New Tech Heroes

"Tom Kephart with The Report" for June 27-29, 2009

Tom Kephart — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 17:05:56 +0000

Here's this week's edition of "The Report," featuring a story on The Pond Guy's annual "Parade of Ponds" benefiting Leader Dogs for the Blind, and our weekly cooking show, "At The Market with Bryan Neiman," featuring the Marine City Fish Company.

"Tom Kephart with The Report" for June 27-29, 2009

"The Report" also appears on Saturdays and Sundays at 1:00, 5:00 and 9:00 a.m. and p.m. on CTV, Comcast channel 6 in the St. Clair and Marine City area.

I think I used to have an office somewhere

Tom Kephart — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 19:45:11 +0000

Over the past two weeks, I've spent about four hours in my home office. A big reason for that is that I've been very busy: I'm directing a community theater musical in Port Huron (High School Musical for Port Huron Civic Theatre), as well as seeing an increase in interest in Kephart + Associates and its services, which has meant more road time to visit clients and prospects.

But another reason is that I have the tools to let me easily head out the door and do most, if not all, of my communication and computing wherever I am. Between my laptop and wide availability of wifi connections and my iPhone, which keeps me connected everywhere else, wherever I'm sitting is now my office.

This has some nice side effects. I'm finding regular places to sit for a few hours and get some work done (shout out to Sue's Coffee House in St. Clair!), which in turn become pseudo-offices in each of the towns in my area. It lets me create a physical presence in each community without the overhead of rent and utilities.

Chris Brogan and Justin Levy of New Marketing Labs have launched a new website, workshifting.com, aimed at what they're calling "workshifters," mobile workers who use technology to make wherever they are their workspace. It's interesting and thought-provoking; check it out.

Connecting Businesses to Customers Electronically

Tom Kephart — Thu, 07 May 2009 19:09:42 +0000

As previously mentioned, I'm presenting a short introduction to the use of social media and search marketing to the St. Clair (Mich.) Chamber of Commerce this evening. It's an overview, not particularly in-depth due to the length of the presentation, but I'm hoping it will inspire some questions.

The presentation slides are available here and on SlideShare. I'll add an audio track from tonight's presentation later.

Connecting Business to Customers Electronically

View more presentations from tomkephart.

St. Clair Chamber of Commerce e-net event May 7th

Tom Kephart — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 17:35:07 +0000

I'll be the featured speaker at the St. Clair (Michigan) Chamber of Commerce's monthly "e-net" event in May. The topic is new media marketing, and I'll be discussing business blogging, e-commerce and the rising popularly and use of Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms in business.

The event will be on Thursday, May 7th from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. at the Red Mudd Studio in Kimball Township. The studio is owned by artist Deb Bassett-Maxwell, who I've met a few times before, and I'm excited to be able to visit her studio as part of this presentation.

There are a limited number of seats available for this event, and it's open to both St. Clair Chamber members and non-members, so call David Gillis at the Chamber office today to make a reservation at (810) 329-2962.

Hope to see you there!

Image: Original clay artwork by Deborah J. Bassett-Maxwell. See more on her website's gallery.

Skype for iPhone over WiFi now, 3G later this summer

Tom Kephart — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 22:03:34 +0000

Kevin Purdy has a look at the new Skype application for iPhone on Lifehacker today. On the current version of the iPhone OS, it only works on a WiFi connection, but on a beta version of iPhone 3.0 (due out this summer), it also works over a 3G connection. Intriguing.

How easy is it to reach you?

Tom Kephart — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 15:06:29 +0000

I was thinking about ordering some new business cards yesterday. After considering what contact information I should include, I had to laugh. If I include every way that people get in touch with me today, I'd need to use the back of the card to list everything! (I might just do that.)

Some of us remember when old faithful, the rotary-dial phone (owned by Ma Bell, too), was our only method of immediate communication, and if the person wasn't home, you probably couldn't even leave a message unless they had an enormous and expensive newfangled answering machine.

