If fine myself reading and sharing a lot of content from Scott Berkun, so it only makes sense to highlight him here are part the Subscribed series. Scott’s recent article, How to overcome cynicism, was a great example. It can be easy to fall victim to to cynicism in life and business and I salute him for taking on such a chronic issue.
You overcome a toxic environment by walking out the door. Unless you happen to be a powerful person in the organization, it is not your fault that the environment is cynical, broken, dysfunctional, toxic, demented, twisted or incompetent. Managers and executives are paid a great deal more than the average employee and the main thing that comes with that pay grade is accountability. If the place depresses you, look upwards: the people in power make it this way. It’s uncommon for people in power to be motivated to make big changes since they like being in power.
I’m an author and speaker. My work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, The Guardian, Wired magazine, National Public Radio, The Huffington Post and other media. I taught at the University of Washington, blog for Harvard Business and BusinessWeek, and have appeared as an expert on various subjects on CNN, CNBC and MSNBC.
My latest book, The Year Without Pants: WordPress.com & The Future of Work released in Sept 2013 and was named an Amazon.com best book of the year.
Subscribed is a Careers in New Media series highlighting the Podcasts, YouTube Channels and Blogs that I follow on a daily basis. Check out this entry, and past entries, for some great New Media Content — Douglas
Short WordPress tips to ease your way, especially if you are just getting started with WordPress.
I show how to install and use WordPress Database Backup plugin to protect your WordPress. You can back up manually or set it up to automatically backup your data via email.
Short WordPress tips to ease your way, especially if you are just getting started with WordPress.
Today’s video quickly shows how to update your WordPress, plugins and themes using the WordPress Dashboard and how to tell when there are updates waiting to be installed. More tips and more detail coming with future episodes in this series.
Music: “Go Kart” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) under Creative Commons License.
WordPress has been upgraded to version 3.7 and I saw notification of this in my WordPress Dashboard today. As usual, this is for users who host their own, local, copies of WordPress. If you you use WordPress.com, your blogs will be updated automatically.
Here are a few updates available in this new version…
Background Updates
Automatic updates for maintenance and security updates.
Daily updates for developers using nightly builds.
Stronger Password Meter
New password meter to encourage users to choose stronger passwords.
Improved Search
More relevant search results.
Better Global Support
Localized versions will receive faster and more complete translations.
Background updates will include translations
For a complete list of the extensive updates, view this page at the WordPress Codex, WordPress Version 3.7.
Upgrade your locally hosted WordPress sites today!
While I am not a highly dedicated or professional photographer, I always like learning a bit more about everything and Digital Photography school provides a wealth of information. I regularly find myself saving and sharing articles from the site. The tips range form hardware reviews, to lighting, to lens to tips for specific shooting situations. A great addition to your subscriptions.
What are some of your favorite Subscriptions? Share them here in the comments!
Subscribed is a Careers in New Media series highlighting the Podcasts, YouTube Channels and Blogs that I follow on a daily basis. Check out this entry, and past entries, for some great New Media Content — Douglas
Every YouTube Producer knows how important it is to gain subscribers to their YouTube Channel. Subscribers drive the views, minutes watched and likes that help to raise their channel above the other noise on YouTube. One great way to increase your subscriber is to include an easy-to-use subscribe button alongside your video blog posts and on our blogs and web sites. It’s even easy to do.
…and even a tool to help you create the HTML code for the button. Simply enter your channel ID (in my case, dewelch), set your size and color options and the HTML is created for you to cut and paste wherever you wish.
Despite the fact that I often talk about attaining raises and promotions in your career, I don’t often discuss their ramifications to both your work and your personal life. The fact is, when you move into an expanded role, especially a managerial role, the expectations of those around you are going to rise. Each new position brings about a new level of control and commitment. If you ignore this, your transition into the new role can be more difficult than it should be.
It is important to remember that when you receive a promotion or a raise in pay, you are accepting new roles and new commitments. You might not think it at first, but your manager is going to expect something more in response to your new status. Promotions and raises aren’t so much a reward for past service, but more an incentive for future services. Managers are going to expect you to “step up to the plate” and take a more active role in projects and day-to-day issues. Unfortunately, though, they often don’t take the time to explain exactly what their new expectations are. Too often, they simply assume that you will know how to take on the new role, even though it hasn’t been well defined or, perhaps, even described to you.
In order to keep your career on track, you need to take the initiative to clearly define any increased expectations. This can range from the simple realities of new meetings you should be attending to the specifics of who you should be supervising and mentoring within your group. Have this important conversation with your manager as soon as possible after your new promotion is announced. Otherwise, you will find yourself in a sort of limbo between positions.
I am sure you have seen newly minted supervisors who spend their first few weeks wandering around in a daze, trying to figure out their new place in the organization and the expectations of those around them. You want to insure that your transition is as smooth as possible, though, so you can start being effective in your new role from the very first day.
