The Post Money Value

Birthday Greetings Technorati Style

It's just about a wrap for Sunday but before I go, just a little more research out for the blog search engines. 

A few posts ago, I offered up some birthday greetings to the internet's very own Doc Searls.

On a whim I checked, Technorati (Sorry Blake, I pinged Icerocket, I tried, I really did) to find that I am the only person with "Happy Birthday Doc Searls" in any blog posting. 14 million blogs? 1.3 billion links? Just one link? Me? People, People, People.

[Update: I checked Icerocket just after midnight, it now has the entry.]

Linux bloggers unite! Show em the love. It's coming up on midnight here in Toronto so how about the rest of the world get with it and get a blog entry out there with those four simple words so North America will follow throughout the day.

Void where prohibited, see dealer for details, your milege may very, blogrolls are standing by.

Have a great week everybody!

Oh sure, NOW you tell me.

Thinking of having kids? Wanna practice first? No, you can't try out mine, too late, outta da house!

However, there is Eccky coming to you this quarter it appears.

About now, I really wish I could draw like Hugh... or Doug Savage or this guy/gal.

Blast from the past #1

Fred Wilson does his MP3 of the week thing and Brad Feld is doing term sheet terms of the when he blogs em thing. 

With those two categories taken, I present to you: Blasts from the past. Some of the more colorful and interesting things said way back when. 

Digging through the billions of fun things people have typed into the virtual knowledge base is great fun on a Sunday evening vs. watching reruns.

First up: Dave Winer circa 1994.   Those were the days. The Internet craze was just cranking up and Dave, via DaveNet, was in full force with pleas, predictions and feelin the love.

Dec 8th, 1994:

“I LOVE ARETHA!

I've been listening to lots of Aretha Franklin these days. How about exclusively? Yeah. Some great music. Think! Think about what you're trying to do to me! She just wants respect. Sock it to me. She don't mind company, because company is all right with her, every once in a while.”

He had a some good rants:

“WHO NEEDS ELECTRONIC MONEY?

Does the Internet have to become a system for commerce in order for it to have a place in our world? Can you imagine a world that the Internet is *not* part of? In other words, can you imagine a global network that isn't compatible with TCP/IP? That doesn't have webs and web browsers? Shoot! No way. Will it keep growing? Of course. What's the big deal anyway?

The greedy VCs want to make money, as usual. It's their job. I suppose somebody's got to do it. But does it *have* to be thru electronic shopping? No way!

How about this for a pre-internet plea?

“Does anyone know a stock broker who is online, has an email account, and checks it regularly? If so, please give him or her my email account (dwiner@) [ed: I removed the full address but he does have it here] I want to do some deals at the end of the year. I'm going to have to play phone tag with my broker for the next week or so to get the info I need to make my decision. Why can't I do this via email? Because stock brokers don't have email accounts!

We already have a net that's really good at connecting people to people. We just need more people. And with more people, we're going to want some more software and some new services. [There's hope for the VCs!]

I predict that the first stock broker you can email with is going to make a few million in commissions the first year he or she is online.”

And there was this last little excerpt that caught my eye:

“THE NET-NET OF THE NET FOR THE GREEDY VCS

Focus on building services and software that make it easy for the *people* of businesses to be connected with the people of the world. It has to be much easier to set up a new service. We need a Compaq of ISPs, and no, I don't believe AT&T and PacBell, etc are going to figure out how to do this on their own.”

Compaq, eh? We know how that story turned out as do we know about AT&T. 

Anyway, there you go, a little blast from the past from Dave “still diggin” Winer.  You can read the entire post here.

Meet Bob Click "The Dealsguy"

Blogs. Podcasts. OPML. RSS. AJAX. Ruby. Power to the people, world is flat, communications fast -n- furious, don't piss off Jeff Jarvis and Happy Birthday Doc Searls.

Right, got all that? Whew!

One other thing: Don't forget Bob Click.

In the good old days, there were user groups. Remember? A bunch of people got together on common computer interests, had local vendors in to show off the latest stuff, lots of fun and few bucks to cover the brewskis.

Since around 1994, a fine fellow named Bob Click has been authoring a column for user groups around the country. In his column, he pulls together various "deals" for user group members. Oreilly, for example, has been giving user group discounts on book purchases for years. Bob pulls this stuff together and sends off the document to editors of user group newsletters for inclusion. Labor of love.

Bob is also the president of Greater Orlando Computer User Group which has been around since 1976. Bob's first computer was a CompuAdd 286.

I bring all this up as friendly reminder that for the personal touch, for people that really care, really nice people: User Groups.

They still exist and are flurishing despite the instant message, email, no touch, friction free, world we are living in.

When you're thinking of rolling out your product or service and want a true 'smoke test' and a true cross section of users, give a shout to the User Groups around the world, starting with Bob 'Dealsguy' Click.

You can find Bob here.  Excellent.

Virtual Earth = Another Free Microsoft Lesson

You've all seen Microsoft's Virtual Earth, seen all the postings, watched the commentary about Scoble and his hands being tied re: pre-announcing products, etc, etc.

There are nuggets in this beta that can help you with your own launch.

Missing Features

Typing in Toronto gets you to Toronto, OH not Toronto, Canada. The map moves off where I was to this Ohio location which is annoying (map should stay put until I change it). Clearly there is a gaping hole called Canada when it comes to searching for locations. Beta. BE-TA, I got it.

The Virtual Earth Team said they were starting with the US and then expanding. No problem for me. I'm leaving my favorites set for Google maps until such time, etc, etc..

There is no place in Virtual Earth or the developer site, or the blogs, etc, where there is a list of what's coming and a place to sign up for notification when the feature I'm looking for is available. Something as large as country search does not fall into pre-announcing features, FUD, and all of that stuff.

Lesson: Acknowledge what's obviously missing and offer a friction free (RSS/Email) way for me to sign up and get notification of the improvements I care about.  The general blog for Virtual Earth isn't going to cut it because tips for searching phone numbers aren't useful until I can use the product in Canada. So, very focused announcements or the like is what I need.

