Linus and iJustine Go Head to Head and iJustine Hits the Road Again

And They’re Off!

As you can see from the image above, Melinus was in the number #1 spot today. It was like this most of the day while iJustine was busy winging her way to LA for her CNBC interview. I received a twitter from her this morning that made me curious. She said: Sitting in the first seat on a plane sucks — I keep getting yelled at for all of my electronics!! I didn’t realize she was traveling, although when I poked my head into her channel yesterday it did look like she was arranging her clothes to pack for a trip, but I didn’t ask questions. No one can ask questions in her room, chat scrolls too fast.

When I got online this morning I heard she was flying to L.A. and wondered who was flying her out in first class. While it’s possible she was on a plane without multiple classes of service, I figured she was in 1st, why else make the point in the twitter?

I watched the icon bar as Melinus climbed to and stayed on top. Ashley tried to make a run for it a few times, but for only moments did she take top billing. Once Justine landed and got online, Linus was still out in front. It lasted for a while and then became the Melinus and iJustine network and at some point, Wild 949 threw their hat in the ring and the three channels seemed to make 90% of the viewer population. At times, it was as though Ashley and Justine were in a placement match. Justine’s icon would disappear and Ashely’s would show up in her place and vice versa. Linus lost his icon a few times as well. I think I saw total viewer-ship above 1900, but things were moving with light speed and I did not write it down. Nevertheless, the numbers were high for the afternoon.

Justine waiting at Universal

Linus and Emelie made headlines in multiple newspapers: Hallands Nyheter, and Metro International, GT Expressen. This drew in hundreds of viewers. The room was on fire and with volumes of Swedish scrolling through, I found it impossible to keep up. I was happy to see Linus and Emelie getting the attention, and not being able to follow what was going on was not an issue for me. As I told Linus, it was a good news story.

Meanwhile, back in Los Angeles … I tuned in as Justine got into a limo to head to Universal Studios for her interview with CNBC. She was not clear on where she was supposed to go, and rather than letting the driver help to get her to her destination, she took things into her own hands once they were on Universal property and made her way to the place with coffee shops and retail. No sooner did she enter this area than a man approached her and opened the conversation with the following: “Are you a model or an actor?” Justine seemed genuinely flattered and caught off guard. She said neither and then the explanation about what she is doing took off. He had not heard of JTV and seemed interested, but then went on to attempt to stake his claim. He mentioned that he has a live music show and that she is beautiful and would present well. I don’t know that she knew what to say at this point, but he pressed on and eventually got her card and her phone number and seemed happy. He introduced her to someone else wearing a badge and he too talked about her being on TV. She resisted but I heard him say something to the effect of, “You can read right? Then you can do this.” I don’t know what show he was promoting, but he too thought she would be great.

You can see there were chat problems and Melinus was still on top

The CNBC rep found her and took her to a room to wait. I had things to take care of. I was not sure if the interview was going to be live or recorded, so I turned on CNBC and they were knee deep in discussion of the subprime lending issue. I thought to myself that it would be horrible having to follow that show. It’s a serious issue, people losing their homes, being saddled with balloon payments on interest only or ARM loans and talk of how this will sprial to the job market and beyond. I wouldn’t want to be interviewed for a light news story after a show focused on a serious subject such as that, but I went about my business and saw nothing on TV with iJustine.

When I came back to the channel, she was getting into the car to head back to the hotel. It must have been a short interview. The other ones I saw were short as well. It’s interesting that she had to make her way out to Los Angeles for such a brief interaction, I wonder why they didn’t use a chroma key — blue/green screen and conduct the interview remotely? But, it’s not for me to analyze or spend anymore time on. I will just continue to pop in and see what she’s up to from time to time.

For now, I need a break. Physically I am feeling the brunt of little sleep and most of my day at the keyboard. I am going to call it a night and do what my body is telling me to do — SLEEP!

As always, thank you for reading and commenting.

Delivering Difficult Messages and Bridging Culture Gaps in a Flattening World

Globalization

The crazy kitchen in my apartment in India — fully furnished, most decorations and art also furnished by the landlord

Globalization has become an everyday word and the world is flattening, according to Thomas Friedman (The World is Flat, A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century). With the evolution of technology, we are all becoming more closely connected. Information is communicated at speeds that could not have been imagined just a dozen years ago and as a result, we all have the opportunity to become more educated and culturally aware.

