In interest of full disclosure, I’ve been a paying customer of Dropbox for about a year and have always liked their service. Just like anyone, though, I’m always looking for a better deal. Looking at Google Drive I was really interested as I would be able to get 4 times the storage for the same $10 a month. Doing my normal terms of use check I was a little bit surprised at the vague liberties that Google takes with your data. Here is what they say about your files and what they can do:

“When you upload or otherwise submit content to our Services, you give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those resulting from translations, adaptations or other changes we make so that your content works better with our Services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content. The rights you grant in this license are for the limited purpose of operating, promoting, and improving our Services, and to develop new ones. This license continues even if you stop using our Services (for example, for a business listing you have added to Google Maps). Some Services may offer you ways to access and remove content that has been provided to that Service.” - Source: http://www.google.com/policies/terms/ 

Of course, the biggest problem I have with this is how vague and liberal their use statement is in that it seems you basically grant a full license to anything that is uploaded to just about any Google service, including Google Drive. This includes reproduction, creation of derivative works, and publication and per these terms, they do not have to notify you at all. Now I understand that a lot of these licenses is to cover basic functionality of things like duplicating files in Google Docs or on Google Drive. The issue to me is that it isn’t limited to just the functionality of the services and they specifically call out promotion as an acceptable use.

After looking at the Google terms of use I decided to head over to Dropbox for a refresher on their policy.

“By using our Services you provide us with information, files, and folders that you submit to Dropbox (together, “your stuff”). You retain full ownership to your stuff. We don’t claim any ownership to any of it. These Terms do not grant us any rights to your stuff or intellectual property except for the limited rights that are needed to run the Services, as explained below. We may need your permission to do things you ask us to do with your stuff, for example, hosting your files, or sharing them at your direction. This includes product features visible to you, for example, image thumbnails or document previews. It also includes design choices we make to technically administer our Services, for example, how we redundantly backup data to keep it safe. You give us the permissions we need to do those things solely to provide the Services.” - https://www.dropbox.com/terms

Do you see the difference between the two? Google has you grant the rights to almost full license without limit whereas Dropbox states that you do not grant any rights outside of what is necessary to operate the services. To me, this distinction is very important when it comes to privacy as this new world of cloud computing and hosting continues to grow and develop. When I place files onto a service that is not my own hosting and I am paying for said service, I would expect that all rights and usage for all files placed there are left with me and that the service wouldn’t have the ability to use them for anything without my expressed written permission.

So what do you think? Do the usage rights to your files change what cloud storage services you use? Have you ever looked to see what kind of usage rights you are granting?

That said, when I think back to when I was in elementary, middle, and high school, I LOVED any class that had technology associated with it. Forget English classes, I wanted to be on computers or working with electronics. I believe those classes helped create the strong desire that I have to this day to be around, using, tinkering, and taking apart tech devices and concepts. Of course, this was 15+ years ago and technology has come a long way since my parent’s Commodore 64/128 and Prodigy.

The question now is if technology will be able to reignite the passion for math, science, and reading in US students who for the most part are digital natives? Apple and other companies are betting on it by bringing devices like laptops and iPads into classrooms as early as elementary school.

So the question is, can Apple and/or technology save education in the US?

Via: OnlineEducation.net

So what is your take? Are you looking forward to a possible Facebook IPO in 2012? Will you purchase some of the shares? If so, how long will you keep them?

If it helps your decision, here are some of the details surrounding it provided by accountingdegreeonline.net

Created by: Accounting Degree Online

What do you think? Is Facebook enough of a distraction to affect student grades?

Via: OnlineEducation.net

Created by: HackCollege

As I was trying to figure out why I ran through several possibilities. The biggest is that I am almost the quintessential Apple “fanboy”. I remember using Macintosh computers back in elementary and middle school. Typing my first class papers on them. I remember falling in love with Final Cut Pro back in April of 1999 and OS 9 later that year. I remember being super excited waiting for the UPS delivery guy when my first ever PowerMac was delivered in 2001 (a Quicksilver which still runs and is sitting on a shelf behind me). I remember being at NAB 2007 and dragging my co-workers to the Apple reveal of Final Cut Studio 2. I type this post using my iMac, Apple TrackPad, and wireless Apple keyboard. In a backpack next to me is my MacBook Pro and iPad. The network in my house is controlled by an Apple Airport and my wife is watching a video on her MacBook. There is not a day that doesn’t go by that I use an Apple device in some way, shape, or form. As I thought about it, though, this wasn’t the reason because while Steve Jobs gets the credit for Apple innovations, there are over 40,000 people that work for the company. There are many engineers, designers, and developers at Apple who are the true champions of these products. It was in this thought, though, where I realized why I was sad.

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” ~ Steve Jobs

It is the job of a CEO to set the tone, direction, and vision for a company. It was Steve Jobs’ ideas, hopes, dreams, and vision that made Apple the company it was today. It was Steve Jobs’ dedication to outside-of-the-box thinking, consistent improvement, and the desire to change the world that allowed a corporate culture where amazing products were created. I am sad at the loss of Steve Jobs, not because I think of all the products his company made. I am sad at his death because someone that I looked up to as a visionary business leader, a dynamic speaker, and the type of passionate creative that I aspire to be is gone.

“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart. … Stay hungry. Stay foolish.” ~ Steve Jobs

Mr. Jobs, I never had a chance to meet you, but I hope if I had, I would have been able to say thank you. Not thank you for the products your company has made, but thank you for being an inspiration. From your messages, quotes, and presentations, I have learned a lot. I hope that one day I will have an opportunity to be a visionary leader as you were and that I will always be able to summon the courage to live by the same motto you did, “Stay hungry. Stay foolish.” Thank you, Steve Jobs, for the inspiration.

