Over 90% of respondents consider data as a strategic asset and in the last 12 months, close to 60% have seen an increase in the number of data sources that they use to make decisions. I had assumed that more data meant that they were able to apply all this new information to do their jobs more effectively. I was wrong. Only 33% reported that they had the right amount of data to do their jobs! How come? Isn’t all of this data supposed to be helpful? Where is the disconnect?

My colleagues have done some great work on this topic and continue to study how organizations can flourish in this new world of unbounded data. Specifically, Naumi Haque has spent the last year studying sentiment analysis including the tools and processes that best practice organizations are using in order to better understand their customers. Denis Hancock has done some great work on how enterprises can use social media data, specifically Twitter, to work more closely with customers and partners. Jeff DeChambeau’s exciting work on online gaming gave us some great examples of what enterprise dashboards could look like. Nick Vitalari focused on open data, including the challenges and opportunities presented by public-private ecosystems. And lastly, my dear friend Tim Bevins spent time looking at the effects of the mobile channel.

I’ve linked to some of their blogs above, but urge you to check out more of the research coming from this group, including the final results from the data survey. I consider it a privilege to work with so many talented people.

allow guests to receive exclusive offers directly on their mobile phones. Coupons are redeemed by scanning a barcode on the phone at checkout.

Customers are able to opt-in to the program three ways: via PC at Target.com/mobile, on their phone at m.target.com or by texting COUPONS to 827438. The coupons are for one use only and expire on the date listed, similar to paper coupons.

The technology to make offers and bar codes available on a phone is not the issue, it’s the infrastructure required in each store to be able to scan and record the data. This is where the major investment is, and why things like mobile coupons have not been introduced sooner. In other parts of the World people can use their “mobile wallets” to get food from a vending machine or to scan and gain entry to a public transit system. North America still has a lot of infrastructure to put in place in order for this level of mobile use to be more widely available.

A couple questions about the mobile coupons:
1. How will Target deal with stores that have “dead spots.” If your web-browser isn’t working how can you access the coupons for checkout? Can you download and save the coupons/barcodes on your phone directly or is a connection required?
2. Why isn’t anyone talking about the green benefits here? This option should cut down on paper use and if other stores transition coupons and things like loyalty cards to a mobile platform there could be a huge cost savings for them as well as a great environmental benefit for the rest of us.
3. Will people use them? I would think that having them more easily accessible on your phone would mean that more coupons get redeemed. I am curious to see if there is an uptick in use or any research that suggests better sales from this program.
4. What do you think? Do you currently use mobile coupons? Would you use mobile coupons? I just signed up and look forward to testing it out.

When we developed our 2010 research agenda a few months ago we could not ignore the fact that now more than ever, enterprises are being forced to manage huge amounts of data from many different and often completely new channels. The term unbounded sums up the situation perfectly as it immediately suggests infinite. Enterprises generate more data, collect more data, and can consider more data than ever before. But an increasing amount of data is generated outside the enterprise, by sources that you don’t control.

Prodigious quantities of data present opportunity, complexity, and distraction. Separating signal from noise requires advanced analytics and thoughtful strategies. Many businesses can and will reap the benefits of more detailed information on every part of the ecosystem (customers, prospects, competitors, partners, and employees) if it can be harnessed. Data-driven insight will enhance intuition and expand the purview of decision makers inside and outside the enterprise in ad hoc and deliberative processes.

As we began the research into this topic we decided that it would be help set a benchmark and get a better understanding of where professionals and their companies are with regards to their readiness and ability to deal with data. Last week we launched a survey to measure how data is being used both from a functional level and across enterprises. The survey is open to all levels and functions—if you are reading this we would love to hear from you! It only takes about 15 minutes. As a thank you for your time we will provide you with a summary of the findings.

The survey is designed to gather information to help answer these questions: Are decision-makers able to get the information they need? Are enterprise processes and IT departments keeping pace with technology advancements? What new types of data are being gleaned from social media and how are these being used? What data-related issues are preventing enterprises from measuring, managing, analyzing, sharing, and collaborating more effectively?

To participate, please click on one of the links above or simply click here.

Thank you in advance for your participation, we look forward to sharing results with you.

As I’m sure you already know, there are many companies doing things like creating collaborative workplaces for their employees, partners and/or customers, but finding those that are actually measuring the results AND have some interesting outcomes are very hard to find. All in all I ended up highlighting a little over a dozen examples in a paper last November. They range from companies using social media tools and developing collaborative relationships to drive a marketing campaign, to companies using a webspace to innovate new product and service ideas.

Later this month, March 23rd, my colleague Tim Bevins and I will be sharing some of these findings in a webinar called Real Collaboration – Real World Examples for Successful ROI. We will discuss some of the collaborative activities companies are undertaking and how they are being measured, lessons learned from leading-edge companies, recommendations and next steps for developing successful collaborative initiatives and what ROI top companies are recognizing from collaborative initiatives. Click on the link above or  register here. I look forward to an interesting discussion and hope you are able to join us.

The Rally Fighter was built for racing in the desert, and after checking out a few other designs I quickly realized that each car was built for specific geographic preferences. Other designs include the The Miami Roadster, The Green Apple (for The Big Apple) and my favorite The Boston Bullet, described below:

For “a city that gives innovation in a spirit of tradition.” The Bullet is Boston’s car, designed for narrow streets and a smooth ride while managing to capture the city’s cultural and ideological heritage.

Local Motors is challenging how new cars are created, holding design contests for each piece of the car from overall design, to the electrical systems, to the interior, to the name. The community prioritizes the ideas and develops those designs that have the most support. My favorite part is that once a full car design is complete, people order them online and the actual manufacturing is done by the new owner. Did you hear that? The new owner builds their own car! With help from the Local Motors team, owners learn how and then actually build an engine, put in windows, craft a brake system, everything! So not only is Local Motors offering designers a great way to collaborate around an exciting concept, they are offering their customers a very personalized experience. Taking the prosumer concept to the next level is no doubt creating a loyal following and a significant group of lifelong customers.

So, what about the major auto manufacturers? Is Local Motors planning to compete with them? How would that work? While the concept is most likely too specialized to ever take off in the mass market, Local Motors is hoping to work with major automakers. They see an opportunity to fill a niche that the major players just can’t fill as it is too cost prohibitive. I anticipate seeing some type of partnership, but given the innovative nature of this company it will most likely be structured like nothing we’ve seen before.