Feedback/Community

If you click the community option on the main page, you get a window with three core things: Live Voting on a topic, useful links, and the "send us your feedback" boxes.

The feedback boxes limit you to 1000 characters. Normally, I'd ignore this but these days, its worth the rant. MSN's Messenger has a limit in chat, Skype doesn't. A simple text field where you've asked me for feedback should let me type in War and Peace if I so choose.

Limiting this to 1000 characters? Memo to coder: This is not the way to a 4.0 review. Lame.

Additionally, after you submit your feedback (I mentioned the Toronto thing in mine, BTW) you get a note saying "Your feedback has been submitted to the Virtual Earth Team. We're updating Virtual Earth regularly so check back often."

Bzzzt. Wrong, thanks for playing.

First, we forget our manners? T H A N K  Y O U was missing. Yeah, roll your eyes.  To me, tho, it is core culture. Saying thank you to the person who typed something in should be in the DNA.  It should be fixed immediately, two words, no meetings required. Fix this.

Second, check back? I'm a busy guy, you're a busy women, we're all busy.  How about you let me know when what I want/need/like is available.  See earlier lesson.

Lesson: Remember to say thank you, the customers pay the bills.

Lesson: Make it easy to induce me to come back and try again.

[Bonus Product Management Lesson: If you have some weird 1000 character limitation of your own and the product manager says "yeah, we do that because it keeps people from rambling.." fire them as they've red lined your arrogance meter.]

Put them back on the Treadmill

When you decide to go mano -a- mano with your competition, one of the biggests things you can do is force the other guy into reactionary mode and keep em there.

In search, for example, Google has been kicking the stuffing out of any and all by rolling out features, betas, etc, and forcing others to react to them. For the most part, high level, it's safe to say they own the space (today) and others are reacting to them (today).

Virtual Earth has a number of things you simply can't do with Google Maps. Killer features, amazing (whoa, cool) items that blow away the competition.

Where? I dunno either and that's the point.

The Welcome box talks about "slick new features" with three "pointers" to get you started. One of those pointers is browse the help box. Do that and you get the help box which has, well, help.

Hmm, help on this scratch pad thing...

The scratch pad is pretty slick, actually. It allows you to grab a whole bunch of things, locations, directions, places, whatever into one email (or blog) message. It's very well done. And (lemmie just check to make sure) you can't do this in google's map offering.

You can't today. But if enough customers like it in Virtual Earth, you can bet your latte, the google kids will be all over it, thus making them react to Virtual Earth.

Lesson: Make sure you have a cystal clear "you have to phreaking try this" message about your hot stuff. Get your customers to high five and blog about it because that's what your competition will react to. Force them onto a treadmill of reactions to you and keep them there.

Nits? Maybe. I have a hunch tho, as all of us get continually bombarded with demands on our time and wallet, it will be the little things that matter, big company or small.

[Random Side Note]

I said to my friend as I was finishing this entry up, hmm, I should fool around and place a bet with the blogging world to see how long, if ever, it takes to get the thank you thing fixed.

She says, dead seriously:

"Naah. You do that, Scoble gets it fixed, blogs it, you both have smiley faces, and you end up getting slashdotted for being involved in a giant conspiracy to fake like Microsoft cares about customers which only ends up in Six Degrees sending you a bill for Bandwidth overage thus depriving me of making you pay for lunch."

<me:blank stare>

Check, please!

Delta Airlines = Big Brother (Thanks!)

Are you a massive privacy advocate? Big Bro on the net keeping you up at night?

Don’t read this.

I was getting a frequent flyer ticket for my sister in-law on Delta’s web site.  They’ve upgraded the web site and it is well done. You can redeem miles, etc, right there on the site.  I’m done selecting the flights and, hmm, a bit of a snag, it thinks the flights are for me not her.  Options are limited so, what the heck, I’ll call the SkyMiles desk.

After punching in my account and pin number, a nice lady comes on:

Delta – “Delta Airlines, Mzz Jones, how may I help you”

Me – I’d like to redeem some miles for a ticket.

“Would that be from CHA via ATL to YYZ on Aug 10th, returning on the 18th?

“Uh, yeah, how’d you know?”

“It’s on my screen. That’s where you currently are on the web site.”

“Excellent. Can you just change the name to [Sister In-Law] and issue it?”

“Sure…. Done. Window or Aisle Seats?”

“Aisle all the way, plz”

“Done. I’ve e-mailed you the ticket and your trips have been updated if you need to get to it. Anything else I can do for you?”

Amen, Amen, and Amen. 

That is exactly and totally and completely how it is supposed to be done. 

Yup, Big Delta Bro watching my moves on the web site. Go for it. In fact, a live help window with sharing to complete the transaction would be just fine.  Web cam to see my credit card? Sign me up.

Perfect.

LinkedIn - You want to do what?

A few years ago, I started messing around with LinkedIn. I thought the social networking might have some interesting opportunities and, what the heck, I’m a sucker for this stuff.

My results have been mixed. On the one hand, I’ve gotten some deal flow out of it, via recommendations but on the other hand, LinkedIn has it’s own version of SPAM that can be really annoying.

Recently I wanted to get somebody off my list that I had accidently put on. That connection resulted in lots of dumb email, pitches, etc.  I went to the web site to deal with this and, hmm, there’s no way to do it? Naaah, it’s 2005, everybody has a delete key. Well, almost everybody.  If you want pretty much any changes as is connections, duplicate accounts, settings, etc, you have to fill out an electronic form and get customer service to do it for you. 

I filled out the form and, 24hrs later, this person was gone.  I’ve asked why this is a manual process because it just seems so lame and broken.

Weird as it breaks the rule of letting your customers do what they want, when they want in a friction free manner.  I suspect there will be a PR crafted, we want to give our customers personal love kinda answer but it still seems lame, sorry.

