wallydownundy

On 31 December 2011 I flew into Hong Kong to live. It was a propitious day to start a new chapter. By the time I unpacked and settled in, midnight had passed in my old hometown of Sydney.

I first lived in Hong Kong from 1996 to 1999. My colleague Noel Parrott at the time said, “Hong Kong will be a great city when they finish building it.” For those who’ve been here you know the building never stops. The General Post Office in Central was waterfront when I lived here. Today it’s separated from the harbour by a six lane highway.

More has changed than the waterfront. Hong Kong is one of the most cyber-connected cities in the world. Social media consultants WeAreSocial have a dynamite presentation on the facts and figures of connectivity in this island nation. More than 100% of the population have mobile phones (that means most people have two or more devices).

Yet it’s odd to see few businesses embracing the opportunities that well-connected Smart Phone users present, such as Geo-Tagging. What’s that? It means a site that allows us to share our physical location, through the use of Smart Phones and Global Positioning Systems (GPS). These services let you “show” your friends exactly where you are – and it creates a digital trail as to where you’ve been.

The leading App in this space is “Four Square” as well as “Facebook Places”. To start download the App then create an account – if you do, search for WallyBalloo (that’s me – an old childhood nickname). Then when you go to a place you “Check In”. It’s that simple!

Geo-locating Apps will be of interest to businesses as users can also sign in to receive push notifications. Checked into a Starbucks? You can get a discounted coffee. Near a gym? They may send you a special offer. Banks may offer reduced credit card fees. Restaurants may offer “2 for 1” specials.

At the moment this is a consumer-driven application. Other Apps using this are “Instagram” – a photo sharing App that geo-tags the location of the photo taken. If you use these services you might also download “Sonar” that amalgamates all the various geo-locating check-ins and tells you who is in the vicinity (there are 3 people now checked into Kinwick Centre).

For now, here are some Instagram initial impressions of Hong Kong…enjoy!

Newcomers to Twitter are likely to assume the transient nature of the communiques mean no one will pay attention to their Tweets. Look at the medium - even if you follow a few dozen people the updates scroll down your monitor at a fairly rapid pace. It’s tough to know who reads your 140 character messages.

Same with text messages - with billions sent around the planet each day, who’s going to read them all, let along look back at the archives?

US Congressman Anthony Weiner has learned the hard way that nothing says forever like Twitter. This Democrat from the state of New York was shamed yesterday when announcing lewd images and messages had been sent by him. Earlier when the messages were unearthed he claimed his account had been compromised.

The sordid affair reeks on two levels. First we don’t expect elected representatives to be sending near-naked images of themselves to housewives. (His famous chest shot is in today’s The Australian but you have to search Google images to find his underwear image. Apologies for not hot-linking that memory.) Nor do we expect to find their text streams with porn actresses.

But once the news has been discovered, the second level of disappointment comes from the series of lies told to feebly cover the trail. Congressman Weiner claimed his Twitter account had been hacked and those images of him were sent by someone else. (Amazingly most thought photos of his near naked torso would be kept in a location safe from hackers.)

In true Washington fashion, Congressman Weiner held a press conference and apologised. His confession was coupled with tears of shame. Today the on-line and traditional media are covering “Weinergate” - see The Daily Conversation on YouTube.

For those familiar with Twitter and Facebook and texting, there’s no need for a reminder that these messages are permanent. Ask the college student who posted he was too hungover to go to work but forgot that he’d friended his boss. Ask any of the overnight celebrities made famous (or infamous) by YouTube. (Don’t cry for UCLA Girl - her video rant against Asians in the library went viral and she wound up leaving UCLA.) But for a newcomer the flickering screen of message after message leads to the incorrect assumption that these messages last moments.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Just ask Congressman Weiner. The fact that each message is saved and stored and archived means a quick review of the account brings up all a person’s postings. And it looks as if there will be a permanent, open archive of all these Tweets.

In April last year Twitter announced the US Library of Congress would archive every Tweet since the platform’s inception.  That will give tomorrow’s historians ample materials to research.

Maybe they’ll help future generations of Congressmen understand that nothing says forever like Twitter.