I can’t wait to see what new product development concepts and of course really cool cars come out of this company. As you can imagine the Local Motor’s website is central to its business model, and it is built to keep you interested. Everything from the live shop camera to the design wall to the community and forums are designed to get you thinking, wanting to learn more and maybe even participate. The newest contest launched January 27 and closed February 9 was for a Texas hunting truck described as

a vehicle for Texas that could easily meet the demands of hunters and could adapt depending on the requirements of the different types of game — white tail deer, quail, dove, and javalina to name a few. Essentially, design a base vehicle that could have various modules easily attached to it depending on the needs of the user.

Did you happen to notice how fast this contest is? 2 weeks from launch to close…not bad turnaround time for innovating new ideas. That efficiency is what the collaborative enterprise is all about.

So…what aspects of this model could your company use to improve innovation? What new products or services could be developed in this rapid, community-driven approach? Who among us will jump in and become the next cool car designer? One thing is clear, it will be really fun to watch!

A little place on the Internet celebrating creativity and the everyday moments of inspiration that LEGO® enthusiasts call “CL!CK.” Come to inspire and be inspired.

The community is tightly tied to Facebook, Twitter and Flickr, providing tags (#legoclick and legoclick) so that users can take ownership of their new ideas and post those ideas out to the world. The Cl!ck community highlights individual’s random posts on its site, so as I went back and forth to the site I actually saw updated Tweets and posts about what people were thinking about and doing with Cl!ck. Marketers at Lego also did a fantastic job putting together a video to introduce the concept. I’m sure you’ll agree it’s well done and very engaging.

We should not be surprised at Lego’s recent step into more collaboration with customers, especially since they’ve been working on it since the early days of their Mindstorms project. Lego Mindstorms, originally released in 1998, developed programmable bricks, electric sensors, and motors so that Lego enthusiasts and other inventors could create robots or whatever they wanted. At the time Lego was still targeting only kids with Mindstorms, but this initiative revealed how much of an adult following they had. In 2005,  Don Tapscott commented in an Optimize Magazine article(now Information Week):

Within three weeks of their release, user groups had sprung up, and tinkerers had reverse-engineered and reprogrammed the sensors, motors, and controller devices at the heart of the Mindstorms robotic system—and sent their suggestions to Lego. The company, at first uncertain about how to respond, threatened to launch lawsuits. When users rebelled, however, Lego finally came around and eventually created a Web site where customers can co-create products. Now each time a customer develops and posts an application for Mindstorms, the toys become more valuable.

Even years ago Lego recognized how important collaborative customer relationships were to the growth of the brand and the company. Lego’s CL!CK community is clearly an extension of its ongoing collaboration with its customers.

In conjunction with the CL!CK  announcement, Lego also release a free iPhone app that allows users to take any image and convert it to a mosaic Lego image. It’s easy to use and downloadable at legoclick.com or  iTunes.

While the iPhone app seems fun and is an interesting way to keep your brand in front of consumers, the CL!CK community could actually produce new innovations, benefiting both Lego and those inventors who generate new ideas. The launch and campaign around the site has been impressive so far. I look forward to seeing CL!CK success stories and possibly new social product development processes emerge from this as well.

Twitter and Facebook specifically are proving to be valuable tools for organizations soliciting donations. One of the more popular options ties together the huge adoption of social networking tools with everyone’s favorite communication device, your cell phone. The Red Cross developed a text option, so when the word “Haiti” is sent to a specific number, $10 is donated to the Haitian relief effort. The $10 charge shows up on your cell phone bill, so no need to worry about exchanging credit card information, or even visiting a web site. As one of my colleague’s posted “it’s easy peasy!” Within my relatively small network I’ve already seen the message about this option posted on no less than 100 status updates or Twitter posts. Last night The American Red Cross posted this on its Facebook page:

American Red Cross is confirming that you have donated $5 million by texting “Haiti” to 90999. You are amazing.

Pretty impressive for less than 2 full days work!

Of course, as with most outreach efforts there are always losers out there looking to make a quick buck with donation scams. On Wednesday the FBI actually released a fraud alert about donation scams.  Unfortunately social media tools become an attractive option for these criminals given the speed at which communications can reach critical mass. Thankfully the channel also allows for the revealing of frauds relatively quickly as well. I’ve seen a few posts pointing people to places where they can find lists of legitimate charities. This includes sites like –  the washingtonpost.com, NBC’s Boston affiliate WHDH, and most other local television news sites.

I could go on about the lessons that other organizations could learn from The Red Cross and other’s use of social media channels. However, today I think it’s more appropriate for us all to pause for just a minute, count our blessings and send thoughts and prayers to all of the families affected by the Haiti earthquake.

Instead of resolving to do more this year, I’m aiming to do less. To slow down….Not to slack off at work, mind you…This mindset–to fight information overload and to focus–is quite prevalent right now.

Patricia also mentions a colleague who has gone on a technology diet and made a resolution to stay offline from 8pm to 8am every day. WOW! To my colleagues and friends that send emails at midnight, could you do that? Even just a few days a week?

This reformed behavior helps her digest her information overload, she says. “It’s the difference between snacking on information and sitting down to a meal.”

Personally, I love this idea! At a time where many believe, myself included, that we need to know everything the second it happens, and respond to messages as soon as they hit our Blackberry, would the world really fall apart if we waited just a bit? I understand that certain people can argue that their positions require this, President Obama would fall into this group, however for most professionals I think it is entirely reasonable to give yourself a break from screen time. Being available 24/7 is for convenience stores not people!

The good news is that the responsibility to change this falls to the individual. Of course, the bad news is also that the responsibility to change this falls to the individual. I know that I am guilty of setting quick response expectations.  I have often been praised for my rapid turnaround time and “efficient” work style, but does that have to mean answering messages at all hours of the night? I specifically remember turning around a brief research study overnight for a VP’s 8am client meeting. I was just coming off maternity leave, was up every couple hours anyway, so why not check email at 11pm? Wrong! The urgent request was there, I answered. It made me a hero for the day, but that needs to be the exception rather than the rule. The only way to make it so is for me and others like me, I know you’re out there, to shut down and reboot on a consistent basis.

Interestingly during a conversation with my Manager yesterday he congratulated me for staying offline during the holiday. While I did still check email, I did not respond to anything until I returned, actually following what I had written in my Out of Office message. Go figure! I started this resolution before the New Year even began!

