Global Neighbourhoods

About that Media Snack Meme ...

Jerimiah Owyang started a meme asking whether or not we respected "media snackers." My friends Kami Huyse and Geoff Livingston .  I don't much care for memes.  They seem a bit contrived to inflate links and that cheapens the quality of links or so it seems to me.

But I think, it's an interesting question, and I do believe social media is proving its self to be a great place to ask questions.  I find I get remarkably good answers without using memes.

I will answer Jeremiah's question because it is a good one. Media snacking is nothing new.  My parents were media snackers when they checked listings on TV Guide, or results of a stock they held, or the upper corner of the newspaper's front page to see the weather forecast.

Now we have social media and the quantity and quality of media snacks has improved.  They are popular with young people in particular because young people are driving social media, perhaps more than geeks these days.

It is not an issue of what I want.  It is more an issue of what those looking for entertainment and information want.  Social bookmarks divert traffic from my site. I don't particularly like that. But it's more important to me that because of them, we blogger, microbloggers, online video producers and social networkers have far greater opportunity to contribute to the body of knowledge as was evidenced on Twitter last night, when a moderate, but noticeable Earthquake shook up our physical community.

Facebook Israel is 1/3 larger than Facebook Silicon Valley

... and it's growing a lot faster. At this moment, [1 pm Pacific 11/31] Facebook Israel has 120,467 and it seems to be ticking up at about 20 names a minute. Silicon Valley has 83,772.

Ireland is also galloping along with 112,343. 

Twitterquake and Citizen Journalism

I was about to write a long and poignant post about my experiences last night when an earthquake struck the Bay Area, but I discovered  Scoble, as is often the case, beat me to it.
Scoble reported it exactly as I would have, so go read his post if you haven't already, then come back because I have a few thoughts to add, as I so often do.

Back already?

By the time the San Francisco Chronicle posted its first hot flash on the quake on it's 24/7 news site, 45 minutes after the avalanche of Twitter posts began,word of the quake had traveled several times around the world. The Chron add two very relevant points that Tweeters did not have. The magnitude (5.6) and the damage (no injuries).

This is something we've been talking about for years. People everywhere, walking around with internet-access phones are eye and ears for a global network. We have feet on nearly every street of the developed world.  We report what we see.  We do it fast and usually accurately.

Still, we cannot replace the discipline and structure of a professional news gathering organization. None of us thought to call the National Weather Service to get the Richter Scale  measurement.  Nor  did  we  call state police for injury and damage  reports.

My point is this: The world would be better served if we could braid the network of social media with the discipline of the traditional new gathering organization. So far, there are no good examples of this occurring and the world does not benefit from the chasm between an emerging institution and the obstinance of a crumbling one.

Double tri-latteral football

Bob Lagesse has the best stranger-than-fiction ending to a football game I've seen.Go watch his video on Stuffleufagus. However, I think he's wrong on the point of grammar.I didn't catch the phrase on the vid clip, but Bob quotes the announcer as saying,"doing a Trinity." Bob comments that the announcer effectively turned Trinity,a noun,into a verb. Sorry Bob, but I'm pretty sure the verb is "doing."

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Librarian Slides have beenreposted

My talk yesterday before the California Library Association went quite well considering I followed the awesome Craig Newmark and was last speaker on a Sunday afternoon where many people were heading out to airports.

As I'm annoyingly prone to do, Itweaked my PowerPoint until the very last minute. I have posted the new slides at Slideshare for anyone who wishes to see them.

My thanks again to more than 40 people who sent me thoughts on what to say.


Technorati Tags: CLA, Library

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Paula's Mom on her 1st Job & losing a parent

I've been playing a good deal with online video as a personal story-telling medium. My wife's mom does it better than I do. This one's in 2 parts.  At the very end, when I realized she was discussing her mom's death, I quickly flicked the camera back on.

She didn't know I was taping this second part until I told her. This is posted with her permission.

Library & BlogOrlando slides are up at SlideShare

I have finally taken Citizen Tara's advice and started using SlideShare. I have posted my slides from BlogOrlando as well as the slides I'll use tomorrow with the California Librarians Assoc.

In the past,I told attendees to email me if  theywanted to see my slides. This is simpler and faster.

Thanks,Tara.

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Stuard Henshall Reviews Social Media Club at Intel

Stuart Henshall has done a great job of writing up w2hat our panel said Monday night at Intel. I had a lot of fun that night because the audience, although relatively small, was highly engaged.

As moderator I did everything I could to make as much of the event as possible an interactive conversation between attendees and speakers. I will keep doing that whenever I serve as moderator. I've eliminated that part where the moderator is supposed to ask probing questions and then each panelist answers asthe audience dozes off.


Technorati Tags: Social Media Club, Stuart Henshall, Intel

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What I'll tell the Librarians

If nothing else, my previous post asking what I should say in a speech to the California Librarians Association, produced over 30 responses. Clearly people are passionate on the subject.  Clearly they also have a positive outlook for the need for libraries.

Below is my preliminary outline for talking points I will deliver at Long Beach Convention center this Sunday night. My outline was a mess a couple of days ago, but Ivan Chew, the Rambling Librarian has helped get me organized and focused, proving once again that librarians by their nature are both generous and well-organized.

Special thanks also to the 30 of you who contributed by joining the conversation. I have given credits to those of you, from whom I directly borrowed.  If you feel overlooked, lease let me know.

Everyone else. Please let me know how I can correct and improve on this.  There is still time.

1.    US Libraries may be alive & well

•    5 X Amazon.com customers
•    $14 b, more than running shoes
•    1 in 7 people have library cards
•    But there’s a storm coming?

2.    Storm Clouds

•    Fewer visitors
•    Fewer check outs
•    Miscellaneous beats Dewey
•    Stodgy “non-hip” image
•    Free no longer unique
•    125 YouTube downloads for every NYT paper read

3.    The Internet is:

•    An infinite repository of information
•    Every library can use it to provide infinite bookshelves
•    Let’s people everywhere share what they know and think
•    Inexpensive

4.    Internet is eating up everything

•    Traditional media
•    Geography
•    Local communities being replaced by global neighborhoods
•    Book-scanning
•    Digital-reading devices
•    Point: Libraries need to adapt or prepare for Jurassic Park

5.     What is social media?

•    2 guys at backyard fence
•    2 yrs from blogs 2 social media tool warehouse
•    About conversations, not tech
•    SAP Survey-Youth driven

6.    The Online Generation

•    College freshmen younger than the internet
•    Online more than on TV or phone talk
•    Influence each other
•    Teflon resistance to marketing as you know it
•    Changing habits. Changing culture. Changing everything

7.         Will social media kill libraries?

•    Of course not. Don't be silly
•    Nothing beats face-to-face
•    Library as community spaces.
•    Access for left out people
•    Many changes needed
•    ‘Online Generation’ spurns brick & Mortar
•    Global more attractive than local

8.    To Engage the Online Generation

•    Use social media to join  conversations
•    Become expert resources on how to use the tools
•    Use social media to eliminate physical boundaries
•    Librarians as Internet knowledge guides
•    Infinite bookshelf is hear.
•    Virtual books? The content is what’s relevant
•    Use real places to explore digital spaces
•    Bridge the digital divide
•    Go multimedia

9.         A few case studies

•    CSLibrary Casa Grandes Colo librarian uses Twitter/blog to engage in community conversations with community youth.  Those conversations coincide with a 30% uptick in traffic, mostly young people
•    LO-Fi Librarian, a UK Law librarian follows users on Facebook. Uses a Blogger/Facebook  not to look cool, but to deliver services, communicate with/users and raise her library's profile.” Also following users in facebook.
•    YALSA  has a blog that lsook at anything tagged 'Technology' for social networking posts.  Members  have been podcasting, Twittering (@yalsa), and posting bookmarks at del.icio.us for awhile. Part of their gaming panel took place in Second Life
•    The American Library Association lists their social networking tools on their wiki .

