Social Applications

Social Media Simulation and Training Environments by an Internet Media Coach

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 10:00:00 EDT

All well-known systems engineering methodologies and enterprise system development programs leverage testing environments. Testing environments can be built and operated for very different purposes, ranging from prototyping and simulation, to pre-production load testing and usability or “Section 508 Accessibility” checks. Specialized SOA testing frameworks are sometimes required, for difficult infrastructure integration challenges. Most major systems that get deployed to large numbers of users also feature a training environment. This working copy of the “real” or “production” environment affords the user and company a lot of protection against mistakes, mis-operation of system functions, and basically allows you to test-drive a system, but reset and try again if something doesn’t work right or mistakes are made. Play around, learn and mess up - no harm, no foul, and the system assets, data and reputation of you, the system owner and others are all protected.

That’s one very difficult challenge to learning social media, for commercial or government employees. It’s nearly impossible to learn how to use social media tools and techniques in an environment that forgives all missteps, can be wholly reset and leaves no incriminating traces of your mistakes or potentially embarrassing, compromising communication skills after you’re done. The best way to learn how to post to Flickr, to learn the nuances of Twitter and engage in the myriad of online dialogue environments is to actually do it “in production”, as they say, which comes along with a lot of actual or perceived personal and organizational risk. That’s the reason most social media programs and users representing significant companies or governments are usually associated with the “Public Relations” or “Internet Marketing and Social Media” department – these folks are trained and expected to know how to engage in public dialogue, within the bounds of legal, regulatory and policy controls (when available).

Much is being written and discussed online currently regarding the state of Government 2.0, and how we’re quickly reaching an impasse where the ability to become a social media practitioner is simply neither supported nor available to employees working behind government firewalls and Internet usage policies. Social media simply isn’t very social or usable at all, to those for whom it would most benefit. As well, the public forum is missing out on a lot of really good insight and dialogue, because so many employers and employees simply can’t afford the risk, or don’t have the capability to learn, understand and test the risks, that come with posting material online.

I’ve written before on the need for “social media governance automation” – social media governance (and Internet media governance in general) is already a hot topic, as a style of content management and workflow decision-making. Before allowing employees to post a blog entry, tweeting or sending a photo through a series of RSS pipes, most larger organizations can certainly set up and enforce all kinds of content management procedures and controls to protect loss of sensitive information or damage to reputation and credibility. But there’s typically no standard method of enabling any and all employees to test this out…and by doing so, understanding better the risks to the organization and exposing the actual talents and capabilities of the employees. Harnessing the latent power of employee social media participation can’t be done, without an effective social media simulation and training environment.

Plenty of companies and consultants are available to provide “social media 101” training, and there’s no end to the social media tips and techniques available through self-style Social Media Evangelists. However, what’s a small business owner, a government employee looking to self-educate or a professional seeking to change careers to do, when faced with the task of learning social media but not having it impact their job, organization, personal or family reputation? I see all the time examples of “learning by doing”, from the very tentative “LinkedIn lurkers” and “Twitter Testers” (who’ve posted a profile, but don’t participate much) – to the “Facebook Flamers” and “Blogging Blowhards” who’ve simply crashed the party and left a trail of privacy exposure and digital embarrassment in their wake (to be forever indexed online).

We can’t all get it right the first time, and as business owners, managers or others entrusted with corporate or government information management and protection, we simply can’t just let everyone under our management or guidance loose to “play” with social media – without a reasonable degree of guidance, coaching, reputation management, training and possibly, social media simulation. It’s not much different than raising your own children – we shouldn’t let them open email accounts, use search engines and social media sites, and in general use the Internet at all (whether via computer, cellphone or gaming console), without methodical and consistent parental guidance in such things as Internet Safety, online etiquette and computer/digital asset protection. My own children are on the Internet, but walled off, anonymized and protected against the typical dangers of online activity – to the degree they’ve proven they need it, and to the degree I think our family and friends need it.

