My big news

As of January 16, 2013 I have taken a new role as the Assistant Secretary in the Social Inclusion Unit and Office for the Not-for-Profit Sector in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet based in Canberra, Australia. 

Note that this is a full-time job, meaning it will now be my professional priority. In the coming six months, I will be thinking about what to do with my wonderful People First -Total Solutions brand. 

Am so grateful to my colleagues at People First and the wider sector for their support over the last nine years.

I would encourage everyone to follow me on Twitter (martinjcowling) and/or like my Facebook page to stay up-to-date on what I am doing in my new role. I will continue to share key stuff about the sector and volunteering where appropriate.

Good Bye Cowling Report

Hi

I will no longer be writing The Cowling Report from this week.

It has been a lot of fun and I have enjoyed the posts and comments immensely but time has come to move on from this medium.

Please enjoy what I have already!

All the very best

Martin J Cowling

12:12:12:12:12

Its 12: 12 on 12:12:12.

A once in a lifetime date.

What are 12 things you want to accomplish in life? 

It is time to re think Time

Too much volunteer advertising is around these premises

•  “Do you have free time?
• “Do you have some hours to spare?”
• “Bored? Got free time?”

 NO NO NO

Who do you know that has free time? Do you have free time?Do you know any retirees with free time? Most say they are “busier than ever” How many young people really can say they have “free or spare time”?

Wrong premise. Wrong concept of people's time. Few people are wandering around thinking “I have so much spare time” because time is our most precious commodity.

When we ask people to volunteer, we are asking them to give up this most valuable thing.

We need to market volunteering and time differently and we need to make sure the experience they get for their time is rewarding. If your volunteer work os not rewarding, how will you attract people to it?

The Tragic Royal Affair- Five Lessons

I am going to weigh in on a topic that has Australians engaged in furious discussion today. It has some lessons for all of us.

A Sydney radio station 2DAY-FM made a prank call to the London's King Edward VII's Hospital in London where Kate, the Duchess of Kate is a patient. The prank involved the radio announcers impersonating Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip.   In character, the announcers asked a nurse for information about the Duchess of Wales. The station then broadcast the prank. The prank was silly and for some funny.

The consequences do not seem to be:

• The nurse who connected the pair to the ward where the Duchess was, later committed suicide
• The radio station's advertisers began pulling advertising in droves. Finally the station puled all advertising
• The two announcer's are receiving counselling for their actions
• The station has been threatened by hacker group "Anonymous" who have threatened to pull down the website of the station and those of advertisers

I want to express my sorrow to the family who have lost a daughter and a mother. I do not know if she took her life over the prank or whether it was the straw that broke the camels back or if it was a completely unrelated incident.

I do take five Lessons from this affair.

Lesson One: Get Permission

When I was much, much younger, I used to work in radio. I was a DJ for five years with programs at various times. I started on the "graveyard shifts" (weekends midnight to dawn),  did a breakfast program and a morning program. I learnt a lot through radio. One of the things that comes with the responsibility of being on air is ensuring that you have permission to broadcast everything you broadcast.  Every word, every song, every interview. In the current case, to my mind, 2DAY-FM  did not follow this practice. A practice enshrined in the current Australian Media Code of Practice Section 6: Interviews and Talkback Programs:  ''A licensee must not broadcast the words of an identifiable person unless:
a) That person has been informed in advance or a reasonable person would be aware that the words may be broadcast.
b) In the case of words which have been recorded without the knowledge of that person, that person has subsequently, but prior to the broadcast, expressed consent to the broadcast of their words.''

The station said they "tried to contact the Hospital six times". Trying is not good enough. They did not get consent.

The lesson for organisations is that before we publish pictures, quotes or videos from our employees, volunteers and clients, we must have clear permission from the people involved. It has been People First policy that we only take pictures of trainings where people have signed permission for these pictures to be used. I am amazed at the cavalier way other organisations are handling this request for permission. In some places, people have been told before they volunteer or take a job, they must grant permission. People are not given time to consider any document they sign. We must make sure we respect peoples right to have control over their images and words and get their clear permission. When people post images and comments on our Facebook page, we need to show the same standard and look for permissions. We need a policy for it

Lesson Two: Take responsibility for our decisions and actions
This station's management seem to have an ongoing problem. There have been earlier incidents involving 2DAY FM which show a terrible lack of judgement. They escaped censure last time, by the skin of their teeth. If they made such a mistake supporting the airing of this prank and the resulting fall out, they need to own up to it and face the consequences. The management of 2DAY-FM need to go.