10.    Social media can

•    Let friends share what they’re reading
•    Let readers review books for local communities.
•    Let community tell library what they want

11. Librarians can

•    Use scanned volumes to give users infinite stacks
•    Serve as Internet guides to literature
•    Understand the power of discovery through tagging
•    Blog. Tell users  what’s happening through RSS feeds
•    Blog. Let users tell you what should happen

12. Librarians can also

•    Join a global librarian network. Share with a wiki
•    Use Twitter so people ca get info from mobile
•    A global librarian online network
•    Link/point to your users
•    Distribute current community information

13. A global network of librarians

•    Meet others like yourself
•    Share passion and authority
•    Learn about innovations elsewhere
•    Collaborate to solve problems

14. Barriers

•    Few
•    Requires change in focus
•    Significant time investment
•    Approval process.
•    Too many options. Choose wisely

15.  Special thanks:

•    30 people responded to my blog and Facebook questions
•    Name: http://www.aliconferences.com/conf/social_media_govt1207/day1.htm
•    Ivan Chew, Rambling Librarian  —Singapore
•    Lo-Fi Librarian, anonymous UK Law librarian blogger/Facebook user
•    Shawn Lea , Everything and Nothing
•    Rohit Bhargava, Influential Marketing Blog
•    Randi Mason, MLS, PRSA

If you are attending the conference, please let me know if this is what you want to hear.

Facebook Israel nearing 100K users, up 33% in about 9 days

Less than a week ago I reported on Facebook's phenomenal  growth in Ireland and observed th that Facebook seemed to be exploding in all countries where English was the primary language. A A Faceboo Group discussion primarily between Jeff Pulver and Moshe Maeir indicates that Israel, a country whose rimary language is Hebrew is about to cross the 100,000 member mark.  According to Jeff, it has sprinted up by 33% in the last nine days.

This in a nation whose population is 7.15 million. If the numbers prove accurate, that would mean about one in 70 Israelis are now on Facebook, with the adoption rate accelerating. That is truly amazing.


Technorati Tags: mashe maeir, jeff pulver, facebook, israel

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Fake Steve Jobs was Inspired by Naked Conversations

Dan Lyons, sometime Forbes Journalist and sometime executive blog impressionist is interviewed in the Seattle Times. In it he says that he was inspired to create his Fake Steve Jobs
blog by Naked Conversations and our advocacy of CEO transparency an
idea he finds pretty inane.

"...there was a whole thing about naked conversations and radical
transparency, and you had guys like [Sun CEO] Schwartz and Bob Lutz at
GM doing CEO blogs. And I thought it was the most preposterous idea
ever. It was so silly. And it was so fake. They weren't honest at all.
They weren't transparent.

If people really did take Scoble seriously, and some CEO said I'm going to be nakedly transparent, radically transparent, what would that be like if some CEO went off the rails, and PR couldn't control him, and he was going to say whatever he wanted to say. And I thought that would be a funny blog and that was part of the impetus."

He also says that Ballmer is a good guy and Schwartz is not. I guess we'll have to take his word for it.

It's nice to know that a journalist for one of the world's top business publications believes that transparency from executives is a preposterous idea.

Lyons is also the gifted journalist who wrote the Forbes cover story on bloggers a while back, the one that lead with: "Web logs are the prized platform of an online lynch mob spouting liberty but spewing lies, libel and invective. Their potent allies in this pursuit include Google and Yahoo."

Get the rope, I say.


Technorati Tags: fake steve jobs, dan lyons, naked conversations

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The Fake Loic LeMeur

SAP Global Survey: Nigel James Rolls One More

I interrupt the polishing of my first draft on my SAP Survey Report to point you to   Nigel James, a Director at AppsCom Limited in the UK. Nigel has posted his roll-your-own answers to the Survey on his blog, Getting Technical, despite the fact the deadline to be included in my report was Sept. 30.

It is no great matter.  It is just one more reinforcement to my report observation that I am not in control.  I am just some sort of social media curator and it will be interesting to me to see what happens next.

Nigel is an SAP customer and was invited to SAP's TechEd event in Munich this year as a blogger, which is more than I can say for me.

With Nigel's addition, we now have 45 interviews and his answers put us just north of 50,000 words  published in response to the survey. Thanks Nigel.


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Facebook stats for Ireland: 132 K, mostly young.

Damien Mulley has extracted some useful numbers for Irish Facebook users. There are 131,700 of them and 118,000 of them are under age 35. Of those who identified their gender, there are 52,000 women and 37.5 thousand men. The top employer of the Facebook crowd is Microsoft.

I'd love to see how these numbers compare with Bebo and what the growth rates are of the two social networks.


Technorati Tags: damien mulley. facebook

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The Right-Wing Facebook

Through KD Paine on the real Facebook, I was pointed to the Right-Wing Facebook spoof. The only reason I knew it was a joke was that there were no flags on the page.


Technorati Tags: kd paine, rightwing facebook

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What should I tell the librarians?

Next Sunday, I am the keynote speak at the California Association of Libarians conference. They want me to talk about how social media can help libraries.

What do you think I should tell them? If I use you idea, I will cite you.  I will even award you an honorary Dewey Decimal Number.

I have already received some great ideas from Ivan Chew, the Rambling Librarian of Singapore and an American who has asked me not to identify him despite his generosity to me. I have done my hoemwork and of course I've read David Weinberger's superb "Everything is Miscellaneous, but I find myself stuck in the solution.

We need public supported places where the conversations can be held.  We need places that guarantee everyone has access.  We need to encourage literacy and the joy of exploration through reading.

But what happens to the library as we move forward five or 10 or 20 years, when books can be dowmloaded into digital reading devices and people can simply pay or through Google obtain many of the world's greatest books, or movies or digital representations of art.

Is there still a place for  for these brick and mortar facilities? What do you think?  What is the future of the American library as you know it?

A Preview of the future facebook

Right now I'm playing Scrabulous with Arik Hesseldahl of Businessweek.  He's mopping the floor with me, an example of old media beating up on new. With some pain, I can live with that. But in this last turn, some words appeared below our Scrabble board:

"You adevrtisement here. CPM $.50.  Click here for more information.

Well, what with talk of $10-15 billion dollar valuations, I guess there are going to be more things in front of my eyes than just the ones I choose. I blame no one for this, but it does not make me happy.

The only thing I want to see under that board are some words that can help me gain back some of the 99 points he is leading by.

Disregard previous post

Binhammer was speaking in a figurative way about Jarvis and writing a book.  I thought it was literal.  Sorry, everybody.  This is why I usually leave the scoops to Scoble.

Jarvis Collaborating with Dell on Book "Beyond Dell Hell."

[NOTE: The following story was a mistake on my part.  I heard some information wrong and posted too quickly, then subsequently retracted.  I apologize for any misunderstanding this may have caused.]

The Dell Computer sin, suffer and repent story is among my favorites.  i told it twice this week during media interviews.  It really began with Jeff Jarvis blogging that he was in Dell Hell. Then Dell started a blog and got shouted at, then it got a clue, and now, Dell Corporate Communications executive Richard Binhammer tells me, they will shortly be announcing that Jarvis will write a guest chapter in a new book from Dell called, "Beyond Dell hell.

I'll circle back to this.  Right now I want to be one of the first to tell you this.

Update on SAP Global Survey

For the past four days, I've been pretty much buried into what will become my SAP Global Social Media report.  I was focused on the heavy lifting.  I have reviewed about 45 interviews totaling 51,000 words.  I have pored over questions asked on Linked In as well as Facebook.

I've extracted 13,540 words of copy points from the interviewers. My next step will be to take that document and condense it by as much as possible to make a good digest, which I will publish here.

By Monday, I hope to be working on the executive overview, the findings & analysis as well as the specific recommendations.

I am overwhelmed by the wealth of insights, information, anecdotes that have come out of this. As an author, I cannot help to comment that if I merged this with the interviews I conducted last October when I visited 12 European countries, I would have a Hell of a story about social media and culture.

