Blogging book for business
I received an e-mail from the Ensight blog, so I headed over to check it out (I've also added it to my blogroll on the left panel).
An interesting article that I picked out of the bunch was about a Blog user manual for business. The author of Ensight, Jeremy has proposed that he author a book about blogging in this
post. What a wonderful idea! I did some searching, and found that there really isn't a book on how to properly blog and what the potential return for businesses is by starting a blog. Sure, there are plenty of articles on how to create blogs, heck, there are blogs about blogging, but, much like technology before blogging, some companies and people at companies will surely need to have a hardcopy primer.
Ensight lists customer evangelism, PR, and functional setup as book topics. Absolutely! How about transparency? Customer service? Improved HR process? Using blogs on intranets for employees? The topics and possibilities are endless.
Tell you what Jeremy, if you're still looking, I'd be happy to co-author the book with you. I've been wanting to write a book for a while as well and maybe your idea is the perfect launch platform for both of us.
Let me know.
Monday, March 08, 2004
The voice of the Fed
When I was in a college economics class, we were required to remember one name -- it appeared on every single test. That name was Alan Greenspan. In this article on Businessweek, Greenspan divulges answers to the three primary factors on which he based interest rates:
"What is the natural rate of unemployment -- the lowest level of joblessness that can be maintained without pushing up inflation? What is the trend rate of productivity growth? And how do you define price stability?"
You'll have to read the article to find out his answers, but be aware that during his term as the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Greenspan always avoided answering the three questions above.
So why is he divulging information that he has always kept so close to his chest? Quite frankly, he's old. He's held the position of Chairman of the Federal Reserve for 16 years and, according to the article, is expected to step down in the next year or two.
When I was in a college economics class, we were required to remember one name -- it appeared on every single test. That name was Alan Greenspan. In this article on Businessweek, Greenspan divulges answers to the three primary factors on which he based interest rates:
"What is the natural rate of unemployment -- the lowest level of joblessness that can be maintained without pushing up inflation? What is the trend rate of productivity growth? And how do you define price stability?"
You'll have to read the article to find out his answers, but be aware that during his term as the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Greenspan always avoided answering the three questions above.
So why is he divulging information that he has always kept so close to his chest? Quite frankly, he's old. He's held the position of Chairman of the Federal Reserve for 16 years and, according to the article, is expected to step down in the next year or two.
Build a following, then record a CD
In the past it's really been the opposite way around. Of course, Seth Godin covered a story about a band that has built a name/brand for itself by touring and promoting itself without having recorded a CD. You can read the full text of the article here on the New York Times (note: you will have to register to access this story).
From the New York Times:
"The group's unlikely accomplishment will come to an end later this month, three and a half years after its first gig, when the four-piece group releases its first disc. . ."
From Seth:
". . . the surprising thing is that the Times (and the rest of the industry) think Particle's approach is new and novel."
I would have to agree with Seth, who's been saying that stuff like this is the new way of doing things. Is it really that hard to believe that you build an audience and then record a CD? I'll admit that it may seem to be little counterintuitive in this industry, but it's not a novel concept by any means, and new bands would do well to follow this example. I might argue that Particle had an easier go of it because the target audience of the jam-band music is more tolerant of this sort of approach, but I honestly believe that any band in any genre has the potential to pull something like this off.
In the past it's really been the opposite way around. Of course, Seth Godin covered a story about a band that has built a name/brand for itself by touring and promoting itself without having recorded a CD. You can read the full text of the article here on the New York Times (note: you will have to register to access this story).
From the New York Times:
"The group's unlikely accomplishment will come to an end later this month, three and a half years after its first gig, when the four-piece group releases its first disc. . ."
From Seth:
". . . the surprising thing is that the Times (and the rest of the industry) think Particle's approach is new and novel."
I would have to agree with Seth, who's been saying that stuff like this is the new way of doing things. Is it really that hard to believe that you build an audience and then record a CD? I'll admit that it may seem to be little counterintuitive in this industry, but it's not a novel concept by any means, and new bands would do well to follow this example. I might argue that Particle had an easier go of it because the target audience of the jam-band music is more tolerant of this sort of approach, but I honestly believe that any band in any genre has the potential to pull something like this off.
Friday, March 05, 2004
Get rid of all those credit cards
According to an article on Wired, a company called Chameleon Network is manufacturing a device that will allow you to get rid of all those credit cards that you are currently carrying around. Essentially, Chameleon is producing a device that allows you to read in all of your existing credit cards, customer loyalty cards, etc. and re-write that data as needed to a single reprogrammable card. The piece of hardware for accomplishing this task is supposed to be relatively small and is protected by a biometric fingerprint identification system -- the hardware will not even power up if the incorrect fingerprint is pressed against the reader. The device may be in stores as early as January of 2005 and price point is expected to be around $200. The company is also working on building Radio Frequecy ID (RFID) support into the device so that users can use the device for their prox cards to enter buildings, parking garages, etc. and use RFID for applications such as the Mobil SpeedPass.
Here's a picture of the device:
According to an article on Wired, a company called Chameleon Network is manufacturing a device that will allow you to get rid of all those credit cards that you are currently carrying around. Essentially, Chameleon is producing a device that allows you to read in all of your existing credit cards, customer loyalty cards, etc. and re-write that data as needed to a single reprogrammable card. The piece of hardware for accomplishing this task is supposed to be relatively small and is protected by a biometric fingerprint identification system -- the hardware will not even power up if the incorrect fingerprint is pressed against the reader. The device may be in stores as early as January of 2005 and price point is expected to be around $200. The company is also working on building Radio Frequecy ID (RFID) support into the device so that users can use the device for their prox cards to enter buildings, parking garages, etc. and use RFID for applications such as the Mobil SpeedPass.
