tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-61062334714042882312024-02-08T10:28:06.747-08:00Looking for the PathJohn McElhenney 2.1http://www.blogger.com/profile/15944246550943982732noreply@blogger.comBlogger97125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6106233471404288231.post-11484951936123285592009-08-25T12:10:00.001-07:002009-08-25T12:10:01.645-07:00Culling the Spammers from My Twitter Followers: TwitBlock.org Rocks!
<p><a href="http://twittercounter.com/jmacofearth"><img title="Screen shot 2009-08-24 at 3.55.45 PM" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-5054" src="http://uber.la/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/Screen-shot-2009-08-24-at-3.55.45-PM.png" height="272" alt="Screen shot 2009-08-24 at 3.55.45 PM" width="500" style="border: 1px solid black;" /></a></p> <p>From a high of 7,093 I have agressively BLOCKED spammy followers using <a href="http://www.twitblock.org/" title="Zap the spammers in your follower stream" target="_blank">TwitBlock.org</a>, my new favorite tool. <span style="color: #888888;">[I'm not sure how I got spam listed by 9 twitblock users, but I have some suspicions. Oh well. If you're in the neighborhood and would like to "whitelist me" as not spam I'd appreciate it.]</span></p> <p>Well, my aggressive unspam blocking has resulted in a drop in my follower count to 6,870. Seems like the Tweespammers are agressive about unfollowing unfollowers. I say if you're gonna blast crap quote spam, MLM marketing messages and sexcam soliciations I think you should be blocked. Perhaps those folks can figure out who blocked them and block back?</p> <p><a href="http://twitblock.org"><img title="Screen shot 2009-08-24 at 4.20.56 PM" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-5056" src="http://uber.la/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/Screen-shot-2009-08-24-at-4.20.56-PM.png" height="46" alt="Screen shot 2009-08-24 at 4.20.56 PM" width="216" /></a></p> <p>No worries. Seems like the value of a tweet just got a little more easy to spot with Twitblocker.</p> <p>Two great things about this tool.</p> <p>1. It shows all your spammy followers on one screen allowing your to unfollow a lot of people at once. And the spammers are easy to spot, believe me. Especially when they are all lined up together like a police lineup.</p> <p>2. As the tool gets more users and more accounts are rated as spam, the ratings will get better and the tool will be better at pulling spammers out of your flow.</p> <p>Here's a sample output as TwitBlock began scanning my followers:</p> <p><img title="Screen shot 2009-08-24 at 4.41.10 PM" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-5057" src="http://uber.la/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/Screen-shot-2009-08-24-at-4.41.10-PM.png" height="410" alt="Screen shot 2009-08-24 at 4.41.10 PM" width="470" /></p> <p>You can see I have not blocked sxpanel, but I am about to block Schwartz632. It's easy to <a href="http://uber.la/archives/4894">spot the spammers</a>, but TwitBlock makes it really easy to find them all in one place.</p> <p>What we need perhaps is a kick ass Tweeter list. I've been wanting to build a matrix of folks I follow in different fields. Like a verification or a seal of approval for some folks I think are awesome. Starting with my very few #FF #followfriday nominations and Mr. Tweet recomendations, I'm sure I could produce a shortlist of recommendations. That will be my next task.</p> <p>In the mean time keep it clean and add your account to Twitblock.org and get blocking. The twittersphere will thank you and together we can reduce the noise.</p> <p>@<a href="http://twitter.com/jmacofearth" title="Tweeting with a purpose since Mar 08" target="_blank">jmacofearth</a> <br />permalink to uber.la: <a href="http://bit.ly/twitblock-inaction">http://bit.ly/twitblock-inaction</a></p> <p><strong>NOTE:</strong> If you think I'm spammy please let me know. I'd be happy to understand how I can provide more value for you. My motto is WIIFY (what's in it for you).</p> <p>And an <strong>ON NO</strong>: In unfollowing so many peeps I just upset my follow/follower ratio and I can follow no more people. Gotta get out the wackin tool again. ARRRGGH!</p> <p>See also <a href="../twitter_way">The Twitter Way</a>, the collected posts about Twitter and Doing Twitter Right A funny post from Mashable on the <a href="http://mashable.com/2009/08/19/twitter-spammer-avatars/" title="Twitter Spam Avatars" target="_blank">Top 25 most spammy Twitter Avatar images</a>. <strong></strong></p> <p><strong>Latest Twitter Posts</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="../archives/4773">Why Everyone Wants to be Your Social Media Strategist</a></li> <li><a href="../archives/4485">Bored Tweetless: When Twitter Is Not About Conversations</a></li> <li><a href="../archives/3403"><strong>Dear Twitter Sniper</strong>: Shooting Sparks, Blanks, Hollow Points, Warm Fuzzies, Nerf Darts</a></li> <li><strong><a href="../archives/4179">Guy Kawasaki Phone Home Your Integrity Is Calling < Ghost Tweeting Anyone?</a></strong></li> </ul> <p><strong>My favorite twittertools:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://tweetreach.com/" title="TweetReach &ndash; understand your reach and effectiveness on Twitter" target="_blank">TweetReach (measure your reach)</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.twitblock.org/" title="TwitBlock will help you ID and Block the scammers in your Twitterstream. Just Block&rsquo;m!" target="_blank">TwitBlock (scammer deletion!)</a></li> <li><a href="http://twittercounter.com/" title="How many Tweeps do I really have? See a graph of your growth." target="_blank">TwitterCounter (keeping count)</a></li> <li><a href="http://twitterholic.com/" title="Another twitter discovery tool &ndash; verified phishing free" target="_blank">Twitterholic (search + discovery)</a></li> <li><a href="http://mrtweet.net/home" title="Check Mr. Tweet to discover new cool folks to follow." target="_blank">Mr. Tweet (discovery + recommendation)</a></li> </ul><p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via web</a> from <a href="http://jmacofearth.posterous.com/culling-the-spammers-from-my-twitter-follower">jmacofearth's posterous</a> </p> John McElhenney 2.1http://www.blogger.com/profile/15944246550943982732noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6106233471404288231.post-35009225870889797592009-08-25T12:09:00.001-07:002009-08-25T12:09:36.130-07:00Culling the Spammers from My Twitter Followers: TwitBlock.org Rocks!
<p><a href="http://twittercounter.com/jmacofearth"><img title="Screen shot 2009-08-24 at 3.55.45 PM" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-5054" src="http://uber.la/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/Screen-shot-2009-08-24-at-3.55.45-PM.png" height="272" alt="Screen shot 2009-08-24 at 3.55.45 PM" width="500" style="border: 1px solid black;" /></a></p> <p>From a high of 7,093 I have agressively BLOCKED spammy followers using <a href="http://www.twitblock.org/" title="Zap the spammers in your follower stream" target="_blank">TwitBlock.org</a>, my new favorite tool. <span style="color: #888888;">[I'm not sure how I got spam listed by 9 twitblock users, but I have some suspicions. Oh well. If you're in the neighborhood and would like to "whitelist me" as not spam I'd appreciate it.]</span></p> <p>Well, my aggressive unspam blocking has resulted in a drop in my follower count to 6,870. Seems like the Tweespammers are agressive about unfollowing unfollowers. I say if you're gonna blast crap quote spam, MLM marketing messages and sexcam soliciations I think you should be blocked. Perhaps those folks can figure out who blocked them and block back?</p> <p><a href="http://twitblock.org"><img title="Screen shot 2009-08-24 at 4.20.56 PM" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-5056" src="http://uber.la/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/Screen-shot-2009-08-24-at-4.20.56-PM.png" height="46" alt="Screen shot 2009-08-24 at 4.20.56 PM" width="216" /></a></p> <p>No worries. Seems like the value of a tweet just got a little more easy to spot with Twitblocker.</p> <p>Two great things about this tool.</p> <p>1. It shows all your spammy followers on one screen allowing your to unfollow a lot of people at once. And the spammers are easy to spot, believe me. Especially when they are all lined up together like a police lineup.</p> <p>2. As the tool gets more users and more accounts are rated as spam, the ratings will get better and the tool will be better at pulling spammers out of your flow.</p> <p>Here's a sample output as TwitBlock began scanning my followers:</p> <p><img title="Screen shot 2009-08-24 at 4.41.10 PM" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-5057" src="http://uber.la/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/Screen-shot-2009-08-24-at-4.41.10-PM.png" height="410" alt="Screen shot 2009-08-24 at 4.41.10 PM" width="470" /></p> <p>You can see I have not blocked sxpanel, but I am about to block Schwartz632. It's easy to <a href="http://uber.la/archives/4894">spot the spammers</a>, but TwitBlock makes it really easy to find them all in one place.</p> <p>What we need perhaps is a kick ass Tweeter list. I've been wanting to build a matrix of folks I follow in different fields. Like a verification or a seal of approval for some folks I think are awesome. Starting with my very few #FF #followfriday nominations and Mr. Tweet recomendations, I'm sure I could produce a shortlist of recommendations. That will be my next task.</p> <p>In the mean time keep it clean and add your account to Twitblock.org and get blocking. The twittersphere will thank you and together we can reduce the noise.</p> <p>@<a href="http://twitter.com/jmacofearth" title="Tweeting with a purpose since Mar 08" target="_blank">jmacofearth</a> <br />permalink to uber.la: <a href="http://bit.ly/twitblock-inaction">http://bit.ly/twitblock-inaction</a></p> <p><strong>NOTE:</strong> If you think I'm spammy please let me know. I'd be happy to understand how I can provide more value for you. My motto is WIIFY (what's in it for you).</p> <p>And an <strong>ON NO</strong>: In unfollowing so many peeps I just upset my follow/follower ratio and I can follow no more people. Gotta get out the wackin tool again. ARRRGGH!</p> <p>See also <a href="../twitter_way">The Twitter Way</a>, the collected posts about Twitter and Doing Twitter Right A funny post from Mashable on the <a href="http://mashable.com/2009/08/19/twitter-spammer-avatars/" title="Twitter Spam Avatars" target="_blank">Top 25 most spammy Twitter Avatar images</a>. <strong></strong></p> <p><strong>Latest Twitter Posts</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="../archives/4773">Why Everyone Wants to be Your Social Media Strategist</a></li> <li><a href="../archives/4485">Bored Tweetless: When Twitter Is Not About Conversations</a></li> <li><a href="../archives/3403"><strong>Dear Twitter Sniper</strong>: Shooting Sparks, Blanks, Hollow Points, Warm Fuzzies, Nerf Darts</a></li> <li><strong><a href="../archives/4179">Guy Kawasaki Phone Home Your Integrity Is Calling < Ghost Tweeting Anyone?</a></strong></li> </ul> <p><strong>My favorite twittertools:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://tweetreach.com/" title="TweetReach &ndash; understand your reach and effectiveness on Twitter" target="_blank">TweetReach (measure your reach)</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.twitblock.org/" title="TwitBlock will help you ID and Block the scammers in your Twitterstream. Just Block&rsquo;m!" target="_blank">TwitBlock (scammer deletion!)</a></li> <li><a href="http://twittercounter.com/" title="How many Tweeps do I really have? See a graph of your growth." target="_blank">TwitterCounter (keeping count)</a></li> <li><a href="http://twitterholic.com/" title="Another twitter discovery tool &ndash; verified phishing free" target="_blank">Twitterholic (search + discovery)</a></li> <li><a href="http://mrtweet.net/home" title="Check Mr. Tweet to discover new cool folks to follow." target="_blank">Mr. Tweet (discovery + recommendation)</a></li> </ul><p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via web</a> from <a href="http://jmacofearth.posterous.com/culling-the-spammers-from-my-twitter-follower">jmacofearth's posterous</a> </p> John McElhenney 2.1http://www.blogger.com/profile/15944246550943982732noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6106233471404288231.post-80989525718969081732009-08-16T09:39:00.001-07:002009-08-16T09:39:31.024-07:00How To Recognize the Scammers on Twitter: You've Been TweeSpammed!
<p>Everyone is new on Twitter. Everything changes and everything stays the same.<p /> On thing that doesn't change is the flood of scammer twitter artists leaching on to your account. Here's what they look like and here's what they do.<p /> This is a collection of TwitterSpammers I BLOCKED from following me today:<p /> <img title="Picture 25" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-4895" src="http://uber.la/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/Picture-251.png" height="61" alt="Picture 25" width="526" /><p /> Notice the last tweet was 2 days ago! For a tweeting tips service, you'd think they'd update at least hourly if not daily. Maybe they just don't have many good ideas yet. Notice the tweet is also nothing but a quote. <span style="color: #888888;">[NOTE: QuoteSpam is alive and well on Twitter as well. After a while you tire of the people who think it is a good use of their time to cut and paste famous quotes into their Tweetstream. Well, it DOES up their tweet count, but the value of an Einstein quote to my daily interests is quite low. And if the quote is from Oprah... well, I think she stopped tweeting a while back.]</span><p /> <img title="Picture 24" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-4896" src="http://uber.la/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/Picture-242.png" height="64" alt="Picture 24" width="524" /><p /> Let's see two biggies: 1. no avatar; 2. random letters for name. Only tweet starts with "Make Money..." If someone would build an app that immediately unfollows and reports all tweets that begin with "Make Money..."<p /> <img title="Picture 23" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-4898" src="http://uber.la/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/Picture-23.png" height="59" alt="Picture 23" width="525" /><p /> Bad Twitter ID. Contains "f" and "_" to snag a real sounding name. But there's that first tweet again, with these magic words "internet marketers." And she's got "make money" in there too. Poor woman in the picture is probably a real estate agent and has nothing to do with this account. And lastly the last tweet was 21 hours ago. [Hey Twitter, could you give us a way to filter followers by "last tweeted?"]<p /> <img title="Picture 22" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-4899" src="http://uber.la/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/Picture-221.png" height="63" alt="Picture 22" width="525" /><p /> And the "making money" with "sexy torso" approach. This one adds "get paid" as a nice come on. So let's see, we've got SEX, HEALTH and MAKE MONEY. It's the San Diego address that really sets off the alarm bells though... (just kidding on that one)<p /> So there are two reasons these type of scammers join Twitter and follow everyone.<p /> 1. Just like spam, they believe that they can drive traffic to that "make money" or "teeth whitening" or "get out of debt now" link if you just click on it.<p /> 2. And they follow you in hopes that you will follow them back. [There's a funny consequence of Mr. 50k and his auto-follow auto-bot tool. He follows all the pornsters too. And he's SOOOO busy he doesn't even have time to look over his follower list.] And even if you don't follow them back, and I would suggest you don't unless you want a lot of their friends dropping by, they are hoping that visitors looking over your "followers" list and see their ID.<p /> You can report these abusive accounts by forwarding the tweet onto the @spam account. Apparently someone at Twitter takes that responsibility seriously.<p /> But please do BLOCK the scammers and save others from accidentally following them when they look over your stream of "followers." It may take you a bit longer to get to 100 or 1,000 followers if you are editing and blocking the scammers, but it goes with the territory. And until Twitter adds a BLOCK and REPORT AS SPAM function we'll just have to do it the old fashioned way. One follower at a time.<p /> <strong>UPDATE 8-15-09</strong>: I think my very mention of MLM in my post about TweeSpammers got me a lot of MLM related crappo followers. I woke up this morning with this smiling face along with about 15 new scammers trailing my tweets.<p /> <img title="Picture 27" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-4912" src="http://uber.la/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/Picture-27.png" height="141" alt="Picture 27" width="547" /><p /> In discussions with @<a href="http://twitter.com/michaelpearsun" title="Michael Pearson says SUN is easier to come by on SM sites" target="_blank">michaelpearsun</a> last night we were wondering, if Twitter and Co. are touting their phenominal growth curve, what would be their incentive to block people from creating multiple and bogus accounts? To Twitter's stats it's merely another user. As Michael said, "If you have 28 million users with a lot of spammers vs. 2 million users of very clean users the proposition is very different." So Twitter says, "Gosh look at our amazing growth. Yes, we know there are some people gaming the system, but look at the growth rate on our monthly page views."<p /> And did you notice that to "manage" your twitter account you are forced to weed through users 20 IDs at a time. Now I'm thinking there are much better and more efficient ways of managing my users, BUT... for Twitter it's a ton of page views every time I go in, even just to clean out the spammers, Twitter racks up the stats. And what can we do about it, but comply and complain. Or not complain at all.<p /> I prefer at least giving a little bit of feedback. (grin)<p /> @<a href="http://twitter.com/jmacofearth" title="Not one spam in my stream" target="_blank">jmacofearth</a><br /> permalink to uber.la: <a href="http://bit.ly/twitter-spammed">http://bit.ly/twitter-spammed</a><p /> See also <a href="http://uber.la/twitter_way">The Twitter Way</a>, the collected posts about Twitter and Doing Twitter Right<p /> <strong>Latest Twitter Posts</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.insocialmedia.com/profiles/archives/4773">Why Everyone Wants to be Your Social Media Strategist</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.insocialmedia.com/profiles/archives/4485">Bored Tweetless: When Twitter Is Not About Conversations</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.insocialmedia.com/profiles/archives/3403"><strong>Dear Twitter Sniper</strong>: Shooting Sparks, Blanks, Hollow Points, Warm Fuzzies, Nerf Darts</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.insocialmedia.com/profiles/archives/4179">Guy Kawasaki Phone Home Your Integrity Is Calling<br /></a></li> </ul><p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via web</a> from <a href="http://jmacofearth.posterous.com/how-to-recognize-the-scammers-on-twitter-youv">jmacofearth's posterous</a> </p> John McElhenney 2.1http://www.blogger.com/profile/15944246550943982732noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6106233471404288231.post-11278158689488363262009-08-16T09:38:00.001-07:002009-08-16T09:38:03.110-07:00How To Recognize the Scammers on Twitter: You've Been TweeSpammed!
