In mid-April, this blog was “defaced” by someone who replaced my home page with some nonsensical statement that seemingly referred to terrorists in Algeria.

When I first saw that my blog was defaced, my initial reaction was: “Wow.  My blog must really be important because it was selected by a political group that must have feared the power of what I wrote.”  After a brief Google search, I discovered that the culprit had actually defaced about 486 other blogs in what appeared to be more of a prank than a political statement.  I’ve kept a Google alert on the culprit, and he continues to do the same thing, still in an apparently random way.

It took a few days until we figured out how to retrieve control of my blog.  The actual damage net net was really zero.  I did lose momentum in writing here, but I will get that back.  But I learned a major lesson.

I was hit with a total surprise.  I did not know that such a thing as a web site “defacing” even existed.  So I did not know how to respond when I saw it.  I did know one thing immediately:  I felt violated.  I’ve done some Google searches and discovered that is exactly the same feeling shared by all others who have commented about having their sites defaced: violated.  It’s a terrible feeling.  While I will not remember the message of the violator, I will remember my reaction.

The feeling of violation assumes as a premise that the feeling is very intense and personal.  It was my blog that was attacked, not me, but my reaction was still very personal.  That means that my blog is a part of me and all others who also shared the feeling of violation.  Our blogs are often a virtual part of us.  Millions of people are writing blogs and living at least to some degree in an online life.  Millions more are posting comments online in the form of restaurant reviews or comments about what flowers grow well in the shade or the significance of a news story, and they are asserting an identity, to a greater or lesser degree, as they do.  People are expanding their personalities in totally unprecedented ways.  I always knew that intellectually, but I did not fully appreciate it on a gut level until my blog was defaced.

I think the consequences will be very significant, but I do not know what they will be and when and how they may be realized.  But I do have some thoughts on how this will impact communications and communities, and I expect to be writing about that some more in the future.

Recent news includes statistics that only emphasize the phenomenon I’ve written about before:  Read more…

As readers of my blog DeathOfTime.com may know, I became extremely frustrated over the past few years as I met with experts in new and social media.  The DeathOfTime.com may know, I became extremely frustrated over the past few years as I met with experts in new and social media.  The communications firm I co-founded has enjoyed substantial success since we were founded in August 2000, and that has led to my ability to meet with several people who are well-known and considered experts in new and social media. Read more…

I’m writing this article while watching the President give his “major speech” at Georgetown University on what is needed to do to create a new foundation for the economy.  He has re articulated how busy he and his administration have been and a number of core beliefs they are bringing to their efforts.  Read more…

I have been concerned for quite some time that the tone of headlines around the world could change from a focus on economic issues to political turmoil.  I originally wrote about this in early March as political protests started to gain a critical mass of sorts: see “There Is About To Be A Very Significant Change In Headlines Around The World.” Read more…

Several days ago, I wrote about what I thought General Motors (GM) could learn from NVR (NVR) about going Chapter 11.  The focus of that discussion was how the company successfully communicated their message to their various stakeholders, and the key components that GM should emulate to make their own announcement successfully.  But GM can learn much more than that from the NVR Chapter 11.  Read more…

On January 26, 2009, Iceland’s government became the first in the world to step down due to the economic crisis.  Since then, three other governments have stepped down: Latvia (February 20), Czechoslovakia (March 23), and Hungary (March 27 – well, sort of: in the case of Hungary, the Prime Minister’s own party forced him to resign, hoping to keep their cabinet in place and simply replace the Prime Minister).  All of these political failures are direct casualties of citizens being upset with the handling of the economic crisis.  (The links will take you to news stories about each event). Read more…

I recommend a terrific article about the Department of Defense budget being proposed by Secretary Robert Gates with the strong support and influence of the White House. Read more…

One of the real beneficial experiences of my life was working closely with Dwight Schar, who is best know as Chairman and former/founding CEO of NVR, Inc. (NVR), one of the nation’s largest and the most profitable home building companies.  In the summer of 1986, Read more…

I’m getting inundated with emails that somehow get through our spam mail filters.  They basically all start out by telling me that in this economy I am certainly going to want to maximize this or minimize that and these guys really do that well, and click a link to find out more. Read more…