For the past three years, I’ve helped run a weeklong conference here in Atlanta called Digital Atlanta.  I was one of the original organizers/Director of Programming and have watched it grow into a pretty great event over that time.  Each year, we’ve pulled it off and had anywhere between 50-75 events over a five-day period.  This past year, we held the event in Atlantic Station so attendees weren’t dashing all over the city to attend sessions. It worked out really well and was our best year in terms of sponsorship and attendance.

However, all good things must come to an end and I felt like it was time to move on and try something new.  The good news is that I’m handing Digital Atlanta’s programming off to some really qualified people and I know they will do a great job turning it into something even bigger and better.

In the meantime, I’m taking a short sabbatical to hang out with my family, catch up on some writing, and refocus my lens.

Stay tuned and if you have any interesting proposals or ideas for me, get in touch!

There are many industries that, as a whole, seem to be stuck in a time warp and think they can still keep doing business the way they always have.  I suspect some of them still use the Yellow Pages, too (scary thought!).  They are either too ensconced in their worldview or too stubborn (maybe lazy?) to make the effort to do things any differently.  They feel threatened by newcomers and try to build their garden wall (see “walled garden“) even higher.  That might work temporarily but eventually, your wall will simply crumble around you.  Remember travel agents? Sure, there are a few left but once all the direct booking sites popped up a few years back, they began dying off in droves.  The ones that are still in business and making money are probably providing a value-added service above and beyond finding the cheapest airfare. I’m guessing they had to evolve and pretty quickly I might add.

In my line of work, I get a peek inside a variety of different industries–everything from healthcare to consumer products to client services and beyond.  What I like most about the birds-eye view I get is when I stumble across the outliers who are not the industry leaders (yet) but the industry disrupters.  They’ve assessed the landscape of a given industry, decided it’s broken, and instead of trying to fix it in a conventional way, they’re off in a totally different direction and making it work.  Even though I’m not a huge fan of Mark Cuban, it’s essentially his “go-instead-where-there-is-no-path-and-leave-a-trail” philosophy.  He’s proof that it works and when it does, it can be huge.

Why do you think so many companies are resistant to change? Is it fear? Laziness? Both?

Here’s the thing: It’s an easy fix. Click here to read how to do it. It takes less than five minutes. The problem is you can only hide the messages on your timeline. Stuff you wrote via a private message to someone might still be visible on their wall unless they, too, take steps to hide these messages. That’s what I’m more upset about. I’ve contacted several people to let them know about this yet they’ve not done anything and a few messages I sent are still publicly visible. Again, nothing horrible but not stuff I would have ever broadcast to my Facebook network.

I’m one of those people who assumes anything I write–even in email–could eventually be made public. However, I don’t think it’s completely unreasonable to have some expectation of privacy for email or for Facebook’s private messaging feature. While I, personally,  don’t send sensitive financial or other information on either, what I’ve learned this week from this massive Facebook fail is that a lot of people do.  And, while some of the stuff I shared wasn’t terrible, it wasn’t stuff I would have ever–EVER–posted for the world to see.

Because the glitch seems to only affect messages written in 2010 and prior, Facebook is banking on people not remembering what they wrote publicly vs privately.  They are saying that this is a problem “with no solution” because all these people are just delusional and really did write this super personal stuff on people’s walls that they only think was private. Read this article from Business Insider basically denying that the problem exists. It’s their word against yours. And, because of that, don’t expect them to fix it. It’s up to you.

The formerly-private messages are mixed in with your public wall posts. So, it does take some digging and scrolling past all the “Happy Birthday” or “Happy Anniversary” posts but trust me, they are there.

Here’s a screen shot of some messages I sent that I KNOW were private due to the content–some of which has been redacted. You’ll see that you can only see my side of the conversation that is now public on my friend’s wall. However, this morning I just discovered that if you view these same messages on the Facebook iPhone app, you can see BOTH sides of the conversation. Not sure why this is the case but that was even more disturbing because you see what both parties are saying to each other. Anyway, this is just one example I found of many messages I KNOW were private. In this instance, it was about August 2010. I know because my friend was sharing some VERY confidential news with me that she didn’t share with others until months later. See below:

So, Facebook can say whatever they want. So can Snopes, Business Insider, and any other news outlet. I have a really good memory and more importantly, I know what I discuss in public and what I don’t. I found several messages (that are now public) where I was discussing my son’s health problems in detail. I simply have never nor would I ever do that. I found many other examples as did many other people I know.

