Ali suggested I give it a try. Great idea! We are studying the effects of comments. I am experimenting with adventure mapping, the highly playful, interactive and intuitive way of communicating complex elements in your project. Why not combine them?

Why not?

So. Mapping The Project Shrink blog and the function of comments.

See if it provides me with some insights.

Every adventure starts with a quest. The purpose of the blog. Why am I writing?

For me it’s a personal thing. I want to sharpen my mind around this riddle: how can we run projects in a virtual and global environment by focusing on social interactions? It’s about being able to combine sociology, psychology, management, leadership, project management, communication and everything else that comes to mind in one fluent motion, in any context.

Yeah. I know.

The path I am on is spiral. It looks like I am running around in circles. Heck. It sometimes feels like I am in this loop. Lead actor in my own Groundhog Day. I write about topics and revisit them again and again over a longer time frame, refining them, adding to them, and mixing topics I didn’t know were related.

Did you notice I link a lot to my own posts and combine elements I have talked about before? No? Anyway. That’s why.

I just circle around the quest, making the topics more and more my own.

I use my own archive extensively. You forget what you write. But that is why you write and have an archive. The blog knows what I know, or used to know.

Monks. Comments.

Along this path I encountered people who provide comments. Thank you! You have no idea how I appreciate that.

Talking about paths and spiral movements creates the image of monks along the stairs you are climbing.

This adventure map is turning into “India Jones” meets “Seven Years In Tibet“.

There are comments to keep me on the path, that keep me going, that motivate me. Happy and cheerful monks.

There are questions. Curious and sometimes skeptic monks. Fantastic way to focus your efforts. Your direction.

There are more questions. Great way to see if what I am writing is relevant to people. Is perceived as a “real” issue? The “keeping it real” monk.

Comments are awesome in creating social connections. I met some great people through my blog comments.

There are comments that are feedback to the content and help me refine the concepts.

Although people agree and disagree in the comments, it’s always been respectful. But than again, it’s my house, so I remove disrespectful comments. This doesn’t happen very often, but there is no room for that.

What do you think?

Want to draw a map of your own blog? Do you see other applications?

Bas de Baar helps people find ways to enjoy the diversity of human interaction in their organizations so that they can get out of their own way and achieve their goals. - Groundhog Day. Happy Monks. Analyzing The Project Shrink With Adventure Maps is a post from: Project Shrink.

This is about feedback mechanisms in social networks, a topic I discuss frequently with Ali Anani.

In “A Four-Pronged Approach To Study Comments on SlideShare” we looked at comments on an earlier presentation in more detail by creating a timeline, clusters, social network and spiral structure from the comments and the authors.

Comments are just like an applause: if someone starts loud enough it propagates. If the start is soft and hesitant, it mostly dies out quickly.

If you are interested in this topic, I’ll encourage you to read the comments on this presentation on SlideShare.

Bas de Baar helps people find ways to enjoy the diversity of human interaction in their organizations so that they can get out of their own way and achieve their goals. - A Four-Pronged Approach To Study Comments on SlideShare is a post from: Project Shrink.

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Bas de Baar helps people find ways to enjoy the diversity of human interaction in their organizations so that they can get out of their own way and achieve their goals. - Great Exercise To Train Your Feedback Skills is a post from: Project Shrink.

On the internet the fast majority of people is just lurking around, reading and watching stuff other people create. Just a small percentage is contributing by creating.

Who will people notice? Who will have a better conversation? Who will be the better virtual worker?

Within a community or team communication among the team members is essential.

If you want to succeed in a virtual team, you have to learn using social media. You have to start conversing online.

The easiest, smallest, first baby step is by commenting on blogs. Under every post are the comments of readers. Nothing big. Start small.

Fears About Speaking Online

You might have some hesitations. Some fears to express yourself in this digital world.

Havi Brooks has some great articles addressing these fears. Her topic is blogging, but it applies to almost every online conversation.

• What if people are mean to me?
• But I am not an expert!
• Nooo! Don’t make me be vulnerable!
• What if someone READS what I wrote?

Take your time. No hurry.

Why not start your exercise here? You are among like minded people. There are no stupid questions. There are no stupid answers.

So, it’s ok to have fears and reservations. It’s human. Why do you think you are reluctant to comment on blog posts sometimes?

Bas de Baar helps people find ways to enjoy the diversity of human interaction in their organizations so that they can get out of their own way and achieve their goals. - Working Virtual: Get Over Your Fear To Express Yourself Online is a post from: Project Shrink.