Thursday, November 28, 2013

Giving Thanks

Dear Friends and Miscellaneous Others who read this blog:

I know I say this every year and at the risk of sounding like a broken record, or an endless hour glass for those of you who weren't born yet in the dark ages when records were in use - let me reboot and say, as every Thanksgiving, how thankful I am for another great year with lots of diverse work, tons of travel, and most importantly, new friends made and old ones revisited.

The best part about my work are the people I get to meet and work with, and constantly being exposed to different ideas, new impulses and places.  So, all I can say is: keep it coming!  

Thanksgiving is not only a time to eat turkey (or tofurkey), but also a time to say 'thank you'. Thank you to all of you for making sure there's never a dull moment! 


I know it's a repeat - but it never gets old...

Sunday, November 24, 2013

Social Media for Business



I've followed Brian Solis for a long time and have read both his books: What's the Future of Business and The End of Business as Usual. If you are in any way shape or form interested how Social Media impacts EVERYTHING - not just business - both are a must-read and well worth your time.


The cartoon above links to slide share and shows a quick summary of some of Brian's and his design collaborator, Hugh MacLeod aka @gapingvoid comments on social media insights.  My favorite is slide 20.... the prosa summary is:  

ignorance + arrogance = irrelevance.  (Nuf said)

Remember that for all eternity!


Friday, November 15, 2013

Outsourcing

Do you know the feeling that the universe is trying to tell you something when a topic keeps coming up and up and up again?  Well, I do and it just did these past days.  The New York Times had several articles on outsourcing.  One in particular, Outsource Your Way to Success, talks about how a couple invested in a housekeeper even when they were starving students to be able to focus on their studies and be more productive. I wish I had that kind of singular focus, actually, no, I do not. I’m interested in just about anything; at least for a while.  But you get the gist.  I get excited.

So, the other day I decided that it was silly to pay programmers and designers to do all the work on my websites and I could go ahead and learn with the help of templates and WordPress, or Square Space how to set up and implement websites myself.  I signed up at General Assembly for a two day class called “WordPress Bootcamp”. Our teacher Nate Cooper was awesome (that is patient, humorous, and of course, super hero knowledgeable) and off we set into the sunset.

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Digital Citizen

I became an American citizen a few years ago and I feel very comfortable being an American.  Actually I should say, being a New Yorker.  The rest of the country can be a bit more challenging, then again: I don’t think that’s an issue of being American or not American, but merely goes to show that New Yorkers are a breed of their own.
 
About being a ‘digital citizen’ I feel similar. I’m definitely not a native, I was born in the wrong place on the time line, but I feel totally comfortable moving around in the digital arena. My job and my personal curiosity have made it a necessity and have given me the drive to learn ‘digital’ as much as I have learned and continue to learn being American.