Archive for the ‘Recommends/Links’ Category

In the name of “research”, I am sometimes obligated to give into temptation and take random quizzes to for example, find out “how much of a geek I am.” Apparently, I’m only 57% geek.

This didn’t seem too alarming until I realized that everything else that defined me would have to share the left over 43% of me: good & bad habits, my sense of humor (or lack of), where I work, the way I do the things I do, and why, etc… According to this estimate, I love machines so much, that every other quality about me, significant or insignificant, is less significant than technology. And what would be the ranking of someone like Robert Scroble? Assuming there is some logic to the rating, I think it’s safe to say that he would blow the 100% scale pretty easily.

It’s not so cool if a quiz that’s supposed to make me feel good, actually makes me look like a degenerate technophile who cares solely for the well being of his machines. The saddest thing about it is that geeks (the target audience) love quizzes like this, and some would even love to wear the “dysfunctional geek” badge on their sleeve with pride (I’ll confess, I vaguely remember trying to manipulate the results so I would rate a little higher).

Obviously that’s excessively unreal, but since you can’t exactly measure and quantify something as general, and vague as “geekiness” or “karma” with just 10 random questions, wouldn’t it be better to present a more believable estimate?

What about percentiles? Wouldn’t it be easier (and more fun and social) to compare people’s love for technology, and every piece of brand-spanking-new machines ever created (or their fear of same) to that of others? It would certainly be easier (for both the tongue and reputation) to boast of knowing more about technology than 75% of the population, rather than a vague “57% geek”, or the obscure “Total Geek” title.

Sure, at the end of the day, the quiz does the job: time died that day, and you’ll never see it again; but will I go back? Probably not, because it would be nice to have learned, or achieved something, even when procrastination reigns supreme, and time is being wasted (I personally prefer to think of it as research).

In lieu of painting an accurate picture, why not appeal to vanity, and paint the rosier option as the more likely scenario? After all, isn’t reality more accurately perception?

Interesting Extra: Did you know that the unit of geekiness is defined as a Zelda? Neither did I. While that sinks in, check out Wired’s Geekster Handbook for a primer on what it is to be “geek”.

“It’s possible to control the time I have available to me.” We’ve probably all heard this over and over again our whole lives, although sometimes it’s a little hard to fathom.

A few weeks ago, I decided to embark on “a ruthless crusade against wasting time”, and reclaim time as my own once again and you know, get things done (sound familiar?). The goal of course, is to find the best hacks, tips, and tricks, that’ll make things easier, and ultimately, save money by saving time.

At this point, I will acknowledge that I would probably be better off implementing a wildly successful path like GTD (Getting Things Done). My qualms with programs like that is the “shock and awe” approach they introduce where everything that existed previously has to be rebuilt from the ground up. I support change as much as the next guy, but it’s my experience that drastic surges are not sustainable.

I prefer the focused, gradual improvement method, coupled with a good dose of “rinse and repeat” (just replace application with habit). Implementing change on a small section at a time means it’s not the end of the world if one piece of the puzzle messes up, and your whole framework doesn’t have to collapse. It also means that corrections can be made quickly, without affecting very much else.

Moving on…
One of the first applications I came across when I set out on my quixotic quest is RescueTime and this weekend, I’m beginning to think it just might be working. For the last few weeks, I’ve taken a few minutes to tweak my profile and add tags properly, and basically bend it to my will as much as possible (read, “Try to figure it out”) whenever I receive the weekly update email. I’m gradually getting to the point where I’m beginning to see a pattern, and I’m slowly getting better at using it.

It let’s you do nifty things like tag your applications, and even view your Top 10 applications and websites:

….you can even compare 2 tags against the time spent on everything else:

….and you can even compare 2 tags against the time spent on everything else:

They also have a ton other stuff you can mix together so you can hack your life to perfection (like setup goals, and iGoogle integration)..

Apart from the usual suspects like Lifehacker, Wikihow, etc…, what’re your most useful (and favorite) sources of information?

[SociaList] Social Networking News Blurbs (May 8, 2008)

Apparently, “everyone is talking about mobile social networking” with eMarketer forecasting that “mobile social networking will grow from 82 million users in 2007 to over 800 million worldwide by 2012.” Social networking isn’t only about mobile, though, and certainly isn’t just for fun. Enterprise social networking is all the rage and Rachel Happe, IDC’s research manager for digital business economy, explains that “the technology is popular because companies are discovering the use of applications spawned by the popularity of Facebook and Myspace have business benefits.” “The study, which predicts the market could reach $2 billion by 2012, includes any software often deployed as a service paid for by enterprises to enable communities, either internal or external, such as KickApps, Passenger and hi5.”

