Global Neighbourhoods

Ernie Safe and Somber in Jennings, LA

Ernie the Attorney has finally managed to get out of New Orleans, with friends and a dog. He's in Jennings, wherever that is.  And he sounds like the experience has been an ordeal, even though he isn't saying so. There is something about having someone you care about enmeshed in a disaster that makes your day-to-day work feel less relevant.

Loic Poses in the Nude

Those French are so daring.  I had no idea he was so hairy.

In Search of Google

It was with mixed feelings that Naked Conversations singled out Google on several times as one of the worst companies when it comes to blogging. You can find their corporate blog easily enough but I don't want to flatter it with a blog.

I was talking about Google with my friend Richard Brandt who is writing a book about Google.  Richard knows more about Google than I do.  He believes that they are doing better than I do.  He believes more in their integrity than I do and he feels more comfortable as an individual investor than I do.

But he agrees  with my contention: "They just won't talk to anyone.  They keep their investors in the dark.  They keep everyone in the dark and it is hurting them terribly.

You bet it is.  I was just reading John Battelle's blog and he was covering Google Print, where he commented: "I've asked to speak to someone at Google about this, because this sure sounds like a lawsuit is the next step, if Google does not do more to appease them." Battelle is also writing a book primarily about Google and overall is a great admirer of the company.

But all too often, I'm seeing comments about people wanting to talk to the company and getting nada in return.  Google can have all sorts of great reasons to remain mum on why it is getting cozier with advertisers and China, but it's demise may come from the sheer arrogance of acting as though it need not be accountable for its actions.

Ernie, Katrina & Reya Sunshine

Ernie the Attorney is alive and dry in Katrina's wake down in New Orleans. In an area without electrocity, he's using SMS on his cellphone to a "trusted friend," who is posting Ernie's first person reports.  Although, she gives her real name away to the close observer, the relayer, is using the pseudonym of "Reya Sunshine," a nice touch in a hurricane aftermath.

I've read a couple of complaints today that bloggers in New Orleans have not been as prolific as bloggers in other recent crises, even though Technorati lists over 50,000 postings so far. Let me give a hint as to why.  No electricity.  No phones.  No goats to run on treadmills to kick up the generators.

technorati tag: Katrina

Last Chance to be Acknowledged

I am about to wrap up acknowledgements and send them off to our editor so we can make the Aug. 31 hard deadline.  If you have sent me an email or posted here, we have your names and they will be added.  If you feel you should be included, pleaser let me know within the next hour or forever hold your peace.

Blogging Church Book by Storch and Bailey

We interviewed Brian Bailey of the Fellowship Church in Dallas for Naked Conversations, and posted the full interview on this blog. This brought it to the attantion of our publisher who thought a book about a blogging church would be a good idea. So Brian and his boss, Terry Storch are writing the book and Wiley will publish it.  Storch and Bailey have podcast about it here. They will soon be text posting as well.

Robert and I are happy to have been a small part of making this happen. Good luck to you both.  I hope writing a book brings you as much joy as it has Robert and me.

Blog-Centered Marketing

Chris Shipley, executive producer for the prestigious DEMO conferences called me on the day, that I was doing final edits to the final Chapter of Naked Conversations.  It was slowly dawning on me that I would soon be unemployed. Chris asked me if I could help, this start up--Ojos get ready to presented at the upcoming DemoFall.  It was the sort of work that I have been doing for years.  I've had my share of successes helping start ups get ready to tell the world their story.  But after writing a book, helping a client prepare and rehearse for a six-minute Demo demonstration, might pay the bills, but it didn't not fill me with joy, the way writing the book had done.

The client was Munjal Shah.  I immediately liked him.  I enjoy determined, smart, passionate people who are trying to implement visions with technology, making both themselves and the world just a little richer.   For 25 years, I've been working with tech entrepreneurs and remain in amazement of how technology keeps tweaking the way things are. In the case of Ojos it automates finding the photos you want.  It recognizes every shot I have of my wife Paula, once I show it Paula in one picture. So, I began this project with ambivalence.  For me, presentation trainings have become old old hat but  promising startups remain my passion.

After two weeks, it became clear that all the passion in the world would not make this product ready to shine on the dais on Sept. 19 at Demo.  The company was trying to beat its own development schedule to be ready for a conference, a tactic that proves to be a mistake more often than not. Munjal proved himself to be a pragmatist.  He backed out of the conference, forfeiting a very substantial financial penalty.

This is where my story with Ojos probably should have ended, but instead, it's where it actually began.  A pivotal moment came on our last Demo meeting, when Munjal told me how important the blogging community was to his success status.  He told me that he considered favorable comments by Robert Scoble to be more important to Ojos than a favorable column by Walt Mossberg. This left me with my mouth agape.  It took me another day to realize that blogging had come this far, at least when it comes to end user technology.  A cool way to search for and find your photos was more important than a column in the Wall Street Journal.

