Category: Uncategorized

Back in 2006, Greg Olsen wrote a post called “Going Bedouin” that made the internet rounds more than a few times.  It was a well thought-out and well-crafted piece that received the attention it deserved.  Flash forward to 2008, and now we see that Dell has taken the idea and run with it, by way of a new initiative called Digital Nomads.

From the Dell side, the main human face behind Digital Nomads is Bruce Eric Anderson (@bruceericatdell).  Anderson is a strong complement to both Richard Binhammer (@richardatdell) and Lionel Menchaca (@lionelatdell), who have, in my opinion, done a really solid job of putting a human face and human voice to Dell through their conversations on Twitter over the last year or so. 

The Digital Nomads effort is an interesting one, and is a step in the right direction.  Right now, the site is set up as a community where said nomads can interact with each other and learn more about the tips and tricks of the bedouin lifestyle.  It’s currently a little heavy on the Dell propaganda, but there are assurances that this will lessen over time.  When called on the carpet over the Dell-centricity of the site, Anderson replied:

“I take your comments as healthy dialogue on the whole concept of
what makes one a digital nomad. I absolutely consider myself a digital
nomad, even though today I don’t fly frequently across the country or
around the world. I’ve had more than my fill of traveling in the past
and now with a family at home am glad to be more office-bound but still
have the flexibility to do what I do from wherever. Perhaps you could
call me today more of a ‘corridor nomad’.

My role and presence on digitalnomads.com will become less over time
as more of you come on as guest bloggers, add to the whitepaper,
contribute thoughts and comments (the latter being a great point made
by @MktMan).

@LionelatDell and I, or any other Dell employee, are the only ones
who are paid to contribute to this site — though our intent is to make
this less about Dell and more about the concept of digital nomads.
Thanks for your comments.”

So far, the conversation on Twitter is trending in a positive direction as well.

Is Digital Nomads a success?  It’s too early to tell.  The site’s been up for only a week or so, and it’s still certainly got a few rough edges (for example, the “Crowdsource this Whitepaper” section of the site feels a bit half-baked). However, the initiative does seem to indicate an honest commitment on Dell’s part to not only try something new, but to do it in a way that brings together its customers and others outside the organization in order to achieve that goal.  From that aspect, they’re definitely on the right track.

Demian takes the idea and runs with it.

This week kicks off the annual meeting for ASAE & The Center for Association Leadership in San Diego.  ASAE is doing some really killer stuff in the collaboration / Web 2.0 space, including:

• Blogging at Acronym
• Associapedia
• A Flickr group

You can even follow along by tracking posts tagged with #ASAE on Twitter.

If you’re interested in understanding what folks on the front lines of bringing Web 2.0 into associations are doing, here are three people to start with, today:

Maddie Grant from Diary of a Reluctant Blogger

Jeff De Cagna from Principled Innovation

Jamie Notter from Get Me Jamie Notter!

(Other great association bloggers who should be on this list?  Please list them in the comments!)

Additionally, there are a few resources out there that can get you started, such as this Executive Briefing on Social Networking for Businesses and Associations, which has (wow!) been viewed almost 9,000 times.

You can get the presentation here, or download it as a free e-Book here.

Looking forward to seeing some great things out of San Diego this week.

Related:  The Top 10 Ways Businesses, Associations and Organizations can use Social Networking

There is great risk of shark-jumping on the whole “…are conversations” concept, but there just might be something here worth exploring.

I have been thinking a lot about how projects get done, the many ways to manage one like OKR vs KPIs, or agile vs lean, all the different ways to keep yourself on track and get things done. A “project” could be the act of software development, or a product launch, or an office move, or an org-wide deployment of Vista, or what have you. Ok, maybe not an org-wide deployment of Vista, but you get my drift. The context might also not just span a single project, but perhaps an entire portfolio of projects that are competing for an organization’s (or individual’s) scarce resources. And this could necessitate the use of a wide range of project management tools, similar to those that you can learn more about here.

Nevertheless, the tasks, and milestones, and artifacts are all part of the infrastructure, but can one posit that the thing that really matters (and is currently completely, 100% ephemeral) is the conversations and collaboration between the project team members and the project management team. But the one thing that struck me during a conversation I had recently…the whole buzz around Cluetrain’s first thesis,”markets are conversations,” is really, really relevant in this context. Because, when you get down to it, projects are conversations as well. Also, communication is the key part towards an efficient team, if you’re soon to be heading a project you might want to look at courses like this efficient communication program provided by USC or other institutions.

