G’day readers. It’s time to get a little more serious with my blog.

Please allow me to introduce myself….

I am a Canadian expatriate based in Groningen in the northern Netherlands where I ‘work’ – mainly remotely – with a number of startups and clients globally, utilizing social media and community to add Web 2.0 to their projects and businesses.

My background is in the print media and I have worked in far flung locales from the Arctic to the Caribbean as a reporter, editor and publisher of ‘old school’ paper products before making the jump to digital in 1997, when I formed my first community online in the Dutch West Indies.

Though I have worn a few different hats in my days…

I now operate a very small company and consultancy here in Holland with my wife and we do quite a few different things, many pro bono and personal and others for pay.

PRO BONO – We are active politically as progressives – and like to think we are part of facilitating change and disseminating new ideas with a group of sites at the Free Press Group – which has over 300 progressive and like-minded writers from around the world (20% hold PhD’s) who contribute in an Open Source Journalism format. We swap coverage on Google News (we are three of 4000 official Google News sources in English) for copy. They get fresh eyeballs and we get material – it’s a great barter. And I get the chance to write myself as well as create political Photoshops for the sites. We also host several of them at www.safehost.nl.

And despite losing money (hosting bills etc.) over the years, the connections I have made with many brilliant writers has brought an immense amount of satisfaction personally – as well as added professionally to my personal brand – at Linkedin for instance – where I have had several writers offer their recommendation.

More recently, I have been involved in a couple of web campaigns that rocked the boat for two corporate entities…

I think one of the most interesting areas to cover in terms of social media, and I know that so much of the money and interest in this field is generated and emanates from the relationship between corporate PR and what’s going on in Web 2.0 – is my history in both lauding a corporation to the point of gathering thousands of comments, hits and positive coverage, both on the web and in the mainstream with www.thankyouqwest.org. My phone was ringing off the hook here in Holland with calls in from CNN, NYT, USA TODAY, Denver Post and many more as the Mainstream wanted to get the Web response in this saga of Government muscle and corporate ethos.

That was good. That probably made their PR department all warm and fuzzy. And the Mainstream Media response to the ad hoc project that Chris Floyd I put together in a day was totally unexpected.

On the other hand, when I started up www.unassociatedpress.net to lobby thousands of political bloggers from all points of the ideological spectrum to boycott Associated Press, use banners to announce their boycott, and basically send AP into maximum damage control – it was a corporate nightmare. And the sad, silly decision of some guy in a suit, in an office, all puffy chested and with an ax to grind…. to test the blogging community was a silly one. He was – no doubt – a lawyer and not a hired social media strategist or even in PR. It was hell for AP as they buckled and retracted, covered their balls, and ran for cover in a media blitz which did ten years of brand damage in a week.

Whether or not the boycott affected their bottom line is not the point. The point is that AP got smacked in the ass by the citizen media and learnt a lesson or two in terms of how to… or rather, not to deal with the press. And there are still anti-AP badges floating around the net today.

Anyway, here’s my ‘official’ spiel:

Expathos is a professional web development and design network based in the Netherlands run by Social Media Strategist and Architect Richard Kastelein. Currently he is a Social Media strategist for Moho Holding B.V. in Groningen, Netherlands as well as several other consulting roles with other companies. Chief Networking Officer and Social Media Developer for Sparkling Media in London, UK and on the Advisory Board of Tel Aviv-based Zephyr Financial Technologies heading up their Social Media and Publishing development… Richard began developing online communities (forums at first) in 1998 in the Caribbean with Such is Life and was later head of his own web development company – Caribbean Web Wizards – based in St. Maarten, Dutch West Indies. He has also sailed, on small sailing vessels, over 25,000 miles offshore (2x transatlantic, transpacific, Indian Ocean and Red Sea), and lived aboard various boats he owned in the Caribbean for over a decade.

He is currently the Managing Director of V.O.F. Expathos, a social media and web development company and network based in the Netherlands. His roots and education lie in the media and he has held positions as a reporter, investigative journalist, editor, photographer, designer, and publisher of numerous print publications ranging from the Canadian Arctic to the Caribbean and Europe. He has done work for the CBC, the BBC, Pacific Yachting, Yachting Monthly, TNT Travel, and various other international magazines. He is the publisher and founder of the Free Press Group (Atlantic Free Press, Pacific Free Press, Empire Burlesque et al.) – a leading progressive political online Media Group with over 300 academics, journalists, and writers and was formerly employed as a marketing director for two multinational marine industry powerhouses.

