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That was the nature of the question I posed to my Twitter followers earlier today.

I've captured and included the responses as screenshots below, and most fall in line with my strict approach.

Here are my guiding principles:

1. If I haven't met the requester personally, I ignore the connection invitation.
2. If I otherwise have any reservation about sharing my actual location with the requester, or the person doesn't past my "Beer or Breakfast Test," I also ignore.

By design, my Foursquare network is smaller and more intimate than my Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn social graphs. And that's exactly how I want it.

Update: I missed including this response from @simplyv: "@BryanPerson I'm not. None of my rl friends locally use Twitter or foursquare. So I'll add anyone. I'm all freaky like that"

See the full gallery on Posterous

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I can be a photo snob.

While I'm nowhere close to being a pro with the camera--my sister Jill plays that role in the family--and don't even own an SLR camera, I usually have a decent sense of how to frame a shot. So when I see pictures that are wildly out of frame or otherwise poorly composed, it bugs me. And I don't like sharing my own photos of that ilk.

But I'm learning, slowly, to get over myself--especially when there's a story that can come to life from even a crummy photo. (And let's face it, with an iPhone--which I used to snap the shot below--most photos are going to turn out crummy.)

I'm posting this picture below of my son Amani from earlier today not because it's a technical or even an artistic thing of beauty--it certainly isn't--but because it captures a moment that made my day. He is giving me the thumbs-up sign (you can see this even better in the original version on Flickr) as he makes his way through the security line with my wife Stella for a mini-vacation flight to Orlando. Moments later, he also returned a here's-looking-at-you kind of point and then blew me some kisses. It was all at once cute, goofy, touching, and a reminder that he's still a happy-go-lucky 3-year-old. Plus, since he's always asking if he can go on the avión with me as I head out on business trips, I was just excited that his turn to fly the friendly skies had come (even though I couldn't go with him).

When it comes down to it, the photos that I post to Flickr and other social sites are ultimately for giving family and friends a peek into my/our life, for starting "snackable" discussions (such as with my Twitpics or yFrog shots), and for documenting the stories I might want to revisit later. And most of the time, even a mediocre photo will serve just fine in accomplishing any or all three of those aims.

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So while countless others will dial it down in December as visions of sugar plums dance in their heads, I'll be cranking up my wordsmith volume.

And in order to hold myself accountable, I'm taking a page from the playbook of the indefatigable Tim Walker and making a public declaration of my writing ambition. By the time the Ball drops to start 2010, I will have published a minimum of 30 blog posts in December--spread across 1) this space, 2) the Social Media Breakfast site, 3) BryanPerson.com, 4) Big Pabelbon, and 5) my LiveWorld blog.

I'm only at 2, so I have some ground to cover yet. But I'll get there.

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I should have had more stones this Movember and become a real "Mo Bro" like my Austin pals, Wesley Faulkner, Kyle Flaherty, and Aaron Strout.

As you can see in the photo below, my pencil-neck mustache after a week's worth of growth is pretty pathetic. But isn't that part of the fun? After all, swapping photos of ugly 'staches (or "mos," in Australian parlance) is one of THE ways that Movember draws attention to its campaign to raise awareness and money for "cancers that effect men."

With a mere six day remaining this Movember to give, the SocMed Austin team that I'm supporting needs a big push to overtake the Boston squad (as a former Bostonian, I'd love nothing better than to knock those guys off in a photo finish).

Here's where you can make your donation and support this very worth cause.

And for a marketing take on why the Movember campaign is so successful, check out my post over on Media Bullseye today: How to use social media to galvanize online giving.

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For the past two days, I've been going back and forth with customer-service representatives from a well-known brand over a recent transaction (yes, that's vague, but I'm not looking to "call out" the company by name).

While I'm disappointed that the company couldn't resolve my problem (stemming from an honest mistake on my part that I had hoped would be correctable; it apparently isn't), what really gnaws at me is the robotic and lawyer-like nature of their response, with repeated references to "regulations" and other expressions and sentences that are undoubtedly copied and pasted from a master template.

Thing is, this is a brand with brand with plenty of personality--it's one of the main reasons I give them my business--but you'd never know it from reading their e-mail responses.

And while I understand that dry language is sometimes necessary (when lawsuits are going, for example), I generally view this approach as a copout and an attempt to hide behind official-sounding words without having to really address the complaint with any sensitivity.

With this frustration swirling around my head, I posed the following question to my Twitter followers: "When you deal with customer service, do you prefer lawyer-like responses or answers with a personality?"

Here's a screenshot of the answers that followed:

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Earlier today on Twitter I asked my followers how they liked to brainstorm. In the attached screenshot, (not sure yet, with Posterous, whether it's above or below; update: it's above!), you can see the responses.

