Readings: On the NEW intelligence

In one of the classes during my first few weeks of taking my Tech 621: Social Internet class, my professor said, “Attention is the most valuable commodity of the future.” As an Economics undergraduate, I thought, “She has it all wrong.” Time is valuable. Capital is valuable. Advancement in technology is valuable. But attention?

In a way, attention is time. However, attention is the way you decide to spend your time, and in an age with thousands of things to do, read, and process, attention is the greater of the two. Several articles I read this week made me debate internally if I spend my attention correctly. Nicholas Carr argues in Is Google Making Us Stupid  that the internet is chipping away our capacity for concentration. ‘Power Browsing’, the new form of reading, allows us to move our attention from item to item, grasping bits and pieces, but never the complex meaning. And I’m not going to lie, the older I’ve become, the more attention deficit I’ve become. Already by this paragraph I’ve checked my email, twittered, and gotten a glass of water. But I won’t go so far as to say I’ve become a programed jittery robot. His arguement is that we’ve all become pancake people, spread thin by our knowledge of information but lack of complex understanding or thought of it. I will cede that maybe I am becoming a pancake, but one with chocolate chips and syrup. My grandmother always called herself, “A jack of all trades but a master of none” and this is how I view knowledge capacity.

But if I can only spend so much attention on one item, how do I ever get anything done? Jamais Cascio in his article Get Smarter, argues that the human brain from history until now, has always changed to meet the challenge. The human brain is evolutionary and will certainly make our brain capable of processing information in new ways. In his words, my attention can be better spent with the “Me+”. The Me+ has a greater fluid intelligence helping move my attention from activity to activity creating a capability to not only see multiple sources of information, but process and analyze them as well. This is great for population as a whole – this will decrease the need for specialization and increase the complexity of participation.

 

Today’s Election: Voting systems – Get with the times

Today’s election coverage got me thinking – when are we going to get more advanced with voting systems? Though almost a decade ago, the “hanging chad” fiasco left a bad taste in our country’s mouth. As we move towards a more electronic voting system, it still seems as if the hardware and software used is archaic. Direct recording electronic (DRE) voting systems are now made particularly for persons with disabilities, yet our fear of electoral fraud has kept us from adopting a smarter system. We have smart phones and smart appliances, yet we still live in the dark age when it comes to participating in our electoral process – the foundation of democracy.

Millions of Americans take part in social media, with the use of tools like Facebook and twitter. These millions far outnumber the actual number of voters on Election Day. Why haven’t we begun to integrate these two phenomena? For the 2008 presidential election, far more youth voters took part in online political groups, twittered their opinion, and became members of Facebook fan pages than actually voted. As seems that if Government 2.0 is about collaborating between the government process and the American public, a seamless effort that brought voting to social media could take place.

For example, Poll Everywhere has created a text messaging based application that supports live audience polling. Though part of the appeal comes in the form of their real-time graphics on results, a technology has been created to integrate Twitter and text messaging in the voting process. According to some, several factors lead citizens to not vote, including habitual activity, relocation, and civic involvement. I am no expert, but it seems that social media integration could easily attack these three issues.

If an Armed Service branch policy was a professional sports league policy, which one would it be?

In a June 2^nd post by Mashable, Sharlyn Lauby listed her 10 Must-Haves for Your Social Media Policy. Unfortunately, not enough policy creators read her must-haves and many recent approaches have neglected the ideas of community and audience. Some of the most followed and scrutinized social media policies have recently come from the U.S. Armed Forces and the major professional sports leagues. Whether created to combat rogue athletes (cough… Chad Ochocinco) or under the assumption that vital national intelligence needs to be protected, these agencies and organizations have all published their version of the acceptable social media policy.

While examining news commentary surrounding their recent policy publishing and the actual policies themselves, I was curios if there was any correlation. Who has the strictest policy? Who has realized that social media can become a foundation for agency/league communication? Ultimately, if an Armed Service branch policy was a professional sports league policy, which one would it be?

