Figmentations

No need to be bummed if you don’t have an ipod and can’t partake in podcasting. I’ve recently discovered vlogging. Kind of like reality television, these vloggers just are as they are. Check out some of the one’s I’ve found: vlogmania, Ryan’s vlog, and Momentshowing. And, that’s not to say that everyone has anything of interest to vlog about each week, but it’s still a day in the life of getting to know the vlogger. (As a side note, I would also add that some vlogger posts are not necessarily family friendly.)

Enjoy Video Blogging Week 2005 through mefeedia or technorati or see last year’s video blogging week 2004. Here’s what Video Blogging Week seems to be about: participating vloggers vow to post a video blog a day for one week and tag it to appear in one central location. However, I can’t quite figure out who started this trend and who declares which week this event falls on…apparently last year it was in June? …“Take me to your Leader.”

Will the corporate or business world ever latch on to such an event? Depending on the industry, it might not be a bad idea. If one is considering this, do your homework first, and definitely check out the post size and download times, they can get frustrating, but for good vlogs, it’s sometimes worth the wait.

Not sure if this is new or not, but I just came across these green double underlined links which don’t even link to what is described. I don’t get it. They’re actually quite annoying.

I found them on Entrepreneur.com and they’re called Sponsored Links.

Check it out and let me know what you think.

Have you seen the new animation piece on JibJab, called “The Drugs I Need” ? This piece isn’t produced by them and the issue it expresses isn’t endorsed by them, but they still share it on their site. How cool. On their home page they state the following:

Dear JibJabber,

As you may know, we don’t typically publish anyone’s work other than our own, but when this gem was brought to our attention we had to share it with you. The folks over at Consumers Union commisioned this incredibly irreverent and biting video on the prescription drug industry. We don’t endorse “issues” here at JibJab, but we do endorse comedy and this piece is brimming with it. Hoping you laugh as hard as we did,

Grevan

To me, that brings up two points to ponder…

First, I like the way JibJab states that they do not “endorse issues, just comedy.” I think it’s great to be able to separate the two, though I do wonder that if this were posted on a corporate blog, would it be possible to separate the two?

And, secondly, on a separate but related note, I like the way this piece communicates a philosophy of being respectful and not fearful of fellow industry professionals.

This is similar to what is described in a related post by Jason Kottke where he shares his business philosophy and that of companies that share similar beliefs:

• a company like Coudal Partners will only accept advertising from companies whose products they have used.
• and the philosophy of Ludicorp that includes : “Business owners…work for the enjoyment of their competitive skill, in the context of a life where competing skillfully makes sense.”
• and as Jason himself states “Not trying to take over the world, just doing something in balance with the lives of everyone concerned.”

I think I’ll add those thoughts to a growing philosophy that I’ve been reading more about here and there. That is of socially responsible companies. And, according to the Duke University, Fugua School of Business’s Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship:

“For our purposes, social sector organizations include any organization whose primary goal is to create value that cannot be reduced to economic wealth for owners or consumption benefits for customers, whether it is related to the promotion of good for human society, animals, or the natural environment.”

In recent years, I’ve just been feeling more and more that there just has to be more to business than simply only pursuing profits. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against making money or even making a lot of money, it’s just that I feel that business and life needs to be about so much more than just making money. Having values and doing what is good for others as well as ourselves is always a good starting place.

Looks like William Hung of American Idol fame has some competition. I’ve seen a number of bloggers mention this Numa-Numa dance or Geek dance as it’s been referred to by some, so I thought I’d share, too.

I thought I’d find a simple link to William Hung, but check out his website. He’s got his own marketing empire. Something to rival the Olsen twins.

Update: The Numa Dance also made in onto the Today Show. (if link breaks, try this one.)

This post is more about my using Blogger as a notebook rather than just as a publishing or posting tool…..

Through my bloglines feeds subscription to MicroPersuasion, I just found this link from Steve Rubel that explains how to use del.icio.us. Just needed to save it somewhere so that I wouldn’t lose it. And, if it helps, it’s here for anyone else to use, too.

So much to learn….

I’m been a bit bummed recently that since I don’t own a camera phone or an iPod, that I’m missing out on all the podcastings that are being blogged about. Then I came to realize that I’m not totally “video-less”, I’ve still got Windows MediaPlayer or Real Player. Actually, I just watched my first screencasts, on “Using RSS 101” and “Using Technorati Tags“, by Alex Barnet, mentioned by Steve Rubel of MicroPersuasion. Actually this was very similar to WebEx or Centra presentations I’ve seen at work. Alex’s post even gives links explaining how he creates his screencasts. I love this world of free information.

Anyway, I seem to be finding more “open invitation” type of posts…..

Since I only have Windows 98, I wasn’t able to play Steve Rubel’s Desktop Search “What’s on Your Mind?”. Though just reading about it was educational, I’m now a little closer to knowing more about both loading Desktop Search tools and posting under the del.icio.us tag.

