Category: Digital Life

LinkedIn vs. Facebook?

Carl Setzer

I’ve wondered for awhile what’s <a href=”http://www.linkedin.com/in/carlsetzer” target=”_blank”>LinkedIn’s</a> place in the social media realm. There just doesn’t seem to be as much interaction there. Yet it’s been the place to explore professional connections. Now that Facebook has several professional apps, does that threaten LI? People are more engaged on Facebook, or so it seems to me.

On idea I’ve had is for LinkedIn to focus solidly in career management. Expand past job hunting & sales connections. Help people explore themselves and find ways (and opportunities) to become the best professionals they can.

A few rambling thoughts this Sunday. Leave a comment below: I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Social Media Expertise

Carl Setzer

Lots of folks are running around billing themselves as “social media” experts. Most of my cohort online finds them annoying at best, and fraudulent at worst. In the spirit of self-exploration, and a wee bit of sarcasm, I present reasons that I (little ol’ me) could bill myself thusly.

Reasons I can call myself a Social Media Expert:

  1. I’ve been reading Wil Wheaton’s blog since before the term “blog” was invented. And I didn’t know what to think when he shifted to Word Press.
  2. Got a Facebook account back when you needed to request an invite, and the email had to be a .edu email address.
  3. Had a “blog” before the term was invented. Each update hand-coded (html, if you don’t know…but actually care), with my archive needing a great deal of thought and strategy. (It was hosted on my “free” webpage that came gratis with my Earthlink account.)
  4. With said blog, was excited to plug in a counter and delighted in watching it tick upward
  5. I had a Geocites site (multiple pages, so truly a “site) before the Yahoo! acquisition.
  6. Became part of a Webring.
  7. I’ve had accounts on MySpace, Friendster, Yahoo!360…
  8. Got a gmail account back when the only way was via an invite.
  9. I was involved in many vigorous and interesting Usenet discussions
  10. Actually know about Usenet…and where the archives are.
  11. I’ve explained to people what a blog, Facebook, etc are before any reporter (other than tech/geek columnists) had written about them.
  12. Remember when ZDNet was a tech forum focused on professional IT.
  13. I’ve made comments on Dilbert’s List of the Day.
  14. Know what an In-Duh-Vidual is.
  15. Have actually used Mosaic.
  16. Have actually used Lynx.
  17. Had discussions about search engine optimization before the term “search engine optimization” existed.
  18. Started my Blogger site before Google’s acquisition.

Some of these really should read “why I’m a web geek”, but, well, whatever.

History & Predictive Text

Carl Setzer

Predictive text will add a new challenge to the historians of our future. Before, reading through journals, we just muddled our way through the occasional misspelling or illegible word. Now, we need to be ready for strange word transpositions. Words appearing at random. Historians will need to incorporate an understanding of querty, and the possible mis-adjustment contemporary predictive text programs can use for substitutes.

Some PR Thoughts

Carl Setzer

Here’s a good post raising questions about all those “social media experts”. It’s easy, I guess, to become bedazzled by buzz terms (Twitter, Facebook, et al). However, if your company is looking to invest actual money in something like this, if behooves you to spend some time researching.

One site I learned about from this, though, is Help A Reporter Out. Peter Shankman’s effort to connect reporters with good, solid sources. It looks like a great way to help both reporters get in front of real sources (not just PR shlocks) as well as get good PR folks in front of relevant media. One of those real solid “win wins” we hear so much about.

Web 2.0 or Me vs. We

Carl Setzer4 Comments

One of my chums posted a very thoughtful piece about the Web 2.0 and how it is resulting in more ego-centrism (give the Angry African a read here). Thoughtful thoughts should beget thoughtful thoughts, don’t you think? Well, here are mine (for what they’re worth…money back if not delighted).

One great danger of Web 2.0 comes from our ever demanding ego. The temptation is great to simply feed it by tracking our followers on Twitter, reviewing our blog stats, ever checking our Technorati ratings, ad nauseum. Also, the temptation to simply post things to generate more readers is challenging. I see this thinking related to the adolescent mind. The form of thinking that only sees the group in terms of me. Group acceptance is paramount, even though it stems from a desire (or so claimed, at least) for independence.

Perhaps the issue, really, stems from the fact that the web, like all societal institutions, is accessible to people regardless of the state of maturity. Thus, we’re stuck with people focusing more on the numbers of interactions than on the quality. The members of our society are evolving at different rates, starting at different times. Web 2.0 loves them all.

The Angry African also brings up poverty, and the resulting lack of access. My sincerest hope is that Moore’s law combining with the economies of scale will bring these tools to more and more people globally. However, until that time, we are left with hoping their voices are heard. Most of that comes from those who “care”. Sadly, many of those are drowning in paternalism. Finding ways to ensure the voices of the impoverished and exploited are heard in a genuine way is deeply challenging.

For me, the medium summed up as tech, offers the world so very much. Perhaps I’m too Pollyannaish.

Windows and other fun

Carl Setzer

As much as I love the Mac OS, and Macs in general, I’m finding myself using Vista much more. Simply, it works better with everything that I need to do right now. Several employment applications are IE only. There have been several skills tests that have only worked on Windows as well. Though it makes me a little sad, at least I’m not one of the Windows bashers who has
to eat his words. *Ahem*

Seattle PI

Carl Setzer

I’ll let you read the article, but the gist is that the Seattle Post Intelligencer will be shutting down print operations after tomorrow’s edition, ending a 146 year tradition. In the article, one of the copy editors, a Glenn Ericksen, asks “Who needs copy editors on the Web?” Well, Glenn, quite a few sites do. For publications like the PI to really make it as a professional web publication, they will desperately need copy editors. My believe is that news sites will need to maintain the highest standards in order to justify their readership. And failings will be far more magnified for them (just look at all the snarking about basic grammar errors on any major site). Thus, copy editors, and their kin, will have a place. Well, I hope for such.

As a long time subscriber to the PI, and a one-time paperboy for the publication, this is truly a sad moment. Watching their website evolve over the past few years, and seeing some of the talent they’ve brought on board recently, I believe this “paper” is one of the best positioned to do well in the new media order.

*Update: The PI’s Executive Producer Michelle Nicolosi wrote a good piece describing the PI’s efforts to be relevant in the new media world.

Flock

Carl Setzer

Ok, folks, here’s a new (to me, at least) toy for the socially networked: Flock. This is a browser built on the Gecko engine (same as the framework for Firefox). It integrates such sites as Facebook, Blogger, Flickr, and the like. I’ve only had a bit of time to mess with this tonight, but it’s pretty handy so far. This post was written with a built in blog editor. If you spend much time in the social network space, and it’s hard not too any more, this looks like it’ll be a great tool.

Blogged with the Flock Browser