A Consultant's Chronicles

Digital Native vs Digital Immigrant: Line of the Week 11-01-09

This week's line of the week emerges from a provocative post by Brian Whalley of Hubspot, an online marketing company I know well & respect a great deal. In it he discusses how important it is for organizations today to have people who are so completely at home with the digital universe that it is essentially a way of life for them. He & the folks at Hubspot have deemed these people “Digital Natives.” Those who may not see technology as the "be all, end all" [because they are coming to it later in life], they call “Digital Immigrants” [or "those those who speak web with an accent]. Whalley went on to offer a cute little quiz to see how people rated themselves on this score.  However the post is not without some significant "issues."

Definitions: Digital Native vs Digital Immigrant

First of all, keeping these two definitions in mind, he goes on to discuss a new book just put out by 2 key people at Hubspot stating that: 

"...they recommend hiring more Digital Natives, not Digital Immigrants ('speaks web with an accent')..."  

The line as well the underlying attitude it reflects caught many people's attention & raised a few hackles. It is also an HR person's nightmare. As someone who coaches employers about how to navigate such "rocks & shoals" in the workplace, I found this to be both a huge problem as well as a potential liability for the company. Why? Aside from the problematic reasoning which I'll get to in a moment, all it takes is some "forty-something" or older who's passed over for a desired position to be able to point to such a document & scream "discrimination." Could this post [alone] be considered certain proof of such discrimination as in "case closed?" Absolutely not. What it creates is a sense of vulnerability that no company wants & the potential for a "legal headache," which no  company needs. 

Put The Focus On 'Skills' Not Age

My suggestion is that Mr Whalley clarify his thinking in a new post [something he tried to do in a comment] that speaks to the fuller meaning of what he was trying to convey. It is my belief that what he & others in the company meant is that organizations hire people with the skills of 'digital natives.' This takes the focus off of "age" & puts it squarely where it belongs: ability. While it may be what he meant, unfortunately it's not what he wrote.  Additionally, many of those who commented on the post [including me] pointed out that such a narrow definition is an injustice to the amazing pioneers in the field who helped contribute to the creation of the digital universe. I'm referring to people who have names like Jobs, Gates, Packard, Dell, & many others like them; none of whom fit the specified description of “native.” Perhaps it's safer to say that people like Jobs & company reside in a kind of twilight zone between the two groups. The whole analogy is problematic. After all, in political terms, I seriously doubt that anyone would consider Ronald Reagan, the father of his own brand of huber-Republicanism, as someone who "spoke Republican with an accent" even though he started out as a Democrat! Just thinkin'

Digital Line of the Week

This discussion gave rise to the digital line of the week in the form of a summary comment made by Peter Rastello. Whether you agree or not, I think he gets kudos for style points. He said

"..."if you weren't born with a mouse in your crib, you're not in the Digital Native club..." 

That seems to be the long & short of what was written by Whalley. What's your view?

High Tech High: Helping Business Tomorrow By Planting Seeds Today

One of the by-products of a change in health care policy will be the need for more doctors because there will be a significantly larger number of people seeking care. However,in this country we are experiencing a doctor shortage. How can this be when receiving  medical treatment in this country is highly desired throughout the world? One of the real culprits aside from the lack of interest in becoming a doctor is our declining education system especially when it comes to math & science. In disciplines other than healthcare, as the American workforce has moved away from manufacturing, the emphasis of jobs today & especially tomorrow are in the areas of research & development because innovation is what America has always done best. As a result, business also has a vested interested in seeing its children return to math & science. Increasingly blue chip companies are putting their time & money into the problem with mixed success.

Tomorrow's Jobs Require Math & Science Today n

Why are businesses having only modest success?  Generally, it's hard to fire up American children when it comes to math & science...or so we've been told.  Pursuing a career in medicine also means spending a minimum of 10 extra years training before reaping the monetary benefits which today amounts to less earning power than lawyers, stock brokers, & a host of other jobs that don't require anywhere near the same of amount of work & dedication.

