It requires a companion piece, though, on “Care and feeding of your extrovert.” Or, “Extrovert – narcissistic and needy?”

Those on the extroverted end of the continuum (like me) tend to require a little patience from those who are, well, not of the same persuasion. Still, we’re worth it – adopt an extrovert and you may find you have a friend for life!

Talkative and expressive. Outgoing people are naturally talkative and emotionally, physically expressive. Their dynamic range is considerable; they talk with their hands, their arms, their whole body. Not only do they enjoy talking, they require it for their sanity; when things are crazy, they verbally process and analyze issues and questions of the day. This need for verbal processing, for someone to talk to, sometimes makes extroverts seem a bit needy.

Enjoy hugs and affection. Extroverted people tend to be more casually physically affectionate. They casually hug, and touch you on the arm, the shoulder, the hand, while talking. They may walk a little too close, even sit right next to you. To them, this creates camaraderie, while to an introvert, it’s an invasion of personal space.

Prefers people to toys. Extroverts almost always prefer people to toys, and when they do enjoy those toys, it’s within the context of social implementation. When they indulge in the latest phone and the latest camera, they’re using ‘em to connect with people. You’re not very likely to find an extrovert choosing a book over a social outing, or online gaming over a dinner party.

Are interested in new people and places. Extroverts enjoy meeting new people and mingling in groups — the same kind of scenario that strikes your average introvert as fairly painful. They also tend to choose a new restaurant, a new club, or a new travel destination over revisiting the tried, true and familiar.

Extroverts find identity & energy in social contact. An extrovert takes Descartes one step further – the introvert’s mantra is “I think, therefore I am” but the extrovert believes “I interact, therefore I am.” Social interaction provides the extrovert with validation, energy and justification and when he/she can’t find someone to talk to, verbally process with, it can be uncomfortable and frustrating.

Of course, friends of all personality types can enjoy spending quality time together (often over pizza and beer), enjoying music, sports or the outdoors, or other common interests. It is especially important to train an extrovert well, keep them from jumping up on you and on your furniture, and have their hips and joints checked regularly by your veterinarian be patient with them.

Note: this post is dedicated to my many fine introverted friends. You know who you are.

Really, though, I use social media as an augment to my real world social life. I have some 150+ Facebook friends, slightly more than the average but nowhere near the numbers of some of the true online socialites out there. Every one of those friends is a real life friend. They are all folks I know, would have lunch with, can call, email or talk professional questions through with.

I simply don’t accept friend requests from people I don’t know. It doesn’t matter that they’re a friend of a friend – I’m not using it to network broadly and make new friends. It’s not that I share a lot of really personal information on Facebook – but I don’t have time to wade through updates, app requests and quiz results from folks that are not friends. (And *ugh* on the stupid quizzes, can’t we demote them to a separate feed or something already?)

Anyway, I saw a news article today about a service, uSocial, that enables you to *buy* new friends on Facebook. (Because, yeah, that’s what true relationships are made of!)

Not surprisingly, Facebook itself doesn’t like it and considers it a violation of the terms of service. Conceptually, it “detracts from Facebook’s efforts to create a culture of authenticity.” You think?

I can’t imagine being so caught up in the world of online popularity that you would think that buying friends (or fans) would be a worthwhile investment. It’s a sad world out there where that type of service can be a viable business model.

This is going to be a little difficult to write, as it’s a standing rule of mine not to write negatively or in inappropriate detail about my workplace or colleagues. Still, I’ll make a stab at it on general principles.

Am I affected by workplace politics? You bet. When I took my most recent IT project management position four years ago, I thought it was going to be managing straightforward implementation of bigger and sexier projects. Instead, it seemed to shift my job away from the nitty-gritty of project management and toward a very political, impact-and-influence oriented role – perhaps 75% of my time is spent on the latter.

When do I encounter politics? When do I not?!?!

• At project initiation, I work with multiple departments, reconcile wishes against strategic goals and favored vendors to scope a solution and develop a business case with a meaningful return on investment.

