Interview with Blogger David Cushman
By The Pakistani Spectator • Apr 22nd, 2009 • Category: Interviews • 2 CommentsDavid Cushman is a world-class thought leader and strategist in social media, the power of the network, and how its impact changes everything. His blog, fasterfuture.blogspot.com is ranked among the UK’s Top 20 Marketing Blogs by Adage.com.
He has deep understanding of the emerging dominance of communities and how brands, companies and messages can adapt to prosper in a rapidly changing world and has authored a widely respected book on the subject, The Power of the Network.
Would you please tell us something about you and your site?
I’m David Cushman - a father, husband and evangelist for the power of the network and the dominance of communities. I live in Cambridgeshire in the UK and work as a consultant at FasterFutureConsulting and as Director of Social Media at BrandoSocial.com in London. I’m also the author of The Power of the Network .
Do you feel that you continue to grow in your writing the longer you write? Why is that important to you?
I’ve been publishing since I was 13 - that’s 30 years now. My writing constantly evolves. Writing as a journalist (my background) is very different from writing as a blogger. As a journalist you are trained to answer every question you raise. You can’t and shouldn’t do that as a blogger. Blogs are open conversations, not completed articles.
I’m wondering what some of your memorable experiences are with blogging?
Well. I’m sure it’s my blogging that has got me introduced to some of the greatest thinkers on the internet . It’s resulted in invitations for me to speak in London, Berlin, Dublin, New York, Cannes, San Francisco and more. Blogging (at least microblogging) landed me my current job. BrandoSocial found me through Twitter!
What do you do in order to keep up your communication with other bloggers?
Comment on their posts, link to their work, write about their work. Everything is about building and maintaining a network of trust. Everything has to be relevant. Relevance over quality even.
What do you think is the most exciting or most innovative use of technology in politics right now?
The innovations are only just beginning. Party politics is a result of mass production and mass media - it satisfies lowest common denominators. We are entering a niche world of communities of purpose. Our ability to organize ourselves has become a whole lot easier. Politicians may just find themselves another thing the networked world can do without.
Do you think that these new technologies are effective in making people more responsive?
In so much as they allow us to respond in real time, yes. If you can imagine a world in which I can connect with people who care about the same thing I do, right now, anywhere we are, then the chances are we’ll respond to help each other - and very rapidly. This is how we will solve our problems - by connecting with other people who care about the same things we do.
What do you think sets Your site apart from others?
Nothing significant. It’s messy and opinionated. Kind of the antithesis of mass media. There’s a niche of people who like it enough to want to join in.
If you could choose one characteristic you have that brought you success in life, what would it be?
Openness - the desire to share. But success? My real success is my family. The rest is much less real.
What was the happiest and gloomiest moment of your life?
Happiest is easy, birth of my daughter. Gloomiest; fearing my wife was very seriously ill. Thankfully, it was a false alarm.
If you could pick a travel destination, anywhere in the world, with no worries about how it’s paid for - what would your top 3 choices be?
Angkhor Wat in Cambodia, a very quiet and private Maldivian island and Rwanda - to see the gorillas
What is your favorite book and why?
As a work of fiction I adore Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. But books that changed my thinking? Communities Dominate Brands (Alan Moore & Tomi Ahonen) and Herd (Mark Earls)
What’s the first thing you notice about a person (whether you know them or not)?
Usually, these days, what they’ve been tweeting about 
Is there anyone from your past that once told you you couldn’t write?
If there is I’ve banished them from my mind
How bloggers can benefit from blogs financially?
I’m with Doc Searls on this - I don’t think blogs make you wealthy. They can make you useful.
Is it true that who has a successful blog has an awful lot of time on their hands?
Depends on your definition of successful. For regular rising traffic you do have to feed the beast - blog almost every day with good insightful content. But success is more about the connections your blog brings you. One extra node on your network doubles its value. That’s where you should look for success: how has my blog introduced me to things and people I didn’t know I needed to know?
What role can bloggers of the world play to make this world more friendlier and less hostile?
Connections make more of us friends and less of us enemies
Who are your top five favourite bloggers?
Mark Earls (http://herd.typepad.com/herd_the_hidden_truth_abo/) Stowe Boyd (http://www.stoweboyd.com/message/), Doc Searls (http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/doc/2009/04/21/flickr-back-up/) , David Armano (http://darmano.typepad.com/logic_emotion/), Neil Perkin (http://neilperkin.typepad.com/only_dead_fish/)
Is there one observation or column or post that has gotten the most powerful reaction from people?
My white paper assetring Communities of Purpose are the Business Units of the 21st Century has attraced interest from high places around the world. It’s quite disruptive.
What is your perception about Pakistan and its people?
I know little I’m ashamed to say. A good friend visits regularly to work and brings me his perceptions. I have never been myself. I understand average earnings ain’t high, cricket is important, as is Islam and that relations with India are, in the main, not good. It’s a land of cities, farms and mountains and great challenges.
Have you ever become stunned by the uniqueness of any blogger?
I guess the most unique I know is Gapigvoid.com - Hugh does cartoons and rapier insight. It’s a killer comination.
What is the most striking difference between a developed country and a developing country?
Warmth. Whenever I go to a ‘developing country’ I see happiness and warm welcomes. The west doesn’t do that anywhere near as well as it ought.
What is the future of blogging?
More of us understanding and making use of the fact we are all publishers now - leading us to form groups - to organise in ways we choose, not in ways chosen for us.
You have also got a blogging life, how has it directly affected both your personal and professional life?
I believe blogging and social media in general has made me a more compassionate human. I wrote about that here: http://fasterfuture.blogspot.com/2009/04/social-media-is-good-for-you.html
What are your future plans?
My vision, my goal, is a world in which we can all connect in real time around things we care about.
Any Message you want to give to the readers of The Pakistani Spectator?
If you haven’t already, start a blog today. Thanks for your time
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Thanks to David for listing me among his favorite bloggers. Very kind and generous of him. Your link, however, goes to a single post on my blog, rather than to the whole blog itself. The short cut for that is this: http://doc.searls.com. (The actual URL is a much longer one at Harvard.)
As for successful bloggers having “an awful lot of time on their hands” … nobody would make that assumption about writing email. The best blog posts are essentially emails to the world, rather than to an individual. They are like mailings that addressed to “cc:world.” This does not require a lot of time, although it easily could.
I’m blogging less these days, since I am both running a development project (http://projectvrm.org) and writing a book. But even when I blogged many times per day, I tried to devote a half hour per day or less on blogging. That work has been highly leveraged. Consider this: I am the co-author of a bestselling business book (that still sells well, nine years after coming out), an editor of a magazine (http://linuxjournal.com) with a strong Web presence since 1994, a fellow at two university centers, a speaker at many events — and a blogger. Look me up on Google and the vast bulk of references to my work point to blog posts. Nothing I do has the same degree of leverage between effort and effect. I’m sure the same is true for David and his other favorite bloggers.
Best to all,
Doc
My fault Doc!, as is the fact that http://www.gapingvoid.com is mispelled above. Would hate for people to not to discover Hugh through my inattention to detail!