High Tech High: A Solution To The Math/Science Deficit

However, the first real sign I have seen in a long time that someone has a clue about how to turn things around was while watching a brief news clip a few days ago about a relatively new public [charter] school in San Diego, Ca called High Tech High. It's a school full of math & science that challenges kids through the use of technology to dream & create. Children get in through the lottery system & can enter as early as grade school.  Although there are no tests, they are evaluated on an ongoing basis; every child who attends graduates & most attend college. A public school where kids willingly focus their energy on math & science most of the day & thrive? What a concept! Apparently it's one successful enough to spawn 4 more schools just like it. I can hear the health & business community now: "bring it on!"

Apps: How Can They Be Used By Small Business

Reading the November 2, issue of BusinessWeek where the cover story is about the business of "apps" triggered an interesting discussion with a friend who is novice app designer. According to their cover article, apps are no longer just about games & will soon explode as an integral business tool. The question I put to my friend is what are some ways small business can  leverage this new tool aside from writing documents & retrieving email. According to BusinessWeek the most obvious untapped use for small business is as a payment tool. My friend demurred because while he has some thoughts on how small business can benefit/profit from apps, they are not quite ready for "prime time." As a result, I thought I'd throw the question out there to you: if you own a small business, what would you like to be able to do straight from your smartphone that cannot be done today. Let your imagination run wild.

Apps As a Business: It's The Real Thing 

As you ponder the question consider Zynga's runaway success in their app "Farmville" on Facebook where people manage a plot of land, buying animals, crops, & other "necessities" for their virtual homestead. The cost of these items are seemingly "small potatoes:" under a dollar, maybe slightly over but that's all. So how much money has the parent company made in their short time in business? How about 100 million dollars which just goes to show that as a business, "apps" can be a very big deal.

Hotmail Alert: It's A 'Phishing Scam'

This post is a warning about a 'phishing scam' circulating through Hotmail. When I opened my personal email box this morning, tucked in there between the mountains of mail was a subject title called a "Hotmail Customer Alert" [or something close to that]. I had just read that there was some successful hacking in some major IM accounts, so this got my immediate attention. It was an email stating that due to a security problem they were closing down many email accounts including mine unless they were immediately validated. Therefore to allegedly "protect my account" I had to send them my password, date of birth, & country of orIgin. I doubted the validity of the email immediately because no legitimate site asks for private data in an email in this manner. However the threat of having one's account shut down & losing all the data in it is a potent one. As I scanned the email I observed 1 critical thing: the sender was an ordinary hotmail user with a very unofficial looking account something akin to jdoe45@hotmail.com. There was no indication that it was sent from Windows Live or Microsoft. I then checked Google & there were scads of entries about the scam including posts by people who got ensnared in the trap. DON'T LET THEM GET YOUR INFORMATION! Report this as a phishing scam

Facebook & Today's Workforce

In earlier posts I have written about the fact that while social media sites like Facebook & Twitter represent fabulous marketing venues for individuals & [small] business, they are also not without business peril. There have been some notable examples of how people err on these sites because they blur the lines between professional & personal life. This merging of the public & private spheres of life is like a giant pothole on these sites, which is to say the problem is easily seen yet people stumble anyway. Until recently, I have only been involved with professionally oriented sites where everyone's guard is up. However, now that I am on Facebook, I see just how easily those lines can be crossed in a way that could be harmful to a career. A picture posted of someone smoking a bong is probably not their ticket to the corner office.  Should that be the case?

