Paul Wallbank – Brilliant Communications

Category: consumer

  • Facebook and Families

    Facebook and Families

    As the Internet has become a normal part of our family lives, social media services like Facebook are becoming important in the way people, particularly our kids, socialise and communicate.

    Most of this web use is positive however there are risks with these online tools so we do need to know how to manage social media services and reduce any problems we may have in our families and businesses.

    Understand the risks

    Facebook is an online service and all web based platforms share the same risks such as stranger danger, bullying, fraud and offensive behaviour – both kids and adults need to understand the risks.

    A good start is sitting down with younger kids and using some of the online resources available, the US Virginia Department of Education has a good interactive presentation on online safety.

    For Australian specific content, the Federal government’s Cyber Smart website offers advice to families at all ages; from grandparents to kids.

    Respect the rules

    All online services have rules that govern behaviour, one of the most common is a restriction on under 13s. This is partly because of the US COPPA law that restricts websites and social media services from advertising to children.

    Of the other rules that can cause problems Facebook has bans on hate speech and an almost pathological obsession with nudity. It pay to read the terms and conditions so you know what is acceptable.

    Under 13s should not use Facebook

    While for many kids Facebook is the way to talk to their friends online, parents should resist the pressure to sign their kids up until they are of the legal age.

    Regardless of what you think of the rules, many kids don’t have the maturity of to understand or deal with the issues of using social media sites. For that matter, neither do many adults.

    Should Facebook find out that an account is owned by a child under 13, they will shut it down immediately.

    Choose your friends carefully

    Everybody – kids and adults – should be cautious about friends they make online. Just accepting friend requests from anybody, or from those who look cute or cool, can lead to problems later.

    Set your privacy

    In Facebook you should set your default privacy settings to “Friends”. You can do this by clicking the arrow pointing down in the top right hand corner of the Facebook screen and selecting privacy.

    Having set your default privacy settings to Friends, you may want to further improve your privacy by continuing down the privacy screen and selecting functions like not allowing friends to post to your Facebook wall.

    Be careful what you like

    Liking products and pages can have consequences, at the very least others know what causes you’ve joined.

    Joining hate or bullying campaigns or pages is not a good look, so don’t do it if you think you may upset people around you.

    You are what you post

    Anything you put online is in writing against your name. If it’s going to upset people or cause trouble then don’t do it.

    In the United States one teenager found this out the hard way when her father discovered a Facebook post criticising him and her mother. He shot her laptop and then posted the video onto her Facebook page.

    Practice Safe Computing

    Services do get hijacked, so have strong passwords, up to date virus checkers and make sure the computer is fully up to date with security patches.

    Never share passwords with friends or siblings and use different passwords on each service so if Minecraft gets compromised, Facebook or email doesnt’ as well.

    Put computers in common areas

    Kids’ computers should be in common areas and use of any Internet enabled devices like iPods and mobile phones in places like bedrooms should be strongly discouraged.

    Be open to talking

    If anyone in your family seems to have a problem with computer use such as getting upset, socially withdrawal or acting unusually then talk to them. This happens with adults as well.

    One thing to remember is that punishing people, particularly kids, rarely works well with these technologies so it’s best to make it clear they won’t be in trouble if they come to you with a problem they are having on the net.

    It’s not just kids

    We have to remember its not just kids who get into trouble online, there’s no shortage of adults who have created problems for themselves and their families through irresponsible online behaviour. So parents need to watch their own social media usage as well.

    Should someone in your family be having a problem, then don’t hesitate to talk to the school, employer or Internet provider if there’s issues that need to be addressed.

    There’s lot of online services services and resources such as Cybersafe listed above. Also don’t hesitate to call any support lines such as Lifeline or Beyond Blue if you are seriously concerned about a family member’s wellbeing.

    On balance, the web and social media are positive influences on most people’s lives so by using commonsense and playing safely, the majority of families will avoid the really terrible stories we hear about online problems.

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  • Is it time for Microsoft to make a clean break?

    Is it time for Microsoft to make a clean break?

    Over the weekend Christina Bonnington in Wired magazine looked at how Microsoft is struggling to decide whether to have separate operating systems for their tablet and desktop products – as Apple have – or design one that works on both.

    Creating another version of Windows risks further confusing the marketplace given Microsoft already has between its four different versions of Windows and six flavours of Office.

    Although Apple haven’t suffered at all by having different operating systems. Mac OSX is more popular than ever and iOS dominates its markets.

    Perhaps its time for Microsoft to copy something else Apple did and have a clean break – rework all the Windows code and build a new system.

