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His name is Steve. He’s retired now, but before spending mornings at the local coffee shop, he spent 40 years in sales, owned his own company and boasted a résumé of successes.

For a good 10 years now, I’ve enjoyed a morning cup of joe with Steve and a small group of loyal Manhattan Bagel regulars in my neighborhood. Sometimes it’s a quick buy and bye. Other times we sit and chat. We’ve sipped through elections, wars, simmered over political differences and added extra sweetener to sugarcoat a disappointing Philadelphia Eagles loss. We’ve come to value each other’s opinions even if like a steaming cup of coffee, our differences sometimes boil over.

So on this fall morning, I asked Steve to share his secret of sales success. Without hesitation, he answered “ask for the order” and then added “let me tell you a story.” [Read more…] about Let me tell you a story about Steve from the coffee shop

It was about 2:00 a.m. when I attempted to log into Facebook from the Shanghai airport. I was returning from leading a crisis communication training program for Chinese hospital executives and wanted to use the down time to check email and my social media sites. But as soon as I tried to access Facebook, my Internet access was cut off. Then it occurred to me. Facebook is blocked in China.

But would they block all online access, I wondered, or am I just being paranoid?

Only a few moments later that paranoia turned real when I was followed on board the plane by an armed Chinese police woman who called out my name and asked for my passport.

This could not be happening. I didn’t do anything wrong, did I? They wouldn’t really detain me for trying to access Facebook, would they? [Read more…] about A cautionary tale about Internet censorship abroad