Six months ago I dove in.

Had my toe in previously, on Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin, but the time had come to dive in to digital media.

I’ve been going to so many media, social media, digital media seminars and panels that I’m seeing more of Rachel Sklar than I am of my wife…Personal Democracy Forum, Mediabistro Circus, social media week, Internet week, television week, Sobel Media seminars, PR week, Web 2.0 Expo, Web TV Toolbox, NY Biz Expo, NYTV Meet-up, PR Camp, and many more on and off the NYC media grid.

Webinars, too.

I dove into a sea of words–buzzwords, jargon, words of art, acronyms, tech terms, elegantly descriptive coinages, and just wee bit of bafflegab.

I’ve been tweeting them along the way, but here are a few, mixed-in with a few other #WordsHeard along the way:

disintermediated, auto-generated metadata, commoditive, bafflegab, micro-celebrity, omathon, ideation, paranoid groupuscule, traghetti, media ping, Harry & Louise, wingnuttery, widgitize, monetize, pre-chewed, fronton, Doofensmirtz, evil zinc ray-inator, bed of Procrustes, architected, nomenclator, scale, scaled, scale up, scalable, scalable, scalable, catastrophic success, lumpy practitioners, downmodding, pharyngula, autopoietic, anarcho-syndicalism, Baratunde, meh, nonk, paid content, opacity agenda, pre-decisional, “so…”(the new opening word when a panelist responds to a question) purple issue, bleeding edge, hydroplanning, viderate, adhocracy, ground truth, smencilized, BIG LAUNDRY, digital immigrants, digital natives, mobiling, social diagnostic, digital embassy, crowd generated taxonomy, busking, black art, curation, buzz metrics, blogslurper, tweetslurp, art jumping, affordance, frontpaged, earlyvangelist, distribution arbitrage, webkinz, web-native, distribution arbitrage, platform agnostic, nascent, squidoo, pastrami salmon, contextually relevant, shiny object syndrome, oy vey, slacktivism, groupon, gravatar, distress strategies, power asymmetries, contagious yawning, kefuffle, long tail, fat tail, robust frameworks, black swan, baked-in, static benchmarking, risk engineering, robustify (yes, I said robustify)  praegustator, collaborative technology, transformative, economic jiu-jitsu, full-throated atmospherics, wiki-government, dumpster-diving, alignment,sector, space,branding, advocacy, trustmark, Matsumura Fishworks and Tamaribuchi Heavy Manufacturing Concern, whuffie factor, veracity, deconstructed, global,community, truicear cosmach, right brain homophily, anocracies, panopticaon, sunrise provision, secret sauce, qiking, servant leadership, excellence reflex, acid reflux, phatic, parasocial, tummling, flow, out-groups, mutual media, wysiwyg, Perry the Platypus.

And did I say scalable?

Then let me leave you with “conversation around the brand.”

See you after the Q & A!

Posted via email from MEDIA Ping

Now that we’ve got the morning line odds, post positions, and initial scratches/changes to work with, we can take a bit of a more in depth look at the racing action at Santa Anita as we continue with our race by race look at the Breeders’ Cup.  We’ll turn our attention to the $1 million Grade 2 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf for the moment.  The field sets up as follows:

1. Zip Quick (50/1)
2. Viscount Nelson (6/1)
3. Codoy (15/1)
4. Pounced (9/2)
5. Gallant Gent (30/1)
6. Awesome Act (20/1)
7. Bridgetown (8/1)
8. King Ledley (20/1)
9. Kera’s Kitten (12/1)
10. Becky’s Kitten (12/1)
11. Interactif (4/1*)
12. Buzzword (6/1)
13. AE – Dean’s Kitten (12/1)
14. AE – Summer Movie (50/1)

Like many of the races this weekend, the Juvenile Turf sets up as a showdown between the U.S. and Europe.  The U.S. contingent is led by INTERACTIF, a son of Broken Vow who has won 3 of 4 lifetime races.  Perhaps even more impressively, he’s proven his versatility by winning at 3 different tracks (Monmouth, Saratoga, and Keeneland), on two different surfaces (turf and dirt), and on varying track conditions (“yielding” in the G3 Bourbon and “firm” in the With Anticipation).  Trainer Todd Pletcher and jockey Kent Desormeaux will team up on INTERACTIF and attempt to get a tepid 4/1 morning line favorite home in the first action of the day on Saturday.

Opposing that outcome will be a contingent of potentially tough horses from Europe, comprised of BUZZWORD, POUNCED, KING LEDLEY, AWESOME ACT, and VISCOUNT NELSON.  Either of these 4 appear capable on paper, and we all know how the betting public (including yours truly) like to focus on the Euros in these types of races. 

It’s extremely difficult to separate this group on paper – at least in my estimation.  We see some familiar names in their running lines, including Beethoven and Siyouni. POUNCED got the closest to Siyouni last out in the Group 1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere (a race which should clearly be renamed the “Jean-Luc Picard” in honor of Star Trek TNG), but BUZZWORD has arguably been the more consistent horse and actually defeated Siyouni in the Group 3 Prix La Rochette in September. 

Do note, however, that neither POUNCED nor BUZZWORD have ever raced through left handed turns.

BUZZWORD and POUNCED exit the Jean-Luc at Longchamp, and will look to “make it so” in the BC Juvie Turf

Of course, it’s not like there aren’t other directions handicappers can turn in this race.  The above merely constitutes some of the more obvious things to consider.  Several up-and-coming types dot the field and make for interesting potential value plays. 

VISCOUNT NELSON looks particularly attractive at 6/1 on the morning line.  The sone of Giant’s Causeway has arguable improved in each race, despite being bested by 3/4 of a length last out at Doncaster in the Group 2 Champagne Stakes (where’s that gratuitous Christopher Walken “shamp-ah-nya” photo when I need it???).  Johnny Murtagh will retain the mount for trainer Aidan O’ Brien on this very appealing colt that is notably 2 for 2 lifetime at the 1 mile distance.  My only question is how the colt may fare over a more firmer surface, as so far he seems to have encountered softer footing than he’s likely to run over at Santa Anita. 

likewise, AWESOME ACT is a horse who can offer a ton of value at 20/1, provided you are able to forgive the 9th place finish last out in the Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket (GB).  Take a look at that running line before you dismiss this guy.  He missed the start, was bumped, adn then was rank?  Talk about a trip from hell.  Draw a line through that race and he suddenly makes quite a bit more sense, doesn’t he?  Of course, it’s also worth noting that he has a tendency to be “rank” in nearly every race he’s run, so don’t expect a 180 turnaround – unless of course he really enjoyed the flight across the pond.  

