8 Tech Predictions for 2018

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8 Tech Predictions for 2018

Hey folks. I’ve been putting a lot of pressure on myself to keep this blog alive, so here is an easy post to start 2018 with. Happy New Year!

  1. Crypto continues to go crazy. The crypto currency revolution will remain strong in 2018. We’re going to see insane breakouts, crazy crashes,  and wild volatility. If you don’t understand blockchain technology, that’s ok. Plenty of people didn’t understand internet technology in 1998, but now it pervades nearly every aspect of our lives. Blockchain will be the same.

    How can you get in on the internet of money? Make a coinbase account, use my referral link and we both get $10: https://www.coinbase.com/join/5761c79d253618752e000508
    Buy some Litecoin–it’s the best!

  2. There is going to be a virus released that takes advantage of the Meltdown and Spectre exploits and will melt your processor. You thought the whole Samsung Galaxies catching on fire was a problem? Wait until peoples computers start exploding 😱.
  3. Mark Zuckerberg is going to have a mental breakdown and be filled with guilt for ruining society with Facebook. He will sell all his stock, quit, move to Tibet, and become a Buddhist monk while he devises a plan to atone for his crimes against humanity.
  4. Drones in 2018 are going to blow your mind!
  5. IoT for your pee. Everything will start to become Internet of Things enabled, including your toilet. It won’t be long until you’ll get a constant stream of data to inform you of hydration levels, nutritional health, chemical imbalances and more.
  6. It will be the Year of the CRM. A few years ago, it became widely accepted that all businesses need a presence on social media. Now they all need CRM too. Customer Relationship Management Software enables business owners to leverage their marketing data better by tracking customer interactions and the value it creates.
  7. Automated vehicles get more popular. With Tesla leading the way in the self-driving car industry, other companies are started to dedicate a massive amount of resources to the research and development of their own automated driving systems. Giving control of the steering wheel to intelligent computer systems will be safer for everyone.
  8. As always, It’s All About The DATA! As the ability to collect and analyze data continues to grow exponentially, data science will start to have a much larger impact in our daily lives. With all these new conveniences also comes larger privacy risks. Be sure to take steps to protect and control your data. In the not-so-distant future. Your data could become your currency.

That’s it! Thanks for reading. I think it’s important to post these predictions on the web so a year from now, everyone can look back and see how I was totally wrong… or right!

The Social Web

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The Social Web

 

Do you know the difference between the Internet and the World Wide Web? The Internet is a series of computers, servers, and wide area networks connected through service providers and leased lines. The World Wide Web is a network of documents and data connected through the Internet and using the Hyper Text Transfer Protocol or HTTP.

Over the past decade, a new function of the Internet has made its use mainstream and started connecting everyone through their mobile devices. The Social Web is composed of a number of social networks that exist within the web. So the World Wide Web runs on top of the Internet and the Social Web runs on top of the World Wide Web.

This Social Web is a tool with much more power than simply sharing pictures of your vacation to make people jealous, opinions about a political environment no one really has any idea about, sowing seeds of malice and discontent, or sharing cat pictures. This social functionality of the Internet could become the tool for humans to start holding each other accountable to be good and compassionate, to condemn hate, and to expose swindlers. As users, we are able to design our own social experience on the Internet.

“The social web is a set of social relations that link people through the World Wide Web. The Social web encompasses how websites and software are designed and developed in order to support and foster social interaction.”

Talking about the social web is bigger than just social media. The social web references a user experience taking place through the internet powered by social networks and online platforms such as: Facebook, LinkedIN, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, Pinterest, Snapchat, Reddit, Google+, online blogs,  publishing sites, and more.

Socrates contends that the greatest social good is the “cohesion and unity” that “results from the common feelings of pleasure and pain which you get when all members of a society are glad or sorry for the same successes and failures.

Back in April, I did an Ignite Talk about Social Good on the Social Web. It was my first prepared talk for the purpose of education AND entertainment. It wasn’t spectacular, but it wasn’t terrible either. You can watch it here: https://vimeo.com/172500734

An Entrepreneur’s Journey

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An Entrepreneur’s Journey

Oh, hello there! What’s that you say? Where have I been for the last year? I’m glad you asked because my life has been filled with ups and downs, side to side, back and forth, and everything in between. I’ve missed writing for myself, I’ve missed this blog, and most importantly, I’ve missed you!

