š¤ PeopleFirst
Is Silicon Valley A Laggard In Best Workplace Practice?
… from the archives of People Passion 360 at BIZCATALYST 360Ā°
People: James and Jean
“I was born in Palm Springs” he said.
He had my attention. I know a few people who have lived in Palm Springs. James was the first time I knew of someone born there.
“Then I moved to Wisconsin.”
There are a series of posts that I am publishing at People First that are my simple, beginners attempt to capture stories about people I meet.
I announced them here.
They are catalogued under āTravels Without Charleyā here if you are interested.
People: Sarah
She was alone at the bar … a glass of water, a giant pile of French fries and a separate bowl of potato chips sat in front of her. The seats on either side of her were empty at an otherwise full bar.
āNoā she said. āNobody is sitting thereā
I took a seat, introduced myself and she said her name was Sarah. I ordered a beverage.
People: John and Mary
They were from Massachusetts. This was the startĀ of their fourth month on the road - thousands of miles away from their home.
Mary was stood watching John who was lying on his back under the car.
People: Gina
Gina told me that herĀ husband was a magician. A very good magician.
Turns out that he is also a maths teacher.Ā That’s how he makes is money. He really wants to make his living as a magician. Magic is is his passion.
People: Dan
Dan knew what he was doing. He offered me an Amber Ale from his selection. It was glorious. Arguably one of the best Amber’s I had ever tasted.
People: Candy
I met Candy while she was having dinner with her beau ... Brian. She is a truck driver who operates as far North as Seattle and as far South as San Jose.
People:ā Caroline and Marcus
Caroline and Marcus had arrived in the US a couple of days earlier, most of their two-week sojourn in front of them.
People: Stevie
Stevie was unsteady on his feet. He walked slowly. He didnāt seem to have much money. He was visiting the area because he had a hospital appointment.
People: Jeff and Emma
Jeff had worked in Somerset for 4 years. Emma's mother was born in England. Now they lived in America. Together.
A People First Update
People First has a big vision and is moving forward on a variety of initiatives. Life is too short to record it all in detail here ... so I am choosing to reference a few (in alphabetical order);
- (The) Business Of Identity
- CH-MRC
- Digital Puerto Rico
- IndieWeb
- Internet Identity Workshop
- Lost Identity
Some are large far-reaching initiatives some are small ideas. Some I am just interested in, others I am helping get established. I believeĀ all are designed to help 'move the can down the road' in different ways. (The can beingĀ that which we each need to move forward to create a better world where people and their humanity are not afterthoughts but at the center of thinking, decisions and action.
And that human-centered perspective got me to thinking about people - and their stories.
So, in parallel with these initiatives, we are also pivoting the site, including moving the blog front and center and dropping the 'WhoWhatWhenWhereWhyHow' pages to a supporting role on the site.
We are also announcing the introduction of a new theme of posts categorized as 'Travels Without Charley' -Ā tipping cap, doffing hat, nodding head vigorously towards one John Steinbeck.
Exploitation Of People By People
Vehicle Costs May Put Some Uber and Lyft Drivers in the Red
āThe ride-sharing drivers earn just $3.37 per hour on average, according to an MIT study. I have said for a long time that the same people who object to treatment of workers in remote countries making phones, garments et al ... are generally the self same people who love the convenience of ātheirā Uber. Case In Point ... disasters. We seem to worry more about issues that are close to home far more than remote ones ... 2 dead in storm floods in the next state over is so much more worrying than 200 dead in Pakistan floods ... yet exploitation of those people in Pakistan by the garment industry hits the news cycle regularly ... exploitation of our own countrymen in the so called āsharing economyā ... that we donāt hear about too much at all.
Humanity Over Tech
The news is full of the bad boys of the internet. Their lack of interest in ‘we the peopleā. Their apparent disregard for humanity. The need and importance for tech tech tech - no humanity needed.
But sometimes - just sometimes - the good news, the positive news, the uplifting news does get through.
Keith Block, vice chairman, president and COO of Salesforce, and his wife, Suzanne Kelley, VP of operations & PMO, global business units at Oracle Corporation, made the lead $15 million gift to establish the Block Center for Technology and Society at Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy.
