Noise to Signal

Rainbow Gumball Racerz would like access to your bank account and dental records (Y/N)

September 6, 2013 No Comments

This cartoon came about because I came across one app too many asking for outrageous access and permissions: see my contacts, tweet on my behalf… stuff that’s becoming numbingly routine, but which the app really has no need for.

I know the platforms often don’t make it easy, but I’d love developers to go beyond just saying they want this access; tell me what you’ll do with it. Are you going to store my list of contacts locally and offer to autocomplete names as I enter them? That might be cool. Are you going to email everyone I know each time I defeat a level boss in Avatar Vs. My Little Pony? Not so cool.

And I’d like fewer vampires and more houseguests. Invite a vampire into your house once, and that permission’s apparently irrevocable (or so a lot of late-night movies would have me believe). But a houseguest has to ask permission every time they drop in, and that’s what I’d like to be able to opt for with some apps. One example: I’d like to require a passcode entry before enabling Facebook and Twitter “integration” on kids’ games, so my little ones can’t gunk up my updates (and your news feeds) with useless status updates unless I say so.

One last thought about the cartoon: what are the chances there are already apps out there performing surreptitious surveillance? Or maybe, what are the chances there aren’t?

This is the bonus cartoon I promised after folks kindly pushed the Noise to Signal Facebook Page past the magic 2,000-Like mark. (That may seem like an arbitrary number, but it really isn’t. I’m now officially entitled to a friendly nod and a “S’up?” from Mark Zuckerberg if we ever walk by each other.)

Unfortunately, it’s late, because the server crashed under mysterious circumstances. I choose that wording deliberately, because it suggests the involvement of nefarious forces, which has more cachet than “I have no idea why this is broken; maybe some disk corruption or a squirrel got into the datacenter.”

Now, however, I have resurrected the server (with lots of encouragement from the good folks at Linode!), so we’re back up and running. Better yet, we’ve made the leap from Ubuntu’s Karmic Koala to Raring Ringtail, completely bypassing Maverick Meerkat, Tempestuous Tapeworm, Obsequious Okapi and Passive-Aggressive Porpoise.

What will this mean to you? Well, other than a possible Funny Ubuntu Animals cartoon in the offing, maybe nothing. Or maybe it will mean shorter load times and an undefinable yet undeniable sense of well-being. Let me know.

Chasing numbers

September 4, 2013 No Comments

I don’t believe in chasing metrics for their own sake. I really don’t.

But for the past month, Noise to Signal has hovered tantalizingly close to 2,000 fans on Facebook, and dammit, I really like it when the cartoon reaches more people. If an arbitrary number can help make that happen, then by god, I’ll embrace that arbitrary number and tickle it under its chin.

So I posted that if we can crack that 2,000-fan barrier tonight, I’ll post next week’s cartoon today:

I have a cartoon that I’m planning to post next week. But if you fine people can convince 18 more people to like the page and crack 2,000, it’ll go live RIGHT AWAY. (Why? Because I like round numbers and because my subconscious is convinced that more Likes mean I won’t die alone and unloved someday.)

And my old friend Kevin Marsh from my Queen’s Park days replied that he might be game for it if I post a cartoon about my subconscious. And here it is.

The offer still stands. Next week’s cartoon awaits just 18 more Facebook Likes.

(In case you’re wondering, yes: I went back and forth over whether to say “shitload”. I ultimately went with it because I think it’s funny as hell when a monk says “shitload.” In many ways, I never really stopped being 12.)

Cartoon: Microsoft staffer explains to customer that the company doesn't want to pay $7.2 billion to buy his old 5190 handset.

BREAKING: Buying Nokia leaves Microsoft locked into three-year AT&T service contract

September 4, 2013 1 Comment

I heard about Microsoft’s acquisition while I was still bleary-eyed and uncaffeinated. So my brain ran down a few blind alleys trying to figure out how I could parlay that basket of old Nokia equipment up in our deprecated tech cupboard* into some serious money.

I’ll say this, though: the Nokia 5190 was genuinely life-altering. Long battery life, excellent signal quality, the game “Snake”… combined, those features freed me from my desk for the first time. I’m prepared to make the case that this is where the mobile revolution truly began.

I wouldn’t be surprised, by the way, if there is in fact a hoax circulating about Microsoft paying big bucks for old Nokia handsets. For any of a dozen possible reasons, tech hoaxes are especially virulent — from the old modem tax to the “Obamaphone” myth. Let me know if you spot one. (I’d offer a signed print to the first confirmed sighting, except… oh, just Google “perverse incentives.”)

* By which I mean “one of our many deprecated tech cupboards”.

Twitter makeover

August 29, 2013 No Comments

Quick public service announcement: upload a profile photo. Anything other than that default egg icon. Take a picture of an actual egg if you have to, and upload that — it’s still an improvement.

Thanks to my peeps* on Google+, who helped me sharpen the caption. (And Alex, for gently letting me know it might need it.)

* See what I did there? Eggs, Easter, peeps? This is the kind of multi-layered writing you won’t find on your newspaper’s comics page, bubeleh. (Then again, you won’t find too many cartoons there these days, either.)

And how does your bounce rate make you feel?

August 28, 2013 No Comments

Alex (that’s right, the Alex) suggested this one. I’m not sure which thought appeals to me more: that I could wander around with dynamic metrics projected over my head, or that administering psychopharmaceuticals to my web server could increase the average visit duration.

Warning: If visit duration exceeds two hours, consult a sysadmin.

Pledge $100,000 or more, and one of the solid rocket boosters will land on your house

August 14, 2013 2 Comments

If you draw cartoons, the idea of a book is probably rarely far from your mind. And if you draw cartoons in the year 2013, the idea of using Kickstarter, Indiegogo or something similar to fund that book is probably snuggled right up next to it.

Well, while you’re mulling (and by “you” I mean I have a habit of projecting), here’s another way to use crowdfunding. If one of your inspirations for drawing cartoons was a man named Gahan Wilson, do I have a Kickstarter for you.

And meanwhile: if you have a favourite creative/artsy/social-good Kickstarter/Indiegogo/Razoo/etc. project to pitch, feel free to leave a link in the comments!

P.S. – Yes, I know sound wouldn’t travel in space. She’s using Bluetooth.

Noise to Signal: the vacation continues

August 2, 2013 No Comments

Some people tan at the drop of a hat (and towel). Me, I go bright, radioactive red unless I’ve used sunscreen with an SPF somewhere north of “concrete”.

When I was a kid, summer was the season of peeling: nose, ears, arms, legs. (There’s a kind of fascination to stripping off all that skin, maybe something resonating with that dog-eared copy of the How and Why Wonder Book of Reptiles and Amphibians.) I can still remember lying in bed trying not to move, beet-like and on fire except for the areas that had been covered by my shorts and shoes on the Metres for Millions walk one year.

Nowadays, though, I know more about the damage the sun can do, from the cosmetic ook of leathery skin to the real risk of cancer. And peeling looks a lot less rite-of-passage-like on a 50-year-old than someone 35 years younger. Which is why I’m writing this from deep inside a cave, waiting for October to come.

