Digital Common Sense

Several people have asked just what it is that Sheryl and I at Stardust Global Ventures. Our lives have been so busy with multiple moves and projects in progress that we haven’t taken time to hone the description of our services until now. This is from Our Services page.

At Stardust Global Ventures, one of our primary goals is to help others. While we don’t engage in what’s commonly called personal coaching, we do offer personal coaching for your business with our unique involvement and ideas. Just as we reach for our stars and realize our dreams together, we can help you reach your dreams and succeed in new ways.

We offer a number of different consultative services to help you improve your business, increase your visibility, and reach for your personal dreams. Our clients range from entrepreneurial startups to Fortune 100 companies. Geography knows no boundaries, and our network of clients and resources spans the universe.

We are Hyperconnectivity Evangelists. We live it. We eat it. We breathe it. We are hyperconnected every day of our lives. For us hyperconnectivity means that we use tools - online tools, mobility tools, technology tools - to maintain and share a common space in our world. Just as we live together and share space in our home, we use tools to extend that sharing when we’re apart. When we’re together at home, we don’t talk constantly, but we do share the physical space. We simply use technology tools to carry that into all aspects of our life together. We believe that the technology and communications tools of today are changing how we interact as people and that what we call hyperconnectedness is becoming a way of life that will permeate society in the years ahead.

We are the First Couple of Technology. We are enthusiastic and animated evangelists for those people, products and services that support the coming changes associated with hyperconnectivity. If you share this vision of the future, and want to know how you can move into the future of hyperconnectivity, we are your solution team!

Embracing Social Media - If your company needs help in embracing the world of the web in new ways, from blogging to podcasts, video to webinars, presence and availability to simply joining the conversation, we provide coaching and guidance to help you step out of the old traditional business mode into the future, real-time interactive community. We deliver this through a series of consultative meetings or conference calls, providing ongoing strategic guidance and coaching as your efforts gain momentum.

Public Speaking - We offer a variety of speaking services. Whether it’s a keynote address for your sales team, panel moderation at a seminar or motivational sessions to energize your team, after all, we are a dynamic duo - the first couple of technology. There’s no other team that interacts with each other and our audience the way we do. We will help bring your team together in an enthusiastic and lively session. Fun is at the core of what we do.

Blogger & Media Relations - We are not a public relations company. if you’ve seen any of the media and blogger relations programs that are being used, and wondered how to reach out to implement or launch your own program, we can help. We’ve been active members of this media and blogging community for many years. Our connections and contacts are diverse and worldwide. We can collaborate with you and your PR team to raise your visbility.

Podcasting? Of course. Video? Why not? When it comes to using Internet media for content delivery, we’re your team!

Strategic Business & Technical Writing - We write in collaboration with our publisher, but we also engage in projects with our clients worldwide. Our writing ranges from bit-level technical details to strategic business visions and plans.

Please contact either of us at any time to learn more by emailing us at stardust@stardustglobalventures.com.

Filed by Ken at 4:53 pm under Tech in General, Technology, Unified Communications, VoIP/Unified Communications
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Earlier this morning Sheryl wrote …with my tail between my legs. If you haven’t read it yet, you really should go do so now. Go ahead and do so now. It’s ok. Clicking the link will open a new window and you can come back here afterwards. Go.

A long time ago, in a very tongue-in-cheek post, I used this cartoon. it had circulated the web a number of times.

It was a time when talk of women in technology was the high-toned meme of the day and I was one of those men who deemed myself enlightened. I wasn’t part of the good old boys network. I’d never do such a thing.

Bunk and poppycock. Now, a few years later, I see myself as much a part of that as ever, with only a renewed awareness that I don’t listen well and I talk over people. And in the technology sector, we men seem to almost all do that to a large…to a huge extent. Yes, my good friends and colleagues across the industry, this means you too. (Quit shrugging and get out of denial. I do mean you. You’re a male like me and we all do it still.)

Sheryl and I have an intensely personal relationship. How could we not? We live together and plan on marrying. We spend all of our days and nights together. We are intermingled in a special and magical way I could never share with another.

It’s through that personal bond between us that I’ve recently been smacked with clue-by-four myself. I’ve realized just how badly I listen. I too easily pretend to listen but don’t hear. That’s caused some rough moments at times. It’s unfair. Unjust. It’s simply wrong.

In our heads we openly acknowledge that everyone has knowledge, opinion and value to bring to the conversation. But in our circles of technology, we too easily and too often shut outsiders out. It’s been hard for me at many times to see Sheryl as any kind of an outsider, yet this morning, I too was on that call and saw what she saw.

She made valuable comments that were totally ignored. I made minor comments, and they were immediately echoed and acknowledged. Why? Testicles and testosterone can’t be the only reason.

It’s a societal issue that has long been of interest to me, yet something I’ve let slip down the attention chain to being overlooked. Sheryl’s post was a bit of a wakeup call for me, and a reminder that it’s something she and I must focus our efforts on as Stardust Global Ventures really engages in some important consulting work projects. It must be part of our essence as a team.

Make no mistake, we are a team of equals. If I take over conversation as a bucketmouth, I expect you, readers, friends, colleagues and all, to take me to task and be sure to listen to Sheryl closely. She brings incredible value to our efforts in ways I could never find without her.

Today, I’m not proud to be a white male. Not at all. Today that demographic group took a hard knock as we showed just how deeply ingrained our heritage of misogyny and egocentricity is. I’m focusing on improving that. I’m going to ask Sheryl to slap me in the head when I slip. Who’s going to slap you in the head? Don’t let it be a guy. That would simply carry our shameful behavior on into the future.

Technorati Tags: men, women, realtionships, women in technology, misogyny, discrimination, glass ceiling, clue-by-four

Filed by Ken at 2:17 pm under General, Tech in General, Technology
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