So, when I went over to see Munjal for what is generally called the "exit interview," he asked me to stay on.  Instead of helping him with a traditional launch, there would be no traditional launch. Instead, there would be a conversation that he would start, and other would join.  And in that conversation, marketing would happen.

I recently learned that the blogosphere could help me write a better book.  I believe Ojos is about to learn how the blogosphere can help them build a better product. Hopefully, the blogosphere will help them find the kind of user evangelists that have proven so powerful for the FireFox guys.

Munjal has started to blog.  He calls it "Recognizing Deven." Deven is his son and the title is exactly what Ojos does in the pictures. He also has hired Rogue Marketing's awesome Tara Hunt who found out about the position on a blog I posted here earlier. Hopefully other members of the Ojos team will also join this conversation as it moves along.

What Ojos has started is a blog-centered marketing program.  It will be forced to comply with the authenticity and transparency that the blogosphere demands. Munjal is new to blogging but, like most bloggers, he figures that he will figure it out as he goes along and the blogosphere will help him.  I think the reverse is also true.  Businesses are struggling with how to use blogging in a way that benefits their company, and doesn't simultaneously piss off the blogosphere. It will be fun to see how this develops.  It will be fun to be a part of it.

Ernie in the Eye of the Storm

Last year, my friend Buzz Bruggeman got hit hit four times by hurricanes hitting his home base of Winter Park, Fla. Last night, he called me to tell me that now our mutual friend Ernie the Attorney Svenson is weathering out the siege of New Orleans in his father's condo which is in a seemingly solid building. Ernie is featured in Naked Conversations Chapter 6--Consultants Who Get it. Buzz says Ernie was trading SMS with Ernie all Last night. Ernie, I look forward to reading your report on how you survived it, with your usual touch of humor.

Acknowledgements--Any Omissions?

So far, we have had two suggested additions--Halley Suitt who played a key role in Tom Peters writing our very brief forward, and David Parmet who helped us reconstruct the incredible story of English Cut.

We will be turning the acknowledgments over to the publisher tomorrow.  Are there any other people we omitted.  Please let me know.  It is fine to self-nominate yourself.

Acknowledgement--Thanks to You All

We would like to thank all of the people who gave us constructive input through the blogosphere in the last six months. It is logitically a daunting task and below is draft #1. It includes most of you who left us comments.  As we completed it, we realized that we had not followed track backs.

Also, we eliminated any Comments that were not clearly from real humans.  If you left an email and no URL, we eliminated the email address, but will restore it upon your request. If we overlooked you, please let us know.  There is still time to add names. If you gave us a link and missed you, please also tell us and we will add you in.

Also, this chapter needs to be edited into hardcopy so the links are to the right of your name, rather than hyperlinked.

Acknowledgements

The authors give special thanks and undying gratitude to:

• Howard Israel, for teaching his baby brother a passion for books.
• Charlie O’Brien, an eternal friend and mentor.
• Andy Ruff for having the idea that became Naked Conversations.
• Buzz Bruggeman http://buzzmodo.typepad.com/buzznovation , the Connection King for bringing Scoble and Israel together.
• Dave Winer http://www.scripting.com and Dori Smith http://www.backupbrain.com for getting Scoble interested in blogging to begin with.
• Vic Gundotra http://www.vicgundotra.com for taking a deep business risk on hiring Scoble into Microsoft.
• Loic LeMeur http://www.loiclemeur.com/english, for opening Europe to us, and giving us some of our favorite business stories.
• Six Apart for extraordinary cooperation throughout this project.
• Cluetrain Manifesto’s authors Doc Searles, David Weinberger, Rick Levine and Christopher Lock for inspiring this book long before we dreamed of writing it.
• Ernie Svenson, http://www.ernietheattorney.net/ernie_the_attorney for giving us our funniest moment. As he told us how he loved technology, the phone line went dead.
• Jill Fallon http://www.estatelegacyvaults.com/legacy for contributing the most interesting story that did not fit into our book.
• Brewster, Shel’s loyal companion and Kinko, who shared his workdesk.
• Jim Minatel http://wroxblog.typepad.com/minatelfor being a friend as well as an editor.
• Joe Wikert http://jwikert.typepad.com/the_average_joe for being right about publishers and authors being partners and for picking up the Valentine's dinner tab
• Faithe Wempen http://wempen.typepad.com/sycamore_notes our copy editor who proved she is well-named.
• Steven Streight http://www.vaspersthegrate.blogspot.com who posted nearly as many words to our blog as we did.
• To the denizens of the blogosphere of you who left intelligent, constructive and useful comments:

Pete Dawson, http://peterdawson.typepad.com; Adam Barr, http://www.proudlyserving.com ; Al Cannistraro, http://www.happinessgym.com; Alek Komarnitsky http://www.komar.org , Alex Bishop, http://www.mozillazine.org ; Allan Jenkins http://allanjenkins.typepad.com ; Amy Bellinger, http://www.learnandteachonline.com/pmach/weblog.php ; Austin White, http://austinwhite.typepad.com ; DL Byron, http://clip-n-seal.com ; BL Ochman http://whatsnextonline.com ; Bill Riski, http://radio.weblogs.com/0108035 ; Bill Lazar, http://www.billsaysthis.com.

