Tag Archives: trends

A new way for politics?

Posted on January 27, 2013 | 1 Comment

Over the last month or two I have been paying a little attention to a newly formed group called No Labels. Simply put, they aren’t Democrat, Republican, Liberal or Conservative. The group touts itself as a group of Americans who are interested in putting America first over partisan politics and figure out how to compromise.

Interesting thought. I am going to continue to follow them for a while and see if they can get meaningful traction. I like the idea, but it flies in the face of today’s Washington culture which continues to promote extremism and division. I applaud the efforts of No Labels and hope they can change the tone in Washington and across the nation.

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Posted in Buzzing Topics, Rants

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Technology Easing Our Family Crisis

Posted on December 6, 2012 | Leave a comment

Last week my father suffered a mild heart attack.  During the process of diagnosing the heart attack, a CT scan revealed a significant mass in his lung.  To make a long story short, this heart attack probably saved his life.

As we have been dealing with this crisis, we have had the need to communicate with our sister in Colorado as well as extended family members.  During this process it occurred to me how much our everyday mobile technology and social media has made that task so much easier.  Also, it has helped us cope with long waits by providing entertainment options (e.g. music, games and media) and access to the outside world.

In this photo you see what I am talking about.  My brothers and Mom are enjoying a game of Monopoly on an iPad, and my brother is using SMS on his iPhone to continuously communicate with our sister.

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Andy, Charley and Mom playing Monopoly on iPad

 

Social media has also been a huge help on a few levels.  First, posting updates on Facebook has allowed me to update my broader network on what’s happening with Dad.  It has also invoked a virtual prayer chain in support of my family during this crisis.  I was able to read to Dad many names of people sending well wishes.  I got the feeling he appreciated the thought.

Coping with this whole ordeal would have been much more difficult without these tools.  Thank God we have them!

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Posted in Personal Stories, Social Media, Technology Topics

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iPad 2: Early Report

Posted on March 29, 2011 | 1 Comment

Thanks to my wonderful assistant, I am now a user of a new iPad 2.  I have had a chance to use it for a few weeks and have a couple of observations.  Impressive device, overall, with some new key features.

First, it is much thinner.  The specifications suggest 30 percent or so smaller, which when you set it along side a version 1 model, you will notice that it is a significant.  It slides nicely into my briefcase, and takes less space.  It’s also slightly lighter, but less noticeable than it’s overall footprint.

With the A5 processor, it is faster.  I am definitely noticing that while I have used it so far.  Cameras on both front and back are new also, which creates the opportunity to do a video teleconference.

Adding the dongle accessory, I can also do full screen sharing which has already come in handy.  We had an important executive presentation a few weeks ago where we ran the entire slideshow and related demonstrations on the iPad connected to a large HD monitor through an HDMI cable.

The most noticeable thing overall, in my opinion, is the anti-smudging material for the screen.  Unless you have been enjoying some greasy fried chicken, the iPad 2 screen stays relatively free of smudges.  When I set my iPhone next to it, the difference is really noticeable.

The market has responded well.  There are a number of reports about how many have been sold, and extended delivery dates, and so on.  The most compelling statistic, in my opinion is that 70% of buyers in the first weekend were first time buyers.  This is telling me that the tablet is not a fad — it’s here to stay.

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Posted in Buzzing Topics, Mobile Development, Technology Topics

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Cool New Twitter feature: Who to follow

Posted on August 27, 2010 | Leave a comment
Who to follow on Twitter

New Twitter feature

I noticed a few days ago that Twitter has created a new feature that suggests people to follow on Twitter, much in the way Facebook does it.  I’ve found it to be useful to find people of interest in my work, as well as my personal interests.  On the Twitter web page, look on the right side of your home page, there you will find a “Who to follow” section which includes a few ideas for people to follow based on the people you are already following on Twitter.  If you click the “view all” link, you will find a much longer list of suggestions.  Furthermore, there is navigation on the right-hand side of that page listing major categories.  This is really useful.  A much more focused list follows where it becomes very efficient to pick and choose who to follow.  I found some real gems in these lists.  More is better, I believe.  Yes, it’s more information to process.  However, with a tool like Twitter it is very easy to quickly cull through information to figure out what is happening in the world.

