writer / tutor / geek for hire

Time again for a quick update on how my writing efforts are progressing. At the end of July I talked about my experiences in blogging to date and set some new goals for the rest of 2008. To recap, those goals are:

• Establish and maintain a clear focus and purpose
• Build a loyal base of subscribers
• Raise my profile and reputation

Let's look at my progress towards these goals.

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Some family friends of mine recently bought a coffee shop from a well-known franchise. By any measurement, the outlook for success is good and they are highly competent at running the place, but they appear to be going through post-opening jitters. They've been open 3 months and don't have as many customers as they'd like, so in the dead times it's easy for the mind to turn towards a bit of buyer's remorse.

What they do need is a little help with their marketing. I wrote up a quick list of general tips for getting new customers which I have shared below. The examples are slanted towards upscale coffee but can easily be substituted for any premium product.

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Recently I wrote about the Australian Government's plan to introduce compulsory internet filtering and how it is unnecessary, expensive, impacts network speeds and the technology doesn't work anyway. In the last two weeks the issue has exploded among those in the IT sector. Here's an update.

The Facts

• The Australian Federal Government will provide $125.8 million over four years to establish the Cyber-Safety Plan.
• The plan calls for two levels of filtering to be implemented by internet service providers (eg Bigpond):
• a filter for material deemed unsuitable for children
• a filter for material deemed unsuitable for adults
• Both levels of filtering are to be active on all internet accounts in Australia
• It will be possible to opt-out of the children filter, but not the adult filter
• The previous Government provided free filtering software for families to download. Over 12 months, 140,000 users downloaded the software. Only 29,000 of these users were still using the software 3 weeks later after they had downloaded it
• Studies into the technological effectiveness of internet filtering have been commissioned by the Government and conducted by the CSIRO, http://www.dbcde.gov.au/__data/assets/file/0016/10915/Ovum_Report_-_Internet_content_filtering.rtf" onclick="javascript:urchinTracker('/file/br_/_http_//www.dbcde.gov.au/_data/assets/file/0016/10915/Ovum_Report_-_Internet_content_filtering.rtf');">Ovum, RMIT and Enex Testlab. All the studies concluded that filtering technology:
• slows down Internet access
• inaccurately blocks content which should not be blocked
• inaccurately fails to block content which should be blocked
• fails to accurately distinguish between legal and illegal content even when specifically configured with lists of illegal content under laboratory conditions
• Neither filter will be capable of censoring material passing through peer-to-peer networks (eg BitTorrent), which account for over 60% of all internet traffic

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This week's thought is from the eminently quotable Winston Churchill, whose wit and wisdom is sorely missed in today's world leaders.

"Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm."
- Sir Winston Churchill

Have you ever watched a politician dodge difficult questions in an interview and wonder why the interviewer doesn't force them to answer the question? Chris Matthews has no patience for political spin. Watch him give McCain campaign spokesperson Nancy Pfotenhauer every opportunity to answer a simple question and then tear her apart when she clings to the script.

This is why they call Chris Matthews' show Hardball.

According to my Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) - my personality type is Introverted iNtuitive Feeling Judging (INFJ). Reportedly, only around 1% of the general population have this type, making it the rarest of the 16 MBTI types.

But here's the interesting part - this survey shows that people with the INFJ type make up 9.8% of those using Twitter. Look closer and you'll see there is a massive difference between the proportion of other personality types in the general population and on Twitter too. In fact, there's a pattern.

People with the Intuitive characteristic are dramatically over-represented on Twitter, while those with the opposite Sensing characteristic are under-represented. Of those with the Intuitive characteristic, the over-representative effect is much more pronounced among those who also have the Introverted characteristic, like me.

To an intuitive person, the steady stream of emotional input that Twitter delivers is appealing and energising. To an intuitive and introverted person, the mass download of emotional introspection is not only appealing, it is deeply comforting and reassuring. It provides a shared experience and a connection that introverted and intuitive people do not often get a chance to enjoy. And it's there all the time, whenever you want to tap in.

Since I discovered Twitter a few months ago, I've been raving about it incessantly to everyone, but not many people seem to get the same joy from it that I do. Perhaps this explains why.

I hadn't thought about it much until now, but to me, Twitter is something which I enjoy on an intensely personal level, and now I understand why. It is a most welcome addition to my life.

Follow me on Twitter

See the survey or find out more about the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.