Rick Mahn's shared items in Google Reader

Mobile Firefox alpha due within weeks?

Simon Sage — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 13:01:40 -0500

Mozilla’s mobile browser is due to begin its alpha stage before the end of the year, according to CEO John Lilly. Code-named Fennec, the mobile version of Firefox has a rapidly raising bar to meet and exceed if they want to establish the same presence they’ve managed on the desktop. The success of full touchscreen devices are hinging largely on the browsing experience, and with competitors like Opera Mini getting preloaded on the likes of the HTC Touch HD, there’s a definite niche to fill.

Microsoft’s Deepfish project was canned not too long ago, opting to stick with Internet Explorer for Windows Mobile. Maybe Deepfish wasn’t getting much traction, but the looming threat of Firefox and existing preeminence of Opera might have prompted The Big M to be a little more cautious with their mobile browsing strategy.

Previous forcasts for Firefox Mobile had put a full public release around 2010, which sounds right if you give alpha and beta stages about 7 months a pop to ferment. How well Mozilla does on mobile will depend largely on their open source game.

“Device manufacturers are interested in open-source solutions where there is a desire for increased control of their software footprint, and where they can bring internal programming resources to bear… At the same time, vendors such as Opera are seeing strong growth in their mobile browser offerings, which provide the ability to access Web pages with advanced features such as zoom, bookmark syncing, and landscape mode, while also permitting handset vendors and operators to focus development resources elsewhere,” [says ABI Research director Michael Wolf].

[via Cellular-News]

Similar Posts:

Are those who work from home more productive?

Grant Griffiths — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 14:01:51 -0500

In a word, yes. A recent survey released by CompTIA Reseach indicates that when companies give workers the option of telecommuting, they are seeing greater productivity, lower costs, improved employee health and greater employee retention. And this was also talked about today in a great post on ZDNet called “Trying to increase productivity? Send your employees home.”

Like Sam Diaz who wrote the post on ZDNet, I am sitting at my desk in my home office with my MacBook and extra display. Printer and even my own 20″ flat screen TV with the music channel on. Polo shirt, shorts and flip flops are my office attire too. I could not imagine having to get up, getting dressed and commuting to an office job ever again.

While I am my own boss unlike those who telework for a company, I too appreciate that I am working as soon as I pour my own cup of coffee and sit down in my chair. My commute is down 11 steps and across the basement to my office. And that is a huge upside for me and for those bosses who have employees working out of a home office.

Among the findings of the survey:

67 percent of the companies polled said employees were more productive, largely because they spent less time getting to and from work.

59 percent reported seeing cost savings from reduced use of office-related materials and resources.

39 percent said they have access to a more qualified staff, expanding their options to people who are located in - and not willing to relocate from - other regions. Likewise, 37 percent said telecommuting improved employee retention.

25 percent said employee health was improved, largely by reducing stress levels associated with the commute.

Other benefits included promotion of safety through reduced highway use (18 percent) and environmental benefits (17 percent).

As Sam Diaz also mentions,

Today’s tech tools - things like VPNs, WiFi hotspots, faster broadband connections and online and video conferencing services - have made telecommuting easier. My favorite tool: a virtual phone number from Google’s Grand Central service allows me to give my business contacts one phone number that simultaneously rings my home phone, office phone and cell phone so I never miss a call.

I could not do what I do without the same tools. And I would venture to guess, everyone who works from a home office has the same list of items they would not live without.

ZDNet in their post provided a really sharp graph which takes the numbers above and puts them side by side. Improved productivity is clearly at the top.

If you are trying to convince your employer to give you the chance to work at home, show them the above survey results and sell them on it. They will be happy and so will you.

Wholesale Internet Bandwidth Prices Keep Falling

Om Malik — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 08:44:39 -0500

Sure it’s not like back in the early 2000s, when those crooks from Enron were driving the prices of bandwidth down into the ground, but even today prices on Internet bandwidth continue to fall. If you are a consumer, however, there’s a good chance you’re wondering what I’m talking about — after all, broadband service providers like Comcast and Time Warner are talking about putting the meter on the bandwidth they serve up to residential subscribers.

What I’m talking about is wholesale Internet bandwidth that is sold to Internet services providers (ISPs) and content companies like Yahoo and Google. This is called IP Transit and it is sold at a rate of “per megabit per second per month” and often requires a monthly bandwidth commitment. Cogent Communications, Level 3 Communications, Tata Communications, Global Crossing and AT&T are some of the more well-known IP Transit providers.