(Thanks, Sandy, 199 it is!)

Skype Fun

I forgot to post this after going to TEDGLOBAL. Skype gave out the Skype packaged product which is really well done. Lots of people smiled thinking about the poster child for David stomping on Goliaths all over the world resorting to good old fashioned packaged products.

You can click on any of these photos to see the larger ones as a full set.

www.flickr.com

The package is designed to be split in half with you keeping one half and the other being given to a friend. You get a CD, Microphone, stickers, and some free SKYPEOUT time in each section.  It’s a very nice packaged product.

Skype continues to roll on with the ability to now call toll-free numbers from a number of countries directly from Skype.  You can read about that here. 

New PR Choices

Okay, you’ve ready to rock with your hot new product and you need to do a little PR.

You have choices.

The outside world via Gizmodo:

“Nothing makes my life better than sitting with the family watching hours upon hours of home VHS footage of me making my first poopy. Oh those were the days, pooping when I wanted—heck, where I wanted. The VHS tape labeled "poop" will forever have its place in my heart, representing my childhood fecal freedom. JVC, however, is looking to rid the world of poop VHS tapes by going straight up digital with their new hard drive based camcorders.”

Or

The corporate world via JVC:

“NEW YORK, June 14, 2005 – JVC today announced a new series of camcorders that eliminates the need to carry tapes, discs or any media at all, yet can record up to seven hours of DVD movie-quality video. They also record more than 10.5 hours at a quality level comparable to a DVD camcorder’s 30-minute mode.”

I suspect that pretty much sums up why Hugh MacLeod left Madison Avenue.

Patent Wars IV - Revenge of the Brin

I wonder when the corporate “do no evil” happy talk rolls into a corporate PR statement about protecting our intellectual property.

Via IO Error, I read that Nelson Minar of Google has filed a patent on targeted ads in RSS feeds. The patent application number is 20050165615. This was filed in December of 2003.

The abstract reads:

“Incorporating targeted ads into information in a syndicated, e.g., RSS, presentation format in an automated manner is described. Syndicated material e.g., corresponding to a news feed, search results or web logs, are combined with the output of an automated ad server. An automated ad server is used to provide keyword or content based targeted ads. The ads are incorporated directly into a syndicated feed, e.g., with individual ads becoming items within a particular channel of the feed. The resulting syndicated feed including targeted ads is supplied to the end user, e.g., as a set of search results or as a requested web log. Embedding of targeted ads into syndicated feeds and/or user response to the embedded ads is be tracked in an automated manner for billing. The automated targeting and insertion process allows ads to be kept current and timely while the original feed may be considerably older.”

[Note: IO Error pointed out that the patent application was done in Nelson’s name and he is a Google engineer, hence the leap. It’s possible it’s a different Nelson Minar in which case the south of France is a great place for the yacht during the spring.]

[Note 2: I hope Dave Winer has some prior art somewhere in all the Userland stuff. Dave, yer kidding, this can’t be happening right?]

Q&A with the next generation

I often get invited to classes at the various universities around town to give a talk, sit on a judging panel or be the entertainment for the evening.  The other day, I was asked to speak with a group of technical students in a summer group getting some business briefings. Rounding out the minds, I suppose. It was a small group of about 18 students and my time lasted for about 45 minutes.

The Q & A wasn’t recorded (my bad) so this is off my notes and what stuck out in my mind.

Q: Is Slashdot important?

A: Heh. Like I’m gonna take that bait. If you’re asking if I think, as a technical person, there is value in reading the various top line entries in slashdot, I’d say yes.  If you are asking me if I think wading through all the debate, <fill in> bashing is useful, not really. I would not, as a business person, give slashdot commentary as much weight as say a search in blogland on a particular topic. But that’s my personal opinion based on what data I need in my daily life.

Q: What’s the best conference a student can attend to learn from?

A: Depends on what you do. As a technical person, looking to mind meld with other technical people, Reboot and/or Gnomedex.  As a business person trying to see what’s out there, what’s happening on the various technology fronts, CeBit in Germany is a good choice.  Reboot/Gnomedex are good choices because very smart people spend time with people getting started or wanting to learn.  Both places have an amazing sensitivity to mixing the speakers with the audience.

Q: After reading your blog and the various hits you’ve placed on Microsoft and Robert Scoble, would you hire him to promote a product?

A: I’m surprised you think they were hits, debates more like it and lots of smart people chiming in.  On hiring Robert, no I wouldn’t because that is not what he does and I’d be disappointed that at the end of his MS run, that’s all people thought he did.  I’d recruit Hugh Macleod for promotional work because he is amazing at it and worth 10x whatever he gets paid.  Robert? Change agent. If I was running some company, I’d hire em as a change agent, give him a contract, shields, a video camera, and stir stick for max shit disturbing. His style, approach and results speak for themselves but he’s not the guy holding up a can of Jugo Juice saying, “mmm tastes like chicken..” Not his thing.

Q: Do you think Google will beat Microsoft?

A: No. I think both companies will be successful with you being the winner.  You’ll be able to “beat” somebody else because those two companies offer up so many opportunities for people to innovate and make money.

Q: Would you go back to work for Microsoft?

A: No. Different company today looking for different skill sets.

Q: Why do you quote/point to Scoble so much?

A: He’s a good target. More seriously, tho, it’s a function of the new world we live in.  Because of blogging and transparent communications we have today, famous people (or people who are ‘public’) are in a much better position to show you all sides of an issue. This also means you get to see the good, bad, ugly, smart, etc. When Scoble, Doc Searls, Dave Winer, Om Malik, Seth Godin or any of the more public people are involved in any issue, it’s always educational for starts ups and business in general. I try to call stuff out from that perspective.  So, for example, if there is an incident/issue with Microsoft that has Robert fighting the good fight, you can get a front row seat to the action. Besides raw entertainment, there is usually good educational/life lesson stuff happening which is what I hope I’m pointing out.  I recognize it can look like shameless sucking up but I assume that so long as I’m making a valid point about the conversation, people will get it and not get hung up in keeping score of whom I’m talking about.

