For the past two years, Accenture has
been conducting in-depth research about the usage patterns of various types of
consumer technology products and services among U.S. consumers.
The research was completed in the winter of 2008/2009 and provides direct
comparisons with last winter’s 2007/2008 research data. The goal was to
determine if there had been any changes in usage between Baby Boomers + (age 45
and older) and Generation Y (ages 18 to 24). The research uncovered
several interesting trends.
You can view and download the whole report in a pdf file.
Not my words, but rather a summation from the most recent rant by Vancouver Sun reporter Stephen Hume. I introduced my readers who don't live in the Vancouver area to Mr. Hume by commenting on his rant against bloggers in late January. I sent him an email about it but got no comment back. I understand Stephen, you're a pro and I'm an amateur-wouldn't want to tarnish your image would you? Actually, I think he probably only posts his email address because his paper forces him to.
Today, he's at it again-this time a rant over another newspaper shutting down. (I guess linking to his article makes me a parasitic freeloader.) He mentions that he's approaching retirement. Maybe he can start a blog- The Bitching Blogger has a nice ring to it.
What do laid off journalists do?Click on the graphic.Hint: Most don't blame bloggers for their predicament.
Being a resident of the area, I subscribe to a local paper called the Vancouver Sun. I have recently considered canceling my subscription because I can get most of what I'm interested in on the internet and usually a lot faster. But I do like to sit down with a coffee in the morning and turn the pages-old habits die hard even for someone who uses technology as much as I do.
A Sun journalist, Stephen Hume recently wrote a column that is basically a rant about bloggers. Oh sure, he starts it out by talking about what he perceives to be a racist e-mail but I'm not even going to go there because while it may have racial overtones, even cretins such as racists have a right to their own opinion. That's something that "citizen journalists" just accept whether or not we agree with the content. The rest of this post is directed to Mr. Hume.
Firstly, I take issue with the fact that you only tell the reader what your impressions of the email are. We don't even see the actual e-mail, which if it were done in a blogging format, any blogger would have either posted and/or linked to it. So all we can do is take the word of a journalist who complains "old-school journalists still ask basic questions when they encounter
something like this: When and where was it said, who actually witnessed
the event, what was the context, etc.?" (Actually, I do believe him)See Mr. Hume? I can prove you said that because I linked to your column. That's the first rule of blogging-link to the source and if you read a post that doesn't do it-ignore it because there are some bloggers out there who are probably like the person who sent you the email-people who just say whatever pops into their head.
Stereotyping citizen journalists "as lazy bloggers (who) feed off each others' posts" is just plain wrong. Of course "some" do but you didn't use that quantifier. You also ridiculed the miscreant for misquoting the idiom "you reap what you sow" because he mistakenly used the word "sew." This makes him a "semi-literate dolt?" A little harsh don't you think? After all he doesn't have the proof readers and editors to clean up his errors as you do.
Most bloggers are not even paid although a select few (pas moi) make more in a month than many journalists make in a year. That's what I think your column is all about. You're pissed that journalists are losing their jobs and you cast the majority of the blame on bloggers and the internet. I understand your concern about employment cuts in your fraternity but over 200,000 tech workers alone have been laid off in North America since August 2008, not to mention the hundreds of thousands laid off in other sectors. The world is in a deep recession, and blaming bloggers and technology for your particular pain is nothing more than complaining about a situation that is incredibly difficult for everyone, not just old school journalists, so yes I agree with your admittance of "self-interest."
This employment shift in your profession (by the way you don't need a government license to do what you (we?) do so anyone who wants to can do it) caused by technological advances is not dissimilar to what has happened to the music, movie, photo and travel industries to name a few. Their employees are all having to adapt to new rules of employment based on technology. Actually, if I were a newspaper journalist I'd be looking at the larger blogging sites for opportunities.
I admire your ability to craft words Mr. Hume and I am a hack by comparison, but why not use your gift to your advantage, not to whine? Oh, and another benefit of a blog is that you can leave a comment here if you wish for the world to see, unlike your site which has no such facility in place. But then you're a "pro" and I'm a "citizen" so I guess we are held responsible to different authorities-you, your editor and me-ahhh well thankfully, no one except my readers.
Like my semi-literate brethren I'll leave you with another idiom that I'll try not to fu (doncha love tech talk?)
"When the going gets tough-the tough get going."
Finally, I'll draw your attention to a 28 year old video (about 1296 years in technology years) that correctly predicted the future of newspapers.
their HR practices are stuck in the mid 20th century.
