Jeff Cutler™ – columns, essays and opinions

Computers, smart phones, talking GPS, time-zone-alert alarm clocks and heating systems that self-adjust are only a few of the pieces of technology that allow us geeks to stockpile guilt in heretofore unheard of amounts.

While our tech is presumably being efficient and completing tasks while we eat, sleep, code, chat or spend time away from our homes and desks, our minds are busy beating our souls into submission.

According to Freud, the superego uses guilt and self-reproach as its primary means of enforcement for internalized rules. If you don’t achieve a goal, your mind takes it out on you.

Worse, if you give your technology permission to complete a task and it fails, you’re doubly to blame. Once for trusting in technology (an iffy proposition at best because the robots will soon kill us all with lasers) and a second time because you’ll have to do the work yourself in a more responsible way.

Take video production, for instance. No matter how great a processor your computer has, it takes about 14Million hours to process a snippet of HD video. So, most people do the Ron Popeil and “set it and forget it.”

That only works never. Because the second you’re out of sight of the computer, the program realizes it needs you click OK on some button to continue the interminable process.

Is there a solution to how closely we’ve tied our souls to technology’s wins and losses? Sure, don’t do it. Stop blaming the tech.

I mean you should take credit for everything you do, whether it’s tech-assisted or not. Don’t get hung up on the processing power of your PC or the inability of your phone to play FourSquare or the woman on the GPS who allows you to drive into a sand pit.

We’re products of a society that allows everyone to blame others for their plight. Don’t buy into that and don’t bring tech tools into the game either. If you’re smart enough to stuff a SIM card into an iPhone or download a song or even send an email, you’re qualified enough to take the blame for throwing out your photo library, deleting that one email you needed, setting the heat in the house to work during the day instead of night, or forgetting to back up your computer.

I don’t want to hear your whining or your blaming or your shame. Technology is just a tool. Learn how to use it or get out of the way.

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As I look around me, the social media space is developing as the news media space is deconstructing itself. For the first time in many years I’m on the wave instead of behind it.

Don’t believe me? Here are the trends, opportunities and situations I’ve barely missed for one reason or another. Now I feel as if I’ve caught up and dashed ahead of the crowd. Timing IS everything.

1978-81ish – A scrawny and sickly Jeff Cutler is diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease. Had this boy remained healthy for a couple more years he might have more intestines and a slightly better quality of life.

1986 – Jeff Cutler tries out for the college baseball team. Although Cutler runs a 4.8 40-yard dash (that used to be fast in the 80s), the team is already chock full of outfielders. Cutler goes on to star as a cheerleader at the school.

1992 – A fast but undersized Jeff Cutler (see Crohn’s issue above) is invited to a Major League Baseball tryout. He’s demolished in the 60-yard dash by steroid-enhanced 18-year-olds. The Boston Herald devotes an entire Sunday newspaper page to Cutler’s plight.

1997 – Along with two college friends, Jeff starts a Website ‘Rehabilitation’ firm. The company, ConceptClub, flounders for a bit and Cutler accepts a buyout of minimal proportion. ConceptClub morphs into ConceptHost and is providing a nice living these days for one of the founders.

1999 – Cutler enters the dot-com fray only to see it turn into a dot-bomb fiasco. After a quick stint with Fidelity Investments as an Online Editor, he moves to TimeTo.com and is the first one fired as they burn through hundreds of thousands of dollars in beanbag chairs, Sprint PCS cell phones and free breakfasts.

2005 – In the midst of a storied career as a journalist, Jeff ramps up his column-writing efforts and reaches prominence in two short years. Just in time for the papers with whom he’s writing to cancel their Freelance Opinion Column budgets. Hopes for syndication are also diminished as the blogosphere erupts with talking head-esque writing from every corner of the globe.

2007 – After fine-tuning his craft, Cutler matches his writing to the needs of an anxious and hungry editorial base. His features are purchased faster than ever and his work is appearing Internationally…until newsrooms begin to slash staff because of revenue cuts. Cutler gets kill-fee checks like never before and has to begin competing with ‘citizen journalists’ for inches and pay.