Noise to Signal is on holiday this week.

August 1, 2013 No Comments

That’s right — the autoresponder’s on BRB, the phone’s on DND and my notifications are switched to FOAD. Noise to Signal is on holiday this week.

Sure, I’d love a digital fast. Say, gigabit Ethernet or so.

July 26, 2013 3 Comments

Suddenly, it seems like people everywhere are on digital fasts. They’re unplugging from the Internet, turning off their mobile devices and contemplating the role of online devices, services and relationships in their lives.

I get it. Sometimes you need to step back, look at where something fits into your life, and make some changes. And a break from digital notifications sounds pretty appealing.

But a lot of the folks who tune out, turn off and drop the connection talk about it the same way you might talk about kicking smoking or booze. “I’m going to focus on my real relationships, not my Facebook friends,” they’ll say… on Facebook. (That’s one reason I love Alexandra Samuel’s first point in this blog post.) Or “I’m going to concentrate on what really matters.” Which, it’s hard not to infer, is entirely and exclusively offline.

And that, I don’t buy.

By all means, take a break from your gadgets and screens. Notice what you’ve missed while you were playing Warcraft or live-tweeting Dexter… but also the meaningful things you discover are missing during your fast.

Put the online world’s role in your life into perspective — not just where it distracts you from what matters, but where it connects you to it. Again, I’ll point to Alex:

When we’re online — not just online, but participating in social media — we’re meeting some of our most basic human needs. No, not the need to read the latest Lindsay Lohan update. Needs like creative expression. The need to connect with other people. The need to be part of a community. Most of all, the need to be seen: not in a surface, aren’t-you-cute way, but in a deep, so-that’s-what’s-going-on-inside-your-head way.

Digital connections are the vector for only some of the many insidious distractions rearranging our priorities and distorting our perceptions of the world. So once your e-break is over, try a few other fasts: Don’t answer your phone for a week, and ask people to email or message you instead. The next week, switch to blocking out the news media. The week after that, no shopping.

And as you do the work of putting your digital connections to work for you, instead of the other way around, don’t forget the digital tools that can help. Learn the settings that will tame the notifications on your smartphone, Facebook and elsewhere — and while you’re at it, switch off the email notifications that flood your inbox. Look into settings and apps that can let you focus on the task at hand, whether it’s full-screen mode for your word processor or a utility like RescueTime that helps you figure out where you’re spending your online hours. And schedule some time to review all of this regularly.

That sounds like a lot of work, and it is. Deciding where and how to direct your attention takes real effort whether it’s online or offline.

So while I wish you all luck with your digital fasts, the people who really impress me are the ones who can do that work in both worlds, regularly and well. Disconnecting for a little while is just a first step, and only one of several options at that. It’s what you change when you plug back in that will make the biggest difference.

Update: A lot of tweeting today of this article by Baratunde Thurston on his 25-day Internet absence. It’s well worth a read, especially because of the insights he draws from the experience, and how they shaped his re-entry into the online realm.

Somewhere up there, I know she’s all smiley-face down at us.

July 24, 2013 No Comments

We finally got Esperanto, people! Apparently it’s spelled “e-m-o-j-i.”

This is kind of the flip side of Monday’s forgotten-password cartoon. Which makes me wonder: how long before emoji character sets are incorporated into passwords? That’s 722 more characters to confound would-be fraudsters and thieves, magnifying the difficulty of brute-force attacks. Your next password may be something like “9L#$jvf]OJ6TD%WR Face Savouring Delicious Food p*35.”

Prove thou art not a robot

July 22, 2013 2 Comments

Here’s a theological puzzler for you: will our software, data and gadgets pass along with our souls to the next world?

I’m especially concerned about password utilities. It can be awkward if your admission to the kingdom of heaven is riding on your defence of a tweet that looks pretty awful, except you know there’s a little context that could explain why it’s actually really funny — if only you could log into your Evernote notebooks to refresh your memory.

So, 1Password, get on that. It could be the feature that lets you survive the Mavericks upgrade.

(Alex suggested this cartoon. And as luck would have it, she’s also the person who got me using 1Password, a program that saves my fanny on a regular basis. If you need to juggle passwords for a number of accounts and websites, 1Password may save yours too. Check them out.)

It’s a bracelet AND an attractive piece of jewelry!

July 19, 2013 No Comments

This was inspired by a conversation I had with the brilliant CBC journalist and tech visionary Nora Young last June. We each spoke at the Fireworks Factory conference on Galiano Island (we’ve been on the same agenda once before, and I took maximum rhetorical advantage of it).

Afterward, I happened to notice a bracelet she was wearing. Naturally, as a Spark listener, I asked her what it did beyond, you know, braceletting. She maintained its mandate was limited to looking lovely (achievement unlocked!) and I took her at her word.

Part of me still suspects that while she was saying that, telemetry from the bracelet was being relayed to a HUD projected on the inside of her cornea, giving her a readout of my pulse, respiration and radio listening habits.

(By the way, the character in the cartoon was originally based loosely on Nora, but early on my portraiture skills took a stroll somewhere. Do not attempt to pick her out of a crowd based on this cartoon. You will fail.)

One more thing: Nora Young’s book The Virtual Self: How Our Digital Lives Are Altering the World Around Us is terrific. Do check it out. And tune in to Spark!

All the other kids’ moms let them

July 17, 2013 No Comments

When I say I’d be thrilled if my kids grew up with some degree of hacker ethic, I don’t mean I want them breaking into credit card files, downloading password lists or making every traffic light in Tacoma flash “POOPYPANTS” in Morse code.

I mean something like this.

I want them to see the instruction manual as a starting point, as training wheels, as the prosaic preface to the poetry of “Now what else can we do with this?”

I want them to see a gleaming new gadget (or a bashed-up older one), and look for the retaining screws… and a matching screwdriver.

I want them to see two utterly disparate machines, systems or ideas, and start dreaming up ways they could mesh.

I want them to be able to quell the inner voice that says “That’ll never work,” and seek a path around, over, under or through.

And one of the things that makes me happiest is that I see that in them already, every day. Not just with technology, but with words, ideas, relationships, images and much more.

Which probably isn’t a great surprise, if you’ve met their mother.

Locked in the sandbox

July 15, 2013 No Comments

(I reeeealllly want to pitch this to Roland Emmerich.)

I get the appeal of the App Store worldview. I really do. For users, it’s knowing that every piece of software on your device has been vetted – and having a simple, trusted way to manage it.

And Apple’s App Store is a thing of grace and beauty, as you’d expect from Apple. It’s a pleasure to use.

But it’s a gilded cage. Apple isn’t just deciding what’s safe for your device. They’re deciding what will and won’t be to their business advantage. They’re deciding which areas of functionality they’re willing to open up to competition, and which they want to keep as a monopoly. They’re deciding what’s easy to support, and what could cost their call centers and Genius Bars more time (and therefore money).

