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What’s Happening With Book Millionaire

“What’s Happening With
Book Millionaire?”

Martin Luther King, Jr said, “Man must evolve — for all human conflict — a method which rejects aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is Love.”


Book Millionaire continues to move forward, not at the pace we originally intended, but with the same excitement, focus and passion for helping others.

Personally, I needed some time to regroup and understand actions of others, of which I felt deep hurt and sadness. This is, in part, what put the show on hold. I appreciate your patience through this process.

I have observed some disparaging comments about the Book Millionaire show and me.

It has come to our attention — through communications from others — this may be in connection with a group of bloggers who are allegedly blogging false, inaccurate information against about 100+ companies and projects in the publishing industry.

At first I was very angry and wanted to punish the people for what I saw as attacks.

But something deep inside of me looked around at our world and decided we didn’t need anymore thought forms of anger, hate or violence. Our world is at a critical point, we are either going to make it has a human race…or not.

Just look around.

You can see it in the news, in leadership, in your neighborhoods and in your schools. We are at a turning point in humanity where we need to evolve to the next level of human potential and sustainability.

Situations similar to what happened to me and the show have been experienced by others also, often times women.

Here are a few of the recent headlines and summaries:

“Rudeness, threats make the Web a cruel world”
USA Today Technologies Writer
Janet Kornblum

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/webguide/internetlife/2007-07-30-cruel-web_N.htm

Excerpt: But a series of incidents, including one involving a female technology blogger who briefly went into hiding after receiving sexually explicit death threats, has made online incivility an increasingly hot topic and fueled a debate over how to balance free speech with social etiquette.

“The information superhighway has become the mean streets of cyburbia," says Silicon Valley technology forecaster Paul Saffo. "It's just gotten steadily worse."

Battling Abusive Blog Comments: The MSM
Weighs In
(MSM means mainstream media)
Arianna Huffington
Co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post, author of eleven books and public radio co-host

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eat-the-press/2007/03/28/battling-abusive-blog-com_e_44475.html

Excerpt: But (writer Catherine) Holahan takes it a step further, examining the apparent tendency of commenters to spew greater and more energetic bile towards women than men. Not exactly a revelation to those of us in possession of ovaries and URLs, but it's still noteworthy that Holahan explores the question in detail, offering quotes from many female bloggers and noting the increase in sexually aggressive and violent comments on blogs by or about women. The topic of online harassment and abuse is neither new nor immediately fixable, but it's finally picking up mainstream play, and at the very least building some momentum in public discussion.

BusinessWeek Dispatches from the Blog Battle Zone
BusinessWeek Technology and Web Writer
Catherine Holahan

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/mar2007/
tc20070328_021104.htm

Excerpt: Other women bloggers say they, too, have noticed a difference between the way women and men are discussed on the Web. Elisa Camahort, co-founder of BlogHer, a community for women bloggers, says body parts and sexuality are more frequently included in criticisms aimed at women, particularly prominent women, on the Web. "I think a woman is subject to certain kinds of comments that men wouldn't get," says Camahort.

When referring to deliberately hostile and insulting comments on blogs and message boards, it is called "flaming." Among bloggers, people who post comments, seemingly for the sole purpose of upsetting others, are known as "trolls."

"There are a group of people who feel like it is their job to make you feel bad or attack everything that you say," says Robert Scoble, author of one of the top 25 most-read blogs on the Internet, who rose to prominence by blogging about former employer Microsoft.

Kathy Sierra, a well-known blogger who has been target of a cyber-attack, says about going public about her experience, "I never expected this level of conversation. Right now, people are saying we are not going to tolerate this." 

The Bullying Stops Now
USA Today “Tech_Space” Blogger
Angela Gunn

http://blogs.usatoday.com/techspace/2007/03/naked_lunch_in_.html

Excerpt: Ms. Sierra's barricaded in her house and coping with the Web's worse aspect. More specifically, Ms. Sierra's dealing with someone who has posted threats to rape, torture, mutilate and murder her.

Tim O'Reilly, publisher, ETech organizer, and all-around Guy Who Should Know, said something very smart re all this at SFGate.com: “We need to say this is not acceptable behavior. If you start making offensive comments, they will be deleted from a blog. Don't give people that platform.” 

