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Ubuntu , the open source operating system, is ditching the system tray, the bar at the bottom of most browsers that is supposed to act as a notification area. The rationale for the change, according to Matthew Paul Thomas , an Ubuntu contributor, was “its ineffectiveness at notifying people of things, and its inconsistent behavior.” The proliferation of notification icons, that are not really associated with the delivery of any kind of notification, has added to the ineffectiveness, junking up the tray and making it harder to read at a glance. Sponsor The move away from what they believe is an over-use of this feature has been a development through several iterations. It’s replacement idea is that of the menu. “In Ubuntu 10.10, we plan to introduce a power menu, which replaces the Gnome Power Manager applet; a network menu, which replaces the Network Manager applet (nm-applet); and a clock menu, or time and date menu, that replaces the Gnome clock applet. We’ll also be extending the sound menu, to replace the notification area items for music players…The pattern here is that everything is becoming a menu…Our roadmap is that in Ubuntu 11.04, one year from now, there will be no notification area.” Discuss
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Ubuntu Discards System Tray
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feature,
gnome,
gnome-power,
matthew-paul,
most-browsers,
network,
notification,
through-several,
ubuntu
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Building strong networks and developing meaningful relationships are cornerstones to business success. Although it may be a cliche, “who you know” can be incredibly important for startups. With the growth of social networking sites, it seems easier than ever to develop a sizable network of connections: Facebook friends, Twitter followers, your Google social circle, your LinkedIn connections. But having a large social media network means little if you do not maintain these connections. It is important continue to meet new people, cultivate existing relationships and to emphasize the quantity rather than the quality of your connections. Sponsor Last week, in a post on the blog Journalistics, Jeremy Porter wrote, “Too many people think networking is about collecting business cards – whether actual or virtual – in an effort to demonstrate how many people they ‘know’.” Porter listed tips on how to strengthen your network. Here are some things, based on some of his suggestions, to consider as you expand your network: Establish goals: What are the types of people you want to build relationships with? For example, do you need to meet journalists or venture capitalists? Set goals and deadlines for reaching out to make some of these connections. Keep score: If you set goals, track your progress. If you aren’t meeting the people you want and/or building your network how you want, revise your strategy. Make the most of face-to-face opportunities: Some events, such as conferences, are geared towards networking. Make an effort not only to attend these sorts of events but to maximize the networking opportunities there. Have a good opener: As we noted with our tips for crafting your elevator pitch, you need a hook. When you introduce yourself, you should be able to answer the “What do you do?” question consistently and memorably. Here’s my card: It might seem obvious or even outdated, but do not undervalue the importance of the business card – whether electronic or paper. While social networking does make it easy to locate people, having a business card is an invitation for a follow-up. Follow up: It’s easy to toss business cards in a drawer where they’re never to be seen again. Follow up a first meeting with an email or phone call within 48 hours. If you skip this step, you might as well toss the cards. Stay in touch: Don’t let your relationships die off. Keep in touch with people. Porter writes, “Some job hunters I met back in the late 90s are now directors at big brands. When you keep in touch with contacts over the long haul, you’ll be surprised how many interesting connections you’ll have down the road. You’ll quickly become one of those people that knows somebody that ‘does that’ or “works there.” Of course, you want to stay in touch with people so they’ll remember you too. People forget who you are and what you do – you have to remind them regularly if you want to get value from your network.” Share: Give value to your participation in a network and make it so that people value your connection. If you come across interesting information, share it. If somebody asks for help, offer it. Porter says, “Don’t miss the opportunity to pay it forward, you’ll feel great and will find people often reciprocate.” Look in the mirror: Regular self-assessment is good. Ask yourself if you are both gaining from and contributing to your network. Reciprocity is important. Build relationships when you don’t need them: It’s a mistake to only network when you need something (such as financing, a new job, a new team member). Be an active part of your network before you make your pitch to it. Start with one new connection today: Meeting new people and building your network might be one of the most important investments – personally and professionally – you can make. Discuss
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Tips for Networking (Beyond Just "Social Networking")
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Business,
Don,
elevator pitch,
facebook,
How-Tos,
Jeremy Porter,
LinkedIn,
network,
networking,
participation,
relationships,
social networking sites,
social-networking
