E-Communications & Community

Survey says: Women are more social than men

2008-05-20T18:00:22Z

In November 2007, Rapleaf (an online reputation service) published the results of their survey, which concludes that women belong to social networks more so than do men.

]]> The analysis of the gender breakout by specific social network is not surprising. Except for LinkedIn (see Note), the other networks analyzed (Facebook, Friendster, Hi5, MySpace and Plaxo) scored a greater percentage of women subscribers -- which aligns with the gender breakout for non-online social networks.

According to Social Networks - Gender Differences In Social Networks published in the Marriage and Family Encyclopedia

Research indicates that men and women structure their personal [social] networks differently and that networks may serve different functions for husbands and wives. For example, wives generally report larger networks of kin and greater network interconnectedness than husbands.

Bottom line: Online social networks that generate more "warm and fuzzies" of connectedness are more likely to have a greater percentage of female subscribers.

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Note: Though I couldn't find statistics of LinkedIn registrants by gender, only two of the of the top 50 are women. Thanks to Linked Intelligence for the pointer.

Bloggers united against injustice

2008-05-15T19:39:18Z

No longer can I say, "I'm just one person. What can I do?" Using social media, I can influence thousands of people--which is the premise of Bloggers Unite.

Bloggers Unite is an initiative designed to harness the power of the blogosphere to make the world a better place. By challenging bloggers to blog about a particular social cause on a single day, a single voice can be joined with thousands of others to help make a real positive difference.

The viral nature of blogging turns grassroots advocacy into a groundswell of power.

]]> Today, bloggers unite with Amnesty International in support of human rights.

In my comfortable chair, I look at my garden. The flowering bushes need to be pruned.

Soon the grass will need to be cut. Darn, we still have autumn leaves on the lawn.

I sit in my comfortable chair and drink in the sunlight. I close my eyes, and the darkness of life outside of my world doesn't exist. How sad.

Read what others are saying...

Dell Acquisition of MessageOne: A Strategic Move

2008-04-29T16:46:04Z

As pointed out in Network News, Dell's acquisition of MessageOne is not controversial. Michael Dell was brought back to Dell to build its financial and strategic viability. Viability in this sense is a euphemism for cost cutting and reinvestment.

]]> From Reuters:

"We are not satisfied with the current state of affairs and are on a mission to fix it," said Dell, 43. "Every area of the company is being pursued" for cost cuts.

Dell has repeatedly said the firm is pursuing emerging technologies. Emerging technologies that can generate quick win and strategic revenue gains is a key initiative -- which can only be pursued by freeing up money. From the same Reuters article:

Dell Inc plans to cut more jobs than the 8,800 it had targeted as it seeks to reduce expenses by at least $3 billion annually by 2011

While primarily known as a hardware provider, Dell is not new to professional services and their recent SaaS acquisitions merely extends their services business unit.

Michael Dell returned to Dell to refresh internal culture, drive strategic initiatives and, ultimately, keep shareholders happy. The MessageOne acquisition is merely a spoke in the wheel of initiatives.

Social networks breeds social engineering exploitation

2008-04-28T19:11:13Z

A colleague received a LinkedIn message from someone asking to be invited into my colleague's LinkedIn network. The message looks something like this:

Of course, his name isn't "Mr. Spammy" and his photo looks like a real person.

]]> Before creating this blog post, I Googled some of the phrases in this email. After all, I don't want to yell "fire in a crowded" network. No hits resulted from my search. However, if you have received such a LinkedIn message, please let me know by commenting on this post.

Nonetheless, the tone of the "can you invite me into your network" LinkedIn message and "I won't spam" is pure spammer language. In fact, the requester may be a spam bot spidering around to find LinkedIn users with hundreds or thousands of LinkedIn connections.

Any IP-based communication can be targeted by the "bad guys." The good old email Nigerian Scam has gone 2.0: Nigerian Scam 2.0 Targets LinkedIn and Other Social Networking Sites IP-based communication is a great vector for malware. In the LinkedIn email above, see "Here is a quick link to start the invitation process: http://tinyurl.com/9wxyzk." The viability of social networking is based upon cycles of trust relationships -- a fertile ground for the "bad guys" to exploit.

As ABC News states in Social Networking Applications Can Pose Security Risks

social networkers have little understanding where their information goes and how it's used — and as a result, have a false sense of security.

As for me, I love LinkedIn, and I don't accept invites from folk that I don't know. I also click the link under the sender's name just to make sure that the person sending the request has a valid LinkedIn profile -- that is, he is who he says he is.