Establishing social media simulation and “real-world” training is achievable, but not yet widely available or possible across all social media tools. Some applications, like Facebook, are already evolving their ability to manage test accounts for developers. Some social media tools, like Twitter and Wordpress, currently allow a large degree of anonymity for user accounts, and no explicit policy for “test accounts” - though like most social media sites, you remain bound by user policies and simple good sense which include removing accounts when you’re done and no longer using them. On the other hand, most social media policies and terms of service are inherently vague and require practical experience to interpret – for example, Wordpress says that your blog should not be “named in a manner that misleads your readers into thinking that you are another person or company”. “Misleads” is the key term – I may create a Blog named “Green Flies”, but most rational folks wouldn’t come to the conclusion I’m actually the Human Fly, or work for “Green Flies Inc.” – so anonymity is preserved, with no explicit misleading going on. Basically, no harm - no foul.

You can effectively set up and manage simulation environment tools and processes, while making sure risks are minimized and participant activities remain clearly within the proper bounds (from the very loose to the legally explicit) of personal, professional, corporate or third-party policies. Since there do not exist common standards, practices or tools for end-user social media simulation and testing, it will be necessary to leverage knowledgeable Internet media consultants or firms (like those I work with) to help manage risks, apply common sense and practical experience, and basically provide the right set of “training wheels”.

What’s key to know, is that there are methods to get online, test and “try before you buy” in the social media environment…working with a new breed of trainers I’ll term “Internet Media Coaches”. An Internet Media Coach is similar to the rapidly developing profile of “Social Media Coaches” – but adds the experience in traditional Information and Content Management, Digital Asset Protection, and Computer Security and Privacy to the base knowledge of Public Discourse and Collaboration using social media tools.

Contact me for more information regarding hiring an Internet Media Coach, or setting up a Social Media Simulation and Training program or framework.

What Comes After The Cloud?

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:30:00 EDT

Lately I seem to feel like that 80's Rock Band that had that one big hit, doomed to play the same song night after night. In my case I happened to stumble upon this thing called Cloud Computing a little earlier then most. Over the last 6 years or so I've watched as the concept of outsourced web centric IT go from a fringe concept to an overly hyped, albeit under adopted buzz word. I've watched just about anything with the word "cloud" attached to it take off.

Business Networking Sites See 18% Rise in Female Members

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:00:00 EDT

The largest growing economic force in the world is not China or India it is Women. The earning power of women globally is expected to reach $18 trillion by 2014, a $5 trillion rise according to World Bank estimates. That is more than twice the estimated 2014 GDP of China and India combined. Although the average women still earns only 77 cents for every dollar men do this is set to grow as more and more women are finding themselves in board rooms.

MMORPGs on the Cloud

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 08:30:00 EDT

MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) are a sub-set of computer games where a large number of virtual players interact with each other online in the virtual world provided by the game. Games like World of Warcraft (WoW) and EverQuest fall in this category.

Ryan Greives Launches The Social Media Guide on Ulitzer

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 08:45:00 EDT

Ryan Greives, Media Relations Specialist for Indianapolis-based BLASTmedia, has launched The Social Media Guide on Ulitzer. His industry knowledge and experience covers everything from consumer Internet companies and gadgets to highly complex enterprise software and hardware technologies. He believes a “revolutionary” new product or service can be launched, but unless the right people know, it may become the world’s best kept secret - hence his interest in social media. Having forged solid editorial relationships over the years and perfecting the art of positioning a company to generate the press coverage it deserves, Greives has emerged as an expert in the enterprise media relations space.

Three Tips to Improve Blog Titles and Increase Traffic

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 16:00:00 EDT

Here are 3 Tips to Improve Blog Titles and Increase Traffic for small and midsize companies just getting into blogging and social media. Writing good blog titles is vital to building interest in your blog, getting it ranked by search engines, and getting people to repeatedly come back to your site for more great info. Check out these three great tips to improve your blog today.

