Developing a culture of trust is critical to the health of your organization. Trust fuels productivity. The message of trust is this… I think you are smart enough to know what to do, and if you make a mistake, you will tell me then fix it.
From Andy Stanley at Catalyst discussing how to create a healthy work culture.
The visual voicemail on my iPhone quit working about a month ago (I won’t say what caused it), but I called AT&T today to see if they could help me get it working again after missing a couple of voicemails.
Surprisingly, I didn’t have to hold for an operator at all, but the operator I got had me on hold several times as she tried to figure out my phone’s problem. After trying several different network changes on the AT&T side and several changes on my phone over the course of an hour, the support tech finally gave up and suggested I needed to reinstall the Surprisingly, I didn’t have to hold for an operator at all, but the operator I got had me on hold several times as she tried to figure out my phone’s problem. After trying several different network changes on the AT&T side and several changes on my phone over the course of an hour, the support tech finally gave up and suggested I needed to reinstall the iPhone OS and offered to connect me with an Apple support tech to help me out. I declined the Apple help and told her I could handle the reinstall myself. Before I hung up on her I she made an appointment to call me back the next morning to see if my voicemail was working correctly.
After I got off the phone, I turned to my trusty support database, google, and queried, “visual voicemail broken iphone” and on the second page, two minutes into my search, I found my solution– reset the network settings under Settings > General > Reset Network Settings. My phone restarted and I immediately got two visual voicemails– Problem fixed!
I thought I already knew this lesson, but I guess I learned it again– Google your problem before calling for support and more than likely you’ll find the answer your need. Now, I get to to explain to the AT&T tech how easy it was to solve the problem.
A fifth of American’s don’t have Internet access and the demographic profile of those without access — generally older and less educated — match up to those who are the newly unemployed according to an MSNBC article published today.
This digital divide separates not only who qualify for jobs and who does not, but also who can apply for jobs and who cannot as many company’s application systems require you to fill out an online form and submit a resume in an electronic format. Even what many would consider a simple task such as sending an email with a resume attached confound the newly unemployed. Forget about asking someone to use a computer to manipulate a spreadsheet or create a presentation.
Did these people loose their jobs because of their lack of computer skills? Probably not outright, but being able to complete everyday computer tasks probably would have made them more valuable to their former employers. Maybe a some of these stimulus/recovery funds still floating around should be spent on computer and Internet classes for the newly unemployed.
The free flow of information “is as vital to the healthy functioning of communities as clean air, safe streets, good schools and public health.” That’s what the Knight Commission on Information Needs of a Democracy concluded in their report on Sustaining Democracy in a Digital Age. The 145 page report urges the nation to making sure all Americans have broadband access just as the emphasized ground transportation in building an interstate highway system a half-century ago.
The commission also examined issued the media is facing recommending:
I’ve been busy at work, with kids and teaching so I haven’t had much time to post, but I have kept up with the online and online journalism world. My new favorite way of staying up to date is all of the great tweeps I am following on twitter. You can see my five most recent favorites in the column on the far right or you can browse through all of my favorites on twitter’s site. I don’t guarantee the quality of my twitter favorites. Many times I have just favored them on Tweetie to make sure I go back and check out the linked material when I’m on larger monitor.
What metrics do you use to measure the success of a newspaper web site switching to a paid content model? Specifically, I’m thinking about how will Stephens Media know if their switch to a paid content model for the Pine Bluff Commercial? Here’s the metrics I think a site switching to a paid content model would have to use.
So, the only real workable metric is an increase in paid print subscribers. That’s right a continual increase. If you only slow your decrease, then you’ve just slowed the print newspaper death spiral and given yourself another year or two until the presses stop running.
I had an interesting conversation the other day with some people that were making fun of social media in general and using social media for marketing/public relations. Eventually I just gave up arguing with them. It wasn’t worth it. I’ll just let them stay backwards. They’re happy that way. They don’t have to think. WWhy ruin their false reality for them?
This morning I ran across this video full of great facts about social media (the facts are great, but the music is not so great). My favorite fact: Social Media is now the #1 activity on the Internet (not porn)!
John Temple, former editor the Rocky Mountain News, has some interesting comments on the latest Nieman Journalism Lab report on newspapers online market share and Rupert Murdoch’s latest comment in support of the newspapers implementing a pay wall.
I keep switching computers around at work and at home– just jumping from one computer to another to try something different out- and I have come up with a list of tools that I always install first thing when I take a new windows computer to use. I’ve done this so much lately, that I’ve put all of these tools on my usb drive that I keep on my key ring (isn’t that a geeky thing to have?).
When I take on a new Mac or Linux machine I still use Firefox and Filezilla, but have a different text editor.
I also have a set of extensions that I always install in Firefox the first time I use it.
I have a lot of others that I eventually end up installing when I need them, but these are normally the first four.
So what tools do you always use?
Chuck, the SEO rapper, released his Social Media Rap in February, but somehow I missed it. If you haven’t seent it you need to check it out.
Personally, I like his Design & Coding rap better, but I like them all.