Now that I think about it… you don’t really hear about this anymore. I forget sometimes that VCRs are obsolete; I guess it shows my own generational and technological bias (I still use mine occasionally to time-shift, since I don’t own a DVR or use BitTorrent).

But with other devices with built-in clocks, you don’t run into this problem as much, perhaps because we’ve had 30 years to get used to programming digital clocks using poorly-labeled, non-intuitive, multi-modal, context-sensitive controls; or because clock programming user interfaces have gotten better; or most likely, since most connected devices now automatically program their own clocks (thanks to time signals from a variety of sources).

Using the VCR clock as an example, we see that the first, longest, laziest phase of technological acceptance was a Darwinian sort of familiarity — it required no effort from product manufacturers, just relying on technology users to adapt, or age out of the marketplace. It places everything on users, requiring them to learn the required syntax (education), or at least memorize the steps (training).

(It helps if you’re talking about something completely new — users had no expectations, and we were jazzed enough to be able to do something new, that we were willing to put up with crappy, barely-existent interfaces because that’s the way it was. It took us a while to figure out that things could be better. This isn’t really the case nowadays.)

The second phase in the maturing technology was largely design-driven improvements, adding step-by-step menus and displays using natural language and clearly labeled controls, and even introducing layered-on services like VCR Plus codes to make things easier for people.

It also means having a better understanding of how people actually use things (which is why I’ll bet that the most used button on your microwave oven is “Minute Plus” or a functional equivalent). It’s more of a matter of will, recognizing that usability is important, and accepting that the costs of adding friendly controls was worth it.

The third phase — “it just works” — represents the maturation of technology, where tasks like setting the clock aren’t just made easier, they’re made unnecessary and completely hidden from the user (as in the case of, say, your cell phone, which gets everything from the network). It becomes part of the overhead managed by the device and the network — at the cost of a little control, maybe a little privacy.

Because so much of what we deal with these days is software, and because design and usability have moved closer to the head of the class since we see how it drives adoption (Apple, anyone?), and because we place more emphasis on usability testing and feedback from the marketplace, the third phase isn’t really the third phase anymore: We not only expect things to work, we expect them to work the way we want them to, without having to figure them out. Which is a huge change from the expectation that we need to figure something out to make it work, and throwing up our hands when it doesn’t

I wonder what the modern equivalent of the VCR clock flashing 12:00 is, as the signifier of technological incompetence or refusal? A wireless router that still broadcasts a default SSID (”Linksys”) is one, or anything that  shows that the default settings haven’t been changed, I suppose.

I have a few other candidates, but they mostly present as attitudinal choices (refusnik/Luddite stuff — people who choose not to engage with the technology at all).

Have your own flashing 12:00 candidates? Have we lost something, expecting things to work automagically without education or intervention? Leave a comment.

Highlight #1 – Twitter and Education

On of the first panels was on education and was comprised of Aparna Vashisht (@Parentella) – Founder, Parentella, Eric Sheninger (@NMHS_Principal) – New Milford High School, NJ, Shelly S Terrell (@ShellTerrell) – Educator and Blogger, Teacher ReBoot Camp, Steven W. Anderson (@web20classroom) – Educator and Blogger, Web 2.0 Connected Classroom, Tom Whitby (@tomwhitby) – Professor of English, Secondary English. They discussed all of the ways Twitter is engaging those in the classroom.

Highlight #2 – Twitter and Public Health Messaging

Right after a discussion on education, health care professionals talked about how was comprised of Amy DeMaria (@AmyDeMaria) – Sr. Vice President of Communications, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Beverly Robertson (@marchofdimes) – National Director, Pregnancy & Newborn Health Education Center, Colleen Patterson (@colleenpattrson) – National Aboriginal Health Organization, Marc Sirkin (@autismspeaks) – Chief Community Officer, Autism Speaks , Nedra Weinreich (@Nedra) – Founder, Weinreich Communications (moderator). They discussed non-profits and how people are using social media to find information about health issues. They discussed how Twitter has become such a rich community for people to connect and engage in raising awareness. The video of the panel is below (courtesy of Blip.TV):

Highlight #3 – Twitter and the News

Next came the panel discussion about the impact of Twitter and Real-Time web on the news cycle. It was called Making. News. Now. Participants in the panel included Alexia Tsotsis (@alexiatsotsis) – ech/Business Lifestyle Reporter, SF Weekly, Andrew Nystrom @ LAT (@latimesnystrom) – Digital Media Strategist, Los Angeles Times, Kevin Sablan (@ksablan) – Blogger, 140pix.com and AlmightyLink.com , Mark Milian (@mmilian) – LA Times Writer: Tech + Social media + Politics + Indie Rock Music, Richard Rushfield (@richardrushfield) – West Coast Editor, Gawker.