Just when you believe you’re technologically savvy….

Two weeks ago my web server was closed and I needed to migrate to a new domain host. Sounds simple enough? Yet for two weeks I’ve struggled to re-build and relocate WallyDownUndy to the new site. What could have been, should have been an easy migration was complicated by technology issues that went just over my head. How do you point your DNS to another name server? How do you migrate five years of content to a new location?

In the end lots of mistakes - and a ten day down time - came together. My blog is back in action and it appears to be working smoothly.

For anyone who arrived to find an error message, my apologies. And if you weren’t here for ten days then that’s fine, too. You didn’t miss anything!

I’ve learned to live with ongoing computer problems. It’s like walking with a stone in your shoe. At first you limp but then you learn to bear the pain and soldier on. It’s so much easier than calling the IT Guy.

Why is it long-term PC problems disappear the moment you call an IT person? It’s humiliating to try and re-create the annoying problem. Because the minute the IT Guy (or Gal) is over my shoulder it suddenly disappears. (And no, I don’t call them just to annoy them!)

Today I had John Cuthbertson of The Website Clinic on the phone. I’d looked everywhere to find how to edit my home page. (See that funny sidebar with my photo just to the right? Couldn’t edit that to save my life!)

John called back in under 10 minutes and directed me to the widgets page on Wordpress. Naturally. Don’t we all edit text in our widgets?

Perhaps it’s the technology link that keeps so many professionals off blogging. After all, we can afford flat-screen plasma televisions even if we can’t operate the remote. Whatever you do - don’t call the IT Guy. More than likely the date and time will stop flashing and your favourite recordings will be all lined up. Darn!

PS: Ignore this logo. It’s for my job and I couldn’t figure out how to get it over there (look right) without first uploading it here. Damned if I was going to call John back!

Nielsen Research this week released a report showing 60% of all users abandon Twitter in the first month of use. The pessimist would say that shows the transient nature of the tool. The optimist would say there are millions more staying on-line. The realist - and the business communicator - would say this on-line phenomenon needs to be understood and tapped into - fast!

The best presentation on Twitter is on SlideShare - access it to learn how to use Twitter in your business.

Using Twitter to Connect with Audiences

View more presentations from Corinne .

The Pope is imploring Catholics to give up social media networks and texting for Lent. Oddly enough he made this request on The Vatican YouTube channel. He doesn’t want followers to substitute virtual world friendships for real world friendships. (Farewell Silk Charm, tell Laura I’ll miss her.) He says over-use of on-line mediums:

 ”…may isolate individuals from real social interaction while also disrupting the patterns of rest, silence and reflection that are necessary for healthy human development”.  (Source: The Australian)

Now it may sound odd but in a funny way I agree with the man. Too much of a good things is…great? No! Living on-line to the exclusion of real-world friendships is wrong. Every once in awhile it pays to leave the PC and see what’s going on in the 3D world.

Yet I don’t think the plea hits the mark. (And I can’t risk offending die-hard Catholics now because, really, you’re not supposed to be here!) Had earlier Popes warned about too much radio? Excessive television time? In olden days were we warned to stay away from Punch & Judy shows?

Seems the very Pope who is trying to embrace digital technologies shows his lack of understanding. Social media is a channel and texting is a method of communication - no more, no less. These allow one-to-one communications - or with PopeTube, one to many. The on-line world is a great way to connect with the exact people who share your enthusiasms and interests. And for teens, texting is a cheap alternative to mobile phone calls that retain and reinforce the very ties that make a community.

Since his youth the Pope has seen the village square replaced with an interconnected global network. My best friend may no longer be across town. He may be on another continent. And because it’s Lent am I to forego friendship? I don’t think so.

Now here’s one last test - let’s check YouTube to ensure there are no updates between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday. After all, if it’s good for the goose….

I was in Beijing for a week and got home yesterday - I attended the International Public Relations Association (IPRA) semi-annual global conference. This was a great event with attendees from every corner of the world. I met Nigerians, Poles, Swedes, Americans, Canadians, Peruvians, Taiwanese and Chinese public relations professionals. Day One began with a session in the Great Hall of the People on Tienanmen Square.

