Happy December

Time to accept that the resolutions for the year are probably not happening and that is time to simply get ready for another new start in January. All in all, 2011 went pretty well and this month feels like it is going to be a good one too.

Reflections on 2011 (I know I'm early, but I think I need to do this so I can get back to focusing on other stuff!)

• My oldest got into college, got decent money from said college and now attends that college. Was hard to let him go but I think it was the right choice. Still cannot believe I am old enough to have a child in college.
  
• My middle is a sophomore in high school and thinking about college. I'm excited to go through that process with her and having fun watching her be busy in school. For a kid who says she prefers to stay out of the public eye, she is now working two jobs and managing the school play (assistant stage manager) while staying an A student. Not quite "A's" across the board, but not bad overall.
  
• My youngest has totally started to grow up on me... not only are we almost eye to eye, but he's playing the games I love to play, he's busy with stuff I like to watch and he makes me laugh all the time.
  
• Work has been great... lots of projects, lots of new people to meet. Moving into a cubicle was an adjustment (and still adjusting) but overall the move was far more positive than negative. And no more headaches. I never realized how changing light affected me. Being in a controlled environment really has improved my overall health and functionality.
• My husband has a new job, has started a new masters degree and has started several projects around the house. I'll have to get into those projects now if they are ever going to get finished, but overall the year was a good one. We managed to make all the changes with the kids and fix several issues around the house that are making it much nicer to live here.
  
• My family survived the year. My mom and uncle are still here... wasn't sure last Thanksgiving that would be the case. I don't think we'll have both at the table next year, but that will be an issue for 2012... I think 2011 will see us all together for Christmas.
• I'm not sure I really finished any of my goals for the year... but everything moved in the right direction. We did get the oldest into a good school, we are still paying all the bills on time, we did fix up the house and we did have fun this year (two more ballparks off the list!). I didn't get to 50,000 words in NaNoWriMo but I did start a story... and did get almost to 15,000 words before life intervened and I couldn't take the time to write anymore. I will finish it though... I have enough of the ideas on paper that it seems more cohesive than any previous attempt.
• Holidays are on track... at this point I have a complete list and it is almost done. I have the cards started and cookies planned. Tree will be in a week or so. I am now wondering what I forget to do :)

Any thoughts for next year?

Sadness

I am just sad about all the news that is coming out of Penn State.

I don't know the details and I don't want to know the details. What I have heard makes me sick. I hope that somehow the boys who were harmed have managed to get help and break the cycle of abuse. I am sure that they will be found and the media will keep feeding on this story. But I am not sure that tearing down people and rioting and putting good people in danger is going to help improve this situation. I think that those boys/men need to be supported and helped and they deserve no blame for what happened and continues to happen.

The verse from Romans (12:21) keeps popping into my head today "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."

There are really good people at Penn State – good employees (I've met some), good alumni, good parents and good students. Their story has to be told. They should not feel tarnished by this. The only people who are tarnished are the ones who knew and did nothing. But today, the good people feel the shame and the sting of the abuse. It is because they are good that they suffer.

I really hope that sanity comes back to Penn State. That the University figures out how to teach through this moment. That joy can return to Happy Valley. That the people who need help get it and those who did evil accept their responsibility. And that everyone learns how to be a force for good in this world.

NaNoWriMo

Yep, I'm nuts. Came back from heweb11 sick, still can't talk (my kids seem to find the laryngitis amusing) but I'm going to try to write a novel this month.

Every November, the folks at NaNoWriMo encourage the world to write 50,000 words. I know a woman who wrote one last year and sold it. She's on her third novel now. She's writing for the romance genre, which I have no interest in doing, but she managed to make this challenge work for her.

Last year I tried it. Got to about 5000 words and stalled. Debated going back to it, but then my computer failed. Died. Dead as a doornail. So, my feeble efforts were really wasted. But, in the past 11 months, those characters kept popping up, so I'll try again. It's a sci-fi/fantasy novel, and I have no idea if I'll ever finish it, but I have a better feeling this time around. My biggest challenge will be the names of the people and places... I tend to read novels and immediately drop the names (they all become him, her, hero, hero's friend etc). So having to give those adjectives will be my biggest challenge. But I think I'm up for it.

heweb11

Ok, I know a week after the event is late to be sharing.... but I needed time to process what I learned at higheredweb. You can read some of my key thoughts here: http://storify.com/cpd623/heweb11 and see a lot of the presentations here http://link.highedweb.org/.

