New Media Development

I could quote you the statistics on poverty in the Americas. Or tell you how unjust this is and how children suffer. Or how the majority of the world lives in poverty even tho you don’t see it from day to day. But I am not going to do that. Other bloggers for Blog Action Day already have.

What you may not know is that poverty does not equal homeless in the Americas. Here are some interesting facts from the Heritage Foundation on just what it means to be poor in America.

# Forty-six percent of all poor households actually own their own homes. The average home owned by persons classified as poor by the Census Bureau is a three-bedroom house with one-and-a-half baths, a garage, and a porch or patio.

# Seventy-six percent of poor households have air conditioning. By contrast, 30 years ago, only 36 percent of the entire U.S. population enjoyed air conditioning.

# Only 6 percent of poor households are overcrowded. More than two-thirds have more than two rooms per person.

# The average poor American has more living space than the average individual living in Paris, London, Vienna, Athens, and other cities throughout Europe. (These comparisons are to the average citizens in foreign countries, not to those classified as poor.)

# Nearly three-quarters of poor households own a car; 30 percent own two or more cars.

# Ninety-seven percent of poor households have a color television; over half own two or more color televisions.

# Seventy-eight percent have a VCR or DVD player; 62 percent have cable or satellite TV reception.

# Seventy-three percent own microwave ovens, more than half have a stereo, and a third have an automatic dishwasher.

Blog Action Day is trying to raise awareness of GLOBAL poverty. Just like in other realms, the poor in America have it far better off than the poor ni other countries. But there is a simple way we can raise the standard of living for all of the people living under their own poverty levels. Encourage them to take a step up.

Organizations like Kiva offer you the ability to give loans to specific entrepreneurs and help lift them out from poverty. $5 USD can help someone start a business and make a better life for their family. This is not a grant. It’s loan which they must repay so they help themselves out of poverty.

Supporting companies that engage in Fair Trade like The Body Shop is another way to help. They have had a long held a commitment to Community Trade in over 35 countries. Support their efforts by purchasing their products and giving back to their efforts.

Today Apple hosted their long awaited event announcing updates to their Mac Book and Mac Book Pro notebooks. A friend of mine asked me if I was going to be pissed if they massively upped the ante on the performance and storage of the machine. I don’t think so but lets break down the updates and see.

1. One thing I am happy about is that I got a system with the OLD keyboard on it. Having used the chicklet keyboard on the Mac Book and the Air I have to say it would quickly become the bane of my existence if I had it on my Pro.
   I do not like it here or there
   I do not like it anywhere
   I do not like the chicklet keyboard
   I do not like it, Steve I Am
    
2. An advanced graphics card was expected and is only really put to the test while gaming or doing high end graphics. I don’t do either of these on a consistent basis so no huge loss there.
    
3. Getting rid of the button on the track pad is something I HATE. The first thing I did on my old notebook was turn off the touch pad clicking feature so this is a huge win for the older model.
    
4. By putting all connections on the side, they have actually reduced the number of devices you can connect. In the new version you lose 1 usb port, the firewire 400 port, and the DVI connector in lieu of the mini display port (Apple proprietary and will require an additional purchase for non-Apple displays).
    
5. Being able to quickly swap the drive like you could with the MacBooks is a nice new touch.
    
6. The new MBP can now have double the hard drive space, double the RAM, and 4X the graphics capacity of my current MBP. However, it is a good $700 more than what I paid for my MBP. Also, my model is a 17 inch display while the new models will only be 15.4 inch or 13 inch.
   UPDATE: In the QA session it was mentioned the 17″ model is being refreshed as well but no details on specs or price were given under the new design. At the Apple store the current 17″ model is still for sale but is unchanged in terms of specs, design, and the $2800 price tag. Roughly a $1000 more than what I paid for a refurbished model.

Bottom Line: I am far happier now than I was before the announcements. The new additions either don’t apply to me or I wouldn’t want them.

One thing I have struggled with throughout my life is a definition of whom I am. Job Titles and awards have rarely helped in this matter. You see, I am the voice of the large majority of mediocre. I love video games but don’t excel at them to be on leader boards. I have tried my hand at a variety of sports but never seem to get above a novice level of accomplishment. I can program complex systems but am nowhere near the level of true system programmers. I can develop full web applications but they pale in comparison to the Diggs of the world. I can make flowers grow but can never seem to tend full gardens. I can fix most issues in my house but I don’t have the patience to finish my office or add that addition it badly needs.

