InnoTech 2009: Live on Newsradio 750 KXL

The 6th Annual InnoTech conference was by many accounts, the best yet. A complete report is coming soon, but for now check out clips of my live radio reports, as heard on Newsradio 750 KXL, from Thursday morning.



Listen to Report 1 (6:40am): Innotech eMarketing Summit Day 1 recap, economic impact of IT spending, green computing, should you blog? (feat. Marshall Kirkpatrick, Rick Turoczy and Josh Bancroft), preview of IT Executive of the Year Awards honoring Trail Blazers CIO Chris Dill.

Listen to Report 2 (8:40am): Should you upgrade to Microsoft Windows 7, preview of Rahaf Harfoush keynote on social media during Obama campaign, Apple iPhone sales results

Check back for more coverage from InnoTech Portland 2009.

Tech Rewind: 2007 In Review and a 2008 Preview

KXL Tech Expert Segment for 31 December 2007

Happy New Year!

Nearly a year ago we watched Apple’s CEO threw a hat into the ring for mobile phone market share... the controversial AT&T carrier-exclusivity did little to discourage early adopters from lining up for the iPhone days before the June release. Another major product that actually shipped in January was Microsoft’s Windows Vista. Claiming “the wow starts now” – many XP users are sticking to the former operating system while the Northwest-based software giant works out bugs. Corporate users even pressured Microsoft to extend support for Windows XP.

We talked a fair amount about social networking in 2007—with relative newcomer Facebook stealing the spotlight from one-time king Myspace. The decision to open Facebook for outside groups to build software on the network paid huge dividends and earned the site a sizeable investment from Microsoft.

Meanwhile, Microsoft’s Mountain View-based archrival, you know, the search, advertising (and added in 2007: Apps) giant Google watched its stock skyrocket above the 700 mark after announcement of an “Open Social” platform for social networking sites followed by plans to release an operating system for phones, resting months of speculation a so-called Google Phone was in the works.

Finally, in the world of video games – Two big winners, in this blogger's humble opinion: Halo 3 from Microsoft set records and Nintendo’s Wii console outsold rivals Xbox 360 from Microsoft and Sony’s Playstation 3. An exciting year, indeed.

As for my predictions for stories we'll be talking about in 2008...

I think (perhaps hope?) 2008 will be the year all these social networking sites finally grow up and become useful. A faster 3G version of the iPhone is due out while we see what Google has in store for their Open Handset Alliance. I’m personally excited about airline plans to offer inflight internet – a story we discussed a few weeks back on KXL – and the ever-changing face of digital content delivery ... are 24-hour movie rentals coming to iTunes in ’08?

As you may know, January 1, marks the start of the transition period to digital high-definition television… those old analog broadcast signals are going bye-bye... Finally, R&S, we’ll look to next week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas and MacWorld in San Francisco the week after to set the pace for technology in ’08.

Listen to this report, originally broadcast on KXL-AM Monday December 31: kxl_techexpert-2007rewind2008preview_20071231.mp3 (MP3)

I'll bring you these tech stories and more in the new year... as always, drop me a line and let me know what you want to hear. I look forward to hearing from you!

Happy New Year and thanks for listening (and reading)...

Future employers read your online profile too!

KXL Tech Expert Segment for 27 August 2007

Information you share in an online profile is read by more than your friends and family – what a prospective employer reads about you in your social networking profile could keep you from that dream job.

College students are accustomed to sharing weekend recaps, blogs about trips, and photos from parties with their peers … but more and more employers are searching employee hopeful profiles – and are marking an application “no hire” as a result.

According to a March survey by the think tank Ponemon Institute (as quoted by MSNBC.com):

Thirty-five percent of hiring managers use Google to do online background checks on job candidates, and 23 percent look people up on social networking sites. About one-third of those Web searches lead to rejections.

What can those looking for a job do to keep from scaring off potential employers?

• Be careful what you post. Details of sexual experiences, use of illicit substances, and frequent drinking may be best left out of your online blog posts, profile updates and photos.
  
• Watch what you do write. Even if you “keep it clean”, sloppy grammar and poor spelling could give an employer a misleading representation of your skills and professionalism.
  
• Talk to your friends. Ask they respect your privacy in their own profile updates and when posting pictures from parties.
  
• Consider an alias. There’s no reason you need to give your real name online, your friends will find you – but employer’s might be unsuccessful.
  
• Hide your profile. Sure it’s more fun to let anyone read your posts, but if limited to your network of friends you may keep that hiring manager from snooping.
  
• Call in the professionals. Online services such as reputationdefender.com will monitor what information is available for you and, for a fee of course, work to remove undesirable content – if it’s not too late.

Online privacy requires diligence, careful consideration and constant monitoring. A good rule of thumb is to consider that anything posted on an online profile is not private – avoid sharing details you would not want a prospective employer to use in considering whether or not to hire you.

Further reading:

• Job candidates getting tripped up by Facebook (MSNBC.com)
  
• MySpace Is Public Space When It Comes To Job Search (CollegeGrad.com)

Have you been rejected from a job because of what you had posted in an online profile? Ever pass up a candidate based on information found online? I'd love to hear from you!

Facebook: More than the "New Myspace"

KXL Tech Expert Segment for 30 July 2007

So I've done it... I've signed up for Facebook.

Once limited to the college crowd, Facebook opened its online doors to anyone last year and that includes myself. The popular social networking site has gained momentum in recent months, even stealing the headlines away from Fox-owned Myspace.

What sets Facebook apart from Myspace, and Friendster before that, in my opinion, is it's reliance on interactive features. More than messages and blogs, Facebook allows anyone to write software that interacts with the social networking site creating a global network of plug-ins and additions to make the site more versatile. I appreciate the lack of "pimped out" profiles in favor of clean design and easy-to-navigate consistency.

With Facebook's recent popularity comes a challenge -- known sex offenders have joined the site as well.

“We want to be a good partner to the states in attempting to address this societal problem,” Facebook Chief Privacy Officer Chris Kelly said. “We’ve worked with them for quite some time now, and we look forward to continuing our fruitful partnership.” (quoted in this NY Times story)

Unique in its approach, Facebook offers limited profile viewing, in many cases only a thumbnail photo, for those not connected to you in some way. You can easily connect with members of a common group (say high school alumni or coworkers), but those not included are banned from viewing your details.

Like any online site, you should be aware of anything posted. Sharing personal details can be dangerous, especially for minors. Talk with your children and monitor their activity closely. Be cautious about sharing personal details about where you live or how to reach you. While steps ahead of Myspace, Facebook's privacy controls are not perfect -- an inherent trait of social networking sites.

So go ahead, get addicted... Join Facebook! And while you're there, look me up! You can find me by searching for my email: brian (AT) brianwestbrook (DOT) com

To receive updates to this blog, sign up for RSS feeds or subscribe via. email - enter your address in the box on this page.