With all that attention focused on the Euros, it’s easy to overlook some of the more local contenders.  BRIDGETOWN certainly hasn’t done anything to disgrace himself in 3 lifetime races.  Usually I’m a bit leery of playing Speightstown offspring at anything over 7 furlongs, but he’s proven he can get that crucial 8th furlong.  Trainer Ken McPeek is having himself a tremendous 2009 season, and it wouldn’t be a surprise if this guy somehow lit up the tote board. 

One could also make a bit of a case for GALLANT GENT based on his synthetic form; assuming of course that you are comfortable in taking the leap of faith that such form will translate well to the turf.  It’s also interesting to note that Joel Rosario will hop back aboard the son of Yankee Gentlemen, as these two paired up for victory at the Allowance level back in July at the Del Mar summer meet. 

Then there’s CODOY, a son of Bernstein currently listed at 15/1 who has yet to run a bad race.  True, it took him 4 tries to break his maiden, but he seems to be on the upswing.  I’m not expecting him to be able to defeat this field, but he could offer some value underneath if he takes that proverbial “next step.” 

As for the “kitten” horses, I’ll leave those to the cat-themed players, although if you really twisted my arm here I could point out some angles on each of them that give you something to consider. 

The only horse that would really floor me if they won is ZIP QUICK, as I can’t really make a solid case for him beyond having run 2nd over the dirt to D’funnybone, and picking up the services of jockey Mike Smith (oh wait, that’s two angles, isn’t it?). 

I’m going to guess that this race comes down to the wire in a very interesting battle between the top horses entered.  I’ll look for BUZZWORD, BRIDGETOWN, POUNCED, VISCOUNT NELSON and INTERACTIF to all have a shot as the field nears the wire.  In the end I prefer INTERACTIF due to his versatility, and POUNCED as the “now horse” from Europe, although you best believe I’ll have BUZZWORD, VISCOUNT NELSON, and possibly BRIDGETOWN in my exotic tickets.  No need to get bounced in the first leg of anything, right?  I’m not even going to guess about the underneath finishes as they’ll likely be a wall of horses just behind the leaders with nearly everyone still picking ‘em up and ‘putting ‘em down with a shot to hit the board.  Suffice to say I’m expecting some combination of these guys to hit the board.

I’m making POUNCED the top choice just because I always get nervous backing Todd Pletcher in big races.  Maybe it’s the oft-repeated Derby record that gives me pause.  I know this isn’t the Derby though, so I may be foolish for doing so.  I’ve also learned to fear any horse that Dettori climbs aboard, and seeing him listed atop what I believe to be the “now” horse in POUNCED, I can’t help but make him the selection.  Sweetening the pot is the fact that he’s slightly more favorable odds wise at 9/2 (instead of 4/1). 

Selections:

• #4 Pounced (9/2)
• #11 Interactif (4/1*)
• #2 Viscount Nelson (6/1)

So you’re on a late afternoon conference call, and some guy is presenting a slide deck surrounding the upcoming launch of Product X.  Not only is the PowerPoint deck loaded with all sorts of uppity, businessy words, but the guy is confidently spewing all sorts of phrases that sound impressive, but upon closer inspection, are totally ludicrous and irrelevant.  However, everyone else seems to think he’s making sense, and is regurgitating all sorts of other equally lame phrases right back. 

Now, these aren’t your normal, everyday metaphors and cliches that you’d use in casual conversation with friends (well, without getting laughed at) - these are Conference Phrases, and are an integral part of the work vernacular.

So you’re probably wondering how the heck people come up with these borderline nutcase phrases – is there some sort of training that you missed?  Is there a formal guidebook explaining how you should talk in the office?  Well, no.  But that’s why I’m here – to show you how you, too, can have your own arsenal of meaningless phrases to use in your next meeting.

Let’s get started:

In my extensive experience that I’ve gained by attending way too many meetings per week, I’ve noticed that many Conference Phrases follow similar formats.

Format #1:

We’ve got to (verb) this (noun) to the (noun).

This standard metaphor format is typically used when indicating urgency - i.e., getting a project done asap, quickly gathering materials for the announcement, etc.  Note that the more grand and unrelated the metaphor, the more you impress your coworkers.

Example:

We’ve got to ride this horse to the finish on this announcement.

We’ve got to drive this golf cart to the tee and get the project done.

We’ve got to bring our appetites to the dinner party and make the most of this product.

We’ve got to take this shuttle to Mars and really pull out this press release.

Format #2:

We really need to (verb) a (noun).

This other type of metaphor format is typically used by bosses when attempting to energize the team with what they think is a strong , philosophical, intelligent-sounding phrase.

Example:

We really need to drive a cadence.

We really need to pick the fruit.

We really need to eat the leftovers.

We really need to start the next World War.

Format #3:

This is as (adjective) as (noun).

This is a classic simile…work style!  Instead of comparing things that actually make sense, you equate projects and products to grandiose events and things that are kind of a stretch.

Example:

This product is as huge as the Grand Canyon.

This announcement is as crucial as world peace.

This project is as important as the Queen of England.

This release is as hot as your mom.

Hopefully these tips will really help you pull out the big guns on your next conference call, impress the boss, and win you the awe and admiration of your colleagues.

Corporate Word of the Week:

Upliftment (n.) – A BS word that strangely reminds me of the existing word uplifting.  Hmm perhaps they have the same definition?

Example - The upliftment of the purchase order will help us secure budget funds going into Q3.

Truth Matters Newsletters – May 2007 – Vol. 12 Issue 5 – The Toronto Deception By a Former Toronto Vineyard Pastor

Discernment Ministries International

THE TORONTO DECEPTION by a Former Vineyard Pastor

It has taken me nine years to actually come to the place where I would write this story. Part of the reason was because I was not fully convinced that it is appropriate to speak out against weaknesses in the body of Christ publicly. Another reason is because it has taken years of soul searching to become convinced that what happened in the Toronto Airport Church was actually all bad or at least more bad than good!

