How will President Obama keep Americans engaged?

[Pat Coyle]

The crowds and cameras are gone. The tuxedos and dresses tucked away. If history is any indication, many Americans will begin to focus more on their own lives, and less on others; but our new leader's message of hope hinges on our participation, not just our agreement.

So how will President Obama keep America engaged and focused on the "common good," and not drift back to our own special interests?

What strategies do you think he could employ in order to keep Americans not just believing in "change," but actively participating in making change?

And is there anything you are planning to do to make sure you participate in the process today, tomorrow and over the long term?

What can Smaller Indiana do to be part of the continuing solution?

Please share your thoughts here, or better yet, suggest some actions?

[Charles Shinaver]

Good discussion Pat. I would have gone to the event last night, but I had to work on one son's pinewood derby car and pick up another son from basketball.

Listening. That is what I propose we do. In the discussion group about Business Roundtable Network we have here we have explained many of our ideas. A primary premise of this concept is that people need to develop a sense of community. That comes from discussions. This is why we have roundtable discussions at our meetings.

So, today at noon at our group at 9640 N. Augusta Dr. on the third floor in the Omega room we will ask everyone what pressing questions that they want to discuss. We will pass around a hat collect them and randomly pick two we will discuss. Then we will discuss and listen.

Listening, that is what we are doing. Forming communities in which we discuss and listen. I am especially interested in bridging the gap between the 'city' and the 'suburbs' and getting groups going in all areas. I believe that small businesses are the way we move out of this difficult economic time.

Wish I could have been at the party last night.

Charles Shinaver, Ph.D.

[Amy Stark]

According to twitter grader NOT ONE SINGLE HOOSIER IS IN THE TOP 100 of the twitter elite. To quote Mark Twain, "that just ain't right." (I don't know if Mark Twain actually said that or not, but I discovered if you tweet the word "ain't," people are more likely to accept such a crass word if it's a Mark Twain Quote.

The Smaller Indiana Soiree on inauguration day was amazing . There is so much talent -- and just plain 'ole groovy people on Smaller Indiana, but we don't get the outside press we deserve. I'm a proud Hoosier-- born in the Fort and now live in Indy. I think as a whole, Hoosiers tend toward stubbornness and we are too reserved to blow our own horns.

You wrote, "What can Smaller Indiana do to be part of the continuing solution?"

I propose all tweeple on Smaller Indiana make a concerted effort to raise awareness of Indiana through twitter. Indiana is a shining example of how a state CAN operate in the black, be family-friendly, foster independent sensibilities and a Midwestern work ethic. If all Smoosiers began adding #Indiana or some other hash phrase in their tweets ( e.g. #llerIND =) it would allow all hoosier tweeple to find each other easier then do the courteous reciprocal follow.

Ideally several Hoosiers would enter the top 100 twitter elite on the same day.

I have a list of 62 Wall Street Journal employees who are on twitter, btw, If you really want the WSJ to take a look at us, you may want to follow them. They just may be interested in a #followIndiana twitter rave story =)

[Charles Shinaver]

I am all for it. Decide the twitter Indiana code and I am in.

[Amy Stark]

Thanks Charles. I am anxiously holding my breath to see if Pat will go for it, because I want to be the ringleader for this effort. I GET twitter now. I didn't until a few weeks ago.

I am developing a Twitter Theory (TM) =) With all the twitter apps, and buzz around this phenomenon, no one has come up with a twitter Theory until now. Do you know of a good publisher? I am writing one last post to complete a three part twitter expose.

[Charles Shinaver]

A good publisher depends on what you mean. Brian Koning published a cooking book that did very well a few years ago. If you want to get web exposure for it then it is a different matter. I am investigating ezine to study up on content related to what I do to use some and carve out my niche. By the way, do you want to do a brief talk on driving web traffic to websites ( maybe 10-15 minutes) and then form 2 useful questions for people to discuss at one of our meetings? We identified 'driving web traffic' as one of our groups needs.
Also, are we following each other on twitter? Did you check out
www.postlater.com ? It allows you to post to all these on a pre-scheduled format
wordpress
tumbir
drupal
joomla
twitter
friendfeed
ping.fm
laconi.ca
others
FEES: $20/MONTH OR $150 YEAR

I am not ready to do this, but I am considering it in the next few months. I use tubemogul to publish to many video sites at once. Essentially this is the same thing for blogs, but you can schedule the posts for later.
Charles

[Pat Coyle]

Amy - how can I help you in your efforts? What do you need from me or SI in order to step out and do it? Whatever it is, you got it. Just let me know.

[Amy Stark]

Just some press on SI Thanks for your support Pat. I will keep you posted.

[Lorraine Ball]

Amy why don't you just pick an official hash tag, and create a post. Other's will follow.

[Woody M Collins]

I believe we are entering a new era of citizenship. The lessons learned during the campaign will continue to be used to engage the population. They are not going to shut down the machine. For example, the transition website, change.gov switched over to www.whitehouse.gov at noon.

Its initial new media efforts will center around three priorities: communication, transparency, and participation.


I have signed up for the White House's RSS feed to stay in the loop.

I think Smaller Indiana members need to educate and mobilize the population. We need to take a leadership role. There are groups of Hoosiers waiting to be lead.

[Charles Shinaver]

Agreed.
I am interested.
I also think our BRN roundtable format fits these concepts of communication, transparency and participation.

[Charles Shinaver]

just signed up for updates on the www.whitehouse.gov site. Cool Thanks for telling me about it.
Charles Shinaver, Ph.D.

[Amy Stark]

This is a prime example of a viral movement in the making. You're right, Woody. There are plenty of Hoosiers waiting to be led.

Social Media encompasses so many different facets. @Kyleplacey told me a few weeks ago that you should focus on just one facet and become an expert at that interface. I did just that with twitter.

I know there are several Linked In experts on Smaller Indiana who could lead on that interface. Some others who know more about digg or Stumble Upon, redit, atom, @xemion knows about SEO. I don't know enough about these SM platforms to lead, but I know enough to follow someone I've learned to trust and respect through my continued experience with them via Smaller Indiana. =)

I barely have a presence on facebaook and myspace, and I'm beginning to NOT like friend feed. Auto feeds into twitter stream are losing favor. Kyle Lacy and Lorraine from Roundpeg vehemently dislike auto DMs and I vehemently dislike auto feeds into the twitter stream.

As a matter of fact, I dislike dislike DMs altogether unless you are sharing private information, it makes NO sense to miss an opportunity to be seen by 1 MIL twitter users watching the public timeline.