Lesson Three: Don't shoot the wounded
The self righteous outcry over the DJs actions is extraordinary. Yes they made the decision to do the prank.  Yes, the prank backfired. Badly backfired. But consider. they will live with the consequences of this error for the rest of their lives. Can you imagine the trauma you would feel over the possibility you did something that caused someone to die? Also, the prank call probably makes it harder for them to work in radio again. I am glad they are getting counselling because they need it. Emails and tweets and comments calling them murderers or evil, do not help.

Lesson Four: We don't need Vigilantes
Fourthly, there are codes and legal processes. We, as the public, may be angry and we may call for justice. We can boycott the station which is a valid response. We may ask others to boycott, But to try and take the law in ur own hands and pull down or hack websites turns us into a 21st Century lynch mob. We may be able to do it but it is not our role.

Lesson Five: Think the Golden Rule
A lesson for us which my parents instilled in me was: "would I want someone to do that to me? " When we are talking with our kids, employees and volunteers we need to get people to think of the consequences of pranks or jokes. We do not want to live in a world with no jokes, no humour but when people  do a prank or a joke, think of the consequences.

Are these lessons valid?

Big Day

Nervous today. Have a very big and important  meeting today.
How do you calm your nerves?

7000+ Readers for The Cowling Report

The Cowling Report reached 7270 readers in November, 2012!
A new record!
My previous peak was 6625 in June, 2012.

The top five countries for readers of The Cowling Report in November were:

1. United States
2. Australia
3. United Kingdom- A number of people I think were attracted from the UK following our very successful Volunteer Magnet Tour held with Rob Jackson Consulting
4. Canada
5. Germany

Over at my other blog: Wild About Travel, I had over 11, 000 visits in November. One third each month are new and two thirds are my existing readers suggesting I have a bit of a loyal following of a few thousand from across the world!

In the case of this blog, 85% of my readers are from the USA. Of interest are the cities where the readers are located:

1.  New York
2. Washington
3.  London, UK
4.  San Francisco
5.  Chicago
6.   Los Angeles
7. Singapore
8.  Seattle
9.  Houston
10. Sydney, Australia
11. Toronto
12. Boston
13. Dallas
14. San Diego
15. Melbourne, Australia

Thank you for journeying with me!

International Volunteers Day

5 December is International Volunteers Day. The day was established by the United Nations in 1985. 

How are you celebrating and commemorating? 

Check out for more:: http://www.volunteeractioncounts.org/en/

A more honest Facebook Privacy

After last week's post on why not to waste your time with guidelines. Here are some I have stolen from a Facebook friend of mine!

In response to the new Facebook guidelines, I hereby declare that I don't have a clue what's mine and what's not. I've basically resigned myself to the probable fact that Mark Zuckerberg and his group can do whatever they want with my identity if they want. I don't know how this stuff works. I've never read the terms & conditions of anything I've agreed to. God knows what my legal obligations are. Yes I should be better informed, but in order to do that, I would need to make it my primary task. Who's got time for that? I have a job already. So whatever Facebook; I don't forbid you to disclose, copy, or disseminate my posts, because I assume you're way too big and moneyed-up to get around whatever kind of crap I post here. I'll just keep doing what I've been doing and hope you don't ruin my life.

They are much more honest..yes?

Facebook Privacy revisited.

Just to be clear. Posting a notice similar to the one below, in any form of it. is a waste of your time. I said this a few months ago and I say it again today. Whatever it reads like, it is the same situation. Here is the one I am seeing multiple times a day at the moment:

In response to the new Facebook guidelines I hereby declare that my copyright is attached to all of my personal details, illustrations, comics, paintings, professional photos and videos, etc. (as a result of the Berner Convention).

