Mediaphyter - A Communications Cocktail

The Onion is everyone’s favorite dry humor rag. The Onion, however, is not currently everyone’s favorite Twitter friend. While implementing the cool auto-add + auto-reply feature on TweetLater the owners of The Onion’s Twitter feed neglected to do one very important thing: select private message.

Exhibit A: Why I (and others) Have Temporarily Unfollowed The Onion

Exhibit B: How Simple It Would Be to Get Us Back

Any questions?

Update: The Onion seems to have addressed the issue, with it’s latest tweet reading: “apologies 4 the tweet onslaught. the intern responsible has been flogged mercilessly & forced 2 use a landline 4 the rest of his days.” Poor intern.

Oh, and I’m now following The Onion again.

In my previous post I discussed why I believe Wednesday’s Twitter boycott (aka Twit-Out) is doomed for epic failure. I realize in the days since that I might’ve been a bit too hasty in my judgment. While I still do not believe that the Twit-Out will have the impact the organizers hope it will I am in awe of and actually proud of the conversations that have arisen within the Twitter community due to this event. I am not completely recanting, of course. There are many points on which I still disagree. Hear me out.

Shey Smith contends in his blog that some of us criticizing the Twit-Out don’t get what the organizers are trying to do. I believe we get it - we just don’t agree with it. He also states that it’s the “only the heavy users are the ones who are really perturbed enough to join in on Twit-Out.” I don’t agree with this, either. Generalizing which users are willing to sit-out or not based on usage is an unfair representation of both sides. It’s undervaluing the con group and falsely inflating the pro. With about 600 followers and almost 7,000 posts I am not a Twitter icon but I am definitely a power user. No one is claiming that we non-protesters will sit back with blank-eyed smiles while Twitter is down. But if we’re going to do something, let’s do something that can shake the radar rather than merely be a blip on it.

Like what? Shannon Whitley has some ideas. He took the concept of fixing Twitter a step or six further than I did and suggested that Twitter move to an open source model in order to help improve its stability. Whitley is someone with whom I am consistently impressed not only due to his understanding of technology and social media across the board, but because he is someone who puts his ideas into actions that benefit the community at large.

I’m inspired to do the same. And while I don’t have Whitley’s technical prowess I can do this:

I’m declaring May 21 to be “Twitter Love Day” rather than a Twit-Out. Because generally, barring some heinous offense, when you love something you at least try to help it before you turn your back on it. Tough love is constructive. So, on this day rather than avoid Twitter and sending it to its room without dessert, I am going to try to collaborate with other Twitter users (either on the board or off) to come up with ideas of how to improve the platform. Then I will post them here.

This is not a competition to see which movement can be more successful. As much as I might disagree with Smith I completely respect his viewpoints, his passion and his many brilliant blog posts. I think, if anything, we’re aiding each other’s cause. Whitley put his noggin to work and came up with his open source suggestions. Smith is putting his fire and fuel into getting Twitter’s attention on behalf of the community.

What are you going to do?

Share your ideas and I’ll include them and credit you with a link to your blog on “Love Twitter Day.”

Apparently some disgruntled Twitter users are organizing what they are calling a Twit-Out (aka a Twitter boycott) this coming Wednesday, May 21. The thinking is that we need to prove to Twitter that its success is powered by the community that participates in it and would be nothing without us. I think this is a fabulous idea. Especially given all of the success we’ve had in terms of boycotting gas on certain days of the week to get those pesky oil companies to drop their prices. /me being sarcastic

A few people, including Warren Whitlock, have already made the “you get what you pay for” statement. I absolutely agree. We get what we pay for. Unless those boycotting have made significant financial contributions to the server upkeep of Twitter I really don’t want to hear it from them. Whitlock also made a great point in his comment on the Twit-Out blog post about how sometimes his car breaks down or appliances go out but it happens. And those are much more frustrating situations because it is our financial investment at risk. Finally, he goes onto highlight that Twitter has rarely ever, if not never, been down for a full day.

So is this boycott really about teaching Twitter a lesson or is it a group tantrum?

My main concern about these Twitter boycotts and “us against Twitter” mentality is this: you cannot continue to build and drive community by purposefully disbanding community to make a point. It’s not as if they are going to march upon Twitter’s San Francisco office and make a stand. No. They are simply going to prove to Twitter that they can, indeed, live without it for a day. Can someone explain to me how this solves anything?

