It occurred to me today that I follow very few CIOs or CIO-types on Twitter. I also realized that I don’d understand why that is the case. I am a business technologist and they are business technologists so are there differences between us? Well, of course there are differences but I am not talking about the obvious demographics. I am thinking about the differences in purposes of using Twitter, intent of using Twitter or understanding of social media in general. Most importantly, I am not convinced we all understand the opportunity of tools such as Twitter. At this point, I will give the early disclaimer that I don’t claim to know the “right” use of Twitter or even the best practices. I just know that I use it, I don’t follow many other CIOs and other CIO types don’t follow me. In fact, I don’t claim to be a corporate CIO just a broad minded technologist out to better the business I support.
My core thought is that senior technologists don’t use Twitter because they don’t know why they should. So, here are my first thoughts on CIOs and Twitter …
PEOPLE: The next wave of the workforce is on Twitter and it is a greatly diverse population. It took me a while to realize that I wasnt exactly a Senior, a Boomer, an X, or a Y. I was a mix of all four given my set of diverse, life experiences. After a year on Twitter, I have met both online and in person several thousand people that fit all sorts of backgrounds. I find that I engage in more, different types of conversations. There are management consultants, deep technologists, moms, dads, athletes, newscasters, etc who are all on my follower and following lists. Twitter has contributed greatly to my understanding of different ages, professions, interests. All of that rolled into one has helped me understand different people, how to work more effectively, and what trends are occurring in people’s lives.
IDEA EXCHANGE: Twitter is a next generation technology and hot bed for learning about new technology. How should Twitter be used in the workplace if at all? Well, the answer is that it should and that the use of it should vary company to company. Twitter is not all we should be thinking about as technologists. I give as an example the recent collapse of Google Wave. That’s technology that conceptually should bring people together. At the end of the day (and the end of Google Wave), it was technology that nobody understood or cared to learn about. I recently held a few discussions via Twitter all sorts of people on the topic of Google Wave. I was able to quickly discern that nobody understood it and nobody wanted to put the energy to determining how to use it with the exception of one person who used it well. Of course, the example that person gave was that they used Google Wave for design documents and job postings which is about the the only way I have heard of anyone doing anything with GW. There are also technologies that are becoming more popular such as Flipboard which most of the Twitter population heard of and was using a month before it hit blogs and magazines. My view is that Twitter is a great way to learn about the latest technology first, digest how others are using it, discuss with others how your company might use it, and then contribute back other ideas. Another option would be to just read the same old magazines and blogs which will get you a load of the same old ideas.
CUSTOMER REACH: Twitter is a free way to reach to your customers one on one in a time effective way. I work for a company in the recent past received a significant portion of negative press. This negative press empowered people to become more vocal on Twitter on topics such as pricing, technology availability, customer service and even the same topics on the competition. I didn’t and don’t typically interact directly with them. However, I do send Tweeps to our customer service desk and I do listen to the ideas and bring them back to the business leadership table. Interacting with current and future customers on a personal level is very exciting and informative.
FUN: A technologist should use Twitter because it is fun. Not everything on Twitter is serious or “social media” related. Sometimes people take on the personality of something goofy such as the famous Cookie Puss cake from Carvel. Ever wonder what the online rivalry between Cookie Puss and Fudgie the Whale would be like online? Well, why not find out by following them? If you are a Star Wars fan and wonder what Darth Vader would have to say on Twitter, you can find that out too. While you won’t learn much from following those, it will provide comic relief in your day. There are countless other personalities you can follow – ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption, Mark Cuban, Martha Stewart, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.
I look forward to interacting with you on Twitter. You don’t have to be a CIO, technologist, social media expert, computer person, etc … you just have to be able to interact and form thoughts in 140 characters.
Feel free to peak in on what I have to say on Twitter – either on the right hand side of this website or at http://twitter.com/danaedwards. I follow just about everybody back and I enjoy the conversations.
Little Buddy is still crazy about the solar system! Then again, who isn’t? He drew this in Microsoft Paint at Mimi’s house.
He does have a few persistent questions – “Why is Pluto the smallest in the solar system?” and “Why is Jupiter the biggest planet? And plus it has a big hole.” and “Nothing else.”
We did a fun project this Sunday morning. Our sun is recently fascinated with the planets and our latest iPhone app – Solar Walk. More on Solar Walk later.
So, he came up with the idea on his own to make the planets. As we made them, he told us all about each one. Some are gassy giants and some are not. He explained which were hot, etc.
Anyways, he designed it and instructed is on what to do and this is what he designed …
Well, it’s now a few days after Christmas and the kids have switched toys again. The first big hit was the Splatball, then it was the board game Trouble, and now, we’ve moved on to our Zhu Zhu Pets.
Santa brought 4 total – two for our son and two for our daughter. Our daughter calls both of hers “mousy” even though their given names are Chunk (white) and Jilly (pink). Please note that Jilly is no relation to Jill. Our son is fine with respecting the manufacturer’s wishes and call his Num Nums (grey) and Mr. Squiggles (brown).