Q: Do you make money on your blog? Do you think anybody can make money on blogging.

A: No, it cost me money just like most people.  I believe blogging can be a part of an overall business that can make money, yes. Straight blogging, with ad revenue and, maybe subscriptions or donations of some sort? Could be. Making money for some people means that little extra resulting from selling the old stuff on Ebay so 50 bux in ad revenue will matter to some people.

Q: Do most VC firms have a blog?

A: I don’t believe so. I believe VC firms are like any other business. Some are trying, others are watching to figure it out, and others don’t feel the need.

Q: What was your favorite job?

A: Prior to being in the VC business? Being in the U.S. Air Force on the AWACS aircraft. I loved it beyond words.  VC gig is the best tho…

Q: Worst job?

A: Bagger at Safeway in Richardson, Texas. Job consisted on taking groceries out to cars after bagging them, stacking dirty, sticky,soda empties a mile high, and using a buffer to polish the floors after the store closed. I ran the buffer into a shelf really hard and took out half the canned vegetable aisle. Awful job.

Q: How many blogs to you read regularly?

A: 25 and I have a some keyword searches that result in additional feeds that I scan for good stuff.

Q: Do you look for an MBA when funding a company?

A: It’s not a pre-requisite to get in the door, no.

Q: Do you think people in 5 years will all have a PDA of some sort that will provide messaging, video, etc, in an always on state?

A: No. 10 years for 60+ percent penetration for edge networks to be deployed enough with price points down where it is just normal. That plus devices in general getting 30fps video, streaming music, GPS, etc.  10+ for main stream.

Q: Favorite device?

A: RIM/Blackberry.

Q: Why?

A: Rock solid, does the things I need, features I need, without the overhead.

Q: Do you think there is a market for personal RFID jamming devices?

A: No. Too many myths about passive RFID tags/readers floating around.

It was great fun and I always appreciate the opportunity to talk to the next generation of credit card spending consumers as well as the work force of tomorrow.

Memo to Dell - Jeff Jarvis does matter

I work in an office tower with standard food courts all filled with people like me; complaining about prices but too lazy to make our lunch at home.

I happened to be sitting across from a couple of bank tellers from TD Canada Trust, the bank in our building.  These two ladies I'd seen before so I knew where they worked.

Lady one: I was going to buy a new Dell but did you hear about Jeff Jarvis and the absolute hell he is going through with them.

Lady two: Yeah, I know the IT guy told me that the cobler blog was recommending we stay away from Dell.

Okay, after you are done laughing at this; laughing at Scoble's name being mangled, laughing at two random bank tellers talking about some one line blog entry about some guy pissed off about his Dell experience; after you are done: Pay Attention.

I'll accept that an IT guy would be reading scoble's blog.  I'll even accept the IT guy offering an opinion which, randomly, I overheard.

The pay attention part: Lots of people (Dell?) are making the assumption that "average people" or "the masses" don't really see/read blogs so, we take a little heat and move on.

Big mistake.

That interchange probably cost Dell at least two sales and lord only knows how many over time. And those lost sales are coming from a feedback system that didn't matter a few years ago.

This "blogging stuff" is moving mainstream seriously fast. You and your management team had better be watching what's going on because Jeff Jarvis and Aunt Mildred both have blogs and both can call BS on whatever BS you are serving up.

[Side note: I don't think Scoble ever said don't buy Dell as the Redmond OEM Mafia would have him killed. ;-)]

Delta and The "internal" Memo

If you have over 10 employees, here's a newsflash: There is no such thing as an internal memo.  In reading about Delta Airlines and the stock drop yesterday, many news outlets mentioned the CEO's 'internal' memo that went out.

You can read the full memo here. Right. My point exactly. You aren't a Delta Airlines employee, I'm not and neither are CNN's crack team of reporters.

This is 'released' which causes the stock to tank, resutling in the New York Stock Exchange calling the company with "yo, boyz, what's up with the stock". The company then says it's not our policy to comment on rumors or stock movements.

I'm not sure who to laugh at first. The company for calling this 'internal' and then releasing it? The NYSE for being clueless and not being able to figuring out what's happening? The reporters who promote this stuff as 'internal' deep dark secrets being unearthed for all to see?

Over the years of working for dah man, being dah man, and now funding dah men/ladies, I've learned a few interesting things.

- Office Politics generally start above 5 people. Below that, not enough people to get really rolling.

- Above 10 people, somebody isn't happy. There are always people complaining, thinking they know better, and generally not part of that outward happy face the customers (hopefully) see.

- When you read "we are still in the process of implementing our transformation plan" vs. "there's still a bunch of shit to do", the PR department wrote the "internal" memo and it's meant for public consumption.

Doc Searls, Robert Scoble, or Jason Calacanis (can't remember which) made the observation at Reboot7 that companies (like Delta) would do far better to just cough up the facts, blog style vs. these endless reams of PR dribble dressed up as "internal memos."  Amen.

Amazing stuff to watch.

IceRocket's secret weapon

Fortunately, in my little corner of the world, I don't have to worry about being fodder for slashdot.  This of course means that I can reveal secrets without somebody tossing this on slashdot and driving my costs up.

Enter one Blake Rhodes, CEO (and I assume Founder) of IceRocket. Blake is clearly a Renaissance man. A man longing for the days of yesterday when men tipped their hats to the ladies and there was real silverware in coach.

A few posts ago, I mentioned IceRocket in a posting of mine. I said some nice things, nothing too gushing, a slight tweak, and generally ok.

Within a day, I got a nice piece of mail from Blake simply saying thank you for the mention and encouraging me to write with suggestions for improvements.

Nice, I thought.

