Mind My Own Business

People often react to my use of social networks to "check in" at a location,  regularly posting my adventures in travel, food or special events. Those of you who may follow me on Facebook pretty much know where I am or where I am headed, what I am eating, drinking or cooking, and sometimes the people who are with me. "Why do you want everyone to know where you are and what you are doing?" I am asked, "Don't you want some privacy in your life?"

Allow me to explain.

First, I segregate my network activity into social and business, and while there may be occasional crossover, these social posts are purely for fun. My social posts are done using Swarm (successor to Foursquare), Facebook and a personal Twitter account. More recently I started posting via Instagram in an effort to keep up with current trends. The accounts are connected so, for example, a Swarm check-in automatically posts to Facebook and tweets. Similarly, my Instagrams also post to Facebook and Twitter.

My friends, family and I all derive a certain pleasure in sharing. I know this from the "likes" and comments garnered over the years. With people segregated in both time and space, this turns out to be a great way to keep everyone apprised of events, however important or mundane, in my life. Whether its a simply an extraordinary meal at a local restaurant or family wedding photos, what better way to 'broadcast' this small chapter of your life to those who care? Followers can choose to view, react or ignore each however they please.

So, what about privacy? Well the most effective means of keeping something truly private is to not tell anyone. So where I want privacy you are not likely to see any posts.  It's that simple.  Most of the time I have nothing to hide and no reason to be secretive. In fact, there have been a couple of instances where posting my whereabouts has lead to an unexpected and pleasant chance meeting with a friend or family member. Unless you are ducking bill collectors or the mob, why not let people know you are around?

Posting on LinkedIn, Google+ and my business Twitter persona are whole different kettle of fish. There the main purpose, as it says on this blog, is to educate, inform and sometimes entertain in a professional way. On these networks I share my blog posts, business knowledge, experience and even pieces of useful information gleaned at seminars, conferences, events and publications. It is important to remain informed, connected, active and visible in today's business world.

That's how I leverage social nets to keep friends and family informed, share life experiences and to remain ever present among my colleagues and peers in business.

How does that differ from what you routinely do?

Captain Joe

Follow me on Twitter @JPuglisiLLC

ello, I Love Tsu, Won't You Tell Me Your Name

Almost as if right on queue a couple of new social networks have arrived in recent months. The last time I found myself between full time assignments, Google+ captured my attention and consumed a significant portion of my free time.

Perhaps I have missed some, and surely others will come along in time. But let me share some initial impressions of ello and Tsu.

ello popped up and when one of my good friends from Google+ days invited me to participate I thought I would give it a go. Signing up was quick and easy and I was in. It took all of about ten seconds to realize this was not a feature rich environment. In fact, I characterize the interface as rather spartan.

To be fair, I tinkered a bit, was not overly impressed and have not returned since. While I was "tickled" frequently for a few weeks, I have not received any recent notices of a new post or invitation to return. It seems to me activity there is quite low.

The promise of ello is a new place to interact with others of like minds without the fear of your content or data being exploited for financial gain. The operators promise the basic service will be free forever. They will never sell advertising on the site, nor sell data about their subscribers to anyone. Their plan is to up-sell with special features so compelling you will be happy to pay for them. This is a familiar business model sometimes called the freemium model.

Tsu, on the other hand, has a rather different approach. They will sell ad space and hope your content will attract eyeballs and drive revenue just like some other social networks we all know and love. The difference, though, is the 90 / 10 revenue sharing model. Yes, 90% of the revenue driven by your content will be credited to your 'bank' while the operators are only keeping 10% of it.

The interface looks like the what you would get if Google+ and Facebook got together and had a baby. It is very similar in appearance with a multi-dimensional stream, right side ad bar, and several other familiar features and functions including the like, share, friend and follow constructs.

I like Tsu and plan to continue to have fun with it, posting faux proverbs and the occasional story, graphic or video people might find amusing. I want to see just how many pennies I can accumulate under this novel business model.

Has someone finally come up with the magic to compete with Facebook? Will this new upstart grow fast and prosper, while its participants also prosper?

You can click here to sign up, explore and decide for yourself.

Captain Joe

Follow me on Twitter @JPuglisiLLC

When Worlds Collide (good stuff happens)

As everyone now knows, I have a new full time job as CIO of a company based in Manhattan. This has unfortunately taken me away from my beloved Google Plus community and severely limited the time I have to read and contribute to the content there. It also forced me to throttle back on my personal blog site and to miss, this week, for the first time my self imposed deadline for a column.

Yes, Wednesday came and went with no time to think about, let alone write a column for my loyal readers.

But something else happened this week which I wanted to share with all of you. My two worlds collided for the first time.

There I was faced with a deep technical challenge and limited access to the kind of resources I needed to address it. Our company website was not accessible from within the four walls.  Oh, I knew it was a DNS (domain name service)  issue but this particular environment was still foreign to me. This company network with its servers, routers and firewalls, was still a confusing pile of documentation, diagrams and notes to me. I lacked the history and familiarity that comes with building and operating a network from the start.

The senior manager who owned it for the last six years left during my first weeks on the job taking all that knowledge and experience with him. He would have gone straight to the source of the problem. Not me. I had to step back and try to look at this like a big puzzle and investigate one element at a time.

Worse, I have been in senior management for the last 15 years.. I'm still top of the heap when it comes to theory, strategy and planning but my hands on technical skill level has come down a few notches.

