Connecting the Dots

Minnov8: Showcasing Minnesota Innovation in Internet & Web Technology

If you're out in the Bay area or on the other coast in New York or Boston, it's pretty easy to be smug about your culture of risk-taking, pool of top talent, and strings of successful, world-changing innovations. But as the world continues its acceleration to one that's increasingly connected and ways of collaborating make distance irrelevant, smart people will pop up everywhere and I'm convinced we'll see a flattening of the geographic advantages these pockets of innovation represent.

Six of us were bugged that there was so much going on in Internet and Web technology innovation right here in Minnesota, that when I suggested we start our own blog to showcase that innovation, there were nods of agreement and a willingness to dive in and make it real.

The biggest reason we were all interested in this blog is that these showcases and interviews are what we wanted to read and there wasn't anything like it out there.

The result is Minnov8: Minnesota Innovation in Internet & Web Technology. This past weekend was the biggest Barcamp yet, Minnebar, and over 400 people showed up to present, learn and participate. Rather than recreate everything on this blog, why not take a peek at Minnov8? This and this post are ones that will recap what took place.

Wherever you live and whatever space you care about (e.g., technology, education, greentech, etc.) and where there are a critical mass of people willing to leap in and work together as multiple authors, I'd encourage you to start one of these...it's pretty simple to do and fun to boot.

Wells Fargo: Doing the right thing...and the smart one too

After my adventure with Wells Fargo the last couple of days, I was pleased to discover this morning that they'd fulfilled the account reinstatement from their mistake and we are back in business online. What I hadn't expected was a call today from Wells Fargo Executive Vice President, Debra Rossi, who is the Head of Merchant Payment Solutions.

She apologized, made no excuses, told me about their recognition of the fundamental breakdown of their normal process (to call the customer before canceling them!), asked what she could do to make us whole, listened to me without interrupting and engaged conversationally while ending with her direct phone number in case I have any issues going forward. Tough to invest this kind of time when you're running a major part of the Wells Fargo $573B business and undoubtedly have pressing matters piling up.

Ms. Rossi will also be supplying us with a letter of apology.

This call went a long way toward making up for the frustrating adventure and embarrassing shut down of our ecommerce, and now gives us the opportunity to communicate with our offended customers (those we know about anyway) so they don't think we're no longer reputable or somehow can't handle Web commerce.

What was enlightening as well was this: my posting, her reaction and action, and a successful resolution (and, I'm certain, lots of awareness within the company so this doesn't happen again to someone else) is a great example of social media and conversational marketing in action.

Though polite queries from Ms. Rossi and others yesterday about my original post were offered as being curious in nature, the implication was now that this matter was resolved would I take it down or what was my intention?  Today's social and new media -- and blogging basics -- dictate that posts are not removed nor materially modified once published and I adhere to that philosophy and practice. It's why I amended/updated yesterday's post and am now writing a fresh one: to detail their action, call out and laud them for it, and to be transparent, but I'm compelled to leave the post up as-is.

Lastly, I always encourage my clients to do exactly what Ms. Rossi did: don't let things fester as they'll become infected like what happened to Dell Computer (remember "Dell Hell"?) and the PR disaster that rained down upon them...from which, one could argue, they're still not fully healed.

Ms. Rossi did the right thing...and the smart one too.

The Cognitive Age: Why Social Media Matters

Our economy is down, gas prices are up, jobs are being lost and outsourced, we're at 'war' with possible escalation (e.g., attacking Iran), and there is tremendous uncertainty in nearly every industry being disrupted in some way by the connecting of the globe and the increasing influence of the Internet.

Let me submit for your consideration that the impact of social media -- technologies, software and approaches connecting any of us willing to participate with them online -- is pointing the way toward new systems and behaviors that will enable us all to move higher up the value chain as we learn how, together, we can create and deliver what the world needs in new and innovative ways.

One of the best op-ed pieces I've read in some time, The Cognitive Age, was published in the New York Times on Friday by David Brooks.

In this piece he's putting globalization in context in this election cycle, which is chiefly on competition with other countries and the policies of government that ostensibly is accelerating job loss in the US. Brooks puts forth this premise which bears emphasis:

"The chief force reshaping manufacturing is technological change (hastened by competition with other companies in Canada, Germany or down the street). Thanks to innovation, manufacturing productivity has doubled over two decades. Employers now require fewer but more highly skilled workers. Technological change affects China just as it does the America. William Overholt of the RAND Corporation has noted that between 1994 and 2004 the Chinese shed 25 million manufacturing jobs, 10 times more than the U.S."

Then he outlines his central argument which, I should add, I completely agree with:

"The central process driving this is not globalization. It’s the skills revolution. We’re moving into a more demanding cognitive age. In order to thrive, people are compelled to become better at absorbing, processing and combining information. This is happening in localized and globalized sectors, and it would be happening even if you tore up every free trade deal ever inked."

What does this have to do with social media and why does that category of technology matter?

We'll miss you Hugh....

There is too much seriousness in tech (a lot is at stake, but still...) which is one reason why I so enjoy Hugh MacLeod of Gapingvoid and noticed that he quite publicly deleted his Twitter account.

I took his goodbye Twitter and added a 2008 pane for what I fear most (for him and for many of us if we stop adding value and playing the online generation of content game) and apologies, Hugh, for satirically modifying your creation:

"No such thing as bad press" in the blogosphere

My bride is out of town so I feel less guilty about spending significant "face time" in front of my computer poking around exploring on the 'net and I just got done reading up on, and watching videos about, the cat fight between Shel Israel and Loren Feldman.

Though you can start with this post as the culmination of what's happening between the two of them, don't spend a lot of time on it as it doesn't matter in the scheme of life. What does matter about this little clash -- and is perhaps a life lesson about being a player in the game of life vs. a critic or someone in the stands having a hot dog and a beer while the action goes on -- is that Israel is adding value to the world and Feldman is riding that value's coattails as I'll explain below.