I spent pretty much every moment in Austin in session or talking to someone who was teaching me something. Four solid days of learning. It was incredible and intense. I distilled all the info into 20 "golden nuggets;" five books to read and 15 things I should think about doing. Upon further reflection I picked seven action items. I started working on three of them today and it was a wonderful morning... still doing my job but doing it in a new light. Really energized and excited to keep learning and making things better. The most illuminating idea I had was this: (and if I ever get to do a presentation I'm going to call it this) Who, What, Where, Why and When... new definitions in today's online world.

• Who: Everyone really, you are no longer limited to the people physically in your space or who can buy your newspaper or get your press release
• What: need to sort what is of interest in new ways... don't tell stories the same way to all your audiences
• Where: again, no limits, if you can connect online you can share with all
• Why: make it meaningful so others help share stories
• When: NOW, is better, but after the fact might be OK if can bring insight and illumination along with it. The past is no longer an excuse... have your audience help tell story if you are strapped.

Thanks to the heweb11 world for invigorating me again. Once I'm over this cold I caught on the plane I'll be busier than ever!

NOTE: Storify no longer exists as a platform. Which is sad, I used to love that. Found my story on the WayBack Machine: https://web.archive.org/web/20180104100906/http://storify.com/cpd623/heweb11 

Changes....

October has been a time for change. First, the whole EA mess. Well, they claim that once I changed my facebook rights that I gave them permission to delete my whole account cause I first set it up via FB. That is a definite bug. But, the loss of that account and my decision not to start over has been so freeing... while I was definitely re-energized by several of the people I "met" there, it was becoming a drag trying to keep my share value up. So, I am taking the lessons learned and applying them in new ways.

At UB my office moved. I am now located in Talbert. Parking is better, temperature is better, food might be more tempting (trying to resist) and it will be easier to participate in meetings across the spine. I do miss my own office (now in a cubicle) and the quiet (well, it was quiet when the music majors were not singing in the stairwell) and the privacy (never sure if someone is looking for me when they wander around our space) but it is a much bigger space than I anticipated and I have more storage than before. I think it will be OK once we all settle down.

At home we are setting into the routine of not having my oldest at home. It took much longer than I expected to get used to it and I think I probably never will be used to it. I begin to understand the "empty nest" syndrome even though I still have two at home. There is a hole in the fabric of our lives and while I can patch it, the fabric will change. I'm OK with having a quilt represent my life, but the emotions have been stronger than I could ever have planned. And the other two are finally getting used to the new normal of making sure I can pick them up (their brother used to be able to help) and that the schedules have shifted. We'll probably just figure it all out and he'll come home for Christmas :)

Empire Avenue

OK, I am annoyed right now. Earlier today I logged into EA, checked my social graph and went about my business. Just tried to go back on my lunch and found my account has been deleted. I'm not sure what I did or what I clicked, but unless someone decided to hack into my account, I must have hit something. I did modify some privacy settings in facebook this AM, but, I was under the impression that EA was a separate entity. Now I am not so sure.

It would appear that my whole account is now gone. And I'm not going to spend the time bringing it back. So, if we connected on EA along the way, I'm sorry for this error. If Empire Avenue can figure out how to salvage my account, then I'll continue, but since my primary peer groups never connected there, this might actually end up being a blessing in disguise.

Oh what a tangled web we are weaving.... this is certainly a wake-up call for what is connected where.

Facebook

So, yesterday facebook changed everything again. Annoying. Most of my friends reacted negatively too. Couldn't find things I normally scanned in the morning, lost the train of the feed on several occasions etc.

Interestingly my college aged son wondered what the big deal was. He has the updated feed but didn't care about it. My high school daughter didn't even notice, but then again she only uses FB on a mobile device.