The toys don’t do too much but they do more than you would think. They have sounds indicating they are moving like roosters or boings. They zip forward, spin around, and shoot off in another direction.
The kids love them and treat them like they are their kids. In the picture shown, the Zhu Zhu pets are at the movies but tomorrow they have hamster school. Very fun.
Every year, we buy our kids toys based on what they request, what the “hot” toys are, what looks educational, and what we think looks fun. In addition to those items, we’ll randomly pick up a couple of things. Regardless of how much thought we put into it, the toy that the kids like best is typically one of the random toys.
This year, the instant hit toy was Splatball. As usual, it is a super simple toy. It looks like a tomato and is a liquid filled thing. All you do is throw it and when it lands it looks like a tomato that splattered on the floor. After about 2-5 seconds, it reforms into a little tomato. It costs about $2.99 and the kids’ grandma bought it at Harris Teeter.
It was very cool. Be careful because if you use excessive force, it will indeed break.
Two weekends ago, my parents brought three large garbage bags of my old toys to me from their house. The bags are filled with all my old Star Wars figures, Lincoln Logs, Rubik’s Cubes (yes, I had more than one), Legos, and a mystery shirt from some toy. I need your help in identifying it, please! Shoot me an email, tweet (@danaedwards), or leave a comment here if you have any idea. Thanks!
Simple games are always the best games for me. Cartoon Wars is one of those games. It took all of about 10 minutes to figure out and I am still playing it occassionally now. So, I received about 2 – 3 months of fun for $0.99!
The game is basically a cross between a typical defense games and an RTS where two cartoons attempt to take over each other’s castles. You create special characters each with different abilities – some move faster, some have higher attack, and some higher defense – in order to take over your foe’s castle. The units change graphics as you upgrade them and include units like ninja, warrior, gunner, wizards, and even upgrades for your primary bow and castle.
To make a long story short, this cost a whole dollar and was a blast to play. I recommend it and have included a couple of screen shots below for you to see it.
It has been a few months since Brennan and I did a science project. This has been the case mostly because of his fascination with trains, specifically traction rods on trains. I am thinking that the trains fascination may run its course pretty soon but hopefully not before we take him on his birthday party which is all about trains. Enough on trains for now … I’ll post birthday pictures soon.
An upcoming fascination of Brennan’s is Tornados, which I agree are really cool to look at but not too cool in real life for those that are unfortunate to be in one. He has memorized the Fujita scale but hasnt quite latched on to the concept that the size of tornado doesnt dictate the strength of the wind. That’ll be a next step. Here is a quick video of it in action:
To make a long design / science discussion short, the box is cut so that there are slits in the sides which make the tornado funnel spin as a motor on top sucks the dry ice smoke up. Email me at dana@danaedwards.com if youwant to know more about the physics of how it works. Here are a couple of photos of it in action:
We had a blast making it and hope to show it off to the grandparents for Spaghetti Night tonight and Thanksgiving Dinner soon!
Before NPR released their iPhone app, I used Thomson Reuters and CNN Newsreader to get news on my iPhone. Thomson was a significant upgrade over the CNN Newsreader and now, NPR is a significant upgrade over Thomson.
The first feature that strikes you when you start the app is the News. NPR has high quality news as you know and now it is right at your fingertips. The stories are updated all day long and at times have accompanying audio. The audio can be listened to immediately or added to a playlist for later. The news is broken into three main categories – Top Stories, More Stories or Newscast which is a 5 minute piece that is updated every hour.
In addition to standard news articles and the newscast, NPR makes all of their shows available to you. If a show is on the air at that time, there will be an “on-air” logo next to the program and you can tap into it live!
The NPR iPhone app also lets you listen to live broadcasts from any NPR member station. You can search by state, by zip code, or let the iPhone GPS app locate the nearest one for you. The stations will let you listen to the live stream or any other program from the recent past.
To download the free app, go to iphone.npr.org/recommendnprnews or search for “NPR News” in the iTunes App Store. I hope you enjoy it like I do!
It’s been a while since we ventured into the area of science. I am doing just about everything possible to get him off this “electricity kick” he is living. One day Brennan drew 23 pictures of high and low voltage electric lines. That was quite a day. Tomorrow, I intend to try out this new airplane, descriptively called “the Hooptie”. Here are some photos of it:
So, your first thought is probably “that flies?” It sure does. It’s actually pretty fast and travels a long distance, all things considered. It took all of a few minutes to build. Needed a few things:
Tape
a 3×5 index card
a straw
To build was very simple:
Cut the index card into three 1 in wide strips.
Make 1 strip into a circle and tape on the inside and outside
Take the other two strips and make into a circle, also taping inside and outside.
Cut the flexy part off the straw.
Attach the hoops to the straw at either end. I bent the bigger hoop a little bit so that it would sit upright. Look at how it is attached in the first picture on the left.
Using it is pretty simple too. Throw it hard and watch it zoom.
I’ll post a video of results tomorrow when he wakes up.