For the past number of years I have called it a mixed blessing. I think James A. Beverly called it this in his book Holy Laughter and the Toronto Blessing 1994. Today I would call it a mixed curse concluding that any individual good that came from this experience is far outweighed by much harm and satanic deception. I suppose that therein has been the dilemma. I have tried to live my life in the fear of the Lord and Jesus told us that the unforgivable sin was the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. Attributing to Satan what was in fact a work of God. If pressed as to whether or not the Toronto blessing is all God or all Devil I will still be hedgy, but I am convinced that Satan has used this experience to blind people to the historical doctrine of God, to produce fruit in keeping with repentance, to failing to test and discern the spirits and failing to test prophecy.

After three years of being in the thick of the Toronto blessing our Vineyard assembly in Scar bough (East Toronto) just about self destructed. We devoured one another, with gossip, backstabbing, division, sects criticism etc. After three years of “soaking” praying for people, shaking, rolling, laughing, roaring, ministering at TACF on their prayer team, leading worship at TACF, preaching at TACF, basically living at TACF we were the most carnal, immature and deceived Christians that I know. I remember saying to my friend and senior pastor at Scarborough Vineyard Church in 1997 that ever since the Toronto Blessing came we have just about fallen to bits! He agreed!

My experience has been that the manifestation of spiritual gifts mentioned in 1st Corinthians 12 was much more common in our assembly, before January 1994 (when the Toronto blessing started.) than during this period of supposed Holy Spirit visitation. During 1992-1993 when praying for people we would experience what I believe was genuine prophesy, deliverance and much grace and favour from the Lord. After the Toronto Blessing started, all ministry time changed, the only prayers were ‘More Lord MORE’, the shouting of ‘Fire’ the jerky shaking of the body with the ‘ooh ooh OOH WOOOAAH’ prayer. (I kid you not!)

On January 20th 1994 about 15 people from our church traveled over to Toronto Airport Vineyard in order to listen to Randy Clark, a Vineyard pastor from the USA. John Arnott had called our senior pastor to invite us. He communicated that Randy had been to the Rodney Howard Browne meetings and that the stuff had broke out in his church in the following weeks. John was hoping that something might break out with us too. We were only too happy to travel over. We were a church plant out of the Toronto Airport and we started in 1992. In those days there were three Vineyard Churches in Toronto. One Down Town church, Scarborough vineyard church to the east and the AirPort Church. We were one big happy family. Because we were small in number we did special meetings, conferences etc, together.

The year before most of our leadership teams joined and had headed to Nicaragua for a short term missions trip. We had genuine love and fellowship with each other. Since leaving the Vineyard churches I have read a fair bit of analysis from the critics. Some make out that the Toronto Blessing was one huge conspiracy to lead the body of Christ into heresy. Heresy and apostasy I suspect may well be the result, but none of these destinations were intentional. I am honestly convinced that the leaders in the Vineyard churches are genuine born-again Christians who love the Lord, but have fallen into deception. They have not loved the Lord enough to keep His commandments. They have failed to obey the scriptures and have been led astray by our longing for something bigger and brighter and more exciting and dynamic. I am guilty of this sin also. I have preached renewal in Korea, the United Kingdom, the USA and here in Canada. I am genuinely repentant and in writing this story I would ask you the bride and body of Christ to forgive me. Especially the Pentecostal/charismatic Christians among you, for you are my immediate family theologically. I am an evangelical Christian, I always have been but I do not believe in the cessation of the spiritual gifts at the end of the apostolic era. I believe that it was my evangelical roots (my Family are Baptists and I was born again in the Presbyterian Church) that started to open my eyes to problems with this so called renewal In hindsight I look back and think how could I have been so blind? I laughed at people acting like dogs and pretending to urinate on the columns of the TACF building. I watched people pretend to be animals, bark, roar, cluck, pretend to fly as if they had wings, perpetually act drunk and sing silly songs. How I thought that any of this was from the Holy Spirit of God amazes me today. It was loud irreverent and blasphemous to the Holy God of the Bible. I suppose in my mind I reasoned that as long s they did not teach any thing in direct violation to scripture then it was what we called the exotic. This is a buzzword for manifestations that could not be justified from a biblical perspective. I was taught from the pulpit that we had two options. The order of the nursery full of life and messy or the order of the graveyard, very orderly but dead! As a young immature pastor I wanted life with mess. I failed to remember that God wants us to become mature and grow up in him.

I became disconnected by the prophetic words that came forth especially one by Carol Arnott in which she had her bride experience where she was taken into the very presence of Jesus and said that the love that she experienced was even better than sex! I was shocked in my spirit and thought how can one compare the love of God with sex? When we suspected that demons were running riot in our services John Arnott would teach that we should ask are they coming or going. If they are leaving then that is ok! John would defend the chaos by saying that we ought not be afraid of being deceived, if we have asked the Holy Spirit to come and fill us then how could Satan come and deceive us? This would make Satan very strong and God very weak! He said that we needed to have more faith in a Big God to protect us than in a Big Devil to deceive us. This sounded very convincing but was totally contrary to scripture for Jesus and Paul and Peter and John all warn us about the power of deceiving spirits and especially so in the last days. Again we did not love God enough to obey His Word and the result was that we opened ourselves up to lying spirits. May God have mercy upon us!

Finally the penny dropped for me a I was rolling around one night ’drunk in the Spirit’ as we would say. I started singing and as I rolled around the floor the Nursery the Rhyme ’Mary had a little lamb its fleece was white as snow.’ came to mind. I sang this in a mocking spirit and instantly my heart told me this was a demon. Instantly I repented and was in total shock. How could a demon get into me? Did I not love God? Was I not zealous for the things of God? Was I not nuts about Jesus? I knew that as unclean spirit had just manifested through me and I was guilty of great sin. After this experience I stayed away from TACF. I did not go back there any more. I did not possess the conviction to denounce the whole experience but thought that we were failing to pastor the Blessing well enough.