But right now, I have my arms full with a report that I hope influences the strategic direction of one of the world's largest software companies.

Beijing, Bush & the Dalai Lama

Every now and then, I just cannot avoid stepping into a political bucket. It's off topic for this blog and I usually get shouted at by someone, but today's simultaneous recognition by Congress and President Bush, who attended the Dalai Lama's Congressional Gold Medal Award ceremony, is the first time that the current president and Congrees have done something together that I whole-heartedly endorse.

In fact, it is only the second time I can recall Bush doing something I considered praiseworthy and courageous, the first being a reasonable approach to the issue of illegal immigrants, which was squelched by both political parties. Bush becomes the first US President t be photographed with the Dalai Lama.  Neither Clinton nor Carter ever dared for fear of pissing off China.

And China has made clear that it is indeed pissed off.  They don't like the Dalai Lama, because after they took his country (Tibet) away from him, and burned its ancient temples to the ground, lots of Tibetans and freedom loving people in the world, wanted him to get his country back

That's unlikely to happen. And in the end, the US is as unlikely to take further action toward that goal, as China is likely to do more than shout a bit over the recognition bestowed on this victim of their expansion.

China and the US have grown too interdependent on each other to escalate over this issue.  And Tibet is too tiny, devoid of resources and remote for the US to do much.

But it's nice to see Congress and the President get together and do something decent for a religious leader who has inspired a great many people and who has continued to carry himself with strength and dignity through his life in forced exhile.

John Furrier steps out of Podtech

John Furrier, co-founder and former CEO of Podtech has announced in an eloquent post that he has stepped out of the company as an employee. He remains on the board. Podtech was the first post-YouTube video company to really get notice with a pioneer approach. It has given so many people inspiration on what can be done in the category.

I wish John well.  I wish Podtech well as.

Thanks for the tweet, Jeremiah.



Technorati Tags: podtech. john furrier, jeremiah

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Kawasaki tells how Twitter made his Truemors site better

Guy Kawasaki has a good piece this morning on how Twitter improved his Truemors website faster. Funny, today is the first time that I woke up and checked my Twitter before either my email or my email.

Try it. You'll like it. After a while, like me, you'll find it useful.  I'm told pretty soon, I'll find it valuable.

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2 Shifts: Celebrity Bloggers & Disagreeing in Public

I have just started immersing myself in the interviews I conducted for the SAP Global Survey.  I have my report to them due on Oct. 30 and this will be the main activity for the remainder of this month.

The very first interview was with Hugh MacLeod, who I unabashedly admit is one of my favorite bloggers. As I reviewed my interview with him, I rediscovered this useful observation:
b

"People finally figured out that yes, doing a blog well is actually very time consuming. Not everybody wants to be Robert Scoble- Hell, I'm not sure if Scoble wants to be Scoble all the time, either [Joke!]. Which created a lot of opportunities for less time-consuming web products.

This is us seeing Social Media evolving way from the time-guzzling "Celebrity Model", where people emulate "broadcasters" on a small scale, towards something that is far more useful to most people i.e. something that allows people to make friends and talk to their friends more easily."

This seems to me a profound thought worth revisiting. There is no surprise that the survey shows an increasing number of enterprises all over the world are embracing blogging just when celebrities like Hugh and Scoble are exploring new innovations.

I have said that blogging has started to normalize. Everyday people are starting to use them for everyday purposes in work and play.  They are posting long or short. Blogging is becoming like a telephone--just another conversational tool and the tool is less important than the quantity and diversity of the conversations that are being conducted.

While I was starting to write this post, I received an email from someone who knows Scoble, Hugh and me. He pointed to my recent post where I took issue with Hugh's praise of his client Microsoft. He wanted to know if Hugh had pissed me off somehow and if we were no longer friends. This comes at a time when I have become gun shy of disagreeing with Scoble in my blogs, something I have done from time-to-time since the very beginning of our collaboration on Naked Conversations.

Let me be very clear. These are too people whom I hold extremely dear.  They are two friends who have been very generous to me.  They are two mentors who taught me a great deal about what I now know about social media.

But this is supposed to be a forum, where there is a legitimate give-and-take on ideas. It is a place where we are supposed to take each other on to some degree. Otherwise, we will fill the blogosphere with pablum giving strong praise to weak thinking and blurry ideas because they come from our friends or business associates.

I hope this latter incident does not become a trend.

And BTW Hugh, I disagree.  Scoble loves being Scoble.

SAP Global Survey: Josh Hallett

                                 [Josh Hallett. Photo from his File]

Josh Hallett has spent more time than any consultant I know, talking to large and midsize companies about social media strategies. I've used him as a corporate business barometer over the past couple of years.  When Josh had lots of time, social media adoption was slow. Lately, he has been extremely busy and I think that is indicative of what's happening regarding social media in the enterprise, making him an ideal selection for the wrap up interview of this phase of the SAP Global Survey.

He's an internationally recognized thought leader in the convergence of social media and corporate public relations & marketing. Until this week, he has operated as  Hyku, LLC, consulting and doing development work to Fortune 500 firms, the traditional media and some of the world’s largest public relations and marketing firms.

Yesterday he announced he has joined the social media team at Voce Communications, a popular Silicon Valley PR firm where he has been consulting for some time.

He is the creator/producer/host/moderator of BlogOrlando, a regional social media conference and a popular public speaker. He is also a a Fellow/Board Member of the Society of New Communications Research as well as a member of the Information Architecture Institute and the Florida Public Relations Association.

1. Can you tell me how and why you first got into social media?  How has it
impacted your business and personal life?

Back in early 2003 I had just left the web development firm I founded in 1996 (now called CNP Studio).  I started Hyku to provide consulting to select clients on web/communication strategy.  I also started blogging. 

Pre-Hyku, many of my clients were PR firms and ad agencies.  One day an agency asked me to work up a presentation on ‘what’s next online’ for a staff retreat.  I developed an overview of blogging and other forms of online community.  The term social media didn’t really exist since there were no podcasts or video blogs.  It was mostly blogging and forums.

That internal presentation in 2003 turned into, ‘Can you consult with us on that,’ ‘Can you present to our local PRSA,’ etc.  By late 2004, half my work involved social media. By the end of 2005 it was almost 100%.  I’m lucky to have a blend of the strategic, the technical and some design thrown in as well. The mixture helps me work across a number of roles on projects. 

Over the past few years I’ve worked for a number of large corporations and media firms as well as some great PR firms. Very recently, my role changed. I’m not on my own anymore.  I’ve taken a position at Voce Communications in Palo Alto, CA.  Hyku will become my personal site, and in many ways it has always been my personal site, just intertwined with my business.

How has social media impacted my business life?  As I said, I’ve been working in the field since 2003 and almost exclusively for the past 2 and a half years.  It has become my business.  The interactions I’ve had online have been innumerable friendships and connections around the world.

What’s ironic though, is that in this ‘virtual’ world, I’m traveling more than ever. You still can’t beat the face-to-face interactions. Some of the my most trusted colleagues are the ones I often see at various events around the country. 

On a personal level it’s been very gratifying to see the BlogOrlando conference develop into something. The ability of a group of friends to get together and organize a free event like that is something. Recently, Joe Thornley talked about the ‘cult of generosity’ that surrounds the social media industry.

2. What tools do you use? Which are your favorites?

This might sound like a cop-out to the question, because it’s not really a tool. It’s my network of friends.  Sure tools like IM, RSS, Facebook and Twitter allow me to communicate with those friends, but the tools do nothing without the friends.  It’s the ability to quickly communicate with individuals one-on-one or a group that has become quite the asset.