It was important to confirm that the web site was still up for the general public. Easy enough, I thought. I'll just "ping" someone and have them check.  But everyone on my corporate instant messaging system is inside the company.

Popping over to my Google Plus account, I saw that several of my good friends were on-line.  Using GTalk, I asked Eileen McAllister to please verify she could reach the web site.  She not only confirmed it but provided me with the correct external IP address which would play a key role in troubleshooting later on.

I had checked the obvious hosting and DNS service providers and now, armed with the correct address, I could see that all was in order.  That meant it was an internal DNS issue.

Next, I saw my friend Robert Redl, an IT professional in Austria and long time Google Hangout buddy. Opening a hangout, I was relieved to see that friendly face and we set about discussing my technical issue. Combining screen sharing with my cheat sheet of administrator accounts and passwords we managed to remote access various servers and check the configurations. Poking around we eventually found the "A" record which had an incorrect address.

The problem arose from the web site host changing servers. Some changes had been made but this one entry had been overlooked.  It meant people inside the network in a couple of offices would still be pointed to the old site. With active directory, making the change in the DC (main directory server) fixed it everywhere in a matter of seconds.

Having good and knowledgeable friends with the ability to leverage a tool like Google Plus positioned me to overcome a most difficult situation in less than an hour.  Some of  my old crew members had come to save me from perils encountered during my new voyage.

Thanks.

Captain Joe


Follow me on Twitter @JPuglisiLLC

Don't Party Like It's 1999

I went to a birthday party yesterday for Jens Graikowski. He is a fine fellow I met only recently, but with whom I have shared many thoughts and views. It was a small, intimate gathering of only a few close friends of the birthday boy. I was pleased and honored to have been included among them.

Jens organized a special gift for himself. He booked a private, personal concert performed by a singer, song writer, Ryan Van Sickle. Jens was good enough to extend this marvelous gift to just a handful of his friends, inviting them to attend and enjoy the concert and the company of each other.

Jens, of course, lives on Tenerife, the largest and most populous of the Canary Islands. A few guests were from Germany, Austria and other parts Europe. Several  others came from this side of the pond, including  Canada and the US. I was able to stay for the whole party while others casually dropped in and out.

I had some delicious food, laughed a lot and really enjoyed the music. In fact, I even sang a song or two for the group. One of the other guests had his young son play a short piece piano. It was just a wonderful time.

What does this have to do with technology? Well, none of the guests and the party boy himself had to travel to attend this party. We gathered in a Google Plus hangout. A hangout, you may recall, is a video chat with up to 10 simultaneous participants.

Ryan, our guest performer, joined in from his home in Canada. But we were all able to sit and enjoy his strumming and singing, and interact with him and with each other for the entire time. Whether only five minutes or for the entire two hours, attending this party and wishing Jens a happy birthday was as easy as click, click, click.

Hangouts have been around for a while and they have been used for news shows, concerts, training sessions, interviews and a variety of other purposes. But I believe this may have been the first global, virtual birthday party hangout.

With friendships increasingly spanning geography and time zones, and with the high cost of travel, I can see this novel approach to celebrations catching on. This could be a whole new segment in the party business.

Happy birthday, Jens. Thanks for having me.

Captain Joe

Follow me on Twitter @JPuglisiLLC

What Makes Something Go Viral

I happen to catch a post in my Google Plus stream by film and TV star Jeri Ryan. She was reminding everyone that her TV show Body of Proof had a two-part episode called "Going Viral" that would air tonight. It reminded me of the apparently unanswerable question; what makes something on the internet go viral?

Some months back, my friend Mike Downes happened to catch a video of an obnoxious person on the underground. For reasons neither of us could fathom, this video received millions of views within hours of it hitting YouTube.

We all know the hit song Friday Friday by Rebecca Black. This was a low budget video which somehow caught on and was shared and re-shared until it was viewed by over 10s of millions of people.

More recently the KONY 2012 video was smattered all over the internet and, in fact, was picked up by television, radio and print news media propelling it further into the public's eye.What made these videos stand out?

There are so many more examples of this phenomenon but few concrete explanations.

I had an uncanny experience as well. Beyond my column each day for months, I have posted a number of other interesting or amusing items. But none ever gained the kind of traction this post did the other day.

My son emailed me a graphic which I thought was worth sharing and so I posted it on Google Plus. Much to my surprise three days later people are still commenting or sharing it. It has been shared over 700 times, accumulated 1100 plus ones and almost 200 comments. Was this three by three matrix so novel or so controversial that it could stimulate this level of interaction?

This simple graphic somehow sparked an initial reaction that snowballed and drew more and more people into the fray. I don't know if we'll ever truly understand the underlying cause or if, in fact, it is just one of those random combinations of events that lead to this outcome.

I'll keep looking for content to evoke this kind of reaction again.

Captain Joe

Follow me on Twitter @JPuglisiLLC

Wave Goodbye

First thing this morning  I found this email in my inbox. It came as no surprise. As the note indicates Google Wave has been on its way out for some time. It was an interesting but failed experiment in a new and quite novel way to interact. Launched in May 2009, with great fanfare, Google Wave was going to revolutionize collaboration.

Being a Google fan it was immediately of interest to me. I set about obtaining the much coveted invitation for a beta account.  I jumped into it as soon as the invite arrived. The interface was intuitive but a little confusing. At first I tried using it like email. Then thought we could develop documentation with it. Finally, I thought we could use this to manage and coordinate projects. Of course this would mean getting a handful of other people involved.