We’ve written and posted headlines previously about the HR ramifications of social networking and social media and how more and more employers are using the social sphere to mine potentially harmful personal data about job prospects.  Well, apparently more employers are trying to take a more positive approach as Brian Singh, Managing Director of ZINC Research explains: “while the platform presents many opportunities and cost efficiencies for marketing and information, it is its strength in connection and engagement that can be used to attract and retain talent and build a vibrant company culture.  Why shut down access when you can leverage your best assets - your employees.”

Want to recession proof your life?  Social networking may be the answer.  “Online social networking is not only for socializing, but can be used for career building. The career building is enabled by creating an online presence to showcase skills, and extended by creating networks of online (and offline or “live”) connections. These connections can be very helpful in finding out about job opportunities or companies that will be hiring.” Just don’t get carried away and start spamming: “In a recent six-month period, Cloudmark tracked a 300 percent increase in spam on a large social networking site that it works with. Also, at several major social networking sites, about one-third of new accounts created are fraudulent, designed for spam and other attacks, the company said.

If you hold a black Amex, perhaps you may want to ensure you’re just as much of a VIP online as you are (or want to be) off.  If this is the case, here’s how to crack the world’s VIP social networking websites

Long gone are the days of boring mass-market charities and impersonal giving catered towards older white males. Web 2.0 has arrived and it has dramatically changed the face of online charity. The Internet makes it possible for virtually any social player to have a voice and a method of raising money. Web 2.0 has impacted charitable giving in powerful ways, from politics to AIDS research.

Top charitable causes in the web 2.0 fray incorporate social media and social networking to help spread viral ideas, facilitate community around causes, and involve users in their charity and message. A few of my favorites include:

• Kiva
• Good2Gether
• Yahoo! for Good
• DoTheRightThing.com
• DonorsChoose.org
• RonPaul2008.com
• Change.org

How non-profits are using social networking to raise money and awareness
“Online social networks used to be just gathering places for friends and long-lost acquaintances. Then the marketers arrived, followed by politicians and job recruiters, all looking to tap into a growing mass of young people who are spending much of their time on the Web. Now, non-profit organizations are testing ways to raise money through these networks, betting that the Internet’s viral nature will open fresh avenues for fundraising and marketing.”

• Geography finds its place online with geo-social networking sites
  “They’re called points of interest and can range from favourite outlet malls and good fishing spots to golf courses where Tiger Woods won a PGA tour championship. Others include Tim Hortons locations, Salvation Army Thrift Stores, historic cemeteries and hot-air balloon festivals. Geography is becoming a part of social networking on the Internet as websites focus on places that connect people, and as GPS technology becomes more common among consumers.”
• LinkedIn Prepares for Lucrative Push Into Europe
  “LinkedIn is building up its European operations in order to carve out a larger piece of the social-networking pie. The professional social-networking site is stretching outside the U.S., building its targeted advertising program as well as selling its recently launched product for job recruiters, said Kevin Eyres, LinkedIn’s managing director for Europe.”
• How non-profits are using social networking to raise money and awareness
  “Online social networks used to be just gathering places for friends and long-lost acquaintances. Then the marketers arrived, followed by politicians and job recruiters, all looking to tap into a growing mass of young people who are spending much of their time on the Web. Now, non-profit organizations are testing ways to raise money through these networks, betting that the Internet’s viral nature will open fresh avenues for fundraising and marketing.”
• Half will join social network sites
  “A study into the rise of the internet phenomenon showed that Britain has the highest membership in Europe of sites such as MySpace and Facebook. At least 9.6 million Britons use these sites, with participation levels expected to rise to 27.1 million by 2012. The report by Datamonitor, the independent market analyst, expects Britain to see the strongest growth in numbers in Europe over the next five years. Although the trend is being driven by the young, many older people have proved keen to embrace social networking.”
• Strong Uptake of On-deck and Off-deck Mobile Social Networking Services
  “The concept of mobile social networking is fast catching on in the U.S., as all tier-I and tier-II operators now offer social networking applications. Support from mobile operators expects to directly impact application discoverability, provide marketing support, and drive growth in the U.S. mobile social networking markets.”

In no particular order:

1. One of the most attractive things about the Internet for me is the fact that I can read about 12 different subjects at once without cracking several books open. Add an element of randomness (using user-generated content), and my dreams have finally come true: Stumbleupon (Warning: Crucial Productivity Killer)

2. The Internet really is del.icio.us

3. Not only can you stumble on new stuff, but you can also talk about it in real time with others: Me.dium (Serious Productivity Killer. Consider yourself warned)

4. Everything should have a soundtrack: Musicovery

5. Discover and share: Yoono (very simple on the surface, but dig a little deeper to uncover more of its features. It’ll be worth the time)

6. If it’s really that precious, why don’t you share it? Email This!

7. Get smarter. Read reddit (not Digg. Another Serious Productivity Killer)

8. Write it all down with Google Notebook

1. Why’s (Poignant) Guide to Ruby
A tutorial like you’ve never seen before, complete with talking foxes and examples based on chunky bacon. Also, keep an eye out for the most entertaining side bars you’ll ever come across.

