tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2631562147241531582024-03-13T01:28:55.946-07:00Reality OverlapsThoughts on real world as opposed to online networking, community building, social involvement, and personal interactions.Rebecca Rachmanyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10162520818896314604noreply@blogger.comBlogger99125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-263156214724153158.post-87574065923028903532010-11-13T11:25:00.000-08:002010-11-13T11:59:14.048-08:00Blogging the Night AwayWell, considering the number of responses to my previous post, I figure that in my hiatus from blogging, I lost at least some of my following, so the move to a new domain became a no-brainer. I'll let you know once that's up and running, which should be by next week. To nobody's surprise, the domain will be rebeccarachmany.com and the title of the blog will still be Reality Overlaps. <div><br /></div><div>I'll continue writing about the stuff I write about, which is community, online and off. I'm also going to write more about games than I did in the past, not because of the increasing interface between games and reality, but because I'm now in that industry. Yay! What could be cooler than having a job where playing games and watching youtube videos of people playing games is part of your job? I never have to worry about my boss coming in just as I am fiddling around playing a game again! </div><div><br /></div><div>And, for a blogger, what could be better than having a job that is interesting enough to blog about?</div><div><br /></div><div>But that's not what I came here to blog about today. I wanted to blog about blogging, or more specifically about my experience with <a href="http://www.godaddy.com">GoDaddy</a>. I decided to put my blog there, frankly speaking, because it was the easiest thing to do. My hosting is at GoDaddy, so whatever. </div><div><br /></div><div>In the name of laziness, I also just picked out whatever their blogging package was, something called Quick Blogcast. Although I wasn't thinking about videos or podcasts, I thought cool, looks good enough. Unfortunately, it's really lame. I won't go into its lameness, because I didn't spend more than quarter of an hour fooling around with it. Why should I? I knew that in 10 minutes I could figure out Wordpress, so I wasn't willing to devote more than that to this thing.</div><div><br /></div><div>But then I was stuck, because I had signed up for a year. So I called GoDaddy. They were great. They walked me through setting up Wordpress. They walked me through putting the domain name I wanted on the hosting. Twice, because I hastily pressed the wrong button. They refunded all the money from the lame blogging account and credited it to the new hosting account. </div><div><br /></div><div>Then they asked me if there was anything else they could help me with today. They always do that, and I'm always stumped. I mean, if I had anything else, I probably would have mentioned it. </div><div><br /></div><div>But looking at it now, I have to ask myself, why isn't this standard everywhere? Why doesn't every support call for every service I have always end with "Is there something else I can do for you today?" How many times have you hung up the phone and gone "Dang, I forgot..." It usually isn't with your hosting company, either. </div><div><br /></div><div>GoDaddy offers really extraordinary service. It's unusual, considering what they sell and what it costs. I spend about $100-$150 a year on this kind of thing. In other words, I'm not a very big customer. I probably call them 3-4 times a year, and these are pretty low-cost people, so let's say that they are spending under $10 on service for me. Still, 10% of cost for customer service is money. And they know it's me, too, because I type in my customer name on the dialpad before they pick up, so they could relegate me to the inferior-service department if they wanted.</div><div><br /></div><div>Bottom line, more power to you, GoDaddy. Ridiculous ads aside, the product is solid.</div><div><br /></div>Rebecca Rachmanyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10162520818896314604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-263156214724153158.post-24096301152212312812010-11-01T00:51:00.001-07:002010-11-01T00:57:05.397-07:00Back to BloggingA combination of the following kept me from blogging over the past few months:<div><ul><li>Being incredibly busy</li><li>Blogging twice weekly for the company blog (IOW, being burned out)</li><li>Not being able to figure out that Google has disconnected my blogger login from my mail/calendar login and that now I need yet more passwords. </li></ul>I thought the whole idea was to have all my Google stuff in one login, but lo and behold, for some reason, Calendar, Mail and Sites are a separate login from everything else if you have a domain that is not gmail.com. I can't figure out the logic of this being different for @gmail.com mailboxes but not domain mailboxes.</div><div><br /></div><div>Also, I can't figure out the logic of "Mail, Calendar and Sites". Mail and calendar, yes, but sites, why sites? Mail, Calendar and Docs, maybe. But Mail, Calendar and Sites? Do you know anyone who uses Sites? </div><div><br /></div><div>Whatever. I'm back and now I am debating about whether to keep the account on blogger.com now that I no longer have the convenience of 1 login for all Google stuff. I'm thinking about moving Reality Overlaps to my RebeccaRachmany.com domain. I even started, but that's a whole new bunch of aggravating technical settings to deal with. </div><div><br /></div><div>What do you think, keep it at blogger or put it on my personal domain?</div><div><br /></div>Rebecca Rachmanyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10162520818896314604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-263156214724153158.post-47015833048797214652010-05-17T12:48:00.000-07:002010-05-17T13:03:58.605-07:00We Respect Your PrivacyI love when I sign up for some free thing, and they make me put in my email address to get their junk mail, and the form says "We respect your privacy."<br /><br />Really?<br /><br />Maybe that's the wrong question. Maybe the question is:<br /><br />What privacy?<br /><br />Most people today have an email address for stuff they don't want to read. Those who don't have a filter or some other methodology to toss the garbage out. Or they have given in, as I have. I just ignore most of the mail I get.<br /><br />I don't know what's worse. That you don't really respect my privacy or that I don't care.Rebecca Rachmanyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10162520818896314604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-263156214724153158.post-82944218840994118412010-05-14T00:00:00.000-07:002010-05-14T00:18:40.144-07:00Farmville Could Change our Eating HabitsI know this sounds truly asinine, but Farmville could to have more impact on our eating habits than Food, Inc. I'm sorry to have asked this question, but when I did, I found out that 63 million people are active Farmville users, and that Food, Inc.'s box office gross was under $5 million, and we all know seeing a movie costs more than a dollar.<br /><br />Farmville isn't out to change our eating habits, but they do come up with all kinds of cool and interesting crops. I need to look some of them up. For some of the crops, like durian, I look them up and think "Oh, that's what it's called!" But just as often, it's like "Really? There is such a thing?"<br /><br />So where could this change our eating habits. Well, if 30 million people suddenly decide they want to try a jackfruit, not much of a shift would occur. Fruit trees take years to grow, so you will either be able to get your hands on a jackfruit or not. Most people know this about fruits, and even if they wanted to try a new fruit, they aren't going to replace their apples.<br /><br />But for amaranth, which is a grain, you could really create a shift. I don't think people will replace wheat and corn, but it's possible to imagine. I don't know about you, but corn is kind of wearing thin with me.<br /><br />A while back I was talking to one of the largest grain importers in Israel, and he said the amount of grain imported annually doesn't change much, but the type of grain does. Right now, quinoa is "in". Grains take weeks or months, not years, to grow, and they can be stored and transported.<br /><br />From what I read on amaranth, it's got a higher protein content than wheat, and it's easier to grow in various conditions. I bet I could find some in the health food store. With 63 million people already exposed to the product, this is an interesting marketing opportunity for someone.Rebecca Rachmanyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10162520818896314604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-263156214724153158.post-33587626200146101072010-05-11T11:49:00.000-07:002010-05-11T13:40:21.497-07:00Driving Out of Gas (TEDx Follow -up)As a follow-up to TEDx Tel Aviv, I spent part of my afternoon in the <a href="http://www.betterplace.com/">BetterPlace </a>electric car visitor center outside of Tel Aviv. The facility is in the last standing oil tank left at Pi Glilot, which was the storage area for gasoline in central Israel. Apparently someone figured out that having such a facility adjacent to your largest population center isn't terribly bright. The petrol was moved out. BetterPlace managed to salvage one tank and convert it into a beautiful visitor center.<br /><br />We were hosted by founder and CEO <a href="http://www.betterplace.com/company/leadership-detail/shai_agassi/">Shai Agassi </a>himself, who spent over an hour answering our questions. I was so late to my next meeting that I missed it, not just out of respect (Agassi was late to his next meeting too), but because I was completely blown away by Agassi's generosity and devotion. The answers to the questions were jaw-dropping beyond all expectation.<br /><br />I took the time out for this, not just because I like to mix with smart people, but because I truly care about this issue. I have had visions of overhauling transportation since I was 11 years old. I've thought about transportation deeply and often, though I haven't taken the time to make it a central part of my life.<br /><br />I had a lot of questions, but I didn't ask any. I still have them. I am concerned about what's next, what we do to stop paving our earth with parking lots and freeways, how we cure traffic, and stop bashing into one another. I have a lot of questions, but I didn't ask them because they became instantaneously irrelevant to the conversation.<br /><br />The conversation took place in the context of the singular, compelling vision of eliminating gasoline. The conversation lived inside the clarity with which Agassi has considered, research and planned how to make that vision a reality.<br /><br />I have to make a confession here. Often, when I see or meet someone doing great things, I think to myself "I could do that." Sometimes I even think "I could do that better." I know, you never think that to yourself. You also never think "How the heck did he get that job?" or "He might be famous, but he's kind of a jerk." I know you never think those things. But people like myself, with big egos or big jealousy syndromes, sometimes think those thoughts.<br /><br />But today I found myself, really, truly in awe listening to Agassi. I mean, this guy, he has a vision. He is out to end oil dependence. He is out to replace the gasoline industry. But that's not the main thing. Lots of people have vision.<br /><br />This guy truly has the leadership and business skills, the audacity and modesty to pull it off. That's impressive. Very, very impressive, and very, very rare. But even that's not not the main thing.