Archive for the ‘People’ Category
Friday, February 10th, 2012
 Walter Isaacson's Steve Jobs also made it clear that while he was a visonary marketer, he wasn't much liked by many. The Washington Post says a lengthy F.B. I. report on Steve Jobs made when he was begin considered for a government position in President George H.W. Bush’s administration in 1991 paints a somewhat unflattering portrait of the late Apple founder and CEO.
The F.B.I. made the files public following a Freedom of Information Act request from the Post.
The report notes that “Several individuals questioned Mr. Job’s honesty stating that Mr. Jobs will twist the truth and distort reality in order to achieve his goals.”
Another described him as “shallow and callous to people in his personal relationships,” and mentioned his narcissism, but added, “he has far reaching vision and can vitalize plans and goals.”
A number of people interviewed said they thought Job’s was qualified for a job on the Bush Administration’s Export Council, even though they did not much like the man.
The report says people who knew Job’s questioned his lack of support for his daughter born out of wedlock and her mother.
The files also disclose Job’s college use of marijuana and LSD and reveal that Apple received a mysterious bomb threat at one time.
It seems fairly clear from the files that Jobs stopped his drug use years prior to the investigation and drank very little alcohol.
Despite their distaste for Jobs personally, nearly all the interviewed people thought he was qualified for the government position.
Tags: Apple Inc., biography of Steve Jobs, Jobs distorts reality, Steve Jobs F.B. I. file, Washington Post
Posted in Apple, Hardware, People, Washington, DC | No Comments »
Thursday, February 9th, 2012
Have you had bad experiences on Facebook or other social networks? Several of our friends temporarily departed Facebook after users stalked them with threats, but on the other hand, another managed to raise money to pay members of an orchestra doing a Mahler concert solely from Facebook friends.
The overall social and emotional climate of social networking sites (SNS) is a very positive one where adult users get personal rewards and satisfactions at far higher levels than they encounter anti-social people or have ill consequences from their encounters.
A nationally representative phone survey of American adults finds that:
- 85% of SNS-using adults say that their experience on the sites is that people are mostly kind, compared with 5% who say people they observe on the sites are mostly unkind and another 5% who say their answer depends on the situation.
- 68% of SNS users said they had an experience that made them feel good about themselves.
- 61% had experiences that made them feel closer to another person. (Many said they had both experiences.)
- 39% of SNS-using adults say they frequently see acts of generosity by other SNS users and another 36% say they sometimes see others behaving generously and helpfully. By comparison, 18% of SNS-using adults say they see helpful behavior “only once in a while” and 5% say they never see generosity exhibited by others on social networking sites.
At the same time, notable proportions of SNS users do witness bad behavior on those sites and nearly a third have experienced some negative outcomes from their experiences on social networking sites.
Some 49% of SNS-using adults said they have seen mean or cruel behavior displayed by others at least occasionally. And 26% said they had experienced at least one of the bad outcomes that were queried in the survey.
Those bad outcomes were:
- 15% of adult SNS users said they had an experience on the site that ended their friendship with someone.
- 12% of adult SNS users had an experience that resulted in a face-to-face argument or confrontation with someone.
- 11% of adult SNS users had an experience on the site that caused a problem with their family.
- 3% of SNS-using adults said they had gotten into a physical fight with someone based on an experience they had on the site.
- 3% of adult SNS users said their use of the site had gotten them in trouble at work because of something that happened on the site.
In addition, 13% of adult SNS users said that someone had acted in a mean or cruel way towards them on a social networking site in the past 12 months.
Adults are generally more positive and less negative than teens about the behavior of others and their own experiences on social networking sites.This survey of adults was conducted in order to compare adult experiences on social networking sites to teenagers’ experiences. The Pew Internet Project reported the teen findings in November 2011.1
As a rule, more adults than teens reported positive results on SNS. For instance, a higher proportion of adults than teens say their experience is that people are mostly kind on social networking sites.
And significantly smaller proportions of adults have had bad outcomes based on their SNS use such as confrontations, lost friendships, family strife, and fights. Overall, the two surveys show that 41% of SNS-using teens have had at least one of the bad experiences we queried, compared with 26% of the SNS-using adults.
When they see mean or aggressive behavior on social networking sites, adults are more likely than teens to ignore it and not get involved.Compared with teen SNS users, adults are somewhat more likely to stand back, not get involved, and ignore the offensive behavior. For instance, 45% of adult SNS users who have witnessed problems say they frequently ignore offensive behavior online, compared with 35% of SNS-using teens who say they frequently ignore offensive behavior.