For a split second, I also thought, yeah, I'm somebody, oh yeah, that boy knows to be suckin up to Mr. Influence. I sobered up quickly and realized two fairly simple things.

First, it takes all of a nano-second to set up a vanity search. So all mentions of IceRocket and/or Blake Rhodes are going, non-stop to Blake.

Second, there is no way Blake did research on me, my blog, my dog or anything to determine if I was worthy of his email.

I then did a quick search on a bunch of blogs mentioning IceRocket and emailed a bunch of those folks to see if they got a thank you note from Blake. Sure enough, most had.

And even better, most people really really liked getting that mail.

The secret weapon of Ice Rocket? Two words: Thank You.

Technology makes being nice, talking to customers and starting dialogs easy. It takes smart people like Blake Rhodes to exploit it for positive outcomes. 

I'm rooting for IceRocket and I suspect there are lots of people right along side of me in no small part due to two words: Thank You.

Worth thinking about for your company.

Onfolio - The Buzz Process

Onfolio is a pretty interesting product that works really well when you're wandering the Internet pulling together stuff for research or a project. Comes in two flavors, pro and standard, 30 day free trial, etc.

I got notification of this product because Chris Pirillo, Gnomedex master, worked with the company to get activation codes out to all the attendees of the Gnomedex conference.

I thought about this from the perspective of Word of Mouth Advertising and all the 'paid bloggers' controversy.  A ways back, you used to make the trek and try to get Walt Mossberg, Charles Cooper, John Dvorak, or any one of the small list of smart people who had some serious influence over people and the buy decisions.

All of the folks (Walt/Charles, etc) had priorities and as was often the case of lots of deserving products didn't make the cut.

Fast forward to today. 

Onfolio cuts a deal with Chris Pirillo who has 300 or so attendees of Gnomedex. No different then giving something away at a conference except today, everybody has the potential to influence hundreds, if not thousands of people. The A-List, smart folks, still matter but it is less of an all or nothing issue today.

Tell a friend takes on a whole new meaning with blogging and it is certainly something you can factor into your marketing plans if you haven't already. 

Personally, I'd be careful about the paid blogger routine since you can get the same net effect via events like Gnomedex.

Back to Onfolio; it is installed and it looks pretty good.  More details to follow.

Virtual Google - How to evaluate Earth Maps

A long time ago, I had an interesting assignment. Go out and get every application in the world to mail enable themselves. Years later it is the simple “send to” part of the right mouse button but at the time, oh yeah, fun fun.  Here comes mapping.

Mapping is going to be a big deal. All together now: duh..  Thank you.  With Microsoft getting into the game and with all the noise happening, here is how I would evaluate this stuff if I were in your shoes.

First, ignore what Scoble calls “the tidal wave of negative publicity.”  If you are looking as an end user and strictly as an end user, pick what works for you and be done with it. I can tell you that after almost 30 years in the biz, when two big boyz go at it, you benefit on features, services, improvements, etc. So, doesn’t matter what the anti-Microsoft people say or what the pro team says because a) it’s in ‘beta’ and b) it’s a personal decision that costs zero to try out. 

From a “what’s in it for me” and making money perspective, here is what you need to look at along with some of my assumptions. Keep in mind while I used to work there, I know less then you do about the product and the future.

1. Hooks. Compare the hooks (APIs) that allow you to use this product in your application and/or service.  My assumption is that over time, it’s a right mouse click item, “Map it” (where it makes sense) as well as a smart tag in a document.  When I type “Dallas, Texas”, Word will give you the option to map it and cleanly put a map in the document. 

When I am on a web site, looking at an address, highlight the address, right mouse and get me a map. Even better, tell me how to get there from where I am, including cheap flights, trains, busses, etc. Okay, I’m getting ahead of myself but that’s how you need to think about these products. Go way way out, figure out what “mapping” can do for you and then look at the two offerings.

Keep in mind MapPoint and other Microsoft Mapping products today, what they offer, and how this will work as part of the package.  Microsoft is, generally speaking, in the plumbing business so review this as plumbing and see how it/Google works for you.

2. Value adds. Today you can blog it to just MSN Spaces but you know that will change. So, figure out what other value adds can be added to this product. An interesting service for some high school kids is to earn money for your school prom by going around town and getting all the local businesses geo-coded and then, for a nice donation, put into a DB so that everybody can get real local stuff.

Now, how do you get that data into Virtual Earth? Google Maps? Yahoo whatever? I have no idea and that’s the point. The Virtual Earth team is paying attention as is the Google machine so go ask them and figure it out. They are not, for sure, going to deploy anybody to collect local data in Homer Alaska, much to Brad Feld’s disappointment, but somebody can get that data and make a business/service out it. With whom? Figure it out as you evaluate who offers you a chance to make money.

3. Do it now. Here’s the biggest single lesson you can learn about big companies, especially Microsoft/Google/Yahoo. All of three of these fine companies are filled with eager beavers wanting to get 3.5 or better on their next reviews. All of them are on the mission of the day/month strategies. What that means is that right now, for the next chunk of time, Microsoft is going to be looking for every possible win in mapping. Every cool app, every amazing developer, everything and anything that plugs the platform, the Virtual Earth team is all over. Today. Jump on it now before 10 million other people do it and it becomes just part of the mainstream. The Virtual Earth team will always care, for sure, but there is never a better time to have influence and ride the wave then at “beta”/launch. 

Finally, take a step back and think about what this means in 2009. What happens when your phone/PDA has, as a norm, GPS or location services built in along with 3G service and mapping?  Should you be working with the city to have all the parking spots coded so people can find an available one? Restaurants with wait times, reservations, etc, all tied into traffic and how long it will take you to get there? Does inventory in two locations with mapping technology change the way I stock things? Sell stuff?  Will it all be a fad? Privacy issues?

The point of this random blather is to avoid the noise of what’s good/bad/best today. By the standards and expectations of 5 years from now, today’s offerings will seem like black & white TV. 