“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes … the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status quo. … You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things. … They push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the people who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.” ~ Steve Jobs

As of about 36 hours after the media announcement, all that Sprint’s digital platforms had to offer were a couple of tweets from the @sprint account promising that information was coming soon.

@Sprint Twitter account only promising news 36 hours after the media event

Sprint news page without any iPhone information

Sprint homepage advertising a different phone 36 hours after the media announcement

As a Sprint customer for over 10 years (with a one year break while working outside the US) and a die-hard Mac “fanboy” since 1999, this was the announcement that I was waiting for. The second it was announced in the Apple media event, I was loading up Sprint.com…. nothing. Went back an hour later with “early upgrade” money burning a hole in my pocket… nothing. Checked today (over 24 hours later)… nothing. Now being that every computer and media device I own is made by Apple and I’m not ditching Sprint, chances are whenever they finally get around to releasing the info, I’ll eventually upgrade. But what about all the customers they’ll need to conquest to meet their contractual obligations with Apple? Chances are many of them already have iPhones and both Verizon and AT&T are already talking about the new phone and offering pre-orders. Sprint’s marketing team… big time #fail.

Verizon Wireless' Homepage

Product development, Public Relations, Corporate Communications, and Marketing need to collaborate

I have worked for and with several large companies throughout my career and one thing that I find most often is that communicating internally across these four critical tiers is one of the most dysfunctional processes these companies have. In the end though, all marketing (especially digital) will only be successful when these areas are synced up. Imagine if Sprint’s digital marketing team had product pages and upgrade information ready to roll out the second Apple announced the partnership? Well I’d have my iPhone 4S pre-ordered and I’m sure there are a lot of other customers that would have done the same. In the end, there should have at least been some kind of messaging placed up digitally say in the event there were web technical issues. Twitter, while unreliable, is still up and so is Facebook and PR Newswire.

Sprint, I truly hope you find a way to generate some real excitement as, from what I understand, you’ve “bet the farm” on this deal and I’d really hate to see a rollout fluke like this bring the demise of my favorite wireless company.

Eager to test it out, I downloaded the software/plugin via Chrome on my Mac and my wife did the same. When we tested it out, no dice. We both received an error saying the other didn’t have a webcam setup. This, of course was wrong as we both have built-in iSight cameras in our Mac computers. After tinkering with it for a bit, I found a solution that worked for us. So if you’re having problems with your built-in Mac iSight camera and Facebook video calling, try this out:

Update software and OS

The first thing you’ll need to do is update all your Mac software. This includes running Software Update to make sure the OS is updated as well as the browser that you’re using (Safari will update with the Apple Software Update tool). Second, head over to get.adobe.com/flashplayer to make sure you’re running the latest Flash Player. Once you’re done updating, I suggest you reboot or at least restart the browser.

Setup Permission

The next thing to do is set up Flash and Facebook permission to access your built-in iSight camera for the video call. To do this, go back out to your news feed or profile and click on Video like you were going to share a video with your friends and then click on Record Video.

Next you’ll need to give Flash permission to use your built-in iSight camera. If the options box shown below doesn’t show up automatically, right-click or CTRL click on the video window and select Settings.

In the settings box, click on the second tab (Privacy), and select Allow, check Remember, and then click on Close.

At this point, your video might come alive. If not, try reloading Facebook or restarting your computer. Hopefully though, after setting the privacy settings, you should be good to go!

Enjoy chatting with friends and family with Facebook Video Calls!

PR and Communications Implications of Google+ (and Other Observations)

http://socialmediatoday.com/shelholtz/314121/pr-and-communications-implications-google-and-other-observations

In case you’re not familiar with Groupon and the like, they are basically websites that offer a super discounted service or product from a business local to the user for a limited time. Groupon is only one day, but other sites like Living Social, AppSumo, Zulily extended their offers for a week or more. For example, today’s deal on Groupon for Ann Arbor, MI is 62% off a round of golf for 2 with cart.

Jumping on the bandwagon of this, probably after Groupon rejected Google’s purchase offer of $6-billion, is Facebook. In April, Facebook revealed Facebook Deals. Now it is running in a few testing markets (all you lucky people in CA) and setup as pretty much a Groupon clone.

Now you might ask, if Groupon is so huge, how is Facebook going to compete? Well I honestly think they’ll hold their own and stand a chance of beating Groupon outright for a couple reasons. The biggest is that they are hitting users where they are. For Groupon, users must either navigate to the site daily or open the daily email from Groupon. With Facebook Deals, the deal is show in the user’s news feed. Before the end of the summer, Facebook will most likely roll over 700 million users worldwide. That is a lot of eyeballs to place on Facebook Deals content verse the 35 million Groupon users reported in January.

The second main reason I think Facebook Deals will beat Groupon is that sharing is automatic and very easy and obvious. For Groupon, there is a small sharing section on each deal. While it is there, it isn’t integral. Plus users will have to connect Groupon to their Facebook profile to enable sharing.

Facebook Deals, on the other hand, has sharing front and center. In addition, depending on the user’s privacy settings, if they purchase a deal, it is automatically shared out to their friends to see.

As mentioned, Facebook Deals is currently only running in a few test areas in California, Texas, and Georgia. But I believe that if/when they roll it out, Groupon is going to have some serious competition for the top “local deal of the day” website.