Here's a picture of the device:
The Blog Virus
An article on Wired News explores the infectiousness of good topics on popular blogs. It seems that many of the popular, well-known blogs may be taking topics from lesser-known blog authors without giving the original author credit. Hewlett Packard actually researched this phenomenon, creating software (that you can access by links in the article) that crawled through almost 40,000 blogs looking for topic similarity and the timing of similar topic posts.
This is Seth Godin's "Ideavirus" (I've written about this before) at absolute light speed. Even more interesting is that this may be the truest form of an ideavirus that can be studied because of an algorithm the researchers used called iRank. iRank actually ranks blogs on their effectiveness of getting ideas out into the mainstream -- essentially determining patient zero of the virus.
What's all this mean for bloggers? Well, responsible blogging means that you are using some of the tools made available to you;
1. At the very least reference the blog on which you first found the information. Although it is tempting not to reference the source once you reach the final destination, you should always drop in a quick link to the source blog.
2. When linking as described in number 1, you should use the Permalink function to direct your reader to the specific article on the blog.
3. Use the Trackback feature if it's available to track back from your blog to the blog you are referencing and to have that reference show on the original blog. Be aware that many free blog services do not offer this option.
For more on these features, read
my post on blogging from yesterday.
As a side note to those of you with blogs, think about adding a Creative Commons license to your work -- you can find mine at the bottom of the right hand side of this blog, under the links, Blogroll, etc. I encourage you to click on the Creative Commons link and view my Creative Commons license. Basically Creative Commons is an open copyright notice that allows the content owner to specify usage rights for that owner's material that is being freely published on the Internet. While you might notice that when you click on my license, you get a very easy-to-read license, there is also machine readable license language embedded in that link for automated aggregators.
An article on Wired News explores the infectiousness of good topics on popular blogs. It seems that many of the popular, well-known blogs may be taking topics from lesser-known blog authors without giving the original author credit. Hewlett Packard actually researched this phenomenon, creating software (that you can access by links in the article) that crawled through almost 40,000 blogs looking for topic similarity and the timing of similar topic posts.
This is Seth Godin's "Ideavirus" (I've written about this before) at absolute light speed. Even more interesting is that this may be the truest form of an ideavirus that can be studied because of an algorithm the researchers used called iRank. iRank actually ranks blogs on their effectiveness of getting ideas out into the mainstream -- essentially determining patient zero of the virus.
What's all this mean for bloggers? Well, responsible blogging means that you are using some of the tools made available to you;
1. At the very least reference the blog on which you first found the information. Although it is tempting not to reference the source once you reach the final destination, you should always drop in a quick link to the source blog.
2. When linking as described in number 1, you should use the Permalink function to direct your reader to the specific article on the blog.
3. Use the Trackback feature if it's available to track back from your blog to the blog you are referencing and to have that reference show on the original blog. Be aware that many free blog services do not offer this option.
For more on these features, read
my post on blogging from yesterday.
As a side note to those of you with blogs, think about adding a Creative Commons license to your work -- you can find mine at the bottom of the right hand side of this blog, under the links, Blogroll, etc. I encourage you to click on the Creative Commons link and view my Creative Commons license. Basically Creative Commons is an open copyright notice that allows the content owner to specify usage rights for that owner's material that is being freely published on the Internet. While you might notice that when you click on my license, you get a very easy-to-read license, there is also machine readable license language embedded in that link for automated aggregators.
Donald Trump's Seven Rules of Business
John Poracro, Group Marketing Manager at Microsoft has posted Donald Trump's Seven rules of business on his mktg@msft blog.
Here are the rules in short form (with my comments, of course) for those that don't want to click through:
1. You have to be born with enough brainpower.
I have always said that I can train a generally intelligent person to do anything. However, I have never been able to train someone to dramatically increase their brainpower and even more than that, you simply cannot train common sense.
2. Once you have that, you have to love what you're doing. I've never seen anyone succeed who didn't love what they were doing.
This is absolutely true. you absolutely have to love what your are doing or it's really not worth doing. I am lucky in that I came right out of college into a job that I loved doing. By picking what I loved rather than what I was "supposed to do," I have moved up in my organization with absolutely insane speed.
3. You cannot stop. If there is a concrete wall in front of you, you have to go through it. You can never, ever give up or even think in terms of giving up.
Totally agree with this. The one caveat is that there are different ways of going through and around walls. Be aware that blowing a hole straight through the middle of a wall is not necessarily always the best way (although it certainly tends to be the most fun).
4. Confidence is a very important thing. But confidence isn't something you just develop by saying "I'm going to do this or that." You really have to believe it.
You absolutely 100% have to believe in yourself (and even if you aren't at any particular moment, people observing you from the outside have to believe that you 100% confident). More than that you have to be able to visualize and believe in the eventual outcome. Believing means it's true? Try not believing and see how far that gets you.
5. I love pitting people against each other. My whole life is based on that. It brings out the best in people and the worst in people. If the worst comes out, you don't want them working for you.
Conflict is what makes life interesting. No one ever said that you have to get along with and personally like your coworkers. I agree with Trump, it is useful to pit people against each other. All of the people that I work for thrive on competition and sometimes the competition has to be created. People are ingrained with wanting to win.
6. You have to remain cool under fire and let criticism roll off you. Good leaders handle conflict easily and bad ones are eaten up by it.