Speaking of rebooting, another interesting note that Patricia brings up is Ariana Huffington and editor in chief of Glamour , Cindi Leive’s Sleep Challenge 2010. They have suggested that woman vow to sleep more this year. We all know the health consequences from lack of sleep, but woman still tend to be the most sleep-deprived individuals, specifically working single women and working moms.

…in order for women to get ahead in this country, we’re all going to have to lie down and take a nap….Rob yourself of sleep, and you’ll find you never function at your personal best. Work decisions, relationship challenges, any life situation that requires you to know your own mind — they all require the judgment, problem-solving and creativity that only a rested brain is capable of and are all handled best when you bring to them the creativity and judgment that are enhanced by sleep.

OK, if these super-busy and powerful women can do it, so can I. So, 2010, I am putting it in writing. This year I will aim for less screen time, more sleep time, hopefully leading to a  more productive and balanced life. Oh, and I’d like to lose those last 10 lbs too.

Yesterday, a blog post on mashable.com outlined  four issues that Google and Apple will face. Below are my thoughts on those comments and a couple other considerations.

The Google Name – “Much like Apple, Google has its own huge pool of impassioned fans who could be easily converted into buyers…All signs are pointing to the Nexus One being released by Google with their branding, so we can count this as an advantage in Google’s favor.”

I agree that Google has an edge here based simply on the sheer number of people that are exposed to Google on a daily basis from any platform. While Apple has developed a large following, and claims over 17 million iPhone users,   if Google can convert most of its Google Apps users, estimated at 20 million, Apple is in for a battle. That battle could be difficult given the millions of other Google search users that could be open to adopt a Google device .

GSM Unlocked – “..users could insert a SIM card from their preferred wireless service provider…buyers wouldn’t have to lock themselves into a contract with one carrier over another simply to get the new Google phone.”

I agree that this has potential to be a substantial factor in Google phone sales. Given that Apple’s contract with AT&T is set to expire in 2010, Apple does have the opportunity to open up to more carriers, however this would require many carriers to switch to GSM networks or for Apple to add a chip to the iPhone to access CDMA networks (currently used by carriers like Verizon and Sprint). I wonder who is more apt to change? The carriers or Apple?

Price Point – “The iPhone continues to sell exceptionally well because AT&T subsidizes about half of the actual price tag, making it a cost-friendly device.”

There is still no information about what the price will be for the Nexus One, however based on what we know about the technology and what the phone offers, it will be difficult to compete with the iPhone on price. Would enough Google users be willing to pay a premium in this economic climate? I don’t think so. Google could look to partners to help defray costs, but Apple definitely has a leg up in that department.

App Advantage – “..now that they (Apple) have well over 100,000 apps, their slogan “there’s an app for that” rings true”

Google definitely has a ton of ground to make up here. The iPhone has grown a large and loyal developer base, focused on making new, exciting and useful apps for the iPhone. “Apple has clearly mastered the application experience.” I could not have said it better myself!

The other primary issue that Google will need to combat is Apple’s brilliant development of not only the iPhone as a product but the iPhone as a business platform. The iPhone is not just a smartphone it is a platform that Apple has leveraged to develop and launch other new products, improve it’s own existing products, as well as create entirely new markets and communities. As my colleague Nick Vitalari discussed, “Apple’s platform was so successful that competitors were forced to launch competitive products.” If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery then Apple has been taking that praise all the way to the bank. iPhone sales grew 245% in 2008.

While Google’s Nexus One sounds like it has some very promising attributes it still has some significant hurdles to clear to give Apple a run for its money. What do you think? Should Apple be concerned? Will the Nexus One be a game changer? Either way, it’ll be fun to watch!

The first job of the new board is to help overhaul the safety elements of Facebook’s help center. They also intend to jointly create a library of online materials information for teachers, parents and youth. There remains a lot of work to do. In mid-November, Facebook was the victim of an attack in which a group called Control Your Info took administrative control of numerous Facebook pages and repeated at each a message suggesting that they could have posted malicious messages and done more damage. It’s important to note that Control Your Info didn’t use technology such as viruses or worms to take over Facebook networks. This suggests that better management controls and policies could have precluded the attack — which is precisely the message the group was trying to convey.

Per a post by Richard Allen, Facebook’s Director European Public Policy, there may be more organizations added to the board. Allen added that The Safety Advisory Board is just one step Facebook has taken to promote a safer environment online. Other steps Facebook recently announced include -

• A partnership with MTV on the A Thin Line campaign to educate people about digital abuse.
• New York Attorney General’s office citing Facebook’s help in identifying and disabling the accounts of registered sex offenders.
• Work with the BBC in November on their Bullyproof campaign in the UK.
• Work with organizations like the National Crime Prevention Council to share safety tips with users, and provide updates on new safety approaches they’re taking on the site to make reporting abuse easier.

I applaud Facebook for developing these relationships and taking proactive measures to keep children safe online. However, the critical link still has to be at home. As I mentioned in a previous post, it doesn’t matter how many policies are in place, if parents are not aware of what their kids are doing online.

This raises a few other questions – What age is appropriate for kids to have a profile on a social network like Facebook? What steps should parents be taking to keep their kids safe online? How do you reach parents that have no access or interest in online activities?

What do you think? How is social networking and overall Internet use handled with your children? I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Twitter Guru Denis Hancock is thankful for: “the seamless integration between the camera on the iPhone, and SMS messaging. My wife is out and about with my daughter all day, and it’s SO easy for her to snap a picture of her and SMS it to me that I tend to get several each day. Getting those visual updates throughout the day makes my life a better place.”

Naumi Haque, our expert in sentiment analysis adds: “Personally, I am thankful for my Cisco IP phone and wireless Internet. It’s pretty basic, but it means I can seamlessly work from home when I want to/need to which has made me more efficient, saved me commuting every day, and let me spend more time with my family.”

Naumi also considered enterprise level innovations and added that “the combination of sentiment analysis and CRM will be huge. It will allow companies to merge 2.0 customer experience activities (like Twitter, participating in blogs and forums, Facebook fan pages, etc.) with their contact center operations, get a single view of the customer, and develop an official support structure around Web 2.0 channels so they can measure ROI of engagement activities. This technology will also lower market research costs as companies gather insights from customers simply by “mining opinions” online.”

Author and prolific blogger Steve Guengerich is thankful for the iPhone 3Gs. It is “much faster, contains more storage for media, files, and apps., and allows me a big step closer to a future without a desk or office, where I can just carry my compute power with me in my pocket. It is indispensable.”