<br /><br />What's fundamentally unique about Agassi, is that, on top of all those things, he has the ability to think, plan and execute at the level of the entire ecosystem. I should say "ecosystems", because the more you ask, the more you hear that Shai Agassi has thoroughly researched, questioned, analyzed, and created ecosystems. Not just one ecosystem. Multiple ecosystems.<br /><br />He has considered the economic ecosystem of how people purchase cars and the lifecycle of automobile value to consumers. He has considered the entire ecosystem of where we get our energy now, how it could potentially be garnered, and how it needs to be delivered. He understands the entire car industry from manufacturing to distribution. He understands the ecosystem of introducing new technology. He understands his competitive environment and has multiple potential scenarios played out in his head.<br /><br />Agassi has thought deeply, researched thoroughly, and asked the right questions. Come to think of it, he's asked the wrong questions, too. He's thought about it all.<br /><br />The result is that at BetterPlace, absolutely everything is thoroughly researched and planned. Everything is considered from how the price of oil is determined; how to avoid impacting the power grid; how to build an outdoor charging station that will never electrocute anyone in any kind of weather.<br /><br />The group of TEDx refugees asked intelligent questions. Every question got a thorough answer that showed depth of thought from macro to micro , from economic to engineering, and from basic human behavior to basic physics.<br /><br />No words can describe the thoroughness with which this one man has thought through all the aspects of his business. No less astounding is his ability to articulate all of this with clarity and purpose. Yet even more indescribable is Agassi's humility and humanness. You are in the presence of a human being, not an idol or a figurehead.<br /><br />One of the final questions was about tension between Agassi and his investors. Here, again, he gave a thoughtful answer on multiple levels. On the micro level, Agassi shared personal stories of trust between himself and <a href="http://www.israelcorp.com/Management/ExecutiveOfficers/IdanOfer.aspx">Idan Ofer</a>. On the macro level he spoke about how our society vilifies public figures and seeks scandal rather than inspiration. Agassi spoke of the loss of our perception of our leaders as heroes and our loss of trust in the human spirit.<br /><br />In short, he spoke like a hero, whether you choose to believe that such things still exist or not.Rebecca Rachmanyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10162520818896314604noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-263156214724153158.post-61087530366876613672010-05-03T13:44:00.000-07:002010-05-03T14:24:45.176-07:00This Side of the LineMid-day Saturday, I remember that I don't have any hot-dog rolls. I recall that yesterday, when it was too late for me to do the shopping, my son had announced that we needed 15 of them for the Lag b'Omer bonfire.<br /><br />Ok, I think. We'll just take a drive over to Jaljulia and get some. They must have bakeries there, and they don't close on Saturday. Tevel comes with me, and I'm vaguely aware that his dad might think that it's not a great idea to take the kids to an Arab village with me. Not that I don't buy my vegetables there all the time -- but that's on the edge of town and now we are going into town.<br /><br />I ask at the petrol station where the bakery is, and they tell me that I need to go to Kfar Bara, another mile up the road. No biggie. Still, I experience a vague discomfort as I drive there, thinking, the discomfort is silly. It's an Israeli town, it's 5 miles from my house, I've never heard of any incidents, and yet, there's a vague discomfort.<br /><br />The bakery owner sells me rolls and pita, tells me, yes, there's been quite a flow of people today and he had forgotten it was a Jewish holiday and the Sabbath, and he hadn't yet prepared for the potential demand.<br /><br />As I drove out of town, there was a woman hitchhiking. When I see these ladies hitchhiking by the side of the road, it breaks my heart. We have them in my town too, because of the inconvenient bus schedule. When I seem them standing by the side of the road, I always stop, and usually go out of my way to take them to their destination.<br /><br />Now I know I shouldn't stop in an Arab village and pick up a hitchhiker. But I just couldn't see her at the side of the road like that, so I stopped. I told her I could take her to the outskirts of the next town, but not into the town. She turned me down with body language, probably not because she couldn't speak Hebrew, but because she was in shock. She knows I'm not supposed to stop for Arabs and she knows she's not supposed to get in the car with a Jew. So that settled that.<br /><br />It's weird, you know, or maybe it's not.<br /><br />People live in their separate communities. I grew up in America, where the social norm says that pluralism and integrated towns are equivalent. After 200 years of failing to artificially integrate people, you'd think someone would have the thought that integration, in and of itself, may not be morally "good" (or "bad" for that matter). But Americans are stubborn, and the society refuses to accept that people, by and large, want to live with people like themselves. In fact, it's almost considered morally wrong to oppose artificial integration. It's as if there is something unethical about people wanting to live in a homogeneous environment.<br /><br />In Israel, the social norm is that people want to live separately. Now, I'm not a fan of the "separate but equal" train of thought, because nobody is under the illusion that it's equal. Not in the US, not in Israel. It's not equal. But that's the end of the moral issue. Apart from problems of measuring equality, there is no reason why heterogeneous residential communities should be better than homogeneous ones. People have their tribes, they always have and they always will.<br /><br />It's not necessarily a question of race. Sometimes "like themselves" means belonging to a socio-economic group, to an age group, or even to a particular profession. Sometimes it's just being someone who loves bar-hopping or a particular sport, or even a particular sports team. It's perfectly natural.<br /><br />It's almost embarrassing for someone like me, that is, someone who believes in equality, who loves everyone, and who is something of a peacenik.<br /><br />But when I look around at my friends, the people I hang with are pretty homogenous, socio-economically and culturally.<br /><br />I was talking about this just last night with <a href="http://www.meezoog.com/">meezoog </a>founder <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/pub/tuvia-rosenthal/0/62a/5">Tuvia Rosenthal</a>. Meezoog is a technology that basically allows you to check out if someone is trustworthy or socially compatible. Right now it's a dating application, but clearly there are additional applications for this.<br /><br />What I said was, indeed, when I meet a guy on Facebook, if we have no contacts in common, the chance of a first date being successful is very low. Tuvia pointed out that this is fairly true in Israel, that is, in a small population, if my social network on Facebook is well-developed and gives a good representation of my RL social chains. I can see that. The main communities in my RL are high-tech, roller-blading, synagogue, and Landmark (self-development). I have dozens of friends from each of those networks. If you don't know any of them, you might be a really kewl person, but we don't have a lot of interests in common, so we aren't going to have much to talk about on a date.<br /><br />Obviously, an application like meezoog makes sense if you are in New York City or Paris, where the population is much, much bigger, and you need a better measure of trust than 1-degree of distance. 2 or 3 degrees of removal are helpful in this case for checking out whether someone is of dating caliber.<br /><br />In other words, our compatibility and trust levels are directly correlated to how closely connected we are to the same people. Or to similar people.<br /><br />Maybe it's the sad truth, or maybe it's just the truth.Rebecca Rachmanyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10162520818896314604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-263156214724153158.post-26798753505894986142010-04-27T13:51:00.000-07:002010-04-27T14:48:13.113-07:00Post-TEDx Thoughts: Next Generation Job ExpectationsI attended <a href="http://www.tedxtelaviv.com/">TEDx Tel Aviv </a>yesterday. Rather than reviewing or saying how awesome it was, I'm just going to use the vast and bubbling inspiration and allow my thoughts to take off in various directions for the next few posts.<br /><br />Not only did I hear astounding lectures, I met astounding people doing astounding things. The audience selection was indeed impressive. And I got to thinking about career expectations.<br /><br />Career expectations have undergone a revolution in the last generation. You've heard people say that it used to be that people worked in one place for their lives, yadda yadda yadda. I'm not going to talk about that because I'm not old enough to have the right to do so.<br /><br />I'm old enough to talk about what my generation grew up expecting in a job. (I'm middle-aged, if you must know.) In essence, there were two main streams of thought. One stream of thought, but not the predominant one, was "I'm going to get really rich." If you went to law or biz school, that might have been predominant, but certainly, in most places, that wasn't the main drive and expectation of my generation. The majority stream of thought was "I'll get a decent job and have a decent career in something I'm good at and that I enjoy."<br /><br />Truly, if you have a job that you enjoy and you make a good living, you are indeed among the fortunate of the earth.<br /><br />And yet, unlike in the past, people move from job to job every couple of years. And unlike in the past, many people I know, at one point or another, have started their own business. It might just be freelancing for a couple of years while the kids are growing up, and it might be doing a full-blow startup, but it seems like a growing number of people are doing their own thing in one way or another.<br /><br />At TED, you start to hear something else. You start to hear it at the most base level from people like <a href="http://www.diamonds.net/fairtrade/">Martin Rapaport </a>who simply could no longer bear to be part of the human rights abuses that were part of the diamond industry. It runs the gamut through to people like <a href="http://www.intellectualventures.com/Home.aspx">Paul Holman</a>, who is looking for the coolest solutions to mundane problems, like killing mosquitoes with lasers (and, btw, in fact, bugs are much, much cooler than lasers, but you do need to look very closely to notice).<br /><br />What you hear is that our generation and the younger generation are increasingly not satisfied with a good, well-paying job that they love. Increasingly, people are saying, it's not enough to do good business. We want to do good while doing good business, or at least, do no harm. We don't want a good job, we want an inspiring job. Yes, we may work at good jobs for some or even most of our life. But that's not the goal. The goal is to have an inspiring job, a job that helps other people, a job that improves our world.