Dear Wavers,

More than a year ago we announced that Google Wave would no longer be developed as a separate product. Back in November 2011, we shared the specific dates for ending this maintenance period and shutting down Wave. Google Wave is now in read-only mode. This is reminder that the Wave service will be turned off on April 30, 2012. You will be able to continue exporting individual waves using the existing PDF export feature until the Google Wave service is turned off. We encourage you to export any important data before April 30, 2012.

If you would like to continue using Wave, there are a number of open source projects, including Apache Wave. There is also an open source project called Walkaround that includes an experimental feature that lets you import all your Waves from Google. This feature will also work until the Wave service is turned off on April 30, 2012.

For more details, please see our help center.

Yours sincerely,

The Wave Team

Working with a couple of other brave souls, we tried valiantly to figure out what the heck it was. A mash-up of instant messenger, email and shared documents with multiple threads like a discussion forum made it incredibly powerful, innovative and confusing. It was an exciting and elegant solution desperately in search of a problem to solve.We explored all the ideas I mentioned above.

After a few feeble attempts to interact using this platform, my colleagues and I decided it was too radical to adopt for any purpose and we gave up. Most people believe among the reasons for its failure was simply too much too soon. It was significantly ahead of its time and more than people could accept, digest and fully understand.

Perhaps some learning and a little bit of new technology was derived from this experiment. Not all ideas are going to be home runs. Some will roll in with a big splash, crash on the rocks and then quietly wash back out to sea.

Captain Joe

Follow me on Twitter @JPuglisiLLC

HIRL Today, Gone Tomorrow (Part 4)

Weeks ago I wrote about the New York City HIRL event. This was an event where many people from all over the world who had previously only met in Google Plus hangouts decided to get together and engage in several joint activities in New York.

photo by Boris Gorelik

Fortunately for me I live in New York, so attending each day was easy, and I could sleep each night in my own bed. I have already described in Part 1, 2, and 3 all the events on the first day, Friday February 3rd and my thoughts and observations about them. Of course I could not be everywhere, so I only wrote about those activities in which I took part.

While the concerts and the final dinner were phenomenal, I know the photo walk was a high point for many people, especially those camera wielding, shutter happy photographers. All of them, from amateur to top professional, must have collectively taken thousands of pictures, not only during the walk but over the course of the entire event. So many great photos have been posted over the last several weeks and we have barely scratched the surface.

photo by: Eileen McAllister

I missed out on the photo walk because: one) I am not much of a photographer, and two) I grew up in Brooklyn and worked in South Manhattan for many years so the walking tour was kind of old news to me. Additionally, as a New Yorker, even ten years later, I still find it hard to view ground zero. What is to many an attraction is to me a painful sight to behold. However, I did miss the comradery and fun of hanging in real life with all these terrific people. My wife and I caught up with the group at the Palm Court of the World Financial Center. This is near ground zero, the site of the former World Trade Center towers, and was the end of the photo walk route. By this time the group had scattered and so there were only a handful of HIRLers wandering about still snapping photos, having lunch or coffee. Here I met a few more people I had not met the day before.
Before heading to dinner, we decided to jump in a taxi and visit my son in the East Village. While I had the chance to HIRL with him the night before, my wife had not seen him in a while. We invited my good friend Bruce Garber to come along and we all enjoyed some Dunkin coffee in my son's apartment. Then it was time for the big final dinner party at California Pizza Kitchen. There were over 70 people there sitting in booths, and at small and large tables. We took fully half the seats in the restaurant and I thought the manager was going to pass out when all of us assembled for some group photos. Here is the final observation I want to make. As I looked around at our group in the restaurant, sharing food, drink and stories, it struck me that none of these people had been together before. Eight months ago I knew none of them and most of them would not have known each other. Yet, the atmosphere at this dinner was one of a reunion of long time friends.

photo by: Anthony Quintano

The Google Plus hangouts had enabled perfect strangers, in every sense of the word, to come to know and, importantly, to trust one another. The visual combined with the audio interaction resulted in the formation of genuine relationships and solid friendships.

I wondered at the outset whether post HIRL the interactions would change in some way. As far as I can tell,  the only impact has been to increase the number of people with whom I can comfortably hang out.
Captain Joe
Follow me on Twitter @JPuglisiLLC

Not Another iPad3 Review

That's right. This is not another iPad3 review. Since everyone and their brother is busy covering the much anticipated releases of the iPad3 I thought I would avoid that topic and seek some other, more pleasant diversion. You see, I have an iPad2. For the longest time I lusted after one badly. I wanted it so that I could have the tablet experience just like everyone else.

Then, as you may recall, on the luckiest day last year I actually won one as a door prize. It has been terrific and it does everything I need it to do. Now, I am sure the iPad3 will have all kinds of sexy new capabilities including a bigger screen, better camera, more memory, faster connectivity (LTE) and so on.  But, frankly, I don't really need any of that. I'm happy to stick with my iPad2.

Fortuitously, a post about music, my other passion in life, just happened to come across my screen.  I took the opportunity  to try purchasing music using the new Google Play service. One of my fellow plussers, Frank Garufi Jr. shared Ryan Van Sickle's announcement that his album Ghosts Of The Brokenhearted was now available for purchase on Google Play. Having met and heard Ryan in person I knew this would be a set of tracks I would enjoy. So what better way to test this new service one day after its launch?

