The Legal Hokey-Pokey

First off, let me just say that I’m a Verizon junky.  I love Verizon.  They DO have a Map for That!  Great service, great devices (I have the BlackBerry Storm2) and reliable connections and speeds.  That’s my disclaimer!  (I hate AT&T, dislike T-Mobile and have never really thought much about Sprint except that they run on the “same” network technology as Verizon, just not as thorough of service coverage).

On December 8th I went to the Social Media Club Seattle event on the Microsoft campus.  Well, there was an “after party” sponsored by Spring 4G.  I’ve never been much of a Sprint guy, but thought I’d go and check it out anyway.  I’ve heard some good things about 4G WiMax and really wanted to see what it was really like.  That evening they had a 6 computer work station setup with Sprint U300 4G dongles (aircards that plug into your USB port) and I could not believe it when I did a speed test (the first and only thing I went directly to do) and saw it clock at 3.2 Mbps.  At the time I was told that was “a bit slow” by the Sprint rep, since apparently “good” signal strength can yield around 7-9 Mbps!!  That’s INSANE!  That’s 2x-3x faster than my home cable internet service… and it’s over the air!!  So, fascinated by the speed I experienced, I introduced myself to Jon (District Sales Manager) (@WSthHouse)and David (Store Manager at Northgate Way) (@Bonjour206).  These two are amazing guys.  Very nice, very straight shooting all around fun to hang out with.

So, I kept up twitter conversations with the two of them and a few days later David came to a #ColdPavement event in Belltown to hang out and so I could pick his brain some more.  I was basically digging for the weaknesses of 4G.  I did find out that some buildings do have penetration issues, so in those situations you’ll really need to be closer to windows (not so appealing an idea).  Other than that I couldn’t tell what the downsides could be since the service is only $59.99 a month (and completely mobile, unlike my home service).

After some thought of the subsequent days I decided that Friday night (last night) I’d take the plunge, go to the Sprint Northgate Way store and grab me some 4G.  Why not?  I’m going to be temporarily moving into a rental condo (I own it, but it’s been rented out over the past three years) and I don’t want to sign up for TV, telephone and internet while I’m trying to sell the unit.  So, this three inch dongle (three inches of speedy joy) could make that situation a lot nicer.

HOWEVER, Friday afternoon I discovered online through several different forums that the U300 has been having driver issues with Windows 7!  Ot oh!  I have Windows 7 on my laptop! YIKES!  I shot David a text message asking what his proposed work around would be… “No problem, a new update software update was released on Dec 14 with Windows 7 drivers.  You’ll be fine!”  Phew!  Saved the day!  Just when I thought I’d have to drop the whole thing, David rushes to the resque.

So, I get to the store around 5:30pm.  David is with a customer.  One of his sales monkeys RUNS over to ask, “Hey! How can I help you guys today?” (I brought my friend Josh with me, @JoshITGuy since he’s an IT Consultant and pretty savvy on networking and computer stuff)  I just told him that we were waiting for David and would browse while we waited.  Keep in mind Josh is also a Sprint junky.  Has been with Sprint for a long time (albeit one minor blip when he jumped ship to AT&T for an iPhone only to find out that AT&T sucks… that didn’t last long fortunately).  So, of course while “we” are browsing Josh is drooling over the BlackBerry Tour on display (with a dead battery unfortunately) and frantically wondering if David will be able to upgrade his soon to be obsolete 8330 to the shiny new Tour!

So, after about 15 minutes of wait for David to finish up with a customer (found out later he had been on a customer support call for a customer for 1 hour 10 minutes), he came over and we started the process.  He took us to the display and started showing us around the speed tests and all that, but I stopped him to say I’d already gone through it and had already made up my mind.  David ran into the back room and came out with a shiny black box that had my new toy inside.   Amazingly helpful, he says, “Well, this could take a few minutes to get setup because I’ll have to activate it and there’s a ‘Welcome’ message on there that I’ll have to get removed.  For some reason, just like with our phones, Sprint puts a welcome message on the aircards.  This doesn’t affect the 3G cards, but for some reason it prevents the 4G card from connecting and can be problematic if I don’t take care of it before you leave.” (WOW, it takes guts to admit that there’s a glitch in the system, even if you know how to get it resolved).  So he takes 15-20 minutes on the phone with a support rep to get this all taken care of, he says things are working fine.  But, I had my Windows 7 laptop WITH me.  (Smart cookie I am… make him get the software and make sure it’s working before I leave the store.)  So, he tells us that the software will take a little time to download and install.

So, while the download and install is taking place the three of us run out to grab a quick bite to eat and return to my laptop within the hour to have pristine Windows 7 compatible software on my laptop.  We walk in, install the software and within 15 minutes we’re connected to 4G and smokin the interwebs!

