tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-67794058042403717942024-03-05T01:00:05.739-08:00First LibrarianI am a librarian who works in a post-secondary career center. I want to share some of the work search and business resources that I have found useful in my work. I also manage the Facebook group of the same name for library job seekers.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09368568268625522624noreply@blogger.comBlogger558125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6779405804240371794.post-42763205450182028252014-05-16T13:00:00.001-07:002014-05-16T13:00:18.188-07:00What Color is Your Parachute? Guide to Rethinking Resumes - Review<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00GVZZRS8/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&camp=15121&creative=390961&creativeASIN=B00GVZZRS8&linkCode=as2&tag=firstlibra-20" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B00GVZZRS8&Format=_SL110_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=CA&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=firstlibra-20" height="200" width="125" /></a>Occasionally, Richard (Dick) N. Bolles will release a sort of special focus guide, such as his books on online job search, that are complimentary to the annual <i>What Color is Your Parachute?</i> Like the other <i>Parachute</i> books, <i>Rethinking Resumes</i> is written in the same clear, plain-language style, updated to reflect the times and concerns of his regular readers and any job seeker. The virtue of this series has always been its clarity, the common sense and pragmatism, and Bolles willingness to update and credit other career and HR professionals for their ideas, which this book also possesses.You can read<i> Rethinking Resumes</i> in an evening, and probably go back in a few months and find something new that you glossed over, and both readings will be worthwhile.<br />
<br />
However, there will be a few readers who will pick this book up and wonder <i>A resume book with only one sample</i>? Get over it. Even in resume books with one hundred samples, job seekers still struggle with what to do in their individual case and this book will help answer those questions. The 45 Question Starter Kit (pp. 55-63) is something that I will go over with clients when they have questions about how to write a proper Highlights section.<br />
<br />
In addition, there is also plenty of good advice on deciding if you want to hire a resume writer or write your own resume, how to find out if a resume service is a scam, what type of resume to post to a job board and the targetting required to give a resume directly to an employer.<br />
<br />
I'm grateful for the section on removing empty keywords and phrases on resumes, as well as the list of stinkers provided, and the process Bolles provides for developing better statements about work experience (pp. 45-47), though I think many job postings are still referring to these phrases as key components while the recruiters who screen the resumes in response those postings are distastefully holding their noses while working through the empty text.<br />
<br />
Each year we assign reading to our incoming student staff, and I wish I had got my copy of this earlier so I could add it to our reading list. I think they would have gotten a great deal out of it, and I'm glad it will be available to them in this year. Personally, I would put this next to <i>Why Good People Can't Get Jobs: The Skills Gap and What Companies Can Do About It</i> on my mental bookshelf to recommend to people who are trying to put together a resume that will get them an interview.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09368568268625522624noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6779405804240371794.post-71038113489984163142014-04-17T14:32:00.000-07:002014-04-17T14:32:03.279-07:00Recognizing Fraudulent Job Offers Google+ Hangout On Air<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<br />
So we are trying to incorporate <a href="http://www.google.com/+/learnmore/hangouts/" target="_blank">Google+ Hangouts</a> into our educational offerings.<br />
<br />
This Hangout on Air on Recognizing Fraudulent Job Offers was the first one that I actually moderated, though I have handled the guest recruitment and production on our other Hangouts.<br />
<br />
The guests included Anne-Marie Rolfe, who developed and presents the Legitimate Work from Home Opportunities Train the Trainer course offered by <a href="http://www.ceric.ca/?q=en" target="_blank">CERIC</a>. My colleague, Jia Jia, one of our Employer Relations Specialists was also on a panelist And thanks to Jason Wong, who also graduated from the same library school I did, who played the guest role of "Business Librarian", as his real job is Law Librarian.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09368568268625522624noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6779405804240371794.post-18982210447925021502013-11-28T10:40:00.002-08:002013-11-28T10:40:37.083-08:00School for Startups, book review<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
When I first started working in the career centre, and in business librarianship, all small business endeavours that wanted to succeed required a business plan. It was the mandatory task, the one requirement for entrepreneurship. Avoid it at your peril.<br />
<br />
Currently, business plans are not required: they are "nice to haves"*--necessary if you are looking for money from a bank or have a class assignment, but no longer the ticket to admission. Now, what is necessary is your idea, a good budget, and a swift move to market. <i>School for Startups: The Breakthrough Course for Guaranteeing Small Business Success in 90 Days or Less</i>, covers these three steps.<br />
<br />
<i>School for Startups</i> covers self-employment myths, explains what bootstrapping is and gives the reader encouragement to try some different businesses that might be really, really scary for some people, such as opening an online store or starting an import/export business. Though the book argues that startups can be started for $0, or at least the cost of domain name, some of the businesses mentioned, such as the car export business, cost several thousand dollars to initiate. Again, depending on the type of business the reader wants to found, they will have to supplement their initial reading of this book with more in depth industry research.<br />
<br />
<br />
If you expect this book to have learning outcomes at the beginning of each chapter with summary questions at the end, <i>School for Startups</i>
is not that kind of "course". If I was giving this book to a reader, I
would not give it to the reader who has a very strict idea of the type
of business they want to operate (I would probably give that person the
appropriate volume from Entrepreneur Press' <i>Startup </i>series, or
resources from the appropriate professional or industry association),
but I would give this book to the person who just doesn't want to work
from anyone else, but isn't sure what that involves, except maybe a
business loan. This book would also work for the person who wants to try
self-employment, perhaps as a summer job or to make their own paid
internship, but who isn't sure what they would do, or thinks that they
need a grant or business loan to get started. <br />
<br />
<br />
This book is for:<br />
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>The person thinking about entrepreneurship, but who may not have a specific business idea</li>
<li>This is the encouragement book for the reader who has a specific idea, but who thinks that only financing, loans and venture capital will secure their business</li>
<li>The reader who is thinking about short term, possibly serial entrepreneurship, creating a business that you can sell to someone else for a profit, which completely matches with the<i> "</i>startup" ethos.</li>
</ul>
<br />
Overall, an enjoyable, quick read, but it does not supplant in depth research.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">*<i>Yes, you can disagree with me about the need for business plans. </i></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09368568268625522624noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6779405804240371794.post-26569802244552194672013-11-06T08:35:00.002-08:002013-11-06T08:35:36.318-08:00Inside Higher Ed 2013 Survey of Human Resource Officers Webinar<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Inside Higher Ed is hosting a free <a href="https://events-na3.adobeconnect.com/content/connect/c1/1002564123/en/events/event/shared/default_template/event_landing.html?sco-id=1244022015&_charset_=utf-8" target="_blank">webinar</a> on the release of the 2013 Survey of Human Resource Officers on November 13, 2013. If you are interested in post-secondary positions, this should be of interest to you.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09368568268625522624noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6779405804240371794.post-25141729265721541432013-10-30T00:00:00.000-07:002013-10-30T00:00:03.646-07:00Wanted: Adoring Female Students from Inside Higher Ed<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
And more handmaiden complexes...<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/10/29/twitter-thread-examines-attention-seeking-male-professor-stereotype">Inside Higher Ed </a>looks at a <a href="https://twitter.com/mallelis/status/389923074675441664" target="_blank">Twitter thread</a> started by a blogger asking respondents to<br />
<blockquote>
please share with me all your stories of the male professors you had in college who thrived upon and demanded female admiration to function</blockquote>
<br />
and the resulting tweets, including messages about how this was not part of their student experience and pointing out that the Other Sex professors also enjoy adulation.<br />
<br />
Again, it is this idea that women do not show up to work/study, or that getting sexual attention from professors is just part of the experience. To be fair, this is also a part of exploiting youth, of either gender, to quench a midlife crisis.<br />
<br />
I also liked this quote from Allison Kimmich, executive director of the National Women’s Studies Association, where she stated that,
<br />
<blockquote>
“Men are overwhelmingly the majority of full professors by rank,” she said, noting <a href="http://www.acenet.edu/news-room/Documents/FactSheet-Number-and-Growth-of-Faculty-by-Gender-and-Rank-Selected-Years-2005-2007-2009.pdf">recent data</a> from the National Center for Education Statistics. “So that means male faculty by definition have greater power and authority on campus by virtue of both rank and numbers.”
