Here’s a first for me. I got an automated call from the Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce announcing the availability of important roadwork information on a website. No phone number for more information, no explanation of how to access the information for those without access to a computer. Just a website.

While it goes to the heart of the value and pervasiveness of web access, there are elderly folks in my neighborhood who don’t have computers and others who rarely use them.

Has this happened in your community? Is it common in Silicon Valley? In communities outside the Bay Area?

communities, Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce, Technology

Share on Facebook

That’s Wired’s plan according to Jon Friedman (thanks Britney).

Ah, the rules of the online road. One guide we can all agree on and follow. Hmmm.

I like the idea and it should prove useful in many respects, but I expect it will do little to unify our approach to the use of technology terms. Some will stay loyal to the AP Stylebook, no matter how antiquated it is, some will disagree with Wired’s approach on principle, and some will object to it just to object to it (unless it follows AP, which I often object to). Not to mention that broad adoption of new usage continues to accelerate and outpace our ability to nail down one form (Web Site, Web site, Website website).

Still, I plan to get it, and to the extent it helps me and the agency communicate effectively, I’ll use it.

AP Stylebook, Jon Friedman, PR, Technology, Wired, Writing

Share on Facebook

This Google horror story should serve as a warning…

“When companies host all of your data and have the ability to delete you and it at-will, all sorts of nightmarish science fiction futures are possible. This is the other side of the “identity theft” nightmare where the companies thieve and destroy individuals’ identities. What are these companies’ responsibilities? Who is overseeing them? What kind of regulation is necessary?”

Google really isn’t the problem, and I use several Google apps, but committing too much data, too much of your self, to a single platform without clear protections and assured processes for problem resolution is taking a big-time risk.

future, Google, privacy, Technology, Writing

Share on Facebook

In every sense of the word. A short post on online advertising by Jeff Chester. Scary.

advertising, consume, future, online advertising, politics, Technology, wisdom of crowds, Writing

Share on Facebook

Tech history is always interesting, especially the flops, so take a look at Neil McAllister’s take on the all-time 25 flops. My favorite is the paperless office – in the mid-80s I thought paper would be mostly gone by the mid-90s. Maybe we should just toss out all the printers. That would help.

But the most interesting for me is McAllister’s number one flop, security. “Thirty years into the personal computer era, and it seems like security is only getting worse…. Now that we’ve built a digital world on an insecure foundation, the solutions for security are really hard – maybe too hard. We may just need to live with the fact that computer technology is largely unsecure, so caveat utilisator.”

Hard to take, but it may be true. It’s another example (along with the mayor’s text messages) of how our use of technology is way ahead of how we think about using technology.

It’s a valid question whether most of the people who make bonehead use of technology really don’t understand the dangers or are just as careless in other areas of their lives. That’s a problem we’ll never fix. But the security issue affects us all, even if we’re scrupulous about what we expose online, because the government, banks, health care providers and retailers are putting all of us out there anyway.

So here’s today’s reality. Really smart people are working very hard to figure out better ways to protect online information, but we have little control over the lag time between new solutions and deploying them where it really matters. Which creates the wrong kind of opportunity.

If we want all the benefits of our online world while minimizing the risk, perhaps we have to start putting a lot more pressure on the organizations we rely on to keep their systems updated. I have no idea what my credit card companies, health care provider, and banking institutions are doing to protect my private information. Do you?

computer technology, knowledge, Neil McAllister, paperless office, privacy, private information, security, tech flops, Technology, Writing

Share on Facebook

Michael Krigsman addresses the dangers of Twitter, the immediate release of confidential information to an ever growing audience. (Thanks Giovanni )

Michael says it pains him to warn readers about the dangers, but it shouldn’t. Let’s face it, in delivering more interaction and greater immediacy, social media, which moves upward from cool and loose to corporate and careful, keeps making it easier for us to make major mistakes, from a damaging attack made in a fit of anger, to sharing information that’s now available to every human resources department, to a quip that violates corporate policy.

Technologies always carry the potential for abuse. In the case of social media, the potential lies in the greater power to control or influence others. Not abusing this power requires greater individual responsibility, and if everyone was responsible, we wouldn’t need external controls. But we do need controls, that’s the nature of the beast, and our ability and willingness to impose them allows for greater experimentation and faster adoption.

Can you think of a technology that didn’t have the potential for abuse and didn’t need any external control?  If so, please let me know.

Social Media, Technology, Twitter

Share on Facebook

One of the things that keeps me up at night: my great grandchildren coming of age in a world in which they must spend most of their lives indoors and wear protective clothing and masks every time they leave the protection of environmentally sealed homes.

Telecommuting, videoconferencing, and virtual reality dominate human interaction because travel is too cumbersome and expensive. Climate changes have left almost no region prepared for the weather it experiences, and cities don’t have the money to adapt.

Those who have a rich and nuanced online social life – and regular access to the power grid – don’t complain much, and many no longer bother trying to overcome the challenges of meeting people in the real world. They meet, date, and mate with perfect partners in the spectacle of a virtual world.