• During project planning & detailed requirements gathering, I fight for the resources necessary to accomplish my project and resolve requirements conflicts.
• During implementation, I work constantly behind the scenes to continue to have my resources’ full attention, and push the vendor as hard as possible to focus on our build and issues.
• Testing requires that I track down yet another set of resources to test, as well as push hard on vendors to resolve issues.
• Deployment requires getting the customer’s approval to go live, managing various change management processes, as well as high visibility internal and external communication.

I try and follow some simple, sensible rules for communication – these apply to basic human relations, not just my field of project management:

• Communicate frequently, often, and to the right people. Nobody likes surprises.
• Learn preferred channels of communication for different team members and customers and use them for best problem-solving.
• If you have a problem, go directly to the source of the problem.
• If you need to escalate, involve both the source of the problem and his/her manager in the discussions so there is no he said/she said conflicting stories.
• Practice Covey’s fifth habit – seek first to understand, then to be understood.
• Deliver praise and positive feedback in public; criticism in private. Always.
• Follow the golden rule: treat others as you would like to be treated.

It’s important to me, as project manager, to understand my role. Primarily, my focus is typically supportive/facilitative management; I’m there to handle all the logistics and issues so that the technical team can focus on the project. At times, I do need to shift into a more assertive taskmistress role and require extraordinary focus from my team, and I need to understand when to do this and how to most effectively make it happen. Still, at the end of the day, when the project is successful, it’s my team that has done the work, every line of code, piece of hardware and late night cutover; I’m the most dispensable person there, and I make sure the team knows their efforts are appreciated.

One final note on politics, management and communication: there is a continuum of behavior that ranges from total, obsequious yes-person to completely obstructionist obstacle. I am not a yes-person. My personal sense of integrity requires me to be honest, realistic and forthcoming, while still trying to remain positive and constructive. One of the best pieces of career advice I ever received , from PM consultant Neil Whitten, is to do your job as if you don’t care if you get fired. Do the right thing, work hard, satisfy your own work ethic and be a champion for your project and your people.

Today, during a particularly bad patch of connectivity when I was trying to participate in a conference call & webcast, I got annoyed and managed to send a note out via twitter:

Nasty internet connection latency plus repeated digital phone service crashes means yet another call to Comcast. Isn’t telecom fun?

Much to my surprise, a Comcast technician replied to my tweet within 15 minutes with an offer to help.

This could have seemed a “big brother” type response, but the technician made both a non-intrusive open-ended offer to help and her twitter account was set up with obvious care – her name, a picture and a profile that indicated she was a real person.

Through @replies and DMs, she did proceed to help, rather successfully. It appears she provides support through this model all day long and is rather pretty darn effective at it.

By the end of the day, I had a call from a Tier 4 local plant technician who looked at my stats and records and agreed that there was indeed a problem with my Comcast connection. (Darn it, I wasn’t taping…) I will be getting a call from a field supervisor to set up an onsite trouble call early next week.

What Comcast didn’t know is that I work in call center technology for a similar Alaskan company, and am always interested in effective use of alternate support channels.

This is a nice model, a positive application of Twitter and the near-real time capabilities of the Internet, and I’d love to see our company adopt something similar in its technical support center.

Nicely done, Comcast!

Now for the technical details:

My ping times to various resources (Comcast, GCI, etc) were quite often in the 1.0 – 1.3 sec range with 10% to 50% packet loss. A traceroute indicated the problem was in the hop between my wireless router and the local Comcast router.

I’ve had Comcast out twice to work on the issue. The first tech indicated some neighborhood node issues; the second tech found nothing, but I persuaded her to replace my VOIP cable modem.

I also tried replacing my wireless router, thinking that might be the problem. I now have a lovely a dual band Airport Extreme N router. It’s connected by Cat5 cable to my cable modem.

Resetting the cable modem temporarily resolves the problem, but all too toon thereafter it’s back. There’s no pattern in time of day or association with machines on the network.