Even after I stopped going over to TACF, I had to pastor the fruit of it. One example was when some of our people returned from a meeting there asking us if we had all received the golden sword of the Lord? I asked them what they were talking about thinking that it was some prophetic reference to the Holy Scriptures but they said, ’no its not the Bible, it’s an invisible golden sword that only the really pure can receive. If taken in an unrighteous fashion then the Lord would kill you. But if you are holy enough to receive it then you can wield this sword and it will heal aids, Cancer etc. and bring salvation. How one wielded this sword was by pretending to have this invisible sword in your hand and motioning to strike people with it when in prayer! I thought while even in deception at this time that the TACF had become Looney bins! This was purportedly first received by Carol Arnott and then given to the ones holy enough to receive it! Another thing was the golden fillings in the teeth. We had people in our assembly peeping down one another’s throats looking for the gold fillings that God had placed there to show how much he loved them! In all my time there I only heard one message on repentance given by a visiting speaker from Hong Kong named Jackie Pullinger. It went over like a lead balloon. We were not there to repent, we were there to party in the Lord! After one year into the blessing, I spoke out at a pastors meeting and said ‘guys we have shaken, rattled, rolled, laughed cried and bought the tee-shirt. But we have no revival, no salvation, no fruit and no increased evangelism so what’s the deal?” I was soundly rebuked – who was I to expect to see fruit when the Lord was healing his broken people? We had been legalistic long enough and god was spending this time restoring his wounded and freeing us from legalism I was told not push the Lord and the harvest would come in his time.’

So there is my story. I could go on and document much excess, folly, sin and latter day reign teaching that manifest from the prophetic end of this blessing but others have already done that. We sang about Joel’s army and the billion soul revival as if it were one of the Ten Commandments, and as always it was just around the corner. Next month, next year etc. Jesus said that when the son of man returns will he find faith upon the earth ? And if he dies not return when he does no flesh would be saved but for the sake of the elect he comes. This is a far cry fro the dominionism, that is being taught all through the vineyard/prophetic/spiritual warfare movement. I honestly think that they think they are going to take over the whole world! While in the Vineyard I embraced a life verse from the Apostle Paul the phrase do not go beyond what is written!

To finish I just want to say sorry for the damage, that I have personally done by teaching things that are not correct biblically. I repent before men as I already have before God. I will not excuse my falling into deception. I did not bother to test things when the scriptures commanded us to do so. Everyone who was there when this thing started knows that what I write is true, they would just come to different conclusions especially if they are still promoting the ‘river!’

To those in te river I would say swim out, there are things living in the water that will bite you real good! I love the people of TACF and the Vineyard movement but I think that we have much to answer for and may the Lord open your eyes sooner rather than later. I suspect that when this letter goes online I will get bombarded by emails from both camps, some damning me for still believing in the ministry of the Holy Spirit and still walking in deception and some old friends damning me for exposing dirt or being negative about the Lords anointed! Well, the Lord knows my heart and by his grace he will guide me into all truth as I seek to know Christ and him crucified! I would call on all who read this to pray that the Lord would open the eyes of all who have been involved in this deception. Whether leader or follower, we are loved and the Lord is a forgiving God. He says if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. I believe we are like the church in Laodicea, we think that we are rich, have prospered and need nothing, we do not realize that we are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked. We must take the Counsel of Jesus and buy gold refined in the fire (which is his suffering, not a false spirit!) white garments to clothe our shameful nakedness and salve for our eyes that we might see again. Jesus is calling us to repentance and thank the Lord that he is, for it will lead us to true restoration with our Father! If God has forgiven me and opened my eyes then he can do it for all those caught in deception too. I will finish with a warning from Paul, he says if you think you are standing firm be careful lest you fall.

Sincerely, Paul Gowdy

Personally having been redeemed form charismatic extremism I applaud brother Growdy for his honesty and brokenness to share his testimony. My wife and I were present when Mrs. Arnott gave her infamous “golden sword” prophecy and saw firsthand the effect it had on the thousands present at that service. I pray our gracious Lord continues to restore Paul’s soul and that he has found safe haven in a biblically sound congregation. His testimony simply affirms what DMI has been saying for over the years. Literally hundreds of thousands of professing Christians have bought into a belief system which is not only biblically unsound but also spiritually damaging.

Sadly to date charismatic extremism shows little decrease in momentum and in some of its man facets in growing rapidly. Due to the growth of such gross doctrinal error DMI needs your support more than ever and we ask that you would pleas pray for our portion of Christ’s ministry and to also put “legs” to your prayers by financially supporting our work to His glory.

Rev. Robert S. Liichow

Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can’t see where it keeps its brain.
J.K. Rowling, “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets”

Regular readers of this blog will know that I’m a strong disbeliever in The Cloud – for some very key reasons. The reasons are distinctly different depending on whether a vendor is talking about a private cloud or a “out there in the internet” public cloud.

For private clouds, I think it’s nothing more than the emperor’s new clothes … it’s nothing more than an attempt to stick a buzzword compliant label on something already done in datacentres and charge more for it.

For public clouds, my primary concern is the that it’s a variant of trusting trust. Businesses who put their data, apps and services in the hands of cloud vendors have to trust that the data will be well managed and highly available.

(Aside: Yes, I acknowledge I use Mozy. I use it for limited and personal backups only. I use it for immediate offsite backups of a few key chunks of data that I also backup via other mechanisms. I.e., if Mozy disappears tomorrow, all I’ve lost is a bit of convenience – not my data.)

In addition to the plethora of traditional Internet based companies that are ramming cloud down our throats every spare moment, lots of “traditional” IT companies are banging on about cloud computing in the most obnoxiously hyped up ways these days. EMC falls heavily into that camp. So does IBM. So does Microsoft. Indeed, it seems impossible to find a company these days that isn’t willing to jump up and down shouting “us too, us too, look at us, we do cloud! Our clouds are ever so pretty and oh so reliable!”

Thin provision this. OpEx vs CapEx that. Data replication that. Anywhere access it all. It brings a little lump of bile to the back of my throat every time another vendor jumps up and down about cloud. It’s all a load of hype.

You want thin provisioning? That’s called virtualisation – or at a pinch, blade servers – and paravirtualisation. You want OpEx vs CapEx? Charge-out for processor cycles used has been around in the mainframe world since practically the year dot (IT wise). You want replication? That’s been around for ages too. You want internet available data? Um, yeah, that’s been around for a while as well.

You want to pay an extra 50% to 100% and have a buzzword compliant “Cloud” sticker on it? Excellent! I have a bridge I want to sell you with your leftover budget.