Which got me to thinking. Why was I so annoyed and they so unaffected? My guess would be that they share everything with their friends. I don't.

I started sorting into two main groups over a year ago, people I actually know and acquaintances. The acquaintances got sorted into a group that locked them out of the details of my life. We could message one another, we can play games together, they can invite me to their events, but they couldn't see the pictures of my kids. I also used the lists option to sort my feed, my preferred method was to view status updates and I hid the feeds of many of the games, groups I was asked to like etc. When it was time to play Cafe World or Mafia Wars (yes, I got sucked into those games by my kids and I still play) I could sort the feed for game updates and send gifts etc. I was very happy.

Now, facebook has sorted all my friends for me and the feed lists option appears to be gone. If I click the FB games list, I don't see my friends there who play games with me, only the acquaintances. I have to click several places now to see the info that used to be at my fingertips. From a work perspective, I am concerned that the pages I promote will get buried... that we won't be "top news" cause we publish in waves of info and our fans might not see the info we do share.

This afternoon there was a press conference explaining why all of this is so great. Honestly, it just feels like a targeted advertising demographic grab. If I am forced to sort all of my friends into all the categories in which I hold them, Facebook learns a little bit more about my likes. And someday the ads will be more personalized. Honestly, if I wanted to sort everyone into groups I could use google plus :)

So, if you are as fed up with facebook as I am, come find me on google plus. I've already got the circles started over there. I won't leave facebook, too many friends and family there, but I don't think I'll spend the time curating my peeps the way FB wants. I'll just figure out how to view the basics and play the games. And continue to try to keep my private life private.

Metamorphosis

So, September kept it coming. After my Mom got hurt, so far this month my son broke a toe, my cat needed emergency surgery and my Dad needed a trip to the ER. So, now looking forward to October :). I am having a personal metamorphosis as I learn how to juggle it all. I appreciate my family and support network even more than ever. I am changing day by day and hope I transition into something amazing at the end of it all.

But, in the midst of the insanity, a little touch of magic from Mother Nature. We had to babysit caterpillars for a neighbor. I know, not the most common of neighborly requests, but we said OK. And got to watch one change into a pupa. Managed to capture it on film.

This morning while we were waiting for buses, our neighbor came out to say that two of the butterflies emerged last night. I got to take some photos of them, and one shows how the pupa changes. So amazing.

The photo of the toad was just because we were happy to see him today :)

Going to HigherEd Web in Austin

My first conference since joining UB and my first professional conference in years. Roswell used to send me to work the booths for their conferences (not that I fit the classic definition of a booth babe by any stretch of the imagination) but I don't think I've traveled for learning in over seven years, maybe longer. I am truly looking forward to a chance to think outside of the box.

Let me know if you're going to be there too!

Be careful of word choices

Well, I had no idea how using the word crash to title my first blog for the month would come to signify the whole month of August for me.

My home computer is still getting repaired. They fixed the first issue I sent it in for, but broke the fan in the process. So, when we booted it up, it sounded like an airplane was landing. Back to the store and back to another two weeks of warranty repairs. So glad I had the extended warranty, but getting annoyed that we still don't have it back and school starts next week.

But in the rest of the month I've been affected by road crashes (one solid hour on thruway in middle of nowhere due to a major accident in front of us), emotional crashes (leaving my oldest at college) and bone "crashes" that sent my Mom to the hospital for surgery. It has been a roller coaster of a ride. I am glad to see September at the end of this week.

Crash!

So, two weeks ago my netbook started acting funny... needed some updates but all seemed OK. Until the day it wiped itself back to factory settings, all by itself. And then wouldn't accept any more updates and then it forgot it was a computer and became just a pretty shell of itself.
After a bit of swearing, cause my daughter had just finished a paper for her summer class on it, we launched the home computer and she dictated her paper while I typed. Got the whole thing recreated in about two hours, printed it and all seemed fine.

Until the next morning when the desktop started acting funny. And needed some updates and started losing the connection to the monitor etc. Tried a new video card but it's the motherboard. And so, the desktop is now dead.

Interestingly, both computers were purchased at the same time and set up on the same day. Makes me seriously wonder if I'm dealing with some planned obsolescence here. Just too weird that they both died within days of each other.