My first exposure to Israel was the book he penned called, "Naked Conversations" along with Robert Scoble. It was the first substantive book about the communications shift occurring that is partially being driven by the blogging phenomena. The core elements of blogging were discussed (transparency being the key one) along with numerous use-cases of blogging within companies that has proven useful ongoing.

Even though I skim 1,500+ articles per day in my feed reader, watch many videos and listen to podcasts, I have so much new media to consume on a daily basis I just couldn't get in to Israel and Scoble's new adventure, FastCompany.tv  (besides, I'm a little weary of Scoble's goofin' on technology without focusing on its meaning and why it matters, and simply didn't think Israel would have a lot of new and worthwhile value to add).

My first exposure to Feldman was some miscellaneous video posted somewhere that I can't recall. Besides thinking this guy needed some sleep and maybe cutting down on nicotine (bags under his eyes and raspy throat), I did find that first video mildly amusing as I have with a few others he's done. He's graduated to targeting Israel with videos like this "Shel Israel puppet" series in which he interviews Steve Gillmor and others as Shel Israel. Again, I found it mildly amusing but I'm not fond of people I perceive as pure (yet poor) satirists who start taking potshots at people truly trying to add value to the world like Israel (which is one reason why I despise the it's-all-about-ratings-or-book-sales Bill O'Reilly and Ann Coulter for example). He's even snagged the domain shelisrael.com to post these puppet videos which I find distastful.

On the one hand you have Shel Israel adding value to the world with books and videos. He goes out and interviews people, obviously preparing in advance and striving for watchable content. Is it perfect? Nope. But then who can say what perfection is with social media? The people and stories on Fast Company TV are of others adding value making them inherently worthwhile.

On the other hand you have Feldman who obviously perceives this lack of perfection and that Israel is probing and packaging the social media phenomena in ways that add value to people trying to figure it out, how they should use it and what it means. Feldman is riding Israel's (and others) coattails by taking cheap shots at someone who is at least trying to push against the membrane of the future while Feldman lays on his floor, staring into his webcam with, for example, an empty closet behind him with empty hangers (hmmm....is that a metaphor for his content I wonder?).

Here's the irony and why the old saw is that there's "no such thing as bad press." I went to Israel's actual site as I was reading about this and started to watch some of these FastCompany TV videos. I went to FastCompany TV and watched a few more. I was surprised at what a good job Israel does (and even Scoble as he's improved since I watched him last over a year ago) and I liked what I saw. They're offering a lot of interesting and intriguing peeks into the people I follow anyway in my feed reader. I think I'll be watching FastCompany TV going forward and this little dustup is getting both of these guys more attention, but in a way I'm certain Feldman doesn't intend.

So Shel, maybe you should keep up this friction with Feldman since it's good for business...or maybe you already know this and have an implied collaboration with Feldman?  Either way, stay transparent, focused on adding value, and investing yourself in pushing-the-envelope content.

Why pay for software in a day of open source?

You may have noticed the highly visible online argument going on between SixApart's Anil Dash and Wordpress founder Matt Mullenweg. It escalated today when Matt continued the "open source vs. paid" debate (which is really open source ecosystem energy vs. a perceived slow-to-move commercial vendor positioning against open source).

This is amazingly healthy in my view and the competition for the hearts-n-minds of bloggers clearly is driving SixApart to build and deliver better and more robust services (and I've been waiting for them!).

I'd reframe this debate like this however: why should you pay for software in a day when open source is free and the ecosystem surrounding the successful projects is immense?

When I made my decision to begin blogging in earnest in 2004, there was only one vendor I was willing to bet my blogging on: SixApart's Typepad hosting. Though I can easily install, run and maintain numerous types of open source packages (and could've with Movable Type, the software at the root of Typepad), I knew myself well enough and that I'd be twiddling bits instead of writing content if I used the then fairly immature Wordpress. Typepad looked like a sure bet and had the momentum so that was my choice.

Even though I've been at the enterprise software level with Vignette and Lawson Software in leadership positions, for some clients I've chosen Joomla, Drupal and even used Wordpress as a low-end content management engine. But when it comes to betting your business or a new initiative on a new category, it's imperative there's someone or some organization available to ensure a successful outcome with the software used.

Freeconomics: What about MY cost for YOUR free?

Am somewhat amazed by the backlash against Chris Anderson's new Wired piece, "Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business". Charges that he wrote a "communist manifesto" were probably the harshest ones, but many people I've been talking with, both in person and virtually, share somewhat of that same opinion: "something is wrong if you have to give away your value" and "we can't all make money by grabbing mass numbers of eyeballs in order to deliver advertising to them."

They're missing his point and he missed one I think he shouldn't have.

Anderson's "it's the falling costs, stupid" premise can be summed up in this paragraph taken, ironically, from his article in the Economist magazine:

The dominant business model on the internet today is making money by giving things away. Much of that is merely the traditional media model of using free content to build audiences and selling access to them to advertisers. But an increasing amount of it falls into the free-sample model: because it is so cheap to offer digital services online, it doesn’t matter if 99% of your customers are using the free version of your services so long as 1% are paying for the “premium version”. After all, 1% of a big number can also be a big number.

Free is a major shift and a huge trend, especially with any sort of online service. If you thoroughly read Anderson's article in Wired you may or may not buy into the argument he makes, and may even accept his premise that free is driven primarily by the fall in producer costs as the costs associated with delivering them continue to drop online.

But wait just a minute.

Why newspapers need blog networks

In the last week my wife and I made, what is for us (a couple of voracious readers) a monumental decision: we're not renewing the New York Times Sunday edition nor The Wall Street Journal after getting both for 15-20 years.

We'll keep the daily Minneapolis StarTribune if only to stay appraised of local issues, but I know our tiny decision will affect the livelihood of workers for those papers as evidenced by yesterday's announcement the New York Times is laying off 100 people in their newsroom.

We're not alone in finding less value in ink on dead trees than we do from our newsreaders and the web sites we frequent. This is happening all over the US as you can see from the New York Times chart from this article, "More Readers Trading Newspapers for Web Sites."

"The circulation declines of American newspapers continued over the spring and summer, as sales across the industry fell almost 3 percent compared with the year before, according to figures released yesterday.