Some 34% of adult SNS users say they never confront the person being offensive, compared with 21% of SNS-using teens who never take that step. Some 29% of adults who have witnessed problems never defend the person or group being attacked, compared with 19% of teens who never take that action.
At the same time, adults who have seen harassment on SNS are a bit less likely than teens to say they join in the harassment that they see occurring on social networking sites.
Some 19% of teen SNS users said they at least occasionally join in the mean and offensive behavior that is being directed at another SNS user, compared with 15% of adults who say they join in at least occasionally.
Interestingly, there is a split when it comes to the behavior of men and women when they see a people acting meanly on a social networking site. Men are more likely to ignore a problem they see on a social networking site and women are more likely to respond.
- 26% of SNS-using women will frequently tell a person to stop attacking someone on a social networking site, but only 19% of SNS-using men will do that frequently. At the same time, 41% of men say they never tell someone to stop harassing another person on a social networking site, while only 29% of women say they never take action when they see a problem unfolding.
- Similarly, 28% of SNS-using women say they frequently defend a person or group that is being harassed or insulted, while only 19% say they will frequently do so. At the same time, 33% of SNS-using men say they never defend a person or group that is under attack on a social networking site, compared with 25% of women who say they never defend someone under attack.
Minorities, women, parents, and Millennials are most likely to witness offensive material on social networking sites.
Asked how frequently they see language, images or humor on SNS that is offensive, 73% of SNS-using adults said they encountered such offensive content or language only once in a while or never. There were several groups, though, that were more likely to encounter such material:
- 42% of black SNS users said they frequently or sometimes saw language, images or humor on SNS that they found offensive, compared with 22% of white SNS users. In addition, 33% of Hispanic SNS users said they encountered such material that often, notably higher than whites.
- 34% of Millennial generation SNS users – those ages 18-34 – said they frequently or sometimes saw language, images or humor on SNS that they found offensive, compared with 17% of SNS users in GenX (those ages 35-46). Even smaller percentages of SNS-using Baby Boomers and retirees said they had encountered such material.
- 29% of women SNS users said they frequently or sometimes saw language, images or humor on SNS that they found offensive, compared with 22% of men.
- 29% of SNS users who are parents with minor children said they frequently or sometimes saw language, images or humor on SNS that they found offensive, compared with 24% of nonparents.
–additional comments are by TechJournal Editor, Allan Maurer. (Allan at TechJournalSouth dot com).
Tags: Pew Internet in American Life Project, SNS, social & emotional climate of social networking
Posted in Internet/New Media, People, social media, Studies, surveys, reports, Tech Culture, TechLife | No Comments »
Monday, January 30th, 2012
 David Kieselstein, new CEO of Penton Media Penton Media Inc., the largest privately held business to business media company providing content, insight and marketing to 17 industry sectors, today announced that David Kieselstein, previously Chief Executive Officer of TNS North America, has been named Chief Executive Officer of Penton Media and will join the Penton Board of Directors, effective immediately. Mr. Kieselstein will be based in New York.
Tyler Zachem and Anup Bagaria, Co-Chairmen of Penton Media. “David’s in-depth knowledge of the media and marketing industries, proven leadership skills and tremendous strategic vision make him the ideal executive to take on this important role. His longstanding track record of identifying new areas of growth to accelerate bottom line performance will be instrumental as Penton continues to broaden its digital solutions, enter new industry sectors, and explore growth markets outside the US.”
Transformed TNS operations
During his tenure at TNS, he embarked on a full transformation of the company’s operations, which resulted in a significant improvement in profitability across TNS’ broad offering, including innovation, brand and communications, retail and shopper, and stakeholder management practices. He also drove a significant increase in employee satisfaction to the highest level of all TNS regions globally.
From 2006 to 2008, Kieselstein led Dun & Bradstreet’s Small Business Division, the company’s largest and fastest growing division. While at D&B, Kieselstein integrated three distinct operations into a single, customer-centric business unit, and he launched several new product suites that accelerated overall performance. He also served as a member of the company’s Global Leadership Board.
Kieselstein spent the majority of his career at with Time Warner where he served in a range of key leadership roles.
Repositioned Parenting brand
As Chief Executive of the Parenting Media Group, he repositioned the Parenting brand, resulting in 30% revenue growth and the unseating of the long time category leader within 18 months. In addition, Parenting was awarded the National Magazine Award for General Excellence, the industry’s top honor.
As President and Chief Executive of the Personal Finance Media Group, Kieselstein created a partnership with CNN that resulted in the creation of CNNMoney, one of the world’s most successful personal finance web properties.
Earlier in his career, he also held a number of marketing management positions at FORTUNE Magazine, and launched Time Inc.’s centralized direct marketing and database division.