Since I believe the hard drive to still be OK on the desktop, I'm not freaking out as much as one might think. We do regular back-up of the data on it so even if it really did die, I have photos etc. Will have lost some video, but I have memories. We're just computerless at home right now. Which feels really weird.

The bright spot in this whole fiasco: well there are a few.

• First, because I bought extended warranties (over the objection of those who shall remain nameless) both computers are still covered. So they get fixed or I get new ones. Will just take a few weeks to sort that out.
• Second, my son is now willing to get a external hard drive to save his work at college. Might save him some of the pain his sister experienced.
• Finally, this happened before real school started, so we have time to get up and running again by September. And we're playing board games most nights now since we can't goof off online. Improved family time is the best ending of all.

Cleaning up the social media

I think I'm overwhelmed. There are way too many social media accounts out there. With the advent of Google+ everything is shooting into overdrive.

So, I decided to start looking for any account I ever opened. So far I've cleaned up six old accounts and am debating if I "need" my other profiles out there.

Then in one last major attempt to purge a little bit from the ether, I found an old blog tied to a website with a previous employer. Deleted. But in the same venue I found two other work related blogs tied to that company too. I thought I'd left instructions of how to manage/delete, but they were overlooked. Three years later I was contacting my replacement to let her know they are there.

Makes me wonder what else is buried out there. I'm glad to say that I've always been well behaved on the internet, so even if I've really lost something, it's ok if someone finds later.

About.me

Well, new social media platforms are cropping up all over the place. Today Klout partnered with Spotify to give early adopters a way to sign up quickly. While I have a Klout profile, I'm not into the Spotify insanity. I prefer quiet when I code so streaming music is not something I'm going to chase down.

The twitterverse is jumping all over Spotify, so perhaps now Google+ will have a chance to catch up. While many of my colleagues are in G+ now, many are not. So, I'm still checking multiple platforms to pull my info stream together.

As part of a way to streamline my SM, I recalled About.me (http://about.me/cpd623). I had signed up for an account last October but they never notified me when they opened it up. So, I had my name saved, but couldn't access it. Finally got it all fixed this am. Still way too much stuff to check, but until the dust settles, I think I'm in for a lot of touching base all over the web.

Google Plus

Finally got into Google Plus, so now I have to learn about it. A few thoughts right off the bat:
1. People seem really excited to have an alternative to facebook
2. The sorting into circles is awesome. Can control the flow of info much better.
3. The slowness of invites is hampering the process, but may not affect in the long run. We have to remember facebook started off only on college campuses and had plenty of testing time before being opened to the world.

On the negative side, I now have another place I have to check daily, so my time on any platform will be lessened. I also don't know how many of my friends will migrate again. My colleagues are definitely embracing google+, so perhaps I'll end up with a social platform (facebook) and work platforms (twitter and google). In the long run that might be better.

July: Let the Summer Fun Begin

Today is July 1. This means Happy Canada Day to our northern friends. As a Buffaloian, thanks for coming down and shopping here. You help to keep our stores busy and new merchandise on the shelves.

This month is also the time to observe national hot dog month, national ice cream month and national blueberry month... as well as firework safety, rubies in general and the dog days of summer.

Most importantly though, we get to celebrate Independence Day on Monday. If you have served in the military or serve now, thank you. Freedom is not free.

Ride For Roswell

Last Saturday the University at Buffalo hosted the 16th annual Ride for Roswell event. The estimates were 7,500 riders, 1,500 volunteers and over $3 million dollars raised for Roswell Park Cancer Institute.

The most amazing part of the day... that everyone showed up even with rain clouds threatening....I'll be honest it did not rain during the main events (10 different routes ranging from 3 miles to 62 miles) or when people were queuing up to eat lunch. It misted right after the main event (a bit) but didn't dampen the spirits of the people listening to the band. No one seemed concerned and everyone was ready to deal with it.

That's one of the reasons I love Buffalo... you make plans, you stick to them. No matter the weather, no matter the crowd, we just come together regularly to make a difference. I was proud to be a part of the day.

