I’ve learned to live with ongoing computer problems. It’s like walking with a stone in your shoe. At first you limp but then you learn to bear the pain and soldier on. It’s so much easier than calling the IT Guy.
Why is it long-term PC problems disappear the moment you call an IT person? It’s humiliating to try and re-create the annoying problem. Because the minute the IT Guy (or Gal) is over my shoulder it suddenly disappears. (And no, I don’t call them just to annoy them!)
Today I had John Cuthbertson of The Website Clinic on the phone. I’d looked everywhere to find how to edit my home page. (See that funny sidebar with my photo just to the right? Couldn’t edit that to save my life!)
John called back in under 10 minutes and directed me to the widgets page on Wordpress. Naturally. Don’t we all edit text in our widgets?
Perhaps it’s the technology link that keeps so many professionals off blogging. After all, we can afford flat-screen plasma televisions even if we can’t operate the remote. Whatever you do - don’t call the IT Guy. More than likely the date and time will stop flashing and your favourite recordings will be all lined up. Darn!
PS: Ignore this logo. It’s for my job and I couldn’t figure out how to get it over there (look right) without first uploading it here. Damned if I was going to call John back!
Nielsen Research this week released a report showing 60% of all users abandon Twitter in the first month of use. The pessimist would say that shows the transient nature of the tool. The optimist would say there are millions more staying on-line. The realist - and the business communicator - would say this on-line phenomenon needs to be understood and tapped into - fast!
The best presentation on Twitter is on SlideShare - access it to learn how to use Twitter in your business.
The Pope is imploring Catholics to give up social media networks and texting for Lent. Oddly enough he made this request on The Vatican YouTube channel. He doesn’t want followers to substitute virtual world friendships for real world friendships. (Farewell Silk Charm, tell Laura I’ll miss her.) He says over-use of on-line mediums:
”…may isolate individuals from real social interaction while also disrupting the patterns of rest, silence and reflection that are necessary for healthy human development”. (Source: The Australian)
Now it may sound odd but in a funny way I agree with the man. Too much of a good things is…great? No! Living on-line to the exclusion of real-world friendships is wrong. Every once in awhile it pays to leave the PC and see what’s going on in the 3D world.
Yet I don’t think the plea hits the mark. (And I can’t risk offending die-hard Catholics now because, really, you’re not supposed to be here!) Had earlier Popes warned about too much radio? Excessive television time? In olden days were we warned to stay away from Punch & Judy shows?
Seems the very Pope who is trying to embrace digital technologies shows his lack of understanding. Social media is a channel and texting is a method of communication - no more, no less. These allow one-to-one communications - or with PopeTube, one to many. The on-line world is a great way to connect with the exact people who share your enthusiasms and interests. And for teens, texting is a cheap alternative to mobile phone calls that retain and reinforce the very ties that make a community.
Since his youth the Pope has seen the village square replaced with an interconnected global network. My best friend may no longer be across town. He may be on another continent. And because it’s Lent am I to forego friendship? I don’t think so.
Now here’s one last test - let’s check YouTube to ensure there are no updates between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday. After all, if it’s good for the goose….
I was in Beijing for a week and got home yesterday - I attended the International Public Relations Association (IPRA) semi-annual global conference. This was a great event with attendees from every corner of the world. I met Nigerians, Poles, Swedes, Americans, Canadians, Peruvians, Taiwanese and Chinese public relations professionals. Day One began with a session in the Great Hall of the People on Tienanmen Square.
Yet I could not blog during my visit. WallyDownUndy is blocked in China.
It’s odd to encounter censorship first-hand. As an Australian-American I have always enjoyed freedom of speech. And part of that freedom includes being critical of government when you believe government is wrong or irresponsible. (From Monica Lewinsky to Weapons of Mass Destruction I’m an equal opportunity critic.)
In the past I’ve blogged about China. An earlier post shows the Tibet riots on YouTube. Whenever I mention Taiwan my readership spikes - even more than the time I mentioned Pamela Lee Anderson! (Go Taiwan!) So a censor in China decided my blog did not meet their readership criteria.
I didn’t cotton on immediately. It started when I was trying to mark a comment as spam. (Note to spammers: Comments about ’sex tapes’ do stand out on a blog about global public relations trends. Our executives are not that spicy.) I assumed it was a bad Internet connection and tried the next morning.
Given that I could not managed comments and could not post, I then tried to read the blog. It was then I realised it was blocked. Other blogs were open and available.
So my apologies to anyone in China who previously enjoyed my blog. And to fellow bloggers, a recommendation: Denounce China in any posting and you’ll be censored.
Writing a blog is a little bit like performing on film. You never know who will see it, what they’ll think and if it even gets a viewing. Will my blog be straight-to-DVD?
Yesterday in a meeting I was trying to express my passion for writing. The other person said they knew already. They read this blog and really liked the style! It was a wonderful validation and will fuel another fortnight’s postings.
The Washington Post asks for submissions annually to its unusual word challenge.
The paper’s Mensa Invitational once again asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition. Here are the winners:
1. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period of time.
2. Ignoranus: A person who’s both stupid and an asshole.
3. Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.
4. Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.
5. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.
6. Foreploy: Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid.
7. Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high
8. Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the p erson who doesn’t get it.
9. Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.
10. Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease.(This one got extra credit.)
11. Karmageddon: It’s like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it’s like, a serious bummer.
12. Decafalon (n.): The gruelling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.
13. Glibido: All talk and no action.
14. Dopeler Effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.
15. Arachnoleptic Fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you’ve accidentally walked through a spider web.
16. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.