Jeff DeChambeau, technology whiz and online gaming authority “can’t say enough good things about Dropbox – you install the service on your mac, pc, or iphone, and it adds a folder to my documents, then anything you save there is synced across all devices linked to your account. You can also share specific subfolders with friends and peers, and any change (all tracked and version controlled) they make to shared files is updated for everyone immediately, effectively turning every file into a wiki.” See Jeff’s post last year for more details and a cool video of the service.

Jeff is also a big fan of “Yelp!, especially their mobile app. It’s great and often settles many “well where should we eat?” debates quickly with reliable suggestions, especially when visiting unfamiliar parts of the city. Simple but tremendously helpful.”

And from our Product Development and Web 2.0 expert Steve Elmore, he is most excited about Google Wave. It “ has the potential to be a game changer, combining email, instant messaging, wikis, file sharing, and social networking. But more importantly, this is not proprietary Google IP or infrastructure, but rather an open protocol available to anyone who wants to build a Wave server – this alone will promote rapid development.”

From a technology perspective I am most thankful for the adoption of social networking tools like Facebook and Twitter. I can effectively connect with colleagues, friends, family and follow interesting people and brands, keeping up to date with numerous stories all at the same time. In less than a couple minutes I can see that the Call for Papers date at a conference was moved, a new product was launched at a company I follow, my sister is back from vacation, CNN is interviewing Sarah Palin at 3 o’clock, so-and-so had her baby, my co-worker needs help with a project, my son is acting up at daycare and my Manager will be traveling until tomorrow. I know it can seem like information overload, but I get more value out of the little interactions both professionally and personally than was ever possible even 1 year ago. I believe it makes me a more productive professional, a more informed individual and a better friend. So as we get ready to carve our turkey tomorrow, what technology innovations are you most thankful for?

Desktop Applications

Students should know the basics of applications like Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint. While there are other options out there, like some of the collaborative apps that Google offers, the MS Office applications are still the most popular. In many companies they don’t even ask about desktop applications knowledge anymore, proficiency is assumed.

Internet Browsing

I know that it is second nature to those of us that work online for a living, however, there are still a lot of students that cannot find their way around the Internet. Being able to search for ideas and answers online is not only a great skill to have, but a way to be a more efficient and productive employee. What are the basics of searching, bookmarking, sharing (del.i.cio.us, Digg)? Do students know why and how to source and acknowledge materials they find and use?

Social Networking

This one can get tricky. I know many High School students that already have profiles on MySpace and/or Facebook to connect with their friends. The education that students need around use of these type of tools is less about “how you do it” and more about privacy. Students need to be aware that recruiters (professional and college) will review any online profiles or information on applicants; a recent CIO Insight poll found that 45% of hiring managers use social networking sites to research candidates. Students need to assume that every post, picture and tag associated with them can be found. Awareness may be growing: Recent research by the Pew Internet & American Life Project reveals that 60% of adults and 66% of teens restrict access to their personal profiles on online. While restricting access to profiles is one security measure, students should also be aware of what anyone in their ecosystem is saying or tagging about them. We’ve already seen stories of individuals loosing out on opportunities because of inappropriate photos their friends posted and tagged online.

Written Communication

As social media tools evolve and we see more options arise, the written word becomes more and more important. This means that language skills, especially written skills, need to be stressed. It does not matter how brilliant you are, if your memos or posts have major spelling and grammar issues, those will greatly detract from good content. I know that there is a new vernacular that goes along with many of the new technologies; however the majority of the workforce is still made up of professionals who rely on standard English for business interaction.

Mobile Applications

Yes, many students have cell phones and know how to text but do they know how to use email online? Do they know NOT to use Twitter and IM acronyms, slang and shorthand when talking professionally? This is another area where protocol needs to be addressed.

So, what technology skills do you look for in an intern or a new hire? If you were talking to a group of High School students what advice would you give them regarding learning and using technology? I look forward to hearing your thoughts and will keep you posted on feedback I get from the MACC group and the student population that they serve.

Vendors such as Apple and Google are driving the consumerization of technology and hence the need to redefine employee computing. However, the majority of vendors, including providers of traditional “end-user services,” have vested interests in yesterday’s computing model and customer relationships. They may not be a source of progressive advice on how to transform employee computing, but you may nonetheless need to leverage their capabilities and adjust how you work with them.

As a first step, understand where vendors are coming from and how their strengths and directions fit (or don’t fit) your roadmap for employee computing in the future. For purposes of illustration, the figure below arrays selected major vendors on three important dimensions: Are they focused on the consumer or enterprise market? Do they primarily provide hardware or software? And are their offerings geared for the public cloud or private networks? The figure also includes generic buckets to represent the Web 2.0 and SaaS vendors. It shows the historical strengths of each vendor, but their placements are shifting. For example, Google is coming from the consumer space and moving more towards the enterprise.

Vendor Landscape

Technology Vendor Trends
Individual technology vendors may not be clear about how they want to play in tomorrow’s employee computing environment. However, we see positive trends among vendors generally. They tend to be:
• Appreciating the need to provide more open solutions, including software that is available from any device.
• Finding that their devices and applications are increasingly being put to both professional and personal uses as work and personal habits intertwine. The BlackBerry and iPhone are good examples.
• Developing more offerings in the cloud (though what may be free in the cloud for individuals may not be free to enterprises).
• Aware that consumerization of technology means individuals have more power.
• Building interfaces that are increasingly more intuitive and easy to use.
• Enabling mashups by letting progressive users configure the information and applications that they need.
• Offering more APIs (application programming interfaces) to developers. The iPhone is a good example.
• Admitting that current applications don’t always translate easily between global locations but they have to.
• Supporting small vendors offering innovative functionality (although we expect consolidation to occur at some point).
• Blurring boundaries as they expand beyond their historical strengths.

What Should You Be Asking Your Technology Partners?
As you work with your current and prospective vendors to evaluate and plan how they fit your employee computing plans, we recommend discussing all of the following issues. They cover not only functionality and cost, but also value and the ongoing viability of the vendor’s business model in the fast-changing technology services scene.