Today research firm Telegeography came out with a report that shows the price of wholesale Internet access (IP transit), while varied around the globe, are still in decline. Here are some facts.

GigE port prices in major U.S. cities fell 30-40 percent between Q2 2007 and Q2 2008. Median monthly IP transit prices for 1,000 Mbps Gigabit Ethernet (GigE) ports in major U.S. and European cities ranged from $10-$14 per Mbps in Q2 2008.
GigE port prices in Latin American cities declined a more modest 15-20 percent for the same period. Median GigE port prices range from $73 per month in Buenos Aires to $86 per month in Santiago.
Prices for GigE ports in major Asian cities in Q2 2008 ranged from $30 per Mbps month in Seoul to $45 per Mbps per month in Tokyo, higher than the U.S. or Europe. The price declines were around 30 percent.

Hulu Goes Live: Will Stream Presidential Election Debates

Frederic Lardinois — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 11:51:18 -0500

Hulu made its name by providing time-shifted access to one of the web's largest libraries of television shows. For tonight's second presidential debate in the U.S., Hulu will also introduce live streaming. The feed will be provided by NBC and Hulu will make a recording of the debate available after the broadcast. It is not clear if Hulu will expand these live offerings to other events, though with the infrastructure in place, we will probably see Hulu stream other political and sporting events in the future.

Sponsor

After this second debate, Hulu will also live-stream the third debate, which will be produced by FOX News. Hulu is jointly owned by NBC Universal and News Corp., which gives Hulu access to both NBC's and Fox's coverage of the debates and also explains why Hulu did not cover the first presidential and the vice-presidential debate.

There seems to be a trend among online video sites towards live streaming. Joost, which just debuted its web-based offerings, is also planning to add live streams to its service in the near future. The U.S. presidential election in particular seems to be a catalyst for live streaming. All the major U.S. networks will carry the debate live on their own web sites, and bothCurrent.tv and MySpace will provide live streams.

Hulu also announced its first premiere of a feature film, a documentary about Crawford, Texas, the site of President George W. Bush's ranch.

Discuss

Mobile Version of Firefox 'Weeks Away'

Eric M. Zeman — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 11:41:26 -0500

Speaking in an interview, Mozilla CEO John Lilly said that the company is just weeks away from providing an alpha version of Mobile Firefox. The mobile browser from Mozilla was first announced a year ago. Lilly did not say ...
(follow link to read)

Hulu's live debate streaming—cable's worst nightmare?

nate@arstechnica.com (Nate Anderson) — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 12:13:00 -0500

Hulu will trial live streaming of TV broadcasts tonight when it shows the NBC presidential debate feed. Your TV shouldn't feel afraid, but your cable or satellite operator might get a mite twitchy.

Making it real by making it closer

Seth Godin — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 05:46:06 -0500

Items in the future are closer than they appear.

If you're going across town, you're very specific: "188 Fifth Avenue, on the east side of the street please."

On the other hand, when you go on vacation, you tell people, "I'm going to Paris," not "we're going to 8 rue du Cherche-Midi." And if you're going even farther than that, you skip the city and country altogether and just say, "we're going to Africa." One day, Richard Branson will take you all the way to Mars--all you get is the name of the planet.

This makes sense, of course. We don't need to know which crater you're going to, just that it's far away.

Marketers spend a lot of time describing a future and making it real. The more general you are in describing it, the farther away people imagine it is. "We're going to launch a new product next year" sounds a lot more distant than handing someone a prototype and saying, "this launches on January 3rd at 2 pm at CES."

Short version: If you want people to embrace your version of the future, talk about it like it's right around the corner, not on another planet.

It Appears People Liked The Seinfeld Ads A Lot More Than The 'I'm A PC' Ads

Michael Masnick — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 07:28:00 -0500

We were among those who were quite surprised that Microsoft gave into the online criticism of its "buddy" ads starring Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates. As we noted, the ads were getting a ton of people talking, and set up plenty of opportunities to later plug Microsoft products. But, initially, they were just entertaining (if slightly awkward) content that did a good job bringing in viewers. Instead, Microsoft replaced it with the somewhat boring "I'm A PC" spots, that directly respond to Apple's "PC vs. Mac" ads. While the original critics claimed that these new ads were a lot more effective, I'd disagree. They're somewhat boring and what you'd expect. They're easy to tune out. And it appears that lots of people agree. A quick analysis has shown that the Gates-Seinfeld ads received many, many, many more online views than the new campaign. Obviously, that's not the only metric to use in measuring success, but it certainly suggests that Microsoft may have overreacted in pulling the plug so quickly.