The drop, reported by the Audit Bureau of Circulations, reflects the growing shift of readers to the Internet, where newspaper readership has climbed, and also a strategy by many major papers to shed unprofitable or marginally profitable print circulation."

It's not just readers that are defecting...it's classified ad submitters who began to flee long ago. Dubbed the "newspaper killer" because of the ads historically placed in newspapers and now done free or for extremely low cost, Craigslist is the first place most under 40 people I know turn first.

When I asked my 19 year old daughter why she didn't use the newspaper to look at the ads she explained, "You can't search the paper and the information is old. Dad...it's the same reason you use Yahoo Finance or Schwab online to look up stock stuff instead of gazing at all those tiny numbers in the paper THE NEXT DAY."

You had me at "search" honey.

But many people, including me, see a solution to the downtrending of newspapers.  I just discovered another thought leader, Scott Karp at Publishing 2.0, discussed this same thing last summer (Should Newspapers Become Local Blog Networks?).

Strategic Blogging

Thought this cartoon was humorous since too many leaders chuckle at the notion of blogging. When someone like me positions blogging as "strategic", I end up having to use all my persuasion skills to convince them it is so.

It helps when IBM (who, in 2005, encouraged all 320,000 employees to blog), Nike, McDonald's, GM, GE, Wells Fargo and many other major corporations blog. As companies see innovators and leaders (usually some company other than their own) embrace and obtain quantifiable results from internal, customer service, leadership, product management and other blogs (which also end up getting attention and material traction with an increasingly online constituency), they're convinced.

Getting leaders to do it, not have someone ghost write it, or just put one up without real investment and energy in a result, typically fails. Any of us out here with even modest savvy see right through a blog that is not authentic, delivered in a real human voice, or delivered with content that isn't "vanilla" or watered-down words.

Blog poorly or become a professional booger...it'll have about the same impact.

Six Apart: Lessons in how NOT to blog and serve customers

When I advise my clients -- especially my senior executive ones -- about how to blog and do so strategically, there are a few basic requirements: be authentic; handle the tough issues in a transparent fashion; open comments and leave up even the bad ones; and enjoy this self-publishing medium that can communicate like no other. Also, make certain that if you publish your email address you deploy an auto-responder so that you have time to get back to people instead of just leaving them hanging.

I therefore find it incredibly ironic that Six Apart, the parent company of the blog host engine I use for this blog (Typepad) and several other properties (LiveJournal, Vox and the Movable Type software) and the most successful company in blogging doesn't adhere to the most basic tenets of blogging!

Three examples:

• Co-founder, Mena Trott, has a blog without comments turned on so no one can engage in conversation under one of her posts and it's been this way for as long as I can recall

• New CEO, Chris Alden, sends out an email blast to all Typepad customers on 1,30/08 that ends with, "We’d love to hear what you think is most important for TypePad’s future, which features and functionality you’ve been wishing for, and what you need to be successful as your audience grows. Here are a few ways to give us your feedback and get involved: Email me personally at chris.alden@sixapart.com."

So I email Chris with a forward of an email with suggestions and comments I'd sent a few days earlier to Six Apart VP and evangelist, Anil Dash. Neither Dash or Alden have bothered to respond (though this post has comments and is directly related to the email)

• Moments ago I receive an email with a "Tell Us What You Think" (see above) and a request to participate in a survey. Instead, I reply to the sender, usability@sixapart.com, but the email is instantly returned...."user unknown".

Now let's compare-n-contrast that with another example...a competitor of Six Apart: Automattic (Wordpress and other projects).

UPDATE: Received an email this evening from Chris Alden, appreciative of my comments, chastising me for my lay psychoanalysis of Ben and Mena (and he vigorously defended them and I consider myself deserving of the bitch-slap) and it gave me the opportunity to send him a reply that hopefully adds some value to they Typepad-cats he's herding as the new sheriff in town.

Are you suffering from attention overload?

In my work it's imperative I stay abreast of new technologies, approaches and how social media startups are figuring out how to increase our capability to connect to one another in more interesting and meaningful ways.

But how many places can we focus our attention?

I blog. Follow and skim 138 blogs and dozens of news feeds in Google Reader. Deal with dozens of emails per day. Scan Techmeme and Blogrunner. Post and follow people on Twitter and now Pownce. Barely use Facebook but feel compelled since so many people I know are using it. Just joined Seesmic (in private alpha) which is a social network for participatory video (see what your friends post, you can post, and a 'conversation' can carry forward). Scroll through Digg's feed and often click on an article.

Oh....and I have work to do for my clients and business!

Since one my strengths is "input" (collecting information is something I love to do), I thought my scattered focus and partial attention was atypical until I talked to dozens of other people. Nearly everyone I talk to is feeling the effects of traditional media clamoring for our attention, more coverage and news with less analysis than ever before, and thousands of new media methods (some which I mentioned above) that are connecting us in ways that making it very challenging to think, mull it over and breathe.

Many business leaders feel that this continuous partial attention is a Millenials or kids phenomena, but my own anecdotal research shows that this is increasingly cutting across all age groups, demographics and cultures (Linda Stone has the seminal thoughts on the topic).

Anyone with a computer and internet connection is now a mini-media mogul since it's trivial to publish, create radio and TV (even live streams ala uStream, Qik, Stickam), deliver screencasts and learning content, and stake a claim in the micro-blogging arena (e.g., Twitter, Pownce) and snag followers tuning into your thought stream.

With all of these sources coming at us (or those we choose feeling compelled or pressured to stay abreast of their content) while we pay continuous partial attention to each, what happens to these attention traffic jams in our brains? How can we discern what is worthy of our attention since not all of it is?

Giving your value away...

As the weeks go by I'm more certain than ever that monetization of any intellectual capital-type efforts will be Internet-centric or people won't give money in exchange for it -- and, ironically, that giving value away over the Internet may become 'table stakes' to be in the content or software game. 