I have figured out one thing I am rather good at and this will make marketers very happy. I can consume media. I don’t mean read a paper here, look at a website there, search for someone here. Oh no. I can consume vast amounts of media in a relatively short amount of time from a variety of sources. This really shouldn’t come as a shock to most people. In January 2008 Deloitte LLP’s Technology, Media and Telecommunications reported that there is a large shift in the way and types of media are consumed. Also the rise of the “personal publisher” would have a profound effect on traditional media outlets like TV, radio, and film. Follow that with a report in 2007 where Deloitte discovered that general media consumption has gone up but traditional media outlets have either stayed stead in readers/viewers or has gone down. We as a society consume more and more media which is probably why we are driving to information overload capacities.

My media consumption leads to what I think is not a unique problem. Too many choices and too little expertise in any one of them to focus. Do I fall into the trap of programming and watch TV? Is a film a constructive use of an hour and a half of my life. Do I lack enough distractions to produce that podcast or do work? Should I relax and read a novel? Is that even relaxing? I have a world of knowledge in from of me with the internet but I am not sure where to start. The options are dizzying for me and can often lead to overload and decision paralysis.

If you suffer from this as well, think about the following things.

1. Not all media HAS to be consumed. Figure out what works for you and how to use it. I personally hate terrestrial radio so I have swapped it for online shows and podcasts.
2. Treat media as either data or information. Data is any piece of knowledge that is out there in any format. Information is the right piece of knowledge or media in the right place at the right time. Going to the Drive-in for me is Information because it is a constructive use of 4 hours time which forces me to shut my brain down and relax. If I feel I should be working, I can bring out my laptop and abuse the WiFi there.
3. Choose to either be the expert or a jack-of-all-trades. Experts usually focus on one or two thinsg and try to achieve “perfection”. Jack-of-all-trades have general knowledge of a lot of things with some expertise in some thing. Neither one is better than the other. Michael Phelps may be an expert at swimming but we all found out on SNL he is not so great at comedy.
4. Pruning or ignoring media sources is ok. Not all media sources will work for you. Ones you used to rely on may suddenly grow tired or your needs change. In order to grow you need to prune away things that don’t work or may be driving you in the wrong direction. Don’t be afraid to do that.

I am going to try to reduce some of my consumption and get a bit more focused on what I want to do. I won’t be getting a high score on Rock Band 2 anytime soon or writing the next killer web application. But hopefully I will be driving towards new accomplishments that will make me personally proud to have done them.

We all know that the moment you log into Facebook, you can kiss a good chunk of time away. Facebook has suggested at several advertising conferences that the average user will spend between 20 and 40 minutes logged in per day. Some people take that to extremes as Tech Crunch reported. But it does raise an interesting question on how we spend our time online.

With new and specialized social media sites showing up on almost a daily basis, how do you find the time to use the ones you have and the ones you want to use? If you are not working in the social media industry, use of these sites during work is usually frowned upon due to it’s nature of taking away productive work hours. Does that mean when the 5pm bell rings we all rush home to update our blogs, status, and journals?

Absolutely not. Instead we find other ways to keep our social media in check and our listeners informed. iPhone users can now update their Word Press blogs from their phone with a variety of clients. Live journal offers an audio to blog service so you can call in updates. Mini clients for Twitter exist so we can run them in the background and update as needed. However, all of these input devices require time no matter how small it is to update.

The experiment here is this. Take one day of your life and track how much time you spend on social media sites. Better yet, track how much time you spend consuming any media type (social media sites, TV, radio, film, gaming, etc.) and compare them. You will probably find that Social Media are gaining ground on your total consumption time to the detriment of something else. This could be a good thing in that you are unplugging yourself from programming media (tv, film) and doing something more interactive (games, social events).

Personally, I have to limit my daily social media consumption otherwise I can go down roads of information I may never come back from. Not that it is a bad thing, but when it hampers you from remembering to take out the recyclables, then there is a problem.

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Just like how life throws you a curve ball, blogs can do the same thing. You start out with the intent of having it do one thing, then it takes you on a path to someplace else. A lot of this blog was to act as a sort of technology information center based on my knowledge of computing. Instead, I think it needs to be something different.

First, I need to embrace better blogging technology than publishing technology. That means the daunting task of moving the few entries here. I may just start over because the focus of the blog is changing as well.

Second, this needs to be less formal and more conversational. The “expert speak” of most blogs is not what I am shooting for. Instead, I will go back to the old adage of ‘write what you know’. I wear many hats, know too much technology for my own good, and work alone from home. Each of these things offer interesting insights, if not isolation points, from the rest of the world. I will write about those things as it may be of interest to other home based workers.

Third, I need to make sure to post every day. Nothing personal, just get into the habit of talking tech or work at the same time so it gets done. It may be about new emerging things. It could be a rant about how the home office is going, or it could be about a new toy I want or got. In any case, I need to write about it from a semi-professional standpoint.

That’s where we are going so lets hope we get there.