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story

Four Social Media Questions You Must Answer During an Economic Downturn

jeremiah_owyang — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 05:42:00 -0500

Most of my readers are interactive marketing professionals, they are experimenting, using, or living in the social media world –for some, it’s part of their very being and defines them professionally, and personally.

Social Media (which has gained popularity in the last few years) has never stared down an economic downturn, My CEO sees at least three to four quarters of reduced technology spending, and Chris Kenton sees even a more dire situation.

Four Social Media Questions You Must Answer During an Economic Downturn Whether you’re a CEO of a social media company, a professional blogger, or a community manager at a large corporation, you’d better be able to answer the following questions:

1) Is social media usage going to increase or decrease during a recession by consumers? In the last tech bust, I remember many tech professsionals going back to school, becoming real estate agents, or fleeing silicon valley, will migratory usage patterns evolve in social media? Yet even if usage of these tools increases, yet do these consumers have buying power?

2) Will brands and marketers increase spending on media that is generally unproven? Blog network Gawker recently laid off staff in anticipation of advertising dollars dried up, the key word here is anticipation, it hasn’t fully hit yet. Anecdotal case studies are available everywhere about social media, but hard ROI measures are hard to find –will marketers lean on the guaranteed 1-5% return on traditional advertising?

3) Will these be tools to improve communiation and collaboration within the enterprise? Time to think internally here, with travel prices going up, companies reduce travel plans, will these tools increase productivity, or will face to face meetings still prevail? Are these tools effective in communication beyond the ’shiny’ factor?

4) Will the economic downturn force efficiencies to occur by shedding companies that lack innovation? The dot com bust was considered a market correction, is it now time to get rid of the new wave of dot coms that are missing vowels? or are the operating costs just too inexpensive that they will still thrive –and keeping markets crowded.

I’ve lightly weighed both sides above, I have my ideas, but would love to hear your thoughts below, I’ll state mine too.

Banks May Say 'Thanks, But No Thanks' To That New $700 Billion

Michael Masnick — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 13:41:00 -0500

Last week, in that big post about the financial crisis, one thing I mentioned is that despite all the talk of "moral hazard" -- the bigger fear might be moral hazard's sister problem: adverse selection. That is, it would only be those with truly awful assets and no other options that would take the government up on its offer to buy its "toxic" assets. That may be happening. Reports are coming out that some on Wall Street are considering saying "thanks, but no thanks" to the new ~$700 billion that the Treasury Secretary has been given. The article paints the issue as being about the strings that come attached to it, such as limits on executive pay and golden parachutes. That almost certainly could be a part of the reasoning, but a much bigger part may simply be that these banks recognize that the assets they have aren't quite as toxic as they're being made out to be.

Yes, there are bundles of highly questionable mortgages, but contrary to what the media tells you, plenty of the people who possess those mortgages are still paying -- and even if they're not, the property and houses they represent still do have some value on the market -- or will someday. Thus, it may be that the only banks that really take up Paulson on a buyout offer, are those with really toxic assets that aren't likely to appreciate in value. That's not good for anyone. The more you look at this bailout, the worse it seems. It also makes you wonder why there isn't more of a focus on using a so-called "stock injection" plan, whereby the gov't becomes an investor in the banks, rather than just buying out certain questionable assets. That would, in theory, help avoid sticking the taxpayers with only the worst of the worst assets.

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story

GoDaddy offers Hosted Exchange plans, Danica Patrick videos not included

Kevin C. Tofel — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 14:50:12 -0500

GoDaddy, the largest domain registrar in North America, has jumped into the Hosted Exchange market with relatively low prices. They must be subsidized with all of those "too hot for TV" video ads. Don't ask me though, I've never seen them. Ever.

You can get started with a plan for as little as $6.99 per month and that gets you an Outlook 2007 license, two gigabytes of storage, one e-mail address and a shared calendar. Sadly, you have to bump up to the $9.99 plan for mobile access with a handset and that puts the price near what other providers offer. GoDaddy could have really shook things up with racy pricing for these plans: $4.99 a month with mobile access would probably garner a few more looks than those videos. Unsure what Hosted Exchange is all about and why you might want it? We got you covered with Hosted Exchange 101.

