Web 2 dot Oh Crap, More Things For Me to be Self Conscious About

As I get more involved with Twitter, not to mention other social outlets like Facebook and FriendFeed, a few things keep coming back to haunt me:

1. Is there some sort of ethical code to following those who follow you?
2. If I follow more than I am followed, what does that say about me?
3. Am I the number of Friends and/or Followers I have?
4. Should I be anonymous in my travels (i.e., leave my various profiles – specifically on Twitter and FriendFeed – blank or, worse, filled with unintelligible garbage) or should I be open about who I am?

So, rather than sit here and let my petty doubts and fears of inadequacy rule my life (any more than they already do), I figured I’d face my fears and address each of these in turn. So here goes…

1. To Follow, or not to Follow. THAT is the question. I pick up Twitter followers here and there. I don’t actively seek them, and for the most part I’m guessing they come to me from those whom I follow. However, I don’t know whether the people who follow me expect ME to follow THEM out of common courtesy. Is there some ethical code to a reciprocal follow? Is this like the whole “I link to you, you link to me” phenomenon in the early days of search engine optimization? I honestly don’t know, so until someone tells me differently I’m going to pick and choose those I follow and won’t simply quid pro quo a new follower. Really, how does someone follow 100, 500, 10,000 people? Where is the benefit? How do you manage the conversation? How do you have the time to do that, especially when you work a 50+ hour week? I see no harm in being picky, so picky I shall be.

2. Sheep or Sheep Dog? Truth be told, I follow more than I am followed. Is that wrong? Am I simply a follower and not a leader? Should I even care? My answer to that last question is a confident “no”. I’m new to all of this. I am learning, and part of the learning process is to acquaint oneself with the environment. Following people is a great way to do that; you learn techniques, you learn styles, you learn strategies. And with all of that learning you gain your own voice and your own goals. As I grow, so will my followers. I believe that. Woof.

3. My Dad can beat up your Dad. Here’s something that may shock you: I don’t want a legion of followers or innumerable friends. I am not the quantity of people that I converse and interact with, I am, instead, the quality of that interaction. In that respect I’d much rather have 10 friends than 10,000 acquaintances. Besides, what good does it do anybody if I have 10,000 followers but I don’t say a damn thing? I am NOT Jack’s Self-Gratifying Id, I am his more Socially Acceptable Super Ego (pun intended). I strive for quality, not quantity; I am all about interaction and engagement. I’m not Bono – I can’t engage a stadium full of people. I’m more of the “small club gig” type.

4. What’s My Line? I am under the impression, and I don’t think I’m alone in this, that the whole idea of “social media” is the conversation. That it is the ability to actually engage and interact with people, actual living and breathing members of the species “Homo Sapien”. If that’s true, then why do people insist on wrapping themselves in the blanket of anonymity? When I go to view the profile of someone who starts following me I expect to see THEM, not just their profile. I expect to see a name, a web address, maybe an occupation, and, hopefully, something that gives me a glimpse into that person’s personality. I don’t follow people who use pseudonyms,  or who don’t have a URL and some personal tidbits in their bio. Will it kill me not to follow “UnusedName” who is a “kick ass 18 yo wannabe rock star”? Not at all, but it may mean they miss out on some of my worldly wisdom, poignant insight, and keen wit.

So there we have it – doubts quashed, fears dashed, feelings of inadequacy held at bay for now. At least until my next post that is.

Filed under: Musings, Ramblings, Technology, Work , delicious, friendfeed, self doubt and aggravation, social media, Twitter

31 Days to a Better Blog Lesson 1 – the Elevator Pitch

Image courtesy of Hardly the Last Word

With this blog I am striving to be a Social Media Apologist, but in a good way. That means I will be writing about social media but not in the vein of Scoble or Jarvis who, at times, teeter on giddy adoration. Instead, I intend to discuss social media from the layman’s perspective – I’m just a guy who sees the importance in where our use of the web is headed. I see the usefulness and potential reward of staying very near the bleeding edge as we move forward in our use and understanding of the Internet. I am by no means an expert – I will most certainly make mistakes – but I’m an interested and expectant user of the internet and I hope to bring that perspective to my blog. Ideally, others out there, especially those new to the buzzwords (Web 2.0, Social Media, Twitter, blog, etc.) will find a place to visit and feel comfortable with the terminology, the technology, and the ideology of social media.