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
She continued: “Does that mean every male faculty member abuses that authority (as the Twitter [thread] suggests)? Obviously not, but clearly there are structural issues at work in higher education that lend themselves to potential abuses of authority.”</blockquote>
I also don't want any comments about how students dress that invite such flirtation. I went to school in Canada and staying swathed in a parka to fend off the chill of the classrooms does not dissuade the most determined perv, since they want verbal, but sexually charged, adulation, at a minimum, and for you to disrobe, at close to the maximum access. It's not about clothing, it's about attitude and self-control. </div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09368568268625522624noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6779405804240371794.post-87944359488676812652013-10-25T14:29:00.001-07:002013-10-29T10:27:03.322-07:00The Handmaiden Problem<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
One of my co-workers passed around this article from the LA Times, <a href="http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-tech-sexism-20131024,0,387371.story#axzz2if8X6sfK" target="_blank">Sexism a problem in Silicon Valley, critics say</a>, and in addition to the overall breathless tone of <i>Newsflash, gender issues an issue in the workplace</i>, and some weird statistics, I also had a problem with this comment:<br />
<blockquote>
Speaking before a gathering of women in technology, Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg recalled an uncomfortable exchange with two men on a different stage discussing the scarcity of women in the industry.<br />
<br />
One commented that he would like to hire more young women but not all are as competent as Sandberg.<b> The other said he, too, would hire more young women but his wife fears he would sleep with them and, he confessed, he probably would.
</b></blockquote>
I would like to call this The Handmaiden Problem; in other words, the urge this male executive has to visit one of his female colleagues and say, <i>I'm so glad you brought your lady parts to work today! Let's take them on a test drive over lunch!</i> and that the female person would, of course, screaming with eagerness, copulate with him until his nuts fell off. Or lunch was over. Whatever came first.<br />
<br />
I'm not sure what Sandberg said when trapped with this nugget in an enclosed space. Hopefully, it was along the lines of,<i> most of the men who worked in harems were eunuchs </i>with some seriously potent stink eye<i>.</i> But her husband telling her, <i>they told the truth and that now she has to deal with it,</i> is ludicrous. I think <i>I'm not here to have sex with you, no matter how nicely you ask, Mr Married Executive,</i> should be a given.<br />
<br />
This is not about anti-romance in the workplace, either. This is about how all females supposedly swish their tails aside when the alpha male arrives. The women he would have hired--once his wife gave him said permission, of course--were not obliged to sleep with him, even if he really, really wanted it. The assumptions are not only, <i>"career girls" are available all the time,</i> but also, <i>women are just making time at work, but not really working</i>. Handmaiden, come hither and service me.<br />
<br />
I do think most men understand their female co-workers are a) here to work, b) are competent, c) are not obliged to have sex with them, but the persistence of this belief annoys me.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09368568268625522624noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6779405804240371794.post-31034098883761093592013-10-24T15:07:00.001-07:002013-10-24T15:07:47.316-07:00Crowdfunding has always existed?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Someone in another discussion posted the dismissive comment that "Crowdfunding has always existed" when discussing the <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-10-23/selling-shares-through-crowdfunding-inches-closer-to-reality" target="_blank">use of crowdfunding to buy and sell shares in a company</a>. I have used this "it has always existed" argument myself (<i>we were mean before the Internet, the Internet did not shave off 2 I.Q. points from everyone, etc.</i>) but in this case, I don't think that this current form of crowdfunding could exist without the Internet, nor without our belief that businesses and individuals will deliver the products that they promise.<br />
<br />
Yes, you have probably crowdfunded in the past. You may have stopped at your bank and contributed to a local fund for a family that lost their house to a fire or you might have raised money for your trip to Uganda by holding a bake sale, but these were mainly localized efforts that relied business services and demonstrably prepared goods available in exchange for your cash.<br />
<br />
Unlike online crowdfunding, you didn't solicit funds in advance from people on the <i>promise </i>of brownies. At least, I never went to a bake sale where I gave the money to buy all of the goods needed to put the products together with the hope that my half dozen oatmeal cookies would be waiting for me. Cookies were promised, they were there, I bought them. I did not have to trust that a stranger would use my cash advance to pay for ingredients. They took the chance that all of the product they created would be bought, so they could at least recover their costs, and counted on their cookies and brownies to make a yummy profit. In addition, as a consumer, I can also afford the luxury of cookies, not to mention cookies on spec.<br />
<br />
The current online model of crowdfunding relies on trust in fulfillment and delivery and in globalization to get as many people buying in as possible, beyond geographic limits and time limitations, such as business hours.<br />
<br />
For crowdfunding on the Kickstarter or Indiegogo model, you need the Internet:<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><b>To market your product outside of your location. </b>You don't have to take international contributions, but you get a wider, national range.</li>
<li><b>To assemble your diverse contributors and collect their pledges. </b>Since crowdfunding on these platforms is global, which is not possible with localized fundraising through bake sales or just passing a hat, gathering the funds on this scale is not possible without the Internet, as well as the Internet payment services that can translate and process a variety of currencies.</li>
<li><b>You need to have a reliable service that can process small payments from disparate contributors into a lump sum.</b> In the past, you could go to the bank, one entity, and get your money. You could get a patron, perhaps two or three, whose entire contributions could pay for your effort. Unlike diverse pledges, patrons can interfere with or attempt to shape your art, or direct where your product is available. Through online crowdfunding, you can smother the patron and get more money than the bank may have been willing to give you. You also don't have to repay Kickstarter, while a bank gets pretty upset with you if you don't pay them back.</li>
</ul>
You also need access to consumers who can afford luxury goods or ephemera, as well as consumers who can buy on the promise of a return--they trust in manufacturing and in the creative process.<br />
<ul>