Twitter Shows Its Real Value

Sun, 04 Oct 2009 11:00:00 EDT

Social media is touching all of our lives. Even in the early stages of social media development, it is hard to talk with any network or tech-savvy person without having a conversation that is fairly intelligent on the topic.

Typhoon Ondoy (Ketsana) and Floods Hit the Philippines

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 08:30:00 EDT

There are more than 20 typhoons each year in the Philippines, on average. But Ondoy broke all records for the amount of rainfall in a short period of time. Hundreds of people were killed, hundreds of thousands made homeless, and millions directly affected. I was lucky that Typhoon Ondoy did not affect my apartment. We are out in Pampanga two hours from Manila but we did not have a flood in my little neighborhood.

Typhoon Ondoy (Ketsana) Hits the Philippines (Part 2)

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 03:15:00 EDT

We have many typhoons in the Philippines, and they always cause trouble. Thank-you for your help with this one. I want to let everyone know again that this is not the only time that we have trouble in the Philippines. We have so many typhoons every year. Many people die each time we have a bad typhoon. Houses fall into the rivers. Children and old people drown. Little boats sink in the ocean. This happens so many times each year in the Philippines talaga. You can see in my blog here that I wrote a story about Typhoon Feria back in June. There are some pictures too.

My Thoughts on Ulitzer

Sat, 26 Sep 2009 14:45:00 EDT

Ok, so, here are my thoughts on Ulitzer... As a blogger, I focus on traffic and I spend quite a lot of time optimizing my SEO. Since the target audience of my articles is much greater than the reach of my blog, Ulitzer is actually helping me increase my content reach. Moreover, Ulitzer does it in a very fair way since links back to my posts or other locations are without the evil "nofollow" providing a nice SEO boost. It also gives me some good metrics that are very useful data point on the effectiveness of my blog article. And last but not least, it allows my article to appears in news.google.com, which is a very nice channel extension. So, all of these to say that while Utilizer might be seen as a competing channel to bloggers, I think that bloggers should realize the tremendous value it could bring to their blog. I think to materialize this value to bloggers, some sort of WordPress plugin would be very useful. I think that allowing bloggers to show and combined Ulitzer/SYS-CON stats, comments, Tweets/ReTweets with their blog posts would be a killer feature. Another approach would be to expose a simple REST API (just HTTP JSON gets) and do a sample Wordpress plugin showing developers how to integrate Wordpress with Ulitzer. Anyway, just some random thoughts.

CA Should Offer the CEO Job to Ken Cron

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 06:00:00 EDT

The round of applause that greeted the suggestion that Ken Cron be promoted from Interim CEO to full CEO of Computer Associates International (renamed as CA as one of the first action items by John Swainson) left a smile on the face of Chairman Lewis Ranieri at the company's annual shareholder meeting in 2004. Ken had one of the toughest jobs any CEO can imagine: that of following Sanjay Kumar and Charles Wang. Yet under Cron's leadership CA's net income returned to the black after three consecutive years of losses and under very difficult circumstances.

Positive Word of Mouth and Your Brand - Part 3

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 17:45:00 EDT

This is part three of a five part series on the importance of personal branding in garnering positive word of mouth. In our hyper-connected society, word of mouth has become “world of mouth” and recommendations truly craft your online and...

Two Questions for Branding in the Web 2.0 World: Is It Up? Is It Fast?

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 23:00:00 EDT

Keeping your brand alive and well on the Web isn't as easy as it looks. There are few things as important as your reputation, and in the Web 2.0 economy, your reputation is increasingly tied to your web presence. So keeping the website up, available, and responding quickly is critical not only for success, but also for survival. If you think about it, a website's reputation on the Internet can be boiled down to two questions: 'Is it up?' and 'Is it fast?'

Successful Launch at Offshore Europe for New Site

Sun, 13 Sep 2009 06:45:00 EDT

Launching a brand new company at such a prestigious event as Offshore Europe would fear even experienced business men, but for Aberdeenshire man, Kevin Forbes, it was the ideal launching platform for his new venture www.oilandgaspeople.com and an opportunity not to be missed!

