Culture

We are artists, gamers, thinkers and believers. We are more than just employees of Infuz, we are people… just like you. These posts are about who we are and how we live our lives as a group, as a community and as individuals.

Peter Dycus Joins Infuz as Director of Production

Last week brought another new face to the Infuz team. Peter Dycus joins us after nearly four years at Coolfire as our Director of Production. Between his time as Director of Interactive at Coolfire and a couple of Project Management and Account Service roles at Zipatoni, he’s worked with some major brands and just about everyone in town. Think that’s an exaggeration? Take a walk downtown with Peter during lunch time and marvel at his inability to take more than 3 steps without saying hello to someone that he’s worked with or worked for.

Peter’s pedigree comes with some strong convictions about how projects should be managed, and he hit the ground running. There’s a new energy in the office this week thanks to his leadership. We’re digging his fresh perspectives on old problems and how he’s challenging the ways “we’ve always done things.”

First Erica, now Peter, and we’re not done yet. We’re still on the lookout for fresh talent to join us.

Infuz Welcomes Erica Smith to the Team

Fact: There's at least one tiara on her desk at all times. There’s a new sound in our office this week and it’s not the sound of a tweeting bird, as we might have expected. It’s the sound of Erica Smith’s infectious laugh. Seriously. If you only know her online, and haven’t seen her at one of the many social meet-ups around town, you might not know how great her laugh is.

Erica has joined us after spending more than five years at the St. Louis Post Dispatch working for their design, multimedia and social media departments. She was instrumental in building STLToday.com’s social presence and with a personal STLi rank holding steady in the low 30s, she’s at the top of our office leaderboard.

We’re thrilled to have her on our side now, acting as our new “Curator in Chief”. What exactly does that mean? Well…we can’t tell you that just yet. Rest assured that we’re keeping Erica plenty busy and putting all her social media and newsroom savvy to work. And if you ask her how her transition is going, don’t put too much stock in any complaints about her new commute. It may be nearly triple what it was when she worked at the Post, but she still has one of those enviable commutes downtown residents share.

Welcome, Erica. We can’t wait for all the great things we’ll do together.

A New Site + A New Outlook = A New Infuz

A New Site + A New Outlook = A New Infuz

Come mothers and fathers all over this land
And don’t criticize what you can’t understand
Your sons and your daughter are beyond your command
Your old role is rapidly aging
Please get out of the new one if you can’t lend a hand
For the times they are a changing

The line, it is drawn, the curse, it is cast
The slow one will later be fast
And the present now will soon be the past
The order is rapidly fading
The first one now will later be last
For the times, they are a changing

-Bob Dylan

Dylan said it best… and I bet you didn’t know he was talking about Infuz.

The winds of change are in the air today as we’re proud to announce the launch of a brand spankin’ new Infuz.com. This is no mere shiny new wallpaper mind you, we’ve changed our outlook, our approach and even our pants for this one. That’s right friends it’s a whole new Infuz.

We’ll have more updates in the coming days and weeks covering what we think, why we think it and who we are as people. For today take a walk around our new home and tell us what you think.

Confessions of a Siri Addict

I’ll admit it. When my desperately-needed new phone came with Siri, I didn’t see the point. It was fun to listen to her pronounce words “properly” that this city mangles to death. The parlor tricks were nice and discovering all those Easter Egg responses was fun. But on first blush, there didn’t seem to be anything particularly “essential” about her. To me, she was a lazy man’s solution. It’s not that hard to do things manually. Learn to type. Learn how to use the map. Her power was limited to a few Apple-specific apps, but I could see that in time, her influence would grow. Voice commanded software, while essential for some, was a perk for the rest that put Siri on my list of “Things Wrong With This World” and “How Technology Is Destroying Us.”

And then I found myself using her. To set a timer for my daughter to help her transition from one activity to the next. To tell my husband I was “On my way” quickly so I didn’t have to wait until I was out of the basement garage and half way there for him to receive the message. To get directions with a single verbal request instead of plucking away at the interface. Even to make to-do lists while i’m driving (don’t judge me until you try it).

And like any good addiction, i began to resent her hold on me without being able to let go of her. She fails me. Not all the time, just enough to frustrate me. Sometimes it’s connection issues, sometimes it’s translation issues, and sometimes she just can’t do what I’m asking because I haven’t asked in the right way. What’s most worrisome about this behavior is how much it upsets me. How can she very easily understand who I mean when I ask her to call my friend with a consonant-heavy last name that I’ve never been able to properly pronounce, but struggle to respond to a simple request like “where is the nearest Wendy’s?.” Two months ago, I didn’t see the point of her and suddenly having to manually set a timer seems archaic and why is she doing this to me?

Slowly but surely, Siri has wound her way into my life and I’m completely irrational about her shortcomings. Help?

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