    Apple did this when they introduced OSX in 2001. Among other things it didn’t support floppy disks, the Apple Device Bus, floppy disks or the networking standards used by the older systems. At the time there were howls of protest from long suffering Apple true believers who had invested a lot into the earlier versions of Mac OS.

    Despite the protests and early hiccups – we sometimes forget that the first version of OSX, named Cheetah, was terrible – Apple’s clean break with the past was a great success.

    Microsoft’s selling point has been backward compatibility; software designed for one version of Windows is expected to work on the next version.

    Backward compatibility is the reason for the spyware epidemic of the early 2000s as Microsoft ignored Windows XP’s security features so that they wouldn’t have to ditch older code in other products like Office.

    Similarly, the contradiction of redesigning the Windows operating system while minimizing disruption to existing users was one of the reasons why Microsoft Vista was such a disaster.

    Perhaps it’s time for Microsoft to bite the bullet and bring Windows into the 21st Century.

    Whatever they decide to do, they better hurry as Apple and Google are carving out dominant positions; waiting until 2013 or 14 for the next version of Windows and Windows Phone may be too late in a market where Microsoft is quickly becoming irrelevant.

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  • Too good to be true

    Too good to be true

    As regular as the Olympic Games are, so too are the ticket scams. Every four years we see a ‘scandal’ of vendors, these days online, offering cheap or difficult to get tickets. This year’s London Olympics are no different.

    The bait used by these scammers is the almost impossible to get tickets, the frenzy to get along to the opening ceremony or top days sucks dozens, sometimes hundreds, of enthusiastic punters into losing money.

    It’s not just Olympic tickets, with the ease of setting up websites scammers can be online quickly with a credible, professional looking site and new services, like group buying and ‘penny auctions’ also offer great opportunities for the enthusiastic spammer.

    While it’s sometimes difficult to spot the scams, there are some signs that can reduce the risk of your being caught out.

    Check the site

    How long has the domain been registered? You can quickly check the details by running a whois search, a kind of online registration check.

    For .com sites, the authoritative Whois site is Network Solutions while for .co.uk sites (a likely candidate for London Olympic ticketing sites) it is Nominet. Each country has its own registration list and in Australia, for .com.au it is AuDA who run the My Web Name site.

    A recently registered, or long standing, name doesn’t in itself indicate whether a site is a scam or not, but it is a good start.

    What are the contact details?

    A reputable site that wants your money should have a phone number and street address. A site that doesn’t have these is a warning sign.

    Do a web search

    The web is your friend. Use your favourite search engine to search the business’ name, for most people this is Google. This can show if there’s been complaints about the site.

    Make sure you do a full name search, for instance if you are searching for Joe’s cutprice tickets put the name inside inverted commas such as “Joe’s cutprice tickets”.

    Also do a search on the business address, if a company operates from the same location as dozens of others then it’s almost certainly operating from a service office.

    While there’s nothing wrong with a business operating from a serviced office, if a company is claiming to be a large reputable multinational then it’s probably telling porkies.

    Use a disposable password

    If the site asks you to create an account or a password, use something different to your regular banking or other important passwords.

    Some of these scammers are actually harvesting login details for online scams so don’t use the same password as your email or social media account as you may find your account hijacked.

    Don’t use social media logins

    Account hijacking is becoming prevalent on social media sites. The scammers get access to a victim’s Facebook or Twitter account and then contact all the victim’s friends posing as the victim. This is particularly effective for getting more people trapped in the scam.

    Increasingly we’re seeing sites using social media logins, that is offering to use your Facebook account rather than a user name or password as a convenient way of signing up. These almost always give the site permission to post on your behalf and you should not do this unless you are totally confident in the site.

    Pay by credit card

    Even the best of us can get caught out by scammers, so paying by credit card means you have some protection from dodgy deals as you can dispute and reverse the transaction.

    Note the words credit card, if you use a debit card many banks won’t give you the same consumer protections.

    Avoid direct wire payments or online services like PayPal as you’ll probably do your cash or, at best, be bogged down in the dispute procedure.

    Use common sense

    The most important part of avoiding scams is common sense; if something is too good to be true then it almost certainly isn’t true.

    An offer for hard to get Olympic tickets, fifty dollar iPads or a million dollars from a long lost cousin in Africa always come with a catch that leaves you out of pocket and possibly with your identity stolen.

    Many of these scams aren’t new, they’ve just evolved to take advantage the online world.

    During the golden era of the snake oil merchant in the 19th Century, the phrase there’s a sucker born every minute was coined. Don’t be that sucker.