Twitter keeps breaking. We keep going back. We use Pownce and Jaiku sometimes but they pale in comparison. Brightkite is now available but most people use it to feed into Twitter and it’s not near ready as a replacement. The new rage of Twitterfone would be useless without Twitter itself (note: I really like Twitterfone thus far; waiting for improvements on transcription, however).

Sit back kids, grab a blankie and some cocoa and read a story:

A couple years back I was a pretty active member of the now-defunct Consumating.com - a “a social network for geeks” and one of the first that incorporated social tagging. We loved it. We would communicate primarily through topic boards and tags. Then it started to crash. A lot. Some protested, some wrote letters and complained. The drama that was created ultimately led to many of Consumating.com’s power users - myself included - deleting their profiles and forgetting about the site. The community divided and therefore dwindled. And while CNET had purchased Consumating from Ben Brown long before and there was always a rumor that it would shut down, it eventually just did. Part was big corporation power but another key part is that there was just no one left who even cared. It’s now been replaced by Help.com. Who? Exactly.

It’s unlikely that Twitter would go the way of Consumating.com as it’s more than a social network; its become a business tool, a customer service platform, and important networking medium, a blog feeder and a “where are you” connector for major events (Mac World, RSA Conference, and now the upcoming EMC World). But the community divide is just as dangerous as Consumating’s. Let’s not be foolish and bite the hand that feeds us. Sure, we may be an army of powerful voices now, but if we scream too loud eventually we’ll do nothing more than drown out each other.

Don’t boycott. If you want to leave, leave. But if you want to stay, put your energy into something effective. Urge the third-party apps that ping the Twitter API and cause more strain on the network to instill limits (as Shannon Whitley so wisely did with MyTweeple). Reach out to Twitter and see what you can do to help. The Twitter staff knows it has network issues and that their user base is growing faster than it can handle. Or, continue down this route and stop using Twitter - and save the server space for those of us who truly do want to build community rather than aid in its demise.

It’s almost my birthday and it’s my first one without my father. Clarification - It’s the first one without the hope of my father. We hadn’t seen each other for almost 30 years until the day he tragically passed away in May 2007. The story is long and personal but the point is clear: While I gained an amazing new wacky Italian family, this loss is still hard and it still hurts and its making this birthday a rough one.

If it’s a long and personal story, why am I writing this? Because over the last year I’ve had one too many people say to me, “If you hadn’t seen him, how can you miss him?” The loss, with it being a loss of hope, is intangible. It’s what they call “ambiguous loss and disenfranchised grief.” It’s the kind of grief that one experiences when the situation is not cut and dry and perhaps others cannot understand the loss. But it is real.

My best friend, who is an amazing nurse and grief counselor, recommended I do some research on this sort of grief to help myself through the process. Most pressing, so I could enjoy my birthday without the cloud hanging over my head or the guilt associated with grieving the once-possessed hope. I thought it might be good of me to share the additional resources I found and that helped me, in case there are others who have been unjustifiably told they should not grieve:

• The Centre for Living with Dying
• Recommended Grief Reading List
• Expressive Counseling
• eHow: Recognizing Disenfranchised Grief

I am pretty excited to have made guest appearance on the re-convening of The Security Roundtable. Posted yesterday, we recorded this conversation right after this year’s RSA Conference. I was joined by the hosts Michael Santarcangelo and Martin McKeay, as well as Dr. Anton Chuvakin and James Costello.

We had a great, open and honest discussion about this year’s event literally “beyond the hype.” There was no vendor promotion and no gratuitous back-patting. We talked about issues from stemming from impressions of RSA overall, relevancy of the show content, bloggers vs. journalists ethics at conferences and in general, live blogging and other conference coverage antics, the Security Bloggers Meet-Up and so on. We had a lot of fun and I appreciated the interaction. I think you will, too.

Give it a listen: The Security Roundtable

I’ve been speaking up on Twitter about my concerns around Social Media Releases (SMRs). I’ve apparently been flapping my gums enough to get the attention of PR Newswire, a representative of which called me yesterday to find out why I’ve been so negative. I know that social media expands far beyond marketing but in this blog I’m focusing on my concerns with SMRs further enabling sub-par PR skills.

