Facebook Updated and So did I

Timing is everything.  Last week I posted privacy directions for Facebook and the interface was completely changes two days later.  This was obviously was not my best timed moment.

Never fear!  A new Facebook privacy tutorial is here!

This tutorial is available in a PDF format for download  usage.  Please feel free to share this information.

Download the Tutorial

Get Your Facebook Privacy Tutorial

So much has been in the press about Facebook's privacy settings. The Facebook social network is so large, if it were a country, it would be the 3rd largest in the world. Wow! Yep!

With this knowledge, I felt called to share with you the steps to set your privacy in this application if you use it.  I was going to merely share it on this blog but once I began, I must admit, the process was so involved, it demanded it's own document.

So here it is:  A Tutorial for Facebook Privacy.  It's a pdf document I hope you download, print and share.

If you have suggestions or corrections, please contact me and I will make changes and submit improvements.

I highly recommend learning more about this vast application.  TIME magazine has a feature cover story on Facebook.  get a copy or read it here:  How Facebook Is Redefining Privacy

Are U "IN"fluential?

Time magazine’s “The 100 Most Influential People in the World” for 2010 arrived at my door a couple of days ago. I haven’t begun to get through all the pages of those 100 folks but a double-page fold-out caught my eye, “The Influence Index”. It measured how connected or engaged you were on Facebook and Twitter. Let’s be clear, connected and engaged translates to how many people follow you if you’re on Twitter or how many people are listed in your friend pile on Facebook. The higher the number of followers and friends raised your influence status. (BTW—my following is 2. Yes, I’m humble).

The trend in favoritism leaned toward youth, hip, and artistic. Nonetheless, the article noted that Barack Obama had an almost equivalent following to the latest pop/rock artist, Lady Gaga. Obama lead the pack with other recognizable names such as Oprah, Glen Beck, Taylor Swift, Sarah Palin and the Twitter king, Ashton Kutcher. Out of all of these, I think Ashton Kutcher is the only person who actually tweets some, if not most, of his entries. Others, like Oprah, have their “people” do it for them. Do you really think President Obama is running around trying to update his Facebook status?

These very influential folks have “people” spouting off quips or statements that you as a follower or friend should ooh-and-awe at when you read them and desire to respond. Do you know Facebook offers an application that posts statuses for you? You sign up for a category such as glib quips, or philosophical ideas, etc.  The application then posts once a day, or as many times a day, as you sign up to enlist. The result is to make your friends think you are the most clever, or most pithy, or most intelligent person they know. PLEASE!

It leads me to ponder how we are transforming from a society who leaned over the fence or clothes line to gossip with the neighbor to sitting huddled over a small screen in a bustling airport or mall or other public pedestrian place ignoring the world as we are connected to the aimless pontifications of others who we think are cool. 

Some of us separate ourselves from the world by countless hours at a computer screen being connected to chats, tweets, and IMs to people miles and miles away; feeling ever-so close and chummy. True, you can’t hug your computer or cell phone without appearing somewhat weird, but are these little tools enhancing or eroding our lives?

I don’t have the answers. I don’t know if the ability to reach out and send your thoughts or questions to CNN at any given moment makes me feel more engaged or influential. It somehow seems we are ignoring our immediate surroundings and the people we commune and breathe the same air with when we are so rapt with attention to the screen of those so far away. 

When we have influences that are so strong and enticing, how do we sort through the flotsam and naval gazing to the modicum of reality and truth that exists in the world? If reasonably intelligent adults can get swept up in the tweet/FB syndrome, what happens to the young and impressionable? I guess this is one of the great questions of the day, who shapes your thoughts?  Is all this information making us more intelligent?  Are we gathering in all this information to better our balance of reasoning? Or are we loading up to be the big hit at the next cocktail party or social gathering?

I don’t’ write Groote’s Gaggle to give you the correct slant on life. I hope I write to make you think and try to form answers or seek out more information to a subject or idea. I definitely don’t have the answers, but give me time and I’ll ask you lots of questions. If I influence you to think, not my thoughts, but think about finding out more about your thoughts, or needs, or ideas to try, I feel extremely privileged and honored.

Users Manual Not Included

Ever go site browsing?  Looking around at other websites to see how your's compares, or what’s “in”, or what’s eye-catching?  If no, you should.  If yes, you may be languishing thinking of your site as you gaze and ooh-and-awe at some of the competition.