Here they are.

The U.S. Marine Corp policy would be the NFL policy

On August 3^rd, 2009, the U.S. Marines issued an order banning all social media site from its network. The order rules that Marines are banned from use of public social networks unless a mission-critical need exists. The reasoning exists in part, that social media sites increase the risk of information leaking into the hands of adversaries. Although the Marine Corps operates a Facebook fan page, the use of social media by the Marines is recruitment-minded only.

On August 31^st, 2009, the National Football League revealed its social media policy to all 32 teams. Particularly strict, the NFL, known by some as the “No Fun League”, had decided to allow its players to Twitter and use other forms of social media. However, there is a catch – no Tweeting 90 minutes before a game, during a game, and not until media interviews are over with. The NFL has also set up their policy to protect vital information from being leaked – during game information. The NFL depends on its lucrative media contracts and doesn’t want to jeopardize them with play-by-play Tweets from players and staff. All social media use is banned for NFL officiating personnel as well. 

The U.S. Army policy would be the MLB policy

Earlier this summer, the Army decided to reverse its policy and allow soldiers to use most aspects of social media sites and platforms. The Army policy states “the intent of senior Army leaders to leverage social media as a medium to allow soldiers to ‘tell the Army story’ and to facilitate the dissemination of strategic, unclassified information, the social media sites available from the Army homepage http://www.army.mil, will be made accessible from all campus area networks.” And in fact, a direct page on the Army website explains the new found “importance” of social media in the Army. The Army however, has pushed that its soldiers use its addressed sites for social media, including the Army Facebook page, Army Flickr, and Army Youtube.

You can argue or not, but fantasy leagues are one of the largest forms of social media on the internet today, and fantasy leagues breathed new life into the MLB. Major League Baseball has always been accepting of social media, maybe because its athletes have not “gone rogue” thus far. Like the Army though, baseball has tried to monopolize the platforms its players and citizens use. Blunders, like the MLB.TV blog, have shown that it is best to “simply fish where the fish are” instead of creating your own body of water. The MLB has also urged its players and reporters to not give live updates during games, though no punishment-like wording has been worked into its policy.

The Navy policy would be the NHL policy

It is clear that the Navy and the National Hockey League have the most inviting social media policies. In fact, both have expressed that social media should be a part of the current communications foundation. U.S. Navy CIO, Rob Carey wrote that social media should be used to build trust and collaboration for the American military, and the Navy’s social media policy is titled “Web 2.0 – Utilizing New Web Tools.” Like all of the armed forces branches, use and use of tools is still monitored for content and security. However, the use of words like “facilitate collaboration” and “productivity, efficiency, and innovation” are far above the current sight of other branches.

The NHL’s Director of Corporate Communications, Michael DiLorenzo, shares much of the same sentiment that Carey did for the Navy – “I’ve since learned that you can’t be in the 1-way dialog business via Social Media. That’s when I started listening more and trying to engage folks rather than talk at them.” The NHL has seen increasing numbers in fan engagement and revenue over the past couple of years and its use of social media may help further these numbers. The interesting thing to note about both policies is their focus – how to use these tools to engage others, not “how to keep our players and staff from messing up.” The NHL’s new push: fan Twitter contests.

The Air Force policy would be the NBA policy

Fortunately and unfortunately, these two have taken the goods and bads from the organizations above and integrated them into a plan. The Air Force has recognized the need for direction in social media with its 25 page plan, the largest of any of the mentioned branches. The plan includes thirteen guidelines for blogging, including “Stay In Your Land” and “Avoid Endorsements”, as well as a count of twelve “do not’s” I spotted throughout. Like the Army, the Air Force also has its own domain in very popular social media sites, including Youtube and Wikipedia, hoping to collect a large portion of airmen or posting on the web in one central location.

