Posts tagged Internet
IT Thoughts of Sir Tim Berners-Lee
0This week, I continue to highlight quotes from Sir Tim Berners-Lee. He is the father of the World Wide Web and is a worthy addition to our IT Thought of the Day Quote of the Week Series. He is personally responsible for a significant amount of our Information Age Information Technology. He has more thought provoking thoughts about the future of the Internet than we have room to discuss!
Here is my quote of the day:
“You affect the world by what you browse.”
Tim Berners-Lee
You can learn more about our quote source at Wikipedia. From his bio, “He is the Director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), a Web standards organization founded in 1994 which develops interoperable technologies (specifications, guidelines, software, and tools) to lead the Web to its full potential.”
So how do you think that this relates to Information Technology? How do you think that it could be important to Information Technology Professionals?
Do you like quotations? Do you collect them, too? What did you think of when you read this one? Do you agree or disagree with it? Please comment below.
That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for April 16, 2010 by Scott Coughlin.
Image credit: FreshMinds Research Blog
Quote Source: thinkexist.com
Administrative Professionals’ Day
0Next week includes Administrative Professionals’ Day. I thought that it might be appropriate to pause for a moment and review this holiday’s meaning, origin, and intent. Stay with me, because I do have a point in all of this…
If you are unfamiliar with Administrative Professionals’ Day, Wikipedia does a great job of providing background on it.
“Administrative Professionals Day (Also known as, Secretary’s Day) is an unofficial secular holiday observed in the United States on the Wednesday of the last full week of April to recognize the work of secretaries, administrative assistants, receptionists, and other administrative support professionals.”
This day dedicated to some of our hardest knowledge workers in business has a history that dates back to 1952! Traditionally, I have seen it celebrated by flowers, balloons, lunches, donuts, and good cheer. It is usually one of the few days a year that office workers stop harassing and demanding from the Administrative Specialists and actually pause to thank them for all that they do.
The International Association of Administrative Professionals offers this insight into their favorite holiday of the year.
Over the years, Administrative Professionals Week has become one of the largest workplace observances. The event is celebrated worldwide, bringing together millions of people for community events, educational seminars and individual corporate activities recognizing support staff.
Today, there are more than 4.1 million secretaries and administrative assistants working in the United States, according to U.S. Department of Labor statistics, and 8.9 million people working in various administrative support roles. More than 475,000 administrative professionals are employed in Canada. Millions more administrative professionals work in offices all over the world.
(Side Note: Please, let this be a heads-up to you! Don’t forget Administrative Professionals’ Day which is April 21 this year. Get your flowers order in now!)
So how do you think that this relates to Information Technology? How do you think that it could be important to Information Technology Professionals? Why should you care about Administrative Professionals’ Day? Well, I recommend that you come back tomorrow to find that out!
Thanks.
That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for April 14, 2010 by Scott Coughlin.
Image credit: timeanddate.com
What does Hyberlocal mean?
0Sometime words just start repeating themselves all around you. Over the past two weeks, I have heard the term “hyperlocal” used about a dozen times in tech podcasts and magazines, I figured that it was time to explicitly discuss its meaning.
The Information Technology (IT) Vocabulary Builder series aims to deliver a very concise summary of a currently relevant topic to Information Professionals. It is done mostly by collecting a small number of highly relevant web links to save you the time of combing through search results yourself.
So, what exactly does hyperlocal mean?
This is how Wikipedia defines it:
Basically, it is the concept of focusing on the world within the span of your personal space. Targeting marketing to a single person, for example. Or you searching and caring about only things that impact of influence just you. If local interests are a subset of regional ones, then hyperlocal interests are a further subdivision. Negatively, it is the concentration of your concern to just you with little regard for the space outside your arm swing.
So what is the connection to the Information Age and Information Technology? Before our current tech age, focusing on a personal space this small was impossible. It is only through the massive data sets that are freely available on the web combined with the processing power locally and that is mobile that one can even consider this sort of laser focus. You can’t get hyperlocal news from a newspaper, it has to appeal to too many readers over too large an area. You can’t get it from TV that has an even larger span with even less ability to target an ad campaign. No, you can only get this from one person, access to the Internet, and the ability to search and cull.
The implications to society, individuals, marketing, news delivery, and content generation are huge. IT Professionals need to understand, employ, and relate to this paradigm change in information processing.
Here are some other great sites that discuss this issue:
New York Times – ‘Hyperlocal’ Web Sites Deliver News Without Newspapers
hyperlocal 101
hyperlocal.org
I hope that helps you. Enjoy the new word!
That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for April 21, 2010 ©Scott Coughlin.
Image Credit: The Florida Project Learning Tree