Greatest Hits Edition

Five Links: Technology and The Future

Last modified on 2012-12-28 11:46:04 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

Technology and The Future

Five Links: Technology and The Future

• Business Failure: Key To Growth
  Quick review of a study that validates the idea that serial entrepreneurs are more likely to build successful businesses. Prior business failure is an indicator of future business success. The principle should be a part of succession planning. The fact that it isn’t explains why so many succession plans actually succeed at predicting succession.
• Visual Math Gone Wrong
  Starting right now, HR workers and executives should be focusing on expanding their grasp of data visualization (and other aspects of contemporary statistics). Communicating with the right graphs that effectively show the right stuff is a survival skill for anyone who wants progressive responsibility. This article steps through the reasons that a set of charts don’t work.
• Everything Marketing: How Growth Hackers Redefine Game
  “Before he became the most brilliant and famous man in the ad business, David Ogilvy sold vacuum cleaners door to door. Because of that, he never forgot that advertising is just a slightly more scalable form of creating demand than door to door sales. But the rest of us, decades away from a world of traveling salesmen and mail order catalogs, are removed from this fundamental reality. We forget the function behind the form and miss out on new opportunities because we can’t see what’s in front of us. At the core, marketing is lead generation. Ads drive awareness…to drive sales. PR and publicity drive attention…to drive sales. Social media drives communication…to drive sales. Marketing, too many people forget, is not an end unto itself. It is simply getting customers. And by the transitive property, anything that gets customers is marketing.”
• How We Think About Technology
  A loving introduction to an amazing free book from the Atlantic. It’s 300 pages of their best tech stuff from the last year.
• Reverse network effects: Why scale may be the biggest threat facing today’s social networks
  One would expect that the bigger the network, the more value users derive from it. However, as networks scale, the value for users may drop for several reasons:
  1. Connection: New users joining the online community may lower the quality of interactions and increase noise/spam through unsolicited connection requests.
  2. Content: The network may fail to manage the abundance of content created on it and may fail to scale the curation of content created and the personalization of the content served to users.
  3. Clout: The network may get inadvertently biased towards early users and promote them over users who join later.

   

Events, Interesting Happenings and New Resources

• HRExaminer Radio Industry News and Commentary.
  First Show: Friday, Jan 4 2PM EST – 11AM Pacific
• Skills Gaps: Understanding Talent Shortages and What They Mean
  This webinar (recording) covers the underpinnings of the Skills Gap. It’s part 1 of a series. Parts 2 and 3 available in 2013.
• Social Recruiting Strategies Conference
  (San Francisco, Jan 30-31, 2013) John Sumser keynote on the history and future of social recruiting
• HRTech Europe: Spring Warmup
  (London, March 19-20, 2013) Sumser on Where Ideas Come From and the Big Data Showcase
• Learning Analytics Summer Institute
  (Stanford, Palo Alto July 1-5, 2013) This looks like the right place to be if you’re interested in Big Data for Learning.

Skills Gap: The Series

Last modified on 2012-12-28 08:39:19 GMT. 2 comments. Top.

The series (so far) addresses the combination of perception based questions and technology driven issues.

Skills Gap: The Series

In the late fall, we published the start of ongoing coverage of the skills shortage. It’s really important to get a grip on the various causes and perceptions that underlie the Skills Gap phenomenon. The series (so far) addresses the combination of perception based questions and technology driven issues.

There are other elements afoot, from demographics to the rapidly shifting corporate infrastructure. A walk down any Main Street will show you what’s hapopening in the retail sector. It’s shrinking and getting more technical. At the very same time, retail suffers from surplus and shortage. That’s what’s so tricky about any anlysis of the problem.

This first segment of our Skills Gap coverage should give you a grounding in the basic dynamics of the Skills Gap.

• Skills Gap 1: The Hiring Paradox
• Skills Gap 2: Outsourcing
• Skills Gap 3: The Pace of Change
• Skills Gap 4: Undercapitalization
• Skills Gap 5: The Future is Here

More Privacy

Last modified on 2012-12-28 08:34:34 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

Here is the series we did on workplace privacy late last year.

