Technology

My Foursquare Christmas Wishlist

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I love Foursquare. I love the friendly competition. I love reading the tips at locations that I check into so I can discover things that perhaps I didn’t know about that place. I am proud to be mayor of so many places.  And I love the badges, of course! But there is also another side […]

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If you suck, social media ain’t gonna help

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We’ve all experienced it. After 30 min. of waiting for your meal the server admits they forgot to give it to the kitchen. You call your cable/phone/internet/credit card/whatever company and they not only don’t help you, they manage to offend you or tick you off in the process. You need help in a store and […]

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It’s not about the media, it’s about the social

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This has been the defining belief in my work for some time… “It’s not about the media, it’s about the social”. if you don’t understand this, then you will lose your way down this road of social media. You can’t focus on the technology or you’ll lose focus on what is really important. I have […]

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Overwhelmed and Overcome: Technology Saturation & the Coming Crisis

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Article first published as Overwhelmed and Overcome: Technology Saturation & the Coming Crisis on Technorati. I slept lousy last night.  In fact, millions of Americans slept lousy last night.  How do I know?  I’ve seen the studies, I’ve talked to my friends, I’ve read the Facebook posts from the middle of the night, and I’ve […]

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Facebook Deals aims ‘squarely’ at Foursquare

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Article first published as Facebook Deals aims ‘squarely’ at Foursquare on Technorati. Like 2 cagey boxers, going around and around, eye-ing each other for the right moment to pounce… such is Facebook Places and Foursquare. If you aren’t familiar with Foursquare, just Google it and you’ll find out all you ever wanted to know. The […]

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The Most Important Person In the Room

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My grandmother reached up and wiped a bit of lint from his shoulder.  She adjusted the medals on his chest and ran her hand down his lapel.  And she looked up at my dad with a smile as big as Texas.  She was extremely proud of her son, my dad.  The only one of 7 […]

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How Google Is Killing Higher Education

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Article first published as How Google Is Killing Higher Education on Technorati. Google is killing higher education.  It’s true.  Well… hold on… wait a min…  maybe I should clarify what I mean by that. First of all, let me say that if anyone is a Google-fan, it’s me.  I use Google services every day.  I […]

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No, it’s true. Really. Trust me.

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I recently had a discussion with some colleagues in an organization that I am a part of.  I don’t want to name names or name the organization, and honestly, that isn’t the important part of this story.  We were talking about social media and the relative importance of it compared to other forms of outreach, […]

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5 Easy Steps To Turning Yourself Into A Brand

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I have been working for some time to develop myself into a ‘brand’.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t aspire to be Coke.  I don’t think I’ll ever be Oprah.  And I don’t think my name will ever be on the same level as Disney.   But a brand isn’t a bottle of carbonated beverage, […]

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When A Mountain Becomes A Molehill

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The statistics speak volumes… half of small businesses don’t even have a website, much less have stepped into the social media waters.  And I have blogged previously about why small businesses don’t get into social media.  But I wanted to write today about the fact that the mountain isn’t as high as you would think. […]

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Why They Act And Think The Way They Do

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“I just don’t understand them.”  I hear that alot when it comes to today’s young people, often called ‘Generation Y’, sometimes ‘digital natives’, and sometimes ‘millennials’. Whatever you want to call them, numerous statistical studies out there state that there are so many of them now in the workforce that they have either surpassed the […]

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Dumb terminals and Member’s Only jackets

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I graduated college back in 1991. I still remember fondly the first time I ever saw someone typing an email and it had to be explained to me exactly what “electronic mail” actually was. But that story is for another day. I am taking a stroll down memory lane in my mind this evening thinking […]

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The 5 Google Things I Don’t Want To Live Without

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I wrote an e-book about Google, in case you missed the ads splattered all over my website about it, so I get invited to speak about it often. I have always loved Google and the services it provides, and when I got my Android phone a whole new world of Google ‘things’ was opened up […]

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Pretty soon, they won’t need me anymore

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That’s what I used to think.  You see, for the past 11 years I have taught an introductory course in computer science at a university.  In my class we talk about current technology issues in our society and how they feel about them.  And we also learn about the Microsoft Office Suite… Word, Excel, and […]

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Customizing your life and why higher education better get this right

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Mass customization. Those 2 words can explain what has happened in this country over the past several years. From consumer products, to what we expect on the internet, to just about everything…. including education… mass customization is not just what people want, it is what they expect. I don’t want just plain vodka. I want […]

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Social Media is a big, fat waste of time

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I hear that occasionally when I talk to people about using social media to do various things.  I also hear things like “I don’t have time to bother with it.”, “I wouldn’t know where to begin.”, and one of my favorites… “I don’t see how it would benefit me, I mean, my customers don’t really […]

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7 Leadership Traits Enhanced (or hurt) By Technology

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We’ve all seen it. We’ve all worked for some person who had no business being in a leadership position. How they got there is a mystery to everyone, and when it comes to using technology, oh my… they are about as sharp as a bowling ball. Am I right? So to make sure that you […]

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We are a ship with no port…. so get used to it

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Last week I spent 3 days with people just like me…. instructional designers… teachers… IT support people… and we all had one thing in common:  we all are trying to figure out how we can use technology and the fruit-basket of tools available today to deliver high-quality education while meeting the needs and desires of […]

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