2008-09 – The Social Media space welcomes Jeff with open arms. An experienced journalist and writer, Jeff also knows how to connect with people using social media tools and techniques. With the advantage of 20 years in journalism, he brings a unique value to publications anxious to put more content online. These companies are looking for traditionally trained journalists for content and Jeff is poised to assist these firms. Further, every company in the world is now drooling over the possible upside to having a social media presence. Jeff Cutler offers these companies the services of a professional blogger with the skills of a pro reporter and writer.

Stay tuned to see how this chapter turns out. I’ve already been contacted by dozens of companies who are interested in hiring me to write their blogs and report – impartially – on their company. And as you know, I’m covering the Consumer Electronics Show #CES09 in Las Vegas for both traditional and new media outlets.

Got any leads you want to share or stories of your own success? Share them in the comments.

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An AP news story 20 minutes ago (11AM Sunday) detailed new information that the Mumbai terrorists were so technologically advanced when compared to security forces, that the result was destined to result in hundreds dead.

There was no way that local police – wandering about without walkie talkies – could compete with a mission force that was using GPS-enabled devices, Internet VOIP phones and possibly IM services like Twitter. The terrorists were able to remain one step ahead of security by using the latest tech. And that’s where some irony gets injected into this scenario.

As a journalist, I don’t want commoners (people on the street) getting in my way when I’m trying to report on a story. The police don’t want journalists getting in their way when they’re responding to a situation. Unfortunately, if the police and journalists had joined forces and not been advesarial in the Mumbai tragedy, the terrorists might have been captured with loss of life in the 30-40 range instead of the hundreds.

You see, the police and other officials wanted to keep people and journalists from using Twitter and other technology to report on the movements of the security team. But had they been more in tune with the use of new tech, the police could have leveraged the citizens’ efforts and provided misinformation via these new media tools.

Additionally, the press could have maintained a similar cone of silence at least until order was restored. But all reports seem to indicate that Mumbai forces were antagonistic to the press and to the public. Therefore these groups were prone to share their information among themselves and via Twitter and other IM services – many of which were being monitored by the terrorists.

It’s reality that many people still don’t understand the power of new media. That’s unfortunate. What’s worse is that many governments still misunderstand the power of the media and traditional communication.

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I didn’t mean to make the title of this post sound like so many of the movie URLs coming out of Hollywood these days, but it’s accurate. I’m going to give you a bit of the flavor that I’ve tasted while at this professional journalism conference in Atlanta.

New Media is NEW to the traditional journalism hierarchy. Don’t freak out if you’re a Twitter lover or someone who sees blogging as the next vehicle to connect the public with the stories of the day, your methods are coming. But, when it comes to the Internet the news media is only online to connect with colleagues, run down facts, ferret out sources and maybe have a little fun.

In the last session I attended today, Pulitzer Prize winner and newspaperman Hank Klibanoff told us that everyone should be worried about the demise of the newspaper and the value it brings to society. He agreed that in some cases a blogger can deliver the news as effectively as a reporter, but journalists are trained to respect ethics, to report facts and not to infuse articles with opinion.

His main point was that when talk-show hosts and other “liberal media” haters drum the papers out of town, there won’t be anyone left to keep things in check in government and society. And government is one entity that the talk-show hosts hate more than the media.

Contrary to popular belief, newspapers and news outlets are hiring. But mostly for low-paying and no-paying positions as interns and Co-ops. I sat next to Ms. Parker at a session (find her at @wparker on Twitter) and found out that she’s one of the many people who recently took a buy-out package from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. She’s reinventing herself as a freelancer but has the same concerns as any new grad – that there won’t be enough jobs or money to go around. Follow her journey at InkDrainedKvetch site.

PR and expert pushers are alive and well. At the sparse exhibition hall I saw no fewer than four (and maybe there were many more) firms touting either the delivery of press materials to writers or the ability to provide experts on any topic to these same journalists. It’s actually a great service, but any reporter knows that you can’t rely on just one expert from one company and sometimes the agenda of a person providing a source might have to be called into question.

