Sometimes 'Business' and 'Social' Mix Online: Sometimes They Don't

Most of the time, I don't need - or want - to keep my 'business' and 'social' online activity separate. My work is writing, mostly about topics that come up in the social media communities I'm in. There's a lot of overlap, in that situation, between 'business' and 'social.'

Most folks aren't in my position. I ran into a post on Google+ That read, in part:

"I like Google Plus a great deal...

"...I don't really want to go to Google and search for exchange queue overloaded and see the bouncing red number in the upper right begging me to read and comment on some social activity...."
(Jeff Stevens)

Within an hour, a specific, practical, suggestion showed up in the comments. You may find it useful: or, not.

Now, an obligatory plug for Spiral Light Candle (spirallightcandle.com). I'm helping at the factory this week, and stuck around after hours to do some catch-up work.

Somewhat-related posts:

• "Social Marketing: Tech Changes; People, Not So Much"
  (July 5, 2012)
• "Spiral Light Candle's Online Store - Open"
  (June 15, 2012)
• "Why Your Boss Doesn't Understand the Information Age"
  (August 9, 2010)
• " 'Social Media Experts' and Other Hazards"
  (February 21, 2010)
• "A Pretty Good Article on Twitter Misuse - and SEO My Way"
  (January 19, 2010)

May have Found Good Webcam Software

My webcam's been on the fritz for some time now. Actually, the camera is working fine. But, since getting my oldest daughter (with assistance from my son) to de-worm my computer, the software I use to connect the webcam to the Web hasn't worked.

I'm sure that there is a way to restore what I've got to the way it worked before: but I'm also no longer sure it would be worth the time and effort it could take.

So, I started looking for alternatives.

And, may have found one: "How Webcams Work" (part 4 of 6 (HowStuffWorks)) identifies Webcam32 as a fairly simple, easy-to-use bit of software.

When I can have my 'tech support staff' around, I'll see whether it's my solution.

---

Update (May 22, 2009)

Just one problem: Webcam32 is obsolete. The company that produced appears to be alive and well, under a new name, and into robotics: Surveyor Corporation. They're apparently looking for someone to buy the rights to Webcam32: good news for some software developer, but not so much for me.

Back to looking for some good software.

---

Later, the same day:

My oldest daughter suggested I try Download.com, and talked me through a search. This looks promising.

Now, why didn't I think of that?!

---

Maybe TrueTech WebCam Personal Edition 2.25 or webcamXP Free 5.3.2.410 - We'll see.

---

Update (May 25, 2009)

On examination, it seems that TrueTech WebCam Personal Edition 2.25's main function is to generate traffic for a particularly nasty porn site. That one's out.

webcamXP Free 5.3.2.410 doesn't look too good, either: 11 wonderful votes, one awful review - could be made by a company with 11 employees.

Dorgem seemed promising - if I were satisfied with posting to an FTP root directory, not a specific folder. Which I'm not.

Later -

So far, I haven't been able to disqualify WebCam2000, a freeware program developed several years ago by Jeffrey Coleman Carlyle "Ruler of Earth," and apparently a rather competent programmer.

Still later -

WebCam2000 seems to be a neat little program. If I wanted to make my desktop computer a server people to visit, it would be dandy. That's far from what I am looking for, need, or want, however. Back to searching.

Even later -

Going back to the webcam's manufacturer: WebCam Vista (Creative Labs). This might prove useful. Or, not. It's late, and I need sleep.

"Webmasters" are Amateurs: Who Knew?

I may have to change what I call myself, when describing my website designing abilities.

"Webmaster" may now carry the connotation "amateur."

I ran into this believable assertion, in a post that I reviewed on another blog: "Hiring a Web Guy? Be Careful Who You Hire" Apathetic Lemming of the North (March 4, 2008) (a micro-review of "9 Signs You Shouldn't Hire THAT Web Guy" (February 11, 2008)).

Trying to impress potential clients, or at least not scaring them off, is important. That post might be a good resource for people at both ends of the hiring decision.

Finally, I'd appreciate some feedback: are "webmasters" amateurs, in the current language?

Startup Information Technology/Online Companies and Google

"Google will turn your startup into a commodity"

This is a business-oriented article about recent developments in business online.

(This post copied from Apathetic Lemming of the North.)

Big Image Plus Tiny Company Equals Credibility Gap

"On the Internet, no one knows you're a dog" was the caption of a cartoon published in a 1993 New Yorker magazine.