Subtleties
Beyond your official work role, there are more subtle expectations that can effect your work life. These can be even more troublesome than the issues above, as there are fewer guidelines available to you and they can have an insidious effect on your work life if they are ignored.
First, there are expectations about who you will associate with in your new role. I am sure you have heard stories about rank-and-file workers suddenly elevated to a supervisor or manager role. Suddenly you are no longer one of “us”, you are now one of “them”. This can be a crushing blow for some people, as it removes the work support structure carefully built over the years. Worse still, this happens before you have built any sort of support structure in your new role. You can feel adrift as you try to navigate the passage between the two. That said, you need to understand the unique culture of your company. In some cases, there won’t be a problem with you continuing to lunch with your former peers. In other companies, this will be seen as a social faux pas of the highest degree.
Second, the subtle cues of work attire are almost sure to be an issue. Jeans and polo shirts might have been appropriate in your past position, but now, suddenly you are elevated into the world of suits and ties. Again, it depends on your individual company, but you are well advised to be aware of these expectations, as well. While I personally detest the affectations of business dress codes (perhaps this is one reason I work for myself), you ignore them at your peril.
Finally, not only will expectations rise in your new role, but you should also expect them to rise. It only makes sense that new positions will bring more and different responsibilities. Any attempt to ignore this fact will hamper your transition into your new role and could derail your career entirely. While your work performance is certainly the most important part of your career, you must also deal with the more subtle world of the expectations of those around you.
So, as of today we are 15 days into the Dog Days of Podcasting Challenge. It has been somewhat easier than I thought, as I have a number of shows I try to produce regularly, so I only have to fill the holes that remain. Still, it as also gotten me moving on some ideas I have had for a long time.
Today’s podcast, MineFull – A Minecraft Let’s Play, has been in my mind for a long time, but I never had enough motivation to get moving on it. Things always seemed to get in the way and the thought of doing a podcast about playing a game seemed a bit frivolous. That said, it is a different form of podcast than anything I have done in the past, so it is a great stretch of my podcasting muscles.
I had also been meaning to do many more interviews for all the podcasts, but most especially Career Opportunities. I think it is so important to introduce readers and listeners to new people, new jobs, new careers and new ideas in order to help them grow. Again, the Dog Days finally got me moving on that project, along with some new equipment that was purchased for producing a series of videos for a client. I now have a better video camera, better mics and, most importantly, some decent lighting for shooting indoors, especially for interviews. I have recorded 3 interviews so far and will record another one today. I will probably be releasing them once per week for the next several weeks.
I thought at the beginning of the challenge I might have to fill in with more stream-of-conciousness audio podcasts in order to fill all the podcast slots, but that hasn’t happened. That said, I may still do some of those merely as a way of playing around and showing the possibilities of Podcasting and New Media.
Of course, now I want to hear what you think about the Dog Days of Podcasting Challenge as we head into the downhill portion of the month. Has it been illuminating, boring, challenging, frightening, enlightening? Have you listened to or watched other podcasters who are taking the challenge? You can find all our podcasts over the on Dog Days of Podcasting web site and associated RSS feed. You can even subscribe to the feed and have each days podcasts automatically downloaded and moved to your iTunes, iPod, iPhone or iPad.
Leave some comments to tell me what you think AND what you’d like to see and hear in the next 15 days of the Dog Days of Podcasting Challenge!
It’s time for another WordPress Wednesday. Take the time this week to backup your WordPress Databases, Update your Plugins and Load the latest, greatest version of WordPress, 3.6. “Oscar”
“The latest and greatest WordPress, version 3.6, is now live to the world and includes a beautiful new blog-centric theme, bullet-proof autosave and post locking, a revamped revision browser, native support for audio and video embeds, and improved integrations with Spotify, Rdio, and SoundCloud.”
A lovely, regularly updated, collection of garden photography. Always something nice to happen across in my RSS feeds and usually provides more than a few ideas for my “Interesting Plant” series on A Gardener’s Notebook.
What are some of your favorite Subscriptions? Share them here in the comments!
Subscribed is a Careers in New Media series highlighting the Podcasts, YouTube Channels and Blogs that I follow on a daily basis. Check out this entry, and past entries, for some great New Media Content — Douglas
Another great collection of gardening information in this week’s Subscribed. I regularly end up sharing and saving links to the blog posts found here. These posts come from a variety of people on a variety of topics, so there is almost always something interesting to see there.
“The Royal Horticultural Society is the UK’s leading gardening charity dedicated to advancing horticulture and promoting good gardening.” – http://mygarden.rhs.org.uk/blogs/
What are some of your favorite Subscriptions? Share them here in the comments!