Random sights. I talked with NPR and CNN about freelancing for them. I talked with Sree Sreenivasan about blogs and his evaluation of my work. I raised my hand about a billion times in the 60 Sites in 60 Minutes session. And I realized one of the most important things I’ve got to do is find a proper breakfast place in the Peachtree area of Atlanta.

Follow me on Twitter @jeffcutler for ongoing updates during the conference. Sessions run all weekend. Find out more here.

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This is the first version of the Podcamp Boston feature I prepared for a client earlier this summer. Sometime over the weekend I’ll share the second version of this article.

Podcamp Boston 3 – A Tech-Centric Event About Making Connections
by Jeff Cutler
Correspondent

Podcamp Boston is a blank canvas where tech professionals, bloggers, podcasters and anyone interested in new media can paint a masterpiece.

That’s how Podcamp co-founder Christopher Penn described the opportunities offered at this annual unconference, the third edition of which took place in Boston July 19-20 at Harvard Medical School’s Joseph Martin Conference Center.

Penn, Chief Technology Officer at the Student Loan Network, explained the unconference(cq) model as a “conference put on by its participants.” Podcamp is an event where people can meet, collaborate and learn about media and the technologies people are using to communicate.

Of the 466 paid registrants for this year’s event, many have their own blogs or podcasts (see sidebar).

In geek-speak, this material…be it videos on YouTube, blog posts online, or even downloadable audio…is all classified as content. The people at Podcamp are a self-described collection of content creators and media makers.

But Podcamp is more than a gathering of geeks, and an attendee need not have her own podcast or video blog to participate. Podcamp is part of a movement focused on the way people connect with others, how they entertain themselves and how they share information.

There have now been 41 editions of this unconference worldwide beginning with Podcamp Boston in September 2006.

Chris Brogan is the other Podcamp co-founder and he believes that an unconference is ideal for people to learn about technologies that allow them to connect with others. He contends that Podcamp offers something for everyone, especially people new to using technology.”

“Who we’re trying to reach are the people who we think need to know more about this media,” he said. “So we might reach into businesses, we might reach into educators, we might reach into healthcare, and places where you would not expect your attendee base to come from for an event about media.”

In the hallways at Podcamp, you can’t walk 30 feet without encountering technology. iPhones are commonplace and session updates are handled by sending out alerts via a group text-message service called Twitter.

Many have attended a Podcamp previously, but they come to Boston out of their desire to stay connected with the podcasting world.

Adam Weiss began listening to podcasts in 2003 and helped organize the first Boston Podcamp. This Boston resident attended Podcamp Boston 3 to stay on top of frequently changing methods and technologies in podcasting. For Weiss, this is more than a hobby, it’s his job.

Weiss used to create audio podcasts for the Museum of Science. It was a low-cost way to share science knowledge with a broad audience. It gave science fans a resource they could download and enjoy at their leisure. And it gave the Museum another way to connect with the community and add value to traditional exhibits.

Weiss now makes his living as a podcast consultant and his current projects include audio walking tours of different cities – http://www.audisseyguides.com – and a regular interview-based podcast called Boston Behind the Scenes, http://bostonbehindthescenes.com. This show has featured everyone from Duck Tour drivers to a homeless man Weiss saw regularly during his morning commute.

While these behind-the-scene interviews might attract a small audience, Weiss said that NPR and major broadcasting networks make their programs available in podcast form and their audiences measure in the thousands.

Weiss explained that podcasting is becoming more common, as is the sharing of information at an unconference model like Podcamp.

“It’s starting to become a lot more mainstream,” he said. “So you get a mixture of the people who really know what they’re doing and know what they’re talking about – the geeks again – but also you get a lot of people who want to learn about this. One of the exciting things about an unconference is that it’s either cheap or free, and everybody arrives as equals. So you can go, even if you don’t know anything, and just talk to these people who are experts in the field.”

One such expert is Steve Garfield, a video specialist who lives in Jamaica Plain. Apart from Garfield’s willingness to share video and photoblogging techniques, is his genuine interest in attendees.