Yep, it was necessary to have bottled water in the bathrooms as well as the kitchen to save me from the dreaded Delhi Belly

New Technology Connects the World

Unfortunately, humans are not as quick and adept as computers, and because of this, mistakes happen, gaps occur and lessons are learned. Some, who never would have dreamed they would travel across the country, would not have imagined they would have the opportunity interact with people from other countries and see them living their lives thousands of miles away from here. But with the miracles of modern technology and a start up called Justin.tv, a number of us have been transported to places like Sweden and the UK and South Africa while sitting comfortably behind our computers. While this is not as tactile as getting on a plane or a boat and going to another country, it gives many an opportunity they would not have otherwise had. I am waiting for the first justin.tv/middleast or justin.tv/greece, but in the meantime, I happily spend my time in Sweden in the daytime and in San Francisco and Dallas at night.

Preparing for Thanksgiving dinner for the team

The beauty of this is that it’s no more costly than the price of an internet connection and time because, as we all know, beginning the journey across the country and around the world with JTV can be an expensive investment in time. Since we are all becoming more connected, there will be more frequent instances of cultural faux pas and as I’ve learned from living outside of the US more than in the US the past 8 years it’s not easy to bridge the culture gaps. I made my fair share of cultural mistakes on my first expat assignment and they will remain indelibly etched in my memory. Some were humorous, some were irritating, some were frustrating and others made me sad. But in all cases, I learned something, either about myself or about the other person or about the culture in general. I became less ignorant about the world around me and much more patient and tolerant of others. I learned that just because somethign is done differently in another country does not make it wrong — incorrect — it is just how it is done or spoken, or eaten, or written in other cultures and that the way I say or eat or write or do things is not the only way, is not necessarily the only correct way.

JTV to Lifecaster Communciation

It wasn’t a traditional American Thanksgiving dinner, but 8,000 miles away from home, it was perfect

Which leads me to the incident that has had me at the keyboard for hours this morning trying to figure out how to “speak” to what I saw evolve out of a tip from Linus and Emelie’s room.

I did not personally witness the incident, so I am not going to claim that what he did was right or that it was wrong. Allegedly a word that is unacceptable was used and the moment was tipped. I don’t know what the tip title was, what the context in which the word was used, but a conversation in the JTV office that I found in the archives helped explain just what caused Michael to address the situation this afternoon.

In the archives, I heard Michael asking the others about how to handle tips with offensive content in them. There was some talk about how to do it, but I didn’t hear a final resolution. Michael discussed a very offensive word having been used in the tip he was referring to and I went on my merry way, not realizing that the instance he was referring to would make me so angry just a little while later.

Ready for the guests to arrive

At just after 2:22PM, Michael entered Melinus looking for Linus. He had a message he wanted to deliver to a JTV lifecaster that he chose to send in a public fashion — in a room with dozens of viewers. The conversation is posted below out of the IRC log. It hasn’t been tampered with, it hasn’t been edited, it’s there in it’s original form.

[02:23:01 PM] michael melinus
[02:23:02 PM] melinus mark we need a vaccume counter
[02:23:06 PM] melinus michael!
[02:23:07 PM] itsmycrapstatsVI -> melinus <- JKanStyle “Michael, I love you like the brother I never wanted.”
[02:23:08 PM] melinus hello
[02:23:08 PM] Mark lol
[02:23:10 PM] michael good evening
[02:23:14 PM] melinus evening!
[02:23:16 PM] justopia LOL
[02:23:19 PM] Mark that message is courtesy of manx
[02:23:25 PM] michael so
[02:23:38 PM] michael it would be helpful
[02:23:47 PM] melinus to?
[02:23:52 PM] michael if you didnt say racially insentive words
[02:23:56 PM] michael in front on our camera
[02:23:59 PM] merdi dun skulle ha lagt dig linus
[02:24:02 PM] merdi du
[02:24:04 PM] michael as it is a violation of our terms
[02:24:08 PM] melinus michael i dont?
[02:24:08 PM] itsmycrapstatsVI -> melinus <- JKanStyle “Michael, I love you like the brother I never wanted.”
[02:24:14 PM] justopia linus?
[02:24:14 PM] melinus what did i say?
[02:24:20 PM] michael there was a moment tipped today
[02:24:27 PM] melinus what moment?
[02:24:30 PM] michael the highlight has been removed
[02:24:36 PM] michael it might be tipped again
[02:24:36 PM] Mark I’ve never heard Linus or Emelie say anything like that
[02:24:46 PM] melinus michael what are u talking about
[02:24:47 PM] itsmycrapstatsVI -> melinus <- JKanStyle “Michael, I love you like the brother I never wanted.”
[02:24:51 PM] michael i dont want to make a big todo
[02:24:53 PM] Mark I need to disable that message…
[02:24:56 PM] michael just be careful
[02:24:59 PM] melinus but
[02:25:08 PM] melinus i did not do anything? i dont get it m
[02:25:16 PM] michael feel free to email me at michael@justin.tv
[02:25:20 PM] michael if you want to talk more
[02:25:20 PM] melinus ok
[02:25:25 PM] michael thanks
[02:25:25 PM] itsmycrapstatsVI -> michael <- you’re welcome
[02:25:26 PM] justopia wow, now that it’s in the room
[02:25:29 PM] justopia it is officially a big deal
[02:25:32 PM] michael lol
[02:25:37 PM] michael its not officially anything
[02:25:39 PM] justopia good way to give feedback
[02:25:40 PM] mynick 😉
[02:25:46 PM] justopia eek
[02:25:58 PM] michael i just wanted to address the problem directly
[02:26:04 PM] justopia that you did 🙂
[02:26:12 PM] michael alright folks – i gotta get back to work

