Category: Uncategorized

I have a feeling that Kevin Kelly is about to rock my world again.

The first time was about 1995.  A co-worker of mine handed me a book and told me that I had to read it, immediately.  That book was Kevin Kelly’s Out of Control, and that book singlehandedly fueled my interest in how complexity and emergent behavior can arise spontaneously out of seemingly trivial interactions.  It also stood on my yearly "re-read" list for almost a decade.

He’s now working on a new book, and putting his nascent thoughts up at the Technium (backstory here).

A recent post, Better Than Free, explores eight different sources of value for the business models that may (will?) underpin the cases where a "product" can be super-distributed (and in some cases, created) for free.  Kelly posits the valuable things in a free-conomic world are:

"Immediacy — Sooner or later you can
find a free copy of whatever you want, but getting a copy delivered to
your inbox the moment it is released — or even better, produced — by
its creators is a generative asset.

Personalization — A generic version of a concert
recording may be free, but if you want a copy that has been tweaked to
sound perfect in your particular living room — as if it were performed
in your room — you may be willing to pay a lot.

Interpretation — As the old joke goes: software,
free. The manual, $10,000.

Authenticity — You might be able to grab a key
software application for free, but even if you don’t need a manual, you
might like to be sure it is bug free, reliable, and warranted. You’ll
pay for authenticity.

Accessibility — Ownership often sucks. You have to
keep your things tidy, up-to-date, and in the case of digital material,
backed up. And in this mobile world, you have to carry it along with
you. Many people, me included, will be happy to have others tend our
"possessions" by subscribing to them.

Embodiment — At its core the digital copy is without
a body. The music is
free; the bodily performance expensive. This formula is quickly
becoming a common one for not only musicians, but even authors. The
book is free; the bodily talk is expensive.

Patronage — It is my belief that audiences WANT to
pay creators. Fans like to reward artists, musicians, authors and the
like with the tokens of their appreciation, because it allows them to
connect. But they will only pay if it is very easy to do, a reasonable
amount, and they feel certain the money will directly benefit the
creators.

Findability — Where as the previous generative
qualities reside within creative digital works, findability is an asset
that occurs at a higher level in the aggregate of many works. A zero
price does not help direct attention to a work, and in fact may
sometimes hinder it. But no matter what its price, a work has no value
unless it is seen; unfound masterpieces are worthless. When there are
millions of books, millions of songs, millions of films, millions of
applications, millions of everything requesting our attention — and
most of it free — being found is valuable."

Which of those eight are baked into your strategies?

(hat tip: chris anderson)

Beth Kanter: Eight Secrets of Effective Online Networking

Great post and even better conversation in the comments from Jamie Notter on how professional associations are addressing the Web 2.0 world.  An excerpt, from Notter:

"I have one more reflection about the Technology Conference from last week. As Reggie pointed out in his post,

the buzz was much more about web 2.0 than it was about traditional
technology "tools." The keynote speakers and many of the concurrent
session speakers were exploring the role of blogs, wikis, social
networks and other ways for users to collaborate more effectively and
create value for themselves and others.What struck me, however, was the nearly universal reaction of fear from association executives…"

Link to "The Myth of Control."

(MP3)

Many thanks to Barney Beal of TechTarget, who invited me onto the monthly "Voices of CRM" podcast.  Was a great chance to chat a bit about the VRM overview that was held at the Customer Service is the New Marketing event last week, as well as to chat about social networking for business. 

Here’s a link to the show.

Adriana Lukas:

"Last Friday a few of us gathered together in the name of VRM.
Doc was there so the ritual could begin – geek talk about structured
goop with XML crap, excited interrupting of others whilst being
interrupted, nerd in-jokes and, most importantly, pizza with beer! Notes from the session can be found here.
(Warning – they will give you only the gist of it, and a – not always
meaningful – record of the multiple conversations throughout the
evening.)

VRM
is still at the stage of conversations, which, in my opinion, is right.
Some basic assumptions need to be clarified and spelled out. No point
in avoiding that or trying to gloss over them, as they’ll come out of
woodwork a few months down the line anyway, when more time and effort
has been invested. We all have our views and visions of VRM and although the concept is broad enough to accommodate them (in fact, it is a feature, not a bug that people have many and varied ideas about VRM) but there are a few that will need articulating."

Link to whole thing here.

Andy Sernovitz yesterday at the CSITNM conference in the Presidio.  (Check out the cufflinks.)

This is still one of my favorite projects, ever.

"The Obey campaign can be explained as an experiment in Phenomenology.  The first aim of Phenomenology is to reawaken a sense of wonder about one’s environment.  The Obey campaign attempts to stimulate curiosity and bring people to question both the campaign and their relationship with their surroundings.  Because people are not used to seeing advertisements or propaganda for which the motive is not obvious, frequent and novel encounters with Obey propaganda provoke thought and possible frustration, nevertheless revitalizing the viewer’s perception and attention to detail.

The medium is the message."

Link.

(iTunes) (MP3)

Ok, that was fun.  Had a chance to chat last week regarding social networking with a bunch of great folks, including:

• Kara Swisher, co-executive editor of All Things Digital
• Law.com bloggers and co-hosts, J. Craig Williams and Robert Ambrogi
• Eric Goldman, Director of the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University School of Law

Here’s a quick overview, courtesy of L2L:

"Social networking sites have reconnected old friends and former colleagues, created  networking ties and have rekindled relationships all over the world. On Lawyer2Lawyer, we will explore privacy rights, intellectual property issues and even defamation and cyber bullying, all rising from social networking sites and discuss the popularity of these sites and the legal issues surrounding the online world of social networking."

This podcast was part of a series done by the LegalTalkNetwork (standard disclaimer: neither am I a lawyer, nor do I play one on the internet).  Here’s a link to the show.

Starbucks new strategy to attract customers has left a bitter taste for at least one customer.  John Moore, who worked as a marketer at Starbucks for over eight years, takes issue with the new Starbucks $1 cup o’ joe, which undercuts both McDonald’s and Dunkin’ Donuts prices, according to Reuters.  John writes:

"In a bigger shift in marketing strategy than spending millions on national television advertising, Starbucks is now selling short-sized cups of brewed coffee for a $1.00 and offering free refills at Seattle-area locations…Oh My!.  A low-price strategy is indeed the quickest pathway to commoditizing and marginalizing coffee back to being, well, just coffee."

Read John’s full post regarding the new Starbucks strategy here.

I have to concur: unless Starbucks is modifying its strategy to be a low-cost provider, per Porter, this would seem to go against their historical approach to providing an "experience" to their customers.  What do you think?

Holy cow.  I had no idea how much of a productivity drag was it was having a dirty screen.  Here’s a site with a utility that cleans your monitor.