“What I get out of these Podcamps is meeting new people and making new relationships with new people,” said Garfield. “And also making existing relationships I have with people stronger.”

Those types of connections are common at an event that has been built on the collaborative energy present in the Boston tech community. According to Brogan, “Boston has a really great tech scene.”

He mentioned the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard, MIT’s media labs and a number of meet-ups (informal gatherings of like-minded people) as examples of how Boston nurtures advances in the adoption of technology.

“There’s a lot of technologists and a lot of media makers and a lot of forward-thinking people on the Boston scene,” said Brogan. “Adding in the newer wave of social media users like PR and marketing types, there’s quite a groundswell of people really passionate and interested in some aspect of making media, distributing media and using content to build relationships.”

That passion has spawned similar events all over the world. After attending an earlier Podcamp Boston, Phil Campbell, founder of http://www.me.dm, decided to establish an unconference for users on the other side of the Atlantic. He raised nearly £10,000 and Podcamp UK took place last September.

“The thing that happens at Podcamps,” said Campbell. “Is that the people who are looking for something tend to organically gravitate toward the people who can make those things happen.

Penn explained that through the use of Google, iChat, Twitter, email and other technologies, people are more knowledgeable and connected than they ever were before.

And it’s through the use of these utilities and the techniques learned at Podcamp, that people are communicating with others and painting their own technology masterpieces every day.

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Jeff Cutler is also a podcaster and is halfway through a one-year writing sabbatical. His progress reports are available at www.jeffcutler.com. Jeff can be reached via email at jeff@jeffcutler.com.

If you have comments or questions about the event, please leave them here in the comments section. If you’d like to have me cover an event for your publication, send me an email.

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From the moment I began hanging around with smart people – the social media crowd, the techies, the scooterists – I’ve become painfully aware that many of them follow schedules that are far more ambitious than the one I’m used to keeping.

There’s a pair of guys who podcast at 5AM each Wednesday morning. Or is it Tuesday? I’ve tried repeatedly to get up and be their in-studio audience, but I can’t do it.

Then there’s the librarian from Canada who spends days helping the forlorn and wayward library visitors, then she restarts her day by participating in lectures, meetups, intellectual and social gatherings, and by writing her insightful and fun blog.

Don’t even talk to me about people like Laura who are parents and still find the energy to entertain and inform thousands of followers on Twitter while seemingly being everywhere at once.

Lest you think I’m an artisan who listens with one ear to his muse while carefully ensconcing himself in his delightfully soft Bob-o-Pedic, settle down.

I am active. I attend functions where smart people abound. And I’m regularly informing and pleasing tens of people with my candor and opinion. But this little ditty isn’t about being active and energetic. No. It’s about the consequences of keeping alternate schedules in a society that is pretty staid in its patterns and norms.

Take for instance the caramel custard I ordered for breakfast the other day while undergoing my Remicade infusion. The little snack was tasty, but its appearance left a lot to be desired.

Then I realized that if I was getting infused at 7AM and ordering a dessert from the kitchen at the same time, when was that item created? Yes. Sometime the previous day.

So I shouldn’t have been surprised to view the stale edges of the custard or the slimy substance that had coagulated under the dessert. And I definitely shouldn’t have been shocked at the consistency of the ‘whipped cream’ on top of the snack.

Oh, I ate it because I was brought up to finish the food I asked for (another time I’ll tell you about having to finish about 12oz of Ketchup with a spoon because I had been haphazard in my pouring technique).

But I wonder if the custard should have remained on the shelf and a safer choice would have been creme brulee French Toast or something more time-appropriate.

Have any stories to share about how your schedule is at odds with your environment? Leave your tales in the comments here. Thanks.

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I’ve written and submitted my first column for SavvyAuntie.com.

Waiting to hear edits. It’s a relatively new enterprise, so I went ahead and shared my column earlier than I usually would because I want to see if it’s complete, on track and needs edits, or totally out in the ether and in need of a rewrite.

Other work today will include putting together my book proposal for a local Boston publishing house. And finally putting together another column for the podcast.

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