Dear NZTA, I Just Want A Reprint! When Bureaucracy Goes Too Far.

As some of you know, I had my wallet, phone, handbag etc stolen during the weekend. So today I started the endless task of requesting replacements for the myriad of cards which are now undoubtedly lining the bottom of a rubbish bin somewhere.

Replacements for bank debit, credit and loyalty cards - not a problem. AA membership - one easy phone call. NZ Drivers License  just pop in to the NZTA agent to get a new one. Oh and just bring along your birth certificate or passport and proof of address. And $38.20.

Hang on - WHAT????

Yes, apparently further ID is required to get a replacement drivers license. Why? 'Legislative requirements' I was informed by the NZTA call centre.

So let me get this straight. NZTA have a digital photo of me. Which they took. They have a digital image of my signature. Which I supplied when I was issued the drivers license. But to get what is essentially a reprint of an existing drivers license - and lets be clear about this, I'm not applying for a new license, I just want a copy reproduced from the existing records - I need to rock up with a birth certificate or passport??? And since I just had my handbag snatched I'm really not that keen to walk around with the last bit of ID I currently own, just to get a reprint of something already on file.

Come on NZTA, don't treat us like criminals.

Surely I can front up to the agent, and the digital photo you already have can be compared to the living breathing version of me standing in front of you? I can reproduce my signature at will - as many times as you like for comparison to the one you already have in your files.  How will a birth certificate or a passport give you any more proof of identity than comparing the living version of me to what you already have? How would anyone else be able to be issued with my replacement drivers license if they don't look like me and have my signature?

This is an example of bureaucracy gone too far.

NZTA - you can do better. Lead by example and apply some common sense to your policies.
 

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Could You Handle Being Disconnected And With No Identity?

Over the weekend I had the misfortune of having my car broken into, drivers window completely smashed and my handbag and 2 phones stolen. All this in broad daylight (and with lots of people around) when I was just metres away flying kites with my kids.

Of course I am thankful that the car wasn't stolen as well, and that no-one was hurt .... but HELL its a major hassle to have your wallet, Blackberry, watch and the entire mystery contents of your handbag just vanish within seconds.

Being someone who is pretty much constantly connected to social networks, email and txt its a very odd feeling not having your phone within handy reach. Its even odder to realise that you have no way of accessing any funds (cash or credit) - and no ID to show to get access to money. Your money.

I had no way of doing the basics - the car needed petrol, but how do you fill up without cash or cards? How far would the petrol in the tank last? And if it ran out of petrol, how would I call anyone anyway?

I had no drivers window, so locking the car seemed a futile exercise (but I still did it) and just hoped like hell that the car would still be there when I returned.

Even on my trip to visit the bank for a replacement my card, I realised that I couldn't park in a carpark building just in case I wasn't able to be issued a debit card - and then be unable to pay for my parking.

Luckily for me I was able to rock on up to my bank on a Sunday with no ID whatsoever and had a new debit card issued on the spot after answering a few security questions and demonstrating a flourishing signature.

Other things were strange though. What was the time? Without a watch or my phone I found that when I wasn't at home, I was reliant on strangers in the street or random clocks dotted around to keep track of time. Its surprising how few clocks there are in public places. I even checked the till receipts once or twice for the timestamp.

How do I contact people when I don't have a phone handy? Use a phone box? A .... what???

I have come to appreciate that 'back in the day' before mobile phones and 7 day shopping we had to be quite organised and plan our days ahead of time without allowing for any flexibilty. You can't call to say you are running late, or txt a friend and arrange a place to meet while you are out. No siree, there is none of that spontaneity or easy and instant access to friends and family. You need to plan, plan, plan. And stick to it. There also feels like there is a lot of wasted time in your day. Standing in the queue for the till, you can't do much other than, well, stand. There's no tweeting, Facebooking, txting or just plain old phoning. You just stand. And wait.

But really - is that such a bad thing? Some people say that we are too connected, too accessible.

And after a day in isolation, I say that having the option would be nice.  

     

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Tweets & Pics from #finxsm Finextra Social Media Day (NYC, 18 May 2011)

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#iStrategy Conference Melbourne

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Where Is The Social Media Mute Button?

Photo: http://rayhigdon.com/what-numis-network-reps-dont-want-you-to-ask/

Sometimes you just want to pick up the social media remote and press the mute button so that you can filter out some of the posts or tweets littering your feed. Maybe you are totally over hearing about Double Down burgers. Or maybe your feed is full of tweets or posts about an event thats running or a rugger game thats playing. Or perhaps your fav TV show is screening and you don't want a spoiler on it yet. Or you've just had an argument with someone and you just want to filter them out of your life for a while.

On Facebook its easy. On any post, just click the x on the right hand side and choose if you want to hide just that one post or all posts from that person. If you change your mind (and lets face, don't we all from time to time?) just go to the drop down settings beside Most Recent at the top of your feed, and the list of your hidden pages and friends are all shown there.

This means you don't have to unfriend your friend and then refriend them if you have a bit of tiff. In fact, they wont know at all that you've hidden them - perfect.

Likewise LinkedIn has a similar feature. Bless. Although you can only hide all updates from a connection, not a single update.

Over on Twitter though, things are not so easy. You can unfollow someone which will stop their tweets from appearing in your stream, however they can still mention you (but not DM you). They may also notice that you have unfollowed them, so be prepared for that conversation. Or you can block them but that may be too extreme. You also can't filter out a hashtag or tweets with specific words - so you are forced to endure it in exasperation or abandon Twitter completely for a while.

An alternative is to use the Global Filter setting in the Tweetdeck app (thank you to the person who told me about this - you know who you are). You can select words, hashtags, a source or a specific user. No more mentions, DMs, or tweets in your stream. In fact, its like they didn't exist - blissful silence.

And you can clear the filter when you want to.

So easy! Try it and enjoy the peace that it brings.

   

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My Review of Storify And How I Used It For The Royal Wedding

Last week Storify opened up for public beta. I had an account beforehand but had not really used it, so I was prompted by the public beta to give it a go -so (drum roll) here's my Royal Wedding Story. And now I've used it, I'm in luuurve!

What is Storify? Its a mashup tool that is 'a way to tell stories using social media such as Tweets, photos and videos. You search multiple social networks from one place, and then drag individual elements into your story. You can re-order the elements and also add text to give context to your readers.'


Perfect for journalism or content curation, its a great way to grab the best tweets, pics and videos from an event or topic before they are filed away in the archives of history somewhere. Also useful for case studies or for bloggers.


The drag and drop interface makes it super easy to select and format the snippets you want to grab. You can create a Storify account by using your Twitter login, and then whoopee you are away.


During the royal wedding the tweets on the hashtag #RW2011 were spinning down the screen like a poker machine. I had Tweetdeck, Twitter, YouTube and Twitpic all open. Using Storify I grabbed the tweets and pictures as I saw them, dragged them into a story and sorted them from there. You can also get Chrome extensions for Storify so you can tag content from within any Chrome tab and import into your selected Story (or create a new one).


You can also drag Facebook posts, Flickr photos, YouTube videos, Google searches, RSS feeds, Slideshare presentations and URLs. Adding your own text is easy, as is reordering the content, deleting or adding more later on as I did when the official portraits were released.

One nice feature is that the data is preserved in its original format so that readers can still interact with it eg reply, retweet or comment on the original element - unlike a screen grab which might have been used as an alternative. Here is the Storify demo which explains the features further.



There are a few features that would be useful - such as being able to search for @mentions in tweets,  or have the option for selecting images only in my timeline not just Twitter searches. It also doesn't offer easy embedding of the finished product into Blogger, but does for Tumblr, Posterous and WordPress. It also won't work in some older browsers 'from the last century' so download an update now if you are committing that sin!


Storify provides a Notify feature after publishing allowing you to notify the original authors via Twitter that you have used their content in your story. Its optional, and while there is debate about whether its spam or not, it also allows you to spread your story virally. 


My verdict is that Storify is a fabulously easy tool for blogging, journalism and recording events that happen in social media as the royal wedding did. Here's my final Story of the tweet, photo and video highlights from the day.


And while we are chatting about the royal wedding, wasn't it great to see the royal family embracing the use of social media just as a modern wedding should? We were able to see Clarence House chatting to Westminster Abbey via Twitter on the morning of the wedding, receive announcements on what the Queen was wearing at the same time as the media via the official blog, keep up to date with the events as they happened, even watch the official videos on the royal wedding channel just hours after the ceremony. And watching it live with all your friends on Twitter or Facebook made it very social and adds another a dimension to such a special occasion. 


All the best Will and Kate, thanks for sharing so much of your special day with us.


    

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