However if I had to choose just three things (well four technically) I’d say:

1.    RSS Reader – The ability to receive what I want, when I want is what RSS is all about.  I use NewNewsWire on my Mac and it’s always open. 
2.    Keyword Watches – Combine a persistent search in Technorati or Google Blog Search with RSS and you take the functionality of your RSS reader up a notch.
3.     MovableType/WordPress – The ability to quickly and easily publish content is what these platforms are all about.  Almost every single web site I interact with today is run on one of these platforms.  It’s amazing how much those two tools are a part of my worklife. 
4.    Flickr – As an amateur photographer, I love Flickr.  It does everything I need it to, and more.  Currently I have close to 13,000 photos stored online.  That number will probably double or triple in the next year.

3. You talk to a lot of mid and large size corporations.  What would you say
is the state of social media in their corporate minds?

This, of course, varies by company since there are always pockets of growth/resistance in any corporation. In my experience though, many corporations outside the valley/tech sector are still learning.  I am constantly conducting internal training sessions and it’s usually the same questions over and over again.  Granted there is more and more interest, which means means more questions and discussion, but that doesn’t always translate into action. The majority of firms I talk to realize they’re not ready. This could be related to: legal, cultural, etc.

If they do move forward often the first steps are usually either:

a.    Internal
b.    Related to a small event or project 

4. What motivates corporations to adopt social media tools?  What tools are
they most demanding these days?

I really hate to say, ‘Keeping up with the Joneses’ or ‘Fear’ but sometimes those are great motivators.  They tell themselves about community and engagement, but it’s not until they actually get out there that they realize that those things are real and have a benefit.  This is especially the case for organizations that haven’t generally opened themselves up to the customer/public, etc.

Usually by starting small with an event or a specific product team a corporation can really test the waters.  I hate to say it’s a controlled environment, but often with a product team they will know their power users and (hopefully) have established relationships with them.  Social media just helps facilitate the conversation.

As for the tools they’re demanding?  My experience has mostly been with blogging platforms and how to integrate them with existing web sites. The majority of the work is either in WordPress or MovableType. However, there are quite a few people who still want/need to use TypePad.

Flickr is also being used quite frequently by clients. The Number One feature that organizations love about Flickr is the auto-resize of images uploaded.  Now via the ‘all-sizes’ tab they have the ability to quickly and easily post photos and it’s not just for their blog.

5.  What are the biggest barriers to enterprise adoption of social media
tools? Who is objecting the most?

Staff and time. You can throw up the standard legal/IT argument, but almost every project that I see proposed and that goes nowhere is because of staff resources. They just can’t budget the time for an individual or group of individuals to take ownership. Many fear it will become a ‘full-time’ thing, but if the project takes off, that’s what you want. 

There will always be things that legal will object to, but guess what?  You can probably build an initiative around something you CAN talk about. A social media project doesn’t have to be a complete inside look at your organization and what’s going on. You can start small with something you can talk about and manage.

As for IT, many times we’re doing an end-around. Via the PR or marketing departments the entire project is built outside the IT department on an external server, i.e.  blog.companyname.com. This can be done on a separate server with MT, WordPress or via a hosted service like TypePad.

6.  What trends do you see happening in the enterprise regarding social media?

I see two things happening. The interest and buzz will die down somewhat, but the adoption will rise. What I mean is that it seems everybody is talking about it now, but for a large majority of organizations after they learn about it, much of the clamoring for education will go away. It will be on to the actual implementation and use.   

Remember the days when building a web site was guaranteed to get you on the front page of the business section? That cycle happened all over again with things like blogs, SecondLife, etc.  Launching a blog or another social media initiative is no longer buzz-worthy. However, if planned and executed correctly it can be effective.

As colleges begin to adapt their curriculum, the majority of graduates will have some exposure as well and that will change internal corporate culture.

7.  Can you take a stab at telling me how social media will impact the
enterprise over the next five years?

I think this blends elements from Questions 3, 4, 5 and 6.  Overall, I think you’ll see more adoption of the tools for a variety of purposes, both internal and external.  However the lasting effects are what the tools are helping facilitate and that is communication.  Increased communication and the humanization of corporations are a good thing in my book, some industries may disagree though.

8. Do you have any good case studies to share with me?

Well, Kami Huyse has already talked about the SeaWorld project that she and I worked on together earlier this year.

Kami handled the PR and outreach, while I worked on the technical aspects.

At Voce one of the most recent successes has been the Sony PlayStation Blog , which launched in June. The project started in early 2007 working towards a June launch. The primary goal was to establish a blog as a platform for conversation between SCEA and  PlayStation fans. 

Voce managed all aspects of the project from start to finish, including blog design and content planning, policy creating and internal protocol development as well as moderation and measurement. 

It’s been great to watch the level of commentary going on at the blog and see how a number of folks within SCEA are participating.

9. What advice do you have for SAP regarding social media and their global
business?

It starts with allowing your employees to engage others outside the workplace in a natural way. If they work in one specific field just let them be themselves online in external forums/communities.  Who better to know the intricacies of a culture or a situation, than those that actually live and work there.   

10. Additional comments?

It’s interesting to see how the answers get shorter as the questions go on, I noticed that trend with some of the other respondents.

Thanks for allowing me to participate and offering the BlogOrlando attendees a sneak peak at some of your findings.

Ad Revenue Heading Up at Yahoo

Om Malik has a report that says advertising revenue is over at Yahoo Search spiked last quarter at a rate nearly four times the web average of 1.7%.  My question is why? Ever since Jerry Yang took back the helm, word in the Valley is that Yahoo people are hopeful.

Hope is one thing, but there is no evidence  that I've heard of anything changing over there. Certainly there s no hint that Yahoo Search is gaining on Google. No one seems to have a clearer articulation of a Yahoo vision.  The beta remake of My Yahoo is nothing to blog home about.

So why is ad revenue spiking? I don't know.  It's a mystery.

SAP Global Survey: China's Isaac Mao Part 2

[Isaac Mao, Chinese entrepreneur. Photo by Shel]

Part 2 of 2

It is fitting that on a day that China's head of state is telling a political assembly that the Communist Party must stay in control, that I write about Isaac Mao who is doing a fine job of bringing entrepreneurialism into China. where he tells me, bloggers have little, if any, trouble bypassing the command and control policies of it's government.

Isaac is no Communist by any means. But he is a "sharist," and there is a difference. " In sharism, people have the same rights wherever they live.   "Under Communism, the state owns all property. In sharism I keep ownership but I like to share and it's up to me. Prosperity and ideas spread because people like to share," he told me last month when we met for a loing San Francisco lunch..

It's an interesting philosophy, one that he says he acquired from his mentor, Japan's Joi Ito, who first inspired Isaac to blog back in 2002. But it's also interesting because, like Joi Ito, about half of Isaac's focus is as a venture capitalist.

When we met,  Isaac saw no irony between sharism and venture capitalism. "VCs like to share wealth," he replied flatly.

While he is currently a partner in UCI Venture partners, Isaac was in the states to talk to denizens of Sand Hill Road.  He is raising a fund to start his own venture fund and is close to reaching his $50 million goal. In the US, that would be a miniscule amount, but in China, it will go a long way because costs in China remain so low, investment capital goes further.

His fund will focus on social media startups that can help to open China's culture to the rest of the world. But he wants to bring them a layer further. "I want to help them become profitable."

There are many venture capitalists in China. A good number of them are satellites of American private equity investors. Isaac is not worried. "I have the hometown advantage. I understand how China thinks," he said.

He also has experience 

Current investments under his management is called another.com  (temporarily closed), which delivers feeds through RSS and IM.

What's interesting about another.com is indicative of how the Chinese tech community is bypassing Chinese attempts to control social media. The server is located in the US. Users in China, can grab content from Six Apart blogs or CNN News.  Not only is the government unable to stop it, they cannot even see it, according to Isaac. Besides, the site breaks no censorship rules. He also asserts that Another.com is not attempting to defy government. "We are just a business trying to make money."

Isaac says that a high percentage of China's 20 million social media community members know how to access uncensored versions of Google using mime servers located outside of the country.

He expressed disappointment in Google because it self censors in China. "Our law does not require Google to remove content. They volunteer to do it it. They try to adapt to our hidden rules, which frequently change. Google goes along. Google loses. So do the Chinese people."

