Sandra Says

I’m so jealous, they get to go to Blogher and I have to stay here. Oh, well! Looking forward to blogs, tweets and flicks.

I’ve been thinking about this quite a lot lately, pondering whether or not to take the plunge and go back to school. It’s been more than a decade since I graduated, and the longer I stay out the less I want to go back. Isn’t that just the way?

I’ve never seen a need, before, to get a master’s degree. Don’t hate me for writing this, but I honestly didn’t see any immediate benefit in my career. I’ve always known I’m going to go back, but I wasn’t in any rush. It was just this vague “someday I’ll do that.”

I think the time is now… maybe.

Some of the reasons I’ve been thinking about going back to school are that I want to redirect the focus of my career, obtain new skills & strengthen skills that need help, and wade into other industries. But, will a graduate degree really help me do that? I’m not convinced either way.

It’s a good way to make myself more marketable, I’m told. But, still I sit on the fence.

I don’t want to be practical about it, don’t want to get an MBA or a graduate degree in communications, don’t want to study something potentially boring or that I won’t use. I want to do something different, like getting a graduate degree in Spanish or information architecture or something like that. Something that will help my everyday tasks, my ability to comprehend and explain business communications situations (i.e., marketing communications), and help me in the way I really communicate with customers today.

I want it to be fun and effective. And that’s a really tall order for something that’s supposed to be a grueling experience.

My assistant is going to Harvard this fall for a master’s degree in public policy. My boss’s assistant is studying for the GRE to get a degree in management, with a specialization in business communications. A friend is at UT’s information school, in Austin, getting a graduate degree in information management (or something like that).

And still I wait and ponder… which means, really, that I’m not going to do it right now.

I met my sister for lunch today. Nothing extraordinary in that.

We made the plans via email. Again, nothing extraordinary in that.

Except, we didn’t talk at all this morning… as we made plans for lunch… as she told me about her job search, and today’s progress… as I told her about my week… as we discussed who would meet whom, where… we didn’t talk at all. We wrote.

I have a cell phone I seldom use, for talking. I have a landline at home I almost never use. And I have four active email addresses, two cell phones (one, a smart phone with Web access) from which I text and send out updates to friends, two laptops and two desktops (if you count personal and work computers), and very good typing skills. This is how I stay in touch with friends and family.

How many of you have friendships that are still thriving thanks to email? (Since, like me, you seldom see these friends in realtime.) Or is that just me?

By the way, lunch was great. One in-person conversation to offset the few dozen we’ve had virtually since the last lunch. Not bad.

I attended the WITI Houston Event on the Digital Houston Initiative, where the city of Houston’s Janis Jefferson (deputy director for the city’s IT Department) told us that the wifi cloud will be complete in 24 months.

Timeline she gave us:

• 50% citywide coverage by August 2008
• 100% citywide coverage by August 2009

She also said that speed would be 1MB up and down.

Other info I thought was interesting: the city hired a Digital Inclusion Project Director earlier this year. “The former Executive Director for The Technology Opportunity Institute (TTOI) will develop and engage partnerships among business, philanthropic, education, health and nonprofit sectors to create technology-based opportunities for Houston’s underserved residents.” Might make a good speaker for a future NetSquared meeting (hint, hint).

I can’t wait to see how the wireless/wifi network will actually work.

I went to today’s Social Media & Public Relations workshop, hosted by PRSA. Social Media guru Josh Hallett gave a great presentation on things to do to monitor the blogosphere for your clients and ways to wade into it.

Things I learned:

• I’m already doing quite a bit of the things recommended to monitor the blogosphere
• I already knew more than a few of the things recommended as the right way to get into blogging and social media (though I should point out that Josh doesn’t like the term “social media”)
• I’ve got to actually do some of these things instead of just preaching — lead by example, I guess.
• never give Ed Shipul your blog address unless you’re willing to have him call you out on your less-than-stellar content
• today was happykatie‘s birthday
• I’m very quick to come to the defense of twitter as something useful

The most important thing — I seem to be ahead of the curve in expertise and implementation. I felt good about that.

Tonight is the Houston NetSquared July Meetup:

When: Tuesday, July 10, 2007, 7:00 PM

Description: Just to be fun, we’re doing a last minute change-up for this July NetSquared meeting. Ed Schipul will be giving us the lowdown on last weekend’s iPhone Development Camp in San Francisco.

1. Recap of Barcamp / iPhone Dev Camp – about the event
2. Designing for the iPhone
3. What makes the iPhone tick
4. Demos of iPhone apps

Bring your iPhone, laptop and your brain – this will be a great geek-out session, with great practical applications for mobile Web designing.

Tomorrow, PRSA Houston is holding a Workshop & Luncheon on Social Media & Public Relations:

Wed 11-Jul-07 8:00 AM – to – Wed 11-Jul-07 1:30 PM CDT
Courtyard on St. James
1885 St. James Place
Houston TX 77056  

Details on “July 11 Workshop & Luncheon–Social Media & Public Relations”

Speaker Information “Josh Hallet”
Josh Hallet has been involved in emerging internet communication technologies for more than ten years and works closely with public relations! practitioners and corporate communicators to integrate these technological tools into organizations’ public and media strategic planning. He is a Fellow//Board Member of the Society of New Communications Research, as well as a member of the Information Architecture Institute, and the Florida Public Relations Association.