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I first began writing regularly about the Internet of Things about a year ago. Now it’s bubbling up in the mainstream press and we’re also beginning to see web apps that are attempting to reach, if not quite a mainstream audience yet, then certainly the iPhone and Android-toting geek community. We’ve moved beyond the cutesy Internet-connected bunny rabbits and we’re now onto barcodes to stick on everyday objects . A new web service called tales of things just launched, which aims to attach stories to objects. It follows on from a similar service that got a good amount of press at SXSW this year, StickyBits . Both services want to get people to ‘tag’ real world objects, by sticking barcodes onto them and adding information about the object onto the Web (often via mobile phone). The idea is that this will make the objects ‘social.’ However, I think this is doomed to fail and here’s why… Sponsor Tales of things asks on its homepage: “Wouldn’t it be great to link any object directly to a ‘video memory’ or an article of text describing its history or background? Tales of Things allows just that with a quick and easy way to link any media to any object via small printable tags known as QR codes.” Both Tales of Things and StickyBits are going to struggle to get mainstream adoption. And it’s not because people just won’t stick barcodes onto objects – although that is a short-term pain point that both of these companies will likely fail to overcome. No, they won’t get mainstream adoption simply because the Internet of Things isn’t going to be just another social network platform . What’s unique about the Internet of Things is that it adds a huge amount of new data to the Web and allows real-world objects to become part of the cloud network. For example, sensors on a busy road communicate with your car to tell you of impending heavy traffic. Or when you walk into a shop, the store messages your phone to tell you that an item you’ve been looking for is in stock and on special. I met StickyBits founder Seth Goldstein at SXSW and he told me that his company aims to create a “social object network.” Trouble is, I just don’t think that Internet-connected everyday objects have much social value. Say I tag a book that I bought and attach the following ‘memory’ to it: “I read this book in the summer of 2010, it was a great read. I’d give it a 4/5.” Even if I wrote a much more in-depth review, what value does that have on a single object? If I uploaded that review to Amazon.com, then it’s put into context and gets aggregated with other reviews to form ratings and other ‘wisdom of the crowd’ intelligence. But on the object itself – my copy of the book – the review has limited value. If a friend of mine happened to scan my book with their phone, they’d see my review…and then probably head straight to Amazon.com to see what other people thought. Or perhaps check out what their own social network thought, via an app like Glue (a social network based on the media you consume – see our most recent review ). Objects aren’t social, they never were and they never will be. The real value of Internet-connected objects is that they can become part of the network, which means they can connect to one another and they add more data to the giant computer we call The Cloud. But social networks aren’t going to form around single objects, other than perhaps public ones – like the Eiffel Tower, for example. But then you are just talking about a location, which the likes of FourSquare and BrightKite can take care of. The Internet of Things is about utility, not social networking. Neither Tales of Things nor StickyBits offers much in the way of utility, that we can’t already get from sites like Amazon.com or existing social networks. Let me know if you agree, or not! Discuss
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Op-Ed: Objects Aren’t Social
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book,
internet,
internet of things,
iphone,
media,
network,
people,
phone,
review,
social,
summer,
Tales,
things
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There is a phenomenon among consumers that is evidenced by the rise in popularity of sites that allow users to share information about the products they buy or want to buy with friends and other shoppers like them. These sites exist because consumers inherently trust the opinions of their friends and their peers when it comes to purchasing and business related decisions, and they trust them a whole lot more than they trust most marketing campaigns. Author John Jantsch , who previously penned the book Duct Tape Marketing is a few weeks away from publishing his second book which focuses specifically on the power of referrals. Sponsor The book, titled The Referral Engine: Teaching Your Business to Market Itself , hits bookshelves in mid-May, and could be an excellent resource for early-stage startups and entrepreneurs-to-be. Jantsch’s first book did so well that it lead to the creation of the Duct Tape Marketing System and the Duct Tape Marketing Coach Network, while additionally earning accolades for both Jantsch’s blog and his podcast on small business marketing which continues to release episodes today . In his new book, Jantsch explores how companies can strategically market their products to take advantage of the referral and peer review phenomenon of consumer buying habits. As Jantsch points out in a video explaining his motives behind the book (embedded below), he discovered that most successful small business which are thriving off referrals didn’t do so by including some special sauce into their recipe. Instead, he says that these companies are, by their very nature, “more referable” than others. Some of Jantsch’s suggestions for being more referable include making and effort to communicate personally with customers via social media and other means, being sure your customers know who they should be referring to, and getting your sales team on board with referral strategies. Early anticipatory praise of the book is already coming in from the likes of author Chris Brogan, Silicon Valley investor Guy Kawasaki, and Zappos founder Tony Hsieh whose upcoming book we previewed a few weeks ago . A free download of the first chapter is also available on the book’s homepage, and the full book, coming in around 250 pages, will be available on May 13 according to Amazon . Check back here next month after the book publishes for a more in-depth review, and in the meantime, keep an eye out for ways to boost your company’s referral engine. Discuss