<p>Everyone is new on Twitter. Everything changes and everything stays the same.<p /> On thing that doesn't change is the flood of scammer twitter artists leaching on to your account. Here's what they look like and here's what they do.<p /> This is a collection of TwitterSpammers I BLOCKED from following me today:<p /> <img title="Picture 25" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-4895" src="http://uber.la/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/Picture-251.png" height="61" alt="Picture 25" width="526" /><p /> Notice the last tweet was 2 days ago! For a tweeting tips service, you'd think they'd update at least hourly if not daily. Maybe they just don't have many good ideas yet. Notice the tweet is also nothing but a quote. <span style="color: #888888;">[NOTE: QuoteSpam is alive and well on Twitter as well. After a while you tire of the people who think it is a good use of their time to cut and paste famous quotes into their Tweetstream. Well, it DOES up their tweet count, but the value of an Einstein quote to my daily interests is quite low. And if the quote is from Oprah... well, I think she stopped tweeting a while back.]</span><p /> <img title="Picture 24" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-4896" src="http://uber.la/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/Picture-242.png" height="64" alt="Picture 24" width="524" /><p /> Let's see two biggies: 1. no avatar; 2. random letters for name. Only tweet starts with "Make Money..." If someone would build an app that immediately unfollows and reports all tweets that begin with "Make Money..."<p /> <img title="Picture 23" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-4898" src="http://uber.la/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/Picture-23.png" height="59" alt="Picture 23" width="525" /><p /> Bad Twitter ID. Contains "f" and "_" to snag a real sounding name. But there's that first tweet again, with these magic words "internet marketers." And she's got "make money" in there too. Poor woman in the picture is probably a real estate agent and has nothing to do with this account. And lastly the last tweet was 21 hours ago. [Hey Twitter, could you give us a way to filter followers by "last tweeted?"]<p /> <img title="Picture 22" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-4899" src="http://uber.la/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/Picture-221.png" height="63" alt="Picture 22" width="525" /><p /> And the "making money" with "sexy torso" approach. This one adds "get paid" as a nice come on. So let's see, we've got SEX, HEALTH and MAKE MONEY. It's the San Diego address that really sets off the alarm bells though... (just kidding on that one)<p /> So there are two reasons these type of scammers join Twitter and follow everyone.<p /> 1. Just like spam, they believe that they can drive traffic to that "make money" or "teeth whitening" or "get out of debt now" link if you just click on it.<p /> 2. And they follow you in hopes that you will follow them back. [There's a funny consequence of Mr. 50k and his auto-follow auto-bot tool. He follows all the pornsters too. And he's SOOOO busy he doesn't even have time to look over his follower list.] And even if you don't follow them back, and I would suggest you don't unless you want a lot of their friends dropping by, they are hoping that visitors looking over your "followers" list and see their ID.<p /> You can report these abusive accounts by forwarding the tweet onto the @spam account. Apparently someone at Twitter takes that responsibility seriously.<p /> But please do BLOCK the scammers and save others from accidentally following them when they look over your stream of "followers." It may take you a bit longer to get to 100 or 1,000 followers if you are editing and blocking the scammers, but it goes with the territory. And until Twitter adds a BLOCK and REPORT AS SPAM function we'll just have to do it the old fashioned way. One follower at a time.<p /> <strong>UPDATE 8-15-09</strong>: I think my very mention of MLM in my post about TweeSpammers got me a lot of MLM related crappo followers. I woke up this morning with this smiling face along with about 15 new scammers trailing my tweets.<p /> <img title="Picture 27" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-4912" src="http://uber.la/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/Picture-27.png" height="141" alt="Picture 27" width="547" /><p /> In discussions with @<a href="http://twitter.com/michaelpearsun" title="Michael Pearson says SUN is easier to come by on SM sites" target="_blank">michaelpearsun</a> last night we were wondering, if Twitter and Co. are touting their phenominal growth curve, what would be their incentive to block people from creating multiple and bogus accounts? To Twitter's stats it's merely another user. As Michael said, "If you have 28 million users with a lot of spammers vs. 2 million users of very clean users the proposition is very different." So Twitter says, "Gosh look at our amazing growth. Yes, we know there are some people gaming the system, but look at the growth rate on our monthly page views."<p /> And did you notice that to "manage" your twitter account you are forced to weed through users 20 IDs at a time. Now I'm thinking there are much better and more efficient ways of managing my users, BUT... for Twitter it's a ton of page views every time I go in, even just to clean out the spammers, Twitter racks up the stats. And what can we do about it, but comply and complain. Or not complain at all.<p /> I prefer at least giving a little bit of feedback. (grin)<p /> @<a href="http://twitter.com/jmacofearth" title="Not one spam in my stream" target="_blank">jmacofearth</a><br /> permalink to uber.la: <a href="http://bit.ly/twitter-spammed">http://bit.ly/twitter-spammed</a><p /> See also <a href="http://uber.la/twitter_way">The Twitter Way</a>, the collected posts about Twitter and Doing Twitter Right<p /> <strong>Latest Twitter Posts</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.insocialmedia.com/profiles/archives/4773">Why Everyone Wants to be Your Social Media Strategist</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.insocialmedia.com/profiles/archives/4485">Bored Tweetless: When Twitter Is Not About Conversations</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.insocialmedia.com/profiles/archives/3403"><strong>Dear Twitter Sniper</strong>: Shooting Sparks, Blanks, Hollow Points, Warm Fuzzies, Nerf Darts</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.insocialmedia.com/profiles/archives/4179">Guy Kawasaki Phone Home Your Integrity Is Calling<br /></a></li> </ul><p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via web</a> from <a href="http://jmacofearth.posterous.com/how-to-recognize-the-scammers-on-twitter-youv">jmacofearth's posterous</a> </p> John McElhenney 2.1http://www.blogger.com/profile/15944246550943982732noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6106233471404288231.post-87602187635459599342009-08-06T12:24:00.001-07:002009-08-06T12:24:19.481-07:00The LAST Netbook Back-to-school Promotion EVER! (Dell's 10v Netbook Revisited)
<p>Well you can’t fault Dell for putting their heart into the netbook fiasco.</p> <p>A quick check of <a href="http://www.dell.com/business/laptops?%7Eck=mn">Dell.com</a> still reveals no fewer than 5 Netbooks in the Dell line.</p> <ol> <li>Mini 12</li> <li>Mini 10</li> <li>Mini 10v.</li> <li>Vostro A90 (the Mini 9 in disguise, perhaps they still had more to unload)</li> <li>Latitude 2100 Netbook (a new low for Latitude branding)</li> </ol> <p>Not sure how the Mini 10 is “New” but okay.</p> <p>The problem is this…</p> <p>The LOWEST POSSIBLE PRICE on a netbook from Dell is $299 for a Mini 10v. Here’s the scoop on that underwhelming package.</p> <ul> <li>10.1″ screen</li> <li>1 gig of ram</li> <li>1.6 GHz Atom processor (designed for smart phones and that’s about the performance to expect)</li> <li>Ubuntu (okay, but Dell has done something wonky to it so you can’t update it like a normal Ubuntu load)</li> <li>8 gig Solid State Drive (wow, I think an MS Office is bigger than that by itself)</li> <li>3-cell battery (you could add a 6-cell battery for $35, but who knows what that means?)</li> <li>1.3 mp webcam (my Blackberry Curve has a much better camera)</li> <li>802.11g wireless networking</li> </ul> <p>That’s hardly a computer. I know it’s a NET-book, but that’s about it. You can see from all manufactuer’s “netbook” ads that they are not hyping the performance of these barely-usable devices.</p> <p>The back of Fry’s newspaper ad yesterday has a REAL notebook, a Toshiba with an AMD Athlon processor for $379. Let’s see what you get for the extra $79 bucks. It’s definitely a hard time to be a computer manufacturer with a back stock of laptops.</p> <ul> <li>15.4″ screen</li> <li>2 gigs of ram</li> <li>Athlon dual-core processor (a real processor designed to run Windows!)</li> <li>Windows Vista Home (I’d rather have the “downgrade to xp, but okay)</li> <li>160 gig hd</li> <li>DVD recordable drive</li> <li>802.11 b/g wireless</li> </ul> <p>I’d say that’s a hard sell on the Dell-io. And if you are a parent planning on buying a Netbook for your student, <strong>STOP!</strong></p> <p><strong>The cost savings are not worth it! Buy a real computer. </strong>Leave the netbooks for exotics who already have a real machine and want something bigger (not necessarily faster) than their mobile phones to carry around. The idea of syncing a laptop and a netbook has seemed like a problem from the start for me, but I’m not the target market. And I won’t be… Until…</p> <p>Here’s what’s going to put the netbooks and the Kindle DX down for the count.</p> <p><a href="http://www.slashgear.com/apple-media-pad-tipped-for-holiday-launch-with-verizon-data-subsidy-2250036/" title="See the article on SlashGear" target="_blank"><img title="Picture 24" src="http://uber.la/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Picture-241.png" height="227" alt="Picture 24" width="243" /></a></p> <p>Apple’s <a href="http://uber.la/archives/4441">iTablet</a>. And it’s not a fantasy any more. Expected before the end of September, Apple’s entry into the lower-cost mobile computing market is too late to compete with the back-to-school promotions offered by Best Buy, Dell, HP, Fry’s and such. But mark my words. The Netbook mistake will be done by this time next year. If in 2010 we are still hearing about Atom-powered sub-compact netbooks will be gone, I’ll jump in the lake with my MacBook Pro in my hands. Even Android won’t be trying to deliver it’s magic on a “netbook.” Perhaps a “phone-book” or a “thin-book” but the dog days of sub-computing computing are done.</p> <p>Happy computing.</p> <p>@<a href="http://twitter.com/jmacofearth" title="I guess they could GIVE me a netbook" target="_blank">jmacofearth</a><br /> permalink to uber.la: <a href="http://bit.ly/last-netbook">http://bit.ly/last-netbook</a></p> <p>More fun with Dell:</p> <ul> <li><a href="http://uber.la/archives/3914">Dell Has Gone Stark Raving Brand Crazy (Reviewing the Dell Studio XPS 16)</a></li> <li><a href="http://uber.la/archives/3833">Netbook Fun: DELL’s Inspiron 10v Reviewed and Pawned</a> (perhaps check out this review if you’re really interested in the 10v)</li> <li><a href="http://uber.la/archives/2699">Dell Mini-9 or Vostro A90 or the Mac OS X Netbook</a></li> <li><a href="http://uber.la/archives/1765">Dell’s Adamo Is Cold Black Steel – 85% Still Say “So What!”</a></li> <li><a href="http://uber.la/archives/2254">Netbook Wars Heating Up or Melting Down – Where the Heck is Dell?</a></li> </ul><p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via web</a> from <a href="http://jmacofearth.posterous.com/the-last-netbook-back-to-school-promotion-eve">jmacofearth's posterous</a> </p> John McElhenney 2.1http://www.blogger.com/profile/15944246550943982732noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6106233471404288231.post-71647870018993773282009-08-06T12:23:00.001-07:002009-08-06T12:23:58.816-07:00The LAST Netbook Back-to-school Promotion EVER! (Dell's 10v Netbook Revisited)
<p>Well you can’t fault Dell for putting their heart into the netbook fiasco.</p> <p>A quick check of <a href="http://www.dell.com/business/laptops?%7Eck=mn">Dell.com</a> still reveals no fewer than 5 Netbooks in the Dell line.</p> <ol> <li>Mini 12</li> <li>Mini 10</li> <li>Mini 10v.</li> <li>Vostro A90 (the Mini 9 in disguise, perhaps they still had more to unload)</li> <li>Latitude 2100 Netbook (a new low for Latitude branding)</li> </ol> <p>Not sure how the Mini 10 is “New” but okay.</p> <p>The problem is this…</p> <p>The LOWEST POSSIBLE PRICE on a netbook from Dell is $299 for a Mini 10v. Here’s the scoop on that underwhelming package.</p> <ul> <li>10.1″ screen</li> <li>1 gig of ram</li> <li>1.6 GHz Atom processor (designed for smart phones and that’s about the performance to expect)</li> <li>Ubuntu (okay, but Dell has done something wonky to it so you can’t update it like a normal Ubuntu load)</li> <li>8 gig Solid State Drive (wow, I think an MS Office is bigger than that by itself)</li> <li>3-cell battery (you could add a 6-cell battery for $35, but who knows what that means?)</li> <li>1.3 mp webcam (my Blackberry Curve has a much better camera)</li> <li>802.11g wireless networking</li> </ul> <p>That’s hardly a computer. I know it’s a NET-book, but that’s about it. You can see from all manufactuer’s “netbook” ads that they are not hyping the performance of these barely-usable devices.</p> <p>The back of Fry’s newspaper ad yesterday has a REAL notebook, a Toshiba with an AMD Athlon processor for $379. Let’s see what you get for the extra $79 bucks. It’s definitely a hard time to be a computer manufacturer with a back stock of laptops.</p> <ul> <li>15.4″ screen</li> <li>2 gigs of ram</li> <li>Athlon dual-core processor (a real processor designed to run Windows!)</li> <li>Windows Vista Home (I’d rather have the “downgrade to xp, but okay)</li> <li>160 gig hd</li> <li>DVD recordable drive</li> <li>802.11 b/g wireless</li> </ul> <p>I’d say that’s a hard sell on the Dell-io. And if you are a parent planning on buying a Netbook for your student, <strong>STOP!</strong></p> <p><strong>The cost savings are not worth it! Buy a real computer. </strong>Leave the netbooks for exotics who already have a real machine and want something bigger (not necessarily faster) than their mobile phones to carry around. The idea of syncing a laptop and a netbook has seemed like a problem from the start for me, but I’m not the target market. And I won’t be… Until…</p> <p>Here’s what’s going to put the netbooks and the Kindle DX down for the count.</p> <p><a href="http://www.slashgear.com/apple-media-pad-tipped-for-holiday-launch-with-verizon-data-subsidy-2250036/" title="See the article on SlashGear" target="_blank"><img title="Picture 24" src="http://uber.la/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Picture-241.png" height="227" alt="Picture 24" width="243" /></a></p> <p>Apple’s <a href="http://uber.la/archives/4441">iTablet</a>. And it’s not a fantasy any more. Expected before the end of September, Apple’s entry into the lower-cost mobile computing market is too late to compete with the back-to-school promotions offered by Best Buy, Dell, HP, Fry’s and such. But mark my words. The Netbook mistake will be done by this time next year. If in 2010 we are still hearing about Atom-powered sub-compact netbooks will be gone, I’ll jump in the lake with my MacBook Pro in my hands. Even Android won’t be trying to deliver it’s magic on a “netbook.” Perhaps a “phone-book” or a “thin-book” but the dog days of sub-computing computing are done.</p> <p>Happy computing.</p> <p>@<a href="http://twitter.com/jmacofearth" title="I guess they could GIVE me a netbook" target="_blank">jmacofearth</a><br /> permalink to uber.la: <a href="http://bit.ly/last-netbook">http://bit.ly/last-netbook</a></p> <p>More fun with Dell:</p> <ul> <li><a href="http://uber.la/archives/3914">Dell Has Gone Stark Raving Brand Crazy (Reviewing the Dell Studio XPS 16)</a></li> <li><a href="http://uber.la/archives/3833">Netbook Fun: DELL’s Inspiron 10v Reviewed and Pawned</a> (perhaps check out this review if you’re really interested in the 10v)</li> <li><a href="http://uber.la/archives/2699">Dell Mini-9 or Vostro A90 or the Mac OS X Netbook</a></li> <li><a href="http://uber.la/archives/1765">Dell’s Adamo Is Cold Black Steel – 85% Still Say “So What!”</a></li> <li><a href="http://uber.la/archives/2254">Netbook Wars Heating Up or Melting Down – Where the Heck is Dell?</a></li> </ul><p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via web</a> from <a href="http://jmacofearth.posterous.com/the-last-netbook-back-to-school-promotion-eve">jmacofearth's posterous</a> </p> John McElhenney 2.1http://www.blogger.com/profile/15944246550943982732noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6106233471404288231.post-8418927200156533602009-08-02T15:20:00.001-07:002009-08-02T15:20:20.276-07:00My Musical Passion Catches Fire: Buzzie Live at the IPO Festival in CA