Perhaps the traditional project management trappings are really simply low-level artifacts and surrogates that management twiddles in order to try to get to some sort of measurement…but perhaps the real value is in the conversation.

I bounced this idea off Demian Entrekin (disclosure: Innotas, where Demian is CTO, is a Cerado customer), and he pointed me to a piece he’d written back in 2006(!) that touched on this as well. Demian:

“Is the WBS [Work Breakdown Structure, a tool that shows all the tasks related to a project – ed.] a decomposition tool for understanding the ideal structure for a project, or is it a communication vehicle for teams to work together toward common goals? Sure, it can be both, but the question should not be too quickly answered and dispensed with. If it becomes more of a communication tool, as I would argue it is, then how must its behavior change?” (emphasis added)

Here’s Demian’s more exhaustive thinking on the subject.

So, what do you think? Are projects where stuff gets done a collection of artifacts? Or, perhaps, instead, are they instead a collection of collaborative acts based in conversation, out of which artifacts are produced?

Man goes in the cage. Cage goes in the water. Shark’s in the water.

In Wired 16.03, Chris Anderson penned an insightful article entitled "Free! Why $0.00 is the Future of Business."  In it, Anderson outlined six different ways that things can be "free" yet still create a viable business model.

Download this slide from Slideshare.

These six kinds of free are:

Freemium – Offer a limited-functionality free version of a product to encourage trial, and have a purchasable premium version available for power users, a term coined by Fred Wilson

Advertising – Offer a free service to end users, and sell advertising to advertisers

Cross subsidies – Give the razor away free, and charge for the razor blades

Zero marginal cost – Products such as podcasts and digital music effectively incur a zero marginal cost to "ship" each unit

Labor exchange – Access to the information on a site is free as long as individuals contribute to the content of the site, like Yahoo Answers or Digg

Gift economy – Items are given away at zero cost, Freecycle is a good example

Related:  Doc Searls is putting together a panel on free at SXSW09 entitled "Rebuilding the World with Free Everything."  Check it out.

Data credit: Wired Magazine
Razor:  derek
Gift: grobleto

Short version:  I’ve proposed a panel for South by Southwest on the topic of how customers are creating new types of markets.  Panels are chosen in part by votes from YOU.  I’d love your vote.  Three steps to voting:

1. Sign in to the SXSW Panel Picker
2. Go to this link to select "Flashmarkets: From the Roman Agora to the Mobile Web" 
3. Click the stars

   to vote.

Thanks!

Only Slightly Longer Version:

South by Southwest (SXSW) is one of my two favorite conferences.  (This one is the other fave.)  Part of the reason that I really dig SXSW is the collaborative and participative nature of, well, every aspect of the event.

In particular, this is evidenced by how the event chooses its speakers, which is by way of a combination of the SXSW Advisory Board, SXSW Staff, and YOU!  See below for the graphic of how the percentages shake out.

The panel I’ve proposed to SXSW is focused on how markets are changing as vendors cede control to customers.  (That’s us.)  The full description is as follows:

"From the Greek Agora to the Dutch flower market at Aalsmeer to eBay and
the iTunes App Store, markets have always been a key element of social
civilization. But what are "markets" really, and how is technology
changing their complexion? From GPS and location-based services to
concepts such as VRM (Vendor Relationship Management), this session
will examine the seven types of markets that technology has enabled,
and how those markets are affecting our business relationships."

I’d like to request your assistance in helping this conversation get onto the agenda.  It will take less than one minute. (I promise.)

1. Sign in to the SXSW Panel Picker
2. Go to this link to select "Flashmarkets: From the Roman Agora to the Mobile Web" 
3. Click the stars

   to vote.

That’s it.

I really appreciate your help, and am looking forward to seeing you in Austin.

Just got off the phone with CRM übermensch Paul Greenberg, who is well on the mend after last week’s scary, scary incident. Isn’t it scary to think that someone can be hit by their own car? I’ve never heard of it happening until now, but it’s something that you see in movies all the time, and never do you believe that it could be happening to someone you have a working relationship with. It’s a good job that his neighbor found him when they did as it could’ve been a lot worse otherwise.