They’re deciding what maximizes their business partners’ ability to profit by controlling your access to their content, and what gives you too much freedom to copy, remix, edit and share.

And they’re deciding what range of choice is safe to offer you: not just to protect your security, but also to protect your user experience. And if the user experience they think is best doesn’t work that well for you… well, tough; they can’t design for every edge case.

App stores like Apple’s aren’t just about you knowing you can trust your device. It’s about Apple knowing they can trust you to make the choices that support their business model. When adults tell kids “you get what you get, and you don’t get upset,” it isn’t just a way of forestalling a tantrum; it’s preparing them for the next era in digital living.

All of this happens without any real accountability. The appeal process (and this applies to most walled gardens, whether it’s Apple’s App Store or Facebook’s… anything) makes the Star Chamber look like an unconference.

Of course, nobody’s stopping me from installing whatever I want on my Mac laptop. There’s an App Store, but I can download and install software from anywhere… or code it myself. (The latter doesn’t offer much functionality beyond launching a “Hello, world!” alert box… but that limitation comes from my lack of programming knowledge, not the platform’s restrictions.)

For now.

But it’s not hard to think of pretty likely scenarios where that could change. A botnet attack that does serious economic or physical damage would have a lot of politicians calling for safeguards to protect the Internet by imposing restrictions on software and hardware capabilities.

That might sound farfetched, except governments have been willing to criminalize a lot in the name of protecting the commercial interests of the media industry from online sharing. Vendors like Sony have already tried to sneak in certain restrictions through trojan horse techniques.

Cory Doctorow makes a persuasive business case and an absolutely compelling human rights case for the critical importance of user overrides. And that strikes me as a best-of-both-worlds approach: an App Store for security and reliability, but the option to leave the sandox for the swings or the slide… or, hey! leave the playground altogether and head over to play with the penguins at the zoo!

The quantified self

July 10, 2013 No Comments

This is what popped into my head the first time I heard about “the quantified self”. How hard can it be? I figured:

Look into mirror.
Conduct census of occupants.
Done!

But once disabused of that notion, I realized the idea has a powerful appeal for me. I love chasing digital metrics as it is — pageviews, Twitter followers, Facebook Likes — and illustrating a book about measurement has only made that appetite grow.

So the prospect of applying the same principles to my own health that I’ve used to increase my Klout score is overwhelmingly tempting, and it’s only a matter of days before I get a Flex or an Up or a Basis or just have a netbook hot-glued onto my back which, judging by some of the prices at NCIX these days, may be the most economical option. (Plus, that’s a one-kilo weight I’ll use all day long to strengthen my lumbar muscles. Win!)

A couple has dinner while a giant eyeball stares at them from outside. One of the couple tells the other, 'Relax - it can only see metadata.'

If you have nothing to hide…

July 5, 2013 3 Comments

A quick public service annountment: the Electronic Frontier Foundation does great work on this and many other issues. Learn more about the implications of NSA surveillance, and then take action to protect your privacy.

“Why are people so up in arms about government surveillance, when they already share all this stuff on Facebook anyway?”

That’s what someone asked me a few days ago. I argued that what people get to choose what they share on social channels (at least in principle), which got an eloquently unconvinced silence in reply.

Which is strange, because I don’t think anyone would have suggested a few decades ago that because you write letters to the editor or call phone-in shows, you should never have any privacy ever again.

Maybe it reflects an appetite out there for retribution against the Twitter generation for burdening the rest of us with their status updates about lunch. “You wanna live-tweet tonight’s episode of The Mindy Project? Ha! Surprise! Now the government knows about your walnut-shell fetish.”

Or maybe it’s that people aren’t really thinking through what a tiny proportion of our lives is still getting tweeted, pinned, blogged, uploaded and shared. I’m not posting “@robcottingham: Still asleep. Posted at 3:03 am. @robcottingham: Still asleep. Posted at 3:04 am. @robcottingham: Half-awake. Bladder full. Get up, or try to press on until 7? Posted at 3:03 am.” (That may be because I haven’t yet acquired a Fitbit Flex, and connected it to IFTTT… so stay tuned.)

Then again, a lot of our activity is getting shared with others. Just not with our friends and contacts. It gets shared with data warehouses, advertising vendors, telecom providers, search engines, and the rest of that long list of businesses that have found a way to mine profit out of the information we often don’t really know we’re handing to them.

Hey, big thanks to the crowd at the Noise to Signal Facebook Page, who helped me choose a caption for this cartoon! You can see the runners-up here.

Work Smarter with LinkedIn pinnable graphic

ClinkedIn

June 25, 2013 No Comments

Hey, Noise to Signallers… I have a favour to ask.

My wife, partner and unindicted co-conspirator Alexandra Samuel has just released a new e-book today, Work Smarter with LinkedIn, published by Harvard Business Review Press. (It’s the latest in her Work Smarter with Social Media series.) It’s a short guide, packed with practical advice on using LinkedIn to be more effective on the job and out in the world.

If you wanted to buy a copy, that would be fantastic. But even if you don’t have the four dollars (or less!) the book costs, would you be able to take a few seconds to help spread the word about it right now?

Click to tweet this: Are you ready to Work Smarter with #LinkedIn? Then check out @awsamuel’s new ebook from @Harvardbiz Press: http://amzn.to/wswli
Click to tweet this: The next best thing to a coaching session with @awsamuel: her new ebook, Work Smarter with #LinkedIn: http://amzn.to/wswli #readthis
Click to tweet this: Want to know who to connect with on #LinkedIn? Read Work Smarter with LinkedIn, just published by @HarvardBiz Press: http://amzn.to/wswli

Those links all point to Amazon, but the book’s also available on iBooks, Kobo and the HBR site itself (where you can get PDF, mobi and ePub versions).

Oh… and here’s a lightly-(cough)-branded version of the cartoon you can share on your Pinterest or Pinstagram or whatever it is the kids are using nowadays.

Many, many thanks, people.

At least it’s in digital format.

June 17, 2013 No Comments

This cartoon is drawn in honour of David Eaves, who just celebrated his birthday (a day after mine!) and who is one of the most articulate, effective advocates out there for open data.

Reading Dave’s stuff will leave you alternately inspired by the possibilities of open data and APIs; boggled at the intransigence, turf-guarding and possibly outright greed standing in its way; and challenged by questions about where this all takes us.

So go read his blog, follow him on Twitter, and urge your government representatives to make the kind of changes that will mean open data activists can spend more time imagining great uses of information (and preventing less-great ones), and less time suspended from cables.

Shouldn’t have used PowerPoint’s “stupefied into immobility” template

June 12, 2013 No Comments

How many more victims, PowerPoint? How many more?!

I have a six-person dev team in Bangalore putting the finishing touches on my book report

June 7, 2013 No Comments

This week, my daughter turned in a piece of homework that would have been denounced as witchcraft in my day. (“What deviltry is this?! These images doth move, and verily, text appeareth on them in a gradual manner, and then doth disappear gradually in turn!”) But behind the technological razzle-dazzle, it was marvellously creative and, yes, made me proud.