Yet I could not blog during my visit. WallyDownUndy is blocked in China.

It’s odd to encounter censorship first-hand. As an Australian-American I have always enjoyed freedom of speech. And part of that freedom includes being critical of government when you believe government is wrong or irresponsible. (From Monica Lewinsky to Weapons of Mass Destruction I’m an equal opportunity critic.)

In the past I’ve blogged about China. An earlier post shows the Tibet riots on YouTube. Whenever I mention Taiwan my readership spikes - even more than the time I mentioned Pamela Lee Anderson! (Go Taiwan!)  So a censor in China decided my blog did not meet their readership criteria.

I didn’t cotton on immediately. It started when I was trying to mark a comment as spam. (Note to spammers: Comments about ’sex tapes’ do stand out on a blog about global public relations trends. Our executives are not that spicy.) I assumed it was a bad Internet connection and tried the next morning.

Given that I could not managed comments and could not post, I then tried to read the blog. It was then I realised it was blocked. Other blogs were open and available.

So my apologies to anyone in China who previously enjoyed my blog. And to fellow bloggers, a recommendation: Denounce China in any posting and you’ll be censored.

Writing a blog is a little bit like performing on film. You never know who will see it, what they’ll think and if it even gets a viewing. Will my blog be straight-to-DVD?

Yesterday in a meeting I was trying to express my passion for writing. The other person said they knew already. They read this blog and really liked the style! It was a wonderful validation and will fuel another fortnight’s postings.

Then of course I’ll wonder who reads this drivel…

The Washington Post asks for submissions annually to its unusual word challenge.

The paper’s Mensa Invitational once again asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition. Here are the winners:

1. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period of time.

2. Ignoranus: A person who’s both stupid and an asshole.

3. Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.

4. Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.

5. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.

6. Foreploy: Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid.

7. Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high

8. Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the p erson who doesn’t get it.

9. Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.

10. Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)

11. Karmageddon: It’s like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it’s like, a serious bummer.

12. Decafalon (n.): The gruelling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.

13. Glibido: All talk and no action.

14. Dopeler Effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.

15. Arachnoleptic Fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you’ve accidentally walked through a spider web.

16. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.

17. Caterpallor ( n.): The color you turn aft e r finding half a worm in the fruit you’re eating.

The Washington Post has also published the winning submissions to its yearly contest, in which readers are asked to supply alternate meanings for common words. And the winners are:

1. coffee, n. the person upon whom one coughs.

2. flabbergasted, adj. appalled by discovering how much weight one has gained.

3. abdicate, v. to give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.

4. esplanade, v. to attempt an explanation while drunk.

5. willy-nilly, adj. impotent.

6. negligent, adj. absentmindedly answering the door when wearing only a nightgown.

7. lymph, v. to walk with a lisp.

8. gargoyle, n. olive-flavored mouthwash.

9. flatulence, n. emergency vehicle that picks up someone who has been run over by a steamroller.

10. balderdash, n. a rapidly receding hairline.

11. testicle, n. a humorous question on an exam.

12. rectitude, n. the formal, dignified bearing adopted by proctologists.

13. pokemon, n.. a Rastafarian proctologist.

14. oyster, n. a person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddishism’s.

15. Frisbeetarianism, n. the belief that, after death, the soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there.

16. circumvent, n. an opening in the front of boxer shorts worn by Jewish men.

I’ve been blogging for 16 months now and today heard the most unsettling story of a blogger. 

Major Andrew Olmsted was writing on the war in Iraq for The Rocky Mountain News - a daily newspaper in Denver. Sometime ago he wrote a posting that wasn’t immediately published. It was to be published in the event of his death.

Today that posting is live as Olmsted is not.

I respect his wish not to use his death for political purposes so I will withhold commentary on the war and the toll it takes.  Instead I encourage all to read his final posting.

“This is an entry I would have preferred not to have published, but there are limits to what we can control in life, and apparently I have passed one of those limits.”  (read more)

My sympathies to his wife and family.