2013 has been a year of incredible changes in the world around us. As if the landscape couldn’t have changed as much as the previous year, the acceleration amplified. I feel that we are living at such a quick pace that days and months blend into one another and keeping track of what is important can be more and more challenging.
In the last year I have had the pleasure of participating in the Datajam at DataPalooza conference where our team investigated an application to meter water and alert owners of excessive usage due to leaks or equipment functioning inefficiently. We were one of the finalist teams and nearly won the competition. The work with the team was exhilarating.
City Camp held at the NC State state-of-the-art library was another opportunity to meet with creative minds in the Triangle.
Convey Media Group worked with a number of clients creating content throughout the year. Thanks to Home Care Assistance of Raleigh, Dr Ashley Mann, DDS, and McNeil Law Firm for the opportunities to work with them on their social media.
I enjoyed the Social Media Management Certification program presented by Martin Brossman and Karen Tiede. I gained many insights into tools and techniques to be more effective for my clients with social media and met some fantastic folks.
By switching to Solavei I continue to pay my cell phone bills and helping others reduce or eliminate their cell phone bills. A number of people have joined and saved significant money.
Thanks to Bill Davis for the 100 Days to Abundance program which helped me focus my business and create a new direction for 2014. Convey Media Group will seek to help innovative companies to improve their social media this year.
In appreciation to all, here is my poem for the new year:
whirlwind of light
hold fast and hold on tight
set your anchor in your space
turbulence may not slow
so keep steady your pace
tech can only accelerate
reveal more open growth
keep your tiller to tack to
wonder and kindness both
jettison what’s not yours
or of value no more
strip down to essentials
and strengthen the core
no need or concern
for what’s to be left behind
with connections sustained
your true essence’s aligned
as the new year unfurled
show your tribes you are here
to carry forward all your links
as you lift into the air
Last week RTP 180 presented a Halloween extravaganza. Emcee Will Hardison, dressed for the occasion as a late model of himself, kept the evening rolling.
Childs tells a Ghost Story
The evening began with The legend of Peter Dromgoole, a ghost story told by- Mike Childs of the State Library of North Carolina.
According to a legend, “a nocturnal duel, caused by a romantic rivalry, in which young Dromgoole was killed and buried under a boulder. Dark stains on the rock are reputed to be his blood, which would not wash away with the passage of time. University students, who told many versions of the duel legend, formed in 1889 a secret chivalric society called the Order of the Gimghoul,” See http://ncpedia.org/biography/dromgoole-peter-pelham
Duke Lemming Center
Hair-raising lemurs and those who love them – Chris Smith, Duke Lemur Center. http://lemur.duke.edu/
Chris Smith of the lemur center, tells us lemur means ghost.. Lemurs tap with fingers to find grubs. In Madagascar these animals are a symbol of death. They are often viewed as a harbinger of evil. Some believe, if one points its narrowest finger at someone, they are marked for death. These superstitions threaten the species.
Chris from Duke Lemming Center
John from Rhine Research Center discusses mediums
ESP – for you and me – John Kruth, The Rhine Research Center
John discussed experiments being done with mediums at the Rhine and talked about evidence they are gathering about parapsychology.
Carolyn Miller Devil’s Circle story
Carolyn Miller talked about Chatham County and about the Court House in Pittsboro and other places in Chatham like the Devil’s Tramping Ground. This area, not far from Siler City, is a barren circle about 40 feet in diameter where nothing will grow. Animals will not enter the area and anything left in the circle overnight is found outside the circle the next morning.
Doc tells Triangle Brewery ghost story
Doc from Triangle Brewing Company told us about the crawl space under the building. A body was found there before the brewery opened. Employees have experienced a ghost, Rufus, on numerous occasions and Rufus scared a News & Observer reporter who came to do a story about the brewery.http://trianglebrewery.com/about-us/rufus/
The finale was a dance macbre performed to the song Thriller by Michael Jackson.
The whole evening brought goose bumps to some and thrills to others.
NCDatajam, a gathering of 75+ technologists, entrepreneurs and business leaders, attacked the question of what can be done with the Open Data available from the City of Raleigh. Raleigh is one of the handful of American cities that gives citizens access to the data it collects.
The event on April 22-23 held at HubRaleigh began with descriptions of federal open data applications we already use like weather.com and the Global Positioning System(GPS). This data has been used to build better access to information by businesses such as the GPS tracking devices that many use in their vehicles daily.
Selection session at NC Datajam
Organizers urged participants to come up with applications using regional data to solve problems in the health, energy and education sectors. After a series of activities the ideas were whittled down to 11 and attendees committed to these teams. The teams have 90 days to flesh out the ideas and the best concepts will receive support including business coaching and technology. The final ideas will compete in September and be announced publicly.
Previous years have created projects like Trianglewiki, a community-centric website about the Triangle, SeeClickFix to report neighborhood problems such as potholes and get them fixed and Rgreenway, a free mobile application to ensure that you never get lost in Raleigh’s Greenways.
