Technology & Business Culture: Implications & Critical Questions

In this 1995 interview with Neil Postman (on YouTube.com), and in many of his texts, especially his book Technopoly, Postman emphasizes how culture is irrevocably changed with the adaptation of new technologies. Because people have a tendency to generate positive excitement around new technologies, he chooses to focus on how technologies are damaging to culture to balance the scale -- that while new technologies give us something important, they also take away something equally important, and this is usually unanticipated.

For example, we originally thought that the creation if the Internet was the solution to many of our societies ills -- that faster access to more information would solve the great social divides caused by a lack of information. But we find instead that people are overloaded with information, much of with they don't know what to do with or whether it's relevant or coherent.
"If crime is rampant," Postman says, "or if people are getting divorced...or mistreating children...it has nothing to do with lack of information."

-- How This Applies To Your Business --

Before you run out and buy the latest Blackberry, the newest fashion in office furniture or another computer that promises to be faster with more file storage and sexier graphics, Postman says we should ask ourselves certain questions.

This is particularly critical when considering both your relationship with clients and associates, which are literally the social aspects of your business -- and the brand of your business, the manifest of your business culture.

For example, if you position your business on highly personalized interactions with your client, meaning many face-to-face meetings, and they come to expect this, you may be confronted with a brand integrity problem if you choose to begin conducting teleconferences in lieu of flying out to visit.

So here is Postman's advice. When considering whether to implement a new technology, ask the following questions:

1. What is the problem which the technology proposes to solve?
   
   
2. Whose problem is it actually? (Is the problem really relevant to me?)
   
   
3. If there is a legitimate problem being solved, what other problems will be created by using the technology?
   
   
4. Are you using the technology or is the technology using you?

Email Management

After you have your new email settings in place and are able to send and receive successfully, you'll need to consider how you will be using and managing your email messages.

-- DEFAULT ALLOTMENT OF SPACE ON SERVER FOR EMAIL MESSAGES --

The default setting for email quota on most servers is 10M. This is generally more than most people need.

If you regularly send and receive messages with attachments that are graphic related or otherwise large, contact your hosting provider to raise the quota right away so that your correspondent doesn't have their message bounced back to them.


-- MANAGING EMAIL MESSAGES --

People (even me) reach a point in time where their email box is full. This happens when you keep email over a long duration of time in your email box. Maybe it's a note from a sweetie or a correspondence with a client containing important information, and our instincts are to save them. Whatever the case may be, they pile up after awhile.

To avoid this situation, I recommend routinely saving email you want to keep on your hard drive (rather than on the email server) and then delete it from your IN box. Again, your hosting provider can raise the quota; however, eventually, you will be inundated with email that it will become difficult to find messages and making it harder to manage your information. This is like leaving opened mail to pile up on the porch -- so much that you can no longer get in or out of the house.


-- ANOTHER WAY TO SAVE YOUR EMAIL --

When saving messages, I recommend saving the files as .HTM files or .TXT files since they tend to produce small file types in size. Also, you save yourself all of the extra steps involved in cutting and pasting your email text into word processing. You just "File > Save As", name the file and you're done. I prefer .HTM files because they retain their paragraph formatting and are easier to read when I open them later. They also can contain imagery.

-- FINDING EMAIL MESSAGES ON YOUR HARD DRIVE --

Some people keep email in their email box because they know that they can easily find or search for their messages, forgetting that you can do this just as easily in Windows Explorer:

• Right-click on the folder you suspect it's in. If you forget what folder, you can search "My Computer" to search all folders
  
• On the pop up menu, select "Search" or "Find."
  

• A dialog box will appear allowing you to specify characteristics of the email in various combinations: when you originally saved it, when you last updated it, what filename is, what kind of file it is, what words or names might be contained inside the file, etc. >>>>
  

You don't need to know the exact information about your email filename-- just specify the parts you know. For the parts you don't know, use an asterisk (*). Examples:

• Don't know the filename: >>> jenkins.*
• Don't know the spelling of a term: >>> ser*dipity.txt
  
• Don't know the spelling of a name (olsen or olson?): >>> ols*.htm

Neither do you need to know the exact date you created the file. You can search by a range.

Search Engine Ranking: RYK before SEO!

Ranking high on search engines relies on your knowledge of your search engine position -- how your web site is related to all of the other sites out there cataloged on a particular search engine.

Because users are trying to find you based on keyword terms, any page that responds to the keyword terms that you select can be considered competition. Not all keyword terms that describe your business or your offering will necessarily be useful for you to optimize your site on.

This is why you must research your keywords (RYK) before you search engine optimize (SEO)!

On first instinct, many people think that researching keyword terms means typing the keyword terms into a search engine to see which sites are ranking high already on those terms. This is not the case.

To effectively research keyword terms, you must find out

• How many times a keyword term is actually being typed in by search engine users,
  
• How often the keyword term is being typed in, and
• How many web pages are responding to the search engine query on that keyword term.

This can only be accomplished using special software. This software calculates how useful a keyword term is to you.

Let's bring this idea into a brick-and-mortar scenario. Suppose you own a bookstore and are looking for retail space to sell your books. You're considering the Acme Mall and the XYZ Center. Acme Mall already has 2 bookstores. XYZ Center is approximately 40 miles from any other bookstore. Your location is like the competition for a particular keyword term.

XYZ Center looks like a better fit -- but is it?

What if there aren't very many readers in that vicinity? If this is the case, then XYZ Center is not the better choice for your business. If there are lots of readers, the XYZ Center would be a great fit. The demand for books is like the number of requests for a particular keyword term.

But what if there are a lot of readers, but they don't buy books very often? The value of moving into the XYZ Center goes down. The frequency of book purchases is like the frequency a keyword term is typed into a search engine.

So how do you measure all of this to make the best choice?

You don't have to. The Keyword Effectiveness Index (KEI) is the basis for determining the best fit of a particular keyword term. The higher the KEI number, the better fit there will be.

If you are interested in finding out what the KEI is for the keyword terms you are using, contact me to run a Keyword Analysis Report!

Favorite Icon: An image to go with your domain name

A favorites icon, or favicon is the image that appears in front of the domain name in your browser's address bar.

Here are some samples:


You don't have to be a corporate giant to have one of these!

And they're useful for branding and usability.

Learn how you can get a favicon for your web site >>>

Altec Lansing AHS202i Computer Headset with Microphone

Finding a great computer headset is not an easy task. So when I found the Altec Lansing AHS202i Computer Headset with Microphone, I bought two.

After having purchased a similar headset from Radio Shack -- and returning it because the wires came loose -- I bought Altec Lansing AHS202i Computer Headset with Microphone, and I've had it for over a year now.

I found a great source where I can purchase these computer headsets at a special price, so I thought it would be a great benefit to the supporting members of the Cultural Creatives Business Network -- as one of our standard network benefits.

AKA:

Altec Lansing AHS 202i
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