Throughout my interview with him, Isaac impressed me as fearless. He shrugs that off. He's just an entrepreneur and he sees great opportunity in China right now. Like in the US,  he sees his government, as an often inefficient, sometimes irritating obstacle, that can be dealt with.

Social media is flourishing in China. Twitter is exploding because the Chinese love it's simplicity.  The other half of Isaac's life is immersed in the Social Brain Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to building an "open source culture." It promotes free speech and shows people easy ways to bypass "the Great Firewall" of China censorship, which he also calls the Kung Fu Network.

Flickr had a half million Chinese users when a Chinese woman posted a Tiananmen Square photo in Germany. China's government responded, not by blocking Flickr, but by blocking every photo. So, in China, when you visit the popular photo site, you only see black squares where the photos would appear.

Social Brain is the numbers keeper and their most conservative way of counting says that bloggers and other social network participants have grown by at least twentyfold in the last two years and the rate of growth is accelerating.

Through the Social Brain Foundation, Isaac tries to experiment with different social media tool so that he understands the diversity. he uses wikis to allow bloggers to write whatever they want and have other bloggers answer. It is extremely collaborative with 50 of China's leading bloggers all chiming in to discuss censorship. They publish a weekly review of what bloggers were blocked. They link to thousands of Chinese bloggers. 

Isaac sees diversification of content as the growing trend among China's 20 million bloggers. Demographics are all over the board.  Blogger ages range from age 10 to over 70. The hottest topic is politics. A majority of people openly discuss social problems. There are significant chunks still absent, such as middle aged business people who do not blog in any great numbers.

Government is responding by imposing new regulations. It requires that bloggers register their full name, so Chinese bloggers respond by using aliases and nicknames. They know how to use fake ID numbers that cannot be traced back to the original senders and nearly all blogger do it.

The government has also ordered companies to share all content, and end user IP addresses including messages between

between bloggers. Government wants to see all messages. Isaac told me that most people don't even know the regulations and those that do ignore them.  The government cannot keep up with the billions of message, including IM, going about and they cannot track.

There was a time when Isaac was one of a small handful of prominent Chinese bloggers.  Now there are thousands and the number keeps growing. They cannot hide, but the sheer volume of content these prominent bloggers produce make it extremely difficult to suppress control or even discourage.

In short, as Isaac describes it, the government is pretty much screwed in it's attempts to suppress the free speech in the blogosphere.

"In China, we talk openly about the government system failure. People see a lack of balance between powers and society particularly at the grassroots. People are talking about their problems in public and those problems all track back to management and governance," he observed."

Where is it all going?  How will social media change China, and in so doing, the world in general. Isaac  see it filling the niche that government-blessed traditional media fails to fill.  We can reach more people through social media than traditional media in China can. He sees greater diversity of content and creator. Because search services like Google are failing the Chinese people, in his view, "We will use our own trusted resources in the future.

 

 

.

 

The Whole Global Neighbourhood

John Yunker has pointed me toward his newest ByteLevel effort, a country-coded map of all 245 countries of the world. It's a bit difficult to view even when you blow it up.  That may be why John is selling the map for about $30 through his site.

The larger the font, the more populous the country. When you look at it for a few minutes, your realize how vast and diverse the entire Global Neighborhood really is. You also realize how little of the world has broadband access, not to mention drinking water and safe haven from predators.

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Josh Hallett joins Voce Communcations

Josh Hallett, one of the savviest web strategists I know has announced he is taking a new path. He has joined Silicon Valley-based Voce Communications where he will become part of a four-member social media team.  They are also starting a new blog, called VoceNation.


I know both Mike Manuel and Andrea Weckerle on that same team and think very highly of them. We are in a transformative period for PR, where established best practices are becoming outmoded. Here is a team that has a first rate understanding of the new good ideas that will emerge into best practices.

Congrats to Josh, and congrats to Voce for bringing in one of the smartest guys in social media and the enterprise.

Josh is the subject of what will be the final interview for this phase of my SAP Global Survey.  It will appear in a few days, after I complete the second portion of the Isaac Mao reports.


Technorati Tags: voce, "Josh hallett, " hyku, "mike manuel, " "andrea weckerle"

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The ScobleShelShow. An Update

[Scobles, from top to bottom, Maryam, Robert & Milan. Photo by Shel]

We had a wonderful time with the Scobles at dinner last night, getting to meet the young and beautiful Milan for the first time. Robert and I got to talk about my spontaneous idea  to do a conference.

This is not the right time for Robert, what with the baby and commitments that extend six months out into the future.

Heh. But I could tell he was tempted. This is an idea that will not be abandoned, but it will be put aside for a while. When it does come back, the topic will not be restricted just to video, which is our passion du jour. It will be more expansive then that, so that the conference, once started would be an enduring examination of whatever social technology is on the edge.

We have a pretty good idea for the name: "Naked Conversations." We think it has some stickiness, how about you?

Stay tuned.  To paraphrase the California Governor. "We'll be back."

eShel. And the winners are ...

Well, midnight has come and gone and the winners of two hours of my social media consulting services are:

• Wayne Mulligan, who upped his own previous high bid to make it a nice round $500. Wayne
• Rob LaGesse, who upped his previous pre-emptive bid to $700
• Some kids in a country like Sri Lanka, Nepal, India, Cambodia, Viet Nam, Zambia and So. Africa. Our small donation goes a long way to giving these kids the books, bricks and mortar for schools where they will learn to read. Reading will change their lives and their cultures for the better.

Wayne & Rob, thanks to both of you. Please contact me at shelisrael1@gmail.com so we can work out details for both your contribution and how you would like to engage me.

I am honored that John Wood, the founder/CEO of RoomtoRead found us through Google Blog Alerts and dropped by to thank us. He would make a great blogger and I hereby extend an offer to him of free consulting to get a RoomtoRead blog started to tell the organization's remarkable story and raise more money. John, I am in San Carlos, and would be happy to visit you in the Presidio. I just won't run with you. I'm only good for 3-5 10 minute miles.

To anyone parents out there, RoomtoRead needs books suitable for children.  They have already donated over one million books to children in developing countries. When you kid ois through with them, please send your books to:

  Room to Read
  The Presidio
  P.O. Box 29127
  San Francisco, CA 94129

If you do not have any books suitable for children, then a gift of money--or even stock--is always appropriate.

I am not going to push this matter.  There are a great many charities and many bloggers have repeatedly demonstrated their passions and generosities for good causes. I think RoomtoRead is a particularly well run organization doing important work.  If helping them became a blog mime, I would be very proud. I've done my bit--at least for now.  I hope someone out there picks it up.

Let's pass the fundraising gauntlet from site to site. Just think of the miracles that would happen, if 75 million bloggers each chipped in a buck to do something good.

The eShel Auction will have three winners

The auction for two hours of my social media consulting has gotten interesting.

This began as a test for FaceBook Flyers, but that part has fizzled. I got nothing from my $15 investment for the 7500 flyers over three days.

But the competition right here, on this blog, has gotten heated up as we approach the deadline of midnight tonight, Pacific Daylight Time. Currently, Wayne Mulligan has become the high bidder at $450. You are still welcome and encouraged to outbid him, but I am only able to match Rob's locked bid.

But Rob LaGesse, who has been the opening and most persistant bidder, just emailed me to say he will be traveling in a couple of hours and unavailable to bid until after midnight. He said that he was prepared to go to $1,000 to make sure he won.

This posed a few problems. First, the money received will go to RoomtoRead, a third world literacy project that inspired me after I read, founder John Woods' wonderful book, "Leaving Microsoft to Change the World. Second, I am not quite able to match a $1,000 pledge, which I've promised to do. Third, the bids need to be transparent, so Rob's pre-emptive offer needs to be out there for everyone to see. Fourth, Rob's persistence has been more than a little flattering and I've started to root for him, when I'm supposed to be objective.