<p>My son Jason shot some video of our show at the Orange County Fair. He wasn't so focused on the show but was making some great comments along the way. I don't know if he was going for an art piece, but he sure got one. This was shot on a Flip video camera and edited with iMovie. Click on the image below to watch the video on <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5Zy9kgPQXw" title="Buzzie at IPO 2009 at the Orange County Fair" target="_blank">YouTube</a>.</p> <p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5Zy9kgPQXw" title="Buzzie at IPO 2009 at the Orange County Fair" target="_blank"><img title="Picture 2" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-149" src="http://blog.buzzie.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/Picture-2.png" height="326" alt="Picture 2" width="441" style="border: 2px solid black;" /></a></p> <p>The Buzzie musicians are:<br /> John McElhenney: vocals and guitar<br /> Robbie Rist: guitar and vocals<br /> Derrick Anderson: bass<br /> Marc Joseph: drums</p> <p>The song "Just Another Day" was written and performed by John McElhenney.<br /> ©2009 All Rights Reserved, Happy Mac Tunes (ascap).</p> <p>Many thanks to David Bash and the entire staff of <a href="http://internationalpopoverthrow.com">International Pop Overthrow</a>.</p> <p>The video is also available on</p> <p><a href="http://www.vimeo.com/5892982">Vimeo</a><br /> <a href="http://video.yahoo.com/watch/5669631/14861990">Yahoo</a><br /> <a href="http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=61391960">MySpace</a><br /> <a href="http://www.blip.tv/file/2428910">Blip.tv</a></p> <p>@<a href="http://twitter.com/jmacofearth" title="Tweeting the music" target="_blank">jmacofearth</a><br /> permalink: <a href="http://bit.ly/buzzie-live">http://bit.ly/buzzie-live</a></p> <p>The photostream is also available on <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/j-and-s-mac/sets/72157621923916804/">Flickr</a>.</p> <p>And now by popular request is the raw footage of She's Gone, the song behind the video, un-edited and narrated by Jason.</p> <p><a href="http://vimeo.com/5895687">Vimeo</a><br /> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75ww5sYEjSk">YouTube</a><br /> <a href="http://www.blip.tv/file/2430489">Blip.tv</a><br /> <a href="http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=61420375">MySpace</a></p><p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via web</a> from <a href="http://musicasfuel.posterous.com/my-musical-passion-catches-fire-buzzie-live-a">music as fuel</a> </p> John McElhenney 2.1http://www.blogger.com/profile/15944246550943982732noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6106233471404288231.post-33900926277119065262009-07-31T09:26:00.001-07:002009-07-31T09:26:08.863-07:00Smartest Guy in the Room vs Teamwork
<p>Scott Berkun has some amazing posts about managing Rockstars, leading the "smartest guys" and basically working with awesome teammates without pissing them off.<p />And sometimes the TEAM comes before the Rockstar.<p />Here's Scott's <a href="http://www.scottberkun.com/essays/47-teams-and-stars/" title="Scott Berkun - Teams and Stars" target="_blank">Teams and Stars</a> essay on the subject and a short excerpt.<br /><p style="padding-left: 30px;">It’s hard to understand good teams until you’ve been on both good and bad ones. You can often find frustrated people on good teams and happy people on bad teams: they don’t have enough perspective to see where they are for what it is. Some stars, people of high talent, are poor judges of teams because they’re tempted by the desire to stand out rather than the desire to succeed. Despite this, a common managerial temptation is to hire big talents, challenging the balance of needs for a successful team.</p><p />I once was part of the Best Team in the World. And since then I know that at least two of my previous teammates and I have struggled to regain some perspective on our TEAM work.<p />Once you have been part of an Agile team it is hard, maybe impossible, to go back to a dysfunctional team. In the Lencioni's <a href="http://astore.amazon.com/wikisocial-20/detail/B000UCUX0K" title="Five Dysfunctions of a Team on Amazon" target="_blank">Five Dysfunctions of a Team</a> the core foundation for TEAMing is TRUST. I assert that this issue is the same in social media, or collaborative communities online, where we must find tools and take risks to establish the trust between ourselves and our potential teammates. When the TRUST is threatened the entire TEAM is threatened.<p />Here is a graphic of Lencioni's hierarchy.<p /><img title="Picture 3" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-4548" src="http://uber.la/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Picture-311.png" height="279" alt="Picture 3" width="430" /><p />It's only through TRUST is the team willing to have CONFLICT. And without the ability to disagree the TEAM cannot work through difficult tasks.<p />@<a href="http://twitter.com/jmacofearth" title="Tweeting about trust" target="_blank">jmacofearth</a><br />permalink: <a href="http://bit.ly/teams-stars">http://bit.ly/teams-stars</a><br /><ul><br /><li>Scott Berkun's <a href="http://www.scottberkun.com/essays/47-teams-and-stars/">Teams and Stars</a></li><br /><li>Patrick Lincioni's <a href="http://www.tablegroup.com/consulting/partners/">Table Group</a></li><br /></ul></p><p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via web</a> from <a href="http://jmacofearth.posterous.com/smartest-guy-in-the-room-vs-teamwork">jmacofearth's posterous</a> </p> John McElhenney 2.1http://www.blogger.com/profile/15944246550943982732noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6106233471404288231.post-85295689516278241602009-07-31T09:25:00.001-07:002009-07-31T09:25:23.734-07:00Smartest Guy in the Room vs Teamwork
<p>Scott Berkun has some amazing posts about managing Rockstars, leading the "smartest guys" and basically working with awesome teammates without pissing them off.<p />And sometimes the TEAM comes before the Rockstar.<p />Here's Scott's <a href="http://www.scottberkun.com/essays/47-teams-and-stars/" title="Scott Berkun - Teams and Stars" target="_blank">Teams and Stars</a> essay on the subject and a short excerpt.<br /><p style="padding-left: 30px;">It’s hard to understand good teams until you’ve been on both good and bad ones. You can often find frustrated people on good teams and happy people on bad teams: they don’t have enough perspective to see where they are for what it is. Some stars, people of high talent, are poor judges of teams because they’re tempted by the desire to stand out rather than the desire to succeed. Despite this, a common managerial temptation is to hire big talents, challenging the balance of needs for a successful team.</p><p />I once was part of the Best Team in the World. And since then I know that at least two of my previous teammates and I have struggled to regain some perspective on our TEAM work.<p />Once you have been part of an Agile team it is hard, maybe impossible, to go back to a dysfunctional team. In the Lencioni's <a href="http://astore.amazon.com/wikisocial-20/detail/B000UCUX0K" title="Five Dysfunctions of a Team on Amazon" target="_blank">Five Dysfunctions of a Team</a> the core foundation for TEAMing is TRUST. I assert that this issue is the same in social media, or collaborative communities online, where we must find tools and take risks to establish the trust between ourselves and our potential teammates. When the TRUST is threatened the entire TEAM is threatened.<p />Here is a graphic of Lencioni's hierarchy.<p /><img title="Picture 3" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-4548" src="http://uber.la/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Picture-311.png" height="279" alt="Picture 3" width="430" /><p />It's only through TRUST is the team willing to have CONFLICT. And without the ability to disagree the TEAM cannot work through difficult tasks.<p />@<a href="http://twitter.com/jmacofearth" title="Tweeting about trust" target="_blank">jmacofearth</a><br />permalink: <a href="http://bit.ly/teams-stars">http://bit.ly/teams-stars</a><br /><ul><br /><li>Scott Berkun's <a href="http://www.scottberkun.com/essays/47-teams-and-stars/">Teams and Stars</a></li><br /><li>Patrick Lincioni's <a href="http://www.tablegroup.com/consulting/partners/">Table Group</a></li><br /></ul></p><p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via web</a> from <a href="http://jmacofearth.posterous.com/smartest-guy-in-the-room-vs-teamwork">jmacofearth's posterous</a> </p> John McElhenney 2.1http://www.blogger.com/profile/15944246550943982732noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6106233471404288231.post-25304713138680545972009-07-29T21:01:00.001-07:002009-07-29T21:01:49.645-07:00The "Value-Add" Consultant vs. The Smartest Guy In the Room
<p><img title="Picture 3" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-4496" src="http://uber.la/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Picture-310.png" height="249" alt="Picture 3" width="583" /></p> <p><p />These are lean times for business.<p />As the "recovery" begins the long task of pulling us up by our consumer-driven bootstraps, it is easy to see how businesses are taking fewer risks and hiring fewer full-timers, opting instead to hire consultants. And within many companies that distinction can make a world of difference.<p />I recall a meeting a while back when my team was meeting with the VP of our division for the first time. The VP was very excited by what our team was doing, and during the discussion I too became enthusiastic and quick to respond to the VP's ideas and questions.<p />After the meeting adjourned I stayed back and chatted with my mentor/manager.<p />"Was I too much?" I wondered, knowing that I had reached for the sparkle with the VP.<p />Later in our 1 x 1 my mentor talked about the "consultant role" as something that I needed to out grow.<p />"We all know you are smart. We hired you because you are smart. But sometimes you need to listen to the question the VP, or executive, asks and answer just that question?"<p />More recently I have had some "consultant" moments that have caused me to reflect on what I could have done differently to "answer just that question."<p />The first one was an informal "job interview" with the CEO that was arranged by a friend and champion within the company who was inspired to have me join the team.<p />The hour flew by with the two of us jumping across many topics. At one point I used my computer to show this person some examples of the work I had done and was doing with WordPress and Google Analytics. We ended with an enthusiastic call to "have you back" to further the discussions.<p />Then something happened. This person rushed around the office looking for one of his senior people that he wanted me to meet before I left. After about 5 minutes the CEO came to the front desk and said the person was not available and would be at least another 15 minutes on the phone if I wanted to wait. Joining in the excitement and confident in the "have you back" talk I said that I would prefer to meet with this person when I returned.<p />SNAP! That was it. Something about my desire to do something else, rather than sit and wait had sullied the deal. In a phone conversation several weeks later the CEO lectured me on "listening" better. Rather than what I had felt was a collaborative discussion, the CEO now framed our meeting as a job interview and was schooling me on being a better listener.<p />A mutual friend later said, "Perhaps they didn't like not being the smartest guy in the room."<p />In a more recent example, a COO brought me in on a job opportunity and grilled me for over 3 hours. By the end of the 2nd interview we were white-boarding the organizational structure of the marketing side of the business. I thought things had gone swimmingly and was told they were going to do some due diligence before making any moves.<p />A couple days later the COO sent me an email about "setting up more interviews this week and next week" to insure that the company was confident in making such a big move, in hiring someone like myself. The position was going to require that the COO give up some of his control in order to make a place for a Creative Director or Marketing Director as we had outlined TWO rather than ONE position on the whiteboard.<p />I immediately fired back an email requesting we jump into the role immediately and "test drive" my creative side while solving some of the urgent design issues facing the company. My rate and the company's penchant for consultants made the offer too good to refuse. I started the next day and jumped headlong into the details of a creative project.<p />Over the course of the next few weeks I scored some major victories. Even the COO said, "You solved a problem a lot of designers had failed on."<p />But as a consultant I also quickly reached my limit with some of the changes that needed to happen to make the Creative Director position a successful one. The current "designer" had been hired and was being somewhat protected by the COO. And while I was being told to manage this person the COO continued to give direction and projects outside of our relationship.<p />When I called the COO on the issue, he agreed with me, but I could see I had not won any points. In fact, many of my tasks continued to be dependent on meeting with the COO, and often I was put in COO-watch mode, literally waiting for this person to get out of meetings. A crisis point came when I was asked to wait until 6pm to meet. And it was 6:30 when the door opened signaling the arrival of the COO.<p />Having kids and a baby sitter who turned into a pumpkin at 7, I was somewhat frustrated with the hurry-up-crunch-time-and-then-wait-on-me mode. I let my consultant mode slip, just for a second and allowed my frustration to show. That this person's significant other is a full-time parent, and that no other employee in our group had kids, put me at somewhat of a disadvantage to this type of wait-for-me management.<p />That could have very well have been the SNAP with this position as well. While my contract lasted beyond the initial 3 weeks, when I returned after a week off I got an email from the COO that said "I have decided to go another direction."<p />So again, perhaps I had run into the smartest guy in the room. And this time I had not played fully to their strengths and allowed them the "leadership" they needed to feel comfortable with me as an employee rather than a consultant. So their job opening is back on the web, in "another direction" that sounds a lot like the direction I was brought in on. Hopefully the COO will find someone a bit more hungry, a bit more compliant, a bit less familied.<p />Anyway the miss was unfortunate. The self-expressed need for the COO to "confidently relinquish this responsibility" had not been fulfilled. As a consultant I did not have the base to stand on when the issue of the designer's performance and workload came up. As a full-time employee the COO would've had to answer to his own call to "relinquish" control and perhaps he was just not ready to admit that someone else might be at least as smart as he was.<br /></p> <p>@<a href="http://twitter.com/jmacofearth" title="Tweetin to the best of my abilities" target="_blank">jmacofearth</a> <br />permalink to uber.la: <a href="http://bit.ly/consultant-role">http://bit.ly/consultant-role</a></p><p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via web</a> from <a href="http://jmacofearth.posterous.com/the-value-add-consultant-vs-the-smartest-guy">jmacofearth's posterous</a> </p> John McElhenney 2.1http://www.blogger.com/profile/15944246550943982732noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6106233471404288231.post-24016992562115584442009-07-29T21:00:00.001-07:002009-07-29T21:00:45.784-07:00The "Value-Add" Consultant vs. The Smartest Guy In the Room