Tags: Anup Bagaria, David Kieselstein, Penton Media, Tyler Zachem
Posted in Internet/New Media, People | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 25th, 2012
 Was Steve Jobs really an "innovator," or was he a showman and marketing genius? The 2012 Lemelson-MIT Invention Index indicates that young Americans are acutely aware of the importance of inventionand innovation in their personal lives, and within the context of the nation’s economy.
Yet most feel there are factors that would prevent them from furthering education in or entering inventive fields, posing a threat to the pool of future U.S. innovators and the country’s economic prosperity.
“Hands-on invention activities are critical, but few too many students have opportunities to learn and develop their inventive skills”
A Threat to U.S. Innovation
The annual Lemelson-MIT Invention Index, which gauges Americans’ perceptions about invention and innovation, surveyed Americans ages 16 – 25.
When asked about how new technology like smartphones and tablets influences and impacts their personal lives, 40 percent of respondents said they couldn’t imagine their life without it.
Americans also have a clear understanding of the role invention and innovation play in the health of the nation with nearly half (47 percent) saying that a lack of invention will hurt the U.S. economy.
Those surveyed, however, may not be the ones to take-on the challenge; 60 percent say there are factors that could keep them from pursuing an education or career in science, technology, engineering or math – fields that yield invention and lead to innovation.
Thomas Edison Chosen over Steve Jobs as Greatest Innovator
Though part of the “Apple Generation,” many young Americans surprisingly chose Thomas Edison (54 percent) over Steve Jobs (24 percent) as the greatest innovator of all time, demonstrating that education around the history of invention exists in today’s curriculum.
However, it may not be strong enough to inspire young Americans to make the leap into innovative fields themselves. When asked what other factors would stop them from pursuing innovation-driving fields, nearly half (45 percent) said that invention is not given enough attention in their school.
Additionally, 28 percent said their education left them unprepared to enter these fields.
“Hands-on invention activities are critical, but few too many students have opportunities to learn and develop their inventive skills,” said Leigh Estabrooks, the Lemelson-MIT Program’s invention education officer.
“This year’s survey revealed that less than half of respondents have done things like used a drill or hand-held power tool, or made something out of raw materials in the past year. We must engage students in these types of invention experiences as well as provide a strong STEM education to drive future innovators.”
Driving Future Innovators
American youth feel that education is most in need of a new, inventive solution, more than other fields like healthcare, energy and finance.
They also believe there are several ways to generate aspiring inventors by reforming learning experiences both in and out of the classroom.
Fifty-four percent said including invention projects during school, or a creative field trip could be a solution; while 52 percent said simply giving students a place to develop an invention could do the trick.
Outside of the classroom, a majority (80 percent) expressed interest in education training courses to help them become more inventive and creative. Fifty-eight percent said an opportunity to participate in an invention-related national service co-op, such as a training program where aspiring inventors can “shadow” working professionals in science, technology, engineering and math would encourage aspiring inventors in the U.S.
Joshua Schuler, executive director of the Lemelson-MIT Program, supports such ideas. “These encouraging statistics show that young Americans have an interest in learning more about invention. At the Lemelson-MIT Program our mission is to celebrate and inspire invention. We invite communities to join us by giving youth access to role models and hands-on programs like InvenTeams to help them become more inventive in their personal and professional lives.”
Now in its ninth year, the Lemelson-MIT InvenTeam Initiative inspires and empowers youth to invent by engaging students in creative thinking, problem-solving and hands-on learning. Granted up to $10,000 each, InvenTeams create and pursue a yearlong invention project addressing real-world problems such as energy efficiency and disaster relief.
Tags: Alexander Bell, Ameila Earhart, Lemelson-MIT Invention Index, Marie Curie, Mark Zukerberg, Steve Jobs, Temple Grandin, Thomas Edison
Posted in Internet/New Media, IT, People, Studies, surveys, reports | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, January 24th, 2012
 David Kenny, Chair, CEO, The Weather Channel (Photo: Business Wire) The Atlanta-based Weather Channel Companies (TWCC) has named David Kenny, an experienced executive with a strong record in the media and digital industries, chairman and CEO.
In this role, Kenny will work closely with the management team and the Board of Directors to leverage the company’s unique collection of media assets and spearhead the further development of a comprehensive, integrated strategy to accelerate its growth in the United States and internationally.
“I was attracted to The Weather Channel because weather is fascinating,” said Kenny. “Accurate, timely forecasting is an everyday necessity for people and businesses everywhere. The Weather Channel has ubiquitous reach across our TV, digital and mobile platforms, and that’s what makes us so unique.”