They talked about the Miracle on the Hudson, fake Twitter deaths and how mainstream news organizations have to use this tool but be very careful in who they are sourcing because rumors and bad reporting can occur. The video of the panel is below (courtesy of Blip.TV):

AND ALL THESE PRESENTATIONS WERE FROM 8-9am. Wow.

Other Presentations of Note and Some Final Thoughts

Throughout the day people talked about innovative ways they have used Twitter to engage customers, talk to fans, build brands, fight cancer and generally is creating impact to make change all over the world. You can see more videos at the 140Conf Blip.TV Channel.

As the day wrapped I was truly impressed with a conference that before I came thought might just be an echo chamber of technology people telling themselves how awesome Twitter is and how awesome they are because they use the cool tools.

Photo Credit: Ken Yeung

The  email services for customers impacted from yesterday’s issue should be back to normal. In cases where customers are still having issues we are advising them to contact our 24/7  Network Solutions Customer Support at 1-800-333-7680 or open a ticket on our support page at http://www.networksolutions.com/help/email.jsp

Update : Nov 4, 2009 @ 14:34

The email issue has been isolated to incoming email which is temporarily queued.  Network Solutions is working to restore inbound mail to normalcy.

We have resolved any issue with outbound email or the ability to send emails.  Also, only some email users are affected.

Nov 4, 2009 @ 13:32
Some Network Solutions email customers may be experiencing latency checking/sending email. You may also experience this using Web mail or if you are downloading your mail using tools like Outlook etc.

Network Solutions Operations is working to resolve this ASAP. Mail for these customers is currently being queued. We will update here as soon as we have more info Thanks.

Comments and feedback welcome at the Network Solutions Customer Feedback Site

Just what is this modern miracle that has some real day-to-day applicability? It’s Presenter Pro and it’s created by Rexi Media, available now on the Apple iTunes Store.

Some of the cool features in this application, according to Rexi Media:

- Advanced presentation skills techniques with eye-catching supporting graphics, audio, and video clips.

- A “tip shaker” for accessing hundreds of quick presentation tips. Shake the device while viewing any of the sections for a quick tip.

- A checklist feature which enables you to store and e-mail any topic paragraph(s) you want to refer to later.

- A Notes feature for writing (and e-mailing) comments and notes. Exercises to practice your skills and knowledge check quizzes to help you remember the information.

I’ve seen a lot of people in the industry give talks either on panel discussions or individually and for the most part, they’re pretty good speakers and provide very useful information. But, there have also been those that are less than impressive that you wish would be better since they’re giving an important talk, perhaps during a conference keynote or a meeting in front of stakeholders. This is probably where Presenter Pro comes into play.

For only 99 cents, users can have their own “Rosetta Stone” type application on their iPhone and/or iTouch that will allow them to substantially improve their presentation skills. Best of all, you can learn about these skills on your own – almost like a “Do It Yourself” program. So as you’re commuting into work or when you have some spare time in your day, you can pull out your iPhone and whiz through some of the interesting tutorials and self-help tips that Presenter Pro offers you.

In the beginning of Presenter Pro, you’re able to choose from several items that addresses different topics that you could improve yourself on, including structure, visuals, words, voice, gestures and practice. Once you’ve chosen one, you’re able to get more granular in your selection – meaning that more choices will be given to you. For example, if you chose “Visuals”, the next screen would give you tutorials on thinking in pictures, facts, processes, data, abstracts, using pictures, text, lines & shapes, and color.

From this point, you’re given a screen with detailed information and graphics on best practices, statistics, and other helpful information that will get you to improve your presentation skills. The beauty of Presenter Pro is that it doesn’t expect you to memorize all the facts. Rather, it has a few helpful tools to get you to recall the information easily.