Traditional distribution channels for intellectual capital (TV channels and non-online video, bookstores, video rental and music stores, industry publications and newsletters, learning in classroom or DVD, et al) can't scale in the same way they can on the Internet. There is finite shelf space; it takes too long to deliver information when something is published and distributed; people want the information or training when they need it vs. when they can travel somewhere to learn it; and people are shifting their demand criteria anyway in a day of on-demand, always-available access.

Something you might not have considered is that people are also increasingly expecting complimentary sources for what they consume so they can get multiple points of view and perspective as well as having multiple sources to compare and from which to choose (it's where my "experts don't exist" mantra comes from since I demand more than one or two sources for anything). Shopping services; memetrackers to get multiple blogger points of view; voting sites (e.g., Digg) so the community decides which articles are most important and so on.

What's unique in delivering intellectual capital-type efforts over the Internet is that more of us are expecting it to be delivered for free and many of us take advantage of it. The kicker? People simply taking the value without paying for it increases its intrinsic value IF the act of taking it in some way adds a form of personal perspective or influencer metadata above it and provides the intellectual capital-type efforts with more attention, importance, word-of-mouth buzz or informal guidance (premise based loosely on Kurzweil's Law of Accelerating Returns).

Here are three examples.

New York Times is now in (and leading) the conversation

In September of 2007, The New York Times made a monumental decision to stop charging for TimesSelect (the NYTimes online) as well as opening up their archives searchable back into the 1800's. Big risk but was a brilliant strategic move in my opinion.

I've been noticing the Times showing up more frequently as the thought leader blog on the memetracker (blogosphere conversation tracker) Techmeme. Today is a great example (and yes, I understand Sunday is the most in-depth article day), but I've never seen FOUR of them above-the-fold previously.

Why is this such a brilliant strategic move? As evidenced by not only being IN the conversation on Techmeme, they're also LEADING many of the conversations. Very smart, heh?

With more of us consuming news and information on the Web -- and now video and full TV shows -- there is no question that any organization wishing for relevancy going forward needs to be 100% immersed in Internet-centric media and the attention being paid there vs. traditional media. It's the only way to quickly shift, modify, and embrace emergent new media forms as well as be a leading provider right smack-dab-in-the-middle of where our attention is increasingly being focused.

"Lazysphere." Do you "get it" or do you not?

Over the last 3+ years of my blogging, I've struggled between continuing my attempt to add value for my readers in each-n-every post vs. grabbing attention. On those occasions when I have enjoyed a Digg or Techmeme front page link -- or had some other post go viral with the typical 60k-100k pageviews that have ensued -- no question that I've stopped to think "Hmmm....what if I whored myself out and just posted attention-grabbing stuff?"

If no one pays attention, a blogger is the philosophical tree falling in the forest when no one is around to hear it. Does she or he make a sound? I argue that yes...it just takes time and consistency to build readership if you have the right ingredients.

Today's MicroPersuasion post by Steve Rubel puts a different spin on the "whoring oneself out" thought stream but by calling it the "Lazysphere" (a take on a lazy blogosphere) since he's calling out the lack of value being inserted into posts in lieu of just grabbing attention.

While I absolutely love Techmeme, Blogrunner, Wikia and, quite frankly, the memetracker category as a whole, I also realize that this category -- as the primary method many of us have to get an instant 'read' on blogosphere conversations -- is THE primary catalyst for the blog echo chamber, naval gazing or whatever you'd care to term it.

But are memetrackers, bloggers chasing thought leader posts to get attention, or people actually lazily placing value into posts the problem? Yes and no.

<shameless plug>
I've been at this blogging game for over three years. In that time my goal has been to invest value in each-n-every post (with the occasional rant) and have often felt that I should simply accept the positive feedback I receive from readers, from clients who've hired me because of my blog, and for the doors it has opened (and still opens) rather than be dismayed about the lack of "A-List blogger-like" attention. In addition, I've often been peeved that the so-called "A-List" bloggers who get attention have opinions or perspectives I'd go toe-to-toe with any day.
</shameless plug>

One thing I think Rubel missed and one he got:

Blog Posts: How many are too many?

Over 2007 I've noticed an interesting phenomena in the blogosphere: an increasing number of daily posts. Some people do "posts 'o links" which are just a bunch of things they think are interesting and are non-posts as far as I'm concerned. Others do 3, 4 or 5 posts per day (e.g., Scoble, Chris Pirillo) and some do 10 or more per day (e.g., Treehugger, Mashable).

I read/skim them (and 157 other bloggers and 50 other feeds for roughly 1,500 articles per day) and have discovered I'm feeling increasingly fatigued by any of them individually. One or two meaningful posts are good....five or ten is overkill. Especially since most of the posts are metaphorically nice big hamburger buns but inside is a burger the size of a dime since they're light on content (IMHO).

When does a blog move from a chronological series of event writings to a new magazine type of format? What is the optimal number of daily posts? Or is it quality vs. quantity? "Best of" or compilations of links are of little value to me or are the "feature of the day" sorts of posts. Let me know what you think...

Skype Interview Recording How-To Video

If there are interviews you want to do and record them as podcasts -- or use high quality audio for any purpose when interviewees or conference callers are in multiple geographical locations -- it's been challenging to do over phone lines or any other means...until Skype arrived.

For years I've followed everything Doug Kaye delivers since he's a long-time radio guy who "gets" podcasting and user generated content. He created IT Conversations which allowed me to access and listen to thought leaders in information technologies which first got me hooked on following him. He's done much more and you can read about (and listen to an interview with him) here.

But Kaye has always danced around his Gold stamp of approval for Skype interview recording...until now as you'll see and hear when you watch the video below.

A cohort of his, Paul Figgiani who runs Podcast Academy for Gigavox Media (Kaye's firm) joins Kaye in this video and he's an accomplished audio guy too. I also owe this guy. Why? Because when I was struggling with audio gear -- and had bought and returned several devices -- this guy took the time to record audio for me and emailed me (after I had sent him a note). This was WAY beyond the call of duty and thus have always had a soft spot for him and what he delivers and I'll bet you'll appreciate what he and Kaye have given.