As technology makes monitoring everything possible, and data about people, their bodies, actions, and processes becomes valuable, privacy will be one of the biggest social and legal issues of our time.

Here is the series we did on workplace privacy late last year.

Employee Privacy- What Can Employer’s Monitor?

The short answer is: A lot. If the device or hardware is the employer’s, including the smart phone issued by the company, the employer is entitled to monitor and track the data generated.

Employee Privacy 2- When It’s Personal

Employees do have some privacy rights though. This piece looks at where those rights originate and what questions to ask to figure out if something is protected.

Employee Privacy 3- Social Media

Social media seems intimate and among “friends,” but it’s not. This piece looks at how to think about privacy and social media at work.

Year in Review: Privacy

Last modified on 2012-12-28 08:28:23 GMT. 1 comment. Top.

Allowing people to know information about you is not necessarily a bad thing.

In March 2012, we did a series on information privacy where we looked at:

• What information is and isn’t private before you turn on your computer;
• What information gets collected online;
• What laws protect privacy;
• What are the legal issues; and
• What is HR’s role in protecting privacy.

Recent Developments

Nine months later, there has been lots of activity that affects online privacy, but no clear direction. Among the latest developments:

Twitter has partnered with a company to allow access to every tweet ever written for a fee. The government already has it because tweets are being archived by the Library of Congress. Until now, you could only search a rolling database of 3200 tweets per account.

Google is facing fines from the EU because its privacy policies fail to pass Europe’s stricter rules on data collection on users.

The Mobile Device Privacy Act was introduced in Congress to designate all data collected as “private information,” and require all data tracking and collection to be disclosed. So far, data privacy legislation has not passed Congress, probably because it is big business and both government and law enforcement also want the data.

At the same time, the House passed an extension of FISA that allows the government to  obtain data and conduct surveillance of people without a warrant. The law has not passed the Senate yet, but probably will in the name of “security.”

Numerous states, including California, have passed laws that prohibit employers and schools from demanding social media passwords.

How to See Who’s Tracking You

Mozilla has developed an extension to Firefox called Collusion, that allows you to track the trackers, and see what sites are collecting information about your online activity. Collusion shows you what websites you contact, then what other sites start tracking you based on the ones you contact. The sites you don’t contact usually get access through retargeting based on cookies, or joint agreements with advertising companies that give all subscribers access to each other’s data. You will be surprised at how many there are, and how much money they make at it. To watch it work, see Gary Kovac’s TED talk on Collusion.

What Can You Do?

First, don’t freak out. Okay, freak out. Then figure out what information is important to keep private and what isn’t, and take steps to protect it.

Check Your Info. You already know to take care with financial and credit card accounts. But what about having your full birthdate and mother’s maiden name on your Facebook accounts? If your parents are divorced and your mom is a friend, chances are you do. Go through your social media profiles and look at the information that’s there. Assume that it is available to everyone. Then eliminate anything you don’t really need or want to be there.

Consider disinformation. Teenagers already have multiple social media accounts so that they can give certain people some information and keep it from others. The fundamental premise of data collection is that people will give accurate information. If you are not required to tell the truth, like on a job or loan application, is there any reason to give accurate information? If you don’t want some marketing company to develop a precise profile of you, then don’t give consistent information. They can collect all the information they want if the profile ends up being a Male or Female, Hispanic, African American or Asian, between the ages of 18 and 60. with an income of $5K to $150K. Disclaimer: I am not suggesting you give false information when you are legally required to give, or represent that you are providing, accurate information. I’m just pointing out that it’s not always required.

Don’t Trust Privacy Settings.  Privacy policies and most “privacy” laws don’t require companies to protect your privacy or to keep your information secret. They mostly just require companies to tell you what data gets collected and whether they sell or give it to others. Go read a few privacy policies. My favorite is Skipity whose terms include:

We firmly believe that privacy is both inconsequential and unimportant to you. If it were not, you probably would not have a Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn account: and you certainly wouldn’t ever use a search engine like Google. If you’re one of those tin-foil-hat wearing crazies that actually cares about privacy: stop using our services and get a life.

We agree with Mark Zuckerberg when he pithily opined “The age of Privacy is Over.”