To be honest with you, I just can’t get over the fact that he could’ve died. And all because his car had hit him when he was on the floor. Thinking about it, and the car he has, he was lucky that he didn’t come away with life-threatening injuries. Though suffering from severe head trauma is bad enough, he could’ve suffered many broken bones too. But he didn’t. If this was the case, he would’ve been ready and waiting to try some of the many different products on sites like OrganicCBDNugs to help relieve the debilitating pain that he would have found himself in. CBD is known to aid with pain, and he would’ve done everything in his power to be as pain-free as possible.

With that being said, I think the strong painkillers he was on at the hospital probably did the trick. Thankfully, he is now in the process of recovery and he should be back soon. All is well and things are tracking by the numbers, so he’ll be back up and at ’em soon.

He’s currently working on the 4th Edition of CRM at the Speed of Light.  Here are a couple of excerpts:

• Chapter 1: The Customer Ecosystem
• Chapter 2: CRM 2.0
• Chapter 3: Definitions Galore
• Chapter 4: Customer Experience

You can also follow Paul on Twitter at @pgreenbe.

Hey Paulie…glad you’re feeling better.  You scared me, bud.

Sean looks for a little help from DNS Made Easy after he (admittedly) screwed up, and gets clubbed about the head and shoulders with one of the worst bits of customer (ahem) service I’ve heard of.  The note is from "Kate" at DNSMadeEasy to Sean.  An excerpt:

"Wow…. Spent hours trying to help you today. Offered you
a refund even though we have a zero refund policy and this is the
attitude you give me?!?!?!

> 1. an active email account was shut down without trying an alternative
> method of contact. you do have my physical address. for what reason, i’ve no
> idea.

Are you joking me? You expect us to send you personal letters by
mail? For an account of your size? Should we fly to your house also and
knock on your door? Should I call your whole family also and let them
know you are late paying your bill?
Please….  this obviously is not a business for you.

> 2. in this day and age, with moore’s law creating storage
> business models left and right, i’m shocked that you didn’t
> simply put a freeze on the account. my client called me today. if you simply
> froze the account, we would’ve been back in business this afternoon.

It was frozen for 4 days then removed. Not our fault that your
client noticed after it was removed. Not our fault if you give us your
free yahoo account to check your emails. Not our fault you do not check
your free email’s spam box.

Since you made a list for me, here is a list for you.

1. Don’t use your free yahoo email account for hobby / business. Did
   you tell your friend / client that is why you lost all of their email?
2. Learn to write down when your services expire. You are lucky we
   gave you over 2 weeks. Most providers shut you down much sooner.
3. Always pay your bills on time.
4. Don’t be rude to people that have tried to help you for free…. Eventually no one will try to help you.

Please let us know if you have any additional questions, concerns, or comments regarding this ticket.

-Kate
DNS Made Easy Sales / Support
[email protected]

Please let us know if our response did not answer your question. To
reply to this ticket you can do so by email (just reply) or by the
support site."

Read the whole thing here.  Unreal.  (N.B.  Please don’t feed the troll in his comments.)

Things I Wonder About:  Did I spell "skeevy" right?  Not sure I’ve every seen it in print before.

Our friends over at Open Kernel Labs (OK Labs) just sent in a note that they are firing up some festivities next week at LinuxWorld here in SF.  The details:

"Just a heads up that OK is making a showing at the upcoming LinuxWorld Conference in San Francisco.  On Tuesday August 5th at 4pm the group is headed to ThirstyBear Brew Co. to throw a few back. If there are any hackers out in Northern California that would like to discuss microkernel technology, share ideas or just hang out, come and grab a drink with us at ThirstyBear around 4pm onwards.  For those that don’t know, the bar is at:

ThirstyBear Brewing Company
661 Howard St.
San Francisco, California 94105
Telephone:  415-974-0905

Tim and Gernot will be in their black OK t-shirts and should be pretty easy to find."

(Note that Brenna’s shirt in the pic over there says "I Operate in Privileged Mode."  Actually, here’s a better shot of the shirt.  Geek humor; I love it.  :-))

The OK Labs folks are a blast to hang out with; highly recommended.

Believing that success at Guitar Hero implies any talent with an actual instrument is akin to thinking that success at whiffle ball implies you’ll be able to hit a fastball thrown by a pro at Yankee Stadium.

This analogy may apply in other domains as well.