The battle lines have been drawn today. You're with us or you're against us. You're cool and hip or lame and square. No, I'm not talking about political lines (for once), I'm talking about the early adopters versus the mainstream, or as Robert Scoble framed it: the passionates versus the non-passionates.

What, though, is a passionate (sometimes referred to as an 'evangelist')? What is the definition of an early-adopter?

Quite simply, and perhaps obviously, it's a person who embraces new technology before most other people do. Early adopters tend to buy or try out new hardware items and programs, and new versions of existing programs, sooner than most of their peers.

Remember, I'm Describing the Stereotype... Early adopters in the Web punditry sector, though, have a particularly precise stereotype. Just like all stereotypes, it's not perfectly accurate across all examples, but it exists for a reason.

What is the stereotype then? Well, your typical Web early adopter has more logins and passwords than they could possibly ever keep track of. They're in a constant race to have the most followers of any kid on their block on the website du jour (even while they may proclaim how against the idea of follower-collection they may be). Their patron saints are Robert Scoble and increasingly Louis Gray.

They voted Democrat in the last election (assuming they were old enough to vote), and are filled so full of party unity that every fifth post for the last three months has been something concerning Barack Obama. They currently have a manga avatar on at least one website they visit regularly. They love FriendFeed, and publicly denounce Twitter while secretly loving it. They hate Facebook, because it's sooo six months ago. The starkly dividing hot-button political issue for this group of folks isn't abortion, homosexual marriage or the war on terrorism (or any other petty Red/Blue issue that affects the real world) - it's whether or not they support Loren Feldman or Shel Israel.

Most importantly, though, they gravitate towards whatever tool suits their hyper-connected, always-on lifestyle (rather than the tools that fit into the everyday lives of the regular folks of the world).

How Is This Good For The Company? Remember that wonderful movie Office Space, and that scene with Luhmberg and the Bob's where they asked everyone at Innetech to ask themselves: "...for every decision you make, is this good for the company? Am I helping with the company's strategic vision?"

Early adopters should be asking themselves a similar question as they try out new technologies and stay on the bleeding edge of the pretty, shiny tools we talk about every day here at Mashable. Failure to do so can result in being considered largely irrelevant, both in the calibre of advice and review the early adopter provides, as well as in general as a person (at least in the view of the average, mainstream Internet reader).

For instance, ask yourself why you take to tools like Twitter and Friendfeed. Is it because it suits your always on lifestyle and constant need to be in communication with other early adopters like yourself? Or is it because the tool has a genuine ability to make a normal person's life easier, and you see the value in that.

Some Quick Question to Help You not be a New Media Douchebag

Will your mom use it? Think less about whether your other early adopter friends will like the product or service - think about your mom. This is obvious - your mom doesn't need another way to gossip about politics and the neighbors online. Your great-uncle doesn't need another way to share jokes. They both have email for that. They probably won't enjoy lifestreaming the way FriendFeed works. They will, however, get into lifestreaming if it means there's an effortless way to maintain a website that showcases their likes and dislikes on the web. Consider introducing them to Tumblr, MyBlogLog or FriendFeed as a way to effortlessly update their home page. Call it "low-impact blogging."

Is it truly a time-sink or a time-saver? Most professionals don't need distractions from their daily routine. The only way you can sell addicting tools like Twitter or Facebook to someone who actually works for a living is to show them how they can add to their productivity with them. Saying "this is the most fun thing in the world - I spend all day chatting there" makes it look as pathetic and useless as a subscription to World of Warcraft.

Is the tool an intrusion or an integration? Similar to the last question, ask yourself if this tool is a "configure-once and forget" or the type of tool you have to constantly maintain, tweak and engage with. The beauty of automation and technology is that tools (think I Want Sandy) can be set up once and can run as background processes. People are looking for ways to offload mundane tasks from their plate, not add to them.

Will it increase their bottom line? We like to get excited about new distribution technologies quite a bit in our world. YouTube, RSS, podcasting, and blogging... these things are great, as we've learned, but it's taken quite a bit of development and innovation after these concepts have been in existence for them to become seamless parts of our daily lives. Tools like Utterz, UStream and Qik make creating video and audio a snap. How long did embedded video, RSS and podcasting exist before it was so easy a six year old could do it? Years. Likewise, when you come across a bleeding edge technology - it's important to recognize the potential but be careful in your evangelism. Chances are the mainstream might take your advice, try it out, and wonder what you were smoking when you thought it was a good idea.

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