... which "begs the question,"when trust is compromised, can social networks -- in their current form -- remain viable?

Xobni's timely marketing play

2008-04-28T17:50:49Z

As Techcrunch implies in (Xobni's Secret Project: Merge Outlook With Yahoo Mail), Xobni is positioning itself for a marketing coup should Microsoft acquire Yahoo.

]]> The strategic goal of many start-ups is to become acquired by Microsoft, make tons of money and move on to the next start-up venture. Most start-ups need to prove themselves first -- i.e., many people install and, more importantly, start to depend upon the start-up's product. Luckily for Xobni, Microsoft made its acquisition play -- though Xobni is still in beta.

A Microsoft acquisition of Yahoo plays nicely into Xobni's business plans -- however, it is not a strategic imperative.

Where's the beef in Twitter?

2008-04-21T18:52:02Z

I have yet to feel compelled to tell folk what I’m doing each day, hour or minute. Nor do I have the patience to read what others are doing. Yet Twitter, or a variation thereof, is integrated into almost every social network — and, I admit, I’ll peak at someone’s tweek.

When I think of Twitter, I’m reminded of Clara Pelle (the little old lady who asked “Where’s the beef” in the famous 1984-85 Wendy’s commercials.

In the time that it took me to type this post, I could have twittered a zillion tweeks. But, like my friend Clara, I still don’t get “where’s the beef” in Twitter?

What do you get out of twittering?

]]>

Private information about me is on the Internet: Should I care?

2008-03-14T18:29:14Z

I was engaged in a Yahoo message board discussion about the need to secure an individual's personal information -- when, as is often the case, a message thread participant took a detour. "This is a mute discussion," he wrote "because anyone can find anything about you on the Internet." I don't believe in absolutes, and am fairly sure that you'll not find the name of my first Barbie doll on the Internet -- whoops ... My inadvertent admission that I wasn't a particularly innovative child proves that I self-publish much of what appears about me.

]]> Because I'm an IT industry analyst, quality Google hits equal industry clout. For example, I've been quoted by the press, my name appears in vendor press releases, I blog and comment on blog posts. However, my name also gets Googlized because I'm a social media junkie and social community subscribe-aholic. With each subscription, another profile about me is added to my Internet stockpile. Have all these profiles watered-down my quality hits?

Do I get more spam than the "average" person? I think so. My email address is all over the place. But that is the price of media coverage and having my own business. Some folk publish their email address using the syntax maurene.grey [at] grey-consulting [dot] com, so as to trick the bots roaming the Internet to harvest email addresses. However, try to subscribe to a Web service using that syntax -- ain't gonna work. Wha la! Them bots gotcha. So, get a good spam filter, don't open blatantly spam email and don't use your email reader's preview screen.

My message board colleagues said that in addition to my email address, my phone number is out there. True enough. But, gosh, I want my business contact information out there.

Insofar as releasing very private information, I'm more concerned with sites like freeality.com, which is a list of directory sites. The sites state that they do not release information that isn't already publicly available. Do a search on your name and see what is returned. Most of the sites include increasingly in-depth levels of for-fee searches. Here's a sample report from Intelius.

I've found that some services use pop-up windows to gather information in a sneaky way. For example, most people will do a search on their own name and naively will complete all of the fields in the search form. An unethical service will grab the information that is provided and may even thank you for updating their records. Therefore when searching your name, provide the least amount of required information -- normally, a first or last name and possibly an age range or city/state in the U.S. If you feel uncomfortable with the amount of information that the service requests, take heed.

Did you know that your home phone number is freely available through a number of "reverse phone lookup" services. Do a regular Google search on your home phone number. Wha la! Look at all the services that have your number. You can ask that your entry be removed by contacting each of the "reverse phone lookup" service providers. (If you know of a "one-stop shopping" clearinghouse, let me know.)

Some information is of public record. However, other information people either naively, or during a period of poor judgment, self-publish.

As for me, I don't like surprises. So, I'm going to find out what others can find out about me.

Why I use LinkedIn

2008-03-09T18:39:27Z

I started using LinkedIn when I left my prior employer as a means to stay connected with my former colleagues. Soon, I shared my LinkedIn profile with new acquaintances, much like exchanging business cards.

]]> I don't accept LinkedIn invites from folk that I don't know. To me, that's merely amassing a group of stuff that has no lasting value. I prize connectedness. For example, as I was flying cross-country, I started a conversation with my seatmate -- five hours of talking about everything. Several days later, I received a LinkedIn invite from her. She wrote, "I'm glad that you and I were plane buddies." Very cool.

