Thoughts and observations on the intersection of technology and business; searching for better understanding of what's relevant, where's the value, and (always) what's the goal ...
Three Dimensions of the Conversation - Millenials and Web 2.0
Three Dimensions of the Conversation - Millenials and Web 2.0
Catching up on some old links - all related to the impact of Web 2.0, and especially the incoming Millennials, on the workplace.
- At internetnews, Kuchinskas has laid out a pretty good summary of concerns about the philosophy of information sharing on the public Internet - this doesn't translate well to many corporate environments (see previously). Most of the article frets about the inevitable introduction of malware to the trusted network, but I think the hidden danger is the possibility of sensitive corporate information getting out. Publicly traded companies especially need to be concerned about this; the distinction between copyrighted artistic expression and corporate intelligence may be lost on those fresh out of college.
- Via Kottke.org, an interesting concept from Kevin Kelly; folks whose professions have been Turing'd (ie. outsourced via computers / technology advances) are generally more open to working with new technologies. This is a bit contrary to my previous post, and it makes sense - they've already been hit by the train once, and are certainly not going to get hit again. Besides, it's fun to extend the list of theories you never thought could be automated (like real-time driving directions) or eliminated (like newspaper classifieds) ...
- ... which leads me to this list (from SEOmoz) of things that the Millennials have never seen. Variations on this theme appear almost every year, the kind of world events or social movements that incoming college freshmen have never experienced. Nice to see one that puts the relative pace of technology change in the same perspective.
- We're finally seeing corporations like IBM and SAP working to add Web 2.0 and mash-up [clown-suit] capabilities into their major products. Another article calls out some research work that IBM is doing with current college students. I thought it was cool because I did some work like that in my senior year on a project sponsored by IBM. We wrote a virtual disk interface for the IBM 370 (yes, I had a PC XT with a mainframe for a floppy disk ...)
- In Computerworld, Thibodeau writes about the introduction of texting into the business world. I have this functionality right now with my Blackberry, and had it in the past running MSN Messenger on the iPAQ - so I know that texting has value to business. However, I don't think you'll get rid of IM for the folks still working at the desktop. I validated this with my teenage daughters - they favor texting because they're not in front of the computer as much as they are walking about with a phone in their pocket. However, I do note that my oldest prefers texting even when she's surfing the web in between social engagements. At best, there will be a nice mix of these styles, and hopefully we'll see e-mail traffic (and useless attachments, Reply All, and unmanageable inboxes) fade away.
There was a recent Q&A thread from LinkedIn Answers on the general topic of managing the Millennials - a representative sample of the three dimensions the topic encompasses:
- Millennials are new elements in a threat matrix
- Consumer technology entering the business
- Communication challenges between the generations
Previously ...
- eMail on Blackberry Changes Definition of Acceptable eMail (September 19, 2005)
- Gee, this social network - presence - IM - knowledge management - collaboration stuff really works (September 25, 2005)
- My first month with the Blackberry Pearl (February 26, 2007)
- Corporate Web 2.0 is Spreading - Here comes the Blog (May 15, 2007)
- Consarned whippersnappers (Generational Diversity) (May 20, 2007)
- The Right Web2.0 Tool for The Job (July 16, 2007)
- The Best Way to get Web 2.0 Into the Enterprise (March 3, 2008)
- The Innovation Generation - Communication Styles (April 1, 2008)
- Why are those Old Programmers so slow in picking up on the Intarweb? (April 6, 2008)
- The Innovation Generation and User Interfaces (April 9, 2008)
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Labels: blackberry, generational diversity, millenials, Web 2.0
Thoughts During a Power Outage
Thoughts During a Power Outage
I am sitting in the cube outside my office, connected by wireless to our corporate network in an otherwise darkened office. The power is out - started around 3AM, and it is apparently affecting a large area, not just this building.
- Kudos to the infrastructure team that strung up the wireless access points here - thanks for plugging them into the same circuit that is powering the emergency lights. not sure if that was by design or a happy accident, but coupled with notebooks running on their batteries, we have the ability to get some communication of status out to the world.
- Some concerns about battery life, however - I use a Dell Latitude D620, and it is (in my opinion) really poor at power management. I expect to get about 60 total minutes of work out of the thing - kinda sad if you ask me.
- No affect on my Blackberry - I am sending and receiving just fine. If you haven't checked out Blackberry Messenger, I'd look into it - definitely useful for sending out quick updates to key folks.
- Not sure if it would do any good to call folks on my teams re: working from home - zero insight as to when the power will come back on. I just made an entry into my internal blog, so I suppose if they happen to catch that post (or this one!) before they come in, they can give me a shout on the cell phone to let me know if they are coming in. Use best judgement - if you had a meeting scheduled, for example, I would definitely come in, just in case.
- I just spoke to someone who did make it in - another early bird like me. He heard on the radio coming in that this is affecting a big part of the area.