<li><b>People who trust that if they give you money, they will get their goods.</b> We need faith in manufacturing, a culture that believes that products can be made to order and delivered, for us to give our money. Many people do not believe a product or item will be made unless it is currently in a store or a theatre. </li>
<li><b>We can afford to buy these goods, especially ephemera--or can use the Internet to get access to these people. </b>You need consumers who can afford to buy experiences, such as attending a festival, or supporting a book, and these people are a particular type of first world consumer.</li>
</ul>
You could argue that a subscription system to a theatre is crowdfunding and those have been around for a while. Kickstarter has just allowed this model to penetrate more sectors of the arts and manufacturing. However, I still think you subscribed to a theatre because you lived in the region and you knew where the theatre was that you were going to attend. A local trust system was in place that you could participate in and you had money for this type of good.<br />
<br />
Lotteries are also crowdfunding, but the reward system is different. There is also an element of chance in a lottery that you don't have in online crowdfunding--what reward I purchase is the reward I get. I will admit that the element of chance does come with the fulfillment process.<br />
<br />
So, I think we have been primed for online crowdfunding but this iteration is fresh in the way that it relies on technology, consumer trust and globalization to fund products, services and experiences.<br />
<br />
You can disagree with me on this, and I am happy to learn about more services that the Kickstarter/Indiegogo platforms have plagiarized, but I do think that online crowdfunding is a grandchild to bake sales, but unique in it's own way from its ancestors. An iterative innovation, but innovation nonetheless.<br />
<ul>
</ul>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09368568268625522624noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6779405804240371794.post-8412246285205795362013-10-22T15:44:00.001-07:002013-10-22T15:48:58.869-07:00Kickstarter Handbook: Real-Life Crowdfuding Success Stories<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF_GDdKj-2J1vXRpgfGRfy_eeV1h8pA9S07BdO5XAv_gHAtwdKoCUHIUqDmhdf7b92npSsqhWqL_BTyzBagL88ySxmhcoN3LrSKimvjcxKHqUCRE2AgjYf_os8IoOKaMxvkg-Ie7WE8CjB/s1600/kickstartercover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF_GDdKj-2J1vXRpgfGRfy_eeV1h8pA9S07BdO5XAv_gHAtwdKoCUHIUqDmhdf7b92npSsqhWqL_BTyzBagL88ySxmhcoN3LrSKimvjcxKHqUCRE2AgjYf_os8IoOKaMxvkg-Ie7WE8CjB/s1600/kickstartercover.jpg" /></a></div>
Have you thought about running a crowdfunding campaign, specifically on <a href="http://www.kickstartedmovie.com/" target="_blank">Kickstarter</a>, and wanted to come up with a plan, or at least get an introduction to the platform? <i>The Kickstarter Handbook</i> should be one of the books that you pick up for your research, especially if you have not contributed to a campaign or have only a vague <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/559914737/the-veronica-mars-movie-project" target="_blank"><i>Veronica Mars</i></a> or<i> <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/doublefine/double-fine-adventure" target="_blank">Double Fine Adventure</a></i> vision of how the site works and how much money an entrepreneur can raise on the site.<br />
<br />
This book provides a good overview by looking at the platform itself, the types of projects that are eligible for Kickstarter funding and by interviewing actual fundseekers. The author looks at what methods have succeeded and failed. Readers should keep in mind that there is no process or recipe for Kickstarter success and that a project can be snatched from the jaws of defeat with a concentrated final effort--or can fail despite the creator's best efforts and reputation. I also liked the simple worksheets that compared projects and their funding needs based on reward tiers and the actual cost of using Amazon payments and the platform to secure funds. I<i>'</i>m sure that quite a few people who plan to use crowdfunding have confused Kickstarter with an ATM, forgetting that they actually need to deliver--including writing all those emails and mailing labels, not to mention paying the shipping--on all of the rewards they have promised. Don't skip that chapter. I would have liked a chapter on what has happened to people who Kickstarted and didn't deliver, but this is a book about success stories, after all.<br />
<br />
<i>The Kickstarter Handbook</i> is a quick read to introduce an entrepreneur to the platform and how it might work for their project. It is not industry or product-type specific, so the reader will have to do additional research into how a designer or a musician can use Kickstarter effectively. The author is a journalist, so it has that <i>Business Insider/Forbes</i>-style of writing, which does make it a breeze to read; however, it is only the beginning for determining if crowdfunding is the right way to proceed for your project. It may also have insights for the reader who has tried crowdfunding and failed, as well as for the reader who just wants to understand what Kickstarter is and the role it may play in small business finance.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09368568268625522624noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6779405804240371794.post-65084832580842805072013-08-01T15:15:00.002-07:002013-08-01T15:15:41.823-07:00How to Write a KILLER LinkedIn Profile...and 18 Mistakes to Avoid by Brenda Berstein <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<i>At work, we are currently updating our resources on using LinkedIn and shaping our LinkedIn policy. This is one of the books on my reading list on that topic. I originally read about this book in this <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/georgeanders/2013/03/19/spooked-by-linkedin-this-guy-hails-goal-scoring-machine/" target="_blank">article </a>from Forbes and decided to pick it up for research, even though we can't use it in our library (available as Kindle book only).</i><br />
<br />
<i>How to Write a KILLER LinkedIn Profile</i> describes eighteen steps, as well as some bonus tips, that you can use to build your LinkedIn profile and increase your likelihood of being found in LinkedIn searches--though the tips could also have an impact on your Google visibility, depending on your LinkedIn privacy settings. Overall, I thought the tips were useful and straightforward and contained enough screen captures that a LinkedIn newbie would be able to find where in the LinkedIn profile the author was directing them to update. <br />
<br />
However, this is not a basic book so this is not <i>LinkedIn from the Beginning</i>--and it doesn't have to be. This is written for the LinkedIn user who has a profile but who hasn't made the most efficient use of their content or who hasn't thought about how best to profile their content on and select keywords for LinkedIn. And not everyone is going to agree with all of the tips, such as the recommendation to get more than 500 connections--I accept her reasoning, that the more connections you have, the more likely you are to appear in internal searches in LinkedIn--but I can see some of my hesitant colleagues or clients balk at that. And you don't have to use all of her suggestions to improve your profile overall--making better use of the Summary field and updating at least once a week so your contacts don't forget about you could make an improvement on what you get out of LinkedIn.<br />
