Author: Susan Scrupski

From WordPress to Posterous…

/ Susan Scrupski / Leave a comment

Atlantic_ocean

I decided to move my personal blog from WordPress to Posterous.  I’m also having WP trouble on my ITSinsider blog, so that may end up here as well.  The bad news is I lost all my posts from the last year.  I may have a few in draft on the ITSinsider site, so I will try to resurrect them from there.

In the meantime, I’m going to try and get used to this new skin.  Not exactly sure how to place media within the posts.  Hoping I’m not going to have to fuss with the HTML.   

I may try subheads too

This format seems to be perfect for long copy, broken up by subheads.  

 

Just experimenting with the format.  

Here’s to Ringing in the New Decade

/ Susan Scrupski / 1 Comment

Media_httpsusanscrups_zrekq

The decade that was (2000 – 2009) was pretty much a disaster. I am looking so forward to putting this lost decade behind me. In 2000, the industry that I loved and had dedicated my career to tanked, bring my career prospects, my investments, and my sense of security to a new low.   Of course, 9/11 happened in 2001 and I was personally affected when a family friend was taken who worked on the 102nd floor at Cantor Fitzgerald.   After 9/11, I made the decision to stop working.  I spent 2001 – 2005 at home being a wife and mother.  That only half-way worked out, as I had to file for divorce in 2006, which also coincided with a return to the workforce. 

In 2006, I could not have been more unprepared to be a professional again.  I literally had to start from scratch with nothing– no current knowledge in a fiercely competitive tech market, no real contacts, no identifiable marketable skills.  I remember buying business clothes in a thrift store called, “Second Time Around”  thinking it was aptly named for my comeback. Broke and somewhat shattered emotionally, I started my trek back to work.  You can actually see this on the pages of my ITSinsider blog if you go back to the beginning in the archives.  I had no idea what I was going to do, but had an enormous pressure to make something happen to support myself and the kids.  I arrived on my current sector sometime in July of 2006.  In 2007, I was fortunate to find an actual job which required a relocation to Austin.   My house never sold, so I was finding myself sucked into the economic sinkhole that become the real estate crisis of 2007.  As the economy slid even further, I discovered I was losing my job by the end of 2008 and employment opportunities were becoming more and more scarce.  My daughter graduated high school with honors in 2009, but it was touch-n-go there for a while if she’d be able to attend the college of her choice.  Thankfully, to the good graces of a friend, she made it.  

The remainder of this year, 2009, has indeed picked up, however, and it appears I am finally, thankfully on track. I was having dinner with a few friends last week, and one of them familiar with my travails mentioned that I should give myself credit for surviving and prevailing over some pretty tough odds.  This post is a reminder to myself that, ya, he’s right. In short, I am very eager to leave this decade behind.  Good riddance.  It’s not the worst I’ve ever had in my life, but I’m very hopeful the next decade will be one of the very best. 

So, here’s to you 2010.  Bring it.  I’m ready.  This decade nearly kicked my butt, but I’m still in the ring, gloves up.

Social Studies 2.0

/ Susan Scrupski / Leave a comment

So. There it was. An iPhone just laying there under the front passenger seat of my cab. Should I pick it up? I knew it wasn’t the taxi driver’s because he was chatting up his friend on his phone while he zoomed me down 5th Avenue. Yeah, I gotta pick it up. Should be easy to just call the owner and tell him/her, “Hey busy guy/girl, ya left your iPhone in the cab.”

Media_httpsusanscrups_ijiop

I reach down, pick it up. Hit the home button, slide the slider… oh crap. It’s got that damn password block on it. The one my teenage son uses so I won’t read his text messages. I guess at a few passwords. Of course, that doesn’t work. Crap. Now what do I do? It’s impenetrable.

Media_httpsusanscrups_fpnex

I ask on Twitter what do I do with an iPhone I found that is locked? Most tell me to take it to an AT&T store. They can track it by GPS. But, I don’t want to do that… so impersonal. It would release me from my decent sense of civil obligation to personally return this phone safely to its owner.

Hey, what’s that? A tweet comes through from @steamykitchen. I look her up on my iPhone. She’s in Tampa, a food writer with a lot of followers. Hummm. Not likely she’ll know my iPhone owner. But, what the heck… Maybe she’s a sister; a college roommate? I send her a Tweet. No luck. I realize the Tweet notifier came through as “emFeigen.” (which I stupidly don’t recognize as her twitter ID). I google emFeigen. Nothing. I search “Emily Feigen Twitter.” Nothing. Shoot. We’re so close, but so far.

The iPhone is running out of battery. Luckily, I have my charger in my bag. I arrive at NYU Parent’s Day at the Kimmel Center, and I’m worrying about the iPhone. I settle into my seat in the auditorium and spot an electric outlet near me on the wall. I discreetly charge the iPhone.

The kickoff speech is over. I check the iPhone and see there are texts coming in. Mom, Shara, some other names, nothing that gives me a clue how to contact the owner.

Finally, a phone number texts to the iPhone… I text back, “You just txted someone’s iPhone. Please tell that persion I have her/his iPhone. It was left in a taxi in NY.” A text comes back, “Thanks for texting back! Where are you? Still in NY?” Yay! I feel good. I’m only one degree of separation removed from the owner. Connected.

Media_httpsusanscrups_bhmpf

It turns out the owner’s name is Emma, not Emily. Emma’s friend calls me while I’m in the rest room. I tell her I’ll be at NYU all day; my name is Susan. I eventually hear from Emma. She reaches me while I’m eating lunch with my daughter at a neighborhood Italian restaurant. She’s two blocks away. She says she’ll come by in ten minutes. She arrives with a beautiful bouquet of three dozen roses and offers to give me money. I flatly refuse the money, but am happy about the flowers because I know my daughter will love to have them in her dorm room. Emma is very sweet and very grateful. I had learned from her friend she is a chef downtown. I feel good about humanity.

It turns out, it was a banner social media day. The reason I was receiving so many texts on the iPhone is Emma wrote this note on her Facebook wall:

Media_httpsusanscrups_cnyuo

Because of the volume of texts I received, I was able to text back to the one number she did not have in her address book. (If a text from a friend comes up, you only see the friend’s name, not the number.)

Later, I text Emma and ask her for her Twitter ID and I ask her to friend me on Facebook. I tell her I’m a blogger and would like to post about this encounter and take a screen shot of her Facebook wall. She agrees.

Media_httpsusanscrups_pvxjf

In this simple vignette, I affirm for myself that the social web is bringing out the best in people. It’s connecting us in ways that are wonderful and useful. During the dotcom era I was a CMO for a digital startup. Our tagline was a question– “What happens when everyone is connected to everything?” In the late 90s, we didn’t know; the question was rhetorical. A decade later, the answers are unfolding.

The more connected I become, the more hopeful I am about the transformative, empowering changes that are taking place in society as a result of moving from an atoms-constrained planet to a pervasive-digital world. Yes, I know it’s only a minority of individuals who are connecting today, but the connections we’re making and the do-good we’re doing is establishing a new social order among civilized humans. With the exploding growth of mobile connectivity and ubiquitous access to the web, those in power to change our world are getting the job done in a spirit of service and humility.

So maybe it was only a lost iPhone and a grateful owner today, but the premise of humans helping humans via Twitter, Facebook, and SMS messages, is becoming the rule and not the exception.

And I’m loving every moment of it.