JAFDIP

Just another frakkin day in paradise

Social Media

Blogging tips and thoughts

US Coast Guard Petty Officer Second Class insignia
US Coast Guard Petty Officer Second Class insignia (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

You may or may not know that I’ve been writing online in one fashion or another since about 1998. Prior to that I wrote operator manuals and user guides in the Coast Guard. While I do not consider myself an expert there are some things that I have found to be invaluable to sustaining a career publishing content. I believe that these three basic concepts that I write by, are applicable all genres:

  1. Find your core
  2. Develop your style
  3. Step out of your comfort zone

You need to define what your core subject is and then develop your voice. There are not easy answers here because everyone has their own style. Once you do your audience will naturally follow. Of course (now this is critical) once your have an audience you have to shake things up by routinely writing unique pieces that stretch your style and creativity.

For instance I learned a long time ago that I had a skill writing about technology especially how-to guides, therefore; I made that a staple of the content I produce. I spent years developing my style to be a cross between serious and comical, because frankly how-to guides are usually extremely dry and sleep inducing. I’m just being honest here.

Eventually, as I became more comfortable I branched out into other areas like writing Op-Ed pieces about politics, social media and even an occasional travel expose. If you take a stroll through https://www.jafdip.net, http://bsdnews.net, http://bitrebels.com and of course http://mikelking.com this will be obvious form as 90-95% of the content I write falls into one of these four areas.

Image representing Yahoo! as depicted in Crunc...
Image via CrunchBase

In order to shake things up and expand my writing further I occasionally publish some of my more poetic works. This is something that my readers do not expect and thoroughly enjoy. I find the change of genre to bee essential to keeping one grounded and ensuring that the content I produce remains exciting for my readers. A perfect example would be my haiku Shiver (http://yhoo.it/GQxQiM) recently published by Yahoo’s contributor network. As you can see this is a total deviation for the technical content I usually produce.

When I write a how-to article, I literally spend hours gather screen shots and arranging the sequence of steps as accurately as possible. Those three lines took me longer to craft than most of the technical works I write. They pushed me in ways that were foreign to me and as a result stretched my creativity and that is exactly what I am talking about.

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Email the first reall business app

facebook
facebook (Photo credit: sitmonkeysupreme)

We have an enduring love hate relationship with email. It is the only original intra-network applications still enjoying major use today. It’s protocols have evolved into the pervasive and often intrusive system we rely on to communicate effectively today.

Every few years some new and upcoming company declares war on email and claims to have developed a better way only to utterly and completely fail. Anyone remember everybody’s pal Zuckerbrod announce Facebook Messages? Yeah how’d that work out? I honestly don’t know anyone who really uses it, certainly not anyone outside of Facebook (the company) that uses a facebook.com email address.

Honestly the two largest complaints about email are SPAM and extremely long messages. Um err the three largest complaints about email as SPAM, malware and extremely long messages. I mean the four largest complaints… O f the largest complaints about email these are chief among them;

  1. SPAM
  2. Malware
  3. Phishing
  4. Excessive attachments
  5. Lack of focus
  6. Extremely long messages
  7. Too many messages

Yes there are numerous things wrong with email however most of these problems are cultural and NOT technological. I remember when I first started using email for business when I was in the US Coast Guard and we were required to treat email with the same respect that we treated official correspondence. Eventually this practice relaxed, however; not to the point that is endured by many corporations.

 

English: Depicting phishing of information fro...
English: Depicting phishing of information from a computer. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I still treat every email I send as if it were official communication on printed letterhead. Too many people overlook the fact that as lamented as email may be it is still an extension of your personal brand. If you treat it with careless frivolity then you are poisoning your image.

 

I have an associate who transmits hundreds of jokes, photos and other questionable material via email a week. He has had to change email providers numerous times because he’s sent out virus laden messages and had his account hacked more often than I believe it is possible. I have a filter on my server that discards his messages before they even get processed by the antivirus and anti-spam systems. I don’t see why I should even waste time or system resources checking his messages to they are sent to the void before those programs see them. The sad thing is that he’s a very nice guy but his email reputation is mud.

