As I have mentioned before, Gino and I are working on a book for a UK publisher, on the topic of Social Media. Actually, that should now be phrased in the past tense.

I had a careful look at the contract, and was horrified to consider the implications of some of the terms:

• We would be lucky to see any money before December NEXT year

• We were obligated to provide the publisher with updated versions for future editions at her request (and we know how often social media topics need updates!)

• Should either one of us die, the estate would not receive royalties for future editions

• Should the publisher successfully sue a copyright infringement case, she would keep all of the proceeds.

Quite a cheek, if you ask me. I kick myself for not reading the contract much more carefully before, but at least now I have a semi ready manuscript to take to market. Since neither Gino nor I expected to make big (or any) bucks out of this, we have decided to do the next best thing: issue the book online!
The original book would be about 60 000 words, which is a bit hefty for an e-book (I think), so we are probably going to split it up into the respective chapters that each of us wrote, and publish two separate books, under our individual names.

We hope to release the books concurrently, and although each of us is now responsible for their own book, we are assisting each other with the editing, the flow and the general tone. May I say that we have drunk far too many coffees during the process!

I am very happy that due to the nature of the book, the online medium seems the ideal space in which to distribute it. But I cannot help but wonder how many authors, who have penned their great masterpieces, have been conned or pushed into a tight corner by one sided contracts. It is my understanding that the book industry is a tough one, and maybe this is a clue as to why.

By the way, none of this has any huge impact on the Social-media-for-South-Africans book that I announced earlier. The format might change slightly, but the book will definitely appear soon on a shelf where all good books are sold ☺

I’ve been active online for 14 years now, but it was only about 14 months ago that I really got interested in social media (with thanks to Mike Stopforth and Vince Maher who gave such compelling presentations at that First Tuesday breakfast that sparked my interest.)

I have watched, analyzed and strategised from the sidelines. In the meantime, I have had great pleasure (and some success) in helping SMEs active in the online space to up their game, and reap the benefits. But I was involved in other “real” businesses, and couldn’t really make a full time commitment to play this game myself with full vigor.

Until now. I have handed over the reigns of all other commitments, and I am dedicating myself full time to the online space(yes, I know that in this space full time means 80 hour work weeks). Relatively speaking, it was an easy decision to make. It is where my passion lies, and it is something that I look forward to doing for a long time to come.

What wasn’t so easy was deciding where to focus the effort. I have two ideas for online applications brewing strong in the back of my mind, and I would love to see them come into fruition. But for now, I am going to combine my passion for online space with two other activities that I particularly enjoy: thinking and writing. So, by throwing it all into a mixing bowl I come up with the rather obvious concept of thinking about the online space, and writing down my conclusions. There you go. Full time “Web Strategist” it is :-)

I am going to focus on the educative side of writing. In other words, I am going to prefer to “speak to many”, rather than consult regularly on individual projects. Unfortunately, fun as all this may be, I still need to make a good living out of it, and there are not that many channels that accept web strategy ponderings for a good fee. So guess what? I created some.

I have other projects on the sideline, to which I now have a renewed commitment. The main one is the Thought Leader blog, for which I enjoy writing because of the sophisticated level of the audience it delivers. I will also continue to write for BizCommunity (if they will continue to have me!). I also intent to spend more time on Digital Garage, which I am ashamed to say has been taking a back seat of late.

This blog is going to be like a secret affair from all of the above. It is where I will post stuff that needs to be said (as judged by me), but not in any of the other forums. It will be a diversion. The topics will vary, and the range will be wild. There is a lot that goes on in that mind of mine, and it really, really needs an outlet. Watch this space, I guess.

All of this amounts to A LOT of writing, which I am actually quite happy about. The one thing that that is great about writing is that it can be done from pretty much anywhere there is a power point (as a caveat to recent SA developments, that power point obviously needs to provide power!). I will see where the road will take me.

(Oh, I also own the www.bigbrother3.co.za domain, which is going to come in handy soon when the next Big Borther Africa starts (August). The South African version of Big Brother is apparently also being discussed, so the domain can do double duty. No idea what I am going to do with the domain, but whatever it is it will be a fun exercise in Social Media.)

So, to Eric and all the others who have been asking me what it is exactly that I do … now you know.

Or think you do ;-)

The Dalai Lama answers “Nothing”. I love it.

Personally, I dread this question.

First of all, because there is no all-encompassing answer. What I do almost depends on what day of the week it is.

Second, the complexity of the answer also depends on who is asking it. If you are my hairdresser, the chances are you don’t really want to hear that yesterday I “helped a client recognize and act on synergies between his offline and online marketing efforts, and thus facilitated a deployment of a new project to harness the value of his market-community”.

Thirdly, because I am involved in such diverse projects, the conversation often turns awkward. If I tell someone I am in “the Internet business” and he says he is an artist, is it then necessary for me to mention that I am also hugely involved in some of the best art galleries in Pretoria?

My business card says I am an Idea Facilitator. Take that at face value, I always say. People either look confused or actually thrilled at the concept. The latter group is the one I really like ☺

The truth is, that I cannot envision myself being pigeon-holed into a limiting job description. I am, of course, lucky in that I work for myself , and thus do not really answer to a boss. I am free to be grabbed by projects that I find inspiring, challenging or simply fun.

But the best part of all this is that most people that I meet through the blogosphere and Internet in general, even if they have a specific title in the job, are not really tightly bound to specific functions. I know a copywriter who is also getting involved in community building via her company’s website. I know a web application designer who is a powerful voice in promoting the open source movement. I know a venture capitalist who opened up a chain of fashion stores on the side. We are now more free to do what drives us, which means we are more likely to be living our “optimal life”.

Theo Aspeling recently pointed me to a though-provoking article on “Being Yourself For a Living”, by Robin Wheeler. The crunch of it is that any career should be premised on three cornerstones:

1. You must do what you enjoy
2. You must make a contribution to the world
3. You must generate money

Wheeler says that if any of these three are missing, you’re not going to be fulfilled. On the other hand, if all three are present, you are living an optimal life. He goes on to offer suggestions on how to implement “being yourself” in your life, your organization and your community.

If you are reading this blog, then I venture to say that you also struggle to define what it is that you actually do (although the answer in inherently known to you).

So tell us – what DO you do? And don’t worry – we’ll understand, even if your hairdresser won’t.