So here's what I'm going to do. Rob, you are locked in at $500.  Send me the check and I will match it and send it on to RoomtoRead. Wayne, you are high bidder right now at $450. If you win, I will not match you, but will forward you donation to RoomtoRead.  That will give them nearly $1500, enough to build about half a library in Sri Lanka or to educate a few Cambodian girls for more than an entire year. Each year of learning increases family income by over 10%.

These children, through this highly efficient charity will be the third winners and the most deserving.

If anyone out there wants to match what is currently Wayne's bid, please post a Comment. Anyone, who wants to add a contribution through this, you are more than welcome. Anyone who has books suitable for children, please ship them directly to RoomtoRead, but let them know Global Neighbourhoods sent you.

I'm keynoting in Spain at Thanksgiving

I don't often tout the places where I'm speaking.  I speak pretty often and after a while it makes the blog seem a bit self-serving. I have been invited to be one of two American keynoters at Evento Blog Espana,the other being the genius, Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter.  While he lives in my physical neighborhood of the world, Spain is likely to be the first time we actually meet.

Increasingly, my interest has been the international social media community. In fact, about half my readers now come from outside the US. I will be discussing my research for the SAP Global Survey, and perhaps filling in the gap  We did not interview any Spanish bloggers in the survey, but that will change when I get the opportunity to meet several hundred of them Nov. 23, 24, 25 in Seville, the beautiful Southern Spanish city. If you can possibly make it, please let me know.  I'd love to meet up with you.

Special thanks to Kami Huyse who recommended me for this honor. I only regret that new motherhood prevents her from joining me on stage. She was dazzling at the recent Measurement Summit.  Maybe next year.

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SAP Global Survey: China's Isaac Mao. Part 1

      

[Isaac Mao in a San Francisco Cafe. Photo by Shel]

China's Isaac Mao, according to Wikipedia, is "a venture capitalist, blogger, software architect, entrepreneur and researcher in learning and social technology. He divides his time between research, social works, business and technology." His main focus these days is as vice president of   and director to the Social Brain Foundation, advisor to Global Voices Online and several China-based Web 2.0 businesses."

He is also among the most inspirational people I've met through my lengthy and meandering social media journey.  It has been a very busy five weeks since I sat down for 150 amazing minutes with him in a San Francisco cafe. Yet, I still find myself flashing on our conversation and feeling myself elated by the pleasure of meeting him.

We had a history together.

I interviewed Isaac by email for Naked Conversations in June 2005.  It started as a pretty free flowing exchange of ideas and facts, but then, Isaac became more guarded in what he had to say about China, censorship and government.  When I asked him if he thought our conversation was being monitored, he answered crisply: "The policies of my government are well documented."

I got the message and backed off.  In December, I looked forward to meeting Isaac at Les Blog 2, where he was supposed to be speaking as well as Scoble and me. But he did not show up.  When I asked Rebecca MacKinnon, the former CNN China reporter and Global Voices China expert who had first introduced me to Isaac. She said told me her friend was having "a few difficulties with his government and it would be better if you left him alone for a while."

I did.

Then the book got published and my life got hectic.  I never circled back to Isaac.  But still I wondered what was going on and worried a bit. I kept checking his extremely popular blog and new he was posting regularly and, it seemed, in unfettered style.  But I never inquired.

So when I met Angus Lau at Office 2.0 and learned that Isaac would be in San Francisco, I immediately contacted him to request a meeting. Isaac, China's most successful tech entrepreneur was in the Bay Area to find partners for UCI, his new venture fund (we'll  get to that in Part 2).

I asked Isaac what had happened back in 2005.  I had wondered if somehow the conversations we had  held back then had hurt him with his government, a concept that he  found funny.  He had said nothing to me that he had not said in public many times. 

But it was about that time, that he realized the government was monitoring his calls.  He could hear them on the phone. "They just weren't good at spying quietly."

By the time Les Blogs 2 came along, he knew that the government was tracing his calls to see with whom he was meeting. That's when a car started following him around the streets of Shanghai. He knew it was a government car because the government always used the same kind of car for such purposes and the guys inside it looked like they came from central casting for surveillance."

Eventually, Isaac got pissed off. One day, he made a U-turn while walking down the street, going directly over to the car and knocked hard on its window.  The window rolled down and he demanded of the two men inside, "Why are you following me?" They looked at each other for a moment, rolled the window back up and sped off.

A short while later, the same two men came knocking on his apartment door and very politely asked to come in. They told Isaac they did not mean to bother him.  They had no evidence that he was doing anything illegal. "But we want more information on anyone Isaac knew," who were doing risky things to our government."

Isaac stood his ground.  "I don’t know anyone like that. It is not my interest. I don't want to improve our government. I just don’t want you to not harass me," he told them. They agreed, but politely requested he not to leave the country for a while. Isaac concurred, which is why he did not speak at Les Blogs 2.

The eavesdropping and shadowing trailed off. After all, Isaac is a spearhead in China's effort to join the global tech community, something China-a country that needs to create millions of new jobs each year--wants desperately. Also, his VC activity brings foreign dollars into China, creating jobs for young, bright Chinese. He may cause them some discomfort, but one would think China wants Isaac to keep on doing what he is doing.

What he says may make government officials nervous from time to time, but all things considered, they are likely to cut some slack to this highly visible, internationally respected member of the international social media community.

Over lunch in San Francisco, one of the world's most tolerant cities, Isaac told me it's different for China's real human rights activists. "They are totally harassed. It's rarely about getting thrown in prison, although that remains possible. They usually remain free, but their lives are made totally miserable every day of their life."

But he is convinced that the determination of his government to command and control over the country's 1.3 billion citizens is becoming about as effective as baling water from a boat with a lawn rake. We joked about movies such as the Bourne Identity that show government agents who are incredibly adept at listening, watching and eliminating citizens.

In real life, neither China's government, nor America's are as good as Hollywood would have you believe, although both governments cause a fair share of unnecessary human suffering.

But the numbers go against the governments. In the two years since we first talked, Isaac estimates the number of Chinese bloggers has exploded from 1.2 million to at least 20 million.  Others estimate that number is as high as 60 million, but Isaac discounts "blogs" that are diaries without RSS or Comments.

More and more these bloggers say whatever they damned please.

"Years ago, we had to self-censor, but more-and-more people are becoming more than Chinese. We are more now a part of the world because of social media and global business."

"This year," Isaac pointed out, "China had many problems [such as the lead paint in toys incident]. Government is more embarrassed by our own people, than from the outside, so they tried to tighten controls.  In the blogosphere, the more government tries to squeeze, the more people fight back. More and more bloggers are daring to speak out."

He said  government wishes it could remove "loud bloggers so the can say China is a 'harmonious society.' " He smiles and pauses.

"Bloggers go on the Internet and hack the word "harmony." In Chinese, you can change the word easily to mean 'River of Shit.' That's what we think of our government's 'harmonious society.' "

"If you want to be harmonious society you should respect diversity and free speech. You cannot sing harmony if all the people sing the same note."

[ Part 2 will examine how Isaac got started in social media, social media in China as well as it's amazing growth and strength in the last two years. We'll also have a bit more on how bloggers deal with censorship.]

Scoble warns me off NewTeeVee Conference. Maybe we should do our own.

[Israel & Scoble at Techcrunch party February 2005. We were a pretty good show.
Photo by Paula Israel]

If my knowledge of online video were to make me a pebble, Scoble's would make him a mountain. I was just scratching my head wondering if I should attend the recently announced NewTeeVee conference, dubious about the content and particularly for it's spotlight on Joost, a company whose once-shiney patina has appeared tarnished lately.

Then Scoble posted 40 good reasons why the conference is worth skipping. Among them:

1. Best practices of old on new. The best example of oldTV coming to newTV is what ABC.com is doing.
Ever watch Lost over there? I have and it’s the best stuff out there.
They are using technology from Move Networks. That stuff blows away
Joost. To me THAT is “new TV.”