 

What's for Dinner! - Spam
What's for Dinner! - Spam (Photo credit: brizzle born and bred)

Unfortunately, SPAM, viruses, phishing and malware are the only aspects of email that can be solved or at least addressed in part by technology. It is still necessary for users to be vigilant against clicking suspicious links in email. Whenever I receive a note claiming to be from a website that I frequent requiring me to click a link for some update. I open my browser and go to the site independently of that email because any site worth it’s salt would not send you an email to advise you with a convenience link.

 

Unfortunately, the remaining issues are 100% cultural and companies as well as individuals need to take responsibility for their use of email. I personally believe that breaking messages down into separate focused blocks of information is far more valuable than one long complicated letter. I’ve always appreciated shorter messages that are focused on 1 – 3 related nuggets of information over a encyclopedia of meandering thoughts.

I always hated those catch all email the entire company and everyone at the client that could possibly want to know about all of the subject matter in this email. I find those types of messages are typically transmitted by the least productive members of any group I am involved with. These are the people who tend to fail upwards in it any organization because they work tirelessly at appearing to be productive with these smoke and mirror tactics.

My preference is to limit email correspondence to a single subject specifically addressed to those who are required for the discussion. State your intention to your addressees in the subject of the message and stick to it. Do not deviate from the subject matter of the message. Reserve unrelated thoughts for additional correspondence if your ‘PS’ is more than a single line it belongs in it’s own email.

If someone responds to my message attempting to hijack the conversion I update subject in my response so that it is clear the focus of the conversation has shifted. On occasion I’ve alerted an original sender with a separate note advising them that I am updating the subject to reflect the shift in conversation topic.

I understand that these tactics do little to prune the glut of email depravity but I find them essential for maintaining my mailbox as a searchable resource.

 

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How To Back Up Your Twitter Stream Part Duex

This icon, known as the "feed icon" ...
This icon, known as the “feed icon” or the “RSS icon”, was introduced in Mozilla Firefox in order to indicate a web feed was present on a particular web page. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In the previous article I covered how to back your twitter stream using the built-in RSS feed application of Mac OS X Mail app. However, this is not the only application to have a built-in feed reader and I would like to update the previous with the steps necessary to bring your RSS feed to life in Mozilla Thunderbird.

In order to complete the connection to your twitter stream we will once again need to retrieve your Twitter RSS feed URL. The easiest thing to do is copy the following example link then replace the XXXXX with your twitter id.

After you have successfully crafted your Twitter RSS URL, you will need to open up Thunderbird and add the feed. Select ‘Properties’ from teh ‘Edit’ menu to open the account setup dialog. If you do not have any feeds defined you will have to add them by selecting the ‘Add Other Account’ option in the lower left corner of the window.

If you do have an RSS or Atom feed then select Blogs & News Feeds from the account view tree. This will display various options as well as offer a ‘Manage Subscriptions…’ button. Select that button to open the sub-dialog page for managing and adding new subscriptions.

http://api.twitter.com/1/statuses/user_timeline.rss?screen_name=xxxxx

In the subscription management select ‘Add’ in the lower left to add the new feed.

Enter your Twitter RSS feed URL and I recommend changing the ‘Store Article in” field to ‘Blogs & News Feeds’ rather than leaving whatever feed was highlighted when you selected the add button. At this point you can click the OK button and exit your way out of the settings section. Your Twitter stream is now programmed to be backed up by Thunderbird.

Please keep in mind that backing up your stream via RSS is not a guaranteed solution. If you loose connectivity or close the program the back will miss those tweets that pass in the night. In other words it is only viable while the feed reader is active.

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Building better social networks

After many years of using various social media solutions, applications and network concepts, I’ve arrived at the firm assertion that we need a better system not more systems. Every major web entity and start-up company is scrambling to build the next Facebook or Twitter. Everyone wants to be the next runaway success. The problem is that everyone is failing at it miserably.

Image representing Flickr as depicted in Crunc...
Image via CrunchBase

Even the existing champions are doing a pathetic job at offering something truly revolutionary. So far was have contenders from just about every corner of the sphere that all offer something of the same without anything that embraces the true spirit of originality. The biggest problem is that each of these entities are trying to corner the market on your demographic data which is understandable. However, they are all offering the same nothing for your something.