Our privacy policy is a reflection of this conviction. Therefore, to satisfy the absurd privacy requirements of various legal entities (and so you understand exactly where you stand with us) we are pleased to present our privacy policy:

1. We are the company that cares about your privacy. Specifically, while most other companies are concerned with protecting your privacy, we care about profiteering and violating it when expedient or useful.

2. You may think of using any of our programs or services as the privacy equivalent of living in a webcam fitted glass house under the unblinking eye of Big Brother: you have no privacy with us. If we can use any of your details to legally make a profit, we probably will.

3. We will track and log everything we can about all the dirty (and clean) things you do and like with cookies, GPS, secure connections and or whatever technology exists today or becomes available at any time in the future.

4.  By using any of our services, you grant us permission to surgically implant a tracking microchip of our choosing in your body and sell all collected information to the highest bidder . . . and to all other bidders. You also agree to regular updates and reinstalls of said device entirely at our discretion for up to 50 years after the end of your natural life.

Make Informed Choices. Before you fill out that survey, fill in the blanks, check in on FourSquare, check out that shoe add, or check the “I agree” box, understand what information you are giving out and decide if you care. Also understand that your phone is a GPS tracking device and that it’s relatively easy to get information on where you are, who you are talking to, and what you are doing. So make informed choices about what information you put out in public.

What to Expect

Allowing people to know information about you is not necessarily a bad thing. I like it when Amazon suggests other books I might want to order by the same author or about the same subject. I often buy them. But the Facebook ads for weight loss, wrinke reducers and pole dancing lessons usually just piss me off.  Facebook would argue if it had better information on me, I’d get better ads. (And if you want better ads, you can click on the ads and tell Facebook what you want.) But I don’t really want better ads either.

I don’t believe that laws, either through legislation or court decisions will ever be able to effectively handle the issue. This is because the process takes too long, and technology is changing faster than lawyers can introduce laws or file lawsuits.

I expect, in the near future, we will start seeing privacy software that either stops information from being collected or gives you the ability to see it and customize it. The only way to effectively deal with technology is to apply technology. Who needs privacy rights, when you can download the app?

The Series: New Architecture of Work

Last modified on 2012-12-28 08:58:15 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

The Series: New Architecture of Work

In the late summer, we started exploring the new face of HR in the “New Architecture of Work” series. There are a number of driving forces moving HR into its next level:

• The first full generation of software, which was completely devoted to the definition and aurtomation of business processes is finished. There are no more processes to automate. The work that’s left boils down to tightening the integration between functions.
• New techniques and technologies are entering the workforce. From personal communication devices to gamification, from exploding reams of data to new problem solving techniques, from agile methods to a new appreciation for design and user experience, the workplace is changing. HR’s role is becoming to be the arbiter of privacy, enterprise data from employees and the architect of jobs.
• Skills gaps necessitate the careful use of existing people

In all, HR sits on the verge of greatness. It will have to let go of the navel gazing that occupies most HR analytics and learn to see the enterprise in a new light. There are no other places for the responsibility to vest.

This series is the first visit we’ll make to this aspect of the future.

Have a look.

• I: Intro to The New Architecture of Work
• II: The Work Department
• III: Gamification
• IV: Agile Technology
• V: Learning
• VI: Learning Technology
• VII: Learning Tech: Wealth Habits

• HRExaminer Radio Industry News and Commentary.
  First Show: Friday, Jan 4 2PM EST – 11AM Pacific
• Skills Gaps: Understanding Talent Shortages and What They Mean
  This webinar (recording) covers the underpinnings of the Skills Gap. It’s part 1 of a series. Parts 2 and 3 available in 2013.
• Social Recruiting Strategies Conference
  (San Francisco, Jan 30-31, 2013) John Sumser keynote on the history and future of social recruiting
• HRTech Europe: Spring Warmup
  (London, March 19-20, 2013) Sumser on Where Ideas Come From and the Big Data Showcase
• Learning Analytics Summer Institute
  (Stanford, Palo Alto July 1-5, 2013) This looks like the right place to be if you’re interested in Big Data for Learning.