What Do You Do For a Living Again?
April 6, 2009
A conversation between GeekDaddy and I last night prompted this post. But I’ll spare you the actual details of the conversation and just sum it up. You’ll get why in a moment.
We were talking about how unless you are speaking to someone who works in Information Technology, you always end up “dumbing down” your job description when someone asks you what you do for a living.
Yes, I know, there are other fields and jobs that also require “dumbing down” for the average person not in that field, but at least there’s usually some level of basic comprehension. For instance, if I said “I’m a medical doctor” or “I’m a lawyer” – the average person would nod and say “oh!! Okay!” and have at least a general idea of what that means. Yes, they might not know the difference between a Litigator and someone who works with Intellectual Property rights – or the difference between a GP and an Oncologist… but there’s no look of utter bafflement.
I attribute this to the fact that those professions have been around for a few centuries – whereas 99% of the jobs in technology field didn’t exist before the past one.
Granted, there are a few jobs in tech that people nod and ‘get’ – programmer, tech support – but they really have no idea what you do unless you care to get deeper into it. Ask any phone support guy how many times he has to deal with a customer who thinks he can “just go right in and change that” or any programmer how many times she’s had to explain to a relative that “no, she doesn’t know what’s wrong with that software, she’s never used it before.” It’s right up there with asking your podiatrist dentistry questions.
So when GeekDaddy recently accepted a Director position at his company – we both laughed at how much easier it would be for our extended families to answer what he does when asked now. Just around the same time that it got much, much harder to describe what I do for a living.
You see, before Buttercup was born, it was easy for friends & family to say that I was a “College Professor” as they didn’t have to really explain what I taught – just say “something to do with computers” and whomever was asking didn’t inquire further.
Today though? My “job description” is pretty much threefold. I’m a Blogger, I’m a Speaker, and I’m a Social Media Strategist.
Now, the odds are pretty good that if you’ve been coming here for any length of time you have a general idea about the first two, and a better understanding of the third one than most people.
But the odds are also pretty good that if your own job title has the phrase “Social Media” in it? You try to figure out ways around that when you’re talking to the average person as well.
Mostly, I find that when someone asks me what I do for a living any more, I usually just try to laugh it off and say “I play on the Internet for a living, and when I’m lucky, I get paid to write about it or to speak about how I do it for others.” This has actually, unfortunately, backfired more often than not and required a much lengthier explanation than if I said “I’m a Social Media Strategist, Blogger and Speaker.”
It turns out that there is no easy way to explain what I do, unless you work in the same field or have had to listen to the long version.* And usually, when I do go so far as to give someone the “long version” it’s met with “but why would anyone pay you to do that?”
It’s usually at that point that I try the old patented “well enough about me… Let’s talk about you. What do you do these days?”
But lately I’ve been thinking about just telling folks that I’m a wizard when asked. I think it’s a bit less mysterious. And maybe they’ll think twice about sitting around for the “long version.”
*trust me when I tell you that my “long version” is the edited version evenso… I could go on for days about Social Media – but it’s only really interesting to someone who works in the field or wants to. And they already get it.
Make Your Life a Little Easier
July 4, 2008
Okay – I know I haven’t been posting much… but are you ready to love me for this one?
I’m going to post two links that are going to make your life much easier. At least one, if not both of these applications is going to make the day-to-day stuff so much easier that you’ll wonder how you got along without them.
I need to credit Chris Pirillo [@chrispirillo] for bringing my attention to the first one and Aaron Brazell [@technosailor] for the second one. All thanks go to them, not me. I’m just sharing my giddiness!
Ready?
Okay then…
Application #1
http://whenisgood.net/
You know how freaking hard it is to schedule anything in your life? Especially when you’re dealing with your busy friends and family – or trying to set up a meeting or something fun…
You send a ton of emails back and forth, right? You say “let’s get together! Do you have any time next weekend?” and you get back “Um, maybe on Saturday, what works for you?” and you say “How about 2pm?” and get back “um, we’ve got a prior engagement…”
I’d keep going – but I’m sure you know the routine from here. A dozen or so emails later you have “penciled in plans.”
Not any more.
Now you go to When Is Good?
screen shot of the whenisgood grid
1) Click the grid for all the times that are good for you – you get a link to email to your invitees.
