News Volume I Issue 3
 
Living in Digital Times
 
Intergeneration Workplaces, 21st Century Workforce, and the Industry Response to Facebook.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Don’t make yourself a stranger.  Living in Digital Times is gearing up for CES Asia and CES Las Vegas, but we’re not twiddling our thumbs until then. Send news and thoughts to info@livingindigitaltimes.com. We’ll be updating our readers weekly. Forward this to friends and colleagues who can sign up here to receive future editions.
 
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Staying Old in a Young Person’s Business
 
I'll be heading off again to Collision in New Orleans later this month to check out some of the young startups, new industries, and future thoughts. This time I’ll be accompanied by MSNBC’s Your Business. We’ll be on the lookout for the “older and wiser” industry folks like Stephen Wolfram, John Chambers, Tim Draper, and other senior statespeople of the tech industry, to get their tips on how they keep fresh and innovative in a world of youth-driven ideas. If you’re 50+, heading to Collision, and think you’ve got the Ponce de Leon spirit, we want to hear from you. Read Robin’s musings on why you should refrain from overdoing the “old war stories” thing and other intergenerational tips. And oh, by the way, Read More is in their forties, making Mark Zuckerberg, Jerry Yang (Yahoo!), Sergey Brin, and Larry Page the anomalies.
 
 
 
"Nostalgia may be the most tempting and deceptive form of opposition to change.” — Gloria Steinem
 
 
 
 
 
CTA launches 21st Century Workforce Council
 
Our partners at CTA understand that to grow the economy, you’ve got to have skilled workers. Technology companies are looking for talented employees with tech backgrounds, degrees, credentials, and certifications—but many can't find enough workers with the right skills. To that end, CTA announced the creation of a 21st Century Workforce Council, designed to close the U.S. skills gap by seeking policies that prepare American workers to secure and succeed in lucrative, enriching careers. Find out more about the magnitude of the problem and how to get involved at CTA.tech. As robots, AI, and the Internet of Things step into the limelight, the future of work is going to be one of the most discussed topics of the year. I’ll be attending this program put on by MIT as my next foray.
 
 
 
 
Recommended Stuff
 
Websites: Can’t remember where you vacationed a few years ago? Google can. It’ll create a maps of where in the world you’ve been. Thanks Recommendo for the tip. I feel like Carmen Sandiego.
 
 
 
Timely Movies That Taught Us to Fake It
 
Fake news is not new. We binged Network and Wag the Dog—two uncannily smart harbingers of the fine media mess we’ve got ourselves into. Network (1970s) is about about a fictional television network struggling to overcome poor ratings. Ultimately, the anchor kills himself on live TV proving ratings can skyrocket.

Even more prescient is Wag the Dog (1990s). When the President running for re-election finds a sex scandal haunting him, his press team hires Robert De Niro to stage a fake war (against randomly chosen Albania) to deflect attention from the scandal. Dustin Hoffman plays the movie mogul who’s legacy rests on making a fake war seem real.
 
 
 
 
Attention Grabbers
 
Talking about mind control, an ex-Goggle ethicist lets us in on a big secret. Every website is competing for our limited attention. This TED Talk, though not brand new, is worth listening to, just to count how many traps set by attention-grabbing Internet companies we fall for every day. Make a mental picture of this: There are engineers on the other side of the screen, watching you and doing just about anything possible to get your attention..
 
 
 
Tech Companies Respond to Facebook Scrutiny
 
“Change in privacy settings” notices flooded my inbox this week. Partially a CYA response to the Facebook imbroglio and partially a reaction to the European GDPR’s (General Data Protection Regulation) increased privacy settings, any website worth their weight has updated old policies, it seems.

Chances are that even if you’re a plumber with a website, you got an inscrutable message from Google Analytics this month reminding you to be mindful of the new European Privacy Settings, the GDPR. It’s worth reading TechTarget’s summary of how to cope with the new world of data privacy (wish it came with a shrink). Verizon and The Guardian both notified me of their privacy changes. So did EventBrite, AirBnB, SurveyMonkey, Zillow, and Venmo to name a few. And in response to a different problem, sex trafficking, Microsoft has banned offensive language on Xbox, Skype, and other services. Sadly, I haven’t made the time to read through many of them yet, but don’t follow my example. Worst policy change from my POV? Hootsuite, which I use often, no longer lets me post to multiple Twitter sites at once. (Just in case I’m a robot.)
 
 
 
Contact Us
 
Robin Raskin
201-564-7900
robin@robinraskin.com
 
 
 
 
About Us
 
Living in Digital Times produces a diverse range of events, conferences and exhibits which bring together the most knowledgeable leaders and the latest innovations at the intersection of technology and ever-changing lifestyles.