old Curmudgeon

Mon, 14 Feb 2011 01:06:00 -0500

I had a lot of opportunity to contemplate how we talk about leadership the last few months:

-I read Seth Godin’s Tribes and listened to him talk about it on TED Talks.

-I attended a management session led by a futurist to talk about millennials in the work place.

-I have been searching out blogs and books about entrepreneurs in the digital age.

Something did not feel quite right and the #UsGuys #USblog challenge to write about 21^st Century Leadership gave me a chance to work through it. Welcome to my therapy!

I like things in threes, so here we go:

1. Who comes to my mind when I think Leader:

Alexander the Great
Napoleon
Abraham Lincoln
Churchill
Martin Luther King JR
Gandhi

Yeah, I saw the problem, too! These are all crisis/war leaders. Okay, it is a little one sided.

2. What about the great positive things in history that define us, as explored by his awesomeness, Thomas Cahill? Sure there were leaders that led the Irish effort to copy most of literature in the dark ages, thereby saving western civilization as we know it. But you got a name? Na, me neither.

3. So I talked to my 74 year old Dad about how he sees the new definitions of leadership. Dad pretty much wrote it all off as self-help, flavor-of-the-week hogwash. He said things like, leaders are needed to steer the ship, set the direction and keep things on track. He used the analogy of a symphony conductor.

We talked about the “Everyone is a leader” message (or what my husband calls “Leaders of the small”) you hear talked about. His response: Those are not leaders, they just get things done.

We also talked about

Business leaders now earn 10+ times what the regular employee makes. That creates a huge void between senior staff and the frontlines that was not there in the 60’s. I agree with him that it creates a new socio-economic void in the work place.
His generation extolled the values of responsibility and humility, particularly in leadership. I am not sure we even know what to do with the kind of humility our grandparents held as common courtesy. We have so much emphasis on self-esteem and self-realization today that a person with this kind of humility looks like someone in need of therapy to us.
Encouraging everyone to aspire to leadership feels like a misuse of the word leader. Are we really asking for more leaders or rather for more innovators?

If you watched the James Burke series Connections, you might agree that the history of significant innovation has more to do with incremental progress over time and insane luck than with actual leaders. If you buy that (which I do), leadership and innovation are not as tightly linked as we might hope.

So do I want a new kind of leader? After talking with Dad, no. I want more of the same kind of great leaders we have had: visionary, inspirational, courageous, humble, responsible. The most important thing about 21^st century leadership? We have a better chance for more great leaders, merit based leaders, because we can more readily pull from all races, genders, ages and classes.

I do believe great leaders are preparing for the future, today, by figuring out how to create a culture of innovation. That is what is needed now, what the digital age enables. But I want to fry your brain with a fact that fascinates me: The fact that the Maori tribe of New Zealand has a 1,000 year plan. I would love to see it! What do you as a leader think about when you look out 1,000 years? Rapid innovation is critical now, but in 2 generations at the latest, we will need something else and great leaders will rise to the occasion then, too!

Here is a picture from a friend and coworker of mine, James...

Sat, 12 Feb 2011 22:08:00 -0500

Here is a picture from a friend and coworker of mine, James Blackburn, of two fierce warriors on the move. I enjoy his work. He includes a lot of figures with face painting.

Colors were often red, black and white, because those were the paints available. The black and red looked quiet intense.

This is the image I chose to represent the discussion of What...

Sun, 06 Feb 2011 13:32:00 -0500

This is the image I chose to represent the discussion of What Digital Tribes can learn from Native Americans. I like this image because it was on a 1000 year old pendant found in Southeast United States, my tribal homelands. The image meaning is unknown.

I like to think it represents an alliance of various groups. Woodpeckers may have represented war, so perhaps it was the formation of a tribe or alliance to do battle. The square flows like an eternal river around the sun. Perhaps it is a reflection on the passage of time and a lasting commitment to established bonds.

This art was created by Burkhard Saur. Visit him on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mische-Art-Photography/292867120185

Community in Digital Times: Break Bread

Mon, 24 Jan 2011 20:56:00 -0500

To eat: Wisinin (Algonquin), Impa (Chickasaw), Turhurak a kawats (Pawnee for Let’s eat!), Wah-Num-Bra (Osage), Mitsoh (Cree)

It was inevitable, while researching my SXSW panel, that food would come up! The culture of food is so universal and fundamental to us humans, I wanted to take a moment to dig into it.

My Native American tribe has a ceremonial food. It is served at every gathering and is known to have healing powers. Most indigenous people have traditional foods for ceremonies and healing. But, really what culture doesn’t? The most common cultural item we share with one another is food.

