Cedar Mill Communications

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Justifying business travel for a self-employed person isn’t easy. You’ve got to pay for the trip and then lose out on the valuable time you would have spent working. You lose twice in the money department and with current technology, there’s a temptation to say you don’t need the face time.

So, it is with a fair amount of trepidation that I look forward to a trip to Germany this spring. How much will it cost to travel? Staying with friends is nice, but how long can I sponge off of them? And then there are food and extra expenses that will undoubtedly add up. Sure, come April 2014 I’ll be able to write off much of the trip, but is it really necessary to visit clients abroad when I’ve been happily emailing and skyping with them these past few years?

That’s what my husband has been saying anyway.

I think he’s taking his cue from Anderson Cooper and the phalanx of TV and radio journalists who regularly rely on Skype or phone calls for interviews. Technology does make it easier to get interviews from sources who likely feel safer phoning it in from their mobile phones. Likewise for journalists who get nabbed as often as the sources. Let’s not forget Daniel Pearl, may he rest in peace.

In combing the Internet to prop up my argument, I found a couple of disturbing stats: 39 percent of Americans spend more time socializing online than face to face. Twenty percent actually prefer to do it that way. It’s true. A quick email or text is preferable some times. But wait, this isn’t helping my cause.

Here’s one for my camp. Thomas Friedman, New York Times columnist and author, pointed out that “there is no substitute for face-to-face reporting and research.” This is sounding better, though Brian could argue I’m not getting paid to go.

But here’s one I especially like. From psychologist and researcher Roy Langmaid, “the core of qualitative research has always been authentic contact. No matter how well informed you might be, if you haven’t met people then what you think about them has an element of fantasy about it.”

Fantasy? When you’re trying to win or keep clients, no one should live in a fantasy land, right?

But wait, that fantasy thing can go both ways.

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On this Election Day 2012 when the world’s focus is on two men jostling for the U.S. presidency, many people will vote and many more won’t. Not because they can’t, but because they chose not to. I guess that’s their purview, though I’m always incredulous about those who don’t vote. Especially women. What would our suffrage sisters think of not exercising the right to vote? These women were harassed and even jailed because they went up against the establishment and demanded what all men, including blacks, had had for decades.

Oregon women got the vote only 100 years ago this month, but that was a full eight years before the 19^th Amendment prohibiting the right to vote based on sex was passed.

I had no idea how hard-fought that battle was here in our state until I watched an Oregon Public Broadcasting edition of Oregon Experience on women’s suffrage last night. It took some 40 years of pushing and prodding, six times on the ballot—cast by only men—before the state deemed it ok for women to sully themselves in the electoral process. Yes, that’s what people thought, both men and women. Politics and anything that had to do with it was considered dirty (ok, maybe there’s a bit of truth in that!). Women were not to concern themselves with such things. It was better for them to stay in the home, caring for the children and, of course, doing all the cooking, cleaning, mending and endless chores women were yoked to in those days. These same women were also denied the right to own anything, even their own clothes, and were allowed by law to be beaten by their husbands. Who would think that was fair?

Fortunately for all of us—men as well as women—one woman took to the inequity of it all and worked tirelessly to get women the vote. She was Abigail Scott Duniway and she’s my new hero. I could repeat Duniway’s story, but OPB did such an excellent job that I recommend you watch the 26-min. show. I will say I’m grateful to her for never backing down, even when her own brother, Harvey Scott, the editor of the Oregonian, strongly opposed women’s suffrage.

Thanks to Abigail Scott Duniway not only did women get the vote, but life for everyone began to get better. Infant mortality plummeted, workplace conditions improved, a law setting minimum wage and maximum hours for workers was established, and public health measures were enacted. I don’t think that kind of progress was a coincidence. Women tend to vote for a better life for all. That gives me hope. Of course, you have to actually vote, ladies and gentlemen.