So, the end result is that I will no longer use Facebook messages. I’m still upset this happened but even more disturbed that Facebook (and other credible sources) are basically pretending this problem doesn’t exist. At least nothing I sent was very embarrassing but I can’t say the same for some of the other people in my network.

What IS important is that we are insane enough to go for a third year of putting on Digital Atlanta.  I think we’ve made all the mistakes we can (probably not) and will hopefully have a smoother go of it this year.  The fabulous news of the week is that most all events will be taking place in and around Atlantic Station in midtown.  If you live here, you know what a huge headache parking is and this at least solves that. And, in between sessions, you’ll be able to shop, grab a bite to eat or have a beer with a friend.

Speaker applications are in and we’re busy going through them and looking for sponsors for this year.  We’ve decided to make all the events free again but in order to do this, we’ll need some help.  Please contact me here or email me info (at) digitalatlanta . org if you, your company, your rich uncle, or anyone you know would like to be a sponsor. We thank you for your support!

To keep up with all the latest and greatest, follow Digital Atlanta on the website, Facebook, or Twitter. You can also sign up for the newsletter which we send out at least once a month.

Then, you have a company like Warby Parker. They make eyewear. But, they don’t just make eyewear. They make buying eyewear fun! They’re like the Apple of eyewear. An overstatement? I promise it’s not. If you’ve ever been to an optician or your local LensCrafters/Pearle Vision/whatever, I don’t think you’d ever describe that experience as being “fun.” It’s just necessary. It’s neither positive nor negative. It’s just something you have to do if you wear glasses.

Warby Parker changes all that. First off, they have a great site. It’s clean, crisp, and user-friendly. I’ve never been to one of their showrooms, but I can only imagine they must be as cool as the website. In any case, you figure out which glasses you like and can try them on virtually via their site. The technology isn’t perfect but it can help you narrow down which ones you’d like them to ship you (free of charge) to try on at home. The model pictures and descriptions about which face shape each particular frame fits help a lot. You get to pick five pairs. Two days later, five pairs of try-on glasses show up. You have five days to decide which frames you like. In my case, I decided in five minutes. I chose the Zagg frames in Revolver Matte Black. I then went to the site, uploaded the scanned copy of my prescription (make sure you get your doctor or optician to include your pupillary distance on the Rx), entered my payment information (only $95 for frames and lenses) and hit submit. I also packed up the try-on box with the prepaid return label and dropped it by The UPS Store the same day. They said my order would take up to ten business days. I got mine in three. My glasses fit perfectly and this is the first pair I’ve had in awhile that I really enjoy wearing. Also, I have VSP for my vision insurance and was able to get $75 out of the $95 I paid (frame and lenses) covered and no shipping. My only teeny tiny complaint is that they don’t break out the cost of the frames and lenses. If they had, my glasses would have been covered at 100% because I get $75 toward the frames and $30 toward lenses. But, $20 for glasses this awesome is pretty sweet. And, for every pair of glasses purchased, Warby Parker donates money to help buy a pair of glasses for someone in need. So, you’re actually being philanthropic by purchasing your new glasses!

How did I hear about Warby Parker? From another very happy customer on Facebook. They encourage customers to post pictures of themselves in either their try-on pairs or real glasses. They give you feedback right on their page. Very cool! Then, this happened: I tweeted to them how much I loved my new glasses.

They could have just Tweeted back which would have been nice but instead, I got something better! Yeah, sure…it’s only a personalized YouTube video. Anyone could do that. But, they don’t and that’s the key! I have to say that it kind of made my day and rounded out what was a fantastic customer experience from start to finish. And, if you read The Thank You Economy, this is a textbook example of how to use social media to scale human interaction. It really works. I doubt I would have been inspired to write this blog post if they hadn’t sent this.

So, thanks, Warby Parker. Keep up the great work and fantabulous customer service! Also, I was not paid to write this blog post. I just think they’re awesome.   Check out my new glasses!