Now many homes no longer have "landline" phones at all. I just got rid of ours about a month ago. Everyone has a cell phone in my house, so paying for the home phone made no sense; nobody called it anymore except telemarketers.

My friends and clients communicate with me by cell phone, by texting, by instant messaging (including inside Facebook), Twitter, and so on. I have my cell number, but I also have a separate business number through GrandCentral (now Google Voice) which keeps my cell minutes usage a bit lower. With iPhone 3.0 later this summer, developers will be using VoIP technologies directly from the cell handset, and similar plans are being developed for other platforms.

So how easy is it to reach you? Are you making yourself available everywhere your customers are expecting to find you? Tell us about your current communications strategies in the comments.

Image: macinate via flickr

In cyberspace, everyone can hear you scream

Tom Kephart — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 17:54:50 +0000

How honest are you online? Perhaps a little too honest? Have you done any of the following in the past month?

Posted pictures from a private party you attended?
Sent a tweet on Twitter or changed your status on Facebook to describe how tired, frustrated or depressed you were?
Took an online poll that revealed personal details when it posted to Facebook?
Used profanity or made sexual references in a blog post, a MySpace update or a Facebook wall post?
Gotten into an argument or made negative comments about a third person when talking publicly on a social media service like Twitter or Facebook?

Users of these services seem to either be unaware or unconcerned that their words have a wider distribution than they may have intended. Individual privacy settings on Facebook are often more lax than they should be, allowing everyone to see your status, wall posts and other personal information. Twitter is sometimes mistaken for another instant messaging system, but everything you tweet is public (other than direct messages), so everyone can see and reply to your 140-character thoughts. The results can be surprising and unfortunate, from simple hurt feelings and misunderstandings to lost job opportunities or respect within a community.

Here are some steps to take to keep your social media reputation positive while staying part of your growing online communities:

Check the privacy options on every online network you participate in. Make sure they're set so that only those you've approved as "friends" can see your personal details. Nothing beyond your name is really required to allow new connections to find you, though you may also include your city and, on Facebook, your status. Everyone else should have to ask to be a friend before they see more info about you.
Everything you "say" online is public, even when it's private. It's easy for one of your friends, especially if the relationship sours, to cut and paste and turn private conversations or details into public with a click of their mouse. Just like gossip in real life, don't say anything online you could regret later. While online honesty can be positive and refreshing, it doesn't mean you have to say everything. Think before you click and learn to edit yourself wisely.
Think twice about every add-on, game or application you think of adding in Facebook. Most of them are perfectly safe, but they often ask for more access privileges to your personal information than they really need, raising privacy concerns. And they usually generate items for your News Feed that can become annoying to your friends when they have to wade through them, making them the Facebook equivalent of spam.
Don't confuse Twitter with Facebook, instant messaging or cellphone texting. It's public. (Yes, you can lock your updates, but what's the point of that?) If you're uncomfortable with everyone reading your tweets, Twitter isn't for you. It's a different method of communication and can be very powerful for building communities and finding new business opportunities, but it can also be disastrous if its very public nature isn't understood by the user.
Delete social media accounts you're not actually using. In the past year, the field of services has been winnowed down a bit, with a few dominating their particular niche. Don't drive yourself crazy trying to keep up with several services, pick a few that seem to be working and have good user bases (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, MySpace) and concentrate your communication efforts there. Get rid of the others to avoid someone getting into an inactive account and impersonating you without your knowledge.
Remember that not only is everything you say online public, it's more than likely permanent. Deleting a wall post or blog entry may make it stop appearing on Facebook or Blogger, but it's probably stored deep in one of Google's many search engine servers, ready to be conjured up with the right combination of magic search terms. Again, think before you click.
Make sure your online "you" is the person you want everyone to know. Unless you want to be known as a depressed, whiny person who drinks too much, leave the photos of you doing shots at the bar and the comments about how bad your life is to yourself. The power of social media runs both ways: you can create an image as a positive, resourceful person or a negative impression that could cost you friends, money and personal success.