Filed under: Technology, Work , internet, social media, Web 2.0

It’s Not You….It’s ME

I think I used that excuse once when breaking up with a girl. However, when it comes to leaving an employer, that’s another story.

Over at Techcrunch Michael Arrington has an interesting post about a “group” created by Google HR for people to post about why they’re leaving Google for other employers. What’s interesting isn’t so much the reasons (e.g., low pay, cutting back of perks, “in the box” thinking – though that IS interesting) as the psychological effects of the decision. As one respondent stated:

“Those of us who failed to thrive at Google are faced with some pretty serious questions about ourselves. Just…Google is supposed to be some kind of Nirvana, so if you can’t be happy there how will you ever be happy? It’s supposed to be the ultimate font of technical resources, so if you can’t be productive there how will you ever be productive?”

That’s pretty intense, and I’m not sure I’m comfortable with building a corporate culture to the point where the decision to leave is followed by years of therapy, counseling and prescription drug dependency. It’s great to love where you work, but to do that to the detriment of your self esteem is a bit suspect.

Many people have left successful companies and been just as successful, if not more so. Look at Bret Taylor, Jim Norris, Paul Bucheit and Sanjeev Singh – they are the former Googlers who founded FriendFeed – the de facto standard for social networking aggregation. What about Mark Messier, who was traded by Edmonton Oilers to the New York Rangers – and in the process added to New York sports legend by guaranteeing a victory in Game 6 of the 1994 Stanley Cup. With the Rangers down 3-2 in the series, Messier then backed up his guarantee by scoring a natural hat trick in the game. The Rangers went on to win Game 7 and hoist Lord Stanley’s trophy.

Look, a job is just that, a job. It doesn’t define who you are, it’s just a means to an end. Sure, there is some “carte blanche” that goes with your “team” – whether that is a literal professional sports team or the company you’re working for – but leaving that team doesn’t mean you’re any less important, less skilled, or that you lack some inherent quality to be successful. As noted, in some cases, it means just the reverse.

Actually leaving a company can mean actual advancement of a career versus moving to just another job, especially when you’re leaving a company that has built a huge cult of personality, something commonplace in the tech industry. There’s no penalty for making a decision to move on – either personally or professionally.  Sometimes you need to “Just Do It”.

Filed under: Musings, Ramblings, Technology, Work

Don’t "Resolutionize" – Rather REVOLUTIONIZE!

The new year is rife with pundits’ expositions on their New Year’s resolutions. Personally, there’s only so many times I can tell myself (and anyone else interested enough to ask) that I’m going to exercise more and lose weight, or stop drinking “Mountain Dew”, or that I’m going to finally take the dive and learn how to play that bass guitar. I”ve only ever been successful ONCE in living up to a New Year’s Resolution: That was to quit smoking, and even then it took eight years to accomplish.

Therefore, rather than vow to follow some redundant “resolutions”, I vow, instead, to engage in “revolutions” this year!

How will accomplish this Sisyphean task?

1. Step outside my comfort zone and do something that is a bit risque – at least for me. Take the meaning of this as you will, but for me it means being a little less calculating in things. A minor example would be in my blogging: Rather than plan out a post for a week or so, do more “stream-of-consciousness” stuff. Maybe add video or audio. Maybe offer my services to a third party and be a guest blogger on a site like the WHIR.

2. Be more opinionated. Believe it or not I’ve been criticized for having an opinion on things but not making that opinion heard. Therefore, I need to have more conversations with leadership, more calls or emails – don’t sit on the “next great idea”, actually discuss it with someone. And when I say “leadership”, I’m talking Newtek leadership: Barry, C.J., et. al. That also means fix more broken windows in our forums .

3. Don’t wait – participate. Sort of hand-in-hand with the first two, but I need to get more involved outside of the NTS environment: post in forums, hit a local users group or four, maybe a dreaded Better Business Bureau monthly “technology leadership” meeting. Then again, maybe it’s as simple as striking up a friendship with someone whose blog I read, or who I follow on Twitter.

