Category / culture

by Diane Tate

Ich bin ein Berliner

All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin.

I never met President Kennedy but it’s comforting to know we share this sentiment (though I might swap ‘men’ for ‘people’ but that’s the 2015 in me).

While Berlin and Germany have long been on my travel bucket list (a layover in Frankfurt doesn’t count), when the real opportunity to visit emerged through my work, I couldn’t believe it: could we really do this now? For reasons I couldn’t fully articulate, Berlin has long held a captivating if ephemeral appeal to me. So much history, so much culture and so much transformation in so little time. But these were all abstract concepts to me before last month. Continue reading →

by Diane Tate

Neologisms: not so Neo

I always relished the concept of Sniglets as a child, watching first-class ’80s television. I distinctly remember the way the permutations made me giggle so I guess I’ve always been a language nerd.

Of course, there is a fancier term, “neologism” which clearly refers to a phenomenon as old as language itself: “a newly coined term, word, or phrase that may be in the process of entering common use but that has not yet been accepted into mainstream language.”

As you read about Sniglets, you’ll see that they provide real educational value. I posit there is also business value as well. For instance, this week I identified what I now realize is a mirker: someone who creates tasks at meetings but shirks all action items related to those tasks.

At the bottom of my heart, I believe there are many more sniglets out there, just waiting to be discovered, like a statue buried deep inside a large chunk of clay (realizing I’m actually nearing another ’80s classic).

by Diane Tate

Well, that was fun

I’d never experienced non-biological ‘viral’ until last week, when unwittingly I tweeted:

…which is probably the first Tweet I’ve ever had get RTd or Favorited more than 3 or 4 times. As of this writing, this is close to 1,000 RTs and 800 Favorites.

I pretty much just watched the fun happen without trying to intervene or analyze. All I know is very early on someone I know well favorited it:

J Herskowitz 2nd follow Apr26 Tweet

But only now, as I reflect a smidge on the data, do I see that he was actually technically the “second” favoriter. I don’t think he saw the original though (and, have no idea how she saw it either!):

All Viral Apr26 Tweet

I suspect precise chronological order is not directly tied with ‘virality’ (which is not likely linear, but is rather something like superlinear). So here’s a thanks to sonal for at least teeing up the fun.

1st Follow Apr26 Tweet

Conclusions? Well, people either really love IFTTT; really hate email; both, or…given all the social media analytics power and strategy I put into this, this is likely the best (though I wouldn’t mind it happening again ;):