The National Basketball Association has adopted a similar mindset of the NFL and does not allow its players, coaches, or staff to access any social media sites directly before, during, or directly after a game. Unlike the NFL, the NBA specifies, and in fact, encourages individual teams to create rules and policies for its players and staff. The NBA approach of “DO IT YOURSELF” is a must need as some of the most followed Twitter athletes wear basketball uniforms. Teams have already lined up to make a list of “do not’s” including the ban of all social media during team time.

What is the Time Cost of Twitter?

Since Twitter’s near explosion onto Social Media’s landscape, people have argued its monetary worth. Some argue that Twitter is worth anywhere from $60 million to $120 million. Research suggests that it could have a value of up to $589 million based on its possible share prices. A month ago, investors valued twitter at a whopping $1 Billion. The real cost I care about is – free. One of Twitter’s many real appeals to its users is that the service can be used as much as possible for the low cost of zero dollars. Is Twitter really free, though?

One of the basic fundamentals I learned in college is that “time is money.” From Economics’ courses, it was embedded in my brain that there is an opportunity cost to everything. Many of the people I follow on Twitter continually post throughout the day, which for me, seems that instead of working for whatever time period, they are using Twitter. Who pays this time cost? Employers? Society? Can you value this time in dollars?

I attempted to value this time on Twitter. Specifically, I was curious how much the time the average American older than me spent on Twitter was worth. Assumptions were made as it was difficult to find concise research. In fact, conflicting research on average user age, time spent on twitter, etc was everywhere.  I only valued the Twitter user’s time, not visitors, and only took into account users aged 25-64 (I am 24 years old).

Using a study that stated 2009 would see 18 million U.S. Twitter users, the U.S. Census Bureau’s income statistics for 2008, and assuming that of the 8760 hours in a year an individual could work to make income instead of Twitter, I provide results on the monetary value of an individual using Twitter and the overall cost to…well, I still don’t know who pays the cost.

Time worth (Opportunity Cost) of an individual American Twittering by age group in 2009.

Age Group	25-34	35-44	45-54	55-64
Time Worth	$146.12	$659.45	$241.00	$299.87

 Overall cost of Twitter users twittering in exchange for working = $4,556,259,000

The crazy part about a number like four and a half billion dollars is that studies show Twitter users are more affluent than the average American, possibly boosting this number even higher. So I go back to the original question: Who pays for this cost? One could argue that if employees are using Twitter at work instead of doing work, employers pay the cost of this lower production. The ultimate argue a proponent of social media has is that tools like Twitter increase productivity, so if anything, we are making money, not paying a cost. Regardless, as our society integrates into the Web 2.0 age, an assessment of the consequences must help drive our use, or it may cost us billions more.

Calculations below:

• The amount of Twitter users for 2009, from eMarketer.

             18 million

• The percentage of Twitter users by age, from The Nielsen Company and ComScore and PewResearch.

            25-34             20%

            35-44             21%

            45-54             23%

            55-64             10%

• The amount of Twitter users in 2009 aged 25-64

           25-34             3,600,000            

           35-44             3,780,000

           45-54             4,140,000

           55-64             1,800,000

• The average time spent on Twitter by age group per day in minutes, from ComScore.

           25-34             5.8

           35-44             20

           45-54             7

           55-64             9.3

• The time spent on Twitter by age group yearly in hours ((minutes x 365) / 60)

           25-34             35.38

          35-44             121.67

          45-54             42.58

          55-64             56.58

• The average yearly income of an individual American in 2008 by age group, from U.S. Census Bureau.

          25-34             $36,146

         35-44             $47,520

         45-54             $49,570

         55-64             $46,408

• The average hourly income of an individual American in 2008 by age group, assuming 8760 hours in a year.