• Vision: What is your vision for how we might operate our employee computing environment?
• Architecture: What does you architecture look like, and how is it evolving? How scalable is it? What resides on your devices and ours? What’s in the cloud?
• Capabilities: What capabilities are available today and what is planned in next 12-18 months?
• Costs: What are my total costs, direct and indirect, immediate and ongoing?
• Openness: How do your products and services interoperate with other vendor solutions in the marketplace?
• Integration: How will your solutions tie to our infrastructure and employee computing roadmaps?
• Security: What is your security model? How do you make sure my company’s information is secure in your environment?
• Value: What value are your reference accounts seeing from your products? How is that measured, both quantitatively and qualitatively?
• Business model: What is your business model? How do you make money? How is your model changing, and why?

A free download of the Redefining Employee Computing management summary is now available. We welcome your comments and questions.

Last month I learned about a hierarchical marketing model that sits inside of a social network. The company doing this work is called 6dgr. The basic premise is that you get paid for getting your friends to join a social network. The structure is similar to Facebook: individuals can create profiles, post pictures, blogs, use an inbox, connect with others, everything you’d expect plus you are automatically connected into a hierarchy when you pick your sponsor (the person who recommended you to join). What further differentiates this model is that you attach a bank or credit card account to your profile when you join. That account is used for direct deposit of your funds when your friends join, sign up for a bank or credit card account, and name you as their sponsor.

While there are some ads on the site, the revenue is insignificant and not something 6dgr anticipates pushing for. So, how can they afford to pay you when your friends join? The company partners with banks that offer the accounts and credit cards for direct deposit and share the revenue with the company every time a new person joins. That money is split among sponsors up to six levels down (6dgr for six degrees, as in six degrees of separation). Credit card companies pay $60 and up for approved customers, so even with the split sponsors would still make a few bucks.

By having you name a sponsor when you register, the site is aiming to develop a very large hierarchical group. As more and more individuals join, the site should be able to offer more and better deals to members. Right now the site offers products like person-to-person loans, debit cards, savings accounts and even a tie into mobile wallet technology in the European market. So, while the site offers the same experience as a traditional social network, it also ties in product and service offerings.

The vision is for 6dgr to become a brand, a lifestyle site offering a bunch of different products and services to people. The company negotiates with retailers so that their members are treated like one big buying club and are offered deep discounts on merchandise purchased through the site. The company could private-label products like credit cards and once they hit 100,000+ people they could negotiate decent offers for things like health insurance. Though the company never intends to get into any one specific business, it could become a substantial channel master.

So the obvious question is: If it’s such a great idea wouldn’t Twitter or Facebook want to jump on board? 6dgr has already planned for that and has patented the entire idea of a network marketing hierarchy inside social networks. They have also protected the idea of financial products for social networks. But the biggest protection has to be the barrier to entry – the complexity required to pull this off, including the upfront structure required to develop the hierarchy in the first place as well as all of the behind-the-scenes processes that need to work to make sure the hierarchy remains intact and accurate, members get paid, the vendors are tied in correctly, etc.

It remains to be seen if the concept will take off and what adoption will look like. There are already over 50,000 members, all based on word of mouth; to date no money has been spent on advertising. But as with other online social networks, the member experience will be the key factor in the success or failure of this model. If members feel like they are being constantly sold to, activity will dwindle very fast. However, if the company remains on top of its member experiences, and smart about how members interact, this could become a powerful new way to conduct business and take advantage of the economies of scale that social networking offers.

• Web 2.0 & Social computing behavior In many companies this is new ground for employee and technology policy. These policies outline expectations for employees’ communication and behavior when using Web 2.0 technology, not only on the job, but anytime they can be identified as employees of the corporation. Today, everyone with an online presence is in a sense (or may be perceived to be) a spokesperson for the company. Every day brings news stories of people and organizations learning the new rules of the road the hard way, ranging from silly (bad-mouthing the boss on Facebook after you’ve “friended” him) to the serious (discussing product plans or arguing product quality with competitors on online forums). Remember, employees have always had the ability to pick up a phone or send out an email with unacceptable company content. The difference in the 2.0 world is the breadth and speed of the channel. News, true or untrue, spreads very fast. A few years ago Yahoo announced a reduction in the workforce but did not publicly disclose what parts of the organization were affected. However, upset employees posted notes online and it became clear quite quickly what groups were involved. A Web 2.0 policy and diligent use agreement may not have changed the Yahoo situation but it could have substantially decreased the amount of traffic initially posted. Far better to establish some basic rules of the road than to keep learning the hard way, or try to close the road altogether.

• Self-service rights and responsibilities As employees are permitted more control over their computing set-ups, they need to understand the limits of what they can do on their own and the responsibilities they are assuming, especially if self-service extends to hardware purchase, configuration, or service; software selection and maintenance; vendor contracts (e.g., for telecom services); and any facets of systems administration (e.g., backup and recovery). Define what employees must or can do on their own. Also define the flip-side – what they can not do or must seek help with.

• Laptop and PDA configurations This is a more technical policy companion to self-service rights. The approach may vary by employee segment. For technologically adept employees, those who are self-sufficient and really want to manage their computing environments, define the basic standards and protocols that must be met in order to operate with the corporate infrastructure. For those who are technologically capable but not gung-ho, define a limited number of packages (hardware, software, communications) from which to choose. The packages may be attuned to roles (e.g., sales) or work patterns (e.g., road warriors). For those who don’t want the responsibility, a standard company configuration should still be an option.

• Vendor and license management This is another set of adjustments driven by the two points above, self-service and variable configurations. Does the company want to purchase hardware and license software in bulk for the sake of volume discounts, then resell or reissue to employees? Or really get out of the provisioning business and let employees serve themselves, but set up standing arrangements with key vendors (e.g., for discounts in return for guaranteed volume, or for group service plans)?

Of course, most of these policies are not brand new. Many companies are building on existing policies and adding information about new technologies, primarily email and the internet in general. Now is a good time to review your policy set and expand it to include Web 2.0 tools. Chances are you will also need to revisit your guidelines around information, IP, and privacy as well. As the market continues to add new ways of sharing information and collaborating with each other, enterprises need to keep up by recognizing trends early, learning about the implications on their businesses and ensuring that policies morph as quickly as employees’ computing environments do. Click the link to read more about the Redefining Employee Computing study.

