I just got this email today (links removed), and I suspect many others have too. I don’t trust it and suggest you don’t click it either. I was able to log in to LinkedIn without taking any action or clicking on their email. Probably a phishing scam.
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LinkedIn Phishing Scam?
Jul 14th, 2011 by Bill Freedman
Ideas in the Social Media Era: I’ll Get It Right the 5th Time
Jan 22nd, 2011 by Bill Freedman
A Very Brief History of Micro-Media
Published on Flickr by David Armano
I love this chart. Not only is it funny, it gets to the core of how new social networks are challenging the traditional creative process.
The chart puts its focus on article length (and perhaps the quantity of postings and/or impressions). The chart is silent on quality.
Great ideas have always been distilled to their essence through pity catchphrases. With social media, any idea, even before it’s refined (let alone great) is distilled for social network impact. The network for disseminating ideas is becoming more powerful than ideas themselves.
This is a new challenge for the creator and innovator. When is an idea ready to be published? What are readers’ expectations for quality and accuracy of new ideas? Does it help or hurt your reputation to publish many unrefined ideas? Is your idea sharing risk tolerance dependent on the size and nature of your social network? Are facts and accuracy destined to become endangered species during the social media era?
I don’t know, but I’m going to publish this now and refine it later. My sense of optimism suggests that we’ll muddle through.
The Winter Solstice and Lunar Eclipse of 2010
Dec 19th, 2010 by Bill Freedman
I’m a huge fan of eclipses of all kinds. So I’m pretty excited about the total lunar eclipse that will be visible in the night sky on December 20/21, 2010 (weather permitting). Read on to learn some useful information that will help you enjoy the eclipse.
Lunar Eclipse Defined
Schematic of the shadow cast by the Earth. Source: wikipedia.org
As wikipedia succinctly states:
“A lunar eclipse occurs when the moon passes behind the earth so that the earth blocks the sun’s rays from striking the moon. This can occur only when the Sun, Earth and Moon are aligned exactly, or very closely so, with the Earth in the middle. Hence, there is always a full moon the night of a lunar eclipse.”
An entire lunar eclipse event lasts a few hours (depending on your location) with a fully shaded “umbra” phase sandwiched between two partial shaded “penumbra” phases.
Watching an Eclipse
There is no danger to your eyes or health with lunar eclipses. Go ahead and look up as often as you like for as long as you like. You can watch a lunar eclipse from anywhere, but a locale with minimal city lights is best. Binoculars or a telescope enhance viewing, but aren’t necessary. Dress warmly and bring a chair so that you are comfortable for the full event.
I recommend leaving your camera behind. Cameras, tripods, flash configurations and the rest get in the way of having a personal experience of the event. You’ll will undoubtedly find photographs from photographers with better equipment and more patience than you the next day.
The Lunar Eclipse Cycle
Photo of moon during Lunar Eclipse. Credit: Quentin Hinds
If the earth was a solid with no atmosphere, the moon would gradually go from visible to invisible and back to visible during the eclipse. Our gaseous atmosphere along with clouds and dust refracts the light of the sun giving us an entertaining light show with a range of shadows and colors throughout the evening.
During the initial penumbra, look for very subtle shadows toward the moon’s edge. Gradually the shadows will grow and the colors will change. During to umbra phase, the reds and oranges associated with lunar eclipses are in full splendor. As the moon exits the Earth’s shadow, the bright colors give way to shadows through the end of the eclipse event.
San Francisco Bay Area Specifics
We live in an ideal location to enjoy the Lunar Eclipse…and to still get a bit of sleep.
The eclipse begins at 10:33 p.m. PST on December 20 and lasts until 2:01am PST on Dec. 21. The umbra period when Earth’s shadow completely covers the moon, begins at 11:33 a.m. PST and lasts a lengthy 72 minutes.
As of Sunday December 19, the weather forecast for the lunar eclipse is a bit ominous. Unlike baseball, astronomical events are not subject to rain delays or rescheduling based on the weather.
While we have a fabulous view and time slot, the entire eclipse will be visible from all of North America and parts of South America.
Grab a friend and head out into the night on Monday to enjoy a total lunar eclipse!
Additional Lunar Eclipse Resources
Eclipse Postscript
From the San Francisco Bay Area, we did indeed have a good experience watching the 2010 Lunar Eclipse.