Kaye and Figgiani just released a VERY well done "how-to" video on how to record Skype interviews in high quality. It moves along very fast so you'll want to pause it as you try what they recommend. But for these two guys to place their blessings on Skype interview recording is huge.

I went through a lot of time and pain (and money) over many months in 2005 and 2006 to learn what they've synthesized and have delivered in this video. This is a wealth of knowledge packaged up for your use and is quite a gift. Thanks guys!

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Adding a forum? Consider phpBB 3.0

Many of my clients, other business owners I know and even me are either implementing, or considering deploying, discussion forums. Engaging the participation culture means that you need to empower those using your products and services so that the community can help one another.

I was at Apple in the 1990's when the company had essentially unlimited 800# free support calls and the Austin, TX call-center exploded with humans answering phones. It was easier to pick up the phone and call Apple than it was to look something up in a manual or go online and seek an answer (and, of course, online support hadn't yet reached any sort of critical mass and slow dialup connections made it tough to do much regardless).

When Steve Jobs returned in 1996 (the year I joined Apple), within moments it seemed that there were a lot of layoffs in Austin and a focus online as well as new policies to handle support. Apple invested in Jive Software's world-class forum software and the discussion groups you see at Apple today run on Jive. The result? Users and moderators can help one another rather than pick up the phone and call Apple with easily answered questions (as an example, my staff first searches discussions and 90% of the time we get answers from Apple, Adobe and other vendors we use).

One of my favorite open source discussion/forum software is phpBB™ and they're releasing their version 3.0 today: phpBB, the leading open source forum and online collaboration system announced today the availability of phpBB Version 3.0. This release includes enhanced collaboration features, better security and delegated administration features, extended support for open source and commercial database management systems, and optimisation for mobile devices and search engines. phpBB is available at no cost, released under the GNU General Public License.

While the underlying technical capability has been upgraded which is vitally important, it's the new look-n-feel features that intrigue me (e.g., themes). Why? As I've pointed out here and here, design matters. Too often developers forget that there are people using the underpinnings of a site or application and they we like it when layout is intuitive, functionality obvious and the eye candy integral to the overall experience.

I suspect that we'll see new focus on look-n-feel options that make it easier to integrate phpBB in to existing web sites, blogs and within other themes. This is a really well done open source application and worthy of serious review if you'd like to engage your community, employees or foster digital conversations in new ways...or just significantly enhance your the support of your customers and community.

Digg + Techmeme/Blogrunner + Newsvine = Wikio

Grabbed lunch in a coffee shop so I could followup on some emails and surf Google Reader and leech off use their free wifi.  Like you probably do as well, I use tabs in Firefox to create "tabbed workspaces" that let me use different browser windows to load my oft-used sites so they're at my fingertips just a tab-click away.

Four I check constantly are Google Reader (GR), Newsvine as well as the memetrackers (probably THE most powerful automated conversation tracking mechanism on the Web) TechMeme and Blogrunner. With the 1,000 or so articles popping up in GR that I skim/read each day -- cross-referenced in the memetrackers so I make certain I've seen all the hot stuff of the day bloggers are "conversing" about by linking to one another -- I really have a handle on what I need to stay appraised of daily.

While reading Mashable just now I came across this breaking news on the US launch of Wikio, an offering that I describe as sort of a Digg, Techmeme, Blogrunner and Newsvine combined. I dropped my sandwich as I realized that maybe, just maybe, I might be able to combine my use of these four sites within just this one!

As Mashable's Adam Ostrow states in his opening, "Wikio, which already claims 5 million unique users in Europe, is officially launching their memetracker in the US today. “Memetracker” is probably too narrow a description for Wikio, as it attempts to be much more than services like TechMeme, BlogRunner, and the new Technorati."

Wikio describes their site like this: Wikio is a personalised page of news, including a news search engine that searches media sites, blogs and member publications. Even without signing up or personalizing Wikio for myself and my own interests -- which I just did -- I can really see the potential here.

You can vote and promote articles you find interesting ala Digg. It acts as a memetracker, like TechMeme and Blogrunner (though I think that capability looks weak....but I haven't yet formed an opinion). It allows submission like Digg does -- and Newsvine before Digg appeared -- but with a twist: since you can complete a profile like a social network, it allows someone who is willing to invest in article submission with the capability to build a reputation on the site which Newsvine pioneered with news gathering.

The bad news? I can't export my OPML file from Google Reader (which I've painstakingly invested in categorizing over a couple of years) and then import it into Wikio. Maybe I'm missing something and I can do this, but if not it's a deal-killer for me using Wikio as my primary hub.

The good news? I've broken into huge grins several times as I've bumped across articles and blog posts that I've *never* seen before. THAT sort of experience will be the acid-test for acceptance of this tool: if the value delivered by Wikio is higher than figuring out how to really use it effectively (which isn't too tough) and if it provides more of us with the ability to consume and parse high volumes of information, than Wikio is a winner which it already looks to be.

Why I've Become a Wordpress Fanboy

When I began blogging in 2004, Movable Type (MT) was the only real option if one wanted to download software and build a blog/site (MT became company Six Apart and MT is what their hosted blogging service I'm using, Typepad, leverages). The success and momentum of MT and the cheap and great features of Typepad turned my head and the latter was my choice.

At that time, my analysis showed that Wordpress wasn't quite ready for prime-time and I wasn't willing to bet my blogging future on it. I've gotta tell ya though, things have changed!

Wordpress has their own free blog hosting service, downloadable software to install on your own server(s), hundreds of templates, and something that surprised and delighted me: incredibly clean and easy to understand code.

I need to say right up front that I am not a coder or developer (I'm a "suit", a sales/marketing/alliances exec-type) but am a halfway decent "mechanic" and can goof around with PHP and CSS to fix and tweak stuff all day long until I get to the end-state desired. Of course, it doesn't take long for me to scream out in pain and beg for help, but I'm getting better at this coding stuff and the accessibility of Wordpress code lessens my painful struggles.