<br />
I would recommend this one to advisors who have been asked to comment on LinkedIn profiles, but who aren't sure how people make an impact on LinkedIn, coupled with Jason Alba's <i>I'm on LinkedIn...Now What? </i>if you have only cursory LinkedIn experience. <br />
<br /></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09368568268625522624noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6779405804240371794.post-18638266063034503252013-07-16T14:44:00.001-07:002013-07-16T14:45:13.228-07:00A zero hours work contract also means some very imaginative statistics<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<i><a href="http://www.hrreporter.com/articleview/18401-no-work-jobs-cast-shadow-over-uk-labour-market" target="_blank">"No work" job contract cast shadow over U.K. labour market</a></i> refers to so-called zero-hour work contracts which means that some days you have work and other days you have no work--but you still have a job and can be counted as employed in the labour market analysis.<br />
<br />
Though the article does state that 1 in 5 jobs are affected by these contracts, I wonder how many librarians (and other library employees) in the U.K. have their work governed by these contracts?</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09368568268625522624noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6779405804240371794.post-44821059903806254122013-05-31T10:01:00.002-07:002013-05-31T10:21:22.563-07:00But I don't want your Glasses on me<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Recently in a locker room of a local public swimming pool, I was changing from my swim suit back into my street clothes, naked from the waist down, when I looked up to see a cell phone camera pointed at me. My heart actually stopped. When I followed the camera back to its user, two women were crowded around a cell phone presumably sharing pictures of an event that they had just attended. I asked them to put away their phone and that it was really inappropriate to do that in a change room.<br />
<br />
The person holding the camera told me to f*** off. But she put the camera away and they both left offended.<br />
<br />
I actually asked people, <i>Am I crazy to not want a camera pointed at me in a change room? </i>Everyone I asked said I wasn't. But according to this <a href="http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/26/disruptions-at-odds-over-privacy-challenges-of-wearable-computing/" target="_blank">blog post from Bits</a>, I'm going to have to get used to it, since the landscape has no feelings.<br />
<br />
Now, I will have to contend with Google Glasses roving around in the change room and I'm not pleased. I also don't agree that a private change room in a public facility is public, and I don't feel that I have to get used to it. I do think that the majority of people are generally decent and that they can successfully monitor themselves. <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2013/05/03/bc-cyber-stalking.html" target="_blank">However, it only takes one indecent, cruel or ill person to make a lasting impact on a person's life and fortune,</a> so we should take steps to protect everyone from harm. I'm also among a group of people who feels they are out in public to accomplish their goals--shopping, dining, changing clothes--which does not negate their personal rights and turn them into your landscape or background noise.<br />
<br />
I think it might be time for facilities to have disruptors that they can turn on so people who can't control themselves with their devices in public spaces don't impinge on people who don't want a camera (or other recording device) pointed at them. I also want to automate the disruption of recording devices so as a person who works in a public space, I don't have to constantly navigate fights between clients as to what is appropriate or not. For example, I did not bother to tell any pool attendant about what occurred because there are no signs barring the use of cell phones in the change room--and a significant minority ignore those signs anyway and complaining in the past has only gotten me a dismissive shrug. I would like the option to turn the disruptor off in the case of an emergency, such as a tornado, so people can use their Google glasses to find shelter, but sharing cake recipes on Pinterest does not qualify as an emergency.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix1fHdZd6wTKizbx5D8dChrfKM5GXj_B9_OeVm5VSqYc3K12gam7FeVcaqfBuzJuBVrlaAiD1aOo2CubyovdvkjiYixQyNwl0xevpfUBA93nPB77QEwkxvbDd8xsi-k7EHaojGqVYNDnIZ/s1600/masks.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix1fHdZd6wTKizbx5D8dChrfKM5GXj_B9_OeVm5VSqYc3K12gam7FeVcaqfBuzJuBVrlaAiD1aOo2CubyovdvkjiYixQyNwl0xevpfUBA93nPB77QEwkxvbDd8xsi-k7EHaojGqVYNDnIZ/s1600/masks.jpg" /></a></div>
In the meantime, until a company comes along that makes a localized or personalized device that I can use to disrupt Glass, which I think should be an option for people just as purchasing Glass is an option for other consumers, I think masks may be coming back into style, or we may all engage in everyday cosplay to vanish into people's recordings--or to take them over completely as individual landscape disruptors.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09368568268625522624noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6779405804240371794.post-31261460681234229962013-05-29T19:00:00.000-07:002013-05-29T19:00:03.282-07:00Get Biking Directions in Google Maps<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Since it is summer, time to make use of biking directions in Google Maps. It is very useful to chart safe routes, which include bike paths, for clients who use the library and access it on bikes. Could also be used by businesses who want to highlight their bike-friendliness. In the workplace, it could be used to promote active commuting--and, at least according to this <a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/05/130529101623.htm" target="_blank">study</a>, if you co-workers actively commute, it could influence you to make your exercise for the day by walking or biking to work.<br />
<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg3cOCZBqvx58DJMWN_wC6TMZ3aHoe5Gm4OAfulCCMaLrroTXEqwwPYMkwDYn_KheHw5mgu0EzfdaUJtLUDPKualh6E_bi0XdQFctP7XU4poDDdXhOYYzuP0VXqIopoWXo50B6U0biYDWk/s1600/bike+directions.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="204" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg3cOCZBqvx58DJMWN_wC6TMZ3aHoe5Gm4OAfulCCMaLrroTXEqwwPYMkwDYn_KheHw5mgu0EzfdaUJtLUDPKualh6E_bi0XdQFctP7XU4poDDdXhOYYzuP0VXqIopoWXo50B6U0biYDWk/s320/bike+directions.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/JN5_NBSu7Lw" width="560"></iframe>
<br />
<br />
You might also want to see if you can submit bike path data with <a href="http://google-latlong.blogspot.ca/2012/06/eight-steps-closer-to-mapping-world.html" target="_blank">Google Map Maker</a> and include it in your using Google media literacy program.<br />
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09368568268625522624noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6779405804240371794.post-25056516734837741742013-05-22T09:03:00.000-07:002013-05-22T09:03:13.129-07:00JobProx<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<i>I spied <a href="http://www.springwise.com/location-based-app-connects-recruiters-job-applicants/" target="_blank">JobProx on Springwise</a>. They are currently seeking investors through an <a href="http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/jobprox" target="_blank">Indiegogo campaign.</a> </i><br />
