Yesterday I began a series of posts attempting to answer the question: What’s the minimum level of digital fluency we should expect of anyone working in business today?

In other words, what knowledge, abilities and experience is it reasonable to assume of our leaders and collaborators--in order to build successful ideas together? The world isn't getting less digital. As Nikesh Arora, SVP, chief business officer at Google put it in Adweek recently,

"Adapting, and then thriving, in a new environment is never a snap of the fingers. But as an industry, we stand at an incredible moment in history."

At the very minimum--at the core of it all--we expect demonstrated curiosity. This is the primary mindset outlined yesterday, a way of being--fundamental to mutual success now and in the future.

So today's question is: How should this curiosity be demonstrated, specifically? If an HR director had to outline required skills, what would they be?

In a word: Participation.

What follows are further quotes and lists via my network, shared anonymously from inside Fortune 100s and agencies alike across the U.S. These are the people making and doing. This is what they expect, at a minimum:

PROFICIENCY - WEB ROLES AND TECHNOLOGIES

As one respondent put it, "Here's some basic knowledge I would expect of any senior leader today." Yes, basic. (What another respondent called, "baseline enterprise offerings.") And yes, senior. How many c-suite leaders can knowledgeably discuss the plumbing they're paying for? Or as a third respondent described current culture, "We have a few older [leaders] who cannot use the computer well, but most of them have retired or will soon."

Yes, retire--or, at a minimum, you ought to have a general understanding of:

+ The various roles in a web team
+ The life cycle of a web project
+ Site architecture, wireframing, and site usability
+ Website standards and best practices
+ How SEM/SEO works
+ The concept of coding (server-side vs client-side, HTML, vs CSS vs Javascript, etc.)

"In the past, some of my best account executives / project managers were people who had, at one time, taken a small diving into coding. It helped them to understand what they were asking of me as a developer and how to better talk about projects with clients and what was possible."

+ And APIs. As Edward Boches put it, you need to, "Know what APIs are, how you can use them, and the value of creating one for your company and its content and applications."

PROFICIENCY - SOCIAL

Edward again--at a minimum, you ought to know, "How to actually use the platforms that matter -- not as a consumer of content, but as a creator and producer. So that means Twitter, Vine, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, etc. One should know the rules of engagement, the etiquette of social media, the ability to engage and build a following."

It's entirely about participating, not just observing or being told. You should, "have real presences in at least a few social channels." Not an account run by your assistant; but a commitment from you to participate in the ways the world is working now.

At a minimum, you ought to consider:

+ Blogging. Yes, good old school blogging
+ Being a member of a collaborative filtering content site (e.g. Reddit, Metafilter, HackerNews)
+ Creating and sharing stuff in a collaborative creative platform (e.g. Medium, Dribble, etc.)
+ Backing a project on Kickstarter

Consider what you'll learn in doing, and how that experience will benefit the way you plan and make decisions.

PROFICIENCY - MEDIA

It's not enough to know how much money is spent. You need to have, "A basic understanding of how paid digital media works (banners, CPM vs. CPA/CPC, video ads) and some understanding of the costs/structures of each." More to the point, you should have:

+ A good understanding of the Facebook ad ecosystem; even have managed a basic Facebook paid effort
+ A basic understanding of how the paid ad products work on Twitter
+ Posted and promoted a video on YouTube
+ Managed a basic paid search campaign

We're asking you to visit the trenches and not just hear about them. Speaking of online media, do you understand the storyboarding and asset manipulation required to churn out a 40k static banner--much less the richness available in newer ad units from Google and others? Do you understand why the effort takes what it does? I'm not talking about impressive technical literacy, rather a diverse set of experiences so you've got an ability to think through options.

This fluency isn't just about media tech. It's about demonstrating "A basic understanding of how consumers use and engage technology and content," notes Edward. He continues, asking if you understand, "How they use mobile, what technology and platform align with or affect particular contexts, how does that affect your content and marketing?"

Yes, this minimum threshold of understanding is daunting.

It means jumping in and doing. It means acting in ways most business people are not accustomed to acting. You must participate. Because without participation, those who lead, "are doing harm to the brands they work on, their personal careers, and everyone they manage." (Healthcare.gov being only the most recent example.)

Yet we stand at a powerful moment, says Nikesh.

It is through participating that we take advantage and move forward.