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The Federal government is continuing to announce awards from the USDA (just one in California and it’s not for our region) and the Dept. of Commerce (nothing for California) for the first round of broadband stimulus funds. Now the second round of the application process is gearing up. They will be holding workshops around the country and providing live Webinars (one from Portland is going on this morning). In my most recent Tech Beat article I included a reference to Gary Vaynerchuck’s Crush It! If you are looking for a blueprint for building a successful online business, you should consider reading this small (148 pp) book. It’s both inspiring and cautionary. If you can absorb both of those feelings and take them to heart you can also follow Vaynerchuck’s recommendations on how to build a personal brand and thereby create a variety of income streams both on and off line. Vaynerchuck begins the book with his “secret to success”: “Love your family, work superhard, live your passion.” Then he proceeds to tell his personal story to illustrate how he as followed those 3 rules to build a $60 million business. The inspiration Briefly, he began working in his father’s local liquor store in New Jersey. He started out as a stock boy and cashier, but he eventually found a niche by reinventing how wine is reviewed and sold. Eschewing the enigmatic language with how wine was described and marketed he decided he wanted to make wine accessible to the average buyer. This helped him greatly expand the liquor store sales. But it was when he went online with his unique approach that things really exploded. And here is where his story will be of most interest to the online entrepreneur. Vaynerchuck lays out a set of steps if you want to follow his model for building a personal brand. If you watch his videos on Winelibrary.tv or elsewhere on the web you may not think you can or want to turn yourself into another GaryVee. He is well aware that his story and personality may not be a fit for everyone. And he provides some alternative paths. He also throws out some quick examples of people in other professions who are following their passions and even offers ideas for other businesses you could pursue. But be warned, it ain’t easy! But the cautionary thoughts are also woven throughout the book: Don’t attempt this if you do not have a real passion for the product, service or concept you want to market because while the online tools are free or relatively cheap, the true cost is the investment of time you will need to make in order to succeed. You have to truly “live your passion” because outside of your family it will become your life. You can’t approach this casually. But if you believe in what you are doing, the work should be fun. Follow the steps outlined in the book. Do many of them over and over again. In fact, you don’t even have to buy the book. Just find a copy and memorize Appendix A where he lists 21 steps. To quote a few:
Not a complete how to This is a book to read to get you to turn off the TV and get busy. However, if you’re looking for specific instructions on how to use the various social media tools such as Facebook or Twitter you will need to look elsewhere. I plan to review other books and resources on social media and other topics here in the future. So check back.
Apparently there is also a Vook (video book version), too. In one week I will turn f’ing 58! There is no reversing time. But you can get stuck on a rock as the river flows around you. A friend asked me a couple weeks ago on his birthday if I ever felt like letting go of trying to keep up with new developments in technology. I have, in fact, thought about it. Sometimes it feels overwhelming. Sometimes I get tired. Always I am aware of how little I really know and how small a piece of the world of technology I am aware of and have time to follow. But letting it all go would mean what? Maybe I would return to something more true, like writing fiction and poetry where my heart was for so many years. Maybe I would return to theater where I spent 20 years of my professional life. Maybe I would just find more time to kayak (which has it’s own interminable depths of hardware and learning and technological advances). I’ve been doing tech for 20 years now, though, so it’s become so much a part of me, it would be hard to stop learning and trying new things. Back when I started, tech was a fun side note to my “real life” in theater and academia. Now, as with so many people, it permeates everything I do. And I have lots of ideas and projects that will keep me moving ahead for quite a while. Still, I need to keep in perspective that all the apps and gadgets are really just a means to connect with real people, no matter how many robots I come in contact with. Happy new year. Happy birthday to me!