<br /></div>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="325" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/U2Ifdk9aClA?feature=player_embedded" width="450"></iframe><br />
<br />
JobProx relies on jobseekers downloading the apps onto their devices and then connecting with their LinkedIn profile.<br />
<br />
I could see this working really well in controlled job seeking events such as information sessions, career fairs, conferences and mixers, since you are in a public place, thinking about work, not out in your pajama pants thinking about buying a quart of rocky road and wondering if you will have time to wash your hair today. I'm also not clear about how to turn the job seeking broadcast off and on. It might also need to remind you to update your LinkedIn profile and maybe suggest some keywords or skills to add to your profile.<br />
<br />
I wonder how much tailoring employers can make for finding proximate, desirable job seekers. For example, at our career fairs, one employer might be looking for first and second year biology students for summer (temporary) employment and they have received specific funding that requires a candidate to be a returning student. On the other hand, a museum might be looking for summer workers and will take "any arts, any science, any education (as in <i>elementary and secondary education</i>)" and this second group of employers is also interested in those biology majors. How could you tailor your LinkedIn profile to bring you to the attention of both employers? The candidate has to provide an updated profile that includes this specific information, while an employer needs to be able to search by education and possibly specific year. However, based on this video, I would conclude that an employer can only search for candidates by <i>app on, LinkedIn profile</i> and <i>breathing in the vicinity</i>. Which I might be able to accomplish just <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505125_162-44942734/resume-t-shirt-good-idea-or-sign-of-desperation/" target="_blank">as effectively with a T-shirt.</a><br />
<br />
Still, this might be neat to test at an <a href="http://joblist.ala.org/placementcenter.cfm" target="_blank">ALA placement event.</a></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09368568268625522624noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6779405804240371794.post-48578592340970296852013-05-21T14:28:00.000-07:002013-05-21T14:28:44.818-07:00Evolution of the Internship from InternMatch<i>This infographic is from <a href="http://www.internmatch.com/">InternMatch</a>, though I can't find it on their website (had to go through Mashable).</i>
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://rack.2.mshcdn.com/media/ZgkyMDEzLzA1LzE2LzM0L0ludGVybk1hdGNoLmI2OGFhLmpwZwpwCXRodW1iCTEyMDB4OTYwMD4/a1923dfc/5f7/InternMatch+-+InternshipEvolution+-+972.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="1500" src="http://rack.2.mshcdn.com/media/ZgkyMDEzLzA1LzE2LzM0L0ludGVybk1hdGNoLmI2OGFhLmpwZwpwCXRodW1iCTEyMDB4OTYwMD4/a1923dfc/5f7/InternMatch+-+InternshipEvolution+-+972.jpg" width="450" /></a></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09368568268625522624noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6779405804240371794.post-84221288676561143102013-05-14T12:30:00.000-07:002013-05-14T12:30:13.342-07:00CERIC studies work from home opportunities<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The Canadian Education and Research Institute for Counselling (CERIC) is <a href="http://ceric.ca/?q=en/node/650" target="_blank">offering a train-the-trainer series on legitimate work from home opportunities</a>. This will be of interest to people who have been asked about the legitimacy of work from home opportunities as well as to identify the providers that offer these opportunities.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09368568268625522624noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6779405804240371794.post-84843228935117617542013-05-03T00:00:00.000-07:002013-05-03T00:00:08.298-07:00Dear Mother from the iProject Atlas<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<i>Spotted on <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/strombo/" target="_blank">Strombo's blog.</a></i><br />
<i><br /></i>
This young man saved up and paid off his mother's mortgage.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
I love this video since I regularly spend time with young adults and I get tired of hearing people from my generation or older who comment on the selfishness and sense of entitlement of young adults. This is absolutely wrong: they are just people, younger, but no better or worse than their elders.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09368568268625522624noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6779405804240371794.post-91717531828797440362013-05-01T19:00:00.000-07:002013-05-01T19:00:01.047-07:00MYO wearable gesture control<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Rather than talk about Google Glass, as a presenter I'd much rather talk about MYO. MYO is a wearable pointing/computer navigation device that removes the camera from the equation (Kinect = camera).<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="275" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/oWu9TFJjHaM" width="400"></iframe><br />
<br />
I see many practical uses for this device, especially if it can be used with the Internet of Things (<a href="http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_internet_of_things">examples </a>from the McKinsey & Company Insights) or they should have some discussions/swap API with these guys that are using cloudy water to make a display.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="275" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/6lyudeTqggE" width="400"></iframe><br />
<br />
I guess we will be seeing MYO in the shower videos.
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09368568268625522624noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6779405804240371794.post-49356451151662846552013-05-01T07:52:00.000-07:002013-05-01T07:53:00.392-07:00The Shower and the Google Glasses, or is this about discretion?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
So not only do I have to ask people to clean up their social media profiles, I now have to ask, <i>do you have any Google glass photos that we need to worry about?</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<script src="//storify.com/cbccommunity/google-glass-shower-pic.js"></script><noscript>[<a href="//storify.com/cbccommunity/google-glass-shower-pic" target="_blank">View the story "Google Glass user's shower photo freaks out internet" on Storify</a>]</noscript>
<i><br /></i></div>
I'm not sure how worried to be about this (remember <a href="http://www.justin.tv/">Justin.tv</a>? no, I didn't think so), but I think it will mean that I have to have more discussions with people about <i>are they really your friends if they take these pictures and post them online at <a href="http://www.embarrassingnightclubphotos.com/">Embarrassing Nightclub Photos.com</a></i>?(No, not making it up and NSFW) and then describing how to remove these photos from social media services. I find it interesting that when making presentations about the social media work search that I have to discuss qualities and virtues such as discretion and friendship and the dangers of meanness to personal reputation.