4. Grow and improve – take a class or attend a seminar on something odd: origami, eastern religion (DISCLAIMER: I do not mean eastern religion itself is odd, but me taking a class on it would be), ballroom dancing. Again, trying to stick with a “revolutionary” theme, so why stop and learning more about writing, or technology, or anything else that surrounds me on a day-to-day basis? Expand horizons, self improve, carpe diem, that sort of thing.

5. Don’t just live – actually exist! This goes for everything, both personally and professionally. In the immortal words of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson: “Some may never live, but the crazy never die.”

Okay, so I’m no Che, but for me those are fairly lofty goals as we gently slide into a new year. Hey, this is the era of Change:  ¡VIVA LA REVOLUCION!

Filed under: Drunkards, Musings, Ramblings, Work

the Internet Versus Hog Futures

Something I wrote for my blog at work. Thought it was pretty good:

My grandparents’ kitchen was THE place when I was growing up. A seat at the table was a place of honor, especially in the early evening when folks would stop by for coffee. In southern Iowa things move a bit more slowly than in other areas of the country. In Unionville, population 25, this is especially true.

Therefore, being able to sit at the table gave you a front row seat to the news and notes, whether it was how the latest crops were doing, whose son was back from boot camp, or even discussion on the fall out from the most recent high school football game (Moravia football was HUGE in Appanoose County in the 80’s and old habits die hard).

I remember sitting at that table one weekday afternoon a few years ago. My grandparents were playing cribbage, as was their normal routine, and the Royals game was on the radio. A truck pulled up outside and my grandmother, in a most Stepford-like way, got up to make a new pot of coffee.

A man walked up the front porch, knocked twice and then let himself in the front door. He was attired as one would expect: Kent Feed cap slightly askew and appropriately sweat stained, overalls just dirty enough, hand rolled cigarette dangling. There was definitely no doubt as to the man’s profession. He sat just off to the side of the table, took off his hat and laid it on his knee. My grandmother, ever the courteous host, handed him a cup of freshly brewed coffee.

They talked, chatted, joked. Time came for introductions as I was the unknown in a world of daily routine. The man – and it’s been so long I’ve forgotten his name – asked me what I did for a living.

“I work for a web hosting company,” I said proudly.

“Ah,” came his reply. Pause. “What’s that?”

Slightly taken aback, I replied “It has to do with websites. You know, the Internet.”

“Oh, the Internet,” he drawled. “I’ve heard of that.”

And that was it. The discussion of corn yields resumed, and my part was through.

“I’ve heard of that.”

Not “oh, of course” or “how interesting”. Simply, “I’ve heard of that.”

I took it for granted that everyone was familiar with the Internet – that everyone used it and that it was as part of their daily routine. I just assumed that even here in rural America, where mowing hay or plowing a field was a daily occurrence, that at least accessing email was a given. It never dawned on me that someone would simply have “heard” of the Internet.

We can all use a humbling experience like this once in awhile to remind us that not everyone knows what we do, much less how we do it. Not everyone is as familiar with things like “DNS” or “webmail” or “FTP”. We all need to take a step back and understand this, and be able to adjust our methods of communication accordingly. We don’t have the ability to hand over a fresh cup coffee, but we do have the luxury of a friendly and understanding ear.

Filed under: Musings, Technology, Work

Criticizing the competition

So, I’ve posted my first critical topic in my company’s forum. I have to admit, I’m not terribly happy about it.

Granted, I didn’t mention the competition by name, only by inference as others in the particular forum topic mentioned the company by name.

It upsets me to no end that people (our customers and our non/potential customers alike) don’t understand what goes in to rolling out any offering, much less a beta offering based on a newly-released technology. We could easily roll out hosting Plans based off of anything: Ruby, Rails, Ruby on Rails, CFMX8, .NET4.0, Silverlight, Apollo……you name it. However, there is CBA to consider. There is also the ideal of what releasing early does to our customer base and our reputation. As I stated in my post, it’s easy to be first to release a new product based on a new technology. However, it’s my belief that, while being first has it’s place (heh…no pun intended) being the first to offer “seamless” integration with what customers/end-users are used to using is much better. What good is using a new product if, just after I’m  used to the new syntax or functionality, I have to change it to conform to how my service provider feels the new product should be offered?

Filed under: Work