An Italian Song for Valentine’s Day: Per Dirti T’Amo

Pierangelo Bertoli: To Say “I Love You”

Avrei voluto dedicarti una canzone — I would have liked to dedicate a song to you
con le parole della televisione — with the words of the television
tutti quei fiori e quei discorsi complicati — all those flowers and complicated discourses
che al cine fanno nei locali raffinati. — which in films they do in refined places
Ma mi sembra di commettere un reato — But that seems to me to be committing a crime
perché per dirti che sono innamorato — because, to say that I’m in love with you
perché per dirti cosa penso in fondo al cuore — because, to say what I think in the bottom of my heart
non c’é motivo che mi finga un grande attore. — there’s no reason for me to pretend I’m a great actor

ritornello: — refrain:
Per dirti t’amo, amo te, bastava solo che guardassi intorno a me — To say I love you, it’s you I love, it was enough to look around me
per dirti ti vorrei sposare, é giusto dirlo, dirlo in modo naturale. — To say I’d like to marry you, it’s right to say it, say it naturally

Non voglio chiuderti in nessun mondo fatato — I don’t want to close you in any enchanted world
e non ho voglia di tornare nel passato — and I don’t want to return to the past
io so, potremmo avere il mondo nelle mani — I know, we could have the world in our hands
se siamo forti e fiduciosi nel domani. — if we’re strong and have faith in tomorrow.
Avremo un posto dove andare a lavorare — We’ll have a place to go and work
e avremo figli da allevare e da curare — and we’ll have children to raise and take care of
e tanto amore tanta gente come noi — and much love, and many people like us
e avremo un mondo, un mondo nuovo intorno a noi. — and we’ll have a world, a new world around us.

(refrain)

Seth Godin at TED: Tribe and Community

A very cool perk of working for Sun recently was that we had live streams of TED into the three major US campuses. It has long been a dream of mine to attend TED, though for the moment it’s well out of my price range.

I couldn’t break free of meetings to watch during the day, but I was mesmerized by the evening sessions. The first major speaker Wednesday evening was Seth Godin, whose blog I follow from time to time. Not surprisingly, his talk was based on his new book, Tribes, which I probably don’t need to read now (for the record, I haven’t read any of his other books, either).

I took away some ideas that might be useful for those of us at Sun (and elsewhere) who are doing this mysterious and fashionable thing called community building.

Seth started out by asking: “What do we [TED attendees, presumably] do for a living?”

His answer: “We try to change everything.”

In order to foster change, Godin offers the idea of tribes, which “can align large numbers of people” behind a goal or cause. He recommends this cycle:

tell a story -> connect a tribe -> head a movement -> make change -> repeat

He notes that a product that “tells a story” lets its user/consumer tell the story again and perpetuate it.

Godin says that tribes need leaders, most often self-appointed. Leaders should:

  • Challenge the status quo
  • build Culture
  • have Curiosity
  • Connect people to each other (“people want to know they’ll be missed if they go away”)
  • have Charisma (but you don’t need to be born with it; being a leader automatically endows you with charisma)
  • Commit to the cause/tribe/people

So how does this apply to Sun’s efforts to create community around our open-sourced software? Clearly, we had to be the leaders who started this (but that doesn’t mean we’ll always be the leaders of these communities).

You can’t force a community into existence; people have to want to be part of it. But you can make it fun and easy for them to participate, mostly by making it easy for them to connect with each other.

Important Note: Once they’re connected, you don’t get to control what they say to each other! Oh, you can try, but it’s a bad idea because it always backfires. Even when you’re the leader, you’re still only one member of the tribe, and the tribe insists on functioning as a democracy no matter who’s supplying the facilities.

What we can, should, and do do, however, is act as leaders.