Best Buy gets netbooks mostly right

James Kendrick — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 16:48:35 -0500

Since the MSI Wind is "now" at Best Buy I decided to hit up their online store to see if it had shown up yet. It hadn't but I was very surprised to see "Netbooks" appear on the drop-down menu under "Computers". I just had to hit it up to see what Best Buy had to say about the little laptops and here's what I found:

It's cool that even Best Buy recognizes that netbooks are here to stay but "they might look like laptops, but they don't have the full capabilities of a computer" might not be true. I'll bet a few of our readers would disagree with that definition. Looks like Best Buy is trying to make sure they don't lose any "main PC" sales. :)

Is It Time To Start Packing For The Cloud?

Steven Hodson — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 17:20:20 -0500

A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.
- Sir Winston Churchill

It would appear from what a few people are reporting on their blogs that Microsoft is going public with their first version of their implementation of the Windows Cloud OS. While that probably won’t be the actual name upon delivery the fact is that Steve Ballmer says it’s going to happen. This of course has - as usual - brought out the Microsoft naysayers hot on the trail of some new stuff to slap Microsoft around with.

Much of the current discussion right now is stemming out of a post by The Register where they quote Steve Ballmer from a speech he gave in London. It was there that he talked briefly about how they would be introducing Windows Cloud; its temporary name, at this year’s Professional Developers Conference (PDC) in about four weeks. The thing is as Joe Wilcox pointed out, this information was announced on an even earlier date (Sept. 8th) by Bob Muglia.

This fact though has largely been ignored by all the bloggers who have rushed to progosticate on how the world will end when Ballmer does make the announcement at the PDC. It hasn’t stopped any of them either from riffing on about how given Microsoft’s penchant for announcing stuff only to let it flounder the chances of anything substantive actually being presented is pretty slim. Such was the attitude of Stan Schroeder at Mashable this morning when he said

Microsoft is big and slow, they announce stuff like this months before it’s ready; so my guesstimate is that Ballmer’s four weeks will turn into months really soon.

Then we have Svetlana Gladkova at Profy.com that the whole exercise will prove whether Microsoft can actually do something right when it comes to the web or just another of its many failures

But anyway it will be interesting what Microsoft has to offer and how it will affect the internet industry - or if it will be yet another failure for the software giant online.

I realize that Microsoft has made more than a few blunders when it comes to the Internet, but there’s a few things that people are missing in their rush to jab Microsoft with some sharp sticks. The first thing not being considered by many of them is that Microsoft is no longer Bill Gates; and I would wager that for most of the last year it hasn’t been. People are forgetting that Ray Ozzie is the driving force behind the company’s move into the Internet world ever since he was hired in 2005. This whole exercise is exactly why he was hired in the first place; and for the better part of the last three years he has been working on this with all the resources available to a multi-billion dollar corporation.

People seem to think that things like Windows Cloud is just something that Microsoft has thrown together. Well you can bet that this would be the wrong thing to be thinking, especially when you tie in the fact that the Windows platform; since the release of Vista, has been headed up by Steven Sinofsky. It is because of him that any word of what is going into this Windows Cloud, the Live platform and the Windows platform hasn’t made it out of a very tightly controlled circle of product teams. We have only seen dribs and drabs of the possible pieces that will make up this Windows Cloud OS; and while people seem to be under the assumptions that it is going to be browser based it is obvious that they haven’t been paying attention to Live Mesh at all.

While Google is principally working from the browser as the interface to their interpretation of cloud computing they have recognized that it can’t all be online and this is why they came out with Google Gears. What they are doing is commonly referred to as Software as a Service (SaaS) which is very different from Microsoft’s approach. With them it is more of Software plus Services (S+S) which mean the seamless integration of desktop applications and their web based counterparts. In essence it won’t make any difference if you are using the web side or the desktop side when it comes to the applications or data.

It is this difference that some tech pundits are missing when they try and earn brownie points by putting down Microsoft’s efforts. This is also why we get questions like the one from Philipp Lenssen at Google Blogoscoped when he asked

Why do they announce instead of deliver?

The answer to this one is as old as Microsoft itself and one of the earliest lessons the company ever learned. It’s all about the software. Without software that can run using the S+S philosophy then yes their move onto the web and cloud computing will be a failure just as Svetlana suggests. Anyone who seriously follows Microsoft should understand this very basic part about the company as it is something that they have done since their earliest days delivering operating systems. Get the developers involved as soon as is possible - get the software that can run in the new environment out there as soon as possible after shipping the OS. Windows Cloud is no different only more important.