HTML5

I'm learning more and more about HTML 5 and I love it. I'm mostly self-taught with this web coding thing and I like the fact that the W3C and WHATWG decided to maintain the flow of web development rather than try to force changes to the way we do business.

From the sounds of it, HTML5 will be backwards compatible, will integrate video and audio, AND if browsers/gadgets/phones decide to follow these guidelines, we won't have to code in special ways for each device.

The part I'm having trouble wrapping my head around is the length of time it will take to get it recommended.... I've seen the websites like ishtml5readyyet.com where we are "years away." But the world is already moving in that direction. It is confusing to me that there are delays when it is just an evolution of the working methods we already have.

Privacy and the web

So, I'm rethinking some of the sites to which I am a member. Recently I've blogged about Empire Avenue but what amazes me is how deep they are finding my social media connections. I got "credit" for liking a video on youtube over a year ago. That made me think, well, where else have I visited in the past three years, five years, decade? I'm an early adopter of the internet, been using it all along.

So, I started looking. I found a "website" I created for a class (took it down); found a blog I used for testing stuff (took it down), remembered I joined a community to help with some health and wellness goals (decimated the personal info on it but stayed a member); am checking my personal settings on facebook again (I check that sucker weekly, they change the rules too often) and am thinking that I probably need to do a bit more searching to make sure I'm not missing anything else.

The most important thing to me is that I keep my private life private and my social life protected. I want to share my thoughts and learn about yours, I want to be more productive at work and share in global thoughts and learning, but I have to remember at the end of the day, keeping these separate protects my family the most.

PSU Web Conference

So, I've been following #psuweb11 for the past two days on twitter. Loving it. Lots of good info, some great links and I've been able to learn some facts remotely. Was looking forward to the #hesms live conference this afternoon. Unfortunately there are technical difficulties and the live stream keeps fading out. I can see/hear part of it, but I don't quite get the whole picture.

Of course, I'm just being grumpy cause I wanted to participate live. This is really cool: a conference of experts, sharing their thoughts live and free! This is why the highered community is so great... they try something new all the time (live conference), they have a back-up plan (video to be posted later) and they still keep the out of towners in the loop (live chat and responding to twitter).

Change

Best laid plans... was supposed to go to dinner tonight with a former co-worker. Sad she had to reschedule. I was looking forward to the conversation and laughter tonight. As we work on trying to find another date... I see that we have to go about three weeks ahead... life is just too filled with sports, community events, birthday parties etc.

As the Greek philosopher Heraclitus once said: "Change is the only constant." I have to just roll with the changes that come.

Global Learning

I work for a university... and my son starts at one in the Fall.

He's going almost seven hours from home for the experience. Makes me wonder, do we need classrooms if the students can connect online from different locations?

Should the goal be to teach students a series of tasks/topics or to teach them how to learn so they can stay ahead of the learning curve? I'm thinking the latter. Time will tell.

I believe that shared experiences and collegiate life are important to adults in today's world, but I also want to be sure that the costs we're going to pay to give him this experience prepare him for a modern career.

Empire Avenue Update

So yesterday was my most "productive" day on Empire Avenue:
Earnings: 135.38e
Dividends/Investment Earnings: 130.47e
Other Earnings: 805.48e
You spent: 4784.13e

My current "value" is e25.61 (+1.067).

I'd originally joined the "game" because of a surge of highered and social media colleagues joining. I thought it might be a way to connect with some different, albeit similar, folks and follow them on twitter to expand my knowledge base.

What I've found is a very involved writers group. And I've read a new book because of them and I'm "re"thinking about a novel I started a long time ago. I have no idea where it will go, but it is nice to be energized again about my writing.

Perfect Weekend

So, this weekend I managed to read two novels (both by Lee Child, from his Jack Reacher series), enjoyed a piano recital, ate out most meals and skipped most chores (except for gardening that I wanted to do). It was probably the quietest two days I've had in a long time and they were needed. I feel so much more energized today at work and full of new ideas.

So, I guess the next question becomes... if a few quiet hours can totally refresh me... why don't I schedule downtime more often? I guess because once you schedule it, it becomes another chore.