         25-34             $4.13

        35-44             $5.42

        45-54             $5.66

        55-64             $5.30

• Time worth (Opportunity Cost) of an individual American Twittering by age group

        25-34             $146.12

        35-44             $659.45

        45-54             $241.00

        55-64             $299.87

• Overall cost

(146.12 x 3,600,000) + (659.45 x 3,780,000) + (241.00 x 4,140,000) + (299.87 x 1,800,000)

An Interview with my Blogging Mentor, Steve Radick

For my Technology: Social Media class at Purdue University, I was given a mentor to assist with my social media immersion and answer questions/assist with my weekly blogging. I was paired with Steve Radick,  one of Booz Allen Hamilton’s leaders in their social media and Government 2.0 practice. Steve’s  blog has not only given me a  foundation for good blogging, but keeps me up to date on recent happenings and his opinions on Government 2.0. Outside of giving me comments on my personal blog, Mr. Radick allowed me to interview him to learn how social media has impacted his life, career, employer, and government. Below are my questions and his answers.

How has social media impacted the way you do your job?

Social media IS my work now.  For almost three years now, I’ve been the lead social media evangelist, strategist, guru – pick your term – here at Booz Allen Hamilton, one of the largest consulting firms in the world.  I like to think that I’m a communications consultant first and a social media leader second, so I use social media to help my clients improve their communication and collaboration strategies rather than just helping them get on Twitter or Facebook because that’s the new toy. Social media has also allowed me to grow my career and brand myself internally within a 20,000+ person firm.  I’ve used our internal suite of social media tools to blog about how the government is using social media, to create and edit wiki pages about social media, and to start discussions with other members of the firm about social media.  Through the use of these tools, I’ve been able to distinguish myself as our firm’s leader in this area.  This happened without a fancy title, degree, certification, or memo – people were able to make their judgments based on what their interactions with me in our online community – the same way that people make judgments in offline communities.

So for me, social media permeates every aspect of my job – whether it’s helping my client integrate social media into their communications plan or using my firm’s internal wiki to draft a new client proposal.  Social media is like email for me – it’s just an essential tool that I use to do my job.

What social media tools do you use?

Well, externally, my online hub is my blog . I use Twitter as my primary communications outlet to the public.  I probably only blog once a week, but I use Tweetdeck to stay on Twitter all day long, posting links to interesting content and talking with people with similar interests. I like to use YouTube to post the videos that I record using my FlipCam, cell phone, or new iPod Nano; I use both Flickr and Facebook to post my photos; I use del.icio.us for all my bookmarks (I haven’t bookmarked anything using just my browser for years); and I use SlideShare to post copies of my presentations.  Internally, I use the full suite of tools we have available on hello.bah.com – blogs, our wiki, bookmarks, discussion forums, and especially the social networking capability to connect me to my colleagues.

Those are my primary outlets, but I think we all use social media in other ways, but don’t necessarily bucket it that way.  For example, I share my Netflix queue and Amazon wishlists with friends and family members.  I can log into almost any news and join in the conversation happening there.  Social media is just so pervasive now that it’s getting harder and harder to separate out the “social media tools” from the “traditional” media tools.

Which tools do you find most effective for your day to day life/work?

I think the most effective social media are the ones that help you A) do your job better or more efficiently – e.g., using a wiki to draft a paper instead of emailing 13 versions around; B) connect you to people in ways that weren’t possible before – e.g., finding an expert on underwater basket-weaving located halfway around the world via his blog posts.  In this vein, I’ve found Twitter to be extraordinarily helpful to me because I can now reach out directly to existing and future clients via Twitter, instead of having to find someone within the firm to make an introduction for me, then working with the client’s chief of staff to get a meeting scheduled.  I can now just say, “@clientXYZ I’ll be downtown tomorrow – you interested in grabbing lunch?”

How does a firm like Booz Allen Hamilton help government best utilize the potential of the tools?