I do participate in LinkedIn's Q&A purely for self-marketing. If my question or answer is useful for others, great. However, that is not to say that I submit "whatever." I write thoughtful questions and answers -- it is, after all, self-marketing.

I belong to lots of social networks -- mainly because I'm a social community subscribe-aholic. However, few of my social networks are particularly active. Most of my professional colleagues and friends belong to LinkedIn, so, by de facto, it is where I hang out.

Why I was on a blogging hiatus

2008-03-09T15:37:22Z

I haven't blogged for so long that I'm no longer embarrassed. I figure that anyone who had followed my posts has since moved on. Here's some of the reasons that I didn't blog:

I needed to focus on other chores.
Blogging itself wasn't fun anymore. It had turned into yet another chore.
I felt that I had to be scholarly, and I wasn't particularly in a scholarly mood.

]]> There are many types of blogs. I often feel that my blog is struggling to fit into some category.

Yet since I blog as an extension of my business, "to blog or not to blog" is not the question. It is better to not have a blog than to let it slumber into oblivion.

I have no grandiose vision that my blog will make the home page of Technorati. Nor do I want the readership and, thus, correlated responsibility, of a BoingBoing.

What I do want is for my blog posts to matter. Readers can tell if a blogger is fulfilling an obligation versus writing from passion. My passion is of no value unless my blog posts cause the reader to question the "obvious." I write about blogs and other social media, e-communication, e.g., email and instant messaging, and collaborative technologies. I believe that the intersection of technology and human communication can dictate how businesses operate and how personal relationships form.

During my hiatus, I learned that a blog post, like much in life, doesn't need to be perfect -- however, it does need to be meaningful. I hope not to go on hiatus again, but, if I do, I'll try to keep it short rather than let it fester through neglect.

Lotusphere 2008: Innovation and practicality

2008-01-21T21:12:48Z

All vendor-conference keynotes follow the same basic format: tell 'em what you promised to do, them 'em that you did it and tell 'em that more and better will be delivered soon. As I listened to Mike Rhodin, IBM Lotus Software, General Manager, deliver this morning's Lotusphere keynote, I scribbled questions for which I needed answers so that I could validate my analysis of what I thought I had heard "between the lines."

]]> As an IT industry analyst, I'm privileged in that I get one-on-one time with IBM Lotus executives to whom I can ask my "burning questions" -- that will "connect the dots"; solidify the practicality of theory.

My discussion with Douglas Heintzman, Director of Strategy, Lotus Software, converged the "warm and fuzzy" world of innovation with implementation -- the mantra of Lotus Software development.

He said that he's often asked, "How do you sell collaboration?" The answer, of course, is that collaboration is not for sale. The practicality of collaboration is molding the "warm and fuzzy" into something concrete.

For example, Carestream Health will be integrating Sametime within their radiology processes, which will allow rapid instant messaging and voice communication between diagnosticians and those providing hands-on patient care.

Similarly, the ability to locate the best resources during an emergency is concrete. Lotus's newly announced Atlas for IBM Lotus Connections provides a visualization and mining of a people and resources network. It could provide the ability to quickly find the right resources that save people's lives.

Technology is only relevant if it "connects the dots" in a meaningful way -- which delivers innovation in its most practical sense.

Welcome to the blogal village

2008-01-04T15:30:06Z

As reported by NPR, December 2006 marked the 10th anniversary of the Web log (known today as the blog). In the beginning, the residents of the blogal village were pioneers trekking across this magical place called the Internet.

]]> "Hey, guess what I found?" a pioneer would post. Each newly discovered link was as precious as a gold nugget

Thus began one of the largest human migrations in history as a half-million people from around the world descended upon California in search of instant wealth.

In the virtual world, newly found links delivered instant gratification to the finder. Sharing the discovery with like-minded explorers became the threads that knitted the blogal village community.

As Internet access became less geeky, millions of people descended upon the Internet and the blogal village grew into the Blogosphere.

Today anyone can produce a blog, which has created an inflationary Blogosphere -- and gave birth to a cottage industry of service providers that sieves through fools-gold blogs for gold-nugget blogs. I believe that the cumulative wealth of nuggets will be found, not within the eclipsing boundaries of the Blogosphere -- but rather within special interest groups and local neighborhoods -- that is, within blogal villages.

E-mail gets sexy

2007-11-12T20:34:23Z

I don't mean sexy as in porn (shame on you for thinking so), but rather, as in flashy.

In my personal life, I'm in the early stages of developing a placeblog for the Town of Kent - where I live. The initial blog is targeted to members of local, citizen-run advocacy groups. I want to get folks' eyeballs to the blog and commenting on the posts. So, I did a bit of marketing by sending e-mails to the groups' members (who are also my neighbors).

