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Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/50299513/
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Friday, December 28, 2012
Shy of the Social Media Spotlight? Get Over It. - Dorie Clark ...
I recently taught a workshop on crisis communication at a top business school. Afterward, a mid-career executive came up to me with a question. But it wasn't about how to handle rogue employees, or industrial accidents, or philandering CEOs. Instead, it concerned a far more personal sense of crisis: her overwhelming fear of public criticism if she became active on social media. She was an accomplished professional; she'd run an environmental consultancy for the past six years. And she knew some kind of web presence was necessary for her credibility. "You have to have something up there for people to find you," she said. "Having nothing would be bad." But her web presence was spartan, a throwback to the "Web 1.0" days of static, brochure-like sites. Anything else, she feared, might risk opprobrium.
She isn't the only executive I've met who shares this concern. Sure, some professionals hesitate to get onboard social media because they're worried about the time it takes, or running afoul of company policies, or simply because business is so robust, they don't feel they need to. But a healthy subset are genuinely afraid that if they're perceived as seeking attention, they'll be quickly put back in their place. This fall, I coached the senior executive team at a large charitable foundation. One leader ? a true expert in her field ? raised a stream of polite objections to the idea of increasing her social media presence. Finally, I pressed her: "What exactly is your concern?" She wilted slightly and took a deep breath. "I'm not really comfortable putting myself out there," she said.
It's ironic, of course. We can all cite examples of social media bloviators we wish would shut up. And meanwhile, you have knowledgeable professionals who are too afraid to share their insights with the world. It's true that the World Wide Web of the mid-90s was a Wild West; there's a reason AOL thrived for years as a "walled garden" that protected people from idiots spewing ad hominem insults in chatrooms. But with the decline of anonymity on the Web (hat tip to Mark Zuckerberg, who famously declared that "Having two identities for yourself is an example of lack of integrity") and the rise of using the Internet for professional purposes, it's much less likely that anyone ? especially someone writing intelligently about their profession, rather than a hot button political issue ? will get "flamed" these days.
The other fallacy, quickly revealed to those who do start blogging or tweeting, is that hordes of people will be anxiously following what you write. In fact, the early days of social media use can be quite lonely. Is anyone paying attention? Why am I spending so much energy on this? Is this a complete waste of time? I (jokingly) try to convince these executives that it would actually be a good problem to have if they started getting hate mail because it would mean they were hitting a chord with the public. Of course, that's no comfort to a shy person who abhors conflict or confrontation.
But the truth is, a far more likely scenario is that for the first few weeks or months you're active online, you probably won't get any comments, much less negative ones. And that's actually good, as I wrote about in my recent HBR post "Build Your Reputation the Rachael Ray Way." A necessary step in developing a powerful reputation is spending time "toiling in the wilderness" and perfecting your craft and ideas while few people are paying attention. That fact turns out to reassure many of the apprehensive executives I work with, who realize that creating "public" content doesn't mean it will immediately be dissected and critiqued by the entire world.
Finally, since the spotlight feels so uncomfortable to these leaders, I advise them to kickstart their social media presence by shining the light on others. Presenting themselves as experts (even though they are) often strikes them as presumptuous or pretentious. But writing "how to" or "here's what you should do" blog posts isn't the only option. Instead, you can interview other thinkers you admire, or write about good work in your industry. I encouraged the foundation executive to retweet positive stories from the nonprofits she funds, and the environmental consultant to create a podcast featuring conversations with talented colleagues. The act of curation ? not just creation ? also positions you as someone credible, and has the added benefit of tightening your connections with other leaders in your field.
It's hard enough for diffident professionals to "put themselves out there" in the regular context of work. Social media makes it even worse ? a risky, high-speed word-of-mouth machine they feel they can't control. But it's also, as my student admitted, increasingly essential. Having nothing, or only some paltry wisps, representing you online now marks you as out of touch (she's not even on LinkedIn?), inconsequential (what, she never did anything important enough to be written about?), or even suspicious (why isn't there any evidence she ever worked there?). It can be hard to adjust to the new workplace reality, where everyone is expected to use an online megaphone. But if you think of it as an opportunity to raise the discourse, focus on meaningful ideas, and draw attention to worthy people and causes, even the most wary might learn to love social media.