If that all came across as me jumping up and down on top of a soap box, you’d probably be right. Sometimes it seems that the only person of senior ranks in the IT industry with the chutzpah to tell the truth about cloud is Larry Ellison. And even Larry admits that cloud has reached such a level of hype that Oracle will be forced to stick some buzzword compliant stickers on their marketing material as a result.

So what does this have to do with Sidekick? Well, everything.

Despite what some pundits would tell you as they desperately scramble to protect the “good name” of cloud from yet another tarry lining, sidekick is cloud. Sidekick was in fact cloud at its strongest level of hubris. Data in the cloud with no ready provisioning for seamless local backup and restore. Cloud goes, data goes. It’s that simple. You couldn’t get a more buzzword compliant appearance of cloud than that.

Now I know that people will leap to the defense of cloud and say “well, it’s not the cloud fault, but the implementation fault – they didn’t understand ILP properly”, for instance. There’s a level of truth in that, but truth and trust don’t go hand in hand. You see, the end user doesn’t know that some vendors when they talk about cloud mean replicating, self repairing data services that are highly available. They just, thanks to all the buzz and hype generated by the industry hear “cloud” and think “wow, that’s secure!”

This isn’t a matter of truth, it’s a matter of trust. It’s a matter of a monumental breach of trust.

You see, the biggest, most misleading claim about cloud computing is that public clouds – clouds hosted by big corporates, are hosted properly and will provide high availability. We’re only barely across the starting line of companies offering cloud based services – companies that have supposedly been doing high availability themselves for ages – and yet we’re already seeing situations, time and time again, where cloud “vendors” are letting their users down. Sidekick is the latest and perhaps worst example. However, Google Mail has had systemic failures, Apple’s MobileMe has suffered issues as well – cloud failures are all around us, just waiting to be looked at.

The cloud system is hopelessly unbalanced in favour of the supplier. Massive companies with massive budgets with lots of very very small customers. So what if the cloud goes down for a few minutes – what’s a single person going to do about it?

Well, judging by the number of search hits I’ve had in the last couple of days due to a previous article I wrote about Sidekick, I have to imagine that the term class action lawsuit is springing to mind for a lot of those small and otherwise disenfranchised users.

Anyone who trusts the notion of a public cloud that doesn’t offer to seamlessly and automatically keep data locally available after the sidekick debacle is a fool.

With a bit of luck, one good thing may come out of the Sidekick debacle – the silver bullet/magic solution hype that has surrounded cloud for far too long may finally be pierced with some cold hard facts.

It’s time for people to wake up and smell the trust.

[Edit]

Current reports would seem to indicate that some, if not all of the Sidekick data may have been restored.

This this cause for celebration? For the end users, yes. Does it mean that Sidekick is trustworthy? Hell no – a significant data loss event taking such a lengthy period of time to recover is not, under any circumstances, a sign of trust.

This is the latest buzzword for my company. It seems that lately line of sight has become the most important thing in the world for us. It is also interesting to watch these phrases spread through the organisation. One executive e-mail with a new phrase and soon it comes out in senior manager’s presentations and coffee room chats.

The downside of a shared vocabulary is that it makes groupthink easier, especially so when no one is quite sure what line of sight is meant to convey.

If planning is arranging things in advance what exactly is pre-planning?

Have you all heard about buzzword acrobat? 2 days ago my friend was typing her document online.. I was just asking her what was that.. She said “I was doing my assignment with my team mate on Buzzwords”… Huh???? Havent heard that… She mentioned its actually quite similar to Google DOC...It allows us to keep the format layout of the document just like Google DOC…So today I try to experiment using it…The first page we need to fill in the form to register..For information, Buzzword is free! One thing about Buzzword, the loading is so slow and only a single user can edit at any particular time.. Google DOC is different… it allows the shared users to edit at the same time .. e.g if person is typing in the document, person can actually see the cursor running while person A is typing at real time…Isn’t that cool!! look at the print screen below.. This is what the buzzword looks like:

Check it out and tell me what do u think about buzzword?

I came across this article today about “awesomeness” becoming the new “innovation.” The article (read if you’re interested) states that innovation is an outdated concept and awesomeness is what drives success for a company. Below the link is the response I posted on the site.

The Awesomeness Manifesto

It seems that most people who disagree with this have a problem with the word “awesomeness.” Call it what you will, the concept is exactly what’s needed in our economy. It’s what drives customer delight (not just customer satisfaction). Great customer service should be replaced with customer experience. This is at the heart of why Apple is successful at what they do from a consumer standpoint.

From the perspective of the company and its production, awesomeness (or clarity or innovation or whatever you want to call it) is the process of delivering products that delight, not just satisfy. People, I think, generally have a negative image of corporate America, and companies like Apple and Starbuck’s (the examples given here) are leading the drive to change that image.

As for those who have shared their frustration with or hatred for Apple, I’d wager the reason you can’t get satisfaction is due to the waiting time to get service. This gives testimony to the theory that they must be doing something right. I’ve never walked into an Apple store any time of day and found it anything but packed. It’s not a cult. It’s a community. Building communities and social circles is what creating and building a brand is all about. The companies that are enjoying the most success are the ones who realize this and are seizing these opportunities.

It all starts with awesomeness.

So, in my experience with Corporate America, I’ve noticed that people have a lot of interesting job titles.  Some are confusing, some aren’t really true, and some just plain ol’ don’t make sense.  And, in case you were wondering, yes, this makes it very difficult to know what the people down the hall actually do for their careers. 

Experts in the field theorize that the reason for all of these BS titles is that Corporate America wants to confuse outsiders into taking it seriously, and wants to give its employees a false sense of ego inflation by doling out titles that sound impressive. 

In my experience, I’ve noticed that people’s BS titles typically fall into one of three categories, which I’ve outlined here for education purposes:

Um, could you explain what that means?

This is one of the most common buckets that BS job titles fall into.  Almost every day, either in e-mail signatures or in the company directory, I come across career titles that are basically meaningless to anyone outside the company. 

I won’t mention anyone’s actual title here, but it seem that some corporate titles are just a big bundle of ambiguity, like, “Initiatives Director,”  “Key Innovations Specialist,”  “Dynamic-Driven Consultant,” and “Manager of Directives.”  What does that actually mean?  Titles like this are so vague and convoluted that it’s almost always impossible to tell what the person does for a living. 