Call for a Blogger’s Code of Conduct
Tim O’Reilly
Leading tech blogger and computer book publisher

http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2007/03/call_for_a_blog_1.html

Excerpt: …we now have one more clear object-lesson on what you get when you start a site that not only tolerates but encourages mean comments: there's a quick race to the bottom. It seems to me that there's a big difference between censorship and encouraging and tolerating abuse

Taking the Week Off
Robert Scoble
Leading blogger and author who came to prominence during his tenure as technical evangelist at Microsoft

http://scobleizer.com/2007/03/26/taking-the-week-off/

Excerpt: We have to fix this culture…It’s this culture of attacking women that has especially got to stop. I really don’t care if you attack me. I take those attacks in stride. But, whenever I post a video of a female technologist there invariably are snide remarks about body parts and other things that simply wouldn’t happen if the interviewee were a man.

Online, Churls Gone Vile
By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/25/
AR2007032501218_pf.html

Excerpt: No corner of the Net is safe from this bile. The Washington Post's Web site has been grappling with a surge in offensive and incendiary comments.



My Choice was Love and Light — Not Easy

It took some time for me to make my choice that instead of attacking or retaliating for what I perceived as false, misguided actions of others, I decided to find a spiritual understanding and develop a spiritual action plan.

It’s my desire that this experience helps me spiritually grow as an individual and leader.

It took patience and investing time in my process of seeking spiritual answers and healing for this experience. I hope to someday help others heal from the experience of this type of pain. I know it is impossible to give something to another if one doesn’t have it oneself.

This experience triggered judgment and anger inside of me. Before acting or moving forward, I had to wait, so I could come from a wise place. It wasn’t easy and took a while for me to complete my inner work.

Focusing on Needs

As a result of this spiritual growth, I have learned that anything perceived as an attack from another is an expression of his or her needs.

So I would like to have my attention on that need. What could their needs be?

I don’t know, but I could imagine half-a-dozen things.

They could have a need to protect society. And if, from their perspective, they think I am doing something harmful, I can understand trying to stop what they perceive as harmful actions. But, they are acting on misinformation.

I have gone to their blogs and contacted them to ask for open dialogues to gain an understanding of their perceptions and provide accurate information. They have responded with additional attacks and threats, rather than peaceful, life-enhancing dialogues.

Could it be true that someone is paying for this group of bloggers to blog hate messages about more than 100 companies and projects in the publishing industry that compete with this company? Could this be how the bloggers are paying their bills and feeding their families?

The group or company that might be paying for this could have needs to feel successful and feed their families. They could be feeling scared of competition believing the only way to fulfill their needs is to try to wipe out the competition in an attempt to increase their market share, stock price or company value.

If this were the case, I imagine the people who own the company, who may have hired these bloggers, could be trying to protect their resources, advance their businesses and make money to feed there families.

While I do not condone this, I can understand all humans have needs.

If this is true, I am very sad for their chosen ways and tactics. I wish they had more trust in Divine Source that there exists other more life-enhancing ways to be successful than trying to hurt others. I choose to not carry enemy images of them.

Because their needs are not being met doesn’t have anything to do with me or the show.

Even though I do not personally know these people, I can imagine these are beautiful human beings who are misguided in trying to have their needs met, doing so in tragic ways.

I can understand that they are making these choices for the same reason all human beings do everything: to meet needs in the best way they know how at the moment.

Love is the Answer

I believe Love is the answer to this. What I want in my life is compassion and a loving flow between me and others based on mutual giving from the heart.

Attack happens when people are taught to analyze and blame rather than clearly expressing what they need.

From the moment people start talking about their needs, rather than what is wrong with others, the possibility of finding ways to meet everyone’s needs greatly increases.

What do you suppose the beautiful human needs are behind these blogs?

It might be some very simple, human basic needs — beautiful, understandable needs wrapped in ugly, tragic strategy.

Part of the needs may be to feed their families, if they were hired. If people are paying them, they may see that this is the only way to feed their families.

I envision and have joined a team co-creating an online community of cultural leaders helping people and businesses solve problems, make decisions, create and live from Love and Light in the Highest Good for All.

Is this culture even possible online? We believe so.

Here’s a powerful guiding thought from a Cultural Leader...

At his blog, leading blogger Tim O’Reilly said, “A culture is a set of shared agreements that allows us to live together. Let's make sure that the culture we create with our blogs is one that we are proud of.”

Blessings of Love and Light,

Lori Prokop
 

Posted by keyboardculture at September 16, 2007 02:31 AM | Questions and Comments (0)