 

Blogs and Links = Woof

Now this is an ugly dog. A point is being made by Doc Searls which you can read about here.  Then go link to the dog, yowsa..

 

Rolling Thunder vs. Scoble Style

One last post before I go have some Sunday fun. 

Scoble has a great post on the PR surrounding Virtual Earth:

“So, why do we have embargoes? I think it's one of those last things that survive from old-school PR. They are trying to give everyone in the media an equal shot at being out at the gate. I personally think we need to reevaluate our rules here. The word-of-mouth network is just getting too efficient to try to live by these rules anymore.”

He makes a very very good point that is worth thinking about as you do your PR thing. Sending out press releases and trying to do all the normal stuff in trying to get news may not be the most effective way to get things noticed by the people you care about.  With respect to Virtual Earth, I’m here in Canada, I’ve played with it and have spoken to people about it. Done, old news for me. Seeing it in the newspaper (or cnn.com for that matter) is yesterday.

Mark Evans is a technology reporter for the National Post, one of Canada’s larger national papers. I sent him a note this morning about Virtual Earth. If he writes about it in his blog or the electronic edition of the National Post, he has gone ahead of Microsoft’s PR department but will be considered a go to guy for current events happening around the technology world. Nobody who gets the way people are receiving information will bet their job on waiting for official announcements coming out of corporate headquarters.  And corporate PR departments attempting to control the message, fuhgettaboutit.

In the old days, there was this concept of “rolling thunder” which meant you lined up the noteworthy things for press releases and just rolled forward with one press release after another getting the message out in a somewhat formal but mass method. 

Some people will tell you that the majority of people out there still get news the traditional way. Print still matters, etc, etc.  That’s fine and there should be materials and process that works for that world.

However, it can’t be to the exclusion of today’s evolving conversation oriented world.

I think putting things out there for conversation works better and really does get you the PR you want, i.e. people talking about it.  Scoble made the point that on Technorati, Virtual Earth was up there around number 4, I think, of stuff being talked about.  Seems to me that’s the new way the messages are getting out and having PR departments control things with media embargoes, etc, is the surest way to loose control.

Robert’s post is dead on, go read it.

MSN Virtual Earth - Let Slashdotting Begin

As most of you already know, MSN’s Virtual Earth Beta is live. There is supposed to be some big announcement Monday morning with all the normal stuff that comes along with a Microsoft style announcement. It’s probably Virtual Earth but I don’t know as I’m not involved in any of it.

As with most stuff Microsoft, remember I used to work there, standard disclaimers apply. I’ve never seen or touched the product until last week so I’m as new to it as you are.

Here are my thoughts as they relate to you starting up/running a company. Microsoft, love em or hate em, is a pile of lessons that every business can use. Things to avoid are just as important and good things to copy.

The Virtual Earth team set up a blog. It’s here. There are three entries. The first is on June 23rd, 30 days or so ago, an entry about Where 2.0 and the “launch” entry on July 7th. Nothing since then. 

The slashdotting MS haters are going to jump on the fact that Virtual Earth doesn’t have the same coverage out of the box as Google Maps. Coverage as in searching for locations, stores, addresses, directions, etc.

Simple test: open both in new browser windows and for location type “Toronto”.

In Google, you get Toronto, Ontario (Canada), in Virtual Earth, you get a bunch of Toronto USA places but no option for Canada.  Even if you put the full Canadian address into Virtual Earth, it is ignored and you are sent to Texas or wherever. You can scroll around and get to Toronto in Virtual Earth, you just can’t seem to type in an address and get there.  In fact, if you are on top of downtown Toronto, Canada and you try a Toronto street address, you end up in Texas with no way to get back to Canada.

Switch to Aerial Photo view and type “Paris, France.” No results in Virtual Earth. In Google you get the Aerial photo. No street maps for either.

Local Search. Set the map location, in both products, over Toronto, Canada and use the local search to find the hard rock cafe. Google finds both in Toronto plus gives you a couple of other places that have “avoid the hard rock” in the text. Virtual Earth, no results at all.

You can wander around and blog directly from within Virtual Earth if you are using MSN Spaces as your blogging tool of choice. Some will see that as a feature for MSN Spaces and others will see that as a bad thing; excluding all the other blogging tools/worlds out there.

And so it goes.  The reviewers will hammer Microsoft on the US Centric stuff, no results for “Paris”, etc, etc, and there should be some good John C. Dvorak, Dave Winner, etc, snarky comments along with others saying some nice things, I’m sure.

The interesting part? It’s in beta and everything I mentioned above will get fixed over time. The really interesting part? Microsoft is going to announce this stuff tomorrow (Monday) and they will get reviewed like it is a shipping product.  At least that’s the rumor of what is happening tomorrow.

[Update: Scoble’s latest entry pretty much confirms what the announcement is.]

Microsoft’s Start.com, to the best of my knowledge, has never been ‘announced’ and is generally recognized as a pretty interesting work in progress.  They are in beta and generally getting tracked that way. 

The activity that will happen around Virtual Earth’s announcement Monday (assuming the announcement is Virtual Earth) will put it in a different zone, i.e. treated like shipping product.  To me, this is a pretty good case study on expectation setting and what happens as a result of those expectations.

Stay tuned, it should be fun.

Blog Search = Opportunity

Some time ago, Robert Scoble was pointing out the different results on various blog tracking/search engines. He offered up an opinion on what his results were which started a fairly fun food fight between him and reporter David Berlind from ZDNet.  Doc Searls suggested that that there be formal testing to get apples to apples comparisons. You can dive into the fun, via Scoble, here or you can start with David’s wack-a-Scoble article here. 

[Random side note: If the folks at Microsoft have “MSN Search instead of Google It”, “no ipods”, “no podcastings”, I wonder if they can say apples to apples? ;-)]

Anyway, I started thinking about this from a VC perspective, i.e.,  making money off this problem.  First thing I noticed is that, even today, all basic search engines (Google/MSN/Yahoo) will give generally the same first page results on major issues but all of them go off into different levels based on the secret sauce the particular engine uses.  So, the general rule of thumb of checking more then one engine on almost any search certainly applies.  No surprises.