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I’ve been called girl, ma’am, miss, lady, dude (?), cougar (!) and from my own husband, chick. It’s amazing how many different words there are for females. With the exception of miss when I was 8 years old, I’ve not been especially pleased about any of them. But chick really rankles me – and I’m not only irked when I’m called one. No, I don’t like any woman to be called a chick. I don’t like chick flick for romance films either, unless I say it of course. Yes, guys (or dudes), disparaging names are only allowed to be spoken by those being dissed, like African Americans are the only ones allowed to use the N word. I draw the line at the B word for anything but female dogs. I don’t know how young women can be comfortable with that one.

In the scheme of things though, I don’t have much room to complain. For some women, a slang expression spoken in passing is nothing compared to losing your name. In the Middle East a woman becomes “mother of” as soon as her first child is born. So, if her first-born is a girl, say Sonya, she’s referred to as “mother of Sonya.” If she gives birth to a boy, then forever after she’s mother of … plus her son’s name. Her own birth name ceases to be used by her family.

I like my son’s name. But mother of Alex seems like a mouthful and it’s a little weird in our country anyway. The name business is a sad reminder that women have so little value in the strict Muslim countries. They must cover up, can’t drive or work and as soon as they’re a mother they nearly cease to exist as individuals. I guess I can put up with an occasional chick. But only if I say it.

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An open letter to Pink Martini, its leader Thomas Lauderdale, Storm Large and members of the Oregon Symphony:

Thank you for taking the time and energy to bring together music and hope Oct. 28 to Pioneer Courthouse Square in Portland. Thank you for giving us your music. I can never hear enough of “Amado Mio” and “Je Ne Veux Pas Travailler,” among others.

But I really want to thank you for giving us back “America the Beautiful” and “This Land is Your Land.” These two songs encapsulate for me the idea of America as a land where opportunities are endless. It’s a dream that feels sour in my mouth now. And it hurts that these American anthems – like the very meaning of patriotism in the U.S. – have been usurped by the right. When I sang those songs on Friday, I felt the power of their words, uncorrupted by the forces that would have us swallow our seeming fate – as presented by right-wing politicians – that our land and our people are at the service of the privileged few. No, this land is your land, but it’s my land too.

That’s the real message of the Occupy Wall Street/Portland movement. And I want to thank you for bring together thousands of us who feel that way, including Rabbi Rose, Carrie Medina, Imam Mikal Shabazz, Rev. Lynne Lopez, Tom Chamberlain of the AFL-CIO, Rev. Bill Sinkford, Rev. Bill Lupfer, Rep. DeFazio and Blumenauer and Kathleen Saadat. I was inspired by all.

That our local newspaper mostly ignored the huge gathering and messages was disappointing, but you should read the blog post from David Loftus’ American Currents, “Occupy Portland, part 4 – You Know … Maybe They Really ARE Fighting Dirty.” Thanks David. You wrote up an accurate report about the event – which the Oregonian relegated to a tiny graf at the end of an article about Occupy members considering moving into the Pearl. Let’s see, the actions of 10 outweighed those of 2,000. Humm, that doesn’t seem like good news judgment to me. By the way, I’m not a union member as the newspaper’s coverage of the street march on Oct. 26 reported.

I’m just grateful that we’ve got blogs that keep us informed on all sides of issues, not just those that jibe with the established media’s editorial leanings. And I’m grateful for you Thomas, Storm and the many others who gave us back our music and our hope. I feel like we have a chance to have voices heard.

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So, it’s not my byline, but I’m psyched anyway that Financial Executive is running the WikiLeaks article I wrote for our client McKenzie Worldwide in its September issue. Check it out! 

Think Only Governments Are Targets of Cyberleaks? Think Again.

Good Information, better governance and effective enterprise content managements can go a long way toward keeping secrets safe.

Financial Executive

By Lubor Ptacek

September 2011

Although the furor over the release of secret documents by WikiLeaks has slowed, make no mistake — the whistleblower website hasn’t gone away. In fact, it seems to have blended into the Internet, making “online whistleblower” a term that will be heard often for the foreseeable future. And not just for WikiLeaks but also for copycat sites.

For example, just the words “big U.S. bank” and WikiLeaks in the same sentence caused Bank of America Corp.’s stock to drop. That a website could have such power, costly in BofA’s case, is new. But the seeds of WikiLeaks are as old as human nature, and it’s not only governments that will feel the sting of an exposed secret.