<p><img title="Picture 3" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-4496" src="http://uber.la/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Picture-310.png" height="249" alt="Picture 3" width="583" /></p> <p><p />These are lean times for business.<p />As the "recovery" begins the long task of pulling us up by our consumer-driven bootstraps, it is easy to see how businesses are taking fewer risks and hiring fewer full-timers, opting instead to hire consultants. And within many companies that distinction can make a world of difference.<p />I recall a meeting a while back when my team was meeting with the VP of our division for the first time. The VP was very excited by what our team was doing, and during the discussion I too became enthusiastic and quick to respond to the VP's ideas and questions.<p />After the meeting adjourned I stayed back and chatted with my mentor/manager.<p />"Was I too much?" I wondered, knowing that I had reached for the sparkle with the VP.<p />Later in our 1 x 1 my mentor talked about the "consultant role" as something that I needed to out grow.<p />"We all know you are smart. We hired you because you are smart. But sometimes you need to listen to the question the VP, or executive, asks and answer just that question?"<p />More recently I have had some "consultant" moments that have caused me to reflect on what I could have done differently to "answer just that question."<p />The first one was an informal "job interview" with the CEO that was arranged by a friend and champion within the company who was inspired to have me join the team.<p />The hour flew by with the two of us jumping across many topics. At one point I used my computer to show this person some examples of the work I had done and was doing with WordPress and Google Analytics. We ended with an enthusiastic call to "have you back" to further the discussions.<p />Then something happened. This person rushed around the office looking for one of his senior people that he wanted me to meet before I left. After about 5 minutes the CEO came to the front desk and said the person was not available and would be at least another 15 minutes on the phone if I wanted to wait. Joining in the excitement and confident in the "have you back" talk I said that I would prefer to meet with this person when I returned.<p />SNAP! That was it. Something about my desire to do something else, rather than sit and wait had sullied the deal. In a phone conversation several weeks later the CEO lectured me on "listening" better. Rather than what I had felt was a collaborative discussion, the CEO now framed our meeting as a job interview and was schooling me on being a better listener.<p />A mutual friend later said, "Perhaps they didn't like not being the smartest guy in the room."<p />In a more recent example, a COO brought me in on a job opportunity and grilled me for over 3 hours. By the end of the 2nd interview we were white-boarding the organizational structure of the marketing side of the business. I thought things had gone swimmingly and was told they were going to do some due diligence before making any moves.<p />A couple days later the COO sent me an email about "setting up more interviews this week and next week" to insure that the company was confident in making such a big move, in hiring someone like myself. The position was going to require that the COO give up some of his control in order to make a place for a Creative Director or Marketing Director as we had outlined TWO rather than ONE position on the whiteboard.<p />I immediately fired back an email requesting we jump into the role immediately and "test drive" my creative side while solving some of the urgent design issues facing the company. My rate and the company's penchant for consultants made the offer too good to refuse. I started the next day and jumped headlong into the details of a creative project.<p />Over the course of the next few weeks I scored some major victories. Even the COO said, "You solved a problem a lot of designers had failed on."<p />But as a consultant I also quickly reached my limit with some of the changes that needed to happen to make the Creative Director position a successful one. The current "designer" had been hired and was being somewhat protected by the COO. And while I was being told to manage this person the COO continued to give direction and projects outside of our relationship.<p />When I called the COO on the issue, he agreed with me, but I could see I had not won any points. In fact, many of my tasks continued to be dependent on meeting with the COO, and often I was put in COO-watch mode, literally waiting for this person to get out of meetings. A crisis point came when I was asked to wait until 6pm to meet. And it was 6:30 when the door opened signaling the arrival of the COO.<p />Having kids and a baby sitter who turned into a pumpkin at 7, I was somewhat frustrated with the hurry-up-crunch-time-and-then-wait-on-me mode. I let my consultant mode slip, just for a second and allowed my frustration to show. That this person's significant other is a full-time parent, and that no other employee in our group had kids, put me at somewhat of a disadvantage to this type of wait-for-me management.<p />That could have very well have been the SNAP with this position as well. While my contract lasted beyond the initial 3 weeks, when I returned after a week off I got an email from the COO that said "I have decided to go another direction."<p />So again, perhaps I had run into the smartest guy in the room. And this time I had not played fully to their strengths and allowed them the "leadership" they needed to feel comfortable with me as an employee rather than a consultant. So their job opening is back on the web, in "another direction" that sounds a lot like the direction I was brought in on. Hopefully the COO will find someone a bit more hungry, a bit more compliant, a bit less familied.<p />Anyway the miss was unfortunate. The self-expressed need for the COO to "confidently relinquish this responsibility" had not been fulfilled. As a consultant I did not have the base to stand on when the issue of the designer's performance and workload came up. As a full-time employee the COO would've had to answer to his own call to "relinquish" control and perhaps he was just not ready to admit that someone else might be at least as smart as he was.<br /></p> <p>@<a href="http://twitter.com/jmacofearth" title="Tweetin to the best of my abilities" target="_blank">jmacofearth</a> <br />permalink to uber.la: <a href="http://bit.ly/consultant-role">http://bit.ly/consultant-role</a></p><p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via web</a> from <a href="http://jmacofearth.posterous.com/the-value-add-consultant-vs-the-smartest-guy">jmacofearth's posterous</a> </p> John McElhenney 2.1http://www.blogger.com/profile/15944246550943982732noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6106233471404288231.post-35956807039197293312009-07-29T09:15:00.003-07:002009-07-29T09:15:48.950-07:00Commenting on the 10 Great Books that are NOT Great
<p><a href="http://thesecondpass.com/?p=1663" title="Fired from the Canon - Classics to Skip" target="_blank">Fired From the Canon</a> from Second Pass</p> <p>I took objection to two of the selections and here is my comment:</p> <p>Well I agree with all but two of your selections. And here is how I differ:<p />On the Road, Kerouac. While not his best work, this book set the scene perfectly. After studying Kerouac for a long time, I have come back to On the Road (an awesome version that has reverted back to the original scroll seems to breathe some of the life back into the journey.) and am surprised by the heart and honesty Kerouac revealed. The story is more than Jack and his buddy. It's about Jack and himself, Jack and his Mama, Jack and his depression. While I like Dharma Bums and Desolation Angels better, On the Road is quite a read.<p />100 Years of Solitude, Marquez. I have to think your bored assessment has more to do with you than the writing in 100 Years. Yes it meanders, but that is the case with many a whimsical tale of enchantment, love, betrayal and excess. Some of the scenes in 100 Years are completely transportive, reading them once, I was never the same after reading this book. Blending "magical realism" and the mundane Marquez takes us to places unknown and dark. As you say, you come to a book with what you yourself are carrying, and if you missed 100 Years the first time, perhaps try again later. The rewards in this book are vast. Having started here, I have read almost all of Marquez's books over time. And this one is still the masterpiece! <p />@jmacofearth</p><p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via web</a> from <a href="http://poetryiscode.posterous.com/commenting-on-the-10-great-books-that-are-not">Poetry is Code</a> </p> John McElhenney 2.1http://www.blogger.com/profile/15944246550943982732noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6106233471404288231.post-66894917380034234412009-07-29T09:15:00.001-07:002009-07-29T09:15:14.892-07:00Commenting on the 10 Great Books that are NOT Great
<p><a href="http://thesecondpass.com/?p=1663" title="Fired from the Canon - Classics to Skip" target="_blank">Fired From the Canon</a> from Second Pass</p> <p>I took objection to two of the selections and here is my comment:</p> <p>Well I agree with all but two of your selections. And here is how I differ:<p />On the Road, Kerouac. While not his best work, this book set the scene perfectly. After studying Kerouac for a long time, I have come back to On the Road (an awesome version that has reverted back to the original scroll seems to breathe some of the life back into the journey.) and am surprised by the heart and honesty Kerouac revealed. The story is more than Jack and his buddy. It's about Jack and himself, Jack and his Mama, Jack and his depression. While I like Dharma Bums and Desolation Angels better, On the Road is quite a read.<p />100 Years of Solitude, Marquez. I have to think your bored assessment has more to do with you than the writing in 100 Years. Yes it meanders, but that is the case with many a whimsical tale of enchantment, love, betrayal and excess. Some of the scenes in 100 Years are completely transportive, reading them once, I was never the same after reading this book. Blending "magical realism" and the mundane Marquez takes us to places unknown and dark. As you say, you come to a book with what you yourself are carrying, and if you missed 100 Years the first time, perhaps try again later. The rewards in this book are vast. Having started here, I have read almost all of Marquez's books over time. And this one is still the masterpiece! <p />@jmacofearth</p><p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via web</a> from <a href="http://poetryiscode.posterous.com/commenting-on-the-10-great-books-that-are-not">Poetry is Code</a> </p> John McElhenney 2.1http://www.blogger.com/profile/15944246550943982732noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6106233471404288231.post-89565610096846273022009-07-29T08:12:00.001-07:002009-07-29T08:12:54.842-07:00The PRO Buzzie IPO 09 Pics from Christina Baldwin
<p>Lucky we were to have a professional photographer in the audience. Here’s the email she sent on Monday with the attached photos.</p> <p><span style="color: #0000ff;">I photographed your band because of your great energy and passion for your music. I was just compelled to! Love the music!</span></p> <p><span style="color: #0000ff;">Photographically and Musically Yours,<br /> Christina Baldwin<br /><a href="http://www.christinabaldwinphotography.com" title="Christina Baldwin's Photography Site" target="_blank">http://www.christinabaldwinphotography.com</a></span></p> <p><span style="color: #0000ff;"><br /></span></p> <p><a href="http://blog.buzzie.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Buzzie-IPO-Picture-18s.jpg"><img title="Buzzie-IPO-Picture-18s" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-141" src="http://blog.buzzie.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Buzzie-IPO-Picture-18s.jpg" height="210" alt="Buzzie-IPO-Picture-18s" width="400" /></a></p> <p><a href="http://blog.buzzie.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Buzzie-IPO-Picture-18s.jpg"></a> <a href="http://blog.buzzie.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Buzzie-IPO-Picture-16s.jpg"><img title="Buzzie-IPO-Picture-16s" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-140" src="http://blog.buzzie.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Buzzie-IPO-Picture-16s.jpg" height="395" alt="Buzzie-IPO-Picture-16s" width="400" /></a> <a href="http://blog.buzzie.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Buzzie-IPO-Picture-19s.jpg"></a></p> <p><a href="http://blog.buzzie.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Buzzie-IPO-Picture-19s.jpg"><img title="Buzzie-IPO-Picture-19s" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-139" src="http://blog.buzzie.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Buzzie-IPO-Picture-19s.jpg" height="284" alt="Buzzie-IPO-Picture-19s" width="400" /></a> <a href="http://blog.buzzie.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Buzzie-IPO-Picture-13s.jpg"></a></p> <p><a href="http://blog.buzzie.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Buzzie-IPO-Picture-13s.jpg"><img title="Buzzie-IPO-Picture-13s" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-138" src="http://blog.buzzie.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Buzzie-IPO-Picture-13s.jpg" height="500" alt="Buzzie-IPO-Picture-13s" width="383" /></a> <a href="http://blog.buzzie.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Buzzie-IPO-Picture-15s.jpg"></a></p> <p><a href="http://blog.buzzie.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Buzzie-IPO-Picture-15s.jpg"><img title="Buzzie-IPO-Picture-15s" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-137" src="http://blog.buzzie.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Buzzie-IPO-Picture-15s.jpg" height="267" alt="Buzzie-IPO-Picture-15s" width="400" /></a> <a href="http://blog.buzzie.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Buzzie-IPO-Picture-6s.jpg"></a></p> <p><a href="http://blog.buzzie.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Buzzie-IPO-Picture-6s.jpg"><img title="Buzzie-IPO-Picture-6s" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-135" src="http://blog.buzzie.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Buzzie-IPO-Picture-6s.jpg" height="270" alt="Buzzie-IPO-Picture-6s" width="400" /></a> <a href="http://blog.buzzie.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Buzzie-IPO-Picture-10s.jpg"></a></p> <p><a href="http://blog.buzzie.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Buzzie-IPO-Picture-10s.jpg"><img title="Buzzie-IPO-Picture-10s" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-134" src="http://blog.buzzie.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Buzzie-IPO-Picture-10s.jpg" height="214" alt="Buzzie-IPO-Picture-10s" width="400" /></a> <a href="http://blog.buzzie.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Buzzie-IPO-Picture-8s.jpg"></a></p> <p><a href="http://blog.buzzie.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Buzzie-IPO-Picture-8s.jpg"><img title="Buzzie-IPO-Picture-8s" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-133" src="http://blog.buzzie.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Buzzie-IPO-Picture-8s.jpg" height="267" alt="Buzzie-IPO-Picture-8s" width="400" /></a> <a href="http://blog.buzzie.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Buzzie-IPO-Picture-9s.jpg"></a></p> <p><a href="http://blog.buzzie.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Buzzie-IPO-Picture-9s.jpg"><img title="Buzzie-IPO-Picture-9s" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-132" src="http://blog.buzzie.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Buzzie-IPO-Picture-9s.jpg" height="267" alt="Buzzie-IPO-Picture-9s" width="400" /></a> <a href="http://blog.buzzie.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Buzzie-IPO-Picture-7s.jpg"></a></p> <p><a href="http://blog.buzzie.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Buzzie-IPO-Picture-7s.jpg"><img title="Buzzie-IPO-Picture-7s" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-131" src="http://blog.buzzie.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Buzzie-IPO-Picture-7s-300x200.jpg" height="200" alt="Buzzie-IPO-Picture-7s" width="300" /></a> <a href="http://blog.buzzie.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Buzzie-IPO-Picture-4s.jpg"></a></p> <p><a href="http://blog.buzzie.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Buzzie-IPO-Picture-4s.jpg"><img title="Buzzie-IPO-Picture-4s" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-130" src="http://blog.buzzie.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Buzzie-IPO-Picture-4s.jpg" height="277" alt="Buzzie-IPO-Picture-4s" width="400" /></a> <a href="http://blog.buzzie.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Buzzie-IPO-Picture-2s.jpg"></a></p> <p><a href="http://blog.buzzie.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Buzzie-IPO-Picture-2s.jpg"><img title="Buzzie-IPO-Picture-2s" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-129" src="http://blog.buzzie.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Buzzie-IPO-Picture-2s.jpg" height="267" alt="Buzzie-IPO-Picture-2s" width="400" /></a> <a href="http://blog.buzzie.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Buzzie-IPO-Picture-1s.jpg"></a></p> <p><a href="http://blog.buzzie.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Buzzie-IPO-Picture-1s.jpg"><img title="Buzzie-IPO-Picture-1s" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-128" src="http://blog.buzzie.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Buzzie-IPO-Picture-1s.jpg" height="267" alt="Buzzie-IPO-Picture-1s" width="400" /></a> <a href="http://blog.buzzie.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Buzzie-IPO-Picture-5s.jpg"></a></p> <p><a href="http://blog.buzzie.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Buzzie-IPO-Picture-5s.jpg"><img title="Buzzie-IPO-Picture-5s" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-127" src="http://blog.buzzie.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Buzzie-IPO-Picture-5s.jpg" height="290" alt="Buzzie-IPO-Picture-5s" width="400" /></a> <a href="http://blog.buzzie.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Buzzie-IPO-Picture-17s.jpg"></a></p> <p><a href="http://blog.buzzie.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Buzzie-IPO-Picture-17s.jpg"><img title="Buzzie-IPO-Picture-17s" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-118" src="http://blog.buzzie.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Buzzie-IPO-Picture-17s.jpg" height="267" alt="Buzzie-IPO-Picture-17s" width="400" /></a> <a href="http://blog.buzzie.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Buzzie-IPO-Picture-11s.jpg"></a></p> <p><a href="http://blog.buzzie.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Buzzie-IPO-Picture-11s.jpg"><img title="Buzzie-IPO-Picture-11s" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-117" src="http://blog.buzzie.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Buzzie-IPO-Picture-11s.jpg" height="316" alt="Buzzie-IPO-Picture-11s" width="400" /></a> <a href="http://blog.buzzie.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Buzzie-IPO-Picture-12-s.jpg"></a></p> <p><a href="http://blog.buzzie.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Buzzie-IPO-Picture-12-s.jpg"><img title="Buzzie-IPO-Picture-12-s" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-116" src="http://blog.buzzie.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Buzzie-IPO-Picture-12-s.jpg" height="500" alt="Buzzie-IPO-Picture-12-s" width="294" /></a> <a href="http://blog.buzzie.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Buzzie-IPO-Picture-3-s.jpg"></a></p> <p><a href="http://blog.buzzie.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Buzzie-IPO-Picture-3-s.jpg"><img title="Buzzie-IPO-Picture-3-s" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-115" src="http://blog.buzzie.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Buzzie-IPO-Picture-3-s.jpg" height="308" alt="Buzzie-IPO-Picture-3-s" width="400" /></a></p> <p> </p> <p>Blessings. @<a href="http://twitter.com/jmacofearth" title="Getting Buzzier all the time" target="_blank">jmacofearth</a></p><p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via web</a> from <a href="http://musicasfuel.posterous.com/the-pro-buzzie-ipo-09-pics-from-christina-bal">music as fuel</a> </p> John McElhenney 2.1http://www.blogger.com/profile/15944246550943982732noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6106233471404288231.post-9289048289385376612009-07-04T21:59:00.001-07:002009-07-04T21:59:04.061-07:00My Independence Day Manifesto: Devil Inside, Devil Inside, Every Single One of Us the Devil Inside