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09368568268625522624noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6779405804240371794.post-37816529791464201022013-04-26T14:55:00.002-07:002013-04-26T14:56:21.686-07:00Two Monkeys were Paid Unequally: Excerpt from Frans de Waal's TED Talk<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
This video has been making the rounds on social media this past week, so if you have already seen it, you can skip it--though it made me laugh every time.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="239" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/meiU6TxysCg" width="425"></iframe><br />
<br />
This also explains why some companies try to keep their salary data completely secret. I am sure the monkey's reaction would have been different if she/he had no idea she/he was being cheated out of a lovely grape.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09368568268625522624noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6779405804240371794.post-54766058335714152572013-04-23T08:39:00.000-07:002013-04-23T08:41:11.891-07:00The Problem when Sexism Sounds So Darn Friendly on the SciAM Blogs<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<i>According to the blog post author, </i>The Problem when Sexism Sounds So Darn Friendly<i> points out that this is a repost in light of current events, so you may have read this before. Like the author, I think this might be a good time for a revisit.</i><br />
<br />
Melanie Tannenbaum, the author of <i>The Problem when Sexism Sounds so Darn Friendly, </i>comments on recent events, such as the controversy over the <a href="http://publiceditor.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/01/gender-questions-arise-in-obituary-of-rocket-scientist-and-her-beef-stroganoff/" target="_blank">obituary for Yvonne Brill</a> and the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/us-news-blog/2013/mar/20/i-love-science-woman-facbook" target="_blank">outcome when the author of I F-ing Love Science revealed that she was female</a>, while referring to research into hostile and benevolent sexism. The research she quotes is from 1996 (17 years ago) so if anyone knows of an update, I would be happy to read more on this topic (benevolent sexism, not sexism in general). I am especially interested in light of this result:<br />
<blockquote>
...those who endorsed benevolent sexism were likely to admit that they also held explicit, hostile attitudes towards women (although one does not necessarily have to endorse these hostile attitudes in order to engage in benevolent sexism).</blockquote>
Tannenbaum also posits an example where benevolent sexism is alive and well, and working to the detriment of both men and women.<br />
<blockquote>
However, to those people who still may be tempted to argue that benevolent sexism is nothing more than an overreaction to well-intentioned compliments, let me pose this question: What happens when there is a predominant stereotype saying that women are better stay-at-home parents than men because they are inherently more caring, maternal, and compassionate? It seems nice enough, but how does this ideology affect the woman who wants to continue to work full time after having her first child and faces judgment from her colleagues who accuse her of neglecting her child? How does it affect the man who wants to stay at home with his newborn baby, only to discover that his company doesn’t offer paternity leave because they assume that women are the better candidates to be staying at home?</blockquote>
The post is worth a read, though, as I mentioned, I would like to know about more recent, possibly international research into these attitudes.<br />
<br />
I also wanted to share my favorite comment from researching this post (and quoted in the linked article from The Guardian about the fracas) came from a person responding to all of the commenters* talking about the science blogger's lovely femaleness: "My fellow dudebros: Chillax. In science, sex is just a single genome characteristic,"<br />
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>*And yes, I looked up commenter, since Google hated the spelling: </i>commentator<i> is for sports, </i>commentor<i> might still win in common use, though one source I checked suggested that "-er" is preferred over "-or" as a suffix (that explains computer, but not tormentor), and </i>commenter<i> just hasn't been added to the </i><a href="http://nws.merriam-webster.com/opendictionary/" style="font-style: italic;">New Words and Slang.</a><i> For now, I am going to use it, but let the best neologism win.</i></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09368568268625522624noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6779405804240371794.post-31970060862336775312013-04-18T12:55:00.003-07:002013-04-21T21:06:31.865-07:00This is How You Get Your Next Job by Andrea Kay<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/0814432212/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&camp=15121&creative=390961&creativeASIN=0814432212&linkCode=as2&tag=firstlibra-20" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws.assoc-amazon.ca/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0814432212&Format=_SL110_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=CA&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=firstlibra-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.ca/e/ir?t=firstlibra-20&l=as2&o=15&a=0814432212" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><i>This is How You Get Your Next Job</i> is about "fit" and how to manage the employer's impressions, or "negative impressions", of your suitability for employment. It is not targeted at any one industry or type of worker, such as professionals or entry-level workers, and though many job seekers will take something of value away from the book, any potential reader who has been told that they didn't get the job offer because of "fit" or for the person about to go for their first skilled-occupation interview.<br />
<br />
Overall, the author has offers advice and exercises that will help with interview preparation, such as the list on <i>What employers look for </i>that includes desired qualities such as flexibility, stable behavior and intellectual curiosity, and the <i>Would You Hire You</i> test which includes several essay type questions that will include content you can use for answering interview questions. The encouragement for reflective thinking and self-examination, especially for a person that has had a few failed interview attempts and needs to examine their behavior in the interview, would be helpful for some readers. I would pair this one with Ron Fry's <i>101 Great Answers to the Toughest Interview Questions</i>, which I like for basic training in interviews.<br />
<br />
The author does spend a lot of time focused on the "negative filtering" techniques that employers use to decide who is a suitable candidate. Negative filtering is a cognitive trick used to determine if something is mismatched or incorrect according to our perceptions. In a mild form, negative filtering could mean removing a candidate from the running because they fail to show up wearing a tie. In its most abhorrent manifestation, when a candidate is the wrong religion, race or gender for a job, negative filtering can remove those candidates from consideration, based on the filter of the interviewer. Most of the book focuses on the failure to demonstrate follow through or stable behavior and how those traits are demonstrable and when not achieved how an interviewer can filter candidates out based on the lack of those traits. On the whole, when considering the exercises, candidates can make sure that they demonstrate the traits that employers look for and apply it to their career management.<br />
<br />
I did like this book, especially for a reader who is getting ready to enter the professional work force, though I felt demoralized by the litany of employer complaints that sometimes felt frivolous. For example, one interviewer states they would not hire a person who wore patterned hose. Maybe the person meant the airy crocheted kind or fishnets, but this seems to be pretty picky when compared to a person's ability to regularly show up on time and write cogent sentences--not to mention the fact that the patterned salesperson could sell snow to an Inuit. Some of the employer likes and dislikes seemed a little silly when the person's abilities were not considered, but the candidates were discarded for trifling fashion <i>faux pas </i>or some conservative bulwark against tattoos or piercings.<br />
<br />
