I dearly love the NY Times; it keep me informed, entertains me and endears me to all those to whom I send pertinent articles about their businesses and interests. I read a number of other sources, but NYT is my favorite.
“British officials and representatives of Twitter, Facebook and BlackBerry met Thursday to discuss voluntary ways to limit or restrict the use of social media to combat crime and periods of civil unrest, while trying to dodge charges of hypocrisy and censorship…”
Regular readers know I’m a privacy nut and there’s lots of stuff happening around that subject, starting with the company I love to hate, Facebook, which has once again changed its privacy settings—possibly for the better (maybe).
“…every time Facebook users add a picture, comment or any other content to their profile pages, they can specify who can see it: all of their so-called Facebook friends, a specific group of friends, or everyone who has access to the Internet. … Similar controls will apply to information like users’ phone numbers and hometowns…”
Will the US ever enjoy the privacy choices that Europe does? I and dozens of others have written warnings that what goes on the web stays on the web, but what about your right to have it removed—at least from commercial sites?
“As a general matter, companies in the United States don’t have to recognize your right to be deleted,” says Marc Rotenberg, the executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a research group in Washington.”
Cellphone and voicemail hacking has been in the news the last few months and I’m getting tired of being told how “that can’t happen here.” Ha! Is that wishful thinking.
“Just how vulnerable are everyday United States residents to similarly determined snoops?
The answer is, more than you might think.”
Enough privacy, on to other stuff.
The big thing now is to check reviews on sites such as Yelp, before trying anything new. This attitude is predicated on the basis that “the wisdom of the crowd” is authentic and trustworthy—which seems to be just another cyber-myth.
“Determining the number of fake reviews on the Web is difficult. But it is enough of a problem to attract a team of Cornell researchers, who recently published a paper about creating a computer algorithm for detecting fake reviewers. They were instantly approached by a dozen companies, including Amazon, Hilton, TripAdvisor and several specialist travel sites, all of which have a strong interest in limiting the spread of bogus reviews.”
My final offering proves that I do read stuff other than the NYT.
“Of the 1055 polled, 6% of respondents said they’d prefer to ask for money via text message, and 4% said they would do it via email. A sad and lonely 1% of respondents said they would do it through social media.”
It has always amazed me how many entrepreneurs honestly believe that the people they hire will morph into a creative, productive team with no management effort.
They class themselves as “leaders,” but see “management” as a need and function of large/old companies—not startups.
They say they hire self-starters and these people don’t need to be managed; as long as they understand the vision they are self-propelled.
They talk about connecting their people through social networks, Twitter, texting and other modern tools.
And if (when) that doesn’t work they term them fools and dump them.
But the old adage “give a fool a tool and you still have a fool” still applies.
First, for them to actually be fools means you hired fools.
If you don’t believe that you are guilty of hiring fools then what you have are talented lost souls looking for a path to productivity and personal satisfaction.
People want to do their work well and they want to feel good about what they do; they care about their company’s success.
It’s not simple or easy or even much fun, but your real job as a founder is guiding your people out of fooldom and into becoming a powerful team.
Not every startup succeeds, but no startup succeeds sans management—whether you call it that or not.
Beyond anything you have, your most valuable possession is your mind. It is the source of your past, present and future; it can attract or repel; both pain and happiness reside in it, along with all other emotions. Your mind is magical, cherish it.
Buddha understood this when he said, “The mind is everything. What you think you become.”
Plato had an unusual view of the mind’ action that I really like, “When the mind is thinking it is talking to itself.”
James Dewar reminds us of an important prerequisite of successful mental effort, “Minds are like parachutes, they only function when they are open.”
And Henry Ford tells us that learning is what keeps us young, “Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.”
But it is William Shakespeare whose words are most appropriate in these days of Facebook, Twitter and all things social, “Mind your speech a little lest you should mar your fortunes.”
Twitter, twitter little star,
how I wonder who you are…
You’re not above the world so high,
nor a diamond in the cyber sky.
What twends are up in Twitterland?
Here are a few of the most unusual…
Twitter turned five last Monday, which also happened to be World Poetry Day (sponsored by the United Nations), so, of course, the potential of 140 character poetry and literature is being explored—and argued.
Tweeting offers a good deal of instant gratification in the form or strokes, cheers and feedback, but all that where-I-am and what-I’m-doing is fueling stronger feelings of envy than old school wish-you-were-here cards and emails.
In a new (as far as I know) twist on hiring a Minneapolis ad firm used Twitter to source this summer’s interns.