Based on my earlier post on accessing thought leadership with Twitter, this is a great way to get a finger on the pulse of interesting external developments.  In my world, it’s about new technology developments around software and systems.  Most recently, I have used Twitter to follow Apple iPhone/iPad developments, which has proven to be useful.

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Posted in Social Media

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Twitter Use #2: Finding Great Web Content

Posted on February 6, 2010 | 1 Comment

It used to be that whenever I would go to the Web to find content, especially in the context of my daily work, I would simply go to Google, enter the search terms and then ferret through the results until I got the information I sought.  If you get the right search term this exercise is pretty simple, but it also can be quite difficult if you get it wrong.  My wife, as a professional librarian, is an expert at getting the right search terms every time.  I cannot claim the same level of success, usually.  I’m retrying searches multiple times so that the most pertinent stuff ends up on top.

With a tool like Twitter it can be pretty easy to find great content through their search engine, and you can quickly see what the “crowd” views as good content based on their comments in their tweets, or even their hash tags.  It has gotten to the point that I now start with Twitter to search for blog posts, videos or images relating to what I need.  This change in paradigm was inspired by the following YouTube video (recommendation: follow @equalman on Twitter – he’s really on top of all of this stuff).

I like to think of it as looking for the breadcrumbs that the experts left behind for me to find and harvest for my gain.  If you read the tweets, it does not take long to figure out where the good stuff is hiding.  And, usually they are kind enough to leave a link to follow.

Retweets are also important to note.  What’s happening here is that a tweeter thought something was important or especially good at wanted to share the tweet with his or her followers.  It’s also good Twitter etiquette to give the originator credit for the effort.  This is another opportunity to find an authority on a topic.  Find the original tweeter and follow him/her.

Google also is thinking this is important.  This blog post describes a new 2-way search feature that mixes results from Twitter into its search results.  The Bing “decision engine” also contains this capability, however it is somewhat buried as one of many options (follow the “More” link on the top to find the Twitter search).

The social media crowd is taking control of the web.  I think this phenomenon will shape the way we all search for relevant content.  As Twitter expands, it will only make it more valuable as an information worker.  See you in Twitterland!

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Posted in Buzzing Topics, Management and Leadership Topics, Social Media, Technology Topics

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Twitter Use #1: Access to Thought Leadership

Posted on February 4, 2010 | Leave a comment

If you are a Twitter veteran, this post is not for you. I encounter people all the time that express a level of confusion about the value proposition of Twitter. They see things like the following YouTube clip of a recent Verizon ad:

I say there is great value to be had. Twitter provides a great opportunity to get insight from thought leaders in industry. In my word, having a pipeline to leaders in the technical community like Bill Gates (@billgates) and Werner Vogels (@werner) to see what is happening in their worlds. They tweet about trends they see, as well as fun personal details that provide both insight and entertainment. As more and more leaders start tweeting, the possibilities will become seemingly endless.

It’s not necessarily about each individual tweets they write, but a composite view of these thought leaders can provide a new level of understanding of an industry that can prove to be very useful. The way to do this effectively is to use Twitter lists so you can isolate those thought leaders into a group so you can view their tweets together and scan them very quickly. Or, one can find lists that other Twitter users have created, which can be a shortcut to finding those leaders. I prefer to create my own lists as I then have the ability to manage it as I see fit. Whichever way you go, using a list make it is simple to detect trends that may be worth investigating further, or just hold back in the memory bank for later. I can say that having that type of information available has proven to be valuable on more than once occasion.

I have a few other posts in the queue relating to the usefulness of Twitter. In the meantime, how do you derive value from Twitter?

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Posted in Management and Leadership Topics, Social Media

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