Once you’ve breezed through each different module in Presenter Pro, you’re going to be able to take a short quiz that will help in your recollection of the information. If you think that you’re going to want to save some bit of data given in a module, you’re able to take a snippet of that and make a note in another part of the app that will let you quickly recall the information without having to go through the entire module again searching for it. There’s also some videos included in the application so if you’re better at visual and animated tutorials, this may help you out.

Presenter Pro is officially out and available for downloading. It’s only available via the iTunes Store and you can get it by clicking here. It should be noted that this app has already been named as one of the top 25 business applications for the iPhone and iTouch.

So don’t worry about people making fun of your presentation skills any longer. Now you have the ultimate tool to help truly and clearly get your message across.

I have been to LA more times than I can count but I had never been to the Kodak Theatre which is where they hold the Oscars every year. What was really suprising was that it was connected to a kind of outdoor California mall but the place has so much history and our event co-host Jeffrey Hazlett along with the Kodak social media team, was a very involved participant.

Kicking Things Off

Jeff Pulver, creator and co-host of the 140Conf LA, kicked things off and had this to say in his recap of the event “Two words: Serendipity and Humanity”. I couldn’t agree more. The event started with this funny opening video from Mashcast and the opening video is below (courtesy of Blip.TV):

Jeff explained the extremely packed agenda and small presentation windows (usually 10 minutes) – 140 characters over two days just like the length of a Tweet (140 character post on Twitter) – very clever. What was great about it was that people had to get to the point and in true Oscar fashion, they played the Oscar “get off the stage your time is up music” (Ben Hur soundtrack) which a few people did on purpose just so they can say they were kicked off the stage at the Kodak.

Being in Hollywood you would expect that many of the topics and speakers would revolve around the impact of Twitter and real-time communications on the entertainment industry.

Highlight #1 – Virgin America and Twitter

First half of the morning had Porter Gale (@porterVA), VP Marketing at Virgin America. If you haven’t flown this airline, it is truly amazing – power in every seat and fleet wide wi-fi. She talked about some amazing experiences of people using Twitter to share experiences, reach out for customer service and even order a drink for someone on the same flight because they were listening on Twitter. She also made one of my favorite analogies “Flying on VA is like flying inside an iPod”. Below is the video of her talk (via Blip.TV):

Highlight #3 – Mark Horvath, Lizard Man of Hollywood Blvd

Around 4pm, Mark Horvath (@hardlynormal) gave a presentation on how the homeless are using Twitter to communicate. He was homeless on Hollywood Blvd for about 5 years in the 1990’s. I first met him at the Gnomedex conference and it was a truly amazing thing he is doing getting awareness for a topic most of us ignore everyday, homelessness. You would be blown away with the real faces of who is homeless. Twitter is a free real-time tool that they can use and he got a truly deserved standing ovation. You really need to watch this presentation. Below is the video of his talk (via Blip.TV):

Highlight #4 – Marc Salsberry: Passion + Cancer= Perfect Wingman

Many of you in the tech industry might know Marc (@wmmarc) and for those of you that don’t, he makes us in the tech industry look like rock stars and has a saying that sums it all: “A life without passion is mere existence, and merely existing isn’t living”. He is an entrepreneur but takes amazing pictures and it was a gateway to really network and meet new people. He says “before Rolling Stone, they were musicians with greasy hair that didn’t bathe, but after Rolling Stone, they were rock stars”. He wants to do the same for and show people those in the tech community for the rock stars they are.

He spoke emotionally about his brother’s recent fight and loss to cancer. It was truly inspiring and how he used Twitter to share his life and his brother’s fight. He talked about how people have been introduced to their wife or their next business partner and how his being a photographer has connected his to so many amazing people and to become the perfect wingman.

Below is the video of his talk (via Blip.TV):

Highlight #5 – Kevin Pollack

Around 5pm Kevin Pollack (@kevinpollack) was interviewed by Jeff Pulver and went right after Marc Salsberry. Kevin is a total class act and asked Marc if it was “ok to be a smart ass”. He talked about how “the meek shall inherit the earth 140 characters at a time”.  “Using Twitter for Pursuing Your Passion”. He talked about his show, the Kevin Pollack Show, Below is the video of their talk (via Blip.TV):

End of Day 1 – All I can say is “WOW”

As you can see above, these talks were just a sample of the amazing talks which you can watch all on the 140Conf Blip.TV channel. Truly a stellar first day and I can’t wait until day 2.