Projects proposed included a health dashboard where you can track and compare your health to national/local data, a public parking app; a traffic app that guides you on new routes based on trend analysis; real-time data on how your local representatives are voting; a rating system for schools and child-care centers and, a real-time water usage application for residents and landlords.
The final presentations at the NC DataPalooza celebration, during Triangle Entrepreneurship Week on September 12 promise to bring more innovation into the hands of Triangle residents.
Bonner Gaylord of the Raleigh City Council, an advocate for open government, began by mentioning to Carlson’s
law—innovation that happens from the bottom-up is chaotic and smart while innovation that happens from the
top-down tends to be orderly but dumb. Incremental adjustments and the fail-forward orientation (bottom-up) is more effective that pre-planned and requisitioned (top-down) processes. Government and elected officials are generally risk-adverse, however those in government at City Camp are working against that mentality and bringing innovation to towns, cities and states.
People can get involved and be proactive instead of the usual reaction, which is to be reactive and angry with a government that is seen as not being effective.
CityCamp is partially or fully responsible for some successes in the city of Raleigh:
Feb 2012 resolution to open up the data and use open source to analyze software procurements
Launch of OpenRaleigh website and platform for the open data
Rgreenway uses SeeClickFix is designed for smartphones and functions as a guide to the Raleigh Greenway systems.
TriangleWiki, a community-centric website Wiki that allows people to enter information about the Triangle.
Code For America brigade deploying apps from other cities here in the Triangle
DataPalooza, an open-data competition sponsored by the White House that connects local experts, innovators, and entrepreneurs to relevant, clean data drawn from federal, state, and local resources.
SeeClickFix launched in 2011 allows users to take photos and report neighborhood issues and see them get fixed
These efforts are collaboration between City of Raleigh employees and early adopters like those at CityCamp these last two years.
Following these and other speakers, ideas were presented and participants voted on the top 20.
CityCamp NC is one of the important innovation events housed in the Triangle. It encourages citizen participation and transparency in government.
Citizens, businesses and government met to improve quality of life through technology.occurred May 30-31 at the amazing James Hunt Library on NC State’s Centennial Campus. This third annual event expanded from the Triangle to the state. CityCamp is designed to Three prizes were offered for the three best ideas: $3000 for first, $1000 for second and $500 for third.
The primary purposes were to stimulate with Thursday morning speakers and collaborate through group interaction and development of ideas.
The event began with keynote speaker Adriel Hampton of PulseNationBuilder which creates technology to build communities. Open government communities advocate for open government principles. He discussed how technology helped transform government towards greater transparency from hype to reality.
He cited the state of Utah efficiency initiatives that reduced 35 data centers to 2, saving $4 million. Utah’s own IT staff and CTO completed this activity without outside help in 18 months.
Another example he spoke about is called PulsePoint, a project that uses GPS and infrastructure of local government services. This cell phone app maps where automated defibrillators are located to help when someone is experiencing cardiac arrest.
The We the People project allows American citizens to create a petition for the White House. Once the petition has 100,00 signatures in the first 3 days, is listed on the website the White House will provide an official response.
Further advances include legislation which helps to access open data from governments: President Obama recently issued an executive order stating the public data should be open as a default and that it should be machine readable (so it can be accessed).
What’s next is to increase open data laws. There are eight cities that have passed open data legislation. Raleigh is one of those cities.
In the future city and state government can take responsibility to provide access to this data (building localized wifi, for example) as a service in the same way as it provides utilities today.
When is a good time to get a video testimonial from your customers?
Some think it is after delivery of the service or product but that may be too late. Arranging a time with them may not be convenient and will require more effort on your part and theirs.
Keep your video camera on hand so that any time during your interaction with customers, you are ready to video a testimonial. Most customers are happy to take a few minutes to talk about their experiences with you.
How long should a video testimonial be? When most people start doing these testimonials, they believe the more the better. This is not the case. Ask only a few questions so that testimonial will be no longer than two minutes, and it will actually be better if it is less than a minute. To be efficient in doing testimonials, you will need to be ready with the right questions.
To prepare for interviews, have a few questions ready so the video testimonial activity can go quickly and smoothly. Your actual questions will be determined by your product or service but lets look at a few starters.
How long have you shopped with us or used our services?
What do you like most about working with us?
Recommend one product, service or the business with your reason for using the company
Describe an incident which made you like our product, service or the business
Will you use us again?
How are we different/better than our competition
Ask your customers to smile and project a positive attitude as they answer the questions. If the customer is in a rush you may get a testimonial you cannot use. Be sure to prepare whoever will be on video. The subjects do not have to know the actual questions until you interview them, however, give them enough information so that they will be comfortable.
By planning a few questions and having a video camera on hand, you can capture video testimonials at the right time: When customers are satisfied.
Video testimonials can enhance your marketing efforts and be an inexpensive form of advertising for most any business.
another year’s turning finds its cloudy close