<p><strong>My Independence Day Manifesto 2009: Voicing the Devil Inside</strong></p> <p>There is a huge contradiction between the "harsh critic" and the "gentle observer." I utilize both perspectives in my writing. In general using the "character" or "voice" that best suits the task at hand. If the task is making a critical point about a computer design or the user interface of some of our most commonly used applications (WORD, FACEBOOK, TWITTER) then I feel the striking tone is the mode for emphasizing my perspective, even if I am only preaching to the small choir and not being heard by the objects of my affection or affectation.</p> <p>But when followers and readers come out and message me about being negative, well, I'm curious what is making them uncomfortable. When I railed against Twitter recently I got a Tweet back from @stop, one of Twitter's creative directors asking me "Why so harsh?" So I wanted to examine the HARSH CRITIC voice a bit further. And what a great time to do it. I just let a couple posts rip on Dell. And I had an post/counterpost on Twitter's recent changes. So let's take a look.</p> <p>Something in Seth Godin's "Tribes" speaks to this point. And I paraphrase. No one ReTweets something boring. No one forwards a crappy email. And if your viewpoint is so tempered as to not spark an emotional response, well... it's just not that interesting.</p> <p>So can you go to far in voicing the extreme viewpoint? Sure. But if my rants make you uncomfortable, then perhaps the discomfort is something inside you rather than my harshness. Perhaps not. I'm just sayin...</p> <p>In my HARSH review of the Twitter changes I made an aside comment, <span style="color: #0000ff;">Don't you guys have any design people on staff to come up with something a bit more original?"</span> Now, I admit that's a bit abrasive. But I'm really not trying to hurt anyone. I'm trying to make a point and make it so loudly, so over-the-top as to be funny. But what I am actually saying is quite pointed but not bitter, more irritated.</p> <p>What I am saying in my inflamed way in the taunt above is, "These misses are so egregious that I can't believe anyone with serious experience in UX or UI would make such blatant gaffes." And I would guess that someone of @stop's skill has enough experience that he either wasn't paying attention to this project or was forced to compromise by some higher-ups with statements like, "Well, let's just put it in both places so folks don't miss it."</p> <p>I can certainly understand how these kind of misses happen. I am even sympathetic to @stop and his team's dilemma of working for a hot-topic company with large coffers and ego maniacs at the top. <span style="color: #888888;">[See, there I go again. It's almost like I can't help but be sarcastic when I am addressing such foolishness as the executive management at Twitter. Hold on, say with me, I'm going to come back to that.]</span></p> <p>But the BAD UI, the redundant functionality, the only-twenty-followers-per-screen issues, those irritate, because those are the misses that I chafe up against in my daily use of Twitter. I am passionate and heated about these problems with Twitter because I use Twitter. And because UX/UI people everywhere can see that some of these changes I expose or suggest are really quite simple. So I rant.</p> <p>And my rants make certain people uncomfortable. And I will either apologize when I have offended or pour on more heat if I have given rise to a passionate dialogue, but I will not stand for average, mediocre or boring middle-of-the-road writing. And I won't hesitate to apologize if I make a mistake. I don't try to shout OVER my fellow orators.</p> <p>But I want to inflame the devil in you too. So much of what we do in social media is suppose to be about the "dialogue." But you know what, I bet the average visitor that actually comes out of silent watching (de-lurking) is about 0.05%. What will it take for people to feel comfortable revealing their own devils?</p> <p>The status updates on Facebook that get the most responses are things a recent "update" I made using a Lenny Kravitz line. "Are You Gonna Go My Way?" That was it. I was in a Kravitz mood. And boy howdy! About 10 people came out to high five me over my love of Mr. Kravitz. But post a hot potato about Dell and the audience gets a bit gun-shy. As if I am damning myself to social media ostracism.</p> <p>I do have to admit the support of the Iran Crisis and the green avatars kind of snuck up on me. I was FOR and then AGAINST and now FOR the greening of Twitter Tweep pictures.</p> <p>Well, I want to put up one more declaration. I am not hammering Dell because I HATE DELL. I do not RAVE on TWITTER because I HATE TWITTER. I want so much more from Dell and Twitter and NBC's coverage of Wimbledon. I have grown up working for Dell. I joined Dell in 2006 to try and make a difference in a company that was heading towards the guardrails. To me it wasn't a job, it was a passion.</p> <p>So when there is backstabbing and paralyzing political silos I am going to speak my truth. When I send a private email to an individual within a company and rather than respond to me they contact my manager as if I have been a bad boy, I'm going to call foul. When a company that is slurping up millions of dollars in investments and hyper-valuations can't get some of the basic tenants of User Experience right I'm going to say, "Hey, Richie Rich, why don't you look over here for your next 'innovative' idea."</p> <p>Okay, so I admit I do have a chip on my shoulder from time to time. And I try to expose that perspective as well. But it's not to be MEAN. If you misread the sarcasm, I understand that happens for me all the time as well. But don't say, "Why are you being so harsh," as a way of deflecting the criticism I have brought to your doorstep. Answer the question. If I am wrong, point it out. If I have missed the point, let me know. I am not baiting you, but I DO want you to speak up if I get something wrong. Or if MY TRUTH does not match up with what you believe to be TRUE.</p> <p>If I have made you afraid, mad, happy, confused, well at least I have had an effect. The next response is up to you. But "Why so harsh," or "How 'bout a hug?" is not a response it's a facade. That's what I'm trying to tear down, the facades that keep us nodding our heads in corporate meetings when we want to say "NO!" The facades that keep us from calling the FAIL WHALE a FAILURE. And the irritation that we get when we have to click buttons and OK screens four times just to dispatch a pornographic twitter scammer who had leached onto our follower stream.</p> <p><strong>I won't sit quietly any more. I declare independence day, today on July 4, 2009. And I will speak my truth.</strong></p> <p>@<a href="http://twitter.com/jmacofearth" title="Declaring Independence from Complacency" target="_blank">jmacofearth</a> <br />permalink to uber.la: <a href="http://bit.ly/july4-2009">http://bit.ly/july4-2009</a> <strong></strong></p> <p><span style="color: #0000ff;"><strong>The "best of" harsh light posts</strong></span></p> <p><strong>Twitter/Facebook UX UI Failures</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://uber.la/archives/3806">Twitter UX Awakens: The NEW TWITTER Reviewed and Dissected for UX and UI</a></li> <li><a href="http://uber.la/archives/3767">Twitter is NOT an RSS Feed: Don’t Auto Post Stuff to Twitter</a></li> <li><a href="http://uber.la/archives/3430">Don’t Panic… But TWITTER IS DEAD, Done, Not Coming Back! NEXT!</a></li> <li><a href="http://uber.la/archives/2704">Facebook “Friends” Fail – Somewhere Someone Is Working On Facebook’s UX</a></li> <li><a href="http://uber.la/archives/2482">Twitter’s #@!# Whale! Call It a “Small Settings Update” But I Call It MAJOR FAIL</a></li> <li><a href="http://uber.la/archives/2452">A Facebook UI Exploration – Simplify Simplify Simplify</a></li> <li><a href="http://uber.la/archives/1555">What’s Wrong With: #FollowFriday, #AutoDM, #AutoTWEET, #TweetLater – Everything Is Wrong With Them!</a></li> <li><a href="http://uber.la/archives/1556">Uber.la’s 1-2-3 Guide To Twitter: GETTING REAL with TWITTER</a></li> </ul> <p><strong>DellFail</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://uber.la/archives/3914">Dell’s Has Gone Stark Raving Brand Crazy (and a Review of the Dell Studio XPS 16)</a></li> <li><a href="http://uber.la/archives/3833">Netbook Fun: DELL’s Inspiron 10v Reviewed and Pawned</a></li> <li><a href="http://uber.la/archives/3686">DellFail – A ClueTrain Epilogue: My Dissenter Joins Me for Coffee</a></li> <li><a href="http://uber.la/archives/3313">The ClueTrain Left AGAIN and DELL Missed It AGAIN #DellFail</a></li> <li><a href="http://uber.la/archives/2699">Dell Mini-9 or Vostro A90 or the Mac OS X Netbook</a></li> <li><a href="http://uber.la/archives/2254">Netbook Wars Heating Up or Melting Down – Where the Heck is Dell?</a></li> <li><a href="http://uber.la/archives/4053">Dell’s Studio Design Studio is Wonky, But Only on a Mac (grin)</a></li> </ul> <p><strong>Say It To Me Directly So I Can Respond</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://uber.la/archives/3497">Mr. Omar Gallaga and JMacofearth Flap Their Tweets At Each Other – 6-17-09</a></li> <li><a href="http://uber.la/archives/3185">BLOG REALITIES: “I Stopped Reading You A While Back, I Can’t Keep Up”</a></li> <li><a href="http://uber.la/archives/3126">This is NOT Social Media: This is SELF Media: Talk To Me Don’t TXT Me</a></li> <li><a href="http://uber.la/archives/2806">Leadership Fail: A Few Lessons from the Corporate Trenches</a></li> <li><a href="http://uber.la/archives/1491">A Twist of the Knife – The Dark Side of People Management</a></li> <li><a href="http://uber.la/archives/1300">Deceptive, Confusing or Am I Just a Dork? – Buying a 17″ Macbook Pro</a></li> <li><a href="http://uber.la/archives/2704">What is Your Imagination Immursed With? (The Artist’s Way at Work)</a></li> </ul> <p>this popped up just a second ago,</p> <p><img title="Picture 1" src="http://uber.la/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Picture-1.png" height="64" alt="Picture 1" width="273" /></p> <p>wOOt, break out the bubbly!</p><p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via web</a> from <a href="http://jmacofearth.posterous.com/my-independence-day-manifesto-devil-inside-de">jmacofearth's posterous</a> </p> John McElhenney 2.1http://www.blogger.com/profile/15944246550943982732noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6106233471404288231.post-80004592144137387222009-07-04T21:57:00.001-07:002009-07-04T21:57:37.628-07:00My Independence Day Manifesto: Devil Inside, Devil Inside, Every Single One of Us the Devil Inside
<p><strong>My Independence Day Manifesto 2009: Voicing the Devil Inside</strong></p> <p>There is a huge contradiction between the "harsh critic" and the "gentle observer." I utilize both perspectives in my writing. In general using the "character" or "voice" that best suits the task at hand. If the task is making a critical point about a computer design or the user interface of some of our most commonly used applications (WORD, FACEBOOK, TWITTER) then I feel the striking tone is the mode for emphasizing my perspective, even if I am only preaching to the small choir and not being heard by the objects of my affection or affectation.</p> <p>But when followers and readers come out and message me about being negative, well, I'm curious what is making them uncomfortable. When I railed against Twitter recently I got a Tweet back from @stop, one of Twitter's creative directors asking me "Why so harsh?" So I wanted to examine the HARSH CRITIC voice a bit further. And what a great time to do it. I just let a couple posts rip on Dell. And I had an post/counterpost on Twitter's recent changes. So let's take a look.</p> <p>Something in Seth Godin's "Tribes" speaks to this point. And I paraphrase. No one ReTweets something boring. No one forwards a crappy email. And if your viewpoint is so tempered as to not spark an emotional response, well... it's just not that interesting.</p> <p>So can you go to far in voicing the extreme viewpoint? Sure. But if my rants make you uncomfortable, then perhaps the discomfort is something inside you rather than my harshness. Perhaps not. I'm just sayin...</p> <p>In my HARSH review of the Twitter changes I made an aside comment, <span style="color: #0000ff;">Don't you guys have any design people on staff to come up with something a bit more original?"</span> Now, I admit that's a bit abrasive. But I'm really not trying to hurt anyone. I'm trying to make a point and make it so loudly, so over-the-top as to be funny. But what I am actually saying is quite pointed but not bitter, more irritated.</p> <p>What I am saying in my inflamed way in the taunt above is, "These misses are so egregious that I can't believe anyone with serious experience in UX or UI would make such blatant gaffes." And I would guess that someone of @stop's skill has enough experience that he either wasn't paying attention to this project or was forced to compromise by some higher-ups with statements like, "Well, let's just put it in both places so folks don't miss it."</p> <p>I can certainly understand how these kind of misses happen. I am even sympathetic to @stop and his team's dilemma of working for a hot-topic company with large coffers and ego maniacs at the top. <span style="color: #888888;">[See, there I go again. It's almost like I can't help but be sarcastic when I am addressing such foolishness as the executive management at Twitter. Hold on, say with me, I'm going to come back to that.]</span></p> <p>But the BAD UI, the redundant functionality, the only-twenty-followers-per-screen issues, those irritate, because those are the misses that I chafe up against in my daily use of Twitter. I am passionate and heated about these problems with Twitter because I use Twitter. And because UX/UI people everywhere can see that some of these changes I expose or suggest are really quite simple. So I rant.</p> <p>And my rants make certain people uncomfortable. And I will either apologize when I have offended or pour on more heat if I have given rise to a passionate dialogue, but I will not stand for average, mediocre or boring middle-of-the-road writing. And I won't hesitate to apologize if I make a mistake. I don't try to shout OVER my fellow orators.</p> <p>But I want to inflame the devil in you too. So much of what we do in social media is suppose to be about the "dialogue." But you know what, I bet the average visitor that actually comes out of silent watching (de-lurking) is about 0.05%. What will it take for people to feel comfortable revealing their own devils?