Chiperoni ku Basel

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  • Wi-fi fridge

    Do we need this?

    Looks like more and more machines are built to auto-transmit signals back to the manufacturer.

  • Shooting like a pro

    Took part in a photo shooting at the day job. I learnt a lot by watching a pro.

    Lighting – using indirect flash and white boards to bounce the light.

    Tethered shooting – to position the photo and to check the lighting and sharpness on a larger screen.

    Quantity – the photographer took 28 GB for 10 photos. We tried 40 to 50 photos per theme.

  • Nchenga as seen from space

    nchenga as seen from space

  • Saturday

    timeless tea for health and quality life

    Slow start to a beautiful day. Listening to dradio.de and sipping Chicco d’oro coffee and reading my way thru awesome Twitter people and browsing thru Flickr. 2 laptops, 1 iPod Touch, 1 Blackberry, and 1 Canon digicam all within close distance.

    Generation screen.

    It’s caturday.

    Planning to head to the swimming pool later. Loading my iPod with podcasts. Lack of time will always be an outcome in a capitalist environment. Days like this are pure luxury.

    Links to read:
    Link 1: Yesterday I stumbled across this HBR blog post on the disciplined pursuit of less. Some interesting questions to think about…

    • “What am I deeply passionate about?”
    • “What taps my talent?”
    • “What meets a significant need in the world?”
    • “If I did not have this opportunity, how much would I be willing to sacrifice in order to obtain it?”

    Link 2: A trend I have been following for years – the emerging new opportunities in Africa as a result of mobile and web technology – is now being recognized.

    Even in small markets like Malawi, software companies are emerging. Developers such as:

    Link 3: Strong passwords are not enough. We need to invest more time in securing our online passwords. See this how-to at Lifehacker and this post by Matt Cutts. More hassle. More work.

    And Facebook only allows me to enter one cell phone, automatically removing the cell phone on my other Facebook account; apparently one person = one Facebook account = one cell phone number. I currently have 4 Facebook accounts. But on the upside, I may never need to spend energy on resolving this, cos Facebook may become irrelevant… n’est-ce pas? How one botched IPO can change the outlook of a company, is quite mind-boggling.

    Music: My favourite band this summer is Boy. Love their sound.

    Buon weekend. And please feel free to leave a comment.

  • The thing to do

    Try this. Try smiling. And before you know it. People smile back. And greet you.

  • Just because I can, doesn’t mean I should

    settings google calendar

    Hidden in this screenshot are 22 thousand reasons not to base your entire marketing on G+ or FB or Twitter or anybody else.

    I thought Google had learnt the lesson when they botched the Buzz launch. Well, here they are pushing events via soc med contacts to something as personal as a calendar.

  • Running update

    I took part in the Basel Firmenlauf yesterday evening.

    Not a very long race at 6.3 km, but for me it was special, since it marked my first running goal for this year. My first public race in a long time. I was very excited.

    It was warm and humid yesterday with temperatures around 30 degrees C. Together with over 2600 participants, I set off and managed to keep to my pace. The kilometer between 3km and 4km seemed endless. Maybe because my morning jog before work is shorter? But I just kept going. Kämpfa, Kämpfa. Karbon statt Kondition.

    My next goal is 10km. That’s what I decided after the race. Voilà!

    I like running cos I see a lot of parallels with work life, building relationships, or even spiritual life. So often I want to stop…

    There is a race that I must run. There are victories to be won.

  • Beautiful day

    I went photo-walking with other Basel Flickrites.

    We walked from Messe-Platz to Depot Basel. My highlight was the garden boxes in front of Basel Depot.

    Some of my snapshots:

    (more…)

  • Low cost stock photos

    for future reference, a list of useful photo resources:

    http://nicoleschnell.ch/post/16935324027/stockbilder-for-free

    Searching on Facebook:
    I previously posted this link on one of my Facebook accounts. But i couldn’t find it although i knew which timeframe and FB account. Plus if a FB post doesn’t have any likes or comments or shares, it gets demoted. Very one-sided approach. Some of my data is valuable and useful to me in future, that’s why I am posting it in the first place.