The advice on what to say and not say in an interview, your first presentation to an employer, was really well done, even if some of the picky faults were a bit exasperating at times. I would recommend readers who have the presentation down pat to review the chapter on <i>Things you should never do once you get a job or in your career--ever</i> as a worthwhile introduction to basic career management and etiquette when dealing with colleagues and supervisors. <i>This is How You Get Your Next Job</i> is useful, though it can get a little annoying at times, but it does remind you that interviewers are human too, with their own foibles that candidates need to acknowledge to find employment.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09368568268625522624noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6779405804240371794.post-77580781416757778382013-04-17T14:15:00.000-07:002013-04-17T14:15:04.698-07:00Career Counselling Appointments at ALA Annual<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<i>This message just popped up in my LinkedIn groups and I thought it might be useful for people planning to go to Annual</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
Group: American Library Association
Subject: Now Accepting Career Counseling Appointments
ALA JobLIST Placement Center Now Accepting Career Counseling Appointments<br />
<br />
Career Counseling<br />
Saturday and Sunday<br />
June 29 & 30, 2013<br />
9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.<br />
Location: ALA JobLIST Placement Center,<br />
South Building of the McCormick Place Convention Center, Chicago<br />
<br />
<br />
During the upcoming ALA 2013 Annual Conference in Chicago there will be a number of activities and events scheduled to assist library workers, and specifically job seekers, in preparing for effective job searches. Included in these activities will be an opportunity to have a FREE one-on-one session with a professional career counselor.<br />
<br />
Recharge your career by meeting with a professional career coach. She can guide you in strategizing for the next phase of your career, solving a problem in your current job situation, defining goals, and/or rejuvenating your career. Each one-on-one session is 20 minutes, and is completely confidential.<br />
<br />
If you have never experienced career counseling, or just haven't used this type of service in a long time, this is the perfect opportunity to either introduce yourself to or reacquaint yourself with a service that can be useful throughout your career.<br />
<br />
Take advantage of the opportunity to talk with a knowledgeable professional about your career concerns. This service is free and available whenever the Placement Center is open.<br />
<br />
To see the full range of activities for job seekers, for more information, or to sign up for an appointment, visit the ALA JobLIST Placement Center website at: <a href="http://joblist.ala.org/modules/jobseeker/Conference_Workshops.cfm" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">http://joblist.ala.org/<wbr></wbr>modules/jobseeker/Conference_<wbr></wbr>Workshops.cfm</a> .<br />
<br />
ALA is concerned about library workers, and we’re working to help you meet your career challenges. Hope to see you in the ALA JobLIST Placement Center.<br />
<span style="color: #666666; display: block; font-size: 11px; padding-top: 7px;">Posted By Beatrice Calvin</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09368568268625522624noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6779405804240371794.post-81403411872612436322013-03-15T09:12:00.000-07:002013-03-15T11:30:52.817-07:00It's not always about gender<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">In my stream last night, I saw that Gay Kawasaki had reposted a <a href="http://cristinajcordova.com/post/45132333029/how-to-hire-more-women-at-your-startup" target="_blank">listicle</a> from Cristina Cordova about how to attract more women to startups. I agree with most of the post in that you need to clean up bro culture in the workplace, for civility and for clarity in job titles and postings, but I'm not sure you need to do it on account of my fragile lady parts.<br />
<br />
First of all, suggesting that Team Lady is the only group of people who would be upset by bro culture overlooks a significant group of people who dislike aspects of that culture and don't think it is good for business.<br />
<ol style="text-align: left;"><li><b>We love your cultural symbols--especially when I don't have to think about what they mean</b>. Oh, god, the ninja thing. This is a bit like talking about how your Jedi mind tricks worked and meaning it. This is about what we believe an icon is and not what it actually represents--and how little it has common with the job you have to do. These job titles don't make sense on your resume, so if your startup fails and you need to look for a paying job with another company everybody in their HR thinks you ran an anime club for three years.<br />
<br />
And while we are misappropriating cultural icons, why can't we use [<i>code</i>]<i> slinger, gangster, naut </i>or <i>crusader</i>? Because they sound silly and childish and only the Japan of our imagination is cool enough to rate a job title. Cordova does point out that some startups use <i>rockstar</i> and <i>hacker</i>, but again, we use them because we don't have to think about what the term really represents, and she doesn't mention how those titles undermine the credibility of your employees when they are engaged in the work of growing, marketing, representing or selling your startup.</li><br />
<li><b>Alcohol makes the money come round</b>. Recently, I toured a startup facility with a friend of mine who abstains from drinking alcohol for religious reasons. As the guide spent five minutes expressing how much business got done in the tavern below the startup space, my friend just put her hand over her eyes and tried to block him out. His argument was that if you don't drink, there was no reason for the other people in the space to talk to you and give you advice and assistance. And the space was awesome. I wanted to bring my sleeping bag to work and fuel my enterprise with the coffee from the excellent coffee shop below that he failed to mention on his tour, except as another tenant in the building. The insistence that alcohol lubricates business persists in many industries, not just in coding, and that the cool and knowledgeable drink beer and lots of it, is a myth that we perpetuate, as in the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/08/fashion/08librarian.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0" target="_blank">Hipper Crowd of Shushers</a>. <br />
<br />
Reliance on alcohol to facilitate business cuts out a whole group of people who don't want to mix alcohol with work and who might make stupid decisions if they did mix alcohol with work. It's like we're back in high school, all being pressured by the cool kids to drink. And if you did give in to their pressure, let's remember how that turned out. Now imagine it posted to YouTube while you are trying to get VC funding.</li><br />
<li><b><b>Lets have a discussion about how jerks are replaceable. </b><span style="font-weight: normal;">At one of my interviews, I had a grilling from the IT team leader who used a common programming term incorrectly. I corrected her, but SHE quickly established that her usage was correct. I let it go and got the job, but she continued to bring it into the conversation for two weeks after my hire until our supervisor told her to let it go. My point is, jerk is genderless and not limited to coders. Maybe we should talk about how these people strain the workplace, as well as misrepresent us to clients. Hire well is good advice for all hires, regardless of gender, and maybe your college roommate who joined the startup in its first week is not as good at their job as you think.</span></b></li><br />
<li><b>She doesn't talk about the roles that women will be hired for.</b> This is one issue where there appears to be a workplace gender divide. I have suggested that the post focuses on hiring women coders, but women do play other roles that a startup needs to thrive and they are not treated as if they understand the arcane mysteries of technology, as in this ad from Samsung.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/9Dd_a1Dnw8g" width="480"></iframe><br />
<br />
Ah, the ladies, bringing down the code bros with their insistence on not spending money on two kegerators. And not being smart enough to recognize the redundancy reducing technology the bros are using to mock them with. </li><br />