Next time you go browsing around, maybe even looking at your own site, ask yourself, “Who is this site for?”  Is it for advertising?  Attracting new folks? Use on a regular basis for information?  Directions and times?

Here is the web’s golden rule to follow, above all others, when it comes to a website:  WHO IS THE USER?

If your site’s user is 55 years of age or older, tiny print may not be a good option.  Little tiny print can be interesting in some places,  but can your predominate user read it?

Do you feel users access your site via cell phones on a regular basis?  Guess what?  Those sexy animated sleek flash sites being touted quite a bit by website builders may not be seen on all types of cell phones.  Oops!  Coming out in the very near future is a new interface bridging this gap.  I predict its fluid use in the next 12-24 months.  In the meantime, there may be folks not seeing what you’re saying.

Do you know if most of your users have high-speed Internet?  If not, big downloads or streaming video may not be a good option for your site.

Are your users web-savy?  Do your users IM? (Instant Message) Use Facebook or another social site? Play games online?  Surf the Net on a regular basis?  Know what Twitter is? 

Don’t think these questions are trite.  If your site is predominately used for communication with your congregation, make sure they know basic computer skills OR know their level of Internet expertise.  This may sound crazy.  Trust me.  Not everyone knows the ins and outs of today’s technology.  If you have invested in a website, make sure your users understand the components or you may be putting a great deal of time and effort into a tool not being readily used.

As a web designer, it is part of my training to help my clients develop the best site for their needs.  It irritates me when I see designers selling sites that may look incredible but have little functionality for the user and absolutely no sense of navigational structure.  Websites don't come with users manuals.  That is why it is of the upmost importance for the site to be built to suit the needs of the user.

In the book "The Cider House Rules",  John Irving's main character is sitting one hot night on the roof of the cider house with an African American man who is one of the apple farm's share-croppers. : They come intemporarily for the harvest and stay in the cider house.  He asks the man why no one in the cider house follows the rules posted on the mainframe post inside.  The worker's response does not reveal defiance or disgruntlement against the management.  His response is a simple statement of their life situation.  The occupants didn't follow the rules because they couldn't read.  They had no idea what was on the piece of paper. 

Who is your user? Who is your visitor?  How do you help them know the rules?

It’s a Techie Kind-of Day…Or is it?

a.k.a.- A Self Indulgent Moment

Adobe rolled out its promo for CS5 yesterday.  I know that means absolutely nothing to you.  It means a lot to me.  (It’s that perspective and perception thing we deal with every day.)  The news yesterday from Adobe means I will be learning and educating myself to new technological software if I have any intent in keeping up with this ever changing Internet business.

What about you?  Any new things in your work?

The iPad hit the market this past Saturday.  Over 300,000 iPads where sold in one day.  One comic was reported saying, “We’re now a country willing to pay $500 to find out what something is…”  It says to me, “Wow!  Maybe the recession's over”.   But it also says we live in a society clamoring for new technology and ways to instantly connect and have knowledge or entertainment or communication at any cost.

My real techie experience was watching this live promotional webinar about this new software suite hitting the market while sitting in my office at my computer.  I didn’t have to drive anywhere.  I was participating without travel or cost. While watching, the sidebar of my internet screen, displayed instant Twitter comments about the presentation.  Wow!  I really felt connected to these strangers and decided I work in a field that is constantly changing and creating and pushing the envelope and finding new ways to engage people…. Whee, it was cool!

My prayer, wish, for you is that you can experience something in your profession that challenges you, exhilarates you, engages you and makes you want more.  Peace.

No Access Can Be an Opportunity in the Wings

Last week, as I drove down the road listening to NPR, my mind was captured by a statement that the FCC is exploring ways to bring broadband access to the whole country at an economical price.  It’s a good challenge to try and achieve.  In the meantime, have you stopped to consider what life is like for families who do not have internet access or a computer?

In today’s world, searching for a job or applying for a job often requires submission through the internet.  Most applications now ask for an email address even if you are applying in person.  Students do research for weekly work via the internet and sometimes even submit homework by this means. The internet, its usage and access, has created a silent unseen divide in our communities; those who have computer/internet and those who do not.  