</p> <p>The status updates on Facebook that get the most responses are things a recent "update" I made using a Lenny Kravitz line. "Are You Gonna Go My Way?" That was it. I was in a Kravitz mood. And boy howdy! About 10 people came out to high five me over my love of Mr. Kravitz. But post a hot potato about Dell and the audience gets a bit gun-shy. As if I am damning myself to social media ostracism.</p> <p>I do have to admit the support of the Iran Crisis and the green avatars kind of snuck up on me. I was FOR and then AGAINST and now FOR the greening of Twitter Tweep pictures.</p> <p>Well, I want to put up one more declaration. I am not hammering Dell because I HATE DELL. I do not RAVE on TWITTER because I HATE TWITTER. I want so much more from Dell and Twitter and NBC's coverage of Wimbledon. I have grown up working for Dell. I joined Dell in 2006 to try and make a difference in a company that was heading towards the guardrails. To me it wasn't a job, it was a passion.</p> <p>So when there is backstabbing and paralyzing political silos I am going to speak my truth. When I send a private email to an individual within a company and rather than respond to me they contact my manager as if I have been a bad boy, I'm going to call foul. When a company that is slurping up millions of dollars in investments and hyper-valuations can't get some of the basic tenants of User Experience right I'm going to say, "Hey, Richie Rich, why don't you look over here for your next 'innovative' idea."</p> <p>Okay, so I admit I do have a chip on my shoulder from time to time. And I try to expose that perspective as well. But it's not to be MEAN. If you misread the sarcasm, I understand that happens for me all the time as well. But don't say, "Why are you being so harsh," as a way of deflecting the criticism I have brought to your doorstep. Answer the question. If I am wrong, point it out. If I have missed the point, let me know. I am not baiting you, but I DO want you to speak up if I get something wrong. Or if MY TRUTH does not match up with what you believe to be TRUE.</p> <p>If I have made you afraid, mad, happy, confused, well at least I have had an effect. The next response is up to you. But "Why so harsh," or "How 'bout a hug?" is not a response it's a facade. That's what I'm trying to tear down, the facades that keep us nodding our heads in corporate meetings when we want to say "NO!" The facades that keep us from calling the FAIL WHALE a FAILURE. And the irritation that we get when we have to click buttons and OK screens four times just to dispatch a pornographic twitter scammer who had leached onto our follower stream.</p> <p><strong>I won't sit quietly any more. I declare independence day, today on July 4, 2009. And I will speak my truth.</strong></p> <p>@<a href="http://twitter.com/jmacofearth" title="Declaring Independence from Complacency" target="_blank">jmacofearth</a> <br />permalink to uber.la: <a href="http://bit.ly/july4-2009">http://bit.ly/july4-2009</a> <strong></strong></p> <p><span style="color: #0000ff;"><strong>The "best of" harsh light posts</strong></span></p> <p><strong>Twitter/Facebook UX UI Failures</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://uber.la/archives/3806">Twitter UX Awakens: The NEW TWITTER Reviewed and Dissected for UX and UI</a></li> <li><a href="http://uber.la/archives/3767">Twitter is NOT an RSS Feed: Don’t Auto Post Stuff to Twitter</a></li> <li><a href="http://uber.la/archives/3430">Don’t Panic… But TWITTER IS DEAD, Done, Not Coming Back! NEXT!</a></li> <li><a href="http://uber.la/archives/2704">Facebook “Friends” Fail – Somewhere Someone Is Working On Facebook’s UX</a></li> <li><a href="http://uber.la/archives/2482">Twitter’s #@!# Whale! Call It a “Small Settings Update” But I Call It MAJOR FAIL</a></li> <li><a href="http://uber.la/archives/2452">A Facebook UI Exploration – Simplify Simplify Simplify</a></li> <li><a href="http://uber.la/archives/1555">What’s Wrong With: #FollowFriday, #AutoDM, #AutoTWEET, #TweetLater – Everything Is Wrong With Them!</a></li> <li><a href="http://uber.la/archives/1556">Uber.la’s 1-2-3 Guide To Twitter: GETTING REAL with TWITTER</a></li> </ul> <p><strong>DellFail</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://uber.la/archives/3914">Dell’s Has Gone Stark Raving Brand Crazy (and a Review of the Dell Studio XPS 16)</a></li> <li><a href="http://uber.la/archives/3833">Netbook Fun: DELL’s Inspiron 10v Reviewed and Pawned</a></li> <li><a href="http://uber.la/archives/3686">DellFail – A ClueTrain Epilogue: My Dissenter Joins Me for Coffee</a></li> <li><a href="http://uber.la/archives/3313">The ClueTrain Left AGAIN and DELL Missed It AGAIN #DellFail</a></li> <li><a href="http://uber.la/archives/2699">Dell Mini-9 or Vostro A90 or the Mac OS X Netbook</a></li> <li><a href="http://uber.la/archives/2254">Netbook Wars Heating Up or Melting Down – Where the Heck is Dell?</a></li> <li><a href="http://uber.la/archives/4053">Dell’s Studio Design Studio is Wonky, But Only on a Mac (grin)</a></li> </ul> <p><strong>Say It To Me Directly So I Can Respond</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://uber.la/archives/3497">Mr. Omar Gallaga and JMacofearth Flap Their Tweets At Each Other – 6-17-09</a></li> <li><a href="http://uber.la/archives/3185">BLOG REALITIES: “I Stopped Reading You A While Back, I Can’t Keep Up”</a></li> <li><a href="http://uber.la/archives/3126">This is NOT Social Media: This is SELF Media: Talk To Me Don’t TXT Me</a></li> <li><a href="http://uber.la/archives/2806">Leadership Fail: A Few Lessons from the Corporate Trenches</a></li> <li><a href="http://uber.la/archives/1491">A Twist of the Knife – The Dark Side of People Management</a></li> <li><a href="http://uber.la/archives/1300">Deceptive, Confusing or Am I Just a Dork? – Buying a 17″ Macbook Pro</a></li> <li><a href="http://uber.la/archives/2704">What is Your Imagination Immursed With? (The Artist’s Way at Work)</a></li> </ul> <p>this popped up just a second ago,</p> <p><img title="Picture 1" src="http://uber.la/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Picture-1.png" height="64" alt="Picture 1" width="273" /></p> <p>wOOt, break out the bubbly!</p><p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via web</a> from <a href="http://jmacofearth.posterous.com/my-independence-day-manifesto-devil-inside-de">jmacofearth's posterous</a> </p> John McElhenney 2.1http://www.blogger.com/profile/15944246550943982732noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6106233471404288231.post-38718201497267536002009-07-01T20:39:00.001-07:002009-07-01T20:39:00.656-07:00New Twitter Features: Reviewing from the Positive Side of the Brain
<p>A dear friend and Twitter marketer, contacted me late last night to voice concerns about my negative tone. I thought I had already had <a href="http://uber.la/archives/3605">that conversation</a>, but he probably doesn't "read me." No worries. So one of the pieces he pointed to was my recent <a href="http://uber.la/archives/3806">trashing of the UX/UI changes on Twitter</a>. I DID ping @<a href="http://twitter.com/stop" target="_blank">stop</a> and ask if he was the Creative Director responsible for the NEW TWITTER Friends and Followers pages. Here's what he said.</p> <p><img title="Picture 38" src="http://uber.la/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Picture-38.png" height="59" alt="Picture 38" width="190" /></p> <p>Okay, so perhaps I was being mean, I don't sense that was my purpose, but I do understand online sarcasm and humor can often be confused for bitterness, anger, vendetta, whateva... So here goes my <strong>ALL GOOD review</strong>... Let's see how this rolls.</p> <p>+++ <strong>THE ALL GOOD REVIEW:</strong> Thank goodness Twitter has made some needed upgrades to their UX.</p> <p>So Twitter's got a new pull-down action menu for dispatching some useful tasks.</p> <p><img title="Picture 14" src="http://uber.la/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/Picture-14.png" height="102" alt="Picture 14" style="border: 0px initial initial;" width="475" /></p> <p>Here we can see the new pull-down menu for taking action on followers and followees. With a simple click we can @, DM, Follow or Block any one. And this nifty feature is now available in the same flavor across all the "friends" or "followers" pages you visit. Even when looking at the "friends" or "followers" of other users. Nice! And convenient that you can see instantly, even without using the drop-down, that this person is "blocked" or "followed." <span style="color: #888888;">[Oh heck, am I still following that silly old advertising agency that I used to work for. Let's see, CLICK: drop-down, PULL: Unfollow.]</span> Nice!</p> <p>So now let's look at the new and improved Followers and Friends pages.</p> <p>Here is a shot of the "You Follow" page in <strong>LIST</strong> view.</p> <p><img title="Picture 16" src="http://uber.la/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/Picture-16.png" height="440" alt="Picture 16" style="border: 0px initial initial;" width="409" /></p> <p>So this pretty much looks like the old "You Follow" page. And conveniently the same drop-down box is available here too. <span style="color: #888888;">[I wish we could choose the number of tweeps to view per page, cause following 5,600 tweeps using 20 tweeps per page... well that's <strong>280 pages of goodness</strong> I have to page through to edit and cull my list. Just a thought.]</span></p> <p>And here's the greatly improved "Your Followers" page in EXPANDED view:</p> <p><img title="Picture 39" src="http://uber.la/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Picture-39.png" height="251" alt="Picture 39" width="346" /></p> <p>Here we can see that @stop and company have added a little contextual information with each tweep. So you can see the person's last tweet, very helpful when deciding if you want to reciprocally follow back. And again the nice BIG pull-down button. And also a handy, ADD button.</p> <p>So there are just a few things missing from the new interface. I'm sure @stop and his group are already hard at work on the next iteration.</p> <p><img title="Picture 40" src="http://uber.la/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Picture-40.png" height="163" alt="Picture 40" width="209" /></p> <p>1. I would like to see a RT option here. This must have been an oversight, cause that's such a simple fix.</p> <p>2. I would also really like Twitter to add a "<strong>-!</strong>" Report Abusive Account feature. Where I can fast-track pornsters and scammers to the dustbin of Twitter Hades. And in the Usability department, here's one more suggestion.</p> <p><img title="Picture 41" src="http://uber.la/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Picture-41.png" height="73" alt="Picture 41" style="border: 1px solid black;" width="270" /></p> <p><img title="Picture 42" src="http://uber.la/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Picture-42.png" height="69" alt="Picture 42" style="border: 1px solid black;" width="259" /></p> <p>Maybe there would be a good case for a drop-down something like this:</p> <p><strong>View By List<br /> - 20 per page (default) <br /> - 50 per page (efficient) <br /> - 100 per page (uber user)</strong></p> <p>And for ultra.uber powerusers, there could be a <strong>TEXT LIST</strong> mode, with no pics. <span style="color: #888888;">[That would be really fast, and I bet could relieve some of the server load on Twitter's cloud.]</span></p> <p>Carry on @<a href="http://twitter.com/stop">stop</a> and company. Good work and if you need any further advice, feel free to ask. It's what I do, too.</p> <p>Cheers,</p> <p>@<a href="http://twitter.com/jmacofearth" title="JMac HEART Twitter" target="_blank">jmacofearth</a> <br />permalink: <a href="http://bit.ly/twitter-good">http://bit.ly/twitter-good</a></p> <p>The harsh-toned review from last night: <a href="http://uber.la/archives/3806" style="color: #fa4949; text-decoration: underline;">Twitter UX Awakens: The NEW TWITTER Reviewed and Dissected for UX and</a></p> <p>And the collection of Twitter Posts all in one place: <a href="http://uber.la/twitter_way">The Twitter Way</a></p> <p> </p><p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via web</a> from <a href="http://jmacofearth.posterous.com/new-twitter-features-reviewing-from-the-posit">jmacofearth's posterous</a> </p> John McElhenney 2.1http://www.blogger.com/profile/15944246550943982732noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6106233471404288231.post-39879514526636579862009-07-01T20:37:00.001-07:002009-07-01T20:37:00.227-07:00New Twitter Features: Reviewing from the Positive Side of the Brain
<p>A dear friend and Twitter marketer, contacted me late last night to voice concerns about my negative tone. I thought I had already had <a href="http://uber.la/archives/3605">that conversation</a>, but he probably doesn't "read me." No worries. So one of the pieces he pointed to was my recent <a href="http://uber.la/archives/3806">trashing of the UX/UI changes on Twitter</a>. I DID ping @<a href="http://twitter.com/stop" target="_blank">stop</a> and ask if he was the Creative Director responsible for the NEW TWITTER Friends and Followers pages. Here's what he said.</p> <p><img title="Picture 38" src="http://uber.la/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Picture-38.png" height="59" alt="Picture 38" width="190" /></p> <p>Okay, so perhaps I was being mean, I don't sense that was my purpose, but I do understand online sarcasm and humor can often be confused for bitterness, anger, vendetta, whateva... So here goes my <strong>ALL GOOD review</strong>... Let's see how this rolls.</p> <p>+++ <strong>THE ALL GOOD REVIEW:</strong> Thank goodness Twitter has made some needed upgrades to their UX.</p> <p>So Twitter's got a new pull-down action menu for dispatching some useful tasks.</p> <p><img title="Picture 14" src="http://uber.la/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/Picture-14.png" height="102" alt="Picture 14" style="border: 0px initial initial;" width="475" /></p> <p>Here we can see the new pull-down menu for taking action on followers and followees. With a simple click we can @, DM, Follow or Block any one. And this nifty feature is now available in the same flavor across all the "friends" or "followers" pages you visit. Even when looking at the "friends" or "followers" of other users. Nice! And convenient that you can see instantly, even without using the drop-down, that this person is "blocked" or "followed." <span style="color: #888888;">[Oh heck, am I still following that silly old advertising agency that I used to work for. Let's see, CLICK: drop-down, PULL: Unfollow.]</span> Nice!</p> <p>So now let's look at the new and improved Followers and Friends pages.</p> <p>Here is a shot of the "You Follow" page in <strong>LIST</strong> view.</p> <p><img title="Picture 16" src="http://uber.la/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/Picture-16.png" height="440" alt="Picture 16" style="border: 0px initial initial;" width="409" /></p> <p>So this pretty much looks like the old "You Follow" page. And conveniently the same drop-down box is available here too. <span style="color: #888888;">[I wish we could choose the number of tweeps to view per page, cause following 5,600 tweeps using 20 tweeps per page... well that's <strong>280 pages of goodness</strong> I have to page through to edit and cull my list. Just a thought.]</span></p> <p> </p> <p>And here's the greatly improved "Your Followers" page in EXPANDED view: <img title="Picture 39" src="http://uber.la/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Picture-39.png" height="251" alt="Picture 39" style="float: left;" width="346" /> Here we can see that @stop and company have added a little contextual information with each tweep. So you can see the person's last tweet, very helpful when deciding if you want to reciprocally follow back. And again the nice BIG pull-down button. And also a handy, ADD button.</p> <p>So there are just a few things missing from the new interface. I'm sure @stop and his group are already hard at work on the next iteration.</p> <p><img title="Picture 40" src="http://uber.la/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Picture-40.png" height="163" alt="Picture 40" width="209" /></p> <p>1. I would like to see a RT option here. This must have been an oversight, cause that's such a simple fix.</p> <p>2. I would also really like Twitter to add a "<strong>-!</strong>" Report Abusive Account feature. Where I can fast-track pornsters and scammers to the dustbin of Twitter Hades. And in the Usability department, here's one more suggestion.</p> <p><img title="Picture 41" src="http://uber.la/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Picture-41.png" height="73" alt="Picture 41" style="border: 1px solid black;" width="270" /></p> <p><img title="Picture 42" src="http://uber.la/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Picture-42.png" height="69" alt="Picture 42" style="border: 1px solid black;" width="259" /></p> <p>Maybe there would be a good case for a drop-down something like this:</p> <p><strong>View By List<br /> - 20 per page (default) <br /> - 50 per page (efficient) <br /> - 100 per page (uber user)</strong></p> <p>And for ultra.uber powerusers, there could be a <strong>TEXT LIST</strong> mode, with no pics. <span style="color: #888888;">[That would be really fast, and I bet could relieve some of the server load on Twitter's cloud.]</span></p> <p>Carry on @<a href="http://twitter.com/stop">stop</a> and company. Good work and if you need any further advice, feel free to ask. It's what I do, too.</p> <p>Cheers,</p> <p>@<a href="http://twitter.com/jmacofearth" title="JMac HEART Twitter" target="_blank">jmacofearth</a> <br />permalink: <a href="http://bit.ly/twitter-good">http://bit.ly/twitter-good</a></p> <p>The harsh-toned review from last night: <a href="http://uber.la/archives/3806" style="color: #fa4949; text-decoration: underline;">Twitter UX Awakens: The NEW TWITTER Reviewed and Dissected for UX and</a></p> <p>And the collection of Twitter Posts all in one place: <a href="http://uber.la/twitter_way">The Twitter Way</a></p> <p> </p><p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via web</a> from <a href="http://jmacofearth.posterous.com/new-twitter-features-reviewing-from-the-posit">jmacofearth's posterous</a> </p> John McElhenney 2.1http://www.blogger.com/profile/15944246550943982732noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6106233471404288231.post-18371694338889153192009-06-30T05:30:00.001-07:002009-06-30T05:30:08.430-07:00Hyping the Death of the Newspaper: The Media Loves to Cover Itself