In a recent posting about rude Q&A, I put a line in about Linux and laptops running that operating system. The original post is here.  That post was about 24 hours ago, give or take.  Using the specific phrase from that post, I tried these 4 services. All totally free I might add. 

Bloglines Search (0)

Feedster (1)

The feedster hit returned my post with some interesting side data. How long ago was the posting (1 day 5 hours), how long it was (1000 words) and on the left a little powered by typepad emblem which I assume (hope) they are getting paid for.

Blogpulse (1)

The Blogpulse hit returned my post with no real additional data but additional services like tracking the conversation, trending the entry, RSS feed for the search, a nice graph, etc.

IceRocket (2)

IceRocket got my hit as well as another blog that used the exact phrase I did (in his title).  The only issue on that second one is the entry went to a broken link. IceRocket offered some very interesting features/services. On my result, you were offered the ability to get all the links to my blog, see all my posts, ignore my blog from the search results, and subscribe to my blog feed.  In addition, it showed you the exact time my entry was posted and who the author was. The number of posts shown was wrong, but the concept and services offered seem very interesting.

Technorati (2)

Technorati got my hit twice so it’s a dupe but it also shows it being by two different Rick Segal types so I’m not sure what that problem is. The entries are a dupe for sure and Technorati didn’t get the other blogger who used the exact same phrase as me.

The Google search resulted in 9 hits, none of which were blogs entries.

The MSN Search resulted in a dialog box saying “Linux on a Laptop? What, are you nuts??”  Just kidding. Actually, it produced 8 hits including my blog entry. (So all the rumors about RSS Search? It’s happening, folks.)

With respect to David Berlind, I am not a reporter and do not practice the art of journalism. Likewise respect to Robert Scoble, ain’t no evangelism being practiced here either.  So, the results (if you can call em that) are simple; showing some interesting data points that tell me a couple of things.

The Long Tail of Conversations

(Attn: Chris Anderson. Sorry I made the snarky comments about it being an overworked term, I use it.  A lot. Sorry..)

I have a running dialog (upgraded from debate) with many people on the approach of “ready fire aim” when it comes to blogging. I’m of the opinion that thinking about it, even for an hour or so, can result in better quality, higher signal to noise ratio, and just more civil dialog. Others disagree and think that when the conversation is happening, it’s happening baby, dive in or get left behind. 

We are going to have a “long tail” of conversations that, over time, is going to be stocked full of valuable data. The tools/services that the blog search engines are trying out represent attempts to get real value out of all the conversations, not just the tier one or immediate entries. 

Well thought out prose are going to be found because the tools will get better and “google juice” will matter less.

Raw search, been there, done that. What to do with the data and how to make it useful to me/my business? That’s the exciting and opportunity rich stuff you should be watching.

There clearly is no winner here yet.  So, in my view, I’d avoid declaring a winner or this one is better vs. that one for at least a bit longer. Me thinks the really good stuff is coming.

Mailbag: The Doc Searls Plug

Blogging is sometimes very strange. In the past couple of days, I've gotten a bunch of email wanting to know what the "Doc Searls Plug" actually is. For those of you just tuning in, I did a post about a contest with a prize being the Doc Searls Plug. So, now, almost a month later, people want to know exactly what that really is.

Give the people what they want.  The picture below is the plug Doc had at Reboot7 which was in Denmark. You popped this puppy into an adaptor and, presto, juice for three bloggers via one adaptor plug. Pretty slick, I thought. (Doc, I missed you at AO, where should I send this to?)

   

You're Funded: Real life action items

Earlier today, I did a write up on DozingDogs and James Shaw.

I got a nice email of thanks with an invitation that, when next in Atlanta, look em up as he knows an amazingly good pub for the real deal in brew and fish -n- chips. Nice email, clearly a nice guy, clearly on my list of people I should meet when I'm in Atlanta.

Now, what do I do with this data?

Create an Outlook contact, check.

Mentally file it, check.

But what next? A "to do" to remember James when I go to Atlanta? No, I don't think so nor do I want post it notes all over the place. What I want is this:

1. I flag this mail with some tags. Maybe press the F whatever key. Dialog box and I key word it with travel and Atlanta. That's it. Really, nothing else.

2. 6 months from now when I put my flight information for a trip to Atlanta into Outlook, Outlook says, yo, James invited you for food, wanna ping em and see if I can set it up for you?

See, on the other end, James should have something in his system that will be able to respond to my computer's ping since invited me.  TrackBacks, if you will. Tagging, if you will. Whatever.

With deep respect and reverence to all the hard working people cranking out code on Longho..Vista, there are a billion things we can do to make technology really really useful. 

In my humble, nobody, opinion, its this stuff that is really what the next generation of computing is all about and if the core system doesn't provide a true foundation that causes this type of application/service to be created with ease: re-read the Seth Godin post on mediocre emergencies.

[Random side note: Is it me or ever since blogging has 'exploded' into the thinking of 'everybody', the whole world seems to have discovered strike out fonts? I've never, ever, gotten an email message, Word document, or anything with the strike out font. But blogging seems to have given this some kind of new life or permission for usage. Dunno, weird.]

Rebecca MacKinnon = Fairness Text Book Example

Via Dan Gilmor’s blog, I read about Rebecca MacKinnon’s ongoing dialog regarding Cisco selling products in China.  I think Rebecca’s blog entry is a near perfect case study on how to present an opinion, dialog with another source, and present the full picture so the reader can then make up their own mind.

Rebbeca is not happy with Cisco. She has a very strong views on human rights and what we, as a country, should be doing.  She has presented the case and then got a call from a Cisco person to talk about her views and blog postings.