Subscribed is a Careers in New Media series highlighting the Podcasts, YouTube Channels and Blogs that I follow on a daily basis. Check out this entry, and past entries, for some great New Media Content — Douglas
Fellow Friends in Tech member, Kreg Steppe started the first Dog Days of Podcasting Challenge in 2012, as a way to kickstart his own podcasting efforts. I missed that announcement, but I am jumping on board for this years challenge and you should too! What a great way to try out new styles, new shows, new ideas and generally get your podcasting feet moving!
Essentially, it is a challenge to do a podcast for 30 days in a row.
In 2012 Kreg Steppe was looking to give himself a little push in regards to recording his own personal podcast since he wasn’t recording it very often. That turned into a challenge for himself to record a show everyday for 30 days believing that after 30 days it would turn into a habit. Once it was mentioned to Chuck Tomasi he took the challenge too and they decided it would be a great idea to record starting 30 days before Dragon*Con, culminating with the last episode where they would record it together when they saw each other there.
Turns out there were some of our friends that also wanted to get in on the action and took the challenge too. So it grew into a challenge 7 of us took.
This year we are inviting more podcasters to get in on the action. Keep in mind, it’s a fun challenge, and you will not be shamed (too much) if you don’t record every 30 day. It is kind of like the way Drew Carey describes “Whose line is it anyway?”. A fun game were we earn points, but the points don’t matter.
What matters is that we all have fun recording and listening to each other.
Start Date: July 30th, 2013
End Date: August 30th, 2013
Rules: Podcast Once a day for 30 days. Show length is up to you. Most vary from 3 – 5 Min.
I’ll be posting my daily shows here during the challenge, but I will also be including my usual podcast selection as part of the 30 days, so you should see podcasts on careers, new media, gardening, technology and more!
This blog is part of my daily garden reading and always has something interesting to say, even if it isn’t always a “rant”. (LAUGH) There is a lot of great gardening information here including articles and photos on garden visits, in-depth stories on various plants, insects and more.
If you are into gardening at all, add Garden Rant to your subscriptions to enlighten, enliven and invigorate your own gardening.
From the Garden Rant web site…
“GardenRant has been online since June 2006 and quickly developed a following among garden bloggers, garden writers and editors, and landscape nursery business professionals. We have been named Best Garden Blog, Most Innovative Garden Blog, and Best Written, by a jury of our peers.
Garden Design Magazine called us: “Pithy, hysterically funny, with poignant news and views of all aspects of the garden world. Don’t miss their Manifesto!” We’ve also received praise from the Washington Post’s Barbara Damrosch, who said Garden Rant “gives good information, hosts lively and knowledgeable guest ranters, and is anchored by four outstandingly uppity women, excellent writers all.”
Washington Post gardening editor Adrian Higgins said that Garden Rant is “one of my favorites: A blend of gossip, news, crusade and, yes, raw rant, it blows the cobwebs out of gardening’s mustier corners.”
What are some of your favorite Subscriptions? Share them here in the comments!
Subscribed is a Careers in New Media series highlighting the Podcasts, YouTube Channels and Blogs that I follow on a daily basis. Check out this entry, and past entries, for some great New Media Content — Douglas
I just saw notice in my WordPress dashboard that their latest update is now available. It resolves a number of security issues in the software. As usual, it is best to install updates soon after they are released to prevent any hacking attacks that might arise from these known bugs. Click on the “Please Update Now” banner in your WordPress Dashboard to install the update automatically.
From the WordPress 3.5.2 release notes:
The security fixes included:
Blocking server-side request forgery attacks, which could potentially enable an attacker to gain access to a site.
Disallow contributors from improperly publishing posts, reported by Konstantin Kovshenin, or reassigning the post’s authorship, reported by Luke Bryan.
An update to the SWFUpload external library to fix cross-site scripting vulnerabilities. Reported by mala and Szymon Gruszecki.
Prevention of a denial of service attack, affecting sites using password-protected posts.
An update to an external TinyMCE library to fix a cross-site scripting vulnerability. Reported by Wan Ikram. Multiple fixes for cross-site scripting. Reported by Andrea Santese and Rodrigo. Avoid disclosing a full file path when a upload fails. Reported by Jakub Galczyk.
This week’s Subscribed entry is a bit of a departure as it isn’t a podcast, YouTube Channel or blog, but rather a Facebook community dedicate to Podcasting. The Podcast Community has nearly 800 members and a depth of new media information not found in many other places.
The Podcast Community is a place for questions and discussions, not just announcements of upcoming shows and guests. If you have a new media question, this is one of the best places to get it answered. You’ll find a wide variety of advice, guidance and support in this community.
What are some of your favorite Subscriptions? Share them here in the comments!
Subscribed is a Careers in New Media series highlighting the Podcasts, YouTube Channels and Blogs that I follow on a daily basis. Check out this entry, and past entries, for some great New Media Content — Douglas
Sometimes it can be useful to schedule blog posts to go out on a specific date and time. For example, you might be on vacation or away from your office, but still want that content to go out. Both WordPress and Blogger provide support for scheduled posts and this video shows how to use it.