For commercial use of the above, my written consent is needed at all times!

(Anyone reading this can copy this text and paste it on their Facebook Wall. This will place them under protection of copyright laws.) By the present communiqué, I notify Facebook that it is strictly forbidden to disclose, copy, distribute, disseminate, or take any other action against me on the basis of this profile and/or its contents. The aforementioned prohibited actions also apply to employees, students, agents and/or any staff under Facebook's direction or control. The content of this profile is private and confidential information. The violation of my privacy is punished by law (UCC 1 1-308-308 1-103 and the Rome Statute).

Facebook is now an open capital entity. All members are recommended to publish a notice like this, or if you prefer, you may copy and paste this version. If you do not publish a statement at least once, you will be tacitly allowing the use of elements such as your photos as well as the information contained in your profile status updates...


Like most spam, it has elements of what sounds like facts but its a misleading statement.

1. To start with: new Facebook guidelines?  Um What new Facebook Guidelines? Guidelines about what? There are not any new guideliens referring to your privacy.
2. Quoting the UCC ( The US Uniform Commercial Code which has nothing to do with privacy or data issues and everything to do with US commercial law) is meaningless. As is reference to the Rome Statute or the Berner Convention. It is as logical and meaningful as claiming the UN declaration on refugees as you are being thrown out of a nightclub.
3. Facebook are an open capital entity - so what? This refers to their status as a company. It means their shares are traded openly not your personal data. Facebook set the terms and conditions for their site not you and you agreed to those when you signed up
4. " If you do not publish a statement at least once, you will be tacitly allowing the use of elements " No you are not. You control who from the public sees your posts using the Facebook privacy controls.
5. "All members are recommended to publish.." No. I will be blunt: Do not post this message. Do not re-post this message. Do not like this message. Delete it off your page. It is cluttering your wall with false information.
6. How many people moving through the internet who see something they like on your  wall will then scroll through your hundreds of posts to see if you have posted a warning. If you must, put it in the Notes section or About Me section in your facebook. And even then who is going to look for it?
7. Facebook themselves have said:  We have noticed a recent status update that is being widely shared implying the ownership of your Facebook content has recently changed. This is not true and has never been the case. Facebook does not own your data and content. Please see our Terms of Service for more information. https://www.facebook.com/policies
8. Finally, how are you going to enforce this statement you have posted. Lets say someone from Armenia or Belgium or Fiji steals the slightly out of focus picture of Your Great Aunt Enid from your cousis's wedding. How are you going to enforce your rights? If you are an Australian or someone in France, how are you going to use the US Uniform Commercial Code or the Berner convention in the Armenian or Belgian or Fijian legal systems? Good luck.

See more on this as: http://cowlingreport.blogspot.hu/2012/06/facebook-privacy-notice-wasting-your.html

LIfe is like a Camera

Facebook Gifts

Facebook Gifts allows users to purchase gifts for friends through the social network.

The service allows people to buy a "gift" in the form of a charitable donation to one of eleven charities. The donation can be up to $25 and 100% of the money goes to the charity.

The platform allows the friends of the giver to see the charity they support with the aim of encouraging them to give too.

Eight million people have given through the Facebook "Causes" feature which is less than one per cent of all Facebook’s users so it will be interesting to see if ths tool fares better.

For more see: https://www.facebook.com/about/gifts

Cyberbullying

Have a look at this interesting article on cyber bullying amongst Youth Groups. Written for Christian based organisations but highly applicable for all sorts of groups. 

This week in my Travel Blog: Wild about Travel, I talk about:

•  medical tourism in Hungary
• how to use USA security lines properly
• an amazing flight with Turkish Airlines and 
• how to buy Hungarian citizenship 

Have a read and -please make a comment or two!

Thought this was interesting

http://www.nonprofitquarterly.org/policysocial-context/21108-the-moveon-effect-looks-at-advances-in-online-advocacy.html

Happy International Volunteer Managers Day

Love this collage from The National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre, Singapore. 

Check out the IVMD Facebook site or their website: http://www.volunteermanagersday.org/

Corporate Volunteer- Whats the value?