For those who have read this blog, you may have gathered that I am a bit of a lifelong techie. My work has been a mixed bag over the years—from tech support freelancer to consultant, back to online freelancer, and then to small business founder. Yes, that’s the answer to where I have been–I am a founder of a small business!

Just about a year ago, I quietly started a company providing social media services to companies, brands, and individuals. My original intent was to keep this blog updated with my progress and talk about the process of starting a company. I had little idea of what I was actually getting myself into. I quickly realized that though I was quite good at doing any type of work with the various social networks and online platforms, I had a steep and brutal learning curve associated with running a business, building a brand, and establishing a team. I no longer wanted to blog about my experiences because the fear of hearing, “You’re doing it wrong,” “This isn’t going to work,” or “That was dumb,” made me worry that such negative feedback would impede my will to continue.

I had to figure out what I was doing before I would feel comfortable writing about what I was doing.

Now that I have some experience and a better sense of where this ship is heading and how to get there, I am much more enthusiastic about sharing my journey with the world.

The company I founded is called Allgo Social. Deciding on a name was quite the struggle of its own, so if anyone wants to know more about the process of choosing a name, please ask me. We provide social media services and strategy for people who understand the importance of it, but do not have the time or even a good idea of where to begin and how to move forward.  Many of my clients are just overwhelmed by the notion of writing relevant content and keeping social profiles active.

One of the biggest struggles I have encountered is that managing the online presence for a number of others leaves little time to focus on my own pages.  It’s an age-old struggle and the reason why a mechanic often drives the worst car and a landscaper never mows his lawn.  Hopefully that is about to change!  Now that I have gained a better idea of how to run a business and move it forward, I am ready to better promote my company and our brand.

So this is the beginning of a new journey—the journey of sharing my experience and passing along that knowledge to others.

I’m excited to share my ventures with the world, help others learn the lessons I have learned, and hopefully show them how to avoid some of the mistakes I have made.  All this support while continuing to discover new insights about the challenges associated with being an entrepreneur and a social media professional.

One of the things that encourage me most about what I am doing is my involvement in the local entrepreneur and startup business community. Reno is an emerging hotspot of tech and startup activity, so I am extremely grateful to be able to practice my passion in my hometown. This community consists of many good people and entrepreneurial rock stars that continue to inspire me every week, so I hope to continue to be able to give back and pay it forward as much as possible.

Please do me a favor by liking and commenting, sharing and engaging, and keeping the conversation going!

 

Is this a blog?

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In response to the question I posed at the end of my previous post What is a Blog?, I wanted to expand on my idea of what a blog is to me, or at least what this blog is to me.

It can be a tool for someone to use to get to know me before they know me or to get to know me better after knowing me. Maybe it could help someone decide if they even want to get to know me. At the very least, it is a way for me to exhibit my writing style and skills and provide a context for people to get to know me and connect. If connecting with people is ultimately a theme for this blog, then I have been failing at it because it was recently pointed-out to me that I never included contact information.

I have always been reluctant to put my email address out there on the web because I know how spammers crawl the web looking for email addresses to bombard with useless data in the form of advertisements, junkware, and scams. My solution for now is to put a twist on the universal email format to safely allow readers to see me email address.

You can contact me at netn8^outlook.com. Do you see what I did there? I replaced the @ operator with a ^ symbol. I could have also used asterisk. Does netn8*outlook.com look better to you? Do I even need to add the .com? How’s netn8^outlook? Either way–at least I don’t have to worry about bots mining my email address for a while.

As content creation continues to constantly and consistently be a part of my professional life, I need a place when I can exercise creativity on my own accord. Using this blog as a sound board and place for writing practice is a topic that I will save for another day.

What is a Blog?

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The term ‘Blog’ is and abbreviation for ‘ Web Log.’ The use of blogs has evolved over time and their relevance has gone up and down.

The original purpose for blogs was to provide a platform for users to post material and updates for a targeted audience of readers and subscribers. It gave everyone the opportunity to have their own information column or interest publication. Many Internet stars were made during the early days before the blogosphere became saturated.

Now blogs are repositories for content that is used to be posted on other platforms like social networking sites, RSS feeds, community aggregates, and other blogs.

Even though this site has spent half the year silent, it is still a blog–whatever that means.

What’s a blog to you?

