LITTLE GIRL WITH A CURL

I remember a nursery rhyme that went like this: "There was a little girl who had a little curl right in the middle of her forehead. When she was good, she was very, very good; but when she was bad, she was horrid." I thought of that old chestnut last week when Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites were shut down by a hacker attack.

When our internet technology is working as it should be, we take it for granted. Email, blogging, Twitter and Facebook have become part of our daily routine, at least for a fair number of people.

Since I began my exploration of social media back in March, I must confess that I've developed a Twitter addiction. I love reviewing a.m. Tweets while guzzling my morning coffee, and I usually take a few minutes to review the evening's posts before I hit the sack at night. It would take a separate blog column to tell you how much I'm enjoying the relationships I've developed on Twitter.

I'm on Facebook every day too. Since many family members are on FB, I rely on daily checks to see what's going on with aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, etc. That's how I found out that my Uncle Len's painting company (Pekkala Painting) had been selected to work on the new home being built this weekend in Duluth, MN by the ABC-TV "Extreme Home Makeover" crew. How cool is that?

I've also become a LinkedIn fan. As a member of several PR-related groups, I find lots of useful information in the group discussions. The other thing I love about LinkedIn is that every day it tells me who was looking at my profile. It's kind of like having secret admirers!

So my daily routine now includes Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, at a minimum. That is, it did until last week, when it suddenly became impossible for me to post Tweets or update on Facebook by computer or via cellphone.

The dastardly hackers who rocked our internet world last week were apparently after some guy from the Republic of Georgia who said some things online they didn't like. I don't know whether they intended to bring the whole system down--maybe they hit the wrong button, realized what they had done, and had one of those stomach-churning "WTF did I just do?" moments. Or maybe they didn't even blink.

But I can tell you--I sure blinked. It drove me nuts not to be able to Tweet in response to the messages I was seeing. I couldn't block sleazy spammers who followed me. I couldn't answer direct messages. I couldn't comment or post on Facebook. It threw my whole evening schedule off. Everything was still out of commission on Saturday.

Now those problems have been solved, but our electrical storm on Friday blew out my broadband internet service, and the technician can't come fix it until Tuesday. Until then, I'm online courtesy of an AT&T USB wireless device that's only giving me two bars worth of reception. Periodically, the connection just disappears, leaving me feeling helpless, frustrated and tempted to heave my computer out my office window.

This on top of the hackers. It's just too much. Technology is a mixed blessing. When it's good, it's very very good. But when it's not working, it is really, truly, absolutely without a doubt--horrid.

MEETING IN MY JAMMIES

Remember when you were a kid, and you'd dream that you went to school in your jammies and everybody laughed? Well, it appears that those juvenile dreams were prophetic. I've just signed up for an on-line meeting service, Webex, that makes it possible for me to convene and attend meetings while sitting at my computer in my bathrobe, slamming coffee.

For the record, there are other providers of on-line meeting services, so this is not intended as a commercial for Webex. I haven't really used the service yet, so it remains to be seen whether it works as well as advertised. But the demo I watched online surely impressed me.

I decided to scope out Webex after talking with one of my clients. We were commiserating over what we anticipate will be a low turnout at our midyear meeting. Between travel costs and staff cuts, many companies are sending fewer people to industry gatherings. I suggested that the Board of Directors hold its mid-year meeting online instead.

The Webex system enables you to convene a meeting with up to 25 people. Each participant receives an invitation email containing a link to your Webex meeting center. The email also contains a password so that you can be admitted to the meeting when you arrive at the site. If the host wishes to have a conference call while gathered at the site, a toll-free number is provided.

The amazing thing is that once you're at the Webex meeting site, everyone sees the same documents you see. As host, you control the cursor, but you can hand over control to another group member at any time just by pushing a button.

For example, you might review one part of a new business proposal, and then turn the cursor over to someone else responsible for another portion. The host can reclaim control at any time.

If your computer has a built-in camera, as mine does, you can activate it so group members can see each other during the meeting. I quickly confirmed that this particular feature is optional for each participant. Since the whole point is being able to meet while still in my jammies, I'd probably skip the video, although I suppose I could make an effort to look presentable from the neck up.

You can even take an audio recording of the call so that people who were unable to attend can listen later.

I can't wait to have an excuse to use this service. Talk about feeling like a kid with a new toy!