So what can enterprises do to keep their content from winding up on WikiLeaks’ website, or through some other exposé forum?

Consider first: Little can be done if your company has a disgruntled employee with legitimate access to confidential information. Large organizations simply have a statistical chance of employing a dishonest person or someone with an ax to grind. While core security technology such as VPN, firewalls or data leak detection will reduce the danger, handling the human element is best done by good human resources people with adequate screening.

But enterprises can do much to keep a leak from occurring. Like leaving your house unlocked and hoping for the best, companies need to not overlook the obvious. In this case, don’t make content easy prey for unauthorized eyes. That’s the first step. But, say an employee has authorized access to a sensitive document. He or she has a “reading” privilege and can save the document or a part of it on a hard drive or memory stick. At that point the security of an enterprise application no longer applies. Now, you must worry about the security of the flash memory drive – and that’s not much security.

Many enterprises don’t realize what valuable data is sitting on hard drives, laptops and mobile devices. That leaves them vulnerable to a myriad of nasty possibilities, ranging from seeing their trade secrets slip out to competitors, losing first-to-market advantage and even creating legal problems. For example, an old company document might resurface, causing potential embarrassment or worse. Organizations are advised to dispose of information after prescribed retention periods; if someone kept a copy of a 20-year-old document, it could become a liability.

By their very nature, enterprise content management tools can go a long way toward heading off these scenarios. It’s inherent in content management systems to maintain security through access control, authentication and authorization to make sure only the right people have access to the right documents. Originally conceived as a way to protect intellectual property, digital rights management (or just rights management) is now allowing companies to encrypt content and thus enforce security no matter where it travels.

If a document is received in an email, it will be checked, and the level of authorization will determine if it can be saved locally, printed or forwarded. Proper rights management could prevent sensitive records from winding up on a stolen employee laptop, for example.

Tethering is another ECM approach that ratchets up content security. With tethering, the content always resides in the original repository, which can be secured so the content never actually leaves. A prime example is YouTube. People can access, view and embed a YouTube video on their blogs or websites, but the content assets always stays on YouTube’s server. This same technology can be applied to content residing in a secure repository in an enterprise. This way, the content assets can be shared as needed without ever having to leave the high-security confines of an enterprise content management repository.

Rights management and tethering are excellent tools in a good content management system. But a more fundamental issue for enterprises is a firm grasp of information organization. If the content is well organized, there is a much lower chance that something will leak out — and leak out undetected. Most organizations have non-disclosure policies, emphasizing the secrets that shouldn’t shared. But having information well organized and well structured is the key. If information is all over the place, with much duplicate data, is the worst possible scenario if there is heightened concern about security or winding up as a victim of WikiLeaks.

Plugging a Leak

What if a company’s best intentions aren’t enough? What if the company’s name along with some heretofore closely guarded secret is splashed on the front page of The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal as the victim of a security leak? What then? Once the genie’s out of the bottle, it can’t be put back. So options have to be weighed. Legal steps possibly can be taken to contain the problem or public relations tools can be applied to clarify its context.

What’s far more important is preventing a leak from ever occurring again. That starts with tracing the leak back to where it originated. This is where content management and the principles of information governance come into play. One of ECM’s key features is its ability to provide a consistent, centralized log of all events — an audit trail. It provides an effective process to trace back how the particular content asset or document escaped, who opened it and where it wound up. With a good ECM system in place, the framework can be created to prevent this kind of leak in the future.

And, even if your enterprise never suffers the indignity of a security leak, aiming to protect its content has the very real side benefit of solid information governance.

The drive to expose secrets has always been with us, though many of the methods of dissemination are new. It’s uncertain how long WikiLeaks will be around — not long if some governments have their way and are successful in shutting it down. But individuals or organizations abusing confidential information certainly won’t go away. Since the Internet facilitates the mass dissemination of information in the blink of an eye, enterprises would be remiss in not preparing for the worst. Digital information has undisputed productivity benefits – and liabilities. Content management needs to be part of the infrastructure, part of the DNA of a company to successfully deal with the possible dangers.