]]> Because most of my neighbors are not blog savvy, I created a short video of slides with voice over. The link to the video was included in my e-mail message. (I used the free version of GoldMail to create the video.)

I've also used a Webcam video mail with voice over for the same purpose. Once again, I included the Webcam video link in the e-mail. (I used the free version of SightSpeed to create the video.)

Using rich media within an e-mail is old news to e-mail marketers. In a sense, I'm an e-mail marketer also -- except my target buyers are my neighbors. I'm using video to entice them to visit the blog. The e-mail message, itself, can be viral as people send the sexy message on to others.

Effective e-communication is a unique blend of human and technology attributes -- as unique as is each recipient, and there is no "one size fits all." E-mail is the common denominator for e-communication; however, the e-mail content delivers the "call to action" message.

Some tactical cautions:
* Be sensitive to the format of the e-mail message (which includes a URL) so that it is not quarantined at the recipient's end as spam.
* Keep the e-mail size light. Large attachments will not be welcomed by the recipient.
* Don't overstay your welcome. Keep videos (or other types of rich media) short and to the point.
* Don't be a noodge. Only send rich media messages when they will have the desired impact. Sending too often or for the wrong reason ("You free for lunch?") will turn people off.
* Free services will include the vendor's name and possibly an advertisement and will have a limited feature set. For-fee services eliminate both issues.

Protecting the environment: One blog at a time

2007-10-15T17:51:23Z

What would happen if every blog published posts on the same topic, on the same day? One issue. One day. Thousands of voices.

The topic is environment, and today posts about environmental awareness are streaming through the Blogosphere.

I'm sure that Rachel Carson, mother of the environmental movement, is watching and smiling. Carson's Silent Spring was published 45 years ago.

]]> In 1962, the cost of color televisions started to be affordable for the average middle-class family. I remember watching Bonanza "in living color" while eating a TV dinner. So modern -- no dishes to clean because the packaging was thrown away.

Television commercials lauded the refreshing, babbling brook-like qualities of smoking.

... and empty cigarette packages were thrown out the car window.

It was the early 60s, plastic reigned, cars guzzled leaded gas, and the environment was far as you could see -- and no further. Environmentally, the 50s and early 60s was a period of waste. It took decades for most of us to recognize the wasteland that we had created.

Will today's tens of thousands of blog posts about the environment make a real and and lasting difference? Or will the history books record today merely as a virtual, "warm and fuzzy" hug?

Make today count beyond today. Focus your environmental advocacy efforts on a cause. One of my favorite Web site hangouts is Changing the Present. Blog with passion about your cause.

Humanizing the Web search: Building community

2007-10-15T00:01:07Z

An article in our local newspaper caught my eye: Zoomnia’s got answers.

Co-founded by Chappaqua [New York] resident Steven Wolk, Zoomnia is designed to be an online meeting place where consumers connect with local businesses that have expertise in what they are seeking.

]]> The Zoomnia service went live in July 2007. It takes the search engine to a human level -- a departure from traditional search engines.

For example, let's say that you use Google Local to find a neighborhood deli.

The search returns a list of delis from its database. However if you want to know whether the deli owners can cater a party, you have to call them.

With Zoomnia, you contact the people behind the search results. Let's say that you are looking for a Pilates instructor. The result could look like this:

Zoomnia depends upon participation by local businesses. (The business is pre-screened before being listed.) Participation relies on the viral effect of word of mouth marketing -- an innovative blending of Web search with the human touch of local businesses.

Zimbra plays matchmaker for Comcast and Yahoo!

2007-09-25T14:29:43Z

Earlier this year, Comcast announced their planned launch of SmartZone Communications Center -- targeted for late 2007. Jay Fortner in Read/Write Web offers an excellent description of Smart Zone, components of which will result from Comcast's technology partnerships with Zimbra (messaging) and Plaxo (contact management).

]]> Last week, Yahoo! announced that they are acquiring Zimbra. Zimbra is a start-up that "has made a name for itself" through aggressive product development. From Between the Lines:

Zimbra has a browser-based client and supports Windows, Apple, and Linux desktops, as well as Microsoft Outlook a variety of mobile devices. On the server side, Zimbra supports Red Hat, Mac, Ubuntu, SUSE and Fedora. Version 5.0 is due later this year, and adds numerous features, such as multiple mail identities, personal distribution lists, advanced search in the administration console, instant messaging, external directory support and delegated mailbox and mail folders.

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