It's funny, and is a reminder that the Internet and the Web let people and businesses disguise themselves. To a point. An anecdote in the September, 2007, Reader's Digest (p. 161) showed what will eventually happen to an Intenet poser.

The writer hadn't received her purchase, and hadn't gotten a response from her e-mail. Later, her phone rang. a teenager at the other end apologised for the delay, and explained what the problem was. "...I can't get on my computer right now because my mother's vacuuming and this room only has one socket."

I've known people who were CEO, Director of Marketing, janitor and the office girl of the company, and whose website used phrases like "we provide quality service" and gave other indications of having at least some staff.

I understand how tempting it is to project the image of a substantial company, with a:

• Luxurious office suite
• Warehouse
• Loading dock and
• Parking lot

when all you've got is a corner of a room that you share with

• Several kids
• Your wife
• A music keyboard
• An electric guitar, and
• A chair buried under a pile of clothes

The problem, as I see it, of inflating your online image is that, sooner or later, somebody's going to notice. Then, you've got a credibility problem. If you were deceptive, or at least alternatively truthful, about the size of your company, what else have you been hiding?

I'd rather not have that sort of explaining to do.

Since many of my online projects make use of my personality, it's easier for me to be a one-man show than it would be for someone who was trying to run an online store or repair service.

Even so, I suspect that in the long run it's better to be more open about how many of you there actually are.

Monetizing Websites: What's Your opinion?

I'm trying out this blogging service's new poll function, and gather information about monetizing at the same time. Opinions, anyway.

If you've got more than a poll checkoff to share, please leave a comment on this post.

And, let me know what you think of polls like this.

Thanks!

Free Market of Ideas: Net Neutrality Activists

Unless you have a production and distribution budget the size of Universal Studios', and plan to never use the Internet, you should be concerned about this.

Ever since it became the latest biggest thing in mass media since movable type, powers that be have been trying to rein in the Internet.

I became concerned about this a few years ago when both liberal and conservative activists teamed up to "protect" the masses from the Wild, Wicked Web. And no, although they seemed to perceive the online world that way, they did not call it that.

I'm no fan of a great deal of what's online, and this family has measures in place to shield our kids from inappropriate content. Even so, my belief is:

A free and open Internet is dangerous only to those who fear the open exchange of ideas.

There are quite a few organizations and people who are also concerned. This is a short, and none-too-well-selected list:

Save The Internet

Save The Internet: the YouTube video

Net Neutrality: 21 days left to save the Internet on ghosts in the machine.

It's a little late, now, for ghosts in the machine's petition, but the same site has an update: What's next for net neutrality?. I sincerely hope that, as the article says, the "FCC will advocate the hands-off approach supported by the recent FTC report.... Stay tuned…"

For what it's worth, what follows is the text of a letter I contributed to Save The Internet. If you write a letter on this yourself, please - re-write this - use your own words - do not just cut and paste the text. The effectiveness of written pleas approaches zero when they're palpably copies of someone else's thoughts.

I am extremely concerned about the issue of "net neutrality" which has been discussed by many of my friends and acquaintances.

The Internet has been a wonderful opportunity for people, all people, to get involved in public debates: to share ideas, thoughts, and information, whether it passes approval of editors, studio executives, and others who control traditional mass media.

I beg of you, "please vote for enforceable network neutrality and keep tollbooths, gatekeepers, and discrimination off my Internet."

A free and open Internet is dangerous only to those who fear the open exchange of ideas.

Computers and Kids: Son of Return of the Sequel

It's almost a week since my kids and I discussed a new way for me to ensure that my software is left alone when I leave it alone.

Bringing the mini-saga up to date, the new process seems to be working. The kids have been paying attention to the okay-to-visit list. Just as good, my son talked to me about another site that was overlooked when we discussed the white list. He has my oral assurance that the site is okay to visit, and play games on: and I'll be updating the printed and posted list shortly.

I suppose that they could be sneaking visits behind my back, but between browser logs and the fact that my kids know that I know about such things, I think they're toeing the line.

Previous posts in this mini-saga:

• Computers and Kids: Return of the Sequel (June 27)


• Computers and Kids: the Sequel (June 26)


• Computers and Kids: Home-Based Business vs Bionicles (June 25)

Glancing at an Evolving Media Market, and Niche Marketing

If you're interested in the Web as a new and evolving media market, you've probably already read Seeking common factors in the Web 2.0 bubble, by Guy Kewney in The Register®.

Kewney's piece is partly a digest of a disagreement conducted with bits and bytes between Andrew Keen, author of "The Cult of the Amateur" and blogger Robert Scoble. What's repeated in The Register® reminds me a bit of Twain's "The Literary Offenses of J. Fennimore Cooper."