2) They see your proposed times and click on when they are free.
3) You visit your results page and see when everyone can do.
No sign-up form. No password to choose. No fuss at all.
And when you’re done marveling over how easy it was to find a time that everyone can get together this time – you’ll be sending the link to everyone who ever asks you ‘When is good for you?’
Yes, if we’re in the same town you can send me a link some time to let me know when is a good time to celebrate your freedom from this little scheduling dance!
Application #2
http://awayfind.com/
landing page awayfind.com
Now this one is Private Beta still. So you’ll have to apply for an invite on the homepage – or wait until they go open to the public – but if you wait, you’ll be kicking yourself when you do get around to it for not applying sooner!
What exactly it does is a bit more complicated – so rather than reinvent the wheel, I’ll let you go to AwayFind.com yourself to see the full description. But what if I told you that you could stop obsessively checking your email all the time – and only check it a couple of times a day – knowing that if it’s something really important, you’ll get notified?
The Reader’s Digest version is that AwayFind.com allows you to manage your inbound email whether you are in the office or out on vacation so that the truly urgent stuff finds you. Need to delegate a certain type of email? You can do that too. Want to be able to ‘pre-sort’ your email so that it goes to different email addresses depending on the type of contact it is? Yep. You can do that too. How about having notices sent to your phone if it’s an emergency or even just that one email you’ve been checking obsessively for? Yep. You guessed it.
Alright – I won’t keep you any longer. If you’ve read this far, you’re already itching to get over to AwayFind.com and see what the heck I’m talking about. Go on. I’ll be around.
But later? Let me know what you think of it.
Because after all… that’s the only way I know whether to post more of these things for y’all or not.
Have fun being more productive!!
My ooVoo Experience
February 22, 2008
The past couple weeks, I’ve been fortunate enough to spend some time playing around with ooVoo as part of the MyooVooDay project and playing with it with a few friends who have taken the plunge and downloaded the client as well.
I was lucky enough to get to spend some time chatting with some of my favorite people from Twitter as well as to meet some new friends during the MyooVooDay event. I did miss a couple of ooVoo sessions I was really hoping to catch (like one with Chris Brogan, who has his own ooVoo review here) due to unforeseen complications offline – but I’ve spent a few hours navigating the software and experiencing different configurations.
As I’ve only used it on the laptop, I’m speaking from the perspective of a PC user with XP loaded. My understanding is that there are some differing issues for Mac users – but I can’t address those.
So onto my review of it – with the caveat that it’s still in Beta, so I expect that many of these things will be addressed down the line.
Overview:
ooVoo is video calling application – what differentiates it between the more common players like Skype or Windows Live Messenger or their competitors is that you can have up to 6 people on the call. Additionally, you can open a chat window simultaneously, or use the client to place regular phone calls to any number in the world. If you are a PC user, you can also record however much of the session you’d like.
Positives:
- Allows simultaneous video calling for up to 6 people
- Allows users to either be called and added to the gathering or to call in to one of the participants and be added.
- Allows user to initiate separate text chat box while in call – this can provide for 1-on-1 side conversation, multiple users, or even take the place of audio if one of the participants is having an issue with it.
- Allows PC users to record portions or all of the session and save on hard-drive for later viewing or distribution.
- Informs all users when they are being recorded so they have the option to disconnect if they don’t wish to be recorded.
- Users can record ‘video voicemails’ for other users, to be viewed at a different time if they are offline or otherwise busy.
- Main control panel shows status of other users on your ‘friends list’ so that you can see who is available or not – also allows user to type in customized status or message to others.
Areas that need work:
- User search requires that other users have entered specifically searchable information… no requirement for valid names.
- Calling other users requires adding them to your contacts list – and being added in return.
- Apple users cannot record (at present).
- Initial startup doesn’t walk new users through camera set-up or verifying settings – assumes a certain level of comfort with IM/internet calling programs and webcam configuration. If default webcam application running, cannot take control of camera or use.
- Could use a timer/clock inside the program for users to track time
- Video windows automatically rearrange themselves inside display depending on minimizing/maximizing and when someone enters or leaves. No ability to rearrange order manually or customize
- Headphones with microphone are absolutely required – using built-in mic/speakers results in very bad echo/feedback with even just one user w/o headset. If multiple users w/o headsets, cacophony results to the point where no one can hear/understand.