Previously on Noise to Signal: Mayor Subramaniam emerges gingerly from the LeapAhead room, thinking at first his vision is clouded by a residual layer of hibernation gel. But no: it’s the thin, acrid smoke that permeates the air of New Cantilever, five centuries into the future. Back in the present, Candace is barely keeping Devon from activating the Norton decontamination protocol, and with Adriana’s presence looming, a bunk on the Misanthrope is starting to look awfully appealing to both of them. But Misha’s new handler has other ideas, some of them involving Akinyele – and when the Mayor’s mobile phone rings at an especially awkward time, it gives the phrase “blast from the past” a whole new meaning.

From #13ntc: Puppies

April 29, 2013 No Comments

The Nonprofit Technology Conference had everything you could want: WiFi that worked! Great sessions! Handsome sleep-deprived gentlemen roving the halls and sketchnoting those sessions!

But they also had a puppy to skritch, cuddle and fawn over during the breaks! That was in return for a small donation to an animal charity – a lovely approach to fundraising, and a great way to relax a little before learning more about crowdsourced story-centered fundraising in the cloud. (No… wait… that was last year’s session…)

If I had to draw this again, that python’s head would be at a slightly different angle.

From #13ntc: Stranded…

April 25, 2013 3 Comments

It was a lovely conference, even from afar (thanks, Maddie Grant and team, for a great online stream!).

A major storm slammed the Midwest, including my wife’s flight home – which was supposed to arrive around dinner, giving us a few hours together before my red-eye to Toronto and then Minneapolis. Then Alex’s flight home was delayed…and delayed… annnnnnd… cancelled. She got herself on another flight.

Meanwhile, I learned at 8:30 pm that my flight the next morning from Toronto to Minneapolis was also scrubbed. Unable to get through to Air Canada by phone (“Owing to greater than normal call volumes,” normally the bullshit line to end all bullshit lines, was probably true that night), I headed to the airport on spec. Thankfully, the Air Canada ticket agent cheerfully found me another flight – later in the afternoon, but it meant that I finally made it to the Nonprofit Technology Conference, bleary-eyed (I had plenty of company on that score) but intact.

Ticket agents, by the way, put up with a lot of crap for circumstances completely beyond their control. Be nice to them.

Avengers, aggregate!!

March 26, 2013 3 Comments

Few people felt the loss of Google Reader as keenly as Alexandra Samuel (and I say that as someone who has fantasized publicly about a code extraction team liberating Reader from the Googleplex before they can deliver the coup de grace.)

My wife and partner relies heavily on Reader as part of her workflow, so when Google announced that Reader is going the way of the dodo, the passenger pigeon and Wave, her anger and grief spilled freely – and eloquently – into her Twitter stream.

I’m not sure if Google’s leadership has any appetite at all for revisiting that decision – it’s not the sort of thing they’ve backed down from in the past. But I hope they’ll consider the fact that Reader can still inspire this kind of loyalty.

Meanwhile, these tweets inspired me to draw this. And while I drew it for her, it’s for everyone who feels this way.

(#GoogleReader OR (#Google AND #Reader)) AND (“shut down” OR closed OR cancelled) AND (sucks OR stinks OR stupid).

— AlexandraSamuel.com (@awsamuel) March 14, 2013

I’ve got that feeling when you wake up sad and remember, oh yeah, it’s cause I just got dumped. In this case, by #GoogleReader. — AlexandraSamuel.com (@awsamuel) March 14, 2013

I’m so mad about the end of #GoogleReader, I’m going to stop googling things and go back to AltaVista. #LookItUpKids — AlexandraSamuel.com (@awsamuel) March 14, 2013

One of our #socialmedia assistants just asked “Why are they closing #GoogleReader?” Reminds me of @lilsweetie asking “Why do people die?”

— AlexandraSamuel.com (@awsamuel) March 15, 2013

(child holding a stuffed bear) No hidden nanny camera, no voice synthesizer - in what way is this a teddy bear?

Maybe the rest comes via an in-app purchase

March 26, 2013 No Comments

A cartoon for everyone who’s fighting the good fight against feature bloat and scope creep.

Previously on Noise to Signal: Candace’s last-minute change of heart has repercussions well beyond the blast radius, and triggers a free-for-all among the Qaos Quartet. Vasily sees an opening – but the Night Heron moves just as quickly to close it. Has the Crossroads Directorate really anticipated this all along, or is Adriana just a better improvisor than anyone suspected? Either way, it forces Ivana’s hand – the one holding the vial of Blue Epsilon. Akinyele has no choice but to activate the last five sleeper agents… and is as surprised as anyone when the voice at the other end of the comm link is Mayor Subramaniam’s.

Twitter scientist: At last - I've invented the carriage return!

Give Twitter a (line) break

March 15, 2013 No Comments

Thanks to a Twitter feature update, you can now include line breaks in your tweets. Judging by some of the reaction out there, t may mean a monetization opportunity – “Read your Twitter stream: Free. Read your Twitter stream minus line breaks and animated GIFs: $50/month.”

I for one like ’em. (And animated GIFs, actually.) Sure, we’re likely to see a lot of annoying uses. And let me be the first to predict that the phrase “Best. (Insert noun). EVER.” will soon become

Best.
(Insert noun).
EVER.

But in a medium that gives us the Emoji character set, I don’t see this as the straw that line-breaks the camel’s back.

Many happy carriage returns, people.

* * *

Previously on Noise to Signal: In a very special episode, Mayor Subramaniam finally asks Candace the question we’ve all been waiting for – but is it really Candace? Or has the long-predicted Multiplicity Convergence finally struck? That nagging doubt propels Adriana to strike prematurely against an old foe, winning her a new but unwelcome friend. As the Shadow Nations finally take notice, the dive team approaches the Misanthrope‘s wreckage in a desperate race against the Qaos Quartet. Time is the real rival, though, and nobody is expecting the answer Candace ultimately delivers… or the warhead it’s scotch-taped to.

Two secret agents outside Google Headquarters: 'It's a quick in-and-out: I'll create a diversion, you rescue Google Reader, and we'll rendezvous at GitHub.'

Google Reader: help is on its way

March 15, 2013 2 Comments

Instead of the sobbing rant that I feel like writing about Google Reader’s impending demise, I’ll leave it at this: it’s the one service I use absolutely every day. More than Facebook, more than Twitter. A key part of how I engage with the open web has just given notice, and I’m not sure yet how I’ll replace it – especially with something I can use across apps and platforms.

On the upside, I finally have a cartoon that looks like it might be part of the Previously on capsule summaries. (Please note the sidearm pictured fires Chuck-style tranq darts. If that.) My hope is that these two are actually Googlers themselves… and that turns out to be an officially sanctioned mission. It wouldn’t be the first time.

