Archive - March, 2010

Linchpin

March 13, 2010 in Leadership with 3 Comments

Linchpin by Seth Godin was a really good book and was released at the perfect time in my life and career.

Linchpin discusses many topics including how it is necessary for individuals to exert emotional labour while at work, the need to stand out and be indispensable, how our brains are wired to naturally resist becoming a linchpin.  How management, history, and school has taught us to follow the rules, work hard and you will be rewarded and why this no longer will ensure a happy and prosperous future.   These and other concepts are tied together very well, and give the reader a new perspective.

For some it will drastically change their perspective on work and their interactions with others in all areas of their life.  For others that are already on their way to becoming a linchpin, it will provide guidance and ideas for growth and improvement.

While I believe that many industries will and do resist the ‘Linchpin way of thinking’ due to historical concepts of what worked in the past, eventually it will take hold in all industries.  It has to, and this becomes more and more obvious as you read the book.  The previous and in some cases current ways of running businesses, working with customers, and fellow employees are no longer viable.  Clear real world examples are given as well as science to back up the concepts and ideas presented.

Although the entire book was excellent, two sections that ‘registered’ with me on a very intimate level were More cowbell and Honest signals in every day life. More cowbells is something that I have realized my mother taught me growing up.  Basically, if you are going to do something then do it.  Don’t do it half way, or partially, do it.  Honest signals in every day life discusses concepts such as micro-expressions and the basic idea that we as humans naturally detect who is honest and sincere and who is not and we react accordingly.  The non-verbal communication registers with us much more than what is said.

A few of my favourite quotes:

When your people do what they do because they love it, it works. Even if they’re not as technically adept as the competition.

The reason start-ups almost always defeat large companies in the rush to market is simple: start-ups have fewer people to coordinate, less thrashing, and more linchpins per square foot.

It is okay to have someone you work for, someone who watches over you, someone who pays you. But the moment you treat that person like a boss, like someone in charge of your movements and your output, you are a cog, not an artist.

People are not going to follow you because you order them to …. Linchpins don’t need authority. It’s not part of the deal. Authority matters only in the factory, not your world.

People follow because they want to, not because you can order them to.

The linchpin is able to invent a future, fall in love with it, live in it — and then abandon it on a moments notice.

Management, entrepreneur, leader, worker, mother, father, or spouse there is a message for everyone.  All in all this book is about growth.  Learning to become a linchpin while respecting the needs and concerns of others.

In addition, here are some great quick videos, where people speak about Linchpins.

Verified by Twitter is just silly

March 4, 2010 in musings, Security with 0 Comments

Have you ever seen the Verified by Twitter logo.  It is suppose to give the public assurance that the person that holds the account is the real person and not someone pretending to be them.  Off and on over the last few weeks I have been trying to find out what the procedure is? What are the requirements?  How to they prove the individual is who they say they are?  Does Twitter intend to role it out to everyone?  I have had no luck.  Any queries seem to go into a vacuum.  They have this page which says:

To prevent identity confusion, Twitter is experimenting (beta testing) with a ‘Verified Account’ feature. We’re working to establish authenticity with people who deal with impersonation or identity confusion on a regular basis. Accounts with a Verified are the real thing!

The first and last statements are what interests me, “To prevent identify confusion” and “Accounts with a Verified are the real thing!”.

I have always been a fan of the music group The Corrs.  One of the members, Sharon Corr has gone out on her own and is creating some songs and getting ready to release an album.  I have been following her on Twitter. She has a Verified by Twitter account. Her twitter ID is @Sharon_Corr.  If I look at her account, from the picture and links to her website and videos I can be reasonable certain it is her.  However, what if you were looking for a different Sharon Corr.  There must be more than one Sharon Corr in the world.  So I randomly tried @SharonCorr.  This person appears to be someone who writes poetry.  But is her name really Sharon Corr?  What if it is and she applies for a Twitter verified account?  Will Twitter verify it and give her the Verified by Twitter logo?  If her name is Sharon Corr, then they should.  But that might confuse someone like myself, looking for the singer Sharon Corr, so maybe they won’t.

How does Verified by Twitter make me feel safe as a user of Twitter?  If they fully roll this program out, they will encounter multiple people with the same name that all have verified accounts.  Maybe they use the URL on the profile page as the key.  If I see that the URL points to Sharon Corr’s website and there is a Verified by Twitter logo I can be certain that the person that has the website URL, also owns the Twitter account.  Of course that would confirm the relationship between the twitter account and the website, not the actual person Sharon Corr.  This of course assumes they know what I am looking for?  How do they know which Sharon Corr I want?

I looked up Taylor Swift for fun.  Her account is Verified by Twitter.  Her ID is @taylorswift13.    There is also a @taylorswift13x.  If you look at the two accounts they are very similar.

Taylor Swift’s real account (I think)

The website doesn’t help, because the URL points to itself.  We know Taylor Swift is popular so if you look at the followers count and combine that with the tweets and news articles you can conclude this is her account … maybe.