Also tomorrow, WITI Houston is holding a regional event, on the Digital Houston Initiative:

Join WITI as we discuss the latest on the City of Houston’s initiative to make wireless broadband services available throughout the city!

The objectives of this initiative include:

- Reducing the City government cost for mobile computing, i.e. parking meters, traffic signals, maintenance crews, field inspections, video and photography in police cars, maps and building plans in fire and EMS vehicles;
- Reducing the monthly cost of broadband for residential and small business users from $30-$50 to $10-$20;
- Bridging the digital divide for disadvantaged communities/ individuals and promoting economic development and conventions/tourism.

The City intends to leverage its significant real estate holdings, as well as rights it may secure to assets owned by the local electric utility, to stimulate private investments and provide maximum value for the community. The City also intends to secure access to more than one (1) million street light and/or utility poles, which are owned by the local electric utility, and deployed in the City’s rights-of-way.

We will have drawings for door prizes. Please bring your business cards to the meeting to enter the drawings.

About Our Speaker(s):
Umesh K. Verma, President and CEO of Blue Lance, is a seasoned entrepreneur with over 20 years in the IT industry. Since forming Blue Lance in 1985, he has built the company into a leading provider of computer security and regulatory compliance software products. He is an expert on computer security and monitoring of information assets and is a frequent speaker.

Alongside his success with Blue Lance, Mr. Verma is recognized for having grown C-TREC into one of the largest privately held computer training companies in Houston, specializing in CISSP, Microsoft, Novell, Cisco, HP (ASE), CompTIA, Citrix and SAIR Linux certifications, and is an official Prometric Testing center. He also founded Softec International, an offshore software development company. Softec International was acquired by Novell in 1997.

Boards & Task Forces:

Greater Houston Partnership Board of Directors
Chair, Technology Infrastructure Committee
Economic Development Advisory Committee
Center for Houston’s Future Leadership & Engagement Committee
Houston Technology Center Advisory Board
Technology Executive Club of Houston
University of Houston College of Technology Advisory Board
University of Houston Alumni Organization Board of Directors
Houston Business Magazine Advisory Board
Awards:

Honored as one of 44 distinguished entrepreneurs in the City of Houston by the Houston Technology Center
Future 500 Upside Award presented by the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
2002 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the year finalist
28th fastest growing company in Houston by the Houston Business Journal
Houston 100 awards 1992
Houston 100 awards 1991

Event Date and Venue
This event will be held from 6:00-8:30 on Wednesday, July 11, 2007 at:

SYSCO Corporation
1370 Enclave Parkway
Houston, Texas 77077
(Map)

Directions:
The parking garage entry gates are equipped with a typical push button for assistance. Please announce yourself as a WITI attendess, security
will verify and allow access. Entry to the building is on level 1 from the parking garage. The hallway will lead you to the main lobby and can check in there. The Meeting room is located on the 4th floor. Rooms A4 – 1,2 & 3. The registration table will be located just inside rooms 1&2.

If you have been to SYSCO before, please be aware that this is a new corporate office, which is next door to the original building. The original building is no longer there.

Schedule:
6:00-6:30 Registration, Dinner and Networking
6:30-7:00 Announcements, Sponsor Welcome
7:00-8:00 Program, Q&A
8:00-8:30 Networking

All of these look interesting enough to put on your calendar (they’re already on mine).

Thursday, July 12 at 2 p.m.
Jungman Neighborhood Library
5830 Westheimer, 77057 * 832-393-1860

Free and Open to the Public

The Houston Public Library invites the public to meet and greet Texan author Marsha Moyer at Jungman Neighborhood Library located at 5830 Westheimer, 77057. Moyer will give a presentation on her latest release Heartbreak Town and sign books on Thursday, July 12 at 2 p.m.

In Heartbreak Town, Moyer continues the saga of sassy East Texan Lucy Hatch from her previous novels The Last of the Honky-Tonk Angels and The Second Coming of Lucy Hatch. Back home in Mooney after fleeing Nashville and her country-crooner hubby, Ash Farrell, Lucy settles into her old job at the flower shop and new life as a single mom. But, her plans are blown to bits when Ash roars into town in a rainstorm, on the run from rehab with a wounded heart, shattered dreams and a trashy trailer that he parks in Lucy’s yard.

Marsha Moyer was born in Austin and grew up in Bryan-College Station. After graduating from Bryan High School, she attended the University of Texas at Austin. For the next 25 years she held a variety of jobs, including those of secretary to two animal scientists in the field of swine management, newsletter editor at the Texas A&M computing center, and assistant to the late chemist Karl Folkers, whose work in the field of coenzyme Q-10 research is world-renowned.

Moyer has written fiction since childhood, and in 1990 was awarded a three-month residency from the Syvenna Foundation for women writers in northeast Texas. Almost a decade later, the East Texas experience came full circle when she began the manuscript which would ultimately yield four novels in the Lucy Hatch series.

For further details, please contact the Houston Public Library at www.houstonlibrary.org or call 832-393-1313.