2009 May 11 — HighTechDad HighTechDad

My friend, Brian Solis, pointed me to the “Society for Geek Advancement” today, something which rings true to many of my thoughts, feelings and beliefs. Being a “geek” now is much different than when I was younger. Years ago, having a “geek” badge was something that was almost shameful, and people were ostracized because of it. Now, all of us “geeks” wear this badge not as a scarlet letter, but as a symbol of forward thinking, living in the now and help shape the future in the process.

The Society for Geek Advancement is about the need for people to actually embrace their inner and outer “geekdom” and to truly enjoy this process. To quote “As individuals who love learning, innovating and believe in possibility as well as change, the second step of responsibility is to ‘be the geek that keeps on giving’.”

This quote from their site really sums it all up:

“I AM A GEEK”, like all geeky side projects, started out as a tongue and cheek video we spent way too much time on and were going to simply throw out to the wild wild interwebs. But as more people came on board, the question of using “social media for social good” seemed to become more relevant. With Twitter and other social networking sites like Facebook blowing up by the second, it’s not only possible to get noticed and create “social capital”, but to use that for a greater good. Individuals now have the opportunity to be heard and bring awareness and attention to causes like they never had before. We saw this new wave of social philanthropy come to life recently with the global Twestival raising $250,000 worldwide for Charity:Water.

When I set out to create my own Geek presence (the end result being this blog), it was done with a bit of trepidation. I was afraid that no one would care or even listen. But, creating it was truly who I am. I am able to write, analyze and talk about things that I really enjoy. Blogging and Social Media have helped draw out the Geek within us all, and it does not necessarily have to be related to technology. A person can be a geek with whatever passion they have inside. For me, that passion is about gadgets, software, hardware, and technology.

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A few weeks ago, I offered to help our Human Resources department create a “Social Media Policy” for my company. While my company didn’t want to impose draconian restrictions on Social Media, HR felt that some rules did have to be created for the good of both the employer and employee.

Our head of HR and I spent some time reviewing some other policies as well as discussing the types of things that we wanted to include and how we wanted to present it. We decided that it was important to have guidelines that were clear, yet we didn’t want them to simply say what employees couldn’t do. With a variety of examples in mind, I set out to write something that would be helpful, informative, and clear, yet different and educational in some way.

Shown below is the final version of the policy I came up with (with approval from HR). Note, the numbers in brackets are the actual character count as I’m considering publishing this on Twitter.

In the spirit of Social Media, specifically Twitter, each sentence or paragraph of these guidelines will be 140 characters or less. [132]

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