In the past couple of years I've been involved in installing, developing and deploying a wide range of open source solutions like Drupal, Joomla, phpBB, ZenCart and several more. I've personally experienced many disparate approaches and conceptual paradigms; various administration interfaces; install procedures both easy and made just for geeks; and the strength or weaknesses of the ecosystems that have popped up around these various packages.

Here's the primary reason I'm now a Wordpress fanboy: I'm involved in a brand new blog/site launching Q1 and have realized during my mucking around in the guts of Wordpress (and the theme  I bought) that from Wordpress itself to the ecosystem surrounding it, this is the easiest to use and most robust open source platform out there and the ecosystem is delivering an amazing amount of innovation around it.

If you require a commercial platform with all the requisite support options demanded by today's enterprises, then I'd choose one of the Movable Type Publishing Platform options. If you're considering a personal or small business blogging platform, Wordpress is it. You can even consider building your own blogging network with Wordpress Multi-User (MU). Any way you look at it, Wordpress is one amazing (and free) chunk of value that I'm pleased to gush about like any good fanboy should.

3 Strategies to Think. Consider. Mull it over. Breathe...

Do you take the time to absorb new information and let it percolate in your brain awhile before rushing to judgement, making a decision or throwing together a blog post, a tweet, an SMS or comment somewhere?

At breakfast this morning my wife, 13 year old son and I were in a conversation about television. In a poor attempt at grabbing his attention, I tried to set context for him on what is was like for me at 13 -- three networks, one independent TV channel, no recorded media -- and what it was like for him now.

We have DVD's, DirecTV with hundreds of channels, game systems, books galore, two daily newspapers, and an Internet with essentially "millions" of channels. He smiled and said, "Whatever Dad" and went on with conversations about his skiing adventure this weekend! He made it clear that he LOVES all the choice and ENJOYS the constant interruptions his mobile phone, IM, Skype, XBox Live teams give him.

I submit that it is VERY hard right now to turn off the river of news, shut out the Twitter's, the social network alerts, SMS, IM, Skype calls, emails, and all the other interruptions and make 100% certain that you have the time to think, to consider, mull stuff over and just breathe.

What I try hard to do with this blog -- and life in general -- is to ferret out the meaning behind a person's incentives, company/product direction or strategic announcement before going off half-cocked to write about it and/or get involved in conversations. Connecting the dots, if you will.

I frequently turn off every possible interruption in order to buffer myself against intrusions that are accelerating and demanding ever higher levels of my attention. It's the only way I can be assured that I'll be able to place myself in a position of contemplation before taking action.

Here are three strategies that you can do right now to set yourself up to be more contemplative. It will pay off and I guarantee it (or your money will be cheerfully refunded):

Marc, Blogger Conflict and TechMeme

(left) The Google cache of the blognation post and (right) Oliver Starr's repost with more detail (including a note from Marc's wife, Sue) on his own blog

Quite early this morning I awoke and headed to my computer to check email. Before doing so I hit "refresh" on the Web page I had open that Oliver Starr had created at blognation about Marc Orchant's massive coronary. The guy has rarely been out of my thoughts and prayers since I learned what happened thanks to Oliver and his post appearance on TechMeme, and I wanted to read any updates.

I got back "Error 404 -- Not Found". Confused, I set about trying to find the post (maybe they moved it to a more prominent position?) to no avail except I did discover this Google cache on the page. I didn't have an email for Oliver Starr but I did find an OpenID page with one for the head of blognation, Sam Sethi.

So I sent Sam an email and what he told me both really bothered me and is just flat wrong when it comes to the hundreds of people who care about the status of Marc Orchant.

How are these related? Google rats out a blogger. House passes HR1955.

After learning about Google turning over the IP address of an anonymous Israeli blogger, I realized I needed to understand the facts before forging an opinion and went out in search of other articles and more information. Within hours I had also came across the passage in the House of Representatives of a bill, HR1955, entitled the "Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007" -- which, curiously, I've seen absolutely nothing about in the mainstream media and it's on its way to the Senate where it will undoubtedly pass immediately.

How are these two connected?

First go and read the bill (it's quite short) and pay special attention to Sec 899B wherein "Congress finds the following:". If you don't come away with the impression that all of these points are amazingly vague and that this bill could easily be gamed by any current or future Administration that, for example, severely compromised habeas corpus or wiretapped domestically without warrants, I'll eat my hat.

One passage has caused uproar amongst geeks and the blogosphere. Sec 899B, #3, states, "The Internet has aided in facilitating violent radicalization, ideologically based violence, and the homegrown terrorism process in the United States by providing access to broad and constant streams of terrorist-related propaganda to United States citizens." I don't know about you, but I never see "streams of propaganda" and this smacks of how some in the Justice Department seem to use child pornography as a catch-all for moves to control cyberspace and accelerate tracking mechanisms (who among you could possibly be for child porn? Or terrorism, for that matter? Got something to hide?).

While the outrage over Yahoo turning over a Chinese dissident and now Google turning over an anonymous Israeli blogger's IP address is understandable, unlike what Yahoo did and AT&T did (by actually first violating the law by implementing wiretapping without a warrant), Google at least waited until an Israeli court order was given.

Here's what I think is really going on... 

Why we *must* touch, feel or experience products

How can Amazon sell a kindle that no one can touch, feel or experience? Since Amazon doesn't have storefronts or isn't in the retail distribution channel in any fashion, how will people determine if they want to shell out $399 for a player and then read most of their subsequent books and publications with it?

It appears that their sole initial strategy is to rely on early adopters and influencers touting the merits of the device (which, IMHO, is why so-called A-list bloggers were included in the launch). Since there is monetary incentive to see it adopted, having these influencers buy one (if they weren't just given one) and either sing its praises or show it off to everyone else is undoubtedly a great way to build buzz.

I've been in many conversations recently about the supposed death of retail in a day of ecommerce, the now obvious wisdom of Apple rolling out their own stores, how Dell has begun a shift to a retail distribution strategy and that as devices and products become more complex -- and thus require more initial education of the consumer before a purchase -- that having physical locations where people can touch, feel or experience it is more important than ever before.

Or is it?