The Twitter Diaries: 2009-02-15: Colorado

  • @rosso and she left Colin Firth for Ralph Fiennes. Tough choice. [The English Patient] in reply to rosso #
  • this week had a conversation with a videographer who read about my videoblogging job and wanted to know how he could do the same. #
  • I advised him to pitch a proposal to a company he’d like to work for, about how cheap and effective videoblogging is (I can supply stats) #
  • @trine thinking healthy thoughts for you. in reply to trine #
  • NOT pleased to be having trouble with my WP on DreamHost today #
  • @SaraD govt is involved [in marriage] because it’s a legally binding contract, which the law enforces. Church or other religious institution optional in reply to SaraD #
  • @mmcallen OTOH, big gain for environment in reply to mmcallen #
  • @SaraD depending on your beliefs, you could try: “Some people like to get married in a church with a priest, but it isn’t really necessary. in reply to SaraD #
  • @SaraD and go on to a fascinating discussion of all the other ways to get married, including other types of religious ceremonies in reply to SaraD #
  • @seancarlos status says there were DNS changes. in reply to seancarlos #
  • @ChuckBlakeman because people don’t know how to manage relationships, but do know how to buy advertising. Real marketing IS relationships in reply to ChuckBlakeman #
  • fiddling with Ross’ new blog http://www.rossellalaeng.com/ so she can start making her own money on ads, instead of letting Fotolog do so #
  • learned how to mount an NTFS hard disk on a Mac using MacFuse – yay, me! #
  • it was a nice party – good company, dancing, food. Launch the copy of Tivo’ed House and Housewives for husband and daughter. Then bed. #
  • @ChuckBlakeman OTOH “build good relationships with your customers” is good practice for any size of business. Exactly how to do that varies in reply to ChuckBlakeman #
  • @MMaryMary I have very mixed feelings about all the ways American kids are turned into sales forces. Glad we didn’t have that in Italy in reply to MMaryMary #
  • octuplets’ mom “looks to God for help”(Reuters). Didn’t she ask Oprah first? #
  • @italylogue I’d like to see it in reply to italylogue #
  • @italylogue ranted back at you. ; ) in reply to italylogue #
  • @Schlomo aww. I’ll be out in your fair city soon,and will happily give you a hug. in reply to Schlomo #
  • <sigh> Italy is even managing to screw up the things it’s supposed to be good at: http://tinyurl.com/aj33b6 #
  • Enrico getting organized to spend 2.5 months (research) in US. Columbia, MO, isn’t exactly commuting distance, but it’s closer than Italy. #
  • @italylogue as I was saying: http://tinyurl.com/dgrn32 in reply to italylogue #
  • where’s Martin Luther? http://tinyurl.com/bz4k9m #
  • ironically, two of my tweeps within 5 minus of each other: 1. “Great day! ” 2. “For the record: today was awful. ” #
  • took out 4 of the 5 stitches, I think the last one needs a little more time. Now it’s all itchy around there. #
  • the mysterious mole was just that – a mole, not a melanoma. And I still have one stitch to remove #
  • hmph. it always has to snow on days I absolutely have to go in to the office (in this case, to film an open storage roadshow) #
  • Filming a road show on open storage #
  • @rosso is that [backup] a standard wp feature? Need it badly #
  • registration for the Open Storage Summit http://tinyurl.com/dn3szv coming along nicely. Is there any interest in remote participation? #
  • @jeffreytaylor @missbhavens @trine often the case that my online readers know more about me than my parents, who don’t read me online in reply to jeffreytaylor #
  • @seancarlos stumbleupon has always been a good source of traffic for me, I just need to remember to stumble my own new posts in reply to seancarlos #
  • @davest as if there was any doubt for SuperDave! in reply to davest #
  • damn. Denver Twestival is the other side of the city from me, way too far to go after a long workday in a tiring week #
  • @gapingvoid but then Austin would have to secede from the rest of Texas… in reply to gapingvoid #
  • @lskrocki http://tinyurl.com/bvzg8x in reply to lskrocki #
  • @gapingvoid re UHaul, does that reflect a desire to escape Austin or a shortage of UHaul trucks in SF? in reply to gapingvoid #
  • @gapingvoid been going on for decades. Probably all Michael Dell’s fault. Austin was a much smaller town when I last lived there (’85) in reply to gapingvoid #
  • @jyarbrough which boat was that? whichever it was, I think I fell out & drowned a while ago. in reply to jyarbrough #
  • at least the workday ended with good scotch & a pleasant meeting. To be followed by massage and a Bollywood tearjerker #
  • roomie helped me get the last stitch out. So that’s over. #
  • reviewing video in the USB stick we’ll be giving out at the Open Storage Summit and FAST. It surprises even me how much video I’ve done #
  • damn. Dad’s in the hospital again. Sounds awful. yet another chest infection. Tell me this has nothing to do with 50 years of smoking? #
  • @trine what book is that?(and thanks for the good wishes for Dad) in reply to trine #
  • !@#$@# just found seven edited videos I forgot to post back in December. I am doing way too much. #
  • @reiger we did give out 4GB sticks at HPC events, which included the HPC developer software stack. in reply to reiger #
  • @lskrocki you might want to follow @seancarlos – tweeting live from SMXWest, useful stuff in reply to lskrocki #
  • @trine very cool! has @jdlasica seen it? JD: http://tinyurl.com/bcgb8q (review) and http://tinyurl.com/al7p8d (book) in reply to trine #
  • @lskrocki did you get a confirmation on those $ yet? in reply to lskrocki #
  • glad to see my favorite fanvid is still on YouTube: http://tinyurl.com/c4afmd #
  • something to think about: many of the high-powered, successful women I’m meeting have stay-at-home husbands #
  • Kal Ho Naa Ho is fun, but too long to finish watching in one night. And what is with Shah Rukh and his damned hair? [always smoothing it back] #
  • Jill Tarter’s TED prize wish got me to thinking. Emails were sent. Results are happening. Stay tuned! #TED #
  • you know community video is working when… http://tinyurl.com/ctgtbb (see last comment) #
  • @storagebod any chance you’ll be in the Bay Area for FAST? We’d love to meet you at the Open Storage Summit http://tinyurl.com/dn3szv #
  • @storagebod sorry to hear it. We’ll be having another around SNIA in September, maybe that will be our chance. in reply to storagebod #
  • @ThinGuy agree re the [modern Saturday morning] cartoons. The few I’ve seen look so ugly. in reply to ThinGuy #
  • major psyched: Tucker Bradford of SETI will speak at the Open Storage Summit about SETI’s storage needs and how our community can help #
  • …and that’s a result of #TED #

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Some Days…

We decided to send out the OpenSolaris repositories to OpenSolaris user groups worldwide on iPods. Turns out you can’t copy iPods on a USB duplicator (no big surprise), so I spent three days copying the repos to them individually… Then I made ~240 USB sticks with videos, also for the OSUGs…

Deirdré Straughan on Italy, India, the Internet, the world, and now Australia