Gadgentology!!
it occurs to me that I was either suffering of this condition or I could be a case study of Gadgentoly one night when my wife was, let put it this way, explaining to me why I needed to stop buying “useless staff”, as she put it. I wasn’t sure if I meant to explain a science that defines the urge to posses new gadgets and technologies that makes your life, yeah you guessed it, the same, or a psychological disorder that compiles me to acquire those gadgets, either way I left me thinking…
Since 1991, when i bought my first PC, an IBM 386 that pales compares to the capabilities of my iPhone, I have always feel the need to have that latest computer, video game, console, phone, TV, GPS, you name it, either I have it or had it… The problem is that I don’t see an end to it.
You will think that as marketer, I understand what the Organizations do to trick me into buying this stuff, and the sad thing is that I do, and still fall for it. I know there are people out there (Blake) who feels my pain, the compelling attraction of that brand new, sexy, astonishing, shining, otherwise useless, iPad…
Now I apologize, I was planning to further explain my concept of Gadgetology and maybe start a support group, but there is something of an urgent matter that I need to attend… (link)
GPS your kids?
How far are you willing to go to protect your kids from predators? This question seams to have a lot layers when it should be as easy as “anywhere”. Some numbers are really alarming, they suggest that a kid is reported missing every 40 seconds, yeah that’s right 40 seconds.
I know that this world, this society is full of very bad people, and now there are some technologies out there that could help if the unthinkable ever happens, how can I find my son if he goes missing?
They way I see this is there are two sides, I want to follow my son and know where he is at all times, or I want to make sure I can find my son at all times, in that sense there are different technology levels that will allow me to keep track of him.
The easiset one is giving him a cell phone, many carriers today offer the option to locate the cell phone, as long as it is on the grid and it’s kept on. Some of this technologies offer upgrades that include among others: how fast is he moving? is he driving? and so for; considering he’s 9, this might no be very appealing. Another option is an extra device that can be strapped to him, or put in his back pack, or pocket etc. again fr a 9 year old this might not be very practical. The ultimate device, will be implanted in his body and will follow him 24/7.
Obliviously, this topic brings all kinds of questions, some ethical, privacy even moral issues, for me is quite troubling because I do want to be able to find him at all times, but would I be able to invade his body implant this device on him? Unfortunately, there is now way to way to keep him 100% safe, specially knowing that even if this technology comes available for personal use, there will be hundreds, if not thousands of people trying to override the signal of they really mean harm.
There is no one answer for this issue, at least not for me, the web is full of blogs and comments about it, what I can’t get out of my mind is what if… and what if I could have done something…
Hopefully it will never happen.
I’m already a CIO…
My last post left me thinking, like “The Kid” would say, KWYDK, however this time I wasn’t thinking about my Organization or any of the cases we have read, I was thinking about the IS I have at home. At first look they seam quite easy to manage, like most households, we own computers, game systems, TV, phone and cell phones, entertainment system, and obviously a wireless router, among other things. That means that I need to know, or at least be familiar with concepts like, ports, virtual ports, gatewas, protocols, security, permissions, and the list goes on, and on.
During the last session, Denis was discussing his experience with customer support and Comcast, and odly enough that same morning I was involved in a 2 hour call with AT&T, my ISP, Cable and VoIP provider and I realized, I was acting as the CIO of my own systems architecture. I was involved in a discussion about the router specifications needed for my house, specially an error I was getting about a “router behind router” that was bringing the entire network down; we also talked about how much I was supposed to left open on my network, what kind of systems I had and how much I should restrict access to my network, and many other issues, some of which I could understand but many others left me felling like a Barton will feel after a meeting with Chao, clueless.
All these things are quite important, we all are very aware that today any 14 year old with a regular computer, average knowledge of how information systems work, and some free tools could do a lot of damage. From erasing your HD to obtaining your personal information and doing some real damage and anything in between.
This might sound paranoiac, extreme if you will, but there are so many stories on the web about this episodes that is not even funny and if you are like me and take your work computer home to work through the VPN to your organization’s servers, now this issue might take another connotation depending on where do you work and how sensitive that information is.
There is one particular subject that left me very uncomfortable, the parental control issue with the Internet. Until now, I was contempt with the standard password protection from the browser, however it is either very limited or extremely closed in access, to the point that my son wouldn’t do much without me there, even more, it didn’t take him long to figure out the password from the hundreds of times he saw me typing it. There is a lot for me to learn on this topic and many different approaches to take on the issue, I will investigate and update the blog on this.
At the end of my 2 hour call to AT&T i just realized, I’m already a CIO, I have all this infrastructure at home that I need to take care of, maintain, grow but most important protect from possible attacks and I want to know what’s going on in my house, i dont feel very cunfortable with granting acces to my computer every time to their representitives, I would like to be able to resolve this issues or at least understand what the person on the other side is doing, of curse if I can’t make it, there is always the Geek Squad 🙂
What do you think?
Digital Drive By…
The new era of connectivity has brought upon us many new ways of communicating, the social networks are undoubtedly one of the most recognized ways of interconnecting with friends, family and others. At first sight, they are very effective, cool even, however with Valentines day just past, one topic can not be overlooked, romance…
Last week on my way to job, I heard this story that really caught my attention. The story is entailed “Digital Tears: Breakups And Social Networks” (Listen here). The story proposed an exercise, go and make a “drive by” through your past relationships profiles, see what they are up to these days. I confess that it was an interesting exercise, revisiting those relationships just to prove the extension of the IS in the personal life.
It’s challenging for the new generations to learn how to deal with the new systems and the ever changing technologies, will our kids accept the new challenges of socializing imposed by the new social rules of the web? will it be OK for them to watch a movie over a shared point on Friday night instead of face to face interaction? How will they deal with cyber-breakups?
Fortunately I past the possibility of a cyber-breakup (I hope), but i feel that I need to be on top of these issues in order to stay current with my son’s future psychological health and overall well being. I now recognize that just turning on the parental controls on Internet Explorer on my son’s computer is far from getting close to what I need to do, the more I read about this the more convinced I am that I will have to step up and become the new Home CIO, a topic that I will explore in a latter post.
♥ Enjoy some Valentines music…
New Technology
Every time we think about technology and innovation, our minds wonder for new TV’s, the latest phones or an overpriced useless electronic reader, but one think we know is that there is people out there constantly thinking in ways to improve every single item aground us.
I wanted to share an innovation that i found on one of my favorite sites, Popular Science. Every year they try to find the best innovations in various fields, some of them are obvious, some not so much. 3M this, a company well know for its imaginative solutions to every day problems, came out with this stethoscope that allows very low margin of error for the physician to interpret the sound of the heart.
In this case, 3M used a widely used technology, the bluetooth, and applied to a great use, not just a flashy device that makes people look like they are talking to themselves or saying hello to you. As a professional marketer, I recognize the importance of being on constant innovation mode, and 3M has done it again, kudos to them!!
Google case!
Our Team B is presenting the Google case, they are doing a great job, we can tell how much our previous class helped us with presentations!!
Congrats team B!
I just discovered the iPhone app for WordPress and couldn’t resit the temptation to blog directly form class! Blog away friends, Blog away!!
Marketing & IT - Driving the new Organization 