TechCrunch ran a copy of the email that President Jerry Yang sent out to his employees today. Yahoo's problems are well known as they have basically become today's Visicorp getting the crap pounded out of them by Google just as newcomer Lotus did to the pioneer of spreadsheet technology, Visicorp, 25 years ago. I know-I was in the Visicorp camp, not as an employee but as one of their distributors. Reality sometimes sucks.
Notice this line from the memo Yang sent to all "yahoos" (odd that he doesn't call them "yahooers"-or maybe it's not.)
"because compensation expenses are the single largest part of our costs,
we anticipate a reduction of at least 10% of our global workforce by
year-end."
This also reminds me of what happened at Sperry when Burroughs bought them out in the late 1986 and the merged company that is now Unisys was formed. A similar announcement was made to the employees of both companies and the resulting loss of productivity and lost business was epic. I was a Sperry employee and while I was reasonably certain I was safe, I immediately started sending out resumes and participating in the daily gossip about what was going to happen to everyone. To say that it was a time of uncertainty and frustration for both employees and customers, is an understatement. Until I knew I was safe, my heart wasn't in my job and even after the dust settled, like many others, I was pissed about how it was handled and eventually moved on.
I imagine the same thing is now taking place within the ranks of Yahoo as what everyone was anticipating has now become a reality. The right thing to do would be to start the layoffs immediately so that those who will survive can get back to being productive because there is no way that anyone is working at full capacity right now. Given today's economic environment, I would imagine that most "yahoos" don't relish the thought of entering the job market right now.
Yahoo's story seems to become grimmer every day and Jerry Yang has done no one any favors by delaying the layoffs. It's not like Yahoo's execs didn't know this was coming. They could have done their due diligence in advance about who had to go. Perhaps they already have and are just hoping for a voluntary exodus which means the severance packages won't be as high, but given today's economy, I would imagine that a lot of folks at Yahoo are hoping for a decent package if they are in the 10% slated for the ax (which I think is an optimistic number.)
Good luck to those affected and good luck to Yahoo surviving this. The last thing the industry wants or needs is Yahoo's total collapse.
Last week I received an email from a Chinese student whom I taught in Korea. It read in part:
"Maybe you have already known the riot in Tibet.I really can not understand why Western always slander China. Although
a lot of differences between Western and us.But we have already changed
a lot things,have admitted a lot of things.Why Western can't give us a
fair treating? If you are free,please come to China.Please prove we are not devils by your eyes.Thank you
This seems to be part of what the New York Times is labeling Chinese Cybernationalism. On the weekend, thousands of Chinese protested against the French department store chain Carrefour which has stores in all the major Chinese cities, because of the protest of the Olympic flame being carried through Paris. If you want to see a Chinese student's reasonably unbiased point of view of the protests, visit the Everyday Easy Life blog.
And today, TechCrunch has coverage of a Chinese hacker group taking down a sports web site that they apparently thought was part of CNN which is their target because of comments made by Jack Cafferty calling Chinese "goons and thugs."
Whether or not you disagree with the Chinese, it seems they have found an effective way to get their voice heard globally, but hacking U.S. websites is not going to get them any sympathy. Also, if they boycott Carrefour can Walmart, MacDonalds, KFC etc which are all over China be far behind? And speaking of boycott, I'm betting Jacques Rogge of the International Olympic Committee is having a few sleepless nights right now.
It was originally used by gamers to declare their state of happiness and now the hybrid word has been chosen "Word of the year" by Merriam Webster. Previous words of the year have included "truthiness," integrity" and "blog".
Next year I am nominating "Savvy" so then I can use all in my banner.
If you are a Roger's internet customer in Canada, read this article at CBC. If they are spying on customer internet usage, are they also listening in on their telephone customers' conversations as well? Yikes, time to sell their stock before the crap hits the fan with regulators.
One of the things I think frustrates a lot of boomers and seniors new to the world of computer and internet technology is all the jargon that is used. I try not to use buzz words too often but when I read over some of my posts, I realize I frequently use terms that some readers may not understand.
I just found these fairly straightforward explanations of a lot of terms you may hear when people are discussing technology. You may want to bookmark them so that the next time you read some "geekese" like "Be sure to clear your cache when using wifi to access your ISP's imap email client", you can figure out what they mean, or not.
The internet jargon is explained on Tucows here and the Windows jargon here.