Let’s take a look at reigning king of the nothing for something category; Pinterest. They may be the latest darling of the social sphere but they do have one major defect. The biggest problem here is that the owners of Pinterest are monetizing their service on the backs of their user base, while sneakily shifting all of the liability and due diligence to their users.

Image representing Twitpic as depicted in Crun...
Image via CrunchBase

Honestly this sort of genius is astounding because never before has a company received so much while offering so little in return. However, what is going to happen when the first round of mommy bloggers, learns that their daytime hobby of sharing photos, are hauled into court landing them in personal hot water. Think about that cool photo you just pinned and the copyright own suing you and Pinterest just stands buy watching you pay your mortgage for their legal fees. Yes that absolutely correct; it turns out that you not Pinterest are liable for all damages and legal fees. Astonishing isn’t it?

The problem is not that Pinterest has duped their users into providing them with a potentially huge income stream. No it is that while reaping the benefits of this gain have completely deferred the blame and liability to those very same users that they are profiteering off of. This is quite a pickle they are building and one that will not sit well when people start actually conversing about it and that’s the point.

However this isn’t even the important part because when you think about the situation what has Pinterest actually given us? Yet another medium for sharing photos and don’t we already have enough of those? Honestly Flickr, Snapfish, Instagram, Google, even Twitpic all offer a way of sharing photos. The big difference is that many of these sites offer some means of really commenting about the photos and their source.

Image representing Snapfish as depicted in Cru...
Image via CrunchBase

The reality is that human nature is predicated on sharing your opinion about a subject be that a photo or a story you read. Certainly, there are lazy ‘Like’ or ‘+1’ button clicking type of people out there but by and large they most love to comment. Sharing is an important aspect of our humanity.

None of the existing social networks offer the necessary avenue of conversation. None of these networks truly care about the social aspects of the medium. What they all really care about is your demographic data. Who are you? Where do you live? What kind of work you do. While this is important to focusing ad content in your direction it really is not what you signed up for.

Pinterest featue in Metro - 27th February 2012
Pinterest featue in Metro - 27th February 2012 (Photo credit: Great British Chefs)

We need a network that builds conversations allowing you to follow the voice and opinions wherever they may lead and not bottle it up in a single pathway. A better social network enhances the conversational experience and improves the flow of information. A better social network will not replace the lesser social networks but leverage what each is already capable of.

Conversations are analogous to rivers they flow, and ebb and meander where they will. They pick up new passengers as they travel downstream depositing new ideas on the banks of the many territories they pass by, ultimately and always reaching their final destination.

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Yes Virginia it is illegal to coerce for your social media…

Image representing Facebook as depicted in Cru...
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Yes that’s right I said it, right there in the title. I know many authors are hedging their bets that it is a grey matter of an interviewing company to insist on access to your social media accounts on sites like Facebook, LinkedIn. However, there is absolutely no grey area this sort of coercion is ILLEGAL. End of story quote unfrakkin qoute, move on there’s nothing to see here.

Of course you are probably wondering why I can confidently make such a bold ascertain and that is because it is a violation of your personal privacy. I spent a number of years on the other side of that desk asking the tough questions and there are clear guidelines one must follow. It is a violation of your rights as an individual and the prospective employer is opening themselves up to a huge law suit. While the prospective employer can balk all they want what they are doing is nothing short of illegal. Your Facebook and LinkedIn accounts contain deeply personal information that every interviewer knows is illegal to ask for.

Federal and state laws prohibit prospective employers from asking certain questions that are not related to the job they are hiring for.

It’s plain and simple employers should not be asking about your race, gender, religion, marital status, age, disabilities, ethnic background, country of origin, sexual preferences or age. Asking for access to your personal social media accounts grants them immediate access to this information a CLEAR violation of your rights.

Image representing LinkedIn as depicted in Cru...
Image via CrunchBase

 

Unfortunately, for the twitter users these safe guards do not apply and you are only able to fight them based on the violation of the twitter end user agreement. That is a rather flimsy prospect and I can offer no help here. With regards to Facebook and LinkedIn I recommend that you research the application laws governing interviewing in the state that you will be meeting and be prepared to back up your refusal with that information.

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