Though they could have trotted out the silverback stereotype, the middle aged, suited dude who refers to all of the code bros in the diminutive, as in Danny or Jimmy, and who hasn't updated his technological know how since teletype. But there are no old people in startups anyway.</ol><div>So yes, I admit that gender does play a role; however, there are some areas, such as alcohol and protecting crappy employees, that should be discussed without gender, since some arguments that use gender fairness as their rationale put women in the position of being the angel in the workplace.</div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09368568268625522624noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6779405804240371794.post-62292962230780467292013-03-11T08:46:00.003-07:002013-03-11T08:46:33.219-07:00What is Meetup?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<i>This summary is from an in-house presentation that I delivered in early March 2013.</i><br />
<br />
Meetup is an online social networking tool that is meant to connect people in the same geographic region who have the same interests to form a group online and then use calendaring and map software to meet In Real Life.<br />
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In fact, to form a meetup group, you must agree to meet in person.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj9BNJshjArOecBIdFVH26OanlsD3r8HSpItAhI9mCbquSvJpsQp8jMleCfah8SvlaqzJqpTVj6Sx7CVbBUzN884pOBbsbcKwPs3ceKSnSgaCL6eQIwDTDNvHt_8GIMZM1Ic0GFEYVPz5R/s1600/meetup_home.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="175" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj9BNJshjArOecBIdFVH26OanlsD3r8HSpItAhI9mCbquSvJpsQp8jMleCfah8SvlaqzJqpTVj6Sx7CVbBUzN884pOBbsbcKwPs3ceKSnSgaCL6eQIwDTDNvHt_8GIMZM1Ic0GFEYVPz5R/s320/meetup_home.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br />
<b>Signing up for Meetup</b><br />
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You can sign in to Meetup using your email address and a password or you can connect with your Facebook account. Connecting with your Facebook account means you can immediately invite your Facebook friends to your Meetup groups. You can also see what groups your Facebook friends are a member of.<br />
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However, Meetup is useful for “out of network” matchmaking; for example, if you are the only person in your Facebook network who owns their own business, your Facebook friends are not the people who can help you write a business plan or get answers to your questions about VC funds. You can use Meetup to break into networks that are currently closed to you.<br />
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<b>What does it cost?</b><br />
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Meetup is free for regular members, but there is a <a href="http://www.meetup.com/help/Does-it-cost-money-to-start-a-Meetup-Group" target="_blank">fee to form Meetup groups</a>. Organizers can only run three Meetup groups at one time.<br />
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In this case, if we formed a Career Knowledge Group for campus, but offered a variety of events, this is one Meetup. If we formed a Career Knowledge Group for Arts, Engineering and Education, and each with a separate group of members, we could not add a Science Meetup group without paying for an additional administrator account.<br />
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Since there are fees for Meetup groups, some organizers do ask members to pay a small fee when they attend their first meetup. Other Meetup groups are sponsored by groups or business organizations, which can offer some ad space for the sponsors on the Meetup group page.<br />
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<b>What groups are on Meetup?</b><br />
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Groups are usually formed around hobbies, such as knitting and movie watching, while others are for educational, such as learn Spanish, and business purposes, such as the <a href="http://www.meetup.com/startupedmonton/" target="_blank">Startup Edmonton Meetup</a>.<br />
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Some Meetups are even combinations of hobbies, businesses and education: for example, I belong to a vegetarian and gardening meetup which includes a potluck event to meet people and usually a presentation from a local entrepreneur, such as making straw bale homes.<br />
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Career services can make use of the educational and entrepreneurial meetups, but since we can also encourage people who are planning to relocate from or to Edmonton, to use Meetup to build a local community to alleviate homesickness.<br />
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<b>Open and Closed Groups</b><br />
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Some groups are open meaning that you don’t have to be a member to see upcoming events, while others are closed and events are accessible to members only. Some closed groups only require a request to the organizers to join, while others will ask you to email the organizer with a sort of, <i>why should you let me in to your Meetup group</i> message. Some groups will allow you to remain a member even if you never attend a meetup, while others will kick out people who fail to show up to even one meeting, or who RSVP but fail to show up. All of these rules will depend on the organizer(s).<br />
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<b>What does a group page look like? </b><br />
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<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><a href="http://www.meetup.com/The-Business-Link-Alberta/" target="_blank">Business Link Alberta</a> </li>
<li><a href="http://www.meetup.com/ESL-Conversation-Classes/">Conversational English</a>, Vancouver Group </li>
<li><a href="http://www.meetup.com/realestate-1652/" target="_blank">Vancouver Real Estate Investors Foreclosure Insider Club</a> - this Meetup is sponsored, so you can see what a sponsored Meetup group could look like</li>
</ul>
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<b>What does the user dashboard look like? </b><br />
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<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>There is a stream of events, including a list of Facebook friends that are on Meetup, as well as information about who has RSVPd to Meetups the user currently belongs to. </li>
<li>There is a calendar, which can include suggestions for Meetups that the user may not have registered for or if they are not yet a member of, though they all relate to the user’s interests </li>
<li>An editable list of user interests so the user can search for new Meetups.</li>
</ul>
<div>
<b><br /></b>
<b>Why Meetup? </b><br />
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Meetup combines several familiar tools in one place, so people familiar with all of these tools do not have to learn new skills to use Meetup:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Mapping Event planning, including RSVPs and group management </li>
<li>Calendars, which includes notifications of new meetups, importing calendars to existing services, such as Google calendar </li>
<li>Group formation and forums, as well as commenting on events and attendance monitoring </li>
<li>Tagging and categorization </li>
<li>Review services because attendees can add a review to an event after they have attended </li>
</ul>
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Facebook uses some of these services, but Meetup encourages out of network connections and socializing outside of Meetup. Meetup offers some solution for event management, though they have not currently worked out the ticketing and event payment process, should a fee by required by the event organizer.</div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09368568268625522624noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6779405804240371794.post-5286710852196935162013-03-08T04:05:00.000-08:002013-03-08T04:05:00.852-08:00Privacy Law in 60 Seconds Promo Video from the AuthorsAs a promo for his new book, with co-author Paul Schwartz, Daniel Soslove has put together a 60 second debrief on the main issues around privacy law--and to encourage you to read the book to get the full story. <br><br>
<iframe width="485" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/mlpZS5xfdk0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br><br>
I really learned a lot from <i>The Future of Reputation</i>, so I am looking forward to this book--in a sort of, <i>wow, homework</i> kind of way.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09368568268625522624noreply@blogger.com0