Don't get me wrong... skipping the laundry, groceries and house cleaning will catch up to me. But I think I need to figure out how to pull off another hooky weekend again soon.

Follow Up: Change is Now

I rarely check my personal email anymore... in fact sometimes I go a few days without looking at it. Most of my friends are on facebook (so I "see" them daily) and my colleagues are on twitter or email me at work.

My workflow changed subtly... I used to check email at least three times a day... but now I need to set a tickler so I don't miss school stuff or emails from my folks. I much prefer the flow of info from the new social media channels.

The other major change is how I can avoid ads... at least a lot of the time. I've stopped turning on my radio in my car (mind you my commute is only 8 minutes now, but still) and we "tape" everything we watch so we can skip the commercials as we watch a show. Yesterday my youngest and I were looking at bird cams and were both annoyed by a "required" ad to see a nest. He dumped it from his list of cams to check.

How has your workflow/entertainment flow changed in the past year? Five years? Decade?

Empire Avenue

Well, empire avenue... a new "game" around "social media" where you trade your friends to boost influence. A lot of highered folks are joining, so this might become a useful tool for work for chatting about topics and "meeting" like minded individuals. It also combines information from other SM accounts (like twitter and facebook) to give scores (like Klout). What I can't tell is if this will be a turn off to people who join later (when it gets more expensive to connect to people in your portfolio) or who don't want to connect their personal accounts to a business account, or who find it distasteful to be "trading" peers.

It also feels a bit like a pyramid scheme... once you connect and get all the connection "eaves" then the only easy way to get more capital is to bring your friends into it... and again, people get more expensive as more people buy them... not entirely sure how this model will scale up.

It has been fun to collect the badges :) I never was a girl scout so that part is new to me... and safer than foursquare. But more invasive than any zynga game, so I'm unsure how long I'll play this one. It will all depend on if the work component stays fresh and current.

Changes

So, I'm sitting at my desk today monitoring the PSEWeb conference in Toronto... lots of good information coming from twitter (#pseweb).

What suddenly hit me was how I'm chatting and "listening" to people from all around the world on topics that are important to all of us. We're not in a vacuum, we're having a "global meeting."

I'll be honest, when I went to college, no internet - no web - no cell phones. That all changed at my first job where I got a cell phone, email and used a collegiate intranet.

So, how much more will the world change for my kids? If the past 20 years is any indication, the world will shrink further... how will we distinguish between work/family time? Will that matter? If everything is out on the web, how do we compensate people? For what tasks? Time will tell, but the only constant is change

Failed Tasks

So, I've been asked to complete a task at work... not going to go into the details of it but it involves essentially removing access from a social media platform we will no longer support. Went online, read the instructions, followed them to the letter and nothing. The final button did nothing.

OK, try it again, maybe I missed a step? Nope.

OK, maybe the browsers I updated won't play nice with this site anymore, so I go get an earlier version to try that. Nope.

Maybe the help forums have an answer, Nope.

Then it became at least a 30-minute search for the contact button. Finally found it, sent a message and waited.

It took 24 hours for a response and then I got new instructions. None of which are online in the "how to delete an account" or "help deleting your account" forums. I'm not sure why that would be, because now they have to talk to anyone who is serious about removing an account, but I'm not the manager of that group. So, I followed those instructions and am now waiting again.

This is the second time I've had issues recently with removing a profile... my other headache was with a website I created for a class on a free server. When I went to delete my profile I was told that I cannot do that, but I could delete my site and never return and eventually I'll be placed in their dead account file. I guess I understand keeping content for liability purposes, but making it hard to clean up my internet life? I'm not sure I'm happy about that. I don't like leaving accounts with emails and passwords out in the ether.

Crossing my fingers that the first group clears the account for me and I can move on... but this will make me think twice about trying new social media sites...

Blogger issues

So, last week, blogger crashed. People freaked out for a few days but it came back. I didn't lose any content and I haven't met anyone who did.

Technology is changing so much... I used to print photos, now I save on a computer... will I be able to access them in the future? I blog into the cloud...what happens when that server crashes or the company supporting it can't pay their bills...

