Facebook follies

Now we all probably know the story of Facebook. If not then I suggest you have a read of “How Facebook is taking over our lives” to give you an idea of the impact that it is having and the speed at which it is growing. What many people don’t seem to appreciate is that we are surrendering our privacy to commercial entities like Facebook at an alarming rate.

Many people don’t understand that whatever they post on the Internet is generally searchable and available to anyone. A good example of this is “Facebook scam: Ferrari man’s true identity revealed”. In short a recent Facebook scam featured a man standing next to a Ferrari (as if you would drive an Enzo on the road!) claiming that if you followed his method you’d make enough money to own an Ferrari (an Enzo costs over US$ 1 million by the way). Now the interesting thing, as the article details, is that the picture of the man standing next to the Ferrari is actually someone who uploaded his holiday snaps to the Internet and had no idea they were being used in this way.

The moral of the story is that you should never upload content that includes ANY private information about yourself to the Internet. I also reckon that you should also specifically avoid photos of yourself or your family. Problem is, many people don’t see anything wrong with it and continue to do so, not appreciating that once it is up on the Internet you no longer have control over it. Would you offer that information to a stranger on the street? Probably not, so why are you offering on the Internet to billions of strangers?

Facebook is a commercial entity. Its sole purpose in life if to make money for shareholders. If it allows you to sign up for free where do you think it makes money? It does that by collected as much information about you and selling that. If you willing provide more information, it will sell that also. Don’t be fooled by claims otherwise, your information is valuable. If you don’t think so then someone else certainly does.

Don’t get me wrong, things like Facebook and Twitter have their place but you should stop and consider how much information you are giving away and what you get in return. Once you have given that information away chances are you’ll never get it back. So, at the very least, don’t upload a picture of you standing next to a really expensive car or you could be the face of the next Internet scam!

Death of dreams

I’ve just read “Shop owners shut doors on their dreams” which details how a small business of 21 years in the US shut up shop. It also highlights how this story is becoming more and more common. With every closure more pressure is placed on other business around that depend on that business for trade.

Now, we may all feel pretty smug that the same won’t happen here in Australia but are you will to take that risk if you have your own business? Most small businesses are establish as dreams and run as hobbies rather than as a business. When times get tough many do not have the structure or the resources to cope. This can put extreme pressure on those running the business that could mean they end up losing more than just the business.

No matter where you are the current economic issues are going to have an effect. You need to ensure that you are suitably prepared if you want to hang onto your dream. This means planning and discipline and perhaps facing up to tough decisions. That’s why in many circumstances it helps to tap an outsider to give you help, one who is not directly connected with the business, one who can give you an honest and objective opinion.

So if you need an objective and honest opinion about your business or assistance in any way please do not hesitate to contact me (director@ciaops.com) for further information on how I maybe able to help. Even if you just want someone to chat with about your situation please do not hesitate to drop me a line.

WSSOPS March update

The March update for my Windows SharePoint Operations Guide (due out soon) will give subscribers information about how to install and use the new Microsoft SharePoint Administration Toolkit v3 that will assist in troubleshooting and optimization SharePoint performance. I’ve also included instructions on how you can embed Google maps into your SharePoint site (to see this in action go to the http://supportweb.ciaops.net.au/ and scroll to the bottom of the screen).

The March update also has updated information for SharePoint Application Management about deleting SharePoint sites. As well, it includes how to vary the time that the !New icon is displayed (and even getting rid of it if you want!) and a whole lot more updated content.

The fact that my Guide is updated monthly is another benefit you get over other SharePoint sources. As the latest information and functionality becomes available I put it in the Guide. As a subscriber you receive these updates for a whole year.

For more information about the Windows SharePoint Guide see www.wssops.com.

Envy

For many years Microsoft was a very successful business. It continued to experience stunning growth year on year. Then it reached middle age and discovered that it was under threat from all these new comers. So what was its response?

Firstly, it decided that it wanted to be like Sony so it brought out the Xbox in competition to the Playstation. Having not completely succeeded there it then decided that it wanted to be like Google by creating on line maps, Live Search, host applications and so on. Having even less success there it now decided that it wanted to be like Apple so it brought out the Zune as a competitor to the iPod. And this list goes on.

In its craze to be everything, except Microsoft, it has decided it will now open retail stores as this story highlights. Aside from the obvious Apple envy once again most people are scratching their heads and asking why? Especially in these economic times. Why?

Now I’m sure there is a really valid reason and it may or may not be successful but it certainly seems to me that Microsoft is spending far too much time trying to be things that it isn’t. That has led, I believe, to it falling down on things it should be (like making better desktop operating systems i.e. Vista). It’s hard enough to lead one life let along try and lead two!

There are things that Microsoft do real well. There are things that it can also do well that are extensions of these. However, diving into totally unrelated markets just because it can doesn’t mean it should. In the early day Microsoft could dominate the market and take the lion’s share but those days are gone. It doesn’t make sense to me spreading your resources as thinly as Microsoft must be doing to keep all these balls in the air.

The motto should be how to make things simpler, not how can I be like every other Tom, Dick and Harry in the business.

More Twitter

Since I’m carrying on about Twitter a bit today, here’s another article from the New York Times that talks about some of the benefits that Twitter can provide from a recent convert.

Twitter comes down under

Well it finally seems that people down here in Australia are beginning to adopt Twitter as the following article highlights.

It appears the heightened awareness has come from people providing Victoria bush fire updates via Twitter as this article says. All of a “sudden” conventional media outlets have “discovered” Twitter and I expect to see them all flocking there shortly.

As I have said before I’m still undecided as to the business value of Twitter, yet I do see the benefits in certain circumstances. Because Twitter has mainly US based it really didn’t have a great deal of local value. However, I expect that start changing very fast as more people get on board. I think that Australians will take to Twitter pretty quickly given their love of SMS.

Any mainstream adoption of Twitter will also raise further questions about filtering in the workplace. Will Twitter be added to the black of sites such as Facebook, Myspace and so on? Or will employers embrace it as a way to do business better? Given the current economic climate I would tend to think most would probably simply block it without considering where it may actually be able to improve business.

Like it or not it seems that Twitter is going to be the next “big” thing on the Internet so if you get in now you’ll look like a star! If you feel so inclined please add me to you follow list via http://twitter.com/directorcia.

Labour vs work

Have you ever taken the time to examine how much time you spend doing tasks? Do you actually plan what you are going to do or do you just ‘do it’? The answer to these questions should be considered in light of whether you do labour or work.

Typically labour is low value with little control over the process. I think that most people spend most of their day doing ‘labour’. They get up, come into work and try and simply wade through everything. Conversely, work is about producing high value output by being discerning about what effort is expended to produce a result. The difference comes down to planning.

How much time do you take to plan what you actually do? Do you also take time to review what you have achieved and determine whether in fact it can be done more effectively or efficiently? Doing work is about thinking not merely about doing.

Once again a good example is the way that most people tackle their emails. It is simply a labour that they go through. They have no system to maximizing their return. They simply plough into their inbox each and everyday in a vain attempt to control the information overload. Rarely would they consider taking the time to learn how to use their email program better. This effectively limits their ability to be productive and can place a significant amount of stress on their workday.

We almost all have access to the most powerful technology available today, so why do most continue to struggle? Like everyone else your time is limited by a set number of hours per day. If you want to achieve more you need to stop doing the low value items and do more of the high value items. Technology can certainly assist you but it requires you ‘work’ rather than merely ‘labour’ to understand it.

To achieve more out of everyday stop doing labour and start working.