Lubor Ptacek(lptacek@opentext.com) is vice president of product marketing for OpenText Corp. OpenText, is a Waterloo, Ontario-based enterprise software company that provides enterprise content management tools to help organizations manage and gain the true value of their business content.

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Many years ago when I was even more naïve than I am now, my dad pointed out after I sputtered on about some injustice or another that life isn’t fair. Somehow I keep hanging onto the notion that if you work hard, keep your nose clean and cultivate the right friends, maybe things will work for you. Often that is the case. Look at Barack Obama and Warren Buffett, Jimmy Buffett too for that matter. These guys worked hard and things seemed to fall into place for them.

This week I got another lesson in how it works out for the rest of us. I showed a student and her parents, two of the nicest people you’d ever meet, who were visiting from Germany, the beauties of downtown Portland. We visited the financial and civic areas that included the federal courthouse and city hall, Portlandia (the statue, not the TV show), Pioneer Courthouse Square, and Mill Ends Park, blink and you’ll miss the world’s smallest park. We stopped for lunch at Great Harvest Bakery where we bought sandwiches made of their delicious bread to eat at Waterfront Park. It was that warm, unforgettable day.

This week I decided to push into Chinatown/Old Town and the Pearl District for another tour with that genial group. We hiked around much quieter streets, taking in the Chinese Gate at Burnside and 4^th, strolling past the Classical Chinese Garden and mulling over the curious and rather depressing mutilated street art (why did no one know beforehand that collared dragons were offensive?). We dogged panhandlers at the Greyhound station and the folks marveled at the well-behaved line of passengers waiting for the Seattle-bound Amtrak. It’s a different vibe in that part of town, though the presence of the new light-rail line and spiffed up storefronts seem to portend things to come. For now that’s about it – a place waiting to come back to life.

The Pearl is a different story. It’s got plenty of life from the past decade’s worth of pricy and ambitious building projects and stores and restaurants that match in both features. Jamison Square Park was lively with kids splashing in the fountain, though the day was decidedly unsummer-like. Tanner Springs was a highlight for my guests who enjoyed the wetlands built over a previously contaminated industrial site that now filters rainwater.

Seeing the way a good idea can come successfully to life was the best part of the day for me. And Tanner Springs with its unique water-cleansing system, recycled train tracks and appreciative songbirds and meditating human is the sort of endeavor Portland is known for.

It’s also known for taking a big hit in the Great Recession. Our unemployment topped 10 percent not long ago. It’s much higher than that if you’re under 25 – or over 60 as some friends point out. It doesn’t matter how hard your work, when the job’s gone, it’s gone baby, gone.

But I was still surprised to see two top-notch restaurants – one praised all the way in New York City – closed up tight. Fenouil, just at the north boundary of Jamison Square Park, was a renowned French restaurant. I ate there once with my family who’d gathered for my daughter’s high school graduation. It was very good, very expensive on my freelancer income (thanks Dad for paying!), but I thought well, there are plenty of deep pockets in this town. Not enough apparently. Ditto for Ten 01, another multi-dollar signed restaurant that had gotten great reviews. Heck they even had a sommelier! Both restaurants seemed to epitomize our in-grained American notion of hard work leads to success. But life isn’t fair and hard work isn’t enough when money is very dear. For the past two years it seemed like Portland had weathered the crisis. Empty storefronts are quiet reminders that we have suffered, even as some say we’re in recovery. Eating out has always been a rare treat, especially now. I don’t think I’m alone there. Places like McMenamins and Great Harvest have always been more likely to get my money and they appear to be doing just fine. No sommelier though.

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A few months ago I wrote a blog post that basically gushed about the Swedes and their stores H&M and IKEA. I pointed out that because their society has sought to care for people, it appears that individuals have a better shot of reaching the top tier in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Take care of food, shelter, health care, and ideas will flow, I posited. I wonder if one can go too far? Maybe it’s possible for society to take too much care. Maybe we need to struggle.