2. More great tutorials:

• Nuby on Rails.com
• Really Getting Started in Rails

3. Ruby on Rails on Hotscripts.com

4. PHP vs. Ruby on Rails. An evolutionary story of a Web Developer and his tools- A great comparison of the super-hero abilities of RoR and PHP. At the very least, this is a good primer on the differences (and similarities) of both.

5. Ruby User’s Guide

6. The Complete Ruby on Rails Manual

7. For more links, screencasts, and other RoR goodness, go to Ruby on Rails.org

1. Handmade French candles

(thanks Cisco)

2. Autumn (pic)

3. Vijay Singh’s swing (vid)

4. Nigerian Folk Music (wiki)

5. Penn & Teller explain sleight of hand (video)

6. Albert Einstein’s Relativity Theory

7. The Elegant Universe (documentary)

1. Kobe Bryant

Exhibit A: Kobe’s Top 10 plays of 2007

Exhibit B: The impressive numbers he’s consistently posted

2. Malcolm Gladwell’s Tipping Point

3. Apart from the fact that it gets the equivalent of 137 mpg, and is one of the most beautiful cars on the road today, the Tesla Roadster is undoubtedly a solid choice for a car (assuming the $98,000 tag doesn’t scare you, that is).

4. Michelangelo’s Ceiling

5. Hans Rosling’s Debunking 3rd World Myths (this is a highly recommended video, if only because it’s very interesting. If you like numbers, you’ll also love the material from Gapminder)

6. The Ipod

7. Alaska Air’s Airport of the Future (say goodbye to those dreaded airport queues)

8. Google

9. Mariah Carey’s voice (video here)

10. StarChase: To the growing dismay of Cops fans, one day high-speed police chases might be a thing of the past!

The best add-ons in the world for the best browser in the world (Firefox)

1. Save online articles and such with To Read Later or Readeroo

2. Procrastination is now a thing of the past with MeeTimer (better yet, try RescueTime)

3. Discover the web with StumbleUpon, and maximize screenspace with Littlefox

4. Why don’t you email your tabs with Send Tab URLs?

5. Please, Remember the Milk

6. Make the Internet yours with Greasemonkey & enhance the Gmail experience with Better Gmail 2

7. For everything Google, there’s the Google Toolbar every installation of Firefox should have

8. Attaching files to Gmail is now a breeze with DragdropUpload (and while we’re on the topic, sharing files has never been easier with drop.io)

9. “Clip” the parts of any website you like with Clipmarks

10. Having problems filling up your Gmail space with email? Use GSpace to store files for online access later

11. If you like tabs, you’ll love Fancy Numbered Tabs

I couldn’t agree more:
Seth Godin: Why bother having a resume?

A key point often forgot (or simply ignored) by marketers and individuals looking to make a splash in the social media realm is the idea that you need to add value to receive value in the world of web 2.0.   Countless stories can be cited of companies and marketers entering the social media and social networking fray trying to tap into the social sphere, but ignoring the very core reason why the social realm exists.  This reason is so that users can help users.  Collaboration is the cornerstone of community and an analogy for successful open source and collaborative initiatives can be summed down to “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.”

It’s this principle, though, that’s often overlooked by many.  It goes back to my recent blog post entitled 99% in which I quoted Seth Godin from his new book, Meatball Sundae, in which he wrote: “1 percent of the people are givers. In Wikipedia, for example, about 1 percent of the users create and edit articles.”  Using this logic, there is a huge chunk of social media users who are content to be social media browsers and not contributers.  This is all fine and dandy, but my point in this post is that if you’re striving to market and actually market effectively using the social media realm as your stomping grounds, you simply have to fall in the category of a contributer, otherwise your efforts won’t be nearly as effective, if it all.