NEXT TIME: Day 2 Recap

Photo Credits: Ken Yeung

Sure, maybe a lot of it didn’t make any business sense (we all found that out a few years later), and I didn’t even pretend to understand the actual technology that powered it, but I was pretty confident that I “got” what it was all about. Though even now, I’m not exactly sure what that was (or is), though we had plenty of buzzwords that we used to try to lay out the boundaries of the space: many-to-many, disintermediation, on-demand, always on.

There were plenty of people who didn’t get the Internet, though; they were marked (often proudly, perversely) by the flashing “12:00″ on their VCRs, and we often called them “Mom & Dad” — it conveniently marked the generational divide between folks who may have, perhaps, used computers as adults, versus people who grew up with them during the boom years of personal computing, when it moved from the realm of hobbyists to the mainstream.

During those introspective pauses, I used to wonder: Even as we made fun of those folks who didn’t get it (in retrospect, largely because the technology hadn’t matured enough to make things easy for people to do things without a lot of tinkering), what technologies would come along to shove me into that generation gap — what technologies would I just not be able to get, that would mark me with the flashing 12:00?

I figured it would be some sort of thought-controlled interface — maybe direct-brain controls and sensory inputs right out of sci-fi (just as a global network of interconnected computers had been sci-fi). But the reality has been much more prosaic, as there are plenty of things that I don’t get in the Web 2.0-ish world.

For example, take Friendfeed: In theory, I know what it is — a status aggregator and publisher, that along the way has morphed into a conversation tool in its own right. In practice, I never got it and never used it.

In a broader sense, all this federated, distributed stuff makes me a little uncomfortable. Sure, I know that we control our publishing, which means that (in theory) our data and digital selves are portable and not tied to any one provider anymore, which means that my Foursquare can update my Twitter which goes to my Facebook (and I’m sure the Friendfeed is in there somewhere), but in my heart of hearts, I still think in terms of having a home base somewhere that I can control.

Another thing I don’t get is lifecasting. I understand the hows, I just don’t get the whys — at least, not in any way that matters.

Related is a lot of stuff that goes to mobile technologies, especially the desire to be continually, socially, geolocated. It still creeps me out.

The more I think about this, the more I see that these generational technological differences are actually just attitudinal differences. I’m planning on posting a followup entry (or two), but in the meantime, if there are things that you just don’t get, please leave a comment below.

Network Solutions® listened to customers and has teamed with Microsoft® to offer a new hosting package for Windows SharePoint Services (WSS), the leading document management and sharing tool for small businesses that syncs seamlessly with Microsoft® Office applications.

Don’t have any objectives at all.

I would imagine this to be a pretty good objective to keep in mind. The best way to actually understand what’s being said is to just not have any distraction. Don’t set any goals or accomplishments in mind when having conversations with your customers and partners. Just listen to them talk and that’s it.

Tracking of brand mentions.

With social media, the purpose of listening is to understand what others are saying about you and your brand. The objective of listening is to make sure you’re tracking each of those mentions. Through tools such as Radian6, ScoutLabs, Mighty Brands and others, you’re going to be able to do a pretty good job understanding what’s being said – the good AND the bad.

Identifying market risks and opportunities.

If you’re always talking, how are you going to be aware of what the risks are when foraying into a new demographic or market? The same will go for the opportunities as well. Will you be letting all of this pass you by?

Improving campaign efficiency.

Once you’ve launched a campaign, isn’t it important to measure whether you’re on the mark with your marketing efforts or would you rather just spray and pray that you’ve achieved the maximum amount of attention? Listen to your audience and you’ll be able to do practically real-time updates to your performance.

Measuring support efforts.

Like with improving campaign efficiency, by listening to the crowd and the customers, you’re going to want to pay attention to how you’re reacting to them from a customer service standpoint. Just because you’ve reached out and your customers are convinced that they really want to buy your product, don’t make it seem like the service stops there. It doesn’t. Monitor the wave of sentiment towards your product even after the sale.

