Be the first!

1. I like the blog, and as your audience...you are very entertaining. As a participant, it is nice to direct the conversation. To talk and share and discuss in public - ideas and stories while in such a vast place, but still only talking to one other person is pleasantly awkward.
2. Audiences are nice. I have a studio at home where I am a participant and the sole audience all rolled into one. I understand the need to change.
3. The blog has made me a self-conscious social media user. I think about posting to facebook, then I say, who do I really want to say this too. Do I need to make another random comment to miscellaneous friends who may or may not even see the feed. I like feeling the web is not just some bull-horn, but something possibly to fine tune. There is plenty of great work on the web, but drawing the line in the sand and saying who and how you want people to respond and enter your dialogue is critical.
3a. Then, if they have the right conversation, they become participants.
4. I watch this show, How it's Made. It tells you exactly how things are made. It is a one to one transfer of information. No host and no hidden messages besides a Canadian optimism discussing all positive aspects of industrial breakthroughs (even if the reality is not so positive). In one 30 minute show you get a snapshot of systems; "how to make" guitars, metal washers, kayaks and Zamboni machines. Random. A little. I wonder if you zoomed-out, if there was a method to the mechanics. By focusing on one thing, you begin to understand the system.
4a. cookie
5. Lets make a deal, Ms. BMX Bandit - Patch/emblem + T-shirts blog is our safety net. That is the book deal and NYT Sunday magazine home run. This one right here, this is 72 cookies collapsed into one.

ONE more thought,
Is a switchboard a form of social media? In 2002, we were looking for numbers of friends. We called information. The 20 second info switch turned into a 5 minute phone call. The switchboard woman was distraught over Lisa "Left-Eye" Lopez' death. She became the first source, the i-report, the post to her followers (me and my studio mate)...the need to "tell" is important and that might help define the listeners and beckoners.