Geek As Citizen

Geek As Citizen: Boost The Signal – Be The Ambassador

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So, you want to get people to notice good works out there. Being a Geek Citizen you want to “Boost the Signal” as I’ve unoriginally named this series. You want people to know what’s worth your time – and of course there’s the side effect that if they enjoy the things you found they’ll waste less time on crap.

Or what you deemed crap, but I’m going to trust you.

The first thing you should do is be an Ambassador for the work(s) in question, the things you want to promote.

I say Ambassador for a reason.

Meet Your New Role

Consider what an Ambassador is in the ideal sense – a representative of something who crosses boundaries, engages people, advocates for others, and builds relations. That’s what you need to be to Boost The Signal.

  • Cross Boundaries – For that which you care about, you need to sep outside your confront zone, and meet people on their own ground. This helps you relate to them – and makes the first move.
  • Engages People – If you want to show folks what’s good, Boost The Signal on good tech or good comics, you have to talk to people directly. You engage and connect with them.
  • Advocates For Others – You need to speak for the work(s) in question. You need to be their advocate – to say what is good for them and help them speak. It also helps that when speaking for others, it’s less likely your ego will get (directly) in the way.
  • Builds Relations – You Work to build relations with peoples, groups, etc. Flash-in-the-pan doesn’t cut it for most people, viral marketing be damned. You establish relationships.

So if you want to Boost The Signal for something, this is your new role – Ambassador.

Avoid The Annoying Parts

Notice I specifically chose the word “Ambassador” to describe the mindset you need to take. I did it because of what it represents, what it says – and what it’s not. I’d like to explain the latter subtly, but let me put it this way.

In too many cases people advocating for various works are annoying and do no good work or even cause damage. I can say just for myself that I ignored Harry Potter and Serenity because I was sick of hearing how great they are. The people trying to sell me on them ended up delaying me actually paying attention.

We’ve all been there. It can be a marketing campaign ramming a new round of stupid into public consciousness. It can be the annoying person who keeps telling you about a new novel. It can be anything that turns encountering something new and worthy into a belittling, one-direction experience that won’t end.

We’ve met various people who should have been Ambassadors, but were instead:

  • Would-Be Evangelists – Preaching away in a one-directional way and a slight sense of superiority, never realizing that though they may be preaching, we weren’t the choir. Also they got on our nerves.
  • In-Your-Face Advocates – Who decided good relations were built by constantly bugging us as opposed to you know, actually connecting.
  • Persistent Fans – Their dedication was obvious, only after awhile we kind of got tired of seeing it and hearing about it.
  • Frothing Pundits – People ranting about something on TV and in newspapers for money is bad enough – doing it in private is worse because you’re a non-profit pain-in-the-ass.

Even if you don’t fall into the categories above, your advocacy for something can trigger negative reactions. We’ve all gotten tired of the Next Big Thing, The Must See Movie, and The Song I Really Want You To Hear. Like it or not, promoting a work or a technology means crossing a minefield of bitterness, boredom, and mistrust.

But by deciding to be an Ambassador, to meet people and connect with them, you adopt he mindset that can promote what you care about. When you do that, you Boost The Signal and more people pay attention to the good works important to you.

But What Do I Do?

Well, you’ve deemed yourself ambassador for some book, band, film, show, comic, software, whatever. What’s next?

Well, I’m glad you asked. Because that’s next . . .
– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, publishes books on career and culture at http://www.informotron.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.

Geek As Citizen: Boost The Signal

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Direction Sign

“Ho ho ho. Isn’t it nice we hate the same things?”

Principal Skinner, “Principal Charming” Simpsons episode 7-15

Complaining about things is a popular past-time for people. We complain about movies, about music, about comics, about television, about politics. Complaining is practically a cause for some people – in fact, a few of them made it into a career, disguising it as punditry or critique.

We geeks do like to complain. We’re passionate about what we love, do, read, speak on, and so on. That, in turn, means we may be critical of things for the very reasons of that passion. The problem is complaining doesn’t address what we’re critical of.