People often say that the instant responses they get when they ask a large number of people what they think helps them make better decisions. But does it? The answer may surprise you—seems like all that information has a similar effect to ice cream—brain freeze.
In case you don’t feel connected enough via Twitter, Facebook and other social media there’s an app for that. Yes, now several sites offer you the opportunity to share your browser history, so your everybody will know every cyber-move you make. Oh joy…
Finally, on to the sex; and today the sex is courtesy of Zynga, maker of all those cutesy games like FarmVille, CaféVille and, now, FrontierVille. And thanks to its obsession with data and a happy accident, it has updated the old “sex sells” to “innuendo is shared.” Perhaps the next game should be called “Ka-chingVille.”
Hi Miki, I’m a candidate for a senior position at [company]. I fully believe my success is dependent on a good cultural fit and that means, among other things, bosses I respect and who respect me, good communications, etc.
Everything was going fine until I googled the CEO and there was a link to her Facebook page. It showed a picture of her in a bikini with her arms around a couple of attractive young guys. Although I won’t be reporting to her I am concerned about the culture that she presides over and her leadership ability.
I’d appreciate knowing what you think.
“Jim”
What made it even more interesting is that the writer is a guy.
The email included a link to the Facebook page and the lady’s pose with the very young guys came over as extremely friendly.
There was a time when situations like this were classed as private, unless you were a movie star, but those days are in the distant past.
Young people are constantly warned about posting inappropriate images and content that recruiters might see, but it is assumed that adults know better.
So what’s going on?
At the least, this CEO showed extremely poor judgment publishing the image, especially on a public page. Further, age doesn’t excuse her because she is definitely old enough to be classed as an adult.
The bottom line in this instance was that Jim decided to pass on the opportunity. He felt the same discomfort and concern that many managers voice when they find comparable pictures of candidates online.
Jim didn’t care what the CEO did on her own time, but he recognized that he didn’t respect her and felt he couldn’t trust her.
Mention innovation and most people think of startups and the entrepreneurs who take the risk, so I thought today would be a good time to check in to the goings on in that world.
By knowing the harsh realities that lie ahead, you can be prepared when they come about so you can solider on.
Getting funded is as much a function of who you know as what you do and any serious entrepreneur will walk over hot coals if doing so gives an advantage to that end. Enter Y Combinator, that not only gives entrepreneurs an edge getting funding, but on getting better terms.
Many of the best applications come from accomplished programmers who have working product demos but lack gilt-edged Valley Rolodexes. … The real winners are rising stars like Jessica Mah. “The competition this created for us was amazing.”
Social media, now just called ‘social’ may be a hotbed of the young, but don’t rule the old men of investing out of the game even when it is someone who seems to be constantly switching horses and proclaiming his current mount ‘the next big thing’.
Sand Hill Road was abuzz after Kleiner Perkins’ John Doerr rallied Jeff Bezos, Zynga founder Mark Pincus, and Mark Zuckerberg to a joint press conference at Facebook in Palo Alto and announced a $250 million fund to invest in the “next wave of social entrepreneurs.
Marc Andreessen and partner Ben Horowitz are successful entrepreneurs who are changing the focus of the venture world by doing extremely early-stage funding. And here is a more in-depth look at what at what Andreessen is doing.
Although it is too early to judge the firm’s financial success, Andreessen Horowitz represents a new breed of venture capitalist that is financing new kinds of start-ups.
Entrepreneurs come in many flavors and not all are in the commercial world as the new breed of activist shows. If you are one of those who laments the problems overseas, take a look at what’s being done in the name of ‘DIY foreign aid‘.
It’s striking that the most innovative activists aren’t necessarily the ones with the most resources, or the best tools. … Rather, what often happens is that those best positioned to take action look the other way, and then the initiative is taken by the Scharpfs and Shannons of the world, who are fueled by some combustible mix of indignation and vision.
Finally, although the power of social has hardly been tapped, it is already the meeting ground of charity and profit.
Founded in 2007 by political activist Joe Green and former Facebook President Sean Parker (yes, that Sean Parker), Causes uses social media tools to virtually connect thousands of charities with their supporters and potential donors. The Berkeley (Calif.) company began as one of the first applications on Facebook and now serves as a broker for 119 million charitably minded users.
Anyone who reads me knows my answer to the social question—I’m not.
I don’t wear branded clothes or those with images advertising whatever, either, because if I’m going to be someone’s billboard I want to be paid, not to pay for the privilege. While that is more a quirk, I have a much larger problem online with the loss of privacy and the attitude of social companies that they have the right to use my data and that of my connections any way they choose for their profit whether I like it or not.