Lunar Eclipse Dec 21 2010. Photo credit: Trauber via Flickr
The weather, especially clouds, were a factor in viewing the Eclipse. The sky was perfectly clear for several stretches. At other times, the moon was fully obscured by clouds. Most of the time, the clouds made the sight a bit blurry. You could still tell there was an eclipse and the colors were entertaining. The viewing conditions weren’t as bad as I feared from listening to the weather forecast.
The amateur and professional photographers delivered with a huge range of entertaining photos. A nice library is available through the NASAJPL’s I’m There: Lunar Eclipse Group on flickr.
Earning a Handshake 2.0
Oct 18th, 2010 by Bill Freedman
Building trust starts with the first web visit and with the first impression of your brand.
Such is the idea behind “2.0″ thinking. Products, services and brands now have “online,” “interactive,” and “collaborative” elements so that consumers and users play an active, anonymous and early role in creating relationships with vendors. Twitter, Facebook and Wikipedia are halmarks of Web 2.0 success.
In the olden-days of Handshake 1.0, a handshake was a precursor of bilateral communication. A protocol of acknowledging a peaceful relationship and mutual trust with the idea of building upon the status quo. An initial meeting between a vendor and a prospective customer. A politician building a coalition. A suitor wooing a debutante. Two or more people carve out a sacred space for a live interaction in the hopes of a mutually satisfactory outcome. Stakes are reasonably low with a first handshake; and the budding relationship can quickly go in any direction. Compare this to two people who pass in the street with nothing more than a glance. No rapport. No communication. No goals for advancing an agenda.
The Internet meets Humanity: Handshake 2.0
With that introduction, I’d like to introduce the new concept of –taa daa– Handshake 2.0. As we have more and more interactions online (defined and measured through web visits, cookies and registration forms) there is a new process for establishing bilateral communication. No outreached hand. No touch. No real-time conversation. No progress or even an action plan. Just a web site that seeks rapport and a visitor who is willing to offer personally identifiable information. It’s easy for users to navigate away. But it’s also human to hope that each visited site succeeds at fulfilling the information hunt.
What is interesting is what happens next: a fast exit or an attempt at rapport building. Credibility and effective design by the site owner conspires with desire and perhaps laziness by the visitor to earn a second and a third click.
Like with off-line interactions, there are false-starts and bad first impressions in the online world.
At this point the the user (and laser-focused vendors) chooses whether s/he will try to extend the anonymous glance into rapport and ultimately into a Handshake 2.0. This is so very different than the past. Information collection required numerous human interactions. Now, anonymous web surfers can learn and make some initial decisions without consulting another human. Likewise, the human managers of web sites can look at analytics reports, IP addresses and email domains to determine if the prospect warrants attention.
Creating The Conditions for Handshake 2.0
I argue that earning a Handshake 2.0 is the first job of a web site in the Web 2.0 era. It may not happen on the first day you launch a web site. And the web presence frequently need to be forged with the help of outside forces…reputation, brand, economic forces and individual behavior. So what attracts (and alternatively repulses) visitors from choosing to grant a Handshake 2.0:
| Earning a Handshake 2.0 | Raising Doubts |
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Following the principles above will result in more and faster Handshake 2.0s. Supplementing your web site with other rapport-building tactics makes sense too. This is why marketers are looking for any and every way to build relationships. Facebook, Twitter, MeetUps are the new tools which have earned a place beside reliable standards: press releases, trade shows, advertising and good ole salesmanship.
Did this article make you think? Leave a comment!
…Ten Months Later…
Oct 8th, 2010 by Bill Freedman
Its very hard to believe, but “Soon to Be a Major Trend” hasn’t fed any new ideas to the blogosphere in the past ten months.
First off, its good to see the Web in general and the blogosophere in particular has survived without my contributions. Whew.
Second, there are so many other distractions in this world. Family is a great one. Twitter and Facebook are effective distractions but less great. I do admit to dabble with each on a professional and social level.
Third, I still have ideas–lots of them–worth blogging about. Marketing automation is a recent fascination for me. I have a lot of great stories (fact-based, of course) as a result of the success of Appcelerator’s use of compelling content, one to many communications, and measurement of web behavior. Enterprise software software moving to the cloud and business models moving to subscriptions are other important topics. And, content, as always, is key. During the year I have toyed with video, audio and javascript to augment the written word.
One final thought for all of you: the fuel for blogs are comments. Think about it. If you have a nice meal with good service in America, you leave a tip. Now extend this metaphor to blogs. If you read a blog that informs, inspires or amuses, please leave a comment.
So, kind readers, join the conversation. What do you want to hear about? Comments welcome.
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