Anyway, I will probably soon also share my list of gadgets, as Steve shared in his post entitled “What’s in your Gadget bag?”. Since I’ve already revealed that I’m not really all that high-tech (I guess it’s kind of odd that I fell into blogging, but that’s beside the point), my gadget bag consists of either work-issued computer stuff or for my blog pursuits basically all free stuff. I’ll elaborate later. The contents that Steve and his commenter’s list probably fit much more closely with that of the more typical blogger demographic: male, affluent, and broadband connected. Well I’m one out of the three. Oh, well…..

However, I do think I’ll use the Buzzword Bingo game (linked to by Alex Barnet) at my next team meeting at work. It might be more apropos to use acronyms instead of buzzwords though….but I think it’ll go over well either way.

I guess I could have also entitled this post,”Remaindered Links”, which I just discovered other bloggers do when they have a few interesting links that they don’t want to part with but don’t have a particular place for. I’ll probably start using that more in the future, though I kind of like tying together a number of thoughts…good segue practice I guess….

Update 3/13/05: For now, I think I’ll go with point of view that blogging can be good for your career as described in a post by Tim Bray, as pointed out by Rick E. Bruner on Business Blog Consulting.

There is also a good Forrester intro document on the growing importance of corporate blogging entitled: “Blogging: Bubble of Big Deal?”. (Note: I was able to download this Adobe file for free by signing up as a guest…I found the article through a Google sidebar ad when clicking through the above mentioned links.)

Update 3/11/05: An update to this original post. There is an excellent article from CNET on “Blogging on the Job“. Thanks, Dana, for pointing this out your site and on Business Blog Consulting.

One interesting fact mentioned in this CNET article: “Only 3 percent of companies read job candidates’ blogs before deciding whether to hire them.” In general, “…blog firings are relatively rare…” and that being familiar with company policy and using common sense are the best ground rules.

Jason Kottke also added an update to his initial post, showing how Technorati provided more details about the situation in question. Jason even concludes that the company policy and the situation in its correct context were fairly handled and resolved. Click through these links to get all the details, too.

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My Original unedited Post:

Some recent blogs that I’ve read have been giving me concerns about the blog that I write. For some time, I, myself, have been wondering whether or not to inform my current employer that I write a blog. As of yet, they don’t know, though if they did know, I would not expect they would have any major concerns about anything that I’ve written about so far.

At times, I have even considered showing fellow colleagues, at the Fortune 500 company that I work for, that I have a skill and interest that might be applicable to the company, especially since my employer often speaks about wanting innovative ideas and taking more calculated risks in the trying of new things. But since I want to write about my interests and not necessarily those of my employer, I have so far chosen not to mention my new hobby.

At the same time though, I don’t consider my employer to be the most likely candidate for wanting an employee blog anyway, especially according to this quick outake from a recent B.L. Ochman post at whatsnextblog.com, regarding blogs…:

They need to be opionated and daring to develop a loyal following. If you need three layers of approval for a press release, don’t even think about starting a blog!

However, according to a recent Associated Press Article, entitled “Firms Taking Action Against Worker Blogs” (broken-link? click here), having that employee-to-employer dialogue about the dos and don’ts of blogging is recommended, mostly in order to avoid any kind of controversial posting leading to the employee’s termination.

However, in my blog, I don’t portray myself as a representative of my company or my industry, and I’ve never yet even mentioned who my employer is. Not knowing how familiar my company’s HR or Legal Dept is with blogging in general, in order to avoid any kind of misunderstanding or unnecessary paranoia, I’ve kind of adopted the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy for myself.

I agree that there is a certain common sense about what should or shoudn’t be acceptable information to blog about. For instance, I would never blog about: company finances, company legal issues, new products, or anything that the company considers confidential. Most employees are required to sign a non-disclosure agreement upon being hired anyway, so there are legally binding reasons to comply and not violate such a policy.

But that is what I find most concerning about a recent blog post on kottke.org entitled: “Technorati censoring employee blogs?“. The censorship wasn’t about anything company-specific, but it was about the expression of an opinion about an industry issue.

Since I work for a health-care-related company, that means I might need to watch what opinions I express about things regarding: health, exercise, vitamin supplements, obesity, diets, etc. These are things that many people discuss frequently and always have opinions on.

Additionally, I think I can generalize to say that many Fortune 500 companies tend to prefer political policies that are more pro-business (Republican) versus pro-government regulation (Democrat), so I better watch what political viewpoints I express as well.

I find this to be quite concerning. I’ll definitely continue to keep my eyes open to the discussions around these issues. And, I think that I will continue to not discuss my blog with my employer and maybe even fellow employees as well. My intent is not to cause my employer any harm, and I would hope that my employer would understand that, too. However, the corporate world does have its politics, and its need to demonstrate a degree of political correctness, so being aware of that, I find it safer to lay low for now.

If breakfast is the most important meal of the day, what is this graphic from a New York Times ad saying about the typical American breakfast?

The light bulb just went on for me. I’ve recently come to discover that blog comments and references can be just as important to the dialogue or exchange of information as the original blog itelf.

