Carl Setzer

I just received an email with the following request: "if you service the following states, NY, NJ, PA, OH, MD, VT, MI, ME, CT and NH...". I immediately closed and deleted the email, for I'm in Washington. But then I started thinking, "why did the sender blast this out to the entire country?" Today, right now, with pretty much every CRM tool, you can refine your targets. With a few minutes of work, the sender of this email could've culled a few words from their message as well as targeted her message. Too many irrelevant emails and you find yourself in the spam box. This ability to customize your message makes it significantly more relevant to your customers, to your audience. It makes you look more professional, and more knowledgeable. Powerful traits if you're trying to build an audience, or come across as an influencer. Or, if you simply don't want to waste your customer's time. Which is good thing to desire. So, the data is (or should be)...

Talking with a friend, I see my writing has shifted solidly digital. I tend to create on a device, mostly my tablet, or my phone, then computer. I'll go weeks without touching my notebook. I love the ability to edit, and unedit. There is a zen-like impermanence to this medium.  Changing things feels powerful. On occasion, I wonder what historical research will be like. Probably an archeological dig through our data, sifting through millions of photos, notes and stories, aggregating our lives. Strange combination of fluidity, impermanence and ageless data shall flow together into a richer understanding of who we were, collectively and individually.

Today: another day where I sit amazed at the information stream I've set up for myself. Emails, website, tweets, etc, tons of stuff I WANT to process. Add to that the stream of stuff I "should" read. It's really mind blowing. I consider, though, "why?"  It's hits me that is rather new. Must of my life, getting access to information required more effort. I needed to subscribe to a magazine or journal, go to a library, etc. Plus, editors and publishers weeded the irrelevant (ostensibly, at least). I never needed to invest time in determining whether I was investing in worthwhile information. Now, knowledge races towards me. Things that would've required hours, of not days, of research I can now access from my bed. And it's all there... ALL, good, bad, useful and not...all. And I value that, democratizing information, even with the added burden. I'm working on the control skills. Really, though, the challenge is gluttony, on my part. I love ...

I want to dive a bit deeper into ThinkUp , but like what I've seen so far. Give Mr. Dash a few minutes of your time. Then let me know what you think. I'll be here...

Gaza is erupting into conflict, and my Twitter feed rolls along, snippets hitting every second. I have connections on both sides. One twitter friend in particular is making a point to retweet both sides of this conflict. That morphed into an idea. This idea: a project capturing the myriad sides to a conflict, whether violent, political or cultural. First notion was to actively research, tweeting to the hashtag #AllSides____ (adding the issue in the blank. i.e.: #AllSidesGaza. Spend, say, an hour of focused time just tweeting every article, RTing personal perspective, all into this one stream. My goal? Capturing as many perspectives on that issue as possible in one place. Collating/curating perspectives personal and analytical. I feel a simple hashtag feed, though, isn't enough. Yet I'm unsure what to add. Build some kind of analytic tool? Infographics? Probably would be something to consider after to curation is complete. Or maybe not. If done right, this would become ...

A self-observation: I have several hundred contacts in my addressbook. Synced automatically with the cloud, my laptop, and OTA with my iPhone, I just haven't thought about them. I can search for who I want. Or, even better, when I'm typing an email, boom, it pops up. Done! However, I'm certain I have duplicate info, and, worse for a data-driven geek like myself, bad data . I know I have expired email accounts, old phone numbers, and worthless addresses. A quick skim shows people I haven't talked to in years, as well as people I don't know. (I've long had the habit of making sure key project contacts were in there "just in case". Some never needed calling, and, thus, their relevance to me has faded form memory.) Cheap storage and good search tools have made this something of a non-issue. But I like my data clean and accurate. Plus, this does provide opportunities for confusion. I have a few folks I infrequently email, and have with multiple email ad...

My inbox is out of control. I know others feel this, too. This blizzard of information, inboxes, tweets, Facebook, texts, calls, news-sites...on and in it goes. We've gone far past data saturation. I's wondered lately where we go from here. How do we cope with this? Tools are being developed, but most seem to focus on new ways to deliver. Perhaps different packaging, clever design; but the problem isn't readability, it's volume. How do we filter? Our culture has never faced this before. Never has information been so commoditized. Never have we had all the world's assembled knowledge sitting in our pockets. Most of us filter by ignoring, where it's views we don't like, voices we find annoying, or just deleting this one email "this one time". Yet, for me at least, that's unsatisfying. I value discussion. Value getting new voices heard, new ideas expressed. Yet, without finding away to increase our absorption rate, it seems we're faced...

I, like so many others, have hit the wall: data overload. There's SO much out there, interesting and readily available. Free, or so for all practical intent; very few barriers. Not too long ago, price helped keep this in check. Our resources to spend on magazines, newspapers and the like naturally limited out data-stream. Yes, we had free at libraries, but content was still limited (by the fiscal concerns of libraries as well as any particular mag being used or destroyed by another patron) and there was the time commitment. Clearly the topography has changed. Content commodified: for creatives, this might be horrifying. I have a bit of that reaction. But this condition needs to drive a focus on quality. We content creators need to create the best stuff we can. And be aware of the subjective nature of "best". But "best" can still be buried within a sea of adequate. The tools for navigating this are still being crafted. I consider the hundreds of email I dele...

From our friends at CNET: " Google to launch Friend Connect for the social Web" It's good to see Facebook getting onboard this train . When Dave quotes Mike Arrington, I need to disagree. "The reason these companies are are rushing to get products out the door is because whoever is a player in this space is likely to control user data over the long run." Not quite, or I at least hope that's not THE reason. It needs to be about having access to data; businesses need to give up the idea of owning it. The People, or at least This Person, are saying that WE own our data, and we're providing YOU (the business in question) access. Another piece of this equation needs to be ensuring we have the ability to remove access to those who abuse their responsibilities. More on that latter.