Novopay #1

Much has been written, muttered and uttered re Novopay. Yet I wonder whether we have heard as yet the reality, as opposed to wishful thinking, union angst and media promotion.

I have no inside knowledge, but with the benefit of many years in assessing projects I will be writing a series of posts on the issue.

I suspect that fault, if there is fault, lies in a number of places and not just in one.

 

Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs is dead. A great shame for his family, friends and colleagues.

Yet I confess I find the outpourings of grief by so many somewhat OTT, and much of the media coverage equally so, for example the front page of the Dominion Post here in Wellington this week.

Jobs was a great businessman in many ways, but he was not a saint. In many ways he had the instincts of a monopolist given Apple’s success at creating a walled garden for its offerrings.

More on paywalls

Over the last months I have written quite a lot on new media and paywalls. Given my focus elsewhere recently I cannot at this minute reference all that I would wish, but this post by Nick Carr is very pertinent.

On being silly

As a consultant I write and have written  about the need to keep my promotional outlets and social media current.

Like so many I have ignored my own advice. Over the last little while I have not kept them as current as I should have.

So, I am human and make mistakes, but this is one I must learn from.

Facebook – the movie!

In existence only a few years and now it is the subject of a major movie.

The Social Network, the new movie, released in the US October 1, directed by David Fincher, Curious Case of Benjamin Button – Fight Club – Zodiac, and written by Aaron Sorkin, creator of The West Wing, is about Mark Zuckerberg and the creation of Facebook.

This extensive review in The New Yorker, by David Denby, begins:-

“The Social Network,” directed by David Fincher and written by Aaron Sorkin, rushes through a coruscating series of exhilarations and desolations, triumphs and betrayals, and ends with what feels like darkness closing in on an isolated soul. This brilliantly entertaining and emotionally wrenching movie is built around a melancholy paradox: in 2003, Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg), a nineteen-year-old Harvard sophomore, invents Facebook and eventually creates a five-hundred-million-strong network of “friends,” but Zuckerberg is so egotistical, work-obsessed, and withdrawn that he can’t stay close to anyone; he blows off his only real pal, Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield), a fellow Jewish student at Harvard, who helps him launch the site. The movie is not a conventionally priggish tale of youthful innocence corrupted by riches; nor is it merely a sarcastic arrow shot into the heart of a poor little rich boy. Both themes are there, but the dramatic development of the material pushes beyond simplicities, and the portrait of Zuckerberg is many-sided and ambiguous; no two viewers will see him in quite the same way. The debate about the movie’s accuracy has already begun, but Fincher and Sorkin, selecting from known facts and then freely interpreting them, have created a work of art.

I am looking forward to the movie being available in NZ. It will be interesting to see in the future whether ‘truth’ is the movie or whether the actual reality. After all as two characters in John Ford’s Western classic  The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance remark after the real version of the event is told:-

Ransom Stoddard: You’re not going to use the story, Mr. Scott?
Maxwell Scott: No, sir. This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.

Cynically, I suspect The Social Network will prove the essential truth of that observation.

However, it will be fascinating to see how the creator of one of the phenomena of our time is treated. In that regard , I found this comment in the review very interesting and thought provoking:-

By focussing on the moment of creation, Fincher and Sorkin are getting at something new. From the first scene to the last, “The Social Network” hints at a psychological shift produced by the Information Age, a new impersonality that affects almost everyone. After all, Facebook, like Zuckerberg, is a paradox: a Web site that celebrates the aura of intimacy while providing the relief of distance, substituting bodiless sharing and the thrills of self-created celebrityhood for close encounters of the first kind. Karl Marx suggested that, in the capitalist age, we began to treat one another as commodities. “The Social Network” suggests that we now treat one another as packets of information. Mark Zuckerberg, as interpreted by this film, comes off as a binary personality. As far as he’s concerned, either you’re for him or you’re against him. Either you have information that he can use or you don’t. Apart from that, he’s not interested.

In that regard readers might find this profile of Mark Zuckerberg, from The New Yorker of interest.

Given the comment noted above from the review, my earlier post of an interview Zuckerberg gave to the WSJ is, I suggest worth looking at, as Zuckerberg did not appear really all that comfortable in that session.

