On Tuesday we had a packed house for the Austin Social Media Workshop, sponsored by Dell. One of the attendees, Kara Soluri, was brand new to the whole concept of social media. She had attended our regular monthly meeting as a guest of her neighbor, Austin cofounder Kelley Burrus, and enjoyed it so much she signed up for the workshop. After the workshop Kara was so excited that she felt compelled to write about the experience. ~ Connie

Sung (in Russian) to the tune of Frere Jacques:

I know nothing, I know nothing
Nothing I know, Nothing I know
I know that I know nothing
I know that I know nothing
Good. Good.
My high school Russian teacher taught us this silly song in advance of our 1989 goodwill student ambassador tour of the Soviet Union. Back then I figured the lyrics would come in handy on my trip to Moscow, assuming… let’s say… I found myself being interrogated by KGB. I had a hunch knowing how to say “I know nothing” was key to my survival, but it wasn’t until today at the SMC workshop, that I recognized why.

When it comes to social media, I know nothing. Thankfully, I discovered I am in good company. Shel Israel, Chris Heuer, Connie Reece, Kami Huyse, and the Dell digital team stepped in front of us boldly admitting to taking risks, figuring things out in real time, and (shut your ears, corporate execs and school boards) allowing for failure.

What refreshing honesty in a culture constantly seeking the one right answer via standardized testing, obsessive polling, or its habit of flocking to the next big thing. SMC panelists used the term open to describe technologies over which markets have little control, and reminded us that control is an illusion anyway. Their good news? Openness is a human trait, not a technological one.

Flash back to my 80s world (minus the big hair, please). Mikhail Gorbachev used the Russian word for openness – glasnost – to describe a new policy of starting conversations with the West. As a result, an oppressive government lost control. Assuming my basic understanding of social media is correct, oppressive corporations face a similar fate. Chris Heuer says he wants to do away with war analogies used by marketing, PR and advertising firms. As authentic conversation grows, I imagine the lexicon changing on its own. When authenticity happens, the walls tumble down peaceably, whether those walls separate East Berlin from West, or, as Dell’s leadership demonstrates, the customer from the corporation.

During my month in the USSR, I never had to sing I Know Nothing to a KGB interrogator. Still, I was awash in ignorance of a culture I’d long studied, and my new Soviet friends felt the same. I wish I could have blogged about experiences like the one I had with a Kiev hotel manager when he heard me complain about “bugs” in my room. After 10 minutes of plodding through cultural and language barriers (to him, bugs were listening devices; to me, cockroaches), we laughed like crazy and became fast friends. If an audience of thousands had witnessed the human connections made by hundreds of American and Soviet youth, conversation might have gotten the credit for ending the Cold War, and we’d be in a more peaceful place today.

Thanks, SMC members for (re)starting conversation. Go ahead and poke, twitter, and ping me to your hearts’ content. I know nothing, and I know that is good. Connie, can you twitter me? Do I need that blackberry thingy? Do your thumbs really hurt? Please fill me in so I can become an early adopter too. Or is it adapter?
Kara