Kewney also discusses his view of traditional media, what's on the Web, and mass vs niche marketing.

I'm still a fan of niche marketing, but now I'll have to think about it.

Kewney's piece is an interesting, and at a minimum thought-starting, look at this new field of opportunities. If you're still reading this, go back up to that link and follow it. I think you'll find it worthwhile.

Busisness Models for the Information Age

Business owners don't have to understand economic theory or business models. When I lived on the west coast, a co-worker told me, referring to the location and manager of a particular restaurant, "any idiot could make a good profit there: and that guy's proof."

For the rest of us, it's not a bad idea to have at least a tenuous hold on some of the basics of business theory. I'd launched my small business before started to hit the books (virtual and otherwise) on the theoretical side of running a digital applecart. It may not be as crazy a choice as it looks: I have a little informal background in economics, a sort of gargle at that particular font of knowledge.

Besides, doing business in the Information Age is such a new phenomenon that I doubt that there are established, reliable, authoritative business models and economic theory dealing with the exchange of information in the Internet.

There are some very interesting ideas emerging, though. How valid they are is something we'll lean in time.

A series of blogs by Mike Masnick at Techdirt discuss what he thinks scarcity and non-scarcity mean now. (Thanks to The Mandelbear for telling me about these).

One of the ideas Mr. Masnick presented in "Scarcity Isn't As Scarce As You Might Think", the most recent of these blogs that I've read, is that attaching scarce items to non-scarce items makes good business sense.

As examples, he cites

* Marcus Loew, the theater owner, who said: "We sell tickets to theaters, not movies." The point here is that Loew attached movies (a non-scarce item, according to Masnick) with theater seats (a scarce item)

* Google, which attaches its index of information (non-scarce) with the attention of the online community they've formed (scarce)

* The String Cheese Incident, a band that assumes that "The more people are exposed to the music, the better it is for the band." Their (non-scarce) music draws people to the band's (scarce) concerts. TSCI even has a travel agency which makes money by "saving people time (scarce good!) and helping them secure flights (scarce good) and lodging (scarce good), all in the pursuit of access to the band (scarce good)who they value so much because of the music (non-scarce good)."

I'm going to study this series of blogs, and would appreciate opinions on how much sense Mr. Masnick's ideas make.

Here's a list of the related blogs that I know of:

• Economics Of Abundance Getting Some Well Deserved Attention
• The Importance Of Zero In Destroying The Scarcity Myth Of Economics
• The Economics Of Abundance Is Not A Moral Issue
• A Lack Of Scarcity Has (Almost) Nothing To Do With Piracy
• A Lack Of Scarcity Feeds The Long Tail By Increasing The Pie
• Why The Lack Of Scarcity In Economics Is Getting More Important Now
• History Repeats Itself: How The RIAA Is Like 17th Century French Button-Makers
• Infinity Is Your Friend In Economics
• Step One To Embracing A Lack Of Scarcity: Recognize What Market You're Really In
• Why I Hope The RIAA Succeeds
• Saying You Can't Compete With Free Is Saying You Can't Compete Period
• Perhaps It's Not The Entertainment Industry's Business Model That's Outdated
• An Economic Explanation For Why DRM Cannot Open Up New Business Model Opportunities
• Recognizing That Just About Any Product Is A Bundle Of Scarce And Non-Scarce Goods
• Scarcity Isn't As Scarce As You Might Think

Getting Attention

The best blog, or business, in the world won't get very far if nobody knows about it.

I wouldn't go as far as the performer who said, 'I don't care what you say: just spell my name right!' On the other hand, publicity is important.

For anything on the Web, that involves links, search engines, and communities. For this blog, I've already put links on web sites and other blogs that I control, and mentioned it on online communities that I've joined. Today, I'm creating a Technorati Profile. Someone with a longer history in the blogosphere would have been Technoratified long ago, but I'm new to blogging, with much more to learn.

I don't know that "Technoratified" was a word until I used it in the previous paragraph. Language is a wonderful thing, with new words appearing, old words getting new meanings, and and some words dropping out of use.

But that's a topic for another post.

Tales From the Geek Side: Son of The Return

Uff da.

A correspondent was kind enough to point out that I'd left out the "//" in yesterday's post's link.

I've fixed it, now.

And the moral of this story is: writing while tired, and then publishing what you wrote, isn't necessarily a good idea.

It's about as smart as proofing your own work: which I also did.

Uff da.