I’m excited to share news that I have joined the PR team of one of our most highly respected technology communications firms, Davies Murphy Group, headquartered in Burlington, Mass.  It’s a company with a roster of great clients and talented employees who stay with DMG because they know a good thing when they see it. The retention rates on both sides are remarkable, and the company had a record year in 2011. I feel fortunate to be part of the team.  

After departing Netezza when it was acquired by Big Blue last year, I tried my hand at working from home as a freelance consultant. I have to say that being back in an office surrounded by other human beings feels good again. Working from home is a dream for many people, one that I don’t disparage. It all boils down to personality type. Bottom line: I’m energized by other people. Everyone is a teacher, and everyone is a student.  We all have something to learn from each other, and something to share.

I’m not surprised that solitary confinement is widely considered to be a form of torture. Working from home seemed very solitary to me. Too much alone time. Distractions always beckoned. What’s in the fridge? Hmm, maybe the fish tank needs an overhaul.  “Mad Men” is on Netflix?  Same with “Breaking Bad”? Get outta here. I ended up being a serial dogsitter so I’d have someone to talk to while the rest of my family was off at school and work. Hats off to those who thrive in such an environment. You are fortunate. After all, being able to work from home offers enormous flexibility and freedom. It’s just not for me.

Social media is a useful way to stay connected with friends, family and professional colleagues, but I’m a pack animal, not a lone wolf.  I’m not going to sniff you in embarrassing places, but I want to see you and hear you – live and in person. Conference calls and virtual meetings are often the only ways that a distributed workforce can meet and share information, but nothing beats gathering around a table to brainstorm, strategize, and energize each other.

It’s good to be back in a pack. 

I'm a big fan of open source software because it's idealistic, it's a community enterprise, and it's a rising tide that lifts all boats, including yours and mine. I attended ComputerWorld's Open Source Business Conference in 2010 with a favorite former client, The Outer Curve Foundation (formerly called The CodePlex Foundation), where I got to learn more about the pervasiveness of open source  in the business world, in your computer, in your car, and just about any place you can imagine. This video that I produced is still as relevant today as ever. Open your eyes. Open source is everywhere.

Look out, Don Draper wannabes. The best product placements are free. They are produced by real people using real products in real life in quirky and interesting ways that are conducive to the brand's image.

The fact is that slick, staged, overly produced handycraft just can't compete with "real." Have you noticed how television news anchors seem to be morphing into  parodies of themselves, with the fake asides, plastic chuckles and contrived head moves? It's because as YouTube  becomes ubiquitous, we are becoming more and more familiar with authenticity -- so we can spot a phony a mile a way.

Here's an idea for a 21st century ad firm: become an aggregator and distributor of homemade videos featuring effective product placements, like this one featuring Bud Light. It's a smart as anything produced on Madison Avenue for megabucks, and it's F-R-E-E. And it's generated 3.5 million views in less than two weeks.

As 2012 approaches and the Mayan calendar readies itself for the ashbin of history, we face before us some daunting risks, and tremendous opportunities. A recent scientific analyisis of Twitter chatter finds that we're becoming sadder. Through it all, I say to you and to myself:  frown not and be grateful.

It is nonsense, of course, that Mayans living thousands of years ago would posess some supernatural ability to be able to predict the future. We are much more knowledgeable and sophisticated than they the Mayans ever were, and yet we are unable to predict where the second sock of a pair out of the clothes dryer will end up, let alone describe how and when the world will end.

Yet the human proclivity to be so interested in end-of-the-world scenerios says something about the times we live in. We live in dread of global warming, burgeoning government deficits, wars without end, pollution, overcrowding and a general malaise coaxed by an uneasy feeling that the best times are behind us and not ahead. 

But are they? They don't have to be. And is it a question that even matters to us as individuals? Not really, because we are all mortal and as each of us lies on our deathbeds I guarantee that all the problems of the world will not yet have been solved. The situation has always been daunting and always will be.  It is the nature of human existence. So too is the ability to advance, to find joy and to be grateful for what we have. 

Social media is one of those glass half empty or half full human creations that offers both complications and opportunities. Social media can be as confusing and distracting as hell. It can also help illuminate the world around us and enlighten us about ourselves and others. Social media can be isolating, causing us to avoid the real world in favor of a preoccupation with a virtual one. Or it can help us connect with friends and colleagues past, present and future in honest, meaningful and genuine ways that can even be life changing. Social media marketing can be the insincere posturing of a business pretending to be your friend. Or it can be something that encourages win-win interactions with customers that help consumers find better values, and help businesses offer better products and services.

The bottom line is that reality is not a fixed and static thing, but that it lies in our perception of the way things are. If we feel gratitude, we find things to be grateful for. If we see potential, we realize it. If we sense opportunity, we find that, too. 

My resolution for 2012 is to realize the potential, to celebrate the opportunities and most of all, to be grateful.

Happy New Year.

So Twitter has unveiled a new site redesign, and with it comes the predictable pattern of public reaction that I like to call The Five Stages of Social Network Redesign Acceptance:

Anger. "How dare these overpaid geeks toy with MY social network!?" (The one that doesn't charge me anything to use and that I nevertheless access compulsively no matter where I am morning, noon and night.)

Whining. "Hey everybody, have you seen this new redesign? Is iit lame or what? Seriously, the losers behind this monstrosity (the twenty-somethings who in a few years have become billionaires thanks to their creativity, ingenuity and overall brilliance when it comes to web development) don't know what the hell they are doing! Epic FAIL!"

 Acceptance. "In today's world you gotta get used to new stuff, right? After all, change is the only constant! And I'm passionate about change!" (It just takes a lot of anger and whining to get there.)

 Wondering what all the fuss is all about. "This redesign is no big deal. It's pretty much like the old site anyway. I figured it out in a few minutes. Maybe people who aren't into the whole social media "thing" will have problems with it, but not me!” (At least not anymore).

 Saying you liked it all along. “I have a friend from college who works there (who I haven't seen for years but let's not dwell on that), and I'm really psyched that he decided to take my advice and they added/changed/got rid of ______. Let's face it. The site is much better than it used to be. Very intuitive, [latest buzzword], and [latest buzzword].  I love the new redesign! Passionately! Always have!