- I tried to Google for a status update, but am not able to find anything. That might be something nice for Commonwealth Edison / Exelon to set up - definitely a shortcut that I would set up on my Blackberry.
- This is definitely a case for Twitter - unfortunately, that's blocked by our network policy.
I'm having a bit of fun here, blogging at near-real time to capture thoughts. Part of continuous improvement and innovation is capturing learnings from any situation, so this is my great experiment on blogs as news delivery (as opposed to spouting opinions / capturing deep thoughts - my regular meme / schtick).
That's all I know at this time ...
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New Twitter features starting to make things more relevant
New Twitter features starting to make things more relevantHere's a new plugin for Firefox that's helpful for my use of Twitter - twitterbar. Yes, there's a number of plugins designed to integrate Twitter with Firefox, but this one seems to work fine. Note that it works better now that I've upgraded to Firefox 2.0 - always a good idea to keep up with your software upgrades.
Also, the good folks at Twitter have completed some nice updates to their mobile site - here's how it looks in my Blackberry browser ...
Click on the picture for a full-size image!
These are the kind of incremental improvements that applications go through until they settle into that comfortable niche of relevant, soon to become in use daily. I will admit I am forcing myself to enter "tweets", but that's because I now see them as adjuncts to my CV page; I'm taking them off of this blog - not sure if they are useful here - but if someone is looking to understand what I'm working on Right Now, that's the place to look.
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Labels: blackberry, twitter
Rare event: Design problems with my Blackberry Pearl
Rare event: Design problems with my Blackberry PearlI've finally found a design issue or two with the Blackberry Pearl. That's an accomplishment of a sort - I've written about how I like this thing, it's been quite handy.
However, today I was calling for technical support for something (not the Blackberry ...), and I was prompted by an Automated Voice Response (AVR) system to enter my name using the numbers on the phone. You know the drill ...
|
1
|
ABC
2
|
DEF
3
|
|
GHI
4
|
JKL
5
|
MNO
6
|
|
PQRS
7
|
TUV
8
|
WXYZ
9
|
Unfortunately, these aren't the letter patterns that appear on the Pearl's keys. Oops, er, ummm ...
Luckily, I was in my office, and could look over to a desk phone and do the translation. If I was on the road, however, I'd be out of luck; looks like I'll need to add an item in my MemoPad, in case this ever comes up again.
The second issue is just an annoyance. Our corporate Blackberries must be password protected with forced changes every 90 days. I have no problem with this approach, it's just that the Blackberry software gives no warning when your current password expires. On the regular network, we get a warning that our password will expire in a few days - this lets me schedule a time when it's convenient to think of a new password and note the change. With the Blackberry, I am dead in the water with no warning, and must makeupanew
password on the spot. This is not always convenient ...
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Labels: blackberry
Noisy little Blackberry Pearl
Dave Taylor made a comment on my previous post ...
... One negative that's really bugging me ... is that the Pearl puts out a LOT of RF
interference. Enough that I'm really surprised it got an FCC approval
to be sold, actually. Try it: have your phone near any sort of speaker
system and after a minute or two you'll hear buzzing and other random
noise. It's so bad that I can't have my Pearl on my desk because my
external computer speakers just emit loud buzzes and are darn
distracting. Haven't figured out the range, but it's at least 3-4 feet
but less than 10 feet or so.
Yes, I've absolutely experienced it - for the past 18 months, as we've been rolling out Blackberries where I work, it's been a recurring thing - interrupts meetings when the speakerphone console starts chirping, and everybody reaches to move their 'berries away.
I've become used to it - it's not just Blackberries, even my iPod will throw out some RF intereference at night. Plus, when I need to keep close to my phone / email, I like to keep it next to my bed - and that becomes a tad problematic when the speakers go off at all hours.
However ... now that you mention it, Dave, I believe this might be a relatively recent phenomenon. At my previous employer, on-call 24x7 was pretty much expected of all in IT, and I slept with the Blackberry on the nightstand every night - and I don't ever remember this much RF noise!
[hmmm ... googling ensues ...]
Found the answer - see here , here , and here ... and a short explanation (attributed to RIM) ...
Unfortunately, this "buzzing" is a characteristic that is
unavoidable on any mobile phone that operates in the GSM 850/1900 MHz
range (not just BlackBerry, but all other phones also).
Essentially, whenever the phone transmits or receives on the
850/1900 MHz band any nearby speakers are "excited" and there is an
audible buzzing.
The only suggestion I have to reduce the annoying buzz, is
to keep the BlackBerry handset away from any speakers (or any wires
leading to speakers). So when you set it down on your desk, try putting
it as far away from the speaker as needed (or you can turn off the
speakers when they aren't needed).
This is a trait of the GSM design and not specific to BlackBerry.
Labels: blackberry
