Month: October 2008

Beating the recession blues

Graphic by Wes May, from 'Economy weighs heavily on hearts and minds,' thereporteronline.com
Graphic by Wes May, from 'Economy weighs heavily on hearts and minds,' thereporteronline.com
Whether we’re in a real recession or not — that is, a recession as economists define it — it’s pretty obvious that everybody thinks we’re in one. And since perception equals reality, we might as well acknowledge the elephant in the parlor.

Yes, we are in a recession. But if you’re looking for a more authoritative voice on the subject, let’s turn to futurist/trendspotter Faith Popcorn:

Out on the street no one is asking if we are in a recession, they’re asking when will it all end and where will we be (source).

Talk of a recession is feeding the fears of a people already living in uncertain times. No doubt, the recession blues have hit some of your co-workers — even if it hasn’t hit you. According to a recent survey by Workplace Options, half of more than 700 adult workers “reported feeling stressed over financial matters; nearly half said the economic uncertainty has negatively affected their work production” (source).

All this bad news can have a paralyzing effect. Whether you’re a manager responsible for keeping staff motivated and projects on track during these tough times, or whether you work alongside others who have been fretting more than usual about their 401k, you’re in a position of influence. In most cases, the co-workers have more influence on their peers than do managers.

How can you be a positive, calming influence during these trying times?

The best advice I’ve read lately comes from Chris Anderson, who shares the following quote from Nassim Taleb:

Put wax in your ears. People are more afraid of flying than driving because the press does not report car accidents. I never watch the news. Only listen to news you get in a social setting, the things people talk about. Our brains cannot deal with the overload of information. Having a lot of data is not good for anyone trying to make a decision.

That’s bitter medicine for those of us who work in such a data-driven field as marketing, and who work hard to persuade people to buy our goods. But Taleb is on to something, and his advice — to ignore the voices of gloom and doom all around us — may be just what many of us need right now.

So stop checking your stock portfolio. Tune out the news. Shake off the mental paralysis that comes from too much information. Focus on your work and do your best. Take the focus off of your situation and focus on helping others who are having a tough time. Remember that despite the state of your retirement account, there are many people in this world who are far less fortunate. And remember that in many ways, recession is a state of mind.

What’s your Twitter annoyance level?

So there’s a new “measurement” tool for Twitter users that gauges the annoyance factor of the “tweeps” (twitter peeps) you follow. It’s called follow cost, and it calculates your average number of Twitter updates (tweets) per day as well as the average number of daily updates for your last 100 posts to determine your short-term tweet trend. Those figures are then converted into milliscobles. According to (jeff)isageek.net, one milliscoble “is defined as 1/1000th of the average daily Twitter status updates by Robert Scoble,” who happens to be a very prolific tweeter.

So, with Scoble setting the annoyance bar, let’s look at where I come in.

A mere 185.51 milliscobles per day, on average. Not very annoying, if you ask me. But the trend of my last 100 updates shows the annoyance level rising. I’ll try to tone it down a bit.

How about some of our other favorite higher ed bloggers who also tweet? Here are a few of them.

@bradjward out-Scobles Scoble in his last 100 updates — a very high annoyance level. Which is funny, because Brad’s one of my favorites to follow.

@kylejames is not far behind @bradjward, and also easily clears the Scoble bar.

@karinejoly is one of the least annoying higher ed bloggers on Twitter. But followcost fails to factor in Karine’s ability to send a timely Twitter nudge to HigherEdExperts presenters who are cutting close their deadlines to get presentations to her. Albeit infrequent, those updates can be annoying.

I understand the premise behind followcost. It’s conveying the opportunity cost of following every single update of these twitterers. But who does that? Who has the time?

Blog Action Day: fight poverty with World Vision

Today is Blog Action Day, an annual event in which bloggers of all stripes are called to post commentary on a single topic. This year’s topic is poverty. In my work with churches and youth groups, the anti-poverty organization I’ve interacted with the most is World Vision. Through a church youth group, I’ve participated in World Vision’s 30 Hour Famine program to help raise funds to fight poverty, and our group has also sponsored a child through World Vision. It isn’t much. It isn’t enough. But it is something.

Maybe you already support an anti-poverty cause. If so, please continue to support it. If not, I hope you’ll consider supporting World Vision. Here’s a promo video with some facts about global poverty that may open your eyes.

Tomorrow is Blog Action Day. Are you ready?

This morning I discovered, via a tweet from @lizstrauss, that tomorrow — Oct. 15, 2008 — is Blog Action Day. The purpose of this day is to unite the voices of bloggers everywhere to focus on one topic. This year’s topic is poverty.

From the site:

By all posting on the same day we aim to change the conversation that day, to raise awareness, start a global discussion and add momentum to an important cause.

Why?

Every blogger has a unique voice, audience and perspective. By speaking to their readers on topic about an important issue we can discuss global issues like poverty in a new and hugely multi-faceted way. And from discussion springs action.

I hope my fellow higher ed bloggers will join me in posting about poverty tomorrow. If you need some ideas to stimulate your thinking, here are several.

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1529825&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=00ADEF&fullscreen=1
Blog Action Day 2008 Poverty from Blog Action Day on Vimeo.

Saturday Six: It’s like Friday Five, but with 20 percent more bullet points and a day later

Contextless links from the RSS reader:

  1. It’s not its (h/t: largehearted boy).
  2. Holy Weblog! It’s back! In the days when I blogged semi-religiously, Holy Weblog! was a favorite. Then it took I hiatus, and I soon followed. Glad to see M.J. Garcia back on the scene.
  3. Nexodus, a spooky font for Halloween. Via HOW magazine blog.
  4. Media elites discover the Twitterverse. AdPulp reports that Business Week’s editor-in-chief is now on Twitter (@JOHNABYRNE). (Someone should have shown him how to use the Caps Lock key.)
  5. WeAre.Us: (almost) like Ning, but with a heart. A social network that is a social support network.
  6. Confidence is leaving the fiat money system. OK, my libertarian soul is showing, but this article about the U.S. and European monetary systems really appeals to me. But given the global financial upheaval, maybe it’s time to take another look at a commodity-based monetary system. You know: gold, silver, precious metals? Oil, maybe? Something. Anything besides the funny money being created these days.