Today I decided to work direct connected to the cable modem to see if the problem continued in that configuration. (This was after trying and failing to buy tickets from Ticketmaster because of the latency.)

Not only did my access intermittently slow way down, and latency jump way up, but I also saw my cable modem reset itself multiple times over the course of a couple of hours, making land line calls and web conferences impossible.

The Comcast tech I originally spoke with had several excellent suggestions about my local network, but after she looked at the node, escalated the issue to her local plant technicians.

The tier 4 local technician looked at my traceroute data and correlated times of day with me and were convinced that there was indeed a node problem.

I’m looking forward to seeing Comcast onsite early next week.

Good question. At forty-something, it’s been a long time since high school and college; they are a blur. With apologies to the few high school friends I am in touch with, it was not a pleasant era for me. I was geeky, socially awkward and very unhappy. I haven’t attended a single reunion because those are memories and times I don’t particularly want to revisit.

In the years since, I’ve held a few jobs and lived in multiple states and countries. I’ve met a lot of interesting people and become close friends with a few. At the same time, I am truly awful at being a pen pal, I didn’t really even try, so we’ve lost contact.

The Internet and its capability for globally connecting people is changing all that.

Erudite blogger Eric mentioned:

“Part of what’s remarkable to me about the internet is how communities now consist of people who share a common interest and not just a common ZIP code. It seems to me that if a lot of this international tech had existed when I was a teenager, I might have been better adjusted: after all, whenever my few friends and I felt maladjusted and lonely, we could have turned to the message boards for RPG gamers or music nerds or general misfits, or maybe even have had Facebook or MySpace pages in which we would have perhaps had thousands or millions of ‘friends.’”

It certainly is true for teens today. My sons have moved – my eldest a couple of times – and have not lost touch with old friends at all. They are still IMing, connected on Facebook, MySpace and game platforms, and calling each other endlessly on free evening and weekend minutes.

According to sociologists, one of the interesting demographic differences between teens and young adults, who grew up immersed in social networking, and older adults is that the the younger group does not differentiate among face-to-face and online friends. The relationships they have with online friends via IM, email, social media networks and other channels are as real, rich and important as relationships with those they go to the movies with on Friday nights.

Just as importantly, it’s becoming true for my generation – and my parents’ generation. Email & IM bring instant gratification. Facebook provides opportunities to track down and reconnect with old friends. Blogs become soapboxes for fascinating people of all ages with opinions, wisdom and the ability to write coherently.

Facebook, in particular, is a fascinating phenomenon. It’s grown from 90 million users in June of 2008 to 150 million in January of 2009¹ – and the largest growth has been in the atypical demographic sectors – non-US teens (13-17), young (26-34) to middle-age (35-44) professionals and smaller but rapidly growing groups of adult (45-54) and (55-59) professionals².

Suddenly, our options for connecting to people are no longer limited to, as Eric mentioned, our zip code – or even the current era. We can search for and reconnect with friends from high school, college, past jobs and locations as well as our our current moment. We can also connect with people online from around the world who share common interests and goals – I count among my friends people from across the US, Canada, the UK and Pakistan.

So, to circle back around to the original question: have we reached the (physical) age where we reconnect? I would submit that it’s much larger than an individual choice. We’ve reached an age, an era of reconnecting, facilitated by social media and globalization.

¹Facebook’s Traffic Growth Leaving Rivals in the Dust
²Facebook Growth by Age: College Age Group is Declining

I acquired the new BlackBerry Storm 9530, and have been slowly learning to navigate the new interface.

The Storm has gotten mixed reviews as a brand new device playing on the Apple iPhone’s playing field. It does have its strengths and weaknesses, but so far (three days) I’ve been happy with mine.

The main reason for my choice (Storm vs. iPhone) is that the Blackberry is primarily a messaging device and phone, and does those two things very, very well, and the media capabilities are adequate but not spectacular. The iPhone is primary a media device, and the phone and messaging are secondary functions.

