Everything IS easier on the iPhone except…

Making phone calls. Keeping up with Twitter using Tweetdeck? Easy. Managing comments on my blog? Easy. Deleting spam email in Yahoo? Easy. Checking current weather conditions? Easy. Finding a new place to eat with Urbanspoon? Easy. Advocating my favorite service providers and sharing them with my trusted social network? Easy. Develop carpal tunnel? Easy.

Making one phone call without disconnecting with ATT Wireless? Apparently, not so easy. I have not been a fan of ATT Wireless ever since they acquired Cingular and significantly raised my bill overnight with no warning or notice. Big fan of Apple right now, ATT unfortunately has lived up to my expectations of providing poor service.

Dan Hall
Sent from my iPhone using the WordPress iPhone App

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Using the WordPress iPhone App

I am writing this post using the WordPress iPhone App with my laptop sitting a few scant feet away from me. Why?

First, because I can. I received my first iPhone, the new iPhone 3G S, in the mail on the 19th and have been immersing myself in this new delightful world for the past couple of days much to the chagrin of my family. The iPhone blurs all traditional communication platforms. In doing so, my iPhone allows me to stay connected in so many ways away from my computer. 

Secondly, I am previewing the WordPress iPhone App. I am quite pleased so far. It was easy to connect to my blog using my admin account and start blogging. The WordPress iPhone App allows me to tag and categorize my posts, which are requisite SEO and organizational features for me. It even saved a draft copy of my post when there was an interrupt (which is important especially since this post is longer than originally planned).

My only concern now is the carpal tunnel that I might develop typing on my iPhone. Good work, WordPress.

Dan Hall

posted from his new iPhone 3GS using the WordPress iPhone App

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Social Media Policies in Government Organizations

Social Media Website Banned in GovernmentIn my new positions, I am charged with implementing Social Media practices for a large directorate within a government organization. It is surprising (although not really since we are talking about a government organization), that many still don’t get Social Media. The image below is a perfect example of some of the challenges I face:

 

National Guard blocks Official US ArmyTwitter Feed

National Guard blocks Official US ArmyTwitter Feed

Sigh.

Dan Hall

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From Twitter New User to Blogging about Twitter (with a Little Bit in Between)

Peter Hall has a funny but largely true post regarding the life cycle of a new Twitter user. There has been a flurry of news activity about Twitter with Ashton Kutcher pwn’ing CNN on who can reach 1 million followers first. Twitter has officially become mainstream. Oprah Winfrey now has 280,000 followers. I would imagine a good number of them are first time users.

I, for one, don’t feel a compelling need to use Twitter but it already has gone in some interesting directions, such as providing real time data on unfolding events (Mumbai Attacks for example) Although, it is debatable how much relevant information was being micro-blogged, see Alexander Wolfe’s article. His opening line is poignant, “Never before has a crisis unleashed so much raw data — and so little interpretation.” For many, twitter is just one more distracting information feed in a sea of social media platforms; its value debatable. Fortunately all this raw data with little interpretation creates opportunities. A former colleague of mine, Demian Crumb, is doing some interesting stuff with data collection with Twitter. You can follow his efforts on Twitter, fittingly enough. 

Dan Hall

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Dean Graziano, Co-Founder, leaving Visible Technologies

On Friday, April 3rd, it was announced that Dean Graziano, one of the co-founders of the company, was leaving Visible Technologies.

Dean was always pushing the company forward; he is amazingly passionate and loved VT. Many of our biggest deals started with Dean “hunting elephants.” In my opinion, he was the heart of Visible Technologies.

Dean, I wish you the best.

Dan Hall

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My Interview on SEO Boy Regarding Online Reputation Management

I had the honor of sharing my thoughts on managing your online reputation with SEO Boy. I believe that is increasingly important for business professionals to have a basic understanding of personal branding, search engine optimization, and managing your reputation (both in the traditional sense and online). There is more and more data about you on the Web, plain and simple. You can either influence and shape that data or you can let it influence your personal brand and your career.

 Dan Hall 

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I am a producer of data and so are you …

One of the more interesting revelations that came to mind as I was leaving my previous job as a Seattle Human Resources Manager at Visible Technologies was just how much data I had produced. When it was all said and done, I created from scratch over 3.3 gigabytes of new information in 15 months. This data did not exist prior to my existence at Visible. A vast majority of this data was flung out in cyberspace in forms of emails, posts, presentations, and so forth.

Over 50% of all Americans have created consumer generated media (AKA new data). There are over 20 million blogs from American bloggers. A million plus NEW posts per day (plus or minus varies by source).

What does this all mean? First, as if there was any question, Social and Consumer Generated Media is here to stay. Second, that is a lot of data being created daily. The future of business and the Internet is all about data. Want job security?

Learn data. Everything you can, how to manage it, how to search, how to sort, how to connect, how to digest.

How much new, unique data have you produced in the last year? Ever stopped and thought about it?

Dan Hall

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Creating Efficiency – Rypple and ActiveWords

I had the pleasure of interviewing the co-CEO, Daniel Debow,  of a Toronto based startup, Rypple.  He reached out to me after I had posted my initial thoughts about them in a previous blog post, Making Rypples in Performance Management. He took 45 minutes talking to me about Rypple, what they are doing and where they are going with their Company. I got chills. The full write up of that conversation is forthcoming.

Meanwhile, check out ActiveWords. If you are like me and do a lot of organization of files into folders or a lot of repeative actions (like sourcing candidates from LinkedIn), this simple program is a must have. 

Dan Hall

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Making Rypples in Performance Management

I read a good article in The Economist about a company called Rypple, that undoubtedly will be making some splashes about how Companies think about Performance Management.

Rypple has created an anonymous, twitteresque like concept around the constant feedback that Gen Y’ers crave. You can ping your boss or co-workers to death by asking for feedback. While it may not actually prompt traditionally minded supervisors to respond with any more vigor than before, it may start making headway into more social web conscious companies like creative agencies.

I am actually a big proponent of constant feedback. I think anonymous feedback works well for peer networks. I think the challenge around Rypple is on where the feedback starts, while it could be used by managers to solicit feedback, it seems more focused on the employee soliciting feedback by others.  We will see how it all plays out.

Dan Hall

Seattle Human Resources Manager   

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Reinforcing Leadership (Yes, Leadership)

All good things and all bad things must come from the employee’s first line supervisor. This is called leadership, to do anything else is shirking responsibility and undermining the supervisor’s authority. Oh yeah, and don’t make HR do it.

Dan Hall

Seattle Human Resources Manager

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