Click. Click. Click. Okay, I own the album. Couldn't be easier. My stored credit card was used. There was no delay, no shipping, loading or ripping needed. The entire album was instantly available to me on any of my devices. As an extra added bonus Google Play lets you "share" or announce that you have bought the album on the Google Plus stream. When you share, you give everyone who has circled you one free play of the album. Share public and even people who have not circled you are entitled to sample the songs.

Brilliant. Not only do I get a bargain and the ability to play this album or any track it contains, but I can allow all those people who follow me on Google Plus to listen to it as well. For any music buff, this is a great way to grow your following. Word gets around that you throw a free play of an entire album once in a while, people will be enticed to circle you.

From the artist's perspective, this is free publicity. Exposure of the best kind. Whether you sample one track or play the whole album you are one tiny click from buying it. We all know about impulse purchases.

There is a lot more to explore in Google Play and if I encounter any other extraordinary features I'll be sure to let you know. In the meanwhile, I'll be sitting back and listening to some hard driving tunes on my iPad2.

Captain Joe

Follow me on Twitter @JPuglisiLLC

And Then There Were Two ...

What could be more exciting than participating in a live television broadcast. Just imagine being virtually in the studio and interacting with the on camera talent, the social media desk and news anchors. How exciting would it be if you were asked to react to stories or even introduce your own content. How amazing to be on the actual broadcast going out over the airwaves live and in real time?

Well, I can tell you because I have done it, not once but several times with Sarah Hill and some of the other anchors at KOMU TV, the very first television station ever to use Google Plus hangouts in a live broadcast. I was honored to be among the handful of individuals who were co-hosts on that inaugural broadcast months ago. Everyone knew, at the time, it was a risk but that we were not only witnessing but actually taking part in the evolution of the broadcast news industry and others stations would soon follow.

For the last several months other stations and networks have dabbled with hangouts, introducing them backstage, off-line and off-air. They were used to pre-record segments, edited and later aired in the regular broadcast.  They have been used as alternative methods of simply engaging a wider audience. A number of the more experienced KOMU cyber couch alumni have been working with these stations literally from coast to coast. But no other station had taken the big step to put any one of us  in the hangout on air.

Two weeks ago, the second domino fell. Jackie Ward at WCSH in Portland, Maine invited people to join a hangout during the early show on Friday morning. A public broadcast station in Twin Cities also waded in a little deeper.

This week, another domino fell. Melissa Carlson anchor at KRNV, the NBC affiliate in Reno Nevada had been using hangouts to produce a 20 minute internet only show. She was finally ready and scheduled the station's inaugural broadcast which included one of the five blocks or segments of the show being built entirely around live, on-air interaction with ordinary people in a hangout. The show aired this past Monday at noon (PT.)

Melissa did everything right. She had a small group in the hangout and they were people with whom she had experienced interactions in the prior weeks. The topics were discussed in advance and the participants who would comment were selected and, therefore, prepared. The studio setup had been designed  properly and the segment went off without a hitch. KRNV becomes the second station to incorporate hangouts into their daily noon news show.

There are many other stations where, like KRNV, the anchor is still becoming comfortable with the new social networking tools and interacting face to face with people, while the crew are working on the technical infrastructure and production issues. It won't be long before a few more dominoes fall and we will be faced with many choices. We won't be choosing a news broadcast to simply watch anymore, but rather which network cyber couch we want to jump on and what views we want to share on their stories.

Captain Joe

Follow me on Twitter @JPuglisiLLC

Do Something Plus-One-derful

Google has the motto "do no evil" and one can have lengthy debates about how well they color within the lines. Regardless, a small group of very creative people had a notion that instead of worrying about what we shouldn't do, why not concentrate on the positive and use this social network to do good.

Sarah Hill, news buoy (as she likes to call herself) for KOMU TV in Missouri, began using the Google Plus network, and hangouts in particular, to enhance her daily television newscast and to introduce a whole new dimension to broadcast news shows in general. Over the last few months she managed to accumulate over 600,000 followers on Google Plus. With an audience of that size, the emphasis naturally began to shift from further developing the program to extracting value from it.

Typically this means monetize the network to generate revenue in some way. Well, the epiphany came and an effort has been launched to convert the power and reach of this massive network into cold hard cash. But not for profit, nor for any individual gain, but rather to support and sustain efforts to reduce or eliminate human suffering and misery throughput the world.

Yes, a mere handful of individuals got together with Sarah and created Plusketeers.org, a web site where the needs of people everywhere can be identified and resources can be collected and brought 100% to bear on their problems. This umbrella site is designed to allow people to support one of the charities or add their own.

The program launched Sunday night and began collecting money for our first major charity before dawn.

Everyday from now on we will be using social networking to raise awareness and to drive more people and donations to the program. The Plusketeers Challenge is in full swing.

Having been birthed on Google Plus we adopted the name Plusketeers and will be introducing various ways of participating. For example, you can sponsor one of Sarah Hill's live on-air hangouts. These are run two or three times per day and for a small donation your personal or company name will be displayed as the sponsor.

We will be soliciting corporate donations enabling companies to display a logo on their web site showing support for our cause and launching a dots for dollars program where the "real estate" you purchase will be proportional to the size of the donation.

Our goal is to raise one million dollars. Please contact me if you are interested in participating, want to learn more or make a donation. If you do nothing else, please help us spread the word about this program. Use your social network to share this post or a link to Plusketeers.org and help us make the world a better place.