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  • The pay day

    The pay day

    Last Sunday Mark Fletcher celebrated his 10,000th post at the Australian Newsagency Blog. In seven years of posting that’s an impressive achievement for someone running both a retail store and a software company.

    In his landmark post, Mark looked at the major issues he’s covered on his blog over the last few year and one stands out as the biggest – the payoff for newsagency owners when they sell their businesses.

    The failure of many newsagents to manage their businesses for day to day profit. Too many newsagents expect their pay day when they sell and do not realise that their pay day is today, tomorrow and next week … and that this determines what they will receive when they sell.

    For Australian newsagencies the news is bad; their established industry is struggling in the face of technological change and regulatory changes – both of which are other points Mark raises – but more importantly the buying and selling businesses in all sectors is undergoing a fundamental economic shift.

    Lifestyle Businesses

    The underlying idea is that these businesses are what Steve Blank calls “lifestyle businesses”; proprietors buy them to provide an income for their families.

    For these “lifestyle businesses” to have a resale value another family is has to raise the funds to purchase the enterprise.

    Therein lies the problem, most purchases of businesses are financed by bank loans secured against property.

    Late baby boomers and Generation Xers – those born between 1955 and 1970 – are the obvious buyers of these businesses and they don’t have access to the same equity as their parents.

    The situation is even worse for those generations following whose high education debts mean an even later entry into the property market and even less equity available should they want to buy these businesses.

    For sellers, this means is buyers can’t pay the prices retiring business owners need as their nest egg to support them through twenty or thirty years of bowling or travelling in their later years.

    This inter generational mismatch isn’t just restricted to Australian newsagents; it’s a problem around the Western world for business owners whose exit strategy involves selling the business as a going concern for a substantial amount.

    Cash poor buyers

    As we reach the end of the late 20th Century credit boom, the money isn’t there for people to pay the sort of sums required by existing local business owners to retire in comfort. Even if the banks were prepared to lend the sum required, the buyer’s underlying assets can’t secure the loans and, most importantly, the cashflows aren’t there.

    In an Australian newsagent context much of the cashflow has changed because of deregulation and new competition but on the bigger scale changing consumption patterns at the end of the 20th Century debt binge coupled with aging populations and restricted credit are changing the economics of family owned, small local businesses.

    For the current owners of these small businesses, it means the pay day has to be today as it won’t be there tomorrow.

    The danger is how many will follow the example of the large corporations who find themselves in a similar situation and respond by excessively cutting costs or chronically under-investing which is what has crippled big store retailing across the US, Australia and the UK.

    Mark’s constantly pointed out that Australian newsagents have to reinvent themselves, as he celebrates seven years of blogging and 10,000th blog post it’s probably worthwhile considering how many, like the rest of us, will be working in our businesses far longer than we originally expected.

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  • The irrelevant operating system

    The irrelevant operating system

    Last decade, people queued around the block to buy the latest version of Windows, today no-one cares. What next for a market that has become commoditised?

    When you visit a website your browser reports, among other things, what type of system you’re using. Net Applications – a US based web monitoring company who analyse online browsing statistics – keep a regularly updated list of what people are using when surfing the net.

    On their latest statistics, Windows XP finally fell below 50% in September 2011, just on ten years after it was released. Windows 7 is taking over from XP while Apple steadily gain market share.

    These statistics show how the operating system has become irrelevant, only really dedicated geeks really care anymore about their version of Windows or whether a computer is running an Apple Mac or Microsoft product.

    As most computer users are drifting to cloud computing services and consumers are increasingly using their PCs to access online games and social media sites, it doesn’t really matter anymore what systems are used as long as they work.

    For many in the computer industry, this is a problem as they desperately want to sell a product in a market that has become commoditised. It’s another example of the PC industry’s broken business model.

    It’s not just the computer industry with this problem, the 3D TV hype of 2010 was a desperate attempt to sell new television sets in a market that had stalled; recession hit consumers had no desire to replace their perfectly good TVs that were less than a decade old, just like Windows XP users.

    This year’s Consumer Electronics Show that launches in Las Vegas this week will see similar desperation as the various PC and mobile phone manufacturers trying to generate excitement about their new products.

    For the journalists and PR folk at the CES the problem is customers largely don’t care anymore. As the failure of 3D TV illustrates, consumers aren’t buying the hype.

    Just as with operating systems, most customers want something that works, if you’re going to get them to replace older proven technology you’ll have to show where the new product adds value.

    The era of products flying off the shelves because they are new and shiny is over – just ask Microsoft about it’s operating systems.

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