  • nchenga

  • mmmm

    I made some hummus following this recipe

  • Barcamp Bodensee 2012

    I attended Barcamp Bodensee in Friedrichshafen yesterday. Very enjoyable.

    Big thank you to the organizers. It was worth getting up early.

    It started with breakfast and an emotional greeting by Oliver Gassner: “The internet is made of people.”

    And it was truly impressive to see so many people attending and participating.

    The location at Zeppelin University on the shore of Lake Constance was perfect.

    A few highlights:

    A talk on sleep by Jan Krämer
    “sleep is good for creativity”

    Facebook community management
    Romy showed us how she manages comments, spam on a large Facebook fan page. Her advice: never delete a comment or block the user. Rather mark the comment as spam and then explain why. She recommended having a page on policies and handling of comments in a “Netiquette” page. She showed the new content management features that went live recently for fan pages: you can now schedule posts and assign different admin roles. And her take: all the brands are spending $$$ to gain Facebook followers; very few followers are organic.

    I learnt a lot just by listening.

    And if I ever start a company, I would go to each and every barcamp in Europe and present my idea. Startup presenters get so much free and useful consulting and marketing ideas from attendees.

    Thank you.

    Links:
    allfacebook.com
    nutshellmail.com/
    http://unhosted.org/
    https://www.flinc.org/
    http://www.pixoona.com/

    BTW, the DB train along the German side of the Rhine river is very noisy and made me feel queasy and travel-sick. Buy some new trains and renew the tracks. Or maybe SBB should take over this route?

  • Today

    For future reference, some twitter poetry to keep:

  • Kämpfa, kämpfa

    via Cyberwriter, the Swiss version of “Never give up”

  • Copy and paste from Chrome to Gmail

    My Gmail tip of the day: copy and paste from another website to Gmail.

    Via Lifehacker.

    And with this hack, I will not need the spammy ads via Send using Gmail (I hope) (maybe).

  • 1 May 2012

    Blogging advice in 2012 err… 2011:

    “Don’t look at it as a Blog ”“ It’s content distribution.”

    Heh, I thought blogging’s dead?!

    It’s the first of May – a public holiday in my part of Switzerland. I am listening to BBC radio and reading news distributed via Facebook and Twitter.

    Random useless fact of the day:
    I woke up at 5:40. For the second day in a row.

    I have been posting snapshots on Flickr:

    meticulous: a gardening shed

    warnung vor dem hunde

    And may I say that my set of really boring flower snapshots is… well… really, truly boring.

    I received an offline comment on this phrase on my Flickr profile:

    Unhindered by talent or technical skills, I hope I can at least convey the fun I’m having.

    Questions and random observations:

    By the way, where can i find the best samosas in Basel? And I still haven’t solved the issue of best dim sum in Basel.

    Which Klippan cover should i get for my Klippan couch?

    Via this tweet, celebrate the end of winter with this Italian children’s song

    Fruit fool:
    I was just reminded of my first cooking class at Saint Andrew’s: we made fruit fool – with custard and seasonal fruit.

    Twitter has changed my reading habits. If a webpage is full of text… So I’d better stop soon.

  • Blogging isn’t dead (yet)

    Heh, heh. Here is a “why you should blog” article from January 2012. Blogging isn’t dead (yet).

    I just spent hours trying to de-infest a Joomla 1.0 or 1.5 site from spam. And I am ready to leave PHP behind me forever.

  • My Sunday fun tweet…

    In response to @livilodge’s RT of @runwildsafaris’ tweet:

    I wrote:

  • Not linear

    via Whiteafrican, I read this blog post

    The problem with most social networks is the assumption that your life is linear and that people are interested in accumulating their own personal histories in one single repository.

  • Searching within Gmail

    Useful help on advanced search for Gmail

  • Consumer literacy

    interesting read:

    I just think that people seem less and less concerned about where their information comes from at a time when I think they should be more and more concerned about it.

  • Uploaded my slides on Slideshare

    Chiperoni.ch on Social Media….

    Here are the slides:

    Social media

    View more presentations from nchenga.

    Based on this outline.