š§ Cognitive Elites
āA 'cognitive elite' will rise to power and influence, as a class of sovereign individuals 'commanding vastly greater resources' who will no longer be subject to the power of nation-states and will redesign governments to suit their ends.ā
Read More In The Guardian Here
Cognitive Elites … not the same as ‘Elites’ - and - be it a ‘discredited’ term or not - I have no doubt that those that seek to use technology to protect their interests - and not subjugate themselves to the Corporates will win out. They are thinking, acting, doing and rising above the media clutter. Who are those people? Well, maybe it is easier to point out who they are not …. they are not people;
- who shake their heads and say 'what can we do'
- who continue to blindly use Facebook, despite all the proof of what they have done and continue to do
- who have a single password across all of their accounts
- who have a password like 1234password
- ... you get the picture
NO - it doesnāt include those people.
But it also is not about having superior intelligence. (Which is what the book was talking about.) No. That is not going to save you. And those people aren’t the cognitive elites that I think about.
To me - I think you are a cognitive elite if you think. At all. Your IQ can be below 100 - like half the population - but that doesnāt mean you can’t think … that is a choice.
Start to think. Start to act. Be Different.
The Second Innings Of The Internet
āMoral leadership means truly putting people first and making whatever sacrifices that entails,ā said Seidman. āThat means not always competing on shallow things and quantity ā on how much time people spend on your platform ā but on quality and depth. It means seeing and treating people not just as āusersā or āclicks,ā but as ācitizens,ā who are worthy of being accurately informed to make their best choices. It means not just trying to shift people from one click to another, from one video to another, but instead trying to elevate them in ways that deepen our connections and enrich our conversations.ā
Dov Seidman, CEO of LRN
… makes total sense to me. What we have today is the total domination of the online world by old school, old power, old values corporations - and people be damned. That is why we started People First - and interesting to see ourselves at the intersection of organizations and issues like The Indie Web and Internet Identity amongst others.
But if you think about issues like Ad Tracking, Profiling, Big Data, Walled Gardens, Data Warehouses, Self Sovereignty, Data Ownership, Net Neutrality, POSSE, longevity - you can complete the list as well as I can … the entire push and narrative today is to the benefit of the large corporation and the detriment of ‘we the people’.
By the way - if you want to see indie web in action - john.philpin.com is running on micro.blog - a nascent but emerging micro blog environment that is just part of this particular persons war chest of tools to take back the internet for people. More of this to come in future posts.
As I have said for many years - “I am my own system of record”.
Digital Tech Is Transforming The Physical Shape Of Our Cities
"The digital revolution is changing how and where work happens. Employment is becoming more flexible and fluid, with digital technology enabling more people to work remotely and to collaborate in the cloud. This will impact city-centre offices, with landlords having to adjust to weaker demand and shorter leases. And as artificial intelligence bites ā machines donāt care where they work ā weāll see the growth of cheaper regional back-offices, which is bad news for expensive cities."
Data Is The New Oil
As I watch the emerging news surrounding MoviePass and how they are (note - not have …. despite the changes to their app) tracking their customers, I keep hearing āData Is The New Oil'. It is not a new phrase and in fact as far as I can tell was coined by Clive Humby back in 2006 … but it struck me that if true (it isnāt and I really need to publish that post) then corporations obviously view people as vessels, silos, containers ā¦ whatever, but certainly not as people.
Thinking Allowed
This is a People First post that was originally on the People First domain. It has been moved here as part of my domain consolidation program. Itās a steady and slow WIP as I check each entry, so do please bear with me.- More about People First
- Other People First Posts
(not just from the āother domainā ā¦ all of them.)
šļø Apologies For Our Absence
… we have been doing a little housekeeping at ‘Chez First’ … and now we are finished. You can expect a lot more interesting and relevant information coming through this channel. Thank you.
The Downside Of Social Media
Titans of Social Media explain why they might have made a mistake.
There has been a lot of recent commentary on social media addiction, but this video summary was interesting, concise and in 15 minutes says it all.
To me what is interesting is that they all say that they could see it coming … and then did it anyway. What does that say about them. It certainly doesnāt say that they ‘put people first’.