December Hack Night

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It seems that I have found some consistency posting to this blog during Hack Night at the Reno Collective. A lot of people ask me what I do at the Reno Collective. I pretty much do the same thing I would do at home–I work. I am more productive at the collective because I am removed from a number of side-projects, books, chores, games, and toys that I have in my apartment. As a freelancer/entrepreneur/creative, I have learned to classify work using three categories: things I need to do, things I should do, and things I can do. When I work from home, I complete those tasks I need to do and then work on things I should do until I get bored or distracted. I never really get to the work that I can do unless I decide to work on the weekend. When I am at a coworking space, I complete what I need to do, finish most of what I should do, and then start looking at the other things that I can do.

The reason for enhanced productivity while coworking is not only that I am removed from my most common distractions, but also because I am surrounded by others who are being industrious and getting shit done. I feel like I am part of a community while I am here, and a primary characteristic of that community is working diligently.

This community is especially important to me during the seasons of less daylight because I find it difficult to remain productive after dark. Working 12-16 hours during the summer is easy when it stays light until after 8 o’clock, but for some reason, I feel like I am operating at ~<60% of optimal when it is dark by 5pm.

If you work from home and want to be a part of a community, join a coworking space. It’s the future of work!

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Hack Night!

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At the Reno Collective, Hack Night is the 2nd Wednesday evening of every month. What are we hacking? For most of us, nothing really. It’s just a cool way to have a monthly open house open to the public without all the fanfare that would come with calling it an open house. I recommend it.

There is a great emerging tech startup and entrepreneur community developing in Reno centered on Startup Row with the Reno Collective at its heart. Anyone who is into that sort of thing should start here. I like to call it the ‘New American Dream’.

Be sure to checkout all the activities for Reno Startup Week: http://renostartupweek.com/

Strike 3 – Full Fail

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Strike 3. I’m out. Not really, but I failed my goal of writing a post every two weeks or less. Goals are stupid anyway. James Altucher says set Themes–not goals.

This post was supposed to be published weeks ago–months ago actually. It is the 3rd and final chapter of my short failure trilogy. See Strike 1 & Strike 2. I would like to write more. It is something I enjoy doing, but I enjoy life in general and life has plans of its own.

Like I have mentioned before, when I decided to create this blog, I was convinced that I would be able to consistently post at least every two weeks or more. I have no shortage of tech topics that I can write about, but the fickle nature of writing is a roller-coaster of creative ups and downs. Also, setting a two week deadline between posts was supposed to encourage me to stay with it, but it only added extra angst to an already fool plate (pun intended).

I am going to continue to maintain this blog and occasionally post to it for my own benefit and satisfaction. Sorry that I won’t be able to post more useful stuff. I’ll just put up whatever I think is interesting. If you have any specific tech topics or questions you would like to address, please let me know and I’ll probably come up with something.

 

strike3

WordPress Wednesday Atop Megabus

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I am writing this blog post from the top level of a Megabus! That’s right. WiFi on this bus is working, and I think this trip shows that Megabus finally fixed their Free WiFi Fail.

I’m a bit of a wanderlust, so I was thrilled when Megabus began offering services in Reno. I have taken a few trips since they came out west, but the Internet connection has been extremely poor if I was able to connect at all. When I experienced free WiFi and power outlets on buses back east, I was amazed and delighted! I imaged myself cruising the country by bus while working remotely from my laptop. I could start the Interstate Coworking movement!

Now that I am able to maintain a solid connection during the entire trip from Reno to the Bay Area, the remote abilities and coworking possibilities are endless!

Please share your Megabus experiences in the comments section. Would you be interested in a mobile coworking meetup?

A YouTube Tuesday

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This is an easy post topic to keep up with consistency. Here are some links to some videos I have been watching on YouTube.

I am kinda starting to get disappointed in the direction that the HBO Game of Thrones series has gone this season. I’m not one to talk much or blog about it, so listen to her instead.

 

I like playing with Rubik’s Cubes. Solving one isn’t magic–it’s simple algorithms. What this guy does is crazy!

 

Comic Book Girl 19 has really helped me to rediscover my interests in comic books and film. I love the way she talks about movies.

 

My good friend, Erin Granat, put together a wonderful birthday poem that she read for her friends at her party. This is art!

 

Ever wonder what it is like to be in the circus? The Beautiful Tess Emerson gives you some insight:

 

Important, but BORING!!! Reno City Council Meeting from May 28, 2014

 

Well that’s about it for YouTube Tuesday. I hope you enjoyed all these videos–except the city council meeting, you won’t enjoy it.