Source: http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/12/shy_of_the_social_media_spotli.html
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Thursday, December 27, 2012
California meteorite reveals secrets thanks to crowdsourcing (+video)
Recently published research describes a collection of meteorite pieces that landed in California in April. The study came about through a group effort dubbed "crowdsourcing" by the lead scientist. ??
Barely eight months after a fireball lit up California and Nevada skies, the first scientific paper is out examining the meteorites it left behind.
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"It was done very quickly," said Peter Jenniskens, a meteor researcher who suddenly found himself managing a small army of volunteers when the Sutter's Mill meteor broke up April 22.
Dozens of scientists jumped to Jenniskens' aid as he?searched for meteorite fragments. But less publicized will be the volunteers who phoned in reports of meteorites, or sent in?pictures and video of the fireball?by e-mail.
Jenniskens' team?commandeered an airship?to search for fragments. Meanwhile, the team caught a lucky break ? Doppler radar information from nearby weather stations showed the track of the meteorite. Adding this data to the pictures and video sent in by volunteers, the scientists could reconstruct the impacting asteroid's early history. [Photos: Fireball Drops Meteorites On California]
According to Jenniskens, the paper, to be published Friday (Dec. 21) in the journal Science,?was made possible by the mass crowdsourcing effort that enabled a large amount of data to be collected in a short time.
"It's all very important, and it's fantastic how this came together," said Jenniskens, a meteor astronomer at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). "For me, it was personally very exciting."
Peeling back the years
The Sutter's Mill meteorite turned out to be a rare type ? a?carbonaceous chondrite?that contains information about the early stages of the solar system. The meteorite pieces originated in a space rock that was perhaps as much as 3.3 yards (3 meters) across.
A space rock is called an asteroid or meteoroid until it hits the Earth's atmosphere. The resulting fireball is then called a meteor until it hits the ground, at which point it is dubbed a meteorite.
The asteroid that would later impact California orbited the sun in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, making about three trips around our star in the time it takes Jupiter to orbit once. Such a ratio, known as a resonance, is common in the solar system ? some of?Jupiter's moons are in resonance?with each other, for example.
The asteroid's resonance was a little "off" from a perfect 3 to 1 ratio. At some point, Jupiter's strong gravity muscled the asteroid out of its normal orbit and sent it on a trip to the inner solar system. This pushed the asteroid into a new orbit that brought it in as far as Mercury's orbit when it got closest to the sun.
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Who Is Brian Schatz, the New U.S. Senator From Hawaii? (Atlantic Politics Channel)
The One-Eyed Man Is King
A man of the highest social echelon, as evidenced by his choice of eyewearStudio-Annika/iStockphoto.
Eustice Tilley, the dandyish mascot of The New Yorker, telegraphs his estimable class status with a number of chic-yet-dignified sartorial choices, a top hat and topcoat among them. But the accessory that most efficiently communicates Mr. Tilley?s caste is his monocle: a single, bespoke lens secured round his neck by a fine string and held aloft before his discerning eye. By the time Tilley graced The New Yorker?s inaugural cover in 1925, the image of the bemonocled man-about-town had already become a thing of caricature. How did the monocle become a symbol of wealth?
It was a symbol of wealth from the start. The standard monocle is essentially a small magnifying glass without a handle (though early versions generally had one). The monocle can be helpful in reading small print and before the advent of modern refractive-error testing it was thought to be capable of correcting myopia, but sporting one as a general part of one?s attire was always something of a fashionable affectation. Like the lorgnette, spyglass, and, a direct ancestor, the quizzing glass, the monocle basically originated as a faddish accessory of those with the cash and the inclination to purchase such things. It was most popular with the moneyed classes in Europe in the 1820s and ?30s, and experienced a revival in the 1890s.
Though the exact origins of the monocle are unclear, fashion historian Richard Corson sets their general appearance around the turn of the 19th century in Great Britain, with quick adoption and further development in Germany. According to a 1950 article from Optical Journal, from the beginning the single lens carried with it ?an air of conscious elegance,? making it ripe for ridicule: ?[O]ne had the feeling the wearer was being a trifle foolish, an attitude which resulted to some extent from the fact that monocles frequently did not fit and kept dropping out of place.?
