Comments on IDEA 2008: An Interview with Bill DeRouchey

Russ Unger — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 19:09:18 GMT

Chris—good question. I think I have to echo Bill, but mildly different.

I think that, in this case, technology enabled the relationship, but it is up to us to be genuine to our online personalities (assuming, of course, that we are). As long as we are genuine in those manners, I think it translates nicely once you remove the technology.

When Bill and I spoke on the phone, I had already had the advantage of seeing him speak via an online video—he didn’t have the opportunity to know what a fast-speaking person I am, but the way we spoke to each was in the same vein as email, IM and other messaging.

I think it all depends upon how genuine people are and their intentions with each other and/or the relationship.

Bill DeRouchey — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 19:03:14 GMT

Thanks Chris.

On your authenticity question, this could be a naive answer, but the technology could be irrelevant. In any relationship, the burden is on the people to make the relationship authentic. The tech tools can only provide opportunities, reminders, and simple ways for people to connect with each other. But in the end, it’s the words we use, the things we say, the levels we expose that contributes to authenticity. How authentic are relationships that are started by people we meet at work? Say you work with 100 people. You may have casual friendly relationships with 40 of them, but only really really connect with 5. It’s the law of odds. However, the social media, mediums with which to be social, simply provides us more opportunities to find the people we really connect with. After that, it’s up to people to maintain that authentic relationship, whether through software apps, texting, phone calls, traveling, going for coffee, whatever. I really believe that questioning technology’s involvement is the wrong question.

Chris Butler — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 19:03:11 GMT

Thanks for an interesting interview. I really appreciated the last question as I think it reflects what is on the minds of all social media users- the question of how authentic is a relationship started and maintained by technology?