Booz Allen is a government consulting firm.  We work with our clients to solve their most difficult problems and help them better accomplish their mission.  I haven’t yet seen a government mission that says they exist, “to get 10,000 Twitter followers and Facebook friends.”  Our clients have very real, very important missions – whether that’s informing the public about a new government program or collecting intelligence on the latest terrorist threat.  Our goal is to help them accomplish these goals better, more efficiently, more quickly, etc.  In some cases, we use social media to do this, but in others, we do this by NOT using social media.  I always like to say that social media isn’t about the tools or the technology – it’s about what the tools and the technology enable.  Let’s figure out how to use this technology to help the government better accomplish their missions, and not just to sound cool when speaking at a conference.

What does social media enable the government to do now, or what will it potentially in the future?

Watch this video, “Us Now” and the videos from the recent Gov 2.0 Summit, and then read over the various presentations that were given at the Gov 2.0 Expo Showcase. Those resources are going to give you a MUCH better idea of all that’s currently being done in the government than I could ever hope to cover here.  However, I will say this – right now, I really like how social media is helping the government improve collaboration within the government itself.  The Intelligence Community’s Intellipedia was just the first step.  Take a look at something like GovLoop – a grass-roots initiative started by a DHS employee who just wanted to stay connected to his colleagues when he moved away from the DC area that now has almost 20,000 government employees and contractors as members.

Government agencies have traditionally competed with one another – for credit, for budgets, for people – now, we’re seeing a shift to a more collaborative government.  Through things like GovLoop, Intellipedia, and other social media, the government is able to communicate and collaborate with one another to better serve the American public, and that’s a good thing for everyone.

When it comes to Politicians using Twitter, Everyone’s a Critic

I’m not a Politician by any means, and if I was, when it comes to social media, I’d be lost. After reading over 30 articles and blogs regarding politicians’ use of Twitter and other tools, I’ve found the real message: “You’re damned if you do, you’re damned if you don’t.” When I began to first use social media, no one sat me down and said, “This is how you use it, and only use it this way.” And now that I’ve learned some of the norms, rules, and societal laws of social media, I still use it wrong. But I have no critics. No one tells me I’m using it wrong, and if they did, I would still continue to use it.  But like I said, I’m not a politician.

During a Skype session my Social Media class at Purdue had with Twitterville author, Shel Israel, I asked him what the main purpose of social media tools were. He said “To have good conversations.” I believe him to be correct. After reading criticisms over politicians’ use maybe this is most true for them. A University study on politicians’ tweeting habits found that only 7% of tweets related to an interaction with constituents or general citizens. The authors of the study also argue that Twitter has yet to bring politicians closer to constituents.

Critics aren’t just analyzing twitter streams, though. There are critics who suggest what to do and what not to do. There are critics who say how to do it and how not to do it. Even Politicians themselves are critics. Senator Newt Gingrich believes Twitter is a useful political tool. “Using Twitter to bypass traditional media and directly reach voters is definitely a good thing,” but he advises that “Members should avoid twittering from the House floor, though.” San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom urges politicians to listen to people who want to offer honest criticism or counsel and advise.

Some critics have rated politicians on their ability or inability to use social media tools. One critic views, among others, Illinois Senator Dick Durbin as a Twitter failure and Congressman John Boozman as the “perfect twitter politician.” Other critics have created online forums and questionnaires to allow anyone and everyone to grade politicians’ twitter use. One critic has “yet to hear a single intelligent remark twittered by an elected official.” (Link morons and visionaries)

So among all the suggestions and guidelines provided by the critics, what is a politician to do? It is time for me to become a critic and give my two cents: Just do it. If you’re going to “be damned”, do it attempting to succeed, not watching others fail. I have enjoyed following the Politicians I follow on Twitter and only wish more from my home state of Indiana would be available to criticize.

Listed below are 8 of the lessons I found most prevalent from the critics:

Lesson 1: Interact with your constituents.

Lesson 2: Twitter what you are doing at just about every moment.

Lesson 3: Don’t use twitter to chase publicity, donor contributions, and votes on election day.

Lesson 4: If you’re going to twitter, be authentic.

Lesson 5: View how your peers are using social media successfully.

Lesson 6: Listen to people who want to offer honest criticism or counsel and advise.

