The Converging Network

Recession Accelerating Social Media Adoption

"Crisis brings opportunity to change." Keep that quote in mind for a moment as you read this blog post.

You can't watch a cable news channel, particularly CNN, without hearing some reference to Twitter. Facebook has pretty much supplanted myspace as the dominant social networking platform, thanks in large part all of the applications, groups, social causes and the beginnings of businesses using Facebook to reach customers. It's pretty easy to find a blog post or a site about tips and common mistakes when using LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, blogging and just about any other social media tool.

The activity I've seen lately seems to fall into six categories:

• Folks who have been using social networking for some time now (experienced Twitter'ers, Facebook, etc.)
• Individuals exploring the use of social media as part of an entrepreneurial, small business or "multiple streams of income" effort,
• Business networking between professionals falling into business development, sales and professional networking,
• Job seekers who have been laid off and are working to find their next position, or are proactively building up their network in case a pink slip event occurs,
• Traditional media reaching out to readers and watchers through Twitter and blogging,
• Spammers, lurkers, etc., using social media as an email replacement for lead generation.

I'm sure there are probably more classifications, but those stand out for me from my perspective. The social media topic comes up in the circles I operate in almost every day. Just as an example, I had lunch with a friend today and our discussion was all about social media, sharing experiences from blogging and social media, and how that applies to generating multiple streams of income.

The prior day's lunch was with someone I work with and our discussion was all about using social media to more effectively start up and engage small, specific interest groups interested in volunteer activities. (Sounds like I must go out to lunch a lot, lol.)

At a business executive meetup group I attend bi-weekly, many of our discussion topics have been around social media's application in business. All of this is representative of only a fraction of the conversations, projects (through my Converging Network business), email threads, and various inquiries I receive involving social media.

I have a theory about all of this activity -- it's being driven in part, possibly in large part, by the recession we're currently in. Business has slowed across the board for most everyone. Everyone is trying to figure out how social media can help them network, identify new customers, find leads and business opportunities, get a lead on a job or increase our personal income.

I heard Muhammad Yunus (Nobel Peace Prize winner and founder of the Grameen Bank) on Bill Maher's show say, "crisis brings opportunity to change". Muhammad was specifically referring to our over emphasis on making money and reform of our banking system, but that statement also applies to the growth we're seeing in social networking.

People are reaching out. Some of it is for comfort... reaching out to old college friends, coworkers and family.  Part of it is driven by the motivations I listed above. But if in the end, one of the things the recession does is expand the relationships we have with other people, using social media or otherwise, then that is certainly one of the opportunities created out of crisis.

Blog Shoutout - Steve Baker

I had the pleasure on Friday of speaking at a business breakfast about the topic of blogging. During the process I discovered that the group organizer, Steve Baker is a blogger as well. Steve's an entrepreneurial business guy with lots of wisdom and experience to share. He's sharing that by authoring a book, Pushing Water Up Hill With A Rake, and a companion blog. I have had a chance to read some of the posts and like what he's written.

So please check out Steve's blog at http://www.pushingwateruphillblog.blogspot.com

Blog shout out: www.Paths2Trust.com

We have another network security blog in the house. Not too far on the heals of Secure64 CEO, Steve Goodbarn, two of his technical guys have decided to join the ranks of the network security bloggers. The blog, www.Paths2Trust.com, is co-authored by Joe Gersch and Bill Worley. Joe, the head of development for Secure64, has taken the lead and started putting up some blog posts while Bill’s been heads-down cranking out DNSSEC product code.

The primary topic of their blog is DNSSEC. Both are active in secure DNS product development and I expect they’all also share some of their experiences with the standards bodies, DNSSEC adoption, and implementing DNSSEC. Both Joe and Bill have the career chops to talk tech and I’m sure we’ll enjoy hearing what they have to say not only about DNSSEC but also their past experiences in networking, RISC computing platforms (in which Bill is an industry pioneer) and other topics of interest.

I enjoy working with all of these guys as part of my Converging Network LLC business. It’s a real pleasure to see them joining the security blogging community. Take a moment to welcome them by checking out both www.paths2trust.com and www.stevegoodbarn.com. You can also check out Steve on his recent SSAATY podcast appearance.

Blog shoutout - Steve Goodbarn

It's always satisfying when someone takes your advice and as a result I'm happy to welcome a new blogger who's decided to join us. The new blogger on the block is Steve Goodbarn, CEO of DNSSEC vendor Secure64. Steve's a client of my business, Converging Network LLC, and we've been talking about doing a blog with two of his other "more technical" executives. But after spending time with Steve it was really clear he has a unique perspective and a great deal of wisdom to share with us. Steve comes from a background as CFO of Janus Funds, so he really understands how businesses (and CFOs in particular) evaluate, assess and justify risks and mitaging costs around security purchases. Plus he's a genuinely nice guy which I'm sure others will discover as they read his blog and meet Steve at various industry events and security blogger get togethers.