<br /><br />If you don't get this, what we have is a completely revolutionary way of looking at a career path. I grew up knowing you should work at what you are good at and enjoy. Work is a means to an end, the end being having money to live your life and do other stuff. Work is not an end. Yes, you would hear that you should do what you love, for sure. But there was never any question about the fundamental function of work. The fundamental function of work, in the generation I grew up in, was to make money to do things that weren't work, like raise a family and be entertained, and even to give to charity.<br /><br />The basic functionality of work is changing. From being a means to allow us to live, work for an increasing number of people is equivalent to contribution. They don't want to work so they can make money so they can contribute to a cause. They want to be a cause. The cause could be using lasers to eliminate malaria, and it could make a lot of money as well as save a lot of lives. In fact, it should.<br /><br />In a world where we are saying that you get paid for your value, no conflict exists between doing good business and simply doing good. If your value to the society is great, you should be compensated. The way the world is today is that contribution is poorly rewarded, from teachers to peace activists. Those are not well-paid positions, and yet their contribution is enormous.<br /><br />The new way of thinking is saying, all this needs to be turned on its head. Society should pay for worth beyond just monetary worth. Society should and will pay more for clothes manufactured in a humane way and for foods grown naturally. As individuals, we will work at what we believe in, and we will be compensated.<br /><br />Certainly, for many people, it will be beyond their reach to have a job that is more than a means for money-making. And certainly, there will always be causes that are not-for profit, and there will be philanthropy and volunteerism.<br /><br />Yet, the time is here when people are aligning with their core values, not just their core talents. People are asking not only what they enjoy and do well, but what their inner calling is, adn where their skills can make the most impact towards a better world for all.<br /><br />It is astounding to live in this time. Simply astounding.Rebecca Rachmanyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10162520818896314604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-263156214724153158.post-85965443078546058742010-04-24T13:55:00.000-07:002010-04-24T13:59:04.721-07:00Where have I beenWhoah! It's been literally months since I posted anything here! Where have I been?<br /><br />I have to admit to being in the middle of a bit of a reset on my life. Not that anything major has changed. Same job, same kids, same home, same community life.<br /><br />Sorry about that. Be back soon.Rebecca Rachmanyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10162520818896314604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-263156214724153158.post-64375144233505580582010-02-19T06:08:00.000-08:002010-02-19T06:27:00.640-08:00Mommy, I've gotta go online!Internet connectivity is essential. It’s as simple as that. You need to find Internet periodically, just like you need to eat and use the toilet periodically. You might be able to go without it for a day or two, but basically, let’s face it, Internet access has become a fundamental human need.<br /><br />Unfortunately, with the spread of 3G and mobile Internet, it's getting harder to find Wifi, and even more difficult to find free WiFi in major cities worldwide. When you are traveling, roaming costs are too high to make that a practical option.<br /><br />I lugged my laptop around London all day while there with my kids, because I couldn’t get wireless where I was staying, so I needed to get a fix during the day. The kids moaned and whined as the 4th café in a row told us they don’t have Internet (WTF?). Finally, we found a Starbucks (sad but true), where I was only too happy to pay a few quid to get online. Despite their grumbling that we don’t need WiFi, once we had found it, the kids (ages 9 and 11) immediately asked when they would get their turn, because they need to send mail and Facebook their school friends.<br /><br />I got 20 minutes, and they each got 5 or 10, and then we were back on our way. It was worth lugging the laptop for 8 hours just to get that hour online, and I did it again the next day, despite the sunk cost of connectivity and the anticipated cost of the massage to fix the damage done by dragging the laptop around town.<br /><br />It’s sad, but true. Even though I didn’t have a lot to do online, there are enough issues that demand caring for at least once a day for me and my kids to consider Internet access to be a basic necessity. I’d say that on weekdays, twice a day is the basic minimum. On weekends I can get away without. I do start feeling a bit dizzy after more than 36 or so hours, though.Rebecca Rachmanyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10162520818896314604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-263156214724153158.post-41315560301255309332010-02-08T14:29:00.001-08:002010-02-08T14:56:32.166-08:00The State I Found You In<div>Outside Victoria Station in London, I met my friend <a href="http://www.ajpape.com/">AJ Pape</a>. It was exciting, because this is the first time I've met someone from <a href="http://p5y.org/" target="_blank">p5y.org</a> face to face, though I've been volunteering for almost a year now. </div> <div><br /></div><div>I am in communication with several people from the organization per week, by voice, video and email, but I've never met any of them in person. Neither I nor AJ lives in London or even in the UK, we just happened to incidentally be in the same city at the same time. </div> <div><br /></div><div>So it was just a genuine thrill to finally meet AJ. </div><div><br /></div><div>And it was kind of chaotic, both the planning and the meeting itself.</div><div><br /></div><div>Early on, I figured out that AJ communicates most easily by email and twitter, and that he has a good mobile data plan in the UK. I also found out early on that I was going to have trouble being online while in London, and that my mobile data plan is prohibitively expensive. Also, both of us had demanding schedules, so there was only a small window on Saturday morning where we could meet, and both of us had schedules that were in flux, not just up until the time we met, but actually all the way through our meeting. </div> <div><br /></div><div>Leading up to this meeting were a number of e-mails stretching back 2 weeks, most of which were probably superfluous, and none of which included a specific time and location. General time and date along with the assumption of immediate means of communication are enough to set a meeting these days. The day of the meeting were no fewer than 6 additional communications through e-mail and text, as well as 2 or 3 missed phone calls. In other words, no voice. </div> <div><br /></div><div>So meeting at the train station aligned with the already-established air of chaos and disorganization; an air of trying to fit in just one more thing, competing with the other things in our lives. There's a thrill about that, about living life to the fullest, pushing what is possible for yourself. There's the thrill of being on the edge of what is possible in this world of constant communication, frontier-less friendships, momentary meet-ups.</div> <div><br /></div><div>And yet.</div><div><br /></div><div>We met just to talk, so it didn't matter where we were, and certainly both of us had had enough of coffee shops. So we walked around looking for the ticket office as one of us had to buy some bus (coach) tickets. Afterwards, we talked on the underground on the way to the tweetup, on our way to meet others on the edge of immediacy. </div> <div><br /></div><div>We consulted GPS and twitter to find out who and where we were meeting. We were late, we didn't find the others, we walked in the wrong direction. We were distracted by the noise of the trains, the incoming calls and tweets, and the hullabaloo of the marketplace. Being in the city, we were was never quite at rest: concerned about keeping our belongings safe, finding the right item in the marketplace, taking in the sounds and smells, never quite able to make contact for as long as the level of camaraderie would demand.</div> <div><br /></div><div>We had an hour together. We achieved what we had set out to do: had our piece on the next pieces of peace, exchanged numerous hugs, communicated genuinely, were human with one another, created something to take forward.</div> <div><br /></div><div>And yet.</div><div><br /></div><div>Lack of presence was present. The hour went by with the feeling of constant distraction, of squishing another human being into too small a cubbyhole, of being in one place mentally while physically in another. It was all a blur and a rush. After we parted, it took 10 minutes for my heartbeat to return to normal.</div> <div><br /></div><div>I want to live my life this way. Knowing anything is possible. Getting every last drop out of the time I am here on earth. Making a difference. Touching many lives, frequently, without hesitation, with the urgency that we have only the present in which to live. </div> <div><br /></div><div>And yet. </div><div><br /></div><div>I want to live my life this way. Having inner peace and calm. Being present and focusing on the moment. Genuinely being with others, hearing who they are and where they stand. Standing and steady. Knowing that steadfastness and ongoing commitment, integrity and presence of mind are what create our future. </div> <div><br /></div><div>Walking the balance.</div><div>Between present and future.</div><div>Between presence and velocity.</div><div>Between passion and peace.</div><div>With agility and harmony.</div><div><br /></div><div> And yet.<br /><br /></div>Rebecca Rachmanyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10162520818896314604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-263156214724153158.post-14261467646212831412010-02-06T13:21:00.000-08:002010-02-06T13:36:30.960-08:00You've Got a Friend<div>It's our fourth night staying at Susie's home in London.</div><div><br /></div>As we were on the bus coming here for the first time, my son asks "How far is it to your friend's house?"<div><br /></div><div>"I don't know, I've never been there," I answer, suddenly thinking about the choice of words. I don't actually know Susie either, she isn't exactly my friend. I mean, I've seen her in class, and she's seen me, but is she my friend? I asked her to help me find a place to stay this week, to save on costs, as the Landmark Forum for Young People, plus the flights, was already quite a stretch financially. And she simply offered to have us in her home. </div><div><br /></div><div>Still, I wondered, in real life, it's not like Facebook, you don't just "friend" someone. Or do you? Children do. When they meet someone they like in the playground, they say it's a new friend right then and there.</div><div><br /></div><div>In fact, what <b>do </b>you call someone who, sight unseen, offers to put you and your two children up in their (immaculately clean and beautiful) home for a week? Yes, I think, "friend" will do. And "Yes," I think, "In real life, you actually can just 'friend' someone, just like that."</div><div><br /></div>Rebecca Rachmanyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10162520818896314604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-263156214724153158.post-62667998031032391172010-01-18T13:05:00.001-08:002010-01-18T13:52:01.343-08:00It's Nothing PersonalIt was going to happen sooner or later. My personal e-mail address has gotten to the point where there is practically no truly personal mail in my inbox. We haven't migrated from dead-tree and ink letter-writing to electronic letter-writing. We have migrated to no letter-writing.<br /><br />Why would you bother anyway? If someone wants to know what's going on with you, they can just check your status, online photo albums, and tweets.