He Tangata (People)
The Maori (native New Zealanders) have a saying:
He aha te mea nui?
He tangata,
He tangata,
He tangata.
What is the most important thing?
It is people,
it is people,
it is people.
At the end of this 3 day conference at EARCOS in Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, I believe more than ever that this is true.
Sure, I had some great workshops with very knowledgeable and interesting people, but what I will take away most is the face-to-face connections and conversations I had with people.
In one of Jeff Utecht’s recent posts, he asked the question, “How do you connect: People first or Content first?” While the easy (and probably true) answer for me is a bit of both, I am really looking for a conversation, not merely a lecture. I choose people over content. We humans are social creatures, and strive to create social experiences. Content becomes more meaningful for me if I can interact and engage with it, AND when I feel I know the person providing the content.
Through the course of this conference, I can see some truly believe technology is anti-social. I think it facilitates different types of social interaction. We need balance; face-to-face, physical relationships are still crucially important (this conference proves that for me), but social interactions with people online are no less valid.
Technology is neutral. It’s not good or bad.
During the conference I put a face to the names of several people I tweet with: @mscofino, @jutecht, @amichetti and @Skardalien. I also met @nzchrissy, @hitechhall @msbecs, @jefflewis9, @sherrattsam, @cmrolfe & @ezevallos. I know that from now on, their tweets will be more meaningful to me because I know their faces. I’ve had a beer with most of them! We have a shared, common experience. I want to know what they have to say.
Thanks for the learning, friends! I look forward to continuing the conversation.
Photo credit: lawgeek
Tags: conference, EARCOS, people, twitter
This entry was posted on Saturday, March 28th, 2009 at 3:46 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
3 Responses to “He Tangata (People)”
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March 28th, 2009 at 3:56 am
It was great to put a face with both the twitter account and the blog. Great to meet you and thanks for the endless conversations over the past 3 days….truly the best part of the conference.
March 28th, 2009 at 3:47 pm
Thanks for taking the time to comment. I really appreciate it.
April 5th, 2009 at 2:53 am
For sure, for sure (said in my best Irish, Guinness-laden accent). It’s great to connect with people behind the content. Otherwise we end up with a series of giving and taking interactions, which completely lack any charm. That’s not what life is about.
So, it’s great you got to meet so many twitter contacts at conference, and to have a beer with them, even better. Nice. Would’ve been good to be there, one day maybe?!