17. Caterpallor ( n.): The color you turn aft e r finding half a worm in the fruit you’re eating.
The Washington Post has also published the winning submissions to its yearly contest, in which readers are asked to supply alternate meanings for common words. And the winners are:
1. coffee, n. the person upon whom one coughs.
2. flabbergasted, adj. appalled by discovering how much weight one has gained.
3. abdicate, v. to give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.
4. esplanade, v. to attempt an explanation while drunk.
5. willy-nilly, adj. impotent.
6. negligent, adj. absentmindedly answering the door when wearing only a nightgown.
7. lymph, v. to walk with a lisp.
8. gargoyle, n. olive-flavored mouthwash.
9. flatulence, n. emergency vehicle that picks up someone who has been run over by a steamroller.
10. balderdash, n. a rapidly receding hairline.
11. testicle, n. a humorous question on an exam.
12. rectitude, n. the formal, dignified bearing adopted by proctologists.
13. pokemon, n.. a Rastafarian proctologist.
14. oyster, n. a person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddishism’s.
15. Frisbeetarianism, n. the belief that, after death, the soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there.
16. circumvent, n. an opening in the front of boxer shorts worn by Jewish men.
I’ve been blogging for 16 months now and today heard the most unsettling story of a blogger.
Major Andrew Olmsted was writing on the war in Iraq for The Rocky Mountain News - a daily newspaper in Denver. Sometime ago he wrote a posting that wasn’t immediately published. It was to be published in the event of his death.
Today that posting is live as Olmsted is not.
I respect his wish not to use his death for political purposes so I will withhold commentary on the war and the toll it takes. Instead I encourage all to read his final posting.
“This is an entry I would have preferred not to have published, but there are limits to what we can control in life, and apparently I have passed one of those limits.” (read more)
Just like any neighbourhood, the social media ‘hood has some bad apples. Predators stalk the room pretending to be youthful teens when in fact they’re middle-age men (rarely women - usually men). It’s unusual to find a parent today who hasn’t installed an Internet monitoring system to guard their children against suspect sites.
Yet children aren’t the only ones being assaulted on social media sites. This week I lost a Facebook friend due to ongoing harassment. Antonio is in his late twenties and lives in Monaco. He found the ongoing litany of insulting messages too much to handle. On the weekend he sent a farewell message and disabled his account. He’d said our conversations (to help me practice my French) were the only sane ones he’d had on Facebook.
Recent media reports suggest up to 50% of all social media users post too many personal details on-line, making them susceptible to identity theft. Yet the growth of indecent messaging makes a walk through Facebook feel like a jaunt through 1980s Times Square. Before Disney cleaned up that neighbourhood it was all Beast and no Beauty.
The prevalence of n’aer-do-wells will be the biggest inhibitor of social media’s rise. And where bad things happen lawyers usually follow. It will be interesting to see how courts one day determine the liability of Facebook and MySpace should a virtual assault turn physical.
It’s odd making virtual friends. Usually you have a chance to see someone, speak in-person and size them up before entering into a friendship. Yet on-line you’re suddenly abandoning that dynamic and speaking with people you’ve never met - and are unlikely to meet in-person.
On Tuesday I flew from Adelaide to Melbourne and met with Anna Whitlam at Market U. Anna’s a class act who is also a high-end executive recruiter. It was disorienting to have her so familiar with my thinking and background - all gained by reading this blog.
On Facebook I’ve had in-depth conversations with people in South Africa, London, Dubai, Budapest and LA. I’m unlikely to meet them - ever.
But there’s a psychological closeness we gain from strangers in different lands. We can share intimacies knowing they’re unlikely to come back to us. We can try on different skins, act out fantasies or talk of details so close and painful we’d never entrust them to people in proximity for fear it may boomerang.
It’s a new social order when we retreat to a room alone in order to get close to people we’ll never meet - and leave alone those in our own household.
We’re all trying to be young. What else explains the obsession with casual clothing, fitness and cosmetic surgery. As Baby Boomers enter retirement and Gen Y dominate the workforce, most are seeking what Juan Ponce de Leon sought in Florida in 1513 - the Fountain of Youth.
Add to this love of youth (or denial of aging) the growing influence of social media and we’re witness to a growing informality of language.
I like the latest ad from Seek.com.au -
“Why do we need to know what’s in there, what’s up there or what’s out there?”
On a pair of Puma gym shorts I bought yesterday there are four symbols with short instructions below each:
Heart: Love Your Neighbour
Leaf: Eat More Greens
Car Driving into Water: Cheer Up It May Never Happen
Water Drop: Wash This When Dirty
Social media allows us to get to know each-other better - in French we'd abandoning parlez-vous for "tutoyer". There are less barriers and that's starting to be reflected in casual banter.
We're younger. We're more connected. We're more social. So let's abandon the formalities, okay buddy?
My name is Walter Jennings - I’m an American who migrated to Sydney. Today I lead the Sydney office of Fleishman-Hillard.
I blog on public relations, adjusting to Australia, social media - and more.
Blogging allows so much freedom of expression. I believe good communications has to encompass more than just words. There are so many elements to an experience. That's why I love social media - you can fold in opinions, images, video, friendships, experiences and more.
Fleishman-Hillard delivers successful communications campaigns for its clients. That was true in the 1940s, when the company was founded, and continues today in the complex media landscape you face. Throughout our history, we have focused on making ourselves as valuable to our clients as they are to us.