Kenny succeeds Mike Kelly, who joined the company as president and CEO in 2009. Kelly will serve as a special adviser to the CEO and the Board of Directors of TWCC. He will also serve as an adviser to Bain Capital.
Kenny comes to TWCC after serving as president of Akamai, the leading cloud platform designed to help enterprises provide secure, high-performing user experiences to mobile and fixed internet users.
Previously, he co-founded and served as managing partner of VivaKi, the combined worldwide media and digital arm of Publicis Groupe, and he was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Digitas Inc., a top global integrated brand agency.
Kenny currently serves as member of the Board of Directors of Yahoo Inc., and a director of Teach for America, a nonprofit that enlists recent graduates to teach and to effect change in under-resourced and low-income communities.
Tags: Atlanta, David Kenny, The Weather Channel Companies
Posted in Internet/New Media, People | Comments Off
Monday, January 23rd, 2012
 Priceline says it will kill off its popular “Priceline Negotiator” character played by William Shatner, who also portrayed Capt. Kirk in “Star Trek,” among many other roles.
Shatner has been priceline.com’s celebrity spokesman for 14 years, and remains under contract to the company. He first stepped into the role of The Negotiator in 2007.
Priceline.com said it decided to kill off The Negotiator character in order to focus consumers’ attention on its published-price hotel service, which is the fastest-growing segment of priceline.com’s hotel business. Priceline.com said it will continue to offer its Name-Your-Own Price® hotel service, which can save traveler up to 60% off published rates.
“The Priceline Negotiator has become very strongly associated with the priceline.com brand and the concept of negotiating to get a deal on a hotel room,” said Brett Keller, priceline.com’s Chief Marketing Officer.
“However, priceline.com customers don’t have to negotiate themselves to get a deal. Without bidding, they can choose from over 200,000 quality hotels around the world, with thousands of them on sale every day at rates we’ve negotiated for them. In fact, in the past three years, priceline.com has more than tripled the number of hotels available through our published-price hotel service.”
Keller continued, “We felt it was necessary to go to extremes to grab the attention of every consumer in America and drive home the message that you don’t have to negotiate to save money on a hotel at priceline.com. We know that The Negotiator has a lot of fans, and we hope that everyone understands this was something that just had to be done.”
The new campaign opens with The Negotiator coming to the rescue of a family whose bus is teetering on a bridge. Heroically,The Negotiator manages to get them safely off the bus – and find a hotel for the night. But The Negotiator himself is unable to exit the bus before it plunges off the bridge. Future spots in the campaign explore the aftermath of the crash.
To see the new spot, visit http://pcln.com/NegotiatorLastDeal.
Tags: Brett Keller, Priceline, Priceline Negotiator, Star Trek, The Priceline Group, William Shatner
Posted in Internet/New Media, Marketing, People | Comments Off
Friday, January 13th, 2012
 Bill Gates Now and then I’ve heard a few save-the-world types disparage Microsoft and Bill Gates and felt it necessary to point out that Gates and his wife have done more to ease world hunger and fight global disease than all the people who sat around talking about it put together.
I probably wouldn’t go quite so far as to say Gates is better than Batman, but then again, we live in the real world, not Batman’s imaginary Gotham City. — Allan Maurer
Our friends at Frugal Dad have created this infographic to point out the charitable side of the Gates legacy:
Source: frugaldad.com
Tags: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, Bill Gates charities, Frugal Dad
Posted in infographic, People | Comments Off
Wednesday, January 4th, 2012
 Scott Thompson takes the helm at Yahoo! Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO), has named Scott Thompson as Chief Executive Officer, effective January 9, 2012, at which time Tim Morse will resume his role as CFO.
Thompson has also been appointed to the company’s Board, effective January 9, 2012.
Thompson served most recently as President of PayPal, a division of eBay, where he continued his established track record of growing businesses by driving customer engagement built on strong technology platforms.
Under his leadership, PayPal solidified its lead as the global online payment service, expanding its user base from 50 million to more than 104 million active users in 190 countries worldwide, increasing the number of merchant partners to more than 8 million globally, and growing revenues from $1.8 billion to $4+ billion in 2011.
“Scott brings to Yahoo! a proven record of building on a solid foundation of existing assets and resources to reignite innovation and drive growth, precisely the formula we need at Yahoo!,” said Roy Bostock, chairman of the Yahoo! Board.
“His deep understanding of online businesses combined with his team building and operational capabilities will restore the energy, focus, and momentum necessary to grow the core business and deliver increased value for our shareholders. The search committee and the entire Board concluded that he is the right leader to return the core business to a path of robust growth and industry-leading innovation.