Thank you.

Captain Joe

Follow me on Twitter @JPuglisiLLC

Must See IP TV

I have written a number of times about the evolution of the broadcast news business and how I see it being impacted by social networks. Vehicles like Twitter deliver news in real time from ordinary people to other ordinary people. Anyone can use a search engine like Topsy to stay abreast of current events as they are happening. The notion that someone has to wait for the regularly scheduled newscast to find out what is happening in the world is a thing of the past.

If you still watch the network news shows try to take note of the source of all those video clips and candid photos they air. Quite often they were captured by John Q. Public with a smart phone or tablet computer like an iPad. It's likely you already saw the photo or others, and watched the entire video on YouTube after someone in your social network posted a link to it.

Moreover, soon when you do watch scheduled broadcasts, you could actually be a part of it as Sarah Hill and KOMU have proven. News shows use the internet to create a two-way channel with the news being collected from and delivered to the viewers.  KOMU was the first station to put people from a Google Plus hangout on live television, and now others are beginning to follow suit.

Several stations host Google Plus hangouts "On Air", inviting social network users to come and "hang out" in the studio during the broadcast. The participants are talking among themselves and with the newsroom staff about the stories being aired but also adding their own comments and original stories. By continuously streaming this content others can "tune in" to this stream, watch and even post comments.

But the shift in viewership to the internet is going beyond news shows. Google Plus hangouts with the on-air feature are being used by amateurs to host cooking shows, game shows and to distribute other original  content.

Google's other property, YouTube, has been offering original content to viewers for years, and is earning six figure incomes for a few talented or creative people. While some of this is replay of broadcast content, most is fresh and original production.

HBO Go is another vehicle designed to deliver their unique content on demand. Major players like Netflix and Hulu have been distributing existing content on demand for years and now, as predicted, they are bringing more original content to the public through their channels completely bypassing conventional television, DVD or theater distribution. This is a trend that is likely to continue as the value is in the content and not the delivery channel.

Just as he production quality of these "TV" shows and movies has achieved parity with industry standards, there is a noticeable shift in viewing habits from broadcast to streaming. Nielsen recently reported a 22% growth in the number of Internet enabled households that only have "free" TV. A Forrester study found users report the top two places they use a table device is in the bedroom and kitchen suggesting they are used more for entertainment than business.

Services like FIOS provide equal access to conventional broadcast, cable and internet "channels" while new devices like Apple and Google TV are beginning to challenge the very definition of a television viewing device. Arguably the television set is evolving into a large monitor while the set-top box is morphing into a full fledged computer.

As this trend continues it begins to raise a number interesting questions about ratings services, audience tracking and the entire economic model underlying advertising supported media.

Captain Joe

Follow me on Twitter @JPuglisiLLC

HIRL Today, Gone Tomorrow (Part 3)

It's hard to believe but just one week ago today I was deeply involved in my first ever HIRL. In New York City I was hanging out in real life (HIRL) with all of the people I had met over the past several months in Google Plus hangouts. That emotional first meeting and the events that followed that day have been chronicled in Part 1 and Part 2 of this series ending with our arrival at the midtown apartment designated as HIRL HQ. The story continues here along with a few more observations and lessons learned.

photo by: Moritz Tolxdorff

The excitement and anticipation at HQ was high as we all prepared to be entertained by Heather Fay, Ryan Van Sickle and Daria Musk, incredibly talented musicians who had actually risen to fame in hangouts! Many of the people here and countless others around the world had spent hours in hangouts marveling at the songs these people performed for free. Their following grew exponentially and without any external promotion.

As luck would have it, my friend Bruce Garber, hangout show producer, invited me to join him and Eileen McAllister at the Living Room, the small club in the Lower East Side of Manhattan where the shows were going to take place that evening. They were going to live stream the shows and so we headed down well in advance to have time to set up the computer, establish connection and check lighting, sound and logistics. Here was another lesson learned: it's tough to hail a cab in midtown New York on a Friday at 5PM.

All kidding aside, here are three people who were never in the same physical location before but were each willing to lend their talents and contribute their time, energy and personal resources for the group. It still amazes me that we were completely trusting of one another, once again demonstrating the depth of the relationships that had been forged on-line.

At the club we met Ryan and Heather who were as friendly and down to earth as they come. Bruce and Eileen set up their gear and the room began to fill with all of the obviously adoring fans. Each were greeted like old friends. The room was small, dark, a little warm and there were not enough chairs. No one cared. Everyone was simply delighted to be there among good friends and anxiously awaited the magic.

The show began and yet another obvious fact hit me like a slap in the face. Like many others, I sat at my home computer in hangouts listening to these performers and thought they were great. But the sound quality in a hangout is nowhere near that of a live performance and I was completely blown away. My son, managing editor for Baeblemusic.com, a major on-line music property, joined me for this concert. While I have an amateur appreciation for all kinds of music, he makes his living separating the wheat from the chafe. Before he even spoke, the expression on his face said it all. He was very impressed. We agreed these two were clearly going places.

photo by: Joe Martinez

Just when you thought the evening couldn't get any better, the crew moved downstairs to the larger venue where we were treated to a collection of original songs performed live by Daria Musk and her trusty sidekick RAM Rich .Again, the quality was light years above anything we had heard on-line. The show was terrific and seemed to be over in a flash. I did manage to capture two songs using Bambuser and they can be viewed in the window on the lower right hand corner of this page or at my Bambuser channel.

