From the desk (and BlackBerry) of Keith Parnell

This is a follow-up to an earlier post about whether Chief Information Officers should have experienced technology, business or both backgrounds.

I made a statement that our CIO in 2009 must be the go-to person at the C-level conference table for social media topics. It went something like this -

… the role of the CIO, in 2009 we will be adding a specific requirement that satisfies marketing initiative requirements. The CIO must understand and must support social media. Period.

To further elaborate, I believe it is the CIO’s responsibility to be all over social networks for their company, to be knowledgeable in the environment and understand them architecturally. This means experience. This means active participation.

The CIO must know, in enough detail, the relationship between architecture, strategy and innovation. And must be able to establish goals for the IT division that will satisfy marketing on social platforms like JASEzone.

Colossians 3:16-17

Let the teaching of Christ live in you richly. Use all wisdom to teach and instruct each other by singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Everything you do or say should be done to obey Jesus your Lord. And in all you do, give thanks to God the Father through Jesus.

Here’s a perfect example from Chris Tomlin of such a powerful song - How Great is Our God.

This is a tired conversation. It’s gone on for several years now, for as long as the Chief Information Officer title has been hip.

The answer is simple. Why not both?!

I’m not going to hire (or be) a CIO that doesn’t know tech. And I’m not going to hire (or be) a CIO that doesn’t fully understand how to align their division with the business goals of the organization.

To further expand on the role of the CIO, in 2009 we will be adding a specific requirement that satisfies marketing initiative requirements. The CIO must understand and must support social media. Period.

What do you think? Should the CIO shoulder this much expectation?

This is a very powerful passage with so many great points; it’s almost ashamed to group them together in one message. But here it is. Take the time to read it a couple of times.

Colossians 3:12-15

Since God chose you to be the holy people whom he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. You must take allowance for each other’s faults and forgive the person who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. And the most important piece of clothing you must wear is love. Love is what binds us all together in perfect harmony. And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are all called to live in peace.

That’s a strong statement. Here it is again, all forms of media will be intangible in 5 years.

That was Steve Rubel’s prediction in the December 1st edition of Advertising Age (print magazine). Steve wagers that, “by January 2014 almost all forms of tangible media will be either in sharp decline or completely extinct in the U.S.”

Tangible media = newspapers, magazines, books, DVDs, boxed software, video games, etc.

He asks that we consider these points:

• The success of Amazon Kindle.
• Random House is making 15k books available online.
• Microsoft’s Xbox is open to user-generated games available online for download.
• Apple setting the tone through its iTunes store with downloadable iPhone and iPod Touch games.
• Netflix offering play-on-demand movies over the Internet.
• Christian Science Monitor closed its print copy and made all content available online regularly.

All forms of media will be intangible in 5 years? Steve makes some good points but not sure I can get behind this. Consider the Pew Research stats we published earlier this week that 35% of surveyed adults still get their news from newspapers. Those same adults are readers of books, readers of Time magazine and Sports Illustrated.

I agree the majority of media and communications are moving online. But not all and completely. Not in 5 years.

Back to Steve’s main point, what does this mean for advertising? It means that online marketing and ad firms like JASE are becoming more popular and in-demand. The expertise is substantially different than owned by conventional ad firms.

Social media and its extremities like gaming, reading and movies online are the focal points of the future and you’ll need a partner firm like JASE to ensure your stability and growth.

Steven J. Vaughan-nichols recently tested the newest released versions of Canonical Ubuntu, Red Hat Fedora and Novell openSuse Linux. He wrote about his findings for LinuxWorld here.

This one’s a good read for the Linux-heads. Steven gives recommendations on how the types of users align with which type of Linux. He also touches a bit on OpenOffice 3.0.

An assortment of seemingly crazy state driving laws exists and can be found easily across the Internet. Most of these examples are sourced from newspapers and come from the site www.dumblaws.com.

In California, no vehicle without a driver may exceed 60 miles per hour.

In Florida, if an elephant, goat or alligator is left tied to a parking meter, the parking fee has to be paid just as it would for a vehicle.

In Montana, it is illegal to have a sheep in the cab of your truck without a chaperone.

In Oregon, a door on a car may not be left open longer than necessary.

In Tennessee, it is illegal shoot any game other than whales from a moving automobile.

Unknown City - residents of the city have spedometers on their horses, for they can not ride them in excess of ten miles per hour.

Unknown City - It is considered an offense to push a live moose out of a moving airplane.

Unknown City - It is still illegal to bring a donkey or a mule onto a trolley car.

Unknown City - It is illegal for any beautician to hum, whistle, or sing while working on a customer.

Unknown City - It is illegal to lie down on the sidewalk.

Unknown City - It is illegal to spit, except on baseball diamonds.

Have you ever caught yourself in a conversation with someone that just absolutely has no idea what they’re talking about? And you’re too nice to call them on it.

Have you ever read something that’s been published by a person representing a group that includes you and you can see through the smoke screen of lack-of-knowledge of the topic? And you’re thinking through the whole reading, “I sure hope no one else reads this bunk.”

What an uncomfortable situation!

