Has conversation evolved?

As someone who enjoys a good conversation, the The art of conversation article in the December 23rd issue of The Economist was an enjoyable read. First, check out these rules to conversation published by Cicero in 44BC: speak clearly, speak easily but not too much, especially when others want their turn; do not interrupt; be courteous; deal seriously with serious matters and gracefully with lighter ones; never criticize people behind their backs; stick to subjects of general interest; do not talk about yourself; and above all, never lose your temper.

It’s a few thousand years later and I think people could use a refresher course in most of these. The Economist points out that Cicero left off two golden rules: remember people’s names, and be a good listener.

The article goes on to discuss the skills of some of the greatest conversationalists, the differences between eras and cultures, and the current state of conversation.

Charles Dickens commented that Americans seemed taciturn after visiting the US in the 19th century. According to the article, he “blamed this on a love of trade, which limited men’s interests and made them reluctant to volunteer information for fear of tipping their hand to a competitor.” It then references George Orwell’s complaint in 1946 that “in very English homes the radio is literally never turned off. This is done with a definite purpose. The music prevents the conversation from becoming serious or even coherent.”

All of this has clearly continued into today, and in many ways has gotten worse with TVs, PDAs, surfing the Internet. The art of conversation for many high school kids today is in two word exchanges over IM. Add blogs and social media into the mix and you’ve got a unique situation. People who would have been at the bottom of the list of great verbal conversationalists in traditional terms now have a voice. They can debate, educate, build relationships, and most importantly (going back to the main point of the article), derive enjoyment from the conversation. The art of verbal conversation is something that I hope will live forever. It’s been a site, though, watching blogs give people a chance to start a real conversation, so long as they have an audience to converse with.

To all those bloggers out there, make note of Cicero’s rules. They apply on the Web as well.

What’s this have to do with clean tech PR? The conversation in the industry has started and it’s buzzing in today’s hype cycle. Will 2007 be the year that businesses, PR people and the media educate the public with enough real substance to fuel and sustain the conversation? Right now there are only a few real leaders (conversationalists) doing this: think Al Gore, John Doerr, Vinod Khosla, Joel Makower. There’s room for a lot more.

PR Week discusses clean tech with Text 100’s Jodi Olson

My counterpart in Text 100’s clean tech group has a nice Q&A running on the PR Week homepage today.  Jodi provides some interesting commentarty on the current climate for clean tech public relations. You’ll need a password to check it out.

You can see additional coverage of Text 100’s clean tech initiative in Sustainable Industries Journal, Red Herring and O’Dwyer’s PR Report.

It begins

Well, it began a while ago. But it’s starting to take form. Like many of us, I’ve been following the shaping up of the green movement for some time now. I’d like to think I’ve been an active participant, but in truth, I’ve been a slacker. In my professional life I’m a PR guy. Good PR guys (or gals) have one big goal: communicate a message to a designated audience. When you do it right you sell more products, shut out the competition, win an election or sustain or build a position in the market. I like PR because I like communicating and I like the competition in communicating smarter than the next guy. And, for the most part, I like PR because I get to work with good clients and good people.

What makes PR exciting? Watching effective communications change perception and drive markets and/or organizations to new places. So my personal connection: I’m a PR guy that believes in clean. I believe in the cause, and in the collective contributions each of us can make to a better existence. And most importantly, I believe we should do what we can to put this earth back on a path where it will provide similar fruits to our children and grandchildren that it provided to us.

There’s no one telling each of us what our role should be in contributing to this cause. We got ourselves into this so we all can figure out our own ways to help get out of it. One thing I’m going to do is help companies, VCs, researchers and other cool people who are building clean products and services communicate better. And in turn, they will educate their audience, displace products and services that are no longer sustainable, and the important part…grow their businesses. Ideas are everywhere in this industry. The good ones spur more ideas. Promote the good ones = drive more good ideas b/c every good idea needs a better idea.