Over at Social Media Release, Chris Heuer gives a quick overview of the purported magic of the SMR:

“The Social Media Release is intended to make it easier on people to identify and share the most important pieces of information with others around the globe while adding their own valuable perspective and/or editorial. It also takes full advantage of HTML, multimedia and the network effects enabled by the Internet by using structured data via the Microformat, which ultimately increases its findability by interested parties - which is ultimately the driving purpose of public relations and the press release specifically.”

Let’s hone in on the implication that ruffles my former PR girl feathers the most: Increasing the findability of press releases is the ultimate purpose of PR. I could’ve sworn the ultimate driving purpose of PR was to fuel company visibility and credibility with support of third-party validation, which in turn drives revenue.

Press releases, SMRs or otherwise, are sales tools and information vehicles for customers, partners and shareholders. They are not a primary driver for bringing news to the media and achieving balanced coverage. If an SMR is discovered out on the Web, even if it includes comments from third-party sources or trackbacks to blogs that support it, it is still covered in marketing slime. Can it really be any more of a trusted resource than a regular old press release?

Heuer, Jeremy Pepper, Shel Holtz and Todd Defren (the credited developer of the first SMR) had a large Twitter discussion a while back on where the SMR fits in the PR landscape. I agreed most strongly with Pepper on what is also my biggest concern: there is no substitute for good relationship building and written communications. I don’t care if the medium is an SMR or an email or a carrier pigeon or some futuristic Jetson-esque device. What helps drive good news is a) solid content and b) trusted relationships and there is no “tool” that replaces it — my friend and well-known tech journalist Ryan Naraine agrees. He’s said before that he does not care how the news is delivered, just give him good content and don’t waste his time.

The proponents of the SMR say that they never intended it to be a replacement for good PR skills and I trust them on that one. These are seasoned guys. I worry more about the less-than-stellar or junior PR folks using it as yet another cop-out for poor writing or lackluster communication skills. And if their perception might be that the sole objective of PR is to increase “findability” of marketing collateral, we’ve got problems.

Less dangerous to me is the social media newsroom, which I believe was also fathered by SHIFT Communications. I tend to like the simple and clean approach that Fathom SEO is using (the company recently released a WordPress template for such). The social media newsroom seems to accomplish what I think most companies who have a broad blogosphere presence would want, from linking to multimedia and social networking pages to integrating commentary. But if you have a fully functional social media newsroom, and a handle on truly top notch PR strategy, do you need the SMR?

In the end, regardless of what I blather here, I’m still trying to find the answer to one simple question: “Does anyone have any metrics to suggest the proven success of an SMR in *any* arena?” Especially considering their cost. I’ve asked this on Twitter on and off for about a month now and no one has yet to provide a case study.

Can you?

I have mixed feelings about Tammy Erickson’s latest blog on the Harvard Business Review site. In “Ten Reasons Why the Relationship Between Gen X and Corporations is Strained”, Ms. Erickson explores the challenges that exist between Gen Xers and the corporate structure and while she makes some exceptional points overall the article isn’t digesting well. I struggle a bit with the black-and-white Gen X vs. Gen Y or Gen X vs. Baby Boomer distinctions. While this does exist, in my experience, the greatest divide in today’s private enterprise is between the Gen Xers themselves.

In her article, Ms. Erickson dubs Gen X as “folks in their 30s to early 40s” – a common definition. I fall just shy of the middle of that range and I find myself, even in a management position, empathizing more with the Gen Y worker bees than some of my Gen X colleagues. I don’t know if it’s because of my geekish technogadget nature or my childlike enthusiasm for the inane but I am definitely more a mashup of hand-selected generational qualities than a stamped-and-processed case study.

Some of the implications that I have a hard time keeping down:

• Gen Xers are the most conservative cohort in today’s workforce
• Gen Ys are pesky and hard to manage
• Boomer colleagues can be annoying
• Xers are being overlooked in the lovefest between Gen Y and the Boomers

Now, I am not going to say that these points are wholly untrue across every corporation. I’m sure there is a Gen X manager out there who is at his or her wit’s end trying to keep a Gen Y employee off of Facebook during work hours. I also can see how at goliath corporations where the leadership may be more seasoned, how a confrontation between Gen X and the Baby Boomers could arise. Ms. Erickson surmises that Xers might move toward smaller operations to avoid some of the static. But until we address the divide between the Gen Xers themselves, I don’t believe business size can even be a consideration in determining a safe haven for our more radical change agents.

