Community Building

I recently had to read a book called Brazen Careerist. She writes a blog alongside the book, which really shares some good points. Today's blog is titled "Teaching old tropes new tricks: Community-building with a 21st-century twist." It dives into how "its great time for new ways of thinking about community and how to make life better for yourself and those around you.

Here are five new ways to think about community:
1. Schedule community time because frequency matters.
2. Find your community first, then find a job.
3. Become an influencer by growing a community.
4. Get flexible work by leveraging your community.
5. Use community roots as a way to make a smooth transition.

I believe I am starting to follow some of these suggestions. When I think of #1, I think of my new small group. Since we've been married, my husband and I have had to deal with a lot of "go with the flow" scenarios. My mother's last year in the hospital and her death really made me a non-committal person and I had a one-tracked mind. Family first, no questions asked. But in the stages of getting back to normal (whatever that means), Skye and I decided to finally find a church and get involved with a small group. It only meets every other week, so it's not terribly time-consuming and we really needed to start making friends as a couple. We are such homebodies, so this is new to us as well. But we decided that we were going to put it on the calendar and stick to it. If something else came up, we would really evaluate it to see if it is worth missing, rather than blowing it off so quickly. It is making us stronger as a couple and also I am loving the people in the group. We don't have a set agenda and there is no pressure to speak or do homework, which is nice. You just know that you are going to be around people who care you for about two hours...and maybe watch some of "The Office."

My small group also speaks into #4. ("Get flexible work by leveraging your community.") Most everyone in my small group that I have met has someone that works or has been affected by my industry. In fact, the "leader" or "host" of my group has given me consulting advice on an area of my job that I am ignorant in, but is what he does as a profession. It's giving me a chance to really open up and expand my mind on the worship community. I have also gained a little more insight to his world and about events going on with him as a person.


Mrs. Trunk states in a bullet point for #5 ("Use community roots as a way to make a smooth transition") as "One of the most stifling parts of college is that everyone you hang around is at the same place in life you are. And one of the hardest parts of making a life transition is trading one community for another." I totally recognize this scenario. Moving into my late twenties (I am approaching 30), I quickly found out that I was in a different place than a lot of my friends. Sometimes I feel like I am running in last place in life's big transistions. I was one of the last of my crew to get married...now I feel in last place to have babies, but I do realize that I did so much more between my college graduation and even, say, my first job. I traveled all over Europe and worked abroad. Different opportunities, different agendas...But really, watching my friend's lives, it has given me the chance to view and have the internal debate about my own life choices. I was able to attend a lot of weddings and figure out what I liked/disliked for my own. I am able to watch my friends children grow, see them struggle with hardships, but learn from them. It helps me keep things in perspective.

Anyways, I could go into detail about the others, but these are the ones that spoke out to me first. If you want to read the full blog, click here.

Spirituality Trends

I work for the Christian division of Sony-BMG called Provident Label Group. This info, passed onto me at work, is interesting because I try to market Christian products to consumers. We are seeing an uprising trend to many "Spiritual" answers to mainstream crazes. We have GodTube.com which competes with YouTube.com and Shoutlife.com which is the Christian MySpace. One thing that has always been a turn off is the fact that every time I walk into a Christian bookstore, most all the products are some type of rip off of something mainstream. The worst are the t-shirts, would you agree? I just shake my head and repeat "Why can't they come up with something original?" But maybe the following information is good news. Maybe "having faith and spirituality" will step up and become number one instead of number two. I ask, what is motivating this change? Are people just becoming more comfortable and confident? Or are they just more willing to ask the questions? Either way, maybe it will provide a little job security my way.

A social trend we're currently following with great interest and intrigue focuses on the audience's growing interest in spirituality. Spirituality is not acting as a replacement for religion among teens and college students. In fact, regular attendance levels to religious services has remained steady and even increased slightly among teen and college men over the past two years. Feedback and comments from panelists interested in the concept of spirituality lead us to believe that it is really part of the larger health and wellness macro social and lifestyle trend we've been tracking for quite some time now. Spirituality means lots of different things to different panelists, which it turn makes our jobs a little harder, but based on the latest immersion and Lifestyle Report results, this is definitely a topic on the minds of many young people:
Spirituality Trends

- "Spirituality is cool and popular at my school" - 23% (21% male/25% female)

- "I am interested in learning about products that can help me connect with my spirituality" - 19% (14% male/24% female)

- "I regularly participate in exercises (physical or mental) that help me connect more deeply with my spirituality" - 16% (12% male/20% female)

- "Becoming more spiritual is more important to me than regularly attending religious services" - 31% (23% male/39% female)

- "I consider myself a spiritual person" - 18% (15% male/21% female)

USB Extras on Albums

So, I was reading the Digital Music News this morning and they had a brief excerpt that I have copied below.

"The digital download - and other forms of digital music distribution - are quickly replacing the disc, yet novel, next-generation physical experiments are starting to emerge. Among them is the USB flash drive, an ubiquitous method for quickly storing and transferring data between computers. Just recently, Atlantic Records artists Matchbox Twenty started selling their latest album, Exile on Mainstream, in USB form. The drive, which includes a number of multimedia extras, is being positioned exclusively at Best Buy for $35."

I think this is kind of a cool idea, but $35 seems a little steep. I don't have that much money to fork over to an album that isn't a box set. Those "media extras" would have to be extra cool. Are these extras something that can't be put on an enhanced CD? What is the goal? Trying to save space? Allow more content to be distributed? I'm intrigued though and I think I might head over to Best Buy to see what the fuss is about. I'd like to see how it's packaged, because I am a design snob. Although I am a digital consumer, for those albums I am wanting to pay that much money for, I want packaging, cool art...the whole shabang.

AIM Tunes

I work in a corporate office, so during the day IT and its fun firewall prevent file sharing and downloading. We are just lucky enough to have AIM on our computers. So, I almost got excited when I heard the news that AIM is beta testing a feature through it's service for AIM Tunes. The application deeply searches to find music folders of friends and presents the content clearly. The user can then pick and choose selections from that friend's playlist to be sampled or assembled into another playlist, which can be saved and accessed through another media jukebox, such as winamp or iTunes. Advertisers are on board, and I do think it's cool that Amazon.com does identify the track being played and offers a downloadable MP3 purchase link.

What is Starbucks doing?

Okay, okay....I live in a world of "free downloads." I will be the first to admit, I take advantage of free downloads. But now Starbucks is getting even more determined to make music a part of their coffee ministry. They are offering free download cards at their stores. Bob Dylan one day, Keith Urban the next. Who cares. I know who Bob Dylan is..if I want his music, I'll go buy it. I don't need Starbucks to help introduce me to established artists. Sorry, if you are a music fan and don't know who Bob Dylan is...you aren't a music fan. I think Starbucks is missing out on an opportunity to help young fresh, new artists get new exposure. They have a real chance to make a difference for the music community. I work in the music industry and I don't consider it worthwhile to give away free music for my artists, unless there is a direct need for it. If you are one of those people that "damns the man" on Starbucks being too corporate, but goes in to get one of these download cards, you might want reconsider some things.

Click here to read an article about this.

iTunes Update

Oh my goodness. This is going to be dangerous. They did a new update for the iPhone which includes an iTunes update. It is now officially installed on my phone and I can download songs/albums from any place with wi-fi. By the touch of a button, I can download a song to fit whatever mood I am in.