I also went and played with both for a good period of time, messing around with the user interface and using their touch keyboards to enter text. The Storm’s interface was a bit easier for me to use. I did like the click technology better than I thought I would.

I’m looking forward to finishing its configuration, setting up Outlook and learning to really use it.

Pros so far:
Crisp, clear display screen
Much improved web browser
Physical lock/unlock button

Cons so far:
Battery life isn’t the greatest – about 28 hours
Verizon provided me with *no* activation instructions – I had to google it

Jury’s still out:
Ease of outlook setup
Ease of text entry/interface use
Camera quality (not that it’s a primary camera, but useful in a pinch)

If I have anything substantive to add, I may write a 30-day review.

I made a stab at using social networking media a year or two ago, and it just didn’t click for me – partially because I didn’t really use it, and maybe because the media itself hadn’t reached the tipping point among my peer group. I was on Pownce, Facebook, LinkedIn, BlogCatalog, etc, but did nothing with them.

This time, though, it’s been a fun – and I’d say successful – experiment.

What is Twitter? It’s a microblogging platform, allowing users to post short, 140 character posts via web or cell phone text message to their own user-ID branded page. Users can follow, reply to and direct message each other, giving Twitter feeds the feel of a public instant messaging forum.

Why use a microblogging platform like Twitter? For me, the reasoning was simple – it’s an augment to my blog, a way to say short, snarky, stupid things to the universe and my circle of friends that wouldn’t really merit a blog post of their own.

Others use Twitter to market their blog, to connect with their customers and readers, to solicit relatively timely think-tank feedback from a broad follower base, and to network with a larger circle of acquaintances than they’d typically encounter online.

Why was this try successful?

First, and most importantly, I jumped on the platform at the same time as several other friends, which gave me a built-in conversational group. Twitter is most enjoyable as an interactive medium. I don’t follow everyone indiscriminately, only friends, colleagues and a few highly entertaining authors – the fabulous (and evil) Kate has a superb post on that subject.

Second, I downloaded a third party Twitter application to my desktop that behaves like an IM client. I chose Twhirl – but others use different applications they’re equally happy with. I wouldn’t remember to go check the website nearly as frequently, but checking an application that’s open on my desktop is pretty easy. I also added a Twitter-Facebook connector so my updates flow to Facebook, and a Twitter feed sidebar on my blog.

And, third, I think that this particular type of media has hit its tipping point. While it was popular with early adopters a year ago, it’s becoming fairly widespread; middle-of-the-road techies are now using it as well. Stats show that the user base has grown from 650,000 in Dec 2007 to over 4,000,000 in December of 2008 – that’s huge.

The sad downside of this equation is the growing view of the Twitter userbase as a potential advertising market. The question is out there, on the table – how do advertisers and top Tweeters monetize Twitter? I offer the revolutionary observation that just, maybe, you *don’t*. The conversations about snowpocalypses, grocery store lines, cats and cookies are of far more value in our overstressed, technologically adept society than one more ad-saturated media channel.

Don’t advertise on Twitter pages and feeds. Don’t spam via Twitter. In fact, as much as I value my friends, if they choose to use Twitter to send spam or ad media, I will unfollow them pretty darn promptly because I am not a volunteer ad subject.

In spite of the small spam issue, at the end of the day, I’d say my Twitter experiment has been successful, primarily because it’s been *fun*. I don’t have enough fun things in my life, so I think I’ll keep this one.

For Worldcons, it’s possible to purchase a supporting membership for half the full membership price; this doesn’t include attendance, only Hugo voting rights and a packet of information at the end of it all. Cheryl Morgan’s excellent after-analysis got me thinking – what if there were more?

On the other side of the world, Conflux Australia again held a virtual SF mini-con in parallel with the real life convention last month. The virtual mini-con is essentially a fully Internet-based online convention, a gathering of friends and fans that follow a program to chat with a special guests or panels. Conflux’s virtual con was bulletin-board-based.

