If you want my attention, you must earn it

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My pal Todd sent me an email yesterday with a link to a YouTube video. I asked why he didn’t just direct message me on Twitter or Google Chat.

“Email is easier for me,” was his reply. He was sharing something he thought was interesting so he gets to decide what works best for him. Right?

A lot of people screen their in-coming phone calls. This infuriates some callers who feel you have an obligation to take their call.

All of this got me thinking about who controls communications of this sort. The “sender” or the “receiver.”

Every evening our USPS mail box is filled with junk mail that we routinley throw in the dust bin (for my UK pals). I asked the mailman about this last week, if there is any easy way to stop 3rd class mail. He mumbled something about writing each of the senders. Yeah, right. In that instance, the direct mail people control the communication up to the point I shit-can the stuff.

I was intrigued by the decision of UNC professor Paul Jones to abandon email altogether:

“I spent 30 years investing in email,” Jones said. “The undergrads I teach use everything but email. Journalists use Twitter. You can use anything else to get in touch with me — text messages, AIM, G-chat, Facebook, Facebook chat … but I was investing too much into email and getting little back.”

I send a lot of email but don’t expect anyone to open and read what I send. It’s my responsibility to make the subject line so interesting and relavent to the recipient that she WANTS to read it.

This seems pretty cut-and-dried to me. You might want to communicate something to me, but you need my permission. I have to open the email (or snail mail); pick up the phone; grant your friend request.

It’s my attention. If you want some of it, you have to earn it.

 

We just don’t know which half

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“Every advertising should be measurable. You should be able to adjust it, right? Then you should be able to tune it, track it, track the right users, and target to the right people.” – Susan Wojcicki, Google Ad Chief (from In the Plex by Steven Levy)

Mel Karmazin calls this “fucking with the magic.” And sixty years ago, it was magic.

Talk-o-Meter

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In May, 2010, I imagined an iPhone app I called the Blab-o-Meter. It only took a year for someone to pick up on the idea. They call it the Talk-o-Meter

“Some people don’t realize when they dominate others in a discussion. Make sure each of two participants get the same talk time with this App! After a brief calibration of both voices, the App recognizes who’s speaking and keeps track of the speaker’s talk time. The result is displayed as colored percent bars. The screen update can be set to one, two or five minute intervals.”

If you can find an earlier reference to this idea, let me know. I suspect The Coffee Zone is too noisy for the app but I’ll give it a try.

 

James Arness

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[See comment below]

When I heard that James Arness had died my first thought was, “How could he still be alive?!” It’s just that Gunsmoke was so long ago.

So I dug out this photo taken when Craig Watson and I “interviewed” the popular TV actor when he appeared at the Sikeston Bootheel Rodeo. KBOA news guys John Reeder did the recording and Craig (on the right) and I asked some questions. Marshall Dillon signed my Fanner 50 holster.

When the net was young

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A couple of nights ago I was browsing through some old Day-Timers (calendars) and came across a few memories from 1994:

April 26 – A meeting with some folks at MOREnet and the University of Missouri J-School. My first look at a web browser (Mosaic). I was blown away. The Internet was a very different creature before the browser.

June 20 – Sent check to someone named Bill Bahr a check for $1,700 for a used Toshiba notebook computer. Base price was $1,400 plus $300 for a fax/modem PCMCIA card.

I think it was this one. It was a heavy mother but I was giddy at the idea of being able to take a computer with me on the road.

Hospital room of the future?

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According to this post at Fast Company, this might be as close at 10 years away. I don’t want to spendy any time in the hosptial but this would make the stay less awful.

“The room is constructed as a plug-and-play environment in which customizable, prefabricated components integrate all aspects of care. The Patient Ribbon, for example, is a digital, silent, flat screen headboard that captures vital signs, houses gases, and holds the controls for all forms of lighting in the room. Ruthven says it’s possible that it will be the first component to be integrated in existing hospitals in the next five years. A media center at the foot of the bed facilitates collaboration between caregivers, patients, and visitors, and provides connections to multimedia entertainment and hospital information.

While most of the medical care is conducted within the patient room, several key functions for patients, staff, and visitors occur at the entry to the space. Namely, the Staff Resource Station features sliding doors made from smart glass technology and includes digital alerts for patient allergies, food restrictions, or special conditions.”

I’m guessing health care will be really good or really bad. Probably both, depending how wealthy/poor you are.

Google +1

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I was going to do a post about Google’s +1 but anyone who cares probably already knows what it is and how it works. The rest of you… just click the little button below each post if you like it. That will make that post more like to show up in relevant Google search results. Just click the fucking button.

The Two Bobs

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The Missouri Department of Transportation recently announced the closure of a number of offices around the state and the elimination of a bunch of jobs. Difficult times call for difficult decisions.

A few days ago I got a whif of how this is coming down, at least for some employees.

In at least one section, managers at a certain level and above were notified they will have to “reapply” for their current jobs. They’ll log in to a website and justify why they should keep the job they have had for years.

They’ll also have to identify some other jobs within the department that they’d be qualified for, in the event they don’t keep their current job.

Anyone who has ever done a stint in management sees what’s going on here. Someone up the food chain doesn’t have the authority (or balls) to decide who stays and who goes, and to tell them that, eye-to-eye.

“Yes, I know you did your job for 15 years and got great evaluations every year, but someone more qualified got your job. Sorry.”

Now I ask you, after going through this demeaning process, even if you get to keep your job, how do you feel about the people you work for?