This is why things like Windows Cloud are announced at the PDC conferences because that is where the developers are. This is where they can get the new tools and new operating systems into the hands of the leading software developers for Windows. It doesn’t matter what gets announced at this next PDC regarding Windows cloud because you can rest assured unless you are a developer there won’t be anything to really play with. that won’t happen until after the release of the next version of Visual Studio and .NET 4 Framework. It will only be then that developer of all levels will be able to do any serious work developing stuff for this new OS. Some point after though we will probably start to see the beginnings of the OS making it’s way into our hands.

As much as it might give the know it all tech pundits plenty of fodder with which to write more negative posts about Microsoft this upcoming PDC announcement isn’t for us. It is for the developers to let them know that some big changes are coming and it is them that I will be listening to afterwords not the tech blogosphere.Similar Posts:

What Do You Do When People Say You’re Inspring?

ME Liz Strauss — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 07:03:45 -0500

about what how inspiring you are.

I heard someone say that you’re inspiring. I saw you value the words and the person who said them. You were so taken by the compliment that you didn’t know what to do.

I think you’re inspiring too.

So I’m writing this for you and all of you who inspire me. Would you listen to what I mean by that?

In spire means to breathe.
I don’t know your struggles well, but I know you’ve faced them down, and you’re still breathing. That alone is inspiring. Add that you’re fun and easy and it’s meta-inspirational. You motivate me to think I can blast through my own struggles and come out smiling.

In other words, you make my breathing easier.
Isn’t that what inspiration means?

So please know . . .

When I say, “You’re inspiring,” I’m saying . . .

“You motivate me to keep going, doing the next thing, to keep breathing, to keep knowing that I’ll get there.”

What do you do when people say you’re inspiring?

Smile, breathe it in, and say ‘thank you,” with gusto to reinforce a positive change in the world. Glow more each time someone says you’re inspiring. So that more folks wonder who you are.

Smile. Breathe. Glow. Then . . .

Inspire everyone you can to inspire someone else down the line.

Get the whole world breathing again, right along with you.

What do you do keep inspired? Who inspires you?

PS If you’re thinking this is about you, it is.

Tags: inspiration, Ive-been-thinking

MobaTalk is Like HD Video Twitter (screencast)

Doriano "Paisano" Carta — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 19:56:21 -0500

MobaTalk is an experiment from Michael Baily that he calls “Video Twitter.” Here’s the alpha testing page where you can see all of the video tweets being recorded right now. The cool thing is that you don’t even have to sign up or join his service and there’s nothing to download or install. All you need is a webcam, a Twitter account, and a dream. Okay, maybe not the dream part so much.

The video quality is outstanding, especially compared to other video recording services such as 12Seconds and Seesmic. By the way, here’s a comparison test MobaTalk conducted for video recorded on MobaTalk versus Seesmic.

The other interesting thing about MobaTalk is the way that you can subscribe to any video message with your iTunes or Google Reader. As a matter of fact, you can subscribe to either the hashtag itself and receive all of the videos from anyone or you’ll be able to subscribe to the feed containing the videos from a specific individual, regardless of which hashtag they’re in.

For example, here’s the MobaTalk hashtag for #ChrisBrogan who covered MobaTalk recently.

The interface is ultra slick too. It has a very Mac-esque look and feel.

Here’s what the Video player looks like along with the Twitter user information:

MobaTalk is still raw and in its infancy but like a rookie with a natural swing it shows great promise for the future. We’ll need to give it some time to mature and develop some discipline at the plate. Okay, enough already with the baseball metaphors!

The bottom line is that the video quality is high quality and the concepts for delivering these video tweets to Twitter and subscribing to them are excellent too. MobaTalk might need to do more work with individual memberships and groups. While it’s nice not having to create yet another online account it might be worth it in this case since we’re talking about high quality videos and our personal feeds to Twitter and other networks, as well as to iTune and Google Reader. We should keep our eyes on MobaTalk and see what develops.

Check out our screencast below, or download the MP4 directly.

Never Miss an Episode!
Get the Mashable Conversations podcast here (video feed).

---
Related Articles at Mashable | All That's New on the Web:

MySpace Audio Comments from MyChingo

Blogs Not Running Ads: 46%

Thord Daniel Hedengren — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 02:54:19 -0500

This is somewhat surprising. Technorati’s State of the Blogosphere 2008 report states that a whopping 46% of the blogs are not running ads at all. As in no Adsense, affiliate programs, or anything. That number surprises me, I would’ve thought it to be lower, but then again it might still be a bit tricky to add advertisements to a lot of blog platforms.