    I mentioned Fredrick Bvalani’s Fuel Watch group in my intro. Which I think is a powerful example.

    I had lots of fun presenting.

    There were a lot of questions about privacy and loss of control. My point was it’s difficult. You can try to minimize the information about you. But even if you’re not actively using social media tools, somebody else may still be writing and posting about you. In today’s online world, various data streams and apps are combining, processing and publishing. You need to adjust your privacy settings.

    Heh, Handmade2_0 how about getting together and presenting our information overload meme some day?

  • Sunny Sunday

    I just got back from a run around the Finnenbahn. The distance is nothing to write home about, but it was a pleasurable experience with temperatures around 18 degrees. Spring is here.

    With all the fresh air rushing thru my system, I was in mindblogging mode. Reflecting on all the data I have been consuming here and there.

    Yesterday afternoon I tried out new bicycles at a bicycle shop in downtown Basel. I am thinking of buying a new bicycle. My Univega will soon be 10 years old. And a lot has been happening in the bicycle space since then.

    mein velo

    I read Scoble’s post on reducing noise on Facebook. Useful! I don’t really have the a signal to noise problem on FB, but they are offering more and more control. Which is good.

    On Twitter: Did you see that you can now embed tweets?

    How to find the embed code:

    • Select a tweet.
    • Click on Details.
    • Click on Embed this Tweet.
    • Copy the code to your webpage.

    Although I am quite sure that I will keep my screenshot collection of fun tweets.

    The effort to tweak all these corporate social media channels is getting higher than high. Don’t let the social media corporations take over.

    Instead of just consuming content, I encourage you to create content. Write a blog, take photos, learn something new, write how-tos, write about your area of expertise, own your own data, participate, enter into dialog, have fun. Here are some ideas:

    I am planning to attend BarcampBodensee in June. Anybody else coming from the Basel area? It would be a great opportunity to present an updated version of my presentation on mobile internet usage in Malawi.

    The Potential of Mobile Technology in Africa

    View more PowerPoint from nchenga

    So much has happened in this space. And even in a downturn, TNM has managed to increase its subscriber base by 35% in 2011. Compare and contrast those kind of numbers with the saturated markets here in Europe.

    The number of Facebook users from southern Africa is increasing despite the high internet access costs. Socialbaker lists 95 820 users from Malawi.

    socialbaker stats for Malawi

    Leave a comment or contact me if you can provide further interesting data / anecdotes / user behaviour on internet usage patterns in the warm heart of Africa.

    Thank you for reading and supporting chiperoni.ch. Alles wird gut.

    colorful and calories

    P.S.: I missed a LOLCat photo opportunity today: a cat stretched out on the seat of Vespa. Unfortunately I didn’t have a cam with me.

  • Layered snapshot

    photo walk to Chrischona

  • Preparing my next social media talk

    I have been invited to speak on social media somewhere in Germany. (Im Ausland!!!) Apparently this gathering of people doesn’t use new media applications yet. (Really? Truely?)

    This is my abstract:

    Erst gab es Blogs und Flickr, dann kam Twitter und Facebook, und jetzt gibt es G+, Pinterest, Foursquare und Klout.

    Immer mehr Web-Anwendungen drängen auf den Markt und buhlen um unsere Online-Aufmerksamkeit.

    Wie nutze ich Social Media für mein Unternehmen?
    Lohnt sich der Aufwand für mein KMU?
    Wie manage ich private und berufliche Kontakte?

    I have approximately 30 mins. Which means about 12 to 15 slides. I am planning 4 main sections:

    1) What is social media?

    2) Using new media tools for my company

    3) Using new media tools for personal reasons – develop your micro-brand

    4) How to get started – Chiperoni’s recommended checklist

    Okay here we go! Details:

    1) What is social media?

    Social media is a misnomer for online apps, that use current web and mobile technologies to publish information (text, audio, video).

    […]social media isn’t a PR tool; it’s not a marketing tool ; it’s a communications tool and a media making/distribution tool set.