According to this Wall Street Journal blog post, the FCC is considering setting an average speed of 2-4 mbs for it plans for improved broadband coverage plan that will be released soon. While this is a much better target than the previous 200 kbs figure the FCC had previously defined as broadband, it still seems terribly shortsighted and will leave us continually trying to play catch up with the rest of the developed world. Of course, deploying higher speeds will be more expensive, but here is the key sentence in this article:
That means for an increase of 2.5 times the cost we would get more than 15 times the speed! And while 3 mbps might be adequate for most users today, if you are building an infrastructure for the future 50 mpbs may not even a high enough target. Let’s make a real investment in the future and get a robust data delivery system. Given what the short life of the Internet has already unleashed, there is just no telling what fantastic new products and services will arise from all corners of the country. Even the rural ones. I know I should be pronouncing my gratitude for health, family, friends, good fortune and all that. And I am truly thankful for those things. But who couldn’t say that? Instead, I thought I’d take today to make a categorized list of my favorite podcasts. I go to the gym 2-3 times per week, and run about 40 minutes each day I don’t go to the gym. I wouldn’t survive these trials if didn’t have my IPhone full of stuff to keep my mind occupied while my body toils away. Because I have so many I really enjoy, I try to find other times in the week to listen to my favorite shows. I know most people listen to music when they work out, but I use the time to stay informed on news, economics, and technology. Or I listen to interviews of writers, or stories told or read. I don’t think my collection is particularly unique. Most of these are pretty well-known. But there may be one or two you might not have heard of. I would certainly love to have your suggestions of great shows in the comments. I can always find time to listen to something new. General News and Commentary
News and Culture Interviews
Fiction and Non-Fictions Stories
Technology
Economics
Miscellaneous
I subscribe to several others. But I can’t listen to them all regularly, and some are video podcasts, which I don’t like to watch while I’m working out. I usually watch them on my laptop. Feel free to comment on this list and to share your favorites. Yesterday was declared the birthday of the Internet. It’s been an amazing 40 years. And the next 40 years will be even more amazing as the developments are accelerating. But one of the roadblocks to this future online world is our inadequate infrastructure – the too thin, too fragile tubes that are supposed to carry the rising flood of data. The 7 billion or so dollars the Federal government is supposed to pass out for broadband infrastructure improvements, particularly for rural and underserved areas holds a lot of promise. But the distribution of those funds for real projects is hellishly slow and fraught with confusion. For example, the first announced stimulus money is going to several states to undertake studies to map where broadband is deployed and where it isn’t. More studies? Don’t we already know where better broadband service is needed? Now we learn that the current round of proposals that were supposed to be announced in early November won’t be announced until December. Given the number of questions raised by Congress there may be further delays while those questions and issues get sorted out. What constitutes “remote” for example:
Pretty crucial. In the meantime, locally, several proposals have been submitted and are waiting to learn if they will receive funding. Apparently, there is a short list but I have not found any information on which projects, if any, are on that list. Among the original proposals is one by Broadband Associates to build fiber along 299 with local access points along the way. A competing proposal by IP Networks along Highway 36 that would not be providing local access. The latter project has a application before the California Public Utilities Commission’s California Advanced Services Fund (CASF). (Download the PDF for this grant application) Several local entities including the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors and Assemblymember Wesley Chesbro have sent letters of support to CASF for this project. But others in the region are concerned that if the IP Networks project is funded either by California or the Federal Government, it will preclude funding for any other projects such as Broadband Associate’s 299 fiber build. This confusion and lack of unity as to what’s best for the region suggests a need for creating a region-wide telecommunications committee that would be able to address the region as a whole and provide planning and guidance in a coordinated way. There has been some discussion over creating such an entity, but nothing formal has emerged. It would be a shame if we started working at cross purposes instead of making wise choices that benefit the most people now and in to the future. Drupal,the open source content management system that we use almost exclusively for building web sites, is now being used to run the official White House web site, whitehouse.gov. For the general public this will mean little as they won’t see any visible difference in the site. But it’s great news for us, It’s good for us because it lends authority to our choice of systems. While we have no doubts that Drupal is a robust and flexible platform that can be used to build just about any imaginable site, current and potential clients will more easily accept Drupal as a quality solution (perhaps even if they don’t agree with the policies of the current government). As quoted in the AP article:
That’s quite an endorsement. In case you’re interested, Dries Buytaert, the founder of the Drupal project keeps a pretty current list of other high visibility Drupal sites. The current government’s use of Drupal lends considerable credibility to the efforts of the Drupal community as a whole. Drupal has made tremendous advances in the last few years, and the next major release will again move the system out in front of the pack. These achievements have been largely accomplished by hours and hours of volunteer efforts by many developers around the world. Finally, using Drupal for one of the most visible government web sites indicates a confidence that the open source model will make the site more secure, that the collaborative process of hundreds of developers will help the site remain on top of the tech wave rather than being drowned, and will encourage other government entities to move in that direction. Tim O’Reilly has some more specific thoughts on the use of open source by the government. Some people think social media is a fad. It’s possible that the tools we know today such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and so many others are fads. But is the trend itself going to fade? What do you think? Is it a fad a powerful shift in the way we communicate and consume information and goods? When the Federal government announced that $7 billion would become available to improve the broadband infrastructure, some folks around here got excited. When it became clear that much of the funding would be given to help rural and under served areas, some of those folks got to work. At first it seemed the best approach would be to cobble together a regional proposal that would present a large enough profile to draw the attention of the funding agencies. To that end several people from HSU, the Humboldt Area Foundation and other agencies began to plan a strategy to bundle a number of possible projects that would span multiple counties, bring middle mile fiber through several paths, provide redundancy and offer access to local ISPs to serve rural areas. The idea was modeled on a regional water resources project that got high praises from state officials. Then the Feds handed down the rules. You see, all this work was speculative. No one really knew what the rules for applying would be. But the people I met with felt a regionally organized and presented application would be preferred to a bunch of unrelated, potentially competing smaller proposals. Wrong. The Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) laid down rules that essentially derailed any kind of regional aggregated application. I won’t go in to details about those rules here. But suffice to say that in one sense, everyone who wanted to do a broadband project in the area was on their own. How the Feds expect to sort out the potentially competing proposals, especially with our unique regional geography, demographics, economics and history of broadband activism is beyond me. And may be beyond them as well. While the dream of a grand unified regional broadband proposal has died for this round of funding, the groundwork that was laid for such a project may not go in vain. For one, there has been a coalescing of county government and economic development people who have been attempting to vet some of the known projects being put forward. They have identified four projects that they feel have the potential to meet many of the goals they were striving for in their own proposal. These are: Redwood Telephone: Which would build a middle mile fiber network from Southern Humboldt to the Oregon border and connect to Charter Communications in Oregon and AT&T fiber in the south. This proposal features Fiber to the Premises along the 101 corridor and feeders in to the rural areas of the region. They also promise low cost fiber for government services. AccessMendo: Would build a middle mile network for Mendocino County but will also extend in to parts of Southern Humboldt. Broadband Associates: The original company that won state funding for building a fiber line along the 299 corridor. This project would provide access points for wired and wireless ISPs to offer last mile services. IP Networks: Originally this proposal was going to build middle mile along the Highway 36 corridor. But in the last few days seems to have morphed in to a complete loop that ties Highway 36 to a fiber line along 299 and provide access points along the way. As the deadline for applications approached (originally this was supposed to be Friday, August 14) this proposal has continued to morph. The proposals have been seeking letters of endorsement from government entities and other organizations and people of influence. But with such a short turn around time, shifting proposals and a shortage of expertise for assessing the proposals, many have been relying on Kathy Moxon from the Humboldt Area Foundation to provide some guidance on what to endorse. The deadline for applications has since been extended to August 20, so I assume the field will change again between now and then. Once this round of proposals get shipped out with whatever viability they can muster, people will begin planning for the next round of funding, which