Writers on the Waterfront - My meetup with the Beezers.

One of my favourite things to do in the summer is to find a great patio near the lake (or river) and join some good friends for some food, beverages, and stimulating conversation.

Being a raging Introvert, the stimulating conversation portion of the event is most important. Introverts are not unfriendly, they just don’t like to waste time with idle chit chat, with people they hardly know. Good conversation and debate around topics that are dear to them, are actually stimulating and extremely gratifying.

So… when the opportunity presented itself (and my heartfelt thanks go out to Don Kerr who coordinated all of this) to connect with Don Kerr, Jim Murray, and Phil Friedman, I jumped at it. Here was a chance to meet friends I’ve so far only communicated with virtually on Social Media.

Now the problem with most Social Media platforms is that they are neither ‘Social’, or ‘Media’.

Let me explain.

While I’ve connected with friends and business associates on platforms such as Facebook or LinkedIn, I can’t say that I’ve actually MADE friends on these platforms. They were just an extension of a relationship I already had. All of the elements that made people friends or trusted associates were contained in the relationships I already had. I knew their backstory, their passions, what made them ‘tick’ so to speak. They were friends because we shared experiences, likes, dislikes, or common friends.

The online version of these people were unidimensional. One sided. Facebook screams “Look what a wonderful life I have!”, and LinkedIn seems to be where I get scouted by people who want to sell me things because of my job title.

I’m not just picking on Facebook and LinkedIn. There are lots of other platforms out there calling themselves Social Media.

While they all promise to deliver ‘Social’, they don’t deliver the whole person.

Now onto the ‘Media’ part…

Years ago I clipped an advertisement out of a newspaper and pinned it on my bulletin board (Yes, I’m that old contrary to the kind words Jim said). It succinctly defined my life mission, and I still use it as a maxim these days.

The words in the ad?

Real Stuff. No Fluff.

So many of the posts that fly by my Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter feeds is simply – fluff. Lacking thought, or substance, or relevance. Billions of bits of banality.

Not everything, but it doesn’t take much research to back up my claim.

I can only take so many cat videos, food pictures, inspirational quotes, and memes...

There are some well thought out articles, but they are lost in the chatter.

If you have read many of my posts, you will know that I tend to start out on a tangent, making the reader wonder “Where the heck is he going with this? How does this relate to the topic?”

I'm the Chief Information Officer for Appleby College, in Oakville, Ontario Canada, where my team is transforming the delivery of education through innovative application of technology.

I'm convinced that IT leadership needs to dramatically change how IT is delivered rather than being relegated to a costly overhead department.

In addition to transforming IT in my role as CIO, I look for every opportunity to talk about this... writing, speaking and now blogging on BeBee (https://www.bebee.com/@kevin-pashuk) , LinkedIn, ITWorld Canada, or at TurningTechInvisible.com.