* * *

Previously on Noise to Signal: The abrupt collapse of the Vector Proximity has enemies and friends alike scrambling. Misha’s shaky alliance with his former Chrysanthemum Project teammates suddenly looks like the one stable link in the chain. So why is Vasily so pleased to see Akinyele get his hands on the third piece of the cipher key? Is it because he finally noticed Mayor Subramaniam’s uncanny resemblance to Candace’s half-clone son… or because he hasn’t yet?

Final offer

March 14, 2013 No Comments

Previously on Noise to Signal: The source of that thumping inside the casket becomes clear – and it ain’t Mayor Subramaniam’s pet chinchilla, which commandeers the International Space Station on a heroic but doomed effort to thwart the Oncoming. At the last minute, the Anvil betrays Ivana for what he believes is the last remaining dose of the Blue Epsilon antiviral agent… but is in fact Vasily’s spirit consciousness downloaded to nanobot form. Candace, seeing clearly at last, makes a desperate move for dispensation from the Crossroads Directorate to activate her H.A.V.O.C. protocol. The Directorate agrees, but at a price that could be fatal to the one she loves the most – and to Indira’s shock, it isn’t her.

Knowing why Apple rejected you? There’s no app for that

January 28, 2013 No Comments

Apple takes its role as walled gardener pretty seriously. They want you to see your iDevices as safe places that would never do you harm (well, other than taking you to the In-App Purchase Cleaners with children’s games… but that’s a rant for another time).

But they’re a cop without a judicial or legislative system. There are some guidelines — but they’re often vague and inconsistently applied. There’s a sort of court of appeal — but not the kind that holds public hearings or issues helpful explanations of their rulings. And some rules seem to be aimed more at protecting themselves from controversy (or perhaps market reprisals from miffed government officials) than protecting users from malware.

I feel for the iOS developers out there who want to try something genuinely innovative in an area that hasn’t been mined to death already. There’s that very real risk that they’ll invest time and imagination into a ground-breaking app, only to have a reviewer at Apple come up with a reason to block it… or at least take long enough to approve it that the project falters.

Not that it happens all the time, or even most of the time. But enough that I worry it chills innovation, and tempts adventurous developers to play it a little safer, and stick to the stuff Apple’s known to approve.

Post, graduate.

January 23, 2013 No Comments

This one’s in honour of the news that Shel Holtz is going be teaching a graduate course on social media at San Francisco’s Academy of Art University. (FAQ: Q. “But the cartoon looks nothing like him.” A. “That’s because it’s not supposed to be him.” Q. “…Oh.”) If you have any kind of involvement in social media at the organizational level, you’ll want to check out For Immediate Release, the podcast he and Neville Hobson have been doing for more than eight years now. (What am I saying? You’re already listening to it, right?)

Meanwhile, in case you missed the last episode…

Previously on Noise to Signal: “Chorizo” McGee – now barely human as the serum takes its terrible toll – triggers the fiscal cascade. With the global banking system hanging in the balance, Ivana makes a fateful call and tells Candace everything (or so she thinks). The tables are soon turned, though, as the Brahms Task Force makes landfall and takes on the Night Heron’s extraction team, and when the dust settles, nobody’s sure exactly who has the iridium casing for the Cantilever Device. In the ensuing scramble, the portal opens at last, freeing both the Qaos Quartet and the secret Vasily has spilled so much blood to hide. For Mayor Subramaniam, it’s an opportunity to right the wrongs of the past, reconcile with Montenegro and – could it be at last? – reclaim that one great lost love. But that comes at the price of the third piece of the cipher key, and a broken oath with deadly consequences for everyone… even the reputedly immortal Children of Darkwood.

Happy GNU Appreciation Day!

January 19, 2013 No Comments

Find out more about GNU on their site or on Wikipedia. Find out more about gnus on Wikipedia or the IUCN Red List. Get the latest gnus about gnus here.

(To the best of my knowledge, GNU Appreciation Day is a figment of my imagination, and not an officially sanctioned event. There will be no sack races in Farmer Stallman’s field, and ribbons will not be given out for the Biggest Code Commit Grown From Seed. Not this year, anyway.)

By the way, in the spirit of things, that image isn’t governed by the Creative Commons non-commercial license. Apart from GNU’s usage requirements, use it however you’d like.

Parent to kids: Classic Plus-level children will come to dinner now. Prestige Super Medallion and Executive Diamond-level children may have another five minutes of TV.

A few years ago, they had a “frequent cryer” program

January 17, 2013 No Comments

Happy New Year, amigas and amigos!

It’s been a few weeks, but Noise to Signal has returned from mid-season hiatus. If you’re just joining us, here’s what you missed from last episode’s exciting cliff-hanger:

Dietrich revealed to Melanie that he, not Colin, stole the launch codes from The Dervish’s courier. The Cloaked Figure (or was it?!) overheard their conversation and repeated it to Central – where double agent Candace quietly shredded his report (or did she?!) so the extraction team would go in unaware of their true mission. That triggered Erin’s long-dreaded transformation, and as Mayor Subramaniam pondered a city-wide evacuation, the Violet and Yellow Teams suddenly changed course… and Codename Spanakopita’s final plan became apparent to all. Except he had one more trick up each of his three sleeves.

We pack a lot into one panel.

14. Measuring the impact of the crowd

December 27, 2012 No Comments

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been posting cartoons I drew for Measuring the Networked Nonprofit: Using Data to Change the World, by Beth Kanter and Katie Delahaye Paine. I blogged about the book a while ago on Social Signal, explaining why I love it.

This is the final cartoon in the series. So go buy a copy right now so Katie and Beth will have to write another book! And then make effective measurement one of your new year’s resolutions.

>>> *** <<<

Chapter 14 is the conclusion, and it’s both the most inspiring and the scariest part of the book. Inspiring, because it’s about your organization’s fundamental goals. And scary, because it’s about whether you’re achieving them – or, in the inspired words of a New Yorker cartoon, whether it’s “just so much pointing and clicking.”

Maybe that’s ultimately why so many of us still resist measurement. The warm, furry comfort of thinking we might be making progress is a lot more alluring than the threat of cold, clammy certainty that we’ve been spinning our wheels. Not that we’d make that calculation consciously; it just makes us that much more willing to postpone thinking about something as big and daunting as a measurement strategy.

Which is why Beth and Katie’s book is important. Really important.

It’s important because it breaks the enormous idea of a measurement strategy into far more manageable pieces, each with its own practical steps and potential wins. And for managers and leaders who can never seem to set aside a huge chunk of time and attention, that means a chance to at least take the first step, and then the second… until you’ve made enough progress to make a more ambitious commitment to measurement possible. (Crawl, walk, run, fly, as Beth says.)

And it’s important because while we do need a little fear to push us — when the monster in the closet is real, pretending it’s imaginary doesn’t work — we also need the pull of inspiration. In case after case, Katie and Beth show us how using measurement in an intelligent, thoughtful way can mean we have more impact, in terms of genuine meaningful change.