At a  recent training, a leader of a volunteer organisation said publicly that from time to time, her organisation has corporate volunteers who attend to perform a day of volunteering. She said "they all come along with their T shirts and cameras."  She said "I don't see them as real volunteers because real volunteers would come on a weekend" 

Further, she makes a point of telling each one that they are not a real volunteer (like her) because they are being paid by their company to be there. She aims to embarrass them into becoming a "real volunteer". She said none do come back which proves to her that they lack commitment.

Great welcome lady! There are a range of views about corporate volunteering but the time to debate whether it is a real volunteering opportunity is not by insulting someone who has come to help us.  

If instead, we said "Welcome and thank you. We run a Family Volunteering event on the first Saturday of the Month, would you like to bring your family along one time?". Having seen the volunteer work and the impact it makes on a community might prompt them (if they felt welcome) to return with family members.

How hard is it to make our organisations more welcoming?

the Adventure of Life!

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”-Dr. Seuss

15 Reasons to be Magnetised

In November this year, I will be presenting: "Turn Your Organisation into a Volunteer Magnet" in locations across the UK with Rob Jackson. This topic will be presented in Exeter, Manchester.  Derby & Penrith. We are also doing our fantastic Social Media course in  Havering, London. 

 Over the next 15 days, I will be sharing reasons for attending this vital training.  Each day I will add a new reason to the list below.

I would be grateful for your comments, particularly if you have participated in this training in the past. If you could tweet or share this blog post in any way so we can encourage as many in the UK to attend as possible.

Reason Number #9: Participant feedback: Volunteer Magnet. something unique & different to the usual stuff we all trot off to.

Reason Number #8: Do you know what attracts and repels Volunteers? The Volunteer Magnet workshop will tell you. Check out http://bit.ly/MagnetReasons for more information on this organisation changing workshop.

Reason Number #7: Kickstart your Volunteer Management. Participant from 2011 Magnet Training says:
This is my new flyer based on what we did at the magnet training. I have set this up to be sent out immediately as someone enquires. I am determined not to be the 70% who do not get back in touch. I have acted on it all and established a Volunteer Council, our first meeting is next week. Please forward my thanks to Rob and Martin, they have kick started me again, I was going through a bit of a defeated slump. 

Reason Number #6: Last Year's Training was Highly rated

Reason Number #5: At the 2012 Volunteer Magnet Workshops being held in November, participants will depart with practical actionable goals.


Reason Number #4: After a recent training by Martin J Cowling, one Australian charity encouraged their employees and volunteers to travel 400km to benefit from his expertise at a second session. 

Reason Number #3: The most practical and dynamic volunteer management training- Volunteer Magnet 2012 will change your organisation. 

Reason Number #2: This is feedback from a recent training conducted by Martin J Cowling who will be presenting with Rob Jackson across the UK in November: "We had a training on Conflict Management delivered by a company two days after your Dealing with Difficult Volunteer Behaviours training. It was rubbish. You are by far the most effective, engaging and skilful trainer I have worked with. Your content is always relevant and evidence-based, your delivery in interesting, and the outcomes for participants are changed behaviour and integration of good ideas into existing practice. Feedback from your session has been overwhelmingly positive, and Regional Managers across the state are planning when we might book you for each region next year. Well done you!"

Reason Number #1: Feedback from a participant at a recent Recruitment training in Australia: "I am going away from this training with 21 new ideas and one alone was worth the registration fee". Get your value at the Volunteer Magnet 2012, a full day of training designed to build your recruitment. For more information click on the links above or click here

Of Stereotypes, shootings and story

Date Night. Saw "Taken 2". To be honest, not my choice but I am in for most things. I wonder if it did not help that I did not see the first one. I was excited to check it out because it was set in Istanbul where I will be next month.

It is an okay movie. I had three concerns though:

My first concern was the thin story line. Liam Neeson's ex wife has unpleasant break up with her new husband. New hubby cancels their trip to China. Instead of re booking it, they join Neeson in Istanbul. He is in Turkey with a suitcase full of illegal weapons protecting a wealthy Arab sheik (no stereotype here!). There he encounters a massive number of men from an Albanian village who have sworn to have their revenge on him for killing the guys from their village who were kidnapping girls in Taken 1.

My second concern was wave of destruction inflicted on Istanbul, Guns, grenades and fast paced car smashes wipe out houses, cars, pedestrians and what looks like half of the Turkish police force. These car chases probably saved the movie, although, The Istanbul scenery was great to see.

My third concern was that, as I mentioned, the baddies were mostly Albanian although they were joined by some Turks who were happy to betray people for the right price. The movie seemed to buy into the stereotype that baddies today are Eastern European/Middle Eastern/Swarthy. There are no Blonde Scandinavian types involved with kidnappings and murders?

My Rating: 3/10
Critics Rating: 2/10
Audience rating: 6/10 (wonder what the Albanians thought?)

Volunteering Australia Update

Today, I heard Paul Lynch, Chair of  Volunteering Australia speaking about Volunteering Australia. In his address he stated that:

1. the move of their office from Melbourne to Canberra was complete. A move that was long overdue.
2. an acting CEO Maureen Cane has been appointed
3. A Policy officer has been employed
4. key services have been devolved to state organisation members such as the National Conference (Volunteering SA and NT are responsible for 2013 Conference) and the Australian Standards on Volunteering (also Vol SAandNT) and the Online Volunteer Role search (Volunteering WA). This is a very sensible move. Volunteering Australia should have been fostering and facilitating the state bodies to deliver services nationally.

Paul offerred to respond to any enquiries regarding the changes via the email contacts on the Volunteering Australia and Western Australia websites. Neither site  has any contact information. 

Related Posts

Volunteering Australia "Vanishes"

Change Shock(?) for Australian Volunteer Centres

Thank You Week

‘Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.’

William Arthur Ward

This is United Way Australia’s Thank You Week. A great opportunity to express our gratitude to the people that make our work possible. 

Spying on Your Kids

At what point does checking on your kids become spying? Saw this article about the subject. What do you think?

‘Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.’

William Arthur Ward

This is United Way Australia’s Thank You Week. A great opportunity to express our gratitude to the people that make our work possible. 

http://www.thirdsector.co.uk/bulletin/third_sector_daily_bulletin/article/1154195/professionalisation-sector-alienated-donors-suggests-tory-mp/?DCMP=EMC-CONThirdSectorDaily

My latest "Funny" Picture

What am I  doing/saying in this picture?  Add your captions at thisFacebook post: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151217722080513&set=a.75763565512.70416.38779800512&type=1

Best caption wins a $20 Itunes voucher. Entries close November 10, 2012. 

First World Problems..Great Video

This is a very powerful YouTube video by the charity Water is Life: http://waterislife.com/media/videos/

Great use of Media.  

Treating People

Treat people as if they are what they ought to be, and you can help them become what they are capable of becoming.

Johann von Goethe

Too True!

New Life

Thanks for everyone's support about my sister.
There are good days and bad moments that just seem to hit.
Watched Dr Who the other day and started sobbing in the middle of it!

Related Post

Post about my sister

When a Leader fails

I had a meeting with a client this week at which I asked after the organisation's CEO. There was a slight awkward pause and I was advised that he was no longer with the agency and "no doubt you saw the news?" I had missed the news reports containing allegations of impropriety by this man.

We are all weak and we all make mistakes at times. Forgetting to switch the alarm on or missing an email is very different, however,  to running away with the organisation's funds or  sexually harassing a vulnerable client,  volunteer or bullying an employee. Leaders seem more vulnerable to these mistakes. Mistakes that emerge from three key areas:

1. Money
2. Sex 
3. Power

Tell me I am wrong?

Richard Foster, a religious writer said in 1985  'No issues touch us more profoundly or universally...No topics cause more controversy. No human realities have greater power to bless or curse. No three things have been more sought after"

How can Leaders avoid the destruction that these three drives can cause? 

Facebook are watching you - they really are this time!

We already know that Facebook "watches" everything we do. Why do I get ads for singles in Toronto, Canada? Because my status is "single" and I have told an app that I am on my way to Canada or logged in whilst in Canada or posted about Toronto.

By using  a Facebook app, reading an article, listening to a song, or watching a video, you give the information to Facebook. That info is shared with your friends and/or added to your profile and stored by Facebook. What is interesting is that info is there for life. 

Now, Facebook has taken this a step forward. They are working with a Datalogix, a North Amercian-based data-mining company that collects and analyses information about consumer behaviour. Data mining uses mathematical techniques to extract meaning from data to identify relationships between things and segment or classify customers based on how well they match something you are selling or marketing.

As you can imagine Facebook has trillions of bits of data. Data mining helps them to better segment advertising to more closely target advertisements, services and products  you will click like on or click links to. But what is more interesting/scarey/fascinating/threatening is that Facebook is trying to link what you buy offline with what you see online. 

Datalogix has data from about 70 million US households that they have extracted from loyalty  programs. Facebook is now matching the email addresses stored with Datalogix and matching it to your Facebook email address. This means they can now tell if you buy something in a store after seeing a Facebook advertisement. 

Facebook is saying: "We don't sell people's personal information, and individual user data is not shared between Facebook, Datalogix or advertisers."  In other words only Facebook will know that I clicked on an advertisement for a pair of jeans and then bought those same jeans three days later. They will simply tell the advertiser that 13 per cent of men in the demographic 40 to 49 who clicked on that ad bought those jeans. 

At this stage, the project seems to be only centred on North America but one can see it being rolled out. Can you imagine what would happen if Tesco in the UK with their 15 million cardholder was linked into Facebook. Suddenly Tesco insurance, phones and products could be linked to consumer online behaviour. In theory, this would mean that entire Tesco stores could have a different product range based on what people in that area are doing on Facebook. 

How to react. Here are seven possible options:

1. Shrug your shoulders and ignore it. After all Safeway is not going to know anything about you that they already don't
2. Move to Tonga where data mining will take some time to catch up
3. Shut down your Facebook account after deleting as many posts as you can
4. Remove your phone number, demographic info where you can from Facebook. This will annoy your friends who are trying to find you. 
5. Have a separate  email address and phone number  for your credit cards, your loyalty cards (eg Frequent flyer cards and store loyalty cards) so Facebook cannot compare it with the data being held byDatalogix or whoever Facebook engage in other countries 
6. Go to the Datalogix Privacy Page and scroll down to  "You may click here to opt out of Datalogix’ services."  and this will opt you out of all data collection done by Datalogix
7. Get the app Disconnect for Chrome or Firefox browsers, which blocks tracking cookies from Facebook, Google, Twitter, Digg, and Yahoo, and prevents all of those services from obtaining your browsing or search history from third party sites that you may visit

There are lots of silly warnings about Facebook (see below) circulating that tell you to do things which ultimately don't protect you...they simply block the very people you want to see your data. You can check Facebook hoaxes here. This is a real situation. I highly recommend you do something useful about it! 

Related Posts

Tuesday Tech: Facebook Changes Unfurled

Spotting Spam on Facebook

Using Facebook's New Timeline

Facebook is NOT as evil and scary as you think!

Terrifying Possibility of the new world.

Hoax Warnings about privacy on Facebook (takes you to Snopes)

What are you doing?

This is quite a challenging picture. What is your reaction?

International Day of Peace

September 21, 2012

My Sister- World Changer

Tamsin Elizabeth Cowling was born September 6, 1966. In May 2011, she was told she would not live to see her 45th birthday.

Being a fighter, she defied the medical system and her cancer to live for two more birthdays. Her last days were increasingly taken up by sleep and she fell asleep for the last time on Sunday, September 9, 2012, having marked her 46th birthday, days before. She slipped into unconsciousness and then gently out of the world.

Her funeral was held at 230pm Thursday September 13, 2012- a week after her birthday. he funeral which was held in Bridgewater where my sister lived for many years. My sister had created the ceremony and interviewed the officiator by skype two days before she died. The Christian Community Church building where the funeral was (of course) full. http://tinyurl.com/Tamschurch

My Dad started by speaking on behalf of the family. Very good statement that "This was wrong". ie no parent should bury their child.

My sister Catriona read a Robert Frost poem: Nothing Gold can stay. http://tinyurl.com/FrostGold

Two of Tamsin's friends shared about her life. Anita a recent friend from Adelaide and her best friend from school; Hazel. The messages were poignant and funny. 

My brother Andrew and I read Psalm 121: http://tinyurl.com/Psalm121

Then I spoke about my reflections on Tamsin. I managed to do the whole thing without breaking down - just a couple of sobs. 

Tamsin's two boys placed a letter each they had written to their Mum on the coffin. 

Then one of Tamsin's friends (Mark) played "Let it be" while his sister Annie (a good friend of Tams) sang it. "Speaking words of wisdom, let it be.  And in my hour of darkness She is standing right in front of me Speaking words of wisdom, let it be" http://tinyurl.com/9yaq37y

We got a messagette from the officiator, candles were lit and the committal read. It was a very long committal --but very very Tamsin: all the elements (air, fire, water, spirit) were covered. My sister would have approved. 

The coffin was carried out. I could not help carry it. As the coffin sat in the back of the hearse, everyone was invited to place a flower on her coffin. (the flowers came from people's homes). The hearse then drove down the road. I watched it go and then walked away. 

I want to say thank you to all of the people who have prayed for her and thought of her. Thousands of people of all faiths and none, in many languages, on all the major continents have been connected to Tamsin over the last year and a quarter. Tamsin knew this and drew great comfort and strength from this. I thank you all -- many of whom I will never know.

Tamsin organised community events for many years. Events to build community, mobilise volunteers, make kids happy, build local economies and engage the public. Her ideas for them were brilliant. She was intensely spiritual, a voracious reader and a committed mother. She was a woman with an amazing smile. My Dad summed it up at the funeral when he said "she could be impossible but wherever she went, she was loved deeply"

I will miss my sister deeply.

Donations in her memory can be made to the Hills Pallative Care Servie that supported her.

The Future of Your Data

Have you heard of "Big data". An example is the 'huge market'' that has developed in analysing what people were doing on their phones. Companies are selling companies the information about users and their apps. What times of the day do they use their apps? Where ? How often?

In a recent  Pew Internet/Elon University survey of 1,021 Internet experts,  39% of survey participants said Big Data is likely to be “a big negative.”

Those who see the collection of this data suggest "Big Data will improve our understanding of ourselves and the world,”  Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project.  David Weinberger of Harvard University’s Berkman Center:, “We are just beginning to understand the range of problems Big Data can solve"

Danah boyd, a Microsoft research scientist : “The Internet magnifies the good, bad and ugly of everyday life. Of course these things will be used for good. And of course they'll be used for bad and ugly. Science fiction gives us plenty of templates for imagining where that will go. 

This is the seventh report generated out of an analysis of the results of a Web-based survey fielded late 2011 Details can be found here

The Real Question

For me, both questions are answered.
For you?

RU OK Day?

The concept of feeling isolated and alone is alien for many of us and a constant companion for others.  R U OK? Day is a national day of action in Australia on the second Thursday of September (13 September 2012), dedicated to inspiring all people of all backgrounds to regularly ask each other ‘Are you ok?'

R U OK?’s mission is to help end suicide by empowering people to make a difference through open and honest conversation and to drive real connection.

The R U OK? Foundation aims to prevent isolation by empowering people to support each other through life's ups and downs.

What are you doing for RU OK Day this year?

My sister's funeral is today

Do I have to go?

Ironic that it is R U OK? day in Australia.

Thoughts on Automatiom

Discuss:

"People prefer automation over human contact, if it works well. "
The era of @ntisocial " -@rstephens founder of Geek Squad at #140conf12

World Suicide Prevention Day

Today is World Suicide Prevention Day, which is observed Sept. 10 each year to promote worldwide action to prevent suicides. This Christian song is dedicated to the memory of those who have taken their own life. I trust people from other faiths or none will find the song helpful. 

Sad

Grieving about he expected but unexpected death of my sister Tamsin aged 46 this evening

The Paralympian Rip Off

Evan George O'Hanlon is a triple gold medal winning Paralympic athlete from Australia, who competes mainly in category T38 sprint events. As of 2011, he is ranked first in the world. (Wikipedia). He holds a world record time. Last weekend, he took another Gold medal for the 100 metres last weekend in London.

At the same Paralympics, O'Hanlon is leading several other Paralympians in what Fairfax calls "a silent, heartfelt protest.". He has taping over the logos of the multinational sporting companies on his sporting gear that he feels have not helped enough to support athletes with disabilities. In fact the companies being blacked out have never supported the Paralympians.

 In the same week that O'Hanlon made his record time in the 100 metres, his request for sponsorship from a sporting goods company got this response ''We are aware of Evan as an outstanding athlete, however we are unable to support him.''   O'Hanlon has never been sponsored by any company although ASICS have paid for his uniform this Games so he is displaying the Asics name.  (I wear Asics so that has made me happy about my shoe choice).


Australian Paralympic team officials have advised they will not prevent athletes from covering the brand names of multinational companies that they believed had not helped enough to support athletes with disabilities. These multinational companiues get publicity from their logos on the gear but get this often the Paralympians have paid for their own uniforms.

Not good enough. O'Hanlon said: 'By covering it up, we're proving that we do have worth...It's what any Paralympian deserves.''

It feels to me, we already under resource the Paralympians. They get less media attention. And yet they are as brave and as dedicated as any able bodied athlete. The TV commentary I saw said of O Hanlon that he "owned the stadium" for his race.

I understand that the Olympic audience is far bigger than the Paralympians but lets treat these guys with some real respect.  

How can we change this without being tokenistic?  Could we pair up Olympic and Paralympic athletes so that a sponsor has to sponsor both? Could Olympians donate 10 per cent of their sponsorship funds to a Paralympian fund? In Australia, could Sports Australia ensure that all of our athletes (Olympic and Paralympic) are dressed? How can we help those Paralympians from a developing country? Could the world's sporting goods companies create a fund

Eastwooding

The internet showed how it morphs and forms itself this week.

It started with Clint Eastwood's appearance at the Republican National Convention where he talked to an empty chair as if it was Obama during his endorsement of presidential candidate Mitt Romney. The sequence starts at 3mins 25 secs...

The chat to the chair became an online craze almost immediately. The next step was images were photoshopped into the Chair including the Princess Leia hologram and scowling Olympian gymnast McKayla Maroney.

This spawned a whole lot of things including a Simpsons newspaper front page with Grandpa Simpson and the headline became "Old Man Yells at Chair" (originally it was:  "Old man yells at cloud")

Comedy site HUMORdy published a video of the chair's imagined response ("my record of providing excellent lumbar support is beyond reproach"). It is hilarious!!! Watch it here:

Then a @InvisibleObama appeared on Twitter.

Invisible Obama ‏@InvisibleObama

I'm the first to break through the glass ceiling. RT @mbierm:@InvisibleObama do you hang out with other invisible presidents?

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17hInvisible Obama ‏@InvisibleObama

.@mittromney is holding a "victory rally" in Cincinnati. "Mission Accomplished", Mitt. Was looking for the banner, but it must be invisible.

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31 AugInvisible Obama ‏@InvisibleObama

If I was a Droid, my name would be C-Thru-B-O.

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What was fascinating is that, according to Ohmygov in the 24 hours after the Convention, Romney gained 23 thousand new Twitter followers and Ryan gained 18 000 new followers but @InvisibleObama ended up with 42 000 new followers- more than Ryan and Romney combined.

After the final night of the convention, Robert Gehrke (@RobertGehrke) a reporter with the Salt Lake City Tribune, had a colleague take a picture of him pointing at a chair and tweeted it with the tag "Look its Eastwooding". Within hours they were joined by over 25,000 "Eastwooders" on Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, Tumblr and Instagram  all sharing pictures of themselves pointing at empty chairs.

This was followed by babies, cats and dogs staring at empty chairs.

Even the US President (or a clever adviser)  joined in the fun tweeting a photo of himself at the office in a chair marked "The president", with the comment "The seat's taken".

It is fascinating to see how Social Media can ru with something, develop and nurture it. If you want to see more of the Eastwooding pictures, check out my Pinterest board: