Today I had two distinct Participation Age Epiphanies (PAE) – three if you count me coining that term as I thought about these interesting experiences today.

PAE #2 happened when Jonathan Schwartz, king of Sun’s bloggers, was addressing a group of about 40 people – mostly Accenture employees gathered for training within the context of the Sun/Accenture Identity-enabled SOA initiative. Before he discussed one topic, he warned us, “I don’t want any of you to discuss this outside this room, or blog about it. Then, pointing to me on the front row, he said, “And I know you blog.”

Think about it — I have never met Jonathan Schwartz personally. We have never spoken on the telephone, or exchanged email. I am about five rungs beneath him on the Sun organization chart. But he knew I blogged, and recognized me from the photo on my blog!

PAE #1 had happened an hour earlier, but I didn’t think much about it until Jonathan recognized me. When I first entered the conference room, I sat next to an Accenture employee and introduced myself. “I know you,” he exclaimed, “We connected on LinkedIn yesterday!”

Sure enough! Brian Hoffman and I had participated on a few conference calls together several months ago, while he was an employee of a different company, but we only really connected when he read my blog and invited me connect via LinkedIn.

The Participation Age really is about people participating in cyberspace, collapsing distance and organization charts in the process.

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