Documenting Transgressions

Jennifer Saranow, writing in the Wall Street Journal, discusses how “bad parking, loud talking -- no transgression is too trivial to document online.” In some respects this can be socially beneficial, but too quickly, I fear, such postings represent the kind of over-information in which too many people are immersed. Moreover, where is the Breathing Space if everyone is a snoop?

The Fastest Route to Purchases

Do you go online to find out about products or services these days? Of course, what could be faster or easier. So, where do most web surfers obtain information on potential purchases? According to Hitwise.com, an online competitive intelligence service, Google is by far the top U.S. search engine in terms of driving visitors to shopping sites, accounting for 14.9% of visits.

Yahoo! Search was found to be the second most popular search engine, accounting for 4.7% of shopper visits, followed by MSN Search and a rapidly-gaining MySpace.

The Right Tools, for the Right Job

Jerry Gitchel, president of Make Technology Work, explains the right tools for the right jobs for staying in touch with customers and associates.

* Instant Messaging from a computer or cell phone is best for a quick answer to a specific question.

* Telephone - best when used to brainstorm with others and for providing feedback on emotion and tone. It lacks the ability to archive or easily share info with a third party.

* Email - best for frequent non-urgent communications if you remember that they are not private. Easy to forward, lasts forever.

* The web - best when used to publish timeless information as desired, for current or future customers or associates.

* Audioconference - best for realtime communication and collaboration, enhanced when used with web-based documents.

* Online conferences - best when you need to add video capability to a group event. Lacks continuity between separate events.

* Online collaboration - best when used to create a comprehensive project management solution requiring document management, web publishing and/or support data, including images and video.

Exhibitionists Reign Supreme

In a world of too much competing for everyone’s attention, individually it’s harder to get noticed. This could explain why vast segments of the population have turned to online exhibitionism. Writing in the Washington Post, economist Robert J. Samuelson says, “ It turns out that the Internet has unleashed the greatest outburst of mass exhibitionism in human history.”

“Everyone may not be entitled, as Andy Warhol once suggested, to 15 minutes of fame. But everyone is entitled to strive for 15 minutes -- or 30, 90 or much more… This is no longer fringe behavior. MySpace has 56 million American "members." Facebook, which started as a site for college students and has expanded to high school students and others, has 9 million members. …YouTube, a site where anyone can post home videos, says 100 million videos are watched daily.”

Samuelson notes, and it’s hard to counter, that “People seem to crave popularity or celebrity more than they fear the loss of privacy.” However, “what goes on the Internet often stays on the Internet. Something that seems harmless, silly or merely impetuous today may seem offensive, stupid or reckless in two weeks, two years or two decades. Still, we are clearly at a special moment.”

Samuelson concludes by noting that “Henry David Thoreau famously remarked that ‘the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.’ Thanks to technology, that's no longer necessary. People can now lead lives of noisy and ostentatious desperation. Or at least
they can try.”