B2B Website Back Door Optimization

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 09:30:00 EDT

Most companies pay a lot of attention to their homepage. But, with search results driving a majority of click through, what happens when your website visitors come in through the back door via an internal page? All of your web pages must establish context to keep your visitors from bouncing away in search of what they need.

Business Martial Arts Lesson – It Will Take You Twenty Times to Learn This Move

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 16:45:00 EDT

It will take you twenty times to learn this move – New students come into class and see all of the Hapkido techniques on sheets on the wall. The list is intimidating to say the least. Korean terminology, foundational moves, nuanced techniques and sometimes small notes written in pen on top of the typed sheets. White belts get very impatient because they want to be as fast as the higher belts. What they can't embrace is that we were all white belts once and if you want to be fast, you have to allow yourself to become masters of the foundation which is going to take more time than you thought.

The Secret to SEO Search Engine Optimization

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 19:30:00 EDT

That's the word from veteran SEO expert Heather Lloyd-Martin SEO is not about creating a website sausage overstuffed with key words and phrases. It’s all about creating relevant and compelling content that transforms you into a thought leader who can become a trusted provider. You can, then, readily convert visitors into buyers Of course, this is gospel for me and many content marketers. But, it is poorly understood by many marketers and SEO practitioners who still think cramming a ton of words and phrases deemed to be search engine friendly in every nook and cranny of your website will place you high on the results page. So, I was both encouraged and inspired by Heather Lloyd-Martin's recent post who has been helping clients get great search results for more than a decade. Since she does search engine optimization for a living, it's wonderful to hear her say that it's ultimately all about the content.

Position Yourself as a Value Provider

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 19:15:00 EDT

Are marketing and sales sending email messages relevant to your prospect's interests? Find out how messaging misses the mark and how you can change it to create higher levels of prospect engagement.

Game Theory and Non Zero Solutions

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 14:45:00 EDT

Game theory is applied mathematics enabling an evaluation of strategic decisions. Win loose or Win Win: its a choice based on our beliefs and the perceived nature of our relationships. As the networks of interdependence within and beyond communities and nations get more complex, the more enlightened people are forced in their own interests to find non-zero-sum solutions. That is, win-win solutions instead of win-lose solutions. In leadership the measure of success is not so much whether you won at anothers expense, but whether you got what you wanted because you enabled other people to achieve their dreams and to do what they want. Learn more about how the Non Zero solution is key to traversing enormous revolutionary change. If your relationships are not based on Non Zero sums they cannot be productive long term in this day and age. Watch Clinton's brief talk about this reality in todays world.

Bernie Borges' Marketing 2.0 Social Media Book

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 17:30:00 EDT

Bernie Borges' new book: Marketing 2.0: Bridging the Gap between Seller and Buyers through Social Media Marketing. Bernie's book aims to give a macro view of social media marketing with a focus on "what it is" and "how" small and medium size businesses (SMB) can develop a strategy, implement it and measure results. Marketing 2.0: Bridging the Gap between Seller and Buyers through Social Media Marketing covers these topics:

Integrate Social Media Tools Into Business, Not Marketing Campaigns

Sat, 18 Jul 2009 15:00:00 EDT

“That its not enough to focus on social alone. That nurturing the conversations in the social realm are the starting point not the end game. That it is indeed about getting customers to influence each other to make positive purchasing and brand affinity decisions. That the core philosophies around social can and should be deeply integrated into a business. And that, the more holistically you look at social influence marketing - across all touch points digital and physical, the more likely are you to harness it for competitive advantage. It is the social ideas that matter more than social media. Ideas that harness social philosophies but create new outcomes and not just new tactics.”

Wikipedia Moderators Make Hitler Look Like a Hobbyist

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 15:00:00 EDT

Wikipedia sucks. Why do I say this? Obviously I’ve just had yet another bad experience with the self-professed Gods who “manage” the encyclopaedia. But before I bore you with the Data as a Service controversy (ooh, that sounds exciting, doesn’t it!?), let’s take a look at just why Wikipedia sucks quite so badly. A Prerequisite to being [...]