Oh, did I mention that while David was working with the customer support on the phone he was setting up my friend Josh with his new BlackBerry Tour?  Yeah, miracle worker!  He was able to get Josh’s renew date bumped by a few days to have him walking out with a powerful new BlackBerry Tour… all while on hold for my “Welcome Message” issue.

So, I got back late last night to the house I’m staying at on the top of Queen Anne hill in Seattle, immediately cranked up my laptop and plugged in the dongle.  Immediately went to the Speakeasy Speed Test site, fired it up, hit test… ONLY 1.8Mbps.  I was devastated (and very tired).

This morning I woke up, went down to the laptop again, did the speed test three times: 2.8Mbps, 3.4Mbps, and 3.8Mbps!  WOW!  Holy smokes Batman!  I’m stoked!

(In the image above, the Green number is my tested download speed and the Red number is my tested upload speed)

So, after a thrilling customer service experience with David and a great (and fast) experience with Sprint 4G, I’m a happy boy!

Did I mention that I’m happy?  Just want to be sure you understand that.

So, just as a disclaimer, Sprint 4G is not all that widespread yet.  It does cover most of the “I-5 corridor” from Bellingham down through Lakewood (just south of Tacoma) according to the service maps.  And it’s in a few other markets around the country.  But if you have this service and this dongle, it also does connect to their 3G data service too (although seems much slower in comparison now that I’m spoiled).  Take a stroll over to the Sprint Coverage Maps to see if their 4G service is in your market yet.

Good luck and happy surfing!

UPDATE: I forgot to mention the efforts that my dear friend Brian Westbrook put into making the Spring 4G “SMC After Dark” party work out flawlessly!  Great job Brian!

I’m often asked how I could POSSIBLY manage to keep up with the constant stream of tweets from SO many followers (I don’t have nearly as many followers as many of my friends, but compared to others, 2700 is a lot).

Here’s my top 10 list of actions, applications and websites that will help you be more productive and keep on top of the Madness.

1. TweetDeck – You have to get this.  You have to learn how to use it.  It will change how you look at Twitter.  A couple months ago I put together a “Video: Intro to TweetDeck” (program has been updated since my video blog, but still very similar).  It’s quite a simple program, but what I love most about it is that I can categorize all the different followers into different columns.  So, I’ll have “Friends” in one column, “Legal Tweeps” in another, and “Seattle folks” in a third column.  I’ll also have one column dedicated to @replies, DM’s and one for my Facebook stream.  With all this you can now see everything spread out on one screen.
2. Upload a picture to your Twitter profile – I’ve actually heard some friends say they refuse to follow someone who doesn’t bother to change from the default image.  If you don’t like the idea of it being a picture of you, get one of your dog or a tree.  Anything but the default twitter image!  People will respect you more.    While you’re at it, make sure to add your real name, your location and a bio.  Also, for a web link use your LinkedIN page if you don’t have a blog or website to direct folks to! 
3. Get involved in your local Social Media Community – in Seattle we have the Social Media Club Seattle (a/k/a SMC Seattle) and you can also find events going on locally at twtvite.  Why bother with Twitter if you’re not going to use it to it’s advantages?  Turn those online relationships into real ones!  If you have a hard time finding people to follow, go to an event and meet some folks.  It will energize you to get involved.
4. Find Followers – Using websites like wefollow will help you find twitter followers in topic areas you might be interested in.  If you work in Legal (as a lawyer or otherwise) you can check out LexTweet (operated by LexBlog).  There are TONS of other websites out there to help you find followers.  Plus your friends will likely participate in #FollowFriday (#FF) where they recommend people to follow!  This is a great way to for you to find like-minded people.
5. Tweet on the Go! If you use a “Smartphone” there are lots of options for reading and sending Tweets on the Go.  For iPhone, a must have app is Tweetie (that’s the extend of my iPhone knowledge).  For BlackBerry I would suggest SocialScope, IF you get it.  It’s been in closed beta since January of 2009, I have hope it’ll be released to the general public soon.  Otherwise Ubertwitter is a great alternative.
6. Tweeting Articles – Some folks live on Twitter simply to share and read articles that they love!  One easy way I do that is by using Viigo on my BlackBerry.  Every morning when I’m on the bus I’m constantly reading articles from news papers and blogs.  Using Viigo with just two clicks I’ve submitted the article to Twitter.  Very simple.  Also, if you’re reading a blog you might notice that beside each article you see a Share This button or a Twitter/Facebook button.  USE THEM!  Tell your following you’ve found something they might be interested in!  (TweetDeck has URL shrinking build in.  So if you paste a long URL address it will shrink the address for you)
7. Re-Tweeting – Want to get someone’s attention? When you see something that someone has sent out and want to share it with your followers you “re-tweet” it.  On TweetDeck that’s a specific command.  You’ll know retweets because they start with “RT”.  When you RT someone’s tweet it tells them you like what they’ve circulated.  Some even take the time to thank folks personally for RTing their tweets.  This is a great way to increase your social profile. (Found this Re-tweet Etiquette very interesting)
8. Sharing Twitter Responsibilities – If you have a Twitter account for your company, organization or non-profit you should consider sharing the Twitter responsibilities with others.  One very popular and EASY way to do that is to use a site called CoTweet. Here you can both send out tweets from your organization OR from your personal account.  You can also assign specific people to reply to specific tweets.  This takes the burden off of one single participant and allows others to get involved.
9. Read Trust Agents!  If you want to feel part of the Social Media community and really be able to best “take advantage” of the relationships you build, Trust Agents, by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith, is a fun and very helpful read.  I recently wrote a review of the book “Review: Trust Agents“.
10. Distributing Your Twitter Handle – First off, DON’T protect your Twitter profile.  It’s just dumb.  If you don’t want certain people to see what you say, then either Twitter isn’t for you OR you shouldn’t say “it” to begin with.  Next, I put a little clear sticker on the back of my normal business cards that have my Twitter handle on it and my blog URL.  This allows me to give folks that info when doing a traditional business card exchange.