I bring this up because the ordeal that Japan is enduring right now has brought to light a side of the Japanese society I knew very little about: the youth. Having a few of them myself, I was intrigued to read that the earthquake/tsunami have ignited an altruistic spirit in the young people in Japan. That’s not an untoward expectation. Disasters have a way of unifying us. In 1995 when we had a rain storm of near biblical proportions in the Portland metro area, the call went out to able-bodied people to help build reinforcements to the seawall at Waterfront Park. The Willamette River was expected to crest the seawall and flood the city. The reinforcements were parking barriers that were erected by hundreds of area residents who left school and jobs in an effort to keep the floodwater out of the city. It turns out we didn’t need the barriers. The river came with inches of them, then backed away. It was a moment that made us all proud; including one 12-year-old boy I knew who got to shake the hand of President Clinton, who flew out to lend his support.

Turns out Japanese youth are no different from my young friend. They just have had so little opportunity, what with all the shopping and hanging out they’ve been doing. The Japanese, who have a word for working oneself to death—karoshi—have spawned a youth culture that seems to want nothing to do with work. Time magazine in its April 4 issue listed four words for the “over-indulged and underemployed” Japanese youth. There are: freeters, those who work part-time jobs instead of striving for careers; herbivores, young men focus more on their looks than work; parasite singles, young people who fail to launch, living rent-free with mom and dad who suppy meals and laundry services; and the disturbed hikikomori, who withdraw completely from society, living in their rooms for sometimes years at a time as youthful shut-ins.

It’s hard to imagine a less self-actualized person than a hikikomori, but I can understand the despair of the freeters. You work hard to get educated and then no job. In Japan, Time says, 30 percent of college graduates have no job offers. Try that here with our enormous student loans.

Japan’s youth have gotten some awful press, so it was gratifying to read that many of them have tossed aside their self-absorption to reach out to hundreds of thousands of their countrymen and women. More than 2,000 lined up to help at an arena-turned-homeless shelter. Ironically only 500 were needed – here, too, jobs were scarce. But the fact that they were there, lending a hand, was cause to celebrate. Maybe those young people just needed a venue to show they’re higher up Maslow’s pyramid than their elders gave them credit for.

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Although the excitement level for iPad 2, which probably should be iPad 1.5, is nowhere near the level that it was for the original iPad, the availability of the iPad 2 in stores today generated a notable news cycle.

What’s also notable is the complete dearth of anything remotely credible as a competitive tablet, as the AP’s coverage emphasized, noting:

Competitors such as Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. can’t seem to match the iPad’s starting price of $499. Tablets that are comparable to the iPad in features cost hundreds of dollars more, while cheaper tablets are inferior to the iPad in quality.

I’m beyond baffled by this given that the PC and mobile phone boys have had plenty of time to simply follow Apple’s example of what a tablet should look like.  Microsoft says it won’t ship a tablet until 2012 which, given MSFT’s track record of late, will be more like 2014.

In the meantime, the iPad is plenty good, with Gartner expecting 65 million tablets (mostly iPads obviously) to be sold worldwide this year.  They’ve even gone so far as to predict a decline of PC sales in the face of the table onslaught.

As tablets reach critical mass, how will they impact the way we in PR and communications do our jobs?

Unlike laptops that are too clunky and smartphones that are too small, iPads let people consume digital media in all forms – eMagazines, news, radio, social media, video, music – anytime and anyplace. Worries about battery life or connectivity are fading fast.

And while the emphasis is on digital media, many argue that there will be room for more in-depth content such as books and thoughtful articles.  As the success of the Kindle demonstrates, people are comfortable reading thousands of words on their tablets.  What’s more , the tablet can help bring in-depth content to life with videos or slide shows and interactive demos.

For those of use fretting over the demise of daily newspaper and perceive collapse of journalism, the rise of the tablet is a godsend.  Most likely it will lead a population of consumers and customers that is better read and more informed than those of us addicted to newsprint.  (I admit, I still get a paper delivered to my door; can’t get over that just yet.)

Overtime, the rise of tablets will lead to a much more successful and healthy news media as business models and licensing issues get sorted out.  This in turn helps those of us in the PR, and will force us to become adept at the art of cranking out digital media content quickly and cost effectively. I can see the day when almost every press release includes a video element, not just the photos we provide today.