<p><span style="color: #888888;">[As is often the case, I was inspired by a post elsewhere and as I was writing my comment, I realized I had much more to say on the subject. So here is my longer comment on an article on Wired called, "<a href="http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/06/dear-malcolm-why-so-threatened/">Dear Malcolm: Why So Threatened?</a>"]</span> <img title="nytimes-delivered-small" src="http://uber.la/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/nytimes-delivered-small.jpg" height="120" alt="nytimes-delivered-small" style="border: 10px solid white; float: right;" width="160" /> I sat in on this years SXSW Interactive panel on the Death of MSM. There seemed to be three camps within the panelists and in the audience asking questions.</p> <ol> <li><strong>The MSM Writer: </strong>"All of this 'blogging' is really diluting the quality of the writing. I mean, MSM journalists have the degrees, they have fact checking departments, they have a standard to uphold." And they are losing their shirts.</li> <li><strong>The BLOGGER </strong>who believes in <a href="http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/laissez-faire">laissez-faire</a>: "Let the giants die. The Old Gray Lady is losing money, so what. Let her adapt or perish."</li> <li><strong>The Internet Gen Upstart:</strong> "Fk'm. I write. I don't make a living at it, I do it because I am passionate. And then I work my day job."</li> </ol> <p>The Huffington Post has done a fine job of not paying writers and basing giving the HuffPo lift to the writers to participate. So as a writer, we are on our own. It's a brave new "social media" world out there and you'd best sharpen your wit and look for your niche.</p> <p>I keep getting asked, "How are you going to monetize your blog?" My answer, "By getting consulting work and possibly a better job than the one that just laid me off."</p> <p>The papers won't die. Just as Rock didn't die. They will have to continue to evolve, be more agile, and <strong>embrace the "community manager"</strong> rather than <strong>"editor in chief."</strong> Long live MSM. MSM is Dead.</p> <p>BTW: As a paper copy subscriber to the <strong>NYTimes</strong> (THUR - SUN) I can't tell you how happy I am on Thursday mornings when the thump on my driveway is double the normal local-only paper. Those two plastic bags, one blue one clear, hold the possibility of excitement, learning, drama, humor. Often I am let down by my overly imaginative projection. But mostly I just love the thrill of unwrapping the ATOMS of paper and getting the ink all over my fingers, keyboard, coffee mug. Yes, the newspapers must and are changing. Some will die. New one's will rise up in their place.</p> <p>Just think, the "journalist" now has so many more outlets. More job opportunities. <strong>How you make your money from it, well... That's where you have to get creative.</strong></p> <p>@<a href="http://twitter.com/jmacofearth" title="Has never been paid to Tweet" target="_blank">jmacofearth</a> <br />permalink to uber.la: <a href="http://bit.ly/MSM-vs-Blog">http://bit.ly/MSM-vs-Blog</a> <strong></strong></p> <p><strong>Note:</strong> I would love your comments here. We can have a dialogue about this.</p> <p>Also check out my collected Posts about using and abusing Twitter - <a href="../twitter_way">The Twitter Way</a></p><p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via web</a> from <a href="http://jmacofearth.posterous.com/hyping-the-death-of-the-newspaper-the-media-l">jmacofearth's posterous</a> </p> John McElhenney 2.1http://www.blogger.com/profile/15944246550943982732noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6106233471404288231.post-23932193531089256102009-06-30T05:27:00.001-07:002009-06-30T05:27:12.769-07:00Hyping the Death of the Newspaper: The Media Loves to Cover Itself
<p><span style="color: #888888;">[As is often the case, I was inspired by a post elsewhere and as I was writing my comment, I realized I had much more to say on the subject. So here is my longer comment on an article on Wired called, "<a href="http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/06/dear-malcolm-why-so-threatened/">Dear Malcolm: Why So Threatened?</a>"]</span> <img title="nytimes-delivered-small" src="http://uber.la/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/nytimes-delivered-small.jpg" height="120" alt="nytimes-delivered-small" style="border: 10px solid white; float: right;" width="160" /> I sat in on this years SXSW Interactive panel on the Death of MSM. There seemed to be three camps within the panelists and in the audience asking questions.</p> <ol> <li><strong>The MSM Writer: </strong>"All of this 'blogging' is really diluting the quality of the writing. I mean, MSM journalists have the degrees, they have fact checking departments, they have a standard to uphold." And they are losing their shirts.</li> <li><strong>The BLOGGER </strong>who believes in <a href="http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/laissez-faire">laissez-faire</a>: "Let the giants die. The Old Gray Lady is losing money, so what. Let her adapt or perish."</li> <li><strong>The Internet Gen Upstart:</strong> "Fk'm. I write. I don't make a living at it, I do it because I am passionate. And then I work my day job."</li> </ol> <p>The Huffington Post has done a fine job of not paying writers and basing giving the HuffPo lift to the writers to participate. So as a writer, we are on our own. It's a brave new "social media" world out there and you'd best sharpen your wit and look for your niche.</p> <p>I keep getting asked, "How are you going to monetize your blog?" My answer, "By getting consulting work and possibly a better job than the one that just laid me off."</p> <p>The papers won't die. Just as Rock didn't die. They will have to continue to evolve, be more agile, and <strong>embrace the "community manager"</strong> rather than <strong>"editor in chief."</strong> Long live MSM. MSM is Dead.</p> <p>BTW: As a paper copy subscriber to the <strong>NYTimes</strong> (THUR - SUN) I can't tell you how happy I am on Thursday mornings when the thump on my driveway is double the normal local-only paper. Those two plastic bags, one blue one clear, hold the possibility of excitement, learning, drama, humor. Often I am let down by my overly imaginative projection. But mostly I just love the thrill of unwrapping the ATOMS of paper and getting the ink all over my fingers, keyboard, coffee mug. Yes, the newspapers must and are changing. Some will die. New one's will rise up in their place.</p> <p>Just think, the "journalist" now has so many more outlets. More job opportunities. <strong>How you make your money from it, well... That's where you have to get creative.</strong></p> <p>@<a href="http://twitter.com/jmacofearth" title="Has never been paid to Tweet" target="_blank">jmacofearth</a> <br />permalink to uber.la: <a href="http://bit.ly/MSM-vs-Blog">http://bit.ly/MSM-vs-Blog</a> <strong></strong></p> <p><strong>Note:</strong> I would love your comments here. We can have a dialogue about this.</p> <p>Also check out my collected Posts about using and abusing Twitter - <a href="../twitter_way">The Twitter Way</a></p><p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via web</a> from <a href="http://jmacofearth.posterous.com/hyping-the-death-of-the-newspaper-the-media-l">jmacofearth's posterous</a> </p> John McElhenney 2.1http://www.blogger.com/profile/15944246550943982732noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6106233471404288231.post-76165862836884495582009-06-15T23:28:00.001-07:002009-06-15T23:28:30.491-07:00A Social Media Strategist In This Economy? What's The Value Proposition? by John McElhenney
<p>[Thinking how to frame a dialogue without overburdening the writing with punctuation and he said then I said, I'm going to use one color for <strong><span style="color: #0000ff;">my statements</span></strong> and another color for <strong><span style="color: #008000;">my friend's statements</span></strong>. Hopefully that will make it easy to read quickly.]</p> <p>On Saturday night a good friend asked, <span style="color: #008000;">"So what do you do?"</span></p> <p>He was somewhat serious. And it got worse from there.</p> <p><span style="color: #008000;">"You are the only friend I can think of who I have not given work referrals to. If I were to sum up what you do in one sentence what would I say?"</span></p> <p>I tried a few ideas on him.</p> <p><span style="color: #0000ff;">I am a Social Media Strategist.</span> <span style="color: #008000;">"Nah, you've got people like Brian Solis, Chris Brogan and</span> <span style="color: #008000;">Jeremiah Owyang</span> <span style="color: #008000;">doing that gig."</span></p> <p><span style="color: #0000ff;">I can build communities.</span> <span style="color: #008000;">"Really? To what effect? To make money? To save money?"</span></p> <p><span style="color: #0000ff;">I know how to guide companies to...</span> <span style="color: #008000;">"No. What's a guide? What does that get them?"</span></p> <p><span style="color: #0000ff;">I can assemble the creative and technical teams to do social media projects.</span> <span style="color: #008000;">"Oh really? Like what kind of projects?"</span></p> <p><span style="color: #0000ff;">Launching a B 2 B portal or a B 2 C portal.</span> <span style="color: #008000;">"What's social about that?"</span></p> <p><span style="color: #0000ff;">Okay, so I know how to do online marketing programs.</span> <span style="color: #008000;">"Boooring. You and the other 100 companies in Austin. What's your value?"</span></p> <p><span style="color: #0000ff;">I have these training sessions to teach businesses how to work within the various aspects of social media.</span> <span style="color: #008000;">"Great. What do you call that?"</span></p> <p><span style="color: #0000ff;">Uh, the sessions? That's not very good is it? Hmm...</span> <span style="color: #008000;">"Not too good. I can't get a handle on that. When I have a client and they need what you do I can say... JMac he's the <insert cool name here>. And make the recommendation and you get the work."</span></p> <p><span style="color: #0000ff;">How about a Virtual Chief Social Media Officer?</span> <span style="color: #008000;">"That's great. That's it. That's what <name of local dude> does. That's his job. Yeah, that's good. Nobody else is doing that. A VCSMO!"</span></p> <p>Now I just have to figure out how to tell that story and put the "value" in that proposition. And educate my friend and my potential clients on what a Social Media Officer does, virtual or full-time. So I'm building the DECK on it. Maybe I'll do the book, the podcast and the video presentation on it.</p> <p>Here is the hero slide of my presentation <strong>What Is A Social Media Strategist</strong>. Once I get that nailed I can move on to showing the ROI on social media projects that I've been involved in and how that success can and will translate into similar success for YOUR COMPANY.</p> <p><img title="Picture 33" src="http://uber.la/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/Picture-33.png" height="460" alt="Picture 33" style="border: 2px solid black;" width="609" /></p> <p>I will share the entire presentation when it is done. But until then here is my tenant of what I do, or what a Social Media Strategist does:</p> <ol> <li>The social media strategist must assume many roles during the course of a given project.</li> <li>The project often needs to be presented/sold/green-lighted by several levels within the spans and layers of a company.</li> <li>Being a master of process and agile methodologies helps a lot in driving projects forward in these multi-team environments.</li> <li>And finally the social media lead has to maintain a supportive attitude across all of the teams that come in contact with various parts of the project. Because one naysayer can ruin the entire program. And you never know where or when that negative leverage might rear it's ugly head.</li> </ol> <p>It is a lot to navigate. And depending on the size of the company the leadership or lack of leadership can get quite complex. But that is the task of the social media strategist at any level. <strong>Stealthy and effective, the winning <span style="color: #ff0000;">social media ninja</span> can move projects through the darkness and opposition forces to achieve victory. Victory with or without the support of the entire cast of characters involved in the process, but victory (launch) nonetheless.</strong></p> <p>@<a href="http://twitter.com/jmacofearth" title="Creating the SocialMediaNinja one tweet at a time" target="_blank">jmacofearth</a> (<a href="http://socialmedianinja.net" title="resolves to my current consulting site, for now" target="_blank">socialmedianinja.net</a>) <br />permalink to uber.la: <a href="http://bit.ly/socialmedianinja">http://bit.ly/socialmedianinja</a></p><p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via web</a> from <a href="http://jmacofearth.posterous.com/818449">jmacofearth's posterous</a> </p> John McElhenney 2.1http://www.blogger.com/profile/15944246550943982732noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6106233471404288231.post-20052059062818354142009-06-15T23:27:00.001-07:002009-06-15T23:27:23.321-07:00Untitled