Having identified these potential sources of evil, the NFL announced a formal policy in early August cracking down on the use of Twitter, basically trying to ban the use of the tool by anyone in its ecosystem (players, coaches, staff, etc). So I guess formal communication channels were supposed to remain the norm and the opportunity to informally connect with fans, or communicate with a broader audience, the fundamental concepts behind social media and the reason it is becoming so popular, would not be taken advantage of?  Some teams like the New Orleans Saints have taken a less harsh approach. Shortly after the NFL policy was released, Saints Head Coach Sean Payton stated that he is in favor of the medium as long as players use it wisely. This is the stance that we often recommend to enterprises as they update policies to include appropriate use of social media channels. The below chart from our redefining employee computing study, shows the difference between the old school style of thinking and the new. Note how much of the NFL mandate falls into the old school column. Specifically look at the objective row: The old school is to maintain control vs the new school attitude of building an environment built on understanding, capability and trust.

One area that makes NFL  players different is that they are celebrities; they want to build their personal brands and experiment with this stuff. A company can’t stop an employee from participating online; it can only provide guidelines and trust that the right thing is going to be done. When the right thing is not done, consequences should be clear. Case in point – Antonio Cromartie @crimetime31 was fined $2500 for posting a complaint on Twitter about the food at the San Diego Chargers training camp. I’m not sure it’s really a fineable offense, but it does send a message. BTW: Antonio has protected his tweets so he needs to approve you before you can follow him. I wonder if that happened before or after this incident? The fine is actually ironic given that the Chargers tend to have a more progressive attitude towards social media. They broadcasted their first-round pick on Twitter before the NFL announced it, Charger linebacker Shawne Merriman (@shawnemerriman) answered questions about his use of social media at a San Diego Tweetup, and The Chargers even have a staffer dedicated to heading up social media efforts including Twitter: @Chargers.

Interestingly, less than 30 days after the initial NFL social media regulations were announced, the policy was amended. The NFL graciously announced that it would “allow players to use social media networks this season.” Anyone else think it’s fascinating that the NFL thinks it needs to give permission for this stuff? The league also announced that players, coaches and football operations staff would be allowed to use social media up to 90 minutes prior to kickoff and after the game once traditional media interviews are complete. So, if I’m Patriots tackle Matt Light and I’m showered and on my way home, I have to listen to when QB Tom Brady’s press conference ends to figure out when it’s OK to update my Facebook or Twitter status? BTW: Matt does tweet however the one page I found is set up for his charity vs. a personal Twitter handle. What fine will the NFL dish out the first time something is posted 89 minutes before kickoff?

More pieces of the updated policy:

• Of course, no status updates are allowed during the game, which would be tough to do since cell phones, PDAs and laptops are not allowed on the sidelines.
• The use of social media by all officials and officiating department personnel is prohibited at all times.
• This next one is my favorite: The league has also banned play-by-play descriptions of games in progress, extending that ban to social media platforms. Does that ban apply to fans? If it does and I’m at a Pats game (1 of 68,000+ fans) and I post that Brady just hit Randy Moss (@r81m) for a 70 yard TD to win the game should I expect a fine? Unlike most professional athletes, I can’t afford that type of hit!

Some individual teams also placed restrictions on spectators at training camps and practice fields, including @MiamiDolphins,  @Denver_Broncos, @realpatriots, @buffalobillscom, @DetroitLionsNFL, The Colts and The Saints (if you find their official Twitter sites let me know).

I am not arguing that restrictions are by themselves a bad idea; I do think that all companies need them to ensure security, stakeholder value and maintain a competitive advantage in their market. The NFL has already seen examples where social media has supplied an unneeded distraction (something that makes football coaches everywhere cringe.) When Minnesota QB Tarvaris Jackson sprained a knee ligament, his teammate Bernard Berrian (@bernardberrian)  tweeted that Jackson was out for the season. He quickly posted that it was a joke but this underscored how much “appropriate use” education may be needed.

Interestingly, the NFL  (@NFL)does use Twitter and other social media tools, primarily for marketing and promotions. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell (@nflcommish) even tweeted from the college draft. What I’d like to know is – how far will the  restrictions/policies go? How many more changes are on the horizon? I applaud the NFL  for being the first professional sports league to publically recognize the importance of social media and attempting to develop reasonable guidelines around its use.  However, I am not convinced that the scope of the current policy is actually realistic. My hope is that the guidelines remain flexible or at least amendable; to adjust as the market adjusts, while still providing the players freedom to connect with their fans without becoming too paranoid.

1. Over a year ago I was scheduled to speak with 2 executive clients at a large manufacturing company. The purpose of the call was to interview them for a research study our team was conducting on how collaboration tools are forcing companies to redefine their employee computing environments. The problem was that I only had first and last names of the contacts; I had no titles, departments or backgrounds. In this case the set of interview questions were specifically tied to individual’s roles, so I had no idea what question set to use. As is often the case, I was preparing for the next day at 9pm the night before, so I did not have a lot of options. I crossed my fingers and conducted a search on LinkedIn, hoping that at least one of the executives had a public profile. Thankfully they both did! Not only was I able to see their current job titles, I could also see their backgrounds. Based on this more detailed information we were able to adjust our questions, leading to a much more fruitful discussion. This relatively short preparation and interaction not only helped us to gather some great data points; it also helped my company develop a stronger client relationship. BTW: Yes, after the call I did “Link” to both executives on LinkedIn, along with my usual “thank you for speaking with us” message. This is quickly becoming a best practice for follow-up and maintenance of client relations.

2. Just this Friday I was brainstorming with my Manager about ideas for my research on the ROI of collaboration. While I have the bulk of the study completed, I will spend this week pulling together a few more useful examples. My Manager suggested I reach out to a company; we’ll call XYZ Corp., who he had met with a while ago. The problem was that he could not recall the name or contact details of the individual he had spoken with. Fortunately he did know one of our co-workers who might have a contact. While still on the phone I jumped on Twitter and sent her a DM (Direct Message) to see if she had a current contact at XYZ Corp. Within minutes I had a DM back with name, title, email and phone details. The value here was not just in the quick response but in knowing that the quickest way to reach the person I needed was via Twitter, not Gmail, Skype or IM. If she was only a casual Twitter user it may have taken a few days to hear back so the efficiency would have been lost.

3. One last example occurred after “business hours” (does that still apply anymore?). It was late and I was preparing for an early morning client discussion. I had two quick questions that could only be answered by one of our head engineers. I knew that an email would most likely sit until the morning. I also knew that this individual was often on Facebook so I logged in and spent 5 minutes chatting with him. This short interaction provided the information I needed to have a successful interaction with our client the next day.