Generation X is known to be a school of innovators and those who do not always take kindly to rules. We march to the beat of our own drum. Sometimes, that drum tells us to conform. Sometimes, that drum tells us to stand out. Sometimes, that drum tells us to run like hell from that which tries to control us. That inner constitutional freedom we possess, unlike some of the Baby Boomers who were more driven by financial security and longevity, or the Gen Y kids who face blocks if they do not possess techno hipness, makes us better able to wear the badges of whatever generation we choose.

Some Gen Xers choose to align more with the Baby Boomers and while they may be at innovative companies or in innovative fields, they cling so tightly to the Boomers that they lose sight of evolving business styles, and thereby get mired in antiquated approaches. Some Xers find their biggest battles, whether internally or externally, to be with this sort. Those on the Gen-X-to-Baby-Boomer quick path might think that because of their age they are more hip than they really are. Whereas it is easier for the Gen Y and savvier Gen X sets to communicate with the Baby Boomers because the Boomers recognize the generation gap. However, when push comes to shove, these Boomers inherently embrace the ideas of their more conservative Gen X protégés.

I am a Gen X gal at heart (see “does not always take kindly to rules”) but I pepper in a heck of a lot of Gen Y and my fiscal common sense gives me enough Baby Boomer drive to survive. I also believe that the Gen Xers’ ability to flex and shift and take on the roles that are most pressing at the moment is what is securing us as future business leaders and what may be what is pushing some Baby Boomers into irrelevancy.

We get technology. We get politics. We get culture – international, pop, or corporate. Especially us younger Gen Xers, we’re tapped into the Gen Y social networks (virtual and IRL) and are connected to the latest and greatest fads, if you will. We’re mature and accomplished enough to earn the respect and mentorship, when needed, from the older set. But we still maintain our groove to the beat of that zany drummer and we understand the “newfangled” ideas that are seen as intangible now yet will be the core of successful business soon enough.

I applaud Tammy Erickson for her insight as she’s one of the first Baby Boomers I’ve seen truly attempt to sympathize with and support the plight of the growing, thriving Gen X corporate change agent. I do believe she is right when she says we have a pre-disposed notion to mistrust corporations and we face various levels of suffocation as career paths grow and narrow. But I also believe we’re more of a mashup generation than the business leaders before us and the army of workers behind us. We’re crafty and can adapt to quick change in our respective industries. Let’s not let the pressures of a pre-defined generational expectation pigeonhole us into a state of unhappiness.

Since the start of the year I’ve been obsessively soaking up as much education as I could on the benefits and best practices of social media. It’s definitely a craft that requires much external assessment and dissection (no, really, it does). I figured that tonight, however, I would jump on the Twitter-fad-of-the-week bandwagon and create myself a little tweet cloud and see what it says about me. Oh, what’s a tweet cloud? It’s like a tag cloud… but of tweets. I don’t know a more simple way to explain that.

I’m not going to sit here and read through the varied blue text and attempt to ascertain some personal branding epiphany or comment on the state of business. I am going to follow in the footsteps of my friend Mukund Mohan and have fun with it.

First, my tweet cloud:

First, I like to talk about Twitter. I don’t think that’s shocking to anyone who knows me — especially those folks who met me at SOURCE Boston. I was doing so much recruiting for Security Twits that I had more than a few people ask me if I actually work for Twitter (I don’t). Clearly, I’m doing too good of a job, so dear Twitter, I am going to try to shut up about you for a while. Oh, and speaking of the Security Twits, um, yeah. I seem to like to talk about them as well. Or to them. Or about them. My employer might be most pleased with that (as well as the standalone mention of security as a top tweet) since that’s in line with what I actually get paid to do.

Enough about business-related tweets. Let’s look at the softer side of Jen. I find it quite comical that punctuation is stripped from the tweet cloud. The word “ill” seems to be one of my more prominent utterances. I could become paranoid (I do work in security after all) and presume that the tweet cloud is trying to imply something, but really that highlight should be the word “I’ll“. I’m not so certain that “I’ll” is much better than “ill” anyway. With the latter, I’m sick. With the former, I’m just self-centered.

Or am I? You’ll see that I am a very grateful person. I thank people a lot — in three different forms, albeit only in one language. I’ll work on that. Thanks, tweet cloud, for pointing out my lack of multilingual skills. See. There I ago again, being appreciative.

I work a lot, though clearly not as much as I think. I suppose that means that I’m spending more time pondering than actually doing. Shhh. Don’t tell anyone. Wait for me to do it myself. Via Twitter.