It's important to be part of this online communication revolution. Being in control of your online image and keeping the private part of your life private are as important, though. Make sure you're using the tools and not the other way around.

I still don't like the new Facebook layout

Tom Kephart — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 01:05:15 +0000

Kneejerk reactions irritate me. So when the new Facebook look was rolled out last week, I was determined to give it time to grow on me. That time is over, and I still think it's awful.

I'm not clear why a different look was needed. I've read that Facebook is feeling pressure from Twitter and felt their interface needed to be more "Twittery." If that's true, they've produced a big can of FAIL, because the new interface doesn't really seem more like Twitter to me. Besides, I like Facebook because it's Facebook and Twitter because it's Twitter. I use each differently. I didn't need Facebook to morph into Twitter.

My main complaints are that the "Twitterizing" of the news feed now means that if just one of my friends goes crazy answering polls for a few hours, that's all I see. One of my wife's cousins did just that last week, and every update on my main Facebook page was of Kim and her adventures in poll-taking. Fascinating in small doses, but hardly a balanced look at what my friends had been up to the past few hours.

The other problem is that the user interface is just confusing now, especially the status update box. This is what it looks like on my Facebook Home page:

On my Profile page, it looks like this:

I've seen several friends who've gotten confused with what should go in those boxes since the change last week, and what should be a comment on someone else's Wall Post ends up as that person's new status update (which could potentially be embarrassing). "What's on your mind?" and "Write something..." are hardly accurate prompts for what is still the status update. It used to say "What are you doing right now?", which was a much better prompt.

(And it does make a difference! Two friends have just posted Facebook replies to others as their status as I'm typing this post!)

What's more disturbing is that, unlike the furor over the Terms of Service changes a month ago, when Facebook's managers backed off in the face of user protests, this time it doesn't look like any response to the complaints is coming.

Daniel Ionescu at PCWorld.com writes that over 1.7 million Facebook users have joined the various protest groups on the site, but that it doesn't appear that that will be enough to cause a change of heart from Facebook, since it only represents about one percent of all users. I'd be willing to bet that those 1.7 million are among the most active Facebook users.

And Owen Thomas at Valleywag blogged last week that Facebook creator and CEO Mark Zuckerberg appears to be less than interested in listening to what the customers are saying:

The feedback on Facebook's new look, which emphasizes a stream of Twitter-like status updates, is almost universally, howlingly negative. Why isn't CEO Mark Zuckerberg listening to users? Because he doesn't have to, he's told employees.

A tipster tells us that Zuckerberg sent an email to Facebook staff reacting to criticism of the changes: "He said something like 'the most disruptive companies don't listen to their customers.'" Another tipster who has seen the email says Zuckerberg implied that companies were "stupid" for "listening to their customers." The anti-customer diktat has many Facebook employees up in arms, we hear.

So don't hold your breath for a quick change back to the old layout. Maybe if users don't find the new look as useful and look for an alternative (Twitter? How ironic that would be), then there will be a more positive response from Facebook. But for now, I'll have to keep wading through Kim's poll results.

UPDATE (3/25/09): Apparently they are listening and will be making some changes in response to the complaints. Rob Hof of BusinessWeek.com has the story. And here's Facebook's Christopher Cox on their blog, describing the upcoming changes. Good to see them responding to their users.

RIP Ann Arbor News. Your newspaper is next.

Tom Kephart — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 16:41:42 +0000

The 174-year-old Ann Arbor News will cease publication in July. Sad, but hardly surprising.

The Ann Arbor News will close in July after publishing as the city's daily newspaper since 1835, publisher Laurel Champion announced today. Heavy losses in revenue drove the decision. Champion said the current "business model is not sustainable. This isn't about abandoning local journalism, it's about serving it up in a very different way," Champion told employees.

The economy stinks in Michigan, worse than anywhere in the United States. But that's not the reason the News is closing. This is an unavoidable result of new technology in the form of the Internet. Should the owners of the News and its Advance Publications siblings (some of which announced today that they'll be reducing publication to three days per week) have seen this coming and done more to protect their paper versions? Perhaps. But the death of newsprint was inevitable from the moment the Internet became available to the masses in the mid-1990s.

