Do you stay in touch with old classmates? Take advantage of your alumni network? You should! I got to get back to Babson again today to touch base with old friends and new acquaintances and check out the Alumni Technology event on cloud computing. Just like a conference, nobody was really there to learn about cloud computing, they were there to connect and reconnect. Now go get out there and reconnect with your alma mater, trust me, they want to hear from you!
Web/Tech
April 15, 2009
April 06, 2009
April 01, 2009
March 19, 2009
September 03, 2008
The Technology Barrier
I'm not a technologist. I'm a generalist. In fact, while I knew most of what went into it, I created, hosted, and published my first web page just this month. From talking to so many people recently, I know I'm not alone. There's lots of us generalist out there with big ideas and limited resources.
What I've found surprising is that my limited technical skill set has played in my favor during concept formation and prototyping. This past year, I had gotten used to having nearly anything be technically possible. But what happens when you can build anything you want? For me, the product became more about the product and less about the user. Sure, the user was always central to my thought process and I tried to keep feedback loops tightly integrated with feature development, but ultimately, I'll admit, it became 49 percent "the user would do this with it" and 51 percent "that would be cool!"
So what's my point? The technology barrier is the opposite of what I was expecting. By being capable of managing and fully understanding basically one thing, I've been forced to think about the highest use for that one thing's implementation.
Could development of a prototype be going 100 times faster? Yes. Has gathering the technical resources to get something together quickly been painful? Definitely. But in the end, gathering the resources is a matter of using leverage and seeing connections. It's sales. Being forced to implement only one piece of technology doing one specific task for one specific audience has been the key to demystifying the development cycle. My mantra so far is 'less Segway, more...mechanical pencil.'
What do you think? Are you a generalist? A technologist? Are you thinking about technologies that defy gravity or the implementation of existing technologies to solve a problem?
July 19, 2008
A Rising Tide
Podcamp Boston 3 has, so far, been a confirmation of social media's rising tide. Sitting here at the Utterz table giving demos and making people giddy with our little stuffed cow giveaways has been an eye-opener. Typically, I'd expect some of the usual personalities asking about when we'll be providing the new plugin for the whigetamaker for the whozigamwhat. Because, you know, that would be worth, what? Three more users? But no, so far today, I'd say 90 percent of people have opened with something along the lines of: "so I'm new to this whole social media thing, just trying to figure it out and someone told me 'you guys' were one of the companies to check out." Brilliant.
So what does this all mean? Probably not much of anything for people waiting with bated-breath for the explosion of social media into their everyday lives dealing with customer service, purchase orders or internal enterprise communications.
Why? You tell me, but I suspect it has something to do with our spot on the adoption curve. Not great news for you, my social media obsessed friend, but hey, at least you're probably not a company trying to make a living at it!
April 01, 2008
Utterz boys are here for the...
Technology of course...hahahaha...love you mooshe!
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February 19, 2008
Just messin with a flip
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February 07, 2008
Robert Boyle from glassbooth.org
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February 04, 2008
The New Utterz
Welcome to the new Utterz! You have all been so incredible giving us feedback and feature requests. This really is YOUR new utterz. So thank YOU! You'll discover lots of new treats as you go, but here's a complete list of everything that's new!
- You can now reply to an utter...with an utter! That's right, reply with webcam, computer mic, picture, text from your computer, and as always, from your phone by pressing 8 while listening to an utter.
- A new threaded conversation. Highlight threads, collapse and expand them!
- 24 new dial-in numbers in 17 new countries. Complete list is coming later today.
- New utter layout. Now you can tag, reply, share, and track an utter with one click!
- Tracking! Have you ever seen or replied to an utter you were interested in, then had to keep checking if anyone else was commenting? Now you can track an utter and be notified every time someone adds to the conversation.
- Post directly to an utterz channel. Find a topic and chime in!
- Create widgets to play only the TAGS you want to hear. Like technology? Put an utterz widget on your site to play only the utterz tagged "technology."
- Call Utterz from any phone, not just your mobile. Just setup a 4 digit pin in your profile and call from wherever you'd like.
- The audio of videos posted, now plays while you're listening to utterz on the phone, so you never miss a conversation.
- View your timelines as utterz OR utterz and replies. You decide!
- Choose your player when you embed a single utter.
- And of course, a whole new look and feel to the site!
Plus, don't forget:
- You can post your utterz individually to any of your connections and widgets by pressing 4 after the #, even if you have automatic posting set up.
- The new utter creation form with webcam and computer mic
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