I’m sitting here watching an old Seinfeld episode (those who know me well know I have the tendency to tie a lot of things back to that show) and in this particular episode Elaine used her cell phone to call a friend.  However, the reception was bad so she hung up. This led to a discussion between George and Jerry about how terrible it was that Elaine would call a friend from a cell phone.  As George said, “A cell phone call made on the street is the lowest.”  How funny!  The show doesn’t seem that old, yet clearly by this whole storyline it dates itself (this was the Finale Part 1 which aired in 1998 so actually it was 11 years ago).  How many people now don’t use cell phones for everything?  And how quickly did we move from calls being made via cell phone as disrespectful to cell phones being a primary communication tool and everyone being tied to one?  That led me back to a conversation I had with someone earlier today about tools to create communities.  It’s not the tools, but the community that you build that’s important.  The tools will change; now we talk about Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Down the road (and not that far, likely), there will be other tools that facilitate those conversations. The point is we have to be nimble, ready to adapt and willing to change.  Focus on the tools themselves and you will be outdated.  As Jerry said, “That’s even worse than the cell phone walk-and-talk.”