Kastelein is an Open Source software evangelist, advocate of Freemium Business models, and is active in the Network Economy. He has skills as a coder, designer, frontend CMS developer, copywriter, viral and guerrilla marketeer, photographer and general it skills.

Cheers

Richard

The first words goes to anthropologist Margaret Mead, a student of tribes for much of her life, who said:

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

Q: Can “tribe” mentality redefine corporate thinking? A: Yes. For corporate thinking to adopt tribal practices, companies need to be more open and safe for individuals who want to express their points of view, to be open to frank communication across hierarchies, and to redefine themselves and their work around a mission rather than the authority of their superiors. In specific companies, tribal thinking can develop in two ways:

The first way is as an initiative from the very top. This occurs if the leadership decides that tribal ways are a sensible approach to work out company issues and drive forward the company direction. Entrepreneurs who start companies would be wise to build tribalism into their startup’s DNA. This will ensure that tribalism is the primary mode of operations. And if they do so and they are successful, other companies observing their success may adopt this approach. A big advantage of this approach is that it ensures that the entire company stays focused on the company’s mission, rather than around the points of view of particular individuals in power. It also provides a framework for bringing the valuable views of the company’s customer base into the tribe and gives customers a greater sense of ownership in the company’s future.

A second way is a more project-based, smaller-scale attempt to promote a particular point of view or spread the word about a specific initiative. For example, in these times of environmental consciousness, a tribe could develop around focusing the company on being greener, which is both more socially responsible and can save it money. That tribe could start with a few dedicated employees who spot the “low-hanging fruit” and suggest immediate changes (providing recycling bins in areas where they are needed and holding departments accountable for energy use when employees are not around). Over time, as this tribe’s initiatives prove successful, more people will join, share their perspective, and spread the word further and wider. There is potential for such tribes, in cases where their primary mission affects the company’s bottom line in a major way, to transform the company’s culture.

Companies also need to be able to foster heretics — people who will challenge the status quo when it is not working. Intolerance for heresy may make managers feel more safe and secure. However, sending employees straight to the unemployment line for their outspokenness in arguing for a different path to better fulfill that company’s mission (without passing go or collecting $200) ill serves its long-term interests. In fact, ironically, ex-employees sometimes develop into tribes even if the company they\ connected through was not open to tribalism.

SETH GODIN is a bestselling author, entrepreneur and agent of change.

Godin is author of ten books that have been bestsellers around the world. His most recent titles include The Dip and Meatball Sundae. Free Prize Inside was published in early May, 2004 and All Marketers Are Liars was published in 2005. His books that have been bestsellers around the world and changed the way people think about marketing, change and work. Permission Marketing was an Amazon.com Top 100 bestseller for a year, a Fortune Best Business Book and it spent four months on the Business Week bestseller list. It also appeared on the New York Times business book bestseller list.

Unleashing the Ideavirus is the most popular ebook ever written. More than 1,000,000 people downloaded the digital version of this book about how ideas spread. Featured in USA Today, The New York Times, The Industry Standard and Wired Online, Ideavirus hit #4 on the Amazon Japan bestseller list, and #5 in the USA.

The Big Red Fez, Godin’s take on web design, was the #1 ebook (worldwide) on Amazon for almost a year before it was published in paperback in 2002. The Miami Herald called it one of the best business books of the year.

Survival is Not Enough has made bestseller lists in Germany, the UK and the United States. With a foreword by Charles Darwin, this breakthrough book redefines what change means to anyone who works for a living. Tom Peters called it a, “landmark.” The book was first excerpted in Fast Company, where Godin is a contributing editor.

His latest book, Purple Cow, was a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller. It’s all about how companies can transform themselves by becoming remarkable.

Seth is a renowned speaker as well. He was recently chosen as one of 21 Speakers for the Next Century by Successful Meetings and is consistently rated among the very best speakers by the audiences he addresses.

Seth was founder and CEO of Yoyodyne, the industry’s leading interactive direct marketing company, which Yahoo! acquired in late 1998.

He holds an MBA from Stanford, and was called “the Ultimate Entrepreneur for the Information Age” by Business Week.