    Social media is fast. It requires no techie skills such as FTP, HTML, CSS. Everyone is a publisher. Within 3 minutes I can set up an account on Facebook, WordPress.com, Twitter, or Tumblr and vent my anger or frustration or delight about a product or service or person. This is referred to as user-generated content.

    Screens of examples: blogs, Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Klout, Foursquare

    Nobody can say what social media tools will prosper and what tools will peter out a la MySpace and co. But the principle of real-time will remain.

    Social media has substantially changed the way organizations, communities, and individuals communicate.

    News finds me.

    It’s not about stats, no. of likes, or followers.

    Note to Social Media Mar­ke­ting Dorks: The hard currency of the Inter­net is not Face­book “Likes” or Twit­ter “Ret­weets”, as flavor-of-the-month as they might be. By them­sel­ves, they’re worthless.
    The hard currency of the Inter­net is “Social Objects”.
    i.e. Social Objects for peo­ple to SHARE MEANINGFULLY with other people

    2) Using new media tools for my company

    I assume that a company wants to raise awareness and influence a buyer’s decision. 😉

    In the 90s we accessed the printed version of Zimpel to find out which journalist wrote about microengineering and sent out faxes. Today lots of journis are on Twitter. See Leumund’s list of Swiss journalists on Twitter

    Very obviously, as a Marketing Communications specialist, I am going to adapt and move to Twitter. Especially if I am a small or medium-sized business.

    Huge benefit: As an SME, I can circumvent the gatekeepers and get access to my stakeholders directamente. Press releases are no longer for the press only, but for everybody interested in your company’s products or services.

    Huge benefit no. 2: SEO. More surface area for Google to find me. (Analogy: ocean of data – more islands pointing back to my company website)

    Huge benefit no. 3: when a shit storm is raging against my company or an external communication crisis comes along, I already know how to use new media.
    Example: SWISS during volcano crisis.

    Huge benefit no. 4: costs are still lower than print, billboard or radio/TV advertising.

    BUT, social media is not working for all companies. You need to find the right platform and the right strategy / tone of voice / mix of useful content vs pure advertising. Everyone needs their own tailor-fit strategy.

    3) Using new media tools for personal reasons – develop your micro-brand

    My personal benefits have been:

    • Networking
    • Learning
    • Reflection
    • Knowledge management
    • Positioning myself as a specialist
    • Fun

    For every online comment you receive, there are about 200 visitors that didn’t say a thing about your post. Very few people comment online, but many people will read your entries and comment offline when you meet face-to-face. Or even e-mail you photos of Nutella alternatives from their last vacation to post in your collection.

    4) How to get started – Chiperoni’s recommended checklist

    Inspired by Su Franke, David Meerman Scott and Elise Bauer…

    Before you dive in and set up your social media accounts, please consider the following checklist:

    • Do some research beforehand – which new media platform is suitable for my topic? Is my potential audience using this web application? Can I add value to the existing online conversations?
    • Look at the legalese – who owns my content? What limitations are there in the terms and conditions?
    • What information about my company or my personal life, am I prepared to make public? Would I say the same kind of things in a real-life, face-to-face meeting or in front of an audience?
    • How do I handle private contacts vs business contacts on my social application? Do I know enough about the privacy settings? What happens if I make a mistake and I set the wrong privacy for an entry?
    • How important are online contacts / networks for me?
    • Consider the effort – you will need to post at regular intervals to gain any kind of traction. Prepare a pipeline of topics / an editorial calendar. Set up Google Reader with a list of sources that write about your topic.
    • Frequency is very important
    • Be authentic
    • Be a thought leader – develop useful content. Most of us have been overexposed to advertising. I am jaded. I am cynical. I will challenge and question any kind of advertising posted on the internetz. Instead follow Elise’s ideas on thought leadership.
    • Find your social object.

    See David Meerman Scott’s book on the new rules of PR and marketing. There’s an excellent free e-book to get you started.

    I strongly recommend Su Franke’s talk on networking.

    Mut zum Netzwerken 2.0

    View more presentations from sufranke

    Especially Su’s last slide is important: once you start your social media home, don’t leave it uninhabited.

    Last slide – further reading:
    all of the above links and some more!

    Your comments? Additions? Feedback?