Lesson 7: If you’re going to have a profile, use it. Update your posts.

Lesson 8: Discuss what’s happening in your personal political life. Be applicable to the U.S. citizen.

Reading: Born Digital

Authors: John Palfrey and Urs Gasser
More info can be found here.

After finishing Born Digital, I decided to sit down and decide if I met the criteria of being a “digital native.” The book first defines a “digital native” as anyone being born after 1980. Check. A native uses tools of technology to connect with others and as a definition of themselves, such as smart phones, iTunes, and Facebook. Check. A native doesn’t see themselves as having separate digital and nondigital iddentities, “just an identity.” Check. Basically, every criterion the book mentions to define a native, I qualify for. So what does this mean?

Born Digital was written with a “beware” overtone. In a realization that the digital era has redefined technology and life, and for the better, those who have influence over the “digital natives” should take a certain amount of precautions to realize its full advantages and disadvantages. A realization that even at 24, I am leaving an erasable digital footprint for others to find is a “duh, I knew that” but “wow, am I doing it right” sentiment that will affect the way I continue to evolve as a native.

I gravitated to this idea when I read the book in a context of “What is my Identity?” Identity is a strong thing, for after all it is who we are. As Born Digital speaks of having two identities, personal and social, I insert my thoughts as currently having two personalities, personal and professional. This isn’t to say that my personality is not professional, but at an age where finding a job and creating a professional network is of utmost importance, my professional identity must contain certain content. One of the greatest benefits the book speaks of is the ability to find/alter/create the identity we want. Meaning: I could be the most irresponsible slack-off by day, but the suit-wearing IT blogging professional by night, using my Twitter, Blog, and social networks.

I am a “digital native.” I will continue to use the newest digital tools, from internet applications to smart phones. But I will continue to do so with a “user beware” in mind.

Gov 2.0: My experience with three tools

In a recent blog post covering my final project for my Tech 621 class, I was asked to not necessarily examine the tools of Gov 2.0, but look at what the tools enable. I think before one can see what they enable, one must first find the tools and use them. In John Blossom’s Chapter 6 of “Content Nation”, he spoke to the importance of social media tools in creating a more effective government. Most of his examples of tools were person specific: collaborative tools used by multi-governmental personnel were little examined or not present at the time. I set out to find these collaborative web tools and see how I could use them.

Govloop advertises itself as the “premier social network connecting the government community” and asks “gov’t employees (fed/state/local/intl), public policy student/professor, good gov’t organization, and gov’t consultants/contractors” to join. As a current student and employee of an Institute working on government problems and issues, I joined. Like many of the social networking sites, Govloop is a proactive tool: one must actively seek out content and people to learn from and talk to. I was able to connect with others in similar life situations as myself-students-and uniquely see how people from all aspects of public service are collaborating together. Because I have had limited time on GovLoop I cannot speak fully to what it “enables”, though I see it as a tool for conversations. I remember my time working for the State of Indiana and listening to some of the issues and concerns my department employees expressed. Out of curiosity, I would web search these topics and find that State “X” and “Y” had either found solutions our were currently seeking the same. Tools for collaboration enable a faster solution.

If nothing more than a directory, GovTwit is a great tool to find government agencies and officials on Twitter having conversations on issues that not only help me grasp the lastest news, but simply connect. What does this enable? If you view it as a telephone directory, it enables one person to find another person. I view it as a conversation directory: today I was able to find Richard Stiennon @cyberwar and @tweetcongress. GovTwit helped me find these people, but it enabled me to read and learn about the latest news on cyber defense and attempts to connect the puclic with Congress. GovTwit also enable me to find other webtools. GovWiki, another Twitter domain, sends me instant feeds on recent articles and news. Today’s conversation – what Andrea DiMaio means when she says “Why Government 2.0 Has Little To Do With Government” [http://blogs.gartner.com/andrea_dimaio/2009/10/06/why-government-2-0-has-little-to-do-with-government/]