At the end of the day it will be interesting to see whether or not viewers of the movie agree with Denby’s summation:-

It may not be fair to Zuckerberg, but Sorkin and Fincher have set him up as a symbolic man of the age, a supremely functional prince of dysfunction. Charles Foster Kane was convivial and outgoing; Zuckerberg engages only the world he is creating. But those viewers who think of him as nothing more than a vindictive little shit will be responding to only one part of him. He’s a revolutionary because he broods on his personal grievances and, as insensitive as he is, reaches the aggrieved element in everyone, the human desire for response. He’s meant to be a hero—certainly he’s Fincher’s hero, an artist working in code who sticks to his vision and is helpless to prevent himself from suffering the most wounding personal loss.

In addition, will the movie impact on how we look at Social Media? It will probably impact on how we perceive Zuckerberg. Will it illuminate any of the issues relating to Social Media and how we use it?

How Content and Social Media Equal Marketing Success

I came across this interesting item today regarding the use of Social Media

In this video Michael Stelzner, of Social Media  Examiner,  interviews Joe Pulizzi, author of Get Content, Get Customers. Joe is an expert in the world of content. Listen to Joe explain why you must have a content marketing strategy before you have a social media strategy. Joe connects the dots between content and social media.

How Content and Social Media Equal Marketing Su…, posted with vodpod

If you are interested in using Social Media, then Michael Stelzner says that this video will help you consider:-

How to take your sales hat off and put on the publishing hat on

Why you need something interesting to say to say

What you need to do first before you write your report

How to add social tools in your content strategy

Why you need to know where your customers are hanging out online

How to get the most bang on your buck for your content marketing strategy

What content works best on social media

What’s changing today with regards to content marketing

Furthermore he provides a free download of  the Content Playbook (it’s free) to find 42 different content tactics you can use.

Some interesting points come out of the video and related download. Worth looking at and thinking about. In essence this is about the application of commonsense and forethought. As always understanding what your customer wants/needs is key.

Interview with Mark Zuckerberg

Mark Zuckerberg talks with Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher of the Wall Street Journal. The focus of this extract is on the issue of privacy and the way Facebook introduces changes to settings.

Interview with Mark Zuckerberg, posted with vodpod

Article text is here

Social Media: Facebook for Manning Charles

Given my interest in Social Media, I have recently started getting to grips with Facebook.

As part of my ongoing use of the application I have created a Facebook Page for Manning Charles & Associates Ltd, my company. So o if you are on Facebook, please ‘Like‘ the page. In addition let me have any thoughts you might have on content or anything else about the page.

There is now a Facebook ‘Badge’ in the sidebar.

Thanks

Blogging

This site has been remarkably successful, especially after I started paying some attention to it.

When I started Some Thoughts I wanted to see if I could attract an audience.

This I have done. I think.

Site stats are not totally reliable, as many of my readers see my posts on other forums, for example LinkedIn or Facebook. Yet many contacts often comment about ‘How I saw your post on’

I thank all of you. As well I wish to ask for your continued support, as I try and examine more and more critical business issues.

However, I realise that whilst wishing to post on business matters, there are some other things I wish to post on as well. This sort of posting is not necessarily likely to attract the same audience. Therefore, I have started a ‘Fun’ blog.

Just to make it harder, for me,  I have chosen to put this new blog on tumblr.

Enjoy!

Social Media Risks

From the ISACA website an article on Tips for Addressing Social Media Risks

The article starts:-

Does your organization use social media? How do you know for sure? Social media usually require no special technology, little or no involvement from IT, and no official project plan or explicit permissions to get started. Social media involve the creation and dissemination of information through social networks using the Internet. Social media tools include blogs, product review sites, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Wikipedia and many other outlets. Any Internet site that allows individual users to supply content can be considered a type of social media.

Managing the risks from social media requires that the organization have a social media strategy, sound policy and a plan to address the risks that accompany social media technology.

The article highlighst some of the risks and approaches to understanding and mitigating risks. It links to a complimentary copy of the ISACA white paper on Social Media: Business Benefits and Security, Governance and Assurance Perspectives

An abstract from the white paper:-

Initiated as a consumer-oriented technology, social media is increasingly being leveraged as a powerful, low-cost tool for enterprises to drive business objectives such as enhanced customer interaction, greater brand recognition and more effective employee recruitment. While social media affords enterprises many potential benefits, information risk professionals are concerned about its inherent risks such as data leakage, malware propagation and privacy infringement. Enterprises seeking to integrate social media into their business strategy must adopt a cross-functional, strategic approach that addresses risks, impacts and mitigation steps, along with appropriate governance and assurance measures.

There are a number of other useful links