What Rebbeca did was lay out the terms of the call (on the record/off the record), then summarize the points she thought Cisco was making. Next, she gave you her opinion of that response.

Finally, to give her readers an even more balanced/fair/complete view, she included a follow up piece of email that Cisco sent her.  You, the reader, got all the data. You got to see how she took notes and reported them. You got her opinion and you got an uncensored piece of data from Cisco. 

If you read the piece carefully, you will see she didn’t need to give Cisco the extra coverage. She could have left it completely out and her piece still would have read reasonably fair and balanced. 

Rebecca went the extra mile and scores enormous creditability points all for the price of some cut -n– paste action.

The message? As you form up opinions on who you think is creditable, fair, and balanced, watch what they do in actions.  Rebecca’s simple cut -n– paste should be such a simple obvious thing, everybody should have no problems giving equal time where appropriate.  Well done, Rebecca.

Dan has an opinion on this, which is here while Rebecca’s full post can be found here.

DozingDogs = Still doing it right

One guy with a passionate focus on what he is doing beats an army of so-called experts. At least that’s the theory. James over at DozingDogs is proving it. I’ve written about DD before.

This is more good stuff you can learn from.

Apart from being a really good piece of Content Management Software, with a 60 day money back guarantee and a friendly attitude all around, they let you play, live, with the software on their site.  It’s really slick and makes a fairly powerful statement about the company, the belief in the product and desire to be as close to the customers as possible.

In addition, they have a place to go where you an see exactly what you will start with out of the box. You can pretend you are working on your stuff. Again, well done.

You can argue over features, product, pricing, etc, but one thing you should take away from DozingDogs is to try and give your customer as much personal, yet self serve, help on learning/playing with your products as you can.

This is an excellent use of the web. More companies should do this.

Microsoft Lesson - Rude Q&A

When was the last time you walked into a meeting/VC presentation thinking today is going to be a great day only to have some putz ask some really dumb question that only a mindless, corporate, dilbert-like drone would ask?  You struggle to keep from throwing your Linux enabled laptop at the guy and try to answer this question while feeling your blood pressure rise. Sound familiar? Read on….

[side/random note: There’s a reason for the OS specific comment in the preceeding paragraph, stay tuned..]

Yesterday I watched a fairly decent presentation for a technology company. I say fairly decent because it was a couple of technical guys, out of the garage, no marketing/business background at all. Typically, my kinda folks.  In this case, they were taking advantage of my 30 minute, free, no harm, no foul meeting offer.

The meeting was going along fine until we got the “Questions” slide. 

The first question was this:  “Have you thought about at what point the customers will want to pay for this service?”

These two should never play poker. The body language, etc, wasn’t nervous stuff, it was being shocked at this question even being asked.  The quote above is exactly how I said it because it was the no harm, no foul meeting, and I’m as gentle as a lamb (no, really) when it comes to asking questions because this type of meeting is designed to make them feel good about my firm.

Anyway, they clearly were pissed/shocked/etc. We got through that question only to have them phreak on the next one.  While all of this got me thinking about people just being prepared, I recalled a number of other meetings where the presentations are good, the team is good, only to have things go south when Q & A started.

One of the more interesting things I learned at Microsoft, was the concept known as Rude Q & A.  Basically, this would be a document that would have tough questions likely to be posed with suggested answers.  Yes, it’s spin, staying on message, control, whatever.  And, yes, politicians are masters at this.  These weren’t, by the way, documents created by PR people necessarily, rather tech people did it when they were explaining a API set or sales people created it when getting ready to hit the road with a new program. It was mind set exercise more then anything else.

Leave all the Microsoft shots aside for a second as there actually is a good lesson in here for you as you head out on any kind of fund raising.

Consider this example:

You come in with a new word processor that will take over the world because you have 6 secret/new functions that will make Microsoft Word toast and cause Steven Sinofsky to loose all his hair.  Coming in and being the most focused, passionate, table pounding gal on the planet is barely 40% of the battle. You have to know that taking taking on Microsoft Word is likely to present a few questions that you should have a lock on with respect to the answers.

Here’s where the Rude Q &A mind set comes in.

“How do you plan to compete” is not rude.

“Are you phreakin nuts?” is ‘rude’.

“WTF are you smoking?” is ‘rude’.

The point is this. Don’t get trapped into assuming you will do a nice presentation and people will ask tough questions rather assume they are all pricks and will ask rude questions.  Being totally prepared for the rude stuff, forces you to do a couple of things.

First, you get a sober reality check.  Can you be asked and respond to rude questions. Remember rude questions are defined as those questions that are not softballs, not supportive, not on message, etc. Anything that isn’t on your side, is rude. Rude is just a placeholder term but you get what I mean. From your point of view, if the person says, wow, this is great, can I get it in green, that’s not ‘rude’  vs., this sucks, who the heck will buy this crap.

Practice, over and over, answering rude questions. The worst thing you can do when you are preparing for meetings with the press, customers, or VCs, is to prep with friends and anybody else that’s drinking the Kool-Aid. There will be plenty of time for those types to help you with spelling, style, etc. What you want is somebody who can play the part of serious putz so that you can become immune to the emotion and be focused on a good answer.

Smooth, polished and prepared is not the same as slick and packaged. Lots of people get that confused.

It’s never as bad as your mock rude q&a sessions will make it out so long as your personal cranky pants sessions are meaningful.  Being prepared for an asshole convention, tho, will help you because that preparation usually leads to pleasant surprises which leads to less stress which just helps overall.

Second, be pro-active.  I’ve seen “Rude Q & A” as a slide with the presenter going through the rude questions, pro actively, one at a time, with some humor, professionalism, etc.  Most important, tho, is she kept control of the meeting, hit the hard stuff and gave a loud an clear message that she was ready, able, and delighted to engage on any point from any perspective.

Being prepared is obvious. Being loaded up with answers galore is also obvious. Being prepared for the jerks isn’t obvious but might prove to be even more useful.