Indeed, the impractical design of monocles ensured their status as a luxurious object. In order to avoid muscle strain, the frame of the monocle?which may be made of gold, silver, tortoise shell, and other materials?must be custom-fitted to the wearer?s eye, an expensive proposition. Additional support may come from a ?gallery,? a raised edge that helps keep the lens away from the wearer?s eyelashes and more firmly ensconced in the eye orbit. Due to their sensitivity to gravity, monocles are almost always attached to a chain or string.
The association of monocles with a stereotype of the rich, especially with the rich and pretentious, began at least as early as Charles Dickens? skewering of young Mr. Barnacle?s intractable eyepiece in Little Dorrit, serialized between 1855 and 1857. In America, the image was largely popularized by E.A. Sothern?s portrayal of the silly English nobleman Lord Dundreary in Our American Cousin, first performed in 1858.
Still, there?s traditionally been at least some demand for the eyepiece among the less-moneyed. Mass-produced monocles of inferior quality were available throughout the 1800s and worn by men?and occasionally women?of more modest means. Currently, a monocle in ?whisky tortoise? can be had from the eye-dresser Warby Parker for $50.
Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=5a176aa52cce0f38494e34528b05ed84
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Starbucks urges lawmakers to 'come together' in a retail campaign
(Reuters) - Starbucks Corp
Chief Executive Howard Schultz is urging workers in Starbucks' roughly 120 Washington-area shops to write "come together" on customers' cups on Thursday and Friday, as U.S. President Barack Obama and lawmakers return to work and attempt to revive fiscal cliff negotiations that collapsed before the Christmas holiday.
Starbucks' cup campaign aims to send a message to sharply divided politicians and serve as a rallying cry for the public in the days leading up to lawmakers' January 1 deadline to deliver a plan to avert harsh across-the-board government spending reductions and tax increases that could send the United States back into recession.
"We're paying attention, we're greatly disappointed in what's going on and we deserve better," Schultz told Reuters in a telephone interview.
The CEO said he has joined a growing list of high-powered business leaders, politicians and financial experts in endorsing the Campaign to Fix the Debt, (www.fixthedebt.org) a well-funded nonpartisan group that is leaning on lawmakers to put the United States' financial house in order.
Starbucks plans to amplify its "come together" message via new and old media, including Twitter and Facebook posts, coverage on AOL's local news websites and advertisements in The Washington Post and The New York Times.
"If (talks) do not progress, we will make this much bigger," Schultz said of the messaging campaign.
Schultz is no stranger to using the world's biggest coffee chain as a platform to advocate for more political cooperation in Washington.
During the debt ceiling debate in August 2011, he made a splash by calling for a boycott of political contributions to U.S. lawmakers until they struck a fair and bipartisan deal on the country's debt, revenue and spending.
"We are facing such dysfunction, irresponsibility and lack of leadership" less than two years after the debt ceiling crisis, Schultz said.
Washington narrowly avoided a U.S. government default, but not before down-to-the-wire wrangling prompted the country's first-ever debt rating downgrade.
"There is something so wrong that we can be here again and not have the ability to put party aside for the betterment of the country," said Schultz. "We have the same language and rhetoric. Unfortunately we aren't learning much."
(Reporting by Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles; Editing by Martin Howell and Jeffrey Benkoe)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/starbucks-cups-send-fiscal-cliff-message-lawmakers-130316123--finance.html
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Winter storm whips into Northeast
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) ? The death toll from a powerful winter storm that pushed through the nation's midsection into the Northeast has risen to 7.
Officials in Ohio are blaming the bad weather for a crash that killed an 18-year-old girl, who lost control of her car Wednesday afternoon and smashed into an oncoming snow plow on a highway northeast of Cincinnati.
The storm is expected to drop one to two feet of snow on parts of the Northeast just a day after it swept through the nation's middle, dumping a record snowfall in Arkansas and ruining holiday travel plans.
The National Weather Service says the Northeast's heaviest accumulations will be in northern Pennsylvania, upstate New York and inland sections of several New England states before the storm heads to Canada on Friday.
Despite the wet weather, no flights are delayed Thursday morning cities like New York, Philadelphia and Boston.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/storm-whips-northeast-bringing-snow-rain-093047903--finance.html
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