Responding to customer inquiry.

This probably can go without saying. If your customer has any complaints, feedback or suggestions, make sure that they feel appreciated. Social media has become customer service. It’s about the people. And their voices can be heard much clearer than yours.

Better understand customers.

Social media has become market research 2.0. It’s allowed businesses to better understand their customers in a more targeted way. No longer are people just numbers on a table or chart. The human side of research will appear and give you personalities and traits that can go a longer way to make your company a success.

Being proactive and anticipating customers.

If you think you know your customers, then get out there and anticipate their every move, complaint, suggestion, feedback and even idea. If you know that a customer’s anniversary is coming up, make a proactive choice to reach out via social media to congratulate them. If it’s another special occasion or perhaps just something important in their lives, use it to have a positive connection.

Still think that there isn’t enough reason for you to listen to your customers using social media? The objectives given above by Jeremiah Owyang are pretty powerful individually and combined, all eight can really carry some weight with customers. Show them that you care by not talking…and listen to THEIR needs.

Since joining Network Solutions about 6 months ago Tim has been focused on expanding Network Solutions’ product and service offerings, leading the company’s strategic marketing efforts and streamlining Network Solutions operations.  Tim came from Sprint/Nextel where he held a number of executive positions including President of Sprint’s Consumer Division where he had full operating responsibility of company’s largest business unit.

Miles Reidy joined Network Solutions as CFO in May 2009 from Sears Holdings Corporation where he was Executive Vice President and CFO. Mr. Reidy’s responsibilities include the finance function and now firm-wide operations including Customer Service. Roy remains Chairman and trusted advisor to the company.
With these changes Network Solutions is well-positioned to continue to excel at serving its growing client base. We have a number of important strategic initiatives in process as we continue to expand our range of offerings and further develop our services to our small business customers. Network Solutions has been gearing up by organizing and streamlining the business and building the infrastructure needed for continued growth and providing excellent value to customers.

I thought about turning my illness into an entry discussing how the CDC and other public health entities are using social media to monitor and respond to conversations about H1N1 and other health topics. Or maybe fashioning some clever way to connect the metaphor of viral distribution back to actual viruses.

But then I realized that with my clogged sinuses turning my mind to mush, the deepest contemplation I’ve pursued recently has involved gazing into used tissues. Prodigious work, no doubt, but not very useful to the world at large.

Similarly, I looked into, then abandoned a few lines of inquiry relating to physical status updates and social status broadcasting and… something. (It pretty much trails off from there.)

Even looking into that old standby, my heretofore-reliable slushpile of socially bookmarked del.icio.us links, yields a scattershot collection, nothing that I could unify into a coherent theme, especially in my semi-addled state.

So, instead, I will talk about the importance of redundancy and backups when it comes to your social media efforts. (And I’m not talking about hardware or software here — I’m referring to people.)

Here in this blog, I’m fortunate to be surrounded by great bloggers and a superb management team who can pick up the slack when I or another blogger falls behind in posting, whether it’s due to travel or conferences or getting knocked down (in this case) by a literal virus.

For your own efforts, you want to minimize single points of failure for your social media monitoring and communications. At the very minimum, it means making sure that administrative rights and passwords are distributed (in a secure fashion), so that in the event of the dreaded “hit by a bus” scenario, your operation doesn’t grind to a halt.

From the authoring side: In a less-imperfect world, you’d have a diversity of voices, blogging, Twittering, and otherwise representing multiple aspects of your organization, who can take over when you’re unavailable. After all, in addition to helping to provide backup in times of crisis, building in redundancy and extra capability also helps to distribute the load in more routine times.

But what if you’re a one-man (or woman) band, where you’re doing everything yourself? That (to employ a well-worn rhetorical delaying device), is a great question. I don’t have a great answer, other than to say that setting and maintaining expectations through transparency and honest communications (see again: first paragraph) is probably your best bet.

Also, remembering that microblogging, or more passive, less authorship-intensive lines of communication like social linksharing or retweeting can help fill the gaps between your more robust works.

Finally, you can always do this — throw things open to your audience. Hey, what do you think — what coping strategies do you employ when you’re pressed for time but you need to feed the beast? Please leave a comment below.

Now excuse me while I go gaze into a tissue.