The Facebook Faux Pas: A Dealmaker Or A Deal-breaker

There is a school of thought representing the belief that as people become more at home with social media, the "Facebook online faux pas" will become a mere "blip on the radar screen;'' others maintain that if online indiscretions don't interfere with their work performance, it shouldn't matter.  I believe this view to be naive & self-serving. Allow me to explain. Part of what employers & [potential] colleagues  look for is how you handle yourself in every setting especially personal ones. Why? It's a window into what you will be like to work with as well as providing a feel for your ethics & moral compass. For example, how do you treat the wait staff when dining out with the boss, do you cheat at golf, do you drink too much at business mixers? These are all "real life" examples of where professional & personal boundaries cross & as a consequence, fairly or not, we are judged accordingly. Social media just provides another venue for more information. Is your input responsive, communicative, and a reflection of good judgment or is it immature and unprofessional? Does it matter? In my view, absolutely. Can a Facebook or Twitter post be a dealmaker or deal-breaker; without a doubt-just ask "Cisco Fatty!" She lost her job as the result of "140 characters or less!" 

Defining 'Work' In The Age of Hi-Tech For The Hourly Worker

"Technology giveth & it taketh away." According to an article I read, this seems to be the crux of a controversy brewing between T-Mobile's hourly employees & management but it is one that is definitely relevant to today's workforce at large. The problem at hand is pretty simple: should hourly employees be paid for time spent dealing with customer complaints on their company issued smart phones after hours when they are "off the clock?" T-Mobile's hourly workers think so & they suing the company to be fairly compensated. In a similar complaint, an hourly paid janitor contends that T-Mobile expects him to come & attend to problems when they arise even when he is "off the clock" [& not being paid].

'It Depends On What The Definition of Work Is'

I must confess, I don't understand T-Mobile's position. The court recently ruled that employers must pay hourly workers even for time spent putting on their uniform so how can they not be paid for doing their actual jobs?  Technology helps to blur what used to be clear boundaries when it comes to how/where a job is performed but hourly workers, unlike management have never been expected to work until the job is done. In part, it's why rules like overtime pay exist. Furthermore, this separate pay structure is one of the essential differences between hourly workers & management [& not insignificantly one among many reasons why management is paid more]. This small dispute has the potential to redefine work & how all hourly workers are paid. It may also be something of a Pandora's box for employers. While this is a question best addressed by an attorney specializing in labor law, I wonder if for example, these T-Mobile workers lose their suit & are considered "on the job" when they are "off the clock", will employers be "on the hook" for workman's comp if an accident occurred while they were addressing a company problem? "Just askin' ?" Alternatively, it may necessitate the creation of an entirely different category for some workers; one with a wholly different salary structure & guidelines. In short, this could be a giant headache for HR managers everywhere. What's your view?

Line of the Week 7-19-09

This week's line of the week belongs to the irrepressible Maureen Dowd of the New York Times. In her discussion about the ills of using a cell phone while driving, she expanded her discussion to general cell phone usage. Dowd "calls us all out" for constantly scouring our messages even though most are unimportant or uninteresting noting that the act often takes us to the point of rudeness [not to mention danger if driving]. She describes the process of people searching for that one valuable message in the following way:

"...They’re truffle-hunting for that scintillating one..."

I'm sorry but truffles are far more interesting!

The End Of An Era: After 'That's The Way It Is'

Like most people I was saddened to learn of Walter Cronkite's passing this weekend. It clearly marks the end of an era. However, odd as it sounds, my sense of loss was mostly "historical" in kind. Whether things seem retrospective or not, there is no doubt that Walter Cronkite left an indelible mark in the country, the industry & defined the term "news anchor."  According to Dan Rather, the man who replaced him [after he retired], Cronkite "walked us through history." He was the one people turned to when the Kennedys were shot, when MLK was shot, & when man walked on the moon for the first time. In fact, according to EIN News,  a global news service I read this weekend, his name has become the term for news anchors in Sweden & Holland. For example in Sweden these folks are called "Kronkiters*." I don't think today's generation of news consumers can have the same emotional connection to the event. For me the sudden loss of Tim Russert was far more significant even though his role was somewhat different. Generation is everything I guess.