Note that you can make up your own BS, yet impressive-sounding job title simply by stringing a bunch of your fave corporate words together. 

How many vice presidents do we need?

This comprises yet another category of confusing job titles.  When I first started my job with Big Business, I was a bit perplexed.  It seemed that there were approximately 251 vice presidents for each area of the business.  This led me to think, “Why do we need that many?”  ”Isn’t there usually only one?”  I mean, there aren’t multiple vice presidents of the United States.  There wasn’t more than one class vice president in school. 

This raises many a question in one’s mind.  Why are there so many vice presidents at work?  And if they’re all vice presidents, then who’s the president?  Is the CEO considered the president?  Is it the brand manager?  If something happens to the CEO, do all of the vice presidents assume his or her responsibilities?  And where exactly does the senior vice president come into play?  And why are there multiple SVP’s, too?  Can there be multiple CEO’s?  Can I be CEO?

Confusing, man.

But you’re not really a manager…

Here’s another confusing category of job titles.  I noticed when I first started in Corporate America that everybody has “manager” in his or her job description.  So, naturally, I assumed that these people were all manager-level employees, like my boss…aka, my manager.  So, come to find out, these people are managers only in the sense that they technically “manage” their own work , in that they complete it sometimes (and yes, in case you were wondering, I have the word “manager” in my job title ).

So does that mean I can call myself an executive because I “execute” my work projects?  Or am I a director because I can “direct” myself to work?

Hmm…

Corporate Word of the Week:

Choiceful (adj.) – This word appeared in a recent e-mail that I received about using the correct words in the branding of a new product release.  I believe the sentence was something like, “We need to be choiceful with our wording surrounding this launch.”  Um, I have news for you:  You need to be choiceful with your wording because choiceful isn’t a word.  Ha.

Now I don’t know about you, but I like to spend my Novembers typing away at a computer screen via keyboard. Sometimes I use Microsoft Word or NeoOffice, a free Word-like platform to write outlines and plot ideas.

Last year I happened upon Write or Die which is a writing applications that forces you to write (or else). I also heard mentions of yWriter (not suited for Macs), Scrivener (free 30 day trial *winkwink*), and MobaMingle (for those who prefer texting out their stories on the cellular phone). There are also browser processors, like ZohoWriter which you can use if you have a Google, Google Apps, or Yahoo! account (and Buzzword by Adobe, something I used for the first 20k of last year’s NaNo). And only recently was I reading on WriteAnything, that I found this post leading to a wonderful little thing called Momentum Writer (and many other word processors).

Momentum Writer is unique and full of temptation because the backspace/delete key is utterly useless. It forces you to keep going forward and helps you resist the urge to go back and edit whatever bad sentence is bothering you. And if I may quote from the website:

There are no specific formatting options, no scrolling, deleting, or revisions. Momentum Writer doesn’t even allow you to use the backspace key. Momentum Writer forces you to write, to move forward, to add new words. It halts the temptation to linger, revise, and correct.

But be warned, Mac users! Momentum Writer is formatted for Windows only. (I know, right?)

This is an article written by Theresa Elliot (March 26,2008)

Taking The Buzz Out of Words

“Ohmygod, is that what I’m supposed to do? Is this what people expect me to teach?” “I am SO mundane!” This is a reaction I had just last week after reading a workshop description that went something like this: “Learn to raise the prana of the hara to awaken and open the heart chakra to it’s fullest potential!”. Yikes! After 18 years of yoga, I still wonder, am I deep and esoteric enough to teach?

My goal as a teacher is to communicate, whether it pertains to a pose well-executed or a philosophical idea that conveys meaning and insight, perhaps allowing an opening or a new possibility for my students.

I catch myself trying to placate the “yoga police” who live in my head, insisting that I be “spiritual”. When I teach, I find it tempting to use words and phrases in class because they sound deep. And my using them implies I know what I am talking about. But I wonder, do I really know what these words mean? And then a more troubling question arises: does my use of buzz words like “karma”, “heart”, and “prana” really communicate meaning, or does it get in the way?

I have a rule around asana that is shared by many teachers. I do not teach poses I am not intimately acquainted with. I have extended this rule to philosophical or esoteric concepts. I do not talk about the human condition, life or mystical experiences that I have not personally been through.

I have gotten into the habit of asking myself, do I have an experience-based understanding of this word? If someone asked me to explain what I meant by the word “heart” for instance, could I explain it in a way that gives my students an insight, instead of a mind deadening cliché? And, more fundamentally, how do I see the word operating in my life?

Buzzwords stand in for complex subjects, they reduce and generalize. I like to think of buzzwords as needing “unpacking”. A way I do this is to take a common spiritual or mystical word and write a definition of it and how I have experienced it. The process of writing forces me to be very clear: the paper will not prompt me like a friend might, and I can literally see what I am thinking. The challenge is to be clear and create a definition that reflects me – not a reiteration of a definition from a teacher or from a book I have read, and not some easy cliché.

Theresa Elliott teaching at Taj Yoga in Seattle, Photo by Eric Perret

For example, my current definition of an open heart, and how it looks when I have one, goes something like this: an open heart comes from a psychological state that allows a suspension of judgment, leading to empathy or compassion and the ability to let people and events “in”. Joy often arises from such a state, but so does grief. Joy and grief are polar opposites, and to be open to one, is to be open to the other. Much like light and dark, you cannot have just one. I experience a profound opening of the heart when I pick up my daughter from school. The joy that comes from seeing her is accompanied by an aching realization that she is growing, and that one day I will not be picking her up from school anymore.

By defining our words, we create clarity. And through clarity the possibility of understanding and growth. Consider this: what are the chances that we all have the same idea of what spirituality is? If I use a word that is subject to a million interpretations, does the word even have meaning, or is it now so vague as to mean everything and therefore nothing when used?

Here is another valuable exercise. Write out as many definitions of the word in question you can think of. You do not have to agree with the definitions, and it can be very helpful to read books or talk with friends as to what they think. This helps to get a perspective of what students may hear if you use the word when teaching.