We can identify the tactics that aren’t working and redirect their resources to tactics than do; we can take strategies built on wishful thinking and ground them in certainty. And whether we measure the resulting progress in lives saved, jobs created, houses built, animals rescued, crimes prevented, wells dug, gardens tilled, hectares set aside for conservation, families lifted out of poverty or children united with new parents, we can know – know – that we are changing the world.

Have a fantastic, inspiring and measurable 2013.

13. I can see right through your nonprofit!

December 13, 2012 No Comments

There’s only one more cartoon left to post! Quick, go buy a copy right now so Katie and Beth will have to write another book!

12. Influence

December 12, 2012 No Comments

Over the next several days, I’m posting cartoons I drew for Measuring the Networked Nonprofit: Using Data to Change the World, by Beth Kanter and Katie Delahaye Paine. I blogged about the book a while ago on Social Signal, explaining why I love it and why I think you should go buy a copy right now.

11. My God, it’s full of nodes!

November 30, 2012 No Comments

↑
N
|
W———•———E
|
S

Chapter 11 is called “Understanding, Visualizing and Improving Networks,” is your introduction to the world of network analysis. That’s a dry-sounding term for a truly juicy topic: mapping and understanding your organization’s network of support and attention.

Why juicy? Because mapping your network takes an abstract concept and makes it visual – and once it’s visual, you can draw sudden, unexpected, profound insights.

For example, thanks to that map of Middle Earth on the opening pages of my copy of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, I knew long before any of the other characters that one really doesn’t simply walk into Mordor. (Also, that a horse-drawn wagon had jacknifed on the Old Forest Road and that drivers should take alternate routes to Mirkwood.)

Possibly more relevant is your ability to see who the hubs and influencers in your network are, and who’s on the periphery – where growth can take off. You can find gaps, identify weak and strong ties, and start measuring the value of your network. You can use something as sophisticated as an Excel plug-in, or as low-tech and analog as sticky notes.

Best of all, you can have a perfectly rational reason to create one of those Carrie-Mathison-style walls-of-clues-and-connections of your own. (Disclaimer: this is insufficient justification for doing this on behalf on your organization. But what you do on your own time is your own business.)

10. How many hectares is that relationship?

November 29, 2012 No Comments

<3 <3 <3

Chapter 10 takes you into advanced measurement, starting with how you measure relationships. Relationships are at the heart of social media; they’re the nucleus around which all else revolves. You can’t make the piñata of change without the papier maché of relationships – and yes, that metaphor is available for re-use under a Creative Commons license. You’re welcome.

But how do you measure relationships, and the value they offer? The book points to the surprisingly straightforward approach pioneered by professors James and Larissa Grunig, and how organizations can apply it to their own relationships. And as for value…

“Make a friend before you need one,” my communications mentor Dennis McGann used to tell me, and two anecdotes from the book bear his wisdom out: one, the online conversation that ensued after the accidental death of a SeaWorld trainer, and two, the way the American Red Cross was able to turn a Twitter misfire into a fundraising opportunity.

The latter incident saw a staffer tweet about getting drunk on Dogfish Head’s Midas Touch beer. Normally, that would be fine, except the employee used the official Red Cross account, which usually uses hashtags like #hurricane or #relief, and not – let me just check the spelling – #gettngslizzerd.

The organization responded swiftly, deleting the tweet but also explaining it wittily. Dogfish Head, meanwhile, encouraged its followers to donate to the Red Cross. They raised nearly $10,000, briefly crashing the Red Cross server and helping #gettngslizzerd to trend on Twitter.

The lesson is clear: when life gives you lemons, make beer.

9. Meowtrics and measurement: using your data to change the world

November 28, 2012 No Comments

/\/\    __/
=ºi º= /
 ww--ww

In Chapter 9, “Measurement and the Aha! Moment: Using Your Data to Tell Stories, Make Decisions and Change the World”, the rubber really hits the road. And because we’re changing the world, both the rubber and the road are made from reclaimed and recycled materials; the vehicle is electrically driven and charged from a wind-turbine-powered grid; and it’s actually not on the road at all because we’re taking modern commuter rail instead.

This is where you dive into the data and find actionable insights.

Roy Neary serves dinner

Side effects of reading this chapter include dramatic improvements in organizational effectiveness, and a compulsion to construct bar graphs out of Cheerios at the breakfast table – kind of like Roy Neary in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, only with data visualizations rather than perfectly-scaled replicas of Devil’s Tower.

And as with Roy Neary, your loved ones will still think you’re nuts, and your living room will end up filled with mud and the neighbours’ shrubs. (Actually, the mud may just be because I’ve misconfigured Google Analytics.)

In fact, one of the more exciting things you can find is a Devil’s Tower-shaped plateau in your metrics: not just a short-lived spike, but a significant, sustained increase in some measurable variable that matters to you. One such Devil’s Tower led Beth to start regularly posting Fun Geeky Friday Shares on her Facebook Page.

Also in this chapter, Katie makes a pretty compelling case that measurement is hawt.

8. Someone’s Looking at You: The Fine Art of Measuring

November 22, 2012 No Comments

___ ___ < • > < • >

Chapter 8, “Measurement Tools: How to Choose and Use the Right Tool for the Job,” will break your heart in two short sentences:

Many nonprofits think that fancy analytics or monitoring software will provide them with actionable information with just a click or two. This is seldom the case.

Dang. (By which I mean something less family-friendly.)

Fortunately, the work involved in turning data into insight can be actual fun. Katie and Beth walk you through choosing the tools to use (web analytics? a survey? content analysis?) depending on your goals and strategy, with an overview for each one. The section on surveys alone may be brief, but it’s worth the price of the book for anyone who’s been fumbling uncertainly with SurveyMonkey and wondering why they get such poor results.

Meanwhile, allow me to deploy a tool of my own to better understand my readers. By completing this survey, you’ll be entered to win a… um… uh… another cartoon tomorrow.

7. Me dot org

November 21, 2012 No Comments

Chapter 7 is titled “How to Turn Your Stakeholders into Fundraisers: Social Fundraising and How Measurement Can Make It More Effective”. (After seeing an early outline, I wanted to call it “Turning Philanthropy into Philanthro-we“. How history might have changed if I’d ever hit “send” on that email.)

Beth and Katie suggest defining social fundraising as “people asking personal networks to give support.” If you’ve ever had a Facebook notification that a friend suggested you donate to a particular organization on Causes, or seen any of the endlessly inventive campaigns run by supporters of charity: water, you’ve seen social fundraising.

And it can work well. But taking it beyond just “let’s ask our supporters to put a widget on their blogs” requires fundraising expertise, social savvy, some decent technical chops… and smart measurement. If the Obama campaign’s message and tactics seemed to be constantly evolving, it’s because they were – in response to the data they’d analyze obsessively over what kind of appeals worked on whom, when, and under what conditions. (To put it in terms that I can relate to, “The Borg have adapted to our multi-phasic shielding, Captain – their last three appeals got through untouched and caused major donations on Decks 12 through 15.”)