Google's Health Kitchen Sink

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 15:00:00 EDT

Google's announcement about ChromeOS last week caused some technology pundits to hyperventilate about impending doom for Microsoft and put another notch in Google's product launch belt.While speculation runs rampant about the two giants as they battle it out for dominance in the OS and office productivity suite space, Google's latest announcement provides an interesting new twist to Google's Health platform. Because what ChromeOs will clearly provide once the operating system is released next year is a faster on-ramp for consumer-controlled, web-based patient health records (PHR).

Quit Using Email to Train Your Leads to Ignore You

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 04:45:00 EDT

We've all experience "mosquito marketing." You know what I mean - those hit and run messages you ignore because they're more irritating than valuable. Becoming a trusted expert is now the prerequisite for catching your leads' attention. Email marketing takes more than hitting send. Find out how to structure your email marketing programs to become valued content resources your prospective buyers anticipate receiving.

Computer Hackers Offer Free Advice on Twitter

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 21:30:00 EDT

LIGATT's Hacker for Hire service is now using Twitter, a popular social networking service, to answer cyber crime questions and concerns around-the-clock regarding all aspects of cyber crime. Through the use of Twitter, consumers have the ability to receive feedback at any time of the day and within a shorter amount of time than conversing through email.

Facepalm: Google Wave Choice of XMPP Not the Death of HTTP

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 19:45:00 EDT

Google didn’t kill HTTP. Neither did Colonel Mustard or Professor Plum. In fact, HTTP is still very much alive.

Okay, folks, it’s time to stop declaring the death of protocols/technologies prematurely. Please? Especially when such proclamations are clearly not representative of reality.

From ElasticVapor :: Life in the Cloud
In Google's announcement what I found most fascinating was the protocol they choose for the basis of their new realtime vision. It wasn't HTTP but instead XMPP was selected as the foundation for this decentralized and interoperable vision. What this means in very simple terms is Google has declared the HTTP protocol is dead, an inefficient relic of the past. A protocol that was never designed with the requirements for the reality of a global realtime cloud. [emphasis added]

If you dig into the Google WAVE Embed API code far enough, you’ll get to a core RPC/gadget library that clearly indicates the API is still taking advantage of HTTP. It’s using XMLHttpRequest as expected and handles all the ugliness of setting up and handling the calls. Following is some code from the init function, but there are plenty of other places where HTTP requests are made and callbacks subsequently called, indicating Google is making full use of HTTP as a transport protocol for XMPP in order, one assumes, to support the browser as a client. The fact that Google offers an “Embed API” for browsers and touts the ease with which waves can be integrated into web sites and pages indicates broad support for HTTP without digging into the code, but it’s always nice to dig in and verify that something new and exciting isn’t happening “under the covers.”

function init(configuration){config=configuration["core.io"]||{}
var httpMethod=params.METHOD||"GET";
if(params.AUTHORIZATION&¶ms.AUTHORIZATION!=="NONE"){auth=params.AUTHORIZATION.toLowerCase();
st=shindig.auth.getSecurityToken()
}else{if(httpMethod==="GET"&&refreshInterval===undefined){refreshInterval=3600

Code snippets have been extracted to show use of HTTP and is not the full code. My apologies for the formatting, but that’s the way it came out of the source file. And if you’re a stickler for meaningful variable names, do not go digging around in this one because it will make your head explode. Really.

Given Google’s extensive support for gadgets/widgets/whatever intended for use within websites then it only makes sense that they’d still be using HTTP because XMPP, while a great protocol, isn’t natively supported by any browser at this time. So Google has to have some way to ensure that browsers – the primary mechanism for communicating with services over the Internet today – could take advantage of its latest and greatest.