If you do not know technology, do not talk about it as an expert.
If you do not know sports, do not talk about it as an expert.
If you do not know politics, do not talk about it as an expert. Wait, that one doesn’t count.

Vestis virum facit.
Clothes make the man.

Ah. That they do!

It looks like T-mobile will finally release the BlackBerry Curve 8900 (Javelin) for the United States on February 18, 2009. Both TmoNews and Boy Genius Report have hopped on verifying this date.

I can’t wait! This phone has everything I need which is everything except 3G. And since T-mobile doesn’t service 3G in our area, no need to have a phone with 3G capability.

This is the one smartphone that would make me put down the Pearl.

See the Javelin’s spec sheet here.

• Quad-band radios: GSM/GPRS/EDGE
• Wi-Fi b/g with UMA + GPS in one
• OS 4.6.1, featuring Safe Mode start up
• 480 by 360 high-res HVGA+ display
• 512 MHz Processor
• 256 MB onboard flash memory
• Hot-swappable microSD slot - located under the battery door
• 3.2MP camera, includes auto-focus
• Glass cover - one piece glass cover will house the camera and flash, providing a very polished look and feel
• Micro USB charging/syncing port, w/ high speed data
• Dedicated Lock Button - will allow easy access to lock / hold the device when not using a holster
• “Sweet Spot” narrow keypad
• Battery Cover features a new easy to use, latch mechanism

Who gets the money we pay for gasoline for our vehicles or lawn mowers or 4-wheelers?

I took this picture this morning at a gas station in Rocky Mount, NC on our way back home. I was surprised to learn that the fuel station owners only get 1% of the money we pay them each fill-up.

Knowing this information (not sure why I didn’t already know this) now, I think I have a different perspective on who is responsible for the nasty fluctuations in gas prices we’ve seen over the past 12 months.

1. 58% - Crude oil companies.
2. 17% - Petroleum refinery companies.
3. 15% - Local, State and Federal taxes.
4. 9% - Distribution and Retail companies*.
5. 1% - Store owners.

* 20% of distribution and retail dollars go to credit card companies.

There were times in my professional life that I had found myself pushing to be more structured in my schedule than might have been smart. Then I found “social media” a few years ago. Or maybe it found me.

If nothing else, social media and particularly my social networks have taught me that time-of-the-day is not a critical variable for sharing information and gaining knowledge.

Along with (old school) “off-time” knowledge sharing and brainstorming with colleagues, business has accepted that the clock is no longer relevant for conducting business. Period.

Meetings during the evening are commonplace. Conference calls on Sunday with the team and client meetings at Starbucks on Saturday are no longer tabu.

Utilizing the 24-hour clock to my advantage has made me more efficient. And as an entreprenuer that may give me the advantage I need to put me ahead of the next guy.

God is good!

Happy Festivus for the rest of us, my (Seinfeld lovin’) freinds! Sorry I’m a day late with greetings.

For those that do not know the Festivus history, here’s a glimpse into the offbeat holiday.

Festivus is an annual holiday created by writer Dan O’Keefe and introduced into popular culture by his son Daniel, a scriptwriter for the TV show Seinfeld.Although the original Festivus took place in February 1966 as a celebration of the elder O’Keefe’s first date with his future wife, Deborah, many people now celebrate the holiday on December 23, as depicted on the December 18, 1997 Seinfeld episode “The Strike.” According to O’Keefe, the name Festivus “just popped into his head.”

The holiday includes novel practices such as the “Airing of Grievances,” in which each person tells everyone else all the ways they have disappointed him or her over the past year. Also, after the Festivus meal, the “Feats of Strength” are performed, involving wrestling the head of the household to the floor, with the holiday ending only if the head of the household is actually pinned. These conventions originated with the TV episode.

The original holiday featured far more peculiar practices, as detailed in the younger Daniel O’Keefe’s book The Real Festivus, which provides a first-person account of an early version of the Festivus holiday as celebrated by the O’Keefe family, and how O’Keefe amended or replaced details of his father’s invention to create the Seinfeld episode.

Some people, influenced or inspired by Seinfeld, now celebrate the holiday in varying degrees of seriousness; the spread of Festivus in the real world is chronicled in the book Festivus: The Holiday for the Rest of Us.

Matthew 1:18 - 2:18

Joseph Accepts Jesus as His Son

    ¹⁸ This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹ Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

    ²⁰ But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. ²¹ She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

    ²² All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ²³ “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).

    ²⁴ When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. ²⁵ But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.

The Magi Visit the Messiah

     ¹ After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem ² and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

    ³ When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. ⁴ When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. ⁵ “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:

    ⁶ ” ‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
       are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
       for out of you will come a ruler
       who will shepherd my people Israel.’”

    ⁷ Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. ⁸ He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”

    ⁹ After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. ¹⁰ When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. ¹¹ On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. ¹² And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

The Escape to Egypt

    ¹³ When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”

    ¹⁴ So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, ¹⁵ where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”

    ¹⁶ When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. ¹⁷ Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:

    ¹⁸ “A voice is heard in Ramah,
       weeping and great mourning,
       Rachel weeping for her children
       and refusing to be comforted,
       because they are no more.”