Thanks to Steve Jobs, a much improved way to consume digital media is here to stay. To Microsoft, Google, Motorola, et al, come on, get your act together!

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Last week my two daughters, ages 20 and 24, and I joined the legions welcoming H&M to downtown Portland. Lines formed a full 24 hours before the store opened. It was cold and the rainy. That’s dedication for you. We waited till the next day, a day my youngest proclaimed her second birthday (it’s better than Christmas, Mom!). All of that is for a department store, not a rock concert or a visit from the pope.

This duo exhibited the same behavior three summers ago when Oregon got its first IKEA near the Portland Airport. But they actually made the grand opening, driving in the dark to join hundreds of people waiting anxiously to be among the first to browse the trendy home décor store. I chose to wait a couple of weeks for the frenzy to die down.

Now I ask you, how do these two retail stores do it? How did they achieve rock star status with such rabid fans? On the face of it, they’ve both figured out what people want and give it them – all over the world. Our family virtually lived in the Walldorf, Germany, IKEA for a few months after we relocated near there in 1998. We had to buy all our closets because German houses aren’t built with them. IKEA’s closets fit the bill as did a great many other things like its restaurant, which is a smashing idea – shoppers get hungry, right? If our kids had been younger we probably would have thought the onsite daycare was even more wonderful. But I was plenty happy with the cleverly designed furniture and other home supplies that could be had for cheap.

Good designs for cheap – that’s the key, I think, to both stores. Collectively, our family has shopped at H&M stores in Germany, Spain, England, and in the U.S. in New York, California, Washington and now Portland. Every one of them offers the same thing: trendy styles for low prices. I venture to guess that H&M uses the same factories in the developing world that the more pricey stores use, but it doesn’t tack on a hefty surcharge for the label. A trip to an H&M requires much less price tag vigilance—and much more fun.

After our very satisfying introduction to Portland’s H&M, my daughter Ginny reminded me of the Swedish roots of both companies. That got me thinking about the connection between Sweden’s society and these two wildly popular stores. It may be a reach, but I think there is one. Here’s my theory: Sweden has one of the most progressive social networks in the world, if not the most progressive. From birth on Swedes have access to good health care that doesn’t impoverish them. Both parents are encouraged – and paid – to stay home for up to 16 months with their newborns. And the country has solid employment. In short people worry less, which leaves them with more time to be creative and come up with all kinds of things (Stieg Larsson books, for instance) and companies like my two favorites. It’s like Sweden has taken seriously Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and applied it on a national level. Its populace has security issues – employment, health, family, etc. – taken care of, so the members can turn to self-actualization: creativity and problem solving are two. Keep going on that track and you get acceptance of facts, morality and lack of prejudice as the top tier.

In my book the Swedes are on the way to being fully self-actualized. And their economy’s just one more indicator, albeit a very obvious one.

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холови гарнитуриWith any sort of brand building effort — be it social media, PR advertising or trade shows — managing all the details from start to finish can daunting and time consuming. Many times, the slightest error can undermine a good campaign, as seen in this rather embarrassing billboard:

While it seems that such errors are, at times, unavoidable, in the social media world at least a large assortment of tools have emerged to help campaigns go smoothly.  One of the most important benefits of social media  is the panoply of tools that have emerged to help you create, execute and track your brand-building efforts.  When it comes to selecting social media tools it’s a good strategy to embrace tools that span a number of different social media channels so you can smoothly roll out integrated, consistent campaigns.

Over at TopRank, an online marketing blog, Lee Odden offers up a list of 22 tools for social media marketing management. Some are completely free while others offer a limited set of services on a trial basis with pay models as you tap more of the tool’s capabilities. I’ve used a few of the services on the list and found them to be beneficial.  HootSuite, for example, integrates social media activity like Twitter and Facebook posts and feeds into a common dashboard with an assortment of charts and graphs.  Many of the tools go much deeper and will you help set up and manage full-blown campaigns.

Tools alone can’t save you from embarrassing or costly mistakes, however.  I’m sure we’ve all had our share. In my case, I’ve learned the hard way (although not as bad as that billboard) to never underestimate the power of typos. Good  editors in particular are worth every dime!

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