<br /><br />That's not to say my inbox is empty. Far from it. I get updates from groups I belong to (several weekly inline-skating updates, 2 different religious organizations, team projects for my empowerment course, school updates for the kids, alumni association news and projects). I subscribe to plenty of stuff (word-a-day, LinkedIn groups, myriad of marketing gurus, health newsletters, daily click for TheHungerSite, my favorite charities). I get select Facebook updates, when someone comments on my status or sends me a direct inbox message. And then there's the odd mail where I'm not sure if I'm subscribed to that site or not. This week I found there is a single woman in New York who is interested in me. Wrong gender and wrong continent, but it's nice to know that somewhere, someone is interested in me.<br /><br />In fact, my primary e-mail has become the place where I get stuff I know I should read as opposed to my RSS reader, which is the place for the stuff I wish I had time to read. I actually get one daily newspaper in my inbox, because I don't get to even read the news every day, and I don't want to be completely ignorant. Not that I could be if I wanted to be, because as long as I keep up with people's FB statuses, I have some idea of the major news events.<br /><br />The emphasis, however, is on "should". I have a few hundred e-mails in there, over 100 of which are unopened. Just a few months ago, I always managed to keep it below 100 in my inbox total. Now, it's hopeless. I have separate e-mail for work, and for the main volunteer organization I am involved in, but other than that, the rest of the mails are lost in the pile. If I don't answer someone in a day or 2, forget it. That e-mail is lost in the pile. I try putting stars on the ones I really want to deal with but didn't get to yet, but it's only a week before any mail isn't even in the top 50 showing in the first page.<br /><br />I've stopped feeling bad about it, though, because as I said, almost none of that mail is directed to me from a personal individual I know. It's almost all a blast of some kind, and when it's not, it's at the very least a group mail.<br /><br />Now, don't get me wrong, I have a lot of real friends. A day doesn't go by where I don't talk to at least one person who is primarily a social rather than a business friend. But the medium is voice, not mail. It's as if e-mail has become a medium for action-oriented correspondence. We speak to someone by phone, and might send the exact address by e-mail or text, but mail isn't the primary personal form of communication. Personal communication is now by social networks for anything general, and by voice or F2F for intimate. E-mail, well, it's just something you don't take personally.Rebecca Rachmanyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10162520818896314604noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-263156214724153158.post-57112130604896062072010-01-01T01:03:00.000-08:002010-01-01T01:35:20.644-08:00Consumption ReportsFacebook and twitter are constant reminders of what a loser I am. I know in real-time exactly what parties I'm missing, what fancy restaurants I'm not eating in, where I'm not vacationing, and the beautiful weather I'm missing by being inside.<br /><br />At first, I felt pretty good about all the parties and events I was invited to, and all the friends that I can prove I have. After a while, though, it became clear that my friends were throwing and attending more parties than I am, eating fancier food than I am, and visiting places I wish I were visiting. To top it all off, a lot of my friends have more friends than I do.<br /><br />For a while, I consoled myself in saying they were RSVPing for parties they weren't really attending and tripitting places they weren't really going. But the pictures say it all. Even when my friends don't brag, their friends post pictures of them, quite obviously having a better time than I am.<br /><br />As a marketing person, it makes me wonder about the future of promotion. My friends are promoting parties, restaurants and travel destinations, not to mention consumer electronics and other items. Nobody is monetizing that, and, in fact, nobody really can.<br /><br />Another result is that a natural escalation of consumption reporting. This morning I made myself eggs and toast, and I made sure to post that I had salmon omelet, whole-wheat walnut/pistachio toast, and homemade kumquat marmalade. Most days I have a piece of fruit, and it doesn't make it to my status report, not even if it's a mango or pomegranate. If I take a trip to London, I tell you, but I don't tell you it's on business or just so I can do a course, or if I took a loan to fund my wild vacation. I don't mention that I actually didn't spend any time sightseeing or even shopping and that I barely slept for 4 days running and took the red-eye both directions and went straight from the airport back to work (unless I feel like bragging about what a martyr I am, which is definitely what I am doing now).<br /><br />There's nothing wrong with this kind of reporting, but it definitely feeds into the culture of consumption and consumerism. I have 600 friends and follow another couple of hundred people, and I've never seen anyone report on their meditation practice.<br /><br />Most of the posts regarding time spent with family are either about expensive entertainment (travel, amusement parks) or frustrations with sick or cranky children. You don't see much "Just watching my kids in the playground with extreme satisfaction." or "Stayed home with the kids tonight just because they said they wanted me home."<br /><br />If I have to be perfectly truthful, though, it's astonishingly gratifying knowing that my son doesn't want me to go out, even when he's asleep, just because he wants me "around". Or at least that's what I tell myself while reading what a great time everyone else had last night...<br /><br />Wishing everyone a very healthy and happy new year, and may your life be as wonderful, fulfilling and exciting as your posts and tweets.Rebecca Rachmanyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10162520818896314604noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-263156214724153158.post-38316592544513188462009-12-16T12:58:00.000-08:002009-12-16T14:04:04.961-08:00In-Office Out-of-Office RepliesHave you been getting a lot of e-mail lately, responding to your e-mail, telling you how often the recipient answers their e-mail?<br /><br />You know, the mails that say: <span style="font-style: italic;">Dear Colleague, [polite explanation] I am checking and responding to my mail twice daily. [more polite explanation]. If you need urgent assistance [contact someone else/text me]. [yadda yadda yadda] Thank you for understanding this move to more efficiency and effectiveness. [additional politeness to cover for my telling you to sod off] Sincerely, [sig]</span><br /><br />To avoid being accused of plagiarism, I acknowledge that this text is copied from <a href="http://fourhourworkweek.com/">The 4-Hour Workweek</a>. Also, to be perfectly fair, <a href="http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/">Tim Ferris </a>isn't completely to blame. <a href="http://twitter.com/ebenPagan">Eben Pagan </a>also deserves credit for these increasingly common autoresponders.<br /><br />So, let me get this straight: you are making better use of your time by sending me extra mail to read? Hey, thanks, man. At the very least you could make it 1 sentence instead of 3 friggin paragraphs.<br /><br />I'm not saying I don't understand. All I'm saying is "DUH." I know the difference between e-mail and instant messaging or SMS/text messages.<br /><br />It is true that since the advent of the Blackberry, some people do have an e-mail infusion and answer at every hour of the day and night. For those people, the only cure is twitter. For the rest of us, the default is that Instant messages require Instant answers, and e-mail doesn't.<br /><br />For those of you who work with colleagues who think that e-mail is an instant gratification machine, let me offer at tip to counter Tim and Eben. My tip is: don't send an autoresponder or any response until that time of day when you answer mail. People will get used to it, and if they complain, deal with them on an individual basis. Spare the other 90% of us your long-winded autoresponders. <span><br /><br />Thank you for understanding this move to more efficiency and effectiveness.</span> It will help us to serve you better.Rebecca Rachmanyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10162520818896314604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-263156214724153158.post-82836620459798917642009-12-08T12:20:00.000-08:002009-12-08T12:29:13.509-08:00Down and Out(sourced)This is a modification of a post I made to Digital Eve Israel (the women's high-tech networking group), following a posting by one of the members who was looking to outsource some writing to India. A number of respondents tried to explain that outsourcing to another country when our compatriots have the skills and it would be better for our economy to keep the jobs here. <br /><br />Following is my response.<br /><br />Many responses to the post on outsourcing to India have been defensive and talked about "doing the Right thing" and outsourcing locally. Some of the posts have hinted or stated that the Indian writers are not as good as local writers. To my mind, this kind of post is akin to killing the messenger.<br /><br />Let's face it: some jobs are particularly susceptible to offshoring. In particular, if you are outsourced or freelanced already, you can bet that offshoring is a natural progression from what you are doing. Writing is definitely one of those jobs.<br /><br />You can argue about the quality. I believe that if you are one of the top people in your field, you won't be terribly threatened by the offshore market. How do you know you are one of the top people? You know you are the top in your field if you are charging more than 25% above the average. If you are thinking those expensive guys are a rip-off, you aren't the top in your field. Sorry.<br /><br />So, assuming you are an average freelance writer, it is inevitable that offshore writers will eventually be able to offer similar services for a better price. That's a fact. It isn't good or bad, and it isn't good or bad for a company to pay less for the same service. It's just the way things will go. If you are angry about that, great. Anger can be a call to action.<br /><br />The call to action is to give a good, hard look at your career going forward. If it seems that you are in a job that can be offshored, create a strategy so you won't be out of work in 5 years. It might be re-training to a different job. It might be training Indians to do your job and then being their agent in Israel. It might be opening your own business on the Internet. Hope isn't a plan. Arguing that it shouldn't be this way isn't a plan. <br /><br />My basic belief is that the way commerce works is that there is work for everyone. I also have a basic belief that most of us can find a satisfying and meaningful job, or at least something that they don't hate. I'm not saying most of the world can find that kind of job, but if you are reading this blog, you are in the category of people who has a choice in the kind of employment you can find. You are in the category of people who could start their own business if they chose to do so. There really is enough to go around, but it won't happen when we are guarding ourselves and defending against what is "out there". It will happen when we create value in the world.Rebecca Rachmanyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10162520818896314604noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-263156214724153158.post-51776387065801823832009-11-28T12:26:00.001-08:002009-11-29T14:37:18.739-08:00Just Remembered my Right Hand<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU_t54iWjNVkqkTxVvUVSp92oJNjzQ0pf6_IfaxGjcb_KxC5RB8eFwpQsE79MnRBgtJ7_uHW9D6Mz31GwmafzcZxM5wC7NLe40i34Vu-i5YOTGJH3YrRqbVN0VAVKdLHY7Pc50XhYcFWo/s1600/Hafgana.png"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU_t54iWjNVkqkTxVvUVSp92oJNjzQ0pf6_IfaxGjcb_KxC5RB8eFwpQsE79MnRBgtJ7_uHW9D6Mz31GwmafzcZxM5wC7NLe40i34Vu-i5YOTGJH3YrRqbVN0VAVKdLHY7Pc50XhYcFWo/s320/Hafgana.