Join me in welcoming Steve to the blogosphere and the community of security bloggers. You can find Steve at http://www.stevegoodbarn.com. Steve also recently appeared on SSAATY podcast episode #61 with Alan and me.

Podcast 61 - Steve Goodbarn is all about DNSSEC

Our guest on SSAATY podcast #61 is Steve Goodbarn, former Janus Funds CFO and now CEO of Secure64, maker of highly scalable and deployable DNSSEC products. DNSSEC has been in the news a lot lately, (Network World seems to be the place where it's covered most), largely because of Dan Kaminsky's talk this summer at Black Hat 2008 in Las Vegas. Now you frequently see articles and blog posts explaining how cache poisoning exploits can be used to hijack not just individual servers but entire domains, right up the path to .com, and . root.

Fortunately solving DNS security isn't as ginormous as stopping global warming but to truly secure DNS then DSNSEC would need to be fully deployed throughout the Internet and will happen in steps over time (as discussed in this blog post.) That's where Steve and the other experts at Secure64 come in. They've developed technology that can both handle the high speed demands of very large DSN infrastructure (and small) and makes DNSSEC much easier to deploy. Both of these challenges are obsticles DNSSEC has faced until now. Secure64 is not only a client on Converging Network LLC (my company) but also someone who I think will be a winner in the new era of domain sercurity services.

In the podcast Steve gives Alan and me his take on the DNS security issues and how Secure64 tackles these problems for their customers. Steve and some of the technical leaders are getting into blogging, with a little prodding and assistance from yours truly. Steve's blog is at www.stevegoodbarn.com. Secure64's CTO, Bill Worley, and VP of engineer, Joe Gersch (read more about them both here) also have their own blog at www.paths2trust.com.

If you'd like to learn more about the social media strategy and product innovation services of Converging Network LLC, please contact me directly.

Check out the podcast here. Enjoy the podcast and email us with any comments, ideas or suggestions. Blessings!

New Blog: Security For All by Joe Webster

A former co-worker and security software developer dude Joe Webster  started up his own blog, Security For All (http://secforall.info). Joe joined StillSecure back when I was CTO and I remember he was interested in the whole blogging and podcasting thing back even then. Hey, Joe... I'm surprised it took you so long to start the blog! :)

Seriously, Joe's not only a sharp guy but is also dedicated to improving securty. Plus, he's a really nice guy and great keyboard/composer. So check out Joe's new Security For All blog. He has a good post up there in response to one of Joel Snyder's videocasts about Network Access Control.

Twitter, The Cigar Bar, Social Networking and Security Bloggers

Sometimes I see myself as something of a social anthropologist. I'm really fascinated by the social, interpersonal and individual dynamics of how people interact, communicate and work together. I had a great opportunity to observe exactly that through the social networking that occurs among the network security community while at Black Hat this week. It truly was fascinating to observe and be a part of.

At conferences such as Black Hat there is always a big push to find out where the corporate parties are and make sure you score an invite. Some of them can be tough to get into, making getting that ticket, wristband or special invite card a really coveted item. Wednesday evening one of the better parties was sponsored by Core Security Breach at the Caesars Palace Shadow Bar. The VP of Marketing at Core Breach was kind enough to give me a ticket to attend. The party was crowded and difficult to move around in but I was able to spend time talking with Rothman, McKeay, Andrew Storm, my buddy Alan and a bunch of other friends. It was a bit crowded and kind of hard to talk so three of us decided to head out and go to Casa Fuente to talk over cigars in a little bit quieter environment. So three of us headed down to the cigar bar.

When we arrive, we entered Casa Fuente's sizable humidor to pick out a good smoke for the evening. I had just picked out a nice cigar when someone tapped me on the shoulder and said, "I'm Ryan Naraine and I've really wanted to meet you Mitchell. I'd like to buy you that cigar you've picked out." Whoa. I've probably read a thousand tweets (Twitter messages) of Ryan's but have never met him before. Ryan is not only a prolific Twitter content generator, he is also a widely read journalist for ZDnet's security blogs. He wants to meet me? I want to meet him. I feel like I know the guy better than half the people I work with on a day-to-day basis because of his Twitter feed and his writing.

Ryan and Tim join us and now the group had grown to five. Sometime soon Ryan and Andrew tweeted we were down at the cigar bar. Pretty quick Rothman and Martin left the Core party and joined us, followed soon after by Hoff, Ryan, JJ and then Mogull. The group grew 2 and sometimes 3 or 4 at a time. Everyone learned from their Twitter community that a new group was forming at Casa Fuente. Within 45 minutes the group had grown from 3 to 40+ people.

