My Laptop is Like an Oyster
After re-installing my operating system (Windows 7) several times in the last few months, I’ve succumbed to total and complete offsite storage of data. The most difficult thing about my re-install was the backing up of my data. Sure, I use an offsite data backup (Carbonite), but having never actually used the restore functionality, I decided the best decision would be to simply back all of my personal data up to my external hard drive. Easier said than done, as usual. I have nearly 20 years of data on my laptop. The backup was more than a time sink. It was a time toilet.
One could argue that I should archive most of that old data, and although I have archived some of it, I’m a little sensitive about my data. I like it all in one place. I’m like a sheepherder guarding his flock. I really don’t want to have to go somewhere else to find that great template I used in 1992. So what’s a girl to do? For starters, I removed all of my work data from my laptop. It now all resides on SharePoint Online. (And yes, I trust Microsoft with all of my data.) Secondly, all of my personal data including photos, music, and personal correspondence, now lives on my external hard drive. It’s slightly more labor intensive to navigate to my external drive for personal information, but honestly, during the course of a day I usually exist in Outlook and Windows Explorer. To call up my documents from SharePoint is negligibly different from finding documents on my internal hard drive.
About now you are probably wondering what this has to do with oysters. A few years ago I ventured into sampling oysters. I love all kinds of food, but for some reason I had never really explored the art and science of oyster appreciation. With a good knowledgeable friend in toe, I hit the oyster bar at Elways in downtown Denver. I let my friend do the ordering. It was explained to me that different oysters have different subtleties, but ultimately an oyster is a salty vessel for other flavors — sauces and condiments.
My laptop, now that I look at it through a new lens, is really just a vessel for delivering and receiving content. If no data actually resides on my hard drive, then it’s merely a conduit. If it breaks or gets lost or stolen, it’s easily replaced with another similar device and all of my data is still available. (Although I pity the fool who steals my laptop because it’s equipped with LoJack. Yes, I will go wardriving, hunt you down, and have my best friend videotape me knocking on your door.)
With the coming of the Windows 8 tablet, I think there will be a massive exodus of locally-stored data and we will see an overall shift to more of a virtual work environment for all PC users. I’m already seeing this with Outlook Web, SharePoint online, and Microsoft Dynamics CRM online. It’s only a matter of time. But will our PCs morph into portable tablets that are merely a vessel for data that flows in and out based on the need for information? I think so, but while I’m waiting to find out I plan on learning a lot more about oysters.
Windows Phone Inner Circle
Don’t judge me by my phone. I have a Windows Phone and I don’t make any excuses. Last night was the Denver Windows Phone Inner Circle event at The Corner Office. It was a fun and lively event and a no-pressure look at the new phones and meet some of the people who made it happen. If you have the opportunity to attend a Windows Phone Inner Circle event in your city, I highly recommend it. The complimentary beverages (adult and otherwise) and appetizers made the atmosphere fun and laid back. There were even a few very well-behaved children enjoying the event.
As we see Windows Phones gaining popularity in the highly-regulated sectors of business (legal, medical, finance) it’s important to note that Gartner predicts Windows Phone to overtake marketshare from Blackberry in 2013 and iPhone in 2015. Exciting! Shocking! We can’t wait to see how this plays out in the marketplace.
Facebook Bans Messages to Page Fans
Today, September 29, 2011 is the last day you’ll have the option to message all fans of your business page.
If you have a message to send to your fans, it’s now or never.
Why? It’s part of Facebook’s larger goal of discouraging people from using Facebook for push marketing. Facebook is about relationships — inspiring, engaging, and entertaining those who interact there. Consider this recent Facebook change only the tip of the iceberg with respect to how businesses use Facebook for advertising.
If you maintain a Facebook Business Page (formerly a Fan Page), it’s the end of the world as you know it. Businesses will soon feel the push to create content, context, and conversation as users exercise their ability to unmark a Top Story. Users will have more input in identifying boring, useless, or spam-like content, causing it to fall from popular view.
In addition to this “dislike” feature, simply clicking like on a particular story will be worth less and interaction from users will be worth more. Importance will be on Top Stories that have not been unmarked by users. Creating quality content that spreads to other users will be of utmost importance, and business pages will feel the crunch as they struggle to create value for their fans.
If you administrate a business page and want to keep your fans involved, consider your content carefully before posting. If it’s not something that will inspire, engage or entertain your users, you should think twice about posting. Continually posting boring and irrelevant content could get you branded as just another business churning out spam.
Facebook: Change is the new stasis
Twitter feeds everywhere are exploding with articles about the new Facebook changes rolled out recently (September 2011). The overwhelming sentiment is that users are disgruntled at best. Surprisingly, a survey conducted by Sodahead, a social-voting site, showed that teen users expressed the strongest dislike of recent changes.
But aren’t teens more accustomed to change than the more aged contingent of digital immigrants who use Facebook? Apparently not. The largest populations of those who actually liked the recent changes were IT workers, those who reported having incomes over $100K, and college students.
IT workers have long been vocal about their dislike of Facebook. At a recent legal technology seminar on Social Networking, the presenter’s opening words were, “This seminar will not discuss Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn.” IT workers, especially legal IT workers, choose to ban Facebook rather than attempt to work with the privacy and technical obstacles it presents. IT workers still dislike Facebook. They just dislike is less after the changes.
Those with incomes over 100K are likely more accustomed to change. They change their car, smart phone, house, watch, wardrobe, computer more often than those with less disposable income. Higher-income users embrace change in daily life, work, socialization because their status permits it and even demands it.
College students change classes, majors, girlfriends, and housing accommodations because their transitory position in life revolves around it. Just try to get through a University degree without a rescheduled class, or changed class time, instructor, roommate, or job. Adaptation to change is a requirement of student life. And most of those students use Facebook on a daily basis.
Why don’t teens like the new changes? Teens are consumed with keeping up with changing bodies, voices, peers, and parental influence. Later in life they will have increased income, IT exposure, and college experiences to nudge them through the jungle of modification acceptance.
So what’s the lesson from the latest Facebook transformation? If you want to stay afloat in technological times you’re going to need to embrace change. If you don’t, you end up in the non-IT, lower income, teenager-like groups who don’t like the new Facebook.
Or you could get a horrible rash — just ask any baby.
Here’s how:
1. Click on the “Account” tab in the upper right corner
2. Click on “Account Settings”
3. At the bottom on the right click the blue “deactivate” link
4. Under “Reason for leaving” click “This is temporary. I’ll be back.”
5. Click on “Confirm”
6. Enter your password in the box and click “Deactivate Now”
7. Enter the words in the security check
8. Click “Submit”
To reactivate your account, simply log in again with your email and password. Easy!
This morning Facebook apparently closed a loophole that previously allowed pages to tag individuals. In the past, an admin of a page could check a box for posting preferences to “Always comment and post on your page as Tugg Social Media even when using Facebook as …” Previously, when this box was checked, an individual could tag anyone who was a friend of the individual. The post would show up as if the page had tagged the individual.
Although last night (6/21/2011) this feature worked, this morning it has been disabled. When posting on the page, the options to select individuals does not work. One can only select other pages to tag.
Why has Facebook done this? It’s yet another attempt at forcing INDIVIDUAL communication on Facebook rather than granting individuals the option of posting as an entity or page.