That makes me wonder, when someone like Robert Scoble, who is known for monitoring 1,300 or so blogs on a regular basis, “can he really monitor the content and the extended dialogue around that many blogs?” By that I mean, not just the comments and references to the blog posts that he writes, but also the comments that are written against the blogs that he reads. It seems that some of the big boys, both Robert Scoble (see “Update 3/5/05″ of this referenced post) and Steve Rubel have already proven the former, so I wonder to what degree they do the latter. But I digress a bit here….

I mention this because I wanted to share a “six degrees of separation” moment that I just experienced. In reading comments to another person’s blog, I found some information that I needed that I wasn’t even looking for at the time. And, had I even wanted to look for that information, I wouldn’t even have known where to begin to look for it.

Here’s what I found. I had recently mentioned my frustration with already having broken links in my blog, when I’ve only been blogging regularly since about Dec ’04. And, low and behold, as I was printing out my “hard-copy” blog posts and related links as “phase one” of my blog backup plan, I learned that furl.net might just be the solution to my broken-link problem.

FYI: Furl appears to be a free way to store copies of website pages that I can then share with others. Here’s how I found about about Furl.

My Six Degrees of Separation Moment regarding Furl:

1. …from “weblogs that reference Your Blog Voice” (on Diva Marketing)…
2. …there was a reference from : “View from the Isle - Professional Blogging & Blog Consulting What’s your voice? by Tris Hussey” ….
3. …this article referenced both Toby’s “Your Blog Voice” and Amy Gahran’s blog series on posting formats/styles: Contentious: Blogging Style- The Basic Posting Formats (Series Index)…
4. …Part 4 of Amy’s series described the “list” post format/style ….
5. …then I got curious by an example there called “10 cool things to do with furl” (also written by Amy Gahran of Contentious.) And since I had never heard of furl before, I had assumed that furl sounded like the name of a cat. So I clicked through….
6. And there I found that furl was basically a free browser button that can be added on your toolbar and it allows you to create an online archive of Web pages to save for future reference. And according to Amy,
   

   “Yes, in most cases you’re actually saving the Web page to a new location – so if it gets relocated, revised, or removed later, you have a copy of the original version for future reference.”

I now plan on adding Furl to my backup routine!

So, get curious, click around, and see where those links will take you.

“It is what it is”. When you hear someone respond to a situation with those words, do you find those words to be calming or frustrating? I must admit for the longest time, I found those words to be rather frustrating since I felt it wasn’t saying anything…it wasn’t agreement or disagreement, if anything it seemd to imply acceptance, acquiescence, and that action couldn’t or wouldn’t be taken. A co-worker described the use of those words to be like a “coping mechanism”.

But, I’ve since taken a closer look at this phrase and have come to understand how those few words can be both calming and empowering.

The Anthony Robbins coach (a program that I highly recommend) that I’ve been working with has been and continues to be a tremendous help in getting me there. My coach is helping me get to the place where I can relieve the stresses I put on myself when I have negative self-talk or having too many rules or expectations of the way I think things should be. He helped me understand that I can accept the world as it is (like the “Serenity Prayer” that Mom always quoted growing up) in a way that is still empowering….that it is important to stay resourceful; that you can be calm and still take corrective action as needed; and that releasing the stress of the situation doesn’t mean that I have to ignore what’s going on around me.

I bring this up now, because in the past few days, I’ve found numerous situations in which to apply this. And, it’s not that there is a clear corrective action or particular opinion necessary for any of these examples, it’s just that agonizing over them won’t put us in a place where we can be productive to ourselves or others.

Take into consideration the following….Martha Stewart being released from jail as thinner, richer, and more famous. It is what it is. The 1,500th U.S. soldier has died in Iraq. It is what it is. These two issues alone have become as controversial as abortion and the death penalty.

Another example, take headlines around the recently freed Italian journalist who was mistakenly fired upon my U.S. troops , who inadvertently killed the man who negotiated her release. “It is what it is” may seem a bit trite here, but we need to keep ourselves resourceful. (And in no way to make light of this situation, this reminds me of the lyrics to the Avenue Q song #2 “What Do You Do With a B.A. in English? / It Sucks to Be Me/You/Us“.) But we must find a way to deal with it, learn from it, and move on. Oprah has even done a show on that theme: “The Mistake I Can’t Take Back“.

And, then there are the less serious examples, too. Take Tyler Perry who was on Oprah yesterday, he explains why he has this mansion-like house that would make anyone wonder, “who needs a house that big?”. His answer was that it is not that he needed the space, but to show what can be achieved in contrast to his being homeless just seven years prior. Hmh, makes you think differently when you have the whole story. So, who are we to judge. It simply is what it is.

So, I wanted to conclude with something profound but I’ll leave that to the experts. I think “it is what it is” may be a strong enough conclusion on it’s own, but I’ll add a little more…. According to my AR Coach: Release the stress and stay resourceful, or “resource full”. And, according to one of the masters, I conclude by paraphrasing Dr. Wayne W. Dyer from his PBS program and book on The Power of Intention, he says something like “not feeling good will only attract those negative things and creates resistance…no amount of feeling bad (or I add: having stress, or being angry or negative) about others is going to help anyone else or help anything get better”.