Author: dave Page 41 of 75

My Dad died in June, 1995, nearly 12 years ago. Hard to believe.

When he died, I got a card from a friend that had a simple message. It said, “I never really felt grown-up until Dad died.” How true.

I’ve never really written about my Dad’s death or what he meant to me and the rest of our family. It’s just been too hard. Even today, 12 years on, it’s still “too soon.”

So today, when I listened to the most recent edition of the Digital Flotsam podcast, the content really hit home.

Digital Flotsam is done by P.W. Fenton (or P-Dub, as he’s called by everyone). It’s best described as a story-telling podcast, teamed up with wonderful music. It’s always one of my favourites.

This edition is called “Room at the Top” and it’s a tribute to P-Dub’s Dad, who passed away on March 15.

Take a listen. You can find it at DigitalFlotsam.org.

Let me know what you think.

Guy Kawasaki posted this item a couple of weeks ago, but I only recently came across it. The article he links to is as good as he says it is. I’ve also ordered the book. This kind of research strikes a chord with me. It’s something we all need to consider, especially those who are managing people in our workplaces.

Here’s the link to his original post: "The Effort Effect"
And here’s a snippet from his post:

If you manage any people or if you are a parent (which is a form of managing people), drop everything and read The Effort Effect. This is an article about Stanford psychology professor Carol Dweck. It examines her thirty-year study of why some some people excel and others don’t. (Hint: the answer is not ‘God-given talent.’)

The article postulates that people have two kinds of mindsets: growth or fixed. People with the growth mindset view life as a series of challenges and opportunities for improving. People with a fixed mindset believe that they are ‘set’ as either good or bad. The issue is that the good ones believe they don’t have to work hard, and the bad ones believe that working hard won’t change anything.

She recently released a book called Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. I have not yet read it, but I ordered it as soon as I read this article. I can’t imagine not liking it.

(Via How to Change the World.)

Good news on the music front today.

After weeks of speculation, EMI announced that they will begin selling DRM-free copies of their music. And the first place the new higher-resolution songs will be available will be the ITunes Store.

I suspect this is the beginning of the end for DRM’ed music, but it’s probably going to take awhile to trickle through the industry. And it’s worth noting that lower-resolution versions of EMI’s music (through single downloads) on the ITunes store will have DRM.

There’s lots more to come on this issue, but following up on Steve Job’s letter about DRM, it’s clear that this issue is starting to go the right way for those of us that enjoy digital music.

Update: Cory Doctorow at Boing Boing also has this story, along with the most amazing string of links to other posts about it that I’ve seen in a blog post. Take a look!

Technorati Tags:
Apple, DRM, EMI

The firestorm that erupted last week over threats received by blogger Kathy Sierra has taken an interesting turn. Today, Sierra and Chris Locke (one of the people mentioned in her original post) published a joint statement (read it here) about the issue.

According to Sierra:

When I was first bombarded by the media about this story, I refused to answer questions. Having no media experience, I found that when you don’t answer a reporter, they’ll tell your story without you, so I agreed to speak with a few. When I was asked for a short CNN interview, I said that I would do it only if they would let me invite Chris Locke as well. Needless to say, everyone including Chris was stunned to hear this.

But these stories should not be about me… I am simply one of a gazillion examples about what’s happening today both on and offline. Nor is it a simple Nice Vs. Bully story, and I thought having us come to an understanding would encourage others to stop fighting on either of our behalves and try to listen first, and then talk, and maybe something good and useful really will come of this.

They both appeared on CNN Monday morning to talk about what’s happened, but they wanted to issue a statement to ensure that their story got out in full.

There has, of course, been a lot of stuff written on this issue. One that I’d recommend you read is a story from Salon editor Joan Walsh (which appeared before the news broke about the joint statement) that looks into the whole question of whether women are receiving more abuse online than men.

I had been considering letting my Salon membership expire, since I hadn’t been reading it as often as I used to. But Walsh’s post reminded me why I like the publication. It’s feature-length stories are well-written and usually interesting. Worth the price, I figure, so I’m going to renew.

Update: Here’s the CNN report from Monday morning. (You’ll need Quicktime to view it.)

Technorati Tags:
kathy sierra, cyberbullying

Eric Eggertson over at Common Sense PR has been keeping track of the fallout and controversy in the wake of Kathy Sierra’s post earlier this week on the death threats she’s received.

Here’s the link to his latest post.

Technorati Tags:
kathy sierra, cyberbullying, violence, women

Kathy Sierra, one of the authors of the blog, “Creating Passionate Users,” has put up a disturbing story on her blog, which has the entire blogosphere questioning the limits of free speech.

The post is called “Death threats against bloggers are NOT “protected speech” (why I cancelled my ETech presentations).”

In the post she outlines how she has received death threats against her, posted to her blog and others, and that as a result she’s cancelled all her public appearances and is loathe to even leave her home.

It’s a frightening and disturbing post, which has generated a huge amount of commentary both in the comment to the post itself (which are overwhelmingly sympathetic and positive) and in other posts about the issue.

Since I started blogging three years ago, I’ve always been aware of the dark side of this genre. But I’ve never seen anything like this, both in terms of the threats to Kathy directly and the response from the blogging community.

I know that it’s probably only a few “wingnuts” that are responsible for this, but I’m not sure that we’ll be able to ignore their impact. And if someone as passionate about what she is doing as Kathy Sierra is silenced, we’ll all suffer for what’s happened.

But I’m also grateful that Sierra had the courage to write this post, as difficult as that may have been. She didn’t just hide it under the rug, and now the bad stuff is out there for us all to consider and talk about.

The blogosphere is a community, which we usually think of as a good thing. But every community has a dark side, so we shouldn’t be surprised by what’s happening. Let’s hope that the discussion that comes out of this is positive.

And let’s sincerely hope that this is not the last post that Kathy Sierra ever writes.