That’s right, the Globe is paying a reporter to follow up on stuff like Quidditch at Tufts University.

Just saying that maybe some news like scooter laws, drunk driving conviction rates in Hingham, the dismal state of the Bruins or other more pressing story could be chased down like the snitch in Quidditch?

You tell me.

Keep reading!

© Jeff Cutler for Jeff Cutler - columns, essays and opinions, 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: boston globe, coffee, Harry Potter, Quidditch

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I know my friends Joselin Mane and Rachel Levy have put together a tracking service to alert people to social-media events, but I wanted to share my schedule and I invite you to share yours.

Mostly, this exercise is to see if I can connect with you as I bounce around Boston this week. What’s on your docket? Where will you be? Please share in the comments.

Here’s my plan….

Monday:
Call Belgium
Write articles for two clients
Edit some Web content
Work on additional blog posts
Start developing my 15 Sites in 15 Minutes presentation for the Salty Legs Career Club
Meet with Deval Patrick – governor of Massachusetts – and discuss some of the Commonwealth’s tech issues – including why the schools in the state are all banned from Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other sites (while there are educational initiatives on the national level that ask Massachusetts and other states to incorporate social media tools in their curriculum)
Boston Skeptics in the Pub at Tommy Doyle’s in Harvard Square

Tuesday:
Social Media Breakfast – Live at Puma City
Tech Tuesday – Gadgets and Gathering
Meet with collaborators for #iroadtrip 2 planning (tentative meeting)
Man-on-the-street interviews in Boston

Wednesday:
Client meeting – via phone and in person from 9AM to 3PM
Extreme Website Makeover 6 to 8:30PM
Mediabistro Networking Event at 6B Lounge 6:30 to 8:30
WBUR Tweetup at the radio station 6:30 start
Red Sox Tweetup at Dillon’s on Boylston Street 6:30 to 11PM
***For these evening events, I’ll be shuttling to and fro via scooter. Probably going to MediaBistro, Extreme Website, WBUR and then Dillon’s – in that order – if you want to meet up.***

Thursday:
Social Media Summit – What’s the ROI of Social Media?
Client meetings
Random writing and reporting
and a Networking Event for which I’ve had to sign an NDA so I can’t reveal location or topic

Friday:
Salty Legs Career Club – Presenting 15 Sites in 15 Minutes: Where you need to go/What you need to know

How’s that for a three-hour tour?

Please share yours, and keep reading!

© Jeff Cutler for Jeff Cutler - columns, essays and opinions, 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Boston, boston globe, Clients, content, mediabistro, networking, PUMA, red sox, social media, social media breakfast

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A recent feature I wrote for Gatehouse Media allowed me to instruct readers on how to shop for their next television set and what they should know about the pending digital conversion in mid February. But the only reason I could act as an expert was because I had done my homework. In at least one of the two articles I read today, the author didn’t seem to have spent a lot of time with the technology he was explaining.

Specifically, Facebook. The piece – Perspective – in the Boston Globe Magazine, was written by staff writer Neil Swidey. His contention, based on his own experience and an interview with a Stanford lab director who has a book on Facebook coming out, is that once you’ve made contact with someone on the site, you’re forever linked.

Swidey also says “Facebook can also hamper our ability to manages social contacts.”

My problem with the column is that it is as superficial as the media tool it purports to explain.

Facebook, IMO, is a place where you can (but don’t have to) connect with people. It’s a place where you can (but don’t have to) pay attention to other people who have sought your friendship via this new media tool. And Facebook is a place where you can (but don’t have to) spend/waste a lot of time.

I’ll even say that Facebook can be valuable in maintaining connections on a social and even a professional level. That’s where it stops. Facebook is only a tool. Just as Instant Messaging is as intrusive or benign as you want it to be, you need to maintain and take control for your actions and interactions with the people who are listed as your friends.

Why isn’t there such angst about a very similar social media tool – LinkedIn? It’s because there are societal and professional norms in place. People have taken responsibility to police the people with whom they connect. You can do the same thing on Facebook, but many people choose not to.

When trying to explain the two sites/tools to a business colleague the other day, I said, “LinkedIn is for the people with whom you want to have a professional relationship with. Facebook is for bar talk, sharing gossip, personal news and arranging parties.”

If you don’t like someone, block or unfriend them. Don’t feel, as Swidey says, “That’s not the way it works here.”

That’s EXACTLY how it works here. Take some responsibility for your own destiny and follow and interact with the people you choose. If you don’t have time for someone, don’t pay attention to them. The beauty of Facebook is that you can do that without blatantly hurting anyone’s feelings.