Finally, I have much love to give but my need seems to be bigger than my focus on love. Since this is a professional-facing blog I won’t make any snarky comments about myself there. I’ll leave it to mystery (or to the handful of friends who know me all too well to giggle about in private).

While these were the greatest tweet themes for me, I need to call out some awesome honorable mentions:

• Hockey / Sharks (yes, they should be in the same category)
• lol
• sorry
• damn
• scrabulous
• stupid
• yay

That’s right. I’m @mediaphyter. I like hockey, I laugh, I curse, I play word games, I apparently do something stupid and I cheer. I’m one of the most prolific twits on the planet. You can quote me on that. Wait, my tweet cloud already did.

When I was four, my mom bought me a little red tricycle. I distinctly remember the bounce of joy I did about my grandparents’ living room when I opened it. I can also vividly look back at the painstaking process it was for my grandfather to assemble the darn thing. Socket A and wrench B and tassel C and blah blah blah. I just wanted to ride, to feel the wind in my hair at a whopping .010 miles per hour, and see the, um, driveway. I was even OK with the ugly flowered helmet I would be forced to wear.

This was my first true lesson in the concept of fruits of labor. I’ve had thousands of lessons or experiences since, however the most recent came in the form of the Security Bloggers Meet-Up at RSA Conference last week. While it was an event borne of a blogger brainstorm a few years ago, this year it became my baby – though I was certainly not alone in parenting it. We grew the event from around 50 attendees in 2007 to 100+ this year and we even added live video streaming (most of which was recorded). But in the end it still held true to its mainstay as an event designed by the bloggers for the bloggers to provide them a (fairly) marketing-free zone in which to discuss whatever was on their minds.

And speaking of the bloggers, here’s a list of most of the bloggers in attendance:

• Adam J. O’Donnell
• Adam Shostack
• Adrian Lane
• Alan Shimel
• Alex Eckelberry
• Amrit Williams
• Andreas Antonopoulos
• Andrew Storms
• Andy Steingruebl
• Anton Chuvakin
• Apneet Jolly
• Ari Juels
• Augusto Barros
• Benjamin Tomhave
• Branden Williams
• Bruce Schneier
• Chris Eng
• Christofer Hoff
• Dan O’Neill
• Daniel Miessler
• David Mortman
• Derek Manky
• Eric Green
• Garrett Gee
• George Ou
• Illena Armstrong
• Ira Winkler
• Jack Daniel
• James Costello
• Jeanne Friedman
• Jeff Jones
• Jeff Evenson
• Jennifer Jabbusch
• Joe Tardo
• Jon Peterson
• Josh Morin
• Kai Axford
• Katie Moussouris
• Kelly Jackson-Higgins
• Kristin Romonovich
• Leigh Hollowell
• Manu Namboodiri
• Martin McKeay
• Matt Flynn
• Michael Dahn
• Michael Farnum
• Michael Mongold
• Michael Santarcangelo
• Mike Davies
• Mike Fratto
• Mike Murray
• Mike Rothman
• Mikko Hypponen
• Misha Govshteyn
• Mitchell Ashley
• Patrick Walsh
• Patrik Runald
• Paul Hinkle
• Phillip Hallam-Baker
• Raffael Marty
• Rich Mogull
• Richard Stiennon
• Rob Cheyne
• Rob Newby
• Robert Graham
• Robert Richardson
• Roger Thompson
• Ron Gula
• Ryan Russell
• Ryan Singel
• Samuel Van Ryder
• Sara Peters
• Sarah Blankinship
• Sean Kline
• Shrikant Raman
• Stacy Thayer
• Todd Hooper
• Walt Conway
• Ward Spangenberg
• Window Snyder

Thanks again to the security blogger community and the wonderful committee of sponsors and supporters (Alan Shimel, Martin McKeay, Rich Mogull, Richard Stiennon, Jeff Jones, Dave Berkowitz and Sonya Caprio) for not only joining in what turned out to be an amazing event, but trusting me enough to steer it in the right direction. It wasn’t quite the same feeling as the glee of zooming about on my little red trike, but it was still one heck of a fun ride. And this time, I didn’t even need a helmet.

(Soon to be cross-posted to the official event blog)

Wednesday, April 9

6-8 p.m.

Virtual Event Details To Be Announced at Network Security Podcast

“See” you there!