appears to be several months off, armed with what was learned and organized in preparation for this initial round. I have no idea if any of the above proposal will get funding, or if some others that I am not aware of will find favor with the Feds. So much still seems to be unknown about this process. But I’m certain that by the time the next proposals are due the landscape will be sure to have changed considerably. I’d heard from some people that work at Humboldt State University that they are moving their web sites to Drupal. But a link from a friend on Facebook (thanks Grace!) confirmed it. Not only are they moving to Drupal, but they are installing the LAMP stack (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) on the servers. So it looks like HSU is embracing open source big time. This is such a good move considering all the budget cuts the state university systems are facing. It’s not easy converting such a big institution to new platforms. I hope the conversion goes smoothly. Would love to help them with Drupal if they ever wanted to reach out for some consulting. Now, if only I could convince Humboldt County to switch to open source…think of the money they’d save. I love this article about the Boston Police Dept. using social media to track down bicycle thieves. Where are our local law enforcement services with this stuff? Anyone know? Things are changing at the local, state and national level. Most of the changes look horrible: Rising unemployment, lowering retail sales, budget deficits, foreclosures…. But out of this rubble some good thing may come. Sean McLaughlin from Access Humboldt sums up some of the positive changes that may create an more robust telecommunications infrastructure for us here on the North Coast in today’s Tech Thursday article. Much of these changes, if we pull it off, will be a direct result of the economic crisis by funneling recovery money in to projects that will build broadband structures to server rural region now and in to the future. We’re a long way from these changes being a done deal. But the possibilities are exciting and give a glimmer of hope to offset a bit of all the gloomy economic news. Update 2: This morning my account was restored. Yay! It appears it was human error. Go figger. Update: Apparently I am not alone. It seems there has been a sudden influx of suspended accounts. So something is awry with Twitter. It’s not me. Suddenly, this afternoon, I stopped receiving tweets in my desktop application (Tweetdeck). So I went to Twitter.com and lo and behold my account has been suspended. Say what? I hadn’t even posted anything today. That says: “This account is currently suspended and is being investigated due to strange activity. If we have suspended your account mistakenly, please let us know. See Suspended Accounts for more information.” So, I quickly wrote to Support and got an automated reply. In case you’re wondering, here’s the reasons they give for suspending an account:
I obviously hadn’t done any of these things. So, I waited a while but got no further correspondence. I checked the support page and it said my issue had been resolved! Except it hadn’t. Still suspended. So, I wrote another message in reply, re-opening my support ticket. 2 hours later, as of this posting, I’m still untwittered. Kind of an uncomfortable position to be in as I’m doing a talk on social media this week…There goes the live demo of Twitter. I had to try 3 times, but I got my dang blog back after upgrading to WP 2.8. I have to say that as complex as Drupal can be, I’ve never had much problem upgrading within a version. But I always seem to have some glitch with Wordpress. And Drupal gets easier and easier, faster and faster. As if I needed someone to tell me that at 57 I am, to most of the world, an old guy. One of the tools I use to monitor Twitter, let me know that someone tweeted the following: “ashromano : @rmorse8843 omg ur gonna die go look at bob morse he is this old guy!!!!! its great.i miss you already LMAOO” Let me interpret: ashromano is the Twitter name for one Ashley Romano. She has no profile on Twitter, but I suspect from her photo that she’s about 18. She wanted to send a Tweet to her friend who also happens to be named Bob Morse. Unfortunately, she guessed wrong about his Twiiter name. Then she looked up @bobmorse and yes, found out, OMG! He’s an old guy!!!!!. I suspect all the extra exclamation points means like, really old. I sent @ashromano a Tweet back saying I was grateful for the declaration and hoped I could now get a discount at Denny’s. But I doubt she will read the message. I don’t think she understands much about Twitter. BTW, I was confused by LMAOO. As far as I can tell it’s a typo for LMAO. Which I knew without looking up, stands for Laughing My Ass Off. Oh. And BTW 2, it looks like I’ll be teaching a class in all this new fangled communication stuff to a bunch of other old folks this Fall as part of OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute) through Humbldt State. And BTW 3 you can follow the REAL Bob Morse on Twitter. |
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It was sort of a mini-review within a longer article. I thought I’d give the book more thorough treatment here where word count is not an issue.
the Drupal community and the open source movement as a whole. But it’s also an interesting political statement by the current administration in embracing an opens source platform over a commercial system.
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