The story I listened to on NPR told the story of a single mother with three children who was seeking a job and her struggles to apply for positions, list an email address, and stay connected to follow-up as she did not have either a computer or internet.  Her children attended a school near an upper middle class neighborhood where students were often required to post homework via computer/internet and the story told of the challenges this family faced trying to get to a library or get the children to school early enough to use the school computer.  Public computers, such as in libraries and schools which aren’t always free, are few and far between.  Getting time on a computer is valuable.  Hours available are small.  A family without a computer or internet constantly struggles with finding access.  

I have become obvious to the inability to be connected as my job uses a computer and I even have access to the web and broadband via my phone with my “3G network”.   If these 21^st century tools fail me, I feel my arm has been severed or my oxygen intact has been dampened and I’m gasping and choking to breath.

What would your life be like without a computer?  Without being able to read emails?  Without logging on to Facebook or surfing the Internet?  Without using a word processor to type out a document?  These are the struggles for many Americans today.  It’s a silent struggle.  You don’t talk about it because it’s embarrassing. You are impaired.  No computer?  No internet?  What???

The FCC’s attempt to meet the challenge to bring broadband across the country is no small task.  Making it economical is no small task either.  So consider this, what if you, your church, could provide free WiFi access and/or free computer usage?  Talk about an outreach program!  What if…..? 

A Parable for Lent

I’ve been having computer troubles. Don’t we all at some time? My computer troubles are never small fixes. They are major, expensive time-consuming workarounds.

My journey this time has taken approximately 14 weeks. From changing a broken, dead HP mainframe tower to an Apple OS/X with a duo platform in Windows. I did my due diligence in storing my files. I even had a high falootin’ mirror that imaged and stored things as I created them so I didn’t have to do a thing to make sure my files were safe.

Despite my efforts, my new Windows 7 operating system would absolutely not read my files. I’ve been slowly and painstakingly connecting my big external mirror storage drive to an old laptop and with a little thumb drive, copying and moving information. It has not been fun. It’s a slow task. Maddening, thrashing, boring, angering, and other endless adjectives depicting the most frustrating straits has been my demeanor through this process.

I also spent 9 hours on Friday slowly restoring data contact files that had been corrupted. I have another storage system that involves cyber storage and links my computer to my phone. Last week, my phone died. I had to restore all the information. During this process, all the contacts began multiplying; yes multiplying!. I had duplicate contacts for some people, triple for others, and even as many as six identical files for one contact. Yikes! It was like the Star Trek episode, “The Trouble with Trebles” where these little furry creatures just kept multiplying and multiplying.

Last night at 5:15 pm, I think I have completed this journey; my small triumph. Finishing this computer nightmare also made me think about my back yard. It was in shambles from the extended freeze suffered in January throughout the Deep South. I finally took the time this past weekend to tear out all those broken branches and prune the dead rotting palm fronds, slimy and mushy, lying in their deadness around burdened trunks. It was a nasty, dirty job. But in the pruning this past Monday morning, at the bottom of one bush was the tiny, delicate, new light green leaf of new growth.

It occurred to me all this cleaning and purging was like this Lenten season. This is the time of introspection and ponder; the time of working through process to prepare for the Resurrection and Joy. Are we not supposed to suffer during Lent? Or at least struggle and wrestle with ourselves? Isn’t that what giving something up is about? Or doing study or meditation practices? Are we not striving to achieve something?

If we cannot clean out, tear out, break down, and sometimes painstaking walk the heavy laden struggles of rendering clean the old broken, stinky, musty time-consuming, wrenching files and leaves that clutter of our minds and lives, the new cannot grow. We must, no matter how reluctant, clean out and prepare for the fresh growth and new sprouts to come or we stagnant.

And there my friends, is my parable: purging the old to ready the way for the new, the spring, and the joy that I can move forward in my work. May you find the way to remove your obstacles for the new to grow in your life.

Peace.

Out of Time

Time has slipped away too quickly since the last Groote's Gaggle. Don't you feel you often just run out of time?

This week's TIME magazine ran a one-sentence statement:



1.26 MICROSECONDS: "Time that each day has been shortened as a result of Chili's earthquake, which shifted the earth's axis about 3 inches".

Where do they learn this? How did they determined this? And who is they?! I find information such as this little sentence fascinating. Where do these pearls come from? Time didn't make a reference. The statement appeared in a little horizontal bullet on page 13; just a little kernel to be plucked like a seasoned pearl from an oyster.

My word of wisdom is to definitely count your blessings and kiss your kids because you string many more of those microseconds together and you'll not have time to turn around.

peace.