Have I measured or monetized the time savings, productivity gains or added value of these activities? No, and I have found very few companies that have. However, I don’t think anyone would argue the value derived from these interactions, especially given the quick turnaround required and achieved. The important take away is not how many people you’re connected to, or how many networks you participate in, it’s all about knowing how to navigate each channel to get what you need in the most efficient way possible. It’s also important to note that in some cases the best option is to forgo 2.0 tools altogether and simply pick up a telephone.

CoTweet is a platform designed specifically to help businesses use Twitter. It lets multiple individuals at one company send tweets on up to six corporate Twitter accounts and keeps the messages in sync across all of the accounts. Per its website, CoTweet is “How Business Does Twitter”. I spoke with the Co-Founder and CEO of CoTweet, Jesse Engle, @jesseengle earlier this week. Per Engle, “CoTweet’s underlying value proposition is to help companies engage in authentic two-way communication and to focus on that engagement.” Illustrating that point, CoTweet offers the ability to view conversation histories allowing you to view your team’s responses in context so you can see which tweets have been responded to and know who’s said what to whom. Engle feels that this is one of the most useful features and is part of what makes CoTweet unique. I personally like the assignment feature which allows you to delegate a task/tweet to someone on your team for follow-up. There are too many other features to include here, but the model is intriguing and already creating a buzz among enterprise customers including @Ford, @Pepsi, @JetBlue and @MSWindows, yep, that’s the Microsoft Windows team. The Twitter API team, @twitterapi even uses CoTweet to manage user requests, and uses CoTweet’s CoTags, a convention for using signatures when tweeting from a company’s brand account.

Still a free service, how will they make money? CoTweet is planning to implement a SaaS model where subscribers pay per month to use the service. Pricing levels and timing are still up in the air, though it’s been reported that this model could be implemented by the end of the year. Also reported in The Wall Street Journal, “Scott Monty, Ford’s digital and multimedia communications manager says that he and a team of nearly a dozen others use CoTweet to manage Ford’s multiple Twitter accounts and would pay for the service when asked to.” A pretty nice endorsement that I’m sure the 6 CoTweet investors liked seeing. Did I mention that CoTweet secured $1.1M in funding last month? Not bad for a company that just launched its public beta site on July 9th.

Another company I came across is StockTwits. This company provides an idea and information sharing service for investors. It’s a very simple concept, you follow @StockTwits and watch or participate in real-time conversations about stocks. The service allows users to see trading activities, conversations about certain stocks as well as view activity about a particular company in one stream. Users tag tweets about specific companies with a $ and the stock sticker symbol. Tweets not about specific companies are tagged with $$. Yesterday I caught up with Co-Founder and CEO of StockTwits, Soren Macbeth, @sorenmacbeth. He mentioned that they have received many testimonials from users who value the opportunity to trade alongside thousands of other traders vs. trading alone. Macbeth believes, “The community is the real value. It’s like a global virtual trading floor for traders.”Given the clout of some of the active traders on StockTwits, companies have started to take notice. Bloomberg now takes some of StockTwit’s tweets and posts them in the Bloomberg Terminal. On August 3rd, StockTwits announced an initiative with NASDAQ called Data Junkies, @datajunkies. NASDAQ now posts real-time stock prices to specific streams on StockTwits, and will host StockTwits virtual lunches with inside tips to help traders take advantage of the different tools. StockTwits will also host StockCamp at the NASDAQ MarketSite, a physical gathering for traders to meet, exchange ideas, tips and generally collaborate. Just yesterday NASDAQ and Stocktwits announced a contest where 30 lucky Data Junkies will be picked to ring the NASDAQ closing bell on August 25th alongside the StockTwits team.

So what about the money? StockTwits has received $1.6M in total funding and is already producing revenue via 3 subscription-based, premium content blogs launched this spring – alphatrends.net, upsidetrader.com, and investingwithoptions.com. Per Macbeth, “Micro-blogging is great for real-time posts during the business day, but longer form content is needed for deeper research.” Macbeth also knows, “This is not new. Subscriptions to financial content has been around for a long time, we are just presenting it in a unique way.” And that unique way is what should help drive revenue for this popular start-up.

I also got the scoop on another revenue channel that StockTwits is planning to introduce this fall. On September 1st the company will launch a desktop application along with its own micro-blogging platform. Features will includes things that are currently not feasible on Twitter like vertical specific services, groups i.e. an option trader group, as well as watch lists so you can see posts related only to specific stocks you are interested in. The application and platform will remain free with premium subscription-based services eventually rolled out on top of the platform.

So where does this leave Twitter? There are many other Twitter-based tools out there doing lots of interesting things. Will Twitter end up acquiring some of these companies or are they already developing more unique capabilities in-house? There is even speculation that an online giant like Google should acquire Twitter.

Two things we know for sure – 1. Twitter’s ecosystem is huge and highly dependent on the platform’s success which should buy them ample time to figure out and implement a feasible revenue model 2. Twitter-based tools like CoTweet and StockTwits are for real, have real funding and are set up for real revenue. There are many options for Twitter and its ecosystem. What do you think Twitter should do? I’d love to hear from you here or of course, on Twitter, @lcarrillo.

Fortunately, both companies are run by astute and innovative CEOs who are very customer-focused and known for stepping up and openly communicating with the pubic and their employees. For example, as soon as the acquisition news broke, the CEO of Zappos, Tony Hsieh, sent an email out to employees addressing the transaction and primary questions that he assumed they would have. He also assured them that the relationship will help both companies grow and that they would be keeping their culture and teams intact. Not only was the letter sent out via email, but in true 2.0 fashion a blog post was immediately created looking for questions, comments and feedback from employees, customers, basically anyone. To date the majority of comments have been positive in nature with a few customers looking for assurance that the “Zappos way” will not go away. As one Zappos and Amazon customer said: “Amazon is good, but Zappo’s is GREAT!” I believe that this is the general consensus and that Zappos customers will be extremely disappointed should service quality slip at all moving forward.

On the public front, Amazon’s CEO, Jeff Bezos dealt with a fairly public blunder last week when some copies of George Orwell’s book 1984 and a few other novels were remotely deleted from individual’s Kindles after it was realized that they were illegally sold. Ironically, a very Big Brother thing to do with a book about Big Brother. Recognizing the backlash that the move had caused with customers, Bezos immediately issued an apology on the Amazon Kindle community. Bezos said “Our “solution” to the problem was stupid, thoughtless, and painfully out of line with our principles.” To date there are over 570 responses to the apology with many customers posting that they understood that Amazon was put in a tough spot and stated how appreciative they were for Bezos personally stepping up to communicate with them. Zappos, which has masterfully conquered social media tools like Twitter could be a great partner in moving Amazon further along in their use of social media to deal with issues like this. Hsieh himself has over 1 million Twitter followers and tweets consistently about everything from company news to his personal thoughts and favorite quotes.