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5409657921793315570" /></a><br />Though I've been involved in politics and community action for many years, I haven't been at a real protest since I was in college. At the last protest I participated, in the late eighties, I came to the conclusion that protests have two possible outcomes: (1) nothing or (2) people get beat up. I haven't seen much to convince me otherwise in the last 20 years.<br /><br />I didn't think twice about attending <a href="http://www.masorti.org.il/page.php?pageId=267">last night's rally (Hebrew)</a>, after <a href="http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1258489193200&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull">one of the congregants at my synagogue was arrested </a>at the Western Wall. When my daughter heard there was a protest, she also immediately exclaimed "We should go to that!" <br /><br />Of course, that was after several failed attempts to explain to her why Nofrat had been arrested. "Wait. I don't understand. What did she do wrong?" asked Maya. As far as my kids are concerned, there is nothing exceptional or even mildly interesting about a woman reading a Torah scroll or wearing a prayer shawl. <br /><br />At shul this Saturday, one of the congregants pointed out to me that this was precisely the problem. "We are raising a generation that doesn't think there is anything wrong with that. That's precisely what scares the ultra-orthodox." Certainly, that's at least part of the truth. Certainly, a number of non-orthodox movements are growing in Israel, and that does appear as a threat to the ultra-orthodox, and some of the orthodox movements.<br /><br />What do I mean by "threat". I mean money. Big Money. Marriage, divorce, burials, jobs in the municipalities and government, tax breaks, government-allocated lands, grants and scholarships for education, and the Western Wall (among other tourist attractions). This is big money. <br /><br />I don't want to go too much into my religious beliefs, but it is beyond offensive that in Israel, Jews do not have freedom of religion. Our congregation has a couple of dozen rabbis who can not perform a marriage or memorial ceremony in this country. Being persecuted for religion in our own country is too horrific for me to even think about, so I didn't think, and just took my kids up to Jerusalem, despite all I know about protests, and went to one. <br /><br /><br />It was a great protest, too. It was early enough in the evening for the kids to hang out and participate. There were a couple of thousand people, which felt like (and was) a victory. Our friends from the congregation came, so the kids felt like it was fun, and I felt it was secure. Nobody got beat up, not by the police and not by opposition protesters. <br /><br />At the end of the day, I don't know how much came of it. At the very least, it gave my kids the feeling that we were doing something for what we believe in. And we got t-shirts. I like to think about how many more lawyers the Conservative and Reform movement have than the ultra-orthodox movement. I like to think that will make some difference. <br /><br />The real difference will be made on the ground, though. When people get together and say they just won't stand for religious oppression of Jews by Jews in the Jewish land, it will stop. When we demand that the religious sites and institutions serve us all equally, it will happen. This is just a start, but it's a good start, a strong start, and a start that will lead to a future of religious tolerance for all of us.Rebecca Rachmanyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10162520818896314604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-263156214724153158.post-36837784694615303212009-11-18T20:34:00.000-08:002009-11-18T21:13:08.188-08:00Get on Board: The Greatest Marketing ChallengeLast February, I got a mail in my inbox from Internet marketer/guru <a href="http://www.getaltitude.com/">Eben Pagan </a>(yeah, it's a weird link, but that's Eben), which said, "The "hardest" marketing challenge in the world". Now, Eben is an internet marketing guru and I've never met him, but he definitely sends me more e-mail than any of my friends. So I don't read them all. But this one I couldn't resist. <a href="http://bit.ly/iahZH">This is the interview</a> I heard (click it if you are still interested after reading the rest).<br /><br />And so it started that I got involved in volunteering for <a href="http://p5y.org/home">P:5Y</a>, one of the most amazing organizations I've ever joined. (Yeah, I know this is not the hottest web site, I'll get to that later.) It's amazing because the volunteers, mostly, are people who heard about it the same way I did, which means they are marketeers and business people. Even the ones who are historically peace activists (and there are very few) have their own internet businesses on the side. In other words, unlike other volunteer organizations I've been part of, this one takes on challenges like a business, like there's a deadline.<br /><br />The founders asked themselves, what if we treated Peace like a business? What if we defined the problem, put together strategy and tactics, found out why the competitors didn't succeed, and set a deadline. They wrote plan. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Give-Peace-Deadline-Ordinary-People/dp/1929774869/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258605985&sr=8-1">They published a book</a>. Although the subtitle is <span style="font-style: italic;">Give Peace a Deadline, What Ordinary People can do to Cause World Peace in 5 Years</span>, I have not met one ordinary person since joining the organization.<br /><br />Now, we've had a lot of stops and starts, just like any new organization, and the web site doesn't look so great. The teams are functioning without all the tools we said we'd have running a few months ago, etc. But the strangest thing is happening.<br /><br />About 2 weeks ago I realized that when they wrote the book, they said that in the first year we would go from 17 armed conflicts to 14 armed conflicts world wide. We are 9 months in. There are 15 conflicts as of this writing. I don't have a great explanation for that, but it's kind of cool.<br /><br />I'm asking for your help. Let me tell you what you get, or at least what I got, and then I'll tell you how to join. The first thing you get is that you really are working on the world's greatest marketing challenge and the world's most urgent problem. That should be obvious, so if that sounds fun for you, wait, there's more! You get:<br /><ul><li>Professional value in idea exchange and networking: you'll be on teams with high-level professionals</li><li>A reason to get up every morning: you'll regularly have inspiring and high-level conversations with intelligent and thoughtful people, not pie-in-the sky dreamers</li><li>Fun and responsibility together: you'll be held accountable for what you say you'll do on these teams and you'll have access to mutual advice and coaching with your buddies on the teams</li><li>Friends: I've met some incredible people I know will be in my life for many years<br /></li></ul>OK, now join. Just drop me a line at rebecca@p5y.org, and I'll tell you what teams are forming and put you on one with other really cool people. The obvious urgent needs are a web site team (HELP! URGENT!) and a team to end 1 more conflict by February 15 2010 (also HELP! URGENT!) We have a Global Peace Treaty team with attorneys on it, and a Peace Commerce team with businesspeople on it -- something for everyone.<br /><br />If you are skeptical, that's OK, join anyway. One thing I learned from roller-blading is that if you get a critical mass of people, and that's only about 40 people, and you do something kind of crazy, like skate through a downtown metropolis, the thing you are doing doesn't seem crazy.<br /><br />I guarantee you that you won't feel like you wasted time on this project, and I guarantee that you won't feel crazy after the first 2 weeks. If you are, hey, quit.<br /><br />So write me, at rebecca@p5y.org, and retweet or FB this blog so other people can do the same. Get on Board.<br /><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/154x1_w8V6E&hl=en_US&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/154x1_w8V6E&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="344" width="425"></embed></object><br /><br /><i>Note, I'm a volunteer and I don't answer P:5Y mail when I'm at work, so it might take a few days for me to get back to you.</i>Rebecca Rachmanyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10162520818896314604noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-263156214724153158.post-52883721387261203802009-11-13T01:51:00.000-08:002009-11-13T07:35:03.829-08:00That Syching FeelingI'm sitting next to <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/pub/zeev-becker/0/34/2a5">a dear friend </a>of mine at a dinner event, and he says "You were late, so I called you, but you didn't answer."<br /><br />"Do you have my new number?" I ask.<br /><br />He shoots me a dirty look.<br /><br />"Wait, I'll call you and you'll get it on your screen." I open the address book on the phone, only to find that his number isn't there. "Um, could you call me?"<br /><br />He shoots me an even dirtier look. "This is looking really bad for you," he says.<br /><br />Later in the week when my kids wanted to call <a href="http://ben.teitelbaum.us/">my brother-in-law </a>to wish him a happy birthday, I found out I didn't have my sister's phone number either.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:180%;"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: arial; font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" >Backstory</span><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" ><br /></span></span>I <a href="http://www.promisec.com/executive_management.html">got a new job </a>about a month ago, which meant I changed computers, cell phones, and Outlook/mail servers. (Fortunately, my personal e-mail never changes, so 90% of my contacts can always find me by e-mail and the other 10% know how to use Google.)<br /><br />I exported my my Outlook contacts, Gmail contacts, etc. I synched up my phone and my GoogleCalendar. Miraculously, 2 weeks into the job, Plaxo offered me a free trial of Premium membership, so I was all set up for synchronization and duplicate elimination. This was going to be easy.<br /><br />And it was, it was really easy. There were only two problems:<br /><ol><li>The technology didn't work properly.</li><li>For a change of phone number, you need a "push" technology, not a "pull".<br /></li></ol>Let me first say a thing about the technology that didn't work. I have nothing against <a href="http://www.plaxo.com/">Plaxo</a>, but let me just state a general rule to any company. If you are planning to charge for a "premium" service, the service should actually work. Fortunately I got 30 days free, but seeing as it not only didn't work properly, but also caused damage, free turned out pretty expensive for me. Oh, and I can't cancel the trial except by calling them by phone during California business hours, which I most certainly will, and it will cost them more money than just letting me do it by Internet. I guess they figure they'll get more money from people who can't bother to call than it will cost them to answer the phones for people who do call. I don't have much to say about ethics on this one, but it's still a poor business practice to do something with the potential to piss people off. They might blog about it.