I’m also comforted by the fact that 24% says that they don’t want to clutter their blog with ads, while another 24% just aren’t interested in making money with their blog. 21% are very realistic, they say they don’t have enough visitors to make it worthwhile. Refreshing. Another comforting number is the fact that only 6% of the blogs use paid postings to earn their ad dollars.

Read more on the Blogging For Profit part of Technorati’s State of the Blogosphere 2008 report.

Possibly Related Posts

Frame of Reference

Robert Hruzek — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 06:00:01 -0500

[Note: For those of you who are very long-time readers of the Middle Zone (a tip o' the hat to ya!), you may recognize parts of this article from its original post back in Feb. of '07: Unconnected Bubbles. Current events brought it back to mind, so I thought I'd try my hand at repurposing an old post. Was it successful? As always, you guys get to be the judge.]

Regarding the current financial, um, blip…

In the midst of a - well, let’s call it what it is: a wave of hysteria - being spread by anyone connected to the media, I was reminded recently of the need to keep things in perspective. I mean, sure, there are definitely bad things going on. But do you really understand where the real problems are? Do you understand the ultimate consequences to any given course of action?

Well, if you’re like me (and if you are, well, sorry ‘bout that), then you’ll join me in saying, “Probably not.” I mean, c’mon; how many of us really know the whole story, from beginning to end? And you do realize this ain’t something that just “popped up”, don’t you? The truth is, it’s been percolating for quite some time.

Oh, sure; there’s political posturing going on - hey, that’s to be expected - but I ask ya: What are the real issues here? I’d be willing to bet very few of us really know all that much. And everywhere you turn, you get at best only bits and pieces.

The problem is most of us don’t really have a valid frame of reference with which to really understand how all the parts fit together - and more importantly - what to do about it. Heck; even the so-called experts can’t agree on a course of action (and by the way, when I say “experts”, I’m not talking about the U.S. Congress). So how in tarnation are we supposed to know what to do?

Let’s remember the first principle in solving a challenge is to first understand it. And in order to understand it, we need a frame of reference.

Living in Taiwan

I recall a three-month assignment at a chip manufacturing plant (sorry; that’s computer chips, not chocolate chips) in the city of Hsin-Chu, Taiwan back in 2000. To make things easier for me, my employer hired a car and driver for the daily commute from my hotel (which was just outside of town) to work and back every day. On weekends, I used taxis to get around because alas, the hotel was not within walking distance of anything interesting.

To be honest, it really felt like a somewhat decadent luxury - but I gotta admit; I really enjoyed being able to sit back and watch the entertaining scenery go by. But I mean, c’mon - how often does a plain ol’ city-dweller like me get to see something as exciting as, er, a truckload of live ducks go by? Practically… well, never!

Anyway, within a few weeks I’d pretty much memorized the landmarks along our usual morning and evening routes. And, there were definitely some interesting things to see along the way. But seeing ‘em every… single… day… well, it got kinda old, if you know what I mean.

One thing, though. I still had no real sense of where I was in relation to the rest of the city. Oh, it wasn’t that I now wanted to drive myself (which from all accounts would have been a very BAD idea). No, it’s just that the places where I worked, lived, ate and shopped weren’t really connected. I simply had no idea where they were in relation to each other.

There was no frame of reference.

Location, Location

After a month or so, though, the hotel’s isolated location got to me. I asked my employer to move me to a hotel downtown, and although it was a considerable “step down” in accommodations, suddenly it felt like I was smack dab in the middle of, you know, some interesting stuff. What a difference it made!

From then on, I went walking at least a few hours a day after work (because they would probably have been, you know, displeased if I had gone walking during work). Every day I’d step out the door of my hotel, pick a direction at random, and start walking. I’d stop at some small restaurant for dinner, and sometimes even enter a store or two to window shop. But for the most part, I simply spent the time absorbing the ebb and flow of life around me.

During the Chinese New Year celebrations (the last two weeks in January), many of the downtown streets closed to traffic. Practically overnight they became filled with street markets, essentially turning much of downtown into a giant, sprawling flea market. (Should you be so inclined, you can read about some of this in Chinese New Year Part 1 and Part 2.)

Paradigm Shift

One day, though, I experienced a sudden revelation (sound of angels singing, accompanied by a light shining down from above). Well, maybe not that kind of revelation. Just two blocks away from my hotel was the SOGO department store (similar to Macy’s but packed into a small-footprint, fourteen-story building).