What I got so hot under the collar about this afternoon was the way in which Michael chose to address the situation. I don’t know, but I could have thought of at least three different ways in which the message could have been communicated.

1. Email — certainly not the preferred method of communicating a sensitive matter
2. PM — better than email, but not perfect
3. Telephone call — the mature, professional choice

Delivering a difficult message takes skill. It takes experience. It takes doing it wrong enough times to learn that there are better ways. Clearly, there is skill and experience needed. Calling someone out in a public forum is embarrassing, can be shocking (as we saw with Linus today) serves no purpose other than to put the recipient of the message on the defensive and breaks down the wall of trust (if one had been established).

No One Likes to Be Humiliated in Public

I asked for a turkey although I had never seen one in the supermarket or at the butcher shop. It appears that they could only come up with a turkey with wings — what happened to the legs?!

I was apparently not the only one that was incensed at the way the situation was handled. The room was stirred up and while many of us were discussing the way in which things transpired, there were others who quickly got tired of the conversation and were asking for us to drop the subject. I am not sure what they wanted to talk about? More elementary school conversation equal to Jonas Brother’s fan chatter? It’s a CHAT room and we were having an intelligent, adult conversation, but it inflamed some. The funny thing is that we all have the same keyboard or mouse functions — if you don’t like what is being said in the room, exit.

But, I digress. This is about how the fratboys handle communications with the people that choose to use their platform. Since this is a start up and it is in beta, in my world I would consider the lifecasters to be JTV customers. No, money does not change hands, there is no financial benefit to a lifecaster. If there were no lifecasters, if Justin was still the only one streaming his life live to the internet 24/7 it’s doubtful there would be much life left in this beast, so in my world, I see the lifecasters as JTV customers and berating a customer in public seems to me to be a recipe for failure.

Let’s take away the customer aspect, how about common courtesy? Is it acceptable to humiliate someone in public? There are cultures that feel it is ok. I experienced that in places I’ve lived. In the Philippines, when someone is released from employment for something egregious, it is not uncommon to see a blurb in the newspaper outlining the infraction and telling people to beware and not to hire the person. In India “scolding” someone in the middle of the office was a common occurrence. I did not like these things being done, but I had to step back and realize that I was not a permanent fixture — that I would be there for only 1 – 3 years and that if I were to be successful, I would need to learn to cope with the differences in cultures.

The only things in this room that belonged to me were the couch and chair

Educating

Linus did not seem to realize that what he said on camera was taboo and so unacceptable in our culture and once he was informed, he seemed to be genuinely upset by what he had done. Had the situation been handled on the phone it could have transpired this way:

• Michael calls Linus and explains that he said something on camera that was offensive in our culture
• Linus apologizes
• Michael informs Linus that it had been tipped, but that the tip has been removed
• Linus thanks Michael
• Michael asks Linus to be more cognizant, to be more aware of what he (and others on his stream) say and do
• Linus informs Michael that it won’t happen again and that he will be more careful in the future
• Michael thanks Linus and reminds him that this is a violation of the terms of service (that he may or may not have signed) and suggests that Linus read through it again to become more familiar with the document
• They say their goodbyes and the incident is put to bed. Done.

It would have been much cleaner and had the incident taken place this way, so many people would not have been made aware of the situation and Michael would not have to think about the reaction the VC may have to how it was handled if he/she decides to read this post. He came back into the room a while later and acknowledged that his comments caused a bit of a stir, saw a little more chatter about how it should have been handled privately, said he didn’t know why, and said:

[02:50:45 PM] michael i’ll see you all in the justopia comments