<br /><br />Back to my story.<br /><br />I synched Plaxo with my Outlook, and then I used Plaxo's functionality for removing duplicates. (Actually, this was after trying Outlook's functionality for removing duplicates, which was really, really lame.) At first, I started using the manual functionality, but by the time I was up to 23 of 1156 duplicates, I thought it was impractical, and trusted the Plaxo functionality. Needless to say, I lost plenty of data this way. I don't know whether it was the sync or the dupe, but one way or another, information disappeared. (Yes, I have backups, if I want to return to the universe of 1156 duplicates.)<br /><br />BTW, I am skipping a discussion of the miseries of incompatible file imports, etc., with Outlook because I assume you all know that it's par for the course. Apparently, if you are technical enough to know there is an "import/export" function in your mail app, you are technical enough not to be upset with a bit of fiddling with csv, pst and xls files. I'm willing to put up with a lot of scrap as long as in the end, my contacts are synched.<br /><br />You'd think that contact synch would be easy to figure out. For any company doing contact sync, let me tell you a secret. This is a big secret, so you are going to owe me for this.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;" >People's name <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">are not </span>unique identifiers. People's e-mail addresses and mobile phone numbers <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">are </span>unique identifiers.</span><br /><br />Given this, it should be friggin easy to do a contact merge. Really. Yes, some people have more than 1 e-mail address. Yes, often I have the cell phone number stored in my cell phone and the e-mail address stored in my gmail account, and sometimes there is no overlap, so let me tell you another secret. Again, this is a big secret, so you are going to owe me for this one too.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;" >If you are a social networking site, you don't need to ask me the correct e-mail address and mobile phone number, because <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">you are probably more accurate than my address book</span>. </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;" >(</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;" >Yes, I know there are privacy issues, but if I am linked/connected/friended with them, it's legit for you to just update the proper name. That's why I joined Plaxo and connected with people there in the first place.) </span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span><br />So, once you know these two big secrets, a computer program, especially a social networking site computer program, should be much smarter than I am when it comes to duplicate contact resolution. From the 23 contacts I did manually, I can confirm that the program behind Plaxo is worse than my brain is at duplicate contact resolution. Listen, <a href="http://www.plaxo.com/">Plaxo</a>, you have great ideas of what we want from Plaxo. Close to perfect ideas, I would say. The execution falls way short.<br /><br />Ok, that's my sinking feeling about synching. I want to have a quick discussion of the largest part of the puzzle that is missing, which is push technology to send out important new information.<br /><br />Now, I have a lot of announcement technologies to publish my new phone number. I'm not a very secretive person. After all, my job is to be the company spokesperson, which means my cell phone is published on company press releases. Still, I'm not actually going to tweet it. I did update LinkedIn, Plaxo and FB profiles, and announce on FB and twitter that I have changed phone numbers, so if you are my contact, you can find it.<br /><br />Still, these are basically pull technologies. Either you noticed or you didn't. More than half of my RL contacts are not connected to me through any online social network.<br /><br />Ok, so next, I started sending out e-mails to say I'd changed my information. Now that you know how many duplicate contacts I have, you can imagine how many actual contacts I have. Also, Gmail hasn't saved all of them as friends. Some of the people I write to most are not in my address book there. (AAAAAH, how did this happen? What kind of feature is this?) I didn't know this when I started, either. And, of course, there are limits on how many e-mails you can send in bulk, both in terms of spam blocking, and in terms of patience in clicking boxes. I guess you could just do "all", but in most people's cases, that doesn't make real sense. Not all of my buddies from every group list I belong to need to get this notification.<br /><br />Over the course of a few days, I got up to R. So if your name starts with R-Z, or you are listed in my address book in Hebrew, and you didn't get an update yet, sorry. Maybe I'll get to it. Maybe not. And then I have to go back and go through the contacts that Gmail didn't add to my address book and send to those ones. And then there are the people who aren't on my e-mail list, like the parents of all my kids' friends. I could SMS them, but again, with the number of people I know, that's both expensive and time-consuming. Mostly time-consuming, to tell the truth. I'd be willing to pay twenty bucks for it.<br /><br />Technologically, it's not problematic to create this functionality. Spammers use it all the time. Normal people, however, can't. It would even be easy to provide this as a one-time service when you get a new phone number. I'd be willing to pay for that. Sounds like it is time to call my cell phone provider and ask them if they can do that for me. I'll let you know how that goes next week.Rebecca Rachmanyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10162520818896314604noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-263156214724153158.post-2109141753071160982009-11-03T12:53:00.000-08:002009-11-03T13:22:29.436-08:00Cybermom and the Eyes on the Back of the Head<span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">1 Farmville Gift request.</span><br />"Who could be sending me a gift request at 3 in the afternoon?" (Nevermind that I'm on FB at work.)<br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">Tevel Rachmany has sent you a violet hay bale.<br /></span><span style="font-family:courier new;"><span style="font-family:georgia;">(Opening up text chat in FB)</span> "You are supposed to be doing homework, not playing Farmville!"<br /></span><span style="font-family:courier new;">"Ok"</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">Tevel Rachmany is offline.</span><br />"That was too easy. I wonder when they'll figure out they can block me."<br /><br /></span>Or when they'll start reading my blog. For now, they think it's reasonable that I have their passwords, because I always have had them, and of course, just in case they want me to harvest their crops for them after I've sent them up to bed. They won't give one another the passwords, though, because they might spend Farm dollars. Or because each one has a certain amount of time on their personal login on the computer. They are clear that I can parentally block out Farmville, too (I <heart> {heart} Mac).<br /><br />The kids' friending habits are interesting. They are clear that they shouldn't friend strangers, so when my high school friends wanted to friend them for Farmville purposes, they turned down the invitation until I gave explicit permission. (Yay!) Tevel doesn't accept friendship requests from the girls in his class. "They aren't my friends," he says. Maya is a little older, so she friends boys in her grade.<br /><br />I don't friend the kids' friends, but as I am a Farmville champ, quite a number of them friend me, and I (obviously) accept those requests. Nothing like knowing what your pre-adolescent kids' class is doing. I also make sure that Farmville gifts go to the kids first (sorry adult FV neighbors.)<br /><br />Tevel has a special name (it means "Universe"), so occasionally someone else named Tevel will friend him because of the common name. If the person looks normal, I allow him to friend them and I let them know he is a kid so they shouldn't send anything inappropriate. Mostly they are teenagers themselves. And some Tevels play Farmville, yay! Maya never gets other Mayas friending her for the name, since it's so common.<br /><br />For now, I have the privilege of seeing what they do online and who their friends are. For them, it's just a fact of life that Mom knows what you are doing online. It's just a fact of life that you can IM mom at any time of the day or night. I think they know that other people's moms aren't as wired, but maybe they don't. Maybe it's all part of the knowledge that your mom has eyes on the back of her head.<br /><br />As a parent, it means I have information other parents don't, and I don't hesitate to share anything that seems useful. The kids' crushes are probably none of my business, but some of their online and texting habits have had me calling other parents. Interesting discussions have ensued, about whether it is OK for them to play poker if it's just with virtual chips and not real money. Unfortunately, I'm starting to feel I need to sign up for Zynga Poker to find out. Hopefully it's not as addictive as Farmville.<span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span></heart>Rebecca Rachmanyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10162520818896314604noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-263156214724153158.post-7299639191597186652009-10-28T23:48:00.000-07:002009-11-03T06:28:32.123-08:00Weekend Networking<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiZVJ3byqanKDc8N9GPa1wMaNZFbB1WwyyUDHUz0u_VZEp9eBufBlqbmhiFgkpjLhxrdH0cWpc02wJb0b2z_148tlQ8Zd-3vupH2245CXQeCWFFqZiZs379oxPSstcCe08v3Qbbo0wKsY/s1600-h/Reb-Tube.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiZVJ3byqanKDc8N9GPa1wMaNZFbB1WwyyUDHUz0u_VZEp9eBufBlqbmhiFgkpjLhxrdH0cWpc02wJb0b2z_148tlQ8Zd-3vupH2245CXQeCWFFqZiZs379oxPSstcCe08v3Qbbo0wKsY/s320/Reb-Tube.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5398276890970752866" border="0" /></a><br />Way back when formal networking events were just getting started here in Israel, and I was a lowly technical writer, I attended an event of the Israel Technical Writers' Association. I remember a bit of tension there, where we were talking about business objectives and why we needed to boost membership, and at one point, Mark Levinson, the head of the organization at the time said "There's nothing wrong with just wanting to make friends." The tension disappeared.<br /><br />I do <span style="font-weight: bold;">a lot</span> of networking. I recently identified networking as one of my most leveraged activities, in terms of the long-term results I get in my life. It also turns out that one of my long-term (and short-term) goals is to have lots of friends, so that's not a surprise, but even if taken just in business terms, networking is up there near the top. It's not surprising. Business is about people. Getting anything done is about people. Knowing, helping, and having good relations with people is how things work. I think of networking as the oil that keeps the machinery of the world going.<br /><br />I do so much networking that this blog is almost all about networking.<br /><br />So if I tell you that I went to the best networking event of my life last weekend, you know it was something special.