Google has obviously chosen XMPP for its application layer data exchange because it’s open, extensible, or maybe that’s just where the dart landed when they discussed their options. But let’s face facts: HTTP is the de facto application layer transport protocol of the Internet and it’s highly unlikely that a company that’s built its fortunes upon that fact is suddenly going to turn around and abandon it. HTTP is the only almost-surefire method of traversing firewalls in any kind of bi-directional communication exchange between clients and servers, and routinely carries on its back any number of “layer 7+” protocols such as SOAP, JSON, and XML.

While XMPP can – and is – implemented directly atop TCP (and is in fact designed to be so) it often makes use of HTTP for many of its core XML dependencies, such as the definition of namespaces and relevant schemas.

The browser is not going away and, in fact, seems to be gaining more and more support as the de facto client platform of the Internet and, by extension, “the cloud.” It is highly unlikely, then, that any provider of software – cloud or not – would even attempt to kill HTTP in favor of some other transport layer protocol.

The chance that Google, whose fame and fortune has been made piggybacked on HTTP and its use, would knowingly and willingly kill HTTP in its choices is even more unlikely.

Technorati Tags: MacVittie,F5,TCP,XMPP,HTTP,Elastic Vapor,Google Wave,protocol,dead,Google,rpc,code,javascript,client,browser,internet,cloud computing,cloud,web,blog

Related blogs & articles:

Categories: Cloud Computing , Development and General , Randomness , XML

Initial Reaction to Google Wave: Maybe Transformative

Sun, 31 May 2009 22:45:00 EDT

I'm excited about Google Wave, based on TechCrunch's description of it, and my own fervid projections of what I'd like it to be. If I'm understanding it correctly — and the likelihood is that I'm not ... take that as a serious warning — this could be bigger than Facebook ...

Entrepreneur Magazine Gets Shakespearean About PR

Sun, 31 May 2009 22:00:00 EDT

Within the “Start It Up” section of the magazine, Sara Wilson craftily titled the article “Get Thee to a PR Firm.” We’ll provide a link to the article when it comes up online for those of you who don’t subscribe to one of our favorite pubs. Sara tells some interesting stories of businesses including Picnik.com, Ecobags.com, Flexible Executives, LLC, USABride, Inc. and Cape Clogs (all linked), who have seen significant Return on Investment after hiring a PR firm anywhere from one year to 17 years after launch. These companies’ 2009 projected revenues range from $500,000 to $5 million.

Executives Spend an Extra 11 Hours a Month Online

Sun, 31 May 2009 16:00:00 EDT

MeettheBoss surveyed 15,000 of its 200,000 executive members to understand more about what effect Web 2.0 has had on the business world.

Google Wave Is Much Better Than Twitter

Sat, 30 May 2009 15:45:00 EDT

Although Google Wave is not open for public yet but after a preview at the features just introduced by Google I think Google Wave is much better, interactive, fun and less-hectic than some of today's top social media tools.

Great New Social Media Marketing Tool: PitchEngine

Thu, 28 May 2009 23:00:00 EDT

They call it public relations for a reason. Although PR methodology has focused primarily on getting the traditional media to write about your company or your client’s company, the goal has always been to influence ‘the public', that is those members of the population that you want to impact positively. Thanks to the infinite reach of the Internet, you have the capability to extend that influence dramatically. But, you need to change your approach and your toolkit as part of a 21st century PR strategy. If your primary public relations strategy still amounts to sending press releases to a finite number of media contacts, you fail to take advantage of the Internet. You are not reaching the new influencers, to use Paul Gillen’s term. You need to do do more than reach those influencers. You need to take advantage of the emerging power of social media by creating a new kind of release to reach a much broader audience. We have written previously about Shift Communications’ template that offers a useful template on which to create your news content: Social Media Release Template Makes It Easier to Get Social. Now, another powerful tool has emerged: PitchEngine, which lets you create and share social media releases for free.