Where are the archives of the future going to be? They say nothing is ever deleted that is published online... but I wonder how true that is. Only time (and resources) will tell.

New browsers

Updated my browser at work to firefox 4.0.1, having issues with Delicious and probably other things too. Updated internet explorer at home... not liking it either. I just want to do things quickly and while these changes may eventually make my life better, today I am just annoyed.

Had a chance to do some reading today at work about HTML5 and CSS3 and responsive design in web development. Hoping I'll be able to jump into some training this summer to get hands-on. I really want to keep improving my skills so I can keep on creating.

Cloud Fails

So today, the unofficial day Skynet tried to terminate the human race (revised Terminator time line courtesy of the Sarah Connor Chronicles) Amazon's cloud failed. I find that somewhat funny.

I'm not in the cloud quite yet...here is a list of posts about it: (http://blog.hootsuite.com/notes-on-todays-outage/) I use twitter not hootsuite (although I like Social Oomph), I don't like foursquare(see my previous post on privacy and robberies) and I'm not in the other affected tools. I think Amazon has a great business model (scale up as you get bigger) but its failure today shows the weaknesses inherent in these tools.

I agree that the times are changing; I use twitter more than email, I use facebook more than the phone, I text to my kids instead of call them. But, I still remain firmly grounded with the understanding that stuff breaks, I need to know the basic tools and a sharpened pencil can still be useful.

Social Logins

The topic on twitter today (4-19-11) is the amount of personal data available via social log-in methods. Facebook seems to be leading the pack with the amount of personal data collected, but they are not alone.

My very first thought about this subject: don't share anything online you're not willing to share in public. You don't have to fill in all the boxes because they make them available. Use the privacy settings, check them often, update as needed.

My grandmother was always careful about what she said and to whom after her house was robbed when she told her hairdresser why she was getting a fancy updo "going out to dinner tonight for a family party." Well, the hairdresser's boyfriend was a thief. Similar issue in my life... family friend's son, who was watching our goldfish, told neighborhood troublemaker "they're not home this weekend and I'm watching their pets." We were robbed by the local juvenile delinquents.

Needless to say I don't tell people when I have tickets for any event or if I'm checking out the latest restaurant. I post after the fact if I want. I use different settings for friends-family and people I only know online. I'm teaching my kids to be paranoid. But avoiding social media is not the answer. Learning how to harness the beast is the trick.

Social Media Gone Wild

I've spent a good amount of time this week participating in the Mercedes-Benz Tweet race to Dallas (around the "big game"). Two members of the higher ed community (@tsand and @ijohnpederson) managed to be selected as one of four teams to participate (the others are media personalities, bloggers etc). Each team was assigned a celebrity to "help" and guaranteed their charity $25,000 for being selected. St. Jude's is the "only pediatric cancer research center where families never pay for treatment not covered by insurance."

So the race begins. I don't have any idea if they thought they could win or if they were just happy to get that major donation... and then the community went crazy. Higher ed is a tight group of interconnected, intelligent, creative and obsessive people. We crushed every challenge, we tweeted enough that their fuel tank NEVER dropped below full (to the point that @tsand thought it was broken) and today, the start of final day 3, they have more than double the points of any other team.

MBTeamS: 65,485
MBTeamGL: 26,345
MBTeamE: 20,486
MBTeamCL: 26,733

Based on how the other teams are doing... that was probably what was expected to happen... a nice close race into Dallas. But the highered community stayed up to finish challenges, ran around to local dealers and sent photos, changed avatars when requested etc.

From the headquarters:
MBtweetraceHQ Mercedes Tweet Race
#mbtweetrace Update: Pts earned from #DLER #challenge: #MBTeamS 325 #MBTeamGL 150 #MBTeamE 75 #MBteamCL 50
MBtweetraceHQ Mercedes Tweet Race
#mbtweetrace Update: Pts earned from #AVTR #challenge: #MBTeamE 70 #MBTeamS 365 #MBTeamCL 160 #MBteamGL 255

This is an example of how social media differs from every other form of marketing communication. If your community cares, they will come out and help when you need them. Or they will at least pay attention to what you are doing. If they don't care, you're begging them to notice.