(Flying today from San Jose to San Diego to do a presentation on collaboration tools, including blogs, wikis, and social networks for the Consortium for Service Innovation. More on what The Consortium is doing in the following post.)
Offtopic: The Cult Of Chuck
Doc is confused about the Cult of Chuck.
I fear to think about what he would do if faced in the wild by a Wooly Norris.
(The Wooly Norris is a creation of Brandon Bird.)
Rude Consultants
I love it. Link here.
“You want the TRUTH? Think you can handle it? TRY US.
You may not like us. And we probably won’t like you. But that’s not the point. People have been pussyfooting around your dysfunctional company for so long, you wouldn’t know an honest assessment if it SLAPPED YOU UPSIDE THE HEAD.”
They appear to have the whole “tranparency” thing down pretty well, I’d say.
(Bonus: The first Rude video podcast.)
Things I Wish I’d Known Before I Became a Citizen Journalist
Over the past couple of years, fellow Coastside resident (and all-around helluva guy) Barry Parr has created an incredible resource for those of us who live on the San Mateo (CA) coast, called Coastsider. Here’s his first-hand account of how he did it (PDF), from the Winter05 edition of Harvard’s Nieman Reports.
Nice job, bp!
Stay True
Seth, on three conversations he’s had this week with organizations that have been successful with viral marketing, and now want to turn it up a notch:
“…all three are very close to spending big bucks on ads and salesforces to force the growth to happen faster.
As soon as they start using the tactics of the other guys, playing the game they play, they become them. As soon as they decide that they can buy (not earn) attention, it all changes.”
Well said, and agreed (mostly).
Expanding on that thought…I think the exception would be a case where the additional investment of time/resources would be invested in trying to connect better with customers or additional key members of the community, continuing and accelerating the things that had made the organization successful in the first place.
Gratuitous Metablogging
I usually try to avoid the whole “blogging about blogging” path, but there are a couple of good items that have popped through in the last couple of days that may be worth a look, if you’re into that sort of thing:
Mike Sansone: “Some web (under)developers think blogging is a fad. Frankly, I think they’re worried about their jobs.”
Jeremiah Owyang, #49 & #50: “Don’t hire any firms to help you with a blog strategy that are not blogging themselves” and “Don’t hire any firms to help you that suggest the reason to blog is ‘because blogging is hot right now’.”
Hugh Macleod: “If you think this is just a game of bubbles, bandwagons, favoritism and knowing the right people, as opposed to having good ideas and plain old hard work- Fine, go ahead and believe it. Nobody cares.”
Robert Scoble: “I’ve been blogging for more than five years now and the “blogging is a fad” meme is one that consistently is reborn every five months.”
Customer Trust In The Big West
In many parts of the States, the kids are off school this week (originally as part of the Presidents Day holiday, now simply referred to as “ski week.”) After many years of frustration with being part of the cattle herd in places like Colorado and Utah, have been spending an increasing amount of time in Montana, where the skiing is just as good, the lift lines are short and, most importantly, the idea of “service” still seems to have solid root in the community.
Example: Went down to the rental shop to get skis for the little guy yesterday. Rented the skis and boots for the day, and we were in-and-out of the rental shop in about 15 minutes. Piece of cake. Then, as we were leaving, I mentioned that, although we had only rented the equipment for the day, we were probably going to be needing the equipment for the rest of the week as well (but hadn’t filled out any paperwork, nor even paid for it yet).
Was I greeted with a sneer? No.
Was I greeted with a long list of other forms to fill out? No.
Was I forced to change our reservation, or go through any red tape? No.
What I was told: “Cool…no problem. Whenever you’re done with them at the end of the week, just bring us the little coupons from the ski school for whatever days you used them.”
Yes, that’s right. They just gave us the skis with a handshake and a request to just bring them back whenever we’re done with them. Sweet. Big props to the folks at Big Mountain for a great start of the week.
(pic credit: Big Mountain)
Paul McNamara interviews…Paul McNamara
Network World’s Paul McNamara interviews Versai’s Paul McNamara.
Link to the recursive interview here. In the article Paul (NetworkWorld) refers to Paul (Versai) as “The Other One.”
Most importantly…the Other One also gives a hint of what he’s up to…
“Regarding the new company, here’s what I can tell you: We are a software-as-a-service company with a twist. We empower businesspeople to easily create and use custom-tailored SaaS applications…”
(Apparently, this has happened before…and the attribution of quotes in the article led to much hi-larity…)
Finding Community On The Radio Dial
Paul Adams (via Seth) wonders “why radio stations can’t ping you by sms or even phone when they play a song you request. When was the last time a radio station cared about you? Or contacted you in a way you wanted to be contacted?”
This is happening, all y’all. Check out Whole Wheat Radio, one of the strongest communities online of any type IMHO, and almost certainly the strongest radio community online.
They’ve taken the idea above, built their entire station around it, and taken it a step further. It’s not just a relationship between the listener and the station, it’s a community that includes the listener, the station, and all the other listeners as well. Most importantly, a passive “listener” can become a producer by a simple phone call…call up, leave a “WheatGram,” and you’re on the air, too.
Much more on why this matters here.
Update: Below, Jim Kloss (from Whole Wheat Radio) leaves the best comment ever, and gets to the heart of what online community means to him, and what it means to radio. Be sure to read the whole thing.
Web App Product Management Thoughts
As a recovering product manager, Jeremy’s post (drawn from this one by Tom Coates) on the “Future of Web Apps” rang true in many ways. The key point:
“Build for normal users, developers, and machines : Make whatever you build easy to use, easy to hack, and make it emit useful data in a structured form.”
If you’re involved in the technical design of any application that you hope to be successful over the next couple of years, it’s a good checklist of things to think about.