In an early internship with the State, I was asked to play around with the Department’s website to see how user friendly it was. I looked at display, found dead links, and tried to see how symmetric each page was. I gave my suggestions, but ultimately the website looks the same today – three years later. The web content forum states “Our goal is to dramatically improve U.S. Government websites. We do this by sharing our expertise and best practices, collaborating across agencies to reduce duplication, and striving to improve the online experience for the American public.” Though I didn’t have full membership access to the website, I was able to view the conversations and questions members had posted. Had my department known or utilized this tool, a more effective website could have been created.

As my project progresses, I will continue to update this post with more tools with a focus not on the tools themselves, but what they enable.

Blogging for Consultants

http://www.boozallen.com/news/42033790

In 2007, Booz Allen Hamilton unveiled its own personal Web 2.0 tool hello.bah.com. In a sense an internal blog, it allows employees to share intellectual knowledge among each other. Many companies have formed these knowledge sharing blogs as a way to better utilize intellectual capital from coast to coast or continent. For many reasons, these blogs are still kept internal (employee-only), and curiosity leads me to seek blogs that use intellectual capital to better the profession, not just a company.

A quick google search: consulting blog
Displays:
http://top-consultant.blogspot.com/ “Over a quarter of a million management consultancy readers browse and contribute to Top-Consultant.com each month. Now you can too! This blog is intended for practising consultants, aspiring consultants and consultants’ clients. “

http://www.accenture.com/Global/Accenture_Blogs/Consulting_Analysts_Blog/default.htm
“At Accenture, a day in the office means a chance to do something remarkable. Read the personal thoughts and experiences of two consulting analysts to learn how they’re making a difference everyday in a consulting career at Accenture. Get to know our bloggers Jose Espinal and Stela Llusha from the United States.”

Through the first 2 google pages these were the only two that could correlate. (A hoard of businesses offering consulting services to businesses looking to use blogs as a way to promote products and services were sprinkled through)

My thought is that through books such as Naked Conversations, we learn that blogs are reinventing the way companies advertise, the downfall of the conventional ad-agency. If used in the same manner, but with a different purpose, could this happen to the conventional consulting firm? If best practices, bpr, change-management, technical reengineering, and things of the like are blogged and these blogs are utilized, will $400 an/hour consultants be needed to share this information that once they only knew. Outside of consulting firms that deal in sensitive material (government consulting), can your average run of the mill management consulting services be replaced with shared industry knowledge shared through blogs? I will continue my search for consulting blogs in anticipation of more like the ones the future may see.

Tips for Grad School

A month into graduate school, there have been obvious differences I have incurred. From time required to necessities for success, I have had to rework the way I go about my day-to-day activities. As an assignment and as I way to connect with my professors, I asked my professors from this semester’s courses questions regarding grad school success. The questions I asked included:
1. What are the best habits to help a student in grad school?
2. What are the top 3 characteristics of a great student?
3. What are mistakes to avoid?
4. How can a grad student best succeed?

Their answers were unique, based upon their experience and fields. I not only found this an opportunity to connect, but to also collect great-real-useful advise to use over the next year and a half. I have listed their answers in a top ten format.

10. A grad student must have a habit of profesionalism
9. A grad student must avoid the mistake of not asking questions and asking questions often
8. A grad student must manage their time (overwhelming response)
7. A grad student must be able to take some academic risks
6. A grad student must be able to read and absorb large quantities of materials independently. “It really helps if you like reading, even if what you are reading isn’t your favorite genre”
5. A grad student must get as much out of their education as possible
4. A grad student must make connections with their faculty and peers
3. A grad student must not overwork themself, enjoy “some” leisure
2. A grad student must be curious and question why
1. A grad student must define what success means to them. “Does it mean having an opportunity to get your dream job? By setting goals and then identifying the steps required to meet those goals, you are adding structure to what seems like a very long and sometimes vague process”