For this purpose I went to the dictionary to see what Merriam had to say about the heart. Although “he” did not illuminate me on the meaning of an open heart, there was quite a listing of phases containing the word heart and the quality that the phrase exemplified: pertaining to personality or disposition; pertaining to compassion; , pertaining to courage. You may be thinking chakra and your student may be thinking compassion!

I think the expectation we have of ourselves as teachers to be spiritual and use words we have not explored, examined and matured into actually undermines us and limits the depth and potential impact of our teaching. I believe the greatest gift we can give as teachers is to “just” be who we are. I realize this is not a simple task: it requires self-inquiry and work as we all have layers of rubbish that need to be cleared away. It also requires courage.

One of my goals for years has been that I be the same person when I teach as I am at home. Today, I’m pretty much the same in both places, except when I’m home I swear more and I am less diplomatic. My next goal is to get to the place where what goes on in my head is no different than what I say. I am not sure this will be good for business, but I hope this change will result in less static in my brain and an ability to see more clearly.

I believe if I am “being me”, I will be genuine when I teach – and though the “yoga police” in my head are still getting used to this idea, I’d much rather be a teacher true to her nature than someone who is “being deep.”

***

It’s pretty interesting to me that “Miss MoJo DeVille” is so different from “Jess” or “Jade” or any of the other many names I get called daily. My alias is an extension of the powerful, confidant, fiery me that comes out in the form of my performance self. Still me – just an exaggerated version of a particular set of character traits. Because I approach teaching from my performer self’s perspective, I am confidant enough to demand the attention of the whole room and I receive it. I am articulate and organized enough to thoroughly represent the theories, motifs and facts in an effective manner. If I were to teach as the quiet introvert that some might encounter on any night at my home – the room would grow bored. I might studder or forget my key-points. I am a comfortable, confidant me when I’m the me I am onstage.

More important than the buzzword is the confidence in your field. If you are sure that you are practicing your calling you should easily slip into a confidence of learning and sharing what you’ve learned; We’re speaking practically here, this does not necessarily have to do with learning to pass a test. Remember coming home from school as a child excitedly chattering about whatever Mr. So-and-so or Mrs. Whosits taught that day? Remember the first time you were able to see where what you learned applied to your daily living situation? I get so excited to share my technique during a performance or share the theory behind the movement when I teach a class, that I never have to worry about being “deep enough” or if I had enough experience in an area to speak of it.

I have fun teaching because I allow myself to

drop into it – fall in love with it -

and when you speak to people about something you love…

boy oh boy – they will understand.

There are very few avenues in media and advertising that remain untapped today. Penetrating through the clutter of marketing messages and the mess thus created, is challenging than ever before.

It’s great to have a niche product to sell, for you can plan targeted campaigns and precise messages. Reaching out to a wider audience… now that is a real challenge! Take for instance the telecom industry, or insurance, or consumer goods… You cannot get away without spending top $ if you are to create any impact in the market.

Competition has forced marketers to move from creating simple & clear messages, highlighting real benefits & value that their products create… these days it’s about creating messages that hook the audience, at times even coarse them into paying attention!

The marketing buzzword these days – ‘innovative’; it’s mostly about doing the same things differently, using relatively newer communication platforms.

So what’s next? I say Social Change! Think about it, there is an endless supply of social problems, especially in India… poverty, crime, disease, health care, education, energy… everything is a challenge here. Take one of these issues, create a small sample base, resolve their issue and harp about it everywhere… you found a potential solution to a real problem, you helped some people and you got to talk about it…

But was the money well spent in marketing terms?

If your objective was to be heard and talked about… yes

If your objective was to create goodwill… yes

If your objective was to create new customers… yes

If your objective was to create loyalty among existing ones… yes

Besides, your story is worth carrying, so many in the media will… think of the potential savings on media spends

Although, this can’t be a short term strategy, but a directional change… towards creating a framework of ideas for sustainable business and social development.

Idea Cellular’s ‘what an Idea Sirji’ campaign is an example, but not a good one… it’s just an advertising campaign, a pointer to future direction? maybe… no real value created so far!

But there are others… many entrepreneurs are building businesses & products for social change. Be it clean energy, or affordable day to day solutions for the rural and poor, everything is being done… Aiming to be a social entrepreneur is an almost definite success story, right from the start.

And what is the marketing strategy there? Have a good heart and common sense!

Saurabh Shroff

This is a technology tip I created about the Adobe Buzzword program. Buzzword is a web based collaborative word processor which allows users to share, edit and collaborate on documents online.

And we’re back.

Sometime Monday the domain mapping that transforms mild-mannered “pubtech.wordpress.com” to it’s super hero identity “publicious.net” expired. Silly me, forgot to pay the bill. For about 48 hours, I was thinking I had offended some very important bots in Internetland. All the incoming links to Publicious disappeared and traffic was down more than 90%. It felt like Publicious had been put in solitary confinement.

After the inital shock, I said, “Oh well, whatever. Home alone at last. Now that everyone’s gone, I have all the time in the world and the whole internet to myself. Maybe I’ll just put on some Carpenters, kick back with bag of Cheetos, and check out SpongeBob On Demand.”

Every sha-la-la, Every whoa-o-oh, still shines.

But then I got lonely. I finally figured out I should check one of the sites that links here and see what happens. Bingo. A hop, skip, and credit card payment later, I am once again master of my domain. Now, help yourself to some Cheetos. On with the show.

Might as well start with my latest post at InDesignSecrets.com, Snippet Style InJectors. I stumbled on this idea when I was preparing for a presentation last fall, and noticed that all the document resources used by a snippet get placed before the snippet itself. I said to myself, “Self, this could be useful someday.”

Drawn! the cartoon and illustration blog has an interesting video of an artist laying out a comic book in InDesign. You’ll never look at the Pencil tool the same way again.

Miverity has a tutorial on how to build a Flash XML slideshow app for a website.

Smashing Magazine has an article on Ten Simple Steps to Better Photoshop Performance. Life is short, no time for beachball cursrors.

The Wall Street Journal’s Digits blog has an good article on ebook format wars. Which one will end up the Betamax of the 21st century?

Speaking of which…

InformationWeek weighs in on the same ebook format issue, with a Sony v. Amazon angle.

Gigaom is ready to declare a winner: Adobe, because of Sony’s embrace of EPUB.

Relatedly (is that a word? if not, I just made it one) Digital Media Buzz has the scoop on Adobe’s Open Source efforts.

