Several weeks ago I ran a quick poll on The Hot Iron asking people if they have a mentor or not. I tried to keep it to a simple “yes” or “no” but the wiseguy in me drove the 3rd question of “what is a mentor” but in hindsight, it may not be that crazy of a question.

This post and survey initiated a lot of dialogue in the form of both blog and Facebook comments and some direct questions from people. It got people thinking. As well these folks asked me why I was posing this question.

My reason was a simple one - I do not have a mentor.

My Definition of a Mentor

Before I go into the “problem” I thought I would define it first. My general definition of a mentor is a senior, non-compensated, action-oriented individual who works to ensure your career thrives! This is someone who does not have a financial stake in your success, rather a personal and emotional one. No goods and services outside of a cocktail or meal are ever exchanged. They are not there to tell you what to do, but to provide wisdom and guidance for you to use in your decision-making.

Now For The Analysis

I cannot pinpoint why exactly I do not have a mentor. I am certainly not alone in the world, as I have a great network of friends, colleagues, partners and clients with whom I collaborate and seek advice from regularly. But this network is more of a peer group. The fact I come from the technology field may attribute to it, as many techies prefer to be alone and many do not seek out anyone, with the exception if they need help troubleshooting their code. My entrepreneurial timeline is going on 5 years, so maybe this is too short?

Over the years I have worked for some good managers that I learn much from. When I worked for a large consulting firm I had several “staff managers” who were supposed to oversee your career growth within the firm. Some were decent, and some sucked and I got nothing from them at all. In the end, the advancement of the firm came first, as the one time I sought my staff manager to get me out of COBOL and into the Web, they didn’t even pretend to make an effort to help.

On the flipside, I have been told by people I have been a mentor to them. Whether it was people on my team, peers within a company or interns, I was told I provided good advice and support above and beyond whatever formal working role there was. I have enjoyed this role and have accepted any mentoring or advice requests from people over the years. I also serve on the Board of Advisors for 2 firms.

So What To Do About It

In life you can’t go back and change things. Even if you could, my guess it you would probably make pretty much the same decision. Where I can’t go back and change whatever I did or did not to do, I can only go forward and effect change.

But how?

Thus I am writing this post. Just today I read a great article on mentoring by Jason Jacobsohn , so I am inspired to engage in this process. I welcome any insight and advice from those who have sought out mentors on what worked and what didn’t work. Or if you have a mentor or are mentoring someone, how did it come about?

I’ll report progress - stay tuned.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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Computers are supposed to make our lives easier, right? Despite this, people still have a hard time using the hardware or software on it. What should be intuitive is not usually the case. This is the premise of Steve Krug’s book, Don’t Make Me Think, as he explores the world of Web design.

How many times have you been on a Web site and you are having a hard time finding information when you know you should be able to easily find it? I am not just talking about novice users here, as this happens to yours truly all the time, and I like to consider myself an experienced Web user! Somebody somewhere made some decision to layout and design a Web site a certain way, and thus your pain. In Don’t Make Me Think, common-sense, straightforward information is presented to the reader, who should be everyone from a Web designer to Web developer to Web site owner.

Needless to say, I had many takeaways from this book, all of which are of equal weight as I believe in what this book talks about quite a bit! Here are a few of them:

Creative Doesn’t Mean Different – Many times I see a Web site or hear from someone who created one that is virtually impossible to use, and it is deemed to be “highly creative.” Where there is more than likely some creative minds behind it, in the end a Web site needs to be usable, and if it is not, then it is merely something nice to look at, but not touch. A Web site can still be creative yet intuitive, and great Web designers know how to do that.

A Redesign of a Web Site Should Be Thorough – Many times when Web sites are redesigned, it is merely a fresh coat of paint on an old home (page). If that is the case, then the design can be hampered by old code behind the scenes, which can hamper its usability as well as its growth. When approaching a Web site redesign, be as comprehensive as possible, including all elements, to prevent the need for more work soon after it is completed.

There Is No Such Things As A Typical User – When we at Dunkirk Systems, LLC work with clients on a Web site, we seek to identify potential users of the Web site. These users are identified by their role or title – media, consumers, students, etc. – and not by their technical ability. In the past, there was always a desire to identify the “typical user” and this meant more about their ability, which related to the complexity of the Web site. Krug backups the notion that there is no such typical user, and I concur from my own personal experience.

Testing a Web Site is Not Just for Experts – Where quality assurance (QA) and usability experts are vital to many Web sites and applications, if your budget does not allow for such experts, you can still do effective testing.

I enjoyed reading Don’t Make Me Think, and I highly recommend it to anybody involved in the creation or maintenance of Web sites, as well as anyone who owns one or who wants to. It is written in a no-nonsense yet lighthearted style that is suitable for the most technical and non-technical people.

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All good things come to an end, and so does the use of my Palm Treo 680 unlocked device. Since making the switch to Nokia about a year ago, I have decided to put the Treo 680 up for sale on eBay, along with a slew of accessories, as you can see below.

Along with the device itself, which is in good order but has some wear, there are a large number of cables and chargers, plus a spare battery. If you’re looking for an unlocked device, this could be yours.

The auction closes next Monday and the bidding begins at a penny!

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There comes a time when you introduce something remarkable in to your business or life that you almost don’t realize it is even there. For me, that is SpinVox, a service which transcribes voicemail to text.

I started using SpinVox in January, and here it August. I was setup with an account by James Whatley, SpinVox’s Head of Digital & Social Media Strategy, whom I met at the Nokia OpenLab last year in Helsinki. The service is tied to my mobile voicemail, and as it worked so well I added it to my Vonage account, which they refer to it as Visual Voicemail. Since then it has been such a vital tool for me, I almost forgot life without it.

How It Works

SpinVox replaces your mobile carrier’s own voicemail system, in my case T-Mobile. This is achieved by forwarding all calls that do not answer to numbers tied to the SpinVox system. When someone leaves me a voicemail, I get both an email and a SMS (or text message as we call it in the US). Each has the transcribed text of the voicemail plus numbers to call to listen and reply to the message. For my Vonage line, it was simply adding the service, and the regular emails and SMSs I received now have the text of the message.

So how well does it transcribe it? Not bad! Common words come through without missing a beat. Names and not-so common words come through pretty well, and if it cannot translate it exactly, it does it phonetically and even puts a question mark next to it. For example, my last name, Maddaloni, is usually spelled out phonetically. All in all I rarely have to listen to a message to understand it, but if I want to I can. The delivery of messages is not instantaneously as compared to traditional voicemail, but it usually arrives within a few minutes.

Why It Works

You may be asking, as I did originally, so what? There are 2 benefits to SpinVox that made me a true believer. The first is the ability to read a voicemail message when you don’t have the ability to listen to it. In the middle of a meeting, calls get translated to text and you can get the gist of it without putting the device to your ear. Many times a return email or SMS to the caller will do the trick. A second and equal benefit is the ability to file and store transcriptions of voicemails. This is huge, as many times project details are communicated by voicemail, and now you have a written record that can be stored in email archives or in other digital files.

Another feature of SpinVox is Memo. This is where you can speak a message to yourself and it is delivered in an email message to you. I find myself using this when I am out for a walk and ideas come to me, and I don’t have – or want – paper and a pen.

Reading voicemail is a great convenience in today’s multitasking world, and SpinVox makes it easy. It is available through several carriers, such as Vonage, Skype and Verizon in the US and Rogers in Canada. If you are not on these carriers you can get it as an add-on through uReach. On the uReach or SpinVox sites you can try it for yourself to see how well it translates your voice, which for me at least was an experience the first time I saw it.

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Word came this week that tr.im a free URL shortening service, is shutting down. When I saw that I started writing a blog post in my head about such a shutdown of such a service. But by the time I got to my computer to write it, the word had changed, that tr.im was to resume service. You can read more about it on their Web site and blog. If you do read their messages, they say that people won’t pay for such a service, and now that they are not the preferred short URL service built into Twitter, they did not see a point in continuing.

My response to this is yes and no. Do people want to pay for something they get for free? It depends. People pay for water and music all the time now, and the reason is anything from the perceived value-add to simply controlling your own destiny. There are some people that won’t pay for anything, and with the plethora of free short URL services out there, why pay one when you can get the same for free elsewhere?

Short URLs live outside of Twitter and social media services. I frequently get emails with shortened URLs. These links live on longer and are more useful due to being carried in a different medium. As the life of a tweet or status update, though it technically can be forever, is short and links are more useful when in an email or posted on a Web site or in an email.

I see this as an evolving service. Initially, services like Dunkirk Systems, LLC’s own psURL, a private, customizable short URL service, will have a small market for either individuals or more than likely larger companies to manage content and information. Going forward, short URL functionality will be built into most open-source and commercial publishing software and content management services. The demand will remain, but the way it is executed will change.

So what do you think? Will there continue to be demand for short URLs and services converting them?

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