<br /><br />I spent my weekend at the <a href="http://www.facebook.com/search/?q=kellogg+connect&init=quick#/event.php?eid=112922617928&ref=search&sid=761177145.582391359..1">Kellogg Connect International </a>EMBA event in Eilat. This was a weekend event at a nice hotel, and I was pretty sure I was going to have to wear the hot-shot pose all weekend long and "do the networking thing". To my complete delight, the event was totally casual, the people were warm and caring, and no poses were attempted.<br /><br />We are talking about some of the most successful business people in Israel, and a few very successful ones from Europe and Canada here. The Kellogg International Executive MBA is the top ranked program in the world. We could easily have pulled out poses -- we've got lots of them. It just didn't happen.<br /><br />The weekend started off with the obligatory fascinating lecture on Thursday night, but from there on in, it was all leisure. Boat rides, water sports, lots of eating, a fair amount of drinking, and just the right balance of organized activities versus free time. Unlike most networking events, there was no need to "work the room" since we spent a whole weekend together, and there was a natural flow of people and a natural flow of conversation.<br /><br />OK, so some of our conversation might seem a little weird to normal people. When we talked about movies, we talked about box office numbers and marketing campaigns, and when we talked about restaurants we talked about the challenges of the food business. For us that was the most interesting and comfortable way to address those topics. YMMV.<br /><br />The bottom line, as with any networking event, was the people. I could talk about how they were all top executives and smart people and how we all made concrete business connections, because all of that's true, but it would be missing the point.<br /><br />You know, most of us have limited vacation time without the kids and limited vacation funds. You don't normally take a day off from work, ditch the kids for the weekend, and spend time in a resort town with a bunch of strangers.<br /><br />I can't express in words how easygoing, open, fun, and caring each and every person was on that weekend. There wasn't a moment I felt out of place -- it was just a great weekend with people I was happy to spend my vacation with. Not a shark in the bunch. I don't even think the scuba divers saw a shark the whole time.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Note: This is an exclusive annual or semi-annual event only for EMBA Kellogg or Kellogg IEMBA graduates. It's a great model to copy if you have the right kind of group, but I can't get you an invite. Unless you become my boyfriend, and I do have an opening for that position at this time. If you are a Kellogg EMBA grad, feel free to contact me and we'll get you on the mailing list for the next event in March.</span>Rebecca Rachmanyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10162520818896314604noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-263156214724153158.post-27940861092961268202009-10-23T10:14:00.000-07:002009-10-23T10:37:57.817-07:00Genius of FarmvilleI feel kind of stupid, blogging about Farmville. It's not like you don't know, I mean, it's all over my Facebook profile. I'd like to say that I am doing it for the kids, but I think we all know that it's like watching SpongeBob. It might start by being something you do with the kids, but not really. You know you really wanted to do it yourself.<br /><br />As the Farmville craze started, I knew this was something I needed to stay away from. People were posting their achievements on Farmville on their FB profiles in the middle of the day. My thoughts were, "Ok, you are playing this game. We all play games at work sometimes, but don't you have the common sense not to post your achievements where your workmates can see them?" Or, "Great, you play a game, but don't you want to keep it a secret."<br /><br />This is part of the genius of Farmville and its genre of games. Your friends get benefits when you publish your achievements. So you are a good citizen and you publish. So far so good.<br /><br />Actually, I did protest when my kids asked me to join, but I didn't protest too much. And of course, once I had joined, I had to be "better" at it than the kids. And of course, I had to get "better" status than my friends, either. I couldn't be stuck down at level 5 when I have friends at level 35. Level 35, man, I don't want to think about the time invested to get to that level. (I gotta find some way to do that, I can't have people being "better" than I am...)<br /><br />Of all the online games I see my kids playing, though, I have to admit that Farmville is one of the better ones, really. You plant different crops. Different crops have different costs and different payoffs and different ripening times. I found some nice spreadsheets online that someone had done with all the ROIs for all the crops. I showed them to the kids, and we actually have discussions about what is the most worthwhile thing to do with the space.<br /><br />Eventually, you figure out that the percentage of profit doesn't matter, because money stops being an issue, and the actual scarcity is space on your farm and time that you have to invest on the crop. The spreadsheets can also help you calculate that, because they tell you how much space your crops take up. You can also have trees and animals on that same space. Different animals have different yields and take up different amount of space... you get the idea. It's actually not bad, if you are going to waste your time on something. Which, apparently, I am.<br /><br />The other thing that I find useful as a learning exercise is the whole thing about how you handle your money. Generally speaking, you only get more money by investing it. The bank doesn't give you interest. These days, that's a fine lesson for my kids -- invest the money because it's useless just sitting there. Despite that, my daughter would rather have lots of money spare in the bank. She has a kind of a fear of spending it. So that's another thing that we can talk about and get some insight.<br /><br />The second interesting thing is how I am behaving with money at the higher levels of the game, when I really have more money than it is possible to invest (because land becomes a scarcity, so you can't invest any more). I've found my spending habits interesting to observe. Even when I think I want to save for the big thing, I figure, eh, it doesn't matter, I am going to earn more (true on the game, less true in life). When I have nothing I want to buy, I probably fool around and go shopping anyway, because, whatever, it's fun, you know. In this particular case, it's not real money, but it is real time. It's also just interesting to observe myself when it's not real money and say, OK, I get how easy it is to just buy stuff because the money is in your pocket. So that's been a good exercise in awareness for me.<br /><br />The best thing for me about Farmville is that there is only so much you can play it. Crops take hours or days to mature, so I make sure to plant things that take a couple of days to grow, so I won't spend all my time on the stupid game. Lord knows I'm capable of it, so I like that built-in protection of having to wait. The kids, meanwhile, have installed a bunch of other games to fill up their time, but they're kids, and it's their job to play games. I think I know myself well enough to stay away from the temptation to try the next new thing.Rebecca Rachmanyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10162520818896314604noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-263156214724153158.post-36659443940187340322009-10-09T04:44:00.001-07:002009-10-09T06:45:29.212-07:00Because I Need the Eggs<span style="font-style: italic;">Today's post isn't about community or networking, but it's a good story anyway.</span><br /><br />I needed some eggs, but mostly, I thought it was a good way to get out of the house and do something mildly interesting with my son, so we walked about 10 minutes across the fields to the place with the "fresh eggs" sign out. Although I definitely live in suburbia, there are still some fields left. And although I usually get free range eggs, I figured we'd learn something (like why I usually get free range eggs.)<br /><br />"Do you want to go see the henhouse?" I asked Tevel when we got there. We don't actually have appropriate vocabulary for the hangar-like buildings that now pass as henhouses.<br /><br />"I don't care," he said.<br /><br />As we approached the hangar, the, um, farmer (more lack of vocabulary) approached us and explained that we can't actually see anything, because it's a controlled environment, and the wall flaps are now down because the air conditioner is working.<br /><br />Farmer Eitan gave us a fantastic explanation of how it works, too. You see, the food is all weighed so they know how much comes in, and around 2 in the afternoon they start to collect the eggs. There's no way to know what hen is laying which egg, or if one of them isn't. They just live in the hangar for 2 years, getting their food and laying their eggs, and then they are sent off to become shnitzel.<br /><br />He used to sell the guano to the farmers in the area, but now they won't pay for it. They prefer to use chemicals because they are just mixed in the irrigation system, so it's much more consistent and easier to distribute. He's grateful that the farmer on the neighboring land is willing to take the guano for free. That farmer, he said, gets a better yield than the other guys, but he doesn't turn over crops as quickly . He also makes more money by putting the crops in a refrigeration system and selling them when the prices go up, while the other farmers are in a hurry to sell since they have payments to make on loans and land, etc. The neighboring farmer has more invested, gets his fertilizer for free, and takes his time to get better crops and a better price, and is doing very well financially compared to the other guys who are just scraping by. The guano parable, in and of itself, is a telling story about farming and business in general.<br /><br />"How many chickens are there?" I asked.<br /><br />"90,000."<br /><br />Ninety thousand. If you saw this place, you would never guess he could fit that many hens in those two buildings. They are big buildings, but still. Ninety Thousand. "They're bigger in America," says Tevel.<br /><br />We got our tray of eggs and started back home to make egg salad for tomorrow's pot luck.<br /><br />"What did you think," I asked Tevel.<br /><br />"I dunno."<br /><br />I dunno either.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Reference for the title of today's post, from Woody Allen's Annie Hall</span>: <span style="font-style: italic;">It was great seeing Annie again and I realized what a terrific person she was and how much fun it was just knowing her and I thought of that old joke, you know, the, this, this guy goes to a psychiatrist and says, 'Doc, uh, my brother's crazy, he thinks he's a chicken,' and uh, the doctor says, 'well why don't you turn him in?' And the guy says, 'I would, but I need the eggs.' Well, I guess that's pretty much now how I feel about relationships. You know, they're totally irrational and crazy and absurd and, but uh, I guess we keep going through it...because...most of us need the eggs.<br /><br /></span>Rebecca Rachmanyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10162520818896314604noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-263156214724153158.post-26047414409426729832009-09-26T11:48:00.000-07:002009-10-06T09:04:50.581-07:00The Way of All ThingsI wouldn't say I enjoy funerals, even if I did, but I consider them an opportunity. They are an opportunity to reflect, to learn, and to grow.