Those who have never grown accustomed to living online complain bitterly. Some still manage to make a lot of money, but they are isolated. Those less educated consume what electronic entertainment they can barely afford, survive in what amounts to small villages, spend more time than they should outside, and become gravely ill at a young age.

Environmentalists continue the war they lost years ago. Scientists see no solution on Earth, but the grand plan for large extraterrestrial colonies is moving slower than anyone hopes: political infighting, financing issues, transport mishaps, design flaws, unfair selection processes.

Global population is on the decline but the percentage of birth defects and stillborn babies continues to rise.

I am long dead and happy to be so. So are my children. My grandchildren are dying. They refused to shut themselves away when the warnings started. They rode their bikes, played tennis, and swam, making themselves believe the poison wasn’t real. They married smart, attractive mates who felt the same way. Now they are trying to figure out how, in the chaos that is the economy, to plan for their children who will be without parents before they reach the age of 18.

My great grandchildren consider themselves environmentalists despite being all too comfortable online. They are avid readers of outdoor literature and resent that their parents and grandparents did not prevent the cataclysm.

That’s how they think of it. One day the world was pristine and people could go outside and run and swim and play sports. Then their parents’ and grandparents’ generations ruined it all. It’s fuzzy in their minds because the history books give either a full and depressingly unreadable account of the facts, or they oversimplify it with generalizations and half truths.

They certainly don’t think back as far as their great grandparents. They don’t question what we did and didn’t do. They don’t know that while some of us took personal responsibility for the environment – voting for environmentally-aware candidates, recycling religiously, turning down our thermostats, cutting back on energy and water use – we did not take to the streets until it was too late.

Only when it is nearly time to get up for work does the mind calm down, do I rest in peace.

Blog Action Day, Environment, future, recycling, Social Media, Technology, telecommuting, videoconferencing, virtual reality, water use

Share on Facebook

Thanks to Rachel for this. Fusion PR shared the results of a survey of technology journalists on the impact of social media. Some 1200 journalists responded, and while the results were framed around how many of them are impacted, I was shocked by how many say they aren’t.

Keeping in mind that these are technology journalists…

60 percent refused to say their stories and the way they cover news are impacted by social media.

22 percent don’t even read blogs. If it were just 22 tech journalists saying they don’t read blogs, it would still be surprising, but this is 264 out of the 1200. What are they thinking?

69 percent don’t regard bloggers as credible sources. This is stunning. Since many journalists – and tech journalists – are blogging, how can 828 out of 1200 established tech journalists say bloggers aren’t credible? And if the question seemed to be asking if all bloggers are credible, how could 31 percent have said they are? I really hope this number is the result of a badly worded question.

I’m well aware of how the bubble distorts perception, but how can you cover technology without being “impacted” by social media? I wonder at the rationale here: social media is irrelevant, or I don’t have the time, or I can get all the information I need elsewhere. How about I’m an ostrich and proud of it?

Blogging, Fusion PR, journalism, ostrich journalism, Social Media, Technology, technology journalists, Writing

Share on Facebook

I’ve spent the last several days happily focused on environmental issues – happy because I can’t usually devote the time to this topic I’d like – but then I read in Michael Prospero’s piece in Fast Company that:

“Once again, we lurch towards our Jetsons-inspired future, this time, courtesy of NASA. The space agency selected The Cafe Foundation, a group of aircraft engineers, to host its Personal Air Vehicle Challenge, a $250,000 contest to see who can design a flying car for the common man.”

Prospero isn’t at all pleased at the prospect. Among several laments, he writes:

“Considering that nearly 2.6 million people were injured in traffic accidents last year, imagine what will happen when they start traveling along three axes.”

Not to mention road rage, I mean, air rage.

A lifelong fan of NASA, the Jetsons, and science fiction in general, I’ve been impatient for this whole flying thing to get started. Certainly in my lifetime, I imagined. But as I read Prospero’s piece, the only image that came to mind was standing at the beach and seeing hundreds of thousands of cars between me and the sunset.

There are some sacrifices we just shouldn’t have to make for the “future.”

Environment, Fast Company, flying cars, future, Jetsons, NASA, Personal Air Vehicle, science fiction, Technology, The Café Foundation, Writing

Share on Facebook

John Murrell of GMSV discusses some interesting movement in online privacy. The trend is that search engines will retain information for less time and users will get more control over who stores what.

Murrell lists two possible explanations that give me hope. Better privacy policies are becoming a selling point for the search engines, and they are a sign of good faith in response to government scrutiny. But his preferred explanation is disheartening:

“Who has the biggest cache of user data? Google. Who potentially benefits the most from liberal data retention? Google. How do you whittle down Google’s advantage? Encourage strict limits and user control of data retention and force Google to respond.”

When competition sets the moral compass, there is no true north

Google, GSMV, John Murrell, online privacy, politics, search engines, Social Media, Technology, true north

Share on Facebook