How I connect
Sometime in 2005 I took a test to find out what my strengths were. I found that my top 5 were as follows: 1. Ideator, 2. Positivity, 3. Connectedness, 4. Competition, 5. Developer
I noticed as several of my friends took the same test that several of us had one of those in common. Out of the 7 people I know that took the test, 5 of them had connectedness as a strength.
Some qualitites of someone with this strength – “That I gain confidence from knowing that we are not isolated from one another or from the earth and the life on it; I am part of a larger picture, and I must not harm others because I will harm myself; and I am a bridge builder between people of different cultures.”
Enter the beauty of web 2.0 to people like me.
I’m not a fan of compartmentalizing my life. I like things, whether it’s people in my life or web sites I go to, to all be connected to one another. This makes my mom and google both very happy.
How does this affect me?
I like it when my family and my friends and all the people in my life meet. What makes this interesting is when they don’t get along. I think everyone should get along. Not like each other, just get along.
I like using google and itunes. My friend Clay swears against itunes, and probably rightfully so, but I like when things connect together easily, so I use it. I know, I know Clay, I sacrifice things to use itunes. Google connects a lot of things in my web life, like my Calendar, my way to find where I might be going, my blog reader, my connect with Fellowship Church podcasts, and even my weather, not to mention my documents (I don’t have to pay for Microsoft office again!)
Weather
Cloudy
Wind: N at 0 mph
Humidity: 84%
74° | 54
Fri
74° | 58°
79° | 61°
76° | 61°
or a book that gets me thinking. This is probably why I fare better in New England than I
might have in the midwest.
I think that there is a terrific connection between Don Miller’s “Blue like Jazz”, Vince Antonucci’s
“I became a Christian and all I got was this lousy T-shirt“, and Gregg Easterbrook’s “The
Progress Paradox”
Related posts:
I think you’re doing a great job of taking advantage of the Web, as a pastor and blogger. Every church should be doing podcasts of their sermons nowadays, and tracking them with Feedburner or something like it. It offers no downsides.
The Web is so malleable. I have ohnomymoney, which works the API provided by Wesabe, and any problems I have with it I can just talk out with them on the forums. They’re responsive and interested in extending the API in ways that help the people using it, which includes me. Getting involved in the changes going on around us, and taking hold of a piece of it, is way easier than most people think.
Thanks Eric! I remember when I first started this that you told me this is the way the world is going – Everything will be free and connected, you said. Good prophecy!
By the way, how many hits does your site get a day now? Ohnomymoney.com?
Yes I do like to be connected! I totally resonated with the liking-people-from-different-areas-of-your-life-to-
meet, thing.
Oh, nothing serious Marty, about 30 visits a day. I’m not done with it yet, not by any means.
Yeah Jenn! By the way, I’m totally interested in the story you have going on in your blog about the “Milk Guy” Would love to hear the full story sometime.
Did I ever share my 5 with you? I’m not sure that I did; if so add one more “connectedness” to your list. In case you care, this was my top 5, in order:
Ideation
Input
Connectedness
Intellection
Learner
Living overseas has really created a desire to stay connected….when possible for free. Two years ago I had one website. Now I host 5 blogs (writing on two), do Facebook and am totally addicted to Flickr.
Marty, just found your blog through the watercooler. You are speaking my language – it’s VERY reassuring. Like Camel Rider, I am also overseas and Web 2.0 is an absolute lifeline. The first time we came to Egypt in ’99 I would spend most evening glued to my email trying to get some kind of communication with my friends and family back home. Nine years later it’s just effortless and it flows on to my screen all hours of the day like water. You can jump in and engage fully or just sit on the sidelines and observe, but whichever method you choose, you still feel CONNECTED.
Here’s my five: Connectedness, Adaptability, Input, Includer, Relator.
I love being connected. I’ve actually had to the opportunity to meet people face to face recently, that I only first met through Randy Elrod and Watercooler Wednesday. It is really incredible. Now if I can just my extended family connected….
[...] no doubt that what gets me going is ideas. As I mentioned here, it’s my number one strength. For some reason, because of my job or whatever, it would appear that the fall tends to be the time [...]