With all the powers of interactive media available today, what if organizers pulled many multimedia channels together to host a virtual con? For example:

• I host project meetings using webcast, web chat and audio conference to keep participants engaged. For large groups, we have lecture or Q&A modes to keep the audio channel usable.

• I just participated in Linux Journal’s inaugural live event – a combination of streaming video and web chat.
• I have participated in distance learning events, a combination of streamed video/audio presentations, chat room real-time discussion, stored sessions for playback and follow-up forum-based follow-up discussion. This format, in particular, might lend itself well to virtual convention attendance.

If convention organizers would consider investing in setting up this type of technology, webcasting a key set of sessions and providing moderated chat and discussion forums, they could extend the privilege of attending and truly participating to a much broader audience. By carefully calculating the price point and successfully marketing this membership category, the virtual convention could pay for the required technology set-up.

I believe this approach would help grow the Worldcon’s media coverage and attendance base. Plus, I believe the interactive technology aspects would appeal to a younger fan base – it’d be awesome.

The question is how much personal information should you share on a blog? How much is too much? There is a fine line between having a warm, personal voice and oversharing.

There are all sorts of blogs out there. Some are are topic focused, on politics, technology, business, celebrity, even on blogging itself. Others are more personally focused, diarist blogs on home, family, lifestyle and personal observations. I would consider mine to be fairly eclectic – with some posts on travel, business, tech and writing and others on what’s happening in my family.

I have always been very conscious that anything I write on the Internet is completely public, and have refrained from blogging about work frustrations, family issues and sensitive subjects like religion and politics. I would never want anyone that I’m having a problem with to read about it online!

Beast Mom’s point is that in today’s environment of online oversharing, we may be hurting our childrens’ futures. Today those seeking political office have their past examined in minute detail; tomorrow that may apply to the average job as well. The more information there is online, the easier it is to dig into that background detail.

In my opinion, most parents who blog about their children do so respectfully and positively. I never complain about my kids’ problems online, but I’m quick to rave about their successes! I also ask their permission and give them an opportunity to review when I post about them. The oldest likes being written about online; the younger would prefer not to have that attention.

Kids, however, don’t blog about themselves and their peers quite so respectfully. When they hit young adulthood, college, and beyond, they set up MySpace and Facebook pages. Some use less-than-stellar judgement and fill those pages with raunchy screen names, racy pictures and trashy commentary.

I repeatedly caution my teens about their online presence – I want them to create an image they’d be proud of if an employer, pastor or future spouse were to find their web pages. I also caution them to not divulge their last name or detailed contact information, for safety and searchability reasons. I check their pages occasionally, more because I’m fascinated with their online voice.

So, does my blogging about my kids hurt them? I don’t think so – although they are probably embarrassed from time to time that their ancient, dumb mother is even online and can code rings around them.

Can their own online presence hurt themselves? Probably, but we work on encouraging them away from making that happen. Who knows, maybe 20 years in the future having Myspace indiscretions cached in the Wayback machine will be de rigueur – like inhaling seems to have become today.

This made for a pretty scary call for the soldier’s parents, especially since the call cut off after another soldier shouted, “Incoming! RPG!” The parents eventually made contact with their son’s unit and found out all was ok.

This raises a lot of questions.

What are our soldiers doing with cell phones in the field? Isn’t this:

• a source of data on troop movements, based on triangulation of signal source
• a potential intelligence breach, as cell phone conversations could be intercepted and overheard by hostile forces
• a hazard in a covert operation, should the phone unexpectedly ring, or even if the screen illuminates and lights blink at night
• a distraction to the soldier – shoot, we’re not supposed to talk or text and drive in Washington, so surely our troops shouldn’t be operating a cell phone while they reload in Afghanistan.

I have read that cell phones are being used more often for official purposes in combat, as a backup to radio and other communication sources. That application just seems odd – especially the hazard and distraction factor for any troops who might be on the receiving end of such calls.