“Scott’s primary focus will be on the core business, and as CEO and director, he will work closely with the Board as we continue the strategic review process to identify the best approaches for the Company and its shareholders. As part of this process, Yahoo! is considering a wide range of opportunities for the Company’s business, as well as specific investments or dispositions of assets,” added Bostock.
Tags: PayPal, Roy Bostock, Scott Thompson, Tim Morse, Yahoo
Posted in Internet/New Media, People | Comments Off
Tuesday, December 20th, 2011
 Edison Ventures has named David Nevas to principal. Nevas focuses on investments in Interactive Marketing and eCommerce companies. The interactive marketing and eCommerce team concentrates on innovative business models and companies in Digital Advertising Technology, Media Platforms, and eCommerce Infrastructure markets.
Nevas joined Edison in 2007 as a Business Development Associate and has originated investments in Motionsoft, Netprospex, and CallCopy. David conducted due diligence for Edison’s investment in Sanpulse. He currently serves as board observer of The Neat Company and previously was an observer of the Checkpoint HR board.
“David is a rising star in the venture capital industry. He has consistently shown an ability to identify high growth companies in emerging markets,” commented Chris Sugden, Edison Managing Partner. “For the past several years David has developed deep domain expertise in Interactive Marketing and eCommerce. We are excited to add David’s enthusiasm and value to this industry practice,” Sugden continued.
Nevas is active in numerous venture, entrepreneurial, and technology organizations. He is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and guest lecturer at The Wharton School and Penn Engineering EMTM program.
He previously held a variety of roles in the Software and Internet industries. As a manager at PE-backed A.C. Lordi, he built an IT Risk and Compliance business line focused on emerging growth and small public companies.
As a consultant at IBM, he built high-performance analytical and financial processing applications for clients in the IT and Consumer Products industries. David began his career as a developer for a venture-backed startup in the mobile eCommerce space.
Tags: David Nevas, ecommerce, Edison Ventures, interactive marketing, venture fund personnel
Posted in Internet/New Media, Marketing, People | Comments Off
Wednesday, December 14th, 2011
 Brad Owens Humble leaders are more effective and better liked, according to a study forthcoming in the Academy of Management Journal.
“Leaders of all ranks view admitting mistakes, spotlighting follower strengths and modeling teachability as being at the core of humble leadership,” says Bradley Owens, assistant professor of organization and human resources at the University at Buffalo School of Management. “And they view these three behaviors as being powerful predictors of their own as well as the organization’s growth.”
Owens and co-author David Hekman, assistant professor of managHuement at the Lubar School of Business, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, asked 16 CEOs, 20 mid-level leaders and 19 front-line leaders to describe in detail how humble leaders operate in the workplace and how a humble leader behaves differently than a non-humble leader.
Although the leaders were from vastly different organizations — military, manufacturing, health care, financial services, retailing and religious — they all agreed that the essence of leader humility involves modeling to followers how to grow.
Growing involves failure
“Growing and learning often involves failure and can be embarrassing,” says Owens. “But leaders who can overcome their fears and broadcast their feelings as they work through the messy internal growth process will be viewed more favorably by their followers. They also will legitimize their followers’ own growth journeys and will have higher-performing organizations.”
The researchers found that such leaders model how to be effectively human rather than superhuman and legitimize “becoming” rather than “pretending.”
But some humble leaders were more effective than others, according to the study.
Humble leaders who were young, nonwhite or female were reported as having to constantly prove their competence to followers, making their humble behaviors both more expected and less valued. However, humble leaders who were experienced white males were reported as reaping large benefits from humbly admitting mistakes, praising followers and trying to learn.
Female leaders face a double bind
In contrast, female leaders often feel they are expected to show more humility than their male counterparts, but then they have their competence called into question when they do show humility.
“Our results suggest that female leaders often experience a ‘double bind,’” Owens says. “They are expected to be strong leaders and humble females at the same time.”
Owens and Hekman offer straightforward advice to leaders. You can’t fake humility. You either genuinely want to grow and develop, or you don’t, and followers pick up on this.
Leaders who want to grow signal to followers that learning, growth, mistakes, uncertainty and false starts are normal and expected in the workplace, and this produces followers and entire organizations that constantly keep growing and improving.
A follow-up study that is forthcoming in Organization Science using data from more than 700 employees and 218 leaders confirmed that leader humility is associated with more learning-oriented teams, more engaged employees and lower voluntary employee turnover.
Tags: Brad Owens, humble leaders more effectived, leadership style and efficiency, NY., University of Bufflalo
Posted in best practices, People, Studies, surveys, reports, University Tech | Comments Off
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