Adventures in iPhone land

In the post below, you will see that I purchased my first phone that was not Motorola.  I bought an iPhone.  Primarily because of the video and internet features, but also because my wife wanted one.  I figured if I bought one too, it would minimize what I would need to learn to provide tech support.

So, today I am at a client visit.  I want to show some of the video, so I figure I will connect to the internet.  No such luck at the client location.  I thought I was having a problem with the data plan.  Then in the car on the way home, I tried to place a call.  I was unable to place a call.

What was going on?  As luck would have it, I was on my way past the ATT store.  I stopped by the store.   The sales person affirmed that it was not making a call.  He waited a few minutes, then made a call.

I asked what he did.  He said that the iPhone is like a little computer.  Sometimes, maybe once a week, you need to reboot it.  Press the bottom button and the power button together  for about 15 seconds.

Nice to know that even the iPhone has its quirks.  Not just a Motorola issue.

More to come as I explore the features and benefits.

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Bought something other than a Motorola phone

I broke my heart this week.  Bought a cell phone other than a Motorola.  For 25 years, in good times and bad, I always bought Motorola.   As I reminded my son,  the Motorola phones put him through college etc.

But there was nothing to buy at either Verizon or AT&T.  A sad state of affairs for the company and people who really helped make it happen.  I remember in 1984, walking around with a portable.   While I thought people would be amazed, for the most part they were ambivalent.  Didn’t see why anyone would want a portable cell phone.

Anyhow, it’s a different world now.  I need to move on.  But, it’s a sad world when “What you never thought possible” is gone.

Help with your social media

I attended a program sponsored by Crain’s Chicago Business last week.  One of the speakers suggested that you hire a fresh out of college person to manage your social media.  I would suggest another path.

My company is in that business.  With us, you get people with a proven track record.  We can transform your company conversation.  With a freshout, you will have to provide editorial and strategic guidance.  They will not provide a content strategy.   With luck, you’ll get execution.  With us, you will get transformation.

For more information, see www.e-conversation.com

Marshall McLuhan:Understanding Media in the context of the internet

Marshall McLuhan was one of the foremost writers about media in the 20^th Century.  He created “the media is the message”.  Recently, I have been rereading Understanding Media.  The book is packed full of ideas.  Over the course of the next few weeks, I will be sharing some of these ideas.

My goal is to put these ideas into the context of the internet, Web 1.0 and Web 2.0.   Also, draw some parallels between McLuhan’s innovative look at media in the middle of the 20^th Century, and today’s new media.

The first part of this comes from the editor’s introduction by W. Terrance Gordon.  Gordon notes that We think of media principally as a media of communication; press radio and television.  McLuhan thought of a medium as an extension of the human body or mind; clothing extends the skin….A medium, or a technology can be an extension of the human being.

Media comes in pair, one “containing” the other.  So the telegraph contained the printed word. …. The contained medium is the message of the containing one, but the effects of the latter are obscured for the user who focuses on the former. Because those effects are so powerful, any message in the ordinary sense of “content” or “information”  has far less impact than the medium itself.  Thus  “the medium is the message”

What does this mean for a business person?  Increasingly, the internet is allowing for a large scale conversation done electronically with each individual.  What we could call an e-conversation.  When you create content, think about how is that content an extension of you and your business.

Also, when you create content, you must create the content a subset of the medium.   A 60 minute presentation works in person, but putting the video up on YouTube can be problematic.  Looking at Web 1.0 (the internet in the 1990’s) as a medium:  for many businesses, the response was putting their brochures up on the internet. But over time, the internet developed its own set of protocols.  Your brochure was no longer enough.

These two points are a good start.  More to follow

Having Fun at Work

This is more a Titter type posting, than a blog posting.  But some one actually clicked on the 3 Tips on having fun at work.  I guess there is one person among the viewers of the SCORE blog that wants to know about having fun.