Warbler as seen through a telescope — Flickr photo: Yellow-throated warbler by hart_curt

Segmenting your audience is key, too. Katie and Beth look at how Blue State Digital’s segmentation strategy dramatically boosted the chances that an email appeal from Autism Speaks would get opened by its recipient. (I love segmentation purely on the strength of the names marketers like to give their segments: “Furious Experimenters,” “Jazz-Inflected Repeat Adolescents” and “Regret-Tinged Revenge-Seekers”. Half of them sound like they were lifted from the pages of an Audubon field guide; come to think of it, the notes that accompany segmentation reports often have that observed-from-inside-a-bird-blind feel to them.)

And as the authors point out, the return you get won’t just be in the form of credit card authorizations. You’ll have a larger, more engaged network of supporters, ready to take actions ranging from advocacy to, potentially, organizational leadership.

(An aside: Turning stakeholders into fundraisers was thought for a long time to be fraught with danger. Sure, you’d probably get some lovely networked fundraising… but what if it went wrong? What if you ended up with fund-holders and stake-raisers? Almost inevitably, pundits warned, you’d have an angry stake-wielding crowd chasing people holding fistfuls of cash. But then it actually happened, and was called Occupy Wall Street. It turns out that crowd just uses their stakes to hold up hand-lettered banners and enormous effigies representing leading economists from the Austrian School, chanting “Hey hey, ho ho, slavish adherence to the ideas of Eugen Böhm von Bawerk has got to go!”)

6. “OMG, what happened to you?!” “I fell off our engagement ladder.”

November 19, 2012 No Comments

|_|
|_|
|_|
|_|
| |

Chapter 6 is titled “The Ladder of Engagement: How to Measure Engagement and Use It to Improve Relationships with Your Stakeholders”. The authors walk us through the idea of online engagement that draws users into increasingly greater and more meaningful actions. You might start by following an organization on Twitter, then commenting on their blog, then making a small donation, and then giving them your house and becoming their Executive Director, and wondering how all of this happened in just three minutes. (That, friends, is what great interaction design can do.)

With some organizations, it really isn’t a ladder so much as a step-stool. They have a very limited number of roles for their supporters, and can’t really imagine how they could possible accommodate someone who’d like to work outside those boundaries. “Oh, you’d, uh, you’d like to get more involved (gulp) beyond writing a cheque every year. (gasp, pant) That’s great, that’s just wonderful. (ragged, rapid breathing) Could, could you please hand me that paper bag to breathe into for a moment? Never mind – I’ll be fine. Gosh, the room’s lovely when it spins like that. (thud)” For them, there’s Beth’s previous book (cowritten with Allison Fine), The Networked Nonprofit.

5. A theory of change we can believe in

November 16, 2012 No Comments

-< ºº>•
” “

(That little separator was intended to be a hamster. So now you know why my preferred drawing tool is a stylus and not a keyboard.)

Chapter 5 is titled “Don’t confuse activity with results,” which ought to cause us all some deep-seated soul-searching. It’s so easy to fall into patterns of behaviour, trot out the same shopworn tactics for campaign after campaign, and never ask the basic question, “Is this actually getting us anywhere?”

Katie and Beth say it’s time we held our activity accountable. (Giant puppets at protest rallies, tremble; you may have just heard your death knell.) And they recommend placing that activity in the context of a theory of change: a causal chain that begins with your tactics and ends – we hope! – with some measurable progress toward your goal.

A theory of change allows you to demonstrate the value of something like social media, where returns can be indirect and qualitative, resisting easy conversion to a dollar value – but which may be every bit as valuable as a cashier’s cheque. Beth and Katie (whom I may start calling “Kanter and Paine,” because it sounds like either a Broadway musical-writing duo or a don’t-f*ck-with-us law firm) prefer that to talking about ROI, an accounting term that often doesn’t capture the value in network- and relationship-building.

That’s an excellent reason to develop a theory of change. Here’s mine: it’s a powerful tool for motivating people, especially if they’re skeptical that what you’re asking them to do will have an impact. Your supporters, volunteers or staff may be asking “Why will this e-petition work when every other one I’ve signed had no impact?” or “I’ve never posted an online video before. Why should I believe it will make any difference?” A theory of change can be the story of just how their action will help to change things — and can inspire them to tweak their action for maximum impact.

woman hefting cat in the air and kissing it for increasing her non-profit's CTR and fundraising results

4. You cannot resist the kitteh

November 14, 2012 No Comments

* * *

Chapter 4, “Measurement is Power,” is not the punchline to an elaborate pun on the meaning of “ruler”. (As awesome as that would be.) Instead, it looks at how you can take the insights you glean from data, and turn them into actions with bottom-line impact. Notice that engagement grows when you add a little personality to your Facebook posts (as Kearny Street Workshop‘s Lisa Leong did), and you can direct more attention to a personal voice… and ultimately bring more visitors through your doors.

As you begin reading this chapter, you will encounter the idea of KPIs: Key Performance Indicators. A chill may have gone up your back just now, and I understand why, but be advised that learning about KPIs does not turn you into a soulless automaton, eyes fixed on a limited set of metrics and dead to the richness of the world around you. Provided, of course, that you pace yourself, and follow these simple tips:

Do not learn about KPIs while having Excel and PowerPoint open at the same time.
Pause periodically – every 20 seconds or so should be about right — and meditate for a half-hour or so.
Wear something – anything – made out of hemp.
Never play golf again.

(By the way, this cat was just about my favourite thing to draw, ever, surpassing “giant robot destroying city” and “giant winged lizards destroying world“. I probably spent the better part of a day on her.)

The risks of hanging your graphs 90º off-kilter.