That's The Way It Was

If that's true, who are the people today's twenty year olds will look to for trusted reportage. Roger Simon of Politico? Arrianna Huffington of the Huffington Post? Matt Drudge of the Drudge Report? I don't think so. The problem with looking to news reporters on the web is that there is no mistaking a reporter's political leanings. Unlike Cronkite & Russert, there is no one on the web who comes to mind that even tries to report just the unvarnished news [read; without bias].  He was known as the "most trusted man in America" & those are mighty "big shoes to fill." Rather may be respected but he couldn't come close. Most people don't watch the news at 6PM nightly anymore.  Why should we be so restricted when it can be obtained on a computer, a mobile phone, or an ipod? Who will be the web's "Kronkiter" or is the model gone forever? According to the newsclips, Cronkite used to end his show with the line "and that's the way its." Today it's perhaps more accurate to say "and that's the way it was." 

*Whether or not the term "Kronkiter" means news anchor is disputed by some bloggers. Since the idea comes from some credible sources including Cronkite himself in his memoir, I'm guessing it was more commonly known in Cronkite's time as an anchor but it's a guess.

Nokia Smartphones: Correction

Recently I wrote a post about how Nokia's top-of-the-line smartphones are too expensive. It was my understanding that their problem centered on a shortsighted business plan, which did not include a relationship with a carrier for their "A-line" of smartphones. As a result their product was sold "unlocked" to be used by all carriers but at stratospheric prices when compared to their competitors. However, after conversing with someone more intimately familiar with Nokia I discovered that in fact there are other more complicated technological reasons involved.  Therefore one of my criticisms of the company was off the mark so in the interest of fairness, I felt it important to post a correction. 

They Still Need A Better App Store

It remains the case that they are also busily scrambling trying to get up to speed with their app store, which is something I correctly pointed out in my earlier post. If I am going criticize a company, it's got to be for the right reasons even if the essential bottom line is the same: Nokia is lagging behind its competitors losing dedicated customers like me in the process. Now can they catch up? The smartphone market is evolving so rapidly that I think the safest answer is "yet to be determined at press time."

Nokia Smartphones: The Cost In Dollars Makes No $ense

Let me start out by saying that I have been a dedicated Nokia user for several years. I simply like the intuitive interface over many others I've tried. Like many others I appreciate the elegance of the iPhone but I like my carrier & don't want to cancel out a warranty on a new phone by buying an "unlocked" Apple. Thus until recently I found myself in a smartphone dilemma.

Nokia's Smartphones Left In the Dust

Nokia makes some absolutely dazzling smartphones with nifty features predating the iphone. However, for reasons known only to them when it comes to their smartphones, they have just started working with carriers in order to make the price more palatable. Sadly, they are not doing this with their A-Team of smartphones. Like many small business owners, I have to consider the bottom line when making such purchases. Not only are they behind the curve in terms of working with carriers but as many recent [& sometimes] scathing articles point out, their app store is also sorely wanting particularly when you consider what they are asking for the phones [upwards of $400-900].  The tragedy is Nokia has such a fabulous product when it comes to the phone & a camera [any phone with a Carl Zeiss lense has a legitimate camera as opposed to a phone with photo capabilities]. However they are getting aced out because of what seems like easily fixable problems: carrier cooperation [beginning now but slowly] & an inferior app store; neither seem insurmountable. The question is how long will these changes take? The answer it seems is already too long. By the time they get their act together, Nokia smartphones will be left in the dust because according to the "gadget gods," right now the smartphone wars are between the iPhone, the new Palm Pre, the Google MyTouch [already positively reviewed & coming out next month] and RIM's ever-present but less glitzy Blackberry.

Leaving an Old Friend Behind

Putting all of this into fiscal perspective, for the price of one comparable unlocked Nokia smartphone, you could buy an iphone, Blackberry, Pre, or a Google phone AND a netbook. Currently Nokia is busily playing catch-up in the US because but until Nokia changes its fundamental business plan "its dollars make no '$ense.' " As for me, I've opted for the new Google MyTouch but not without some sadness because it feels a little like "leaving an old friend behind."