Some Potential Humor for your Tuesday

RJ made a comparison that the Four Star Platinum Squadron is like the Super Friends. I agree and that got me thinking. Aquaman is the Twitter of the Super Friends. Think about it. Aquaman is the weakest link of the Super Friends by far and nobody was ever sure what he brought to the table. Twitter is the same. To illustrate my point, I present the most-useful to least-useful superhero/virtual technology similes for our team, in that order:

Hey Batman! If our FIOS connection lags we all die!

Superman does everything better than anybody else, with a few minor exceptions. He is central to the Super Friend's ability to work well together. Similarly, tools like Skype or Connect confer a lot to a team's ability to collaborate over distance by being a strong foundation for (and a specialist of) rich media communication. Both Superman and Skype are known world-wide as being really powerful, but to the former there is Kryptonite and to the latter, accessibility for all.

"Why don't you just admit that you de-friended me, Ricky?"

Wonder Woman: Come on, an Amazon with an invisible airplane and a golden lasso that forces you to tell the truth? If that isn't a metaphor for the modern woman and the internet then I don't know what is. Wonder Woman is the crux of emotional communication on the Super Friends team, embodying social contract and trust... and maybe online shopping. Wonder Woman is like e-commerce and Facebook because she’s an accessible Amazon (.com) and she’s the familiarity/honesty/transparency that social tools like Facebook allow between people, via intimate and easy (asynchronous) contact. Get it? Invisible plane? Transpara… nevermind.

"I'll just open this email attachment and AIIIEEE!!!"

Batman doesn’t actually have super powers per se, but he’s a super-smart workhorse from mortal stock and that's what makes him more amazing; he's effective in comparatively mundane ways. Batman is email. Sure, he is easy to overlook compared to others with their mighty abilities but where would the super-powered heroes be without him? Where would your business be without email? You can't run a business on Skype. With Batman and email on your side you can do anything and both... are everywhere, unlike Superman, who can only be where the mundane Clark Kent isn't. Skype isn't super by being ubiquitous but email is.

"SHAPE OF A 4G HOTSPOT!"

The Wonder Twins: Shape of a bear and form of a bucket of water? Unique! Appropriate! Super Heroes who are extremely customized for specific, everyday problems are just like what blogs and RSS feeds are for most special interest groups, like they were born for (or with) each other. You'd be surprised what a wet bear would do for some of your daily problems. You’d be really surprised.

"OMG! 43 Followers!!!"

And so, we have Aquaman. What does Aquaman do when the Legion of Doom is wrecking the city? Aquaman can summon a whale. And some sea horses. And hermit crabs riding lobsters. And… tuna. Not useful when there’s the average super villain doomsday device blowing up your spot.

Aquaman firing O’s from his brain to every twitching aquatic lifeform in the sea is Twitter to the world. Like Aquaman to some carp, Twitter only gets a message out to anybody bothering to listen in the first place and while the message may be received, what is the “net” effect compared to what the other technologies can do for virtual interaction? Where is the real information exchange? Twitter does not stand on its own, has limited capacity and only does one thing well... but it can be a part of a team, even if it is just to remind you how much better the other technologies work by connecting them together in a modest way. Just like Aquaman.

"I tweeted, 'QUID pro quo role negotiation is a dynamic of virtual team building!' Not squid pro quo! AIIIEEE!!!"