BONUS: Be a person, not a company.  People want to connect with People, not companies.  It might feel nicer for you to be more anonymous as “XYZ Corporation”, but you’ll end up just that, anonymous.  People usually hate following companies and are generally suspicious of companies who follow them.

OK, that offically wraps up my rendition of “Top 10 Twitter Tips”.  Hope you find them helpful.  Drop me a line anytime.  I love interacting with folks.

Tweet ya later!!!

First off, I believe this book is well intentioned for corporate folks who have large organizations begging them to understand what this “whole social media thing” is all about.  It’s very appealing to this audience for a few reasons.  1) The methodical approach to much of the first 2/3 of the book are getting folks to understand the statistical value of target markets relating to technology, referred to as “Technographics”.  This approach could be very helpful to folks who need statistics to prove anything to someone else.  2) Lots of large companies are used in the Case Study examples.  Again, I believe this approach gives anyone who works in what they believe is a “stodgy corporate environment” hope that their organization too can overcome the fears of innovation.

My biggest concern about this book is that it really seems more as a sales pitch for consulting company where the authors work, Forrester Research.  This really puts me off, but alas, there were lots of gems gleaned in these pages.

This book couldn’t be further opposite of “Trust Agents” if it tried.  They only really have one thing in common and that is “people connect to people”.  I repeat, “People connect to People!”

Although I like the idea that they have a winning step by step approach for entering the Groundswell (the large uprising of customers voicing opinions and blogs about you online where you have no control), but I also worry that issuing a step by step approach to a crowd who are likely reading this book because they don’t know where to start, is like telling someone how to build a watch when they ask for the time.

The one missing message of this book was “just try it”.  Especially if you are in a much smaller environment (and I’ll bet you are) than the examples of companies given in the book.  In the legal administrator ranks we have a term called “Paralysis by Analysis” and it’s exactly what it sounds like.  People and companies will continue to put off the inevitable by over analyzing the circumstances or waiting for one more example of what can go wrong.

I don’t believe this book gives you everything you need to start a complex groundswell engagement if you’re a large company, but after all now you know that Forrester Research has the capacity and technical skills to help you over analyze the situation of your customer base and determine exactly what direction you need to go in.

I found it absurd to state things like, “This solution only cost the company $280,000 to start and maintenance is only $25,000 per month.”  Statements like that help me fully understand that Forrester is targeting much larger fish than me or my firm!  LOL

Don’t get me wrong, I did like the book, but just having finished Trust Agents (a very feel-good and personal book), the writing style and approach from a corporate formula approach just hit me wrong.

I think it was mis-titled.  Should have been “Groundswell: How your Fortune 500 Company will be Transformed by Social Technologies”

(This was my second Kindle book completed, but this one I started and finished on my new International Kindle 2! Much nicer to read on!)

Today Doctor of Blogging for Lawyers Kevin O’Keefe posts his newest blog entry “Companies and law firms blocking use of social media : Insanity is rampant“.  And even though the author of the statistics posts a correction to Kevin’s blog, the results are quite amazing!

You have to take a look!

We’ve gotten some amazing feedback from the Twitter Success webcast held on June 23! We had 265 RSVPs!!!!

Here’s the demographics for the RSVPs.

Below you’ll also find the recorded webcast. PLEASE fast forward to minute 25 for the “show” to begin! The first 25 minutes was just the recorded “count-down” timer. Sorry about that!

On June 23rd, Richard Wood (@LegalAdmin) of Summit Law Group will be presenting a Twitter Educational Class for PSALA and the greater Legal Community entitled, “Twitter Success – 140 Characters at a Time!“. RSVPs can be made for either the live, in-person course, OR view the webcast either live or after the event! Thanks to PSALA In-Kind Web Sponsor ProMotion Arts for making the Webcast possible!

Learning objectives for attendees of this special class are:

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