<br /><br />I've been to quite a few funerals this year, and will probably continue to do so, not just because I have a lot of friends, or because I'm a particular age, but mainly because I belong to several social and community circles.<br /><br />Funerals are the ultimate reflection of community. They are never pre-scheduled, frequently at inconvenient hours, announced almost exclusively by word of mouth, and the person being honored often can't ensure that certain guests get the invitation. Despite all of this, universally, and miraculously, almost everyone seems to get enough notice and attend the event.<br /><br />Funeral attendance is a telling reflection of a person's life and social status. The largest funeral I attended was of a woman who was a fairly well-known figure in her community. When her husband passed, a year later, his was a tenth of the size. Clearly, if the order had been reversed, things would have looked quite different. Funerals for the young are always crowded with peers and parents' friends. Once you pass the age of 90, even your younger friends may not be around to see you off.<br /><br />What I have learned, above all, is that funerals are truly about community. The attendance at your funeral reflects directly the attendance in your life.<br /><br />If you have lived your life, as most of us do, as an individual, you belong to two main community groups: your family and your work communities. Typically your friends are individuals, or a loosely-connected group.<br /><br />By nature, we feel alone much of the time, even when we are surrounded by people. Think of yourself at any type of social event. There you are, surrounded by people. Either you have found the group of people you know and will stick to for most of the event, or you are doing your best to make conversation with new people, or debating whether you should go say hi to that person you think you know from somewhere... you get the picture. This is how our lives look most of the time. We are surrounded by people, yet our individual life seems to be flowing in its own solitary direction.<br /><br />By being active in an organized community, we can ease the feeling of being alone. For me, that community is at my synagogue, <a href="http://www.hodvehadar.org/">Hod v'Hadar</a>, a place where you have the feeling of togetherness. Most of the funerals I go to, in fact, are for members or relations of the people in that community. It's not spoken and not questioned. We simply attend all of one another's life cycle events. I can't think of any other place I've been where the community is so solid and so simple.<br /><br />To tell the truth, it took me quite a while to accept this. Today, we have very few structures that are permanent in our life, and so few communities that support us unquestioningly. It's astonishing, really. I wonder how much life used to be like that, when we lived in small communities, that we simply had to accept everyone in the community, go to all events, and support one another however we could. It seems the more we have materially, the less we connect.<br /><br />It's telling that this level of support happens in a framework where there is a specified structure for face-to-face meeting at a minimum of once a week. It's hard to imagine any online community with this kind of commitment. Indeed, it's quite clear to me that even my most intimate online friends are not likely to be in a physical position to attend my funeral. Most of my online friends wouldn't even relate to who my family is, if one of those people should go the way of all things.<br /><br />In short, there's not a day that goes by that I am not grateful for the real-life community I have in my congregation. As well-connected as I may be, and as many close friends as I may have, there is simply nothing to compare with a community with norms and rituals set up to accept, support and handle the inevitable ebb and flow of life.Rebecca Rachmanyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10162520818896314604noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-263156214724153158.post-31731915005097196922009-09-23T22:43:00.000-07:002009-09-24T03:03:10.246-07:00After the HolidaysThose of you who know me personally know that I've been looking for a new job. The company I was working for had to cut back dramatically, you know the story. (Director or VP Marketing, for those of you who are hiring or know of openings.)<br /><br />If you live in Israel, you also know that the holidays are upon us. They started last week, and they end in mid-October. And everyone knows that last month was August.<br /><br />While I've been looking for a job, one of the phrases I've heard from people is that "things will pick up after the holidays". Let me be more specific. The people I've heard that most from are job seekers and placement agencies, not companies.<br /><br />For all of you "After the Holidays" people, I have to wonder, is that how you run your business? Or your life? Just to put that in tangible terms, if you are an "After the Holidays" type, this is how your calendar year looks, if you live in my country:<br /><ul><li>January (minus the first week, rest of the world still on holiday)</li><li>February</li><li>March</li><li>After the holidays</li><li>May </li><li>June</li><li>After August</li><li>After the holidays</li><li>November</li><li>After the holidays in the rest of the world. </li></ul>If you are an individual, you also have events like ""After the kids settle in their new school," and "After my mortgage is paid", etc. Businesses also have things like "After the big trade show," and "After so-and-so gets back from overseas." It's easy to see how at least half of your time can get wasted by "after..."<br /><br />News flash: customers aren't waiting for your holidays to buy products or get their existing products serviced. The love of your life isn't waiting until your mole has been removed to go out and date other people. Your kids grow at the same rate regardless of the calendar date.<br /><br />Successful companies aren't waiting until "after" to do their business. If they need to fill a position, they start advertising for the position. I've had interviews in August. I've had interviews right smack in the middle of the holidays. And this week it I got it: these are the kinds of places I want to work. Places where when they need to fill a position, they do it. They work around this guy's flights and that guy's vacation, and this holiday and that event. What needs to get done gets done, without excuses, and without delay. Without "after".<br /><br />Look at your own life. How often do you find yourself saying "After..." or "Someday..."? Look at the price you are paying for waiting. And then, get off your rear, and do it. Today.Rebecca Rachmanyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10162520818896314604noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-263156214724153158.post-12001885020335564042009-09-17T08:47:00.000-07:002009-09-17T11:55:52.224-07:00Unaffiliated: Why I'm not an affliliate marketer (and probably will never be)I took some time over the summer to learn about Internet Marketing through something called <a href="http://www.thirtydaychallenge.com/">the Thirty Day Challenge</a>. It was a low-pressure but time-consuming course (offered free in August) that teaches you to make your first dollar on the Internet. I have to admit that I didn't finish the entire course, though I did a good part of it, and I didn't make my first dollar yet.<br /><br />I learned a lot about Internet marketing, and much of the content is definitely applicable to what I do as a regular marketer. In general, it was also fun.<br /><br />The two main takeaways I got were: (a) Affiliate Marketing is a real job, not some scam; and (b) Affiliate Marketing is not for me.<br /><br />Just like any kind of marketing, your job as an affiliate marketer is to get people to know about and buy stuff. I think affiliate marketing is actually a lot tougher than regular marketing, because of the massive competition. The bottom line is that you are selling stuff that is already out there to customers who are probably looking for that stuff, and they could find it through you or through other means. If you aren't totally on it, some other affiliate marketer is going to be on it, and that customer will buy the stuff without your getting a cut. Or if they click through on your site, and then they decide to buy a different model, you don't get a cut.<br /><br />It's pretty brutal. There are some ways to make good money on affiliate marketing, but you have to know what you are doing and have an advantage over the masses.<br /><br />But that's not the main reason I don't really connect with the idea of affiliate marketing. The main reason I don't connect is because it doesn't appear to me as something adding real value to the world. Again, no offense if you are in this field and you love it or are doing well at it. But for me, affiliate marketing is fundamentally reallocation rather than creation.<br /><br />I recently saw an online video of a talk by <a href="http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/haque/"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Umair</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Haque</span></a> discussing "perceived value". Perceived value is what we learn about in business school, and it revolves around the idea that if a product is perceived to have value over a competitive product, that is worth money. In other words, you pay more money for a can of Coca-cola than a can of no-name-cola, because you perceive these to have value. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Haque</span> says, fundamentally, that perceived value isn't value. In other words, if all you are doing is putting a fancy label on it, you aren't creating anything of value in the world.<br /><br />I'd go even further and say that a can of cola has no value at all, or negative value, if your health is considered.<br /><br /><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Haque</span> actually postulates that businesses that don't add real value will fail. I'm not sure I believe that, though I would certainly like to.<br /><br />At any rate, when it comes to affiliate marketing, I just don't think that my blogging about the awesomeness of flea jump-ropes and pointing you to the site to buy them is really adding value in the world. You might all value my opinion. You might find it slightly easier to find the right flea jump-rope for you. Probably not. Probably it would have more value on the Amazon review for flea jump-ropes rather than on my blog where I get a percentage for pointing you to Amazon.<br /><br />I do believe that there are zillions of products that can be created and marketed through the Internet. Creating a new product that answers a real need -- that's where value is. If you can create a better flea jump-rope, because you are the expert on flea jumping, you should create the product, not plug a different product. That is a contribution to the world.<br /><br />When I was doing the course, one of the guys on my team said "It is <span style="font-style: italic;">everyone</span>'s dream to have their own product and sell it through the Internet." He said that as if: we are doing affiliate marketing because creating your own product is harder. He might be right, too. In any case, if that's your dream, that's what you should be doing, not something that appears easy and, at the end of the day, doesn't add real value to anyone.<br /><br />So that's my take on affiliate marketing .Again, no offense to anyone, and I'd be glad to hear your comments below.Rebecca Rachmanyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10162520818896314604noreply@blogger.com2