Social Media Terrorists

Tue, 26 May 2009 08:00:00 EDT

"Mass psychology" scientists study this kind of phenomena and the "mass psychology of fascism" is of course the most famous lab case. The extraordinary experience SYS-CON Media lived through became part of a Forbes Magazine investigative cover story called "Attack of the Blogs" that found that "Web logs are the prized platform of an online lynch mob spouting liberty but spewing lies, libel and invective. Their potent allies in this pursuit include Google and Yahoo." The lies, libel and invective we are living through today is another such episode. Our partners, readers and the industry in general know the facts and what's going on but in a rare example like the email below, we can't be sure if everyone is on the same page as the rest of us.

The Secrets of Corporate Blogging

Fri, 15 May 2009 21:15:00 EDT

Monday evening I'm giving a lecture at the Jerusalem Technical Writers Group on The Secrets of Corporate Blogging to a room full of technical and marketing writers, many of whom have a passing but probably incomplete knowledge of blogging. If you're interested in attending, see the above link.

Facebook Doesn’t Make Your Stupid. Whoops.

Sun, 03 May 2009 16:15:00 EDT

Remember how the media leapt on the study that showed that being on Facebook lowered your grades in school? The study was, shall we say, flawed. But it was a media-seeking rocket. Now, 2.5 weeks later, Josh Pasek, eian more, and Eszter Hargittai have published "Facebook and academic performance: ...

Ulitzer’s Amazing First 30 Days in Public Beta

Fri, 01 May 2009 14:30:00 EDT

Even with these impressive first stats, Ulitzer users for the next 12 to 24 months will only be a fraction of the early adopters of tomorrow's social media tools. Ulitzer offers quality content under a managed environment. Google News keyword alerts are already contaminated with meaningless garbage largely due to its automated nature. Instant access to quality content will get more difficult as this erosion escalates. Sites such as Ulitzer will be the only answer to one-stop access to quality content on any subject.

Virtual Reality

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 20:00:00 EDT

There’s an old adage that says you have to spend money to make money. In the data center these days this is more true than ever. You have to invest in technology capable of making your data center more efficient in order to make (save) money. A recent Robert Half Technology survey of 1400 CIOs indicates that data center efficiency and virtualization are top priorities.

Have a can of Duh! It's on me

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 06:46:00 EDT

This whole Web 2.0-sucking-the-life-out-of-servers problem? Yeah, it’s nothing new if you’ve been paying attention. I am not one prone to fits of smug arrogance. I don’t generally ever say “I told you so” (even if I did) or tsk-tsk when you failed to listen to some nugget of wisdom and it bites you some place…unpleasant. Don often tells me I should, and he will if I won’t, but most of the time I simply bite my tongue and let it pass on by. It’s my job to offer up the information, not force it down your throat. Horse, water, blah, blah, whatever.

Twitter Fever

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 22:33:00 EDT

I am thinking that I was wrong about Twitter. When I first came across it -- I couldn't see the point. Who really cares what me or anyone else is doing? It reminds of those co-workers that are at your desk talking all day while your actually trying to be productive. As reality would seem, Twitter does matter and there are now oodles of unexpected twitter remixes and mashups that are now sharing in the overnight success.

The Technology Behind President Obama's Historic Victory

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 21:00:00 EDT

Jascha Franklin-Hodge, Chief Technology Officer and Founding Partner of Blue State Digital, will be presenting "Lessons from the Obama Online Campaign" as a special lunchtime Keynote Address on March 27 at 12:45 PM at the Philadelphia Marriott West. Blue State Digital specializes in wielding web-based tools to increase awareness, advocacy and fundraising capabilities for non-profits and social causes. These strengths in utilizing interactive content and social networks to build, mobilize and empower a purpose-driven online community have resulted in an unusual niche market - the political candidate.

The Job Hunt

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 13:15:00 EST

So, you have a good education, a killer resume, references -- the whole nine yards. And yet, no one is hiring you! This was the case with a friend of mine, Betty M., who went through over 20 interviews for technical writing jobs and in many cases, was invited to come back in for second interviews, but Betty never made it beyond that second round. She was perplexed because she was perfectly qualified and the interviewers seemed to be very pleased to hear what Betty had to offer.