Even though all public communications state that Zappos will remain operating independently, you have to believe that there will be at least some disruption. Hopefully for Zappos employees and customers that will be minimal and both company leaders will continue the transparent dialogue with all stakeholders. Given both companies’ alignment with social media it won’t take long for any customer and employee issues to surface publicly, so managing the challenges that are inevitable in any merger or acquisition is crucial. Many questions will only be answered over time. What do you think? Did Zappos make the right move? Will Zappos be able to maintain its service levels and culture now that it is part of a larger entity? Will Amazon customers expect Amazon to adjust its service to meet the level that Zappos has set with its own customers?

Rather than struggle internally, Hardee’s has opened up the naming opportunity to everyone at its microsite: NameOurHoles.com. The site is simple, clever and optimized for mobile use, allowing anyone with web access on their phone to participate. The site opens with a short video clip of people trying the food and offering their name ideas. Looks like a lot of fun! Note: The same video clip opens the main Hardee’s website and their YouTube channel, creating nice consistency across the three.

On the microsite you can submit your name idea by typing it in, or record yourself saying the name using your webcam. My favorite part is viewing other’s videos and rating them: I Like It or I Hate It. The site offers the required coupon for visitors but is also set up to be shared on Facebook and Twitter. You got a name to post? You can automatically tweet it once submitted.The entire product introduction will be supported on the Hardee’s YouTube and Facebook sites.

This strategy is a great example of how companies can use social media to not only build a brand and product introduction, but also create real customer engagement. Hardee’s customers are not just viewed as individuals that a company sells to, they are being asked to actively collaborate with the company and hopefully help the company succeed. Not to mention that the campaign seems like a lot of fun, the entertainment value is a very important consideration. As my colleague Tammy Erickson wrote recently, “Collaboration is a discretionary activity. People have to want to share ideas..” Hardee’s customers are sharing their ideas and becoming prosumers who will expect their voices to be heard by other companies. Kudos to Hardee’s. I look forward to seeing the winning name.

As a child of the 70’s and 80’s, The MTV Generation, I can’t help but be shocked and saddened by the passing of both Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson yesterday. MJ’s music in particular was and still is a large part of my life and it feels as though my childhood died just a little in the last 24 hours. That said, what I found interesting was the way that many found out about Michael’s death and the controversy surrounding report sources. CNN losing a scoop to TMZ? Per the Los Angeles Times, when asked about its Jackson coverage, CNN said: “Given the nature of this story we exercised caution.” It seems that while all of the “major” news sources were going with reports of MJ being in a coma, a TMZ blog broke the news of his death which was quickly picked up on Twitter and Facebook.

Wikipedia fought with people making modifications to Michael Jackson’s profile and eventually took down the site to disallow the numerous reports of Michael’s death? “ONCE AGAIN, HE IS NOT DEAD, JUST STOP,” wrote one of the editors who deleted Jackson’s date of death.

It was only 11 short years ago that Diana, Princess of Wales sudden death was being reported and covered 24X7 on every television station across the globe. Had theTMZ Blog, Twitter or Facebook been around, how much sooner would we, the public have known? Would it have mattered if we knew 20 minutes or 1 hour before “official word”? Could Diana’s death have garnered the same response? Tributes popping up in minutes,Flickr graphing MJ tracks played per hour, Twitter and Facebook profile pictures being changed to memorialize the deceased, “What’s Your Favorite MJ Song” – posted by many, apparently I’ll Be There by the Jackson 5 is winning by a landslide according to @dannymasterson.

Per The LA Times, Twitter activity measured over 5,000 Tweets about Michael Jackson at its peak, causing some, including myself, to have issues logging in. Twitter co-founder Biz Stone stated in an email “We saw an instant doubling of tweets per second the moment the story broke,” Stone wrote .. “This particular news about the passing of such a global icon is the biggest jump in tweets per second since the U.S. presidential election.” The power of social media is obvious.

Of course given the nature of social media tools and the ease of accessibility to anyone, it does provide an easy channel for rumors to start. Shortly after the Michael Jackson death was reported, rumors of Jeff Goldblum’s demise were rampant. Twitter post by @KevinSpacey “Jeff Goldblum is alive and well. I just spoke to his manager. Stop these stupid rumors.” So how much can we believe and when is it OK to “jump the gun” just to get the scoop? The quick reaction from celebrities and others on Twitter seem to support the case that social media is in general fairly self policing. The ease of access not only allows rumors to spread quickly, but also to be squashed just as quickly, often by the person directly affected.

Bottom line – Social media tools are just that, media, not just for reporting and verifying news but for supplying an extended community that allows for quick sharing of news AND views. These are the channels that allow the masses to learn from each other to express sadness, joy, accolades and criticisms.
RIP to all the famous faces we lost this week – Ed McMahon,Farrah Fawcett, and Michael Jackson.

My question to you – How did you hear about Michael Jackson’s death? 1.0 or 2.0

When speaking with a few other GenX/Boomer parents this week it was interesting to hear that they were all aware of the dangers of letting their 12-15 year old children…especially their daughters on social networks, however not one of them could talk about the different security options on the sites. I was amazed that people that claimed to be very involved parents had not even visited the sites to see what they’re all about. Even if you “ban” a site from your home computer, do you think your kids aren’t logging on from their friends’ computers, or other places?

Look, I know there are crazies out there that take advantage of children online, but kids will get online one way or another so parents need to get involved sooner rather than later. As many internet safety sites state, in the end it all comes down to the time tested policy of open and honest communication with our children. Speaking to them about how the internet works, what is and is not appropriate behavior online and what concerns you have. Simply cutting off access or “spying” on your kids is not the answer. So, put away the PDAs and cell phones and have a straight forward talk to your kids. Am I preaching to the choir here? How do we reach those parents that are not electronically connected?

To those readers with pre-teen or teenage children please share your thoughts. What has worked/not worked for you?

For those interested, below is a small sample of the many internet safety sites available for both kids and parents:

The US Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA,  posts a list of safety rules for kids. Other sites include:

Safe Kids.com

Kids Health

For other info. an interesting UK Study was discussed by Andrew Keen