Also, since there seem to be a number of similar applications, I thought it would make sense to review some of the differences that ooVoo offers at this time.
Differentiation between other similar applications/offerings
ooVoo vs. Yahoo! Live
- Both allow multiple video users to be seen at the same time – ooVoo up to 6, Yahoo Live up to 5 (one in main window, 4 in ‘minor’ windows below – options to change out minor video feeds with others listed in the chat room)
- Both allow simultaneous chat room activity – Yahoo Live allows anyone to join the chatroom, and to decide whether or not to stream video themselves
- Yahoo Live allows user to change individual volumes for each video feed – increasing those that are quieter, decreasing the noisy – or even muting any of them. ooVoo’s volume bar controls all of the boxes simultaneously – so a louder input can drown out a quieter one.
- ooVoo is private – only those invited into the call or accepted into the call can participate. Yahoo Live is open to anyone with a browser.
- ooVoo allows recording and saving of the session – Yahoo Live does not (at this time.)
- ooVoo allows searching for individual users – Yahoo Live does not (at this time) have searches other than ‘currently live’ or ‘by popularity.’
All in all, they both have video and chat rooms – but the target audiences seem very different.
ooVoo vs. Skype, IMs, IRC
- ooVoo presently has the ability to mimic aspects of all of the others – the main variant is numbers. ooVoo allows multiple concurrent users unlike Skype or IM programs. But allows fewer users than an IRC channel, and is not public.
- ooVoo is a ‘one-stop shop’ for these functions – no need to keep instances of all 3 of the others open in order to use the different aspects.
- ooVoo is still in Beta, so there are bugs, feed issues, and not a lot of documentation on how to resolve errors right now.
As I guess you can tell by now, I’m fairly sold on ooVoo as an application. I think if marketed correctly, it can and will become a mainstay in several different arenas.
Yes, there are still some rough spots… honestly? In this day and age, you can’t deliver a second-class experience to Mac users and expect them to be happy. Additionally, it’s important to be able to find people on ooVoo that you want to talk to. Without a reliable search function, you’re left with the feeling that you can’t find people you want to talk to anyways, so why bother? ooVoo without advanced searching is like a land-line without a phone book or 411… useless unless you know there’s someone else out there with it to call.
I have identified 2 ideal target markets and one general market for ooVoo that I hope they explore – but I think I’ll leave those for the next post, because I’m busy researching it myself and want a little more data before I push that out there. Besides, this is getting a tad long for an initial review.
What I’ll say is that I think if you’re a PC user with a webcam and a headphone set, it’s worth a try. Download it and let me know what you think.
If you want to leave me a video voicemail, or see if I’m available to ooVoo, I’m GeekMommy on there as well. Look forward to hearing what others think.
Tempest, I am Your Teapot
January 28, 2008
Call me the mouse that roared.
Or Cassandra.
Or just someone who was standing in the middle of the theater shouting “Wait! This could result in a fire!” and causing a small amount of pandemonium in the seats around me.
I still don’t like the concept of TwitterPacks being in wiki form. I still don’t like the term pack. But I will state as clearly and for the record as I can right now:
The intent behind Twitter Packs was a benevolent one and a good one and I don’t think it was some nefarious plot. I just don’t believe that the implementation was/will be ultimately as beneficial or successful as it could’ve been had it been done otherwise.
But you know what? Chris Brogan is a generally good guy. He was trying to help people to hear that conversation I’ve been raving on and on about in Twitter. So can we get away from my (and anyone else’s) misconstrual of the word “pack” and move on to other important things?
Honestly, it’s not like my refusing to participate matters a whit to anyone in the bigger scope of things. I’m an intermittent blogger with a really cool Twitter circle – but you can have that too, and if you don’t know where to start, well, maybe TwitterPacks is for you… it’s not my cup of tea, but not everyone drinks tea.
It’s not the way I’d recommend going about it, but maybe if I have a way, it would be best if I blog about that, rather than about perceived issues with someone else’s way, eh?
What did parents do before computers?
October 22, 2007
I know, I know… before there were computers, there was TV… and before that Radio and before that… Dinosaurs and banging rocks together, right?