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Weekend Reading: The Referral Engine, by John Jantsch (Preview)
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Business,
friends,
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podcast,
power,
products,
small-business,
Social Media
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“Safety is Facebook’s top priority,” writes Facebook’s Chief Security Officer Joe Sullivan on a company blog post introducing the social network’s new Safety Center , a revamped help portal featuring educational information for users, with sections dedicated to parents, teens, teachers and law enforcement professionals. It’s a somewhat ironic statement from a company that recently prompted its 400+ million users to accept “recommended” changes that opened up their data – including status updates, photos, videos, links and friend lists – to a public audience, revealing details that many users assumed were private. Sponsor Around the same time as the “privacy debacle,” as we like to call it , unfolded, Facebook also announced a “Safety Advisory Board,” a group whose purpose is to review safety-related procedures and documentation as well as make suggestions regarding best practices and other procedures. How about this safe practice, Facebook: don’t publicize people’s private information? Are we bitter about Facebook’s changes? OK, maybe a little. After all, many of us joined up with the network when it was in its fledgling stages. When it was a place to hide from mom and dad, not communicate with them. When you could complain about work in a status update and not worry that your boss or an HR department would see it. What’s a Little Cyberbullying Among Friends? But the world changed and Facebook changed with it, or at least that’s what CEO Mark Zuckerberg claims . The oversharers of the iGeneration have generally shrugged their shoulders at the threat of their private photos and updates having gone public. Their outrage? Practically non-existent. After all, this is the same group who grew up around sex offender scandals on MySpace, posted sexy ” MySpace angles ” photos mom and dad would be shocked to see and who developed the trend of ” sexting ,” texting revealing pictures to their crush du jour. So their status updates are public? Who cares? , they think. Ah, but they should. The publicizing of private data has led to a host of issues in its wake, including harassment and cyberbullying, to name a few. Cases of teens committing suicide after becoming victim to abuse via social networks has also occurred, unfortunately. Now one could argue that cyberbullying and the like could occur among groups of friends, whether or not Facebook remained a private network. It’s a valid contention – the dark underbelly of the human condition allows such behavior to exist, even amongst friends. But by exposing every little detail, photo and link to a user base who seems oblivious to the need of plugging the privacy holes, Facebook is simply allowing there to be more opportunity for someone to actually see the nasty comment made about them on a wall post…or the embarrassing photo of someone cheating on their boyfriend/girlfriend/spouse. It provides the fodder for the cyberbullies and the tools for those who seek to stalk, monitor or control another’s behavior. It’s provides more avenues for abuse. At the very least, it should provide a few tools to the potential victims, too. Safety Center: Q&A’s on Abuse Prevention, Reporting That’s what the Safety Center is for, at least in part. With Q&A’s for how to deal with abuse, stalking, cyberbullying and unwanted wall posts, messages and chats, a good bit of the Center’s guidance is aimed at reporting and stopping this unwanted behavior. Even in other Safety Center sections outside of “safety for teens,” this information is essentially just rehashed for others, like parents and teachers, for example. (Teachers and law enforcement professionals get a few extra tips about Facebook, too, like how to maintain a professional presence or how to report a sex offender). According to the Facebook blog post, the Safety Center’s overhaul now features quadruple the information as in the prior help center plus a “cleaner, more navigable” interface. The launch is one of the first initiatives from the Facebook Advisory Board, a new coalition of members including Common Sense Media, ConnectSafely, WiredSafety, Childnet International and The Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI). Together, the board members will “accelerate our efforts to make Facebook a better and safer place to engage,” notes Sullivan. But Facebook already had an opportunity to make itself a safer place and they blew it. Private networks of friends and family sharing content amongst themselves doesn’t lead to as much harassment, abuse and victimization of its users beyond the typical family brawl or fight amongst friends. But when you can see anyone’s content – especially the stuff they thought was private – problems are going to occur. Facebook’s new Safety Center is the result of the company having to deal with the fallout from that choice. Discuss
Excerpt from:
Facebook Launches Safety Center: Educating Users on How Facebook Did Them Wrong
Tags:
chief security officer,
data,
family,
law enforcement professionals,
media,
mom and dad,
network,
safety-center,
sex-offender,
simply-allowing,
tools