2. The best advertising technology I’ve seen is CastFire. I don’t see them on the program. I do see Brightroll. That’s good, I have a 24-minute interviewNexidia showed me with the founder on my show.  a bleeding edge technology that’s already bringing new kinds of contextual ads to several TV stations’ local news shows.

3. The biggest innovator in streaming media is Chris Pirillo. The way he uses chat. His sponsorships. And the way he uses YouTube is very innovative yet he isn’t on the program.

Thanks, Robert.  Maybe when the NewTeeVee conference is going on, you and I can take a walk on the beach again.  Better yet,  maybe you and I should find a few sponsors and co-host a conference covering online video. There is most certainly a need for it. And what NewTeevee is serving up seems to fall far flat of what the public deserves.

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A Neighborhood Party

I'm just back from an annual neighborhood party. Each year, the people nearest me on my street in San Carlos have a pot luck event.  We start in one house for appetizers, then move to the next for a pot luck dinner. Attendees range from three-month-old babies to homeowner parents in their upper 80s. A bevy of kids seem to constantly swirl underfoot.  The men, all of whom promised to stay away from sports on TV, exchange score they are retrieving form Yahoo Sports via devices held under tables.

I have very little in common with most of these people, other than we live on the same street in the same town on the same planet and we all like where we live and we like having nice neighbors.

This is in contrast to what happens on this site, called "Global Neighborhoods," and at the other Internet places that I visit. There I share passions with people about a variety of topics.  The bonds are strong but we touch each other most of the time in a merely virtual way.

I had fun tonight, although at first I wanted to stay home and blog, a plan absolutely vetoed by my wife who spent kitchen time baking and conjuring up fine dishes to share. I had fun tonight, because there is still nothing like a face-to-face meeting.

And as much as I love social media, I am happy that this will probably be the case for a very long time to come.

Twittering my life away

It's been just about a month since I first joined Twitter. Jeremiah Owyang, Einstein's photographer, immediately asked me what took me so long, ignoring the fact that I got there faster than 6.67 billion other people.

I've sent 300 messages, am following 111 other people and have about 175 people following me. I keep receiving private Twittermail, but have not yet figured out how to reply. Twitter Direct let's me have a private conversation on it as well.

After a month, I love Twitter. I am probably using it more than Facebook these days. While Facebook has been a remarkably enjoyable tool for business, Twitter's concrete benefits remain less clear to me.

So far the most significant thing that has happened is that I discovered Jeremiah was in Boston at the same time I was and we got together because of Twitter. That was neat, but no one has asked me to consult or speak because of Twitter.

But Twitter seems to be the most intimate of social media--and the most social. I personally know most of the people I follow, and I know a good deal about the people I have not yet met face-to-face. I get to know about their lives. I watch the dynamics of my social network as it bops around the tangible world. It helps us stay current and close.

If, at some point, it helps me in business as Jeremiah says it will, that would be nice. If not, it is helping me know more about my friends and that in itself is very valuable.

Steve Rubel on the Devaluation of Traffic. What's relevant?

Steve has an interesting piece on the devaluation of traffic, noting the the Wall St Jornal doesn't send what it used to send and that most of us bloggers are getting traffic from topical search engine visitors.

He's right of course.

But there's another layer to the issue.  Any blogger who's being honest will tell you its heady when you get a traffic spike. But is that valuable? The most traffic this site ever received was when Scoble and I got into a really nasty brawl with the CTO of Amazon.com.
Thousand of people dropped by to watch three grown men having a slapfest in the mud.

But, in the long run, how much did that matter.  My traffic goes up and down sort of like the tide. It will go up today simply because I've had time to post for new pieces so far.

But drive by visitors are not valuable to me, except those of them who choose to stick around, join the conversations that go on here, tell others about it, add to my ersonal knowledge and/or wisdom. These folk are very relevant to me.

And their numbers seem to stay pretty constant.

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I feel so cheap

[Charlene Li (l) Facebook Flyer pioneer with Shirley Owyang, wife of Forrester Senior Analyst Jeremiah. Photo by Shel.)

The bidding for two hours of my time seems to have stalled at $300, half of which will go to Room to Read, a global children's literacy program. If my existing clients see this, they are going to demand a discount. I feel so unwanted.

This began as an experiment for Facebook Flyers.  Charlene Li started with an experiment that had astounding results.  But I noticed that hers was free. That seemed interesting, but flawed.  people respond to free better than they do to fee, as we bloggers can tell you.

So I tried this and not one bid came from my three days of 2500 Flyers each day. Not one.

Meanwhile, I'd like you to go look at Room to Read, an astounding organization founded by es-Microsoftie John Wood. Read his book, "Leaving Microsoft to Change the World." 

So I'm changing the deal.  Whatever the high bid is, I will match it and the money will go directly to Room to Read. If you want the tax deduction, then send me a check made out to Room to Read and I will match and forward it on."

In any case, the high bid stands at $300.  Bidding remains open until midnight Oct. 15 Pacific Time.

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's search for Alien Life

Microsoft co-founder billionaire Paul Allen has thrown the switch on a new telescope that will search for alien life in California, according to the BBC. I wonder if it is focused on Hollywood or San Francisco.

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Carriers--from Typhoid to Telephone

I was having yet another fight with the United Air guy on the phone, when I asked him how often he flies. "I have never flown," he responded, "but I assure you that I am well-trained by my employer." I'm not sure whether his employer is UA or a call center, but it is unwise to have someone support you who does not understand the problem.

That got me thinking about the word "carriers." We use it to describe vendors of insurance, telephones, cable data, and air travel. We also use the term for people who transmit sickness, often without suffering themselves. 

I'll save my thoughts on "going viral" for another day, but it seems to me increasingly that any business category using the word carrier seems to operate in the same way as someone who knowingly spreads a disease with an almost sociopathic disregard for customers.

in most cases and in most countries, the public is supposed to be protected by carriers.  Governments set up regulatory bodies, then appoint members of the industry being regulated to oversee it. The carriers get the protection, not the customers. The carriers get too charge to much for too little service.  The carriers get protected from customers who feel they are being abused and victimized, yet have little or no affordable recourse.

In my country, I think this is what our current president meant when he vowed to get government out of people's lives. It's enough already.  Anyone who travels has an ugly story.  Most people can tell you of horrendous behavior from insurance companies. Phone companies charge you over a buck a minute for an international call, when the cost of time on the line is near zero.

I'm mad as Hell.  Unfortunately, I have little choice but to stand for it.

Hugh, methinks you're too high on Microsoft

Hugh writes about why he likes getting adverse notes from customers of his client Microsoft. This reminds me of what I used to hear from Scoble when he was in the company. Hugh says he knows these adverse comments will be heard inside Microsoft and seems to believe that this will invoke change.

He thinks people want Microsoft to change. I think that is the way it used to be, but no longer is. For 20 years people and companies have hoped that Microsoft would make, faster, more stable, more secure and easier operating systems. Longhorn was supposed to be just that.  Longhorn became Vista and theconsensus is that Vista really sucks. Maybe servocepack 1 will fix it.  Maybe not.

Most of us just don't care. We have more options than we ever had. The Macintosh is pricey but wonderful.  Linux OS is slightly geeky for the non computer professional, but s worth the learning effort because it's a cleaner OS.

I'm a big fan of Hugh. And like him, I've met a great number of bright, dedicated, honest, hard-working people inside the company. At the top of the company, are two pioneers who have achieved amazing things in their lifetimes. But in between them is a layer of complacent, self-satisfied upper managers who have lost any sense of innovation, pioneering or user loyalty.

They are not Blue Monsters, but graying bureaucrats. Microsoft has already lost the end user. Enterprise customers are slower to go away.  There's too much legacy.  IT considers Microsoft machines the devil they know.

But now it's up to Microsoft, because the rest of us can now live without them and their sluggish, late-to-market software. Microsoft needs to restore it's former sense of urgency. It needs to do this not for us, but for their own survival in years to come.