See, the reason I’m asking is that I feel guilty when I let Buttercup watch television.
Even if it’s educational TV like Sesame Street, and I know she’s learning something (and it’s amazing, she does learn from Sesame Street, I’ve watched it) I feel guilty. Yes, I always watch with her. Yes, I’m 100% aware of what is on there and I make parental choices. No adult television when the kidlet is around, with the occasional exception of a football game or very tame Food Network show.
It’s just that I grew up being inundated with the media message “watching television is bad for kids and you’re a bad parent if you don’t believe that.” Seriously. I mean, it’s been called the “boob tube” and the “vast wasteland” and there are 8 zillion and three articles on how television ruined the minds and imaginations of every generation since I Love Lucy… (Yeah, that’s a totally made up statistic. I love hyperbole.)
So deep down, I feel lousy every time the television goes on when my daughter is around.
But not so the computer.
Buttercup has had her own computer since before she could walk. As befits the child of geek parents, she’s had her own domain name since before she was born… registered once we decided what we wanted to name her and all.
Her computer sits at its own desk in our office… alongside GeekDaddy’s and mine… and is has a custom children’s keyboard and mouse perfect for little hands. This one to be precise:
Buttercup has taken to computing like a fish to water. This is a happy making thing in our house.
It was a big day when she ‘got’ the mouse thing down. You probably don’t think about it, but developmentally, the concepts that moving something away from you translates as ‘up’ on a screen and toward you translates as ‘down’ and that what you do with your hand can impact that little arrow on the screen? Those are huge cognitive leaps.
Now, it’s aiding in her learning to read and spell before she’s even in Kindergarten. She takes pleasure in being able to type out her name on the keyboard – and in being able to read simple words that help her do what she wants to do in a given program. Sure – most of those programs involve princesses and children’s characters from *cough* TV shows – but there’s learning hidden in most of them. Math, reading, colors, shapes, file manipulation.
So when my darling daughter says “Mommy!! I wanna play on the computer now!” I don’t even feel a twinge as I do when she says “let’s watch a show…” Because no one has inundated me for more than 3 decades with how awful the computer must be for my child.
Yes, of course she likes to go out and play in the back yard, too. I’m only talking about the computer vs. the TV right now. It’s just that I can actually see the learning processes happening with the computer and so I think to myself “where is the equivalent of that prior to the advent of the PC?” Because while Sesame Street might teach her letters and numbers, the computer is also teaching her dexterity and hierarchical thinking.
GeekDaddy mentioned to me the other day something he observed. She was playing in MS Paint (yes, so sue me, it’s easier to clean up than real paint) and asked him how to ‘get a new picture’ – and he showed her File/New and off she went. Today, she asked me ‘what if I want to keep it?’ and I showed her File/Save and typing in a name (gibberish is just fine for that, y’know) and clicking on okay… and voila! Saved pictures of preschooler drawings of cats in snowglobes. (Yeeeeeah, I said she was getting the computer down, not necessarily turning into Van Gogh.)
So her little mind has already absorbed the underlying structure of most modern computer programs. She may not always get the days of the week in the right order (Tuesday and Wednesday are pesky, but she’s getting them) but she does know how to open programs using desktop icons, use the CD-Rom/DVD drive, use a browser, navigate thru links, open new files, save files, and alter tools inside of them. I think that’s more than my grandmother can do.
So do I feel guilty about letting her ‘play’ on the computer?
Well, duh. Of course I do to a point – or I wouldn’t have written this long justification for it, would I? I mean, I’ve just spent several paragraphs being defensive and yet self-righteous while extolling the virtues of something I’m doing. Doesn’t that just scream ‘in denial and feeling a tad guilty’? Yep. To me too.
So I’m feeling a little guilty – but it’s really cool at the same time. PC’s weren’t around when I was a kid. I had to learn all of this as an adolescent and even then, I was an adult before such a luxury as a mouse was accessible. I’m the product of the generation right *before* the revolution. I had Kermit and Big Bird teaching me to read and speak basic Spanish and all… but I didn’t even begin to dream of a world like my daughter faces. I can’t see how it can be a bad one – at least on that front.
So maybe a tad guilty, but also happy it exists for her and that I can help her to learn it.