When it comes to social I have to admit that I’ve seen some fun (I’m partial to stupid cats) and educational stuff on YouTube. In fact, my company’s newly launched product is on YouTube, so I thought it was very cool that there are a number of people earning serious money there.
I’m not sure if texting is considered social, but the dark side to it is getting darker, with the darkest being death. Now, along with those who kill while texting and driving—cars, trains, subways—you can add lifeguards.
And what would a post about social be without Twitter (no, I don’t tweet). Actually, I have three links that you may find interesting.
No matter the medium you use to follow the news a large proportion of the stories have a trust angle—most with a negative look at who/how/why it was broken.
I tend to trust people with good diction because I can hear what they say; others trust people because of perceived commonality—the same place of worship, similar political stances, the same schools, military service, mutual connections, etc.
When you see it written down like that the idiocy of any commonality as a basis for trust is apparent, but on any day you can find stories about broken trust that was based on these and similar ephemeral reasons (such as diction). Possibly one of the dumbest is the trust based on some form of online friendship at places such as Facebook.
Even trust in introductions made by long time friends can be misplaced as the experience of my friend Kelly shows. Briefly, her friend arranged a blind date for Kelly with a guy she knew. She didn’t mention that she had only chatted for a few minutes with him during a conference; she thought he was cute and that Kelly would like him. Fortunately for Kelly he was arrested two days before their date—charged with attempted rape. Her friend was shocked because he was well dressed and it was a professional conference, so she assumed he was OK.
There are thousands of similar stories out there; many with much worse endings.
So how do you know who to trust?
When I was looking for quotes about trust for yesterday’s post I found an anonymous one that offers some excellent guidance.
“The key is to get to know people and trust them to be who they are. Instead, we trust people to be who we want them to be- and when they’re not, we cry.”
Getting to know someone takes time, but you can pursue a dual track by giving the people the benefit of the doubt if your guts says yes, while maintaining a vigilant watch to make sure that their actions are consistent with their expressed MAP (mindset, attitude, philosophy™) and being ruthless in not rationalizing away the inconsistencies.
Summer time and the living is easy—but the thought of a date makes some people queasy…
People may date all year long, but there is something about summer that especially leads to thoughts of romance—or at least lust. Maybe it’s all those partially unclothed bodies…
Twenty and thirty-somethings aren’t hesitant to try new stuff and seem to love tech-driven solutions to the age old problem of finding love, think match.com, eHarmony and others.
“…a raft of newfangled dating tools are striving to better bridge the gap between online and real-world romance.
Some companies offer a combination of flirty calling cards and Web pages. Others operate dating applications that use the global positioning systems in cell phones to help local singles find one another.”
Then there is the all-important first date, because what you suggest tells more about you than all the studied (or drunken) prose you post, email or text.
7,000 of the four million single people in New York City have proposed first date on a new site called HowAboutWe.com and crunching them has yielded interesting insight.
New data from a Web site suggests that not only do many people plan similar dates, but like lemmings, they also collectively migrate from one theme to the next.
Gee, sounds a lot like high school.
All this is great fun, but the problems start when you and your new love/lust/friends start sharing all that fun online, because what you post today will be there forever. I was warning about this back in 2006, but not with the authority of Jeffrey Rosen, a law professor at George Washington University. His article is worth reading because what you post could cost you your future as it already has for others—and, no, I’m not being an alarmist.
Four years ago, Stacy Snyder, then a 25-year-old teacher in training at Conestoga Valley High School in Lancaster, Pa., posted a photo on her MySpace page that showed her at a party wearing a pirate hat and drinking from a plastic cup, with the caption “Drunken Pirate.” After discovering the page, her supervisor at the high school told her the photo was “unprofessional,” and the dean of Millersville University School of Education, where Snyder was enrolled, said she was promoting drinking in virtual view of her under-age students. As a result, days before Snyder’s scheduled graduation, the university denied her a teaching degree.
Read the article, then think at least five times about what you choose to give immortality.
I dearly love the NY Times; it keep me informed, entertains me and endears me to all those to whom I send pertinent articles about their businesses and interests. I read a number of other sources, but NYT is my favorite.
It has always amazed me how many entrepreneurs honestly believe that the people they hire will morph into a creative, productive team with no management effort.
Beyond anything you have, your most valuable possession is your mind. It is the source of your past, present and future; it can attract or repel; both pain and happiness reside in it, along with all other emotions. Your mind is magical, cherish it.
I received an interesting email today.
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