If you've been to Casa Fuente in Caesars you know it's not a huge place so 40+ a very sizable group, enough to take over half the joint. I'm sure our waitress was glad to see her night's tip increase by the minute. The group was a human example of soap bubble surface tension dynamics at work as one table after another gave way its individual space and became part of our group. I felt bad for the guy next to us whose personal space was taken over faster than a biblical grasshopper plague. We invited him to join us multiple times but he resisted our attempts to assimilate him into our collective and eventually left when there wasn't much left to either his space or his cigar.

The group participants ebbed and flowed, moving around to talk with different people. Many of us follow each other's blogs and/or Twitter feeds but haven't met in person before. I met many people I've followed and whose blog I read but wouldn't recognize from their tiny Twitter picture or blog portrait. The group makeup was very diverse; there were people from a few independent analyst firms and from Gartner, small and well known product vendors, consultants, four or five different press outlets, security researchers and every day security practitioners. Blogging is probably something commonly shared by a large portion of the group.

I was then and still am fascinated at the dynamics that lead to the formation of this event. It wasn't one of the much sought after corporate events, it was a blogger / social networking impromptu driven event. While there are certainly a number of vocal and well equipped leaders that could rise up to such an occasion, this wasn't a "leader situation". No one was the group leader or organizer, we were just our own self forming group. It didn't hurt of course that we had a source of capital, thanks to one person's corporate credit card. (Thanks dude, I don't want to get you in any more trouble by naming you here.)

A number of people were letting Twitter messages fly over the wires to announce what funny thing happened or ridiculous comment this person or that made. I'm sure a few iPhone, Blackberry and camera phone pictures made their way out too. These were all part of the dynamic that helped the group form and grow, and make it attractive for others to want to come join in. Yes, people Twittered there's a party over here but a good bit of what likely attracted people to come join the group was that the Twitters communicated there was a whole lot'a friends and fun happening over here. The large group broke up at 11pm when Casa Fuente closed their doors for the evening. Smaller groups reformed and headed out to different parts but the tweets kept happening so most people knew what was happening and where for the rest of the evening.

I've been reading about some of the differences between formal organizations and social networking, particularly about self forming groups, in the book Here Comes Everybody and this situation was a great example of it. We all worry whether cell phones, social networking and web 2.0 apps are making personal relationships impersonal. I think the situation I've described, which is only one of what were likely hundreds or thousands of similar examples during the conference, shows how social networking technology lets you build relationships with people before you've ever met or talked in person, how it collapses distance, enables the dynamic formation of groups, and and continues relationships whether people are present together or physically far apart. I've been following the conference through tweets long after leaving the conference. Taking in the whole situation is simply quite marveling to me.

One thing's for sure; social networking, web 2.0 apps and camera phones have totally destroyed the belief What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. I wouldn't put much faith in that saying any longer. (I'll let you find the more incriminating camera phone pictures from Black Hat yourself, and don't ask about me about the hamster -- I can't tell you. But you're welcome to follow him on Twitter.)

New blog: Breast Cancer For Husbands.com

I've started a new blog called Breast Cancer For Husbands.com. As many of you know, my wife and I have battled her breast cancer together over the past three years. There have been highs and lows, struggles and victories, and through it all breast cancer is something we battle both together and on our own. If you've been close to someone with breast cancer, you know that even once the cancer is no longer detectable you still live your life changed from that experience.

I decided to blog about the topic, first for my own therapeutic need through writing and sharing, and second to create something that I and other husbands (and their wives and family members) could be a part of while supporting a loved one with breast cancer.

To learn more, check out the initial blog post where I talk more about the reasons behind creating this new blog.

If you or someone you know has had or is living through the breast cancer journey with a spouse, I would appreciate your forwarding a link to http://www.breastcancerforhusbands.com.

Thank you to everyone who continues to provide love, support, prayers, calls, emails, letters and visits. I hope you'll share my new blog with someone who it might benefit. I surely will be blessed through all who are part of this journey as well.

Xobni - Changing How You Use Your Inbox

I like to talk about innovate products and Xobni, the plugin for Outlook, definitely fits the bill. I blogged about Xobni on my NWW blog back in February and as you can tell from that post, I was and still am excited about Xobni. Unlike most things that get installed on my computer only to be removed a few days or weeks later, the "coolness" of Xobni hasn't worn off. More importantly the usefulness of Xobni causes me to have it stick around and take up real estate in my Outlook window. But Xobni isn't perfect, either. I see some real challenges to be able to truly gain the benefits it could bring to email, but we'll talk about that in a moment.

Here's a video tour of Xobni. Also check out my podcast interview with Matt Brezina, co-founder of Xobni. I'm starting to do more product reviews and strategy work as part of my Converging Network business, which is a pleasure since I enjoy working with and assessing new products and trends anyway.

(Contact me if you are interested in finding out more about my Converging Network product strategy services.)