<p>[Thinking how to frame a dialogue without overburdening the writing with punctuation and he said then I said, I'm going to use one color for <strong><span style="color: #0000ff;">my statements</span></strong> and another color for <strong><span style="color: #008000;">my friend's statements</span></strong>. Hopefully that will make it easy to read quickly.]</p> <p>On Saturday night a good friend asked, <span style="color: #008000;">"So what do you do?"</span></p> <p>He was somewhat serious. And it got worse from there.</p> <p><span style="color: #008000;">"You are the only friend I can think of who I have not given work referrals to. If I were to sum up what you do in one sentence what would I say?"</span></p> <p>I tried a few ideas on him.</p> <p><span style="color: #0000ff;">I am a Social Media Strategist.</span> <span style="color: #008000;">"Nah, you've got people like Brian Solis, Chris Brogan and</span> <span style="color: #008000;">Jeremiah Owyang</span> <span style="color: #008000;">doing that gig."</span></p> <p><span style="color: #0000ff;">I can build communities.</span> <span style="color: #008000;">"Really? To what effect? To make money? To save money?"</span></p> <p><span style="color: #0000ff;">I know how to guide companies to...</span> <span style="color: #008000;">"No. What's a guide? What does that get them?"</span></p> <p><span style="color: #0000ff;">I can assemble the creative and technical teams to do social media projects.</span> <span style="color: #008000;">"Oh really? Like what kind of projects?"</span></p> <p><span style="color: #0000ff;">Launching a B 2 B portal or a B 2 C portal.</span> <span style="color: #008000;">"What's social about that?"</span></p> <p><span style="color: #0000ff;">Okay, so I know how to do online marketing programs.</span> <span style="color: #008000;">"Boooring. You and the other 100 companies in Austin. What's your value?"</span></p> <p><span style="color: #0000ff;">I have these training sessions to teach businesses how to work within the various aspects of social media.</span> <span style="color: #008000;">"Great. What do you call that?"</span></p> <p><span style="color: #0000ff;">Uh, the sessions? That's not very good is it? Hmm...</span> <span style="color: #008000;">"Not too good. I can't get a handle on that. When I have a client and they need what you do I can say... JMac he's the <insert cool name here>. And make the recommendation and you get the work."</span></p> <p><span style="color: #0000ff;">How about a Virtual Chief Social Media Officer?</span> <span style="color: #008000;">"That's great. That's it. That's what <name of local dude> does. That's his job. Yeah, that's good. Nobody else is doing that. A VCSMO!"</span></p> <p>Now I just have to figure out how to tell that story and put the "value" in that proposition. And educate my friend and my potential clients on what a Social Media Officer does, virtual or full-time. So I'm building the DECK on it. Maybe I'll do the book, the podcast and the video presentation on it.</p> <p>Here is the hero slide of my presentation <strong>What Is A Social Media Strategist</strong>. Once I get that nailed I can move on to showing the ROI on social media projects that I've been involved in and how that success can and will translate into similar success for YOUR COMPANY.</p> <p><img title="Picture 33" src="http://uber.la/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/Picture-33.png" height="460" alt="Picture 33" style="border: 2px solid black;" width="609" /></p> <p>I will share the entire presentation when it is done. But until then here is my tenant of what I do, or what a Social Media Strategist does:</p> <ol> <li>The social media strategist must assume many roles during the course of a given project.</li> <li>The project often needs to be presented/sold/green-lighted by several levels within the spans and layers of a company.</li> <li>Being a master of process and agile methodologies helps a lot in driving projects forward in these multi-team environments.</li> <li>And finally the social media lead has to maintain a supportive attitude across all of the teams that come in contact with various parts of the project. Because one naysayer can ruin the entire program. And you never know where or when that negative leverage might rear it's ugly head.</li> </ol> <p>It is a lot to navigate. And depending on the size of the company the leadership or lack of leadership can get quite complex. But that is the task of the social media strategist at any level. <strong>Stealthy and effective, the winning <span style="color: #ff0000;">social media ninja</span> can move projects through the darkness and opposition forces to achieve victory. Victory with or without the support of the entire cast of characters involved in the process, but victory (launch) nonetheless.</strong></p> <p>@<a href="http://twitter.com/jmacofearth" title="Creating the SocialMediaNinja one tweet at a time" target="_blank">jmacofearth</a> (<a href="http://socialmedianinja.net" title="resolves to my current consulting site, for now" target="_blank">socialmedianinja.net</a>) <br />permalink to uber.la: <a href="http://bit.ly/socialmedianinja">http://bit.ly/socialmedianinja</a></p><p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via web</a> from <a href="http://jmacofearth.posterous.com/818449">jmacofearth's posterous</a> </p> John McElhenney 2.1http://www.blogger.com/profile/15944246550943982732noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6106233471404288231.post-66863832357873561112009-06-14T20:33:00.001-07:002009-06-14T20:33:11.729-07:00Losing Patience & Trying to Find it Again : Repeat by John McElhenney
<p><img title="shinichimaruyama-circle" src="http://uber.la/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/shinichimaruyama-circle.jpg" height="150" alt="shinichi maruyama" width="150" /></p> <p>During SXSW Interactive 2006 I was caught waiting in the first morning registration lines that spiraled around several levels of the Austin Convention Center. I was amped and ready to go AND I was in line. Waiting. Waiting some more. I did have my iPod with me so I was not unhappy, but I was not very patient either.</p> <p>At SXSW that morning, I was confronted with stupid lines, registration computers that didn't work and standing in one line to PAY and a 2nd line to get my picture taken and then milling about (no line) waiting for the morning's 1.25 hr task, the badge! I tried to keep my joy about me even when I got to the front of the second line, right next to the 1st line. I didn't even have to ask "why." I was sublimely arriving.</p> <p>And thus I coined my state of mind as <strong><span style="color: #008000;">continuously arriving at patience</span></strong>. Once I came up with the phrase it became a rally point for me in all sorts of uncomfortable situations. Skip forward to my current state of affairs.</p> <p><confessional mode></p> <ul> <li>I'm overweight</li> <li>I drink a lot of coffee</li> <li>I drive like a mad man and like it that way</li> <li>I am quick to interrupt (I call it passion, others might experience it as rude)</li> <li>I am not all that nice at times</li> <li>If I think I'm right I often stop listening to other view points</li> </ul> <p></confessional mode></p> <p>So today I take evasive action. And one of those steps was to swam laps in the pool for the first time in years. (I was a competitive swimmer in high school - 100 meter freestyle)</p> <p>And I will work to return to patience with the following actions:</p> <ul> <li>I will listen for more than 50% of every conversation</li> <li>I will save my "ideas" and wait until the appropriate time (it's okay to say, let's come back to this, I don't have to offer my solution right away: see 'teachable moment.')</li> <li>I will channel that pent up frustration into tennis matches, swimming laps and writing</li> <li>I will consider every twitter snipe twice before sending it.</li> </ul> <p>and most importantly...</p> <ul> <li>I will take a 20 time out each morning after the kids are gone, to center and plan my <strong>top-3</strong> for the day. Everyday.</li> </ul> <p>I'll let you know how it's going in a bit.</p> <p>@<a href="http://twitter.com/jmacofearth" title="Tweeting my way back to patience" target="_blank">jmacofearth</a> <br />permalink on uber.la: <a href="http://bit.ly/my-patience">http://bit.ly/my-patience</a> Critically related posts:</p> <ul> <li><a href="../archives/3081">Review, Reset, Action: the BIG GOALS of 2009 (Being Accountable for Our Own Actions)</a></li> <li><a href="../archives/748">Getting Things Done Primer – It’s All About Doing It, not THINKING About Doing It</a></li> <li><a href="../archives/2412">Doin Social Media – WIIFM – Whuffie – Creating Beauty Online and WIIFY</a></li> <li><a href="../archives/2150">Fire Everything! – Twitter Facebook LinkedIN Convergence – What’s Okay What’s Not</a></li> <li><a href="../archives/1819">What Do We Lead About? – What Makes Up Participation vs Lurking vs Flair?</a></li> <li><a href="../archives/1478">Puttin Up the BIG GOALS of 2009 – Mid-Year Update in Progress</a></li> </ul><p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via web</a> from <a href="http://jmacofearth.posterous.com/813296">jmacofearth's posterous</a> </p> John McElhenney 2.1http://www.blogger.com/profile/15944246550943982732noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6106233471404288231.post-54388642478359348012009-06-14T20:32:00.001-07:002009-06-14T20:32:04.909-07:00Untitled
<p><img title="shinichimaruyama-circle" src="http://uber.la/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/shinichimaruyama-circle.jpg" height="150" alt="shinichi maruyama" width="150" /></p> <p>During SXSW Interactive 2006 I was caught waiting in the first morning registration lines that spiraled around several levels of the Austin Convention Center. I was amped and ready to go AND I was in line. Waiting. Waiting some more. I did have my iPod with me so I was not unhappy, but I was not very patient either.</p> <p>At SXSW that morning, I was confronted with stupid lines, registration computers that didn't work and standing in one line to PAY and a 2nd line to get my picture taken and then milling about (no line) waiting for the morning's 1.25 hr task, the badge! I tried to keep my joy about me even when I got to the front of the second line, right next to the 1st line. I didn't even have to ask "why." I was sublimely arriving.</p> <p>And thus I coined my state of mind as <strong><span style="color: #008000;">continuously arriving at patience</span></strong>. Once I came up with the phrase it became a rally point for me in all sorts of uncomfortable situations. Skip forward to my current state of affairs.</p> <p><confessional mode></p> <ul> <li>I'm overweight</li> <li>I drink a lot of coffee</li> <li>I drive like a mad man and like it that way</li> <li>I am quick to interrupt (I call it passion, others might experience it as rude)</li> <li>I am not all that nice at times</li> <li>If I think I'm right I often stop listening to other view points</li> </ul> <p></confessional mode></p> <p>So today I take evasive action. And one of those steps was to swam laps in the pool for the first time in years. (I was a competitive swimmer in high school - 100 meter freestyle)</p> <p>And I will work to return to patience with the following actions:</p> <ul> <li>I will listen for more than 50% of every conversation</li> <li>I will save my "ideas" and wait until the appropriate time (it's okay to say, let's come back to this, I don't have to offer my solution right away: see 'teachable moment.')</li> <li>I will channel that pent up frustration into tennis matches, swimming laps and writing</li> <li>I will consider every twitter snipe twice before sending it.</li> </ul> <p>and most importantly...</p> <ul> <li>I will take a 20 time out each morning after the kids are gone, to center and plan my <strong>top-3</strong> for the day. Everyday.</li> </ul> <p>I'll let you know how it's going in a bit.</p> <p>@<a href="http://twitter.com/jmacofearth" title="Tweeting my way back to patience" target="_blank">jmacofearth</a> <br />permalink on uber.la: <a href="http://bit.ly/my-patience">http://bit.ly/my-patience</a> Critically related posts:</p> <ul> <li><a href="../archives/3081">Review, Reset, Action: the BIG GOALS of 2009 (Being Accountable for Our Own Actions)</a></li> <li><a href="../archives/748">Getting Things Done Primer – It’s All About Doing It, not THINKING About Doing It</a></li> <li><a href="../archives/2412">Doin Social Media – WIIFM – Whuffie – Creating Beauty Online and WIIFY</a></li> <li><a href="../archives/2150">Fire Everything! – Twitter Facebook LinkedIN Convergence – What’s Okay What’s Not</a></li> <li><a href="../archives/1819">What Do We Lead About? – What Makes Up Participation vs Lurking vs Flair?</a></li> <li><a href="../archives/1478">Puttin Up the BIG GOALS of 2009 – Mid-Year Update in Progress</a></li> </ul><p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via web</a> from <a href="http://jmacofearth.posterous.com/813296">jmacofearth's posterous</a> </p> John McElhenney 2.1http://www.blogger.com/profile/15944246550943982732noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6106233471404288231.post-31215128682190015442009-06-01T22:14:00.001-07:002009-06-01T22:14:29.539-07:00A Tweeting Fool or a Tweeting Genius? How Do YOU Add Value to the Tweetstream?
<p><span style="color: #888888;">[Tim Walker posted the following question. <strong>Can genius and social media go together?</strong> on his <a href="http://tewalkerjr.com/blog/?p=1284" title="Tim Walker's blog post about genius and twitter" target="_blank">What I've Learned So Far</a>. And in my infinite cheekiness I could not resist an answer. And in my own self-aggrandizement I could not stop at the mere comment, I have to turn the idea into an entire post. So much for 140 characters! So here is a crosspost that might grow beyond the initial discussion with Tim's blog.]</span> <img title="my twitter makeup" src="http://uber.la/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/picture-13.png" height="165" alt="my twitter makeup (based on 1002 tweets)" width="320" /></p> <p>Is posting an answer a form of braggadocio? I am no genius. I am constantly working on patience.</p> <p>That said, the social media system is inherently interruptive in nature. Twitter being the most insistent model, blink and you'll miss the entire conversation. But is that a bad thing?</p> <p>So today a study revealed that <strong>10% of Tweeters produce 90% of the Tweets</strong>. They can't all be geniuses, and they most certainly would be doing something other than tweeting if they were geniuses.</p> <p>So... Social media is wonderful within limits. It is important for your sanity to put a bounding box around the influence and interruptions you are willing to tolerate from Twitter, email, IM, blog commenting and such.</p> <p>Here's a pop quiz, gather up all of your 140 character messages for the last month and put them in a document. Delete all RT's and conversational @ messages and ask: Now, what is the percentage of genius on the page of what YOU created? Original wisdom? Wit? Or shite?</p> <p>It is increasingly important to turn off the social media interruptions when you are trying to create something of value. Unless your value is in the form of 90 second sound bites, I would suggest you focus your genius on the longer form. How about the genius of Blog commenting, or actually writing the full blog post?</p> <p>Still genius is everywhere among us. Some geniuses focus their intelligence more effectively than others. And even us sub-geniuses can learn to be more efficient and effective by putting what mental resources we have on the task of posing or answering questions. And that activity leads to a better possibility of creating something of value in the dialogue between us.</p> <p><span style="color: #888888;">[end of blog comment]</span></p> <p>Okay Mr. Mac, good idea. So do it. First I used <a href="http://tweetake.com/" title="Grab Your Tweets Before They're Gone" target="_blank">Tweetake</a> to download my last 1,002 tweets into a csv.</p> <p><a href="http://tweetake.com/"><img title="my tweetstream in a csv" src="http://uber.la/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/picture-10.png" height="355" alt="my tweetstream in a csv" width="527" /></a></p> <p>And then pulling them into Excel I deleted all blip.fms, RTs, and conversation specific @s to come up with my original content, for better or worse, it's all I got.</p> <p><img title="my tweet to meat ratio" src="http://uber.la/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/picture-11.png" height="271" alt="my tweet to meat ratio" width="558" /></p> <p>And so, from <strong>1002 total tweets</strong> I have <strong>347 tweets</strong> where I actually created <strong>original content</strong>. (<span style="color: #0000ff;"><strong>35% content</strong></span>) The other types of content break down like this:</p> <ul> <li>RT: 243 (<strong>24%</strong>)</li> <li>@s: 158 (<strong>16%</strong>)</li> <li>Blips: 223 (<strong>22%</strong>) "listening to" (I disconnected my blip.fm from my twitter stream a week ago, thinking these were not really high-value tweets, fun being a Tweet-Jay, but not really what I'm about)</li> <li>Liked/Fav'd: 31 (<strong>0.03%</strong>)</li> </ul> <p>And let’s see, any genius in there… uh… Well, here are my top 6, self-selected.</p> <ul> </ul> <ol> <li>Can we all just quit calling it SOCIAL MEDIA already. And let's not talk about TWITTER either... Gosh, we're boring ourselves. #gosh</li> <li>DEAR TWITTER, Please oh please oh please let me follow ONE MORE PERSON! Seriously if I forget them I'll never find them again. Thank You. (responding to hitting the "you can follow no more people at this time" error)</li> <li>So, putting some dumb character before the @ now let's other peeps see my @s to folks they don't know. UG! #TwitterFail</li> <li>So... What if someone really were readin all this stuff we're tweeting, I mean, really, like in the DB forever! Would I be more quiet? Nah!</li> <li>blip killed my browser - damn I was almost finished with a GTD post (heh heh - that's ironic) Damn, must focus on task at hand. #gtd</li> <li>Amazing how some tweeps you follow, who have been silent for months, suddenly begin to Tweet their heads off. Welcome to the PARTAAAY!</li> </ol> <ul> </ul> <p>Nope. But not <strong>ONE ADVERTISEMENT</strong> and <strong>NOT ONE GHOST TWEET</strong>. That's right, <strong>NOT ONE!</strong></p> <p>@<a href="http://twitter.com/jmacofearth" title="Beatin the Tweet for all it's worth" target="_blank">jmacofearth</a> <br />permalink to uber.la: <a href="http://bit.ly/my-tweet-makup">http://bit.ly/my-tweet-makup</a> <strong></strong></p> <p><strong>What I Believe:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="../archives/2447" rel="bookmark">Friends, Tweeps, Links and Groups: Placing Value On Community and Friendship</a></li> <li><a href="../archives/2150">Fire Everything! - Twitter Facebook LinkedIN Convergence - What’s Okay What’s Not</a></li> <li><a href="../archives/2066">OPEN LETTER TO Guy Kawasakisan - Return to the Way Mr. Kawasaki, Before It’s Too Late For Us All!</a></li> <li><a href="../archives/1556">Uber.la’s 1-2-3 Guide To Twitter: GETTING REAL with TWITTER</a></li> </ul><p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via web</a> from <a href="http://jmacofearth.posterous.com/a-tweeting-fool-or-a-tweeting-genius-how-do-y">jmacofearth's posterous</a> </p> John McElhenney 2.1http://www.blogger.com/profile/15944246550943982732noreply@blogger.com0