Skip to main content

To Share or Not to Share, That is the Question

Maddie has a good post over at Diary of a Reluctant Blogger where she mentions sharing. I was just going to comment, but then realized it was its own post. (Don't you just love how that happens?)
3) Sharing benefits the field. In fact, there's no benefit to NOT sharing information. Listing our events all together makes the profession look good,
like there's a bunch of cool things happening all over town. In comparison,
listing only one "own" monthly lecture just looks flimsy. And that's just the
tip of that iceberg.

There have been many times where I thought some sharing would do a lot of good. But then the reaction I get is, "won't it dilute the power of what we do and make us look just like the other group/association, or worse yet, confuse our brand with their's?" It is an honest question. How can you properly share information while keeping the integrity of everyone's efforts/brand/message in order to maximize benefit? I think it can be done. But then the tough question becomes, how do you break down the mentality that it can't be done, so why bother trying?

Comments

Ben Martin, CAE said…
In a related story, NYTimes decides to SHARE all their content for free. Great blog post on the rationale for doing so.
September 18, 2007 at 8:54 PM
Greg Fine said…
Great post! In the context of associations, I see our ability to share as fundemetal to our future success. Over time, I believe we will have less and less of our own IP. After all, for many associtions, the IP is actually a result of the labor of members. So, associations can and will become and funnel and filter for information and sharing is the foundation of that.
September 19, 2007 at 11:25 AM
Maddie Grant said…
Thanks for the plug! I think there's a LOT more to say about this topic. Volunteer members, especially, can often feel real fear about sharing. I think we need to figure out how to really show how the benefits outweigh any risks - and having a good brand from the get-go is probably a necessary starting-point for any effective sharing.
September 20, 2007 at 4:14 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

10 Thoughts on #ASAE10

Ok, so I could have spelled out the title, but chose the hashtag - #asae10. Supposedly there were over 8,000 tweets with the hashtag, but probably countless more direct messages of messages that left out the hashtag but were conference related. Two years ago, we were using twitter as a backchannel to talk about speakers. Now, over 800 people sent conference related tweets. If you aren't on Twitter, you are already late to the party. Anyway, on with the post... In no particular order, my thoughts on this years ASAE Annual Conference: 1. LA was a good venue. Lots to do. Hotels close by. Only downside was the rooms were a bit of a hike. 2. I missed Sunday because of family obligations. That really put me behind the 8 ball. Since I led a session, that meant I only got to go to 3 true sessions. Sorry, I don't count Joy Behar and the closing session. Although Marshall Goldsmith was good, I probably wouldn't have gone to see that speech as a Learning Lab. 3. Based on #...
11 comments
Read more

Sunk Costs, Marginal Costs and Economics

When I was in college, I hated Economics. Then, several years later, I found myself teaching undergrad Econ and learned an appreciation for it. Now today, I have an even bigger appreciation for it. I have also noticed that not enough people have a solid grasp of some basic econ concepts that can be applied to everyday life. Two of these are cost related. Here are some basic definitions from The Economist website : Sunk Costs - When what is done cannot be undone. Sunk costs are costs that have been incurred and cannot be reversed, for example, spending on ADVERTISING or researching a product idea. They can be a barrier to entry. If potential entrants would have to incur similar costs, which would not be recoverable if the entry failed, they may be scared off. Marginal Costs - The difference made by one extra unit of something. Marginal revenue is the extra revenue earned by selling one more unit of something. The marginal cost (or whatever) can be very different from the AVERAGE c...
1 comment
Read more

Do you want your association to be Walmart?

Earlier this week, I had a small Twitter discussion with Kevin Holland ( @associationinc ) regarding aggregation as a value proposition. @associationinc - Deciding your role is to aggregate other people's value is like George Costanza wearing sweatpants. "You're telling the world, 'I give up.'" @cardcat - Interesting comment about aggregating. Don't you think it is a viable option for a small association who can't afford it? @associationinc - Nothng wrong with aggregating content as long as you don't perceive it to be your value proposition. There's no real future in it. @cardcat - Don't think it is THE value proposition, but I think it could be A value to members, a big value. @associationinc - A big value is something you offer that nobody else can or that u can do better. Aggregating content is easy, there4 unsustainable. @cardcat - True, it isn't sustainable. But I almost think if you don't act as an aggregator, you risk folks...
3 comments
Read more