Complaining doesn’t solve things. Saying how bad a cold is doesn’t make it go away, expressing annoyance about a tacky shirt doesn’t make it change its color, and complaining about a bad movie means it’s still a pile of dreck. Complaining at its best warns people off of something – and possibly warns them off of you as you’re a jerk because you won’t shut up.

Too much complaining, even for legitimate reasons can backfire. This is what I’ve head referred to as the “bigger a-hole” theory – talking all the time how bad something makes you look bad. If you look bad, even your legitimate complaints are disregarded because you’re the bigger a-hole and people assume your legitimate concerns originate from your own being a jerk.

Sometimes the messenger is the message, like it or not.

Now I’m all for complaining, or at least tolerant of it (I do it myself), but when it comes down to it, if we want better movies, technology, comics, and anything else, we’ve got to do something else. Complaining solves little.

So when I asked some of the Crossroads Alpha gang what we could do different, the best action became obvious.

Want something good? Boost The Signal.

Boost The Signal (Insert “Can’t Stop The Signal Joke” Yourself)

Complaining as noted does little – at best it warns and at worse it annoys. Complaining rarely results in better works, better tech, and better ideas.

But what we can do is boost people’s awareness of the good things out there, of the wonderful things we find, of the things people should say attention to.

People have a choice in how they spend their time, their money, and so on. When we make them aware of good things, from a friend’s recommendation to writing a review of something great for a major website, we’re making people aware.  When they’re aware, they are more likely to focus on the things we’re promoting.

In short, let’s spend less time complaining and more time making people aware of the good things so they choose them, or helping out those promoting the good things. Those good things are out there, but often obscure, unknown, disregarded, not understood. We can make people aware, we can do our part to get them out there – we Boost The Signal

Its also better than criticism. Criticism as noted can backfire, and I’d also say criticism is something we’re awful numb too. It pours out of TV and talk radio and the like all the time, and most people aren’t good at it.

But how do we Boost the Signal? I’m glad you asked, because over the days to come I’m going to be summing up ideas I found – and wanting to hear about your own.

 

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, publishes books on career and culture at http://www.informotron.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.

Geek Catalog Update: 7/26/2014

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Astronaut

So here’s my latest additions to the geek catalog (which is sorted by your geekery or your community focus).  Go on, get involved!

We’ve got a heaping helping of Citizen Science, resources for female geekery, and more!

General

  • Female Geeks
    • Geek Feminism Blog – A blog on women’s issues in geekdom, as well as other human/civil issues in that sphere. Also has excellent news roundups.
  • Health
    • Operation Hammond – A network of medical professionals and trained people that provide medical services for conventions and staff training.

Pinball

STEM

  • Citizen Science
    • Citizen Science Alliance – A collaborative effort of scientists, software developers, and educators to promote and organize citizen science and citizen science projects, as well as science awareness. Their projects are tracked in Zooniverse.com.
    • Scientific America’s Citizen Science Page – Scientific American’s resource for citizen scientists, listing projects and updates. A good way to find something to fit your interests.
    • SciStarter – A site to find, join, and contribute to scientific endeavors. Contains a large database of citizen science projects for you to check out.
    • Zooniverse – The Citizen Science Alliance’s website for hosting citizen science projects. A good place to go and find specific projects to get involved in.
  • Environment
    • Nerds For Nature – And all-volunteer organization that brings together communities, scientists, and technologists to understand and preserve nature, including hands-on projects. Located in California.
  • Female Geeks
    • Mothercoders – An organization focused on helping mothers get tech-savvy and up-to-date for this economy.

Video Games

  • History
    • Atari Party – A Californian organization that hosts events with hands-on use of classic Atari game consoles. Always looking for volunteers – and you can always found your own!

Writing

  • General
    • NaNoWriMo – Everyone knows National Novel Writing Month, but they’re an organization that relies on organizers, donations, and more – and that’s your chance to get involved!