Not every online communication and community building moment is about connecting with potential networking buddies who will lead to clients and customers and commercial success.
Some of the most poignant times for me lately, and ones that use new media in a way I didn't expect it to be useful to me, involve the videos my elder granddaughter and I made when she and her mom were staying at the parental abode a few weeks ago.
It turned out that Kelsey liked to make videos, and the flipcam was right up her alley. The image here is from a video we jokingly call "the spoon"
She talked off camera about potential things we could discuss in future videos, including how kids feel about their families; about how cancer is scary for 
people of all ages; how moms having babies change things for grandmothers and children but make us worry and think about our relationships and where we'll fit in the picture after the baby comes too.
In short she had many good ideas.
There is a real potential for youtube, Viddler and flickr to develop into tools that are not simply places for showing photos and videos. They're serving - for me at least - as a tool for encouraging dialogue.
Part of my current dialogue is a video of my new granddaughter and Kelsey's baby sister, Emma. It's just another way of sharing who I am with my community. This teeny baby and her very big sister are a big part of my life, and connecting with them from the start - and then leaving something behind to document that and for them to have always is a tremendous priority.
Nana loves you, girls. . .
I'm a sucker for monster-cute baby videos, so this would be a great post anyway . . .
. . . but then I've ALSO been preaching exactly what you said here about social media & community building: regardless of what we THINK it was built for, every time we get a new communication medium, it WILL be used in new, different, and unexpected ways.
Why? Because people are smart.
Because people want to connect.
Because people will take anything that works to make a connection and use it in a way that helps them make THEIR connections.
It's going to be different for my 10-year-old daughter, for the mom of a newborn, for a real-estate agent, for a grandma, for a journalist, etc. And since the grandma may ALSO be the journalist, and the real-estate agent may ALSO be the mom of the newborn, it's reasonable to expect that use will differ for each person from context to context.
It's no different from, say, the growth of the telephone. That piece of technology has done stupendous things for business practices in the past 100+ years, but of course it's also changed the ways that people relate to one another in their private lives. Ditto e-mail or the telegram or any other medium you care to name.
Because of all this, I'm resistant to any definitions that say one MUST use social media this way or that way, and I'm eager to see what all this evolves into tomorrow and next month and next year and on into the future.
Posted by: Tim (@Twalk) Walker | 05/14/2008 at 09:52 AM
Oh how beautiful! I've been so busy I haven't had the opportunity to congratulate you on the birth of your grandchild. Best wishes to all of you!
Posted by: Marti | 04/29/2008 at 09:09 AM
Watching the video of little Emma brought me to tears as remembered those moments my girls were newborns. Wow, it was a time when life seems so carefree, a time of renewed hope, and new life.
I just love babies. They remind us that life is beautiful.
Posted by: Lisa | 04/27/2008 at 02:15 PM
You inspire me. Keep going, the struggle to continue is the struggle of life itself. I think sometimes when we have no problems we forget the importance of this struggle.
Posted by: Jason Jarrett | 04/25/2008 at 07:45 AM