Xobni - The Movie

Xobni - Email's New Connection To People

Now that Xonbi integrates with LinkedIn, I find that I use it a lot more. It's actually the little features I Xobni I like most. Showing someone's portrait loaded up on LinkedIn when I click on their email makes the connection to that person even more real. It makes email just a little more personal. And, if I don't know them well, it's easy to go learn about the person from their LinkedIn profile. (You have a LinkedIn profile with a picture uploaded don't you? Here's mine. Lets connect!)

One of the most useful things about Xobni is knowing the email habits of the people I converse and work with regularly. The little bar chart showing the distribution time of emails received from them throughout the day lets me know when they are more likely to read the emails I send, or take my call. This could also be invaluable to a sales person looking to reach clients, though I'm not sure people these days answer phone calls from people they don't know. (Sales people tell me virtually no one answers their business phone much any more.)

Xobni - Changing How You Use Email

It's rare for me to keep a gadget or plugin around for long. Their installed half-life is usually about 2 days, or no more than two weeks on my computers. So you know Xobni must be delivering something of value, especially given the screen real estate it takes in Outlook.

Changing how you use email is a double-edged sword, as I'll talk more about in a moment. I find the attachments ("Files Exchanged") section of the Xobni plug-in one if it's most useful functional features. It can prevent a lot of searching for the right email with the right attachment, and you can dig in deeper if you want to see the email or email thread the attachment was a part of.

I haven't found that I use the "XYZ's Network" section (where it shows you other people who have been in conversations with you and this person) as much as I thought I would. It's a great idea, but I just haven't added that capability into my email use thought patterns for some reason. The "Email Conversations" thread is also something that I don't use much, mostly because I don't find the way the threads are presented as being that useful. I'll say some more about this down below.

Xobni - Kudos For Being A Well Behaved Outlook Plugin

My first rule of all plugin is "be useful". I really don't need an Adobe Acrobat plugin for Outlook or PowerPoint. Is use the print driver to create pdf files. Same for screen captures. That's why I have SnagIt. So, unless there's a really good reason why this plugin is needed, don't create them in the first place, and certainly don't install them by default. Xobni definitely meets the "be useful" criteria.

The second rule is "don't create other problems". How many times does your Outlook crash because of some funky plugin or software incompatibly. It seems virtually guaranteed that if any other software other than Outlook touches your pst and ost files, you're doomed for the dreaded "Not Responding" message. I have to say that I've had relatively few problems with Xobni and Outlook. Not that its never happened, as I have encountered a few situations where Xobni had the files open that Outlook needs in order to start properly. But the problems and crashes have been very, very few.

Kudos to the Xobni team for figuring out how to do this. They should bottle up whatever they are doing and help all the other software guys figure out how to do the same.

Xobni - The Challenge Of Getting The Benefits

Xobni has two big challenges in my view. First, all of Xobni's capabilities are constrained by being in an Outlook sidebar plugin. There's limited screen real estate, and it's mostly vertical. Networks of people (lists), conversations (lists), viewing email threads, all have to be viewed in this small area and it does detract from its usability and usefulness. Because of this, I don't use the email threads feature much at all, and the relatively static content (time distribution bar graph, email stats, portrait and contact info) are the things I look at and use most. It's a tough row to hoe being in a sidebar and Xobni would be much more useful if it was integrated into the email client itself. Tell me again why Microsoft hasn't gobbled up Xobni by now? Hmm.

Xobni also implies multiple user behavior changes to access its benefits. We use email clients so frequently everyday, all through the day, that the use case habits we've formed with Outlook are hard very to break. Instead of sorting back and forth between sender and sent date in order to locate what I'm looking for, you have to break that habit and look in the Xobni sidebar for what you might hunting to find. You have to remember "oh, there's another way to find the last version of that attachment sent to Bob", and go over and use Xobni to do that. On the flip side, being an Outlook sidebar plugin is an advantage over being a separate application from Outlook all together.

Breaking patterns and habit changes are something every product faces to varying degrees, but email's so heavily used that those habits are more difficult to break.

Xobni - Conclusion: Download It. You'll Use It.

Download Xobni. I think that title pretty much sums it up.

Join The Microsoft Bloggers Network

Are you a security researcher looking into Microsoft vulnerabilities? Do you do pen testing on networks running Microsoft software? (Pretty likely, I'd guess.) Do you blog about it? Or maybe you just blog about your Microsoft experiences, good, bad or indifferent.

If so, you're invited to join the Microsoft Bloggers Network. It's great exposure for blogs and gives users an aggregated feed for all blogs in the network. The only rules I have about joining are that you occasionally blog about Microsoft related topics on your blog, and that you write your own content (i.e. you aren't one of those sites that aggregates other bloggers' content verbatim for advertising purposes.) It's a free community service and helps promote your blog, so why not, join up now!

If you'd like to join, send me an email.