It was tough to think about heading home so I grabbed some of my closest new friends and we hit a local pizza joint for one last snack together. Nothing like genuine New York pizza to top off a colossal day. Then, for me, it was off to head home for a little sleep while the others found their way back to their hotel.

The NYC HIRL wasn't over yet and I could still look  forward to Saturday and the closing dinner.

(Still to come: Photo walk, Battery Park, coffee with Joe and the closing dinner)

Captain Joe

Follow me on Twitter @JPuglisiLLC

HIRL Today, Gone Tomorrow (Part 2)

Yesterday, in Part 1, I wrote about my first couple of hours at the Hangout In Real Life (HIRL) event this past weekend in New York City. People who only met and spent time together on-line in Google Plus hangouts converged on the Big Apple for a three day party full of events. In addition to finally meeting the people I had come to know well over the past six to eight months, it provided me with some insights and observations I wanted to share with all of you.

photo by Matthew Rappaport

For me it began with an emotional moment as we found ourselves in the same physical location for the very first time. As an aside and further testament to the power of the hangout, the moment was captured by our good friend Ron Jackson who could not make the trip to New York. Instead he opened a hangout and waited for Bruce Garber who was here to join so he could watch the event as it unfolded. My words cannot adequately convey what was happening so perhaps you might enjoy watching the recording. Ron is the voice you hear and on this video you will see the Google lobby, various members of our group and our joy at being together.

In the break between my morning tour group and this second group, I had some quality time one on one with Rodney Pike. Now, we had only been in a couple of hangout sessions so I knew little about Rodney's background. But here we were strolling through Chelsea Market, sharing cups of coffee and swapping stories like a couple of old army buddies. (Just to be clear, Rodney was actually in the Navy.) Here is where I started to sense that the trust on which relationships are built can be gained partly by association. Even though I hadn't spent as much time with Rodney as the others, he was already "okay" in my book.

photo by Boris Gorelik

A little later we regrouped and seven people wanted to head up to Times Square. This smaller group included some avid and very talented photographers. A short subway ride got us in the neighborhood and we walked along 43rd Street to the place where Broadway and Seventh Avenue meet to form this famous landmark. Shutters were snapping all around me as the mostly out of town group tried to capture everything they saw.

photo by Eileen McAllister

Of course, knowing their passion for pictures I suggested we press on a few more blocks where we entered 200 Park Avenue, the Met Life (formerly Pan Am) building and passing quickly through the lobby took the escalators down into Grand Central Terminal. Here there were more "Kodak" moments than you could shake a stick at. And this wasn't even the formal photo walk scheduled for the morning. We'll cover that later in the series.

Boris Gorelik, whose fabulous photos are featured in this column, took the group to the whispering gallery outside the Oyster Bar. Here Shefali Burns and Robert Redl could whisper to each other from across the massive hallway while no one else could hear. It is a really cool spot featured in many films, most recently in the remake of the comedy film Arthur.

From here the troop marched south to 36th Street where a couple of the organizers had secured HIRL HQ, an apartment used as a base of operations and where a dozen or so of the visitors were staying for the weekend. Once inside we met another whole group of HIRLers including Brian McDonald who had created special "Plusports" for everyone to record their travels and collect special greetings from each other. We made it there in time for the hors d'oeuvres being specially prepared for the group by chef Lee Allison.

It was a welcomed break after the tours and our long trek around mid town, and a much needed rest before the triple concert scheduled for the evening.

(Still to come: Live performances at the Living Room, the After parties, photo walk, and final dinner party)

Captain Joe

Follow me on Twitter @JPuglisiLLC

HIRL Today, Gone Tomorrow (Part 1)

Almost in the blink of an eye the long awaited New York City Hangout In Real Life event has come and gone. But not before virtual relationships were made real and cemented with firm handshakes and, yes, hearty hugs and kisses. This event brought together people from all over the United States, Canada and Europe who frequently spent time in Google Plus Hangouts. They only knew each other from on-line video chat sessions over the last six to eight months. Some people decided to throw a party in New York and see who would come. Over 70 people participated in various events scheduled from Thursday to Sunday.

Photos by Boris Gorelik

I made a number of observations I would like to share with you. Perhaps the only surprising aspect of this entire event was that there were no surprises. Allow me to explain.

My HIRL began with the tour at Google headquarters downtown Manhattan where I connected with a handful of others in the lobby. Not everyone looks exactly like their profile picture and so there is a little bit of awkwardness until you connect the face with a name. Just as you would expect, the level of comfort  with each person is exactly proportional to the amount of time spent in a hangout.

Bear in mind there were many people with overlapping circles of friends, however, not everyone has been in a hangout with everyone else. There were still some "strangers" in the crowd and yet everyone was immediately accepted as part of the group. I will come back to this point again.

Our Google tour guide, Patrick, was genuinely interested in our views, opinions and suggestions for how to improve the network. In true Google fashion he was open and honest, shared whatever he could with us, showed us around answering questions and engaged us in a truly thought provoking discussion.

As our tour ended back in the main lobby several of my closest hangout buddies were waiting for their tour to begin. They had already experienced the emotion of HIRLing together and now it was my turn. One by one, the reality at the moment of recognition hits you. Here before me stand these people with whom I have spent countless hours and formed deep and everlasting bonds. Now, for the first time I can grasp a hand, wrap my arms around and physically embrace them.