Well Bubba, I’m here to tell ya, it quickly became my favorite hang-out (when I didn’t feel like sight-seeing, that is). The top floor was basically one giant food court, but the best feature was that the ceiling-to-floor windows provided an incredible panoramic view.

On my first visit, after carefully selecting a lunch featuring exotic foreign cuisine (a three-piece Kentucky Fried Chicken dinner and Haagen-Dazs ice cream, thank you very much), I spent considerable time just gazing out at the city.

That’s when it happened (sound of - well, you know).

Almost immediately I spotted familiar landmarks I’d seen on my daily drives. Suddenly I experienced a genuine paradigm shift: the entire city switched from being a series of disconnected areas, and became more like an interconnected map, laid out before me in 1-to-1 scale!

I could clearly see the places I was already familiar with, and more importantly, their relation to each other. I suddenly had a clear frame of reference that put all the pieces into their proper places. The city was no longer just a bunch of places; it had now become one big place!

What a difference a valid frame of reference can make!

Keeping Things in Context

Now, lest you think I’m any better off than most regarding what’s going on here, let me be the first to dissuade you from that conclusion. The truth is, I haven’t a clue either. But to be honest, that’s not what bothers me the most about the whole sordid mess.

No, what really chaps my, er, chaps is the tendency for people to suddenly throw up their hands and shout, “Let’s not waste time arguing about how we got here - let’s just fix it!”

I don’t know about you, but how many times has that strategy actually, you know, worked in your life? Show of hands? Anyone? (sound of crickets) Yup; thought so. Oh, maybe - just maybe, mind you - it might help solve one piece of the puzzle - for the short term. But then there’s the rest of it you gotta tackle, right? I mean, the rest of it ain’t just goin’ away now, is it?

So before we charge off in one direction or another, we need to first identify, and then address the root causes. That’s the only way we can a) solve this particular crises, and b) avoid doing it all over again at some later date.

So no, contrary to what you’re hearin’ on the radio and television, this is not the time to panic, folks. One thing for sure; the problem is likely not what you think.

Nope; this is the time to think rationally and clearly. Think about the consequences of your actions. Think about your goals. And whatever else you do; think.

Reactions, Anyone?

What do you think the problem really is? (And let’s keep this civil, folks - no name callin’, no eye-gouging, no spittin’, OK?) Can the problem even be identified without, well, finger-pointing? I mean, SOMEbody’s to blame, aren’t they? Or - could this be one we all share equally? What’s your take on it?

C’mon, y’all; I’ll set out the boxing gloves and let’s get at it!

________________________

Photo credits:

Frame of Reference, by suavehouse113

Ben the Chauffer, by heyyu

Boxing gloves, by KayVee.INC

________________________

October Theme: Writing With Responsibility

joanna@confidentwriting.com (Joanna Young, The Confident Writing Coach) — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 05:26:21 -0500

The theme for this month will be writing with responsibility.

That includes:

Taking responsibility for your words. Managing your writing and the words that you use. Learning from mistakes and looking for ways to improve your writing. Accepting responsibility for the impact of your words and writing on other people and the wider world.

I’m still mind-mapping the list of possibilities to write about within this heading. To help inform the process is there anything else that you’d like me to cover as part of this theme?

Joanna Young, The Confident Writing Coach
Because our words count

Photo Credit: Community Art - Responsibility by roland on flickr

Behavioral Characteristics of the Digerati

Geoff Livingston — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 07:27:37 -0500

In researching a new presentation on the next generation of digital media users — now dubbed Generation Z (Goodness Gracious!) — it became apparent that the generational discussion fails to hit the truth. The era should not be defined by generations, but more simply the ever-present factual reality of being online.

Forcing online behavior into a box — albeit the millenial or X or Z one — doesn’t seem to make sense. Go to any tweet-up and you will see members from multiple generations ignoring their fellows as they pour their brains into a ubiquitously present iPhone (Transparent screen image by Edan).

Gartner recognized this when it dubbed the generational phenomena Generation V. I have become a believer in this description, in particular the three main characteristics of Generation V, originally proposed by Adam Sarner, a principal analyst at Gartner (Forbes):

1) We don’t necessarily get the underpinnings of technology, it’s just what we use. I see this increasingly throughout my work and personal life. People don’t get technology or software coding, it’s just gotten easy enough that almost any person can use it.

