Social networking and crackberries

OK, I am ate up with all of the blogs, wikis, collaboration and building a "community" right now. The past 2 weeks I have heard nothing but web 2.0 and social networking.

The conference I attended here in Palo Alto addressed your work intranet and how to use web 2.0 technology. I expected the crowd to be younger, the presenters to be well, college age. Well, they were not. Most of the crowd were baby boomers wanting to know how to offer web 2.0. I was impressed that they were that engaged. Many of the people where I work are aware of the technology but do not use it. And to be frank as many of them have told me, don't want to use it. They feel it is a fad. Let me address that while I am on it. A fad lasts a season, like stirrup pants. If this is a fad, then why does it continue to grow? And it didn't start last year. It's been around for awhile. So it's not a fad and we better get used to it.

The Facebooking, blogging, and all the web 2.0 stuff has impacted me. I have noticed that I would much rather log into Facebook and chat with my "peeps" than call them now. When I want to vent and complain, I blog. I noticed at the conference that I was more of an intravert. If they all had been on IM, I would have been glad to talk to them.

I am more connected to my friends than I have ever been. Yes, I am one of those who have made sacrifices of friends and family for my career. But the social networking tools have allowed me to balance that in my life. I do it all from my Blackberries!!!

Notice I said Blackberries. I have a "work" blackberry and a "personal" blackberry. The work BB blocks everything but work email and work IM (instant messaging). I made Waynie get me a personal one so that I can get to Facebook, Twitter and all the sites that allow me to stay connected. Most of all, I wanted to take pictures of things and send them. That came in handy just this week when I purchased by sister a Betsy Johnson purse. I took pictures of all the purses and said "pick"! I would have purchased the wrong one. I do hope that companies start to see the power of the mobile devices. No one wants to pack around a laptop, they want it all on their phone. I am one of those, I want to do my work, make approvals, check in for my flight - all on my phone. I hope that the company I work for starts to see that trend now instead of 2018. I love my phones and yes, I have a problem, it's like crack to me.

Thanks to the many of you who moved to Facebook to by my friend!!! I love you all and you will have the best Christmas ever.