Photos by Boris Gorelik

It's difficult to put into words how that first handshake, that first hug and long embrace actually felt. It wasn't at all like meeting for the first time but more like returning home after a long trip away. Think about running into your best friend at work who transferred to an office in another city only a month ago, or your college roommate passing through on his way back from his first year at grad school in another state. You know them so well, yet you don't know everything about them and haven't seen them for a while. But the moment you are together again it's as if you never parted. 

In our case some of us had achieved that level of connection before we ever physically spent time together. The initial meeting felt more like a reunion. This level of ease and comfort interacting would persist throughout the two days as our joint adventures continued.

(Still to come: the Midtown tour, visit to HQ, concerts, photo walk and final dinner party)

Captain Joe

Follow me on Twitter @JPuglisiLLC

Hanging With My Hangout Homies Fo Real

About two weeks ago I wrote what turned out to be a very popular column. Following a long Google Plus hangout, one that dragged on into the wee hours of the morning, I had an epiphany about these multiparty video chat sessions. In Confessions Of A Hangout Junkie I admitted I had become addicted.

No matter what time or day of the week, there were always hangouts and resisting the temptation to join was becoming increasingly difficult. So many people to hang with and so little time. What was it about this technology that drew you into such a deep and almost intimate relationship so quickly. We have all become such good friends and are so comfortable with one another, yet we have never actually met in person.

Until now. The New York City Hangout In Real Life (NYC HIRL) is in full swing.

Today I will meet many of the people who have only been video images on my monitor and voices from my speakers. This may be the final test to see if indeed, true and honest friendships have been forged without the benefit of a handshake or a hug. My guess, based on what I have heard of other events like this one that have been conducted elsewhere around the country, is there will be a few handshakes, but many hugs and perhaps even a kiss or two. There are so many reports of people meeting for the fist time yet feeling as if they have been friends all their lives.

I am genuinely excited about meeting my hangout buddies today. In fact, I was anxious all yesterday afternoon and restless all last night just knowing that some of them were already together. I felt like I was genuinely missing out. Photos had been posted but they only heightened the frustration of not being there.

A group of roughly 70 people have come from other countries including Austria and Canada, and several states such as Massachusetts, New Jersey, North Carolina, Florida.and California.

We're going to get a tour of Google's offices in Manhattan and see a concert featuring three very talented artists who have become well known as a result of their performances in hangouts!

More activities are planned for tomorrow including a photo walk from the Brooklyn Bridge to Ground Zero, a flash mob (time and place is secret) and a grand Saturday evening dinner.


There is a certain irony in how Facebook allowed people who previously knew each other to maintain their relationship electronically, while Google Plus has fostered an enormous number of new relationships, resulting in events designed to bring these people together for the first time.

I'll let you know how all these events turn out today and tomorrow, and if future hangouts still have the same feel now that we've actually been together.

Captain Joe

Follow me on Twitter @JPuglisiLLC

Hung Up On Hang Outs

I spent the entire day at the CIO Summit of America at the Harvard Club in Manhattan yesterday. Throughout this most interesting and informative day, I ran into a lot of old friends and even made a couple of new ones. A lot could be learned a lot from the presentations and panel discussions and the handful of sponsors who had booths set up on site. I enjoyed three square meals for a change, winding up at dinner with a good friend and business colleague.

Today I participated in a webinar. These are web-based meetings that combine a set of prepared slides shared through a web service like GoToMeeting with a teleconference call.. For one hour I sat at my computer staring at the screen displaying one of the slides and listening to the presenter share his research findings while interacting via phone with some of the participants. I even chimed in at one point with some comments about how I had addressed this particular function.

Tomorrow I will head into Connecticut to spend some quality time at Starbucks, no doubt, and to attend another regular bi-weekly meeting of the Westport Group, a networking organization with a decidedly different cross-section of business community.

While I always enjoy these physical and virtual meetings, I came to a painful realization. I have become addicted to Google Plus Hangouts. I am a hangout junkie.

As I sat in the audience yesterday during panel discussions I was imagining little boxes around the head and shoulders of the panelists. When the people two rows back were being distracting I wanted to "mute" them. Wanting to share some advice with just one of the panelists I was craving the chat window. When the sessions were over  I wanted to press exit and instantly be in my home office so I could check email and then find another hangout to join.

Throughout the day I kept thinking about all the hangouts I was missing. What were the big stories on U_News today and who would be the surprise guests at Fox LA? What was happening in the BBC, KRNV or KOMO studios? Which new TV news anchor would start hanging out today.

Even today, as I battle to stay ahead of the work piling up on my desk and knowing how much time I will be on the road for the balance of the week, I am tempted to put aside all else and jump into a hangout. So many interesting and timely topics being discussed. Obama's staged hangout, the future of Google TV and countless other topics are being bantered about right now.

Perhaps in a few weeks or months the novelty will wear off or circumstances (like a full time job) will prevent me from participating during the day. Until then I guess I will have to fight this addiction with reason and logic. I am an intelligent, rational being. I can handle this.

Does anyone have any advice for how I could get over my addiction? Let's set up a hangout and discuss it.

Captain Joe

Follow me on Twitter @JPuglisiLLC

Google's Not Really New Privacy Policy

Several of my readers have been asking for clarification on the new Google unified Privacy Policy and Terms of Service. A few articles have been published and today I received formal notification in my GMail account with links to a few pages containing an overview, current and new policies.