Note that three of the four suggestions called for hashing out ideas by hand. That's the approach I took as well as I worked through some concepts for my presentation for tomorrow morning at Social Media Breakfast San Antonio. My formula this time: a pad of paper, a pen, and a cool beverage for a little extra kick.

Part of my brainstorm included this sketch on the evolution of our conversational relationships:

Clearly, I'm no David Armano when it comes to visual artistry, but this drawing did help me to think through the key points I'll be arguing tomorrow.

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Headed out shortly to tweetup with a 100 of my closest friends. Just hope there's AC there :)

Hoping to find a guest interviewee for today's episode of The Daily Boo, too.

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Fourth Of July Fireworks With The Kids Listen on Posterous

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Still trying to sort out the best way to source and link to Flickr photos from within a Posterous post (no trouble with attaching them to the end).

So this is a test using a photo of Amani and me from the weekend.

Update: Image posted fine by just dropping in the .jpg URL in the first line of the post. To create the link to the original Flickr photo, however, I've had to edit this post through the Posterous web-based editor.

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<img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1330/545180997_2cd5d84001_m.jpg" alt="ankle on ice">

Sometimes a little too much enthusiasm can get you into trouble.

Such was the case after my 6-mile walk and run last Friday morning. Turns out that powering up from 0 to 6 in one go and turning that last mile into a partial jog as an exclamation point for my efforts was not very wise. I overdid it -- and now I'm paying the price.

Some 12 hours after my "extra" exercise and while running after Amani at a church outing, pain started shooting out of my left foot. I've been hobbling around ever since.

Next time out--and that's at least a couple of days away at this point--I'll go a easier on my aging body. Building up my endurance gradually is probably a better approach than trying to become an ironman overnight.

Flickr photo: Liesel Elliott

In case you're wondering ... no, that's not my ankle on ice. I was going for dramatic effect.

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Twit Truth reveals, as Marshall writes, the "cold, hard facts" about Twitter users, including how well they respond to @ and direct messages and the percentage of their public posts that link out or reference other users.

Marshall, for example, responds to just one in 9.37 direct messages, while Chris Brogan incporates a link into his posts 11.5% of the time.

Earth-shattering statistics? Certainly not. Insightful? Potentially--if we dare assume their accuracy. 

As for my assessment?  The screenshots below have the details, but I'm happy to report that Twit Truth characterizes me as an "engager."

See the full gallery on Posterous

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I'm excited about this weekend's Wimbledon finals, and I hope to watch most of the action from my living room.

Last year at this time, we were in Montreal on a short family vacation.

We watched some of the Venus-Serena final on Saturday morning during breakfast at the hotel.

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(Random memory I: During the meal, Amani grabbed a book from the dining room and proudly identified the letter "O" on the cover.)

(Random memory II: In 2002, the first time Venus and Serena met for the Wimbledon title--tomorrow will be their fourth such showdown--I had just returned to Australia after three weeks in Dili, East Timor on a class project with QUT. The match was on television as our group dined at a restaurant in Darwin.)
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And that epic 5-set marathon championship on Sunday last July between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, the match that some have called The Greatest Ever? Well, we saw bits and pieces of the first couple of sets, but were driving back to Boston for most of the dramatics, including the heart-stopping final set.

I'm looking forward to Breakfast at Wimbledon this weekend. I'm calling for a Serena victory on Saturday and a Federer title (no surprise) over American challenger Andy Roddick on Sunday.

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I've been far too inconsistent with my walks around the neighborhood since moving to Austin. The Plan has me getting out for some exercise at least once per day; I've just been ignoring said plan.

But this morning, perhaps emboldened from some 20-30 minutes of lap swim at the neighborhood pool last night, I set out on a longer-than-usual jaunt. I covered 6 miles over 105 minutes or so, stopping only briefly to snap a few photos (see below) by the entrance to the Deer Creek Ranch subdivision. Over the last mile, I even alternated between walking and jogging!

Last picture in this set is of me as I arrived home.

See the full gallery on Posterous

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Jeremiah Owyang expects more brands to aggregate conversations from the social web on their corporate websites. But is aggregation in and of itself even helpful?

In today's episode of The Daily Boo, I argue that brands will also need a community manager to curate the aggregated content and provide context for website visitors.

Running time: 4:34

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I was away from home for most of Father's Day (Sunday, June 21), wrapping up the Podcasters Across Borders conference in Kingston, Canada and then traveling back to Austin (a two-hour-plus drive to Syracuse and then two flights) throughout the afternoon and evening. Didn't get in the door until 11:30pm.

Stella had promised me that something would be waiting for me on her laptop when I made it home--and it was this video.

Very touching.

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