Thinking of using an online word processor? Read Linux.com’s comparison of GoogleDocs, Zoho, and Buzzword.

Quick, how do you make a dotted line in Photoshop? Sitepoint has some nice quick tips about using Photoshop brush options for dotted lines and such.

One NYTimes.com writer thinks the bloom is off the Rich Internet App rose already, with the arrival of Google’s Chrome. Please, don’t be evil, Google. Please.

Graphics.com has some ‘tony tutorials (as in duotone, tritone, etc).

Finally, if you’ve ever wished to see Photoshop and Illustrator battle to the death as giant transformer robots with foul language (and who hasn’t?) I recommend checking out GoMediaZine’s ongoing Photoshop vs. Illustrator series.

Can you think of two things more polar opposite than chess and boxing? Well I can’t. One is a game of wit and tactics where to play is to fight a non-violent war using careful thinking as your only weapon, the other is beating the crap out of another person until they fall over and don’t get back up. Someone has decided that the ULTIMATE sport would be putting these two together, into chess boxing.

“The basic idea in chess boxing is to combine the number one thinking sport with the number one fighting sport into a hybrid (buzzword alert) that demands the most of it competitors – both mentally and physically”

I think the first clue that this sport shouldn’t be taken seriously is the fact it was invented by a cartoonist.  The second is that it’s CHESS BOXING, I mean, seriously?  You would have to have a weird mentality. Anyone can think really deeply then jump up and punch someone, but to sit down again after that, all your anger would go into slamming down the pieces. Wonder how often they would have to replace the boards?

- NeverHasLupus

Do you want to impress or confuse clients or Vice versa?………use Techno vocabulary.. It can be called the “Buzzword” writing method.

It is simple.

There are three columns of words involved, as follows:

0. Balanced 0. Management 0. contingency
1. total 1. Organization 1. Hardware (or software)
2. integrated 2. reciprocal 2. projection
3. compatible 3. monitored 3. time-frame
4. synchronized 4. digital 4. concept
5. optimal 5. modular 5. programming
6. responsive 6. transitional 6. mobility
7. functional 7. Incremental 7. capability
8. parallel 8. third-generation 8. flexibility
9. systemized 9. policy 9. options

Just select any three-digit number; then use the corresponding Buzzwords from the above grid, e.g., 257: “integrated modular capability”.

Don’t worry if it doesn’t make sense to you; it won’t mean anything to anyone else either, but they’ll think you’re just smarter than they are so they won’t say anything!! ..

You can propose “systemized reciprocal options” (929) to achieve “optimal transitional flexibility” (568), so that we can think of an “integrated monitored projection” …………..and your customer might be blown away with your technological superiority.

Deb Hilton shares her unique way of writing songs:

There are an infinite number of possibilities to writing songs and thus an infinite number of songwriting tips to be given. Here is one way I like to write.

I got a $7 tape recorder from Wal-Mart and I carry it around with me all the time. Whenever I think of (or hear) something clever, or true, or just something that sounds poetic, I say it into the tape recorder. It is much handier for me than a pen and paper, my thoughts get slowed down with the writing.

I sometimes go a week or two, sometimes months on end, taping phrases or weird sounding words on this recorder, and if I run into a slump where I’m not personally thinking of anything creative, I’ll go to a busy cafeteria in the mall, or a busy coffee shop where people aren’t afraid to make conversation in an audible tone. I’ll sit next to a talkative table or near them and sort of eavesdrop just a little, not so much I’m intruding, I’m just keeping my ears open for buzz words or phrases that have a ring with me. When I hear it, I’ll write it down (this time).

Last fall I was at Meir Woods with my family and we were walking back to our car and passed by these three truckers in the parking lot and one was just finishing telling a joke with the punch line when I passed by and heard, “she plays the guitar and kisses with her eyes open.” They all burst out laughing, I didn’t hear the joke, but I knew that line was getting written down when we get to the car (when I’m with other people and need to record something, I’d rather just write it down for now, but you do what you like). I haven’t used that line yet, but It is still recorded and I won’t forget it.

Sometimes, I go months before reviewing my tapes, and I’ve found that when I do wait so long, I am hearing these ideas with new ears, as a listener would hear them for the first time and I can get and give an honest opinion of myself to myself as a first impression would.

I also like to give my verses, lines, phrases dual meanings. One may be universal and one may have another more personal meaning for me. It helps keep the song fresh for me (the one who is singing it over and over again). Nothing is worse than having to sing a song that has become boring to you.

I think it’s important to cut yourself some slack when it comes to writing too. I wait until I have the night (or day) entirely to myself to get out the recorder and hear what I’ve got to work with.

This is your sacred escape, use it!

Just keep writing, and rewriting and crafting until it feels good to you!

Deb Hilton
The Porchlights

have you ever seen the commercial where a few people in suits are handing out buzzword bingo cards before a meeting? education is no different, professional development specifically. i was reading seth godin’s blog today and he talks about one that i have noticed is getting lots of play and we may have the government to thank. transparency. godin talks about how wise it is to be transparent as a rule, he says…

Radical transparency often excites people because of the radical part (it’s new! it’s scary!) than the transparent part. Playing poker with your cards face up on the table might get you some attention at first, but in the long run it’s unlikely to help you win a lot of hands.

interesting stuff.  if nothing else, perhaps we can move on to another word, something totally different.  maybe translucent

Photo: crowolf

FUD is becoming a very common acronym to hear in security circles. The acronym FUD has been popping up on Blog postings, emails, tweets, and at security conferences.

FUD is an acronym that stands for Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt. The phrase describes marketing schemes that are focused on using Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt to sell a product. Good example of FUD are sensational headlines such as, “Conficker Now Instructed to Steal” or more famously, “Hackers Can Turn your Home Computer into a Bomb!“

With FUD campaigns the marketer is attempting to use FUD to sell something. This marketed item could be a “security” product or FUD can be used to create a buzz around the “item at hand.”

One quick way to identify FUD is spotting a headline or article that is greatly sensationalized, has a lot of speculation, or makes gross generalizations. The other critical factor in FUD is there is a lack of information in the article. FUD articles clearly point out the problem, but fail to point out how the author arrived at this conclusion.

Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt pray on human emotions and marketing campaigns that exploit this will not be going away any time soon.