Google have more than 60 different services and each have their own policy on privacy and use. What Google have done is reduce these to one policy which will be used to govern all current and future service offerings. This is merely an attempt to make it easier for the subscriber to know the rules regardless of the particular service. But it does mean Google will now be assembling a more comprehensive and integrated picture of subscribers by commingling the data from all of the services used.

First, let's look at what has changed in the policy. In a word, nothing. All the rights and privileges, protections, promises and procedures under the old terms are still in force in the new version. There are no substantial additions or deletions and the level of protection over your personal data remains the same.

The change in practice does, however, mean that information gleaned from your use of any service will be combined with similar information from the use of other services to create a more comprehensive profile about you. Videos you select on YouTube (while signed in) will add to the equation when you conduct a Google search to better focus the results to your preferences. I love the example of an individual who views automobiles on YouTube and frequently writes email or Google Plus postings about cars. A Google search for jaguars is then going to produce content about the automobile and not the animal for this person.

Next, let's be clear about just how private your information is kept. Don't take my word for it. Read the policy yourself. It clearly states that Google will not sell or release your personal information to anyone without your permission. It may be handled by third parties for processing but will remain subject to the same privacy restrictions.

Google publish a very easy to read guide about how to stay safe on-line and keep your data secure. Google only aggregates data and sells the results without links to individuals. Google observe and document trends and human behavior which is information of significant value to companies. But the actions or behavior are never identified to the individual unless the individual has specifically opted in.

If you still have concerns of would like to understand the services Google offer and how they could advance your business efficiently and securely, feel free to contact me. All you have to do is click on the call me tool below the author bio on the right.

I promise I'll keep the conversation just between us.

Captain Joe

Follow me on Twitter @JPuglisiLLC

Hanging Out With Teachers Might Be Cool

In the past few weeks I have been in Google Plus Hangouts with a few more TV news anchors, social media experts, researchers from a variety of networks, and a whole bunch of entertainment personalities.

I will appear as a guest in the video of Frank Girard's round-table discussion on the monetization of this new technology. Rama Sharma included me in the video she produced for the BBC discussing its potential impact on broadcast journalism. I will be working with another  colleague to explore using GPHO as a vehicle for conducting market research panels. I've been interviewed by others and have obviously written a number of columns about it.


But no session has been more rewarding than a brief conversation with the students and officials from a small but prestigious high school in New Jersey.  My good friend Frank Garufi Jr. invited me to join a hangout he started from a conference room at  St. Augustine's Prep High School. Here we were able to very quickly pique the imagination of a handful of students scheduled to participate in a hangout with another school. According to Kevin Motylinski, one of the students:  

January 27, 2012 St. Augustine Prep, New Jersey, will have a video chat with the sister school Villanova College, Ontario Canada, to gain new ideas to bring to the schools. The students representing Villanova College are Nadia See, Melissa Martino, Sandra Bianco, Breanna Bitondo, Dana Umbrio, Dave Monaco, Owen Wright, and Morgan Sutherland. Representing St. Augustine Prep is BoDean Messier, Kyle Brandt, Kevin Motylinski, Sam Swisher, Michael Grandrimo, and Austin Campbell. The group has already been acquainted through the Student Augustine Values Institute, held in Tulsa, OK, and have developed great ideas from each other. The original idea of video chats born there and we hope that one day we could have all 8 Augustinian High School in North America to participate with these chats, and possible go global with all the Augustine schools around the world. The reason for this video chat is to explore the use of google+ as a learning tool in the future for schools, as well as to see what ideas have worked and develop new ideas.

Likely  to be the first of many hangouts, these students got a few pointers from us veterans. They are now better prepared and will be able to gain the most from the experience, focusing on the content and information exchange, and not just the technology. As we took them through the basic features, it was a delight to watch as their minds began to expand before our very eyes. They will use this technology in ways we can't even imagine.

Even more personally exciting was the opportunity to speak with  Mr. George Smith, Director of Communications for the school.  Beyond the use for intramural communications, we discussed several other very innovative uses. 

For example, my colleague Robert Redl from Vienna Austria also participated in this hangout. Tomorrow, he is going to "visit" with a German language class offering everyone in the classroom the opportunity to interact directly with him.

Some of my hangout buddies and I had just been treated to an impromptu tour of Rome Italy through a hangout and we could imagine orchestrating a hangout like this for world studies or political science. Reading about Marcus Aurelius? Let's have someone show us the obelisk dedicated in his honor. Perhaps journalism students would like to hangout on the set of a live news broadcast to observe first hand what happens in the studio off camera.

This is a whole new dimension to the concept of an organized field trip. But it won't always be someone out there in the world coming into the school via a hangout. It could just as easily go the other way.

Imaging a single tutor from the school or home being able to "visit" with five or six other students each in their homes, whether due to illness or inclement weather. The students could have a rich interaction with each other and the tutor staying current or getting some extra help in certain subjects. It would be like a true virtual classroom and maximize the use of the tutor's time.

We all agreed the possibilities are limitless. I applaud Frank, George and Fr. Donald Reilly, President of the school, for being so progressive and forward thinking. It started me thinking perhaps I should set aside this broadcast news journey I've undertaken, step out from under the TV studio lights and get back into the classroom. 

Captain Joe

Follow me on Twitter @JPuglisiLLC