Blaine Moore http://www.runtowin.com ; Brian Bailey http://www.leaveitbehind.com ; Bruce DeBoer http://www.synthesiscreative.com/blog.php ; Christopher Carfi http://socialcustomer.typepad.com ; Constantin Basturea, http://blog.basturea.com ; Curt Hopkins, http://morphemetales.blogspot.com ; Darren Rowse, http://www.problogger.net ; Dave Briggs http://davebriggs.net ;

Dave Copithorne, http://www.hearingmojo.com ; David Tebbutt, http://teblog.typepad.com ; Dick Kusleika, http://www.dicks-blog.com ; DJ Coffman, http://yirmumah.net ; Dossy, http://dossy.org ; Elisa Camahort, http://workerbeesblog.blogspot.com ; Elizabeth Grigg, http://www.egrigg9000.com/mtpub ; Ephraim Cohen, ; Eric Eggertson http://www.mutually-inclusive.typepad.com/weblog ; Eric Schmenk.

Evan Erwin, http://www.misterorange.com ; Gautam Ghosh, http://gauteg.blogspot.com ; Geoff Jones http://www.geoffjones.com ; Hugh Macleod, http://www.gapingvoid.com ; Jack Nork, http://www.mason23.com/jack ; James Cherkoff, http://www.collaboratemarketing.com ; James Governor, http://www.redmonk.com/jgovernor ; Jeaneane Sessum, http://allied.blogspot.com ; Jeremy C. Wright http://www.ensight.org ; Jim McGee, http://www.mcgeesmusings.net ; Joel Schultz http://www.joelschultz.com ;

Johan van Rooyen http://www.spanishpodcasting.com ; johnmoore http://brandautopsy.typepad.com ; Johnnie Moore http://www.johnniemoore.com/blog ; Jory Des Jardins http://www.jorydesjardins.com ; Josh Hallett http://hyku.com/blog ; Joshua Allen http://www.netcrucible.com/blog.

Jozef Imrich http://amediadragon.blogspot.com ; Justin Gardner http://www.kozoru.com; Kathy Sierra, http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users ; Ken Dyck, http://www.kendyck.com ; Larry Borsato. http://larryborsato.com ; Larry Hendrick http://www.sanleon.net/blog ; Laura Blaugra http://blaugra.typepad.com ; Lisa Williams, http://www.cadence90.com/wp ; Marc Orchant http://office.weblogsinc.com ; Marc Snyder, http://emm-ess.blogspot.com.

Marcus M. Sommer, http://marcussommer.blogspot.com ; Markus Pirchner, http://www.futurebytes.at ; Michael Kaplan, http://blogs.msdn.com/michkap ; Mike Torres, http://spaces.msn.com/members/mike/PersonalSpace.aspx ; Nancy White, http://www.fullcirc.com/weblog/onfacblog.htm ; Nick Toop ; Niti Bahn, http://nitibhan.typepad.com/perspective . Dennis E. Hamilton, http://orcmid.com/blog ; Paul Hanson ; Paul Morriss http://little-bits.blogspot.com ; Paul Woodhouse http://butlersheetmetal.com/tinbasherblog.

Phil Jones http://www.nooranch.com/synaesmedia ; Phil Weber http://www.philweber.com ; Randy Charles Morin http://www.kbcafe.com ; Rich Westerfield, http://tsmi.blogs.com ; Roy Blumenthal, http://schmucknews.blogspot.com ; Russell Beattie, http://www.russellbeattie.com/notebook ; Sam Katz; Sarah,http://theeditroom.blogspot.com; Shannon Clark, http://searchingforthemoon.blogspot.com/; Shelley Powers, http://weblog.burningbird.net ; Shital Shah,http://www.shitalshah.com/blog.

Simon Harriyott, http://www.harriyott.com ; Sriram Krishnan, http://blogs.msdn.com/sriram ; Steve Garfield, http://stevegarfield.com ; Steve Newson, http://stevenewson.blogspot.com ; Steve Shu, http://www.steveshu.typepad.com.

Tara Hunt http://www.horsepigcow.com ; Thomas Hawk, http://thomashawk.com ; Tim Aldrich, http://firstdraft.blogs.com/altfunction ; Toby Bloomberg, http://www.bloombergmarketing.blogs.com ; Tom Guarriello, http://truetalk.typepad.com , Tom Raftery, http://tomrafteryit.net/views ; Trevor Cook, http://trevorcook.typepad.com ; Wilson Ng, http://www.bizdrivenlife.net .

Thank you one and all