What does this mean?  It means that before you start a Facebook advertising campaign, Facebook company profile, and spam a bunch of Facebook users with your marketing message, take a step back (and a deep breath while you’re at it).  Just like with organic search engine optimization, success in social media marketing isn’t usually something that happens overnight.  The efforts that lead up to a particularly viral blog post, a following on Digg, success on YouTube, or getting your Squidoo lens to bring traffic to your website are typically overlooked, but for the sake of my argument, this is a huge mistake.  Using Facebook as an example, before you do what I’ve described above, it’s a better approach to first actually use Facebook for a while on a personal level.  Add friends, make connections, and focus on adding value to the community.  Post relevant and thoughtful notes, actually contribute to groups, and stay in touch regularly with friends.  Once you’ve built a presence and a following as a contributer, you can then begin to phase in your marketing goals.  This is true with nearly any social media marketing campaign.  Before you’re blog is going to work for your business, you need to first focus on writing good content, and a lot of it.  You need to first focus on reading OTHER blogs and posting thoughtful comments and responding to comments you receive.  You get my point: contribution is the effective stepping stone to marketing results.

I’ll pause now on the social media marketing discussion (don’t worry, I’ll be coming back to it regularly in the future). In the meantime, I’d like to highlight one website in particular that could be a valuable tool in your social media toolbox, if you follow my advice above: Squidoo.

Squidoo is a website that was pioneered by marketing guru Seth Godin as a social platform for easily creating pages on any topic imaginable and enjoying the benefits of a strong community and the inheritance of great PageRank.  Squidoo does a good job describing itself: “Squidoo is an incredibly easy platform that allows you to build a lens, all by yourself, in less than five minutes. Don’t build a lens instead of your website. Build a lens to help your website.”

Squidoo is great because it’s super quick to get a “lens” started and constructed with social media and search engines in mind.  If you’re a pet shop, you can easily create a comprehensive lens on, say, raising a lesser-known species of turtle or perhaps starting an aquarium.  With a multitude of widgets to choose from, you can add content, plug-in RSS feeds, showcase photos via Flickr, highlight products via Amazon, or present videos via YouTube.  What’s more, you can easily categorize and tag your lens before subsequently submitting to social bookmarking sites and joining Squidoo groups.

All of this means you can drive traffic to your website, earn money on ads (or donate the money to charity), build credibility, build online brand/name presence, and provide individuals, including your prospects, with valuable information at a time when they’re looking for it, a time when your help can make an impression.

Before you think it’s too good to be true, remind yourself that your initial goal is narrow: to focus on contributing and adding value.  Squidoo is merely a platform for adding worthy content and fresh (or different, or witty, or more useful) information to the web.  The web may be cluttered and crowded, but one thing is true: value has a way of floating to the top.

So head on over to Squidoo and let this lens help you get started.  Need an example of an informative lens? We recently build this lens on finding and choosing a web design company.  Still need more assistance?  Check out their FAQ and forum!

1. Adoption of New Technology since 1900
Historical graph showing the adoption of new technologies in the United States. I think the similarities between the adoption of the color TV and the Internet is interesting.

Care to postulate anyone?

2. The Top 10 Changes in My Business Thinking

#6 is by far my favorite: “Your plans will probably be wrong on anything that is new, so you may as well just start doing.”

3. Ideas Are A Dime A Dozen

So true, but it’s also all too easy to forget that “…coming up with ideas is an evolutionary process. Just because an idea has to die, does not mean the good parts of it can’t live on in its ancestors.”

4. Stop Speaking in Jargon
“Anyone who thinks using buzzwords will make them sound intelligent is wrong. Clarity impresses. Buzzwords confuse.”

Amen.

5. Billionaire College Dropouts

Further proof you should never underestimate the underdog: “Some of them didn’t even graduate from high school, yet they went on to amass enormous fortunes and create humanity-changing companies…these examples prove that for the truly intelligent, motivated, and brave, there may be better ways to spend several youthful years than sitting in a classroom.”

1. Gmail Cheat Sheet

2. Google Search Cheat Sheet

3. Google Cheat Sheet

4. Google Reader Cheat Sheet

5. Firefox Cheat Sheet

6. CSS Cheat Sheet

7. Subversion Cheat Sheet

8. Ruby on Rails Cheat Sheet

9. The Ultimate Linux-Unix Cheat Sheet

10. …and the king of them all: Cheat-Sheet.org

From Seth Godin:

• How to title stuff
• The truth about word of mouth

Social Media/Blog Marketing

• Networking on several social sites
• Link Bait Articles
• How Companies Blog
• Corporate Blogging Resources
• Flickr for Marketing, PR, and Online Demos
• Tweeterboard (Top 100)
• 10 Social Media Strategies for the Fortune 1000 Corporations
• What Works/Doesn’t Work in Online Marketing
• The Many Forms of Web Marketing for the 2007 Web
• Guerrilla Marketing Ideas for Your Website
• How To Encourage clients to Engage in Social Media
• 8 Simple Rules For Social Media Marketing in Business to Business Markets
• Best Internet Marketing Blog Posts of 2007