This is absolutely crucial. You should never really get mad. I'm not going to say that I never yell and scream, but I yell and scream to produce a certain response, not because I'm actually mad. That's not how I've always done things, I had to learn the hard way.
7. You must work well with others and be loyal to your team. Disloyalty is the worst of all traits. I seldom use the words "You're fired!" in business, unless somebody is really scum and stole from me.
Many management books use terms like "loyalty is dead," and that is can certainly be true when viewed in regards to people 30 years ago that used to come out of college, go to work for a company for 20 years, and retire with a gold watch. I worry a lot about people that take the death of loyalty comments too far and become disloyal to the teams they are assigned to or the companies they have to be working for at any particular time. If you do something disloyal to a company that you are working for to get a job at another company, why would that new company ever trust you not to do the same to them?
Thanks to the Fast Company blog for pointing this story out.
John Poracro, Group Marketing Manager at Microsoft has posted Donald Trump's Seven rules of business on his mktg@msft blog.
Here are the rules in short form (with my comments, of course) for those that don't want to click through:
1. You have to be born with enough brainpower.
I have always said that I can train a generally intelligent person to do anything. However, I have never been able to train someone to dramatically increase their brainpower and even more than that, you simply cannot train common sense.
2. Once you have that, you have to love what you're doing. I've never seen anyone succeed who didn't love what they were doing.
This is absolutely true. you absolutely have to love what your are doing or it's really not worth doing. I am lucky in that I came right out of college into a job that I loved doing. By picking what I loved rather than what I was "supposed to do," I have moved up in my organization with absolutely insane speed.
3. You cannot stop. If there is a concrete wall in front of you, you have to go through it. You can never, ever give up or even think in terms of giving up.
Totally agree with this. The one caveat is that there are different ways of going through and around walls. Be aware that blowing a hole straight through the middle of a wall is not necessarily always the best way (although it certainly tends to be the most fun).
4. Confidence is a very important thing. But confidence isn't something you just develop by saying "I'm going to do this or that." You really have to believe it.
You absolutely 100% have to believe in yourself (and even if you aren't at any particular moment, people observing you from the outside have to believe that you 100% confident). More than that you have to be able to visualize and believe in the eventual outcome. Believing means it's true? Try not believing and see how far that gets you.
5. I love pitting people against each other. My whole life is based on that. It brings out the best in people and the worst in people. If the worst comes out, you don't want them working for you.
Conflict is what makes life interesting. No one ever said that you have to get along with and personally like your coworkers. I agree with Trump, it is useful to pit people against each other. All of the people that I work for thrive on competition and sometimes the competition has to be created. People are ingrained with wanting to win.
6. You have to remain cool under fire and let criticism roll off you. Good leaders handle conflict easily and bad ones are eaten up by it.
This is absolutely crucial. You should never really get mad. I'm not going to say that I never yell and scream, but I yell and scream to produce a certain response, not because I'm actually mad. That's not how I've always done things, I had to learn the hard way.
7. You must work well with others and be loyal to your team. Disloyalty is the worst of all traits. I seldom use the words "You're fired!" in business, unless somebody is really scum and stole from me.
Many management books use terms like "loyalty is dead," and that is can certainly be true when viewed in regards to people 30 years ago that used to come out of college, go to work for a company for 20 years, and retire with a gold watch. I worry a lot about people that take the death of loyalty comments too far and become disloyal to the teams they are assigned to or the companies they have to be working for at any particular time. If you do something disloyal to a company that you are working for to get a job at another company, why would that new company ever trust you not to do the same to them?
Thanks to the Fast Company blog for pointing this story out.
Thursday, March 04, 2004
Blogging for free
That's what I do. My blog is hosted by Blogspot and I edit it online using Blogger. There are some limitations to Blogspot such as lack of support for images stored on their server, no filing in categories, and no robust spelling and grammar checker to name a few. However, Blogger gives you a fair amount of control over the look of your blog and access to the raw code of your blog site to change the look and feel at well. Blogger does provide Permalink (peramlink allows someone to make a link for the specific post in a blog that they are trying to reference) support, but many of the templates that Blogger provides for free use a weird symbol, like the # sign, to represent the permalink at the bottom of a post. My recommendation, if you feel comfortable doing it, is to go into the site template and add replace the symbol with "PERMALINK," as I have done in this blog.
Blogger does not support Trackback (trackback service provides a specific URL for a blog post that can then be pinged by another blogger's trackback service to show that they have linked to one of your blog posts and also provides information regarding how the other user has used the information in your post). I have figured out a work-around for this deficiency by using Remote Trackback. Remote Trackback provides you with the code that you need to insert into the Blogger site to allow people to trackback to your posts. There is a bit of a trick with manipulating the code to work correctly, but once you figure it out, it works without any management needed. Additionally, Remote Trackback provides you with the interface to be able to trackback to other people's blogs. Here's the process for performing an effective trackback with Remote Trackback (I'm sure this is a similar process for most other trackback tools):
1. Get the permalink URL for your post that you want to show up on the blog to which you are tracking back. This is the "URL" in Remote Trackback.
2. Copy the text of your post title. This is the "Entry Title" in Remote Trackback.
3. Copy all of the text of your post. This is the "Excerpt" in Remote Trackback. Depending on the settings of the blog your tracking back to, the blog may display only a few lines of your post or many paragraphs of your post.
4. Copy the Trackback URL from the specific post in the blog you are tracking back to. Note: This is not the URL of the blog (i.e., http://strategize.blogspot.com), nor is it the URL of the permalink (i.e., http://strategize.blogspot.com/2004_03_01_strategize_archive.html#107842309522896140). This has to be the specifically designated "trackback URL" (i.e., Trackback URL:
http://www.trackback.org/tb.php?uid=80&tb_id=107842309522896140). In general, the URL for the trackback will normally have the word "trackback" somewhere within the URL. This is the "target" in Remote Trackback.
