Facebook faux pas- The Grope of Audacity?

Here is a picture from Facebook. In it are two of my buddies from college, on the left Jon, on the right, Josh. Looks like they are having a good time, right? A little harmless PG fun with a Hilary cutout. We’ve all been there.

Not quite as harmless. As it turns out, Jon (the one pretending to grab Hilary’s breast) is Obama’s head speech writer, now the newly crowned head presidential speech writer. You can imagine my shock when I was surfing The Drudge Report and saw this photo with a link to a Washington Post article on the homepage. Republicans are on the offensive, feminists are irate, and my buddy John’s post in the White House hangs in the balance, sure to be determined by the level of press and public outcry.

The lesson here- nothing you do is private. This is a picture someone else took, and that someone else had posted on their page. Even blowing off a little steam and having fun at the expense of a rival campaign can cost you your job. This wasn’t the first (Pats cheerleader incident), and certainly won’t be the last Facebook casualty. So before embracing Web 2.0, make sure you’ve cleaned your closet.

Cuban turns tables on SEC….. via BLOG!

A quick bit of context: Mark Cuban, an outspoken sports franchise owner, entrepreneur and businessman was recently charged by the SEC with allegations of insider trading. He allegedly sold shares of mamma.com based on non-public information prior to the announcement of a new round of financing that would have diluted his shares (a no-no).

The first part of this title is a link from the Drudge Report (for the uninformed, a “conservative flavored” news-linked website with over 25 million hits on a slow day). I added the “via BLOG!” part after finding out that the Drudge Report link took you straight to Mark Cuban’s blog. On his blog, Cuban has gone on the defensive and offensive in regards to this prosecution. Yesterday he questioned the motives and actions of the prosecution.  As I write this, he posted evidence of  discrepancies in the prosecution’s case, which was heavily (and in my opinion, inequitably) covered by the media.

After some thought, I find Cuban’s blogging to be quite effective. Had Mark just sent out a press release, would it have gotten to so many people? The link to his blog has been seen by over $25 million in one day! Also, would the press have published Cuban’s statements or would they have just continued with the negative slant? It is rare that the mainstream media would just publish a press release, or at least not without their own commentary.

After reading the prosecutions case, I thought it was a clearly an open-shut case. That may be, but I never considered the other side, and what, if any motives, the prosecution may have had. After reading Cuban’s blog, I am certainly skeptical of this case and more willing to question the prosecution. I think this proves blogging to be a very powerful tool, giving people a voice not just to express their opinions, but also to defend themselves or to provide another perspective that the likes of mainstream media may not be providing.

Why in the world are we paying for Social Text?

So I’m involved in a class where we have to write a group paper. We all know the drill, everyone comes up with an idea, writes their section and then copies it together into one gobbled mess that doesn’t make sense. Last night we were sitting around and talking about e-mailing versions around to each other. Someone thought, “well what if two people make changes to the same part? What if the transitions don’t make sense anymore?”

Then it hit me…. WIKI PAGES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What a perfect collaborative tool. We can all go in, make our own edits, and not have to worry about e-mailing new versions around every time we correct a grammatical mistake. My initial excitement was replaced with the realization the Social Text costs $$. It didn’t seem worth shelling out $ or setting up a trial period for a paper that was due in 2 weeks.

Turns out, you can create a Wiki page for free and it is easier than setting up a blog. In fact, the one I found (Wikidot) seems to have better editing features than social text. There is even free wiki software!

This led me to wonder, why on earth is BC (or anyone) paying for Socialtext when they can get a lot of the same capabilities for free!? Sure, Socialtext has a lot of bells and whistles, but how hard is it for the opensource community to add a Facebook feature to a Wiki page? This stuff isn’t brain surgery here folks, and I feel it is only a matter of time before groups like Wikidot catch up to Socialtext and say, “our Wiki pages are identical to theirs, and they’re free. Frankly, we don’t care if you use it or not, but its out there if you want it.”

I wish Alan were back, because I’d love to ask him how they hope to sustain revenue when their competition is free and they don’t seem to have a sustainable competitive advantage (RBV, right?). I fear they will go the way of the AOL’s and I would love to hear him try to convince me otherwise.

Here is a video preview:

Microsoft’s blind taste test

We’ve all noticed the lack of Seinfeld/Bill Gates ads on TV these days. So what do our friends at Microsoft have up their sleeves? They’ve released a new version of Windows called Mojave and have invited a select group to try it out (see video above). The only catch is, Mojave is Vista. Vista is Mojave. Finkle is Einhorn!

The campaign was an advertising ploy to challenge people’s preconceived notions (mostly negative) of Microsoft Vista. Testers were initially asked to rate Vista, then tried Mojave, and SUPRISE!, they rated Vista poorly but were blown away by Mojave. Well, you could fill pages with flaws in this procedure, but I find it interesting that Microsoft reverted to the old taste test technique. Is it more effective than Seinfeld and Gates acting like buffoons, I think so. Will it get people to stop complaining about Vista? Doubtful. People walk into workplaces across America talking about the awesomeness and innovation from Apple and Google and trashing the operational aspects of Vista. Until this balance of perception changes, there isn’t much of a hand to play. I’m afraid all Microsoft can do at this point is weather the storm of Vista negativity and move on to something else. They need to be the ones people come into work bragging about.

Chain e-mails no mas!

We all remember that first year or two on the job after graduating from college. Most of us were on a computer in a large office performing a pretty insignificant task. Thank goodness we had e-mail. To cure the boredom we’d converse with 5-10 of our close friends via a common e-mail chain. We’d plan the upcoming Thursday night on the town, make fun of others’ hometowns (Philadelphia), and occasional test the boundaries of NSFW with bad language and funny youtube videos.

As years went by, these chain e-mails had less and less of a place in our inboxes. Coming back from lunch and finding 20 e-mails about who my buddy hooked up with over the weekend started to seem somewhat inappropriate. Getting fired as a result of vulgarity-laced e-mails from your college roommate was no longer viewed as relief from a crappy job, but a serious consequence.

One fateful day a few years ago my buddy came to us with the idea of replacing these inconvenient  e-mails with a blog. At the time we didn’t know what he was talking about, but went along for the ride. We made it private, created aliases from our favorite 80’s TV shows, and have been using it ever since. We still talk about people behind their backs, marvel at the bizarre crime that takes place in Philadelphia, and post videos with questionable language (ie. Bob Knight’s instructional golf video outtakes). Hilarious, but bad language!

So if your inbox is still getting pummeled with e-mail chains from your friends, I’d suggest following suite and setting up a blog together……..