Finally, to the Stanford lab director’s contention (his name is B.J. Fogg) that “If I say yes to someone I haven’t talked to in 20 years, it dilutes my ability to create tighter relationships with those who really matter to me” I say you’re out of your tree. The two are mutually exclusive. If I say hi to someone on the street, it doesn’t preclude my ability to say hi to and even have a long conversation with the next person I see on the street.

I hope Fogg’s book has a bit more insight than Swidey was able to glean for his column.

And like Swidey, I don’t think that my opinions of Facebook – or of Swidey’s one column and Fogg’s misperceptions – should hinder my relationships with people I see as friends. If you’re on my list, you already know how I roll.

Keep reading!

Find me on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn, Pownce, Utterli, Jaiku, Flickr, Qik and about 50 other social media sites as jeffcutler. Or just google my name. That would be the friendly thing to do.

© Jeff Cutler for Jeff Cutler - columns, essays and opinions, 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: B.J. Fogg, boston globe, Facebook, Jeff Cutler, Neil Swidey, reporting, social media, Stanford

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Regardless, an article I read the other day brought up the painful subject of how cops sit around aimlessly at construction details and their only contribution is to add to the ire of drivers and pedestrians. The police on the detail do this by talking on the phone, pretending that they know something about sewer or telephone work by staring into whatever hole is being worked on, drinking Dunkin’s coffee, and ultimately ignoring their tasks at hand – which I’ve always thought was to ensure a smooth flow of traffic and people around said work site.

My angst at the thumb-twiddling cops at construction sites has been magnified since I’ve been riding a scooter. That’s because most cops behave just like the light-tripping mechanism at the stoplights around town and ignore any vehicle smaller than a Yugo. On four separate occasions I’ve had to wait an interminable amount of time just to be waved past a tiny hole in the ground.

Ironically, if I had broken the law and behaved as if my scooter were a bike (as some scooters are allowed to do based on engine size) I could have just buzzed past the roadway annoyance.

Add a feeling of being ripped off to my annoyance of being delayed at work sites and you might see how getting regular people to work these details would seem like a genius move. It makes perfect sense to allow cops to go do cop things instead of giving them eight-hour paid vacations standing around the streets of Boston. But not to the police unions.

In today’s (Sunday) Boston Globe, a story on the front page shouted that unions rush to protect details!

There is actually an October deadline for a cop an state agreement about details. If the Governor gets his way (and likely the preferred way for most citizens who are tired of seeing cops munching on snacks and drinking coffee while talking on the phone), then ‘flaggers’ will be allowed to work sites that previously were staffed by cops.

According to the Globe story, the rules that Deval Patrick is trying to introduce will follow a level of dangerousness and allow work sites that are less dangerous to be manned by these citizen flaggers.

The real wrinkle appears – also according to the Globe – when local cities and towns are brought into the mix. If a town decides that all details in its borders require cops on details, then their decision will overrule the state’s decision.

Right now, unions and anyone who sells donuts to cops is rushing around to make sure that our men and women in blue are allowed to keep their cushy positions wandering the side of the road, ignoring the flow of traffic and collecting hefty paychecks.

A public hearing will occur Monday at 5PM at the Massachusetts State Transportation building.

I urge anyone who cares about taxes, pork and lazy cops to be present. I plan to ride my scooter into the city to see what happens. I hope there aren’t too many construction sites in that area or else nobody will make it to that meeting on time.

Maybe we’ll even get people with video cameras to attend the hearing and live blog it for those who can’t make it into town at 5PM on a work day. I’m betting that lots of cops will be present.

Got comments? Please leave them here for all to see. Maybe a cop on his iPhone will click over here and read what people are saying.

Keep reading!

© Jeff Cutler for Jeff Cutler - columns, essays and opinions, 2008. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Boston, boston globe, Column, construction, cops, details, deval patrick, graft, inept, opinion, waste

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Truthfully, I’ve been writing as a journalist for about 20 years but this is my first ‘no-net’ performance on the journalism stage.

It’s difficult at times, but exhilarating. And I’ve been learning so much about my motivation and skill level.

The plan is for me to keep flinging spaghetti strands of work against the wall until something sticks. And the ultimate goal – as stated before – is to find work and a career as a columnist.

If you’re in the industry, the role of columnist isn’t that much different from that of a feature writer…you just make a little more money and have some more leeway in your topic choices.

Today I’m doing the brainstorm thing and picking new topics on which to write. I’ll post new columns almost daily – if I can – to showcase my skills.

This should work pretty well later in the week when Randy Cohen has me as a guest reader on The Ethicist radio program.

Keep watching here for new stuff. I’m done writing this recap and headed over to my desk to pound out some stuff that makes both of us think.

Keep reading!

© Jeff Cutler for Jeff Cutler - columns, essays and opinions, 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: boston globe, brainstorm, daily, dirtrag magazine, scoot magazine, tdf08.com, Yankee Magazine

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