It’s year-end, and that means it’s time for the annual flood of top 10 lists. Imagine my surprise (and delight) when I saw that The Virtual Handshake had made honorable mention (just outside the top 10 – looks like about #16 if he listed them in order) on Chris Tomkins’ Best Social Media Books of 2009. Chris’ methodology was simple:
Since many of us (yes, I know you are out there) are still looking for the best book on social media…as well as those last minute gift ideas, I wanted to publish the results of a study that I held via my friends and social media connections on Linkedin and Facebook. I polled over 5,000 people and simply asked “What’s the best book on social media out there.”
Now here’s what I found both fascinating and, frankly, a bit pride-inducing: every other title on the list came out in 2008-2009. The Virtual Handshake came out in 2005!
When we wrote it, we very deliberately set out to write a book that would be timeless, not something with a 2-year shelf life. Considering how rapidly the social media space is changing, that’s a significant challenge.
(more…)
The Austin City Council recently passed a ban on texting while driving. They also voted unanimously yesterday to expand/clarify those restrictions to include playing games, shuffling through songs, or using your cell phone’s GPS system – unless it’s mounted on the dash. As Councilmember Laura Morrison put it, “Don’t use your cell phone while you’re driving for anything else than making a phone call.”
Now I agree that texting while driving is downright reckless.
Wait, did I say reckless?
Isn’t there already a state law against reckless driving?
Yup, sure is. Texas Transportation Code, Sec. 545.401:
Sec. 545.401. RECKLESS DRIVING; OFFENSE. (a) A person commits an offense if the person drives a vehicle in wilful or wanton disregard for the safety of persons or property.
There’s already a law that covers this – it just needs to be enforced. And the existing law takes care of all the ambiguities and irrationalities around the new law. For example, just pressing the next song button on your phone seems to be illegal under the new law, but shuffling through radio stations or even swapping CDs isn’t. And how is a GPS on your dash any less distracting than the GPS on your phone, which you can hold up in front of your face so you can see the road at least a little better? Or what about the proverbial putting on makeup or shaving while driving?
No one will probably ever get stepped for pressing the next song button, because cops can’t see it, and it doesn’t noticeably affect their driving. But the point is…that shouldn’t be illegal. The point is…it’s not the act of texting itself that violates the harm principle; it’s the reckless driving that results from it. And there’s already a law against that.
So really, Austin City Council, don’t you have anything better to do with your time???
Image credits: (1) poka0059 (2) junkmonkey
As part of Vertical Response’s Social Media Webinar Series. I’ll be presenting Opening Doors and Closing Deals on LinkedIn on Friday, December 4, at 10am PST / 1pm EST. This will be focused entirely on using LinkedIn to grow your business, not for recruiting or job search, so all you entrepreneurs and sales & marketing professionals, this is for you! The webinar is free, but registration is required. A free playback will be available afterwards.
You can view the first few webinars…
or register for the rest of the series…
I had my attention called to this issue on Twitter today:
It’s ludicrous that this even merits a blog post, but LinkedIn has so obfuscated the process that it takes a lot of digging to find it. If you just want the link, here it is:
http://linkedin.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/linkedin.cfg/php/enduser/ask.php
If you’d like to see how to find it for yourself, I’ve posted an illustrated step-by-step guide over at Linked Intelligence, along with some tips on escalating your issue if you don’t get any response at the link above.
