My son was doing his English homework the other night, and he asked me “What does ‘context’ mean? I’ve never understood that.”

I explained to him that context meant the other words, phrases and sentences around a particular word, phrase or sentence that provide clues to make it easier to understand what it means.

Since a basic understanding of “context” was essential to completing any part of the assignment, I told him, “That’s really a question you should ask your teacher when he gives the assignment. You don’t really understand how to complete it if you don’t know what that word means.”

“I hate asking questions. It makes me feel dumb.” …

I talk to a lot of people who feel overwhelmed.

Almost every week, I hear people say in relation to social media and the explosion of web 2.0 applications and services, “I feel like I’m so far behind.” Or “I recognize that we’re way behind on getting up to speed on this stuff.”

Let me just say right now. You are not behind.

I think everyone who is passionate about social media has a story about how they personally discovered the power of the collaborative, community-focused part of the web. I figure it might be time to share mine.

It was 2001, and I found myself with a Problem. Not a small problem. A huge, enormous, unsolvable, insurmountable “what the heck am I supposed to do now?” Problem.