Technorati Tags: microsoft, hugh macleod

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The 1st Malaysian to visit Space

Sheikh Maszaphar Shukor, a Malaysian doctor is about to join NASA's Peggy Whitson and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko for a ride on a Russian Soyuz rocket fired off from Kazakhstan.  They're headed for the space statition where the Muslim doctor will spend nine days according to the BBC.

Talk about a Global Neighborhood this one takes the cake.  I love this story on so many levels. First is that Malaysia, a country who still had an agrarian economy until about 25 years ago has just entered the Space Age.  Shukor will conduct a few medical experiments. He may be taking one small step for space exploration but it is a giant leap for Malaysian children.  Through him, they will see far greater possibilities than they would without him.

I just love the ecumenical nature of the space station program. From behind my rsy glasses, it seems to me to be the way the world should be--people of varied hues, religions, nationalities sharing information, collaborating, working together to go where no one has previously gone.

I've written this statement before. My generation was supposed to give you world peace, but we failed.  All we did was give you the internet, a walk on the moon and maybe two Boston Red Sox championships.

So, if you are like most people--younger than me,my generation is leaving you some nifty tools. Maybe you can take it from there.




Technorati Tags: Malaysia

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Facebook Flyers: Bid on two hours of my time

The ubiquitous Jeremiah (he's down to one name) has Tweeted that Charlene Li has experimented with Facebook Flyers and received huge results. So I thought, I'd give it a try. I am offering two hours of consulting on social media to the high bidder. It will be by phone or webcam if geography is involved. I also didn't say how to contact me, but a comment here or emailing me would do the trip.

I'll give half of what you bid to Room to Read, my favorite cause.

4 Conferences. Condensed Reviews

I often say that there is nothing in social media that can compete with a face to face meeting.  That may best explain the sudden abundance of real world gatherings.  In Silicon Valley, you could attend a conference or meet up every day of the year, except a few major holidays, when we all gather with family and Twitter under the table.

What impresses me is both the quality and diversity of the events I've been attending or reading about. I have been on the road for the past two weeks, attending enough events to make me a presidential candidate.  At some point, I decided to stop posting, stop videoing and spend my time, meeting, listening, chatting enjoying and now, reflecting.

A great deal has already been written, video blogged and clicked about TechCrunch 40, DEMOfall, BlogOrlando and the IPR Measurement Summit.  I'm going to try to avoid repeating what has already been said, but I'd like to try to add a bit new to the conversations, mostly with personal overview observations.

[TC40 co-founders Mike Arrington & Jason calacanis w/Pat Phelan. Photo by Shel]

TechCrunch 40.  A splitting amoeba

TechCrunch 40 was an uneven but important first attempt that I think proved something significant.  The social media community is now sufficiently viable to split away like an amoeba from the older, larger "technology community, just as the PC industry once stepped away from the big iron culture of mainframes.

More than a thousand people attended TC 40.  The producers boasted that more than 700 companies competed to present. Next year, I will wager that the producers are likely to show less bravado in competing with  other conferences and to pay more attention to the details required to produce a professional event. I predict that TC40 will emerge as  a wildly successful conference and will have a long and successful run.

[YourTrumanShow on the Demo Dais. Photo by Shel]

DemoFall: An era of refinement

As has happened almost each of the 17 times I have attended a DEMO, some pontificator had to ask, "Did you see a company that was world-changing," and as is almost always the case, the answer is "no." When I opined that you almost never do, a venerable participant mentioned TREO, which I recall was at DEMO a couple of years after the wheel.

That is not the point of DEMO.  And editors, or investors for that matter, who think they can pick winners, based on six-minute on-stage bites have more arrogance than brains, or so it seems to me.

This year's pontificator is a well known editor.  When I told him his question missed the point was to get a sense of the state of the industry and that the point this year was that that DEMO is the best place to spot trends on where the industry is headed. I told him, that we were seeing companies this year, whose leadership was more experienced than last year; companies whose business models came close to making sense. This, to me, indicates that we are now completing a period of prolonged and significant innovation and are now entering into an era of refinement.

The editor thought the phrase Era of refinement was worth a few guffaws at my expense
He used the line to make several sarcastic quips, seemingly intended to be at my expense.   I did not bother to argue. There's no sense trying to convert atheists.  They just never see the light even when it explodes in their face.

Personally, I'm a sucker for the sort of pioneer periods that seem to now be closing off. They are much mre exciting and cerebrum stretching than refinement eras. But refinement is necessary if you want mainstream endorsement; if you want an enterprise to adopt.  refine invents nothing,m but it gives you that prolonged better-faster-cheaper that changes the qorld one fiscal quarter at a time.

[Josh Hallett hosts NASA blogger tour. Photo by Shel]

BlogOrlando, normalization and hope

Josh Hallett started this regional conference last year when 89 people attended.  Located just about as far from Silicon Valley as you can go in the US in geography and perhaps culture, this year's BlogOrlando had more than 300 registered attendees and confirmed to me that social media is normalizing, that everyday people are working on using the tools to do things that technology pioneers never envisioned. And they are succeeding. Josh did a spectacular job of making outside visitors aware of the various Orlando attractions. A blogger tour of NASA  was astounding. I was seemingly well-received as keynoter and Chris Heuer was stupendous in his closing remarks, but the useful, thoughtful, breakout sessions on topics relevent to PR, media and a variety of topics in the day-long unconference delivered the useful "how to" payloads that people attend in the hope of getting. Attendees walked away with real and specific information that, hopefully,  will be useful in everyday situations. I found people, less fearful, less hostile than in previous experiences and already entrenched in solving social media challenges at work. My most enjoyable moments came during lunch, which I got to chat with two high school attendees, one of whom has already started his own business. I have great hopes for this emergent generation that reads few newspapers but share global personal networks.

[Lobster dinner for 100 at KD Paine's farmhouse. Photo by Shel]

Measurement Summit.  There time will come.

The 5th annual Measurement Summit, founded by KD Paine, New Hampshire's answer to Perle Mesta.  The audience of over 100 folk come from corporate communications, PR, academia and measurement.  As much as TechCrunch 40, was focused on journeying where no one has previously gone, this was the venue for those who were passionate about quantification. There full participation in social media has not yet come, but it will. These are people concerned with standards and best practices, which inevitably come into play once innovation slows.  These are the people that help the enterprise feel safe. The highlight for me was not the conference, but KD's amazing hospitality. We were her house guests.  We arrived on the 55 Photogenic riverside acres Durham NH parcel her family has held for 101 years. She wasn't home when we arrived at the stupendous home she built a few years ago after a fire destroyed the original in 1999. People just seem to wander in and out of this house which may never be locked. KD hosted a lobster bake for over 100 Measurement Summit people one night.  Two days later she would host her own birthday party for about 50, then she would be off to speak in Tulsa a couple of days later. I get to speak about the cult of generosity. It seems to me that KD is the poster child for it.

It has been an amazing few weeks.  I've met hundreds of people, literally. I've been on three of the four corners of the US.  Talked with people ranging in age from 16 to 74. I have learned a great deal more than I taught.  There is some sense of gratification on my part as well as a realization.

For two years, I've called myself a social media evangelist. I do not think the mission has been met.  Like the farmer, KD has turned out to be, all we really need to do now is step back and let things grow.

Back home and happy about it.

Unpacking the final step to decompression.

I don't know what I enjoy more--the thrill of travel or the relief of being home in my own bed with my pets and life.

As is often the case, early on this to week trip to DEMOfall, BlogOrlando, the IPR Measurement Summit, upstate New Hampshire in autumn and Boston in sunshine, I stopped blogging.  Sometimes I prefer to live life than blog about it. I'd rather spend time walking a mountain trail with my wife, then leaving her to speak to you through blog, video, FB or Tweet.

Sometimes it's best to live life.

Now, I have much catching up and I will start posting later today hopefully. I am sorry that I did not join the great conversations at BlogOrlando and Measurement.  But this way, I have the pride of having the last word.

Need to do a few things, then I'll start sharing a few parting thoughts.

Details at 11.