Some time ago, I had a challenge: to tell my life story in 15 words. Ok, I cheated using pictures and quotes that represented the 15 words, but I upheld the spirit of the challenge.If you’re curious on the results, visit Zen and the art of photographic story telling (available in both English and Spanish).

Today, I decided to try again to tell a personal story in exactly 15 words. The results are in the image below.

How about you? Can you tell a personal story in exactly 15 words? Give it a shot and share it with us in the comments below.

Image: The Conversation courtesy of soylentgreen23

Once opon a time conversations were small, for all but a tiny number of powerful, well connected people. -Ian Aspin

Then social media came along and the number of participants and conversations exploded. As Ian said it in his article this is when Shift happened. Now Shift is happening all the time. And this is a cat that no one can put back in the bag.

A few week ago, Spike Jones told us at AMPlify ‘09 that the secret to great conversations is having a story to tell. We all love our drama, and there’s no better drama than the one that is wrapped up inside a great story. As the online world has evolved there has been an explosion of places to start and participate in great conversations.

The first form of technology-enabled channel for virtual conversations was SMS. As the mobile phone became universally ubiquitous, we all became well-versed in the popular sport of ping-pong messaging. This form of one-to-one communication quickly evolved on the online world with the proliferation of Instant Messaging tools that enabled tech-savy people to have lengthy, often banal discussions online.

The next step in this evolution happened as we moved away from one-to-one conversations towards one-to-many-to-many interactions. This happened when non-traditional broadcasters came to the online scene using broadcast-over-IP technology, and provided a medium for passionate individuals to leave their conversation starters. Early pioneers of this new media include Bob Cringely’s NerdTV, and online marketplaces such as the Youtube and TED.com web sites. In these marketplaces, viewers are automativally invited and given a stage to participate in the dialogue via the use of text- and video-based comments; and have been enhanced by the proliferation of ‘Share-This’-type social-media buttons.

But the revolution only came recently as we were given platforms for easy personal publishing in the form of blogs and micro-blogs.Online platforms including Facebook, Blogger, Wordpress and twitter are the most prominent examples of what happens when you enable chaotic and complex human interactions with a conversation-rich layer on top of it all.This was the tipping point that turned online conversations from a marginal phenomenon to a global movement, increasing exponential the quantity, volume, depth and breadth of virtual dialogues.

In this richly-connectd virtual world we are currently living, not all conversations are the same. Some  are shallow and transient; others are deep and long-lasting. Whether the dialogue is about your plans to catch up over the weekend or a philosophical debate over the meaning of life is mostly irrelevant. What actually matters is that in this communication-rich environment, people are connecting with each other at levels never seen before.

As increasing numbers of people connect online, we are starting to see something odd: geographical boundaries, social stereotypes and simplistic assumptions about othershave become less evident; Our barriers have started to come down, and we are beginning to remember that beneath that shallow veneer of difference we are all the same.

“Once upon a time, a king invited his people to have a party at the town hall. At first, people were nervous. ‘What if he’s trying to find disidents to behead them’ said the conspiracy theorists. ‘There is no way I am going outside of my house; it is a dangerous world out there’ said the eternal pessimists. ‘There is no way that I am sharing my ideas with others!’ yelled intellectual-property holders. But as these minorities stayed behind closed doors, the majority of the town got together as the king had ordered. Everyone was silent for a while, waiting for the Royal signe that the party shall commence. But the king had given orders not to do it this time. Then the town’s dumb one got bored and started tallking to his neighbour. People around him tried to force him to be quiet, but he was dumb and bored, so he ignored their orders. It wasn’t long before the whole town-square was alive in conversation., and the king (who was in hiding nearby) decided his part was done. His last gift to the people of this kingdom was to help them connect at a human level with each other. As he retired to his chambers, the king acknowledged he had succeeded in leaving his kingdom in better condition than when he had become its king”.

We all have conversations waiting to happen, but like most townsfolk in the story we are afraid of starting the dialogue. As we patiently wait for The Leader to show us the path, we have forgotten that we are all leaders without title to those around us. .

What happens when conversations amplify? I am not sure; perhaps you can tell us in the comments section below.

Please click here if you can’t see the video.

Today is the first time that we deliver our feature article as an online video. In this 8-minute movie, we will present a summary of 2 workshops I attended recently. For more background information, check the paragraphs below; otherwise, we invite you to enjouy the video and tell us what you think of this new format.

Background to today’s video

Between the 23-26 of June, Annalie Killian coordinated and delivered an absolutely awesome Innovation and Thought Leadership festival in Sydney, and I was one of the lucky few people external to AMP that was allowed to purchase a ticket to this event.

The conference was a resounding success, and was innovative in its own right. Using a combination of international and local thought leaders, the 4 days were spent in discussions about Emergence and COnvergence. The resulting presentations and discussions were shared using online video and twitter updates amongst others; and featured a story-telling competition at a local pub where several researchers and PhD students had to tell us of their research in under two and a half minutes each.

The highlight of the 4-day conference to me where 2 exciting workshops by international luminaries. The first one was delivered by BJ Fogg, a leading researcher at the Persuasive Technology Lab @ Stanford University. In this workshop BJ shared  his main findings in the field of captology, the study of computerised persuasion. From this workshop I walked away with a real understanding of the 3 core elements required for effective persuasion, and an understanding of how to use computrised technology to achieve persuasion in online interactions.

The second workshop was based on story-telling, and was delivered by the other Spike Jones, a Word-of-Mouth marketer that is part of the US-based tribe @ Brains on Fire. In this workshop Spike explained the key ingredients to effective story-telling, and shared the FIRE framework. If you want to find out what FIRE stands for, then you better start watching the video

We hope you enjoy today’s installment of Reflections of a crazy Colombian, and invite you to leave your comments about this new format for our online magazine.