3. Come for the data. Stay for the insight.

November 13, 2012 No Comments

~~~

Brent Spiner IS... awfully pale. Also, Data. If you respond to Chapter 3 — “Creating a Data-Informed Culture” — the way I did, you’ll start with short-lived disappointment that it’s not about building a new society whose gold standard of conduct is embodied in Brent Spiner’s character from Star Trek: The Next Generation. (And if you read my write-up for Chapter 2, you’ll realize that cruelly taunting science-fiction fans is a hallmark of Beth and Katie’s writing. You’re also one of two people who reads the write-ups under the cartoons, and as the other one, I thank you.)

That brief let-down is followed immediately by surprise, delight, delighted surprise, actionable insights and, ultimately, firmer biceps — the book is heavier than it looks. You’ll learn the difference between being data-driven, where data dictates your actions, and data-informed, where data is one of the factors that guides you — a happier place for most non-profits. And you’ll see how an incremental approach — crawl, walk, run, fly — can allow an organization to adapt naturally and quickly to the demands and opportunities that measurement presents.

Spock does a victory dance when his algorithm beats Kirk's gut feeling to win an election pool

Depressing thought: in the 23rd century, they still have the electoral college

November 9, 2012 No Comments

Captain’s log, sup-… sup-… -lemental. OK, had a drink or two with Scotty and Bones while we watched the returns. Played a drinking game: every time you saw Wolf “359” Blitzer get excited about a result with fewer than 1% of the votes counted, you took a shot. We were hammered before the polls closed on Altair VI.

My gut told me it was going to be a huge sweep for Jonathan Archer Jr. (and forget that third party guy – it’ll be a cold day in hell before an Efrosian becomes president!) But in waltzes Spock with his, his, all his charts and graphs saying “Logic dictates a decisive defeat for Archer” and we just laughed.

So now it’s six hours later and my gut’s telling me something different, mainly that the Denebian burrito I had was a bad idea, and Scotty and Bones and I just lost three standard months’ salary in the election pool. And Spock’s just insufferable about it, saying he’d be happy to walk me through the algorithm in a simplified way that humans can understand.

But what he doesn’t (burp) – ‘scuse me – what he doesn’t get is that my gut was right. If it wasn’t for that ion storm that hit sector V-5, which totally killed Archer’s momentum, it’d be Spock pawning his communicator to Harry Mudd, and me booking two weeks in a beachside cabana on Risa. Also, Andorians and Vulcans reeeeaallly love to vote against the human, y’ever notice that?

‘kay. Little tired now. Jus’ gonna lie down for a…

(thud)

2. Hey, you got network in my nonprofit!

November 9, 2012 No Comments

Over the next several days, I’ll be posting cartoons I drew for Measuring the Networked Nonprofit: Using Data to Change the World, by Beth Kanter and Katie Delahaye Paine. Here’s what I blogged about the book a while ago on Social Signal, explaining why I love the book and why I think you should go buy a copy right now.

Chapter 2, “The Rise of the Networked Nonprofit”, is not actually a reference to Terminator 3 (but does hint at one possible direction for a film adaptation, if James Cameron should be interested in optioning it). It reviews the central idea behind The Networked Nonprofit, the superb book Beth cowrote with Allison Fine a few years ago.

That idea: a new kind of nonprofit organization is on the move, one that lets go of rigid structures and expands its impact by making the most of socially networked supporters – many of whom don’t fit into a prefab volunteer role, but instead act as independent free agents.

One of those free agents turns out to have been sent from the future to safeguard Beth and Katie, because in a few years they’ll lead a—

No, wait. I’ll save that for the pitch meeting.

Election night sketchbook

November 7, 2012 No Comments

Here are my election night doodles. I posted them to my blog as well, but thought hey – y’all might enjoy them too. They’re surprisingly non-partisan (at least by my standards), apart from a crack about Mitt Romney’s dog.

I think part of the reason was seeing a few of the faces of Romney’s most ardent workers, who looked absolutely crushed. I know that feeling way too well; it’s the feeling of working your ass off for something you truly believe in, and can’t understand why other people don’t get. It’s thinking that things are going to be better at last, and then having that yanked away from you. No fun.

I’m not going to celebrate any less for remembering that feeling, mind you. But I think even a Tea-Party-loving, Red-State-abiding, guns-from-cold-dead-fingers-prying GOP voter may get a grin out of one or two of these.

Measuring the Networked Nonprofit: 1. Cute animal theory

November 6, 2012 No Comments

I can’t tell you just how proud, thrilled, delighted and giddy I feel every time I see a copy of Measuring the Networked Nonprofit: Using Data to Change the World, by Beth Kanter and Katie Delahaye Paine (reigning queens of non-profit social media and measurement for organizational communications, respectively.) It’s a fantastic, potentially world-changing book… and I got to draw the cartoons for it.

I blogged about the book a while ago on Social Signal, explaining why I think it’s important (and why I think you should go buy a copy right now):

It’s a momentous book. Organizations from governments to businesses to community groups to nonprofits have all struggled with whether and how to engage with the networked social world, especially when resources are scarce and stakeholders are feeling skittish. Measuring the Networked Nonprofit opens up new possibilities for accountability, learning, innovation and greater impact.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll post my cartoons from the book. And I hope they’ll help prompt you to go snag yourself a copy. Whether you work for a nonprofit, a business, a government agency or just your own efforts to make your corner of the world a little better, you’ll find it a thorough, practical guide to having a far greater impact on the world — and knowing just what that impact is.

* * *

This cartoon kicks off the book’s introductory chapter, which starts with the emerging media director of the Human Society of the United States snapping a photo of her dog in a party hat. It’s related to Beth’s Cute Animal Theory, which owes something to both Nicolas Kristof and Ethan Zuckerman: “Ethan points out that the Web was invented so physicists could share research papers, but Web2.0 was invented because people want to share cute pictures of their cats. These same tools become very powerful in the hands of activists.”

So be nice to your dachshund, tabby or Betta fish. They may be the key to global transformation.

(Doctor to patient whose nose has impaled an iPad) No need to be embarrassed. We see a lot of using-a-tablet-on-the-treadmill injuries these days.

Run-time error

September 10, 2012 4 Comments

That looks painful, I know. But there’s no easy road to six-pack apps.

As someone who struggles with going to the gym, electronic devices may well prove to have been a life-saver for me. Without an ingrained workout ethic, it’s been hard for me to see a half-hour on a stationary bike as anything more than a sweaty waste of time.

Yes, I know it improves my lifespan over the long run, increases my endurance over the medium run and enhances my energy in the short run. But in a world of a million urgent deadlines, it takes a lot of self-talk to convince myself to take the time to get to the gym, change, work out, stretch, shower and get back to work.

But devices – they provide that immediate sense of accomplishment that working out, at least so far, doesn’t quite manage to do. I can listen to an audiobook while I row, read an O’Reilly tome while I run, or catch up on my favourite podcasts while I flail.

All well and good… but I’m getting pretty good at identifying moments when I’m dividing my attention instead of being truly present. The fact that I feel the need to multitask to feel productive, while I’m doing something that is objectively very productive, tells me I have some more work to do. There are mental muscles I need to work on in tandem with my lats and quads, wiring in some positive associations and finding a few immediate rewards.

Maybe those rewards come in the form of an endorphin rush, or the short-lived-but-gratifying muscular definition that sometimes emerges in my arms. Or maybe devices can come to my rescue again.

There are, after all, scads of apps (possible new word: “scapps”) devoted to encouraging, tracking and reporting your workout progress, and a slew of social networks centered around fitness and exercise.

Fitocracy caught my eye with the single phrase “turn working out in the gym into an RPG,” suggesting I can address both my basal metabolic rate and that conspicuous gap in my geekiness resumé around role-playing games. And the Kickstarter-funded Zombies, Run! had me at “Hello– AIEEEE! (gurgle)”

What’s working for you?

Originally posted on ReadWriteWeb

Content Header

Share:

Share:

Share:

Share:

Share:

Share:

Share:

Share:

Share:

Share:

Share:

Share:

Share:

Share:

Share:

Share:

Share:

Share:

Share:

Share:

Share:

Share:

Share:

Share:

Share:

Share:

Share:

Share:

Share:

Share:

Share:

Share:

Share:

Share:

Share:

Share:

Share:

Share:

Share:

Share:

Share:

Share:

Share:

Share:

Share:

Share:

Share:

Share:

Share:

Share:

Content Footer