Choosing Lent

Lent began yesterday with Ash Wednesday. Many follows choose to give something up during this time before Easter. Several attended Lenten services that were held last night and received the ashed-cross on their forehead. Some will continue to meet every Wednesday until Easter. For me, Ash Wednesday, and the Lenten season is a practice of the Christian calendar I’m still trying to embrace. For my personal reasons, strange as they may be, I struggle with Lent and the rituals surrounding it.

A Facebook friend shared a devotional link yesterday I am going to try and follow these next few weeks. I think I might be able to accomplish this devotional because, there’s not a lot to read. It’s online and the background music is rather soothing to me. Yeah, it’s embarrassing to admit how being faithful must sometimes be in small does and little steps. But here’s a moment of honesty slipping out.

In writing this to you, I learned this devotion is directed toward students. Well aren’t we all students? In life at least? So far yesterday & today’s devotion have not been more than 5 or 6 lines. That holds my wandering attention. It’s plainly written without long theological contemplative passages. So, if you’re a short attention spanner or struggle like me, maybe you’d like to choose to try and walk this journey with me ……

Here’s the link: http://www.d365.org/journeytothecross/

peace. (p.s. today’s devotion: the ability – and responsibility – to choose)

Tidbits to Chew On

This past week I’ve had the good future to have two very interesting conversations with a couple of my clients that I would like to share with you. I think both sets of information are important notes to pass along.

Of course, this is news parallels the good news bad news joke. One item is good information and the other is a warning-which could be taken as good information if you choose to be proactive about it. I’ll share the good first:

An online church donation link by All Saints Episcopal in Salt Lake City, UT (http://www.allsaintsslc.org) last fall has brought in an estimated 12% increase in donations. Rev. Michael Mayor also reported the link was very helpful when someone wished to make a memorial donation. Their check did not have to be sent in the mail. The giver merely went to the church website and made the donation online. BTW, reports are people use debit cards quite often in online donations so the giving on credit debate needs to be aware of this facet.

Many of you know my computer crashed after I moved to Baton Rouge. I LOVE my new Apple computer with dual Windows operating system but recovering old files and reestablishing them is never a fun task. One note I hadn’t shared about the details of my computer mishaps was I had just finished downloading a Windows update when the crash occurred. Talking with Rev. Dick Selby this week, I learned he and his wife experienced the exact same thing on each of their computers. This is quite alarming news as most viruses of this nature make it to the forefront of the news.

Maybe this was a coincidence. I tend to think it most likely wasn’t. I’m not aware of any safeguards but I will plead--- PLEASE, please back –up your documents, emails, contacts, etc. Keep a good back-up of information on a regular basis. I’ve been doing this for years and while I have some challenges with older software versus new software, I am going to be able to retrieve almost all of my data.

I’m heading off to send a note to Microsoft. Play safe out there in cyberland… peace.

Be Very, Very, Careful

Remember Elmer Fudd, the cartoon character. His double-barreled shotgun in hand and he turns to the screen and says, “Shhh. Be ve-wee ve-wee, care-vul, ‘cause we are hunting wabbits!”

Be very, very careful, because you may not be hunting rabbits, but they are hunting you. I’ve spent the last few blogs ranting about the predatory Internet. I apologize for doing the same this week, but I feel this is ve-wee,ve-wee Important!

A few of my clients have received letters from a business named Domain Registry of America. This letter urges them to renew their domain names as soon as possible to avoid risking their control of their name. Losing your domain name is not something anyone wants. Domain Registry of America knows that and that’s why they look so official and scary when they tell you your domain is about to expire.

Many of my clients are registered through my company. If you are my client, and not registered through me, I still know your domain registry company. NONE of YOU are registered through this company. They are luring you. Read the document to notice the carefully placed nonchalant word “switch” or “when you switch”. This word and sets of words is telling you that if you send them money, they become the registry. Every web domain name is registered to some company out there. Some are fairer than others. I don’t know how fair Domain Registry of America is or isn’t, but given the fact they are somewhat innocently sending you this information, I would treat them as the wolf in Gramma’s gown in the Red Riding Hood story and run away quickly!

Whenever you encounter any offer on the Internet or about the Internet, look over it with a fine tooth comb. If it seems too good to be true, IT IS! And as a reminder, keep a picture of Elmer next to your screen so you’ll always remember to be very, very careful.

