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This is a followup to No Acronym Thursday.

Today, struggling through my first Thursday sans acronyms, I’ve been thinking about communication. What does communication even mean? For our purposes, we’ll call communication a means of transmitting an idea from one party to another via a message.

1. Alice has an idea
2. Alice encodes her idea into a message. Spoken words, email, handwritten notes, skywriting, songs, shrugs, poems, and tweets are examples of forms that messages can take.
3. Alice transmits her message to Bob.
4. Bob receives Alice’s message.
5. Bob decodes Alice’s message.
6. Bob now shares Alice’s idea.

At their best, acronyms increase the efficiency of communication. They play a role in steps 2 and 5, encoding and decoding. Acronyms can help shorten messages so they may be transmitted more efficiently. Unfortunately they only work if Alice and Bob have sufficient common background and context.

If you truly believe that improved communication is an important ingredient in promoting harmony, understanding, peace, education, intelligence and love, which I do, give No-Acronym Thursday a try. It will make you more aware of what you’re saying and of what others around you are trying to say. Join me in this exercise in semiotics. Together we might make the world slightly better, and we’ll get to have fun trying.

Spread the word about spreading out words. #NoAcronymThursday

This idea is inspired by brother, Mikey. He’s a military man. Communication in his industry is replete with jargon and acronyms. Observe the acronym decompression sequence for the PAC-3 missile:

PAC-3
PATRIOT Advanced Capability 3
(Phased Array Tracking RADAR Intercept on Target) Advanced Capability 3
(Phased Array Tracking (RAdio Detection And Ranging) Intercept on Target) Advanced Capability 3

Sure, it’s easier to say PAC-3, but if both parties engaged in communication don’t know the full expansion of the acronym, meaning is lost. Antonym homonyms are another potential source for miscommunication. Does “IRA” mean Irish Republican Army, or Individual Retirement Account? Contextual cues are usually enough, but not always. ATM Machine? PIN Number? People wouldn’t be so sloppy and redundant if they thought about what those acronyms really mean.

What can we do about this potential for confusion and lost meaning? How can we safeguard true understanding and prevent incomplete transfer of information? No-Acronym Thursday.

One day per week, let’s abolish the use of acronyms. IMAP becomes Internet Message Access Protocol, NAT becomes Network Address Translation, LASER becomes Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. If we care enough about these ideas to canonize them into our language, let’s give them one day per week when they can be expressed in their full glory. One day per week, let’s allow these memes to spread their wings.

No Acronym Thursday is now company policy at Feedwire. We welcome participants in this movement at other Information Technology firms and in other industries. Healthcare, finance, sports, education, you’re all just as guilty as we are.

No Acronym Thursday Rules

1. For the entire day of Thursday, every week, every participant in your organization will eliminate acronyms from human-to-human communication, regardless of medium or mode of communication. This applies to both spoken and written communication.
2. Every infraction requires a $0.25 donation to your organization’s No-Acronym Thursday pool. This can be used to finance any group activity – a bar tab, cupcakes, bowling, etc.
3. If you’re up for it, try to record infractions per participant per Thursday and generate a graph over time. Post the graph in a public space. This isn’t required, but will be fun.
4. Exceptions are allowed when a machine is the final recipient of the message, i.e. typing “http://…” into a browser, or saying “H-T-T-P colon slash slash” over the phone to someone typing into a browser.
5. Exceptions are allowed in life-or-death cases. Hospitals, airports, police, military, etc. have established communication protocols that include the use of acronyms. We don’t want to disrupt communication when lives are at stake.

Spread the word about spreading out words. #NoAcronymThursday

At this very moment Feedwire is, for the first time ever, servicing three cities simultaneously. Zach is in Miami, building the data network for the Superbowl XLIV Halftime Show. Chris is in San Francisco, helping Moderati migrate email from in-house Exchange to hosted Exchange. I’m here in LA, handling the rest of our customers while Zach and Chris are away.

This never could have happened without the help and support of our customers, staff, and friends. Your loyalty and appreciation has been amazing over the years. You continue to hire us, you recommend us to your friends, and you invite us into your businesses, homes, and lives. Thank you so much.

Damien

Blackberry Desktop for Mac has been available for about a month now. RIM has already released their first patch and the product seems to be stable. It provides a much better syncing experience than previous Blackberry software for Mac. Unfortunately, its default initial sync settings put your data at risk.

During your first sync, you will see the following dialog box:

Chances are, you do not want to make the default choice, “Replace device data.” This choice will erase your Blackberry’s contacts and calendars and replace it with the contacts and calendars stored on your computer. Most of us add phone numbers to our phones constantly, and many of us use the phone’s calendar. Watch out for this potentially harmful default choice.

“Merge Data” is the choice most should make. This will combine the contacts, calendars, and tasks on your handheld and your computer.

Before you embark on a new syncing configuration, be sure to back up your handheld’s databases and your computer’s contacts, calendars, and tasks. If you need help doing this, feel free to reach out to us at Feedwire. In addition to wired sync, we can introduce you to wireless sync via Google or Blackberry Enterprise Server.

Are you a Mac user? Are you a Blackberry user? RIM has just decided that they don’t hate you anymore. They’ve announced BlackBerry Desktop for Mac, scheduled for release in September (hopefully they mean 2009.)

Third party syncing solutions have existed for quite some time for the mac, notably Pocket Mac (purchased by RIM) and The Missing Sync. Unfortunately they’ve behaved more like workarounds and hacks than solutions, causing almost as many problems as they solved. Here’s RIM’s official feature list:

• Sync your iTunes® playlists, calendars, contacts, notes and tasks
• Add/Remove applications
• Update your device when new software becomes available
• Backup and restore your device data with such features like automatically scheduled backups and optional encryption (security is #1 as always…)
• Manage multiple devices

I’m most looking forward to backing up and upgrading BlackBerry software without having to resort to using a PC. This software, if RIM delivers what they’ve promised will make our customers’ lives easier and enable us to work more quickly and efficiently for them. Combined with Apple’s Mac OS 10.6 native exchange support, life is about to get much easier for our Blackberry Enterprise customers too. Here’s to progress!

Click here to register yourself in our Friends of Feedwire customer appreciation program. It’s totally free, from us to you.

Want to know more?

Next month, we are launching Friends of Feedwire and you are invited to join. What will follow? Good stuff. Free stuff. Invitations, coupons, discounts, advice, updates, photos, lessons. You have to enroll if you want the goodies, so click the link above, sign up, sit back, and wait for the fun to start.

Wondering who we are?

Damien, Zach, Chris, Michael and our little dog Destro. Best computer nerds for hire this side of the Mississippi. Photo linked here to jog your memory.

I’ve noticed a growing sentiment among many IT professionals that their job is a thankless and stressful never-ending stream of problems.  I beg to differ…

01. I Get Paid to Be a Nerd

What beats being paid to do what you love?

02. Being a Hero

I used to dream of being a wizard/firefighter/superhero, but I’ve come to accept my own limitations.  Sometimes, just as I sit down, like magic, the problem disappears – I’m just that good.

03. The Babes

Every hot girl owns a computer.  Guess who gets to fix them?

04.  New & Exciting

The learning curve in the IT industry never plateaus.  Because the technology changes I have to learn each and everyday.  I read books, get new certifications, and keep up with tech blogs.

05. Business is Dependent on Technology

Computers are an integral part of virtually every business.  It satisfying to know that I’m repairing the world one computer at a time.

06. Being a Teacher

While not everyone wants to learn about computers, Feedwire has made it a priority to work transparently.  It’s important for me to know that a client has a basic understanding of the work that I’ve done.  The teacher learns through teaching, the student through listening, and both are more knowledgeable when it’s over.

07. The Clients

Not many people make it a habit of going to offices all over Los Angeles, but I’m one of the lucky ones.  Photographers, producers, directors, PAs, agents, set designers, writers, secretaries, executives, accountants, marketers, and the list goes on and on.  I meet new and incredible people wherever I work.  I care about the people I work for and I care about their businesses.  Each day I try to make their networks run a little smoother, and hopefully make their lives a little easier.

08. Problem Solving Satisfaction

The reason I love fixing computers is the same reason I love math.  After learning some basic tools, I’m presented with a complex problem and given a short time period to find a solution.  I enjoy it every step of the way: The learning, the work, and drinking beer to celebrate my success.

09. One hand washes the other

Cooperation benefits us all.  I’ve watched a few Italian mafia movies and while I don’t want my life to be a crime ridden murdering chaos, I do like the idea of asking one another for favors.  I come from a very close knit group of family and friends and it’s important to me to help the people that raised me and made the me person  I am today.

10. Free Food

Need I say more?

We bill by the hour. Sometimes we do not bill for all or part of our time spent working on a project or task. How do we decide? Mom.

If I would be embarrassed to explain a bill to my mom, I will not send it to my customer.

You’ve probably got unused electronics in your life. You’ve probably also got too much stuff in your life. Chances are that the trouble of selling your old electronics outweigh the possible profits, or you’re not sure about letting that hard drive out into the wild with your information still on it, or you’ve heard about heavy metals in electronics and you don’t want to release them into the environment. Enter California Recycles.

“California Recycles was formed to assist people, non-profits, corporations and municipalities recycle their electronics with ease. They provide convenient, affordable and simple solutions that make it easy to recycle all electronics; de-clutter your environment and prevent the harmful elements contained in electronic waste from contaminating our environment.” Bravo, California Recycles. They make it easier for business and individuals to recover wasted office space and improve our relationship with the environment at the same time.

If you’ve got electronic equipment that you’d like out of your life, Feedwire is happy to help you sort and identify which equipment is recycle-ready, and to verify that none of your business or company information will get into the wrong hands. We can even transport small equipment to the recycling center for you.

California Recycles is having a free equipment collecting event this week on Wednesday April 15 at Whole Foods Santa Monica from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM. They have several collection events like this every month at different locations throughout Los Angeles, so check their website for the schedule.

Thanks to Ona for inviting us to this event.