Blogger also does not support the Comments feature that allows people reading your blog to comment on your posts. For this function, I went to Comment This. Comment This provides a free comment service hosted on the creator's server. I haven't used the service for that long, but as I find people leaving comments and the service works, I'll probably send the creator a donation (all he asks for is $2 to keep the service running). I like the Comment This service because it's so easy to set up and the instructions for implementing it on a site are extremely straight-forward, even for a novice user.
Sound confusing? It probably looks a little confusing. Bear in mind that this is a workaround to be able to add this kind of functionality for free. Paid services like Typepad offer these features in a more user-friendly manner and allow much more customization in a What You See Is What You Get interface.
Quite frankly, free blogging is working for me at this point, especially because the blogger advertising is fairly inane and not very obnoxious. I am happy to help you set up your own blog with all these features on Blogger, just drop me an e-mail and I'll be happy to share my advice, learnings, etc.
That's what I do. My blog is hosted by Blogspot and I edit it online using Blogger. There are some limitations to Blogspot such as lack of support for images stored on their server, no filing in categories, and no robust spelling and grammar checker to name a few. However, Blogger gives you a fair amount of control over the look of your blog and access to the raw code of your blog site to change the look and feel at well. Blogger does provide Permalink (peramlink allows someone to make a link for the specific post in a blog that they are trying to reference) support, but many of the templates that Blogger provides for free use a weird symbol, like the # sign, to represent the permalink at the bottom of a post. My recommendation, if you feel comfortable doing it, is to go into the site template and add replace the symbol with "PERMALINK," as I have done in this blog.
Blogger does not support Trackback (trackback service provides a specific URL for a blog post that can then be pinged by another blogger's trackback service to show that they have linked to one of your blog posts and also provides information regarding how the other user has used the information in your post). I have figured out a work-around for this deficiency by using Remote Trackback. Remote Trackback provides you with the code that you need to insert into the Blogger site to allow people to trackback to your posts. There is a bit of a trick with manipulating the code to work correctly, but once you figure it out, it works without any management needed. Additionally, Remote Trackback provides you with the interface to be able to trackback to other people's blogs. Here's the process for performing an effective trackback with Remote Trackback (I'm sure this is a similar process for most other trackback tools):
1. Get the permalink URL for your post that you want to show up on the blog to which you are tracking back. This is the "URL" in Remote Trackback.
2. Copy the text of your post title. This is the "Entry Title" in Remote Trackback.
3. Copy all of the text of your post. This is the "Excerpt" in Remote Trackback. Depending on the settings of the blog your tracking back to, the blog may display only a few lines of your post or many paragraphs of your post.
4. Copy the Trackback URL from the specific post in the blog you are tracking back to. Note: This is not the URL of the blog (i.e., http://strategize.blogspot.com), nor is it the URL of the permalink (i.e., http://strategize.blogspot.com/2004_03_01_strategize_archive.html#107842309522896140). This has to be the specifically designated "trackback URL" (i.e., Trackback URL:
http://www.trackback.org/tb.php?uid=80&tb_id=107842309522896140). In general, the URL for the trackback will normally have the word "trackback" somewhere within the URL. This is the "target" in Remote Trackback.
Blogger also does not support the Comments feature that allows people reading your blog to comment on your posts. For this function, I went to Comment This. Comment This provides a free comment service hosted on the creator's server. I haven't used the service for that long, but as I find people leaving comments and the service works, I'll probably send the creator a donation (all he asks for is $2 to keep the service running). I like the Comment This service because it's so easy to set up and the instructions for implementing it on a site are extremely straight-forward, even for a novice user.
Sound confusing? It probably looks a little confusing. Bear in mind that this is a workaround to be able to add this kind of functionality for free. Paid services like Typepad offer these features in a more user-friendly manner and allow much more customization in a What You See Is What You Get interface.
Quite frankly, free blogging is working for me at this point, especially because the blogger advertising is fairly inane and not very obnoxious. I am happy to help you set up your own blog with all these features on Blogger, just drop me an e-mail and I'll be happy to share my advice, learnings, etc.
Save a bunch on branding
Seth Godin's blog has a link to an automated branding generator. Simply enter your name, choose your core value, choose your main goal, and the generator will come up with a brand name for you.
I tried a few combinations, always using my name, but mixing up core values and main goals and came up with the following results:
"Biopace -- Your brand will be unique because this denotes:the hand of a talented chance" (sounds like some sort of biological pacemaker to me or a bioengineering firm -- neither of which are my business)
"Profitimo -- Your brand will be unique because this denotes: drive through power" (this seems like a name that would have been chosen for one of the Apprentice groups)
"Ridiculus -- Your brand will be unique because this denotes: with ultimate care" (aside from the explanation provided by the site, this word is only one letter short of ridiculous -- this one's my favorite!)
Seth Godin's blog has a link to an automated branding generator. Simply enter your name, choose your core value, choose your main goal, and the generator will come up with a brand name for you.
I tried a few combinations, always using my name, but mixing up core values and main goals and came up with the following results:
"Biopace -- Your brand will be unique because this denotes:the hand of a talented chance" (sounds like some sort of biological pacemaker to me or a bioengineering firm -- neither of which are my business)
"Profitimo -- Your brand will be unique because this denotes: drive through power" (this seems like a name that would have been chosen for one of the Apprentice groups)
"Ridiculus -- Your brand will be unique because this denotes: with ultimate care" (aside from the explanation provided by the site, this word is only one letter short of ridiculous -- this one's my favorite!)
Forward your cell phone to an airfone
At least Verizon wireless customers can do it inexpensively according to this news release from Verizon. According to the news release, Verizon wireless customers will be able to forward their cell phone to Verizon airfones and will be charged only $0.10 per minute directly to their Verizon bill (useful especially for business travelers whose bills are paid by their company). There is a $10 per month subscription fee to qualify for this low rate; if you don't pay the subscription, the cost is $0.69 per minute, which is still a very good discount off of the regular cost of airfone calls.
Verizon provides airfone service on Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, US Airways and Midwest Airlines.
At least Verizon wireless customers can do it inexpensively according to this news release from Verizon. According to the news release, Verizon wireless customers will be able to forward their cell phone to Verizon airfones and will be charged only $0.10 per minute directly to their Verizon bill (useful especially for business travelers whose bills are paid by their company). There is a $10 per month subscription fee to qualify for this low rate; if you don't pay the subscription, the cost is $0.69 per minute, which is still a very good discount off of the regular cost of airfone calls.
Verizon provides airfone service on Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, US Airways and Midwest Airlines.
Wednesday, March 03, 2004
Say goodbye to a blogging pioneer
Peter Rojas is no longer the managing editor of Gizmodo and has left to pursue other projects, read more here on Gizmodo.
I have personally enjoyed reading Peter's blogs ever since I discovered his site a year or so ago. I think that Peter is not only a gifted writer, but a gifted scavenger of information across the web medium.
Peter, I wish you well in your new endeavors.
For those trying to reach Peter, you can reach him at peterrojas.com.
Peter Rojas is no longer the managing editor of Gizmodo and has left to pursue other projects, read more here on Gizmodo.
I have personally enjoyed reading Peter's blogs ever since I discovered his site a year or so ago. I think that Peter is not only a gifted writer, but a gifted scavenger of information across the web medium.
Peter, I wish you well in your new endeavors.
For those trying to reach Peter, you can reach him at peterrojas.com.
My pet . . . . . .fat?
Gizmodo reported on this new . . . I don't even know what to call it; object? Anyway, it's called My Pet Fat -- yes, it has a whole website dedicated to it. Apparently the 1 oz replica of human fat is an integral part of a diet program that pairs what the creator calls "mind stretches" with the rubber replica. According to the mypetfat.com site:
"The 1oz mypetfat fat replica works like tying a string around your finger to remind you to THINK before you eat. Hold it in your hand when making food choices and it will make you conscious of the fat you want to get off of your body and the fat that you want to avoid putting on your body."
"The mypetfat mind stretches get you to think about things in a different way. They are a new perspective on what you’ve come to believe as true about weight loss and they will show you how easy weight loss can be."
You know what? Good for the creator of this product. I truly hope that this product helps people lose weight.
I wonder what the creator of the pet rock would have been able to do if he had been able to market his product via the Internet.
Gizmodo reported on this new . . . I don't even know what to call it; object? Anyway, it's called My Pet Fat -- yes, it has a whole website dedicated to it. Apparently the 1 oz replica of human fat is an integral part of a diet program that pairs what the creator calls "mind stretches" with the rubber replica. According to the mypetfat.com site:
"The 1oz mypetfat fat replica works like tying a string around your finger to remind you to THINK before you eat. Hold it in your hand when making food choices and it will make you conscious of the fat you want to get off of your body and the fat that you want to avoid putting on your body."
"The mypetfat mind stretches get you to think about things in a different way. They are a new perspective on what you’ve come to believe as true about weight loss and they will show you how easy weight loss can be."
You know what? Good for the creator of this product. I truly hope that this product helps people lose weight.
I wonder what the creator of the pet rock would have been able to do if he had been able to market his product via the Internet.
"Is the Music Store Over?"
That's the question asked in this Business 2.0 article. It's the right question to be asking as once-giants in the industry like Tower Records or Wherehouse Music are either filing for bankruptcy protection, closing stores, or just flat going our of business.
Personally, I don't buy CD's at these mega record stores anymore. I might pick up a new CD that I can't find on Apple Itunes, but usually I buy it if I happen to be in Costco or shopping for books in Borders. Why? Well, Costco's cheap and Borders is usually the same price (if not a little bit more than) as Tower, but at Borders I can get what I really went in for . . . books.
The article goes into some depth about stores needing to be a "cathedral for music" (i.e., a place where there is, for lack of a better term, a "music experience"). Unfortunately, the article fails to mention Amoeba Music, which creates exactly this type of experience. To be honest, if it's an older CD that I am looking for, I'll make the trip to Amoeba because chances are they'll have the CD I'm looking for used, saving me a bunch of money. Also, the experience at Amoeba is just plain cool and fun. Unfortunately Amoeba isn't everywhere, but it wouldn't be too hard for a representative of a mega store to go to an Amoeba and emulate what it is that makes Amoeba different (or maybe they can't emulate it, maybe that's why they're failing so miserably).
Another avenue that the article explores is the model that Virgin uses. Virgin has a definite "music experience," albeit very different from that at Amoeba. You can find just about any CD at Virgin, even CD's you didn't know existed or CD's that are not normally for sale in America (i.e., imports). Furthermore, Virgin combines books, artist merchandise, and music technology within its aisles to improve the music buying experience. Virgin Music will most likely succeed where others are failing simply because Richard Branson always seems to get it.
That's the question asked in this Business 2.0 article. It's the right question to be asking as once-giants in the industry like Tower Records or Wherehouse Music are either filing for bankruptcy protection, closing stores, or just flat going our of business.
Personally, I don't buy CD's at these mega record stores anymore. I might pick up a new CD that I can't find on Apple Itunes, but usually I buy it if I happen to be in Costco or shopping for books in Borders. Why? Well, Costco's cheap and Borders is usually the same price (if not a little bit more than) as Tower, but at Borders I can get what I really went in for . . . books.
The article goes into some depth about stores needing to be a "cathedral for music" (i.e., a place where there is, for lack of a better term, a "music experience"). Unfortunately, the article fails to mention Amoeba Music, which creates exactly this type of experience. To be honest, if it's an older CD that I am looking for, I'll make the trip to Amoeba because chances are they'll have the CD I'm looking for used, saving me a bunch of money. Also, the experience at Amoeba is just plain cool and fun. Unfortunately Amoeba isn't everywhere, but it wouldn't be too hard for a representative of a mega store to go to an Amoeba and emulate what it is that makes Amoeba different (or maybe they can't emulate it, maybe that's why they're failing so miserably).
Another avenue that the article explores is the model that Virgin uses. Virgin has a definite "music experience," albeit very different from that at Amoeba. You can find just about any CD at Virgin, even CD's you didn't know existed or CD's that are not normally for sale in America (i.e., imports). Furthermore, Virgin combines books, artist merchandise, and music technology within its aisles to improve the music buying experience. Virgin Music will most likely succeed where others are failing simply because Richard Branson always seems to get it.
Copyrighting facts
An article at Wired News explores a bill making its way through Congress that would essentially allow companies to copyright facts in their databases. No big surprise that the largest proponents of the bill are LexisNexis and Westlaw.
Let's view some of the hypotheticals put forth in the article if the bill was passed:
". . . a public-health website could be deemed in violation of the law for gathering a list of the latest health headlines and providing links to them on its home page."
"Google would be in violation for trolling media databases and providing stories on its news page."
Does this bill seem a little strange to anyone else?
The proponents of the bill say that they spend a fortune to create, organize, and update their databases, but people can come in and freely take their information and redistribute it without penalty. Furthermore, proponents claim that there must be a sunstantial portion of a database used and that portion must be used in such a way to cause "commercial harm" to the data provider before the bill would come into effect. However, the article says that the language of the bill is written much more broadly and could very easily be applied to a very small amount of information.
Perhaps the best way to illustrate this point is with sports scores. For example, if someone were to publish a historical sports score in an article that appeared in a magazine that was sold for profit, a database company that "owns" that sports score could have the right to sue.
An article at Wired News explores a bill making its way through Congress that would essentially allow companies to copyright facts in their databases. No big surprise that the largest proponents of the bill are LexisNexis and Westlaw.
Let's view some of the hypotheticals put forth in the article if the bill was passed:
". . . a public-health website could be deemed in violation of the law for gathering a list of the latest health headlines and providing links to them on its home page."
"Google would be in violation for trolling media databases and providing stories on its news page."
Does this bill seem a little strange to anyone else?
The proponents of the bill say that they spend a fortune to create, organize, and update their databases, but people can come in and freely take their information and redistribute it without penalty. Furthermore, proponents claim that there must be a sunstantial portion of a database used and that portion must be used in such a way to cause "commercial harm" to the data provider before the bill would come into effect. However, the article says that the language of the bill is written much more broadly and could very easily be applied to a very small amount of information.
Perhaps the best way to illustrate this point is with sports scores. For example, if someone were to publish a historical sports score in an article that appeared in a magazine that was sold for profit, a database company that "owns" that sports score could have the right to sue.
Tuesday, March 02, 2004
Seth Godin's Rules of Feedback
The article is in this month's Fast Company, and it's worth reading (actually it's worth printing out, sticking to your wall, and e-mailing it to your colleagues). Heath Row over at the Fast Company blog also wrote on this topic, but it's worth repeating again.
Here are the main points of Seth's article:
1. No one cares about your opinion.
2. Say the right thing at the right time.
3. If you have something nice to say, please say it.
4. Give me feedback, no matter what.
I would strongly suggest that you read the article (several times), and believe me, the absolute best way to learn how to receive feedback is to be able to give it. Says it in the Fast Company blog and it bears repeating 1000 times over. Heed this warning: If you dish it out, you better be able to take it.
The article is in this month's Fast Company, and it's worth reading (actually it's worth printing out, sticking to your wall, and e-mailing it to your colleagues). Heath Row over at the Fast Company blog also wrote on this topic, but it's worth repeating again.
Here are the main points of Seth's article:
1. No one cares about your opinion.
2. Say the right thing at the right time.
3. If you have something nice to say, please say it.
4. Give me feedback, no matter what.
I would strongly suggest that you read the article (several times), and believe me, the absolute best way to learn how to receive feedback is to be able to give it. Says it in the Fast Company blog and it bears repeating 1000 times over. Heed this warning: If you dish it out, you better be able to take it.
Boom towns vs. worst towns
There's an interesting perspective on the America's 20 Hottest Job Markets I mentioned a few days ago psoted on the Fast Company blog. Heath Row, the writer of the story lined up the Business 2.0 Hot Job Markets against Inc's worst metro areas. While the cities don't line up exactly with each other, some of the general community areas do. I'll be interested to read what Heath comes up with as he delves into the subject further.
Just my $0.02 on the subject -- the Business 2.0 article does not specifically say that it is rating the best places to live, it simply is rating the places that are the best at keeping knowledge (read "creative") workers. It doesn't mean that the workers are living in those actual metro areas that match up with Inc's list. In fact, perhaps that's why you have to roll up to the community level rather than getting dead-on matches at the city level between both lists.
There's an interesting perspective on the America's 20 Hottest Job Markets I mentioned a few days ago psoted on the Fast Company blog. Heath Row, the writer of the story lined up the Business 2.0 Hot Job Markets against Inc's worst metro areas. While the cities don't line up exactly with each other, some of the general community areas do. I'll be interested to read what Heath comes up with as he delves into the subject further.
Just my $0.02 on the subject -- the Business 2.0 article does not specifically say that it is rating the best places to live, it simply is rating the places that are the best at keeping knowledge (read "creative") workers. It doesn't mean that the workers are living in those actual metro areas that match up with Inc's list. In fact, perhaps that's why you have to roll up to the community level rather than getting dead-on matches at the city level between both lists.
Another way to intelligently search your e-mail
At least according to this article in Fast Company. The company the article reports on is called Bloomba and is available on Stata Laboratories site.
I checked out the site, read the article, and it looks like a great product, however I will not download it. Why? Because my company uses Microsoft Outlook with Exchange server and the Bloomba software only accesses e-mail via POP3. Now my company does have POP3 access enabled when I am connected to the internal network, but I really don't want to use Bloomba to access my e-mail and still have to use Outlook to access my calendar, global address book, etc. I guess I'll have to stick with my X1 and Outlook solution to be able to intelligently search through all of my e-mails and attachments (I actually got excited when I saw on the site that a 2.0 version of the software was coming out, assuming that it would be an Exchange-compatible version, only to find that it was calendar enhancements, Palm syncing, and some other stuff)
Oh well . . . Bloomba are you listening?
At least according to this article in Fast Company. The company the article reports on is called Bloomba and is available on Stata Laboratories site.
I checked out the site, read the article, and it looks like a great product, however I will not download it. Why? Because my company uses Microsoft Outlook with Exchange server and the Bloomba software only accesses e-mail via POP3. Now my company does have POP3 access enabled when I am connected to the internal network, but I really don't want to use Bloomba to access my e-mail and still have to use Outlook to access my calendar, global address book, etc. I guess I'll have to stick with my X1 and Outlook solution to be able to intelligently search through all of my e-mails and attachments (I actually got excited when I saw on the site that a 2.0 version of the software was coming out, assuming that it would be an Exchange-compatible version, only to find that it was calendar enhancements, Palm syncing, and some other stuff)
Oh well . . . Bloomba are you listening?
Monday, March 01, 2004
It's that Tom Peters' "Women's Thing"
Ok that's not entirely what the article in this month's Fast Company is about, but there's enough in there about baby boomers and women that I would strongly suggest that you pick up a copy of Tom Peters' Re-Imagine!.
Read the article listed above. Read the book I've suggested. Think about these issues long and hard.
From the article:
"The 40-plus age group is now 45% bigger than the 18-to-39 group and will be 60% bigger by 2010."
Add it all up, and by 2010, spending by people 40 and older will be 'a trillion dollars greater than spending by people between the ages of 18 and 34--$2.6 trillion versus $1.6 trillion'
And the folks wielding the turbocharged wallets are most often women.
From Tom Peters' Re-Imagine!:
"American women constitute 43% of Americans with a net worth of $500,000 or more; said women significantly influence 75% of financial decisions."
"As of the first quarter of 2000, more women than men were using the web; 6 out of every ten new web users were women."
. . . and perhaps the best summation: "TRILLION$$$"
Baby boomers and women. Big, big deals. The question I always ask is if there are so many people (Tom Peters, Fast Company) spoon-feeding us the facts about these groups, how come we still aren't getting it?
This stuff keeps me awake at night. "Yeah sure it does," you might say skeptically. I would refer you to the last quote in the Tom Peters section above (and that's just about women) -- I'll take a small (or very large) slice out of trillions of dollars any way I can think of . . .
Ok that's not entirely what the article in this month's Fast Company is about, but there's enough in there about baby boomers and women that I would strongly suggest that you pick up a copy of Tom Peters' Re-Imagine!.
Read the article listed above. Read the book I've suggested. Think about these issues long and hard.
From the article:
"The 40-plus age group is now 45% bigger than the 18-to-39 group and will be 60% bigger by 2010."
Add it all up, and by 2010, spending by people 40 and older will be 'a trillion dollars greater than spending by people between the ages of 18 and 34--$2.6 trillion versus $1.6 trillion'
And the folks wielding the turbocharged wallets are most often women.
From Tom Peters' Re-Imagine!:
"American women constitute 43% of Americans with a net worth of $500,000 or more; said women significantly influence 75% of financial decisions."
"As of the first quarter of 2000, more women than men were using the web; 6 out of every ten new web users were women."
. . . and perhaps the best summation: "TRILLION$$$"
Baby boomers and women. Big, big deals. The question I always ask is if there are so many people (Tom Peters, Fast Company) spoon-feeding us the facts about these groups, how come we still aren't getting it?
This stuff keeps me awake at night. "Yeah sure it does," you might say skeptically. I would refer you to the last quote in the Tom Peters section above (and that's just about women) -- I'll take a small (or very large) slice out of trillions of dollars any way I can think of . . .
The power of the low-carb symbol
Do you count your carbs? Depending on where you are in the country and, of course, who your friends are, you may be in the minority if you are not at least "watching your carbs." An Article in Business 2.0 points out the deficiency on the part of the Atkins brand to really market its image. As more and more food manufacturers produce products for people that are either eliminating carbs, watching carbs, or counting carbs, there is a massive potential for Atkins to transition from a simple carb program with limited food offerings to a certification agency (you don't even need to read the article to figure this out). Check out the Atkins website and you will see what appears to be a fairly adequate selection of low- or no-carb offerings. I would challenge you to then go walk through your local supermarket and look at the number of products no advertising low- or no-carb content, or at the very least advertising the amount of "net carbs" that their product contains.
If you don't really believe this is a big deal, I suggest that you go and purchase a bottle of Michelob Ultra, the top selling beer in the country. Michelob Ultra has almost no carbs; it almost has as little taste, and what's there tastes pretty bad. Michelob is a Budweiser product and is actually cannibalizing sales of the flagship product, Bud Light. Other beer companies are in a reactionary mode, trying to either advertise the low carb content of their beer (not that they've changed anything about the beer, but now it's important to report whatever the carb count has been all along) or to produce their own low-carb competitor. Michelob Ultra is destined to be the winner in the low-carb beer category because of first-mover advantage (although I keep my eye on Rock Green Light by Rolling Rock because their regular beer already tastes like water, so the low-carb stuff can't really taste all that much different . . . but I must admit that I have not tried one).
In any event, as the article succinctly suggests:
". . . Atkins should move more quickly to transform its logo into the equivalent of a Good Housekeeping seal for low-carb foods."
". . . Atkins should "partner like crazy, along the lines of 'Intel Inside' . . ."
"Atkins Inside" = no carbs inside. Not a bad concept, although i don't see Dell carrying Atkins products anytime soon.
Do you count your carbs? Depending on where you are in the country and, of course, who your friends are, you may be in the minority if you are not at least "watching your carbs." An Article in Business 2.0 points out the deficiency on the part of the Atkins brand to really market its image. As more and more food manufacturers produce products for people that are either eliminating carbs, watching carbs, or counting carbs, there is a massive potential for Atkins to transition from a simple carb program with limited food offerings to a certification agency (you don't even need to read the article to figure this out). Check out the Atkins website and you will see what appears to be a fairly adequate selection of low- or no-carb offerings. I would challenge you to then go walk through your local supermarket and look at the number of products no advertising low- or no-carb content, or at the very least advertising the amount of "net carbs" that their product contains.
If you don't really believe this is a big deal, I suggest that you go and purchase a bottle of Michelob Ultra, the top selling beer in the country. Michelob Ultra has almost no carbs; it almost has as little taste, and what's there tastes pretty bad. Michelob is a Budweiser product and is actually cannibalizing sales of the flagship product, Bud Light. Other beer companies are in a reactionary mode, trying to either advertise the low carb content of their beer (not that they've changed anything about the beer, but now it's important to report whatever the carb count has been all along) or to produce their own low-carb competitor. Michelob Ultra is destined to be the winner in the low-carb beer category because of first-mover advantage (although I keep my eye on Rock Green Light by Rolling Rock because their regular beer already tastes like water, so the low-carb stuff can't really taste all that much different . . . but I must admit that I have not tried one).
In any event, as the article succinctly suggests:
". . . Atkins should move more quickly to transform its logo into the equivalent of a Good Housekeeping seal for low-carb foods."
". . . Atkins should "partner like crazy, along the lines of 'Intel Inside' . . ."
"Atkins Inside" = no carbs inside. Not a bad concept, although i don't see Dell carrying Atkins products anytime soon.
Think thin
According to a Business 2.0 - article, a number of companies are working as fast as possible to find the "magic bullet" weight loss drug. Why? Because 44 million people (and counting) in America are obese (and 44 million is being somewhat conservative, according to the article). Translation: that can mean $50 billion in 10 years according to the article.
This is an absolutely huge industry. I've even jumped on the bandwagon once or twice, trying Hydroxycut and Xenadrine. While it sure seemed that I lost weight, they don't call ephedra "trucker speed" for nothing -- I think I vibrated most of the weight off from the shakes the ephedra gave me.
In any event, it will be interesting to watch who gets to market the most quickly. An interesting point in the article is that the FDA is considering accelerating the approval process, which, is
. . . an accommodation it usually makes only for fatal diseases like cancer . . .
According to a Business 2.0 - article, a number of companies are working as fast as possible to find the "magic bullet" weight loss drug. Why? Because 44 million people (and counting) in America are obese (and 44 million is being somewhat conservative, according to the article). Translation: that can mean $50 billion in 10 years according to the article.
This is an absolutely huge industry. I've even jumped on the bandwagon once or twice, trying Hydroxycut and Xenadrine. While it sure seemed that I lost weight, they don't call ephedra "trucker speed" for nothing -- I think I vibrated most of the weight off from the shakes the ephedra gave me.
In any event, it will be interesting to watch who gets to market the most quickly. An interesting point in the article is that the FDA is considering accelerating the approval process, which, is
. . . an accommodation it usually makes only for fatal diseases like cancer . . .
Just how fever-paced is blogging?
According to this article on CNN.com, the level of blogging activity is not as widespread as some reports may have led people to believe. My favorite quote in the article:
The study was largely based on random telephone surveys of 1,555 Internet users taken from March 12 to May 20, 2003.
That makes tons of sense. You sure wouldn't want to use an online survey to survey Internet users; much better to just call them on the phone.
This kind of stuff cracks me up.
According to this article on CNN.com, the level of blogging activity is not as widespread as some reports may have led people to believe. My favorite quote in the article:
The study was largely based on random telephone surveys of 1,555 Internet users taken from March 12 to May 20, 2003.
That makes tons of sense. You sure wouldn't want to use an online survey to survey Internet users; much better to just call them on the phone.
This kind of stuff cracks me up.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)