A Blackberry can't be an Apple.

Perception is everything. Perception is a first impression, it's the car you buy, the shampoo you use, the clothes you wear, the puppy you choose from the litter. It guides us as individuals, corporations, consumers, and communicators. It determines how we react to someone or something and provides a foundation for drawing conclusions that are virtually unshakeable. Perception is 'the friend who comes to crash on your couch "for a few days" and never leaves' of the emotional world: once it's there, it's really hard to get rid of. Perception leads to choice. And in the corporate world this makes it either your greatest ally or your worst enemy. In a world where options are endless, so too are choices. We've all heard the standard explanation that choices are made based on how we want ourselves to be and what we want other people to think of us, thus confirming that we are what we want to be. Ergo, if a woman wants to feel rich, she buys a ridiculously expensive handbag (and let's be serious, by buy, I mean put on credit!) and people think she's rich. Men wear shirts that are too tight, so they can show their muscles and attract women and assert dominance over other men. A study in perception should truly be done in the defunct and yet still 905-infused "Club District" in Toronto. Taking people-watching to the next level!

Anyway, all that to say, what interests me most about perception form a corporate perspective is what do you do to change a negative perception? If you're lucky, you can anticipate the cause and nip it in the bud (see Tom Cruise, quick divorce settlement), but most of the time, the best intentions lead to a PR disaster (see Tom Cruise, couch-jumping). Aside from following the coverage of the TomKat Combat, which has been a fascinating and skilled example of PR and communications on both sides, I first got thinking about this when I was talking to my Dad about getting a new car. Without outlining all his extremely particular wishes, I'll just say that I suggested Audi as it best fit his bill. His reaction was fascinating, because he's weary. Despite all the consumer reports, reviews, design upgrades, changes in ownership and manufacturing, for my Dad, Audi will always be the car that was in the news in the 60s for its rotary engines randomly exploding. He just can't do it. Now, admittedly, my Dad is one tough customer, and clearly Audi has managed to overcome this perception in most people in the rest of the world, but the power of perception here is so evident. When my Dad hears Audi, his mind takes him directly to the engine troubles of the 60s. How do you convince someone to think about something in a totally different way when a perception has made it reflexive rather than contemplative?

To handle a negative perception, should corporations 'listen to their mother', and take responsibility for their mistakes? Own the negative perception and flip it back on itself? I think in the digital age, this becomes more and more the way to go, because that negative perception will live on in internet infamy for all time. That gaffe that happened years ago is still happening now. It's harder to leave the past behind when it's a constant in the present. So embrace it, use it to empower your brand, your business, earn the respect and eventually dollars of your clients and customers. Imagine if RIM started a whole ad campaign where it made fun of itself for bombing so huge in trying to BE Apple instead of pushing what made Blackberry special. Hell, use talking fruit. But admit what everyone already knows and apologize for the error - acknowledge it as such! And then get back to making a better blackberry and leave the apples alone. Ironically, RIM just needs to think different.

Blink, and...damn it, already missed it.

I think it's quite fitting that my first post in (yeesh, I can barely believe it) over two years was compelled into being by thoughts on the much buzzed about fantastical, fearsome, and forboding entity that is "change." The year has changed, cellphones have changed, reading has changed, my facebook page has changed, and yet much to the disappointment of technodoomsdayers, the world continues to go on.

I got thinking about this as I was surveying the job market as reference for what courses and skills I might need to take or develop in order to keep myself on the move career-wise (and God-willing, city-wise). Obviously, these focus almost entirely on maintaining, or in some cases, catching-up on, my digital literacy. What strikes me the most about this utterly expected finding is that less than three years ago, I was enrolled in an MA programme that taught me the ways of the digital world and introduced the most cutting-edge of concepts concerning the capabilities of technology for the future. And now, less than three years later, none of that is relevant.

Now, it is the future. Now, much like I remember that thrilling day in 1996 when I opened netscape navigator on my original iMac and experienced the internet for the first time, I now remember that day in class where I could not believe the newest capabilities of Web 2.0. Now, accustomed to the expected luxury of all these things, I ironically ask Siri why the internet on my blackberry is so crappy, become enraged by less-than-optimal internet service, and wonder sincerely how and why people continue to live without PVRs and highspeed. And yet now, I realize that despite being on top of all these trends in terms of being a user, and despite all my education, in the time I've spent getting to know blackberry, iphone, twitter, and Chrome, technology has already moved on. In fact, we are living in a world changed so quickly by it, few really have the chance to see it happening (except of course the Jobses of the world who kept the change coming and will thus be remembered for changing the course of human history - ya, no big deal).

So 2012 begins with me in a place where web word "search" is completely appropo. Search for new opportunities, seach for an escape from Capcity lock-up, and search for courses to keep myself current, because when it comes to being up-to-date, the user is just as important as the technology.