Retail is a push-pull for me. On the one hand, like most people I like to go into a store to actually play with a product before I buy it. On the other hand I understand how it's a physical impossibility for stores -- even the size of a Best Buy, Target or Walmart -- to stock anything more than the 60-80% of the mainstream products people will buy which often makes ecommerce all that more attractive.

So how realistic is it that new concepts or paradigms will be launched and need to be sold at retail?  Are influencers and recommenders enough to launch a new product like Amazon's kindle?

Molding and Shaping Perception in an Internet Age

My daughter had a college paper to do and ended up doing it on, "Old and New Media Influence on Anti-American Sentiment".

What was fascinating was to read this report (PDF) from May, 2007 entitled, "The Communication of Anti-Americanism: Media Influence and Anti-American Sentiment” by the Department of Communications at Cornell University and see that this massive research study focused on traditional media and completely left out new media!

They examined all sorts of statistics and variables in the report: country, age, income, media habits, and much more. The problem in leaving out new media is that  most people under 30 have radically reduced their consumption of old media and instead are having their perceptions molded and shaped by exposure to all sorts of opinions and alternative new media forms.

Her argument was that negative perceptions of America were being molded and shaped by all media, not just traditional media. In an age when many globally are eschewing broadcast media for social network's, YouTube, SMS, blogs, and shows like The Daily Show or even Al Jazeera offerings, there is no doubt that any thoughtful consideration and examination of public opinion and cross-cultural perception must include new media forms.

As I wrote this looking at that goofy picture of Ze Frank (which must frighten children and small animals), I thought about how tough it would've been for Nazi propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbel's, to have done what he did for perception-controlling had the Internet existed in the 1930's.

Why did Dave Winer delete my comments?

Yesterday, Dave Winer did this post about why he's not happy with Apple's latest operating system, Mac OS X Leopard. Since I've been reading Dave for several years -- and mostly been a silent cheerleader of his efforts, an admirer of his perspectives, while sometimes puzzled by his musings -- atypical for me I left a comment under this post.

Dave deleted it.

The gist of my comment which I didn't save -- since I'm one of the most transparent, authentic, glass-is-51%-full optimists and probably least-deleted commenter out there -- was to mention that I'd successfully upgraded a whole bunch of Mac's without a problem. I then mentioned how curious I was that a guy 10x more technical than I am seems to wrestle so mightily with what I (a tiny propeller-on-my-beanie guy) find quite straightforward.

Moments ago I was doing my usual end-of-the-day RSS reading and saw another Scripting News post referencing yesterday's. Peeking at yesterday's (under which I had commented) I noticed the deletion so left another comment that asked Dave, "Why did you delete my comment from yesterday?"

Dave deleted that comment too.

Now wait just a minute Winer. Is this how you expect blog discourse to flow? Why have comments if you're just going to delete them? If you and I were face-to-face having a conversation, whenever it was my turn to talk would it be OK to put your hands over your ears and shout "LA-LA-LA-LA"?  In effect that's what you're doing by deleting comments like the incredibly benign ones I left.

Google "doing evil" by invisibly observing?

Google is known for it's internal guiding phrase "Do No Evil". What I've never seen is a strict definition of what "doing evil" really means to the folks at Google. Have you? Should you care? What data is Google looking at when you're online?

An article in SLATE yesterday entitled, "Google's Evil Eye" about summed up what I've talked about previously (a key post is here and another handful are here, here and here) and all of this should at least make you stop and think about all the Google services you're using and how much you're simply handing over to them:

Google's fingerprints aren't just on your e-mail. Last week, the Senate held hearings regarding Google's proposed acquisition of Doubleclick. Google dominates the micro-end of Internet advertising with its text ads. Doubleclick is the leading provider of banner ads, like the one at the top of this page. A combined Googleclick would be a force in Internet advertising—Google makes 99 percent of its profits from ads—and have an awesome ability to track your online behavior. Google will be able to inform advertisers what sites your browser has visited, what ads have been clicked on, what search terms have been used. The company can also get a good idea of your physical location from your computer's IP address. And that's just the tip of the data iceberg. If Sony wants to target teenage PlayStation 3 owners in Southern California with a special promotion on flatscreen TVs, who do you think they are going to call?

When I was at Vignette during the dotcom heyday, I recall the Doubleclick controversy in 1999 that showed, for the first time, the unprecedented capability of tracking and measuring. From Wikipedia:

"In 1999, at a cost of US $1.7 billion, DoubleClick merged with the data-collection agency, Abacus Direct, which works with offline catalog companies. This raised fears that the combined company would link anonymous Web-surfing profiles with personally identifiable information (name, address, telephone number, e-mail, address, etc.) collected by Abacus. This merger made waves and was heavily criticized by privacy organizations. Controversy grew when it was discovered that sensitive financial information users entered on a popular Web site that offered financial software was being sent to DoubleClick, which delivered the ads."

That was over seven years ago which is an eternity in internet time.

Blogs and 'real' journalism

When I'm interested in a topic (or something breaking occurs), most often today it's bloggers that break the news. Since I have both blogs and traditional media sources in my RSS reader, I can scan and skim over 1,000 articles per day and drill-down into information. It usually allows me to critically think about any given topic.

But where do I turn for well vetted, researched and hard news that I can trust? The traditional sites or blogs where I'm aware the blogger themselves are journalists (and yes, I critically think about their articles too!).

A friend of mine is the founder and chairman of Internet Broadcasting Systems and I've long admired how they connected on-the-ground reporting at TV news stations with online web site delivery and have some level of appreciation on what it takes to deliver world-class news. Joel Kramer, former publisher of the Minneapolis StarTribune whom I've talked with about what he's about to reveal: a new high end news offering. As he states in this article about the blogosphere, "Some of the blogs are interesting, there's a lot of it that's not," he said. "A lot of it is just pontificating, and I'm more interested in informed commentary as well as hard-hitting news gathering."

Obviously I embrace blogging and love the multi-perspective reality that blogs bring to online news and information. I also concur with Kramer that much of it is blather -- but blogs aren't going away. If anything they're becoming more influential. Traditional news media are laying off staff like mad as they try to stay profitable, so I wonder how long we'll be able to continue to rely on 'real' journalism?

But it gets even more interesting as a blogger when I consider what it would take for me to truly report on just one story I'm personally interested in knowing more about right now.

StumbleDigg: Should I change to get more attention?

Several times a quarter someone "diggs" or inserts into Stumbleupon one of my blog posts. The ensuing spike in pageviews is astounding and have ranged from a 100% to a 3,000% increase in average daily pageviews for the times a particular post is "active".

As such, I've often thought that I could easily shift the focus of my energy on driving traffic. Provocative blog post titles, compelling and targeted copy to Apple fanboys (for example) and other ways to grab attention would be pretty easy for me to do.

That would defeat the purpose of this blog. This is a container for me to think out loud and connect the dots, publish stuff I care about, build a personal brand and simply to be in the game and the conversation. If I began to whore myself out just to get traffic, it would deter me from those reasons.

I can see the quandary traditional media finds themselves in as attention is diverted from their commercial publications to the millions of other places that are screaming for it. They can't do a whole lot for free and thus have to balance trying to scream for attention without devolving in to yet another rag to put in the bottom of a bird cage or with which to wrap fish.

Since I don't need to generate a nickel from this blog, I can do whatever I feel like -- which includes trying to focus on the high road instead of taking that low road -- and focus on building value for myself and anyone who stops by to read.

Get Smart about Helping Others Understand Technology

Was poking around Brightcove's site this morning and found a Time/Life channel with the clip below. I remember this show, Get Smart, and its bumbling spy Maxwell Smart (played by Don Adams). It was campy as hell but was fun to watch nevertheless.

This clip -- complete with a pinkish red wrapper and an ad for the series on DVD (Note: for some reason I noticed today, July 12th, that it had been taken down so I put up a new version) -- was still one I wanted to include in this post today. Why? Because the way Maxwell is using all his phone gadgets is how I sometimes think people see me when I'm goofin' with all my gadgets and technology. This might be an enjoyable clip that may also make you stop and think about what those of us deeply embedded in Web 2.0, the Internet, software and gadgets present with our use of technology. Let's help the rest of 'em catch up, heh?

The World is Awakening...

What happens when everyone becomes awake? I don't mean from sleep, but rather have fully developed a level of consciousness that ensures they're aware of human connection, ideas and possibilities in new and radical ways?

If you're a C-level executive, strategist, marketer, in product development, sales, are a teacher or small businessperson (or frankly anyone), the accelerating shifts in consciousness will impact what you do or deliver...and probably already is whether you're aware of it or not.

My work in Web/Enterprise 2.0, community and communications through the Internet-as-a-platform means that I am seeing and experiencing this awakening on a daily basis. Simple things like watching people come together in a collaborative space and discovering how important it is to have everyone see the same vision of a product so they're in sync; understanding the importance of ritual in a virtual meeting (e.g., how to lead a session and ensure everyone has a voice); deepening their understanding of markets and the people within them; and the inner drive people are exhibiting to move toward a vision for humanity that they live by. Businesses ignore this at their own peril.

This article in Fast Company (a publication I'm respecting more than ever as they push against the membrane of the future with articles like this one) is kinda, sorta a mashup about new concepts in 'green', activist capitalism, and open source and is one of the most fascinating examples I've seen for some time about strategies and concepts tapping into this awakening world and an ever-expanding human consciousness.

It starts out, "Somewhere between the Oscar for Al Gore's planetary-disaster epic, An Inconvenient Truth, and the canonization of Angelina Jolie by the United Nations (in association with People (NYSE:TWX) magazine), the message started sinking in: The cultural conversation around the environment, social change, and human rights is approaching maximum velocity. What is arguably urgent has become inarguably hip." To me, the operative words are "cultural conversation", "maximum velocity" and "inarguably hip" in that paragraph and it is blatantly obvious to me that the company discussed in this feature couldn't have happened until now.

As I read I realized that all that I've been seeing and experiencing recently -- both on and offline -- is but a tip-of-the-iceberg of this global awakening.

Inefficient to Efficient: Bringo

Like you probably are, I'm always frustrated when trying to navigate through call trees. I find myself zoning out when I hear, "Please listen carefully to the following options" and after I do make a connection, "Your call may be monitored or recorded for quality assurance purposes."

Bringo is a new service (with the unfortunately different NoPhoneTrees.com domain name since they started off apparently as a Dentist connection service) that provides an incredibly useful and efficient service: navigating phone trees so you can get connected with an actual human being.

I tried it with Vonage and was immediately connected to "advanced tech support" though scratched my head since what if I wanted to talk to customer service? Billing? I did, however, have an advanced tech question that's been percolating on the back burner (did any other SIP softphone work with Vonage? No.) so I got that answered.

Next was a car rental company. Within moments I was connected with reservations so was able to ask about my next trip and any deals. Cool.

In both cases, I was pleased at how simple it was to use and that it removed a surprising amount of angst and bother when trying to connect to some company. I know they're in beta, but they need a lot more companies in their database. What I'd also like to see going forward is to have them build-out per company selections for different departments within the company (e.g., tech support, advanced tech support, customer service, billing, supervisors, etc.).

Bringo is a perfect example of what I posted about a week and a half ago about the Internet making the inefficient, efficient.

One more thing: I'd like to see Bringo add recording to their service. When I mentioned above how every company seems to have some variation on the phrase, "Your call may be monitored or recorded for quality assurance purposes", I've clearly agreed to a recording or monitoring of my call. Sometimes with critical support, reservation, billing or other calls I record it on my end too with Audio Hijack Pro since I call-out often using Skype and recording it is a two click process (and it's legal in Minnesota).

Under Minnesota Statute 626A.02, Subdivision 2: Exemptions, (c): It is not unlawful under this chapter for a person acting under color of law to intercept a  wire, electronic, or oral communication, where such person is a party to the communication or one of the parties to the communication has given prior consent to such interception. In order to deploy a recording service, Bringo would have to ensure that somehow that statement is made to me, a caller, and that I'm the ag