A fake Taylor Swift account (I think)

This is probably the fake one because of the follower count.  But then again, maybe this persons name is Taylor Swift and maybe this is the person I am looking for, not the popular one.  I am very confused now and Twitter said in their statement above that they were going “To prevent identify confusion”.  In order to do that, you actually have to know what identity I want to find, you can’t just guess. But that is what they are doing ‘guessing’ what I want based on popularity.  I think Verified by Twitter is just security theater.  The verified account doesn’t help.  Verifying someone is a complex problem and  putting a logo on a page just doesn’t cut it.

Maybe the logo should really be “Twitter verifies this to be the popular person you might be looking for logo”?

How to determine what you are worth financially?

March 3, 2010 in musings with 0 Comments

Ever wonder if you were being compensated appropriately?  Maybe you are being under paid or maybe you are being overpaid.  Being under paid or over paid is often typical.  In the first case, you might have been in your current position for 2 years and the cost to hiring an individual in your role with your skill set has increased significantly.  Often times since you have been at the company for a while, you have received the standard increase in salary of x percent which is less than the current market rate.   In the latter case, the market value of someone in your position with your experience has dropped.  New hires are cheaper, but the employer typically doesn’t drop your salary, they just give you the nominal x percent raise per year.

I know one individual who was at a company for a number of years.  He moved within the company to manage a new team.  He was surprised to learn the amount of money his team members were making compared to his salary.   He then became really upset when he learned that an individual that now reported to him was making more money than he was.  The company rectified the situation of course, but these things happen.  Salaries get out of alignment with the market.

I have been trying to determine my market value lately.  I hate the money part, I always have.  I like doing interesting stuff with cool people.  For me the money is secondary, tertiary or even further down the list, it always has been.  That being said, you have to pay the bills, and you want to be treated fairly. In order to know that you are being treated fairly, you need to have some data to compare and contrast.  I have tried several methods including on-line databases, research reports on salaries for people in technology.  I found them to vary widely regardless of the factors.  I didn’t trust the the data I was getting.  The results were all over the board.

I have however found the answer.  My solution was to query my network.  Via E-Mail, face to face conversations and Twitter, I asked a selected variety of individuals in the technology field.  Some managers, some directors, others owners of companies for input based on a few simple criteria including years of experience, location, and type of opportunity.  The responses were great.  They varied in detail and some included bonus and wages but information was very consistent across the network.   I am now much more comfortable with the market value for myself.

Personally, I have always wished that people were more open with their compensation.  Not to be nosy, but I think the openness would help many people and the industry in general.  Unfortunately, it is considered a very ‘private’ matter.  Most companies of course have explicit rules that say you can not discuss your compensation.  You can understand why they do this of course, it is to their advantage not the communities.

I’m realizing more and more that my personal network has a lot of untapped value. I need to harness it more and I also need to ensure I give back even more as that is what keeps it going. To all the individuals that responded to my query thank you.

Do you know what you are financially worth in your market?  Is the value accurate?

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Information leakage and privacy

March 1, 2010 in Forensics, Privacy and Anonymity with 0 Comments

Have you ever sent an email from a personal email account at work such as Hotmail, Gmail, or your personal account at your service provider?  When you do that you might assume that since you are sending the email from a central system it would not be possible for the recipient to obtain information about you beyond what you give them and an email address.  Unfortunately this is not true.  Information is leaked in many ways.  SMTP, DNS, HTTP all can leak information about a particular individual or organization.  In my experience, most people know this is possible, but fail to grasp the ease with which information about a person or company can be discovered.

Here is a simple example to illustrate.  I have found when speaking to many users of email, they feel that their location could not be determined by the recipient in an email unless they specifically give it, or it would be at least difficult to find out.  They even feel more comfortable with this statement when they are using their personal email from a terminal at work or a Internet cafe via a browser.

I was recently corresponding with a friend of mine.  She has a Rogers email account that she uses for her personal email.  She sent me a response to an email.  By looking at the email itself, there is no information that would give away where she was located.  However, if I look at the email headers a wealth of information is available.  Let’s focus on one piece.

* headers not required for purposes of entry have been removed and others edited as required to protect identities

The ‘Received:’ header above displays an IP address.  Taking that IP address and doing a ‘whois’ (shown below) reveals the company name where the email originated.

* removed ISP information and edited company info to ensure privacy

How could this information be used?  If someone wanted to surreptitiously gather intelligence on a target, one could send a email to a target asking an innocuous question.  By responding the target has unknowingly revealed their place of employment.  A few searches on Google, a picture on Facebook of yourself and family members … you get the idea.

This type of information gathering has valid uses.  Determining a time-line of a target and their actions from a corporate or legal investigation, determining if your spouse is cheating on you, or your teenage child is lying are some examples.

I am not suggesting that you should try to hide this or not use the Internet.  I am also not suggesting it will be fixed anytime soon, if ever.  I am suggesting to be aware.  Be aware that in todays world, data about yourself is being leaked all the time and any determined individual or group can find out what you are up to with minimal effort.  Be aware that even the most common activity leaks data.

How secure or anonymous do you feel when using the Internet?

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