Clay Shirky, who writes about the social and economic effects of new technology as an adjunct professor at NYU, wrote a post a little over a week ago about "thinking the unthinkable" when it comes to the future of newspapers. As hard as it is to imagine that newspapers will disappear, the business model they're based on has disintegrated. He describes how previous technological breakthroughs, like the printing press, caused a "revolution" in the way ideas were communcated:

When someone demands to know how we are going to replace newspapers, they are really demanding to be told that we are not living through a revolution. They are demanding to be told that old systems won’t break before new systems are in place. They are demanding to be told that ancient social bargains aren’t in peril, that core institutions will be spared, that new methods of spreading information will improve previous practice rather than upending it. They are demanding to be lied to.

Eventually, radio and television stations will also face the same dire situations that newspapers are facing today, and for the same reasons. The cost of entry to become a broadcaster, like having your writing distributed worldwide, is approaching zero. A WordPress or Blogger account, access to YouTube, and an inexpensive video camera gives you similar access to tell your story that mass media has had for generations.

Is this good? Isn't this the end of journalism? If we limit "journalism" to only those practitioners who have the "proper" training and education, perhaps. Will there be a lot of crap pretending to be worthwhile reporting? Of course; then again, there is now, both in print and on radio and TV. Will there be a difficult adjustment as good, hard-working journalists struggle to find employment in this new media enviroment? Certainly.

But it isn't the end of journalism. Again, borrowing from Clay Shirky:

The newspaper people often note that newspapers benefit society as a whole. This is true, but irrelevant to the problem at hand; “You’re gonna miss us when we’re gone!” has never been much of a business model. So who covers all that news if some significant fraction of the currently employed newspaper people lose their jobs?

I don’t know. Nobody knows. We’re collectively living through 1500, when it’s easier to see what’s broken than what will replace it. The internet turns 40 this fall. Access by the general public is less than half that age. Web use, as a normal part of life for a majority of the developed world, is less than half that age. We just got here. Even the revolutionaries can’t predict what will happen....

We don’t know who the Aldus Manutius of the current age is. It could be Craig Newmark, or Caterina Fake. It could be Martin Nisenholtz, or Emily Bell. It could be some 19 year old kid few of us have heard of, working on something we won’t recognize as vital until a decade hence. Any experiment, though, designed to provide new models for journalism is going to be an improvement over hiding from the real, especially in a year when, for many papers, the unthinkable future is already in the past.

UPDATE: Jim Carty, who worked at the Ann Arbor News during the last struggling years, blogged last week about some of the missteps made by Newhouse management and the success of the online Ann Arbor Observer.

Image: Geek&Poke via flickr

The death of email

Tom Kephart — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 15:02:28 +0000

I realized this morning when I checked my email that out of the eleven messages that had passed Gmail's excellent spam filters, only one was from someone I know. The other ten were what I would call "permission spam," messages from companies and organizations I've given permission to send email to me. Most of them I bought something from once and signed up for email updates at the same time.

It looks like one way to solve the email spam problem has been to move to other methods of communication. Email is so frustrating. Between the enormous amount of spam (Gmail marked another 150 messages as spam overnight) and the way both personal and work email addresses seem to change fairly often (how many of you have the same email addresses you had two years ago?), email just isn't reliable. When you can use a service's lack of reliability as a legitimate excuse for not replying to someone - "I sent it on Monday, it must have gotten stuck in your spam filter" - it's no longer a good way to do business.

We've moved to other services: Facebook (status changes, wall posts and direct inbox messages), Twitter, SMS/MMS messaging on our phones, IM and others. While the ingenuity of spammers truly knows no bounds, so far these services are proving spam-free and reliable. Even Twitter rarely has the downtime issues they experienced during 2008.

How useful is email to you today? What alternatives are you using to communicate with friends, colleagues and customers?

Image: creativedc via Flickr