Saying the wrong thing is so much easier these days. There was a day when you could only stick your foot in your mouth in person, or on the phone. Now we're making fools of ourselves without even thinking about it, in more ways than we would like. Google Latitude, Gowalla, Foursquare, and Loopt will tell all of our friends where we are, sometimes when we don't want anyone else to know. You may not want your future employer knowing how often you visit certain establishments. Blippy will tell everyone what we're buying with our credit cards, and how much we're paying. Facebook can lead to all kinds of problems, and Twitter lets people speak their minds far too easily.
These services aren't inherently bad for your reputation, but anyone can fall victim, and most everyone does. I created a Facebook group 6 years ago called "The CPA club." The group promoted the use of Casual Professional Apparel - we wore ties and/or blazers with blue jeans. This seems harmless, but could be interpreted as mocking Certified Professional Accountants. That was never the intent - I started wearing ties to try to look the part when I took my first accounting exam - but I may never get the chance to tell my side of the story. I have written blog posts expressing my opinion about various products and philosophies, and now Google Buzz makes my comments on other peoples' blog post public to the world (if I tell it to). I'm not ashamed of the things I've written online, but some of them could be taken the wrong way.
And I'm not alone. Apple leaked information about the fabled existence of it's tablet. Technology blogs and news sites alike were in a frenzy to tell us what the tablet would do, the dimensions, the apps, the price, the name, the size, and everything else, up to a year before they were even sure Apple would produce such a gadget. The hype was amazing, fueled mainly by these blogs, and other social media. And the result was disappointing. Most of the blogs called the iPad nothing more than a big iPhone. All the digital press was great up to the release date, now more than half of the digital press has been negative. This could have been avoided by lessening the hype, leaking less information, and leaking it closer to the release date. The iPad appears to be a good product, but no product could live up to the hype that the iPad had.
A smaller problem happened with Google. One of their employees stopped in the crosswalk in front of Michael Arrington's (founder of TechCrunch) car, refusing to let him pass. The reason: Arrington was using his cell phone while driving, which is against the law in California. Arrington snapped a picture with his phone, and wrote a post about the ordeal. Probably not too many people know about this, but the people that do know, the people that follow the TechCrunch blog, are the type of people that Google would want to hire. I am still a huge fan of Google, but I think this Googler took the "Don't Be Evil" mantra a little too far. This is difficult to avoid, but it is important to remind employees not to do anything controversial or potentially offensive while acting as an employee of the company (i.e. wearing name badges or uniforms).
Recently MySpace has attempted several social media strategies to regain prominence online, including making its own site more social. Unfortunately, the online response to these attempts are basically that MySpace is floundering; some blogs say the site is already dead. In this case, MySpace is being criticized for trying too hard. It would have been better to just focus on core competencies (music discovery), and not try to become Facebook.
Disclaimer: These are merely my opinions and observations. In no way do I intend to demean or damage the reputation of any of these companies.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Saturday, January 16, 2010
In the Grass
James was there again, staring into the darkening sky. Occasionally, though rarely, in his mind the stars were no longer pinholes in a great black sheet - they surrounded him, and he saw them as lights hanging in the distance, some nearer and some farther. Tonight he got that feeling of being surrounded by the cosmos. It both thrilled him and frightened him.
He remembered going to a baseball game with his father. They sat high in the stands, near the edge of the stadium. He had looked over the railing, imagining the horror of falling from such a height, when he saw out of the corner of his eye a helium balloon escaping a child's hand. It rose out of the stadium, out of sight. James watched it until it was just a tiny red speck against the clouds. The fear of falling was lost as he watched the balloon escape. One can only fall so far down; falling away from Earth, as the balloon had done, seemed endless.
This same fear, though not as intense, accompanied the sensation James felt as the stars surrounded him. Endless. He felt as if he somehow might fall into these starts and be lost in the depths of the universe. Perhaps what frightened him most was being lost in the unknown. He understood that stars were very similar to the sun, but beyond that, he understood very little of the universe.
James was constantly in pursuit of knowledge. He read a lot of books and blogs and magazines. He had learned about physics, and had become interested in the strange rules that sub-atomic particles live by. But he could not understand any of them, and some of the theories were disconcerting. He learned about computer and a little bit about writing software programs. But the way computers actually work was still just magic to him. He had learned about biology, and a little bit about human physiology, but he was hardly a doctor, and he didn't really believe doctors completely understood the body too much better than he or anyone else. He felt like his knowledge was like algae spreading slowly over the top of a pond, but never penetrating the depths in any spot. He wasn't even quite sure if algae actually grows on the surface of ponds.
He was beginning to understand why people say that the more you know, the more you realize how little you know. James had met a few very smart people, but even their knowledge lacked depth in most areas. His lack of knowledge frightened him as he lay supported by thousands of leaves of grass, surrounded by stars he couldn't understand. How could so many disparate, complicated systems work in perfect harmony if no one understands them, and if no one is at the helm. Certainly, James thought, this harmony cannot continue so long unchecked. All of these systems must surely come to a screeching halt any moment, he thought, and he braced himself for the impending chaos which he assumed was upon him.
He opened his eyes, and noted thankfully that the universe had not ended in chaos, merely because he didn't understand everything. He went inside less afraid, and a good deal happier. Someone does understand.
He remembered going to a baseball game with his father. They sat high in the stands, near the edge of the stadium. He had looked over the railing, imagining the horror of falling from such a height, when he saw out of the corner of his eye a helium balloon escaping a child's hand. It rose out of the stadium, out of sight. James watched it until it was just a tiny red speck against the clouds. The fear of falling was lost as he watched the balloon escape. One can only fall so far down; falling away from Earth, as the balloon had done, seemed endless.
This same fear, though not as intense, accompanied the sensation James felt as the stars surrounded him. Endless. He felt as if he somehow might fall into these starts and be lost in the depths of the universe. Perhaps what frightened him most was being lost in the unknown. He understood that stars were very similar to the sun, but beyond that, he understood very little of the universe.
James was constantly in pursuit of knowledge. He read a lot of books and blogs and magazines. He had learned about physics, and had become interested in the strange rules that sub-atomic particles live by. But he could not understand any of them, and some of the theories were disconcerting. He learned about computer and a little bit about writing software programs. But the way computers actually work was still just magic to him. He had learned about biology, and a little bit about human physiology, but he was hardly a doctor, and he didn't really believe doctors completely understood the body too much better than he or anyone else. He felt like his knowledge was like algae spreading slowly over the top of a pond, but never penetrating the depths in any spot. He wasn't even quite sure if algae actually grows on the surface of ponds.
He was beginning to understand why people say that the more you know, the more you realize how little you know. James had met a few very smart people, but even their knowledge lacked depth in most areas. His lack of knowledge frightened him as he lay supported by thousands of leaves of grass, surrounded by stars he couldn't understand. How could so many disparate, complicated systems work in perfect harmony if no one understands them, and if no one is at the helm. Certainly, James thought, this harmony cannot continue so long unchecked. All of these systems must surely come to a screeching halt any moment, he thought, and he braced himself for the impending chaos which he assumed was upon him.
He opened his eyes, and noted thankfully that the universe had not ended in chaos, merely because he didn't understand everything. He went inside less afraid, and a good deal happier. Someone does understand.
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