2) Overwhelming desire to participate in online communities, more importantly, global communities. This occurs through user generated personae that so many of us have embraced. New media content creation enables interaction and avatars, but most importantly, true two-way interaction.

3) Meritocratic environment: Collaboration, “we” is more powerful and valuable than “me,” yet me seems to be pretty important to recognize.

This last phrase was added by me, as we continue to deal with the rise of Internet fame and parasocial behavior. The reality of this particular matter seems to be that while there’s a collaborative spirit to online conversational media, there’s also a pretty strong self centered part to it, too. Me is important, and if others aren’t recognized for their participation they seem to leave the conversation pretty quickly.

When your digital persona is so integrated into your life, online and “reality” blur. They form a common reality. Thus it seems to me that much of the persona we see in digital media demonstrates a truer glimpse into the fragile, beautiful and oft self-absorbed soul. That is why relationships have become paramount in social media marketing. People feel a need to be recognized.

Friday’s Buzz Bin post will discuss the impact of generational demographic studies on corporate social media.

10 More Insights Into Writing With Respect

joanna@confidentwriting.com (Joanna Young, The Confident Writing Coach) — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 06:21:24 -0500

Somehow or another it’s the last day of September already, which means it’s time to bring the theme of writing with respect to a close. There are still a lot of ideas I’d like to explore based on the discussions we’ve had here… but I’ve run out of time to pick them up and develop them.

To conclude the theme I’d like to share some of those ideas and perspectives from members of the Confident Writing community. Insights that have got me thinking more deeply about writing with respect, and that deserve to be pulled out of the comment box and shared with you here.

They’re talking about respect for:

Authenticity

I think “authenticity” in our writing and blogging is very important in showing respect to our readers! Readers want real conversation with real people, so I think it’s important that writers show respect to readers through their authenticity!

Eric Peterson from Leadership Ramblings

Other Points of View

I think that writing respectfully allows for different viewpoints and being open to other ways of thinking than your own. Being willing to see things from a fresh perspective and to embrace each others uniqueness. I enjoy the fact that not everyone will agree with all things and that when we are open and respectful, we can come together and learn and grow from our interactions with each other as a global community.

Wendi Kelly from Life’s Little Inspirations

Aloha

When we write with respect for our Aloha (both our own and that of others - our readers in this context) we practice Ho‘ohanohano, conducting ourselves with distinction borne of valuing dignity and respect.

Rosa Say from Managing With Aloha Coaching

Yourself as a Writer

Straight off, one might think that writing with respect for your reader is the main goal. But, on a deeper level, I believe that this can only come about when you first respect yourself as a writer.

Scott McIntyre

Writing

Writing with respect for writing comes to mind. We don’t need to see writers as anguished poets or on a pedestal. We are all writers. The process of writing itself is wise, wonderful, and fun.

Lori from SpaceAgeSage

Your Readers’ Minds

Another fantastic way to show respect to your readers is to always push them to think differently, deeper, and stretch their minds!

Angela Maiers from Angela Maiers.Com

Your Own Style

Writing with respect for you as a writer could mean: Don’t change your way of writing because it doesn’t seem to follow the newest trend; don’t write something you don’t stand for; don’t pretend to know more than you really do.

Ulla, from Ulla Hennig’s Blog

Your Blog Readers

I find with blogging, respect comes into play more often than we could imagine. Just as our blogs are like our homes in blogosphere, our visitors are our house guests. In real life we respect them, just as we should on our blogs.

Barbara Swafford from Blogging Without A Blog

Your Own Truth

Why do I write? I agree with Brenda Ueland’s sentiment: “… at last I understood that writing was this: an impulse to share with other people a feeling or truth that I myself had. Not to preach to them, but to give it to them if they cared to hear it. If they did not—fine. That was all right too.” Her feeling is if we write something that’s meaningful to us we can’t lose. Also I’ve found when I’m changed by a post I’ve written, then there’s a good chance that someone else might be touched by it, too.

Jean Browman, the Cheerful Monk

Your Own Words

It’s important to be ourselves — and that includes expressing ourselves in the manner that comes naturally to us. After all, that’s part of our own personal charm. To do otherwise would be artificial, and in the long run, our readers would see through our attempts to be something we aren’t and I believe our credibility would suffer. Being authentic is one great way we can respect our readers.

Jeanne Dininni, from Writers Notes

Thanks to everyone who’s read, stumbled, linked to and written their own posts on the theme of respect this month, as well as to all of you who take the time to comment. All of it is much appreciated.

Joanna Young, The Confident Writing Coach
Because our words count