Cyber Sticks and Stones are Hurtful

“Sticks and Stone may break my bones, but names can never hurt me”. My mother used to make me recite that over and over whenever I came home from school with hurt feelings from some quip by a verbal sword-smith. I did it, but being the person I was and probably still am, the words lingered around my legs like a low lying fog ready to trip me up a any second.

Recently, another child has taken their life due to cyber bullying. This was a 15-year-old girl in Massachusetts (read the story: http://tinyurl.com/yeox9tk ).

Bullying, teasing, trash-talking is not a new sport for the teenage crowd. The new cyber frontier and cellular text land is a dangerous place for our kids these days. These taunts go beyond the name-calling of 30-plus years ago. They are so inappropriate in language and accusation that I can’t even type an example. And things on the Internet can live forever. That is why the devastation can result in such dramatic results as suicide. The unfortunate truth is much of the verbal slash and slang begins with hurt feelings and spins and warps into untruths that spiral and viral into outlandish lies.

(This is one reason why I discourage chat rooms on youth pages on a website. Unless you have a twenty-four hour cyber-monitor, your forum can turn into an unwanted unintentional problem. It can even go as far as to make your organization or church liable should violence ensue.)

Where your organization or church CAN make a difference is through working as a mediator when cyber/text conflict arises. I recently watched a PBS special on teen girl violence. Where boys may walk away after a fight, girls let it fester and this festering is the seed that can spiral out of control into physical or cyber-violence. The answer needed to calm girls from this destruction seemed to be the simple, earnest apology.

What has happened to us that we can’t say those words? We don’t seem to know how to apologize or how to admit a mistake. As I type this blog, I hear the voice of the television commentator recanting recent stories with the Tiger Woods saga. Here is a stellar example of where telling the truth, saying you’re sorry and admitting a mistake would have left a lot of air time open on our tv’s.

We need to teach our young people and apparently, ourselves, the powerful tools of apology and admittance of wrong. The more we run from these strong tenets of decorum, the more we degrade society and lean ever closer a land of chaff where wheat will not grow.

Trash Talk

You don’t have spend time in a gas station bathroom to read trash about people you don’t even know….

A new book disclosing campaign secrets and admissions by top politicians is flooding the news. Tiger has been exposed for his indiscretions; Mark McGwire has a mea culpa about his steroid usage. All these little tattle segments flooding our airways, newspapers, TVs, tweets reflect a couple of things:

1. The world is moving along okay. No big disasters or tragedies at present or
2. Our society’s brains have cycled to auto-pilot and the technical nonsensical input and output jargon of ‘garbage-in garbage-out’ has polluted our lives and lifestyles… and
3. Folks are making a tidy sum exposing gossip, missteps, and bad behavior.

It is difficult to create good results when given bad input. The term: garbage-in garbage-out. Defined by Wikipedia as a phrase in the field of computer science or information primarily used to call attention to the fact that computers will unquestioningly process the most nonsensical of input data (Garbage in) and produce nonsensical output (Garbage out). Wikipedia also highlights another term off of the garbage-in garbage-out phrase, “Garbage In, Gospel Out” based on the tendency to put excessive trust in “computerized” data. People have a tendency to believe what they read or see on their computer regardless the source. I don’t know if this is the source for all this plethora of gossip, but we are sure getting an abundant crop recently.

We seem to be producing a great deal of garbage-out MORE garbage-out. When did sharing or spewing gossip become such a past-time? It is sad but true that today our societal missteps are gathered up like precious gold nuggets to be profited on by complete strangers. That’s what happened to all those people we’re hearing and reading about. They did not set out to wind up as tabloid fodder. They didn’t intend for this information to become part of your life or my life. It happened.

There are 1, 610, 000 internet gossip sites. Many are focused on celebrities but there is a rise in sites targeting just about everything. GossipReport.com allows you to share dirt on co-workers. Sick of your neighbor? RottenNeighbor.com lets you publicly out that bad person on your block. You can dish or destroy just about anyone on any topic. College campuses and local schools are rampant with gossips posts and texts consuming the young brains of our country, unfortunately destroying many young egos and in some cases, lives.

Controlling this overwhelming trend begins with us, you and me. It starts with our personal censorship and self-control. It then moves to discussions among our family, especially our children; then our friends and co-workers, to groups we deem influential, like our church. The old adage “sticks and stones can break my bones but names can never hurt us” is not true anymore. The Internet is our new bathroom wall. It’s a nasty commentary of our lives and somebody needs to wash our mouths out with soap.