Social Media University, Global (SMUG)
Suus Non Ut Difficile • Home of the SMUGgles
…but here’s a story from KCAU TV in Sioux City, Iowa, which covered a presentation I made yesterday to the Siouxland chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals. I suppose that’s a natural metaphor, though, since the people in that group are raising funds for local non-profit organizations.
I enjoyed the discussion yesterday, and wish the participants well in applying social media tools on behalf of their worthy causes.
In several previous posts here on SMUG and also on the Mayo Clinic News Blog and Podcast Blog, I’ve told the story about
Now WABC TV in New York has run a story about diagnosing mysterious wrist injuries, featuring Jayson and another another patient Dr. Berger has helped return to recreational golfing. It’s on ABC.com:
Social media tools such as YouTube and Twitter, while not directly mentioned in the WABC story, have played a huge role in spreading the word about Dr. Berger’s research discovery.
And as a result, many more patients will, like Erin, have an opportunity for a future without chronic wrist pain.
This post, which we put on the Mayo Clinic News Blog at the time of the first USA Today article and Twitter chat, has a list of the surgeons who have trained with Dr. Berger since he discovered the UT split. We’re sure many patients have been helped by these other surgeons as well.
This latest WABC story will continue to accelerate the diffusion of this research discovery, helping to fulfill the promise of social media as outlined in Thesis 33.
And in case you’re wondering how Jayson is doing now, check out his walk-off home run from yesterday’s game.
On the day we announced our crowdsourcing plan for the advisory board for our Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media, Seth Godin ironically had a post called “Beyond Crowdsourcing.” It was a riff on the latest TED talk from Chris Anderson. Both of these guys are among my heroes.
I hope you find this video as interesting and inspiring as I did, and that you will pass it along. And check out Seth’s blog, too. It will give you a daily dose of a different perspective to challenge your thinking.
Who knows what innovations you might build upon Seth’s insights?
I’m in Philadelphia today for a presentation and panel discussion as part of the third annual Lee White Innovation Institute. Here are the slides I will be using:
I plan to update this post with some thoughts after the discussion. I hope event participants will continue the conversation here in the comments.
I had a delightful experience this morning before I left for work: having breakfast with my granddaughter, Evelyn.
There was a time when this wouldn’t be such a remarkable event. For most of human history, families typically lived in close proximity across several generations. In many cases, extended families might live under the same roof.
The mobility made possible by the internal combustion engine brought many benefits, but one of downsides from a parental perspective is that children grow up and move away instead of raising their kids close to home. We’re happy for the opportunities, but we miss our babies (and their babies).
I’m now starting to appreciate the bittersweet moments we created for my parents when my wife Lisa and I moved to the Twin Cities (100 miles away) in the late 1980s, taking our two children with us in pursuit of gainful employment. And when we moved back home to Austin in 1994, with two more little girls (one of whom turned 20 today!) and a baby boy on the way, it was really special to be able to be close to their grandparents.
Still, during that eight-year period, I think my parents probably got to see our kids about every six weeks or so.
Now my two oldest kids are married, and my daughter Rachel and her husband have moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan, where Kyle is going to seminary. They have two children, Evelyn and Judah. Anyone who has been in one of my presentations has been introduced indirectly to Evie.
But I see Evie and Judah much more frequently than my parents saw our kids, even though we’re about 500 miles away.
This morning I had a really special experience that illustrates the power of technology to strengthen those family bonds weakened by distance. Through the magic of Skype (and I do mean magic), I had breakfast with Evie (click photos to enlarge):
Evie was having a bowl of oatmeal at her table in Grand Rapids at 8 a.m. her time, while I had my gluten-free Corn Chex at 7 a.m. my time in Austin, a nine-hour drive away.
For us, though, her breakfast with “Bapa Eeee” was just like being directly across the table from each other. And I think I speeded up her eating, because when Grandpa took a bite, so did she:
