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?

Expand

•  Reply 
•  Retweet 
•  Favorite

17hInvisible Obama ‏@InvisibleObama

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

Expand

•  Reply 
•  Retweet 
•  Favorite

31 AugInvisible Obama ‏@InvisibleObama

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

Expand

•  Reply 
•  Retweet 
•  Favorite

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:

So True

"We are all different, there is no such thing as a standard or run-of-the-mill human being, but we share the same human spirit. What is important is that we have the ability to create… This creativity can take many forms, from physical achievement to theoretical physics… However difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at.”

Stephen Hawking, 2012 Paralympics Opening Ceremony.

Happy Fathers Day Dads