Civic Diary 4/15/2016

by

(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, and Steve’s Tumblr)

 

My latest voyages into being more civicly engaged continue. So as noted my latest venture in being a civic geek were following important organizations, trying to write my congressbeings regularly, and looking for opportunities to be more engaged. I also had focused on the importance of any organizing to promote civic behavior.

SO what’s my findings this week?

  • First, writing to my reps – specifically over the Panama Papers calling attention to tax shelters around the world. Though the (incomplete) Panama Papers didn’t implicate many big US names, it still calls attention to tax dodges, and I figured it’d be good to prod them to do the same.
  • I should probably follow up on NC and Missisippi’s idiot Bathroom Bills as well. As there’s talk that NC may have suddenly made itself ineligible for federal funding, it might help to push that.  Note – I wasn’t aware federal funds could be withheld under conditions like that, so I learned something.
  • Following all these organizations makes you feel less alone politically. That’s a great benefit – but I can see where people get into cultlike devotion even to good causes.  Just realizing someone thinks like you do is something.
  • Once you start following organizations that keep you politically informed and find ways to be active, they often refer to other organizations and so on. Politically active organizations network and refer to each other, so you’ll find new and interesting was to stay informed and get active.
  • On the subject of being civicly active, it only took a few weeks for me to realize if I followed every lead I’d never have time for anything. I’ve had this happen before, so be warned – diving into being civicly engaged may be overwhelming. Pace yourself.
  • Since I started doing Civic Geek, and more and more as I do this, I realize a lot of the world survives on diverse, networked groups. From charities to political groups, official organizations to unofficial networking, there’s a huge amount of people keeping things going. It’s kind of hopeful, to be honest.
  • I’ve also come to realize how many people think just commenting on things is “activism,” as if leaving a sentence of feedback actually does anything. I think “protest” of any kind has become enshrined as something that’s always good as opposed to its potential to be wrong, annoying, or terribly misspelled.
  • A lot of people don’t appreciate the value of voting locally. So do it, damn it.
  • I’ve noticed my civic posts get some attention on Tumblr. Thinking Tumblr may be an untapped source of networked political engagement, like Twitter.

– Steve

– Steve

Career Idea: Training, Certification, And Retention

by

(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com and Steve’s Tumblr)

In a recent discussion with some people on retaining and training workers, I noted a simple solution to getting people trained and getting them to stay.

“Why not support them in getting certifications?”

My logic is simple

  1. You need to train people.
  2. Training isn’t always fun.
  3. Certifications are seen as valuable to one’s career.
  4. Certifications often require training – and that’s probably more interesting than just some class.
  5. So a company that supports certifications gets people educated, and if those people aren’t big on training, they may like a certification better.
  6. People getting the certification feel valued (and trusted as certifications would make it easier to look for a job).
  7. People will feel confident because in case of a layoff or something they’re still more valuable. It’s insurance.

Imagine a workforce that knows it’s going to get valuable training and certifications? That they’ll have that extra information on their resume or in their job review? Even if a new job may be tempting, why leave a place that recognizes you and helps you improve?

(Besides, the longer you’re there the more loyal you may be.)

I had two companies support me in certifications, and it certainly affected my attitudes towards them – in a postiive way. Someone shelled out the money to get me certified, and both allowed me to get trained on their own time. It’s hard to turn that down, and I stuck with them both untilthe bitter end.

So consider that next time you’re trying to figure out how to get better employee retention, or get people trained, or even boost morale. Guaranteed certifications may be something to ty.

Though I’m still getting my acquaintances to try it out at least they’re listening . . . though maybe you’ll have more luck.

– Steve

No Man’s Sky – What’s Next?

by

(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, www.SeventhSanctum.com, and Steve’s Tumblr)

As noted due to my interest with No Man’s Sky I’m blogging about it as it fits my interests in computers, media, and of course procedural generation!

I’m looking forward to No Man’s Sky. I expect it to be a hit. I expect it to be huge. I’ve also wondered that after that “huge hitness” what’s next for i?

This is worth asking because if NMS is a hit, what happens afterwards may be a model for other, similar properties. NMS’ broad scope and procedural content make it stand out – but as there’s many procedural games with broad scope out there and/or coming.

Or in short, I assume what happens to NMS may provide a template for future games and concurrent ones.  I want to try and guess now.

Here’s a few things I see:

* GO LONG TERM: It sounds like NMS is going to be around for awhile, and with a galaxy to explore there’s certainly many places to go. We’ve seen long-term games with broad content have endurance (Minecraft, Terraria) and others with similar ambitions (Starbound). NMS is something I can see people playing obsessively, though . . .
* NEEDS MORE: Even hough I’m jazzed for it, I’m not sure the current content set would keep me playing regularly beyond 3-6 months. I think NMS will need to add more content and features over time to maintain interest, else it’ll be for dedicated explorers (which may be the goal).  Dedicated explorers would probably play this for 1-3 years.
* MAY ENTER PUBLIC CONSCIOUSNESS: NMS has been on Colbert, been in the news, it’s got the kind of buzz that could make it become “A thing” like Minecraft – something everyone hears about and many try. If successful, it will inspire others to try the same thing (much as Minecraft did), and may give it a longer life.  That will also inspire imitators (I imagine at some point procedural games will become comparatively common).  That gives it more life.
* WILL LIKELY GO TO ALL PLATFORMS: If NMS is the big hit that I suspect it is, I think there will be an obvious effort to get it to other platforms (I’m at least sure Microsoft will want it on X-Box, but I think the X_box will become a sealed PC next iteration so it might not be an issue). There’s no reason not to extend it, and I imagine there’s demand.  (The fact Starbound is on X-Box intrigues me)
* HOW FAR CAN IT GO? The limit of NMS is that its own limits work against it. Hard/impossible to find people. No/little building or influence. As big a booster as I am I’m not sure how far NMS will go before it seems that there’s not as much interest. People do like interaction and exploring and pimping out equipment isn’t like building castles.  I also wonder how much they can add on to a game with so much procedurally balanced content.

My prediction on NMS is that it’s got up to 5 years of life in it, but I can’t see it bearing large expansions.

However, an interesting question is how it could not be expanded on, but retrofitted.  With all that code and all that work, it might be better if Hello Games focused on No Man’s Sky II and made it truly long-term.

– Steve