Why is this relevant to community in Digital Times? I believe we are tethered deeply to one another through our traditions and no tradition is more fundamental than breaking bread together. Let’s stop and consider our national holidays to crystallize this. When you think of holidays we Americans share nationally, you think of Independence Day (grilling, BBQ), Thanksgiving (an entire holiday about a meal), Christmas (pumpkin pie, ham, turkey and so on), Halloween (candy). Now think about MLKjr Day, Labor Day, President’s day. What do we all share culturally on those days? There are parades and memorials, and some attend those, but many just use it as a day off for a long weekend somewhere with the kids. These are pretty cultureless holidays. Now, if there was a food associated with MKLjr Day or President’s day, I bet we would celebrate them much differently.

My husband and I have a cuisine for our own marital traditions. We eat Indian food for anniversaries, birthdays and other celebrations. It started as an opportunity to reflect on our brief visit to the Himalayas, but has grown into the thread that holds a patchwork of lovely moments together. We have a bond over lentils!

So, I am thinking that your digital tribe is missing out if there is no food/drink tradition. How does it translate from “In Real Life” (IRL) to digital communities? See the suggestions below, but remember culture comes from tradition. Tradition is what we do ritualistically, repetitively. Whatever your community does, the evidence of a community food culture is in the repetition.

1. Virtual food/drink sharing:

This medium should happen very regularly. It can be based on time of day or week (morning coffee, Friday happy hour,…). This is a low level of effort, but shows awareness and thoughtfulness for others and can be an icebreaker for folks to get to know one another.

a. This past week I noticed @prosperitygal tweeting bowls of steaming Texas chili to friends. It wasn’t just “@so-and-so Here is a bowl of chili.” She is a Texan so it was personal food that she tweeted with flair. According to her stream, these bowls were steaming hot. I could see the deep red color of a good Texas chili and wondered if there was cheese or chopped onions. I could have sworn there was real chili in her real kitchen and I admit, I wanted her to send me a bowl! It was personal, authentic and it brought the joy of shared food to Twitter.

b. Folks on #UsGuys twitter tribe offer each other #coffee all morning. It creates an atmosphere of awareness of what members are up to during their day and illustrates that they are paying attention to one another. Maybe a different tribe would share #expresso or #instant coffee. Offering #SoyMochachino on #UsGuys might reveal someone as not #UsGuys-culturally literate?

2. Remote food/drink sharing:

This medium gives weight to special events: honoring someone, acknowledging their change in status or showing support when times are difficult. Do it with personal intent! Don’t confuse this with sweepstakes, where someone wins. That is sales and marketing, not community and culture. The challenge with remote food giving is that the community doesn’t experience the tradition directly. In these cases, it is a good idea to make a ritual around the giving/receiving of the food, like a tweet up and photo or video sharing.

a. Could your community come together and send someone a gift certificate to eat out? Perhaps there is a common food theme in your community, like coffee houses, taco street vendors, BBQ.

b. Or even better, send a bowl of oranges. Think of that person sitting at their table everyday for a week, associating the look and smell with their online tribe. This bowl of oranges could be twizzlers or homemade goods. The important thing is that food is in their house for them to see, smell, eat and share and that the food is relevant to the community culture.

c. Whatever you do, do the same thing multiple times. I am not saying that you have to have the same food every time. Christmas dinner has a lot of variety, but we all have a common cultural idea of what makes the Christmas meal. Food sharing has to have an element of symbol, something that represents the community.

3. In Real Life (IRL) food/drink sharing:

This medium is for gatherings, coming together face-to-face with other members of your community. There is inherent bonding value in eating and drinking together, as we all know. When does it become cultural?

a. It is nice when a company throws a party and there is free food, but this is usually a sales pitch, seller to sellee. Plus we all know the perceived value of free stuff! This is not the most powerful vehicle to bond a group. It is better if everyone pitches in somehow.

b. As with the item above, you don’t all have to eat the same menu every time you meet, although if things developed that way, I would take that as a sign of a strong culture and bond in a group. But do have a common, repeated theme that signals, this is your community meeting. Even a joke food that everyone hates has cultural bonding significance. A friend of mine throws a Spam potluck party every year that has a cult following.

Please remember: You cannot create a culture out of thin air and shove it down folks throats. Food tradition is a part of who we all are. Given half a chance it will emerge. Maybe this post can give you new ideas about how to break bread with your community. Food for thought… (I had to, really, I had to).

Now I am hungry! I would be delighted with any examples you have of your online communities developing a food tradition.